Aquino III Donors Can Truly Contribute to Greatness
President-elect Benigno Aquino III released the list of donors to his campaign as required by election law. Here are among his contributors and the amounts ( in pesos) they donated:
Antonio Cojuangco 100 million
Chung Bu Hong 20 million
Martin I. Lorenzo 20 million
Fulgencio Factoran 20 million
Leonardo Javier Jr. 14 million
Cesar Purisima 10 million
Jose R. Aliling 10 million
Alex Tanwangco 10 million
Jose Mari Gamboa 10 million
David Lim 10 million
Elena Lim 10 million
Abeto Uy 10 million
Felix Ang 10 million
Felipe Diego 10 million
Felix Chung 10 million
Jose A. Larrauri 10 million
Gerardo Esquivel 10 million
Did they contribute to the campaign for altruistic reasons? Did they part with some of their wealth to help elect the right candidate? Have they truly boarded the Aquino III anti-corruption bandwagon? Money talks, it is said, and by contributing to the campaign they have certainly “talked the talk”, but will they “walk the walk” by staying true to the Aquino III vow to have a clean and corruption free government for the next six years?
I raise these questions because the common assumption is that they donated these funds and expect a quid pro quo that could pay them back ten or even a hundred fold. The Marcos cronies and family reaped billions of dollars worth of plunder by using their influence in the 1970’s thru 1986 when the dictator was overthrown. The Macapagal-Arroyos had nine years of a luxurious drive on board the gravy train and some quarters are claiming that they looted even more than the Marcoses ( hard to believe but the rumor continues to float). So the expectation among many is, why would these friends and family of Aquino III be any different?
In light of our history, it certainly is a fair question. Yet, what I see here is a clear seminal moment for our country and nation. Here is a great and unusual opportunity to break the old mold and begin shaping a new one. These friends who contributed to the President-elect can reverse the trend; they can debunk the dreary expectations of “business as usual”; they can indeed be the ground breaking pioneers of a new tomorrow by staying “clean” for the next 6 years.
They can profoundly change the trajectory of our country by not using their “influence” with the new administration to enrich themselves or their friends and families further. If they are currently in business they should continue running those businesses without engaging in any shady deals. If there are contracts they bid on they should do so on a fair playing field. If they win a contract for construction, as an example, the funds should all go to creating a quality product that will redound to the government’s, and by extension to the people’s, benefit. They should not engage in any shortcuts nor avoid nor thwart safety and quality inspections; they should not succumb to the lure to use cheap, low quality parts or supplies; they can, slowly but surely, begin to help the government win the people’s trust and in the process infuse it with a much needed breath of integrity. They should insist on exceeding the government’s and the people’s expectations.
If the President-elect’s close friends and relatives cannot and will not “benefit” from their access to the corridors of power, one can hope to expect that no one else will.This will in turn strengthen the new administration’s hand in pursuing the corrupt acts of others. It will surely increase the likelihood that our people will begin to trust their government. It is definitely a long, hard and challenging road to take, yet, as that venerable old Chinese proverb puts it, “…the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
In one of my earlier columns “Breaking the Cycle of Corruption” I averred that this can happen when we do not become active participants in the process. These friends of Aquino III can take a strong and visible leadership role in breaking the back of corruption, and if they do, their money which helped elect a new president, will have indeed been very well spent.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Time for the Jeepney to Go?
We need to Breathe, We need to conserve Energy, We need to Reduce Gridlock
Converting the WWII "Eisenhower" type jeeps into a 12 passenger "jeepney" seemed both cute and practical in 1946 and its usefulness lasted thru the mid 1960's. Filipinos were so enamored with the innovation that it soon became a national "symbol", proof that we are indeed a resourceful nation.
As the population grew from 15 million after WWII to some 90 or so million today, jeepneys are no longer practical and have in fact become a hazard both to the environment and the country's energy situation, not to mention being the primary cause of massive gridlock that has made moving around Metro Manila and the cities of Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao a major time consuming exercise.
The math is pretty simple. It will take about 100 or jeepney loads to move the same number of passengers on one 2 car tram. That means one engine consuming gasoline versus 100 jeepney engines which also pump out more pollutants in the air. Needless to say, a well organized, broad based light rail system in the major Philippine cities would result in lower dependence on expensive foreign oil and much cleaner air to breathe. Jeepneys are suffocating our urban populations!! It is literally unsafe to breath “city air”.
The other, perhaps not so subtle, consequence of a “jeepney based” mass transit system is the gridlock it creates all over the metropolitan areas which profoundly contributes to productivity reduction. Sitting in traffic for hours, whether in an air conditioned car or a cramply packed jeepney, renders a person economically unproductive. A sales call that should take an hour could stretch to 4 or 5 hours. The added time commuting to and from work directly reduces the amount of quality time that parents spend with their children and the devastation that is visited on the family structure is perhaps often ignored.
The incoming Aquino III administration needs to make mass transit upheaval a key element in improving the country’s neglected infrastructure. All the great plans of mice and men are for naught if we can’t get to where we’re going in a reasonable enough time. The gridlock must be unwound and addressing the jeepney caused problem is a necessary and critical first step.
I know that the very idea of contemplating the demise of the jeepney as our primary form of daily transportation raises many concerns that are political, economic and cultural.
There are hundreds of thousands of jeepney drivers all over the country and they constitute a major voting bloc hence politicians may be hesitant to displease them. Additionally there are several thousands of entrepreneurs’ who manufacture as well as operate jeepneys and they are a formidable socio-economic force. And, of course, the jeepney has become a potent and sentimental icon that, over time, has been an integral part of Philippine identity.
Yet all these concerns can be effectively addressed to the satisfaction of all parties and stake holders. What is required is a forward looking, creative and innovative approach to adequately meet our mass transit needs now and in the future. Failing to take bold and immediate steps will only exacerbate the present, serious problems that our “jeepney culture” creates.
Briefly, here are a few ideas to consider:
1. As we disengage from a jeepney based operation, begin to retrain our jeepney drivers into other trades; a large segment of them could be trained for various jobs that a new mass transit system will create. This will address the concern over the livelihoods of displaced jeepney drivers.
2. Organize jeepney owners and manufacturers into a pool of investors who will be credited with stock shares in a corporation that will run and operate the mass transit system. Machine shop operations that currently build jeep bodies can be harnessed and retooled to perhaps build some of the bodies of the cars to be used in the mass transit system. This will address the economic concerns of jeepney owners and manufacturers.
3. Do not get rid of the jeepneys completely. Jeepneys can be reconfigured so that these can be used as passenger friendly tourist vehicles plying our centers of attraction and giving foreign visitors a feel for the authentic Philippine experience. Jeepneys can continue to shine as a cultural icon.
4. Create a Mass Transit Authority composed of government and private sector members and one staffed by transportation specialists whose charter will be the complete and massive overhaul of our transportation system; a long term project that will go into the next decade and beyond.
