PEACe bond-holders on warpath

when i first heard that the interest earned by Peace bond-holders’ would be taxed 20% by the BIR, contrary to the tax-exempt promise 10 years ago, my reaction was, ha?  why the bondholders?  why not CODE-NGO whose scheme / scam it was and who made Php 1.8 billion in the process for its povertyalleviationefforts kuno?

the latest from the BIR is that CODE-NGO is liable, too, but surely only for 20% also of the 1.8B it raked in as rent, uh, commission, which is about 360M, which is peanuts compared to taxing the almost 25B earned in total by bondholders, 20% of which is a whopping 5B that the aquino administration could use (or hoard for the 2013 elections?).

on this i sympathize with the business community, the bondholders, who must be mad as hell.  as mad as TonGuE-tWisTeD (of the long-dormant blog Tongue In, Anew), whose unexpurgated rants in comments to ellen tordesillas‘s updates re the PEACe bonds i reproduce here:

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 10:31 am
Sino’ng gago pa ang aasahan nilang mag-iinvest sa financial instruments na ini-isyu ng gobyerno kung bebentahan ka na wala raw tax, tapos kung kelan mo kokolektahin sa maturity date e meron ka nang tax?

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 10:43 am
Nararamdaman ba nila pulso ng namumuhunan?

Puta, magnenegosyo ka, pag sinuwerte ka, tutubo ka ng 4-7% NIBT para lang wag mawalan ng trabaho yung mga empleyado mo, pagkakataon mo’ng kumita ng konting dagdag sa pondo’ng inilalako ng bangko, tapos ita-tax ka ng 20% na malinaw na sila mismo nagsabing walang tax.

Tangina, ipon ng ipon ng pondo, buwis ng buwis, hindi naman ginagastos. Ayan, walang trabaho, walang negosyo, walang pag-unlad (growth). Tapos parurusahan yung mga nag-iinvest? Pinagtatawanan na lang sila ng mga bangkero.

Handa ba silang makipag-head on collision sa mga bangko?

Bakit di pa pagsisipain yang mga nakaupo diyan sa Finance? Alam ba nilang magpatakbo ng kumpanya? Lalo na ng isang gobyerno?

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 10:57 am
Pasensya na medyo bastos tubo ng dila ko. Sa kaswapangan nila, ang nagdudusa yung biktima, yung mga salarin nakangiti pa.

Hindi biro ang kinita nila Red Mayo at Bobby Guevarra na P400M yata para sa pagporma at pagluto nitong letseng PEACe Bonds na ito. Isama na sila Yuchengco at Camacho/Songco pati sila Dinky at Deles sa bilyun-bilyong naraket nila.

Tapos ang kakarga ng kagaguhan ng BIR yung mga inosenteng bangko at mga namili ng Bonds?

Ang tingin dito ng mga negosyante, isang malaking con-job perpetrated by government itself against the country’s banking system and the investing public.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 11:34 am
Ang pinanghahawakan dito ni Kim Henares e yung desisyon ng BIR Commissioner nung 2004 na subject daw ito sa final tax.

Kaya ang kanyang bagong ruling, kung bumili ka matapos ang 2004, sabit ka na sa tax.

Ha? At yung bumili at nagbenta nung 2001 ay libre? Yung original na kriminal libre, yung biktima, may parusa. Nasaan ang katarungan diyan?

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 11:42 am
Ano’ng ginagawa ni Tetangco para proteksyunan ang mga bangko at mga kliyente nila? BSP Governor na siya panahon pa ni Putot, ngayon ilalaglag pa niya ang mga bangko?

Bakit natulog siya sa pansitan habang ang mga pobreng gustong kumita ng konti diyan, di niya ipinagtanggol noon pa palang 2004 merong desisyon ang BIR?

Dalawang bangko ang nakinabang diyan sa PEACe Bonds, BPI at RCBC. Walo naman ang umaangal ngayon sa Supreme Court na highway robbery ito. Ilan naman kayang mga ginago ang napagbentahan ng mga bangkong ito?

Letseng bansa talaga ito, sino pa kaya gustong magnegosyo dito?

and when the supreme court ordered a TRO on the 20% peace bond tax:

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 18, 2011 11:45 pm
I knew it would come to this. The complaining banks and their clients would definitely fight this to its bitter end. How long it will take? No one knows, but the 20% tax will still not be paid until this is resolved by (oh, well) THIS Supreme Court! The 20% meanwhile is held in escrow.

