Category: congress

bangsamoro con chacha

it does seem like the anticipated bangsamoro deal with the MILF would have the same problematic provisions as the arroyo admin’s MOA-AD that was struck down by the supreme court back in 2008.

the only significant difference is that the mo-ad was presented as a finished product — requiring only a constitutional amendment to allow a kind of federalist substate and then congress saying yes to the whole deal — samantalang this bangsamoro framework is presented as a work in progress — nothing’s final, but here are the points that the government panel and the MILF panel have come to agree on — and from now on govt is engaging the public, esp the concerned mindanaoans, in a process of transition toward the desired bangsamoro substate-sort-of, how nice.  except that, apart for some tweaking here and there, the roadmap is clearly headed in the same direction as the failed moa-ad.

senator miriam has warned us, it would take two constitutional amendments to legalize the abolition of ARMM and the founding of bangsamoro, and i believe her more than i believe dean leonen who is saying that it would not need charter change, but who himself, In one of the early presscons, brought up the possibility of “people’s initiative” (RA 6735) as a way of amending the charter.  surely he knows that the people’s initiative, enshrined in the 1987 constitution, still lacks implementing rules and regulations.  but who knows, they might be sneaking that in right now while they distract us with cyberlibel atbp.?

there is no doubt that the charter change dance is in progress.  last tuesday, just two days after president aquino’s sunday announcement of a peace accord achieved, malou tiquia attended an afternoon forum on federalism in the house of representatives and tweeted about it.  i jumped in upon the mention of pimentel and abueva,  both ardent federalists.

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
On deck at HOR is Forum on Citizen’s Participation on Consti Reform. forum covers federalism. M one of reactors. #Federalism

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
Bangsamoro, Bangsabicol, Bangsavisaya, BangsaIlocos…n the forum starts on federalism…

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
Nene Pimentel presented a complete n very comprehensive plan on federalism. Pepe Abueva on deck.

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
“What is good for Moro ppl is good for all ppl”- Dr. Jose Abueva

angela ‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq parang we’ve heard that all before. sana someone presents too the negative side.

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
@stuartsantiago which is?

angela‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq ay, mahabang usapin, let me find links from last time’s debates

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
@stuartsantiago ur own views? What do u fear frm federalism

angela ‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq not going to change status quo. the powerful ones now will still be the powerful ones in a federal system.

angela ‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq and the costs of setting up federal govt for every region will be huge. and okay for rich regions with money. what abt poor regions

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
@stuartsantiago that can be dealt with by revising present regional set up where rich n poor can form one fed state

angela ‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq sounds good on paper, but when did rich ever really share equitably with poor

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
@stuartsantiago valid point!

angela ‏@stuartsantiago
@maltiq Federalism: Issues, Risks and Disadvantages

Malou Tiquia ‏@maltiq
@stuartsantiago thanks! Will raise agam agam

if that’s happening in the house of reps, can the senate be far behind?  what was that wednesday dinner hosted by the president and attended by all but 3 senators really all about kaya.  so it wasn’t about an enrile ouster, obviously, or he wouldn’t have been invited, too.  still it’s hard to believe senator drilon when he says it was just a thank you dinner for their votes to oust corona all of 4 months ago.  we weren’t born yesterday.

senator enrile of course is already a part of the dance, stepping up to contradict senator miriam (who else would dare?) re constitutional amendments.  charter change won’t be needed, he says, while evincing great interest in this experiment in parliamentary govt.

this should remind us that not too long ago, post-corona, pre-brady, pre-memoir, when he was smelling so good and wise, enrile and speaker belmonte joined forces and tried to convince the president about amending the constitution and making national defense a higher priority than education and — the ruling elite’s holy grail – setting the economy free from protectionist provisions.

it’s too bad that the bangsamoro dream keeps getting hijacked to serve the chacha dream of the powers-that-be.  the bangsamoro people deserve autonomy, but only as much autonomy as every other local government unit deserves and isn’t getting either in luzon, the visayas, and other parts of mindanao.  poverty, along with landlessness and joblessness,  is a nationwide affliction, and it is the fault not of the moros and other rural and urban poor who make up, what, maybe 70 %, maybe 80? of the population, rather it is the fault of imperial manila, of a central government that is loathe to share its considerable powers and resources with local governments, despite the Local Government Code of 1991 that mandates decentralization, devolution, and autonomy, complete with implementing rules and regulations.