It is doubtless a monumental challenge to transform our mass transit system and overhaul habits we have been used to. Yet the need to reduce both our energy and environmental footprints and to dramatically address our gridlocked traffic system are considerations that must be regarded with utmost seriousness.
We cannot continue wasting energy, suffocating our people and operating our businesses at the low productivity levels caused by traffic gridlock. Bold, courageous, visionary and patient leadership to pull this off is direly needed. And the sooner we take the problems that jeepneys cause seriously, the better. And yes, the tricycle issue also needs to be addressed. They are after all no more than “mini jeepneys”.
Converting the WWII "Eisenhower" type jeeps into a 12 passenger "jeepney" seemed both cute and practical in 1946 and its usefulness lasted thru the mid 1960's. Filipinos were so enamored with the innovation that it soon became a national "symbol", proof that we are indeed a resourceful nation.
As the population grew from 15 million after WWII to some 90 or so million today, jeepneys are no longer practical and have in fact become a hazard both to the environment and the country's energy situation, not to mention being the primary cause of massive gridlock that has made moving around Metro Manila and the cities of Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao a major time consuming exercise.
The math is pretty simple. It will take about 100 or jeepney loads to move the same number of passengers on one 2 car tram. That means one engine consuming gasoline versus 100 jeepney engines which also pump out more pollutants in the air. Needless to say, a well organized, broad based light rail system in the major Philippine cities would result in lower dependence on expensive foreign oil and much cleaner air to breathe. Jeepneys are suffocating our urban populations!! It is literally unsafe to breath “city air”.
The other, perhaps not so subtle, consequence of a “jeepney based” mass transit system is the gridlock it creates all over the metropolitan areas which profoundly contributes to productivity reduction. Sitting in traffic for hours, whether in an air conditioned car or a cramply packed jeepney, renders a person economically unproductive. A sales call that should take an hour could stretch to 4 or 5 hours. The added time commuting to and from work directly reduces the amount of quality time that parents spend with their children and the devastation that is visited on the family structure is perhaps often ignored.
The incoming Aquino III administration needs to make mass transit upheaval a key element in improving the country’s neglected infrastructure. All the great plans of mice and men are for naught if we can’t get to where we’re going in a reasonable enough time. The gridlock must be unwound and addressing the jeepney caused problem is a necessary and critical first step.
I know that the very idea of contemplating the demise of the jeepney as our primary form of daily transportation raises many concerns that are political, economic and cultural.
There are hundreds of thousands of jeepney drivers all over the country and they constitute a major voting bloc hence politicians may be hesitant to displease them. Additionally there are several thousands of entrepreneurs’ who manufacture as well as operate jeepneys and they are a formidable socio-economic force. And, of course, the jeepney has become a potent and sentimental icon that, over time, has been an integral part of Philippine identity.
Yet all these concerns can be effectively addressed to the satisfaction of all parties and stake holders. What is required is a forward looking, creative and innovative approach to adequately meet our mass transit needs now and in the future. Failing to take bold and immediate steps will only exacerbate the present, serious problems that our “jeepney culture” creates.
Briefly, here are a few ideas to consider:
1. As we disengage from a jeepney based operation, begin to retrain our jeepney drivers into other trades; a large segment of them could be trained for various jobs that a new mass transit system will create. This will address the concern over the livelihoods of displaced jeepney drivers.
2. Organize jeepney owners and manufacturers into a pool of investors who will be credited with stock shares in a corporation that will run and operate the mass transit system. Machine shop operations that currently build jeep bodies can be harnessed and retooled to perhaps build some of the bodies of the cars to be used in the mass transit system. This will address the economic concerns of jeepney owners and manufacturers.
3. Do not get rid of the jeepneys completely. Jeepneys can be reconfigured so that these can be used as passenger friendly tourist vehicles plying our centers of attraction and giving foreign visitors a feel for the authentic Philippine experience. Jeepneys can continue to shine as a cultural icon.
4. Create a Mass Transit Authority composed of government and private sector members and one staffed by transportation specialists whose charter will be the complete and massive overhaul of our transportation system; a long term project that will go into the next decade and beyond.
It is doubtless a monumental challenge to transform our mass transit system and overhaul habits we have been used to. Yet the need to reduce both our energy and environmental footprints and to dramatically address our gridlocked traffic system are considerations that must be regarded with utmost seriousness.
We cannot continue wasting energy, suffocating our people and operating our businesses at the low productivity levels caused by traffic gridlock. Bold, courageous, visionary and patient leadership to pull this off is direly needed. And the sooner we take the problems that jeepneys cause seriously, the better. And yes, the tricycle issue also needs to be addressed. They are after all no more than “mini jeepneys”.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Sham and the Shame!
Arroyo’s ‘Doble Cara’
It was 1962. A new year had begun. A new president had just taken office. He would have liked to immediately address the nation’s problems, a daunting and difficult task regardless the year or era. Gloria Macapagal was a 14 year girl who had just moved into Malacanang as the only daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. I’m certain that she recalls those early days of January when her father had to send a platoon of army rangers to the Central Bank office to forcefully prevent the late Dominador Aytona from assuming his post as governor.
The Aytona case has lived in infamy as the most notorious case of “midnight” appointments in Philippine history ever. Which is why I am quite shocked that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is acting the way she does. Considering her late father’s angst and agony over the tricks of the Garcia administration, I would expect that aversion to midnight appointments would be imbedded in Madame Arroyo’s DNA. Obviously not!
Reports indicate that she has made several hundreds of midnight appointments to positions far and wide. She even appointed a new Supreme Court justice. Why? What could possibly be her intent in making these appointments? To reward faithful friends and supporters who have stuck with her and her family thru the myriad scandals and incidences of graft and corruption that have plagued and characterized her administration? Quite likely. Yet that is not the worst angle in this fiasco.
Looking at her “body of work” in the past 6 months, it is clear even to the cross-eyed and myopic among us that Arroyo is positioning herself in such a way that any legitimate attempts to take her to task for the wanton corruption in her administration can be thwarted by the use of a disputable legal “shroud” and the “actions” or decisions of her dubious “appointees” whether acting individually or in concert.
Let me explain. She has taken the unprecedented and highly unusual step of running for Congress in her home district of Pampanga. And in the process she and her family engaged in a nauseous “zarzuela” that she was merely responding to a “popular” demand from that district’s constituency. ABS-CBN reported thus:
"Madame President, I believe that the best service I can give to my constituents is urging you not to deny them the privilege of being represented by your person," the young Arroyo told his mother during a "serenade" at Malacañang. (Mike Arroyo, her son, is the current representative from that district.)
Please, pass out the barf bags!!
