If federalism is the answer, what is the question?

Amina Rasul

On Dec. 15, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy and the Institute for Autonomy and Governance organized a forum on Federalism, Autonomy, and Mindanao Peace Process at Club Filipino. We gathered leaders of the Bangsamoro diaspora, a potent sector never consulted by government as a group, regarding the present call of the government to shift to federalism.

The keynote speaker, Former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. stressed the need to break the hold of the central government (Imperial Manila) on powers, despite devolution and the Local Government Code.

The panel included DFA Undersecretary for International Economic Affairs Manuel Teehankee, Atty. Raul Lambino, and Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo. Usec Teehankee focused his discussion on the fiscal and economic benefits of federalism. Atty. Lambino, who has been organizing forums on federalism for the past four months, provided additional insights into the distribution of powers that will benefit the regions under federalism. Atty. Sinarimbo, who has been a part of the MILF negotiating panel for many years, detailed the powers needed for genuine autonomy to be implemented and how autonomy fits into a federalist system.

The panel were in agreement on a major point: under the present unitary system, the control of powers and resources — inspite of the Constitution and devolution — have alienated the Bangsamoro people and other indigenous cultural communities. They acknowledged the neglect and discrimination suffered by indigenous peoples.

Former Senate President Nene Pimentel proposed 12 federal states — five in Luzon (one for the indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras), four in Visayas, and three in Mindanao (including the Bangsamoro State, which could have regions of autonomy).

The proponents also argued that the present ineffective and irresponsive system and the weakness of the rule of law have allowed political warlords, and corrupt politicians and dynasties to exist prosper.

Will federalism result in a more effective, equitable and responsive system? Most of the participants, after discussions with the panel, believed it would. In a quick survey held at the forum, 76% (48 out of 63 Muslim leaders) expressed their support for federalism.

Will federalism end the aspirations for independence of frustrated and angry armed groups in the South? Or, like the grant of autonomy by Congress, will it end up as a piece of legislation that will paper over differences? We need a well-designed home with a strong foundation to hold all our peoples together, not a house of cards. That political architecture can only be designed if our peoples are part of the drafting. As the forum participants opined, we need a Constitutional Convention.

I myself support the core arguments for federalism. However, I do believe that we need to have more engaged discussions — not just mass forums that do little to elicit serious thought about what it takes to move from the present political system to another. I echo the comments of many of the leaders present at the forum: majority of our people, from Tawi-Tawi to the Ilocos, who say they support federalism see it as a miraculous system that will immediately change our situation. We need more engagement. I repeat the query at the federalism forum of the UP School of Economics: if federalism is the answer, what is the question?

Autonomy, Federalism or Independence?

tricky testy toxic times

ako lang ba ang ninenerbiyos sa state of president duterte’s health?  praning lang ba ako dahil sa pag-amin niyang parati na lang siyang may dinaranas na pananakit ng ulo at ng gulugod, kung kaya’t napagamit siya ng fentanyl na mas matindi pang painkiller kaysa morphine?  di naman niya sinasabi categorically na itinigil na niya for good ang paggamit nito nuong nabuking ng doktor niya na he was using 1/2 of the transdermal patch instead of just the prescribed 1/4.

pag mga doktor ang tinanong mo, napapailing sila sa fentanyl.  parang ang implication ay hindi na siguro umuubra ang ibang gamot na panlaban sa matinding pananakit ng ulo (na maaaring dala ng spinal injury from that motorcyle spill).  and by the way, ang pagkahilo at / o pagsusuka — na ilang beses nang nangyari sa kanya, ayon sa balita — ay ilan sa side-effects ng paggamit ng fentanyl.

maganda sana raw kung ipakita sa atin ang resulta ng head MRI o brain scan ng pangulo.  lalo na’t sinabi ng kanyang doktor mismo na ang sobrang paggamit ng fentanyl ay makakaapekto sa kanyang cognitive functioning, ibig sabihin sa kanyang pag-iisip (which encompasses reasoning, memory, attention, language, grasp of information, decision-making, etc).

