A man in the news

A man in the news


Posted 01:40am (Mla time) Feb 27, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: ublished on page A13 of the February 27, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


EARLIER this week, there was a "breaking news" item on a TV newscast: a news crew, passing by Commonwealth Avenue, came upon a car that had overturned on the overpass and had burst into flames.

Though a crowd of bystanders that had quickly gathered round the burning car saw someone inside, no one dared to go near it for fear that the car would explode anytime. Firemen arrived shortly and after putting out the flames, they were able to pull out the victim. But it was too late by then. The driver, who was alone in the car, was dead.

I remember pleading silently to the TV that the burned corpse not be shown. Indeed, all that was aired of the poor driver was a view of his soles. But even then it was a disturbing sight, as the rubber soles of the victim's shoes appeared to have partially melted.

The report carried the accident fatality's name, but it didn't strike a chord. About the most significant detail I remember was that he was just a year older than me.

But funny (well, not really) how a news item, the like of which would be given in the past only a passing attention and a twinge of sympathy for the dead man's family, is suddenly imbued with significance when a personal connection is made.

The fatality, Venito Atienza, it turned out, was the husband of a distant cousin, Mila Labayen-Atienza. Mila is not just a distant relative, she's a friend from childhood. Since the Labayen house in Cubao was just a street away from ours, and Mila and her sister Maying were roughly the same age as us, my sister Chona and I would either walk the short distance to their home in the company of our “yaya” [nanny], or they would come to our home and there join us in our pretended "grown-up" games.


* * *

PERHAPS our Mama and our Tita Nora Labayen found it amusing that their daughters would develop a fast friendship in the footsteps of their own durable relationship: They were chums from childhood.

The Labayens, in fact, are very much part of the warp and woof of our family fabric: It was Tito Ben Labayen who was responsible for introducing my father to my mother. Tito Ben and Tita Nora married at about the same time as my parents, and had the same number of children. So it was inevitable that friendships between the Jimenez and Labayen children would blossom through our childhood.

Some years back, I heard that Mila, who was by then a vice president of a local bank, had migrated to the United States with her family. Ven, though, had been assigned to Peru by Path, an international development NGO, though he had applied for a transfer to New York after his Peru stint was over.

According to their eldest child who had stayed behind in Manila to finish her medical studies, Ven had flown in from Peru for a weeklong visit -- mainly to attend his high school reunion and also to visit his family. Since Mila was expected to arrive from the United States only late Friday night, the wake at the Filinvest Chapel was overseen by the Atienza and Labayen families as well as by the daughter's classmates at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. I'm glad my siblings and I came as a delegation, for in a way it revived the ties between our families, which we once thought had frayed due to distance and time.


* * *

MY personal condolences also to the family of the late Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena, who passed away Friday evening.

Shortly after being diagnosed with brain cancer, Garchitorena was confined at the Makati Medical Center for five weeks, weakened by radiation treatments and chemotherapy. According to his wife Vicky, Garchitorena had displayed no outward symptoms before his hospitalization. The only indicator that something was bothering him, Vicky said, was some disorientation (he would drive around in circles, unable to find the village's exit) and slurring of his speech.

I had a soft spot for Francis Garchitorena, whom I first met at one of the numerous rallies against the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the early 1980s. When he found out I was a journalist on the side of truth -- meaning, with the alternative press -- he regaled me with wild jokes and outrageous rumors. I left the rally, wondering who this garrulous mestizo was.

I wasn't at all surprised when he was given a post in the anti-graft court, for Garchitorena struck me with the zeal he displayed to right the wrongs of the Marcos regime.

After retiring from the Sandiganbayan, Garchitorena found a new calling by joining the ranks of columnists, writing for Today. Even as a social commentator, he managed to keep his trademark acerbic wit and sarcasm. He seemed pleased when I told him I looked forward to reading his pieces. As a friend and a reader of his columns, I will miss the man.


* * *

"THE JOB of nation-building begins with me ... and it begins today." This is the motto of a group of women who wish to promote national unity and love of country. As they proclaim: "...for our sake, let us unite, let us build up our people. For a country is not made up of roads, bridges and structures but a country is made up of people. Lack of faith, lack of hope and lack of purpose destroy a people. But as we build up our people, we build a nation."

For now, the main vehicle through which the women hope to spread the gospel of national unity and common purpose is through the sale of pins that declare "Mahal Ko Bayan Ko." Aside from spreading their message, the pins also serve a good cause-funding livelihood projects for our marginalized countrymen made possible by microfinance. If you wish to wear or distribute these message pins, you can call Soi Nuyda at +632 7358005 or Evelyn Kilayko at +63917 8400417.

New directions

New directions


Posted 11:25pm (Mla time) Feb 25, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the Febrauary 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


"PEOPLE Power against Corruption" was the theme of this year's Edsa commemoration, in many ways a step forward from the celebrations of previous years.

Just a few years after the first euphoric anniversaries, the celebration had degenerated into an exercise of political assessment. Media and political observers took to gauging the popularity of the current administration by counting the number of warm bodies massed on the highway or around the Edsa Shrine and People Power monument. The configurations of power and who was in current favor with the powers-that-be were tracked by studying the guest list at the annual commemorations, who got to sit on stage, or who got to play a role in the program. It got to a point that those in charge of organizing the event, throwing up their hands at the annual head-counting going on, were constrained to declare that the significance of the event, or the popularity of the players, shouldn't be judged by the size of the crowd alone or the heat with which the slogans were shouted or the hymns sung.

In time, as the Edsa anniversary grew more muted and fell into routine, an even worse fate befell the national ceremony of remembrance. It became a mere repository of memories, evoking proud reminiscences by the participants, but losing ground in terms of meaning among the young who were too young to understand what Edsa really meant, or who hadn't even been born when the uprising took place. Would Edsa go the way of our Independence Day celebrations? Or even present-day commemorations of World War II, which, while re-telling a story of both the horrors of war and the heroism of a generation, are barely observed by the descendants of both victims and victors?

* * *

PERHAPS to avoid this fate, and keep the lessons learned at Edsa still meaningful almost two decades after those glorious four days, the organizers of this year's event chose a theme that was as meaningful in 1986 as it still is, sadly, today.

A full-page ad put out by the Edsa People Power Commission points the way: "Let us put People Power to work again to fight the new enemy-the dictatorship of corruption, the dictatorship of poverty, and the dictatorship of opportunities stolen from a future generation."

To illustrate how serious and "real" this new people power struggle is, the early morning rites at the People Power Monument featured the signing (or the re-enactment of the signing) of memoranda of understanding between government offices and NGOs, led by the Coalition against Corruption, in focused and specific programs designed to curb corruption in the bureaucracy.

For instance, at the defense department, the Bishops-Businessmen's Conference, Procurement Watch and Makati Business Club will work together on the recruitment and training of volunteers who will be assigned as observers in bids and awards committees, to prevent corruption in the award of projects and contracts.

Expanding its original mission as an electoral watchdog, Namfrel will be working with the Department of Health on the monitoring of the delivery and inventory of medicines in all 75 DOH-retained hospitals and 15 "Centers for Health Development" nationwide. The program, it is hoped, will prevent "ghost" deliveries, under-delivery and overpricing of medicines.

* * *

THE DOH-Namfrel program is actually a replication of a formula that was proven highly effective when the DepEd let NGOs monitor and report to them on the delivery of textbooks in public schools. And to this end, G-Watch of the Ateneo School of Government, supported by the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), Namfrel and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, will work with the DepEd to further expand the textbook monitoring program, with the goal of getting more parents-teachers associations and NGOs involved in "ensuring the delivery of the right quantity and quality of books."

Of course, the two most notorious agencies when it comes to corruption are not exempt. At the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Makati Business Club and TAN will assist the agency in its campaign to raise revenues by improving collections and the agency's own internal systems. At the Bureau of Customs, the MBC and TAN will also help the agency raise revenue collection by preventing smuggling and improving its internal systems.

Even Congress is part of the program, albeit only indirectly. Code-NGO will be working with the Department of Public Works and Highways on monitoring projects funded through the PDAF of legislators "to ensure transparency in the use of the fund at the local level."

In all, there are 12 anti-corruption projects covered by MOAs signed by NGOs and private sector representatives with different government agencies. The presence of the department heads or other high-ranking officials at the signing rites signaled the government's wholehearted cooperation in the effort.

* * *

I ASKED Bill Luz, one of the organizers of the Coalition against Corruption, if there wasn't a danger that the NGO observers and members of bids and awards committees would be co-opted in the same manner that their counterparts in local governments have been.

He replied that one way of going around that risk is to put "our CEOs and really senior people from the private sector" to sit in the government bodies or to deal with officials. Under the tycoons' watchful eye, it is hoped, bureaucrats might not be too inclined to engage in their usual shenanigans.

Cory Aquino, in her brief talk at the end of the Mass at the Edsa Shrine, noted how so many people express frustration at the "failure" of Edsa without stopping to ask themselves if they had done their share to promote the Edsa spirit. Involvement in these NGOs and anti-corruption projects would be a good first step.

No forgetting

No forgetting


Posted 01:01am (Mla time) Feb 25, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 25, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


MANY Filipinos, I bet, will celebrate this day as just the start of a three-day weekend. Indeed, as Bill Luz, who sits with me on the Edsa People Power Commission, pointed out in a recent meeting, more than half of the present Philippine population has no memories at all of the event we're celebrating today.

Born 19 years ago or thereabouts, these young Filipinos would have heard of Edsa only from their parents and older friends and relatives, or from their teachers and the media. And whatever impressions they would have gathered-positive or negative-about the first People Power Revolt would have been filtered through other people's memories, perceptions and biases. And even then the event would be for them simply something that took place a long time ago.

