My heroes

(Note: Last April, I joined Philippine Star's writing contest entitled "My Icon, My Hero." I lost. Here's my entry.)


My icons, my heroes
by Paolo B. Maligaya

It must be anger. Anger and frustration. An overwhelming sense of injustice and feeling of frustration against systems in place and the way they’re run that they feel the need to actively do something about it? Prestige? (Maybe not.)

Or is it plain old love for country?

I’ve always wondered what motivates people to give up their time and source of livelihood to do volunteer work. Being a part of the secretariat team of a volunteer organization like the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections or NAMFREL, I am witness to people showing up to perform difficult tasks for which the only form of remuneration is a free lunch, an ID, or the occasional reimbursement of transportation expenses. I’ve met people saying, “okay I’ll be here at 8am tomorrow because I need to make calls to the provincial coordinators and finish a report by evening,” and our reaction would be, “you’ll do that?”

The job of a NAMFREL volunteer is not simple. In fact, it can be complex depending on the kind of work a person does for the organization, which also depends on the set of skills he/she brings to the table.

Take for example a provincial coordinator. This person could be a teacher, a local businessman, a professor, a pastor, a priest, a nun, a housewife, or a second generation volunteer who “inherited” the position from her father, making good on their family’s commitment to free and fair elections. This coordinator would have to convince other people in their area to join his cause, either to be municipal or precinct volunteers, or to help out in logistics and communication. If he lives in a province like Tawi-Tawi or Palawan, this means that he has to travel by land, water, and air to organize volunteers in the different areas, paying for transportation out of their own pockets since the measly (as is often the case) seed money from the national office has not been deposited yet. To augment the expense, he or she has to count on the spirit of bayanihan among Filipinos through sourcing funds from local businesses in his area, often only using his face, track record, and the promise of commitment to uphold fairness in the coming election to secure the much-needed donation.

The job can be perilous. As somebody who has vowed to work for a clean conduct of the electoral process, a NAMFREL volunteer is a target for anybody who would want to disrupt the honest conduct of the process. NAMFREL volunteers have been killed in the line of duty, people like Rodrigo Ponce, Neoldino Del Corro, Abdulhak Balabadan, and others who died while doing what they feel they should do, which is to protect the ballot.

I go back to my question: but why?

I have experienced becoming a NAMFREL volunteer myself. In 2007, I took a leave of absence (without pay) for two weeks from a relatively higher-paying job to volunteer in the national headquarters in La Salle Greenhills. I was met by incredulous stares from colleagues who asked, but why? To be at the other end of this question, frankly I did not know what to say. I may have mumbled something about duty to country or whatever, but the truth was, I didn’t know for sure. Like those Americans who trooped to New York City to donate blood after 9/11, I just felt it was something that I had to do, something that needs to be done, and we could not put words into it. Just.

It’s probably this mishmash of clear yet ambiguous reasons why people have continued to offer themselves to something that they think is bigger than them, but they feel they have to be part of.

The reality is, an election in the Philippines is not just an election, in the way the dictionary or even the UN defines it. For many Filipinos, an election is not simply this party vs. that party (the fact is the Philippines still doesn’t have a mature political party system). For them, it’s more like good vs. evil. How else to explain the heavy presence of bishops, priests, and nuns in the polling precincts, counting centers, and in assemblies? (Do you really expect the priests and nuns to stay idle when they see their flock being cheated, oppressed, or beaten to death?)

For ordinary Filipinos, an election could be a wind of change, a new start, food for the family, the kids finally finishing college, a higher paying job, a way out of this misery. Anything but a mere process of some people getting a bigger number of votes, getting proclaimed as winner, fireworks and cheers. An election in the Philippines is a new lease on life.

The typical NAMFREL volunteer is not a politics geek. He doesn’t go around town thinking that, oh I’m doing this because the political situation in the country is like this or like that or oh I’m doing this because I want to contribute to the democratic process. They do it because they feel deep inside that for some reason, they need to do it, but couldn’t articulate it through words or grand statements about democracy or whatever ideology. More than its national leaders and known supporters, the organization is fueled by nameless, faceless citizens who want nothing more than a decent life but feel they have to actively do something to make it happen. The spirit of volunteerism is exactly that -- a spirit. It’s an invisible force that fuels people into action. You may kill the person, but not the spirit. Which means individual personages don’t define an organization. That is why, when there were some people who tried to discredit NAMFREL by saying that its national leaders are supposedly partisan, it was a slap in the face to its thousands of volunteers. In their provinces, cities, towns, barangays, families, NAMFREL is not the guy in the office in Manila. In their places, they are NAMFREL. And no, you cannot put them down and make them go away.

The NAMFREL volunteer movement is a concrete example of democracy in action, of people coming together by their own free will to strengthen the foundations of their country. People empowering themselves because they feel it is their responsibility as citizens to safeguard the democratic processes of their nation. The movement has inspired and continues to inspire other countries, not just in Asia but around the world, to organize themselves to protect or uphold democratic values. Above all, this national movement of citizens refutes once and for all that Filipinos are “indolent” as the Spanish claimed during their time; Filipinos are a hardworking people who works for their freedom harder.

NGO workers in the country generally don’t earn much, having limited resources for salary and supplies. There’s a feeling among us that it’s unfair that we get paid too little for what we contribute to the country.

But then we come face to face with our volunteers whom we serve and who work harder and contribute more to our cause, but does it for free, and we feel humbled. Along with other ordinary folks like Batangueña public school teacher Filomena Tatlonghari who was killed while protecting a ballot box from snatchers, NAMFREL volunteers use their very own bodies to defend democracy, and they do not ask anything in return after a day’s work other than an honest election process, and perhaps a better life. That is why more than the prominent figures in this country’s history, the unsung, nameless, faceless volunteers of NAMFREL are my icons, my heroes.

NAMFREL Call for Volunteers - Maging BANTAY NG BAYAN!

Dear NAMFREL volunteers and friends:

We only have 28 days to go before we elect our country's next president. If you've decided to be non-partisan for this election and would like to be involved in Namfrel's Bantay ng Bayan activities, please sign-up now HERE. We need volunteer field election monitors, encoders, writers, researchers, analysts, admin and logistics persons all over the country.

Please encourage your family, friends, and school/professional organization to join you in this cause by signing up as well.

May we also request if you could post the following blurb as your Facebook or Twitter status at least once a week (or as often as you wish!) leading up to election day:

*NAMFREL is now accepting volunteers: 09279611524 / 09193389344 / 4847590 / 4704151 / www.namfrel.com.ph / volunteer@namfrel.com.ph*

Donations are also welcome.

To receive regular election updates, please join www.facebook.com/namfrel

Thank you and we hope to see you soon.


The NAMFREL National Secretariat Team

You are needed now more than ever.

