August 2008 Archives

by Harvey S. Keh Contributor LAST August 21, a group calling itself Kambilan formally launched a movement to recall Gov. Eddie Panlilio of Pampanga. The group aims to gather at least 100,000 signatures from registered voters in Pampanga and submit it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as part of its petition to call for a recall election sometime next year. When Gov. Panlilio was asked about this move to recall him, he said that this move is politically motivated and was initiated by people closely linked with Lilia Pineda, a former board member who ran and lost to Gov. Panlilio during the last election. Lilia Pineda is also the wife of alleged jueteng kingpin, Bong Pineda. Moreover, Gov. Panlilio said that this movement to recall him is a consequence of his recent filing of plunder charges against Bong Pineda for his alleged involvement in illegal gambling operations in Pampanga. (Editor's note: Here's an actual video of Gov. Panlilio reacting to the recall petition taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Abigail Kwok). As result, civil society groups in Pampanga along with Kaya Natin! recently released statements of support to Gov. Eddie Panlilio. In the statement of Kapampangan Marangal Inc., one of the largest civil society groups in Pampanga, it mentioned that they reject any moves to recall Gov. Panlilio but at the same time they also recommended that Gov. Panlilio improve his way of governing the province to ensure checks and balance especially when it comes to the concentration of responsibilities and power to the Provincial Administrator. Kaya Natin! A Movement for Genuine Change and Ethical Leadership led by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Government Service, Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City and Gov. Grace Padaca of Isabela also urged Kapampangans to allow Gov. Panlilio to finish his term and wait until the 2010 elections. Last August 26, an online petitiion to reject the movement to recall Gov. Panlilio was launched and since then almost 1,000 online signatures have already been gathered. The online petition can be found here.

Kontribusyon ni Eric Manalang, Ang Kapatiran Party

(Isinulat sa Filipino para sa buwan ng wika)

Sa maraming lugar sa Pilipinas at sa labas na rin, dumarami ang nagsasama-samang mga grupo upang bigyan ng boses at aksyon ang nadaramang sakit sa tiyan, puso, bulsa at kung ano pa patungkol sa lalong lumalalang krisis sa ating minamahal na bayan.

Sumasama na rin ang mga nag-oorganisang mga simbahan, laiko, pulitiko, estudyante, overseas pinoys, negosyante, nakakubling opisyal ng pamahalaan, nakalantad na dating mga opisyal, pulis at sundalo at maaring maraming iba pa.

Lahat hinahangad ang PAGBABAGO...Kaya?

Ngunit hindi lamang ngayon mangyayari ito. Halus kasing tanda na ng pulitika sa Pilipinas and paglalankay langkay ng grupo upang lumakas, marinig, at kumuha ng suporta at pwersa sa masa at "middle class."

Meron kayang pag-asa ngayon?

Kung ang adyendang Tunay na Pilipino ang isusulong upang si Juan ay magkaroon ng tunay na kalayaan sa napakapanirang pulitika, ito'y mayroong patutunguhan. Ngunit kung ang iiral lamang ay ang personal na interes ng mga pulitiko, simbahan, military at ibang mga organisadong grupo para sa isang makitid na adhikain ay sayang lang muli ang pagsasama-sama.

Hanggang hindi maintindihan natin na ang reporma ay meron pinanggagalingang basehan, papaano malalalaman kung ano ang dapat na repormang gagawin ng bawat isa at ang bawat grupo na kasama rin naman sa gumawa ng problema.

Tayo ay humaharap ng isang "collective guilt" dahil sa pagtangging humarap sa katotohanan at kalokohan na nangyayari sa ating kapaligiran. Ito ay naging isang masamang kultura na siyang lalong binubuhay ng maruming pulitika.

Nasaan ang pag babatayan ng reporma? Sa sarili? Sa isang pamilya? Sa isang barangay? Sa buong BAYAN?

Tignan natin ang ating mga puso. Tignan natin ang ating pamilya. Tignan natin ang ating kapitbahay, mahirap man o mayaman. Alam ba natin ang pagsulong ng adhikain upang magkaisang puso at damdamin?