Even though members of Congress are not immune from prosecution for crimes, the fact that she is aligned with the party opposing Benigno Aquino III, she could, as I’m sure she would, cry “political persecution” as the motive for attempts to get her and/or her husband behind bars or have them cough up all the wealth they have accumulated since her ascendance to the presidency. She could also use the “privileged hour” in Congress to blare out outrageous allegations about the Aquino administration for which she would be cloaked with immunity.
Her hundreds ( probably thousands) of midnight appointees positioned throughout the various institutions and instruments of government could also be mobilized to slow down the Aquino administration either thru action or inaction, depending on which positions they occupy.
There is also this speculation that her primary objective is to be positioned to become the prime minister should a parliamentary type of government be adopted in the near future. I’m sure that this prospect alone would mobilize the electorate to ensure that the presidential type of a republic would be retained.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempts to retain power and get enveloped in a cocoon of untouchability is indeed shameful. If, as she claims, she wants to serve her people further after she leaves Malacanang she should look to former American presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as role models. They continue to use their prestige and influence as former chief executives to contribute to society and the world in many positive and admirable ways. Perhaps she realizes that, in light of her record, she carries with her neither respect nor respectability.
What is equally nauseating about Madame Arroyo’s conduct is that it belies many of her recent pronouncements. She has said that her administration will work to make the transition to the Aquino team smooth and efficient. If so she should immediately rescind all the appointments she has made in the last several months and give Aquino the opportunity to move forward with people he has selected and who enjoy his trust and confidence.
Last week she was the guest of honor of the military to mark her farewell. She spoke and among other things said that “like an old soldier” she would merely “fade away”. What a sham!
She seems not content to leave as her legacy a trail of corruption and missed opportunities for the nation. She will likely be remembered for the blatant sham with which she has behaved at the end of her term.'Doble Cara' is what our Spanish forebears would have labelled her. What a shame, indeed.
ldq44@aol.com
It was 1962. A new year had begun. A new president had just taken office. He would have liked to immediately address the nation’s problems, a daunting and difficult task regardless the year or era. Gloria Macapagal was a 14 year girl who had just moved into Malacanang as the only daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. I’m certain that she recalls those early days of January when her father had to send a platoon of army rangers to the Central Bank office to forcefully prevent the late Dominador Aytona from assuming his post as governor.
The Aytona case has lived in infamy as the most notorious case of “midnight” appointments in Philippine history ever. Which is why I am quite shocked that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is acting the way she does. Considering her late father’s angst and agony over the tricks of the Garcia administration, I would expect that aversion to midnight appointments would be imbedded in Madame Arroyo’s DNA. Obviously not!
Reports indicate that she has made several hundreds of midnight appointments to positions far and wide. She even appointed a new Supreme Court justice. Why? What could possibly be her intent in making these appointments? To reward faithful friends and supporters who have stuck with her and her family thru the myriad scandals and incidences of graft and corruption that have plagued and characterized her administration? Quite likely. Yet that is not the worst angle in this fiasco.
Looking at her “body of work” in the past 6 months, it is clear even to the cross-eyed and myopic among us that Arroyo is positioning herself in such a way that any legitimate attempts to take her to task for the wanton corruption in her administration can be thwarted by the use of a disputable legal “shroud” and the “actions” or decisions of her dubious “appointees” whether acting individually or in concert.
Let me explain. She has taken the unprecedented and highly unusual step of running for Congress in her home district of Pampanga. And in the process she and her family engaged in a nauseous “zarzuela” that she was merely responding to a “popular” demand from that district’s constituency. ABS-CBN reported thus:
"Madame President, I believe that the best service I can give to my constituents is urging you not to deny them the privilege of being represented by your person," the young Arroyo told his mother during a "serenade" at Malacañang. (Mike Arroyo, her son, is the current representative from that district.)
Please, pass out the barf bags!!
Even though members of Congress are not immune from prosecution for crimes, the fact that she is aligned with the party opposing Benigno Aquino III, she could, as I’m sure she would, cry “political persecution” as the motive for attempts to get her and/or her husband behind bars or have them cough up all the wealth they have accumulated since her ascendance to the presidency. She could also use the “privileged hour” in Congress to blare out outrageous allegations about the Aquino administration for which she would be cloaked with immunity.
Her hundreds ( probably thousands) of midnight appointees positioned throughout the various institutions and instruments of government could also be mobilized to slow down the Aquino administration either thru action or inaction, depending on which positions they occupy.
There is also this speculation that her primary objective is to be positioned to become the prime minister should a parliamentary type of government be adopted in the near future. I’m sure that this prospect alone would mobilize the electorate to ensure that the presidential type of a republic would be retained.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempts to retain power and get enveloped in a cocoon of untouchability is indeed shameful. If, as she claims, she wants to serve her people further after she leaves Malacanang she should look to former American presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as role models. They continue to use their prestige and influence as former chief executives to contribute to society and the world in many positive and admirable ways. Perhaps she realizes that, in light of her record, she carries with her neither respect nor respectability.
What is equally nauseating about Madame Arroyo’s conduct is that it belies many of her recent pronouncements. She has said that her administration will work to make the transition to the Aquino team smooth and efficient. If so she should immediately rescind all the appointments she has made in the last several months and give Aquino the opportunity to move forward with people he has selected and who enjoy his trust and confidence.
Last week she was the guest of honor of the military to mark her farewell. She spoke and among other things said that “like an old soldier” she would merely “fade away”. What a sham!
She seems not content to leave as her legacy a trail of corruption and missed opportunities for the nation. She will likely be remembered for the blatant sham with which she has behaved at the end of her term.'Doble Cara' is what our Spanish forebears would have labelled her. What a shame, indeed.
ldq44@aol.com
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Maids to the World,Saviors of Our Nation
My February 4th item titled “From Teachers to Maids, the ‘New’ Filipino Diaspora” attracted many comments sent to me via email. In the article I promised to write more follow up stories on their experiences. Here are some of them.
I was in Hong Kong in 1999 and had several ‘encounters’ with countrymen who are there as domestic help. The first one I met at a small souvenir-electronic store in Kowloon City, near the old airport. I was asking the vendor for the price of an item. The Chinese lady spoke no English. She waved at a girl dusting merchandise inside the store who then came out and spoke to me in English. She was Filipina. She did not realize I spoke Tagalog and flashed a big smile when she heard me talk. I had lost interest in the merchandise and instead started asking her questions.
I asked her how she got a visa to work in a Chinese business establishment. Very carefully and in hushed tones she explained that she was here as a domestic worker. The people who owned the store had an elderly parent that needed attention when no one else in the family was available. She also did usual domestic chores like cooking, laundry and cleaning house. She said the old lady she was caring for had a small bedroom enough for one single bed and a dresser. She had to sleep on the floor.
“May unan pero walang banig,” she said amusedly. Her luck changed, she said, when her employers realized that she not only spoke English but was also good with figures, was facile with the calculator and had accounting skills. They then asked her to spend most of her time in the store, and, on her seventh day, Sunday, if she worked she would get extra pay. She was overjoyed, of course.
