It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
- CHARLES DARWIN
How we change… and so often and much in only a single lifetime.
This is clearest when we look at our heroes -- our public icons -- our human torches.
Take the recently deceased high-pitched, crotch-grabbing, energetic pop star that went from being deified to being demonized in a matter of years… and now he is put to rest by a world transfixed with ambiguous feelings and unanswered questions.
Time and again, we see our war heroes and redeemers turn into tyrants. People from humble beginnings become billionaires. Many times we see the good guys give up. Many times we see evil extinguished by conscience.
People have the capacity to live as saints or villains and shift from one personality to the other with relative ease. We have this as a free gift and a harsh responsibility. We determine our truth by our individual choices and our reputation by our habits.
In our own lives, we encounter extremes of transformation… a once funny uncle who just stopped laughing… a friend with whom you once burned the phone line for ten straight hours who just chose to become a complete stranger… a person you once feared who now serves as your role model…
The weak become strong… the dull become colorful… the meek become loud… the arrogant are humbled… the evil finds redemption… and the heroes fall with greed.
Transformation is inevitable. Change is who we are because we constantly seek for that which we do not have. We long to live someone else’s life. We are fascinated by the unfamiliar. We are drawn towards the unknown.
Never mind if we have it all and no apparent right to envy others. The truth is… we always will.
The prince will always have recurring dreams of being the pauper and vice versa a million times over.
But every now and then, we find true rocks in our lives… people who serve as the solid foundations unto which we cling for safety… people who shift and sway, and sometimes leave but always return.
These people shield us from the chaos. They help us find our center and stay on a predictable course, and they will live and die with us through any transformation.
They are the keepers.
They are home.
… and they are the ones we often fail to notice… because with them, we are safe.
After all the excitement... after all the adventure... after all the changes... we always come home. Always.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
No law granting a title of royalty or nobility shall be enacted.
- THE PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION
One of the most unsightly words in the English language is entitlement. It suggests baseless superiority of a group of persons because of accident or the work of their forebears. It suggests that genetics and succession absolutely decide one’s rights and options in life.
What I hate even more is that we allow this to be true by our actions and inaction.
The people who run this country and the world mostly consist of these presumptuous heirs of the wealthy and powerful. They are the landowners who resist the changing social needs and choose to keep their huge tracts of unproductive land for their own pleasure. They are the sons and daughters of privilege, luck, and influence who breeze through life with fancy clothes, nightclubs and designer drugs. They carry their names proudly like banners of moral terrorism against all who live quiet normal lives.
We may not have a nominal house of nobles, but our government seems to act like one. During the past weeks, many of these persons who claim to be our representatives have proved to act only for themselves and those they owe allegiance to. They use culture, breeding, and pretty words to justify keeping what they already have, without moving an inch to improve the lives of those who look up to them for succor.
Feudalism in Europe and Japan has ended long, long ago. But the Philippines still carries the system with pride. People still lord over the poor just as they did during the middle ages. Too bad our nobles do not fight it out as the knights of olden times did. Too bad our system of choosing leaders no longer involves strength, intelligence, and compassion, otherwise we would have a President who is a combination of Manny Pacquiao, Epifanio de Los Santos, and Cardinal Sin. A very tall order, but a striking ideal, nonetheless.
We hate being called a nation of servants to our face, only because we cannot and will not face the unsweetened truth. We are servants under very few but very powerful masters. Most of us live under the poverty line, even after a full degree of college. The poor stay landless and dreamless as they eat scraps from the tables of the greediest members of Filipino society.
And here we are, the educated middle class, caught in the center of a raging storm ready to erupt into cleansing bloodshed. We can either choose to imitate those above us and accumulate everything we can for ourselves, or we can look below us and pull up as many people as we can from their hellish lives.
The good news is that we are not a defeated nation. Everywhere you look today you see collective movements and powerful dissent – clusters of resistance that act as breakwaters that stand against the crashing waves of the tainted and the corrupt. People from all walks of life, young and old, wealthy and poor are coming together to defend human solidarity against those who act only for themselves.
Let us bring down our masters by exposing them for what they truly are -- greedy animals, undeserving of the powers and duties entrusted to them. Let us be merciless in our search for truth so that we might all be able to act with our very best judgment.
To save our country and our people, we must be a nation of servants… and be damn proud of it.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
On paper and as an ideal, globalization promises a new economic world order that will uplift humanity to heights difficult to imagine. The free exchange of goods and services promises to create a single global market where the only restriction is the law of supply and demand.
Grand plans… grand promises… but at what cost?
To get to that ideal, many people have to give up their livelihood. Small-scale farmers and fishermen will have to abandon their trades when faced by the uncontrollable influx of cheaper imported goods. Small-scale businesses and neighborhood shops will be crushed under the heels of large foreign-owned shopping centers.
Cheaper goods and services might look like a strong selling point for consumers, but you have to remember that every consumer is also a producer and a service provider. What use are cheaper goods when people’s incomes are obliterated by unfair competition? What’s the point of having retail prices of your favorite grocery store cut in half when you have to close your own shop permanently?
To make this great economic omelette, we have to break a whole lot of eggs. Millions will plunge into hopeless destitution, while the few truly big businesses continue to balloon into grotesque proportions. The poor stay poor, the middle class joins them and the rich become gods.
To look at the end-goal without seeing the painful steps leading to that goal is Social Darwinism at its very worst. It attacks the life, liberty and property of the most marginalized sectors of society, widening the already vast chasm that separates the rich from the poor. Social ills are exponentially amplified, turning pride of labor into systematic worldwide greed.
