Arangkada for September 24, 2006

 

       ALELUYA SA ASEAN

 

       Mahimo ba nga si Ambassador Melchor Paynor, secretary general sa 12^th Asean Summit Organizing Committee, motingob sa iyang panahon sa pagpangandam ug pagtino nga malampuson ang higanteng kalihokan unya sa Disyembre?  Ug mahimo bang iyang pasagdan ang lokal nga media sa pagtuman sa ilang gimbuhaton?

        Gihatagan siya og higayon sa mga haligi sa media sa Sugbo nga makahatag sa iyang sugyot unsay labing dagko ug mahinungdanong kalamboan nga mapaabot atol sa Asean Summit.  Apan giabusohan ni Paynor ang pagdapit sa mga tigpasiugda sa Press Freedom Week celebration karong tuiga pinaagi sa pag-insulto sa mga sakop sa media.

        Samtang katungdanan ni Paynor ang pagkumbinser sa media nga di pag-usik-usik sa kuwarta ug panahon ang atong pagduma sa Asean Summit, wa siyay katungod sa pagtudlo sa media unsaon pag-cover sa kalibotanong kalihokan.

-o0o-

        Wa kong katambong sa panel discussion sa Marcelo B. Fernan Cebu Press Center niadtong Biyernes kay nadungan man sa akong giduma nga Kapamilya Media Forum sa DYAB Abante Bisaya ug Sky Cable sa SM City.  Apan maayo ra sab.  Kay wa unta kong kapugong sa akong kaugalingon sa pagbaraw sa bugalbugal ni Paynor.

        Gitandi man god ni Paynor ang iyang giingong iresponsableng coverage sa lokal nga mga sakop sa media ug sa kalma nga coverage sa langyawng media.  Bisan pa kon iyang ginganlan ang tulomanon sa karibal namong network (nagpatuo kunohay nga wa niya tuyoa), tugoting motubag ko nga dakong bakak ang iyang pasangil.

        Ang kamatuoran mao nga samtang dunay iresponsableng mga sakop sa lokal nga media, duna say iresponsableng mga sakop sa langyawng media.  Ang pananglitan nga gihatag ni Paynor, nga nagsiyagit ang lokal nga reporter samtang pinahimutang ang tingog sa langyawng reporter, maoy pagmatuod sa kataphaw sa iyang kasayuran sa media nga angay siyang maghunahuna og kapitoan ug pito una mangahas sa pagpanghilabot.

-o0o-

        Ang gibiliban pag-ayo ni Paynor nga langyaw nga media nasakpang nagmaniobra og mga ebidensiya batok sa draft ni US Pres. George Bush (CBS News) ug nagda og live microphone ug nanglibak sud sa pansayan samtang nag-cover sa diskurso ni Bush sa anibersaryo sa trahedya sa New Orleans (CNN).  Dunay mga bulilyaso ang pipila ka sakop sa lokal nga media apan di sila igong sukaranan sa insulto ni Paynor.

        Nahadlok hinuon ko nga ang tinuod nga mensahe ni Paynor mao ang pagsuway paghimo sa media nga cheering squad sa Asean Summit.  Nga ato na lang pasagdan ug lingiw-lingiwan nga ilang gilaktod sa ngan sa summit ang kasagaran sa kapin na sa P2 bilyones nga balor sa mga transaksiyon aron pag-aleluya sa panagtagbo sa mga lider sa kahugpongan nga wa igdungog nga nihatag og importansiya sa kaayuhan sa kinabag-an sa katawhan sa ilang girepresentahan nga kanasuran.  [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Arangkada for September 23, 2006

 

      HAMBOG SA VIGILANTES

 

Bisan sa pagarpar ni PRO 7 Chief Silverio Alarcio ug sa ubang kadagkoan sa kapolisan, klarong taphaw ug marka pataka ang pagpada dinhi sa Sugbo sa kapin na sa 1,000 ka mga polis gikan sa Mindanao ug ubang bahin sa Kabisay-an:

• Way giandam nga mga pinuy-anan alang sa dayo nga kapolisan, nga ang lokal nang mga opisyal maoy nagkara-kara pagtolda-tolda nila ug ang mga dayo maoy nahadiin-diin pagpangita og mga pansayan;
• Way klaro unsay ilang mga gimbuhaton dinhi sa tulo ka buwan nilang pagpaabot sa Asean Summit, maong kasagaran nila morang nagbakasyon nga nagsuroy-suroy sa shopping malls ug ang nagbarug-barog sa kadalanan sige lang tabi nga maputol lang kon sal-otan og text; ug
• Pipila sa mga polis wa nang kadawat sa ilang suholan ug mga benepisyo, kay klarong wa mahikay sa Kampo Crame ug sa ilang gigikanan nga units, sukad sila nahiabot dinhi sa Sugbo.

-o0o-

Kon di pa tungod sa pagtulis ug pagpatay sa manager sa bangko nga si Narciso Damole, di unta matarantar silang Alarcio ug ubang kadagkoan sa pagsubli sa nagkatuiris nga deployment sa kapolisan ug di unta magpagawal si Mandaue City Mayor Teddy Ouano sa iyang 72 oras nga ultimatum ni Mandaue City Police Chief Eduardo Catabas pagsulbad sa krimen. Bahala na lang ang nahaunang gagmayng mga biktima, sama sa naandan, mapugwat lang ang kagamhanan ug ang kapolisan kon duna nay dagkong isda nga maigo.

Mahimo ba sang pahamtangan og ultimatum ang kapolisan sa pagsulbad sa uban pang mga kaso sa tulis ug pagpatay, bisan di sama kadako ug kaadunahan ni Damole ang mga biktima? Apan usa ka beteranong opisyal sa kapolisan nipasidaan nga ang ultimatum way kapuslanan. Kon wa gyoy mga saksi, di gyod masulbad ang mga kaso. Apan aron lang di marelibohan, peligrong mapugos silang Catabas ug ubang mga imbestigador pagposas na lang ni bisan kinsa aron mahilom silang Ouano ug ubang mga politiko nga igo lang nagpa-papel.

-o0o-

Hain na mang pasalig ni Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena ug ubang nakapusta sa vigilantes nga ang laktod nga pagpamatay sa suspitsadong mga kriminal makapaislag sa mga badlungon sa katilingban ug makapatidlom sa kriminalidad? Nganong human nga dul-an na sa 200 ang napatay sa mga vigilantes, padayon mang nisaka ang krimen suma sa pag-angkon ni Cebu City Police Chief Melvin Gayotin?

Andam na bang moangkon si Mayor Osmena ug ang ubang mga utok-pulbora nga di patay maoy solusyon, hinunoa makapasamot pa hinuon, si kriminalidad? O magpa-goryo-goryo lang gihapon ug kinahanglan pang mobanaw ang dugang dugo una sila makamatngon nga kon ipatigbabaw nilang pagyatak sa balaod ug sa tawhanong mga katungod, wa silay kalainan sa labing bangis nga mga kriminal nga ilang gigukod? [30] leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Arangkada for September 22, 2006

 

 

                ADLAW SA PANUDYA

 

Makabuylo na gyong imbestigasyon sa mga pasangil sa pangurakot batok sa napalagpot nga primero ministro sa Thailand nga si Thaksin Shinawatra.  Ang pakisusi ni Auditor General Jaruvan Maintaka mahimong mosangpot sa pagkasakmit sa nagbuntaog nga katigayonan ni Thaksin ug sa iyang pamilya.  Dungan sa iyang pangangkon sa pagpalambo sa ekonomiya sa Thailand, si Thaksin gipasanginlan sang nigamit sa iyang gahom pagpaburot sa mga patigayon sa iyang pamilya.