Volunteer HERE

No accreditation needed to be good citizens

I have not been able to blog as much as I want to, not just because of Facebook, but more importantly, because I actually have work to do. I'm back with the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) since October, and yes, despite the election commission's refusal to grant us an accreditation on their own terms, NAMFREL is going ahead to participate in the coming Philippine presidential election, automated or not, accreditation or not.

Read another statement HERE.

One thing. I take offense with the Comelec calling two of NAMFREL's leaders as "partisan," simply because they allegedly spoke out against two Philippine presidents, well before this election period when they're both running as candidates. What is partisanship anyway? I think one is partisan when he/she publicly favors a certain candidate in words and action. However, to speak out against elected government officials who are not doing a good job and who at the same time are consuming our tax money, I think that's not partisanship. To seek accountability from elected leaders is not partisanship. That is good citizenship.

Become a NAMFREL volunteer. Sign up HERE.

Lost daze

It's been a while since I actually wrote something on this blog.

I blame Facebook.

I finally came to the conclusion that, yes, people write to be able to express something. And when I say "write," it doesn't necessarily mean actual paragraphs or even complete sentences. "Write" meaning "to express." No need for further explanations, just to voice out an opinion, an outburst, catharsis. (The same can be said about singing, hence bad karaoke).

The need to be heard.

And Facebook satisfies that need. Be it a single word, or a phrase, or a grammatically incorrect sentence followed by a barrage of punctuation marks, or a photo, or, (my favorite) a link that somehow lets us "reveal" or hint at what we want to say, filling up our Facebook statuses satisfies our very basic need to say something or make a point, to no one in particular.

To whom really? Our Facebook friends? Or just some of them? Hoping to elicit a response from them? To catch their attention? To show off that we know certain things and they don't? To advocate an issue? To make yourself seem cooler than you really are? Because we don't have anything better to do? Perhaps all of these at some point.

Hmm, it could also be that I'm using Facebook as an excuse for my laziness to actually write something. Face it, if you're not really into it, blogging can be a pain. All the clicking and opening of tabs and copying and pasting of codes, etc., it's certainly more complicated that updating a Facebook status.

I can't promise that from now on I'm gonna be more diligent in updating this blog and dramatically cut the time I spend on Facebook, but, I'll try. Hmm, I don't even know if anybody even cares whether I blog or not, if people actually read my posts. Hello, anybody there?

Since the last time I actually wrote something, many things have happened that normally I would have reacted to or written about at length. I'm going to list them here, and since I don't really feel like making up for lost time, I'm just going to comment on them, Facebook style, as I might have written them when these things happened.


1. I went to Afghanistan.

Paolo Maligaya thinks that what we all know about Afghanistan and its people from western media is, not really inaccurate, but grossly incomplete.

2. Corazon Aquino died.

Paolo Maligaya Cory.

3. Carlo J. Caparas chosen to receive a National Artist award.

Paolo Maligaya As Jessica Z. has said, it was so funny I forgot to laugh.

4. Afghans held their election.

Paolo Maligaya Good morning Afghanistan! It's election day.

5. I spent a week in Dubai.

Paolo Maligaya thinks that, thousands of years from now, when our android descendants start digging the Earth's ruins, they're going to dig up the storied lost city of Dubai and conclude that it was one of mankind's greatest technological achievements, until it all melted away because of the unbearable HEAT!

6. I bought a Mac.

Paolo Maligaya ay umanib na sa kulto ng mansanas. Hail our master Steve Jobs.

7. Noynoy Aquino threw hat in the ring.

Paolo Maligaya Somebody needs a make-over.

8. I resigned from my teaching job.

Paolo Maligaya Finally!

9. I became part of Namfrel again.

Paolo Maligaya loves his job very much.

10. I started working in Makati.

Paolo Maligaya never thought he's going to like working in Makati, with its numerous cheap eats and ubiquitous coffee shops.

11. Ondoy flooded Manila.

Paolo Maligaya Lampas-GMA na daw ang baha!

Paolo Maligaya All the taxes siphoned off us workers and they couldn't even buy decent rubber boats!

12. Pepeng flooded Northern Luzon.

Paolo Maligaya What's next?!

13. Aspiring candidates took advantage of the situation.

Paolo Maligaya Wow. Amazing. Ang kakapal ng mukha n'yo.

14. Donations to the government were not promptly delivered to typhoon victims.

Paolo Maligaya Somebody's mounting a campaign...

15. Gloria Arroyo spent more time helping people in Pampanga than anywhere else.

Paolo Maligaya As I was saying...

16. People swamped Comelec offices to register at the last minute.

Paolo Maligaya Trust the Pinoys to go out three days before the deadline and complain that the government is inefficient.

17. Cinemanila 2009 held.

Paolo Maligaya thinks this is the worst Cinemanila ever!

18. Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize.

Paolo Maligaya thinks Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps the reason why many people were outraged that the award was given to him "prematurely" is because they think the Nobel Peace Prize is some sort of lifetime achievement award. It isn't, c'mon look it up. It turned into some sort of lifetime achievement award because nobody seems to deserve the prize as it was originally intended in every year it is given. Well this year it's different.

19. Rio de Janeiro chosen as host city for 2016 Olympics.

Paolo Maligaya wants to be in Rio in 2016!

20. The Eraserheads' "Circus" turned 15.

Paolo Maligaya is putting off his long-planned, teary eyed tribute to the Eraserheads to a later time due to procrastination. Aaaargh!

21. Sesame Street celebrated 40th anniversary.

Paolo Maligaya grew up in Sesame Street. Thank God one of my first favorite words was "agua" and not "Wowowee."

22. I became addicted to Starbucks "cappuccino-venti-2 Splenda."

Paolo Maligaya is fat but wide awake.

23. I started to seriously desire a BlackBerry.

Paolo Maligaya desperately wants to be a BlackBerry! Aaaaargh!

24. Pacquiao officially became a boxing legend.

Paolo Maligaya OK so you're the best, but do I really have to see you and your mother everywhere?

25. Cracks started appearing on my Mac out of nowhere.

Paolo Maligaya is distraught. So it's true!? I still love you Apple, but what the heck is wrong with your MacBook white?? It's not as if I'm the first one to experience this. On the internet, it seems that this has been a known problem for years!?

26. People started declaring their intention to run for office.

Paolo Maligaya cannot really comment.

27. Farmers, gays, and overseas workers disqualified from joining next year's party-list elections.

Paolo Maligaya Because dubious organizations and questionable foundations are the truly marginalized sectors in the Philippines, it seems.

28. 57 people massacred by the Ampatuans in Maguindanao.

Paolo Maligaya is speechless.

29. Gloria Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao.

Paolo Maligaya I didn't know the Ampatuans were "rebels"? You mean all along they've been planning a rebellion against the government? How can the masters be rebels at the same time? We are educated people. Huwag naman sanang masyadong insultuhin ang pag-iisip namin!