As it turns out she finished a 4 year business course in one of the colleges in Bicol. She said she tried to find a job at a bank or an office but could find none. She said that to get employed she needed ‘connections’ which she did not have. And the pay level at those jobs? 6,000 pesos a month to start with and maybe expect an increase of another 500 pesos after a year. So with whatever money she could raise from savings, selling the pigs and chicken her family raised, she boarded a bus to Manila and pursued a foreign job as a domestic. It took her 4 months, and a few thousand pesos which her parents had to borrow from neighbors and friends, but she finally got her paperwork and ticket for Hong Kong. She was overjoyed. She signed a contract and an agreement to pay the employment/travel agency who got her the assignment $1500.00 within 12 months, the amounts deducted each month directly from her salary. Her contract called for a salary of $500.00 a month. She was ecstatic over her new found fortune, even if her net pay was only $375.00 a month because of what she had to pay the agency. She kept $75.00 for herself and the rest went to her parents to pay off their debts and help finance the education of her siblings.
That evening, our host from Cathay Pacific, took us to the Hong Kong island side for dinner, after which we gravitated to the “La Bamba” night club. Before getting there we passed a 7-11 convenience store. I broke away from our group to buy mints and gum . My real intent was to speak to a group of Filipino men sitting, hunched on the pavement at the side of the store. I engaged them in conversation. They said they too were domestic workers hired to clean apartment buildings. It was their night off and the only entertainment they could afford was meeting friends and having beers at the 7-11.
“We work hard and this is our only way of passing the time on our night off,” one of the men said. They said they did not have money to go dancing in night clubs and even if they did they said they were “not allowed” entrance into those places.
“We are lonely and we are sad,” one of them said, “and we are treated like slaves and ‘low class’ people”, he lamented.
Inside the night club there were ‘hostesses’ and some of them were Filipinas. I spoke with a couple of them and they said they came as domestic workers and are still classified as such but they made more money working in the club.
“How would your families in the Philippines react if they knew this is where you work,” I asked. We don’t tell them, they said.
“What our families back home expect from us keeps increasing. They want shoes, appliances, clothes, cameras and at the same time want us to keep sending them money” one explained. We can’t do that on a maid’s salary, she added.
Later that year I was in Barcelona on vacation and stayed at a small hotel located in the residential area of the city. This enabled me to use public transportation and mingle with the local population, doing what they do in their daily lives. It is a great way to ‘absorb’ the local culture, so to speak. On one of these bus trips to the “Ramblas”, the blocks long central plaza lined with shops, restaurants and street vendors and artists, I sat next to a couple of Filipinas with whom I engaged in a conversation about their lives and work.
They were both happy to be working in Spain. Both worked for families with small children. One of the two had a teaching degree from a school in Cebu while the other was a history major from Cavite. They said that aside from the usual domestic work they also helped the kids with their homework in subjects such as math and English. They said their employers also liked them because they were familiar with certain Castillian words that sprinkle our Philippine dialects, making communications much easier as compared to workers from Indonesia or Sri Langka. They had a six day work week and were off on Sundays. They said they used to go meet other Filipinas on their off days but recently they had taken a “second job”. On Sundays they each go to a home and do a thorough ceiling to floor cleaning job that takes about 10 hours but allows them to earn an extra $150.00 per week. They said they now look forward to going home because they had enough money to lavish on their families. Given the experience of most overseas workers doing domestic helper work they seemed to be exception.
In 2009 the 8 million overseas workers remitted some $ 17 billion, which comes to be about 10 to 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, a hefty contribution indeed. Unfortunately many of the 8 million end up paying a hefty personal price as well.
The sadness, loneliness, the aches and pains of servile employment are probably not worth it but in many cases they have no choice. Families rely on their remittances and in a way they have helped to save the nation.
Ldq44@aol.com
Next issue: Some to the really painful OFW stories.
I was in Hong Kong in 1999 and had several ‘encounters’ with countrymen who are there as domestic help. The first one I met at a small souvenir-electronic store in Kowloon City, near the old airport. I was asking the vendor for the price of an item. The Chinese lady spoke no English. She waved at a girl dusting merchandise inside the store who then came out and spoke to me in English. She was Filipina. She did not realize I spoke Tagalog and flashed a big smile when she heard me talk. I had lost interest in the merchandise and instead started asking her questions.
I asked her how she got a visa to work in a Chinese business establishment. Very carefully and in hushed tones she explained that she was here as a domestic worker. The people who owned the store had an elderly parent that needed attention when no one else in the family was available. She also did usual domestic chores like cooking, laundry and cleaning house. She said the old lady she was caring for had a small bedroom enough for one single bed and a dresser. She had to sleep on the floor.
“May unan pero walang banig,” she said amusedly. Her luck changed, she said, when her employers realized that she not only spoke English but was also good with figures, was facile with the calculator and had accounting skills. They then asked her to spend most of her time in the store, and, on her seventh day, Sunday, if she worked she would get extra pay. She was overjoyed, of course.
As it turns out she finished a 4 year business course in one of the colleges in Bicol. She said she tried to find a job at a bank or an office but could find none. She said that to get employed she needed ‘connections’ which she did not have. And the pay level at those jobs? 6,000 pesos a month to start with and maybe expect an increase of another 500 pesos after a year. So with whatever money she could raise from savings, selling the pigs and chicken her family raised, she boarded a bus to Manila and pursued a foreign job as a domestic. It took her 4 months, and a few thousand pesos which her parents had to borrow from neighbors and friends, but she finally got her paperwork and ticket for Hong Kong. She was overjoyed. She signed a contract and an agreement to pay the employment/travel agency who got her the assignment $1500.00 within 12 months, the amounts deducted each month directly from her salary. Her contract called for a salary of $500.00 a month. She was ecstatic over her new found fortune, even if her net pay was only $375.00 a month because of what she had to pay the agency. She kept $75.00 for herself and the rest went to her parents to pay off their debts and help finance the education of her siblings.
That evening, our host from Cathay Pacific, took us to the Hong Kong island side for dinner, after which we gravitated to the “La Bamba” night club. Before getting there we passed a 7-11 convenience store. I broke away from our group to buy mints and gum . My real intent was to speak to a group of Filipino men sitting, hunched on the pavement at the side of the store. I engaged them in conversation. They said they too were domestic workers hired to clean apartment buildings. It was their night off and the only entertainment they could afford was meeting friends and having beers at the 7-11.
“We work hard and this is our only way of passing the time on our night off,” one of the men said. They said they did not have money to go dancing in night clubs and even if they did they said they were “not allowed” entrance into those places.
“We are lonely and we are sad,” one of them said, “and we are treated like slaves and ‘low class’ people”, he lamented.
Inside the night club there were ‘hostesses’ and some of them were Filipinas. I spoke with a couple of them and they said they came as domestic workers and are still classified as such but they made more money working in the club.