Sa araw-araw na tayo ay nabubuhay sa bayan natin dalawang bagay lamang ang maaring mangyari: Isulong and kabutihan panglahat o kaya wasakin ito.Walang pagitan sa dalawa. Ginagawa natin o winawasak natin.

Mas nakararaming nagwawasak kaya o nagsusulong? Sagutin natin.

Walang tunay na reporma, walang maaasahang koalisyong mayroong katuturan, walang pagtatagpo.

Iwasan na natin ang pangsariling pamamalakad. Hanapin natin ang tunay na kalayaan.

Ang Kabutihan Panglahat o "common good," walang iba.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinong Makabayan.

By Karla Angelica Pastores Contributor IT'S a step towards modernizing elections in the whole Philippines. Yes, we’re talking about automation, as the Philippines made its debut into the modern world’s election process with the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao’s (ARMM) computerized elections last Monday. The ARMM elections will serve as a prelude to what might possibly happen in 2010, the crucial time when we elect our next president. If this pilot test proves the notion that automation reduces the chances of dishonest acts, then preparations will then have to be made for 2010. On the other hand, if the elections will be judged as a failure, then more work should be done, at the cost of a “failed election” in ARMM. This, I believe, is not acceptable. But since we have yet to evaluate the polls, this is still an issue for future blogs. Automated elections alone do not guarantee fraud-free polls. To the really corrupt people whose opportunities for dishonesty were lessened by the power of computerization, it presents a bigger obstacle to open new doors of cheating. Perhaps not surprisingly, last Monday’s polls were marked with irregularities noted by volunteers of different groups. Aside from apparent vote-buying, machine malfunction caused a delay in the voting in some parts of Maguindanao. The former is a sad reality that we need to correct; the latter is a new problem we have to be prepared for. But I believe that automated elections will contribute more to the solution rather than to the problem. The problems of automation are easier to fix than the problems of some corrupt people with honest elections. Machines are more obedient to their manufacturers than other people are to their Creator, who is of course all for honesty. Filipinos are brilliant; we are not inept when it comes to technology, even though we may not be at the forefront of it. I said earlier that having computerized elections alone will not assure us of pristine polls, because some of the brilliant Filipinos I mentioned are, sad to say, using those smarts for their own selfish interests instead of being part of that which propels the nation to development. No, having computers count our ballots will not solve the problem of inefficient leaders, especially if there are no ballots to count. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson Jose Melo told reporters in Manila that voter turnout in the ARMM elections was “very, very good.” To set things straight, voter turnout was approximately 60-70 percent. Those percentage is not even enough for a student to pass a subject satisfactorily. How many more elections must take place before “very, very good” means a 90-95 percent voter turnout or even a hundred? Very, very many? Let us hope that the first automated elections in the Philippines will pave the way for automation in the 2010 elections. In Mindanao where violence is something to get used to, voter turnout was actually better than what some people have thought. If we are conscious enough to ensure that each person fulfills his or her duty to vote, and take the go the extra mile to volunteer as election watchdogs, automation can be a step closer towards a better Philippines. Clean and honest elections don’t have to cost us an arm and a leg. Kai Pastores, is the program officer for IamChange2010, a joint project of the Ateneo de Manila School of Government and Team RP. It aims to get the young Filipinos to register and vote in the coming 2010 Presidential elections and educate them on various political issues. For inquiries, you may contact Kai at +63 2 4265657.