       Si Jaruvan, gitawag og "Iron Lady" tungod sa talagsaong kaisog, mao ray nakaako pag-imbestigar sa labing menos 14 ka kadudahang mga transaksiyon ni Thaksin.   Tungod sa kamaginukdanon ni Thaksin, si Jaruvan dugay ra untang nakulban sa kaldero.  Apan ang suporta nga iyang nadawat gikan sa hinigugmang hari sa Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, nga gikatahong nahasol na sab pag-ayo sa giingong pangurakot ni Thaksin, maoy nakapabilin niya sa katungdanan.  Laing 100 ka dagkong politiko ug mga negosyante, nga gipasanginlang mga kakonsabo ni Thaksin, apilon sab sa imbestigasyon.

-o0o-

       Ang mga pasangil batok ni Thaksin, bisan sa kaseryuso ug kamahinungdanon, wa matarung pagsusi tungod sa hingpit niyang pagkontrolar sa kagamhanan.   Ang iyang paghigpit sa media ug ang pagtudlo sa iyang mga batabata sa Election Commission maoy nakahatag niya og makabungog nga mayoriya sa niaging tulo na ka piniliay.   Karon natangtang na sa gahom, masusi na gyod ang tanan niyang tinagoan.

       Nga mao say mahitabo sa mga pasangil batok ni Pres. Arroyo ug sa iyang pamilya.   Wa kaugpo ang mga pasangil sa pagpangawat ug pagpanikas sa eleksiyon tungod sa makabungog niyang mayoriya sa Kongreso ug hingpit nga pagkontrolar sa Comelec.   Ang kontrobersiya sa charter change (cha-cha) maoy motion kon magawongan bang bag-ong mayoriya sa Korte Suprema nga iyang mga tinudlo.

-o0o-

       Apan di mahitabo nga katagoan ni Pres. Arroyo ang kamatuoran hangtod sa kahangturan.   Moabot gyong panahon nga kinahanglan niyang atubangon ug tubagon ang tanang mga pasangil nga iya rong gilikay-likayan.

       Kay gawas nga di siya mahimong magpabilin sa gahom hangtod sa hangtod, ang katawhang Pilipinhon di sab mahitabong molingiw na lang sab hangtod sa kataposan sa kalibotan sa ilang gimbuhaton pagpakisayod unsay nahitabo sa ilang katigayonan ug sa ilang balaanong katungod sa pagpili.

-o0o-

       Bisan sa kadako sa iyang gahom ug kalapad sa iyang katigayonan, way laing mahimo si Pres. Arroyo gawas sa pagpaabot unsay mag-una:   Ang iya bang pagkapukan sa gahom o ang pagtimbakuwas ba sa kinabag-an sa ligdong nga katawhan?

       Ug kon naglaom siyang duphan sa iyang gisipsipan pag-ayong Estados Unidos, maayo tingaling panaminan ang nahitabo ni Thaksin:   Samtang gisupak sa US ang kudeta ug ang martial law sa Thailand, igo lang niawhag nga ibalik ang kagamhanan ngadto sa mga sibilyan, wa na maghisgot nga ibalik ang ilang pinangga nga si Thaksin sa katungdanan.   [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Arangkada for September 21, 2006

 

       GILUBATLUBATAN

 

Dunay di makatug og tarung ning pagkalagpot ni Thaksin Shinawatra isip primero ministro sa Thailand human sa malinawong kudeta nga gilusad sa militar. Si Thaksin nakalingkawas sa lapad nga protesta tungod sa sibaw nga pasangil sa pangurakot batok niya ug sa iyang pamilya. Iyang nabaraw ang tanang pagsuway pagpalagpot niya sa gahom pinaagi sa bay balaoranan tungod sa hingpit niyang pagkontrolar sa nagkalainlaing mga institusyon sa Thailand, gawas nga way klarong lider nga makailis niya. Ang labing makapakugang mao nga nahitabo ang kudeta dihang nahilom nang mga protesta sa kadalanan.

Si Pres. Arroyo nakalingkawas sab sa lapad nga protesta batok niya. Gipasanginlan sab siya ug ang iyang pamilya sa grabeng pangurakot. Hingpit sang iyang pagkontrolar sa nagkalainlaing mga institusyon, gawas nga way klarong lider ang oposisyon nga makailis niya. Ang labing makapabugnaw sa simod sa Malakanyang mao nga nahilom nang mga protesta sa kadalanan. Sama gyod sa nahitabo sa Thailand sa wa pang kudeta.

-o0o-

Si Thaksin nga nangangkon og suporta sa kinabag-an sa mga Thai gipalayas gikan sa gahom nga way bisan usa sa iyang mga dumadapig nga nipakita og bisan gamay na lang lama sa kahinugon. Kay nawad-an na man sa iyang dagway, si Thaksin napugos pagkanselar sa iyang diskurso sa General Assembly sa United Nations sa New York. Gituohang adto siya motago uban sa iyang pamilya sa London.

Si Pres. Arroyo nga nangangkon og suporta sa kinabag-an sa mga Pilipinhon lingion pa kaha sa iyang mga dumadapig kon mao nay mapalayas sa gahom? Di ba kaha nga ang iyang mga hinanib nga kuwang na lang og dyutay nga motila sa iyang lapalapa maglumbaanay ra sab pagpanglayat ug paghapa-hapa atubangan sa mga lider nga makapuli niya sa gahom? Kon mahisama siyang Thaksin, asa man layas si Pres. Arroyo ug ang mga sakop sa iyang pamilya?

-o0o-

Ang nangu sa kudeta, Heneral Sondhi Boonyaratklin, nipasabot pila ka takna human niya ipaubos ang Thailand sa martial law nga kinahanglan silang molihok kay nabuak-buak nang mga Thai, nikuyanap nang pangurakot sa nagkalainlaing mga ahensiya sa kagamhanan ug inanay nang giguba ni Thaksin ang demokratikanhong mga institusyon sa nasud.

Makasalig si Pres. Arroyo nga si AFP Chief Hermogenes Espero di mahimong laing Sondhi. Apan pulihi ang dagway ni Sondhi ni bisan kinsang junior officer nga wa pa mawad-i sa iyang gugma sa nasud ug sa katawhan ug labing seguro samang mga pung ang iyang gamiton pagpatin-aw sa ilang pag-alsa batok sa presidente.

-o0o-

Samtang nagtungkawo pa sa gahom, si Thaksin nipasidaan nga magkaguliyang ang Thailand kon tangtangon siya sa katungdanan. Pagkabantay sa kudeta, ang mga Thai naglumba pagpaletrato tapad sa mga tangke ug rebeldeng mga sundawo.

Laing pahinumdom ngadtong Pres. Arroyo nga kaalaotan maoy sangkoan sa pagtuo sa iyang kaugalingong propaganda. [30] leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Arangkada for September 20, 2006

 

      KINSAY UTOK?

 

Karong nakonbikto na si SPO1 Marcial Ocampo, mahimo bang mopasabot ang kapolisan nganong hangtod karon wa pa mailhi ang utok sa pagpatay ni Elpidio "Jojo" dela Victoria? Ang kapaspas sa husay sa kaso, nga nahuman sud lang sa tunga sa tuig, nakapabantang lang sa kaluya ug kataphaw sa imbestigasyon pag-ila sa mastermind sa pagpatay ni dela Victoria. Nga gikahadlokang nahunong dihang gipasaka ang kaso sa korte ug nalinga nang mga Sugbuanon sa husay ug sa mas bag-o ug mas dagkong mga kontrobersiya.