“How would your families in the Philippines react if they knew this is where you work,” I asked. We don’t tell them, they said.
“What our families back home expect from us keeps increasing. They want shoes, appliances, clothes, cameras and at the same time want us to keep sending them money” one explained. We can’t do that on a maid’s salary, she added.
Later that year I was in Barcelona on vacation and stayed at a small hotel located in the residential area of the city. This enabled me to use public transportation and mingle with the local population, doing what they do in their daily lives. It is a great way to ‘absorb’ the local culture, so to speak. On one of these bus trips to the “Ramblas”, the blocks long central plaza lined with shops, restaurants and street vendors and artists, I sat next to a couple of Filipinas with whom I engaged in a conversation about their lives and work.
They were both happy to be working in Spain. Both worked for families with small children. One of the two had a teaching degree from a school in Cebu while the other was a history major from Cavite. They said that aside from the usual domestic work they also helped the kids with their homework in subjects such as math and English. They said their employers also liked them because they were familiar with certain Castillian words that sprinkle our Philippine dialects, making communications much easier as compared to workers from Indonesia or Sri Langka. They had a six day work week and were off on Sundays. They said they used to go meet other Filipinas on their off days but recently they had taken a “second job”. On Sundays they each go to a home and do a thorough ceiling to floor cleaning job that takes about 10 hours but allows them to earn an extra $150.00 per week. They said they now look forward to going home because they had enough money to lavish on their families. Given the experience of most overseas workers doing domestic helper work they seemed to be exception.
In 2009 the 8 million overseas workers remitted some $ 17 billion, which comes to be about 10 to 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, a hefty contribution indeed. Unfortunately many of the 8 million end up paying a hefty personal price as well.
The sadness, loneliness, the aches and pains of servile employment are probably not worth it but in many cases they have no choice. Families rely on their remittances and in a way they have helped to save the nation.
Ldq44@aol.com
Next issue: Some to the really painful OFW stories.
Noynoy Must Avoid Cory’s
Of Brownouts and Coups
Updated June 10,2010
Benigno Aquino III metamorphosed from “president apparent” to “president elect” and finally became “president proclaimed” at ceremonies in Congress June 9. After his forthcoming inauguration and the formal transfer of power, he will re-enter Malacanang, this time not as the young son of a people powered mother president but as a matured leader winning the office on his own. He faces a daunting task indeed.
What awaits him, and the country, is perhaps the reason why the celebration of his victory was not as euphoric and hope filled as Cory’s was in 1986. This time around people seem to be less optimistic about what could possibly happen. They have learned, bitterly to be sure, that regardless the personal honesty, integrity and piety that defined his mother as a person and as president, that did not stop relatives and friends from looting the people’s coffers. Then of course the last 2 presidents who’ve been in power over the past 10 years had administrations marred by scandals, violence, graft and gross incompetence of the highest order. Yes indeed, the regimes of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have obliterated whatever little faith people had in their government.
And this has made Noynoy’s task even more challenging than ever.
“We know that graft and corruption are not in Noynoy’s DNA”, is what a reader wrote explaining why she strongly advocated Aquino III’s elevation to the presidency.
So what should he do? What’s the plan? Being honest and incorruptible is a good place to start but definitely not good enough. I have a few suggestions and this very much has to do with recognizing the negative aspects of the Cory Aquino presidency.
What do we remember most about those years from 1987 on? From what I recall they were rolling blackouts or brownouts that could last all day long, and, the many attempted “coups” by several military units. The power shortages stifled and seriously undermined the local economy and the coups drove away foreign investors.
So, if I were an adviser to Aquino III, I would strongly urge that he announce and undertake a massive physical infrastructure program that would upgrade electricity generation facilities so that power is available all over the country 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. And pursuit of energy growth should be thru the use of new “clean energy” technologies like solar and wind power wherever it is feasible to do so. Dependence on foreign oil must be reduced.
The infrastructure project should also address, once and for all, the traffic gridlock that exists for some 16 hours a day around Metro Manila and is also becoming a growing problem for cities like Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao. It is time that an intelligent, sensible and effective mass transit system take the place of today’s chaotic “jeepney based” public transportation system. Jeepneys are the most costly way of moving people around on at least three counts:
1. Their fuel cost per passenger mile is extremely high. A trolley system of ten cars that could move 1,000 passengers would require about 100 or so jeepneys to move. This heightens our oil and gasoline dependency.
2. 100 jeepneys revving engines while waiting for a “Go” signal is spewing out tons of pollutants in the air, making Metro Manila among the smoggiest cities in the world. It is literally choking the population.
3. The traffic gridlock it creates has a direct impact on productivity. How many hours a day do people spend in traffic that they could devote to productive activity?
If we are to get moving as a country desirous to become one of the “tigers” in Asia we need to be able to move around and when we get to where we’re going we need to have electric power for us to produce whatever it is we want to sell.
Concurrent with the launching of infrastructure projects Aquino III must also immediately address his relationship with the military brass. It is important for him to develop a rapport with the generals, colonels and all others in the command structure that is based on mutual trust. He must enroll the military leadership into the concept of thoroughly professionalizing the armed forces and work diligently to make them true sentinels of the nation’s continued well being.
The Benigno Aquino III administration, if it is to be successful, must be focused on addressing the country’s multitude of problems and not be distracted by the chaos and mayhem that coups and other forms of militaristic adventurism by some in the armed forces have, in the past, puerile like, engaged in. Today’s “president apparent” must truly become the country’s “Commander-in-chief”.
Ldq44@aol.com
Updated June 10,2010
Benigno Aquino III metamorphosed from “president apparent” to “president elect” and finally became “president proclaimed” at ceremonies in Congress June 9. After his forthcoming inauguration and the formal transfer of power, he will re-enter Malacanang, this time not as the young son of a people powered mother president but as a matured leader winning the office on his own. He faces a daunting task indeed.
What awaits him, and the country, is perhaps the reason why the celebration of his victory was not as euphoric and hope filled as Cory’s was in 1986. This time around people seem to be less optimistic about what could possibly happen. They have learned, bitterly to be sure, that regardless the personal honesty, integrity and piety that defined his mother as a person and as president, that did not stop relatives and friends from looting the people’s coffers. Then of course the last 2 presidents who’ve been in power over the past 10 years had administrations marred by scandals, violence, graft and gross incompetence of the highest order. Yes indeed, the regimes of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have obliterated whatever little faith people had in their government.
And this has made Noynoy’s task even more challenging than ever.
“We know that graft and corruption are not in Noynoy’s DNA”, is what a reader wrote explaining why she strongly advocated Aquino III’s elevation to the presidency.
So what should he do? What’s the plan? Being honest and incorruptible is a good place to start but definitely not good enough. I have a few suggestions and this very much has to do with recognizing the negative aspects of the Cory Aquino presidency.