By Niña Terol Contributor IN his piece on Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight for Time, Richard Corliss writes, "Nolan has a... subversive agenda. He wants viewers to stick their hands down the rat hole of evil and see if they get bitten. With little humor to break the tension, The Dark Knight is beyond dark. It's as black -- and teeming and toxic -- as the mind of The Joker." Having watched the film twice, first on Imax and next on a regular theater, I can't help but agree that The Joker is a better reference for the film than its real protagonist, Batman. Spawned right from the center of Limbo, with all the qualities we find loathsome, pitiful, and yet terrifying, The Joker is a reminder of everything we don’t want human beings to become. Quoting Corliss again, the late Heath Ledger's Joker "observes no rules, pursues no grand scheme; he's the terrorist as improv artist." But I'd take it a few notches further and say that The Joker is the film's "inverted social conscience," the dreaded, deadly disease that makes society work together to find a cure. It is he who asks the hard questions; he who challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions; he that pushes humanity to see how low they would really sink -- or how far they could really rise. He is the ultimate "necessary evil" that forces us to see just what we're really made of. A composite of everything that is wrong, perverse, and twisted in our society, it is he who nonetheless shows us our true potentials for greatness. It just goes to show that, in the movies -- as well as in politics and the rest of real life -- there's a lot we can learn from the bad guys. We cannot simply turn our eyes away from them, or pretend they're not there, or believe that they will simply go away. They will not-- for they are here to stay. But instead of ignoring them because they're such "bad examples," we should study them, dissect them -- even if we don't understand them -- and see how we can stop the rest of the world from joining their ranks. Crooks (trapos included) do have a purpose. They're there to show us what can happen if we let ourselves slide too deeply. Which brings us to Lesson # 2: Harvey Dent. Gotham's fearless, charismatic new district attorney is the ultimate tragedy of human potential. He starts out as everyone's hero, Gotham's "White Knight" who has come to save the day, except that when he collides with the dark forces we find that his foundation was too weak to stand against the very forces that ultimately subsumed him. This is what happens when we depend on one person to be our Messiah. People are people -- even in this age of celebrities, icons, and "modern-day heroes" -- and they will slip, or slide, or sink (sometimes very, very low). When we pin all our hopes on just one person -- or one entity or one ideal -- the results can be tragic. The solution is to empower everyone to be the source of the solution, which, ironically is what The Joker attempted to do in the hospital and ferry scenes -- regardless of his twisted definition of the “solution". Lesson #3: When push comes to shove, trust people to do the right thing. Speaking of the ferry scene, another point the movie made very well was that everyone, even the lowest scoundrels of society, has some emergency button of goodness within them that they can access and activate even at the most desperate times of their lives. Just give them a compelling reason and just enough time (but not too much) to think through their decision, and people will almost always gravitate toward the good. I'm no expert in human behavior and so I cannot vouch for this as truth, but I believe that when we put our faith in people -- and they know how important their choices will be for everyone else on board -- they will do their best to make the right decision. It won't be easy, but it's possible, even outside of Hollywood. Lesson #4: Sometimes, the "right thing" (or person) is difficult to understand, or even recognize. How will you know that you've done the right thing? How will you know that you've chosen the right person? You won't -- not at the onset, or not always. Because, sometimes, the person whom you thought was the answer will leave you disappointed and asking more painful questions. If Harvey Dent had lived and had been allowed to unleash the fullness of his newfound glory upon Gotham, what would have happened? We don't know for sure, but we do know that we cannot allow something like that to happen here. We cannot allow ourselves to be bought by the winning smile, the boy-next-door look, or the Messianic pronouncements. Even when looking at one's track record (as in Harvey Dent's case), we have to go over every detail very, very carefully. Conversely, we also cannot simply discount the "dark horse" as a nuisance entity or a subversive force that must be stopped. It's possible for the totally misunderstood rebel to be exactly what we need. Sometimes, collective understanding arrives so slowly that we are not able to recognize a hero when we see one. So we cannot trust our gut or our intellect alone. When looking at people, we need to understand the context of their actions, and also the context of the decisions we need to make. In Gotham, as in real life, nothing is truly black or white. Lesson #5: Sometimes, we need to live with lies in order to find our truth. Nobody understood this better than Batman himself. He has had to perpetuate a lie in order to allow justice to prevail, even allowing Two-Face to be seen as the Knight in Shining Armor that everyone needed him to be. Sometimes, we need to live with a lie in order for truth, justice, and goodness to prevail -- so that the delicate threads that weave our social fabric do not disintegrate and explode into chaos. The challenge is discerning which lies we need and which ones we should never entertain. (Niña Terol is Team RP's vice chairperson for internal affairs. She sometimes imagines herself to be Rachel Dawes—without the tragic ending. She wrote this article originally for the Young Public Servants website).