The Four-eyed Journal » Poverty

Davao Mayor takes law into her own hands – literally

jhay — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:30:42 +0000

It’s was all over the news and social networking sites, the video of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte who punched Davao Regional Trial Court sheriff Abe Andres, when tempers flared during the a demolition operation in Sitio Soliman, Barangay Agdao.

Duterte requested for a reprieve so that she can talk to her constituents, aiming to de-escalate the tensions and ensure order during the operations.

When her request seems to have been denied by sheriff Andres, who is duty bound to implement a lawful court order, the Mayor delivered four punches to the former much to the cheering of her constituents.

For the families who are about to lose their homes because of the demolition operation, Mayor Duterte became an instant hero, taking up their cause and saving the day for the urban poor.

I asked myself as I watched the video footage on YouTube, “Is it an election year?” Local officials rarely take the side of the urban poor during demolition operations. Most of the time, they are also had a hand in giving the demolition team the go signal to go in and tear down the shanties of urban poor dwellers.

So when local officials break the norm, it’s usually to gain brownie points from their constituents and media exposure.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not parroting the “elitist view” that we should strictly implement laws against “illegal squatters.”

I actually want to know whether or not Mayor Duterte has exerted any effort to have assisted the landless poor in Sitio Soliman even before the Trial Court issued a demolition order, which is the last thing that happens in these cases.

What was Duterte, in her capacity as Mayor, doing all this time until she had to intervene and all of a sudden play the role of hero to the poor?

Why become the hero on the 11th hour when there’s really nothing much she could do in the face of a lawful order from a court even if she a local chief executive?

Duterte intervened to avoid violence, but she failed miserably when she herself became violent.

Had Duterte been sincere enough in helping her landless constituents, she could have done something something long before the court order to proceed with the demolition came out.

The same goes to the Aquino administration who has been silent in the face of past demolition operations in Metro Manila that have become violent.

It’s true that the rule of law must be obeyed, but when you leave a man or woman in tight corner, you’re crazy to believe that things will not get ugly. Put an entire community on the verge of being completely homeless with no other recourse, then you’d be crazy to believe things will not break down into anarchy.

An idictment of not just Willie, but of Media and a broken culture

jhay — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:10:56 +0000

It was never against Willie Revillame per se. At least for me personally. When I joined those who objected to the treatment of Jan-jan on that fateful episode of Willing Willie that is now the continuing subject of public debate in the country, it never occurred to me that I did it because of my contempt or hatred of Willie Revillame.

Dole outs even on prime time TV will never help them out of poverty

I’ll be honest that I never liked the guy, but hated him? No, it wasn’t anything personal. Even remotely. For I have other better use of my time than to troll or send ‘anti-Willie’ sentiments both on the Internet and off it.

That was never the case for me. Neither was I under the influence of any powerful, deep-pocketed or influential enemy or rival of Willie. I did so on my own because the incident was ‘the last straw that broke the camel’s back’, so to speak, for me.

My actions stemmed from my indictment on the way media has been creating and handling their TV programming, especially the noon-time shows. The point I’m trying to put across has been clearly said by F Sionil Jose in his April 17 column on PhilStar.com:

Alas, what Willie and most of us cannot see is that his popular program and so many imitations of it, exploits the very poor as well as our permissive culture; he compels those hapless and disadvantaged Filipinos — the young and the decrepitly old — to give up their dignity to perform as he wants them for the money which he dangles before them.

Willie has to be reminded that he diminishes and demeans the poor; we can even argue that he lures the poor with the promise of easy money and thereby encourages dependency, belief in luck rather than in hard work. His show as it stands should be barred from TV. He should have been fully chastised when so many were killed in the stampede to his show some years back. The market resurrected him. Obviously, popularity and money had swelled his head.

A few months back, at a public forum I enlarged on the Willie ruckus which was first aired by the columnist Conrado de Quiros. I criticized our appreciation of TV personalities who are not talented, who cannot act, sing or give intelligent commentary. I also brought into the discussion quasi-religious leaders amassing wealth while feeding on the gullibility of Filipinos who, in their poverty, search blindly for faith and a better life. I concluded that we must decolonize our minds.

Friends and family know that I do not watch noon time shows, other game shows or any local programming. They are just the same of the old bunch: shallow, absurd, consumerist and often-times rip-offs of foreign films and shows.

The last paragraph above, of which I highlighted the most relevant sentence, is the whole point of why I joined those who are seeking to bring Willie Revillame and TV5 to account.

