Tag Archives: Filipino people

[In the Web] Hacienda Luisita: Pres. Cory Aquino’s unfinished business

Posted on by dars0357

The Aquino Legacy: Unfinished Business. Photo from araphoenix.com.

 

By Raissa Robles

In May 1987, the independent polling organizationSocial Weather Stations gave then President Corazon Aquino the findings of a “preliminary and confidential [and] non-commissioned” survey showing most Filipinos wanted her to distribute Hacienda Luisita to the tenants.

The timing of the survey release was important. Mrs Aquino could still do something about the survey results since she still wielded law-making powers under the Freedom Constitution.

The survey response showed Filipinos were overwhelmingly for Mrs Aquino using her vast powers to effect  land redistribution:

SWS 1985 survey on land reform. Photo from http://raissarobles.com.

Why Pres. Cory did not follow survey

One of the Palace insiders I have talked to since, told me why President Cory Aquino never used her vast revolutionary powers to implement a sweeping and genuine land reform program that covered huge landed estates like that of her family. I was told she was pressured by her oldest brother, the clan patriarch Pedro Cojuangco – the man who died recently – and by her own brother Peping Cojuangco, not to distribute the land to the farmers.

Fernando Cojuangco has actually told listeners – “Over my dead body”

A separate source also told me about hearing Pedro Cojuangco’s son, Fernando, say something aloud during a gathering when the conversation wandered to land reform and Hacienda Luisita.

Fernando Cojuangco told his listeners: “Over my dead body.”

Perhaps his remark showed how passionately he felt about the land. He is after all the administrator of Hacienda Luisita.

The Cojuangco lawyer’s recent statement, though, seems to show a kind of softening.

Why do I write about such a divisive issue at this time?

Because it is one of the unfinished business of President Cory Aquino and the entire Filipino nation. We cannot move forward as a nation because of this. The energies of many Filipinos are devoted to blocking land reform or trying to ram it through.

The communist rebellion continues to feed on this issue.

Landlords like Congresswoman Hortencia-Starke threatened to revolt in order to keep their vast haciendas. Here's what she gave reporters. Photo from http://raissarobles.com.

Read more at http://raissarobles.com/2011/11/25/hacienda-luisita-pres-cory-aquinos-unfinished-business/

 

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[In the Web] Arroyo’s pleas political, not human rights issue

Posted on by dars0357

Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo, wearing head and neck brace, asks to leave the country for medical treatment. Photo: AP Source: AP

By: *

It would be the supreme irony to allow GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Aroyo) to invoke our most sacred human rights protections to escape justice. That would be her supreme, final perversion of our democratic institutions. While countless voices have correctly quoted human rights law, our democracy must recognize GMA’s pleas as a political, not human rights, issue.

Our Bill of Rights is our democracy’s greatest triumph. It is “counter-majoritarian”; it empowers the weakest member of our society to stand against the most powerful members. Wind and sunshine may enter the humblest hovel, but the king must first knock at the door.

The Bill of Rights is applied by the courts with very strict scrutiny in favor of the disadvantaged for whom “those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities” historically do not work: From the Maguindanao massacre victims to millions of starving children who might be fed and clothed with the money from the fertilizer and ZTE scams.

That is why we must pierce legal rhetoric to see what is really at stake.

Portrayed as victim

One, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been portrayed as the victim boxed into a corner and fighting for her survival. Lest we forget, the supposed underdog here is a former President and now a member of the Philippine Congress, with loyal allies and appointees in high places, with a formidable war chest at her disposal, much of it our own money, the criminal complaints say. She is not a political nobody by any stretch of the imagination.

Two, if there was any legal sleight of hand, it lies in the TRO, which consolidated the separate cases of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Jose Miguel Arroyo. In a discussion of this case with some law school classmates, it was asked: How did Mike get to benefit from Gloria’s medical emergency?