Powerful first-world countries welcome globalization with arms wide open, but for a tiny nation like ours, nationalist economics is our final line of defense against the tidal waves of mass production just waiting to erase entire industries and cultures.
I do not dare to question the bigger-picture wisdom of economics experts, but to my mind, the evils needed to reach their goals are simply unacceptable.
Is there a way around it? Is there a better way to do this?
There is. But for now, richer countries are not willing to give us a truly meaningful and effective quid pro quo situation. Their industries are allowed to flourish in our land, while they prevent our greatest and most abundant resource from being fully utilized. If they are allowed to sell their goods here without restriction, our people should be allowed to travel to and work in their countries similarly without restriction. This is how we create a formidable middle class. This is how economic balance is achieved. This is how globalization becomes a cultural revolution, rather than just a concept of economics. Instead, they use security reasons and terrorism scares to keep global trade consistently skewed in their favor.
I used to be a believer in big-picture economics and full globalization. But as we draw deeper into this socio-economic experiment, the picture becomes uglier and uglier. Maybe it’s time to take a few paces back, cut our losses and try to figure all this out.
Higher productivity is no excuse for the perpetuation of human suffering. In its present form, globalization is a lethal pill to the most vulnerable nations in the world. Unless we come up with a better strategy and an honest will to bring economic fairness in the world, all this is simply unacceptable.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
The Philippines is the oldest democracy in Asia. In our minds, we believe strongly in equality, freedom, justice and human rights.
In our minds.
We are one of the poorest nations in the world and yet we have the most number of servants per household. We live in a country where it is customary to leave the care of our children and our homes to people we pay a very minimal amount of money and provide very few benefits to.
The rich down to the middle class have become so accustomed to this social setup that they see no reason to stir the waters with inconvenient change. The poor who constitute the ‘informal service industry’ also do not complain, either because of innate Filipino meekness or simply because they feel ‘lucky’ to even have a job at all.
Worse than the low wages are the ‘house rules and conditions’ we impose upon them. We confine them in our homes inside tiny living quarters with bad ventilation and nothing but a straw mat to sleep on, while we sleep soundly on soft mattresses inside air-conditioned rooms. They do nothing but work all day everyday and are always on call, often disturbed from their sleep late at night to open our gates as we come home from clubbing or a poker game. The next day, they wake up before the sun to water the plants, sweep the floor, cook breakfast and walk the dogs, so that when their masters wake up, everything is in perfect shape. We always eat before they do and provide them with either our leftovers or unhealthy canned goods and noodles. We give them a day off but expect them to come home in time to prepare supper. We prohibit them from dating because we fear losing their services should they decide found a family of their own.
Sound familiar?
Of course, I speak of averages. The worst ‘masters’ among us shout at their helpers and even call them names. In the very worst scenarios, physical abuse is an everyday thing.
The best of us offer education and health benefits to our domestic companions and even give them opportunities to augment their income through livelihood programs. Some employers always have their helpers with them at the same table no matter where they choose to dine. Few even get to travel around the world for free. But this, of course, is an anecdotal rarity.
Nonetheless, most of our house helpers suffer the very worst working conditions in and outside the country. Even Philippine labor law treats them as sub-human workers who deserve much less than everyone else who works as hard or less.
This unspoken Filipino caste system has gone on for so long that we even export our helpers to every country in the world who would have them. Some foreign employers have inherited our habits and take the atrocities even further by confiscating their helper’s passport and locking them up in their houses.
It is no revelation that foreigners see the Philippines as the number one outsourcer of help. Our people manage and maintain the households of thousands upon thousands of people all over the world, and they get very little in return. Few complain. Few earn enough to live decent lives and die with dignity.
Why do we allow this?
Because it is convenient.
This is something we do not bother to even talk about. Maybe it took a few heart piercing words by a Hong Kong writer to make us see our own errors. Indeed, the truth hurts. But what do we do about it?
These are the people we trust with our most precious possessions: our homes and our children. Do we really want to treat them badly?
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
A recent Pulse Asia survey regarding the Filipino opinion about charter change shows that about 42% reject it. But the more alarming finding is that 57% of Filipinos know little to nothing about the Constitution. Although I have this inherent distrust for survey results, experientially, this figure seems to be true. Even I knew very little about our most basic law before entering law school. I just never bothered to learn it back then. And like so many of our Filipino youth, I just didn’t care.
Now that I work for the Filipino people, I have no choice but to do care. So allow me to explain our system of government and how it is supposed to work.
Our government is composed of three parts or branches.
We have the Legislative Branch or the people who make the laws. These are the House of Representatives and the Senate. Legislative Power is otherwise known as the Power of the Purse because it is the lawmakers who design the national budget.
We have the Executive Branch or the people who implement the law. These are the President, the Cabinet members and everyone else working under the different departments. Executive Power is also called the Power of the Sword because it is the Executive that imposes the law and controls the police and the military.
Finally, we have the Judicial Branch or the people who interpret the law in actual cases. These are the Supreme Court justices and the justices and judges of the lower courts. Judicial Power is sometimes referred to as the Power of the Scales because it is the courts that have the final word on actual cases or controversies.