The irreparable damage this will cause the country’s image and reputation as a stable and predictable business destination further erodes the much-needed investor confidence, to say the least, and these bunglings will not help alleviate the sad state of the slow trickle of new foreign investments.

We have been overtaken by Vietnam, but hey, Cambodia’s latest numbers suggest they are out to threaten us soon. For all we care, and at the rate we’re going, we’re probably headed towards the tail end of ASEAN in a decade. I won’t be surprised the military junta-led Myanmar/Burma will clobber us, too and we’ll be sending our women as DHs to Rangoon!

Dammit, jail Arroyo, Yuchengco, CODE-NGO we don’t care who else. But puh-leeze, fuckin leave us businessmen alone!

and in response to another commenter saying the BIR should indeed tax everyone who made money out of the peace bonds:

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 20, 2011 10:45 am
But that is not the case, CODE-NGO/RCBC will go scot-free (refer to the origin of “scot-free” and you find the pun there) because BIR will still honor the tax-free promise it made thru Comm. Bañez in 2001 BUT will not apply to buyers of the Bond after 2004 – when a new BIR directive said the Bonds are NOT tax free. If you bought the “sweetened” Bonds after 2004, sorry na lang daw.

Wow, meron nang fraudulent flavor – tapos sorry lang? The BIR afterwards kept its silence, so did BTr, Bangko Sentral, the traders. All these times, innocent final bondholders were made to believe the bonds were still tax-free up to maturity. Until Henares announced it on Oct. 17.

This is how you run a mafia syndicate. Not a country’s financial institutions.

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 20, 2011 11:20 am
… Bañez issued 3 BIR directives authorizing the tax-free feature of the PEACe Bonds.

Relaxing taxes as a come-on is practiced in all countries that wish to bring in fresh money from investors, especially when competing for big-ticket projects. That is why we have Export Processing Zones, tax holidays and tax perks are major considerations for new enterprises willing to locate in EPZAs, at least make them survive in the initial stages of production in exchange for future government revenues and much-needed local employment.

TonGuE-tWisTeD – October 20, 2011 12:40 pm
…the 20% that will be held in escrow is just the “witholding tax” portion.

What does that mean? The money will be paid to the banks in full (P35B) by the government. But what is unique in this SC order is that the Bond-trading banks themselves, not a third-party escrow company, will handle the trust accounts amounting to about P4.9B. If the case takes ten years, the banks will have made the same money they were supposed to have “lost”. “Quits” na lang sila. They get the chance to break-even even if the SC decides, after TEN YEARS, that the deal is subject to tax.

The tax is therefore borne fully by the final buyers of the zeroes.

What are the other implications?

It is not only a 20% final tax that will be charged the buyers/holders. 20% is witheld as a PORTION ONLY of the full final tax that will have to be paid. In amounts larger than P1M, the tax due is about one-third or about 33%. Assuming that government collects the full tax, it is therefore not only P4.9B but a whopping P8.1B (one-third of the P24.3B PEACe Bond earnings) that will be a windfall to the BIR coffers.

People will think they do not have anything to lose because the money that was supposed to go to the “greedy” banks and businessmen is back to government. It looks like it but not so.

I agree with the analysts that this deal weighed down on the macro-economic scale as it affects revenues, debts, and investor confidence. Anything that impacts these would eventually be felt down the economic food chain in terms of social services, jobs, prices, among others.

Still fresh from losing billions in the educational plans that insurers blame on Cory’s changing the rules on tuition control, the pre-need industry now faces a similar situation under Cory’s son, those who invested on the zeroes to recoup some of the loses in the 80s are up for more surprises.

Those still hoping to send their children through college via educational plans are praying their fund managers be one of those who avoided buying the zeroes.

To shake off any perceived bias, I will not repeat here how it will impact on the predictability and stability of government rules as it affects foreign investments which small businessmen like me have been trumpeting since time immemorial. Ramos was the only president who heeded that call and unless future leaders are willing to make the same paradigm shift in exchange for a few billions today, forget long-lasting prosperity for the country. I am sad that I may not see that in my lifetime.

We will always be exporters of warm bodies to countries where business rules are stable, where government stimulates job generation, where laws are investment-friendly, and financial markets are more predictable and less prone to manipulations of the powerful few.