Take my own children. My son, who was 6 at the time, remembers those days as mainly a period of his life when he was home alone most of the time "with no one but the ‘yayas’ [nannies] for company." His father was not just keeping vigil on Edsa then but also in the hospital, since I gave birth to our daughter on Feb. 26.

My daughter, my Edsa baby, likes listening to stories about the events surrounding her birth. But were it not for Edsa Dos and the chance it gave her and her brother to experience people power first-hand, the story of those three days would have remained charming fairy-tales to her.

* * *

AS it is, I'm hard put dredging memories, not to mention passion and fervor, from the first Edsa uprising. While the event holds a lot of personal meaning, it's also difficult not to feel a twinge of disappointment and betrayal. I'm almost embarrassed when my children ask me to recall yet one more time the story of Edsa. From this remove, our collective hopes and dreams, the elaborate visions of a new Philippines we had woven from our years of street protests and earnest campaigning for Cory seem the height of naiveté.

So can we blame students, young professionals, young workers and “jologs” [common folk] for turning away today, indifferent to the spirit of celebration we are still trying to wring from the Edsa commemoration? Despite all I've said previously, my answer still is: We can't blame them, but we can and should try to draw them still into celebrating Edsa.

Though subsequent developments failed to measure up to the elaborate myths we had concocted from our fading hopes, those three days on Edsa (and everywhere else Filipinos poured out into the streets in outrage at the stolen elections) were and are a proud moment for Filipinos. We shortchange the next generation when we denigrate and belittle our achievement, for it is their achievement, too. It was they, after all, who inspired our reckless courage on the highway. And it is they who will carry forward whatever little remains of the "promise" of Edsa.

* * *

EVEN today, there are people who seek to rewrite the story of what took place 19 years ago. Imelda Marcos, exulting in the ruling of a US superior court overruling a Hawaii judge's award of damages to Filipino human rights victims, misinterprets the ruling and takes it as a "vindication" of her and her late husband's conjugal dictatorship.

All that the US court said is that the Philippine justice system, and not any foreign judge, should be the one to decide whether victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship should receive compensation from the government. It said nothing that could even be remotely construed as absolution of the Marcoses' many sins. The claimants have offered proof of the torture they personally suffered, or of the killings and disappearances of their loved ones perpetrated by the Marcos military. And nothing in the ruling prevents the Arroyo government (or whoever will be president in the future) from going after the Marcos assets to fund the compensation the victims seek.

The "RAM Boys" are reported to be preparing their own book about their failed coup attempt, doubtless carrying their own version of the events. I have yet to read the book, but I can guess at its contents, as it will undoubtedly echo many of the statements that their patron, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, and their putative leader, Sen. Gringo Honasan, have already uttered in previous Edsa commemorations.

From their point of view, it was only they who staked their lives when they holed up in Camp Aguinaldo. It was only they who defied the dictator, even if, up until a few days before, they were basking in the power and privileges that proximity to the dictator allowed them. And let's not forget that Enrile himself admitted that he helped cheat Cory in Cagayan.

* * *

BUT if Imelda and the RAM Boys and their sponsors have developed amnesia and denial about the "real" story of Edsa, there are still many of us who haven't. And it is up to us, who still remember, to ensure that the truth of those events is told to the Filipinos who have no memories of Edsa. Even if, painful as it may be, we may end up conceding that the future could not but collapse from the weight of our grandiose dreams.

Next year, we mark the 20th anniversary of Edsa. While we seek ways to bring the commemoration forward and make the rituals more relevant to the problems we face today, we also need to protect and preserve the memories of the past. Even now, the Edsa People Power Commission is calling on everyone who has memorabilia dating back not just to Edsa but also to the post-Ninoy assassination protests and the snap elections, to turn over these items for archiving and possible display in a mobile exhibit planned for next year's commemoration.

If half of the population has no memories at all of Edsa, then it's up to the other half to make sure that the true story of our proudest moment is preserved and not forgotten.

A fun, inclusive prom

A fun, inclusive prom


Posted 00:50am (Mla time) Feb 23, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 23, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


AT THE HEIGHT of the ballroom dancing craze, I wondered why other people my age were waltzing and cha-chaing and swinging all over the dance floor when all I could do were steps known in my day as the "maski-paps." Where did my education in the social arts go wrong?

Then it occurred to me. I never went to a prom, and thus never felt the need to learn any form of social dancing, at least the kind which has steps and sequences, and requires one to hold on to a partner. And for this I have no one to blame but myself. It was I, after all, who wrote an article in the school paper on how "offensive" it would be to hold an elaborate Junior-Senior Prom in the midst of the widespread poverty and social unrest of the early 1970s.

The graduating seniors at the time agreed and said they didn't need a prom to complete their high school experience. But when we became seniors, my batch mates insisted on some form of social bonding, so the juniors hosted instead an "alternative prom" held in a social hall with simple fare served on paper plates and plastic cups, while my classmates' dates spent much of their time ogling the exhibits in a car show held at the same venue.

I had boycotted even this bare-bones alternative, for by that time I was spending my after-school hours marching in the streets and yelling slogans.

These memories of my lost youthful social life were triggered recently when I was invited to an "alternative" prom called "Prom na Prom!" or "Pers Rampa, Okrayin ang Mapangtsugi na Prom" which from my limited knowledge of street talk can be roughly translated to: Let's go friends, let's trash the oppressive prom!


* * *

OPPRESSIVE? A prom? What's not to like about a night of dressing up, pigging out, dancing up a storm and, just maybe, making out?

Well, as explained by the organizers from PiLaKK, an organization of young people from urban poor communities, the prom may have evolved into a "rite of passage" for many young people, but the "unwritten rules" governing this social event have also served to make it unpleasant, if not downright traumatic for some teens.

"There are unwritten prom rules that need to be followed if one doesn't want to be discriminated against or branded a 'weirdo,'" say the "Prom na Prom!" organizers. One iron-clad rule is that your date needs to be from the opposite sex. Another is that "appropriate" prom wear means formal and expensive outfits that conform to society's stereotypes.

"Because of this, many young people feel out-of-place and excluded," explains PiLaKK, especially young people whose parents can't afford (or choose not to shoulder) the expenses, those who don't belong to the "popular" crowd or who simply can't find a date for the night, and young gays and lesbians and other minorities. "A young people's personhood is measured and boxed into his or her ability to snare a date," note the youth leaders.

Which is why, they add, prom season can bring with it not just excitement and anticipation, but also "oppressive social concepts like heterosexism, the primacy of beauty and popularity, the privileges of wealth, and the power of peer pressure to make young people conform to society's dictates."

So, in a desire to "promote self-affirmation, responsible relationships and solidarity among young people," PiLaKK and Likhaan, an NGO that promotes reproductive health among community women, decided to sponsor "Prom na Prom!" last Feb. 19 at the College of Social Work and Community Development in the University of the Philippines.


* * *

WOULD this "alternative prom" collapse under the weight of its serious intentions?

I'm glad to report that it didn't, for by the time I arrived at the venue, the air-conditioned hall had already heated up with an estimated 500 youths filling up the dance floor. While I espied a few pairs, mixed and same-sex, most danced in clusters, aping each other's steps.

With other invited judges-Marlea Munez of Wedpro and Jigs Mayuga, host of the defunct TV show "Out!"-I scoured the dance floor in search of winners in such categories as "Best in Gown," "Most Creative Attire," "Gender Bender," and "I Love My Body." To our amusement, we noted that while the young women chose to come in their everyday wear of jeans and tees, it was mostly young men who chose to make an appearance in "traditional" prom wear, in gowns of shimmering fabrics and rich material, preening as they walked back and forth, tossing their filmy shawls and styled hair about.

One young man showed off his well-toned muscles with a shiny see-through floor-length sheath, for which he was appropriately given the "I Love My Body" award. "Most Creative Attire" went to the get-up of a youth leader who had feathers perched on his head, his shirt and ripped pants studded with shiny CDs.


* * *

HIGHLIGHT of the evening was the "cotillion," which featured not pairs of dancers but pairs of youth and adult leaders. After waltzing into the hall, an adult leader "bequeathed" to a young person an item symbolizing his or her "coming of age," from a "magic mirror" that would grant to a young woman the power to see only positive images of herself to a poster of a woman in a sensuous pose symbolizing a young person's embrace of and responsible use of sexuality.

Of course, the evening brought back memories of my own youth and the proms I missed as a consequence of our own turbulent times. I could only wish that back then we activist youth had enough creativity to think of an alternative activity, one that would have taught us a lesson we would only learn years later: that seriousness of purpose does not preclude having fun, and that unless one is having fun, one could not in fact achieve one's purpose. As a saying goes: I would join the revolution, but only if I can dance.

Into the lion's den

Into the lion's den


Posted 11:03pm (Mla time) Feb 21, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the February 22, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IN 2001, after nearly a decade of steadily decreasing numbers of young Filipino women deployed as "overseas performing artists" or OPAs, there was a sudden and significant increase in the number of women working as entertainers abroad, especially in Japan. According to a position paper recently issued by 10 NGOs working on the issues of migrant women, the increase occurred alongside what had become in effect the deregulation of the overseas entertainment sector through DOLE Department Order No. 10 and the lowering of the minimum age requirement to 18.

"Under a deregulated policy environment, the deployment of entertainers flourished with Philippine government data registering a record number of Filipina entertainers deployed to Japan in 2003," the NGOs said in the statement. "In recent years, charges of corruption also hounded Philippine government officials and the (formal and informal) overseas entertainment industry involved in the testing, certification and deployment of Filipina entertainers."

It's clear then that the Philippine government has only itself to blame for the ongoing "crisis" over the Japanese government's new and tighter policies on migrant workers. Under pressure from the international community, Japan announced more than a month ago new policies that signaled its intention to seriously crack down on illegal workers within its borders and institute more stringent requirements for the issuance of working visas.