Political solution

I would be the first to call for the rule of law, but the image of GMA the human rights victim gives pause. As the Inquirer’s editorial called for, this issue needs a political, not a strictly legal, solution. We must stop looking at the neckbrace and wheelchair in a vacuum and allow our democracy’s checks and balances to play out at the very highest level.

It has been said that the Supreme Court can withstand defiance, but it cannot withstand ridicule, and the Arroyo court has clearly dissipated its reservoir of public trust. The ultimate guardian of our Constitution is “We the People.”

What De Lima is really doing is, beyond the Constitution’s explicit text, asking people to recognize that this is really a political issue. President Aquino seems willing to be judged by history alongside Arroyo and the Arroyo court. Perhaps we should let him.

Legit President checks SC

The textbooks say that to condone a secretary of justice ignoring a Supreme Court order is to go down a slippery slope. However, history has shown that when the referee is punching alongside a boxer, the Filipino people have been ready to throw away the rulebook and reclaim their ultimate authority at Edsa.

Faced with GMA as human rights victim, this is not the best time to demonstrate our commitment to rule of law, to grant a reviled former President her fundamental right to travel, but the worst time, to allow her to escape with impunity in a final, irreparable mockery of the rule of law.

 

*Raul C. Pangalangan- former dean UP College of Law, currently Professor of Constitutional and Political Law at the UP College of Law

 

Read full article at http://opinion.inquirer.net/17515/arroyo%E2%80%99s-pleas-political-not-human-rights-issue

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[Reflection] The Lesson of History

Posted on by dars0357

Defying the dictator. Photo from bulatlat.com

There is a saying that says “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” But I believe that those who learn from the lesson of history can create their own.

Yesterday was the commemoration of the 39th anniversary of Martial Law. For the younger generation, it maybe just one of the blurred pages in our history books, but for those who have witnessed these dark moments, it is certainly unforgettable.

Others might think that Martial law was not bad as it seemed but it is no doubt remains the symbol of oppression and repression in the country. It was the deathbed of our country’s freedom and democracy.

But after almost three decades, nothing seems to change.

Human rights violations are still rampant. Political beliefs and activities may appear to be tolerated but these are still the main reasons why activists are still put under surveillance, arrested, detained, forcibly disappeared or even killed. Although, there are now judicial remedies and human rights legislation that are supposed to provide better human rights protection but prosecution and conviction of human rights cases are still almost nil. Many if not all of the perpetrators of the past and recent violations remain scot-free while the victims and their families continue to suffer the consequences of their traumatic experiences.

We may now have the freedom of the press but many journalists have to spill their own blood for exposing the truth.

Many are still poor because the inequitable distribution of wealth is just getting wider. Development is meant to put people deeper in the mire of poverty. Our natural resources are no longer the country’s wealth but commodities for international capital and market.

Congress is now back in business but most of the time, it is still subservient to the interest of those who hold the nation’s coffer.  In fact, the Marcoses who are still enjoying the fruits of their ill-gotten wealth are back in the corridor of power.

We may have another Aquino in Malacanang but he is keen of preserving his name than preserving democracy.

Martial Law may be synonymous to a nightmare. But it made the Filipinos dream for a just, humane and free society. It made them value themselves, their dignity, their freedom and their rights. It ignited within themselves the fire of revolution that paved the road to EDSA and the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship.

Martial law may still be a painful memory. But it serves as a reminder for all of us that the real power lies in us.

The only way to ensure that Martial Law will not happen again nor by any chance it will rear its ugly face once more is for us to know our rights, to stand and defend these rights through individual and collective actions.

History is said to be unfolding.

But we should not let it move by itself.

We have to create it.

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[Reflection] Demanding for Justice

Posted on by dars0357

Portrait of disappeared Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano

Where is Fr. Rudy Romano?