Ang gikahadlokang pagpangiyugpos lang sa kapolisan pag-ila sa ubang nahilambigit sa bangis nga pagpatay ni dela Victoria nagmatuod nga dagko gyong isda ang utok sa krimen ug busa, mahimo ba, nga mopakpak ug matagbaw na lang ang katawhan nga tambasakan nga si Ocampo, bisan napamatud-ang way atraso ni pagdumot sa biktima, mao na lay ibala sa kanyon iyawat mahilom ang sibaw nga awhag sa hustisya?

-o0o-

Ang sunudsunod nga pagpamatay sa mga sakop sa media, nalambigit man sa ilang trabaho o wa, tipik lang sa mas dakong eskandalo: Ang wa mabadlong nga pagpamatay ug bangis nga pagpanamastamas di lang sa mga aktibista kon dili hasta na sa kasarangang mga molupyo. Busa ang pakigbisog batok sa pagpamatay sa mga komentarista ug mga peryodista angayng himuong kabahin sa mas dakong kawsa pagbaraw sa nisulbong nga kriminalidad sa kinatibuk-an sa katilingban.

Samtang way klarong ebidensiya nga maglambigit sa kadagkoan sa kagamhanan sa naghitak nga pagpamatay ug pagpanghasi, ang pamunoan gihapon ni Pres. Arroyo ang angayng tulisukon. Ang ilang kapakyas pagsulbad sa mga kaso ug pagsilot di lang sa mga mamumuno kon dili apil na sa mga utok sa krimen, gawas nga nakahudlat sa sistema sa hustisya mahimong makadasig pa sa ubang mga kriminal, apil nang kurakot nga mga politiko ug abusadong mga magpapatigayon, pagamit sab og puwersa paghipos sa ilang mga kaatbang—masakop man sila sa media, aktibista o utangan lang.

-o0o-

Ang mga pruyba sa kalambigitan sa labing dagkong opisyal sa kagamhanan sa laktod nga mga pagpamatay, samtang di kabarug sa hukmanan, makahasol kaayo nga di angayng palabyon lang kay posibleng gihimo silang mga irong buang nga gibuhian pagpasidaan sa mga kaatbang sa administrasyon:

• Si Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte nga gituohang maoy nagbuhi sa mga vigilantes sa habagatang Mindanao gisuod pag-ayo sa Malakanyang ug gihimo pang presidential adviser sa seguridad;
• Si Retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan nga gipasanginlang berdugo nga maoy niluba sa mga aktibista paspas kaayong gipatongan og mga bituon ug gitanyagang himuong luyuluyong National Security Adviser bisan sa wa pa moretiro sa serbisyo; ug
• Si Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena nga way pupanaganang nagsubli-subli nga mas ganahan siya sa mga vigilantes kay sa mga abogado inay pilpilon gihatagan hinuon og dakong katungdanan sa Asean Summit. [30] leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Arangkada for September 19, 2006

 

       LUOY UG GUTOM

 

Ang National Food Authority (NFA) way mga ebidensiya nga gihuptan pagmatuod sa gikatahong pagbaha sa smuggled rice dinhi sa Sugbo. Apan ang tigpamaba sa NFA nga si Ernesto Lariosa niangkon nga naghinobra ang suplay sa bugas humay nga nitidlom pag-ayo ang halin sa NFA nga ilang gipamaligya sa nagkalainlaing merkado aron unta pagtapak sa kakuwang sa suplay ug pagpugong sa patuyang nga pagsaka sa presyo sa commercial rice.

Matod ni Lariosa lisod ipatin-aw ang nag-awas-awas nga suplay sa bugas humay sa Sugbo kay wa man mosulbong ang produksiyon sa mga umahan sa Luzon ug Mindanao. Si Lariosa nipasabot sa DYAB Abante Bisaya nga usa sa posibleng katin-awan sa abundang suplay mao ang mga pasangil sa pagsiaw sa rice smuggling agi sa mga pantalan sa Sugbo sukad pa sa niaging tuig.

-o0o-

Ang mga magpapatigayon sa bugas maoy labing nahibawo sa kiat sa rice smugglers sa Sugbo. Pila ka semana sa di pa modunggo ang mga barko nga gikargahan sa pinayuhot nga bugas, duna nay mga ahente nga nanungko sa labing dagkong mga bodega ug tindahan pagtanyag sa labihan kabarato nilang imported nga bugas. Napugos sila pagdawat sa kahadlok nga langawon ang mas mahal nilang lokal nga bugas ug magpiyesta ang ilang mga kumpetinsiya kon mao ray makigkonsabo sa gamhanang pundok sa rice smugglers.

Tak-om ang ilang mga baba sa kahadlok nga maduhig sa kontrobersiya. Maong di mahitabong mokanta sila ngadto sa NFA ug bisan sa ilang kahugpongan, ang Grains Retailers Confederation (Grecon). Apan ang mga magpapatigayon mismo nabalaka nga kon di mabaraw ang smuggling, mahimo silang inutil pagpugong sa nag-ung-ong nga grabeng krisis sa bugas.

-o0o-

Tungod sa nagbaha nga smuggled rice, gibalibaran sa mga magpapatigayon sa Sugbo ang ilang mga suki sa Luzon ug Mindanao. Ug kay di man mahimo nga maghuwat ang ilang mga suki kanus-a mabasiyo ang mga bodega sa Sugbo, napugos sila pagtumod sa natanggong nilang sinakong bugas ngadto sa laing dapit ug sa pagpangita og bag-ong mga suki.

Ang smuggled rice sa Sugbo di molungtad hangtod sa hangtod. Kon di mokihol ang Bureau of Customs ug ubang ahensiya, maapsan sila sa pagpasaka sa presyo sa ubang kanasuran. Kon moabot nang adlawa, magkara-kara ang mga magpapatigayon pagpangita og bag-ong suppliers sa bugas kay nasimang na sa laing dapit ang naandan nilang mga tinubdan.

-o0o-

Arang-arang na lang ang mga magpapatigayon kay kon magkina-unsa duna pa may hiniposan nga makuot aron paglatas sa tinggutom. Ang mga mag-uuma nga maoy labing natangkugo sa rice smuggling kinahanglang manglayas gikan sa ilang umahan aron mabuhi.

Laing tigdawat sa santako mao ang mga konsumidor. Bisan sa abundang suplay, wa silang kapahimus sa baratong presyo sa bugas. Ug kon hingpit nang magusbat ang industriya sa bugas, silay malunosan sa gutom. [30] leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Kini ang Sakto nga Panghinulsul!

Forgive me, Father, for I have guns...

Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:33 AM ET


MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - A priest in Germany got more than he bargained for during confession when a man not only declared his sins, but also handed over a machine gun and a hand grenade, police in Bavaria said Tuesday.

"He also gave the priest a cardboard box with a clown's face and the words 'Red Nose Day March 26, 2004' on it containing 34 cartridges of 7.65 mm caliber," police said in a statement.

The priest from the southern town of Pfarrkirchen turned in the weapons to police but told them church rules governing confession prevented him from revealing the man's identity.
"It's unclear as to whether the church has forgiven the sinner, but specialists in Bavaria's regional crime agency who are bound to earthly laws are now investigating the matter in accordance with gun control laws," police said.

Okay, tell me once more how this happened?

Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:24 AM ET


BERLIN (Reuters) - A German youth who tied himself to a foldaway bed because he was bored was rescued by police after becoming trapped in its mechanism, officials said on Tuesday.

Neighbors alerted the police in the western German town of Schwelm after hearing the 16-year-old's cries for help late on Monday night.

When police entered the apartment, they found the bed had folded itself away and the red-faced youth was tied upside down to it with a tow-rope and wire and unable to free himself.

"He said he did it because he was bored," said Dietmar Trust, a spokesman for the local police. "He was visibly embarrassed but it was also a pretty amusing situation."