With hundreds of thousands of workers, most of them women, expected to be adversely affected by Japan's move, the government now finds itself trapped between the loud and intensive lobbying of the OPA industry, and its own advocacy on the issue of trafficking and its previous policy track to drastically reduce the number of women leaving abroad to work as entertainers.

* * *

THE HISTORY of the overseas performing artist industry is itself a story of how our country's economic fortunes and flip-flopping polices have conspired to bring us to the current situation. Our government now finds itself in the embarrassing position of having to beg a foreign government to postpone, if not rescind, a policy that was adopted partly out of our own well-intentioned advocacy. I wouldn't blame the Japanese for their confusion over what we Filipinos really want them to do about our "Japayukis."

Here's how the NGO's recall the "OPA story."

"Filipino entertainers-musicians, singers and band members-were renowned in Asia in the 1950s and 1960s for their talent and musicality. With the economic boom in Japan, entertainment became more and more oriented towards pleasing the Japanese sarariman (white-collar worker) who worked very hard for the economic success of their companies. In the 1970s, corporate incentives for Japanese workers and professionals included trips abroad that became 'sex tours' which created a huge scandal in many countries like Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand. The public outcry resulted in the decline of the sex tours. Soon after, however, the policy of importing Filipinas in massive numbers for the Japanese male-oriented entertainment market was introduced, with the Philippine government itself systematizing and institutionalizing the deployment of Filipinas to Japan. (In fairness, though, Japanese authorities could also be said to have conspired in this trade, though largely by looking the other way.-RJD)

"In 1981, Japan modified its requirement for the issuance of entertainers' visa (minimum two-year work experience) and allowed the entry of Filipino entertainers without the minimum work experience as long as the Philippine government certified them. Thus was born the 'Blue Card,' which later on evolved into the 'Yellow and White Cards,' the 'Artist Record Book,' and finally, the 'Artist Accreditation Card...'

* * *

"IN 1991, the mysterious death of Maricris Sioson, a 20-year-old Filipina entertainer in Japan, drew attention to the plight of Filipina entertainers and the risks involved and problems inherent in Japan's entertainment industry. The advocacy campaigns mounted by migrant and women's NGOs prompted the Philippine government to enforce regulations (such as a minimum age requirement of 23 years for the deployment of entertainers) despite protest from the overseas entertainment industry. Similar cases of mysterious deaths and disappearances...and growing concern for the welfare and protection of Filipina entertainers in Japan prompted the Philippine government to institutionalize the Artist Record Book (ARB) system in 1994 with the objective of providing preparation for Japan-bound entertainers to enhance their protection from abuse and exploitation.

"These policy developments resulted in a significant decrease in the number of Filipina entertainers deployed to Japan but reports of abuse and exploitation of Filipino women continued.

"In 1996, the Philippine government lowered the minimum age requirement for the deployment of entertainers to 21 years old as well as mandated the overseas entertainment industry to establish welfare programs and operationalize welfare and monitoring centers to strengthen on-site protection for Filipina entertainers in Japan. This did not stop the labor and sexual abuse and exploitation experienced by Filipina entertainers from (taking place) which comes mainly from the institutionalized abuse and exploitation that has become part and parcel of the adult entertainment industry in Japan."

And despite our loud protestations of distress and concern, we not only made it easier for even more young women to enter the lion's den, we are even protesting the entry of a lion tamer. Shame!

What's at stake in Japan?

What's at stake in Japan?


Posted 10:15pm (Mla time) Feb 19, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 20, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE PHILIPPINE government now finds itself in the most embarrassing position of backtracking on an advocacy that it has championed globally and even petitioned other countries to address seriously.

The issue is trafficking in human beings, particularly of women and children for purposes of prostitution, and it has indeed become a serious problem because of the thousands of women and girls who are lured to leave their homes on the promise of finding gainful work abroad, only to end up ensnared in forced prostitution, also known as "white slavery." (Why? Because it's a "cleaner" form of slavery? Not from the women's point of view, I bet.)

A position paper prepared by 10 organizations working with migrant women workers says that while the issue of trafficking has been around for decades, only since the 1990s has it received "high visibility and action on the part of the international community." As a result of persistent NGO advocacy from women's and migrants' groups, human trafficking is now "universally condemned and criminalized." The Philippine government has readily embraced this cause, promoting resolutions addressing the global trafficking of women and girls in the United Nations since 1994. It also actively supported and promoted the adoption of the UN Optional Protocol on Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children. In 2003, the Philippine Congress passed the "historic" law against human trafficking, after years of advocacy by women's groups. This law has since been hailed by other governments as one of the "most comprehensive and progressive" laws addressing the issue of trafficking.

So why do I say that the government is now backtracking from this advocacy and embarrassing itself in the eyes of the world?


* * *

THE JOINT position paper, sponsored by the Development Action for Women Network, BATIS Center for Women, BATIS-AWARE, Center for Migrants Advocacy, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific, Kanlungan Center Foundation, Scalabrini Migration Center, Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women, WomenLead and Philippine Migrant Rights Watch (PMRW), traces the background behind the recent move of the Japanese government limiting the granting of working visas in Japan to entertainers who have received at least two years' training outside Japan or in foreign institutions. This move has received widespread criticism not just from entertainers, recruiters and talent managers, but even from other migrant groups and some Filipino officials.

Since 1995, says the paper, the international community has stepped up its efforts and policies to curtail trafficking around the world. The European Community passed its own policies, while the United States, Thailand and the Philippines enacted their own anti-trafficking laws. South Asian countries, on the other hand, sought to address cross-border trafficking through the SAARC Convention.

As one of the prime "receiving" countries of migrant women, most of them entertainers, Japan "found itself being criticized for not doing enough to address trafficking in its own territory." Two years ago, the Japanese government began consulting NGOs and government agencies in other countries, including the Philippines, on what it could do to institute stronger measures against trafficking. "An Interagency Coordination Mechanism on Trafficking in Persons was created in April 2004. Subsequently, in September 2004, official missions were dispatched to the Philippines, Thailand and Colombia to consult and inform the governments of the action plan to be implemented by Japan," the position paper states.

Say the organizations: "Though these actions came a bit too late, we affirm that these are steps in the right direction."


* * *

EVEN as Japan sent signals that it would soon begin cracking down on the illicit trafficking business, in the Philippines, say the migrant organizations, several consultations on the problems and issues of overseas performing artists were taking place among government, NGOs and civil society. "However," it adds, "it seems that the Philippine government itself had not seriously taken steps to prepare a contingency plan in the event of possible policy changes from Japan."

How much is at stake in this new Japanese policy on the migration of foreign entertainers to their shores?

Financially, we're talking hundreds of millions of pesos in remittances. Nearly 300,000 Filipinos, the vast majority of them women entertainers at bars and nightspots, currently work in Japan. Filipino officials estimate that up to 77,000 of them entered the country illegally.

But is money the only consideration in this situation? What about the welfare and safety of the women and their children? What about that elusive thing called national dignity?


* * *

THIS is what the position paper has to say of the situation of our women "artists" in Japan:

"Trafficking of women and children in Japan has almost always been associated with the entertainment/sex industries which are heavily controlled by syndicates like the Yakuza. The studies show a pattern of sexual and labor exploitation without recourse to legal remedies from the Japanese government which previously had no legal standards on trafficking cases. Various methods and degrees of coercion and control are employed to compel women even with legal papers to give in to the sexual advances of customers even in legally operating bars and entertainment establishments. In the worst of cases, women are virtually imprisoned, enslaved and subjected to the most horrendous violations."

Is this the sort of regime we wish to continue, even if only for five years?

A full day

A full day


Posted 02:30am (Mla time) Feb 18, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 18, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


SINCE the editors decided last year to add one more free day in my work schedule, I've come to look forward to every Wednesday as a mid-week breather in an otherwise packed calendar. And because I don't have a deadline to meet on Wednesdays, I've come to reserve the day for "optional" activities like granting interviews and accepting invitations.

Last Wednesday proved, though, that even a "free" day can be full and satisfying, especially when devoted to activities that are both gratifying and enriching.

The day started at the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati where I had been invited, over a month ago, to address third and fourth year high school students on the theme "Ang mga Kababaihan sa ating Lipunan (Women in our Society)." I'd come equipped with a power point presentation prepared years ago mainly for a female audience, so I was thrown off a bit upon finding an audience dominated by young men, with the exception of a few teachers. I later found out that I was addressing not just the young men in the large air-conditioned classroom where I was, but three other classes as well, linked by live video. Later, assistant principal Lito Tenerife told me that the combined activity for Social Studies, Filipino and Christian Living was meant not just to provide "inputs" to the students, but also to train them on handling live video conferencing. So, I was only a lab subject, huh?

Anyway, the young "Bosconians" proved to be sufficiently interested in the topic, and there was hardly any hint of resentment or skepticism among the young men. During the question-and-answer portion, they seemed to take the notion of gender equality quite matter-of-factly. Unlike, say, during sessions with bigger audiences where someone, usually a man, invariably asks if "it is not Filipino men who need liberating." What the students wanted to know was how gender awareness could help them, and if the attitudes of feminist organizations toward men had changed through the years.

Well, if the students of Don Bosco are an indication, then times have indeed changed, and the road to true gender equality need not be as difficult as feared.


* * *

FROM DON Bosco, I had to rush to the US Embassy where it was worth going through the hassles of security checks just to be present at the 16th Annual Awarding of the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Fellowships for Professional Development.

Each year, two Aquino "fellows"-for public service and for journalism-are chosen to participate in a study tour in the United States to meet and exchange views with professionals in their fields. I made the extra effort this year because the awardee for public service is Yasmin Busran-Lao, recognized for "her efforts to assist impoverished communities in Mindanao and promote the role of women in peace-building efforts."

