The Opposite of Apathy

Statement of Hyatt 10

July 8, 2009 at 9:40 am (Uncategorized)

Statement of Hyatt 10
8 July 2009

GMA’S CRIME AGAINST THE NATION:
FROM SURVIVAL TO PERPETUATION—AT ALL COST

When we submitted our collective irrevocable resignation from the Cabinet on 8 July 2005, we were absolutely convinced that the expose on the “Garci tapes” had severely damaged beyond repair the credibility of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And the “least disruptive and painful option that can swiftly restore normalcy and eventually bring us to prosperity” was for Mrs. Arroyo to voluntarily relinquish her office. Otherwise, the longer she insisted on staying in office—at all cost—under a cloud of doubt and mistrust, the greater the damage to the economy and to our political institutions. In the end, the poor would suffer the most.

It has been exactly four years since our resignation, and the serious concerns we expressed in our resignation statement have come to pass. The truth remains suppressed and the lying continues: the Garci case was never resolved, “executive privilege” became a convenient tool to frustrate truth-seekers, even the President’s health condition has become the subject of subterfuge. Corruption thrived and has continued unabated. Its many faces—the First Couple and ZTE, Romy Neri, CyberEd, Joc-Joc Bolante, swine scam, General Garcia, Euro-Generals, DPWH bidding anomalies, and, lately, the noodles scam—have earned for the Arroyo regime the dubious distinction of being among the most corrupt in the world. Even the killings of journalists, activists, and peasant and union leaders, despite stern warnings from international human rights watchdogs, and journalist and law associations, have not stopped and, worse, have persisted with impunity.

Amidst all of these, Mrs. Arroyo seems undeterred. Perhaps to escape all the criticisms for the sad and despicable state of the country, the President—the most peripatetic in history—has taken flight, with her usual coterie of politicians, family members, and hangers-on, wasting precious foreign exchange, while the fiscal deficit threatens to go haywire. As we speak, she may be scaling the pyramids of Egypt!

As the end of Mrs. Arroyo’s term fast approaches, a profound fear of having to account before our people for all the cheating, the lying, the stealing, and the killings, not to mention, the neglect of the basic welfare of our people, especially the most vulnerable, has taken hold of the President, her family, and their cabal. From mere survival, the President is now consumed by schemes, however illegal or unconstitutional, to perpetuate herself in power—indefinitely.

One track is in play: the subversion of the Constitution, or what constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas calls “constitutional gang-rape,” to enable her to retain her powers under a parliamentary set-up as Prime Minister. Mrs. Arroyo’s lapdogs in the House have taken the first cha-cha step with the passage of House Resolution 1109, which seeks to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to pass upon amendments to the Constitution, even without the participation of the Senate. Any time now, we expect the House to convene by its lonesome self and trigger the filing of a “justiciable” case in the Arroyo-appointee dominated Supreme Court. The hope is that a favorable judgment—that legally the House can convene by itself as a constituent assembly for as long as it secures the ¾ votes of all members of Congress—will give pork-starved members of the House the legal justification to go along with the scheme, no matter how patently illegal.

But should the cha-cha train derail—and by the day, if many of the House members are to be believed, it is becoming an increasing possibility—the Arroyo regime has also put into play a more sinister plan: the declaration of a state-of-emergency. The signs are dangerously evident: the mysterious bombings in Mindanao and Metro Manila, which seem to follow the same pattern as previous but failed attempts; the militarization of the Cabinet and strategic offices in the bureaucracy; the accelerated promotion of Class ’78 generals—the PMA batch purported to be loyal to the President—in strategic services and positions in the military, at the expense of officers belonging to Class ’76 and ’77; the unprecedented increase in the armed personnel of the PNP’s Metro Manila-based Special Action Force (SAF), which reportedly is now even better equipped than the military, which, because of rumblings and divisions within the ranks, has been rendered an unreliable ally of the regime.

And what about the only desirable option acceptable to our people—the scheduled May 2010 Presidential elections? While Mrs. Arroyo herself and her minions have repeatedly assured us that there will be elections in 2010, their actions belie their claim. Even the election automation project, which is supposed to ensure an orderly and fast count, is now mired in controversy. Suspicions linger, with talks of intervention by “big people in high places” to manipulate even the automated process, that automation is not yet a certainty.

What now? Lest we find ourselves once again fighting a repressive and kleptocratic authoritarian regime, we must be vigilant. We must expose and fight every move of the Arroyo regime to stay in power against our will and in violation of our Constitution. We call upon all those who truly cherish our democratic way of life, no matter how imperfect it may be, including those in the military and the police, to stand up against those who seek to exploit the instability and confusion in our midst and impose their dictatorial will upon us. Let us all join hands—with urgency and resolve—in ensuring that a clean, peaceful, orderly and automated election does take place in May, 2010.

Finally, to the President and her cohorts, this challenge we throw: Don’t push your luck. You have crossed the line too often enough. With impunity, you have exploited our people’s cynicism and apathy for your own narrow and selfish ends. As with all things, this too will come to an end. Of this, we are certain.

With God’s help, the Filipino people will put an end to this despicable Arroyo regime.

FLORENCIO B. ABAD EMILIA T. BONCODIN
TERESITA QUINTOS DELES CESAR PURISIMA
IMELDA M. NICOLAS CORAZON JULIANO SOLIMAN
ALBERTO D. LINA GUILLERMO PARAYNO
JUAN B SANTOS RENE C. VILLA

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Pink Revolution: Ang Ladlad’s Danton Remoto

July 6, 2009 at 9:41 am (Prof. Danton Remoto, elections)

Danton Remoto in 60 minutes

Caption: Danton Remoto brings his pink army to the electorate. Photo by Pol Briana, Jr. Manila Bulletin

Pink Revolution: Ang Ladlad’s Danton Remoto
60 Minutes
June 28, 2009
Manila Bulletin

Will Danton Remoto be the Philippines’ answer to Harvey Milk?

Milk made history in 1977 when he became the first openly gay man elected into public office. Remoto is yet to do the same, but the impact he’s made on the Filipino lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is certainly as impressive as Milk’s history-making feat.

Remoto, with fellow writer J. Neil Garcia, was behind the pioneering “Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Literature.” Its effect on Filipino culture has been immense. Ladlad has gone through several editions, has resulted in the teaching of gay literature classes at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University, and is credited for Ang Ladlad, the partylist that Remoto formed in 2003.

“We started in September 2003 with only one mandate — to help Akbayan push the Anti-Discrimination Bill which was filed in 1999,” he says of Ang Ladlad’s beginnings. “Congress is not really against it but they just think it is not as important. So lagi, ang mga bading, lesbians, transgender, bisexual, laging, kung baga cameo role lagi.”

Fighting for one’s rights is certainly nothing new for Remoto. With his father in the military, Remoto grew up with the belief that nobody should take any abuse lying down.

“My father was a military officer and we were trained to be amazons. Isa lang ang turo niya: You study hard, you study well at ‘pag may umaway sa inyo at umuwi kayo ng luhaan, papaluin ko kayo, you should learn to be tough and fight back,” he recalls with a laugh. “So ang nangyari ngayon, may mga pumupunta sa bahay namin na mga magulang, ‘Naku sir, ‘yang anak ninyong bading binugbog ang anak ko.’ Sabi ng tatay ko ‘Eh di, mabuti!’”

Remoto does the same fighting for the LGBT community. Whether it’s freeing hundreds of gay men being detained illegally or arguing for lesbians and transgenders who have been discriminated against for their sexual orientation, Remoto and his allies are always ready with a legal challenge and a witty retort.

“You have to show them that you will not allow this. If you show them that you will fight back, they will move away. Bullies are really cowards,” he says.

Remoto’s fight for equal rights would have reached its peak in the 2007 elections had Ang Ladlad been allowed to run as partylist, but the COMELEC refused to accredit the group, citing its lack of constituents. It is Remoto, however, who has the last laugh, as he is now planning to run for the Senate on an education platform.

“I’m running on a platform of education because I’ve been teaching for 22 years. ‘Yun talaga ‘yung alam na alam kong issue, ‘yun gay rights, kasama na ‘yan sa education. Open-mindedness
is a function of education, kasi ang tao kapag pinaaral mo, luluwag ang isip. Education is what we really need in this country,” he says.

To close June as the Pride Month, Danton Remoto lets it all out: about being gay in the Philippines, his vision for the Philippine LGBT community, and the possibility of being the country’s first openly gay senator. (RONALD S. LIM)

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLLLETIN (SCB): What led to the creation of Ang Ladlad, considering that the gay rights movement has been here in the country for quite sometime now?

DANTON REMOTO (DR): We started in September 2003 with only one mandate – to help Akbayan push the Anti Discrimination Bill which was filed in 1999. We wanted to help. Akbayan and Ang Ladlad are not enemies ah, si Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel whom you interviewed and I are very good friends. We went to Ateneo together but of course, I’m older than her, by only a few years. (laughs) Magkalinawan tayo noh. (laughs)

Congress is not really against it but they just think it is not as important. So lagi, ang mga bading, lesbians, transgender, bisexual, laging, kung baga cameo role lang…

SCB: How does that make you feel?