Power is spread out among these three branches because of a long history of world experience that if power belonged only to one person or to a single family, there will be tyranny. By giving specific groups specific powers and duties, they are able to check and balance each other’s actions so that minimal damage will arise out of any fault or error by any individual person in government. In other words, our system essentially is a result of a well-placed mistrust in human nature. This is called the Separation of Powers.
How do these checks and balances work? In several ways:
- If Legislature approves a bad law, the Executive can veto it. If the Executive abuses his veto, the Legislature can, in turn, override it by getting a higher vote.
- If the Judiciary makes a bad decision in a criminal case, the Executive can pardon the convicted person and set him free.
- If the Executive assigns unworthy or questionable persons to the Cabinet or to certain key government positions, this decision can be rejected by the Commission on Appointments under the Legislative Branch of government.
- If certain government officials, namely the President, the Vice-President, the Supreme Court Justices, the Commissioners of the Commission on Elections, Audit and Civil Service, and the Ombudsman prove to be unworthy of their positions, they can be impeached with the initiative of the Legislative Branch.
- Finally, if any person in government exercises his or her power with grave abuse of discretion, the Judiciary can reverse, modify or set aside that abusive exercise of power and order that person to behave properly.
All these are designed to keep power in its proper place.
Sadly, these checks and balances have mostly been illusory in recent years. The Supreme Court Justices, Members of Congress and even the Ombudsman are either friends or family of the President. There exists a personal touch that contorts the entire system into something no longer recognizable as a democracy. The Philippines has been disfigured under the rule of pakikisama. What we used to consider as a value is now proving to be a serious liability and a blockade against national unity and freedom.
After all is said and done, the ultimate check and balance comes from us – the common people. We vote for our leaders, their policies, attitudes, experience, education, faith, prejudices, mistakes, triumphs and yes… their families. Our collective decision will form our collective destiny.
I hope we can all remember this next year.
Register. Vote. And use nothing less than your very best judgment.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
The nature of power is to bend or break the will of the weak. Through the promise of reward or the threat of harm, power is exercised in our daily lives. Today we see two convicted rapists set free because of the power they wield over the weak. One is backed up by the wealthiest nation on earth, and the other by his own personal, less grand but equally effective, wealth, status and influence.
How did it ever come to this?
Since when did we become a people who set criminals free just because they have more money than others who are equally or less guilty?
I remember working with an NGO that serves persons who languish in jail. Our clients were people who have not yet been found guilty but are serving time just because they could not afford to fork out bail money. They are treated as second-class citizens who are herded into our congested, filthy and putrid city jails while they wait for a trial date that may never come. This is my most salient experience of the Philippine justice system. It makes me loathe my choice of profession and want to fly away to a country that values its people.
The nature of power is to bend or break the will of the weak. This is why I do not dare blame Nicole. I do not blame the weak for their weariness and their exhausted patience. I do not blame the fearful woman for running away when faced by the might of the most powerful government in the globe.
Many people spit venomous words at this girl while they watch the news on their plasma TV screens well within their comfort zones. This girl has no comfort zone. As a victim of a violent crime, that’s one of the things taken from you forever. Your reality is altered, and to escape from it by any means possible is a very welcome option.
This is not about her. It’s about us and the system that we allow to sink its roots deep into our consciousness and culture because of our resignation – because of our refusal to speak out and act in unison against the few bad people who have all the power. It is everything wrong about human nature and our unwillingness to rebel against it.
Election after election we grant power to those who don’t deserve it. Year after year we shortchange ourselves by believing that this is our lot in life and this is all that we will ever be.
See the drama of it all. Two freed rapists, two broken women and thousands of confused people behind bars. Welcome to the third world.
Is this the Philippines that was fertilized by the blood of our martyrs? Is this the nation envisioned by the free thinkers of our past?
Many of us feel that we do not belong here. Many of us feel that our one life is too short to waste in a place that does not offer us any real chance for growth. If you have these sentiments, then you are one of the many who have no power – then you are one who truly knows Nicole.
The nature of power is to bend or break the will of the weak. Today, the Philippine dream is to leave the Philippines.
How did it ever come to this?
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
Taxation is perhaps the most boring subject matter I can think of to write about (and the most detested subject for those who ever took the bar exams). But taxation remains, or at least it ought to be, the most effective tool for social justice.
Long before agrarian reform, welfare and socialized housing, there was taxation. Taxes are nothing more than enforced contributions to society, where people give a certain percentage of their earnings to fund State services. It is clearly designed as form of socialism or equalizing device to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor.
Here are the basic premises for taxation:
- People gain wealth by using State services and systems (e.g. land, business grants, government contracts, etc…).
- The more wealth you gain from this system, the more you have to contribute to keep that system running.
- If you are poor, you need help, so you are exempted from giving your contribution to the State until you can rise to a level where you can support yourself and those who depend on you.
From this, we formed a system where the fortunate support the unfortunate to a certain extent so that the latter are given enough breathing space to improve their lot in life. Progressive taxation means that those who have more must give more, while those who have less are given assistance.
In its proper sense, taxation ought to be taken from income – money that is gained. This ensures that taxes do not cut deep into the resources needed by people to survive. This ideal has been mangled because the rich find ways to avoid paying their rightful contributions to society. Those who ought to be supporting society are the hiding behind tax shelters and offshore dummy corporations. They avoid their social responsibility and make all these fancy legal excuses to justify greed.
So how does the government respond? By creating non-progressive fixed taxes, like the misleadingly named value-added taxes, that burden everyone equally, rich or poor. This painfully upsets the balance. After all, equal treatment of unequal people is inequality. The purpose of taxation is mangled, and people don’t know why they are suddenly paying 12% more for something that they’ve been consuming for a very long time.
