"The Nameless' virtual monument

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

This All Saints-All Souls Day weekend there is much to remember. Memories crash in like a strong wave coming from a great distance. We fall on our knees to pray and be grateful.

“We are nameless and all names are ours.” This is the subtitle of the website “The Nameless” run by the Project Nameless Collective. The website is yet another way to remember and celebrate the heroic lives of individuals who spent much of their time on earth in the service of their fellow Filipinos, they who fought for justice and freedom without counting the cost.

Many of them crossed over to the Great Beyond with much blood and pain, some with nary a trace, leaving behind families and comrades with grief so deep and wounds still unhealed. Others peacefully moved on in the faint glow of sunset, the trails they blazed now become well-lit and well-travelled paths for a new generation..

But many, too, are those who have not been publicly hailed, known only to those who lived and fought closely and even secretly with them, but who deserve to be known nonetheless, not so much to earn for them belated honors as to allow their sacrifices to be imitated, duplicated.

And so while “nameless” may be a figure of speech, it honors and, just as importantly, includes those who are literally nameless, faceless or unknown to many, those who perished in the night with the name of their beloved country on their lips, who died alone in wildernesses with clenched fists slowly opening to receive eternal reward, their eyes beholding their own new dawn.

The Project Nameless Collective is composed of volunteers who contribute content to The Nameless website and keep it running. They are mostly comrades, relatives and friends of the heroes honored on the virtual shrine. The collective also mounts projects, such as mobile exhibits about the heroes and martyrs honored on this website.

The Nameless website is the collective’s way to make people “remember and celebrate the heroes…of the struggle for national freedom and democracy in the Philippines.” The collective collaborates with individuals and groups with similar objectives, like the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation and Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Tayo Ngayon and Tibak Pilipinas, to name a few.

 It can, for example, gather and provide documentation that can assist in pending nominations for Bantayog ng mga Bayani. Speaking of Bantayog ng mga Bayani, I am sure it will have its share of visitors during this All Saints-All Souls Day weekend. The remains of more than 200 (and counting) Bantayog heroes and martyrs are not buried there but their names are engraved on the black granite Wall of Remembrance that reminds us of their sufferings and sacrifices for the motherland.

I learned that although there are more than 200 names engraved on the Wall of Remembrance, there are more than 1,000 more in the Bantayog files, awaiting more substantial documentation. And there are tens of thousands more, many of them poor and unknown who died fighting for justice and democracy during the dark days of martial rule. To them, Bantayog trustee and multiawarded poet Jose “Pete” Lacaba dedicated the poem, “The Nameless” (excerpts at the end of this column).

The Nameless website is “a community-based, community-driven, intercreative, and interactive site: that is, it will rely on the comrades, friends, and relatives of ‘the nameless’ to continuously provide content, and to have discussions about our heroes and martyrs. It is a social network built to serve the needs of communities who seek to name ‘the nameless.’” Threaded comments, like those in social networking sites, are a feature of the website.

Launched last February, this project is an initiative of activists of the martial-law period. The website says that those who contribute to the site honor not only those who are no longer around but also the nameless who remember them, and who continue to make their legacy known. The site wishes to remember and celebrate heroes of all political persuasions, and possibly of different historical periods. (For starters, writer Carlos Bulosan who championed the cause of Filipino laborers in the United States during the Great Depression has been included to represent those from a long bygone era.)

I looked at the roster of names of The Nameless and realized that I had written about a good number of them for the mainstream media—from rebel priest Fr. Zacarias Agatep to “Kristo” to “Bullet X,” etc. I will be sending copies of my articles to the site.

Those who wish to contribute to the site may write to info@nameless.org.ph.