DR: I feel bad. One time, it almost got through, it passed the Lower House in February, 2004 but we needed a Senate version. So we called up the Senate, kanya-kanya silang dahilan. Senator A said, “I cannot push for it, my office just got burned.” Senator B said, “Bakit pa ninyo kailangan ng LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights, eh ang yayaman naman ng mga bading?” I think they were talking about Boy Abunda o Ricky Reyes noh. ‘Yung isa naman, sabing ganyan, saradong Katoliko raw siya. Maraming bading ang nangangailangan. My house in Xavierville has an extra room. That became a halfway house for young people na pinalayas ng mga magulang. They stayed for a few months or as long as they wanted, until their problems get sorted out.

SCB: But it’s not really not a center?

DR: No. I’ll be honest with you, we have a lot of offers but we always ask where the money is coming from. Sa politika, some people they don’t argue where the money is coming from, so they can use you for the elections.

SCB: What about for the older gays?

DR: The old people naman like golden gays, we have an alliance with councilor Justo Justo of Pasay. What is sad is that they are not poor. Many of them sent their nephews and nieces to school. Kapag nasa abroad na, hindi na sila naalala, so itong si bading wala nang ngipin, kalbo na, mashonda na, wa datung. Councilor Justo helps them, house, water, light, and food. We want to have a center that will house these old and abandoned LGBTs, kasi ‘yan mga nagpaaral ng kapatid, pamangkin kaya lang inabandona. ‘Yung iba pa diyan, pagkakuha ng retirement, ‘yung pera ipapaaral o ipapautang sa pamangkin to set up a business, not all pero some of them are abandoned. Meron diyan dentista, teacher, they join the Pride March every December.

SCB: That is sad…

DR: We also want to promote LGBT-friendly businesses. In the US for instance, Levi’s is gay-friendly. I studied kasi sa US ang daming gay-friendly businesses that I hope we can also do here. Kasi dito, like the TV show “Out” only had one season, which is only 12 episodes kasi wala silang advertisement. Even if the ad agencies’ creative directors are gay, the owners did not want to advertise. So we have to push for that support, like all the gay magazines are closed now, Icon is closed, Generation Pink is closed.

SCB: What other laws are you pushing for?

DR: We are pushing for the Anti-vagrancy Bill to be taken out of the law, not all pero some policemen use that to extort from gay men. Vagrancy was a law during the American time, it was used to control the population. Kasi ‘yung ibang mga bading di ba nagpapahangin, mainit kasi, naglalakad sa park. So ikaw, as a bading, you bring an ID, you bring money at least R50 para meron kang pamasahe. In short, ‘pag wala kang pera, ‘wag kang lumabas, subersibo ka. So ngayon, ‘yung mga bading
na nagpapahangin lang o nag-aabang ng taxi sa Taft, hinuhuli ng pulis.

I remember, I would always go to the police station in Balic-Balic, CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group), Camp Caringal, lahat ‘yan napuntuhan ko na, pinapakawalan ko ‘yung mga bading. Because the law says, you cannot detain somebody beyond 12 hours, the new law is 18 hours kung hindi, we can accuse the policemen of illegal detention and we have done that. Actually lahat ng kaso namin nanalo kami, dinemanda talaga namin along with the Akbayan lawyers, pupunta kami sa city hall for the inquest of fiscal. Like one time, there were like, mga 100 na bading ‘yun sa isang gay bar and they were being asked for a lot of money, and you cannot do that.

SCB: Does it still surprise you that young gay men are still being treated this way?

DR: There are cases like that until and unless, they got out from college and begin working. If you want an economic analysis, ang bading para siyang unit of production that only when he gives money to the family saka siya ginagalang. Again, it all boils down to Apple Macintosh or Nokia – “user-friendly.’’

Sa mga magulang at kamag-anak ginawang insurance, ‘yung mga bading na anak. ‘Pag wala pang pera ‘yan, inaapi, inaaway, ‘pag may trabaho na si bading, bida na siya. Like ‘yung mga nagja-Japan, the transgenders, the one with humongous breasts, sabi ko bakit ninyo ginagawa ‘yan? “Kasi ho sa Japan ‘pag meron po kaming breasts, mas popular kami, either as singers or dancers.” Eh saan napupunta ‘yung kita ninyo? Kalahati yan or more than half goes to our parents, brothers, sister the, ‘yung konti sa amin.

If you talk to any beauty parlor worker or transgender worker in Japan, pare-pareho ng kwento ‘yan, ang Filipino family, whether male, female, transgender, bisexual, lesbian or what, nakasentro lagi ‘yung family. So ‘yung mga bading, they only earn respect generally, if they contribute to the family.

SCB: How was it for you growing up gay in a Filipino family?

DR: My father was a military officer, now we were trained to be amazons (laughs). Isa lang ang turo niya, you study hard, you study well at ‘pag may umaway sa inyo at umuwi kayo ng luhaan, papaluin ko kayo, you should learn to be tough and fight back. Kaya nga marunong kami mag martial arts, imagine me, alam ko ‘yan, the basic self defense, tinuruan kami.

Now, sabi ng tatay ko, if the enemy is bigger than you, kumuha ka ng bambo, hampasin mo, kasi he’s bigger than you, he’s bullying you hindi ka pwedeng umuwi nang umiiyak. So ang nagyari ngayon, may mga pumupunta sa bahay namin na mga magulang, “Naku sir, ‘yang anak ninyong bading binugbog ng anak ko.” Sabi ng tatay ko “eh di, mabuti” sabi ko “Papa bully ‘yan eh” “Ano ginawa mo?” “Hinampas ko ng buho!”

SCB: So that is why you are so feisty…

DR: Hello, I grew up in a military camp during Martial Law. We would go to school with military escort kasi di ba ang daming NPA sa Pampanga, barilan kung barilan ‘yan eh. That is why I am not afraid of guns. We’re taught to fight back, ayaw ng tatay ko na iiyak ka. Diba ‘yan ang stereotype ng Pilipinong bading, iyakin, takot, ayaw ng away, ayaw ng gulo, cry na lang ng cry, hindi naman ganun.

SCB: Your father knew outright that you were gay?

DR: Of course! Grade 1, I was seated beside my classmate Robert, he’s now dead, hindi ko pa alam ‘nun ang word na crush. Katabi ko naman si Vivian na crush ko rin, parang bakit ganito? Tapos ang nakikita kong image na bading si Georgie Quizon, sa TV, kapatid ni Dolphy, in short, our role models were negative, sila ‘yung laging pinagtatawanan sa sine. Then later in high school, Roderick Paulate movies.

The only gay role models then were showbiz reporters or hairdressers.

SCB: How did your mother raise you? Did she counter your dad’s ways?

DR: My mother was a music teacher. Ang sabi ng nanay ko lang nun, kasi nung Grade 1, ang hawak ko sa book ganyan (holding a book against his chest) Sabi ng nanay ko, “naku magagalit ang tatay mo. Ang paghawak ganyan” (holds a book on his side). Tapos naalala ko nun may perya nun, may mga impersonators sabi ng tatay ko, ‘Wag mong gagayahin ‘yan.’’ I was 10 years old, and when you’re young you’re confused, wala namang role model.

SCB: Did your father try to “straighten” you up?

DR: Naku ‘neng, pinag-karate pa ako niyan, kaya marunong ako mag-karate, ang hirap nga ng karate, you have to memorize all those moves, hallu!

SCB: Were there no bullies when you were younger?

DR: Ang nanay ko kasi teacher sa elementary, ang tatay ko military. At saka first honor si bading! Wala na silang kokopyahan! (laughs) Sige, bakla pala ha, wala kang kokopyahan sa Social Studies
mamaya. ‘Yung presidents at prime ministers memorize ko, wala kang kopya. Pero pag math, pakopya naman! (laughs) Bobo ako sa math.

Hindi ako na-traumatize, hindi ako pinagalitan, hindi ako pinalo, hindi ako nilublob sa drum ng tubig. My parents were so civilized.

SCB: Kailan niya natanggap?

DR: I love it! When the book “Ladlad 1” came out in 1994, ‘yung kopya ko ibinigay ko sa kapatid kong babae, binigay niya sa nanay ko, nanay ko binigay niya sa tatay ko.

Eto na, sabi ko sa kapatid ko, ano response ng ating parents? Nakita ng tatay “Ladlad” ‘yung cover di ba half-naked man, tiningnan niya ‘yung loob, alam mo kung ano sinabi niya? “Oh, at least they used white paper for his book.” Sagot ng nanay ko “Oo nga.” Ayun, tapos! (laughs)

Kasi in the Filipino society, unlike in the film Philadelphia na aaminin mo sa magulang mo na bading ka, dito hindi naman inaannounce eh. Here, the gay person is the last person to know he’s gay eh. Meron pa “Alam mo bading ako” “Naku, noon pa naming alam bading! Halu, hindi mo pa ba alam?” (laughs)

SCB: You were saying that you were confused before? When was this confusion solved?

DR: I was 26 when the British Council sent me to the University of Stirling in Scotland! (laughs) Naloka ako sa classmate ko na si Brendan from Ireland, a football player, full of muscles. Then he told me he was gay, aba kaya pala sa swimming class namin, sa common bathroom kung makatingin, hindi ko alam, kapatid pala! Sabi pa niya “I like the color of your skin, where did you get your tan?” Sabi ko, “Oh, it’s natural!” Siya ‘yung naging first boyfriend ko. Ay hindi pala, si Stephen pala ‘yung una. Nakalimutan na! (laughs)

NO TO DISCRIMINATION

SCB: Have you ever been disadvantaged because you are gay?