Halad sa Maayong Morning ug Tabang Patrol

Help raise funds for indigents' medicines and win
exciting prizes!

Maayong Morning and Tabang Patrol team up for a cause
at the "Halad sa Kapamilya" at the Plaza Independencia
on Sunday, November 6.

An activity of ABS-CBN and Radio Station DYAB 1512,
"Halad" is a public service project that includes a
medical-dental mission as well as seminars on
livelihood and skills enhancement.

To participate in the Maayong Morning-Tabang Patrol
fund drive, simply donate a minimal amount to get a
raffle ticket for a chance to win handsome prizes such
as cellcards, Southwall magazines and many more.

Hosted by Ahmed Cuizon and Tisha Ylaya, Maayong
Morning is a news and public affairs program that
airs Saturdays from 5:30 to 8:00 AM over DYAB 1512.

A Golden Dove Awardee as Best Public Service Radio
Program, Tabang Patrol airs daily from 12:30 to 2:30
PM over DYAB. It is hosted by veteran radioman Dave
Tumulak.

So, watch out for the Maayong Morning-Tabang Patrol
joint booth during the "Halad sa Kapamilya" at the
Plaza Independencia!.

Call DYAB Absolutely FREE

DYAB AM is the only radio station in the Philippines which you can call from anywhere in the world absolutely free.  Thanks to DB Edwards' VOIP technology through iNTouch, you can call us from 4 a.m. to 12 midnight (Philippine time), Mondays to Fridays.  All you need is a headset.

 

You can greet your Kapamilyas in Cebu and the Visayas and Mindanao over the AM radio station of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. in Cebu Philippines .  You can also use our Internet Phone to air public service announcements for your families and friends in the Philippines.

 

Or you can tell us situationers/updates/comments about major news events in your place of work or urgent concerns of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).  Let DYAB AM serve as your bridge to government agencies which can help you or your loved ones, like the Dept. of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Office of the President, local government units (LGUs) and private employment and placement agencies.

 

Bawat Pinoy Kapamilya.

 

Tawag Na!

Call DYAB Absolutely Free

Thanks to DB Edwards' iNTouch VOIP technology, you can now call DYAB AM from wherever in the globe by simply clicking on Leo Lastimosa's picture. You can call during Arangkada's time slot, 6-10 a.m., RP Time.

Ah, The Youth

Passion For Reason : On teaching the Nintendo generation

Raul Pangalangan
Inquirer News Service

IT USED to be easier to teach the public law cases on martial law and human rights. I began teaching law in 1984, the year I became a lawyer, and my students at the University of the Philippines then truly felt what they were studying. Over the next decades, it was no longer enough just to assign the traditional judicial decisions, which are the daily grind of law students. I took to assigning the more literary and moving journalistic accounts (more reader-friendly too); or a 1970s vintage human rights update by the Association of Major Religious Superiors; or a martial law-era autopsy report saying that the "patient" drank a bottle of acid while confined at the V. Luna Hospital. If the topic was comfort women, I'd show a sepia-toned photograph of the aggrieved grandmothers in their teens, their age when they were kidnapped and enslaved.

I do not think this is because today's youth care less, but it's more because their minds work differently. We must not judge them by the metaphors of the grim and determined activists of the 1970s and early 1980s.

First, we have provided them only a sparse record by which to remember the past. Elsewhere in the world, periods of impunity were documented through truth commissions organized by the state, e.g., South Africa, El Salvador or Argentina. We have deliberately avoided the truth, believing it more expedient to forget. There was never any closure, judicial or popular, to that dark chapter in our nation's life, and our collective psyche is forever hobbled by the questions left unanswered.

Second, today's youth may be attuned to their own way of "remembering." Historically, societies have done their remembering through huge public monuments, around which humongous public rallies gather annually to mark important events. The French have their magnificent statues, like Napoleon's giant tomb; we have our own, some of them imposing like Jose Rizal's at the Luneta and Andres Bonifacio's at Monumento, others a bit too literal and unimaginative, like that sculpture of Ninoy falling down the steps to the tarmac. Mao used to have his grand parades at Tienanmen Square, where he mobilized millions in well-choreographed displays of mass control; we have, of course, our own Manila-scale attempts at the Quirino Grandstand.

I doubt if these ways of remembering "connects" with the Nintendo (or Playstation) generation. The sheer passage of time may have reduced the annual September 21 commemoration to just another boring ritual, long on speeches, short on heartfelt meaning. Yet, precisely, the Nintendo generation is impatient with speeches and more attuned to the yearnings of the heart. It has been said half in jest that theirs is the age of "Oprah-fication," when the great public questions of the time are answered in human, personal terms. The goal is to be able to say, as Bill Clinton did, "I feel your pain."

That is why we must explore fresh new ways to make them feel our martial law-era pains. Last year, I brought my kids to the Ayala Museum, where they saw (in addition to the diorama of Philippine history) a documentary on the martial law years. By their questions, I realized that what was "current events" for my generation is classroom history ("Araling Panlipunan") to theirs.

But that wouldn't have been a problem for the oldies, because for us, it was okay for history to be boring and distant, nourishment for the mind but not for the heart, something we studied because it would be "asked in the exam." The Nintendo generation is more demanding.

To start with, the oldies were satisfied with books without pictures, all the information presented in linear form, black-and-white text written from left to right, top to bottom. The newbies think in wild vibrant color. If you describe an event, they want to see the photos, not someone else's description of what happened. They want the facts, not someone else's spin-doctored summary. And while statistics are okay, they prefer to hear a person telling his story. The older generation might hem and haw that that story is just one man's, and is therefore biased and personal, but the new generation says, "That's exactly why we want to hear it! That is what makes it authentic!" The older generation searched for objective standards before which the public must bow. The newbies seek personal causes by which they can stand firm before a cold and unforgiving public. Oldies want to be true to a cause; newbies prefer to be true to the innermost self.

The Nintendo generation remembers best through audio-visual media, or what the oldies might see as People Power through PowerPoint. You see, when kids play videogames, they control everything, just by using their thumbs. When at play, a kid lives in that separate universe constructed inside their heads. That is why my kids love watching "The Matrix," and then they turn around and explain it to me.

Recent reports say that our youth wouldn't mind a return to dictatorship, presumably more benign than in the 1970s, while becoming increasingly indifferent to activist elders (or should I say elderly activists) who memorialize the glorious battles in the democratic struggle in times past. The kids know not whereof they speak, but we must tell them more stories, and tell those stories better, if we expect them to remember. The future is in their hands, more specifically, their thumbs. Judge Learned Hand said: "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it."

The French

Sense and Sensibility : The French in the Philippines (2)

Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service

ALTHOUGH our relations with France may not be as comprehensive as the ones with China, Spain and the United States, France was the first country to have a consul here, a certain Adolphe Barrot, in 1835. He rented a house in the district of San Miguel, beside the Pasig River, where eventually toward the end of the 19th century, a large brewery that we all know was located and took the name of the church and the district. Eventually, it relocated to the Malate district and then to Escolta Street, in the same building as La Estrella del Norte, which belonged to the Levy family.

At the time of Barrot's tenure, there were fewer than 10 Frenchmen in the country: "two doctors, one planter (la Gironier), one trader (Vidie who eventually bought Jala-Jala from the former), one agent, Genu, one plantation manager, one gold seeker, and one military man in the service of Spain. In 1843, there was a carriage-maker who did very well; in 1847, a band master who left his ship to supervise the music of the Manila Garrison, and in 1853, an engineer, F. Gabaud, was awarded the Legion of Honor for building the first suspension bridge in the country." By 1857, their number had grown to 26, with 20 living in Manila, two in Iloilo, one in Cebu, one in Jala-Jala, one on Negros Island, and one in Camarines Province. In 1891, there were seven jewelers, a drapes-maker, a dressmaker and three professors.