The Nameless by Jose “Pete” Lacaba

Nalalaman na lang natin/Ang kanilang mga pangalan /Kung sila ay wala na/Subalit habang sila’y nabubuhay/ Sila’y walang mga pangalan/Walang mukhang madaling tandaan/Hindi sila naiimbitang magtalumpati sa liwasan/Hindi inilalathala ng pahayagan/Ang kanilang mga larawan/At kung makasalubong mo sa daan/Kahit anong pomada ang gamit nila/ Ay hindi ka mapapalingon/Sila’y walang mga pangalan/Walang mukhang madaling tandaan/ Subalit sila ang nagpapatakbo/Sa motor ng kilusang mapagpalaya/Sila ang mga paang nagmartsa/Sa mga kalsadang nababakuran/ Ng alambreng tinik/Sila ang mga bisig na nagwawagayway/Ng mga bandila ng pakikibaka/Sa harap ng batuta at bala/Sila ang mga kamaong nagtaas/Ng nagliliyab na sulo Sa madilim na gabi ng diktadura/Sila ang mga tinig na sumigaw ng “Katarungan! Kalayaan!…”

Read More

Benedictines from all over meet in PH for educational thrust

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

MANILA, Philippines—Educators from schools run by members of the Benedictine Order in different countries are holding a four-day global conference in Manila on the theme “Benedictine Education: A Gift to the World.”

Some 100 religious sisters, monks and their lay collaborators are gathered for the Benet 2013 Conference, which opened on Wednesday and will end on Saturday, on the St. Scholastica’s College Manila campus.

The Benedictines are monks, nuns and lay brothers who are members of congregations following the rule created by St. Benedict of Nursia, Italy, in the 6th century. Benedictine congregations are known for their scholarship and liturgical worship. Benedictine monasteries in Europe were especially known to be repositories of learning and literature in the Middle Ages.

Abbot Primate Dr. Norkel Wolf OSB said the education of young people has been a hallmark of the Benedictine and Cistercian Orders for more than a millennium. Timeless values “(Our) vocation as educators is a strong testimony of the vitality and richness of our timeless Benedictine values, in particular, seeing and reverencing Christ in the young, old and most vulnerable among us,” he said.

In many countries, and especially in the Philippines, Benedictine institutions of learning are “forces for sociopolitical cultural transformation,” said Sr. Josefina Nepomuceno OSB, executive director of the Association of Benedictine Schools in the Philippines and chair of the conference committee.

“A socially oriented Benedictine education is our gift to the world,” said Sr. Mary John Mananzan OSB, former prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters and former president of St. Scholastica’s College. She said St. Benedict was a patron of “sustainable agriculture” and peace, the “Pax Benedictina.”

In her keynote speech, Mananzan spoke about priorities for Benedictine education in these times, about “academic leaders as servant and prophetic leaders of their communities toward education for justice and social transformation.”

Liberating pedagogy

She related how, during the repressive martial law years, St. Scholastica’s College adopted a “liberating pedagogy” that contributed to social awareness and responsibility.

Among the countries represented at the conference are South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Columbia, Germany, England, the United States and the Philippines. The last Benet conference was held in Germany in 2010. The triennial conference was organized by the International Benedictine Committee for Education headed by Fr. Christopher Jamison OSB of Worth Abbey in England. The abbey runs Worth School, a boarding school that is the alma mater of a number of Filipinos, most prominently Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the brothers Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

Besides speakers at plenary sessions, the conference features “best-practice workshops” tackling topics such as “Young People and Benedict’s Rule Today” (Philippines), “Good Samaritan Education” (Australia), “E-twinning” (Germany), “The African Experience” (South Africa) and “Boarding Schools” (England).

The big Benedictine schools in the Philippines are St. Scholastica’s College run by the Missionary Benedictine Sisters, with many branches around the country, and San Beda College and its branches run by Benedictine monks.

The conference host, St. Scholastica’s College and Priory began in the Philippines in 1906 with the arrival of Benedictine sisters from Tutzing, Germany. Among the school’s prominent alumnae are the late President Corazon C. Aquino and the first woman Supreme Court justice, Cecilia Muñoz Palma.

The Benedictine Sisters established the country’s first college of music at St. Scholastica’s. The school is known for its strict discipline, academic standards and involvement in social issues.

Read More

'Repair my house'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

The first images of the destruction wrought by the killer quake that struck the island provinces of Bohol and Cebu on Oct. 15 were those of ancient churches that crumbled to the ground like polvoron. Only later, after the media had arrived, were more images seen and voices heard from ruins in remote places.

Churches, being the prominent landmarks and tourist-drawers in hard-hit Bohol, became, for a while, the focus of interest and panghihinayang (feeling of loss). Not to say that lost lives and the suddenly homeless and injured human beings are secondary. But for many Boholanos, the churches are also their homes, part of their lives and the history of generations.