What do we remember most about those years from 1987 on? From what I recall they were rolling blackouts or brownouts that could last all day long, and, the many attempted “coups” by several military units. The power shortages stifled and seriously undermined the local economy and the coups drove away foreign investors.
So, if I were an adviser to Aquino III, I would strongly urge that he announce and undertake a massive physical infrastructure program that would upgrade electricity generation facilities so that power is available all over the country 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. And pursuit of energy growth should be thru the use of new “clean energy” technologies like solar and wind power wherever it is feasible to do so. Dependence on foreign oil must be reduced.
The infrastructure project should also address, once and for all, the traffic gridlock that exists for some 16 hours a day around Metro Manila and is also becoming a growing problem for cities like Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao. It is time that an intelligent, sensible and effective mass transit system take the place of today’s chaotic “jeepney based” public transportation system. Jeepneys are the most costly way of moving people around on at least three counts:
1. Their fuel cost per passenger mile is extremely high. A trolley system of ten cars that could move 1,000 passengers would require about 100 or so jeepneys to move. This heightens our oil and gasoline dependency.
2. 100 jeepneys revving engines while waiting for a “Go” signal is spewing out tons of pollutants in the air, making Metro Manila among the smoggiest cities in the world. It is literally choking the population.
3. The traffic gridlock it creates has a direct impact on productivity. How many hours a day do people spend in traffic that they could devote to productive activity?
If we are to get moving as a country desirous to become one of the “tigers” in Asia we need to be able to move around and when we get to where we’re going we need to have electric power for us to produce whatever it is we want to sell.
Concurrent with the launching of infrastructure projects Aquino III must also immediately address his relationship with the military brass. It is important for him to develop a rapport with the generals, colonels and all others in the command structure that is based on mutual trust. He must enroll the military leadership into the concept of thoroughly professionalizing the armed forces and work diligently to make them true sentinels of the nation’s continued well being.
The Benigno Aquino III administration, if it is to be successful, must be focused on addressing the country’s multitude of problems and not be distracted by the chaos and mayhem that coups and other forms of militaristic adventurism by some in the armed forces have, in the past, puerile like, engaged in. Today’s “president apparent” must truly become the country’s “Commander-in-chief”.
Ldq44@aol.com
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Marcos Revival
Absolution Without Contrition?
The last column I wrote calling to question the Filipino voters capacity to feel shame or behave like amnesiacs by voting into the senate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., drew many passionate responses including one that rationalized support for him based on his so called accomplishments in his home province of Ilocos Norte.
Most of the readers who commented via email agreed with my column’s premise with one angrily saying that “SHAME is not in their (the voters) vocabulary nor with many of the politicians”.
As journalists our most valuable asset is our credibility and the ability to listen to as many sides of an issue as possible, especially those articulated by our readers. And it is in this spirit that I am revisiting the issue of Marcos Jr.’s election to the senate in particular, and the nascent Marcos revival in general.
Let’s discuss the comment that we should elevate Marcos Jr. to high national office, which a senate seat represents, because he has done some good things for his Ilocano constituents. Should we? My answer is an emphatic NO!! Just because Dr. Joseph Mengele opened his clinic to native peoples deep in the Amazon, it did not absolve him from culpability for all his atrocious crimes against the Jews and Gypsies in World War II Germany. If he were caught alive he would have been taken to trial, convicted and hanged by the neck like so many Nazi war criminals were. Doling out aspirins to natives would not have meant squat!
Marcos Jr. can continue doing his good deeds, yet it must be understood that regardless the number of schoolhouses he causes to be built, regardless the thousands of miles of roads he gets paved, the crimes for which he and his family are accused of cannot be casually absolved nor forgiven . There must be some accounting for the penury and destitution they left our country in. Culpability for the blood shed, the wounds caused and the lives scarred or annihilated in their name must be established and adjudicated in the courts of justice .
Sadly, they have not done so and sadder more, those in power from 1986 on, whether they be the governments of Mrs. Aquino, Gen. Ramos or Madame Macapagal-Arroyo, have been conspicuous in their sheer incompetence, or lack of fervor, in the pursuit of the evil doers from the Marcos regime. And, by and large, the media coverage of these crimes and the demand for swift and decisive action to bring about justice, have been tepid and lukewarm to say the least. At worst some in the media have been acting like paid sycophants hoping perhaps that their flattery of Team Marcos will redound in generous largess bestowed upon them. One of our readers said, “I attended a party in Manila a few years ago which was also attended by Imelda. You cannot imagine the fawning and flattering that went on around her”.
And truly, what we have seen happening instead is that a revisionist history is being narrated. We have seen unfold the “Imelda version” of the facts from 1965 thru 1986. “What is ours will be returned,” she is quoted as saying. A simple computation will dispel any notion that their wealth was obtained thru legitimate means.
What was the value of their assets before 1965? What was the salary of the president of the Philippines for all the years they occupied Malacanang? What was the salary of the Metro Manila governor for the time she was occupying this office? Let’s say that (incredibly) they were a frugal couple and saved 90% of their salaries and saved one million pesos a year. This would only come up to 21 million pesos for the time period. How did they get to accumulate $10 billion in Swiss and other concealed accounts? How did Imelda get to amass the jewelry collection that is supposedly to be auctioned by Christie’s for several billions (if that is ever to happen)?
It is said often that Filipinos are a very forgiving people. We were a colony of Spain for some 400 years and many of those recalled as an oppressive occupation. We then had a country run and managed by Americans for some 50 years. The Japanese atrocities were remembered as brutal in its cruelty. Yet today we maintain excellent relationships with Spain, the USA and Japan and treat their citizens with great hospitality in our country. Should we not, therefore, also be as forgiving with our politicians and leaders like the Marcoses?
I have no problem with forgiveness. Ours is after all a deeply religious Christian country and offering the other cheek is consistent with our convictions. Yet, it must be understood that before forgiveness can be dispensed there must be true contrition. The Marcoses, starting with Imelda, must “come clean” as they say, and express their mea culpas openly, completely and honestly. And along with contrition must come restitution. It is not enough to say ‘ I’m sorry’ and then keep the loot they have amassed. The treasure must be restored to the country’s coffers. And those who murdered and tortured must be made to face charges and appropriate punishment.
Will this ever happen? Given Imelda’s attitude and her family’s behavior, likely not. But if Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can do the unlikely and seemingly impossible and lead his family to face the bar of justice and accept the people’s judgment, then he will really demonstrate how great and courageous a leader he is. And after their time is served and they are again rightfully free to rejoin our society, then indeed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. deserves consideration for the highest office his country can bestow on him. While I am an optimist, I am also a realist. And the likely scenario is that he will just buy his way to the presidency in 2016. I hope, for once, the Marcoses will prove me wrong.