it would be good to know that the kill-kill-kill orders, the paulit-ulit kuwentos, the pagmumura, the pagbabagong-isip on major policy issues, the joke about god telling him to stop cursing, calling his most trusted aide a bugaw, the misogynist talk, at kung anuano pang nakakagulantang na pananalita…  it would be good, kahit paano, to know that all these are not products of a cognitively dysfunctional mind, rather, of a politically astute and strategic, if radical, kind of thinking and messaging out to simply confuse, disconcert, discombobulate, and disable us from agreeing on anything, whether for or against him.

on facebook i am dismayed to find that like-minded “friends” who used to walk the middle ground — giving the president the benefit of the doubt yet not hesitating to speak up when disturbed re policy issues and especially by the rhetoric of his rabid supporters — and whose daily statuses i counted on to keep me updated on the latest developments…  i am dismayed to find that they are now squarely on the president’s side.  kahit level-up naman ang discourse nila from mocha uson’s, still, nakakapanlambot.  nakakapanlumo.

parang wala pati sa kanila ang na-tense about the fentanyl flap.  mas nakatutok sila on hitting out at the vp and trillanes and everyone else who dares ask duterte to resign on whatever grounds.  i seriously wonder what they know that we don’t know about the president’s health. maybe he’s actually in good shape?  but why not reassure us?  or maybe they’ve bought in to the bongbong protest as valid and therefore if the supreme court declares bongbong winner, they’ve decided they can live with that?  come to think of it, they have also been critical of the protests vs. the marcos burial in libingan ng mga bayani, and kapansin-pansin how critical they have become of the veep, who it would seem is doing nothing right.

but if digong is as sick as he himself says he is, i wonder what the game plan is.  i imagine that the supreme court is under extreme pressure to decide by january 2017 and going by the optimism of the bongbong camp on fb, parang they expect the ruling to be in his favor.  i imagine that that’s what leni and loida and leila and the liberal party are gearing up for, conceivably with the blessings of uncle sam.  maybe that’s why a certain opinion columnist has been bombarding us with stuff about how it was america that installed cory in ’86, which is like saying that america was responsible for EDSA, which is so not true.

EDSA season will be upon us soon enough, and it will be interesting, if not mindboggling. let’s brace ourselves, for better or for worse.

leni, mocha, joan of arc

it’s laughable the way leni is likened to cory when, really, the only thing they have in common is widowhood.  although it may be said that both ladies were catapulted to public consciousness through their spouses’ unexpected deaths, their personal circumstances and the political situations prevailing in 1985-86 and today are vastly different.  DILG sec jessie robredo was not even in the same league as senator ninoy aquino: he was a newbie on the national stage while ninoy was the leading oppositionist to president marcos before and through most of martial law until his assassination in 1983, and that certainly had a lot to do with cory’s popularity and stature.

but obviously the point is to remind us only that cory, a plain housewife, managed to oust an entrenched dictator, and that there is hope in leni, a lawyer and one-term legislator, doing cory better and ousting a president of five months who is detested by many for ruling like a dictator (EJKs, marcos-love, and all) though without the formality of martial law.

Leni is now the symbol and moving spirit of the political opposition: A JOAN OF ARC IN THE RAGING BATTLEFIELD OF PHILIPPINE POLITICS. [caps not mine]

sabi ‘yan ni belinda olivares-cunanan in her blog political tidbits soon after the veep’s resignation from the duterte cabinet.  back in september 1986, georgie anne geyer of gettysburg times first said it of cory when the new prez was in the U.S. to address Congress, and many of us thought it was silly, and yet philippine media picked it up, so flattered were they for cory, no matter how hilarious and inapt the comparison.

She … seems, in an almost mystical sense, to be the realization of the female leader (like Joan of Arc without the final tragedy) that feminists have looked for.

when cory died in 2009, it was recalled by the foreign press  though with some discernment.

When a bewildered Marcos and his wife Imelda fled the nation, it set a stirring precedent for dissidents everywhere, from South Africa to South America to Pakistan. Aquino was hailed as a modern-day Joan of Arc.