And so ancient churches crashing down, and what might be the symbolic meaning of the heaps of debris, are not lost on many. It really depends on what the word “church” signifies to whoever is contemplating the devastation. From power to powder? What means “church”? Structure or people?

I have visited the churches in Baclayon, Loboc and Maribojoc in Bohol. In the Loboc church (home of the famous children’s choir) I was able to photograph the paintings on the ceiling (frescoes) that showed Jesus calming the wind and the turbulent waves opposite a rendition of the compassionate Jesus the Good Shepherd. The paintings are framed by what look like carved pink moldings which are actually flat, done in renaissance Italian chiaroscuro style that gives depth and volume.

After the earthquake ruined the Loboc church, I posted the photo on Facebook and got many “likes”.

Discovered only a few years ago in the Baclayon church was Misa Baclayana, an old musical score believed to have been written in the 1800s. I was able to see the huge original score and listen to the children of Loboc sing the hymns in Intramuros in 2010. I did write about it (“Misa Baclayana: ancient beauty that sounds so new,” May 27, 2010).

Read More

"Poverty porn'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Sunday, we were reminded, was “Extreme Poverty Sunday.” Today, Oct. 17, is the “World Day for Overcoming Poverty,” declared so by the United Nations in 1992.

Do you know that in Rizal Park (Luneta), there is a marker that serves as a reminder? It was installed there through the efforts of ATD-Fourth World, a nongovernment organization whose French founder, Fr. Joseph Wresinski, was the inspiration behind Oct. 17. Groups will be gathering there this morning.

The first marker was unveiled in Paris’ Trocadero Human Rights Plaza on Oct. 17, 1987, in the presence of some 100,000 people from varying social backgrounds. (I’ve seen it there.) On the marble marker is engraved: “Whenever men and women are condemned to live in poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.” A

ll these bring me to the much debated subject of “poverty porn,” which focuses on practices of the media (journalists, photojournalists, documentarists, filmmakers), development aid groups, fund raisers and those who have poverty among their concerns.

I don’t know when the words were coined, or who did. The general definition that I can glean from all the lofty and sharp arguments on the Internet—and this is a composite definition—is that poverty porn is the use and display of stark images of persons in extreme poverty that border on the exploitative and intrusive, in order to generate sympathy and donations, to increase newspaper circulation and TV ratings, or even to gain fame. And, it is stressed, noble ends do not justify such “exploitation.”
As to generating funds, I can say from personal experience that I was so repulsed by the images of poverty in the Philippines, and of particular families at that (with names and all), shown at a high-end fund-raising dinner to which I was invited (as a journalist). I almost hyperventilated and choked on my food, but the regular guests to that yearly affair must have dug deep into their pockets. Poverty porn wasn’t yet a byword then, and I didn’t have a name for what I saw on screen.

As a journalist I have seen and written enough about poverty. Years ago I was invited by a big Catholic university to share with the entire faculty and staff going through formation sessions my encounters with poverty. What insights could I impart? Sometime back the Inquirer editors asked me to write some kind of module for reporters covering the poverty beat.

And now this debate about poverty porn, as if the media were the main purveyor of it. So how far can media practitioners—and aid workers, too—go to inform, prick consciences, afflict the comfortable, show reality, etc., and not be called pornographers?

A friend once told me that her intrepid daughter who worked with a TV production that investigated poverty in far-flung areas was assigned to be an advance party. Her task was to find a situation of extreme poverty, preferably a family, “yung nilalangaw” (fly-infested). After some time, her daughter resigned, not because of the difficult work…

In the 1980s, when it was tiempos muertes or deadly August in Negros island and despite the dictatorship’s aversion to subversive pictures, we proceeded to write and capture images. The skin-and-bones Joel Abong became the poster child of starvation in the social volcano that was Negros. I shot a photo of a young emaciated girl named April Trabocon who suffered from what looked like kwashiorkor, or extreme malnutrition. “April with August in her eyes” was the title of my magazine piece with her photo. (I want to know if she is alive.)