ARMM is a failure not simply because muslim leaders are corrupt and crooked (hindi lang naman sila), but because aside from “having negligible powers, it was also hostage to the power-brokers in Malacanang.”

Since it was created, the ARMM has been led by local politicians who had been “anointed” by whoever sits in the presidential palace. The first regional governor was the local stalwart of Pres. Aquino’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). The second one was a Maranaw protégé of Pres. Fidel V. Ramos. During the third ARMM elections, the FPA with the MNLF has just been signed. MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari was persuaded by Pres. Ramos to run for ARMM governor. Misuari ran virtually unopposed in the 1998 ARMM elections. By that time, a new president had replaced Ramos – Joseph Estrada. Estrada’s term was cut short by another “People Power” mass action at EDSA in 2001 because of a popular perception of his alleged plunder and other crimes against the Filipino nation. The Vice President then, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took oath as the new president. Like her predecessors, Arroyo lost no time in directing who will become the new ARMM governor. Along with her power-brokers, she made possible the (in)famous break-up of the MNLF Central Committee, easing out Misuari as its chairman. A so-called “Council of 15” was organized, with Dr. Parouk Hussin as its leader. Eventually, Malacanang also anointed Hussin to be the new ARMM governor. In last year’s elections, a new face in regional politics surfaced as the winner in the contest for the ARMM governor’s post – Gov. Datu Zaldy “Puti” Ampatuan. Despite the declaration of the ARMM as a “free zone” in terms of the most likely to be elected regional governor, there are persistent views that the new ARMM governor is also Malacanang’s bet – he is the son of Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, widely known as Pres. GMA’s favorite local political ally. http://iag.org.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=44

would it be any different for a bangsamoro substate-sort-of?  there is no reason to believe so.  nothing has changed.  let us see this bangsamoro framework for what it is: just another attempt to justify, make it all right for congress to shift to constituent-assembly mode for the sake of the muslims kuno, and while they’re at it, have a go at the economic provisions, and who knows what else.

after what we’ve learned from the cybercime case about how laws are made, how objectionable amendments can be sneaked in, and how some, if not most, senators and reps can themselves be clueless as to what’s really going on, and after how we’ve seen them sit on, literally, the RH and FOI bills, never mind the interests of the majority, t’s obvious that it would be a big mistake to go on trusting our lawmakers to look out for our interests.  what they look out for, administration after administration, congress after congress, are the interests of the few, the ruling elite, of which they are a fundamental part.

NO to chacha.   call me paranoid.

cyberlibel law will “level the playing field” ?!?

before anything else, kudos cheers mabuhays to SENATOR TG GUINGONA for voting NO to the cybercrime act, the only one who dared, cared, on grounds that the libel clause is a prior restraint on freedom of expression, a constitutionally guaranteed right.

so who voted yes to the cybercrime act despite the libel clause?

LOREN LEGARDA
FRANCIS ESCUDERO 
GREGORIO HONASAN II
AQUILINO “KOKO” PIMENTEL 
PIA CAYETANO
RAMON “BONG” REVILLA JR.
JINGGOY EJERCITO-ESTRADA
PANFILO LACSON
MANUEL “LITO” LAPID
FERDINAND “BONGBONG” MARCOS
RALPH RECTO
VICENTE SOTTO III
MANNY VILLAR

so the following abstained, it would seem:

JUAN PONCE ENRILE
JOKER ARROYO
ALAN PETER CAYETANO
EDGARDO ANGARA 
FRANKLIN DRILON
MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO
SERGIO OSMENA III 
FRANCIS “KIKO” PANGILINAN
ANTONIO “SONNY” TRILLANES

makes you wonder about these senators.

my first thought was, the ones who said yes must be anti-RH, like sotto.  but wait, where’s enrile?  and what’s RH sponsor pia doing in that list?  ah, so, maybe these are senators who have been criticized, berated, attacked online a la sotto, they know what it’s like, or maybe they haven’t and they don’t want to be and they don’t want to know what it’s like, ever, so yes, regulate blogs, facebook, twitter, news websites.

as for those who abstained, since they didn’t have it in them to say yes, good for them, then why did they not go the whole hog and vote no a la guingona?  pogi points sana.  talo rin lang kasi, wiser to stay on sotto’s good side, the old-boys-club mentality kicking in, kapit-bisig kumbaga, circle the wagons, there’s more at stake than one senator’s reputation?  there’s more at stake than one senate bill?

say ni pia cayetano sa twitter:

My review of the cybercrime bill was focused on child pornography, which falls within my area of responsibility.

a follower asked:

@piacayetano so if you say your review is only on child pornography, then all the other areas of the law you don’t bother to check? 

no response so far.  what kind of senators are these.

and no word from the palace, no explanations.  only this announcement on the president’s website, that the doj, the dilg, and the dost are working on the implementing rules and regulations of the cybercrime act.