Forget the smallness of stability defined only by minimum wage; thinking beyond the next payroll and focusing on what’s in for the long haul is what will save this country that flaunts its college-educated English-speaking nannies, its gene pool of creative artisans and pound-for-pound champs, its savvy techies, accountants and engineers who are nothing but.

and here’s another question from an anonymous fb friend of ellen:

October 10, 2011 5:11 pm
One way of looking at the matter is to ask whether the 12.75% interest rate that government paid to CODE-NGO was “fair”? CODE-NGO claims the 10-yr (usual) Treasury note at the time was yielding 13.64%, so it seems that the government didn’t pay too high an interest rate. But if RCBC or some other entity was willing to buy the zero-coupon PEACe bonds for P1.448B more than CODE-NGO paid, then that lender was willing to lend to government at an interest rate BELOW 12.75%. Why was the government not able to borrow at that lower interest rate?

not surprisingly, the latest retail treasury bond offering of the aquino admin that had hoped to raise at least Php 250B raised only 110B “amid the confusion sowed by the government’s turnabout on the tax treatment of the controversial PEACe bonds.” maybe also because the interest rates are only half that of the peace bonds?

today the prez is reported to have met with finance sec cesar purisima and bir commissioner kim henares, as well as representatives of ngos that benefitted from the sale of the peace bonds.

“Yung P5-billion na tax na dapat makuha ng gobyerno, wala akong karapatan para i-waive. ‘Yung taxes imposed by Congress, ‘pag magbibigay ka ng exemptions o ia-amend, babawasan, dadagdagan – puro Kongreso po ‘yan. Kami taga-implement ng batas,” Aquino told reporters during the celebration of the 67th anniversary of the Leyte Gulf landing.

…“I think it is safer for us to implement the law the way we understand it rather than to ignore implementing the law and be guilty of not fulfilling our obligations and duties,” Aquino added.

safer daw, hello.  it may be safer, but is it right?  and safer for whom?  read the Freedom from Debt Coalition‘s paper PEACe Bonds: Unresolved, Ten Years On.

Truth is, there are more questions that need to be asked such as whether CODE-NGO paid taxes for its PhP1.8B earnings, or, at least, for the PhP140M it retained. However, this will require CODE-NGO to open all its financial statements, which we believe would be better answered by CODE-NGO on its own accord.

To give CODE-NGO its due, it did try to present its side about the transaction. It argued that the deal was “legal,” “transparent” and “pro-poor.” However, based on the facts mentioned, one cannot help but conclude that the transaction carries features of cronyism and influence-peddling in the name of the poor. Not even the argument of good intention is enough to wipe away the stain that was left by this transaction or recover the diminished public’s trust in civil society organizations.

Worse, the deal contributed to the indebtedness of the Filipino people. This 16th of October, the government is scheduled to pay PhP35 billion in interests for the matured PhP10 billion bonds. This will impact greatly on the country’s coffers especially as the government tries to fund important social services even as it is criticized for not spending enough.

This issue presents a setback in both the state’s and civil society’s efforts to establish transparency, accountability and honesty in our political culture and structures. Hence, in its campaign to make the previous administration accountable for its colossal crimes, the Aquino government must put just closure to this issue by seeking the truth and making accountable those who may have erred. This is especially important, as some of the personalities implicated in this transaction are now part of the Aquino government. If the broad civil society community is willing to open a sad chapter of its history and re-open old wounds to rectify wrongdoings, then all the more that the Aquino government should do its part to facilitate this process.

the prez should stop salivating over the Php 5B and settle for taxing only CODE-NGO and whoever else were complicit in that devious pro-poor kuno scheme.  and really, someone should be brought to court for violating laws against rigged biddings and influence peddling.

 

Point counterpoint & the questions one dares to ask

On House Bill 4260 and Senate Bill 2679
By Myra Beltran

In February 2011, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. filed Senate Bill 2679 seeking to “designate Ballet Philippines Foundation Inc. as the Philippine national ballet company.” Listed therein was the scope of its mandate and its privileges as would-be national ballet company. Hearing for this Senate bill was postponed twice and has not commenced as of this writing. In the meantime, on Aug. 16, 2011, the Committee on Basic Education and Culture of the 15th Congress of the Philippines, headed by Rep. Salvador Escudero, passed on first reading a bill authored by Rep. Antonio Lagdameo Jr., in the same spirit [1] as the Senate bill making Ballet Philippines a national ballet company, known as House Bill 4260. Unlike the bill filed by Sen. Marcos, the latter bill and its subsequent hearing were not known by the sector of the dance community who were known to oppose the bill filed by Sen. Marcos, learning of it in late September through the newspapers. Thus, the House Committee passed the bill without dissent.