Dorothea Lange photographed faces and images during the US Great Depression that became famous. I have a book of her photographs that I bought during the exhibition of her works in San Francisco. A heartbreaking shot shows Filipinos working in a lettuce field in the 1930s. Her photo of a distressed woman is like a Mona Lisa in reverse. I first saw it in my book of photographs, “The Family of Man,” which is a collection “from the greatest photographic exhibition of all time” (1955). Beside that photo is another famous Lange photo of a sullen man holding a cup that looks empty.

I don’t see poverty porn in Lange’s black-and-whites. I feel her compassion.

I watch local TV documentaries and sense the journalists’ desire to let people and government know about hidden poverty and brazen neglect. I am grateful. But sometimes—and now that I have the name for it—some images could border on so-called poverty porn, if not exhibitionism, voyeurism or intrusion. The poor are further diminished when they are shown as “nilalangaw.”

There are award-winning docus that have captured my heart: Ditsi Carolino’s black-and-white “Minsan Lang Sila Bata” (about child labor) and “Riles” (about families living near railroad tracks). I myself wrote a two-part special report on “homes along the riles.” I photographed people in their shacks while the trains were roaring behind me. Was I doing poverty porn?

Years ago I did a magazine feature on the sex life of the urban poor, which had true-to-life stories and all. Recently, when the debate on the reproductive health bill was heating up, I resurrected and turned it into two serious column pieces—no photos, just words. I couldn’t believe the readers’ reactions. Many seemed entertained. For some, it brought laughter.

What about photos of Mother Teresa embracing the dying amid a landscape of destitution? What about movie director Lino Brocka showing the festering wounds of society and Gil Portes’ “Mulanay” showing a poor child defecating in the open? What do we make of the new foreign movies depicting the underside of Manila?

What is poverty porn for you? Tell me what you think.

Read More

'New evangelization' and plunder

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

I can bet my month’s earnings that most of the suspected, accused and guilty (the guilty know they are guilty even before they are proven guilty or innocent in court) in the blockbuster multibillion-peso plunder case under investigation are Catholic Christians by affiliation, or profess to be. At least one of them had, at some point, surrounded herself with members of the clergy, and reportedly even donated sumptuous sums to them.

Some could say, But of course, it’s but logical and proportionate because Catholic Christians are the majority in this country. But of course? If we follow that logic or computation, and because there is a more or less equal number of men and women in this country and planet, then why is there not an equal number of men and women convicts in prison? Male convicts largely outnumber female convicts behind bars.

These thoughts have been running in my mind these past days. Being a Catholic Christian (by birth, choice, current affiliation, and in practice), I can point to my own and not be called a stone-thrower or pharisaical. Those from other faiths or affiliations have not openly pointed at this condemnable state of affairs (they’d rather hammer at doctrines and “false teachings”) lest they be accused of being like the Pharisee in the Bible, but I am sure the figures are not lost on them.

And so, here I am, pointing it out and hoping not to get stoned back to a pulp. At least I am pointing to the mote in my own Church’s eye. I bring this up because of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) which will be held on Oct. 16-18 and which is expected to draw some 5,000 participants from all over the country and abroad.

Might this gathering help bring some healing to this country’s depraved and wounded state, and bring about renewed vigor to combat the evil rampant in our land? The fruits may not come now, but maybe in the next generation? The venue is the University of Santo Tomas, with its new Quadricentennial Pavilion serving as plenary center. The main organizers are the Archdiocese of Manila under Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle (chair) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission and Catechesis and Catholic Education. Msgr. Garardo Santos is vice chair, and former Ambassador to the Holy See Henrietta de Villa is executive secretary.

A report recently quoted Cardinal Tagle as saying that “the eyes of the Vatican are on us”—not for the Vatican to police but to know what the Philippine Church can contribute to the experience and clarification of the new evangelization. A Vatican observer might be present. But more important, I think, is what Filipino Catholics will take back to their respective communities and the local churches that will fire up the practice of their faith and that will bring about positive change.

As forcefully stressed in the vademecum for the media and the PCNE announcements: “We are still challenged by pluralism, burdened by much graft and corruption in politics and governance, saddled in economics with ‘inequalities of the grossest kind’ and widespread poverty resulting in the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer, and confronted with increasing imbalances in the educational sector.” (Emphasis is mine.)