Yas, as her friends call her, is a sister in the women's group Pilipina and was even the third nominee for a party-list seat in Congress last year under the women's party-list Abanse! Pinay. What makes Yas even more deserving of recognition is that she is a Muslim undertaking the difficult and perhaps even dangerous work of changing traditional Muslim attitudes toward women and women's roles in society.

"I couldn't quite believe that the small things I do in my small corner would merit such attention," Yasmin said of her reaction when she first heard of the Aquino fellowship. Her feeling, she said, was that she had long found her reward in "personal fulfillment and affirmation for the things we do," and that "seeing change happen" was an award in itself. And though she at first wanted to keep quiet about the award, Yasmin said she later realized that "the award is itself an advocacy for our work."

Most memorable was Yas' tribute to her husband Andy, who has stood by her all these years, she said, even as he had to withstand insistent queries from his mother and mother-in-law why he was "allowing" his wife to do what she was doing. Sadly, neither Andy nor their daughter Amanah could make it to the awards ceremony because Amanah had exams scheduled at the last minute. Other members of their family were on hand, though.

The other Aquino fellow, by the way, is Jose A. Torres Jr., a senior editor of abs-cbnNews.com and a freelance print journalist. He is best remembered for his book "Into the Mountain: Hostaged by the Abu Sayyaf," which was such an engrossing read and shed light on the ASG kidnappings through the stories of "little people" who had harrowing encounters with these bandits. Not bad for someone who says he's in journalism simply to "tell stories of people's lives."


* * *

AFTER A BIT of shopping, I decided to check out the movies showing at the Shangri-la Mall's Cineplex, especially at the vaunted "Premiere" theater where there's "bottomless" popcorn. When I saw that "Ray," the biopic for which Jamie Foxx is predicted to win Oscar for Best Actor, was showing in a smaller theater, I immediately bought tickets for myself, the hubby and our daughter.

At times, it seems as if Foxx is not so much acting as channeling Ray Charles, who is shown in this movie as a true musical pioneer who dared blur the boundaries between musical genres. Charles' life story (he was Ray Charles Robinson in real life) is told against the backdrop of life in the United States in the years shortly after World War II, including his inadvertent role as a civil rights champion. Even more admirable is the movie's unflinching look at both the good and bad of Ray Charles, including his drug addiction, his womanizing and his demons.

Overall, an honest, deeply felt film about a musical genius who was an all-too-frail human being. And for making the most of a role of a lifetime, Foxx deserves that Oscar!

Civilians hurt on both 'sides'

Civilians hurt on both 'sides'


Posted 00:44am (Mla time) Feb 16, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 16, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


QUITE a common reaction to what newspapers quite luridly described as the "Valentine's Day Massacre" was: "How could those bombers have targeted innocent civilians?" Others condemned what appeared like deliberate planning and timing to hurt or kill as many people as possible, with the blasts set to go off at the height of commuting hours and with many more people than usual staying out on the streets to celebrate the Day of Hearts.

This perception was only bolstered by the statement of the group claiming responsibility for the bombings that the mayhem and bloodshed was its "Valentine's gift to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo."

We didn't have to look far for the culprit. Too many Filipinos, it seemed, were only too willing to go along with the police and military theory that the bombings in the cities of Makati, General Santos and Davao were the handiwork of "Muslim terrorists" perpetrated as revenge against the government and Christians in general for the ongoing military action in Sulu. The blame-laying fit right in with the built-in hostility to Muslims or Moros that lies just below the surface of our supposedly Christian society.

The mother of one of the Marines killed in recent clashes in the South expressed this sentiment quite bluntly when, asked what she wanted to happen to her son's "killers," she replied tearfully: "My heart is overflowing with hatred for them. I want them crushed!"

Of course, it's quite possible, and indeed probable, that the bombings were planned by terrorists fueled by an emergent Islamist movement with Jemaah Islamiyah at its lead. Then again, given that all we have to go on is theory, some whole other groups may be behind it. Some even suggest that the "Valentine's massacre" may be but part of a script we are all familiar with, a prelude to martial law.


* * *

WHAT strikes me as funny, or ironic, in this situation, though is how we Christians can be so quick to decry the targeting of "innocent civilians" by terrorists (when they are terrorists precisely because they target civilians), but are quite reluctant to condemn the involvement of civilians in the current military operations in Sulu and in Maguindanao before this.

The same TV newscasts that blared the "breaking news" stories of the bombings carried news reports on the plight of the civilians who were forced to flee their homes in the embattled villages of Sulu. Most of the evacuees shown in the footage were women and children. Reporters highlighted the hunger and illness stalking the refugees, what with supplies taking a much longer time to reach the evacuation centers because they had to be transported by boat, with the highways closed due to the fighting.

Even worse than the forced dislocation of civilians are reports that military commanders in the region deliberately target civilian communities, in the belief that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front {MNLF) renegade troops are using their neighbors and families as convenient camouflage.

A friend says he wasn't surprised at all by the retaliatory bombings, if that was what they were. "If I were an MNLF sympathizer, I would also be targeting civilians since that is what our military is doing to them," he said.


* * *

ANYWAY, there may still be time to break the cycle of retaliation and even escalation in this latest round of conflict. At the very least, our government forces, if they wish to claim the moral high ground, should abandon the policy of targeting civilian populations as soon as possible.

Following that, serious thought should be given to calling a ceasefire on both sides, if only to spare us from any more deaths and destruction.

Last Feb. 9, "concerned citizens" from Sulu and Maguindanao, taking part in a conference on "The Global Campaign against Terror and its Implications on the Peace Process," issued an "urgent appeal" to both the government forces and the MNLF for a ceasefire.

"For several days now, areas of the Sulu province have once again been subjected to massive military operations as government soldiers continued to clash with Misuari supporters," the statement noted. "Initial reports from the field indicate losses on both sides with the number of casualties expected to rise further.

"We strongly condemn this violence and appeal to both sides for an immediate ceasefire.

"Amid conflicting claims by both the military and the MNLF, we also urge the local government and the political leaders in the province to launch an investigation into this issue.

"Lastly, we call for greater vigilance on the part of civil society. Often, in conflict, it is the community that bears the heaviest burden and we urge civil society to be vigilant and champion the community's interests."


* * *

AMINA Rasul of the Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy (PCID) and the Muslim Women Peace Advocates, called on Sulu Governor Loong and Jolo Mayor Tan to conduct an investigation on the causes of the outbreak of the fighting, adding that "local government officials in Sulu should help resolve the crisis through constructive dialogue."

Rasul said an investigation is in order to dispel speculations as to what really caused the fighting. The woman peace advocate said that the first thing that both sides, the military and the MNLF, should do is to put down their arms and allow local Muslim leaders in Sulu and Mindanao to help patch up their differences. "Both sides must always remember that it is the people of Sulu who are most affected by this conflict. As efforts are being made in the area of peace and development in Mindanao, it is unfortunate that this fighting should occur at this time," she said.

Today, thanks to the bombings, the bloodshed, fear and insecurity have gone beyond Sulu's borders. What was once a conflict confined to Sulu is now a national problem.

Sex and romance

Sex and romance


Posted 00:39am (Mla time) Feb 15, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 15, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


THOUSANDS of couples kissed at the stroke of midnight last Saturday, ushering in Valentine's Day in this country of hopeless romantics. Though the mass kissing exercise was held in cities around the country, the epicenter of "Lovapalooza 2," a marketing gimmick for a toothpaste brand, was in one of the most romantic spots in this archipelago, long celebrated in song, poetry, tourist brochures and lovers' memories. This was the Baywalk along Roxas Blvd., where even "Sputnik" streetlights and tacky street décor cannot detract from the beauty of the incomparable sunset in Manila Bay.

Leading the lip-locking display along the Baywalk was Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and his wife-which in itself is ironic because, while the mayor seems all gung-ho for romance, he doesn't seem all that concerned about the consequences of what often-or some would say, naturally-follows a night of basking in Cupid's glow.

If any of the Manila residents who planned to take part in "Lovapalooza 2" sought some form of protection in case they got "carried away" by all that "face sucking," they would have been hard put to find any form of contraception in any of the city's health centers. This is because it is the policy -- though there are no documents stating so -- of the city government not to allow any of its health centers to distribute or even provide information on any method of family planning, except the so-called "natural" family planning. So at best, the only service the amorous couples would have received from the health centers-centers funded by their taxes, mind you-would have been advice on how to determine the woman's "safe" period and avoid pregnancy on these days. Useful information, admittedly, but of little practical use to a couple facing or planning a night of amour.

* * *

ROMANCE and sex, sex and romance, the two are intimately linked and, some would say, one naturally follows the other.

But while we wrap ourselves in romance and feed its embers with songs, “kilig” [tingle] movies, paperback novels, soap operas and kissing en masse, we choose to ignore the possibility that all that falling in love could lead to falling in lust. And often, in choosing to ignore sex as a normal and even desirable outcome of romance, we also end up denying our young people the information and services they need to make the right and safe decisions for themselves regarding their sexuality and its expression.

On the other hand, there is also a tendency to talk of, or search for, sex for its own sake, divorced from not just romance but from human relationships. In the end, only when the sex act becomes but the physical expression of a deeper emotional bond and the fruit of true compatibility does it become truly meaningful and transcendental.

As our papers reported yesterday, opinion polls show that less than half of Filipino men and women describe their "love lives" as satisfying. We have no way of knowing just how this "satisfaction" is measured. But I would guess the forced or unreal separation between sex and romance is a big factor in this general feeling of dissatisfaction.

* * *

MEANWHILE, the national government, through the Department of Health, is launching the "Ligtas Buntis" program, a program for safe and intended motherhood ("ligtas na pagbubuntis at ligtas sa pagkabuntis") that includes a "door-to-door" information campaign that would have health workers and volunteers visiting families to provide them the needed information on planning one's family.