DR: I’ll be honest with you. I used to get offers from big multinational companies to work for public relations, communications, kasi I went to Ateneo, I have a degree in Scotland, I went to the US for further studies.

‘Yan ang gusto ng mga multinationals eh, may master’s from abroad. Eh ‘yung ginawa ko ‘yung “Ladlad” wala na, lost na, wala nang nag-alok. Dati, every three months may offer letter na mataas ang sweldo, pero ano gagawin ko kung ayaw sa iyo, ‘di ‘wag.

SCB: Pero ‘yung mga lumalapit sa ‘yo na humihingi ng tulong?

DR: For example, like this transgender sa Ang Ladlad, Ateneo graduate siya, with MA in Sociology. Nag apply sa call center kasi konti lang ang trabaho ng sociologists. Apply siya, number one sa entrance, pagdating sa interview long hair, tigbog! Sabi ng interview, this is a call center (based in Ortigas). We cannot hire you because you’re a man with boobs. Sabi ng transgender “Why? Will my breasts do the talking for me?” Sabi lang niya, “Because the manager of the company is a Mormon. He does not want.” I’m just quoting him. Sabi naman ng HRD, but you have to remember that this call center follows American laws. That is questionable because we are on Philippine soil, hindi naman sila embassy, only embassies and consulates follow the law of the country. If you’re a call center here, you follow Philippine laws. So we asked again, gusto mo ba idemanda? Again, the problem with that, siya na rin mismo ayaw, so the victim who doesn’t even want to pursue it hindi na pwedeng ituloy.

Ten years ago, there was a lesbian, malaki ang katawan, apply siya sa Makati. Number one sa written, UP graduate, cum laude. Maikli ang buhok, talagang butch lesbian, hindi lang ‘yung tipong kargador sa pier, kayang buhatin ang buong barko, ganun siya kalaki, matalino. Sabi ng HRD, “Are you a practicing lesbian?” Sabi niya “Why?” Sagot nila “Well, because in this company we don’t hire practicing lesbians.” Sabi niya “Excuse me, I’m no longer practicing, I’m already good at it.” She wasn’t hired!

SCB: Do you get a lot of stories like that?

DR: Kasi, the Labor Code is silent about this, so wala. Sa Philippine military wala rin siya, sa US, don’t ask, don’t tell. Sa Philippine National Police, sa revised code of 1998, nakalagay dun, “There will be no discrimination in the hiring and firing based on sexual orientation.” Napasok namin ‘yan, kasi si Orly Mercado, then Defense Secretary, had a staff who was our lawyer and he was gay. It’s now a law.
Ang military naman, two months ago, I talked to spokesperson Lt. Col. June Torres.

Sabi niya walang diskriminasyon maliban na lang na gay male ka, as opposed to lesbian, ang suot mo talaga male attire ‘pag female ka, female attire.

You know, things are changing, this military spokesman, they talk about it dati they would not even talk about it.

SCB: What’s the worst discrimination you’ve ever experienced?

DR: I remember when I was walking down Katipunan, merong pick up truck. Hindi naman ako pinipick-up. There were a group of teenagers, sabi nila, “Bakla! Bakla!” I’m sure hindi sila taga-Ateneo kasi wala silang breeding. Alam mo sabi ko, “Halika, baba kayo dito!” Umalis! Kukuha pa naman ako ng bato! Kaya lang parang wa’ poise! (laughs)

SCB: That’s the worst?

DR: You have to show them that you will not allow this. If you show them that you will fight back, they will move away. Bullies are really cowards.

SCB: What’s the worst case of discrimination you’ve heard?

DR: Ten years ago, in Iloilo, this beauty parlor worker pinahabol sa aso. In Gen. Nakar, there was a mayor who closed down the beauty parlors kasi salot daw. Ang problema niya, ‘yung mga botante niya nagalit. Lahat ng mga bakla lumipat sa kabilang town, nagalit ‘yung mga babae kasi magbibiyahe pa ng jeep. Natalo sa eleksyon. Buti nga sa kanya.

Sa lesbians, pinapa-rape ng tatay. Kasi daw if they taste having sex with men they will stop being lesbian. These are documented cases. The last case that was reported to me was 2007. Job discrimination is still with us.

Dati sa Catholic school, the parents will sign a form that their son is not homosexual
before they could be accepted. How would you know? Ang anak mo ngayon straight, bukas sirena na! Nagbabago naman ‘yan. Kaya ikaw kapatid! (laughs)

SCB: People say that the number of gays is increasing. Why is this happening?

DR: Parang gremlin lang ‘yan, pag nabasa dumadami! Mas naging visible lang ngayon. Marami na ‘yan noon pa. Dati noon ang tawag diyan PB, pamilyadang bading, bading na nag-asawa. Statistics say na 10 percent although sabi ng ibang tao sa Pilipinas mas marami. Sa Greenbelt, Ang Ladlad diyan laging mabenta. Ang mga malls, urban centers, places na merong medical schools, nursing
schools. Kasi mga nurturers, healers. Mga babaylan! (laughs)

SCB: Are they younger now?

DR: Nako neng, nakakaloka ang mga bading, ang babata. I have a friend who told me “Yung mga bata ngayon sa Catholic school, kapag tumatawid, elementary pa lang, ganito na!” (makes hand gesture) Hindi kami ganyan nung maliit! Ayaw ng tatay ko niyan! ‘Yung tatay ko kasi is from the old school. If you saw me in college sa Ateneo, tahimik lang ako.

That’s the way they want to express themselves. There are conservative elements who say bakit kailangan kumendeng?

Well, malambot kasi ‘yung hips nila, pabayaan niyo na. Kanya-kanyang hips ‘yan. Katulad nung issue sa sagala. We have so many big problems in the country, like one third of the Filipinos don’t have jobs, pag-aawayan natin bakit nakasagala si bading o si BB? Pera naman niya ang ginamit
niya doon. There are bigger problems than men wearing the clothes of women.

SCB: Are you friends with BB Gandanghari? What is she really?

DR: She doesn’t want to undergo sexual reassigment surgery. For her, she’s transgender. Her mind and heart is a woman. The new meaning of transgender, according to my transgender friends, is that you don’t need female sex organs, breasts, as long as your being, sa isip, sa puso, sa kaluluwa – parang Panatang Makabayan! – girl ka, girl ka!

SCB: Some people may misconstrue that as them making a choice….

DR: According to them, kami talaga we were assigned the wrong gender. Some of them work hard, save money, to have sexual reassignment surgery. Another group doesn’t believe you have to undergo surgery. They’re not gay, they’re women.

One time I was in Thailand last year for a meeting with Asian Studies scholars. May tatlong transgender, may boobs na sila, punta silang Thailand para kompletos rekados na. Dumating kami ng Bangkok, tatlong bading nauna na. Pagdating ko, sabi ng matanda sa immigration “You, no breasts yet, no down there, you here for complete operation?” “No, I’m here as a teacher!” (laughs)

FIRST OPENLY GAY SENATOR?

SCB: So are you running for the Senate?

DR: I’ve been invited by at least three political parties to run as senator. They’re sending intermediaries. They want me to run with them. Bibigyan ka ng papel na puti, nakasulat ‘yung figure. Hindi statistics ha, datung! Nakalagay 10, 10,000 lang? Sorry, may pagkabobo! (laughs) Hindi sanay sa maraming pera! ‘Yan na pala ang halaga ng mga bading ngayon! And that’s only one politician! On record, we haven’t accepted a single centavo.

SCB: Are these major political parties?

DR: Of course! Tapos na ang independence days ko. People who promise you money don’t deliver. I think that they recognize that the 2010 elections will be a closely fought election. Ang mananalo diyan baka two million votes lang. Ilan ang bading? Bilangin niyo. Ten percent of the population. If we are 82 million, 8.2 million. Sabihin natin na 40 percent lang ang voters niyan. That’s 4.8 million.

SCB: How does it feel that the LGBT are being recognized?

DR: Ang haba ng hair ko! Blond! Naapakan mo na! (laughs) Alam mo kung bakit ako tumatawa na ganito? Ininsulto tayo ng COMELEC! We were not allowed to run kasi ang sabi nila kokonti lang ang bading. Hindi daw marginalized. May umamin bang bading sa Congress? Sabi nga ni (Imee) Marcos, siya lang ang bading diyan!

SCB: Why are you running?

DR: Because of our party list. ‘Yun lang naman ang gusto kong itakbo noon eh, to help Rissa (Baraquel) and Tita Etta (Rosales), and then go back to teaching. Eh ininsulto ang mga bading! Can you imagine Abalos telling us that we are phantom voters? In Tagalog, mga multong bakla? Imagine! Ang sabi ko “With all due respect, Commissioner Abalos, we are not phantoms. We are the opera!” Eh di naloka siya ng ganyan. Hindi niya na-gets. Binulungan pa ng aide niya. Nag-smirk siya. Eh ‘yung mukha niya medyo dry, kailangan ng moisturizer!

SCB: If you win, what will this mean for the gay community?