The three-day gathering will feature many simultaneous talks and sharing sessions on various topics. I hope graft and corruption in high places, in the ranks, in government and outside government, in nongovernment organizations, and even religious institutions will be brought into discussions. I am sure Church-related NGOs will be well-represented at the PCNE.

If I remember right, Commission on Audit Chair Grace Pulido-Tan (one of the “three Furies” exposing and investigating the plunder case) said—and I paraphrase—that in the end, even with all the preventive and punitive measures, it is really the individual person who will make the choice for the good or for the evil. “Ang tao pa rin.”

Which just easily brings us back to our core values that we learned from our parents, teachers, churches, experiences. What we learned in kindergarten, at play, from nature, from life. Take only what is for you. And give back. Is it really so difficult to choose what is right and just and honest? It must be, it must be, especially for those who are in touch with tremendous power and for whom immense wealth is within reach with a little “creative” effort.

(If I may digress a bit, that is why I am for the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan in the barangays where the young and impressionable can be and are exposed early to financial maneuverings by “creative” adults. I am not saying barangay officials are generally corrupt, not at all, but there are incidents that one can’t help wonder about, like why do some barangay candidates kill for an elective position?)

I am honored to be invited to the PCNE preopening ceremonies (Oct. 15) presided over by Cardinal Tagle, and where my latest book, “You Can’t Interview God: Church Women and Men in the News” (Anvil), will be among those presented and blessed. As of today, I am not sure if Anvil will have a booth at the PCNE. But the book will surely be in National Bookstore outlets.

The book consists of some 50 profiles, feature stories, essays, interviews and column pieces I have written on Church women and men—inspiring lives and a piece on the dark side. All, except two, came out in the Inquirer. Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, wrote the foreword. Send me e-mail if you want to see the book’s eye-popping front and back covers. Book design is by Joshene Bersales, cover by Francis Manio.

Read More

Launch of "One Billion Rising" against women abuse

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

A few days ago I received a call from a woman (let’s name her Lilah) who needed legal help because of the violence inflicted on her by her husband who happens to wield some power in the community. Lilah wanted to know if there were women’s groups that offered free legal help as she was still not financially able. (I am not giving details of the case here because the abusive husband may get to read this column piece and terrorize his wife and children some more.)

I called five or more women who I knew were connected with nongovernment organizations and a government office that I thought might have legal services for someone like Lilah. The responses were discouraging. How they wished they could still help, several told me.

I learned that their legal services had to stop because of funding problems. One said that all they could provide now is legal counseling by phone or referrals to women lawyers who may take up cases pro bono or accept reduced legal fees on installment. Or, one suggested, Lilah can try the lawyers at the Public Attorney’s Office, but then their hands may also be full with all kinds of cases.

One lawyer I know who has handled a big controversial case said her pro bono quota was really filled up but—how kind of her—she gave Lilah legal advice through the phone and made a referral. One antiviolence-against-women (VAW) advocate told me her group had to close the crisis center and their legal services because funds had dried up. One of the reasons, she said, was that foreign donors thought the Philippines was “now okay” and no longer in need of aid in the VAW department.

And then she gave me a rundown of what the Magna Carta for Women includes, which is that local government units should provide services for victims of VAW. There should be funds for this, but where did they go? Your guess is as good as mine. Some have been used for tree planting and whatever else.

She cited the training workshops on women’s concerns and gender awareness that personnel of government agencies and LGUs have gone through. Great. But after all that training in gender sensitivity, what next? Of what use are these workshops if the participants have nothing to start with when they go back to those they serve?

But empowered women do not take no for an answer and will continue to take up the cudgels for their sisters who have yet to be in step with them—the oppressed and abused at home or in workplaces, victims of familial, societal, cultural and religious structures and beliefs.

Announced yesterday was the global launch on Oct. 7 of “One Billion Rising for Justice,” a global action day on Feb. 14, 2014, which is an escalation of women’s efforts “to demand an end to violence against women and girls by ending the culture of impunity that keeps it in place.” Stage veteran, actress and women’s advocate Monique Wilson is now the global director of the campaign and representing the Philippines in this global position.