On the other hand, people are quite justified in refusing to hand out their hard-earned money without seeing concrete results. Massive corruption and incompetence of government have left us a cynical people. Angry. Restless. Our taxes do not seem to be making more schools. They do not seem to stop the violence in our streets. They do not give us clean air or water. They do not seal the cracks on our roads or provide enough supplies to our hospitals. They do not seem to provide health, safety, justice, education, convenience or even access to state services.
The nasty people from both the business sector and government have turned us into this nation of whining idiots, always complaining about things we think we cannot control. They have transformed us into people who would rather ignore the difficult reality than actively steer it towards a better place. The greed of the few has virtually doomed us all… all because of money… all because our best defense against greed and inequality also involves money.
In spite of all this, I believe that a tight, disciplined and brutal taxation system managed by people with the same qualities is one of the keys to moving forward. Obliterate all the fixed taxes and optimize progressive income tax collection. This is the surest way to swell our middle class and give a fighting chance to our poor.
The wealthy support the poor.
That is the design.
That is the way it should be.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
In memory of Justice Edgardo F. Sundiam, a professor who taught me about the legal profession.
This is a shortened version of an essay I wrote for his class back in my first semester of law school, year 2003.
May he rest in true peace.
The Law of Hope
One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
- MOHAMDAS ‘MAHATMA’ GANDHI (Martyr, Patriot, Lawyer)
I have spent 71 days in the law school. I have studied for approximately 300 hours at my own desk at home. I have read approximately 7000 pages of text from law books and case assignments. And yet I am nothing.
“The law school is not for the faint of heart”. Those were the words I heard from a friend who just passed the bar a couple of years ago. This phrase rang in my mind in each step I took towards my first class. Every fear, every apprehension, every doubt attacked me at that moment, drowning all the noise and every other sensation that surrounded me. The only prayer in my heart was that I would make it through the day with my spirit still intact. That was 9 weeks ago. From that moment until today, I have traversed into the wisdom and greatness of the law as well as its duplicity and insidiousness. Not for the faint of heart, indeed.
I never had a reason for entering law school worth mentioning. For one thing, I couldn’t find a satisfying job after college. My parents kept pressuring me to enter medical school but it was just too far from my own desires. I live in my brother’s apartment and have not contributed a single cent for the bills or for the rent. In short, I had nothing else to do with my life and time was running out fast. As lame as it sounds, that is my truth. I do not even have a good reason why I applied for law school in the first place. At that time, it was just a way for me to get my parents off my back. I was working in a religious organization and got paid just enough to settle my mobile phone bills. I was a true cliché… a highly educated, jobless Filipino with a dying sense of self-esteem. I had no idea what law school was all about. I couldn’t have cared less. To me, lawyers were just thieves in suits. I never wanted to be anyone who, even remotely, fits that description. I had my pride… and little did I know that with it, I carried my prejudice.
For the past 2 months, I have listened to professors and students talk about the law. But what I found to be more noteworthy is what they think of the law as a way of life. I have heard of people talk about it as, merely, a business. Some talk about it as a vocation of nobility and honor. And some even consider it as “the new priesthood”. From all these, I realized that the profession of law is not characterized by the practice itself, but one’s reason for practicing it. The title “lawyer” is not conclusive of what a person is. It merely speaks of what he does. Just like any other person practicing any other profession, that person is not only what he does but also what he believes in. A lawyer can be a mercenary, a patriot, a thief, a saint, a master, a servant, a prophet, a criminal… he can be anything. Before law school, I did not know this. I made my judgment without trial. I was unjust in forming my own conclusions.
My decision to enter the law school came about the day before the enrollment. Even then, my doubts were overpowering me. I had to ask counsel from a priest, several relatives, and a whole lot of friends. Every single one of them said the same thing: “Go for it! You will make a great lawyer”. The problem was that I never even understood what it meant to be a “lawyer”. Nevertheless, I trusted their wisdom and I took the plunge. Little did I know that I had just made one of the best decisions of my life, and it was not even completely mine.
I found myself in the law. The words justice, counsel, and compassion keep ringing in my head. I never expected to find these words on the very text of the law itself. I never really examined, much less, understood the law this clearly before. My indifference has deprived me of something so great and yet so real. The Preamble of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines speaks unequivocally that, inter alia, the People of the Philippines live under a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace… Six great virtues that exist or ought to exist in this great country of ours. I have found in the law what I have been looking for, for a long time: Hope.
What have I learned so far? That I am nothing. I am an idea that is yet to be realized. What I do now and what I will be doing for the next 4 years of my life in the law school will make me into something real -- someone who will stand a chance against adversity -- someone who will be able to push reality a little closer to his ideals. With all my fellow law students, those who came before us, and those who will come after us, all we have is hope. We all study the same books, the same laws, and the same ideas… but in the end, what we will become is not what we have been taught but what we choose to believe in and hope for. None of these titles like judge, politician, businessman, prosecutor, or counselor will ever matter. It will never be about what we are capable of doing… It will be about why we do them.
What motives do I have? To serve God and share his mandate of love to all people? To defend those who are too weak to defend themselves? To fight for what is just and right? To bring order into this chaotic world? To break down walls and create bridges for all men and women? Yes, all these and more. But these only are ideals that we have to incarnate into this world through painfully hard work against seemingly insurmountable odds. Yes, it will be difficult. Certainly, giving up would always be a welcome option. But all I ask… all I demand from myself, is that I would leave this world a better place that it was when I entered it… then I would have done my part.