DR: You know what, I really just wanted to run for party list, push for the Anti-Discrimination Bill, and return to teaching. Ang buhay ng teacher masaya naman ‘yan eh. You don’t grow old. When I see my students “Tatay mo ba si ganyan? “Yes sir!” “He was my classmate.” “Bakit tatay ko kalbo na? Ikaw mukhang bagets?” “Plus 10 ka sa test, iha!” When you’re a teacher you’re always around young people, you’re always happy. It’s a job that doesn’t stress you so much.

Nung hindi kami pinatakbo, I ran as Congressman, natalo kami. Or so the vote count said. That’s ok with me, I never felt bitter. I don’t like this. I’m being invited. They will show me figures that I’m in the Top 12. Hindi ko sinasabing totoo ‘yan. What I’m saying is that I have seen figures. One day I’m in the Ateneo, these three military men, I don’t know them, say I’m number eight. Saan? Hindi naman ako sumali sa beauty contest. (laughs) Sa meeting ng NGO, sasabihin number ganyan ka. 2006, ayaw patakbuhin ang bading. Ngayon ang telepono ko ring ng ring.

It began last year, they were inviting us because they know that 2010 will be a closely fought election. Kaya ang sabi ko sa Liberal Party, ang kunin niyong vice-president, si Kris Aquino, para tapos na ang laban! Deal or no deal! Mananalo siya. She’s very, very strong.

SCB: If you win, how do you plan to change the perception of gays?

DR: I’m running on a platform of education

because I’ve been teaching for 22 years. ‘Yun talaga ‘yung alam na alam kong issue, ‘yun gay rights, kasama na ‘yan sa education. Education is what we really need in this country. One hundred ‘yan na papasok sa Grade One. Forty na lang pag-graduate ng elementary. Twenty na lang pag high school. Apat na lang pag college.

In the general elections, 60 percent of the voters did not finish Grade Six. ‘Yan ang haharapin natin. I will focus on primary schools, kasi makagraduate lang ‘yan ng Grade six, at least may basic skills. They drop out in Grade Four kasi they don’t have food.

It’s not all about my group. My grandparents were public school teachers. My mother was a public school teacher. My father lectured in UE for a while. We’re really a family of teachers. Malaki pa ang sweldo ng call center kesa sa teacher. Mas malaki pa sweldo ng pulis.

SCB: How would you rate the acceptance of gays and lesbians?

DR: Sa urban areas mataas siya. Sa probinsiya, it’s better, but it can be even better.

SCB: Marami pa rin…

DR: Ay oo, alam mo naman the Philippines, the closet capital of the world! (laughs) Lalo na sa business. Sa politics!

SCB: Is it better to be gay in the Philippines than in other countries?

DR: I can only compare it to the United Staes where I studied nine years ago. In the urban areas it’s like here. Pero in the rural areas, marami pa ring small-minded people. Open-mindedness is a function of education, kaya nga my main platform is education. Kasi ang tao kapag pinaaral mo, luluwag ang isip.

SCB: What’s the biggest challenge that gays and lesbians face?

DR: I say this not just to gays and lesbians. Ang biggest challenge natin is education. With 100 call center applicants, they only get three. The rest are retrained.

We need education that will make them stay in this country. We had a reunon in Ateneo, more than half of them are in the US. We are losing the best minds to work abroad. Education is the biggest challenge both of LGBT and non-LGBT Filipinos.

SCB: What’s next after the Anti-Discrimination Law?

DR: The Philippines has many, many laws but they’re not implemented. If it’s passed during our term, our next part is implementation. You need a group like Ang Ladlad and Akbayan as an oversight committee. You make sure that all the implementing rules and regulations are implemented.

SCB: What’s your dream for LGBT in Filipino society?

DR: It’s better now, but I hope that they don’t feel embarrassed that they’re LGBT. If you look at the West, many suicides are gay men. We have not done studies here but I have heard that some of those who have taken their own lives are gay men. I hope they will never be ashamed of who they are.
In the end, if you are working, you are a taxpayer. You pay income tax na masakit, madugo. And then, you are not given the right to do what you think is right for you? We’re all fighting for equal rights.

(Interview by RACHEL C. BARAWID, ANGELO G. GARCIA, INA R. HERNANDO, RONALD S. LIM, JASER A. MARASIGAN)

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Gays work harder to make it in Congress

July 6, 2009 at 9:34 am (gay lives)
Tags: party list elections

By Desiree Caluza
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquierer
June 29, 2009

BAGUIO CITY—The group Ang Ladlad said Sunday it was working to remove the obstacles to its party-list accreditation so that Filipino gays and lesbians could win representation in Congress in next year’s polls.

Lawyer Germaine Leonin, Ang Ladlad treasurer, said the Commission on Elections disqualified the group in 2007 on the grounds that it failed to prove it had a nationwide membership.

“This year, we are doing the groundwork [to satisfy the] regional representation requirement. So we have been going [around the] provinces to enlist support from gay and lesbian groups,” said Leonin, who attended the Gay Pride march here on Sunday.

She said Ang Ladlad members visited Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, General Santos City, Aklan and Zambales recently to organize chapters and strengthen their campaign for party-list accreditation.

She said the group would submit to the Comelec documents and other materials to prove they have members in provinces all over the country.

“(The Comelec) said we are not representing a marginalized sector. But we are representing 10 percent of the population,” Leonin said.

The Comelec had rejected the group’s application for accreditation, saying that “reports from our field offices reveal that it doesn’t exist in most regions of the country.”

Leonin said Ang Ladlad will push the Anti-Discrimination Bill that gives lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) equal rights and opportunities in employment as well as in schools, restaurants, hotels, entertainment centers and government offices.

On Sunday, about 100 gays and lesbians marched down Session Road in this mountain city wearing costumes and carrying placards denouncing discrimination and homophobia.

The march was organized by the Baguio Pride Network as part of international gay pride celebrations that commemorated the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. The riots were triggered by a police raid on a New York bar frequented by gays and lesbians.

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Mag-ingat sa tuso

June 18, 2009 at 11:00 am (elections)

By Ellen Tordesillas
www.ellentordesillas.com

Kayo ba ay naniniwala na talagang tatakbo si Gloria Arroyo bilang kongresista ng Pampanga sa 2010 eleksyon?

Malakas ang kutob ko na isa na namang pakulo niya ito at meron talaga siyang ibang maitim na balak. Suspetsa ko diversionary tactic lang ito.

Nakakapagtaka kasi sila mismo ang nagpapalutang. Si Arroyo mismo. Sinabi nya sa kanyang talumpati, “anong malay nyo, baka tumakbo akong kongresista sa Pampanga.” Ito ay sinundan ng mga pahayag ng kanyang deputy spokesperson na si Lorelei Fajardo na wala namang batas na nagbabawal na tumakbong kongresista.

Ang pinakahuli nilang drama ay ang ikinuwento ni Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman sa mga reporter sa Cotabato City na sinabi raw ni Arroyo sa kanila sa miting ng Legislative-Executive Development Council ang kanyang planong pagtakbo bilang kongresista ng Pampanga.

Nang inilabas ng Inquirer, deny ang Malacañang. Walang sinabi raw si Arroyo sa miting. Atras din si Pangandaman. Ginawa pa yang iresponsable at sinungaling ang reporter. Ang kanyang plano raw na tumakbo sa pagka-kongresista ang sinabi niya sa mga reporter. Ha? Tatakbo siya (Pangandaman) na kongresista ng Pampanga?

Pasensiya na sa mga nagsasabi na sobra naman daw ang aking pagkamuhi kay Arroyo. Hindi ko makalimuntan ang kanyang sinabi sa harap ng puntod ni Jose Rizal noong Dec. 2002 na hindi siya tatakbo sa pagka-presidente sa 2004.

Naniwala at naging kampamte ang marami. Ang hindi natin alam, ginagapang na niya pala ang pagkukunan ng pera ng taumbayan na gagastusin niya sa 2004 eleksyon katulad ng pera ng para sa abono ng magsasaka na naging fertilizer scam at road users tax. Doon din niya kinuha si Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Di ba sa “kasalan” ng Lakas at Kampi, sinabi niya na ang pagkakaisa daw ng dalawang partido ng mga maka-administrasyon na pulitiko ay patunay na may eleksyon sa Hunyo 2010. Pagkatapos niya sabihin yun, umakyat sa presidential suite ng Manila Hotel, ipinatawag ang mga kongresista at inutusang itulak ang HR1109 o Con-Ass. Siyempre may bonus ang mga masunurin- P20 milyon.

Lumalabas ngayon na kaya pinilit niya ang pag-iisa ng Lakas at Kampi ay dahil kung Kampi lang, na siyang sumusulong ng HR 1109 ni Camarines Sur Re. Luis Villafuerte, kulang ang kanilang numero. Kaya para talaga sa Con-Ass ang Lakas-Kampi merger.

Ang HR 1109 ay nagsusulong ng Constituent Assembly kahit wala ang Senado para ma-amyendahan ang Constitution. Gusto ni Arroyo amyendahan ang Constitution para maging parliamentary system at magiging prime minister siya o kung patuloy ang presidential system, ma-aalis ang term limits ay siya ay pwedend president habambuhay.

May suspetsa akong mas malaking operasyon ang niluluto nina Arroyo. Mag-ingat tayo sa emergency rule o martial law.