There will be simultaneous launches on Oct. 7 in 30 places, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and the United States. Eve Ensler, writer and head of V-Day who spearheaded One Billion Rising, will be doing a simultaneous launch in New York. One Billion Rising for Justice is “a global call to women survivors of violence and those who love them to gather safely in community outside places where they are entitled to justice—courts, police stations, government offices, colleges, workplaces, places of worship, homes. It is a call to survivors to break the silence and release their stories—politically, spiritually, outrageously—through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, testimonies and whatever way feels right.”

The organizers stress that the statistics have not changed. “One in three women on the planet is raped or beaten in her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION women violated. ONE BILLION daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, lovers and friends. We need to do all we can, speak louder, go further, be bolder—to make sure this [situation] changes. We need more than one billion women and men to sign up for this revolutionary justice…”

And so the call: “On 14 February 2013, one billion people in 207 countries rose and danced to demand an end to violence against women and girls. On 14 February 2014, we are escalating our efforts, calling on women and men everywhere to RISE, RELEASE, DANCE and demand JUSTICE!

“Our stories have been buried, denied, erased, altered and minimized by patriarchal systems that allow impunity to reign. Justice begins when we speak, release and acknowledge the truth in solidarity and community. ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE is an invitation to break free from confinement, obligation, shame, guilt, grief, pain, humiliation, rage, and bondage. It is a call to bring on revolutionary justice.”

You can go to the One Billion Rising for Justice website (onebillionrising.org) and include your name among the one billion. You can also watch what it was like last year.
                                                                              ****
Breast Cancer Awareness month: ICanServe Foundation is holding a Pink Positive Wellness Forum and a free breast and cervical clinic on Oct. 5, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Filinvest Tent in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday of October there will be ICanServe gift booths in Rockwell (near Rustan’s) in Makati, and every Saturday and Sunday at Festival Mall (near the Carousel) in Alabang. There will be pledge walls for people to write messages of hope for the breast cancer community. Please support the battle against breast cancer.

Read More

GMO corn farmers in debt

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

From the start, there had always been concern about the havoc GMO-agricultural crops might create in the environment and the adverse health effects they might have on end-consumers. (GMO means genetically modified organisms.) The financial/material aspect—higher yields, more hungry people fed, etc.—seemed to be the redeeming factor.

There always had been protests against the “invasion” and production of Bt-corn and Bt-talong (eggplant). Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, the donor organism in the genetically modified plants. The protestors were sometimes labeled as “purists” who were getting in the way of the advancement of science.

Among the advocates of GMO-free agricultural products are Masipag (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-Unlad ng Agrikultura) and Greenpeace. Masipag is a network of farmers’ groups, scientists and NGOs that aim to improve the farmers’ quality of life “through their control over genetic resources, agricultural technology and associated knowledge.” And there are the consumer groups that are now raising their voices to make sure the food on their table are GMO-free. I wrote about the consumers groups’ concerns some weeks ago.

Masipag has just come out with a book which explains the adverse effects of GMO-corn on farmers and shows “evidence of failure” of what was supposed to have given farmers increased yields and better income. The book, “Socio-economic Impact of Genetically Modified Corn in the Philippines,” is an eye-opener for those who seem enamored with so-called high-yielding varieties that promise to feed the hungry of this world.

Dr. Chito Medina, Masipag national coordinator, says in the book’s foreword: “Promoters of GM crops always recite a litany of benefits including better yield, use of less pesticides, (being) less labor-intensive and improved income of farmers despite lack of sufficient evidence.” These supposed benefits are promoted without consideration for other socio-economic factors, he added. And while evidence of the adverse effects of GMOs on health and the environment are accumulating, data on the socio-economic impact of GMOs are rarely and dramatically laid bare, he stressed.

Read More

Agri-scam versus agro-dev

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/byMa. Ceres P. Doyo

For me, among the shockers related to the multibillion-peso scam and plunder that involved the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund, often referred to as pork barrel, is the fact that most of the conduits used were fake or ghost nongovernment organizations that had agriculture and farmers—poor farmers, if I may stress—as the supposed beneficiaries. “Soft” projects, the conduits of these PDAF allocations are called, with the poor food growers as the end-beneficiaries, and us, too, whom they feed. It is the “soft” that the plunderers have discovered to be where the billions are.

This time it is  the soft, not the “hard” ones, such as massive infrastructure projects—although they are also a great source—because these are easily seen, touched and used, never mind if overpriced, of substandard quality, or dangerous to life and limb. I remember interviewing years ago a “highwayman” who spoke about—confessed, that is—how money could be had in these hard projects.