Punishable acts under the new law include offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data system, illegal access, illegal interception, data interference, system interference, and misuse of devices. Also included are computer-related offenses such as forgery, fraud, and identity theft that are rampant in the Internet.

Also punishable under the new law are content-related offenses like cybersex, and child pornography.

The law also punishes unsolicited commercial communications or cyber squatting, the acquisition of a person’s domain name for profit or destroy reputations.

ang lupit, di ba?  no time-frame, manginig tayo.  at ang weird, ni hindi nakalista ang libel.  which means what?  did they even read it?  did they even know that it contained a libel clause?

and take note, the prez and the senators are leaving it to sotto iii to defend the libel clause.  every one else is silent on the matter, esp the palace communications peeps, two of whom used to be “noted” bloggers, one of whom tweeted non-stop in memory of the declaration of martial law.

rubbing salt into the wound, sotto iii has the temerity to ask : why, what’s wrong with a libel law in cyber space? 

“I can’t see the logic,” said Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III when asked to react to media protests regarding the dangers and possible unconstitutionality of extending libel laws to new social media in the new Cybercrime Prevention Act.

“If mainstream media are prevented by law from cursing and engaging in character assassination, why should those in the social media and in the Internet be exempted from such accountability,” said Sotto, who had proposed the extension of the Act’s coverage to include libel.

“What’s so special about (mainstream journalists) that they have those prohibitions, and that they (social media bloggers) don’t?” Sotto had insisted in a recent interview.

—

The libel clause in the recently passed anti-cybercrime law is meant to “level the playing field” between the mainstream media and the social media, Sen. Vicente Sotto III said. 

he can’t see the logic in the cybercommunity’s protests.  he’s saying that he only seeks to level the playing field between social media and mainstream media, both should be covered by the same libel law, never mind that honasan had filed a bill to decriminalize libel, i guess because honasan must have changed his mind, as he voted for the cybercrime-with-libel law.

but but but it is not the playing field between mainstream and social media that’s the problem – we are co-existing, mainstream media is not complaining that social media is more free; social media, indie political bloggers in particular, are not complaining that mainstream media is profit-oriented, a capitalist enterprise.  it is what it is.  instead, mainstream and social media are feeding off each other, and that is good, for the information of the nation.

in truth, the playing field that needs to be levelled is the one between government officials and the citizens and communities whom they are pledged to serve.  lamang na lamang, llamadong llamado ang ruling class, from one admin to the next, life does not get better, only worse, for the larger population, status quo.

for our part, all that we political bloggers and commenters and tweeters and facebookers have is the internet where, as ordinary citizens mostly, we have the freedom to speak out, share our points of view, take a stand, esp on political developments that impact negatively on nation (and there are many, it doesn’t stop…), if only for the record.

indeed, it is not a level playing field, and an anti-libel law that infringes on the freedom of speech of the cyber community makes the rules even more  favorable for the already powerful ones who have sat on the RH and FOI bills, and who knows what else, divorce? for more than a decade now, manigas tayo.

on facebook there are some who say that we who are so upset by the cybercrime act should have spoken up before the bill became law, that we should have monitored closely the legislative process. ang say ko naman, but, really, there were some who spoke up, and even if more had spoken up earlier, would the senate have listened to us?  the senate has not been listening to 7 out of 10 filipinos who want the RH bill, why would they listen to the cybercommunity, na 3 out of 10 filipinos lang daw (and of that three, i bet only one is interested in politics).

ang problema sa ating elected government officials ay, they believe their own propaganda that they are god’s gift to filipinos, they know better than we do about what’s good for the nation, so na-o-offend sila na bonggang bongga when they’re called out, criticized, cyberstoned for something we think they did wrong or didn’t do right.

what if, sumagot sila nang maayos?  umamin, kapag nagkamali.  magpaliwanag, kung may malabo.  engage with the citizenry in constructive discourse.  but no.  instead of getting their acts together, instead of behaving like honorable statesmen who deserve to be in public office, instead of giving us no cause to criticize and deplore, instead of being men and facing up to public opinion for the good of nation, they slap us with an anti-cyber-libel law.

and this, from sotto pa rin, part of his justification for the libel rider, based on the senate journal of january 24, 2012.