30. Gloria Arroyo didn't show her face from when the massacre happened until even after the martial law was lifted.

Paolo Maligaya Where is our President? Where are you when we need you? Show your face. We demand accountability. As long as we are paying taxes and you and your government are consuming all of it, we demand answers to our questions.

31. Congressmen seemed to agree with Arroyo.

Paolo Maligaya _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n'yo!

32. Efren Penaflorida chosen as CNN Hero of the Year.

Paolo Maligaya participated in mass internet voting LIKE THE REST OF THE FILIPINO DIASPORA to assert the GREATNESS OF THE FILIPINO RACE, as usual (in between voting for Miss Photogenic in international beauty pageants). World domination, here we come?

33. "Avatar" opened.

Paolo Maligaya has just seen James Cameron's "Avatar" on IMAX 3D. Hollywood spent almost $500 million on a mind-blowing movie...about ecology. It's probably the best thing about it.

34. Christmas came.

Paolo Maligaya Bah! Humbug!

Cory.

Corazon Aquino

1933 - 2009

When land is life

As I write this, I've just come out of a screening of acclaimed documentarian Ditsi Carolino's latest work, "Lupang Hinarang," at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. The film -- still a work-in-progress -- tells about the plight of two groups of farmers in the Philippines: the first from Negros Oriental, who held a hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform until they're granted access to part of the hacienda they work in that the law says belongs to them; the second, the group from Sumilao, Bukidnon who did the unthinkable by walking for 60 days until they reach Manila, to ask the president herself that the land they were tilling be given to them (again as the law prescribes) before it is turned into a piggery by San Miguel Corporation. Though both events took place two years ago, their stories are still unfinished; in the film, their stories end tragically, and indeed, tragedy has struck the farmers even after the events captured in the current version of the film.

In both stories, one thing is very clear: the farmers were willing to die for their land. This is something that most of us, including myself, will probably never fully understand, to risk life for something like a hectare of soil. The thing is, besides the clothes on their backs, the only thing they really have is land. In the film, it is also clear that the farmers did it not for themselves, but for their children, maybe because they knew that the land for which they have given sweat, tears, and blood, is the only thing they could leave their kids.

Watching Carolino's latest film is a very cathartic experience, in which emotions are expressed in all their nakedness. Suddenly, the artifice in storytelling that beset many movies that are showcased even in festivals like the Cinemalaya just fall away when confronted with a film like Carolino's, whose previous films include "Bunso" (which I have not seen) and the excellent "Riles." It is also to Carolino's credit that the film got/is being made: with no funding and no certainty that the film would ever be finished, she just grabbed her camera and jumped right in when she learned of the farmers' plight, simply because she believed their story deserved to be captured and told. And what stories theirs are.

I've always maintained the belief that the ability to create art and to have the resources to do so is power, and to not use them to advance either a cause or the art form is a waste of said resources and a lost opportunity. In both respects, Carolino and her film stands taller than everybody else.

Know more about Lupang Hinarang and how you can help: http://www.lupanghinarang.com/


* * * * *


I've not seen two of the competing films in the fifth edition of the Cinemalaya. As if that would stop me from ranking my favorites in order of preference:

1) Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe (Alvin B. Yapan)
2) Sanglaan (Milo Sogueco)
3) Last Supper No.3 (Veronica Velasco & Jinky Laurel)
4) Dinig Sana Kita (Mike Sandejas)
5) 24K (Ana Agabin)
6) Nerseri (Vic Acedillo, Jr.)
7) Astig (GB Sampedro)
8) Engkwentro (Pepe Diokno)

The keyboard is the new pen

...and the pen has always been mightier than the sword.

2nd Facebook Eyeball vs. Con-Ass
Menu, Metrowalk, Pasig City
June 19, 2009







(Click on any image to see more photos.)


On CNN iReport:


http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-275569

Join the Cause: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/293075/26989942?m=6d54c0aa

TindigNation

Rally Against Con-Ass
Ayala Avenue, Makati City
June 10, 2009







(Click on any image to see more photos.)

On CNN iReport:



http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-269479

The difficult part

(An international election monitoring organization asked for a writing sample on the topic of Philippine elections. This was it.)


The good news is that, unlike many of its Asian neighbors, the Philippines has long transcended most of the traditional challenges faced by prospective voters that many international treaties and agreements have set to eradicate. With the exception of several areas in Mindanao and the mountain regions where religious and tribal gaps remain strong, the country, at least most of it, has almost no problem as to the participation of every gender, age, and economic class during elections.

However, the bad news is that, though the Philippines has long embraced modern/Western views and methods regarding citizen participation in nation-building, the country seems to have devolved into a cautionary tale of a democracy gone haywire. The country has long been criticized by some of its neighbors (particularly Singapore) for having a democracy that is too freewheeling and rambunctious. This is difficult to accept but they may have a point. Most of us Filipinos are very outspoken and are very much aware of our rights as citizens, but many people think that we sometimes go overboard in upholding them. For example, while the world hailed the first EDSA revolt of 1986 as oppressed citizens fighting back, the same people frowned upon the second EDSA revolt of 2001 as “mob rule,” a “bad habit.”

Throughout our history, Filipinos have withstood foreign invasions, slavery, natural calamities, man-made disasters, even our own governments. Because of this, Filipinos have developed a strong outer shell, a resilient attitude towards difficult challenges. This is good because we feel positive that we can take anything thrown our way.

However, the evil twin of this resilience is an attitude of many Filipinos that rules are there to be gotten around or to be broken. Many people do not trust the government (they cannot be blamed) and have accepted the idea that the system is corrupt, and that rules and regulations are there to con them, so let's buck the system and give it to the one in power! In government agencies, many rank and file employees have no qualms committing petty graft and corruption in the belief that their higher-ups are doing the same – with much more money (plus the knowledge that they can't get fired from their jobs). Sadly, this cavalier attitude towards rules and laws has led to the debasement of political processes in the country, not excluding those pertaining to elections. Laws, rules and their technicalities are being used and twisted by lawmakers to basically get what they want, for their personal ends. Right now, the biggest issue in the country is the possibility that no elections will happen in 2010, because lawmakers allied with the President ganged to railroad a bill making possible the changing of the Constitution, which could enable them to extend their terms of office.

The people’s acceptance that the system is corrupt has also led to apathy. Many Filipinos have become willing players to political shenanigans during election time. There is a pervasive attitude that “whoever wins, the government is going to remain corrupt, so let’s just cash in.” Poverty remains a key player during elections, and of course, many politicians are really not too keen on eradicating it, when during campaign season, a hundred pesos or a bag of rice can easily secure votes, especially in the slums.

Poverty also breeds ignorance. Celebrities with dubious administrative potential routinely win elections in the Philippines. Entertain the masses, shake their hands, and they’ll vote for you. The poor and ignorant are easily sweet-talked by politicians, that they’ll vote for the first person who promises them uplift from poverty and misery, however hollow the promise rings.