…Aquino’s presidency was less successful than the revolution, with a series of coup attempts by the military keeping the administration hamstrung. She was lauded for her courage, but rarely seemed able to get on top of ruling the country.  

seven years later, in march 2016, it was revived, tagged on to vp leni by philstar columnist tony katigbak (A Joan of Arc in the Phl) for daring, during the campaign, to speak against the marcos burial in libingan ng mga bayani.  and then in july by jojo robles, though wth some disdain (Imelda, not Cory), just before the prez finally gave her a cabinet position.

Leni, who was being cast by the Yellows as the new Cory leading the opposition like Joan of Arc against the Dictator from Davao, felt that the better offensive was an Imeldific charm offensive.

but now that the honeymoon is over, and vp leni is back with the opposition and again being hailed as a joan of arc, alam ba ng yellows na may  kaagaw siya sa koronang ito?   three days earlier than cunanan, on the very weekend that vp leni made sumbong to nation that she had been asked to desist from attending cabinet meetings, mocha uson posted a cover photo of herself clad in armor with sword in hand and the title JOAN OF ARC of the DDS (duterte’s diehard supporters), no less.  laban kayo?

puwede na ring ipalamang kay mocha, please.  mas bagay rin sa drama niya at sa drama ng presidente, whether she hears or not the voice of god, like the original joan, and oh, like her tatay digong, or so he likes to joke.

but seriously.  leni’s resignation from the cabinet has of course renewed rumors of a digong ouster plot in this run-up to the jan 20 and feb 2017 edsa anniversaries.  and it’s hard to simply take leni’s word for it, or the LP’s, that there is no such conspiracy in the works, not with LP moneybags loida nicolas lewis putting her foot in her mouth with that call for the president to resign so leni can take over before bongbong manages to take over the vice-presidency.

was that a signal of sorts to start some balls rolling behind the scenes here and in america?  who knows, we might see a mixed bag of tricks from the EDSA uno and edsa dos playbooks.  duterte won the election fair and square so I don’t see a popular and prayerful clamor for his resignation, but the state of his health is a matter of concern — what if he suddenly keels over, cross our fingers please — or what if he messes up big time — like erap did — and the super majority in congress suddenly finds itself a minority, and a manny villar rises to railroad his impeachment?  fat chance?  just the same, it’s important that the vp question be settled quickly, credibly, and with finality by the supreme court.

i share most of the scattered oppositions’ major major concerns, especially over the drug war (bakit walang nadadali na drug lords?  bakit pinatay si espinosa?  sinong nagpapatay?) and charter change (federalism freaks me out, and wow he’s agreeable to reversing the 60-40 ownership requirement re public utilities) BUT BUT BUT may he live to finish his term, just because he draws the line: NO to foreign ownership of land.

“But you know, there is something which [I will oppose]—it’s a fundamental irreconcilable difference with me and some of the congressmen because even the Speaker before, who was my political enemy, already agreed to sell lands—selling lands to foreigners. I am sorry, but I am not ready for that kind because most of the Filipinos are poor. And with the growing economy of the supergiant, China and the rest, they can always come here and buy the land and they can buy the whole of Tondo and relocate there and we’ll have nothing and everything sold,” he pointed out.

that’s music to my ears, and i am won over again.  anything happens to him, paninindigan ba ‘yan at ipaglalaban rin ng kung sino man ang papalit kay digong?   yes, we would need a joan (or john) of arc of sorts, as much to fight foreign powers who would buy us out as to fight pinoy politicos and oligarchs who would sell us out.

Philippines: Policy Failures Fuel HIV Epidemic

Duterte Should Improve Condom Access for Men Who Have Sex With Men

(Manila) – The Philippine government is fueling a rising human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic among men who have sex with men through policies that restrict interventions proven to prevent transmission of the virus, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 46-page report, “Fueling the Philippines’ HIV Epidemic: Government Barriers to Condom Use by Men Who Have Sex With Men,” documents the failure of national and local governments in the Philippines to address the growing HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men.

Read on…