Note: On Oct. 10, 2011, the Committee on Basic Education and Culture held a meeting in order to hear out those who opposed this bill since it learned that notice of the previous meeting had not reached these parties. The major part of what follows was written before this meeting. An update follows at the end.

*

This move, initiated by Ballet Philippines, is certainly a hard tackle. Hard, because as one writer put it, [2] it has “opened old wounds.” To the general public, it is much ado about nothing, with one writer saying that the dance world is “characteristically fractious” [3] “anyway” or that dancers would keep on their “tippy-toes” [4] “anyway” and that, perhaps, all this opposition is sour-graping, and that the track record of Ballet Philippines speaks for itself. It is hard because I, myself, used to be a member of Ballet Philippines but my first mentors, the ones from whom I first learned the art of dance and who sparked this love for dance inside me, generally belong to the side that “opposes” this move. So, actually, my personal history puts me in a “grey area.” But this is precisely why I wish to thresh out this position because this area of the “in-between” and the acknowledgement that this “grey area” does exist might elevate the level of the debate on this proposed bill.

To my mind, it might be productive to focus on the assumptions of the bill and proceed from there so that one could “classify” the arguments. I wish to place these assumptions in the light of the 21st century, amidst its current political and cultural trends, since after all, something that is ratified into law has a structural effect that can be long-lasting, and one must imagine the scenarios of the future to get a grip on the present’s decisions.

Ballet Philippines has a forty year history and track record, which has dominated since the 1970’s. With a style anchored on the “modern dance” tradition, the company toured extensively in the 1970s, inevitably carrying the label of “national” in its international tours, being as it was (and still is) the resident company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. It was then known as the CCP Dance Company (from an earlier Alice Reyes and Modern Dance Company). Later, for the sake of clarity and recognition internationally (its initials were similar to other institutions in the Soviet Union), the name was changed to Ballet Philippines.

In those years when the company developed and acquired the major part of its repertoire, in a time and season most fondly remembered by its pioneering members as “the best of times,” I sense that the excitement experienced during those times, a time its dancers have very real nostalgia for, had been generated by a growth which at the same time had been largely possible because of the “fit” between government and artistic vision – the company’s development and “career path” fit squarely into the notion of the “modern nation-state” that was the impulse of the 1970’s under martial rule in the Philippines. It was a good “fit”or a timely “sync” – the projected image of modernity with Filipino sensibility, and the modern in dance with themes that were local, fed off each other. This “sync” was different and more forward-looking in comparison with the other countries of Southeast Asia who were generally more conservative and who derived their impulse from the traditional / folkloric. This impulse sustained the company till the late 1980’s when the Cultural Center of the Philippines “opened its doors” post EDSA and, in addition to the modern repertoire, the company had renewed vigor when full length ballet classics with an all-Filipino cast were successfully staged. The modern impulse stretched to the early to mid-1990’s, when globalization was taking hold and alarm for the “sameness” that it threatened to bring by increasingly open borders was, at the same time, countered globally by specific cultures highlighting their ethnicities.

Enter the 21st century. With the unprecedented rise of the internet and abundance of information, where there are more porous borders and the “national” is less apparent than the multi-cultural, where ethnicities blend in the same spaces while, at the same time, occupying different “historical times,” so to speak, where an infinitely more chaotic, culturally simultaneous world is more the norm than the exception, what would be the meaning and role of a “national ballet company”? To whom does this “national ballet company” speak? In whose behalf is it speaking?

I don’t suggest that these can be answered with finality but I do suggest that for the very fact that these questions can be posed now – in comparison to an “earlier” time when these were not subjects for inquiry but were assumed to be rather incontrovertible truths – signals a greatly changed environment that also signals that the bill can be examined in terms of its assumptions about the “national” and “culture” (Philippine culture). These are the discourses which inform the bill. These discourses summoned by the bill then imply that a deeper discussion on this bill apart from the one centered on who is “more deserving” or not, can be made and that it is no easy labelling of being “for” or “against” the bill. It does not seem to be as simple as saying or implying that that those who oppose this bill would probably not oppose if they had been the beneficiary or implementor of this bill – rather, part of those who are being dismissed as simply “against” truly mean to have a sincere inquiry as to who is speaking for whom in this bill, what is being spoken in behalf of the “whom,” and whether the answer to this should be enacted into law as a republic act. [5] I suppose those are also topics which also concern the entire arts community as all precedents do have a subsequent ripple effect.