So can these all be fixed? It will be an extremely difficult and long process, but I still believe it can be done. As may be obvious by now, simple election observation or even performance monitoring (though they would help) are not enough. It will be a huge undertaking that should include improving the laws of the land, the educational system, but most importantly, the way people think of themselves and their country. The government should lead this effort, but first we need a truly good leader; not just somebody with sterling credentials and potential but with a strong political will to change the country for the better. That’s probably the easy part. The most difficult part is for the people to change themselves and how they see themselves as citizens of the country. Follow simple rules. Think for the common good. Volunteer. It is difficult to break bad habits and to remove the burdens of history. The process will take decades at least, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Silence vs. Con-Ass

RockEd Sunday Silence against Con-Ass
June 7, 2009
Baywalk, Manila






(More photos.)

The shame of the nation

On Tuesday night, majority of the members of the Philippine House of Representatives approved House Resolution no. 1109, railroading the convening of a constituent assembly to change the Philippine Constitution.

You might say, "so what?" The Constitution is the rock of this country. It is the basis for everything, all the laws, your livelihood, your lifestyle, everything. Once you open it up for tinkering, nobody really knows how (or what) it, or WE, will end up (with). Granted, our present Constitution is not perfect. However, this is not the right time to change it -- not when a Presidential election is on the horizon and the temptation to extend the terms of office of whoever is in power is very strong -- and these are not the right people to do it. To put it simply, do you really trust our present government to decide on this extremely important endeavor? NO, not this present bunch of "administrators."

This brazen attempt by our so-called representatives to put this very important task into their hands is a travesty of democracy. They must be stopped.

The names of the following people appear in House Resolution no. 1109 (approval last Tuesday was through viva voce vote). Is your representative one of them? As a citizen, you have the right to express your displeasure and disapproval of said action of YOUR representative, and he or she has no choice but to listen to YOU because people like you put him where he or she is and is giving him the money to enjoy his or her privileged life. Write letters. Send e-mails. Organize meetings and symposia. Attend mass demonstrations.

It's your country and it's your life. What are you gonna do?