You'd be amused to learn that the ladies wanted a French couture house to be established in Manila and that the three jewelers, the Ullmans, Greilsammers and Levys, "struck it rich…through Mexican piaster-smuggling, the sale of French perfume imitations and flooding of cheap German goods under the French label."

In May 11, 1805, Captain Motard of the ship Semillante, while escorting a galleon to Acapulco, was forced into combat with a British cruiser, Phaeton, and a brig, Harrier, in San Jacinto Bay (Ticao Island, Albay). With the help of the parish priest and the people, he succeeded in subduing the enemy but lost four men with 10 others wounded. Upon leaving, he presented the priest with 12 guns and 200 pounds of gunpowder. The priest was also invited to the burial of one of the soldiers who died. Engraved in copper over his tomb in the church was an inscription: "Francois Gois, ensign of the frigate Semillante, led by Captain Motard, officer of the Legion of Honor, killed in battle, which this frigate of 36 cannon fought against a British frigate of 44 and a corvette of 20 cannonade … in San Jacinto of Ticao, of the Philippine Islands, on 14 Thermidor Year XIII. His body lies here and his comrades offered this token of their memories and regrets."

And if that church has not been remodeled beyond recognition by some zealous and ignorant parish priest or felled by an earthquake or gutted by fire, Ensign Gois' bones should still be lying beneath his inscription under this foreign sky.

I did say I wasn't going to dwell on Gironiere since many of you are already familiar with his book, "Vingt Annees aux Philippines" (1853), except to mention two things. One is that he left the Philippines in 1836 after a series of misfortunes where he lost his first daughter, his wife, his son and his brother. He returned to the Philippines in 1857 where he managed the sugar plantation of the Roxases in Calauang town in Laguna province. Apropos of nothing but curiosity, in connection with Calauang, in the church is a marble sepulchral tablet with an inscription to a lady with the surname Punzalan Vda. de Roxas. Since her name does not appear in the genealogical tree of the present-day Makati Roxases, could she be of the Hidden Valley Roxases?

Discouraged by a policy that wasn't particularly friendly to foreign investors (during the entire period of Spanish domination, there was never a French bank, their consuls had no jurisdiction over their nationals and there were numerous impediments to trade; to be fair, other foreigners had difficulties as well), the French also regarded natural calamities as another drawback. In 1880, an earthquake leveled agricultural developer Daillard's enterprise as well as the consul's residence. The latter reported that his furniture which may have had some value once "no longer has any."

The following year, a cyclone tore off the roof of the French consulate and shattered doors and windows. The consul sat on a pile of furniture writing his report. "I camp here," he wrote, "as if in the field of battle..."

The cholera epidemic that broke out in the same year claimed 100,000 victims, including the American consul and 10 French nationals. A scandal swept through the small foreign community in 1890 when the consul Nodot died in office, leaving behind a debt of 27 piastres and 300 unpaid empty bottles of wine!

The opinions of various French observers also make interesting reading. Here is Lavolee's take: "From the purely material point of view, are the Spanish friars not correct to say that the inhabitants of the Philippines are the happiest beings in the world?"

That was more than a hundred years ago. And Time Magazine recently reported the same thing: We're still the happiest idiots in the world. Nobody's attributing it to the fact that we might be laughing because it's too painful to cry.

(Data from Denis Nardin's thesis, "France and the Philippines," 1974.)

Expect The Worst

Youngblood : Pessimistic but happy

Skilty Labastilla
Inquirer News Service

I'M NOT really a big fan of philosophical discussions. In college, whenever classmates or friends would start to argue over some philosophical ideas, I automatically tune off. I'd rather count the hair on the back of my hand than involve myself in debates that generally go along these lines:

Friend 1: What do you call that thing that you're sitting on?

Friend 2: Uhh, a chair?

Friend 1: Are you sure that it's a chair and not just some idea of a chair? If I tell you that you're just sitting on a word, would I be wrong? What if I tell you that without words, you're just sitting on air? It's all semantics, man.

Friend 2: The problem with postmodernists like you is that you turn everything on its head. You're, like, the philosophical version of the League of Filipino Students: you go against everything the system does. I'm sitting on a chair, period. I don't have to lose sleep over whether the chair I'm sitting on is really an elephant. I have other things to worry about, thank you.

Friend 1: You don't understand, man. I'm not even being a postmodernist here. It's closer to existentialism, actually. Man is the pilot of his life. He doesn't need a system to live his own life. He defines things around him and manipulates these things to achieve his goals.

Friend 2: Whatever, man.

Well, the last line is not what Friend 2 would normally say. That's what I would've said had I taken part in the conversation. And usually, the argument would go on and on and on.

That's why it's funny that I would want to share the philosophy I subscribe to these days. But then I want more people to feel happy amid the present difficulties. The gist of my philosophy is: Expect the worst. To illustrate the point, I will cite some examples:

You wake up in the morning, expecting a splitting headache. When you realize you really don't have one, you become happy.

You go out of the house, expecting a heavy downpour. But then the sun is shining brightly and it puts a smile on your face.

You ride a jeep, anticipating heavy traffic. It turns out that the jeepney driver is a Michael Schumacher wannabe and you arrive at your destination in no time. You feel so blessed.

You expect higher prices of commodities but still get your money's worth after shopping. You're on Cloud Nine.

You court a girl and expect to be turned down. When she finally turns you down, it doesn't sting as much.

You don't expect to finish your thesis on time. Months after the deadline, you still don't fret too much about it.

You elect a president and expect him/her to be corrupt. When corruption is exposed, you don't go to the Edsa highway anymore because you had expected it to happen, in the first place.

I'm sure you get my drift by now. By expecting the worst of everything, you prepare yourself to be disappointed. When something bad happens, you don't feel so awful because you anticipated it. When something good happens, it cheers you up because you expected something bad.

If more people would only think this way, then more people we meet on the street would be wearing smiles and whistling lively tunes.

Tom Cruise has attracted more people to Scientology. I hope to attract more people to Skiltology. If you think what I'm saying is nonsense, you can still tell your friends about it. Maybe they'd be more willing to try it.

But of course, I am not expecting that they would.

Skilty Labastilla, 25, is taking up MS Social Development at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Ghosts of History

Commentary : The ghosts of history in East Asia

Antonio Chun-nan Chiang
Inquirer News Service

THIS year marks the centenary of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and last Aug. 15, many countries commemorated the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific.

Of course, Japan's military dominance in East Asia, which began with the Russo-Japanese War and led to World War II, is no more. But the ghosts of this history still hangs over in East Asia, with each country struggling to find ways to deal with the past.

China is a benchmark. Over the centuries, Japan and China have taken turns dominating East Asia, and both now seek to assert regional hegemony. Historically, the Korean Peninsula was the playground for this rivalry, but, with North and South Korea appearing to make peace with each other, South Korea is also staking a claim to regional influence.

Resentment over past wrongs buttresses all of these rival claims for influence.

During his visit to the United States in June, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told President George W. Bush that China had invaded Korea over 100 times in history. His remarks shocked China, which views itself as the victim of invasions (most humiliatingly, by the Japanese) and has forgotten its own history of bullying its neighbors.

Roh also openly criticizes Japan for its cowardice in not facing up to its historic war crimes, saying that it does not deserve a seat on the UN Security Council. Japan long colonized Korea, and during World War II, Koreans were forced to join the Japanese Imperial Army-a situation similar to that of Taiwan. But, whereas the struggle between China and Japan for dominance over Korea was the focal point of the East Asian drama, Taiwan was but a side-show, a mere outpost to the Imperial Qing Dynasty, while Korea was a vassal paying tribute to China.