A case in point is that one of the reasons cited by Ballet Philippines in seeking the status of “national” is the precedent set by the naming of the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company as the “national folk dance company” (R.A. 8626 by the 10th Congress) with the contention that others who oppose this current bill would do well to seek the same for themselves, “to work for it”, [6] as the Bayanihan bill itself provides. On this count, and if one were to proceed to “work for it,” the proposed bill also summons the notion and the distinction between a “national folk dance company” and a “national ballet company” as both representative of “Philippine culture”. And then after, if one indeed were to “work for it,” what kind of “national” entity would one be? The same question would be posed to one working for a “national theatre company” or “national orchestra” in the future. Thus, I believe this bill deemed to be simply concerning the dance community (when the general public are used to dancers not speaking anyway) could be productively discussed too by the general arts community for the reason of, as I mentioned, the precedent / domino effect it could set off. In terms of dance, would a “national ballet academy” or a “national contemporary dance company” or a “national choreographic institute” be desirable, or are these already “covered” by the mandate conferred on Ballet Philippines? One must look at the implications of the details and of the distortions these details might bring down the line in anticipation of those who might want (and who might have the capacity, including the political capacity) “to work for it.”

So, the discourses involve the (1) notion of the “national” (2) “culture” (3) Philippine culture (4) being representative of / “representation” of Philippine culture (5) the necessity or desirability of national representatives of Philippine culture in the 21st century and (6) the role of government in this aspect (the dynamics between the nation-state and the arts).

Wow. Who actually has time for contentious questions like these? Let’s just do the art, do the work, one could say, which is frankly, what most of those who oppose would rather be doing in this laissez faire environment in which only the fittest survive and one has to run so hard just to stay in place. And in fact, this is also probably what Ballet Philippines, as well, would rather be doing, and is the reason they are seeking this conferment in the first place. Perhaps, like everyone else and despite its 40 year history, it is struggling to exist in an environment greatly changed to which its own structure has had difficulty adjusting, given the nature of its organization and operations and the nature of its repertoire. In truth, it is seeking financial stability / security and here lies the contention, because in the same breath that it tells the “rest” to “work for it” (national status) the same could be lobbied against it of its need to have financial security – “work for it” like all the rest. In fact, in this laissez faire environment, it already has a headstart, a big advantage over all the rest in an already less than level playing field and here lies what has been labelled the “paranoia” or the “fear” of “the rest” – that everything shall be centered on one company due to the sweeping scope of the mandate (role, functions) of the would-be national ballet company, as specified in the proposed bill, and would thus be speaking in behalf of the entire dance community – the nuances of that community are lost in favour of the choice of the “one.” This then puts the focus, trains the lens on, who heads this “one,” the qualifications / criteria thereof, his / her length of tenure, or how the decision-making is made in the first place, and whether or not the organization itself exercises fiscal discipline given that it will be the recipient of endowments not due “the rest.” These details are pertinent because the bill assumes this much of its recipient – and some of those “against” qualify their opposition precisely due to the absence of those details, of responsibility and accountability.

What is glaringly clear is that DANCE needs help. This is a fact, notwithstanding the numerous regional festivals now occurring and even if, among cultural projects usually judged as having the most “impact” by its “numbers” (audience reach, number of participants, number of collaborative institutions), the dance-art reigns supreme. In fact, it is the queen, the one that is capable of bringing people together with excitement and joy, where big business joins in with the politicians to witness and judge the dancers dancing. But dancers as a lot are the most underpaid considering the amount of work they put in, with no social net to catch them past their dancing days. Recognition of the role dance plays in Philippine society is not articulated, just readily assumed like grass growing freely, yet dance is used almost exploitatively. Hardly anything trickles down to the dancer and dance-maker. Sustainability is a problem. The general disregard for dance underlies this move by Ballet Philippines. But is there a distinction between government subsidy for the arts and the conferment of “national” status? Is the latter necessary for the former to occur? Could subsidy be more attuned to the general climate in which dance occurs today, and how it wishes to go forward in the 21st century? Is this the first step or the death knell?