I would like to have it as a reminder to all TV networks, other mainstream media and even to most of my fellow new media practitioners (bloggers, social networking gurus, Filipino netizens) that it’s about time we do something about our “broken” culture. Media is one of the most powerful player in shaping our culture. So the responsibility of helping our nation to fix, refine and elevate our culture falls on their hands.

My indictment of Willie Revillame is but a part of my indictment of the current popular culture promoted and shaped by Media; one that is shallow, violates the dignity of the Filipino and does little to help fix our “damaged” culture.

Image by Roger Alcantara

Full text of the consolidated Reproductive Health Bill in 15th Congress

jhay — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:16:27 +0000

Finally, a copy of the consolidated Reproductive Health Bill as filed in the 15th Congress of the Philippines.

It was originally published over at Likhaan Center for Women’s Health‘s website – an NGO working for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into law. I share it here in PDF format for ease of use and as a reference for all.

Full Text of the Consolidated Reproductive Health Bill Philippines 15th Congress

Hopefully, this would help facilitate a focused, vigorous national debate.

Arroyo’s Legacy: More poor Filipinos

jhay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:43:07 +0000

It took the nine years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term as President, for one of her advisers to admit a glaring and irrefutable fact: Filipinos are poorer now than even before GMA took office.

Arroyo’s economic adviser, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said:

My biggest frustration as a presidential adviser is that 34 quarters of uninterrupted expansion in the past nine years did little to reduce poverty and the number of poor people.

All those figures touted by the Arroyo administration as “positive” economic figures are nothing but illusions as Salceda added to say:

these rosy figures cannot hide the fact that there are more poor people now than when the President started her term,

Despite posting “historical GDP growth” in history, the ones who benefited from all these are the wealthy business elite. On the other hand, more and more Filipino families sank into poverty.

Presidential candidates are crowing the same old mantra, that corruption is the number one problem of our country, rarely will you hear them say something that is based on real, hard facts: while it’s true that government officials like themselves are fattening their pockets through corruption, businesses are raking in profits by the billions. And at the end of the day, by looking closer at who are the owners and shareholders of these businesses, you’d find the 90% of the politicians running for the 2010 elections from Presidential candidates, to Senators to Representatives to the Lower House, even Governors.

It all points to one undeniable truth, the elite do the same thing, make profits in two different, yet interlinked ways, one is by becoming a government official and second, is by using the government to favor your business interests.

The scandals that dogged the Arroyo administration and her family are but just indicators that confirm what I’ve said before. While JDVIII’s sudden transformation from businessman to a crusader against corruption is a confirmation that for the country’s ruling business class, internal strife could lead to messy and ugly affairs.

All this unfolds like the selfish and greedy bickering between the gods and goddesses of the ancient world, while the ordinary folk suffer and continue to live in destitute.

Such is the enormous task of the next Chief Executive. Looking at what has happened and who’s running for the highest office in the land, I cannot help but get more gloomy as nothing really substantial separates them from the Arroyo, borne of the ruling elite or at present an entrenched member thereof, with only their sights fixed on corruption, among themselves, as the bane to the progress of the Filipinos, when at the root of it all is that it’s the same old economic policies they are carrying and actually proposing to be implemented should they win the mandate of the electorate. Truly, is there still hope?

Blog petition asking President Obama not to meet GMA

jhay — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:57:39 +0000

Just a quick and short one; just got notice of a blog petition urging US President Barack Obama not to meet with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The blog is run by a New York-based Filipino who’s in the education field. It invites everyone to a healthy, objective discussion about the current situation the Philippines is under thanks to GMA and its relationship with the US and President Obama.

There’s this post citing ten reasons why Obama should not meet with GMA and it does have points presented in layman’s terms for easy digestion. Though I’m particularly interested in the details of point no. 6:

6. After being president for eight years, GMA has proven nothing.
Using critical, in-depth, academic analysis and evaluation, the plight of the Filipino people is NOT better than the time when her father, Diosdado Macapagal (God bless his soul), was president. That’s forty years of wasted opportunities.

Though we already know this, it would be interesting to know the details of how he/she has come up with the same conclusion.

As per the petition itself, which aims to garner 2 million signatures, is simply accomplished by leaving one’s name and present location. I do not know whether this would gain traction, succeed or even get noticed by the Obama Administration.

Interesting would be, the reaction of other bloggers, pundits, main stream media and even Malacañang itself.

Would you sign the petition? Do you agree that Obama should not meet with GMA?