After defeating both the Qing Dynasty and Russia, Japan not only gained control over the Korean Peninsula but also extended its reach deep into Northeast China. As East Asia's "Big Brother," Japan's Kwantung Army founded Manchukuo, in Northeast China, in 1932. Japan wanted Manchukuo to become what India was to Britain or what Algeria was to France-a crown jewel of the empire-and sent a million immigrants (800,000 of whom died there after post-war Manchukuo was taken over by Russia) while investing huge sums to develop heavy industry.

Japan's Nanjing government in China under Wang Jingwei was like Germany's Vichy government in France under Henri Philippe Pétain. Both men were treated as traitors after the war ended. By contrast, as a result of long colonization, Taiwan and Korea had developed a complex of both resistance and reliance toward their rulers. With only a few exceptions, the local elite was assimilated into the colonial system.

But the outcome was similar throughout the region following Japan's defeat in World War II. Civil war broke out in China, the Korean Peninsula was divided and the other Southeast Asian colonies, with the sole exception of Thailand, resorted to military force to achieve independence.

China has still failed to face up to the history of Manchukuo and its civil war, not to mention opening the secret files concerning Mao Zedong's decision to send almost a million soldiers into the Korean War. South Korea initiated talks with the Japanese government only recently on retrieving the remains of Korean slave workers. More than 20,000 Taiwanese and about the same number of Korean soldiers who died for Imperial Japan are worshipped in Japan's Yasukuni shrine. And recently, some civil groups in both countries started to demand the return of the remains of their countries' soldiers interred at Yasukuni.

Taiwan's delayed reawakening reflects the early reliance of its nationalist government on protection from the United States and assistance from Japan. Chiang Kaishek had no choice but to return good for evil by abjuring compensation claims on Japan, as well as by secretly arranging for the Kwantung Army's ex-chief of staff to join Taiwan's efforts in confronting the communists. Japan has never apologized for its colonization of Taiwan, and the Taiwanese had no opportunity for historical reflection during 30 years of martial law.

This spring, anti-Japanese demonstrations broke out almost simultaneously in both China and Korea, with both countries seeking to place the memory of Japanese dominance in the service of building a new national identity and strategic position. So we can expect that, like the events in May to mark 60 years since the end of World War II in Europe, Asia's commemoration of the end of the war in the Pacific will expose lingering -- and still raw -- historical sensitivities. Unlike in Europe, however, historical memory in Asia continues to be wedded to current strategic ambitions.

One hundred years ago, the rise of Japanese military power changed the fate of Asia. Sixty years ago, the demise of Japanese power changed Asia's fate again. Today, as China rises in wealth and power to rival Japan, Asia holds its breath, waiting for the ghosts of history to disappear.

Antonio Chun-nan Chiang was deputy secretary general of Taiwan's National Security Council from 2000 to 2004.

Magsaysay Awards

Kris-Crossing Mindanao : Laureates

Antonio Montalvan II
Inquirer News Service

DAW Tee Tee Luce was a housewife in Burma when she provided abandoned street children in her native Rangoon not just with a roof but most importantly, with a home and the heart of a mother. Distressed by the growing incidence of crime, Daw spent a year studying the roots and breeding grounds of Burma's deserted children. In 1928, the Children's Aid and Protection Society she had established (with the help of spirited citizens) had put up the Home for Waifs and Strays. The "Home" lives to this day in Burma, also providing formal and physical education, as well as skills training in useful crafts.

In 1959, Daw was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, as an outstanding humanitarian with a great compassion for the downcast of society.

Pedro Tamesis Orata, a Filipino, is the father of the barrio high school movement for the rural youth of the Philippines. Born in Pangasinan in 1899, Orata earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1927. In 1934, he was a professor in his alma mater, where he experimented on establishing a community school for a Native American reservation in South Dakota. That set forth his compelling personal philosophy about education as a universal birthright. In 1941, he returned to the Philippines, only to end up in a Japanese concentration camp.

After the Liberation in 1945, Orata returned to his native Urdaneta where he began pursuing his vision of barrio high schools, a rather unthinkable venture at that time as high school education was available then only in the provincial capital towns of the country. But in no time, Orata had 15 barrio schools. When he was 65 years old, barrio high schools could be found in 43 provinces and six cities. The citation in his 1971 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service singled out Orata's insistence that rural youth equally deserved to be given the opportunities available to those that are open to their urban counterparts.

Orata's vision provided the impetus to the development of an educated Filipino citizenry, even as it gave millions of Filipinos in rural areas hope of a brighter future.

Enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan was a principle assuring citizens of equality and equal protection before the law. But changes in the political landscape "weakened" that principle such that the assault, rape and murder of Pakistani women (who, most often, have no effective recourse to justice) became commonplace. Pakistani woman-lawyer Asma Jahangir changed all that. Jahangir was only 18 years old when her father was arrested by Pakistan's martial law government. Upon finishing her law studies at the age of 28, she organized a law firm that catered mostly to women-clients who found her as their only hope under the most vexing circumstances. As her clientele grew, Jahangir broadened her role in reforming her country's society, but not without paying a severe price for it. In 1984, the military dictatorship of Zia-ul Haq imprisoned her for sedition. Meanwhile, her law firm continued its defense of women by pleading forcefully against laws that discriminated against women. Her free legal aid center published reader-friendly pamphlets and had a team of paralegal assistants that educated women on their legal rights. Her valiant efforts paid off with important victories in the Pakistani Supreme Court. Today, her struggle-for the repeal of unjust laws legitimized by theocracy and lawlessness-continues. In electing Asma Jahangir to receive the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the foundation recognized her struggle for religious tolerance in her country, and with it her fight for equal treatment and protection of Pakistani women before the law.

We are in the annual season of what is considered Asia's Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards. This Wednesday, Aug. 31-following tradition-the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) will honor six outstanding Asians from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Korea and Thailand, two of them women, with the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for their accomplishments in the fields of emergent leadership, community leadership, public service, government service, journalism, literature and creative communication arts.

Last week, the RMAF concluded its nationwide essay writing contest for high school and college students. In the board of judges for the contests' Mindanao eliminations were two of Mindanao's writers and poet laureates-Christine Godinez Ortega and Anthony Tan. I had the privilege to be in their company for that occasion.

Reading through the entries of the contest only heightened my realization that today what we have is a crisis of heroes. The RMAF deserves credit for initiating this contest, which puts primacy on the values of heroism, selflessness, social compassion and community service for our impressionable young people in high school and college to imbibe. I see this as a hopeful contribution to the task of nation-building.

But we are not only in a crisis of heroes today. We also are in a crisis of saints. What we have are many saints, in fact, of the self-proclaimed variety. Enough of all the finger-pointing! Obviously, in our hierarchy of values, truth enjoys the lowest premium. Too often, we forget that when we point a finger to blame somebody, three other fingers are pointed right at us. Self-righteousness has become a comfort zone, and it is a dangerous attitude.

Few people deserve and will ever deserve to be in the roster of the Magsaysay Award laureates. I think of the day when we no longer need the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, when selflessness and charity reign supreme in the hearts of men and women.

Ancient Crimes

Looking Back : Crime and punishment in Spanish times

Ambeth Ocampo aocampo@ateneo.edu
Inquirer News Service

WHEN people ask me difficult questions I cannot answer offhand, I remind them that I am not Ernie Baron who has built a reputation as a "walking Encyclopedia," whatever that means. At the very least, Baron is humble enough not to claim omniscience like God -- unlike some academics I know who are just waiting to be struck down by lightning one day. Filipinos are easily impressed by memory and mistake having a great deal of disjointed facts lying around in the head ready for use at any given time for knowledge.