I wrote this for myself to clear my thoughts and because the “essentialisms” (such as the dance world being inherently “fractious” or that dancers should not speak, implying they are not capable of discourse) in the general public’s mind bothered me. If you are reading it, I have made it public already. And yet, I know that answers to all these questions I have posed, in the same manner and same intuition that all dancers have, have to be “fleshed out.” So I wish to locate my “grey area” with the hope that discussions on this can be fleshed out in more nuanced ways.

I was a member of Ballet Philippines in the late 80’s to early 90’s. Before I went abroad (late 70’s) to study and work as a ballet dancer (seven years), I was part of the “outside” focusing on ballet and performing with the Ballet Federation of the Philippines (whose members would mostly form what would later become, post EDSA, the other resident company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Philippine Ballet Theatre) with colleagues from other schools. We were an impatient lot who could not quite understand the labels attached to being part of a certain school or company and all we wanted to do was to come together and dance together in the classics, all of us ripe for the forming of a national ballet company with our revered Mr. William Morgan as ballet master, and we wanted it then. We had the talent and the skill for such a company but history was not on our side. A majority of us ventured abroad, risking loneliness to audition, to prove ourselves in an artistic environment that privileged the tall and white dancer more – if only to keep dancing. Post EDSA, quite a number of us came home, buoyed by the hope for new beginnings – I joined Ballet Philippines (where Mr. Morgan had transferred after subsidy from Ballet Federation of the Philippines ran out), while others guested with or joined Philippine Ballet Theatre. No matter. We meant to dance together, support each others’ shows, and cheer each other on (Ballet Manila’s Lisa Macuja Elizalde was CCP artist in residence then and we all shared the same stage). This “synthesis” was also reflected in our bodies because we had reconciled both the modern and the classical in our bodies. And now, dance world-wide was on our side, as European choreographers were as well either deconstructing ballet (William Forsythe) or gaining artistic dominance with dance-theatre (Pina Bausch’s influence had increased and was cementing internationally) – performance art had gained ground and the “modern” was losing some of its “rigidity” and accommodating ballet.

Our batch was an inquisitive lot who frequently questioned our superiors to their irritation, but not really to their condemnation – for they, too, had relaxed. We were concerned with our well-being – I remember rallying my colleagues to sign a letter I wrote to compel the Cultural Center of the Philippines management to clean the company room premises and install water fountains for us in strategic places. All signed this letter. We were also asked to rally in behalf of a bill creating the National Commission for Culture and the Arts – the bill that advocated plurality and decentralization, as opposed to the one that had a central Ministry of Culture, and rally we did with the entire Ballet Philippines board – they, still coiffed, and us in our 80’s shoulder pads pinned on the yellow shirts which all of us, including the Board, wore. Recalling that, in the face of this proposed bill, I appropriate and re-phrase the words of one blogger [7] who writes about the “Occupy Wall Street movement”: be careful of how you rally young people because what is rhetoric for you, such as “change” or “hope” (or in our case, “decentralization”), becomes mantra for them.

And so it is with me – in what I believe in, in how I have ventured to become, and how I have conducted myself as, an independent dance artist working in the medium of contemporary dance. I thought decentralization would work even if it takes time. I am also not convinced that a gesture such as this proposed bill that, in effect, centralizes, would eventually uphold or strengthen decentralization and I remain unconvinced that what this gesture will bring is a only a temporary, transitory state.[8] I know that all these signal a clash of shifting paradigms that echoes what is happening world-wide, and that this debate finds itself in one of those “cracks” or “fissures” where this country has not been able to bring to a closure its troubled dark past while struggling to exist in a rapidly changing environment. All I know is the history of the bodies of my generation have to be considered in this debate and I lament this move, this proposed bill, in the very least because it has brought back the rhetoric of the past and practically erased my generation’s efforts in the process. I thought that my generation, having contributed to “the company,” now could speak of “dance,” of the entire spectrum of dance, because in fact, we are all near mid-life, and have already ventured out on our own paths to nurture dance in our own ways.