The evils of man can be created with so little effort or even by accident… but goodness can only come from determination and conviction.
Why do I want to be a lawyer?
Because I have hope.
Published in Cebu Gold Star Daily
I remember during my grade school days when I would run up a wide ramp to get to the second floor classrooms. As you reach the wall facing the ramps, you would see a sign in bright bold red letters against a white background saying, SPEAK ENGLISH. Back then, that was the entire school’s expectation. Back then, that was the law. One who violates this command would get a screeching reprimand or be fined twenty-five centavos to be tossed into the class fund. Like having a school-wide swear jar, this was the educational attitude we had during the 80’s and 90’s (and perhaps even up to this day). As if speaking your native tongue was actually identical to cussing.
I admit, I am a proud Cebuano. But it occurred to me that when it comes to my native tongue, I have the vocabulary and grammar skills of a first grader. Here are three instances that prove this point:
- I attempted to write two songs in Cebuano and was successful only after consulting three of my friends about the lyrics.
- I went to Davao last December to conduct a paralegal seminar for six indigenous Mindanao tribes and I had to give all my lectures in straight Cebuano. I had such a difficult time that I was corrected many times by the participants and had to substitute many words unbeknownst to me with their English equivalents. It turned out to be a successful seminar, but it gave me the feeling that I was a foreigner among my peers.
- Yesterday, my boss asked me to translate a six-page script into Cebuano and it took me the greater part of two hours to finish my task.
It is because of this realization that I am working hand-in-hand with legislators and teachers to pass a new law -- one, which promotes multi-lingual education. It encourages the use of multiple languages, especially the native tongue of the locality, for teaching. It also provides for mandatory formal education on the native tongue. This is above and beyond the subjects already taught for English and Filipino.
I know what many of you are thinking – “Will this not make English proficiency suffer?” U.P. Diliman linguistics professor, Dr. Ricardo Nolasco says “No”. In his book, 21 Reasons Why Filipino Children Learn Better While Using Their Mother Tongue, he reveals that studies in many countries have shown that students who learn using their native language outperform those who learn using a secondary language. First language learning allows children to develop solid foundations for literacy and paves the way for learning multiple languages.
Like many people who are products of the Filipino private school system, English is my first language. It is the language in which I am most proficient. It is the language I use to count and the language in which I think. This is a fortunate (or unfortunate) reality for me and for many of my friends. But the majority of children who do not have this initial exposure to English adapt the native tongue as their first language. It may be Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Chavacano, Ilokano, Kapampangan or the many other languages of these islands. This burdens them with a tremendous disadvantage in the learning process and teachers get such a headache just trying to get them to learn while using English as the exclusive medium of instruction.
This is one of the reasons why many Filipinos remain illiterate -- why the dropout and repeat rates rise. These children are not stupid. They just were not given the same opportunities on a level playing field. They lack confidence because they cannot articulate their ideas in the way expected of them. In effect, their grades suffer and their self-esteem plummets -- all because they were brought into a learning system that forces them to become something other than their natural selves.
Education should be liberating. It ought to come naturally. Forcing children to learn what is alien to them in the onset will trigger a long-lasting aversion to learning. This is not to disregard the importance of learning English. In fact, it should be taught with greater intensity and depth. Learning English is our gateway to the rest of the world – but this should not be done at the cost of abandoning the rich wisdom and knowledge of our foreparents.
Local languages face extinction even as they are passed down by oral tradition. Few people know how to use our native languages correctly and use it well. What little we know now is a bastardized version of its former glorious self. Isn’t high time we reclaim our past and solidify our understanding of our cultural identities.
Many fear that this will cause division. On the contrary, it will encourage interaction and multi-literacy. It will send a message to the rest of the islands that the national government values their cultures and uniqueness. It fosters unity in diversity because of mutual tolerance. To deny that we are multi-cultural people is plainly delusional. We must embrace this diversity by celebrating it in our schools.
The more children learn their own languages, the more poets, novelists, screenwriters, actors, songwriters and artists we will have in a very wide range of languages. It will enrich and develop our culture. Music and art will flourish and it will shepherd in a Filipino renaissance never before seen in history. I look forward to this period in our future.
Panahon na para mag-bag-o ang ato-ang panan-aw sa kalibutan. Panahon na para ibalik ang ato-ang kultura ug kaalam.
Originally published in Cebu Gold Star Daily, Vol. 1, No. 107, p. 6 (January 26, 2009, Monday)
Last night, I reviewed the Obama-Biden inauguration and I could not help but feel genuinely moved by the whole event. Never in modern history has there been this much emotional investment and support for a politician.
A peerless speechwriter and a serious student of history, law and world events, Barack Obama was an easy choice for America and a welcome breath of fresh air for the world. I was never one to care much about politics, but this special person just draws you in by his words and his stories. He carries that optimism and idealism many of us tend to abandon, as we grow older. His attitude is very much like that of a child’s, believing that determined people can make real and lasting changes in the world. In a jaded world starved for hope, Barack has come to take his place in history at the most opportune time.
Indeed, words can be cheap. Even pretty ones. President Obama has the monumental task of backing up his entire body of promises and dreams with the difficult decisions he will have to make in the next four years. Nevertheless, words are cheap only if they come from nowhere. In Obama’s case, his life story is as penetrating and impressive as his words. He studied well, traveled well and lived well.