ABANTE, BIENVENIDO M. “BENNY” 6TH District Pandacan
ABLAN, ROQUE R. JR Ilocos Norte, 1st District
AGBAYANI, VICTOR AGUEDO E. Pangasinan, 2nd District
AGYAO, MANUEL, S Kalinga Province
ALBANO (III), RODOLFO T. Isabela, 1st District
ALFELOR, FELIX R. JR. 4th District, Camarines Sur
ALMARIO, THELMA Z. Davao Oriental, 2nd District
ALVAREZ, ANTONIO C. Palawan 1st District
ALVAREZ, GENARO RAFAEL M. JR. Negros Occidental, 6th District
AMANTE, EDELMIRO A. Agusan Del Norte, 2nd District
AMATONG, ROMMEL C. Compostela Valley, 2nd District
ANGPING, MARIA ZENAIDA B. Manila, 3rd District
ANTONINO, RODOLFO W. Nueva Ecija, 4th District
APOSTOL, TRINIDAD G. Leyte, 2nd District
AQUINO, JOSE S. (II) 1st District Agusan del Norte
ARAGO, MARIA EVITA R. 3rd district, Laguna
ARBISON, A MUNIR M. Sulu 2nd District
ARENAS, MA. RACHEL J. Pangasinan, 3rd District
ARROYO, DIOSDADO M. Camarines Sur, 1st District
ARROYO, IGNACIO T. 5th district Negros Occidental
ARROYO, JUAN MIGUEL M. 2nd District of Pampanga
BAGATSING, AMADO S. Manila 5th district
BALINDONG, PANGALIAN M. Lanao del Sur, 2nd District
BARZAGA, ELPIDIO F. JR. Cavite, 2nd District
BAUTISTA, FRANKLIN P. Davao Del Sur, 2nd District
BELMONTE, VICENTE F. JR. Lanao del Norte, 1st District
BICHARA, AL FRANCIS C. Albay, 2nd District
BIRON, FERJENEL G. Iloilo, 4th District
BONDOC, ANNA YORK P. Pampanga 4th District
BONOAN-DAVID, MA. THERESA B. Manila, 4th District
BRAVO, NARCISO R. JR. Masbate, 1st District
BRIONES, NICANOR M. AGAP Party list
BUHAIN, EILEEN ERMITA Batangas, 1st District
BULUT, ELIAS C. JR. Apayao Lone District
CAGAS (IV), MARC DOUGLAS C. Davao Del Sur, 1st District
CAJAYON, MARY MITZI L. Caloocan, 2nd District
CAJES, ROBERTO C. Bohol, 2nd District
CARI, CARMEN L. Leyte, 5th District
CASTRO, FREDENIL H. Capiz, 2nd District
CELESTE, ARTHUR F. Pangasinan, 1st District
CERILLES, ANTONIO H. Zamboanga Del Sur, 2nd District
CHATTO, EDGARDO M. Bohol, 1st District
CHONG, GLENN A. Biliran, Lone District
CHUNG-LAO, SOLOMON R. Ifugai, Lone District
CLARETE, MARINA C. Misamis Occidental, 1st District
CODILLA, EUFROCINO M. SR. Leyte, 4th District
COJUANCO, MARK O. Pangasinan, 5th District
COQUILA, TEODULO M. Eastern Samar, Lone District
CRISOLOGO, VINCENT P. Quezon City, 1st District
CUA, JUNIE E. Quirino, Lone District
CUENCO, ANTONIO V. Cebu City, 2nd District
DANGWA, SAMUEL M. Benguet, Lone District
DATUMANONG, SIMEON A. Maguindanao, Lone District
Dayanghirang, Nelson L. Davao Oriental, 1st District
DAZA, NANETTE C. Quezon City, 4th District
DAZA, PAUL R. Northern Samar, 1st District
DE GUZMAN, DEL R. Marikina City, 2nd District
DEFENSOR, ARTHUR D. SR. Iloilo, 3rd District
DEFENSOR, MATIAS V. JR. Quezon City, 3rd District
DEL MAR, RAUL V. Cebu City, 1st District
DIASNES, CARLO OLIVER D. (MD) Batanes, Lone District
DIMAPORO, ABDULLAH D. Lanao Del Norte, 2nd District
DOMOGAN, MAURICIO G. Baguio, Lone District
DUAVIT, MICHAEL JOHN R. Rizal, 1st District
DUENAS, HENRY M. JR. Taguig, 2nd District (2nd Councilor District)
DUMARPA, FAYSAH MRP. Lanao del Sur, 1st District
DUMPIT, THOMAS L. JR. La Union, 2nd District
DURANO (IV), RAMON H. 5th District, Cebu
ECLEO, GLENDA B. Dinagat Islands, Lone District
EMANO, YEVGENY VICENTE B. Misamis Oriental, 2nd District
ENVERGA, WILFRIDO MARK M. Quezon, 1st District
ESTRELLA, CONRADO M. (III) Pangasinan, 6th District
ESTRELLA, ROBERT RAYMUND M. ABONO Party List
FERRER, JEFFREY P. Negros Occidental, 4th District
GARAY, FLORENCIO C. Surigao Del Sur, 2nd District
GARCIA, ALBERT S. Bataan, 2nd District.
GARCIA, PABLO JOHN F. Cebu, 3rd District
GARCIA, PABLO P. Cebu, 2nd District
GARCIA, VINCENT J. Davao City, 2nd District
GARIN, JANETTE L. Iloilo, 1st District
GATCHALIAN, REXLON T. Valenzuela City, 1st District
GATLABAYAN, ANGELITO C. Antipolo City, 2nd District
GO, ARNULFO F. Sultan Kudarat, 2nd District
GONZALES, AURELIO D. JR. Pampanga 3rd District
GONZALES, RAUL T. JR. Ilo ilo City
GULLAS, EDUARDO R. Cebu, 1st District
GUNIGUNDO, MAGTANGGOL T. Valenzuela City 2nd District
HOFER, DULCE ANN K. Zamboanga Sibugay, 2nd District
JAAFAR, NUR G. Tawi-Tawi, Lone District
JALA, ADAM RELSON L. Bohol, 3rd District
JALOSJOS, CESAR G. Zamboanga del Norte, 3rd District
JALOSJOS-CARREON, CECILIA G. Zamboanga del Norte, 1st District
JIKIRI, YUSOP H. Sulu, 1st District
KHO, ANTONIO T. Masbate, 2nd District
LABADLABAD, ROSENDO S. Zamboanga del Norte, 2nd District
LACSON, JOSE CARLOS V. Negros Occidental, 3rd District
LAGDAMEO, ANTONIO F. JR. Davao del Norte, 2nd District
LAPUS, JECI A. Tarlac, 3rd District
LAZATIN, CARMELO F. Pampanga, 1st District
LIM, RENO G. Albay, 3rd District
LOPEZ, JAIME C. Manila, 2nd District
MADRONA, ELEANORA JESUS F. Romblon, Lone District
MAGSAYSAY, MARIA MILAGROS H. Zambales, 1st District
MALAPITAN, OSCAR G. Caloocan, 1st District
MAMBA, MANUEL N. Cagayan, 3rd District
MANGUDADATU, DATU PAKUNG S. Sultan Kudarat,
MARANON, ALFREDO D. III Negros Occidental, 2nd District
MATUGAS, FRANCISCO T. Surigao del Norte, 1st District
MENDOZA, MARK LEANDRO L. Batangas, 4th District
MERCADO, ROGER G. Southern Leyte, Lone District
MIRAFLORES, FLORENCIO T. Aklan, Lone District
NAVA, JOAQUIN CARLOS RAHMAN A. (MD) Guimaras, Lone District
NICOLAS, REYLINA G. Bulacan, 4th District
NOGRALES, PROSPERO C. Davao City, 1st District
OLAñO, ARREL R. Davao Del Norte, 1st District
ONG, EMIL L. Northern Samar, 2nd District
ORTEGA, VICTOR FRANCISCO C. La Union, 1st District
PABLO, ERNESTO C. APEC Party List
PANCHO, PEDRO M. Bulacan, 2nd District
PANCRUDO, CANDIDO P. JR. Bukidnon, 1st District
PICHAY, PHILIP A. Surigao Del Sur, 1st District
PIñOL, BERNARDO F. JR. North Cotabato, 2nd District
PUNO, ROBERTO V. Antipolo City, 1st District
RAMIRO, HERMINIA M. Misamis Occidental, 2nd District
REMULLA, JESUS CRISPIN C. Cavite, 3rd District
REYES, CARMELITA O. Marinduque, Lone District
REYES, VICTORIA H. Batangas, 3rd District
ROBES, ARTURO G. San Jose Del Monte City, Lone District
Rodriguez-Zaldarriaga, Adelina Rizal, 2nd District
ROMAN, HERMINIA B. Bataan, 1st District
ROMARATE, GUILLERMO A. JR. Surigao del Norte, 2nd District
ROMUALDEZ, FERDINAND MARTIN G. Leyte, 1st District
ROMUALDO, PEDRO Camiguin, Lone District
ROMULO, ROMAN T. Pasig City, Lone District
ROXAS, JOSE ANTONIO F. Pasay City
SALIMBANGON, BENHUR L. Cebu, 4th District
SALVACION JR., ANDRES D. Leyte, 3rd District
SAN LUIS, EDGAR S. Laguna, 4th District
SANDOVAL, ALVIN S. Malabon-Navotas, Lone District
SANTIAGO, JOSEPH A. Catanduanes, Lone District
SANTIAGO, NARCISO D. (III) ARC Party List
SEACHON-LANETE, RIZALINA L. 3rd district of Masbate
SEARES-LUNA, CECILIA M. Abra, Lone District
SILVERIO, LORNA C. Bulacan, 3rd District
SINGSON, ERIC D. Ilocos Sur, 2nd District
SINGSON, RONALD V. Ilocos Sur, 1st District
SOLIS, JOSE G. Sorsogon, 2nd District
SOON-RUIZ, NERISSA CORAZON Cebu, 6th District
SUAREZ, DANILO E. Quezon, 3rd District
SUSANO, MARY ANN L. Quezon City, 2nd District
SY-ALVARADO, MA. VICTORIA R. Bulacan, 1st District
SYJUCO, JUDY J. 2nd Dsitrict, Iloilo
TALINO-MENDOZA, EMMYLOU J. North Cotabato, 1st District
TAN, SHAREE ANN T. Samar, 2nd District
TEODORO, MARCELINO R. Marikina City, 1st District
TEODORO, MONICA LOUISSE PRIETO Tarlac, 1st District
TEVES, PRYDE HENRY A. Negros Oriental, 3rd District
TUPAS, NEIL C. JR. Iloilo, 5th District
UNGAB, ISIDRO T. Davao City, 3rd District
UY, EDWIN C. Isabela, 2nd District
UY, REYNALDO S. Samar, 1st District
UY, ROLANDO A. Cagayan De Oro City, Lone District
VALDEZ, EDGAR L. APEC Party List
VALENCIA, RODOLFO G. Oriental Mindoro, 1st District
VARGAS, FLORENCIO L. Cagayan, 2nd District
VILLAFUERTE, LUIS R. Camarines Sur, 2nd District
VILLAROSA, MA. AMELITA C. Occidental Mindoro, Lone District
VIOLAGO, JOSEPH GILBERT F. Nueva Ecija, 2nd District
YAP, JOSE V. Tarlac, 2nd District
YU, VICTOR J. Zamboanga Del Sur, 1st District
ZAMORA, MANUEL E. 1st District, Compostela Valley
ZIALCITA, EDUARDO C. Parañaque, 1st District

The carnival begins

Philippine election season is now officially on! Open your eyes, clean your ears, gear up, and start placing your bets.