As my own history shows, dancers are as fluid as dance is and dancers are shaped by the confluence of many things. I hope that any subsidy or enabling environment could take into account this fluidity. At this juncture, I grieve for a certain idealism, naïve though it may be, because in the face of all this, one realizes that really, despite bouts of spring, what lies beneath is actually a “Game of Thrones” where as one character in the TV series said, “When one plays, one plays to win.” In that case, it would perhaps be the only option, if one were not so disposed to play in this game, to be in the margins, underground, to risk it all and be “outside the wall,” if only to preserve that glint in the eye which those who truly love what they are doing, and have real fun doing it, still possess.

*

October 11, 2011

Update following Oct. 10, 2011 meeting of the Committee on Basic Education and Culture: Amendments to the proposed bill are to be introduced and presented within two weeks after the meeting. Similar to what is written above, Ballet Philippines cites the Bayanihan bill allowing other dance companies to gain national status, and takes up the suggestion by CCP President Raul Sunico that wording of the bill be changed from “the national dance company” to “a national dance company” to give space to other companies to be conferred national status as well, with Ballet Philippines current artistic director Paul Alexander Morales enjoining Philippine Ballet Theatre and Ballet Manila to apply for the same and present their credentials. Rep. Escudero states that the request for funds [9] shall be increased for this to be a common fund since “all are deserving of the honor” and “all will be accommodated” and that he wished “unity.” There was no clear forthright answer if this action implied that the country could be conceived to have three national ballet companies (from a question posed by Ballet Manila’s Lisa Macuja Elizalde) or if the bill would foresee the naming of other companies in the future (from a query posed by Philippine Ballet Theatre’s Chacha Camacho.) Ballet Philippines founder Alice Reyes was present to thank the committee for the recognition and support it was giving which she believed could “open doors” for the other companies as well.

*

Endnotes

[1] The House Bill filed by Rep. Lagdameo is not available online yet. The Oct. 10, 2011 Congressional hearing by the Committee of Basic Education and Culture suggests that it is indeed, “in the same spirit” as the Senate Bill filed by Sen. Marcos, as the presentation of Ballet Philippines President Margie Moran Floirendo showed and by the statement of Rep. Escudero, the Chair as to the amount of the yearly monetary endowment.

[2] Elka Requinta, “Ballet bill divides dance communities, opens old wounds” Philippine Daily Inquirer, Lifestyle June 13, 2011

[3] Marge Enriquez, “Will Ballet Philippines become the national dance company?” Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 27, 2011, http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/4387/will-ballet-philippines-become-the-national-dance-company, accessed: Oct, 3, 2011

[4] Facebook comment, author unknown to writer

[5] In recent dance literature and international conferences, the recurring issue has been the conflicting role and sometimes negative impact of the policies of the nation-state involving dance. In at least two international conferences (World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific Conference 2005 and “The Mak Yong Spiritual Dance Heritage: Seminar and Performances 2011), the writer has attended, the various points have been discussed. This topic has not been discussed fully in the Philippine context yet. With this proposed bill, the finer points of difference between an enactment into law from, for instance, a Congressional initiative which support can be coursed through an existing government agency, or a presidential decree, might be productively discussed.

[6] Ballet Philippines current artistic director Paul Alexander Morales, in a conversation with the writer

[7] Juan Ruiz, “Why my generation should care about Occupy Wall Street,” http://open.salon.com/blog/jmruiz/2011/10/03/why_my_generation_should_care_about_occupy_wall_st, accessed: Oct. 5, 2011

[8] Ballet Philippines believes it is an important step, a breakthrough which can lead to more government support for the arts, and of awarding excellence in the field. See update at end of the article about the Oct. 10, 2011 Congressional hearing.

[9] Rep. Escudero stated that PAGCOR had already approved the amount of 10M pesos (the amount of endowment stated in the bill due the national ballet company yearly) but the Committee could / would request for a larger amount that would serve as a “common fund.”

 

 

mining & the NPA, chacha & the environment

‘Victory to the noble in heart!’
By Elmer Ordonez

A VIDEO of mining operations and the havoc wrought in the mountains of Surigao is making the rounds of social media and the Internet. It was produced by GMA network as a segment of Reporters Notebook. Unable to watch it on TV, I was glad a friend e-mailed to me the video which shows wide swaths of once forest cover now baring reddish soil as results of open-pit mining—truly destructive of the pristine environment fast vanishing from our land. In Surigao large wooded areas have been gouged with machine hoes and payloaders to harvest mineral ore which are borne by trucks to the sea wharf for loading in cargo ships.

The video came together with a Star report about the New People’s Army (NPA) raid on the mining firms’ camp where dump trucks and heavy equipment were torched, three security guards killed, and two hostages taken.