Barack comes from a very odd mix of circumstances. His father was from Kenya, his mother, a white American from Kansas and his stepfather was Indonesian. This taught him early in life about discrimination and how it was like to be ‘a little bit of everything’. As a consequence of these circumstances, he traveled much and experienced much at a very young age. At different points in his life, he lived in Indonesia, Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. Later in life, he would travel extensively to Asia, Europe and Africa, broadening his understanding of the world.
He has solid experience with organizing small communities through NGO’s and church groups. In law school, he became the very first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He worked as a civil rights lawyer in a Chicago firm and later taught Constitutional Law in the University of Chicago. From these facts alone, we can see that his personal philosophy and his life are profoundly embedded with the ideals of freedom, peace and equality. Even his later work as a state senator, and later a U.S. senator, consistently displays his commitment to these same ideals.
Looking further back, strange comfort can be found in the fact that Barack isn’t perfect and that he is honest enough to confront his failures publicly. In his book Dreams from My Father, he admitted using drugs and alcohol as escapes from his troubled teenage years, and deeply regrets this as greatest failure. Such honesty is practically unheard of in the political arena, especially during a campaign period. Such admission of weakness and regret are very clear indicators of the kind of strength we all look for in a leader – and with this, we have now have the flawed hero we can sympathize for and look up to.
So why all the fanfare and excitement about a foreign president? Because the United States is in the very best position to take the reins once more and lead the world into a better place. Humanity is inevitably affected by the decisions of the top dogs of the U.S. They have been part of practically every war in the past century and it follows that, if backed up with the proper political will, they have the capacity for genuine peace-building. Many of the jobs and opportunities all over the world emanate from or are coordinated by American business leaders. Their decisions and their leadership will always have a major impact on our islands. Their peace is our peace. Their environmental policy is our policy. Their freedom is our freedom. What they do, what they decide to do and what they accomplish are very much our business too.
From his own life, President Obama has learned that the United States cannot function in isolation. That there are more levels of consequences for his actions than just America. It would be wise to take a page from his book and realize that we are truly becoming one world – and with this, we share one hope: the fulfillment of what he declared as “the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
I might sound like a naive optimist and romantic idealist, but as the late Mr. Lennon would say, “I’m not the only one.” Godspeed to the new generation of leaders. May they be instrumental in transforming our collective dreams into reality. The time has come for Pax Americana.
Originally published in Cebu Gold Star Daily, Vol. 1, No. 99, p. 6 (January 16, 2009, Friday)
I begin my duties here at Gold Star by explaining what my column is all about. The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre once taught, “We have no choice but to be free”. It might sound like an oxymoron at first look, but it actually makes good sense. Freedom is not a choice but condition that is placed upon us as rational beings. We are not free to choose or reject our freedom. It is this freedom that capacitates us to navigate through the vast ocean of goods, evils and debatable gray areas in life. To the human person, freedom appears to be like a purely desirable gift, but it is also a tremendous responsibility that we need to guard against our own weaknesses. Free choices range from miniscule events like choosing which coffee beans to grab from the grocery store to colossal steps like whether or not to send young soldiers to fight in a foreign land.
In this short life, we spend most of our time trying to acquire wealth and power. In the right hands, these can be genuine instruments of freedom. Wealth can be used to create industries that provide quality goods and services to the people. This, in turn, creates jobs and livelihood for people who would otherwise have nothing. Power can be used to effect proper change and influence the movers in society to follow a desired path. It can be used to fight for a cleaner environment, better living conditions, greater productivity and a great many goods that can be brought about by a single nudge of power.
On the duller side, power and wealth can be used for purely selfish reasons -- reasons that ignore the human condition and rot the soul. This spiritual cancer is one we see too often in today’s world. Relationships become equated with material gifts and quality of life is mistaken for one’s bank statement. I don’t pretend to imply that enjoying the fine things in life is an evil. I enjoy a good cup of gourmet coffee as much as the next guy. But our patterns of behavior and consumption must be a means to better living rather than an end to itself. We ought to strive for quality over quantity – satisfaction over accumulation.
In a place and time where wealth and opportunities are scarce, we always need to come to terms on a daily basis with the choice of either fending for ourselves or to aiding those in dire situations. We are faced with the challenge of overcoming our baser instincts of survival to live in a higher plane of existence as rational and compassionate human beings. This is the cost of our freedom -- responsibility over our own circles of influence, never cowering from these difficult but necessary decisions. We are free and we have no choice but to be free -- no other choice but to face the chain of consequences that our actions bear. We can choose to add to the suffering or to supply reprieve.
This is our challenge. And it is only right that we grab a chance to review our lives and what we’ve done with our gifts, our wealth and our power. When we use them the way they ought to be used, we create meaning. We transform work into love and power into inspiration. We become people worth imitating – people that others can be proud of.
So this brand new year can be our opportunity to look into the recent past and see how many lives we’ve improved including our own. Did we act as animals or as human being free from our own destructive tendencies? Every day is a chance to be better than who you were yesterday. And that is all we really need to do to be truly free.
Cheers to a wonderful 2009.
Just got home from my usual urban immersion... and as usual it felt great and terrible at the same time.
Anyway, I finally got to check my phone and there I saw a message from a friend who has been long absent: "Why do I have the feeling that I don't deserve the person I'm with right now?"