NGOs fight vote-buying

MANILA, Philippines—With 12 months to go before the next elections, veteran community organizers and development workers across the country launched a nationwide movement on Sunday to get rid of vote-buying.

The ChangePolitics Movement, which includes former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, will map out the “vote-buying vulnerable areas” so that NGOs could pour their resources there and eliminate the scourge of Philippine politics. (MORE)

Comelec: 2010 poll automation still on

MANILA, Philippines - Poll automation in 2010 would push through even with the disqualification of firms bidding to provide automated counting machines (ACMs), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo junked calls to consider partial automation or use P1.2 billion worth of ACMs purchased from the controversial Mega Pacific Consortium (MPC) for the 2004 elections. (MORE)

Arroyo still hopeful of automated 2010 polls - Ermita

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the disqualification of all bidders for the automated polls in 2010, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remains hopeful that the forthcoming elections would be fully automated, a senior Palace official said Monday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is banking on Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Jose Melo’s assurance that the poll body would resolve the disqualification of all seven bidders. (MORE)

Youth voters need to register again for 2010

MANILA, Philippines-- Youth voters who registered during the 2007 Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Council, SK) elections should register again with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) if they want to vote in the 2010 elections, an election official said.

Filipinos aged 15 to17 years old may have registered for SK elections but this registration does not make them “qualified for regular elections,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said. (MORE)

Comelec OKs 4,751 absentee voters

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections on Monday announced that its Resident Election Registration Boards (RERB) of the Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV) has approved the applications for registration of only 4,751 such voters, way off its one million target for the 2010 elections.

In a statement released to the media, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body is still confident about meeting its target with the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat (OAVS) and overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) groups worldwide. (MORE)

ABS-CBN launches Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula

Long before any slick ad campaign or Barack Obama, I set out to change my world. My inspiration was Mahatma Gandhi, who simply said: “Be the change you want to see.” My world was the Philippines, journalism and ABS-CBN in particular.

For a long time, I had a love-hate relationship with the Philippines. I love being Filipino but hated the inefficiency, the lack of standards, the acceptance of mediocrity, our situational ethics, our systems of patronage, and our often unjust justice system. Sometimes, when things don’t work, you hate that which you love. (MORE)

iBlog5 Postscript - of Mobile Blogging and the Elections

At iBlog5 yesterday, it was an “old friend” reunion of sorts getting re-acquainted face-to-face with JM Tuazon.

You see, JM and I first met as volunteers of NAMFREL in the 2004 elections. JM and I had maintained an online interaction through the years via email or through each other’s blogs.

Wow, it’s been 5 years since our NAMFREL days in 2004. And now we’re 365+1 days before the next election in 2010. (MORE)

More election updates: http://www.namfrel.com.ph/news/localnews.htm

Vote for the country, vote for you

Stick these pins on your shirt or your bags (or wherever you wish), or give them away to friends and family, to encourage people, especially first-time voters, to participate in the 2010 Philippine presidential elections. To vote is to exercise your right as citizens, and it's one of the easiest ways to participate in nation-building.

You may get your pins from the Ayala Young Leaders office, or you may drop them a line at (02) 752-1065, text them at (0917) 511-7354, or send a message to mildred.ople@gmail.com.

Boo!

And you say you're afraid of ghosts???

When people moved mountains

October 2008 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). National what? you might ask. In 1983, the assassination of Marcos oppositionist Ninoy Aquino wasn't the only big thing to happen in the Philippines. The year also saw the advent of probably the biggest volunteer movement in the country, perhaps in Asia. Namfrel was born as a non-partisan citizens' response to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who at that time was planning to hold an election to validate his rule. In the 1984, and especially in the 1986 elections, Namfrel was able to mobilize about half a million volunteers, to ensure that the elections will be clean and honest. It is impossible to encapsulate in a few sentences what Namfrel volunteers went through during those troubled times -- harassment, coercion, violence, death, to name a few -- just to make sure that the will of the people was respected (it largely wasn't). Businessmen, housewives, students, priests, nuns, socialites with their Evian water bottles, all of them staked their lives guarding ballot boxes and watching over the counting, asking for nothing in return, only with the hope of democracy in their hearts after decades of tyranny and oppression. The Namfrel volunteer movement precipitated People Power: without Namfrel's courageous volunteers, the revolution might not have happened. In 1986, the Filipinos were the toast of the free world, the People Power revolt inspiring revolutions to this day, and Namfrel getting nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and spawning similar organizations and soundalikes throughout the world. More importantly, the Namfrel volunteer movement proved once and for all that the Filipinos were not indolent -- as our Spanish conquerors had the world believe -- but were true citizens of their country, masters of their destiny. The Namfrel volunteers showed the world what Filipinos were really capable of when it comes to nation-building.

But of course at that time I didn't know these things. I was 6 years old in 1983, and the only memory I have of those days is us students going around town in the province wearing yellow shirts and chanting "Ninoy, hindi ka nag-iisa (you are not alone)." Who knew we were already activists when we were kids. But it didn't end there.

Ten years ago today, I first walked through the doors of Namfrel to work as a member of its national secretariat. It was my second job; right out of college I worked on a project in UP but that didn't last because of the Asian financial crisis. Like many good things that have happened to me, my applying for a position in the organization was an accident. One afternoon I boarded the bus for home after a soul-deadening day attending a recruitment-slash-orientation seminar for a marketing job for a still-secret product -- which turned out to be Encyclopedia Britannica (the big reveal involved a pretty, fair skinned sales agent unfolding a gigantic brochure for the complete set!). On the bus I was seated beside one of the attendees of the seminar. She was from my university, and I asked her if she's gonna take the job. To my disbelief she said yes, because according to her it was the practical thing to do. Turned out she had a friend who was working for Namfrel, and she was applying for a position there, but since she's taking the encyclopedia gig, would I like to have their number so that I could give them a call?

When I applied for the job at Namfrel, it was not because I was nationalistic or because I cared for democracy and all that. Well, I had those in me, having come from UP. But I applied simply because I needed a job. Money. Livelihood. I come from a middle class family with their very middle class values. Their idea of success is having a "stable job," preferably in a famous company, parking cars in front of the house for everyone to see. Nothing wrong with that, knowing how the generations before me struggled with poverty at the turn of the 20th century, and how they tried to pick themselves up after the war. But working for an NGO? I don't think they ever understood it. Nothing hurts more than your family not sharing the pride you feel for yourself and for the job that you do. (Still does. I spent more than five years in Namfrel and a couple more years employed in other NGOs). Worse, some of them are even Marcos loyalists.