Because of my failure to answer questions as well as the fact that I still have a head full of black hair, make people doubt the things I say or write. My memory is good for useless things like Jose Rizal's waistline, the length of Andres Bonifacio's bolo or Apolinario Mabini's favorite dance steps. It is not deep enough for something like a diachronic analysis of the effect of the Philippine economy on the political situation from 1565-1965. Neither do I have a knack for dates and names, thus I have over the years developed research skills.

Students do not need to waste their time on memory work. The more important skill they should learn is to know where to find the answers to nagging questions in a library or the Internet. In my area of specialization, I have spent hours reading bibliographies and finding guides in a vain attempt to get a view of the landscape. So far, I have only seen a faint outline and not the entire horizon. Bibliographies may not be the best things to bring on a beach vacation, but in my own bizarre way I find these fascinating.

Even professional Filipiniana librarians smile when I tell them how much I have enjoyed browsing through the basic references on the Spanish period: Wenceslao Emilio Retana's handsome three-volume "Aparato bibliografico de la historia general de Filipinas" (Barcelona, 1906), Trinidad H, Pardo de Tavera's "Biblioteca Filipina" (Washington, 1903) and last but not least Jose Toribio Medina's "Imprenta de Manila desde sus origenes hasta 1810" (Santiago de Chile 1896). These bibliographies not only describe the books physically (size and number of pages, place of publication, etc.), they also contain abstracts of the contents as well as opinions on their reliability or usefulness. In the case of Pardo de Tavera, he even steps beyond the academic politesse and lambasts a certain author he did not like both professionally and personally.

Aside from the bibliographies above, another of my eccentric pastimes is going over the two-volume index to the 55-volume "Philippine Islands" as compiled by "Blair and Robertson." The entries on "Crime and Criminals" cover a page and a half and the classification alone is worth a doctoral dissertation, because the notion of crime alone says so much about a specific society in a given time. Society defines crime and sets the mode of punishment. If you want a different angle to study Philippine society and history, crime and punishment are the way to go.

There are separate entries for crimes committed by Filipinos, Spaniards and Chinese. Specific crimes are then listed: bodily violence (assault and battery), torture, stabbing, poisoning, murder (assassination, homicide, infanticide and parricide). All these cover a third of a page, while another third is concerned with dishonesty: gambling is quite sizeable and one shouldn't be surprised to find the historical roots of jueteng here. There are entries on bribery, smuggling, usury, forgery, counterfeiting, swindling, embezzlement, robbery and highway robbery. All these still plague us today although on a different scale and form.

Crimes of impurity share the same number of entries as crimes against religion. Then as now, they had adultery, incest, improper relations (concubinage and licentiousness), rape, bigamy, polygamy. Sodomy was lumped with "sin against nature" or homosexuality. The crimes against religion, like blasphemy, simony and teaching of erroneous doctrines, may still be with us today, but in our pluralistic society we don't notice them as much as they did in the Spanish Philippines.

There were other crimes: debt, false witness, treason, conspiracy, arson, perjury, abduction, libel and even obscure crimes among natives like tale-bearing and breaking the silence taboo.

Going through all these will provide enough material for creative writers searching for material to use in novels and short stories.

Significantly, if you turn to the entries on "Penalties" for the above crimes, you will find about seven pages enumerating: arrest and imprisonment (slavery, and being sentenced to galleys), confiscation, exile and banishment, fines, loss of office, disqualification from municipal elections, etc. There is a lot of corporal punishment: mutilation, lashes (flogging, scourging, whipping, etc.), bastinado, suspension by the arms, cutting of hair, short rations of water, being cast into the sea, pounding rice. Then there was capital punishment through burning, decapitation, drowning, flaying, garrote, hanging, shooting, stabbing, etc. Ecclesiastical punishments are also listed: excommunication, censure and interdict, public penance, silence and seclusion, etc.

Crime and punishment is a way to study Philippine society but basic material lies largely unused in Blair and Robertson.

Luzon Provinces

Sense and Sensibility : Beyond Manila

Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service

BEYOND THE Batangas cove were Lobo and Galban, where great traces of mines well known in other times remained but now bore little fruit. It was an area rich in cotton, palms and rice. The king had a cordage factory there that made black hemp processed in Cabite for the rigging of the galleons. Under this jurisdiction fell Calilaya or Tayabas, extending to the Bondo Peninsula up to Mauban.

Beyond Batangas was the province of Camarines where the towns of Bondo, Passacao, Ibalon and Bula were found and where the galleon Encarnacion returning from Mexico was wrecked in 1649. There was a port and a shipyard in Sosocon or Bagatao where the big galleons were made. Albay even then was a big cove outside the channel with a tall volcanic mountain. Coming from Mexico, Mayon Volcano was visible to ships from afar because of the flames and smoke that it usually exhaled.

Along the range were springs of hot water and one that whatever fell inside -- be it a piece of wood, a bone or a leaf -- was converted to stone. Gov. Francisco Tello was gifted with a crab that had turned to stone. Caceres was founded by Gov. Francisco de Sande, the second governor of the Philippines. The Bishop had his cathedral and See in what was known as Nueva Caceres. Beside it was Naga, whose coast gave shelter to the galleons and it was there that the San Diego anchored in 1650 coming from port.

After Caceres came the province of Camarines up to Paracale, where the natives mined for gold and other metals and a fine stone called iman, famous in antiquity as mentioned by Ptolemy. It was a big province and enjoyed beautiful plains, with forests and palms that yielded large amounts of oil for the royal factories in Cabite.

The capital of the province of Cagayan was the city of Nueva Segovia founded by Gov. Gonzalo Ronquillo, where the bishop had his seat and cathedral. It was situated on the banks of the great river of Cagayan, which was born in the mountains of Santor in la Pampanga and crossed nearly the whole province. The Spaniards called it Tajo, after the river in Spain.

Along the banks of the river was a Spanish infantry presidio constructed of cal y canto (lime and stone) in some parts and wood and gabion in others with four divisions of cavalry. ("Soil erosion is an ever present problem and gabions have proved to be a lasting solution around the world. The earliest known use of gabion-type structures was for bank protection along the Nile River during the era of the Pharaoh. In the subsequent 7,000 years since its initial use by the Egyptians, the gabion system has evolved from baskets of woven reeds to engineered containers manufactured from wire mesh. The lasting appeal of gabions lies in their inherent flexibility. Gabion structures yield to earth movement but maintain full efficiency and remain structurally sound.") Cagayan was the frontier of the Irayas, rebel inhabitants of the area who lived in the skirts of the tall sierras.

The farthest north of all the capes was the one called Engaño, a landscape tormented by the north winds. It was open and treacherous because of its great currents. It was here that the galleon S. Luis was wrecked in 1646, after failing to round the cape and take shelter in a port where two years earlier she had taken refuge upon returning from Mexico. In 1639, two galleons were anchored in this cape when a furious northern wind rose and in a few hours tore them both to pieces.

The province of Cagayan ended in Cape Boxeador where the province of Ilocos began. The whole province was fertile but unprotected from the tormenting northern winds. The forests yielded wax, red wood called Brasil in Europe, ebony and other much esteemed lumber. Her savannas were full of deer that were hunted for their pelts, which were brought to Japan and other parts. There were plenty of gold and carnelians, polished and carved with much care. These were not local but had been brought in olden days from India in exchange for gold.

Ilocos was considered the richest area and most populated outside Manila. It was founded in 1574 by Gov. Guido de Lavezares, who named it Villa Fernandina in honor of Philip II's son.