But since the so-called fertilizer scam broke some years ago (with no one yet tarred, feathered and marched around the Quezon City circle where several agriculture-related government agencies are), we now keep waking up to the bad news that it is the farmers—ironically among the hungry in this country—that have been used and abused by the shameless senators, congressmen and their partners in the crime that cries to the heavens for the severest punishment.

“We went home with just a bag of worms” was what one farmer said of his take-home starter vermiculture bag that was supposed to be among the benefits from a PDAF-assisted “NGO” project. I have nothing against worms. I am an urban, weekend backyard gardener and I can hold a fat earthworm in my hand.

But that take-home bag that a farmer despairingly, if not sarcastically, spoke about all but made me puke and scan the pages of Jeremiah to justify the rage I felt for those who have waylaid billions of pesos and stuffed them into their pockets. “Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces for their many crimes…” Yea, a bag of worms for the farmer, while a plunderer struts about with a signature bag that costs more than a farmer’s two-year income.

I say to them: How dare you make fools of the people who put food on our tables, how dare you treat them like the scum of the earth that you are. I say again: No mercy.

Suddenly I call to mind Edwin Markham’s 1899 poem “The Man with a Hoe,” which we were made to recite in class. Yes, I can still recite the first four lines of this first stanza: “Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans/Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,/The emptiness of ages in his face,/And on his back, the burden of the world./Who made him dead to rapture and despair,/A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,/Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?/Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?/Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?/Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?”

Read More

'Human Face,' the book

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

The Manila International Book Fair is ongoing (Sept. 11 to 15) at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City. Among the participants is Anvil Publishing, copublisher (with Inquirer Books) of my book, “Human Face: A Journalist’s Encounters and Awakenings” (2013). There will be as much as 80 percent off 724 Anvil titles and 50 percent off 697 titles. I hope my newest book is among the discounted ones.

Some people have asked me when “Human Face,” the book, was or will be launched. We didn’t formally launch it, but it made its debut at the exhibit of the Women Writers in Media Now (WOMEN) of which I am a member. There were 17 of us who exhibited our more than 30 years of works and memorabilia at the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww) from February to April 2013.

If “Human Face” (336 pages) has to be launched at all (it’s already in 80 National Bookstores nationwide), it might have to be launched with my other book “You Can’t Interview God: Church Women and Men in the News” (Anvil, 2013) which is going to press any time soon. We want this to make it on time for the Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization in mid-October.

Unlike “Human Face” which is a compilation of column pieces, “You Can’t Interview God” is a mixed bag—profiles, features, column pieces and news stories. Will write about it (plug it, that is) when it is out. We hope to come up with an affordable price for young people who might want to read about inspiring lives.

So, okay, this might sound like—to borrow a Norman Mailer title—an advertisement for myself, but if I can write about other people’s works, why not about mine?

As I said in my “Writer’s Note,” the daunting part about publishing “Human Face” was shaking up close to 2,000 articles (features, investigative stories, special reports, news articles and column pieces I had written) in their resting places, separating the “Human Face” columns—over 1,000 of them—and choosing less than 100. The 93 pieces in the book are representative of various topics and issues.

My filing system for both hard and soft copies of my articles that date back to my early writing days is relatively orderly. What was daunting was being confronted by the memory load these articles carried.

The book’s title, “Human Face,” explains itself; choosing the subtitle took some time. Journalists are averse to long words and I couldn’t find shorter ones. So “a journalist’s encounters and awakenings” it had to be. Like in my previous book’s title, the word journalist had to be there, to show where the writer is coming from. Somewhere in the book I wrote about the beginnings of my writing life.

Under my byline on the title page is my name written in ancient indigenous script used in pre-colonial times. The cover photo was shot in a T’boli area near Lake Sebu. I stopped an overloaded jeep and clicked twice. Only after I looked at the shots and counted the faces did I realize that I had something rarely seen in this world. Only in the Philippines.

Many of the pieces included in the book are also in my blogsite, www.ceresdoyo.com.

The humbling part was contemplating how the trove got to be written. That it is only by divine grace that I have understood the power and meaning of the word, and the confounding process the word takes—from reality to brain, heart, soul and hands, to pen, paper or keyboard and finally to the printed or digital page—and the world.