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Imperial conquests

June 16, 2009 at 11:02 am (Prof. Danton Remoto)
Tags: travel writing on Asia

by Danton Remoto
Remote Control
Views and analysis
www.abs-cbnnews.com
June 16, 2009

God’s Dust: A Modern Asian Journey
By Ian Buruma
Phoenix Books, London
2008 reprint, originally published in 1988

The last 20 years has seen an enormous rise in interest in Asia among travel writers from the West. Verily, it is a tradition that goes many centuries back, when the first Westerners set foot in Asia and returned home with fabulous tales about our “exotic” continent of legend and wealth. This kind of travel writing reached its peak in the 19th century, which was also the century when colonialism was most widespread. Western chroniclers sent home “travelers’ tales” that reported the strange customs, the different rites and rituals of the East. The general idea, of course, was that the people of the East should be saved from their backward and primitive lives, with salvation coming from the West. In short, these travel narratives provided a convenient weapon of words for the imperial conquests.

But such thinking was debunked by Edward Said in his highly influential book, Orientalism (1978). Professor Said pointed out that these Western books turned the East into an “Other” that is exotic, feminine, strange and different. Therefore, it is a land to be conquered, to be colonized, to be contained. It is a land to be turned into facsimiles of the West.

In general, Ian Buruma’s book tries to veer away from this “Orientalist” direction. Although born in The Netherlands, Mr. Buruma is the son of parents from different countries. He was educated in The Netherlands but writes in English, which is his mother’s tongue. He has lived one-third of his life in Asia, where he wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. This hyphenated writer spent one year traveling from Rangoon to Hiroshima to write this book. He focuses on “what happens to people when the loyalties and traditions of the village break down and are replaced by the complexities of the modern world.”

It seems like a burdensome thesis, but Mr. Buruma’s book is most illuminating when he writes about people – leaders and beggars, poets and peasants, prostitutes and monks – and spares no incident, whether big or small, as long as it throws light on his theme. He has the journalist’s nose for news and the fiction writer’s gift for the anecdote.

Mr. Buruma laments the Western cliché that one has to go outside the seemingly “Westernized” Asian cities to discover the “reality” about the country one is visiting. He is right when he said that one only has to scratch the surface of lives in Asian cities to find a “cultural sense of self.” Kampung Baru lies near the shadow of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, but when one has al fresco dinner in one of the mamak stalls selling nasi bubur, a Filipino visitor could feel in his bones that the Philippines must have been like this before the Spaniards came – a Malay society where neighbors were linked to each other by blood and social ties, where the way of life was slow and gracious, where nature shaped the gestures and seasons of rite and ritual, custom and ceremony.

Mr. Buruma also notes that although many Asian societies are torn by economic crisis and the crisis of identity, these twin horns of difficulty can also be sources of creativity. Verily, he alludes to the Chinese saying that a crisis creates its own opportunity. “The necessity to experiment, to redefine themselves, to find meaning in a world of conflicting values has made the capitalist countries of Southeast Asia extraordinarily dynamic. They are alive in a way that old Europe, complacently bearing the burden of its long, miraculously continuous history, is not.”

”The Village and the City” contrasts the neighbors Burma (renamed Myanmar by its military rulers in 1988) and Thailand. Because he had difficulty staying long in Myanmar, Mr. Buruma’s essay on the country is naturally thin, relying mostly on historical vignettes. I also have a problem with his dichotomy between the village and the city. I think it is too simplistic. Surely, in Asia today, the pace of development is uneven, such that some parts of the city still remind you of the village, while a few parts of the village seem so urban. Thus, the labels of “village” and “city” become slippery constructs when seen in this light. His essay on Singapore also suffers from the changes wrought by history, for what he calls the “nanny state” has changed in the last 10 years. It also focused too much on the “nanny state” image of the island-country, and he did not interview any artists who could have provided a cross-section of views about Singapore, the way he did with most of the other countries in the book.

His essay on Thailand offers more insights. “Patpong kitsch and Thai traditions coexist – they are images from different worlds, forms manipulated according to opportunity. The same girl who dances to rock ’n’ roll on a bar top, wearing nothing but cowboy boots, seemingly a vision of corrupted innocence, will donate part of her earnings to a Buddhist monk the next morning, to earn religious merit. The essence of her culture, her moral universe outside the bar, is symbolized not by her cowboy boots, but by the amulets she wears around her neck, with images of Thai kings, revered monks, or the Lord Buddha.”

And then Mr. Buruma goes for the jugular, showing the West for what it really is: “The apparent ease with which Thais appear able to adopt different forms, to swim in and out of seemingly contradictory worlds, is not proof of a lack of national identity, nor is the kitsch of Patpong proof of Thai corruption – on the contrary, it reflects the corrupted taste of Westerners, for whom it is specifically designed. Under the evanescent surface, Thais remain in control of themselves.”

”The Old Japanese Empire” deals with Taiwan and South Korea. The author twinned the essays in one chapter because Taiwan looks up to Japan as a model, while South Korea reviles Japan for its harsh colonial conquest.

Mr. Buruma’s essay on Taiwan is also rather thin. The essay on South Korea is more instructive. He points out “the complex and sometimes explosive mixture of shame and chauvinism in South Korea. The one, of course, stokes the flames of the other. There is a Korean term for pandering to foreign powers: Sadae chuui. And Koreans are forever accusing one another of it. These accusations are not without reason, for Koreans have a long history of using outside powers to fight opponents at home….”

This peninsula divided into two countries, this country located between China and Japan, is beset by an identity crisis. It seems to have an inferiority complex masquerading as superiority. There is a constant desire among the South Koreans to prove they are better than their neighbors – whether it is in the economy, in having “the most scientific and best writing system in the world,” and, yes, in the race for the slimmest cell phones and the most durable SUV. It seems, Mr. Buruma suggests, that “Koreans often can only define themselves in terms of a foreign civilization.” More so if they can prove themselves better than that civilization.

Mr. Buruma’s essay on Japan, where he lived the longest, is the best in the collection. “Arriving in Japan always fills me with feelings of ambivalence. It is like coming home to a country which, to me, can never be home. I spent my twenties in Tokyo. Everything is familiar: The language, the manners, the advertisements, the TV programs. Japan is part of me, yet I can never feel part of it. This may have something to do with me. But it is also in the nature of the most insular of nations. It fills me with love and horror, which alternate and sometimes even coincide, the one sometimes, in a perverse way, feeding on the other. Japan looks the most modern society in Asia, politically, culturally, aesthetically. It is also among the most archaic. It is one of the most open societies – foreigners can go there, live there, marry, and prosper. But it remains in many ways as exclusive as Burma. Japan is ‘Westernized,’ yet somehow, the country in East Asia least touched by the West. I am never sorry to leave, yet I always yearn to go back.”

Shrewdly Mr. Buruma points out what ails modern Japanese – the feeling that something has been irrevocably lost in Japan’s dizzying rise to progress and modernity. What has been lost is replaced by an uncritical acceptance of many things from the West. Urban Japan has become like a pastiche of many influences – a modern yet tacky Disneyland, if you will.

”But it is not so much the modern vulgarization of traditional forms that is disturbing, but the idea of tradition as just another transient fashion, another form without substance. One sometimes wonders whether anything in modern Japan has lasting value, whether anything substantial can visibly last. There is a rootlessness, a constant evanescence about Japanese sophistication which explains, perhaps, both the melancholy Japanese love for fleeting beauty, for visible decay, and the anxiety about cultural and spiritual loss.”

What has been lost is the Japanese spirit, the national soul – however you define it. Nihonjinron, or defining Japanese-ness, is a constant topic of best-selling books and top-rated TV shows. Sometimes, the form it takes veers dangerously close to ultra-nationalism. And here, Mr. Buruma engages in the history of Western ideas in a learned and admirable manner, comparing prewar emperor worship in Japan to “a kind of Bonapartism grafted onto Japanese traditions.”

If there is one flaw here, it is the hasty generalization that “Japanese intellectuals often seem marginal figures, writing for one another, respected as men of learning, but not taken seriously by the world at large.” Of course, in any society – I am sure even in London, where Mr. Buruma now resides – intellectuals are marginal figures. The same intellectuals write for The London Review of Books that the same coterie of intellectuals reads. He also failed to note that there are now public intellectuals – people in academe who write for newspapers and magazines and who appear even on TV talk shows, giving depth and illumination even if they are only allowed so many column inches or so many milli-seconds for their sound-bites. And I am sure Mr. Buruma has read the novels of Harumi Murakami, one of Japan’s best writers – and intellectuals – who dissects Japanese society with a pen as sharp as a scalpel, and as focused as a laser beam.

The essays on Malaysia and the Philippines are the weakest. Mr. Buruma scores some points with his brief discussion on the racial issue, but undercuts it with his shallow take on Malay architecture. Being an archipelago in Southeast Asia, Malay architecture is based on wood and other natural elements. But since Malaysia is also an Islamic country, the motifs of Islamic art – the onion-shaped domes, the curvilinear shapes, the ornate arabesques – have seeped into the country and have been grafted into the look and shape of the buildings. Therefore, I do not understand Mr. Buruma’s statement that the Islamic Center and other additions to the skyline of Kuala Lumpur are “alien forms [because they were] borrowed from the Middle East.”

Then he notes that “Food is one of the few instances of integrated culture: The delicious Nonya cuisine mixes Chinese and Malay dishes in ways that add an extra dash to both.)” But this assertion is only partially correct, because he does not say how. Baba Nonya-Peranakan cuisine has made Chinese food more spicy; it has also enlarged the repertoire of the traditional Malay cuisine.