In 1623, a contingent went up the mountains to pacify the Igorots, and it took them seven days or three leagues a day to climb to the top. Along the way, they passed many forests of walnuts and wild nutmegs and later forests of pines. Finally they reached the top of the ridge where the Igorot tribes had their principal settlement because of the rich mines of gold that they traded with the Ilocanos and Pangasinanes in exchange for supplies, food, clothes and other necessities. Besides gold, the province produced much rice and cotton from which thick blankets were woven that they called "de Ilocos" and used as sails for the galleons and uniforms for servants as well other curious textiles of many colors.

The next province was Pangasinan, which had much the same products. In the coast of this province was the port of Bolinao and Playa Honda, famous in Spain because of the victory of the Spanish armada against the Dutch.

Then came Pampanga with very fertile soil and abundant rice due to the many streams that bathed it. It supplied timber for the shipyards of Cabite, which was very convenient for the Spaniards since its mountains were within the bay near the port and without risk from enemies or typhoons.

(Data from P. Francisco Colin, "Labor Evangelico," 1660 annotated by Fr. P. Pastells, 1904)

Memories

Pinoy Kasi : Memory and truth

Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service

THEY seem to belong to a very distant past, these aerial photographs of Manila flattened after the American bombings in February 1945.

Until you see photographs of people moving around the smoldering ruins. There's a nun carrying a child, making her way across the rubble. There's an emaciated child clinging to her ration box. There are medics pushing a "kariton" [wooden pushcart] with a patient inside. There are the thousands of people fleeing across the Pasig River on a makeshift bridge.

I'm describing photographs from the Remedios Jubilee Mission Exhibition, which was launched in February this year to mark the 60th anniversary of what older Filipinos call Liberation, when American troops returned to the Philippines. The photo exhibit is on loan this week to the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman, Quezon City, shown at the main library's basement, part of History Week celebrations. The UP exhibit is all too short, considering Friday the 19th is a holiday, but I think the photographs will go back to the Remedios church in Malate district, where I hope the exhibit will continue and more people can drop in.

Pearl of the Orient

The photographs show how costly the Liberation was. Consider the death toll of 100,000 during the World War II battle for Manila -- that's greater than the total number of civilians who died in Hiroshima where the Americans dropped their atomic bomb. Historians estimate that for every six Filipinos killed by the Japanese, there were four killed by American Liberation bombs and bullets.

Manila, the Pearl of the Orient and one of the most beautiful cities in Asia before the war, never quite recovered. Sixty years after the end of the war, Manila remains one of the most squalid cities in the world. It was almost as if the war snuffed out our collective will to create, to live.

Last week, I got a phone call from Carlos Conde, who was doing an article on the end of World War II for the International Herald Tribune. He asked why -- compared with our neighbors -- we seem to be so much more forgiving of the Japanese. He had visited Mapaniqui, a small village in Pampanga province, where several women were raped during the war. Yet that village now sends out its residents to work in Japan, including granddaughters of the raped women who now work as entertainers.

My explanation here is that as a nation, we have not worked hard enough at memory-keeping. Our textbooks mention, only in very general terms, the atrocities we suffered during successive colonial occupations, with the Japanese Occupation receiving the least attention.

Carlos had another interesting angle, which he wrote up in an incisive piece in the International Herald Tribune last Saturday: perhaps, we forget World War II because we are so beholden to Japan, because of its "aid" and, ironically, because it is the market for our women.

Not only have we lost our memories, we've also allowed myths and lies to take over. When Japan early this year cut down its quota for Filipina entertainers from 80,000 annually to 8,000, we saw full-page ads vehemently protesting the move. Today, the government's pre-departure orientation seminars for the women emphasize they are not "japayuki" but Overseas Filipina Entertainers (OFEs), while their recruiters coach them on what to answer Japanese immigration officials. (Sample: Do you sit with your customers? No. What do you do between your performances? I wait in the dressing room.)

We are told to be grateful for the Japanese aid that poured in after the war -- to build hospitals and highways -- without realizing these were loans, many of which mainly benefited the likes of Marcos and other politicians. No wonder we agreed to the Japanese putting up a memorial to their kamikaze pilots in World War II.

One of Mapaniqui's grandmothers told Carlos: "You can't eat the past." Indeed we can't. But even beggars need some pride.

Reconnecting

Last week, clinical psychologist Dr. Maria Lourdes Carandang spoke at the University of the Philippines on "Truth-telling and National Healing," drawing parallels between the recovery process for individual victims of trauma and a battered nation.

Dr. Carandang worries that lying may have become a way of life in the country, and this may have happened because we have become so fearful of the truth. Our fears heighten because of the current controversies, where truth-telling is parodied through political circuses. I worry about people who are genuinely concerned, but who have grown weary, and wary. We see people disengaging. Some cop out, refusing to read the newspapers or listen to the news. Others take more drastic steps, making that final decision to join the diaspora because they fear they can no longer raise their children morally in this country.

Dr. Carandang says there's still hope if people can just get together and do what they can around truth-telling; in effect, she's prescribing group therapy, getting people to reconnect and reminding us of what the anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: "Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have."

Memory's light

Memory-keeping and truth-telling about World War II means going beyond the facile "good guys" (Americans) and "bad guys" (Japanese) formulation of Hollywood. We all grew up hearing of MacArthur's triumphant landing at Leyte in fulfillment of his promise, "I shall return." We know little about how that return involved the destruction of Manila, or how Filipino guerrillas held the fort through the war; and how many of those war veterans died and are dying without any benefits from Mother America.

We have to recognize, too, how the Japanese suffered because of their leaders' imperial adventures. We need to look, too, at how their right-wing politicians are trying to suppress the past, revising textbooks to downplay descriptions of the Imperial Army's atrocities. Their conservatives recognize the power of memories.

Memory-keeping isn't just remembering the painful aspects of the past. During the symposium at UP, Dr. Elena R. Mirano also talked about how we forget particular moments in history where we dared to stand up. She recounted the debates around the US bases treaty. We were fearful then, that if we voted not to renew the bases, the country would die. But we dared to say "Enough. No more bases." And more than a decade later, we see we've survived. The decision on the bases was a defining moment in our long recovery process, but memories of that historic decision have faded as well.

Closing the UP symposium in behalf of the dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Prof. Joy Barrios quoted from Emilio Jacinto: "Ang ningning ay maraya. Ating hanapin ang liwanag..."

"Ningning" is the artificial glow, the dangerous glitter and glamour of myths and lies. Emilio Jacinto says all that is illusory, that what we need to search for is "liwanag," light. A wise advice, indeed, as we embark on memory-keeping and truth-telling.

Ailing Earth

The environment in our hands

Inquirer News Service

THERE is growing concern over the stability of the existing political leadership in the Philippines. However, we must also keep in mind that there are other concerns that affect Filipinos and the rest of mankind as seriously, or even more.

The effects of Earth's ailing environment may not be immediately noticeable, but they are certainly spreading like a plague that may soon prove to be too lethal.

The little things that people, Filipinos included, take for granted, such as smoking and throwing wrappers, cans and bottles wherever they feel like doing them, have created a major national and global problem that is not just gradually killing our environment but is also threatening the very people tasked to be the stewards of this planet.

I think it is important for Filipinos to be aware of our surroundings and how to protect our environment. In order for us to live with clean air around us, and with fresh water and fertile land to fill our hunger and thirst, we each have to do our part. Have your cars tuned up regularly. Penalize smoke-belching buses and other public utility vehicles. Segregate and dispose of trash properly. Reuse and recycle plastic and glass containers. Doing these simple things will make a positive and huge contribution in our quest to ease the long-standing problem of pollution.

By uniting and cooperating, we do not just help ourselves; we also help everyone around us. No matter what race, color or nationality we have, this is still one planet on which we live. We have no one else to turn to if we must save the one planet we have been blessed with. And there is no one else to blame if we just passively stand around and wait for Earth's demise.

MIGUEL R. ROCHA (via e-mai)