sedition, blackmail, whatever

“In response to the global economic crisis that we are facing today which everybody knows about, and in response to the pitiful state of our country, the time to rebuild our country economically, socially, politically, minus corruption is now. . . .

The time to start radical reforms is now. The time for moral regeneration is now. The time to conquer complacency, cynicism and apathy and to prove that we matured from our political disappointments is now. The time to prepare a new government is now. ”

strong words from cbcp president archbishop angel lagdameo.  strong words too from jaime cardinal sin’s annointed, bishop socrates villegas:

“We are not here to bring you peace. We are here to disturb you. I’m praying to God that after this meeting, may the Lord trouble you because the trouble that comes from the Lord is going to make you a better person and it’s going to make the country a better country.”

lagdameo even went so far as to foretell of reformist “liberators”:

“In spite of the seemingly hopeless and negative prognosis, our liberation may yet serendipitously happen. We are dreaming, praying and hoping that our county may yet have the needed liberators… (who)….will in a courageous peaceful way effectively and uncompromisingly reform our country.”

it’s hard to believe that it’s just the bishops’ way of blackmailing gloria into vetoing the reproductive health bill should it pass congress. gma is said to be all set to wield her veto power precisely to please the church, so why bother antagonizing her at this point?

can it be that the five bishops are really being seditious?  was that a coup alert — precursor of an edsa moment?  are they alerting the public to, priming the public for, some reformist (military, i presume) movements behind-the-scenes that they’ve become privy to, and which meet with their approval, shades of cardinal sin?

if yes, how capable would a divided cbcp be of doing a cardinal sin, with 7 out of 10 filipinos differing and disgusted with the church’s stand on the population, reproductive health, and sex education.  or is this their way na nga of winning back some pogi points kahit papaano.

who knows.  it could be that the cbcp bishops are pretendinglang to be split, hedging their bets as usual, telling white lies, hanggang venial sin lang kaya.

feeling the fall of america

wow.  who would have thought that we would see the american economy collapse like a house of cards, bringing the whole world down with it.  diyata’t hindi pala invulnerable ang superpower na ito.   diyata’t nagkakamali rin, pumapalpak, bumabagsak.  at ngayo’y nangangapa, ikot ang puwet, trying to figure out how to reboot a financial-economic system that has crashed.

to get a handle on what happened and why, read
francis fukuyama’s the fall of america, inc.
john gray’s a shattering moment in america’s fall from power
walden bello’s a primer on the wall street meltdown
nobel laureate joseph stiglitz’s how to get out of the financial crisis

the question is: tayong mga bilib na bilib sa amerika — we who allow america to dictate our economic policies — what lessons should we be taking away from this?   it’s not enough to breathe a sigh of relief that our banks are relatively sound — that’s only because praning na sila after having been burned by the asian meltdown in 1997.

at the very least we should be seeing, and acting on the fact, that america’s kind of deregulated and globalized and greedy free-market capitalism is no longer the appropriate model for li’l 3rd world us, not if we truly aspire for economic recovery and stability and prosperity for the majority of filipinos.

otherwise, things are just going to get worse.  those foreign investments that government expects to come in from middle east now that america and europe are in financial doldrums are, as usual, not going to make that much difference to the poor, not in the long run, if the same discredited rules and systems continue to apply.

economic growth will continue to be a myth, except for the already-rich.  what will grow for sure lang besides would be the population, hunger, joblessness, and the diaspora, which is the saddest of all.  we’re a country of broken families, broken hearts, no thanks to economic policies that serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many.

what to do to turn things around?  said john bellamy foster, editor of the socialist-anti-imperialist monthly review, when asked by pagina/12 what kind of policies the u.s. government should implement to sort out the crisis, how to bail out the people and not just the banks:

I don’t think anyone knows how to “sort out” or stop this crisis. What we are seeing is a lot of improvising while the house is falling down around us. There is no possibility of avoiding a very severe world economic crisis at this point….

My own view is that the sole object at this point — though it is hard to imagine this in the United States at present due to the weakness of labour and of working-class organisations in general — should be to reorganise social and economic priorities to meet the needs of those at the bottom. It is a fact that the US economy over decades has drastically weakened the conditions of the wider population, which is at the root of the whole problem. So addressing those conditions is the real key.

But even if that were not the case, the goal of those who identify with the great majority of the population, with the working class, the propertyless, the poor, should be clear: to put the employment, food, nutrition, housing, health, education, environmental conditions of those at base of society first. This is simple humanity and justice.