The author can be reached at his email address : ldq44@aol.com
The last column I wrote calling to question the Filipino voters capacity to feel shame or behave like amnesiacs by voting into the senate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., drew many passionate responses including one that rationalized support for him based on his so called accomplishments in his home province of Ilocos Norte.
Most of the readers who commented via email agreed with my column’s premise with one angrily saying that “SHAME is not in their (the voters) vocabulary nor with many of the politicians”.
As journalists our most valuable asset is our credibility and the ability to listen to as many sides of an issue as possible, especially those articulated by our readers. And it is in this spirit that I am revisiting the issue of Marcos Jr.’s election to the senate in particular, and the nascent Marcos revival in general.
Let’s discuss the comment that we should elevate Marcos Jr. to high national office, which a senate seat represents, because he has done some good things for his Ilocano constituents. Should we? My answer is an emphatic NO!! Just because Dr. Joseph Mengele opened his clinic to native peoples deep in the Amazon, it did not absolve him from culpability for all his atrocious crimes against the Jews and Gypsies in World War II Germany. If he were caught alive he would have been taken to trial, convicted and hanged by the neck like so many Nazi war criminals were. Doling out aspirins to natives would not have meant squat!
Marcos Jr. can continue doing his good deeds, yet it must be understood that regardless the number of schoolhouses he causes to be built, regardless the thousands of miles of roads he gets paved, the crimes for which he and his family are accused of cannot be casually absolved nor forgiven . There must be some accounting for the penury and destitution they left our country in. Culpability for the blood shed, the wounds caused and the lives scarred or annihilated in their name must be established and adjudicated in the courts of justice .
Sadly, they have not done so and sadder more, those in power from 1986 on, whether they be the governments of Mrs. Aquino, Gen. Ramos or Madame Macapagal-Arroyo, have been conspicuous in their sheer incompetence, or lack of fervor, in the pursuit of the evil doers from the Marcos regime. And, by and large, the media coverage of these crimes and the demand for swift and decisive action to bring about justice, have been tepid and lukewarm to say the least. At worst some in the media have been acting like paid sycophants hoping perhaps that their flattery of Team Marcos will redound in generous largess bestowed upon them. One of our readers said, “I attended a party in Manila a few years ago which was also attended by Imelda. You cannot imagine the fawning and flattering that went on around her”.
And truly, what we have seen happening instead is that a revisionist history is being narrated. We have seen unfold the “Imelda version” of the facts from 1965 thru 1986. “What is ours will be returned,” she is quoted as saying. A simple computation will dispel any notion that their wealth was obtained thru legitimate means.
What was the value of their assets before 1965? What was the salary of the president of the Philippines for all the years they occupied Malacanang? What was the salary of the Metro Manila governor for the time she was occupying this office? Let’s say that (incredibly) they were a frugal couple and saved 90% of their salaries and saved one million pesos a year. This would only come up to 21 million pesos for the time period. How did they get to accumulate $10 billion in Swiss and other concealed accounts? How did Imelda get to amass the jewelry collection that is supposedly to be auctioned by Christie’s for several billions (if that is ever to happen)?
It is said often that Filipinos are a very forgiving people. We were a colony of Spain for some 400 years and many of those recalled as an oppressive occupation. We then had a country run and managed by Americans for some 50 years. The Japanese atrocities were remembered as brutal in its cruelty. Yet today we maintain excellent relationships with Spain, the USA and Japan and treat their citizens with great hospitality in our country. Should we not, therefore, also be as forgiving with our politicians and leaders like the Marcoses?
I have no problem with forgiveness. Ours is after all a deeply religious Christian country and offering the other cheek is consistent with our convictions. Yet, it must be understood that before forgiveness can be dispensed there must be true contrition. The Marcoses, starting with Imelda, must “come clean” as they say, and express their mea culpas openly, completely and honestly. And along with contrition must come restitution. It is not enough to say ‘ I’m sorry’ and then keep the loot they have amassed. The treasure must be restored to the country’s coffers. And those who murdered and tortured must be made to face charges and appropriate punishment.
Will this ever happen? Given Imelda’s attitude and her family’s behavior, likely not. But if Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can do the unlikely and seemingly impossible and lead his family to face the bar of justice and accept the people’s judgment, then he will really demonstrate how great and courageous a leader he is. And after their time is served and they are again rightfully free to rejoin our society, then indeed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. deserves consideration for the highest office his country can bestow on him. While I am an optimist, I am also a realist. And the likely scenario is that he will just buy his way to the presidency in 2016. I hope, for once, the Marcoses will prove me wrong.
The author can be reached at his email address : ldq44@aol.com
Friday, May 21, 2010
Marcos Jr. Elected to RP Senate?
Have We no Shame? Or Are We Just
a Country of Amnesiacs?
There is some very troublesome result emanating from the May 10 elections. It seems now that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has gained a seat in the Philippine senate and that he was tracking in the middle of the field of 12 winners.
How could this possibly happen? We are only a mere generation or so removed from that very dark period in our history where we saw unlawful arrests and extra judicial executions of innocent Filipinos whose only crime it seems was the articulation of views found displeasing to the conjugal dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
Yes, the very same Marcoses who amassed over $10 billion in wealth extracted thru plunder from the treasury of a poverty stricken nation. The very same rulers who for twenty one years aided and abetted their cronies, friends and relatives in the forceful, unlawful usurpation of other people’s businesses and properties that they fancied and wanted for their own.
And now the scion of that world notorious couple is elected to the Philippine senate? And don’t give me that “ the sins of the father should not be visited on the son” dribble of an argument either. All the Marcos offspring were complicit in, and beneficiaries of, their parents shameless theft of the nation’s wealth and dignity. They should never have been allowed back into the country, and if they did come back they should have been thrown into the darkest dungeons that could be found.
So we now ask why? Why did Filipinos vote this man as one of the “leading” 12 candidates for the national senate? It is almost understandable, though not necessarily forgivable, that the “solid north”, that grouping of northern provinces that is predominantly Ilocano, gave him a generous share of their votes. Yet no candidate relying solely of that bloc’s votes can expect to win a national office. Filipinos in other regions, including cities populated by supposedly “educated” and “sophisticated” voters also supported him.
And it seems that the cat is now out of the bag: Marcos Jr.’s election, along with the election of his mother Imelda to the lower house and his sister Imee’s election as governor of Ilocos Norte are all part of a bigger, wider plot to once again wrest control of political power nationwide. (In Imelda's case there is the added "benefit" of being a "legislator" and therefore legal action against her can be perversely dubbed as "political" vendetta.)