…there are numerous abuses in technology, particularly the video and photo uploading and unnecessary write-ups and comments in social networking systems. 

unnecessary in what sense?  who is to decide about necessity?  what might seem unnecessary to sotto would not necessarily be unnecessary in the filipino’s long-term struggle for a true, informed, and working democracy.  everything being done and being said in the freewheeling ether of cyberspace today, day after day, from the inane to the cruel, from the gross to the sublime, and everything that government does and does not do, documented for cyber-eternity, has historical value and significance for the future.

i’m a writer of history, and this is an indie non-profit blog where i share historical and political notes, and call a spade a spade, in aid of nation-building, if not for my children’s generation, then for their my grandchildren’s, and yours.  don’t tell me i have to mince my words now and live in fear of sotto and his ilk.

AMEND THE ANTI-CBYERCRIME ACT!
DECRIMINALIZE LIBEL!

walden bello: the pro-RH forces are not without weapons

We are halting the consideration of all other legislative matters, including privileged speeches, unless the bill moves forward to a vote.  We will place the onus for the legislative stalemate on the anti-democratic dilatory moves of the anti-RH minority.  Some of us are considering even suspending the consideration of the national budget, but only as a last resort, if the anti-RH lobby does not see the light. 

gloria & the archbishop vs. RH

i’m sorry gloria arroyo choked on that lemon, i mean, melon, not too long after she went back to congress to rally her troops against the RH bill.  sorry because it means she’s not likely to make it to the edsa shrine on saturday to join manila archbishop luis antonio tagle’s anti-RH rally.  it would have been quite a sight to see, gma joining hands with the church, or is it, the church joining hands with gma, vs. the ardent RH advocacy of 7 out of 10 pinoys.

actually, ok rin that gma has taken that unequivocal stand against RH, whether it’s because she doesn’t want to lose the supposed, tho perhaps mythical, catholic vote (if not for herself, then for her sons) that the church can allegedly, again possibly mythically, muster against recalcitrants, or whether it’s because she truly believes that artificial contraception is bad and she herself never indulged back in her fecund pre-menopause days.  whatever, i like it that she’s made this mistake of sucking up to the church rather than sucking up to us.  at the very least it has forced the president to be clearer about his support for whatever the majority of filipinos want. 

what if gloria had taken a pro-RH stand instead?  panalo na sigurado, kahit sa house of reps lang.  end of debate.  vote na, now na.  not that it would have endeared her to most of us in a heartbeat, but hey, it would have been great spin material in that future when she wants to flee again to save her neck and she would need all the sympathy and goodwill she can get.

as for the new archbishop of manila, well, he’s proving right what analysts predicted when he assumed the post:

Analysts on Church affairs said Tagle would be a potent weapon against proposals to legalize divorce in the Philippines and improve access to contraception through his close links with the Catholic middle class and civil society groups.

potent weapon, hmmm.  but going down that edsa-rally road isn’t very smart of him.  lalo na’t the church has not been engaged in any run-up action that we know of re the RH bill other than labelling it pro-abortion (which is a lie) AND making gapang the congressmen, and maybe the senators, and, who knows, maybe offering all kinds of goodies — the church is verrrry rich, let’s keep in mind — in exchange for the legislators’ NO votes when the time comes.

what if, instead, archbishop tagle had spearheaded, finally, a vigorous information campaign on natural family planning, one addressed to both women AND men, on when and how to make pigil their panggigigil (them celibates should know).  at least nasimulan na ang sex education.  again, great spin material, win or lose, and the bishops can even seriously pitch the joys, nay, the heavenly rewards, of abstinence and celibacy.

but the die is cast.  tomorrow’s rally should be interesting to see.  will the church make hakot students of catholic schools, nuns and priests, legions of mary, the catholic women’s league, couples for christ, the opus dei?  will gloria send elena da horn to represent her? will the senate send in da eat bulaga clown to sing “magkaisa”?

sana umulan.