However, aside from being a great leveler in Malaysian society, food can also be seen as a great divider. The Muslim notions of halal (food should be prepared according to Islamic adat – custom and tradition) and haram (the notion of evil or “sin”) – has served as an effective buffer for integration at the dining table. Only the people of immigrant stock – the Chinese and the Indians – happily eat in each other’s restaurants and stalls.

Mr. Buruma also flounders when he talks about the so-called Third World. He said “The Third World persona… is an image borrowed from the West, from social activists in Berkeley and concerned poetry magazines in London. The Third World concept is a product of post-colonial guilt….”

Again, this is only very partially correct. The concept of the Third World came not from Berkeley or London but from France. It is a literal translation of tiers monde, and was first used by the French economist Alfred Sauvy in an article published in the Observateur magazine on Aug. 14, 1952. Three years later, the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa held a landmark conference in the Indonesian city of Bandung, giving credibility to the idea of a cohesive Third World that was at once opposed to colonialism and aligned with neither the East nor the West. This group has grown into the Non-Aligned Movement, which held its 14th conference recently.

Indeed, the Berkeley intellectuals flirted briefly with the notion of the Third World in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as part of American protest against the Vietnam War. The London journals also dwelt on the concept of the Third World in the mid-1970s, when they were publishing protest poetry and trying to free writers hauled into jail by some of the despotic regimes in the Third World, including that of Ferdinand Marcos’s.

However, it is this, in the end, that mars the book of Mr. Buruma. If only he spent more time sitting down and reading more books on Asian history – especially books that give credit to what the East has done in the history of ideas or the turn of events – he would have avoided the historical gaps in his book.

The essay on Thailand also suffers from this gap. Mr. Buruma says that “The Thais have been both clever and lucky in their relations with foreigners. The Thais were lucky that the British and the French, the two major colonial powers, neutralized each other, so that Siam became a kind of buffer zone between Burma, Malaya, and Indochina….”

This is a flippant assertion; the events of history do not bear this out. A country is not simply “lucky” that the two colonizers around it “neutralized” each other. Saying so is to diminish the pivotal role played by King Chulalongkorn (known to the Thais as Chula Chom Klao or Rama V), who reigned from 1868-1910. Educated by European tutors and drawing inspiration from his father, the great libertarian King Mongkut (known to the Thais as Phra Chom Klao or Rama IV), King Chulalongkorn opened the doors of his country wider to the West. He also built railroads, established a civil service, and restructured the legal code. Verily, he brought his country to the 20th century.

But this was also the time when Siam was being threatened by two greedy colonial powers. How to ward off the might of these two empires—the British and the French? It is not a matter of luck, then, but shrewdness that saved the day for Siam. King Chulalongkorn and his emissaries negotiated with the French and British colonial powers. True, the King was compelled to concede some territory to French Indochina (Laos in 1893 and Cambodia in 1907) and to the British Burma (three Malayan states in 1909). But the fruit of these concessions was that Siam was never colonized, and a large part of its territory remained under Siamese hands. And to this day, the Thais are one of the proudest peoples in Asia, with dignity and a sense of national self intact.

Perhaps I am just a Filipino who is a student of his country’s history, but I found Mr. Buruma’s essay on the Philippines similar to a golf course – full of holes. In the first sentence alone, he calls Olongapo City a “typical Filipino town.” How could a town of 250,000, which hosted an American base, be called typical? Then and now, the typical Filipino town is a small, agricultural place where life revolves around the town square bordered by the church, the marketplace, the municipal hall, and the houses of the few elite.

Then Mr. Buruma also calls Ferdinand Blumentritt, the Filipino national hero Dr. Jose Rizal’s friend, “an obscure Austrian schoolmaster.” Blumentritt was a professor, yes, but he was also a doctor and a scientist renowned in Europe during his time. Then Mr. Buruma adds that Rizal had Japanese blood (not true; he had Chinese blood), had lived much of his life abroad (not true), and called the Propaganda movement Rizal’s movement (not true, it was started by the lawyer and journalist Marcelo H. del Pilar).

Moreover, Mr. Buruma adds that many Filipinos like to claim that Rizal and his fellow ilustrados (the Enlightened ones, the leaders) in the Propaganda movement “were the first modern nationalists in Asia. . . “ Filipinos never claimed that; perhaps Mr. Buruma’s informants did. But what many Filipinos claim is that the Philippines became the first independent republic in Asia in 1898 – a claim that is based on historical fact. Mr. Buruma also says that the Rizal millenarian cult is based in Mount Makiling when, in fact, it is based in the bigger Mount Banahaw. Mount Makiling is the small mountain that can be seen from the azotea (porch) of Rizal’s ancestral house in Calamba, Laguna, south of Metro Manila.

There are more. Mr. Buruma claims that “the typical hero [in Filipino movies] is a simple man who gets abused and humiliated, often sexually, all through the film.” I have been watching Filipino films for the past decades and I have yet to come across a Filipino film with this plotline. Then he said that “one Canadian Zen master set up a successful business in Manila by convincing Filipinos that they, as a people, are especially gifted for spiritual quests….” Filipinos need no reminders about these. The country is full of faith healers and espiritistas (spiritual mediums), from Luzon to Mindanao, who are more imaginative than a Canadian Zen master.

Moreover, Mr. Buruma claims that “Filipinos have no collective memory, no recorded history that precedes Spanish conquest….” The point is that history – or literature or other forms of culture – is not always recorded in print. Philippine literature, like the pre-colonial literature of its Southeast Asian neighbors, was mostly oral and handed down the generations by the centuries-old tradition of oral storytelling. The Philippines has a wealth of epics that are as larger-than-life than any Western one, and a trove of poems, riddles, and proverbs that have the lyricism and pith of the haiku, or of any poem written by Wang Wei, Li Po, or Tu Fu.

Then, Mr. Buruma notes that the education minister from Cebu (he was referring to Mrs. Lourdes Quesumbing) was not understood by the Tagalogs of Luzon when she spoke in Cebuano at the Rizal Park. But Cebuano and Tagalog are cousin languages, the way Tagalog and Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia are cousin languages. This cluster of cousin-languages came from the Austro-Polynesian line of languages, such that when I speak in Tagalog now, my Malay friend in Kuala Lumpur can understand some of the words I use because they have the same meanings. Therefore, when a Cebuano speaks, a Tagalog could understand the gist of what he or she is saying because of more similarities between these two major Philippine languages.

Although Mr. Buruma is a fine and accessible guide to modern Asia, what we need at this point in our cultural history are writers who come from the continent itself. Steeped in the history of Asia and nurtured by its cultures, I hope that they will write the books that will finally give authentic voices to the complex and colorful continent we live in. A few of them have already done that. The real journey, then, has just begun.

God’s Dust: A Modern Asian Journey can be ordered from Powerbooks.

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Independence Day

June 11, 2009 at 10:51 am (Election Campaigns, elections)

BY MARIA A. RESSA
Head, ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs; Managing Director, ANC | 06/11/2009 1:42 AM
www.abs-cbnnews.com
Views and analysis

You are powerful. You will make a difference. If we all come together now, we will reach the tipping point when change becomes inevitable and irreversible. These are the ideas behind Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula, and there is no better time than now.

When friends and family overseas ask me what it’s like to live in the Philippines today, I tell the story of a famous science experiment that’s been used to describe the Middle East, global warming, and in my book, Indonesia right before the fall of Suharto. It’s about a frog and its survival instincts. If you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out. But if you put the frog in the pot on a burner with cool tap water, it stays there. Then you slowly turn up the heat. The temperature rises. The frog, which can jump out of the pot at any time, gets so used to the water that it doesn’t feel the gradual changes in temperature. Soon, the water is boiling and the frog dies in the pot, its natural instincts for self-preservation lulled into a fatal complacency. That is what is happening today.

When Congress passed House Bill 1109 calling for a Constituent Assembly without the Senate, it changed our society. The heat has been turned up, and despite assurances that we will have elections, yet another line has been crossed in the sand like Proclamation 1017 in 2006, the arrests of journalists at the Peninsula in 2007, the ongoing killings of journalists and activists – and just this weekend, the assassination of Sumilao farmer Rene Penas.

Along with the Constituent Assembly, congressmen also threatened to pass House Bill 3306, the right of reply – which if turned into law would put a sledgehammer in the hands of vested interests for the purpose of killing an ant. By using that hammer, it risks destroying the entire structure the ant is standing on. As it stands now, outdated Marcos-era laws like “obstruction of justice” and “wiretapping” are being revived and given new meaning to intimidate, harass and arrest journalists. But those “laws” pale in comparison to what can be done to stifle dissent and free speech with the right of reply bill.

Journalists, united across news groups, organized last week to protest. We called it unconstitutional, a form of prior restraint. The bill is incomplete, chaotic, impossible to implement and a throwback to an authoritarian past at a time when the rest of the world is embracing new media and technology. (It will affect bloggers and anyone else writing on the internet!) While it wasn’t passed, it continues to hang like a Damocles’ sword over our heads. The heat has been turned up again.