This seems commendable on the surface save for the fact that the communication plan prepared for the campaign uses the tagline "Family Planning: Natural ... Dahil Mahal Kita."

Background materials say the information campaign is anchored on convincing men -- identified as one of the more resistant sectors to family planning -- that the proper expression of their love for their wives is to protect them from unwanted pregnancy.

But the use of the word "natural" is deceptive and confusing. Health authorities may say it only means that family planning is a "natural" consequence of one's love for one's family. But it strikes many as a not-so-subtle plug for natural family planning, which the Department of Health is promoting aggressively.

Both President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit claim that the national government policy is to promote and provide all methods of family planning that are safe, effective and legal. But most of the new funding for family planning has gone mainly to training health workers on counseling couples on natural family planning, while the national government has remained adamant in its position not to allocate any new money for the purchase of contraceptives. Local government units are now responsible for this, officials say. But what of local governments like the City of Manila?

* * *

WHILE there's nothing wrong in pushing NFP, the push shouldn't be done entirely at the expense of the other methods of family planning.

But couples who have undergone counseling, as well as other health workers who've attended training sessions, attest that DOH-funded trainors promote NFP by bashing the other modern methods. They highlight the "risks" and side effects of the pill, IUD, injectables, the permanent methods, and even the condom, while denigrating their effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. One trainor even told the audience that women who choose to have an IUD inserted are "stupid."

Hypocrisy is all around us, it seems. Found not just among local officials who claim to be all for romance but don't care to protect their constituents from its consequences, but also in a national government playing the game of double-speak.

Lovers and fathers

Lovers and fathers


Posted 01:50am (Mla time) Feb 13, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 13, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


FILIPINOS are indeed great lovers. But as our birth rate shows, we can be deemed guilty of-as the saying goes-loving not wisely but too well.

I was a guest a few days ago in a taping of "Homeboy," a new show on ABS-CBN that tries to liven up the daytime TV scene with talk on matters both topical and exciting. And you couldn't get any more exciting than the topic up for discussion-teenage sex and young fatherhood.

The main guests in that episode were three young men-in their late teens and early 20s-who became fathers at fairly young ages: around 14 or 15, a time of life when, to quote the host of the show, Boy Abunda, "I was still playing piko in Samar." Joining the young men was Jigo Garcia who, in the late 1980s, was a fairly big teen star until he lost his innocence-or at least his innocence in the eyes of his young fans-when he got his girlfriend Jean Garcia pregnant.

Gasps were heard from the studio audience when the three first revealed how young they were when they became fathers. Two of them admitted their premature fatherhood was an accident, unplanned and at first unwanted. One insisted he and his partner had "planned" their parenthood, simply because they wanted the "experience." It soon became clear, though, that while he and his girlfriend had planned the sex part, the pregnancy and parenthood part was unforeseen.

This goes along with most surveys conducted over the years on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in the Philippines. A growing number of young people (but not yet the majority, it must be clear) are becoming sexually active at younger ages. But they're exploring their sexuality and satisfying their curiosity with little preparation or consciousness of the need for protection, it seems. And the actions of the older generation aren't helping them any.


* * *

MAYNARD, one of the three young fathers, mentioned that he and his partner were so dismayed by her pregnancy-especially because he had not yet finished his studies and held no job (he is still unemployed today)-that at first they attempted to abort the baby. This they did by having the young mother drink Cortal (a local brand of aspirin) with Sprite (a soda).

Aspirin and soda have no known abortifacient qualities, but the "recipe" is frequently mentioned-spread mainly through word-of-mouth-as a means of ending pregnancy. My guess is that the acidic combination can induce such violent stomach spasms that people surmise it cannot but end in an abortion (even if the fetus lodges in the uterus, not the stomach). Like many others, Maynard and his partner found the concoction did not work and thus decided "to accept the inevitable."

Maynard's story, I told the TV audience, simply illustrates the appalling lack of sex education in our schools and homes, with parents living in denial about their children's sexuality; and our schools and churches content with plying the young with moralistic admonitions on abstinence and dire predictions about pregnancy and STDs, if not burning in hell for all time.

With the adults around them so reluctant to provide information, where do young people go for sex education? Studies show that adolescents rely mostly on friends and the barkada for the "facts of life." The trouble is that these "facts" are often not factual, as the "Cortal and Sprite" recipe proves, while peer pressure can often drive young men and women into behaviors that are risky and harmful.


* * *

ANOTHER young father mentioned that one of the factors that pushed him to early sex was the desire to prove his friends wrong. "They were teasing me about being gay," explained the young man, who has a slight build and fine features. And so in the attempt to prove his manhood, he found himself a father in his early teens.

The other fathers traced the wrong turn their lives had taken to their home situations, including separated and absentee parents. "I was looking for someone who would listen to me and would always be on my side," confessed Maynard.

Unfortunately, in their search for emotional validation and belonging, the young men and their partners ended up not only derailing their dreams, but ensnaring others in the trap as well, including the truly innocent like their children.

The "batang ama" may now say it was "love" or "romance" that led them down the path of fatherhood. But their situation today is far from romantic, and when one's days and nights are spent worrying about where to find money to buy food, milk, diapers and other necessities, romance will fly out of the window, sooner than later.


* * *

THE TROUBLE with romance and adolescent sex, I said on the show, is that too many young people believe that it's "romantic" to become a "victim" of love-or lust-while condemning contraception as just too coldhearted, proving that one had planned or prepared for sex.

But why can't the situation be turned on its head? Why can't we promote the use of contraception and protection as in fact the most romantic thing lovers can do, proving that while you may be carried away by the magic of the moment, ensuring the welfare and future of your partner remains important?

Filipino men have a reputation, deserved or not, of being thoughtful and skillful lovers. And indeed, few men can hold their own against a Pinoy bent on romantic and sexual conquest. The true test of prowess, however, comes after the pursuit comes to an end. A good lover is a lover who plans and prepares for the future and looks after those he claims to love. Loving wisely is not that big a deal and need not get in the way of romance.

'Inside' stories

'Inside' stories


Posted 00:38am (Mla time) Feb 12, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


HERE'S a clarification sent by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs head Luchi Cruz Valdes to the column item on the "handling" by their network of the story on Baron Geisler, a "Kapamilya" talent who figured in the headlines after getting involved in a vehicular accident while he was obviously "under the influence."

It was a producer, not a reporter, who forgot to log the story and footage in, said Luchi, which resulted in the failure of "TV Patrol," its prime-time newscast, to air the story. This failure, in turn, led to much speculation on the "real" reasons the network kept the lid on an incident involving one of its talents.

But, to be fair, Luchi asserts that ABS-CBN did air a story on Geisler's accident on "Magandang Umaga Bayan," an early morning magazine show, and on "Insider," the late evening newscast, on the same day the story broke. (I don't know, maybe I just missed the story when I was monitoring "Insider" precisely to check what "spin" ABS-CBN would give a negative story involving one of their own.) "TV Patrol" also made an "updated" version of the story the next day, "para maka-bawi," said Luchi, but the story still failed to air because the day's newscast had run overtime.

* * *

A PREVIOUS obligation compelled me to leave before the close of "Media Nation 2," a national summit of the media held last weekend in Tagaytay, so I'm not privy to the final agreements and statement. One of the more prominent suggestions, aired frequently during the summit, though, was the creation of a "media beat" among the country's news organizations, where developments and issues within the media industry would be covered, analyzed and discussed.

If I remember right, Dave Celdran, executive producer at ANC, the ABS-CBN 24-hour news channel on cable, even offered to produce a show precisely on this concept.

A "media beat" seems timely, especially on TV news coverage since the intense competition between ABS-CBN and GMA Network, the two broadcast giants that comprise what some participants in the summit had dubbed the "duopoly" reigning over our airwaves, has seeped into the way they report on events and personalities. As I pointed out in an earlier column, the coverage given to showbiz personalities who find themselves in the news often depends on what stable they belong to. ABS-CBN reports tend to come down hard on GMA Network talents and vice-versa.

ABS-CBN, though, seems to have more than its talents' welfare to consider in its news coverage. Being part of the Lopez Group of Companies which has interests in public utilities and with many of them embroiled in controversies like rate hikes, the station is hard put to dispel viewers' suspicions regarding its angling of stories on, say, power rates and Meralco. ABS-CBN employees in the summit didn't even bother to conceal the fact that their bosses do tend to have a special interest in stories affecting the family's business interests. But as one producer pointed out: "I personally haven't been told anything other than to make sure the story is balanced," and that "they" are allowed to make their side aired.

* * *

SOMETIMES, though, people tend to read more into decisions made by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs than is warranted by the actual events.

Even before "Media Nation 2" opened, most of the participants had already received text messages decrying the decision of higher management, Luchi Cruz Valdes in particular, not to air a segment of the public affairs show "Correspondents" that devoted an entire episode to the labor strife in Hacienda Luisita. According to the text messages, Kris Aquino, a top ABS-CBN talent whose maternal side of the family owns Hacienda Luisita, used her influence to have that particular segment "killed."

When a participant brought up this allegation, Luchi felt compelled to dive into the background that led to this decision of hers.

The segment was devoted to allegations, already written about extensively by Larry Henares, for one, in his columns in the Inquirer many years ago, that the wealth of the Cojuangcos can reportedly be traced to the relationship between Isidra Cojuangco and Philippine revolutionary Gen. Antonio Luna. Luna supposedly left either gold bars or the Katipunan's payroll in Isidra's keeping, but the spinster-aunt of the senior Cojuangcos is accused of using the treasure she was given to buy Hacienda Luisita and set off her clan on the road to becoming one of the country's richest clans.