Talk about "out of the blue"... but I indulged:
"We deserve nothing. The best you can do is try and be content with what you have."
Indeed, we deserve nothing. Not our jobs, our significant others, our friends, our families, our material graces or our skills.
I went through five years of law school to learn these ideas of justice, equity, fairness and proportionality... but in the end, you realize that all these are just ideas and ideals of such artificial value and character that an extra ounce of critical thinking only leaves us befuddled and trapped in the place where were before: helplessness.
Fairness is not a naturally occuring thing. We never get what we deserve. It's either too good for us or not good enough. Absolute equilibrium is mathematically and realistically impossible. And so, we as free agents try to bridge the gap. We try harder... we work for it so that somehow, we might approximate the propriety of the web of rewards and punishments that orbit our lives.
When we were young children, we were taught to "make things fit". I remember this old toy of mine which had differently-shaped blocks and a plastic tub that had the corresponding hole-shapes on it. The task was to make the triangular block fit into the triangular hole and so on... easy enough right? And so we have been conditioned to understand exactness... to conform to these shapes and sizes and characteristics so that all may be well... problem is, we later learn to apply these assumptions to people as well.
Whenever we see this less-than-presentable dude rest his arm around this lovely lady, an alarm immediately goes off in our head saying "NO!!!"... and we often rationalize it by thinking "He must have some killer wheels" or "He must be dynamite in bed"... and it never occurs to us that this mismatch is the most natural thing of all. We always think that pretty people should be with pretty people and the ugly should stick with the ugly... and so the shapes-and-holes exercise works wonders...
Is it fair? No it is not. But so is the rest of the world. Fairness is an abstract idea that keeps us in line. The Universe has been playing this joke on us all our lives and we don't even bother to question it. We are sucked into romanticism and other forms of mind-control and we use them to cope with the harshest form of reality: life is unfair.
Sure, we love hearing writers and musicians say that "there's always someone out there for every single one of us"... wrong! That's just bullshit, my friends. And you know it. Some of us have had 4, 7, 9, or even 14 relationships in our lives and we don't even give it a second thought... millions of people have lived up to the age of 40 or even 60 without ever knowing the touch of another's hand. The truth is that some people have all the fun... Some people die alone.
We love to dream... we love to hope... but one thing's for certain... it's all unfair... and our ever-changing perception of what's fair isn't helping at all... and as we grow older, our minds start to compromise and we lower our standards more and more that we end up with nothing worth keeping.
So what's there to do about it?
If you want something, just take it. Don't wait for the world to give it to you because it's not gonna happen. It's going to be unfair in any given case, so just take it. If you take it, it's yours... if you don't do anything about it, then maybe you just don't want it enough. If it slips away, then tough luck. You just have to deal with it.
That's all there is to it. Justice will not find you. You just have to make things happen.
Violence is the exertion of force so as to injure or abuse.
- MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY
Last week, the palace released the order to roll back the conversion of the 144-hectare Sumilao land and return it to the embrace of agriculture. Through the order was in no way conclusive as to the fate the Sumilao farmers' claim, it was, at least, small victory for the them, who took painful discouraging steps for more than ten years in a struggle to achieve a life of dignity and respect. And with this small victory, they were able to return home in time for Christmas for free, carrying with them gifts twice their combined body weights. A Merry Christmas, indeed.
I was fortunate enough to take part in what we considered their "last march to victory" from the DAR office in Quezon City to the Malacañang Palace in Manila. Church leaders from different orders and denominations fortified their ranks as well as students and members of civil society groups. This was the most silent and peaceful march I have ever experienced. Under the heat and smog of Metro Manila, we made it to the seat of power and home of the Filipino people.
I trust that I don't have to retell the story of Sumilao Farmers. This ridiculous tale has been all over the papers since October, betraying the laggard mechanisms of Filipino governance. Back in '97 the farmers staged a 28-day hunger strike, which resulted to an acceptable compromise, only to be taken away by the Supreme Court. This year, they walked for sixty days from Bukidnon to Manila and continued to walk around the Capital Region for another fifteen days, moving from one heartache to another... one rejection after another by a government that had sworn to protect its people.
Witnessing all these things, I realized that these farmers are some of the most violent people I have ever encountered. Beneath their smiles and cheerful dispositions, they have caused so much pain against themselves... against their own bodies, their own minds and their own emotions. They have willingly subjected themselves to suffering that compounded the burden they were already carrying. Hence, these people of the soil are masochists of the highest grade.
 |
| Tired of injustice, yet? |
Some high and mighty members of the business community have a criticized these farmers for acting out of emotion and seducing the public to fall in love with the dramatics and romanticism of the whole exercise. Indeed, Atty. Bag-ao admitted that these were "dramatics". These were emotion-wrenching moves to wake people up. But these were acts done only because people refused to listen to reason from the very beginning. Law is a difficult thing to understand (in spite of the palpable simplicity of this case). People will not take these things seriously until they are able to visualize the actual suffering. And this is what the farmers had provided for us: They painted a 75-day picture for the entire nation to comprehend just how unjust the system has become. Because reason was no longer viable, they had to resort to violence -- self-inflicted violence.
For 75 days, these farmers led the country to a place it's people had long forgotten. There is no such thing as a peaceful protest. Violence will always be present. The only difference is against whom this violence is directed. In this case, it was absorbed by the protesters themselves, never minding that they already had suffered much. For indeed, violence is nothing more than inconvenience multiplied a hundredfold. And for a few people to go through this, to completely abandon their comfort zones just to pursue something worth living for, is nothing short of heroic.