And we are now beginning to see clear tell-tale signs of the forthcoming “Marcos Revival ”, and it seems that as with Marcos I, many in the media will be as docile with Marcos II and only too willing to serve as willing tools in the propaganda effort. There is, for example, a two page spread in one of the Northern California newspapers not only touting Marcos Jr.’s “education” and his “accomplishments” but also rehashing the quite discredited claims of the World War II heroism by the older Marcos. It is also hailing Imelda’s past as Metro Manila governor without mentioning the fact that it was a position created by her dictator husband and handed to her gift wrapped as it were, and not one that she earned by virtue of election by the Manila region’s suffering multitudes. The spread reads quite like a well contrived public relations fairy tale and not a journalistic endeavor worthy of even the throw away newsprint that carries it.
The Marcos II p.r. machine is working overtime, it seems. A newly sprung Southern California weekly carried in its May 15- 21 issue an unbylined, unattributed “news” item, complete with photographs, of the Marcoses so called effort to “revive” the KBL or the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the party formed by the dictator after he had wrested absolute power in the 1970’s. The report states that the Marcoses had a “reunion” with former colleagues and henchmen of the now dead strongman. These people who should be in jail are now partying to bring the old Marcos order back?
The item reports that Imelda Marcos said “she was confident of winning back much of the wealth seized from her family.” It quotes her as saying, “I am sure the things that are ours will come back”.
I don’t know about other people but reading this quote makes me feel like puking out my guts. The nerve and the chutzpah of this woman and this family is unbelievable. They seem to really believe and act as if the $10 billion or so that they siphoned away “belonged” to them. But what is truly inconceivable is how and why the Filipino people seem to let them get away with their brazen shamelessness. Yes, indeed, that is the message one gets from the results of the May 10 election of Marcos Jr. to the senate.
We have forgotten, it seems, their culpability in the unjust incarceration and torture of so many who protested their regime’s abuses over 21 years in power. We have forgotten perhaps the blood shed by many thru mysterious disappearances and extra judicial killings so benignly and mockingly labeled “salvaging”. We no longer recall the abyss to which our country was driven to by the wanton profligacy of this family and their allies.
The Philippine senate was once an honored and lofty chamber populated by such luminaries as Claro M. Recto, Jovito R. Salonga, Jose P. Roy, Raul S. Manglapus and Emmanuel N. Pelaez to name a few. It has now sadly been defiled and irretrievably soiled by the elevation of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to its membership roster. What is truly tragic is that we as a nation, thru our vote last May 10, are complicit in this foul deed.
Have we no shame? Are we no more than a nation of amnesiacs? Have we not learned our lesson? Shall the Marcos nightmare once again be visited upon our population? Will history repeat itself?
a Country of Amnesiacs?
There is some very troublesome result emanating from the May 10 elections. It seems now that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has gained a seat in the Philippine senate and that he was tracking in the middle of the field of 12 winners.
How could this possibly happen? We are only a mere generation or so removed from that very dark period in our history where we saw unlawful arrests and extra judicial executions of innocent Filipinos whose only crime it seems was the articulation of views found displeasing to the conjugal dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
Yes, the very same Marcoses who amassed over $10 billion in wealth extracted thru plunder from the treasury of a poverty stricken nation. The very same rulers who for twenty one years aided and abetted their cronies, friends and relatives in the forceful, unlawful usurpation of other people’s businesses and properties that they fancied and wanted for their own.
And now the scion of that world notorious couple is elected to the Philippine senate? And don’t give me that “ the sins of the father should not be visited on the son” dribble of an argument either. All the Marcos offspring were complicit in, and beneficiaries of, their parents shameless theft of the nation’s wealth and dignity. They should never have been allowed back into the country, and if they did come back they should have been thrown into the darkest dungeons that could be found.
So we now ask why? Why did Filipinos vote this man as one of the “leading” 12 candidates for the national senate? It is almost understandable, though not necessarily forgivable, that the “solid north”, that grouping of northern provinces that is predominantly Ilocano, gave him a generous share of their votes. Yet no candidate relying solely of that bloc’s votes can expect to win a national office. Filipinos in other regions, including cities populated by supposedly “educated” and “sophisticated” voters also supported him.
And it seems that the cat is now out of the bag: Marcos Jr.’s election, along with the election of his mother Imelda to the lower house and his sister Imee’s election as governor of Ilocos Norte are all part of a bigger, wider plot to once again wrest control of political power nationwide. (In Imelda's case there is the added "benefit" of being a "legislator" and therefore legal action against her can be perversely dubbed as "political" vendetta.)
And we are now beginning to see clear tell-tale signs of the forthcoming “Marcos Revival ”, and it seems that as with Marcos I, many in the media will be as docile with Marcos II and only too willing to serve as willing tools in the propaganda effort. There is, for example, a two page spread in one of the Northern California newspapers not only touting Marcos Jr.’s “education” and his “accomplishments” but also rehashing the quite discredited claims of the World War II heroism by the older Marcos. It is also hailing Imelda’s past as Metro Manila governor without mentioning the fact that it was a position created by her dictator husband and handed to her gift wrapped as it were, and not one that she earned by virtue of election by the Manila region’s suffering multitudes. The spread reads quite like a well contrived public relations fairy tale and not a journalistic endeavor worthy of even the throw away newsprint that carries it.
The Marcos II p.r. machine is working overtime, it seems. A newly sprung Southern California weekly carried in its May 15- 21 issue an unbylined, unattributed “news” item, complete with photographs, of the Marcoses so called effort to “revive” the KBL or the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the party formed by the dictator after he had wrested absolute power in the 1970’s. The report states that the Marcoses had a “reunion” with former colleagues and henchmen of the now dead strongman. These people who should be in jail are now partying to bring the old Marcos order back?
The item reports that Imelda Marcos said “she was confident of winning back much of the wealth seized from her family.” It quotes her as saying, “I am sure the things that are ours will come back”.
I don’t know about other people but reading this quote makes me feel like puking out my guts. The nerve and the chutzpah of this woman and this family is unbelievable. They seem to really believe and act as if the $10 billion or so that they siphoned away “belonged” to them. But what is truly inconceivable is how and why the Filipino people seem to let them get away with their brazen shamelessness. Yes, indeed, that is the message one gets from the results of the May 10 election of Marcos Jr. to the senate.
We have forgotten, it seems, their culpability in the unjust incarceration and torture of so many who protested their regime’s abuses over 21 years in power. We have forgotten perhaps the blood shed by many thru mysterious disappearances and extra judicial killings so benignly and mockingly labeled “salvaging”. We no longer recall the abyss to which our country was driven to by the wanton profligacy of this family and their allies.
The Philippine senate was once an honored and lofty chamber populated by such luminaries as Claro M. Recto, Jovito R. Salonga, Jose P. Roy, Raul S. Manglapus and Emmanuel N. Pelaez to name a few. It has now sadly been defiled and irretrievably soiled by the elevation of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to its membership roster. What is truly tragic is that we as a nation, thru our vote last May 10, are complicit in this foul deed.
Have we no shame? Are we no more than a nation of amnesiacs? Have we not learned our lesson? Shall the Marcos nightmare once again be visited upon our population? Will history repeat itself?
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