If you look closely, there are many instances like this affecting different groups – which ultimately change our society – and not for the better. The strategy is effective: focus on the details and parse the Truth. I recognize it from my days reporting on Suharto. When you parse the Truth, details – disconnected from a larger whole – lose their meaning, and it becomes difficult to assess exactly when the line has been crossed … or in the case of the frog, when it’s time to jump out. This is a time that requires vigilance and courage.

Last month (one year before elections), ABS-CBN and our partners, Globe, Bayan, STI, the Philippine Star, BusinessWorld, Comelec, PPCRV, Namfrel and YouthVote Philippines launched Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula nationwide – in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. In one day, thousands of people lined up in the hot sun, waiting for hours to register to vote and become boto patrollers – citizens who promise to use new media and their cellphones to patrol the vote and push for clean elections in May 2010. We held the first of our leadership series – with presidential candidates Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, Ed Panlilio, Mar Roxas and Gilbert Teodoro – and we had to turn people away at the Ateneo auditorium! The enthusiasm and the thirst for new ways of doing things was palpable that night.

It was the unofficial beginning of election season. Comelec credited our aggressive registration drive for helping increase voter registration by 456% from April to May. We weren’t alone. We helped ignite a plurality of efforts – youth groups like First Time Voters, YouthVote Philippines and Ayala Young Leaders, along with politicians like Register and Vote (RV) and Kaya Natin. Even the sometimes controversial Ako Mismo campaign followed and pushed the same idea of individual will and effort.

This month, we take it a step further. On June 5, we held our second leadership forum, this time at the University of the Philippines with Jejomar Binay, Joseph Estrada, Bayani Fernando and Loren Legarda (Ping Lacson announced he would drop out of the race that night). Like the first one, students lined up and were turned away after the house was packed hours before the program was slated to begin. Despite the rains, they refused to go home, instead choosing to sit on the floor outside watching the monitors. Inside, the candidates and audience braved the barely functioning airconditioning for nearly three hours for a spirited, substantive and often funny dialogue. The forum aired on ANC live on June 5, on Studio 23 on June 6 and on ABS-CBN on June 7. You can watch online on abs-cbnnews.com.

On June 11, ABS-CBN will take the signature drumbeats from 2007’s Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo to form the foundation of our music video launch of Ako ang Simula, spearheaded by singer-songwriter Rico Blanco, Imago lead singer Aia de Leon and Sandwich frontman Raimund Marasigan. They are joined by Barbie, Sinosikat, Rocksteddy, Chicosci, the Ambassador, Salamin, Pochoy, AstroJuan, the reporters, anchors and managers of ABS-CBN News in a musical call for change: “Wag nang mahimbing sa sariling mundo/Wag nang iwaldas ang dekadang bago/Ako ang tutupad sa pangakong ito/Ako ang Simula ng pagbabago.” Watch it live today at 10 am on ABS-CBN, ANC and Studio 23.

June’s cornerstone is Independence Day, our effort to fast-forward its meaning to the twenty-first century. The core of our campaign is how traditional media can combine with new media and mobile phone technology to transform society and clean up our elections. In 2007, we empowered ordinary Filipinos and they rose to the challenge – 500 messages a day in the run-up to elections and more than 2,000 messages on election day! That is only a rehearsal for what we can collectively do in 2010.

On June 12, the full force of ABS-CBN kicks into high gear again nationwide – in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao – and, this time, internationally – in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Comelec works on a holiday so you can register to vote. Become a boto patroller in 19 ABS-CBN stations nationwide and with anchors Pinky Webb in Legazpi City, Julius Babao in Iloilo City and Ces Drilon in General Santos City. All day coverage begins at 5:15 in the morning and ends after midnight the next day.

The times, they are a-changing, and we are keeping pace. Millions of Filipinos are taking part in our efforts through traditional media, but new media gives a chance for immediate feedback and action. That is changing societies globally, and it is happening here. There are so many inspirational moments in the past month and a half – moments of yearning, anger, joy and tremendous patience from thousands of Filipinos waiting hours in lines – to register and vote, to become a boto patroller, to watch the leadership forums – which at one point had nearly 150,000 people chatting and tweeting (using twitter) on new media. On the first night, the number of people who registered using their mobile phones increased by 1,700% after a TV Patrol World story!

Let me end the way I began and come full circle. The heat is rising. What we choose to do is up to each of us. The core of our campaign is simple. You are powerful. You will make a difference. If we all come together now, we will reach the tipping point when change – real, positive change – becomes inevitable and irreversible. If you’ve had enough and want better, join us. Stand up and say AKO ANG SIMULA.

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Papayag ba tayo?

June 10, 2009 at 4:07 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: charter change

By Ellen Tordesillas
www.ellentordesillas.com
June 9, 2009

Bukas, magkita-kita tayo sa Ayala ng ika-lima ng hapon.

Ipakita natin ang ating pagtutol sa panloloko na ginagawa ni Gloria Arroyo sa pamamagitan ng Con-Ass na kanyang isinusulong pra siya manatili sa kapangyarihan habambuhay.

Sabi ni Rep. Mauricio Domogan, isa sa may-akda ng nakakadiri na House Resolution 1109, na kahit mag-ngangawa ang mga tao sa kalsada, wala silang paki-alam. Itutuloy nila ang kanilang ilegal na gawain.

Sabi niya sa susunod na buwan bubuu-in na ng mga congressman ang Constituent Assembly. Sabi niya kina-calibrate o tinatanya nila ang mga pangyayari.

Tama yun, sa isip nina Gloria Arroyo, hindi na mangyayari ang people power. Magra-rally man ang mga tao, isang araw lang yun. Sa hirap ba naman ng buhay ngayon, sino naman ang magtityaga na magprotesta. Kaya, maari nilang gawin ang ano man na pambabastos ng batas, alam nilang hindi mangyayari ang nangyari noong 1986 kay Marcos at noong 2001 kay Estrada.

Hawak ni Gloria Arroyo ang military kaya kahit mag-rally at magsisigaw sa kalsada araw-araw, wala silang paki-alam.

Ano ba talaga ang gusto ni Arroyo? Klaro na ayaw niya bumaba sa puwesto sa 2010. Alam niyang kapag bumaba siya, sa kulungan ang bagsak niya sa daming krimen na kanyang ginawa sa bayan. Simula sa kanyang pag-agaw ng pagkapresidente noong 2001, sa kanyang pandaraya noong 2004 na eleksyon na narinig natin sa “Hello Garci”, sa fertilizer scam, sa NBN/ZTE at marami pa.

Ngayon halos pag-aari na niya ang Pilipinas sa pag-gapang niya ng mga malalaking kumpanya sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga crony. Ngunit alam niya na hindi nya yun maprutektahan kapag hindi na siya ang naka-upo sa Malacañang.

Sa halagang P20 milyon bayat isang boto, ipinasa ng kanyang mga tuta sa House of Representatives ang isang ilegal na resolusyon na magbuo ng Constituent Assembly para mag-palit ng Constitution para mapalawig pa ang paghawak ni Arroyo ng kapangyarihan.

Ayon sa Constitution, ang Constituent Assembly ay dapat binubuo ng Senado at House of Representatives. Dahil alam nilang hindi nila makuha ang Senado para mambastos ng Constitution, sila na lang daw na kongresista.

Ilegal ang kanilang ginagawa at pambabastos ng Constitution. Ito ang ating tinututulan. Kaya tayo nagra-rally.

Dahil mukhang pursigido talagang itulak ang kanilang maitim na balak, siguradong magiging matindi ang protesta sa susunod na mga linggo. Nababahala ang mga lider ng simbahan at negosyo na baka kapag tumindi ang protesta ay gagamitin ni Arroyo ang kanyang mga loyalistang pulis at militar ay magdeklara ng martial law at emergency rule.

Yun lahat ay depende sa atin kung papayagan natin.

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Tipping point for Cha-Cha

June 9, 2009 at 11:06 am (elections)

By Mon Casiple
www.moncasiple.wordpress.com

The congressmen who voted for the holding of the GMA constituent assembly feel the universal heat. Putting up a brave face, many of them contemplate the possible impact of their decision on their candidacies and political future. Some even blamed the Senate (?) for the HOR Con-Ass decision.

There is a miscalculation of the public’s anti-GMA sentiment–it’s transferable. In the 2007 elections, it translated to losses of erstwhile high-rating senatorial candidates. It also led to Senator Trillanes’ victory who ran only on this single issue. The GMA kiss of death, despite Secretary Gilbert Teodoro’s optimism, is a major factor in the coming 2010 elections, particularly if GMA continues at the helm of the current government.

The congressmen went out on a limb when they–for their own reasons–chose to push forward with the Con-Ass initiative. In many places, even in their own dynastic heartlands, GMA is the current issue. Combined with the rising anti-trapo sentiments and various citizen’s initiatives in electoral monitoring, there is a greater chance this accommodation of GMA’s survival scheme will cost them their political influence, even their own seats.

This is still too early to see how the Con-Ass participation will actually impact on them. However, the trend is the widening and deepening of the opposition to the initiative. A defiant House of Representatives will increasingly be beleaguered along with GMA herself. The unconstitutional convening of the constituent assembly itself can tip the balance and send the whole thing spiralling into a constitutional crisis. People power is a distinct possibility in this case.

The worst-case scenario stares the congressmen in their collective faces. Charter change this late into the electoral scenario turns them into political pariahs–it may even lead to their political demise.