As Luchi tells it, the trouble with the story as it was prepared for "Correspondents," was that it was based purely on allegations (through interviews with Henares and former National Archives director Ric Manapat), and "merely" quoted off-cam National Historical Institute director (and Inquirer columnist) Ambeth Ocampo who expressed skepticism about the story's provenance. "Lack of balance and paltry research" were thus the real reasons for the story's axing.

* * *

THESE stories alone would seem to justify a "media beat" that would address not just issues involving the credibility of the various news media, but also provide media consumers the "inside story" behind the coverage of particular stories, including how "scoops" are scored, or when there are allegations of wrongdoing or outside falsehood in the gathering of a "hot" story.

A "media beat" might also provide the often-banal and unexciting reality behind accusations of "censorship" or bias. We in the media are often accused of having no qualms about exposing the rotten underbelly of other institutions, while being over-sensitive and defensive when faced with criticism about our own profession.

And when we refuse to adopt transparency in our industry, our audience has proven it has no qualms about inventing its own stories about us.

Pioneering women

Pioneering women


Posted 00:07am (Mla time) Feb 11, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 11, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


ABOUT 30 years ago, soon after "women's lib" made the jump from the United States and the West to the developing world, misogynists and various critics lost no time getting on the feminists' case.

Feminism, they said, had no place in Philippine society because it was a "mere" import from the West (like representative democracy?) and was an ill fit with local mores and traditions. Even more damning was the assertion made by leaders of the leftist and so-called "progressive" movement that women's agitation for their rights and share of power was "distracting," if not derailing, the revolutionary drive for national liberation. If I remember right, some did promise that once progressive forces "won" the revolution, they would have all the time and leisure to begin listening to women. (As an aside, don't you wonder what would have happened to the women's movement if the women had believed such drivel? We would no doubt still be confined to making sandwiches for rallies and stroking the egos of the male "revolutionaries.")

So it must come as a distinct shock to these critics and the rest of the nation to find out that this year the country is observing the Centennial of the Feminist Movement in the Philippines. Yes, feminism -- or at least its formal, organized expression -- is already a hundred years old in the country!

* * *

AS a backgrounder states, "One hundred years ago, while the dust of the Filipino-American War had not yet settled, a group of nationalist women formed the first nongovernmental organization (NGO) in the Philippines, with the vision of taking care of the women and children who were left malnourished and ill by years of strife. Concepcion Felix, Trinidad Rizal and other prominent women (founded) Asociacion Feminista Filipina (Filipina Feminist Association) in 1905, signaling the beginning of the Feminist Movement in our country."

The first and most lasting project of Asociacion Feminista Filipina was Gota de Leche (or Drop of Milk), the first non-denominational private social welfare initiative in the country.

Beyond its charity work, though, Asociacion Feminista was instrumental in the "social transformation" of Filipino women. It's members played a key role (in conjunction with Asociacion Feminista Ilongga, founded a year later in Iloilo) in the struggle for women's right to vote and the passage of legislation for women's rights, and which has resulted "in the creation of perhaps Asia's most politically informed and vibrant women's movement."

* * *

A COALITION of women from government and non-government groups, called the NGO-GO National Network of the Feminist Centennial will launch its year-long round of activities with a benefit dinner-concert, "100 Years of Hearts and Hands" on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 4:30 p.m. at the gardens of the Gota de Leche compound on Sergio Loyola Street in Sampaloc.

On this occasion, the NGO-GO National Network will give awards of recognition to "women and women's groups who nurtured the feminist movement over the last hundred years." Special recognition will be given to the founders of Asociacion Feminista: Concepcion Felix de Calderon y de Rodriguez and Pura Villanueva Kalaw. In addition, 17 women, who composed the early membership of feminist organizations, will be recognized. They are: Encarnacion Alzona, Librada Avelino, Natividad Almeda Lopez, Minerva Guysako Laudico (the lone surviving awardee), Pilar Hidalgo Lim, Josefa Jara Martinez, Tarhata Kiram, Trinidad Legarda, Josefa Llanes Escoda, Clemencia Lopez, Maria Paz Mendoza Guazon, Constancia Poblete, Paz Policarpio Mendez, Sofia Reyes de Veyra, Rosa Sevilla Alvero, Maria C. Manzano and Geronima Pecson.

Special tribute will also be given to four early "feminist men," who championed, in their writings and legislative work, the rights of women. They are: Apolinario Mabini, Rafael Palma and Assemblymen Filemon Sotto and Miguel Cuenco.

Eighteen pioneering organizations espousing feminist principles, including the rights and welfare of women, will likewise be recognized. These are (in order of founding): National Federation of Women's Clubs, YWCA, Philippine Association of University Women, Girl Scouts of the Philippines, Sigma Delta Phi, Civic Assembly of Women of the Philippines, a.k.a. NCWP, Zonta, Soroptimists, Kabapa, Pilipina, ISSA, Center for Women's Resources, Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women (TW-MAE-TW), Stop Trafficking of Filipino Women (S.T.O.P.), Gabriela, Concerned Women of the Philippines, Women's Health Care Foundation, Women's Desk of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and Women's Media Circle Foundation.

Pioneer institutions that promoted women's education will also be cited: Instituto de Mujeres, National Teachers College, Centro Escolar de Señoritas (now known as Centro Escolar University), and Philippine Women's University.

Descendants of the individual awardees and representatives of the awardee institutions are urged to contact the secretariat of the NGO-GO Network (telephone numbers +632 7359687 and +632 734684, ask for Lily) as soon as possible.

* * *

DANCE enthusiasts are invited to come and watch "Dance Avenue" at the University of the Philippines Theater tomorrow, Saturday, at 6 p.m., the second "back-to-back" concert of the Miriam College High School Pep Squad and "Sayawatha," the high school dance troupe.

My niece Crissy Tan-Cardoso, a member of the MCHS Pep Squad, managed to twist our arms to watch last year's performance and while we may have gone there out of a sense of family loyalty, we left the theater enthused and raving about the young dancers' abilities and the magnificent production values.

Tickets are at P60 and P120 each and should be available at the gate.

Wine, romance and the meaning of life

Wine, romance and the meaning of life


Posted 00:10am (Mla time) Feb 09, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 9, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE BEST way to enjoy the movie "Sideways" is while sipping from a glass of wine (preferably one made from Miles the movie hero's favorite Pinot variety) and perhaps nibbling on cheese and crackers.

Barring that, then one should watch the movie with intoxicating company, a new love or an old one who continues to fascinate. And then, after the movie, rush out and get to a wine bar, if only to make the magic of this deceptively simple and quiet movie last a little longer. In fact, I guarantee that after "Sideways," even certified Light Coke and beer devotees will feel their palates and noses itching for a wine tasting. "Sideways" should do for wine what "Saturday Night Fever" did for disco.

Described as a "road trip movie," "Sideways" defies convention by making the main characters not young men in search of themselves, but rather two middle-aged men desperate to escape their dreary reality and fighting off the moment of ultimate surrender to their humdrum fates.

Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a high school English teacher and aspiring novelist, sunk in depression after his divorce and treating his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a has-been actor, to an extended stag party of a weeklong tour through the wine region of California. Miles views the road trip as a time for reliving his youth and introducing a good friend to the pleasures of wine. Jack, on the other hand, sees the trip as one last chance to indulge in sexual debauchery and conquest, a freedom he fears he will lose once he's hitched.

With such wildly contrasting expectations, not to mention personalities, sparks are bound to fly. What we end up with is a movie that explores not just the mysteries of friendship and the complexities of our relationships, but also the fragility of our hearts and the frailty of our dreams.


* * *

"SIDEWAYS" pulled off a scoop at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards when it was cited for "Best Ensemble Acting." The award is especially fitting for "Sideways," since it indeed draws its strength not from a single star headliner or a ton of special effects, but from the interaction of its cast and the heartwarming story that manages to touch viewers even as its telling dares take surprising and quirky turns.

I especially loved the fact that "Sideways" gives lots of screen time to journeyman actors, performers like Giamatti and Church who look familiar to us because they've played countless supporting roles, reliable and consistent, allowing bigger stars to shine. In "Sideways," it's the remarkable partnership they share, the give-and-take between them that makes the movie so enjoyable.

I also liked the fact that Virginia Madsen, who may have fallen out of leading lady contention because of her age, is given a chance here to show off what she has. The scene in which her character Maya explains to Miles her fascination for wine is made all the more memorable because of the quiet, grounded presence that emanates from her.

But back to wine. Miles' love for Pinot is explained by the fact that it is very much like him: complex and delicate, easily bruised, quick to deteriorate. Jack, on the other hand, is more like the "easy-drinking" Cabernet, popular and accessible, "growing wherever it is planted." However you like it, or don't, wine proves a pleasing analogy of the many kinds of human beings there are around us and within us.


* * *

CALL "Alfie" an "anti-Valentine" movie. Far from celebrating romance and relationships, it shows up the downside of serial dating and endless sexual conquest. "What's it all about?" indeed.

Not having seen the original that made a major star out of Michael Caine, there's no way for me to tell if the remake, starring the truly scrumptious Jude Law, managed to improve on it or merely proved a sequel was unnecessary. I can imagine, though, how a movie about a chauffeur-Lothario who pursues a string of partners while keeping one or two in reserve for slack times, fits much better with the mores of the Swinging Sixties, when sexual license was a form of freedom welcomed with mindless glee.

Sex in the Age After AIDS, on the other hand, seems burdened with the weight of risk and consequence, and such heedless gallivanting by our latter-day Alfie strikes viewers as not just irresponsible, but quite hazardous to his and his partners' health.

That's why, no matter how the music and production design strive to create a carefree, lightweight atmosphere, "Alfie" never quite rises above the cloud of melancholy that hovers over it. And despite his drop-dead gorgeousness and magnificent bod, there's a point in the film when Jude Law manages to look aging and defeated, when his "mature" mistress (Susan Sarandon) tells him she replaced him with a younger man. One's heart went out to him.