These people were not beggars... far from it. They were legitimate suitors who were merely calling the government's attention to an oversight that was so clear that it was grave moral abberation that the case lasted for as long as it did. These people never asked for anything. They were claiming what was already theirs: the land and all the dreams they had attached to it.
A couple of days before the farmers packed up for home, we were able to join them at a thanksgiving mass at the Church of the Gesu, where Fr. Danny Huang gave a priceless homily in three languages (English, Tagalog & Bisaya), he spoke of hope as living in the future -- to act as if your goal was "already there" -- na ang Paglaum kay kanang pagtuo nga anaa na kanimo ang imong gipangita.
Hope in our country is not difficult to find, regardless of the pain you see around you. Consider this: The farmers walked for 75 days, carrying with them only their clothes and beddings, with little or no money or food. They marched under the heat, the rain and they even weathered a storm along the Bicol territories, but never did a day pass by where they were left hungry. No sun ever set leaving the farmers without a roof over their heads. Wherever they went, there were kind souls who understood and empathized. This was a miracle to match the multiplication of bread and fish thousands of years ago. Heroes create heroes. Their power does not come from intelligence or skill, but the will to move others to take action for something greater than themselves... this is sacrifice... this is violence.
May the star of Christmas shine brightest on Sumilao this year.
This week was full of prouder moments... of being a human rights advocate and a part of the legal profession... of having friends who sacrifice and inspire... of being part of something beyond words, beyond life.
A few hours ago, I had an instructive encouter with a Sumilao farmer named Joey. I offered him a light and we started talking:
Joey: Diba ikaw 'tong kauban namo adtong isa ka adlaw sa San Carlos? Joey [offering me a handshake] (Aren't you the one who was with us the other day at San Carlos? Joey)
Mark: O. Mark [shaking his hand] (Yup. Mark.)
Mark: O, unsay nahitabo ganina? (So, what happened today?)
Joey: Wala mi pasudla sa Malacanang. (They didn't let us in Malacanang)
Mark: Mao ba? Wala man lay ning sugat sa inyo? (Really? Wasn't there anyone there to greet you?)
Joey: Wala lagi. (Nobody did.)
Mark: Yawa. Unya, unsay inyong gi buhat? (The devil. What did you do?)
Joey: Wala lang. Gahulat lang tawn mi didto. (Nothing. We just waited.)
Mark: Grabe sad ning inyong kalisud no? Wala pa gyuy ning buhat ani sukad. (This is some sacrifice you're making. Nobody's ever done this before.)
Joey: Mao lagi. (Yup.)
Mark: Naa nakay asawa, Joey? (Are you married, Joey?)
Joey: O. Tulo na gani ako anak. Isa ka four-year old, isa ka two ug isa ka one-year old. (Yes. I have three children. A four-year old, a two-year old and a one-year old).
Mark: Wala ka gimingaw? (Do you miss them?)
Joey: Mingaw lagi. Sa buntag ok lang kay daghan man tao. Bibo pa. Pero sa gabii, mingawon gyud ta. (Yup. During the day, it's alright because we're surrounded with so many people and we have a nice time. But in the evening's, I really miss my family.)
Mark: First time ba ninyo sa Manila? (Is it your first time in Manila?)
Joey: Kami kadalasan, first time pa. (For most of us, it is.)
Mark: Kuyaw sad mo no? First time ninyo, daghan na kaayo mog nakit-an? (Wow. It's your first time and you've already visited all these places.)
Joey: Mao lagi. Pag agi nako sa EDSA mura gyud ko'g ga-damgo. Kining mga lugara, gaka-kit-an ra gyud ni namo sa TV. Pero karun, naa na mi diri. Kuyaw gihapon na experience. (Yup. As I was walking along EDSA, I felt like I was dreaming. These are places that we only see on television. But now, here we are. This is an amazing experience.)
Mark: Padayun lang gyud, bai. Bisang lisud na kaayo, siguro nakit-an man ninyo na bisan asa mo mu-adto, daghan gyud ga suporta sa inyo. Gikan sa Surigao abot sa Manila, naa man gyuy ning dawat sa inyo diba? (Just hold on, friend. It's been hard, I'm sure you've noticed that no matter where you go, you will always find many people who support you. From Surigao to Manila, there have always been people who have lent you aid, right?)
Joey: Mao lagi. Naa gyud mi pirmi matulugan. Wala gyud mi nagutom. (Right. We always had a place to sleep. We were never left hungry.)
Mark: Daghan pa gihapon buotan na Pilipino, diba? Mahuman nalang lagi unta ni para mu-uli na mo. Pasko na raba hapit. (There are still many good Filipinos, right? I just hope that all this will be over soon so you guys can go home. Christmas is coming very soon.)
Joey: Mao lagi. Sa kaluoy sa Dyos. Mahuman na unta. (Right. By God's grace, I hope it will be.)
We shared a few jokes just to lighten the mood and Joey excused himself. After listening to one of Marlon's enlightening lectures, Det and I had to leave because she had a 6am call time at work. And so we took a cab and I dropped Det off at her place... and then... for no clear reason... I walked... I walked from the San Carlos Seminary to my home.
It took me forty minutes this time because of my unusually heavy backpack.
When I got home, I could not feel more grateful.
How petty our problems seem after talking to a tired landless farmer.
We continue to fight. Tomorrow's another day.