This was the same question asked by the families, friends and colleagues of the Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano when he was abducted by armed men in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City exactly 26 years ago on July 11. After more than two decades and five administrations, this question is yet to be answered and his disappearance remains a mystery until now.

I got to know the disappearance case of Fr. Rudy when I joined the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) as a member of its Secretariat in 2007. His name was one of the documented cases of the thousands of Filipino Desaparecidos during Martial law.

Desaparecido is a Spanish term which refers to a victim of enforced disappearance which occurs when a person is deprived of liberty in any forms by the agents of the state followed by the refusal to disclose information of the fate and whereabouts of the victim which in effect put the person outside the protection of the law.

For the younger generations, his name and those of others may not anymore ring a bell. But for those who have valiantly fought against the late dictator, he was considered a martyr. For whatever democratic space and freedom that we have now, we owe it to Fr. Rudy and those who selfishly sacrificed their lives for the good of all.

Remembering them will not be enough. But demanding justice for them is not only deserving but already long overdue.

With another Aquino holding the rein of sovereign power, we can’t but expect his government to finally put closure to the disappearance of Fr. Rudy and all other victims of human rights violations in country. It is a responsibility he inherited from past administrations. This, he owes to the nation.

Unless truth is established and justice is rendered to all victims, Pnoy’s matuwid na daan will only be an empty promise.

[Reflection] Pnoy’s first year not a straight path for people’s rights and welfare

Posted on by dars0357

Pnoy delivers speech during his first year celebration at Ultra. Photo from talakayanatkalusugan.com

The first year of President Aquino in office for many is quite a disappointment as it falls short of the expectation to improve people’s welfare and the human rights situation in the country. The people’s welfare and human rights are obviously not part of the new government’s top priorities in the past 12 months.

How P Noy fared during his first year mirrors that of the real state of the nation. While I recognize that the new administration has just inherited from its predecessor the heavy burden of a huge budget deficit, but after a year in office, change appears far from reality.

As the economy is slowly declining, joblessness remains high, and poverty continues to deepen, President Aquino seems to avoid facing the critical issue of land reform and agricultural modernization. These are fundamental reforms which the basic sector, the small farmers in particular, have been demanding from every sitting president. Instead, he is prioritizing mining — just like his predecessor did – which is not only said to be destructive to the environment but also infringes the basic human rights of the indigenous communities inhabiting the areas near the mining sites.

While the Filipino people’s living condition did not only change, those who are asserting their rights are also continuously being violated. Anti- mining groups claimed that anyone who opposes mining companies is quite likely to end up missing or dead. It is seen as a pattern that whenever there is mining operation, there would be extensive military deployment and escalation of human rights violations in the mining affected areas. It is like silencing a dog by poking it with sharp end of the stick.

Human rights violations continue to happen with impunity under the Pnoy administration. While efforts to improve and professionalize the investigation and prosecutorial system are said to be underway, police investigations remain fraught with delays and impediments. Until now, no single perpetrator is yet to be held accountable for human rights violations, and the government has done little to discipline the erring members of its security forces.

The Oplan Bayanihan which adopted a paradigm shift by the military from the combat-focused approach it used in the past to a human security or “people-centered” approach aims at least in paper to give greater attention to the needs of the citizens and the effects of military operations in the communities instead of pursuing armed rebels. But the continuing military presence and abuses on the ground in many provinces make it quite difficult to ascertain when Oplan Bantay Laya ends and Oplan Bayanihan begins. One can only think that this new security plan is no different from the other, except perhaps for a different name.

I believe that the promised change of daang matuwid (straight path) of the Aquino administration can’t be achieved without the guarantee of respect to human rights and dignity and ending impunity.

It is about time for President Aquino to walk the talk.

The straight path where he envisions of leading the nation should be a road that guarantees human rights for all.

But if it is a path where there are people who are only extra-legally killed or forcibly disappeared, subjugated by repressive laws, mired by poverty and ignorance, it will surely lead the nation to nowhere but doom.

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