Lovers beware. Watch "Alfie" at your own risk. For far from setting you in the mood for love and friskiness, it may just make you think twice about why you're with the one you're with, and what meaning you hope to derive from this current relationship and others that may follow.

Sometimes, asking "what's it all about" can be downright dangerous to illusions of the heart.


* * *

WHAT does the application of the expanded value-added tax mean to Filipino women? How do women view this new measure? How will their lives change because of it?

Abanse! Pinay, the women's party-list group, is sponsoring a forum on "Women and the E-VAT" at 5 p.m. today, with economist and TV host Winnie Monsod as lead discussant. The forum will be held at Cravings on the fifth floor of the Shangri-La Plaza mall along Edsa.

While the event is free, it will be "pay-as-you-order." And come early because seating is limited.

Covering Baron and Richard

Covering Baron and Richard


Posted 10:46pm (Mla time) Feb 07, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 8, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


TWO news stories would have simply landed in the "roundup" of the crime and police beat, if at all, had they not involved young male actors. The stories ranked fairly high in the TV news lineups in the days leading up to "Media Nation 2," a summit of Philippine media practitioners held over the weekend.

One story involved Baron Geisler, a former child actor who has made the transition to teen roles. He was haled to a police precinct after his vehicle collided with another. It wasn't the collision, though, that was newsworthy, but rather actor's behavior. TV footage showed an obviously drunk Geisler.

The other story featured Richard Gutierrez, perhaps the most popular among today's teen stars, who was accused of punching an alleged "gatecrasher" at his recent birthday party.

Adding spice to the match-up of these stories is that Geisler and Gutierrez are contract stars of the country's biggest TV networks that have been embroiled in years of heated competition. It thus became of particular interest to viewers how the news directors of both ABS-CBN Broadcasting and GMA Network would handle the stories that put their home studio talents in not-so-flattering light.

On the evening the story on Geisler's accident broke, "24 Oras," GMA Network's primetime newscast, not only included the story among its lead-ins, it also gave it prominent play, airing the report early in the program and giving it generous airtime. "Mom, let's check out [ABS-CBN’s] Channel 2 and see how they cover this story!" my teenage daughter urged, smelling a media dust-up in the making. Disappointingly, neither "TV Patrol," the primetime newscast, nor "Inside Story," which airs late in the evening, carried the story.

Geisler eventually did make an appearance on the station's news shows, but a day later, by which time he was sober and sufficiently contrite.

Was it a case of self-interest overruling sound news judgment? Did the ABS-CBN Talent Center, to which Geisler belongs, flex its damage-control muscles?

* * *

ACCORDING to someone fairly high in the Channel 2 news organization, the explanation is more innocent and much less sensational than one would suppose.

"Our reporter had the footage," said the news executive, who looked into the matter. Unfortunately, the reporter failed to sign in the story and footage in the station's logbook, on which news decision-makers in all the network stations base their lineups. "I really felt bad, because the footage was really fascinating," the news executive remarked.

You can choose to believe the explanation or not. But both ABS-CBN and GMA Network news executives should be aware by now that when it comes to covering stories that bear on the interests of their owners and talents, the "market" is more aware of possible bias than is supposed.

The Richard Gutierrez "assault" story is a graphic example. ABS-CBN covered the fracas but devoted more time to interviewing his alleged victim. GMA Network, on the other hand, focused on airing Gutierrez's explanation, and that of his mother and friends, for the incident.

GMA Network’s Channel 7, of course, could have chosen to simply ignore the story. After all, Gutierrez is an important talent. When I congratulated GMA Network news anchor Mike Enriquez for carrying the story, which involved a big star of the station, he retorted: "What do you mean, a 'big star'? He's the station's major star!"

* * *

DOUBTLESS, many of you are asking by now if you should even care about these stories, much less about how they were handled.

The breaching of the once-impregnable line between news and public affairs and entertainment is often seen as the reason for the "dumbing down" of public debate, as well as the emergence of that bastardized creature known as "infotainment." Media owners often justify the dilution of traditional news and public affairs content by saying they are only giving the public "what they want," having learned that it doesn't pay to give the public "what they need." Gabby Lopez, ABS-CBN chair and CEO, in his address to "Media Nation 2," referred to the tendency of news consumers to "watch news with the heart rather than the head" by asking: "Would we rather talk of VAT [value-added tax] or what happens to Lucy Torres?"

“Magpakatotoo tayo” [Let’s be true to ourselves]. Between value-added taxes and gossip about the "klepto" tendencies of a celebrity, wouldn't we rather go with where the gossip takes us?

* * *

CERTAINLY the highlights of the first day's sessions of "Media Nation 2" were the back-to-back addresses by the owners of the country's broadcast giants, Lopez of ABS-CBN and lawyer Felipe Gozon of GMA Network. Both were candid and spoke bluntly to their audience of media practitioners about the conflict between their mandate to create profit for their investors and their duty as media managers.

"It's difficult to be optimistic about responsible journalism in a competitive setting," Lopez admitted. "If your company doesn't sell, it will have to stop operations," added Gozon.

While both confessed to seeking "balance" between corporate profits and social responsibility, they were equally blunt about how, given the market they operate in, news and public affairs are now judged by the same yardstick -- ratings -- as are all the shows in the entertainment jumble.

This wasn't always so. Airtime for news and public affairs shows was once viewed as the "fee" a network pays the government in exchange for the broadcast franchise granted it. It was this arrangement that allowed news and public affairs departments to remain faithful to their mandate to gather, disseminate and analyze the news "without fear or favor." The same mandate holds, even if this news is about contract stars; but it becomes more difficult in a setting where ratings hold sway.

[GMA Network is a parent of INQ7.net. – Ed.]

Recognizing 'LGBT' rights

Recognizing 'LGBT' rights


Posted 00:39am (Mla time) Feb 05, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 5, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TWO officers of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) were recently in the country and were treated to a show of Filipino hospitality and the recognition by Filipino officialdom of the rights and dignity of all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, co-secretary general of ILGA, and Patricia Curzi, ILGA Women's Project officer, met with legislators recently to update them on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues worldwide, stressing the need to recognize these same issues and address them through laws in our country. In turn, they were given a memorable reception.

In a meeting with Representatives Liza Maza, Satur Ocampo, Josefina Joson and Teofisto Guingona III, Flamer-Caldera and Curzi informed them of the upcoming ILGA Asia Regional Conference, which takes place in Cebu this June. The legislators unanimously pledged their support for the conference. At the same time, the results of a study conducted by Can't Live in the Closet (CLIC), a local lesbian rights group, on "Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships" were presented to the lawmakers, who proceeded to discuss its implications.

"We were all encouraged by (their) response to our requests and their willingness to further LGBT causes within the government," Flamer-Caldera commented afterwards. "I was also so heartened by the fact that we were able to actually meet with government officials for informal meetings, a thing that is unheard of in many countries in Asia and elsewhere."

For her part, Curzi said she was "pleasantly surprised to note how many initiatives are taken by organizations here in the Philippines on gender-related issues and how well they are received by government representatives who take the time to meet with them, discuss and give their commitment to these initiatives."

* * *

REPRESENTATIVES Maza and Ocampo later presented the ILGA officers to the House of Representatives at the Session Hall. "It was a great honor for ILGA to be recognized by the government...I am sure it was the first time an LGBT organization was made welcome by the House and Speaker. Amid a sea of over 1,500 spectators and over 200 representatives, ILGA was asked to be recognized and our group was asked to stand and wave to the crowd to acknowledge who we were. We were all very moved and very proud," said Flamer-Caldera.

Earlier that day, at the flag-raising ceremony at the Quezon City Hall, the delegation from ILGA, CLIC, Progay and Cebu Pride was formally welcomed by Mayor Sonny Belmonte and the city councilors. Belmonte told the group that "we encourage all sexual orientations and gender identities here in Quezon City. In fact, we host and finance umbrella NGOs that work on gender-related issues."

Bills penalizing discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation are pending in the House, and though the media and opposers have tended to highlight only the so-called "same-sex marriage" provisions, the bills actually cover the rights of sexual minorities in the spheres of employment, social security, health services and other aspects of life and citizenship.

* * *

HERE'S another young Filipino we can all be proud of. John Piermont Montilla recently won the "Global Youth Leader Award" conferred on him by YouthActionNet of the International Youth Foundation.

John Piermont, or Pier to his friends, is the founding president of Kabataang Gabay sa Positibong Pamumuhay (Gabay) Inc. (Peers for a Positive Way of Life)-an organization of young peer counselors who took on the task of educating at-risk Filipino youth about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Gabay was among the first awardees of the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (Tayo), and its recognition by Tayo in 2003 gave the organization national recognition and a hefty cash grant that was earmarked to finance continuing projects.

Tayo Awards is a national search that aims to recognize outstanding youth organizations that leave a positive impact on a community. It is the brainchild of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan and is being carried out together with the National Youth Commission along with partner agencies Mirant Foundation-Philippines, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Deadline for submission of entries to this year's search, which is the third year of Tayo, is on Feb. 15. Application forms are available in all NYC, DSWD and local government offices and various schools' office of student affairs. Forms can be downloaded from www.tayoawards.org and www.youth.net.ph

* * *

"UNDERSTANDING and Healing Wounded Relationships in the Light of the Gospel" is the theme of a "pre-Valentine" retreat from Feb. 12-13 to be held at the SVD Retreat House in Tagaytay City, within the Divine Word Seminary compound.

Next weekend's module is part of the regular Psychogenetics Retreat series facilitated by Fr. Ed Fugoso, SVD. After the weekend retreat, says Father Ed, participants should know more about:

• What controls your present adult behavior when under stress.