A reader wrote, “After watching the video, I realized that the rebels’ belligerence is called for and completely justified. Victory to the noble in heart!” The reader, an award-winning fictionist, is not a partisan for the rebel movement, but she must have been so outraged by the miners’ assault on our diminishing forest cover and the pollution it has caused that she could not help but express herself thus. “Victory. . .” may well be for all those fighting for clean air, clean water, environmental protection — the green “armies of the night.”

Another reader involved in anti-large scale mining advocacy in Surigao del Sur wrote that Manobos live in the area. “It is difficult and dangerous to do mass work there because local executives of towns are pro-mining; they get huge amounts and benefits from the mining companies,” she said.

Official reaction to the NPA raid is typical. The president condemned the raid and expressed concern that this would discourage foreign investments. The government’s chief negotiator in the peace talks called the NPA raiders “more of bandits than rebels.” The police chief in the same Kapihan forum cried NPA “extortion.”

On the other hand, PNoy’s adviser on environment is on video saying (prior to the raid) that the mining firms have violated the Mining Act of 1995; his DENR secretary maintains that the government pursues development not at the expense of the people.

Actually the government was remiss in enforcing the laws on mining and environment while the NPA chose to punish the erring mining firms in keeping with the policy enunciated by Luis Jalandoni, chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front in the peace talks. In a statement (October 5), Jalandoni criticized the president’s reaction to the NPA raid as thinking “only . . .of favoring foreign investments, even if extremely exploitative.” He points out that “1) the extraction of nonrenewable resources such as mineral ores for export at dirt cheap prices kills the Philippine prospects for industrialization, 2) the indigenous people are subjected to dispossession of land, mass dislocation and ruination of their lives and culture, and 3) the unbridled mining poisons the environment and damages agriculture and other forms of livelihood.”

Jalandoni reminds the government about the petition filed by the Tribal Coalition of Mindanao et al. with the Supreme Court on May 30, 2011 against the targeted mines that have already poisoned the rivers and creeks and the coastal waters of Claver, Surigao del Norte.

The petition for a writ of Kalikasan (calling for a temporary environmental protection order against the mining corporations) cites a UP study finding nickel levels in the river/water systems in the area as high as 190 mg/l while the maximum level of nickel in drinking water should only be 0.02 mg/l (according to the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drugs).

For years now civil society, environmental groups and church groups like the Ecumenical Bishops Forum and the Catholic bishops have expressed alarm over the destruction of our natural resources to extract mineral deposits as in Marinduque, Negros, Benguet, Zamboanga del Norte, and Surigao. The purported financial returns for the government from the Surigao mining are shown in the video to be a pittance (P 13.7 million in taxes) compared to the P144.4 billion in profit going to the mining companies for 2010.

Now both houses of Congress are agreed in principle to change the economic provisions in the charter apparently to favor foreign investments, in keeping with the lawmakers’ neoliberal tendencies. On the other hand, the progressive party-list groups and members in the House are pushing for a People’s Mining Bill to regulate the operations of mining firms and address ecological concerns for people’s welfare.

It is time for the government to reorient its economic policies for the benefit of the people, particularly the poor and indigenous peoples, and not to endlessly feed corporate greed. It is time to take seriously environmental concerns since the country is experiencing disastrous results (like floods) of past neglect and acquiescence to foreign control.

Victory, indeed, to the noble in heart!

Occupy Wall Street, shades of the sixties

Occupy Wall Street reminds me of the youth unrest in America in the mid 1960s through the ’70s.  except that then (like it was here), the youth were not as focused, i guess because of the drugs, the sex, and the rock’n’roll alongside the make-love-not-(vietnam)war and the civil rights movements.

this time, 40-something years later, the crowds on wall street and elsewhere in america and the world, may not be clear exactly how to achieve the change they want, but they sure are clear what they have had enough of, and the awesome meeting of minds and bodies is simply unprecedented and proving quite contagious.

check out these links i’ve posted on my facebook wall, tracking the movement, and the thinking that’s transpiring, evolving…  i hope the prez and his peeps are paying attention too.

All power to occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street Rages On Around The World
This Time, It Really Is Different
Zizek at Wall Street: “don’t fall in love with yourself”
There’s something happening here
My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters
What Will Become of Occupy Wall Street: A Protest Historian’s Guide