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Weak congressional oversight facilitates corruption — Philippines Human Development Report

June 3, 2009 at 7:14 am (Uncategorized)

Focusing on the theme “Institutions, Politics and Human Development in the Philippines”, the 2008/2009 Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR) that was launched today says that weak congressional oversight on Official Development Assistance (ODA) transactions, in particular, and on overall spending by the executive, in general, facilitates corruption.

Loopholes in the current budget law give the Executive, and not Congress, the “power of the purse”, according to the report. It adds that the President can override congressional budget mandates in a number of ways, such as by not releasing or delaying the release of authorized appropriations and by using “savings” and other unprogrammed, discretionary, or confidential funds at will.

The PHDR mentions overwhelming amounts with savings between ranging from P11.4 billion in 2004 to P117.5 billion in 2007. Lump sums in the 2009 National Expenditure Program (NEP)—defined as one-liner appropriations amounting to P100 million or more—amounted to P224 billion, or 16 percent of the proposed national budget. Confidential and intelligence funds amount to another P1.12 billion. Presidents can and have restored programs scrapped by Congress by using “savings,” lump sums, or contingency funds.

The report points out that Congress plays a significant part in undermining its own powers. It says that when Congress fails to pass the national budget, the previous year’s budget is automatically reenacted. But there are larger-than-average savings when a budget is reenacted because of money reserved for previous year’s projects that might have been completed since.

Thus, according to the report, the reenactment of a budget even strengthens the President’s control over allocations owing to larger savings that can be disbursed at his or her discretion. There have been three fully reenacted budgets since 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2006.

ABOUT THIS REPORT: The 2008/09 PHDR is the 6th in a series of national human development reports (NHDRs) that have advocated the use of concepts and indicators of human development as a counterpoint to traditional measures like per capita income in development policy-making and practice. The first Philippine HDR came out in 1994 with the theme, “Human Development and People’s Participation in Governance”. Since this maiden issue, the human development framework has been applied to specific themes such as Gender (1997), Education (2000), Employment (2002) and Peace and Human Security (2005) gaining for the report a reputation of factually based, insightful and well-written analyses not just in the Philippines but also in the community of nations.

ABOUT THE HDN: The Human Development Network (HDN) Foundation, Inc. is a nonstock, nonprofit organization whose mission is to propagate and mainstream the concept of sustainable human development through research and advocacy. It is the main partner of the UNDP in the conduct of dialogue and discussions among relevant groups and individuals pertaining to the major findings and conclusions of the yearly global human development reports in the Philippine context. The HDN, through the auspices of the UNDP, facilitates the preparation of the national version of the Human Development Report (HDR). For more info on the HDN: http://www.hdn.org
ABOUT UNDP: UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. The annual global Human Development Report (HDR) commissioned by UNDP, focuses the global debate on key development issues, providing new measurement tools, innovative analysis and often-controversial policy proposals. The global Report’s analytical framework and inclusive approach carry over into regional and national HDRs. For more info on UNDP: http://www.undp.org; http://www.undp.org.ph

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May 25, 2009 at 5:13 am (Prof. Danton Remoto, gay lives)

Danton Remoto
Remote Control
Views and analysis
www.abs-cbnnews.com

Straight from the mouths of babes

Several weekends ago, I visited a college and talked to their students. They usually ask me about communication and the art of writing. If not that, then they ask me to give a talk on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and issues.

I always like talking to young people because they are so vibrant. They ask so many questions and that is good, because they want to know the answers as well. I think it is this casual impertinence and insatiable curiosity that are the hallmarks of the young and the restless. And it is these qualities that might fuel the so-called youth vote that all presidentiables are now angling for. This reminds me of a small run-in with a presidential wannabe in 2010, a man who loves to shoot his mouth off without knowing the facts and figures at hand. With imaginary poise, he told me breathlessly: “Professor Remoto, there is no such thing as a youth vote. They would rather go to Starbucks or watch MTV.” I answered him that the kids would rather go not to Starbucks but the fastfood places, and they would rather watch MYX. “MYX?” he asked, his big, wondering eyes glazing. There you go, I wanted to tell him, you will lose this election because you do not know your voters.

With this in mind, I talk to the young during weekends. Lolo Pepe Rizal was correct then, and now: hope for this scandalously colorful country only resides in the young.

And so several weekends ago, I gave a short, spicy talk about the images and stereotypes of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders in the mass media. Then I asked them for questions, which is always the more fruitful part of any discussion, especially with the young. And the questions, they came in such a deluge that I wasn’t able to answer everything. I gathered up the rest of the unanswered questions, and promised to answer them. Here they are:

How do you define LGBT?
Lesbians and gays are people whose sexual attraction and affection are directed at people of their own sex. Therefore, women to women, and men to men. Bisexuals are people whose sexual attraction and affection are directed at people of both sexes. I quipped that they are like AC-DC electrical outlets: plug them in and they will electrify everybody. A young man asked me if I believe bisexuals exist and I said, “Of course! They may be fewer, but I believe that bisexuals exist, and bisexuality is not just a step away from homosexuality, nor is it a phase that can be outgrown.” And how about transgenders? They are people who believe they were assigned the wrong sex. Transgenders are not gay men; their whole being rests on their gender identity of being women.

What causes homosexuality?
Some people say it is nature, that is why there are gay papayas — (they flower but do not bear fruit) and there are gay crabs — they have big bodies and they have eggs, that is why housewives love to buy them. So if you follow this argument, then gayness is part of nature and nature was made by God; so why would you despise something that God has made?

Another point of view is that of nurture: that gayness is acquired through upbringing and socialization. That young men whose fathers were absent when they were young grew up to be gay (something straight from Freud). And that young men who were molested by same-sex partners when young grow up to be gay. Of course not.
I think it is, like most things, a combination of both nature and nurture, birth and breeding.

What are metrosexuals?
Ten years ago, the concept of metrosexuality started in the West, crossed oceans and cyberspace, and reached our shores. Metrosexuals are men who have appropriated the style and even the sensibility of gay men in clothes, décor and even language. But some of them are still straight. I guess it has come to a point where it has become déclassé to be anti-gay. To know gay fashion and gay language is to be hip, to be young, and to be fashionable. If colegiala language was the youthspeak of the 1980s, then gay language is the youthspeak of the present generation.

How do you deal with all the discrimination?
Personally, I have never felt discrimination because I never let people oppress me. I oppress them. This must be because I was born in a military base to a father who was a military officer and a mother who is the soul of stoicism. My father, who also went to law school, insisted that you should always debate and argue with your nay-sayers. If he is a bully and bigger than you and challenges you to a fistfight — go, girl! But first, get a bamboo stick or a slab of wood to beat him up, black and blue. Because if you go home black and blue and mewling that the enemy was bigger, my father himself would give you a dose of the fabled military discipline. That was one of my earliest lessons in justice and fairness.

But there are others who did not have my, uh, pure, Amazonian breeding. Social structures created by people oppress them. One of the lesbian members of Ang Ladlad, a UP graduate, applied for a job in Makati. She was number one in the exams, and during the interview, the HRD officer’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when in came this mega-butch, super-dyke of an applicant.

HRD asked point-blank: “Are you a practising lesbian? Because we do not hire practising lesbians.”

Ang Ladlad lesbian’s answer: “No, I am no longer practising. I am already good at it.”

Naturally, she was not hired.

Another of our Ang Ladlad members, a transgender who took her MA in Sociology at the Ateneo de Manila University, applied for a call-center job in Ortigas. Again, she was number one in the exams. And the HRD officer’s eyes really popped out of their sockets and flew to the wall when in came this tall, long-haired transgender. With boobs.

HRD asked point-blank: “But the application form said your name is Rogelio and you are supposed to be male!”

Ang Ladlad transgender’s answer: “But I am a woman.”

HRD: “We cannot hire you because we do not hire men with breasts!”

Ang Ladlad transgender: “Why, will my boobs answer the phone and say, XYZ Corporation, may I help you?”

Naturally, she was not hired.

Are there more homosexuals today and why do you keep on multiplying even when you don’t procreate? Why is that?

I love the needling and insistent tone of this question. Parang she (the questioner is a she) is so shocked by the fact that we are now here, there, and everywhere. Do I detect here a babe scorned by a cute, buffed, and bright dude who happens to be a dudette? Hmmm.
Anyway, gays are not like gremlins: the moment water is thrown at them, they multiply. There have been gays before, but they were in their closets, living the life of mummies in their coffins made of stone. Sexuality studies by Alfred Kinsey, et al, have confirmed that at least 10 percent of the population must be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. If there are now 88 million Filipinos that translates to 8.8 million Filipinos who are LGBT.

That is the big news that our friends — politicians included — should think about, now that the 2010 political cauldron has begun to bubble and boil

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	Sylvia V. Mamonong on TAÑADA ON THE PASSAGE OF THE S…
	arvinortiz on Wings of Desire
	ROQUE on Bagsak
	ROQUE on Bagsak
	ROQUE on Bagsak

The Opposite of Apathy

Statement of Hyatt 10

Pink Revolution: Ang Ladlad’s Danton Remoto

Gays work harder to make it in Congress

Mag-ingat sa tuso

Imperial conquests

Independence Day

Papayag ba tayo?

Tipping point for Cha-Cha

Weak congressional oversight facilitates corruption — Philippines Human Development Report

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