cojuangcos, kapit-tuko sa hacienda

obvious na ba kung bakit di na umasenso ang pilipinas?   this time the president’s own family is setting the precedent, hoping that the supreme court approves.   is this why kaya biglang nire-recognize na ni aquino si corona as chief justice?

Cojuangcos don’t want to let go of the land
By Philip Tubeza

MANILA, Philippines—It’s a world turned upside down.

This was how lawyer Christian Monsod, a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, reacted to the reported compromise deal that was reached between the farm workers and management of Hacienda Luisita, the 6,500-hectare sugar plantation in Central Luzon owned by the Cojuangco family of President Aquino.

“The bottom line is that the Cojuangcos do not want to let go of the land,” said Monsod, who was himself helping to broker a deal between Hacienda Luisita Inc. and the farmers, with thebacking of the CatholicBishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The deal runs counter to the “letter and spirit” of the 1987 Constitution which dictates that agrarian reform lands should go to the farmers while landowners get just compensation in return, according to Monsod.

“Now, it’s a world turned upside down with the landowners getting the land and farmers getting the compensation. If you have economic and political power concentrated, you can turn the world on its head,” he said.

Fix major education problems first–Nebres

By Philip Tubeza

MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres has criticized the Aquino administration’s plan to add two more years to basic education, saying the government should focus first on cutting the number of “illiterates” the country produces annually.

Nebres, who headed the Presidential Task Force on Education (PTFE) in the Arroyo administration, said that with its meager resources, the government should first address the backlog in schools, textbooks, teachers and classrooms, and then cut by half the number of students (estimated to be around 700,000) who drop out of elementary school and are “illiterate.”

“Once you have achieved that, then let’s talk about the two years,” Nebres said in an interview in his office at the Ateneo.

President Aquino in his State of the Nation Address announced the plan to add two more years to basic education, which currently consists of six years of elementary and four years of high school.

The plan is aimed at aligning the Philippine education system with international standards.

But for Nebres, the plan would take away precious government resources from more pressing needs. Proponents of the plan say it would cost the government an additional P100 billion to implement it over a five-year period.

Nebres said records showed that 700,000 to 800,000 elementary school students—or around a third of the 2.4 million who enter the grades each school year—drop out before Grade 6.

“That means they’re illiterate. They’re unemployable. The estimate is that there are 12 million to 15 million illiterates in the country. So every year, you’re adding another 700,000 to 800,000,” Nebres said.

“That’s what should be addressed first because the country cannot move with so many poor unemployable people being added every year,” he said.

Instead of adding two years to basic education, Nebres recommended that the government instead add extra years to “select college courses” whose graduates would be required abroad to have 15 to 16 years of education.

SONAkakadismaya

aint enough to expose gma’s overspending and then to tell us how he’s going to streamline the system so public funds aren’t wasted or lost to corruption.   aint enough to expose how much money goes into perks for lowly-paid high-government official appointees just to shame them into resigning.  aint enough to run after smugglers and tax evaders.

not all the anti-corruption campaigns and the most judicious kind of public spending are going to make much difference, whether in the short run or the long term.   there still won’t be enough money to address the food, education, health needs of the masses if nothing is done about our increasing population, growing by leaps and bounds, and about our economic policies that are tailored more to foreign interests than national interests.   and what about our debt & payment policies, are we never going to renegotiate?   are we forever prioritizing debt payments over the the well-being of millions of disenfranchised and marginalized filipinos?

prof. clarita carlos (gma7) is right. it’s not enough to choose a straight road over a crooked one.   question is, where does the road lead?   if his message to the cpp-npa-ndf is any indication it”s like the same road every president before him has taken: rightist road, status quo.   uncle sam must so love him.

Tungkol naman po sa CPP-NPA-NDF: handa na ba kayong maglaan ng kongkretong mungkahi, sa halip na pawang batikos lamang?

batikos lang ba ang call for agrarian reform?   and better pay for teachers?   fair trade vs. free trade?   an end to oligarchic rule?

Mahirap magsimula ang usapan habang mayroon pang amoy ng pulbura sa hangin. Nananawagan ako: huwag po natin hayaang masayang ang napakagandang pagkakataong ito upang magtipon sa ilalim ng iisang adhikain.

pulbura issues from the right too, as in the hacienda luisita massacre atbp.

Kapayapaan at katahimikan po ang pundasyon ng kaunlaran. Habang nagpapatuloy ang barilan, patuloy din ang pagkakagapos natin sa kahirapan.

it’s not as if the left rose out of nothing, and then there was kahirapan.   the kahirapan was there to begin with, thanks to oligarchic rule, kaya nga dumami at lumakas ang hanay ng kaliwa.

Dapat din po nating mabatid: ito ay panahon ng sakripisyo. At ang sakripisyong ito ay magiging puhunan para sa ating kinabukasan. Kaakibat ng ating mga karapatan at kalayaan ay ang tungkulin natin sa kapwa at sa bayan.

sakripisyo nino?   ng mahihirap pa rin?   puro sakripisyo na nga sila.   those are words better addressed to his own class, his fellow elites and landowners atbp. who refuse to share the nation’s resources.

say ni teddyboy (anc) re the speech and the new prez:

“it was an indictment. When he was talking, it was Ninoy Aquino. I was with Ninoy when he was at his most flamboyant. It was like bullets flying out of a machine gun…There was no vision, but facts.”

sorry, i don’t see the resemblance.   ninoy before martial law was hot.   noynoy is cold.   at his wisest, after seven years seven months in jail, ninoy had a vision for the country that included the left, whom he never brushed off as a “noisy minority.”   a pity that the son either seems to have no idea of it or the son chooses to ignore it.   SONAkakapanghinayang.

supreme court should let trillanes go

… to the inaugural session of the senate of which he is a member, elected into office by more than 11 mllion voters in 2007.   i mean, you know, if he was not going to be allowedpala to BE a senator and take part in the legislative process, why was he allowed to run in the first place?   and kung hindi pala siya pauupuin, when he won, why was he proclaimed at all?   i don’t get it.

and i don’t buy the argument that he’s a security risk.   if in the past he was able to walk out of a court hearing unimpeded, that must have been because his guards allowed him to, perhaps they were sympathizers, perhaps they thought his anti-corruption-in-the-military anti-gma cause a valid one.   and even if it will cost to secure him more tightly should he be allowed to attend senate sessions, i say, hey, sa ibang bagay kaya magtipid.   o kaya kunin sa pork barrel ni trillanes mismo ang panggastos, whatever.   but let him go.

as for the supreme court ruling that has already denied trillanes permission to attend senate sessions, well, the supremes have been known to reverse their own decisions, even, to break their own rules, even, to defy the constitution.    and anyway this particular appeal is just for the inaugural session na nga lang, ano ba.   if it means kiko pangilinan gets to bag the senate presidency, why not.   if he can swing it, he deserves it, maiba naman.

besides why is it taking so long to resolve his case?   seven years na siya in jail, susmaryosep.   are the powers behind-the-supremes, i mean, behind-the-scenes, waiting till his term as senator is up so he never gets to sit?   in my book that’s a crime against the more than 11 million citizens who voted for him.