• Transgenerational patterns in marital relationships explored through psychogenetics.

• The imprint of your parents in your choice of spouse and how the "ghosts" of their conflicts affect your present marital relationship.

• The reimprint that can free you from committing the same pattern of mistakes.

Psychogenetics is a scientific approach to understanding the influence of our parents and ancestors in our present adult behavior and relationships. It was developed by Anne Teachworth, founder of Gestalt Institute of New Orleans.

A "post-Valentine" retreat exploring the same theme will be conducted from March 5 to 6. For inquiries, call Father Ed at +63917 5414330 or Thess at +6346 4130340.

Of ceasefires and civilians

Of ceasefires and civilians


Posted 00:32am (Mla time) Feb 04, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 4, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


"BOMBS, bullets rain down on suspected Abu, JI meet," went the headline of a story on this paper's "Second Front Page" exactly a week ago.

The news report detailed the operations of a military air strike on a group of houses in a "forested marshy area on the outskirts of Datu Piang and Saudi Ampatuan towns," in Maguindanao allegedly to break up a meeting between leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah with members of what the military described as "renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)."

The MILF members, military authorities said, had broken a ceasefire with the government last Jan. 10 when they overran a military outpost, leaving 21 soldiers and rebels dead.

Acting on intelligence reports that senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah officials, including a certain Dulmatin who is being linked to the Bali bombing, were meeting in the area, Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, chief of the Southern Command, ordered the air attacks last Jan. 27, employing helicopter gunships and attack planes, backed by artillery.

Last Feb. 1, Col. Jerry Jalandoni of the Army's 604th Infantry Brigade in Maguindanao, interviewed by Cotabato City TV stations, threatened a "major military offensive" against the same forces unless they surrendered by Feb. 12.

Even as the ongoing operations seem to have failed in dislodging the Islamists allegedly entrenched in the Butilen Marsh, the air and ground assaults have displaced residents of eight “barangay” [villages] in Datu Piang, Guindulungan, Talitay and Mamasapano, and wounded civilians "caught in the open during the assault."

* * *

IN THE WAKE of the escalation of military action and the displacement of and harm to civilians in Central Midnanao, Bantay Ceasefire, a coalition of nongovernmental groups monitoring compliance with the ceasefire agreement between the government and the MILF, has called for a pause in the military assaults. "The ongoing military operations in Maguindanao ... is threatening the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front," Bantay Ceasefire notes. "But more important, civilians are uninformed and unprotected in the government assaults."

In a statement, the coalition reminds military authorities in the area of the March 13, 2003 memorandum issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to then Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, where she "enumerated several points that AFP field commanders should consider whenever they make tactical decisions and conduct military operations." The President's order was issued soon after the Armed Forces’ assault on Buliok, which displaced up to 300,000 civilians and resulted in a humanitarian disaster.

"The most relevant points in the memorandum relate to the safety and protection of civilians," points out Bantay Ceasefire. Among these factors to be borne in mind are:

• The least possible impact of such operations on the larger community of non-combatants, especially on their livelihood and normal conduct of everyday life;

• Minimum evacuation from homes and/or areas of food production;

• Close coordination with pertinent agencies of government within his or her area of responsibility when socio-economic dislocations are expected or become imminent as a result of such operations.

"The civilian displacements, property damage and even wounded civilians -- documented by a Jan. 28 Bantay Ceasefire fact-finding mission -- attest to the fact that the memorandum is not being followed in the Maguindanao attacks. Uninformed civilians were in their homes or farms doing daily tasks when the attacks commenced," the statement continued.

* * *

BANTAY Ceasefire appeals to the Armed Forces "to strictly follow the guidelines (set) by their Commander in Chief meant to (reduce) the impact of military operations on civilians." The group likewise considers the fighting in Maguindanao "exceedingly alarming" and calls on both the Armed Forces and the MILF to "strictly observe and implement the ceasefire mechanisms in settling disputes and complaints for any violation of the ceasefire."

The group reminds the contending forces that both government and MILF peace panels "had already agreed during its Dec. 21, 2004 exploratory meeting in Kuala Lumpur to operationalize an Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) in the isolation and interdiction of criminal and lawless elements operating in, or near, MILF communities and areas."

If the military is to follow these guidelines, Bantay Ceasefire says, government troops should "refrain from taking unilateral action in pursuing alleged members of terror groups in or near MILF communities and areas to avoid unnecessary armed confrontation with the MILF."

* * *

AT THE SAME time, Bantay Ceasefire calls on the MILF leadership to "immediately investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action" against MILF members who reportedly attacked the military detachment in Maguindanao last Jan. 10, an act that the group also deemed as an "open and clear violation of the ceasefire agreement."

"While soldiers on both sides are trained for war, civilians are not," the statement reminds the leaders on both sides of the conflict. "There are already legal instruments, including United Nations declarations, on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. Let us remember in whose name this war is being waged and protect the civilians."

Having just come from a visit to Maguindanao the other week, I am disheartened by the news of escalated military action in the area that threatens the fragile ceasefire won through painful negotiations. From this distance, all I can do is pray for my friends, and lend whatever space I can to the voices of all those desiring peace, especially for the civilians caught in the crossfire.

Morality and practicality

Morality and practicality


Posted 10:49pm (Mla time) Jan 31, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the February 01, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


RADIO showbiz commentator "Tita" Swarding put his opposition to condoms succinctly: "I don't approve of condoms because they take the pleasure out of sex!" To which I had to retort, "There's no pleasure to be had when you're already dead!"

Last Thursday's "Debate" (actually, it aired very early in the morning of Friday) on GMA Network was supposed to focus on the implications of Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit's declaration that the Department of Health was not keen on promoting condoms as one of the methods of family planning. Which is strange, come to think of it, since condoms have long been part of the "menu" of safe, effective and legal methods of contraception that the government has been promoting for decades. Condoms are perhaps the oldest contraceptive method. Trust Condoms' Benny Llapitan recounted that the first condoms were developed soon after the Crusades when the crusaders started bringing home sexually transmitted infections along with tales of heroism. What's more, condom use is the only family planning method that also provides protection against most sexually transmitted infections. So where did Dayrit's sudden and unfounded hostility to condoms spring from?

Unfortunately, the question put to the viewing public and to the panelists focused not on Dayrit's stated policy, but on the "morality" of condom use. And that's where the discussion immediately bogged down. For when such a personal and subjective matter as "morality" is dragged into the discussion, there can be no meeting of minds, since standards on what is "moral" or "immoral" are bound to vary widely.

* * *

ACTUALLY, I wanted to refute "Tita" Swarding's assertion about the loss of sensation when using a condom since experts claim the latex used in condoms sold these days is so thin it should not interfere with the user's pleasure. But then, who was I to say so, being a woman? I waited for my co-panelists, Bukidnon Rep. Neric Acosta and comedian Gary Lising, to speak up, but they chose the better part of discretion.

Those on the other side, who contended that condom use is immoral, stuck by their premise that the only real form of protection against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections is abstinence. A student leader declared that if young people would only wait until after they reach adulthood and are married before they have sex, then they would have nothing to be afraid of. Manila Rep. Miles Roces added that married couples need only to stay faithful to each other to protect each other against the same risks.

There's nothing new or revolutionary in this, really. If you would recall, our own parents sought to fill our heads with dire warnings about “disgrasyadas” [disgraced women] and the dangers of syphilis and gonorrhea (they had not known about HIV/AIDS yet), as did their parents, too, I bet. I have nothing against these messages and warnings, and have doubtless said much the same thing to my own children. But much as we parents of today would wish to live in denial about our children's sexuality, the dire reality is that more and more young Filipinos are engaging in sex today, and thus putting themselves at growing risk of early and unwanted pregnancy as well as coming down with an STI, including HIV/AIDS.

* * *

NEITHER is the debate confined to the Philippines, or to Filipino Catholics, alone. The other week, Pope John Paul II was moved to reaffirm Church teaching urging abstinence and marital fidelity as the only way to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Vatican's declaration came in the wake of a statement made by a Spanish bishop that there was "a place" for condoms in AIDS prevention, though this Church official was later overruled by the full bishops conference.

This hasn't fully stopped other bishops, though, from speaking their minds on the issue. Two cardinals in Europe, for instance, separately spoke "of a hypothetical situation in which use of a condom might be justified: when a woman must have sex with someone who is infected with HIV and therefore must protect herself."

In Mexico, reports the Washington Post, a bishop said in a news conference that condom use could be considered the "lesser evil" if employed to prevent AIDS. "If someone is incapable of controlling (his) instincts ... then they should do whatever is necessary in order not to infect others," said Bishop Felipe Arizmendi of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Msgr. Angel Rodriguez Luno, a professor of moral theology, offers a similar approach in weighing the "morality" of condom use. One possible avenue for a new condom policy, he said, would be a "lesser-of-two-evils" approach, where "condoms could be approved as a means of reducing the instance of danger or sin in cases where someone is bent on having extramarital sex or sex with a spouse while infected with HIV."

* * *

WEIGHING in on the issue, the Irish Independent in an editorial pointed out a "way out" for the Catholic Church on the issue of condom use. Much like St. Thomas Aquinas once argued that prostitution should not be suppressed even though he believed it immoral, on grounds that "lustful" men could be driven to do more evil if they did not have such an outlet, the editorial argued that the Church could also "draw a distinction between what is morally desirable and what happens in the real world if you tried to make it morally perfect."

It added: "Sometimes the common good requires that you turn a blind eye to what's immoral." So why can't the Catholic Church say that "although it believes condom use is immoral and undesirable, what is even less desirable is to have innocent people die because (people living with HIV) won't use condoms when having sex."

If you are pro-life, shouldn't you also be against death?