It is easy to think that the first batch of Namfrel organizers and volunteers were pro-Aquino, though they were sworn to non-partisanship. It is easy to say that because at that time, everybody who considered themselves pro-democracy--meaning against Marcos--had to be pro-Aquino. Cory, Ninoy Aquino's widow, did not win because of who she was. She won because of what she symbolized. But at that time it wasn't really Marcos vs. Cory. The 1986 election wasn't really KBL vs. UNIDO. It was -- and sadly, still is (the Philippines still not having a mature political party system) -- more like good vs. evil. How else to explain the heavy presence of bishops, priests, and nuns in the polling precincts, counting centers, and in rallies? The separation of church and state is a desirable idea, but it cannot really be applied to the Philippines, at least not yet. Do you really expect the priests and nuns to stay idle when they see their flock being cheated, oppressed, or beaten to death?

Working for Namfrel was no walk in the park. It was tough. During election period, our work involved organizing provincial and municipal chapters, and setting up the nationwide parallel vote count, not to mention all the paper work that had to be done to set up such a count (preparing for one could take a year). In between elections, we worked for electoral reform advocacies, specifically the automation of Philippine elections. That entailed a mountain of tasks, including briefings of key publics, filing an impeachment complaint, plus the requisite congressional hearings. Most days we'd go in in the morning without knowing what time we'd be able to go home (I once reported for work at 9 in the morning and was able to go home at 3 in the afternoon, the next day). What's tougher, we didn't have money. Many NGO workers we met seemed to be rolling in dough, but not us. Namfrel doesn't ask for donations or financial assistance from foreign agencies and companies; everything is locally sourced -- truly, Filipinos for the Philippines. The same self-imposed rule applies to the local volunteer chapters, who have to source donations for their own local operations, getting next to nothing from the national office. This is how Namfrel is set up, the concept of bayanihan at work, relying on your neighbors to get things done. But what this meant was, most of the time, we got our meager "salaries" late, almost no benefits, and overtime pay was unheard of. Sometimes we had to borrow money from family and friends just to be able to go to work? Why then go to work? Because if we didn't, nobody else would do what we were doing. Challenges like these truly created a bond, a camaraderie among us staff members, that I always try to look for (but fail) whenever I take on another job or join another organization. We would drink together, watch movies together, feel angry or stressed out together, even run out of money at the same time. But we had each other to rely on, so it was ok.

But frankly, our small sacrifices were nothing compared to what the volunteers had to do out in the field. They had to get all these people to work for nothing come election time, when candidates were doing the same but with a fee. They had to liaise with the election commission, the teachers, the police, schools, potential donors. They had to rent boats, sometimes helicopters, out of their own pockets, to get election returns from far-flung islands. They had to deal with intimidation, violence. To look at Namfrel volunteers is to look at commitment, zeal, selfless love for country. Yes we in the office didn't have money, fancy computers, we had to use scratch paper because that's what we had most of the time, but our "problems" seemed puny compared with what the hundreds, thousands, of volunteers had to do. They had to move mountains. That is why when there are people out to discredit Namfrel or try to tear it apart, we take it personally. To do so is to slap all who have shed tears and blood for the organization's cause.

Steering the ship during our time was Jose Concepcion, Jr., Joe to his friends, Joecon or JC to us. Many people will agree that Joecon is (still) probably one of the toughest bosses one could ever have in the country. The man has reduced employees and trainees to tears, to resign from their jobs pronto, because of his work ethic and his personality. Joecon had been Namfrel's prime mover, its voice, since inception. There were others of course, but no one has put his stamp and identity more to one organization than JC. For many people, Namfrel was, and still is, Joecon. He was easy to dislike, but we stood by him because at the end of the day, after the anger, frustration, and tears, we still respected him because of his love for the country and commitment to democracy. He remains one of our personal heroes.

When we were kids, we always dreamed of one day changing the world. In Namfrel, we would wake up in the morning and realize we were making a change. Most of us in the secretariat have gone our separate ways, like volunteers going back to their own lives after doing election work. But I believe all of us -- staff, volunteers -- still carry Namfrel within us. A few years ago, a newspaper said that Namfrel is now but a shadow of its former self. Maybe. Namfrel has ceased being just an organization. It is now an ideal that we seek and try to uphold in the things we do, wherever we are now. We look for it in the jobs that we seek. We look for it in the people we work with. We try to organize something like it in the countries that we go to. We hope to replicate it in our communities. We hope to see it in the people we elect, and the people who should be serving us.

Yes, Namfrel is probably just a shadow now. But it is not dead.

(PBA09n66429o)

Not forgotten

Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.
Assassinated: August 21, 1983

Team Asia

I haven't even finished writing my blog entries about my last election observation mission, here comes another one. Twenty-two foreign observers from the Asian Network For Free Elections (ANFREL) are now in the Philippines to observe the election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), scheduled to take place on Monday, August 11. The Asia Foundation (TAF) has organized the observation mission, and I helped out Tatine Faylona (fellow election observer in Nepal and Program Officer of TAF) with the manuals and forms and other stuff. I wanted to do more for this mission, and would have wanted to go with the observers to Mindanao, but I cannot leave work.

ANFREL observers also came last year for the elections and they were deployed only in the ARMM. They made a big media splash when they said that the election in the Philippines was worse than that in Afghanistan. No less than Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself had to respond to that. But can they be blamed? A bomb went off in the polling place being observed by one of the delegates. A couple of observers got offered money in exchange for votes because people mistook them for Filipinos. Et cetera. Read their report HERE.

The observers arrived in the country last Thursday, and a briefing was held last weekend at their hotel in Makati. Lots of familiar faces. Aside from the Bangkok-based staff of ANFREL (headed by Somsri Hananuntasuk, or Sui, who used to lead Thailand's Amnesty International), there's Tad from Malaysia and Moline from Cambodia, both fellow observers in Nepal, and then there's Ramesh and Pradip from two election-monitoring organizations in Nepal. Other countries represented are Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Some observers actually backed out, not only because of security concerns, but also because up to this time there's uncertainty whether the election will push through.

I'm not going into details as to the reasons behind the possible postponement, or any other issues pertaining to the ARMM, because I might sound uninformed or plain ignorant. The truth is, like most Filipinos, there's not a lot I know about the ARMM. I haven't even observed any election there because every election period I'm at our headquarters in Manila. The issues surrounding all these talks about the peace process, the MNLF, MILF, ancestral domain, etc., these are issues rooted in events that took place even before the Spanish came to the Philippines, and for centuries these issues have been largely supressed, denied, warped, or simply because the largely regionalistic, predominantly Catholic Philippine population just did not/do not care enough, which I'm a bit guilty of. I remember in 2004 I was in Indonesia observing their election. In Central Java, a group of young Muslim activists started asking me about Nur Misuari and the Moro struggle, and I was rendered speechless. Here I was observing another country's affairs, and I couldn't even say anything about things going on in my own backyard. To say that I was embarrassed will be a severe understatement.