Why flood the financial world (which means first and foremost the rich, the near-rich and corporations) with trillions of dollars ultimately at taxpayer expense, probably to no avail, when something might be done for the greater population?

Marx said, in one of his ironic moments, that the only part of the national wealth that was held in common amongst all the people was the national debt.

If the wealth is not shared, why should the public take on more debt, supporting the opulence at the top while the great majority of the people are seeing their basic conditions deteriorate?

Let the system take care of itself; let us devote our public resources to the people. More good would be accomplished that way. Of course what this means is a reactivation of class struggle from below; something we haven’t really seen in the United States in a long time.”

interesting.  now that america is down, we’re so like america.

fwd: “Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street”

Please read cover story of Philippine Stars’ sunday magazine, Starweek today, October 19, 2008. The article was written by my good friend Boying Pimentel, former San Francisco Chronicle journalist about the Filipino World War II veterans who have been living in the US waiting for almost 2 decades now for the enactment by US congress of the the Equity bill that will provide them with the same war privileges as their American counterparts.

Meanwhile, as these elderly veterans wait forthe passage of the bill into law, they live on scanty Supplementary Security Income (SSI), a portion of which, they send to their families here in the Philippines, the rest they use to pay rent for small units that accommodate 4-5 people. Some of the newcomers live alone, jobless, poverty-stricken, and in some cases, homeless. Many, if not all of them, experience homesickness, but put up with the loneliness, instead of going back to the Philippines, becauseby US law, they can only receive the SSI, as long as they are residing in the US. They would rather put up with the loneliness than lose the dollars that they are able to send to their loved ones.

Some of them, however, have “gone home”, but in urns, in coffins and some,if stories are to be believed, in boxes, not different from balikbayan boxes, together with some canned goods and other pasalubongs. I didnt mean this as a (sick) joke. I meant it as a serious call for all concerned to support the cause of our Filipino heroes who have been deprived not only of their material war benefits but also of their honor and dignity as human beings. Let’s help defend their cause, before it’s too late. Of the more than 200,000 Filipino war veterans, only about 18,000 are surviving, their ages ranging from 80-90 years old, one third of whom are living in the US waiting for something they deserve, but ironically, are practically begging for.

Please help us disseminate the information on the play “Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street”, opening november 7-10, 2008 and will run for the remaining 3 weekends of november at the CCP’s Tanghalang Huseng Batute, with Bembol Roco and Tommy Abuel alternating in the lead role. Direction is by Chris Millado. Rody Vera wrote the stage version of boying pimentel’s novel.

For further information, please contact yvette or paulo at the Tanghalang Pilipino office, (632) 8323661 or 8321125 and ask for the TP office. You may also contact yvette at ymacayan@hotmail..com

nandingjosef”

7 of 10 pinoys favor, but gma will veto, RH bill

on the philippine daily inquirer’s “second front page” is a report on the latest social weather stations’ survey re the reproductive health (RH) bill.

Majority of Filipinos across all areas and classes were in favor of the RH bill. Seventy-eight percent in Metro Manila, 72 % in Mindanao, 69 % in Balance Luzon, and 68 % in the Visayas supported the bill, as did 77 % in Class ABC, and 70 % each in both class D and class E.

While prior awareness of the RH bill is slightly higher among women (50 %) than men (42), support for it was equally high among both sexes (70 among men, 71 among women), regardless of marital status.”

ang punchline, sa right bottom corner of the second front page:

But GMA is set to veto measure

Saying her faith as a Roman Catholic influenced her policy decision, President Macapagal-Arroyo virtually indicated that she was set to veto the controversial reproductive health bill currently under consideration at the House of Representatives.

…”I’m pro-life as far as population is concerned,” she said. “I’m pushing for birth spacing, not birth control.”

wow.  she’s going to defy public sentiment?  really?  so it doesn’t matter what happens, pass or fail, in the lower house, it’s doomed?  or is this her way of telling the lower house to get it out of the way na para maka-chacha na.

ano kaya ang ex-deal ni gma with the catholic church?  considering that a veto would lose her plentyof pogi points all around, it must be a mega-ex-deal.  hmmm.  perhaps the church will support, nay, campaign for, charter change?  support the milf and the moa-ad?  agree to u.s. bases in mindanao?  support mikey arroyo for speaker?  gilbert teodoro forpresident?  ano nga kaya.

o baka naman she’s just asking for a lot of prayers and indulgences to pay for her sins and buy her a ticket to heaven, as in the time of noli and fili.  back to the dark ages talaga.  what a drag.