The observers spent three days being briefed on the ARMM, on Mindanao, the Philippines and Filipinos in general, and the coming election, particularly the use of machines. There will be two technologies to be used in the elections on Monday: one is the electronic voting machine (EVM) in Maguindanao, and the other is the automated counting machine (ACM) for the rest of the ARMM. For the EVM, voters will get to vote by pressing buttons on a machine. For the ACM, voters will use ballot papers similar to those used in exams wherein ovals corresponding to choices are shaded. These ballot papers will then be counted by machines. No more writing of candidates' names, or deciphering handwriting. Results for both methods shall be transmitted electronically to the national counting center, meaning no more manual filling-up of those giant election returns. Visit the ARMM election WEBSITE for more details about these technologies.

The participants were able to try for themselves the two machines. It certainly wasn't the first time I participated in such a machine demo for Philippine elections. The automation of the counting and canvassing of Philippine elections has been a dream for many Filipinos, most especially those of us from groups like Namfrel that advocate electoral reforms. If only the original automation law had been implemented on time, we would have modernized our elections since 1998. What we got instead were pilot tests, half-hearted support from lawmakers, confusing stance from the election commission, an impeachment complaint against a corrupt election commissioner (which she won, but the moral victory was ours), and other election-related scandals left and right (hello Garci!). Many people were /are against modernizing Philippine elections, simply because it will prevent them from cheating. But hopefully this time this is it.

(The second day of the briefing ended with Rano from Cambodia...hitting the floor with b-boy moves. Our jaws dropped and we were like, kumusta naman ang breakdance!" There was a threat of salsa dancing for the third day, but fortunately it finished way too late for shameless Latin moves.)

Saturday night we took a breather and headed to Xaymaca for some reggae. It was Tatine, me, Jayson from TAF, Mark (who was at Namfrel's Mindanao desk last election and now temporarily with TAF), Atty. Zen Malang of the Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy, Tad, and another Malaysian observer, Badrul, who was ANFREL's youngest observer ever when he joined the mission in Afghanistan a few years back (check out the documentary "The Observer" where he was featured along with the other ANFREL observers in that mission; the movie made the rounds of international film festivals). The last time me and Tatine and Tad got together like this was in Jazz Upstairs in Kathmandu last summer (in the case of Tatine and I, this was the first time we hung out with anybody after the Nepal mission). It was a wild night with Coffebreak Island. Early on the guys were already on their feet dancing to the bands' music, but when Coffebreak Island played "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," Rancid's "Time Bomb," and "Wooly Bully," there was no way I could keep still. I joined in the skanking, hair not just down but all over the place, though not in full abandon like Tad and Atty. Zen. (A couple of days later, I saw Atty. Zen on TV in a suit, attending the GRP-MILF signing in Putrajaya, Malaysia. I was like, that guy is a reggae nut!). It was a well-deserved break for everybody (the calm before the storm?), as we made toasts to the peace process (?!) while Marley banged on our eardrums.

(The ANFREL observers have already been deployed in the ARMM. Here's hoping that everything will turn out well and that everyone will be safe.)

Support the Sumilao farmers

From sumilaomarch.multiply.com:

54 farmers from Sumilao, walking for 60 days, from Bukidnon to Manila, on October 10 to December 10, covering 1,700 kilometers, to ask President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to distribute their ancestral lands to them under the agrarian reform program...

They have braved fatigue, heat, storm. They have endured being away from home, being in uncertain places, with uncertain outcomes. Most of all, they have suffered the callousness of people who took away their land and refuse to give them what is rightfully theirs. They have nothing but the solidarity and goodness of people, and the hope that, in the end, truth and social justice will prevail.

Let us support them in this struggle!

Click here to read about theSumilao case: http://sumilaomarch.multiply.com/journal/item/2/Full_Position_Paper_of_SUMILAO_FARMERS

Click here to read the latest updates: http://sumilaomarch.multiply.com/journal

Sign the online petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/sumilaofarmers/

Click here to make a contribution to the fund-raising initiative of AB Development Students from Ateneo: http://sumilaomarch.multiply.com/journal/item/5/SUPPORT_the_SUMILAO_FARMERS_MARCH

Click here for acknowledgements and list of supporters: http://sumilaomarch.multiply.com/journal/item/74/Acknowledgements

Flushing the coup b'etat

It's quite fashionable nowadays to ask the President to step down, but if it's only Trillanes and cohorts who would initiate another uprising in a manner like yesterday's event, honestly, I'd rather stay home and sip tsokolate while watching all the drama unfold on TV. It's one thing to express dissent and to act on it -- hey, didn't we do just that in EDSA 2? -- but for a duly elected senator to walk out of a court proceeding, and take over a hotel with armed men -- I think we should draw the line. This was the same guy who struck fear among the citizenry by planting explosives around a Makati mall complex a few years back in a similar attempt to take power from a legally-sitting president, however spotty her reputation is. If I were still the impressionable UP freshman who was constantly exposed to ideas that we should fight for our rights, that the government is evil and change should start with the people (and so on), I would have said "Go Trillanes! Down with the Government! Behead the bastards!" But the years have made me realize that the most effective way to initiate change is from the inside. He was already there, for some reason allowed to run for office and actually won as senator, but he blew his chances. Okay, so he said he wasn't allowed to do his job as senator. But with his history of mouthing slogans, conspiracy theories, disrupting peace and disrespecting procedures that the law (which he is expected to uphold) has put in place, I think that's understandable. And staging a coup attempt on the eve of Bonifacio's birth anniversary? How tacky! So does he think he's the new Bonifacio?

The police reaction to the attempted coup was understandable, but admittedly a bit overkill. Trillanes' men were armed, and the state has the right to defend itself from those who would attempt to seize control of the government. But to ram a tank through the lobby entrance? Welcome to sunny Beirut! And what about the handcuffing of media people? Was that really necessary? The police explanation was they're just making sure that no Magdalo soldiers were pretending to be media people (indeed, two Magdalo soldiers were later discovered hiding in one of the rooms). The explanation kinda makes sense, but press people have huge IDs on their chests which would have really made it easier for them to be identified. The police could have just asked, or they could have just taken them to a nearby ballroom for identification, instead of handcuffing them and then hauling them inside a bus and taking them to police headquarters. I think the police officers were well-meaning; they just didn't see the negative impact their actions will have.

(Props to Ces Drilon et al for once again showing the true journalists they really are, as opposed to being just plain newsreaders. Take that, Korina Sanchez!)

Curfew? Again quite understandable especially as people from the slums were reportedly being made hakot (again) by the opposition to provide warm bodies for yet another People Power-ish shebang scheduled supposedly for today. But was it really legal? Enough grounds na ba ito to have curfew not just in Metro Manila but also in Central Luzon and the Calabarzon areas? Besides, curfews are scary because they remind people of Martial Law. Not now creeps, I'm trying to grow my hair long!

(Photo from philstar.com)