The heartwarming part was calling to mind the persons who had assisted or conspired so that these pieces could be written, see print, be read, and finally be included in the book. They are mentioned in the “Writer’s Note.”

It would be quite immodest for me to quote the blurbs on the back cover written by Lorna Kalaw-Tirol, journalist and editor, who wrote the Foreword; Leticia Jimenez-Magsanoc, Inquirer editor in chief; and Virginia R. Moreno, poet and playwright. But if you need to see the front and back covers of the book I can e-mail them to you. Like most books, “Human Face” will be an e-book, too.

The book is dedicated “to the faceless, nameless, voiceless.” The book’s 92 pieces are divided into 16 chapters: Herstory, Beyond Borders, Poor and Obscure, Faces of War, Wet and Wild, Cry Justice, Breaking Through, Tribes are Us, Brave Hearts, Faith and Fire, Pressed Freedom, OFW, Remembering, Encore, Outer Spaces and So Pinoy. Each chapter breaker is a blurb taken from one of the pieces.

The prequel is titled, “Better Dead than Read: The Years of Writing Dangerously,” a piece I wrote for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine on the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of the dreaded martial law. Those dark years of martial rule was when all the writing began. “Suicide journalism” was how editor Magsanoc called what I did. I look back and say, only by the grace of God.

Well, let me end by quoting from Stephen King’s “On Writing: A memoir of the Craft,” one of his two nonfiction books. “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy…

“Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”

 

Read More

Historic 'Cuartel de Sto. Domingo'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

“This mute sentinel challenges us to peer into the past, (for it) to be appreciated in the present and safeguarded as a legacy for all time. Cuartel de Santo Domingo evokes a quiet strength and historicity yet to be fully told, the steadfastness of whoever held the ground there.” Words from Nonia D. Tiongco, a Santa Rosa City historian and resident.

Not a few were curious as to how I got to photograph that now hidden structure, at different times the detention house of big-time detainees with big-time cases—former President Joseph Estrada (for plunder), Moro National Liberation Front chair Nur Misuari, and coup plotter Sen. Gregorio Honasan. And since a few days ago, of Janet Lim-Napoles, one of the alleged brains behind the blockbuster P10-billion pork barrel scam. It was the Inquirer’s banner photo last Saturday, Aug. 31, before Malacañang released inside photos of the bungalow.

I didn’t climb over barbed wires to get inside the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force training camp. I was there two years ago as a tourist. You see, Fort Sto. Domingo is a historic site, with Spanish-era ruins inside it.

 My college classmates and I make lakwatsa and visit historic sites every now and then, so one day, we decided to explore the old Sta. Rosa. I tracked down our classmate Nonia Tiongco, a history major who has done extensive research on Cuartel de Santo Domingo which is in Sta. Rosa, her hometown. A volunteer cultural worker, Nonia was able to get the permits so that we could go inside the fort. She served as our guide not only in Cuartel but for other sites.

For the curious, here are some excerpts from my Sunday Inquirer Magazine story. I will again post some photos in my blogsite.

Read More

Marcos victims may get $10 million from from buyer of Imleda's Monet

Philippine Daily Inquirer/NEWS/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

In this photo provided by the United States Attorney’s Office in New York shows an an 1881 painting by Impressionist master Claude Monet entitled “L’Eglise et La Seine a Vetheuil.” AP

MANILA, Philippines—Members of the class suit against the estate of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos recently received a “notice of class action settlement” from their lawyer Robert A. Swift through Filipino cocounsel Rodrigo C. Domingo pursuant to an order of the US District Court to the District Court of Hawaii.

The notice informed members that the court would, among other things, decide whether a settlement between the class and the owner of a (Monet) painting formerly belonging to Imelda Marcos was fair, reasonable and adequate.

The court would also decide whether the class counsel’s second interim request for an award of fees and reimbursement of expenses was reasonable. Finally, it would decide whether the request for an incentive award to a class representative was reasonable.

The notice said that in November 2012, the district attorney of New York county unsealed an indictment against Vilma Bautista, former personal assistant to Imelda Marcos, which said that Bautista had sold a valuable French impressionist painting (the Monet) to an unknown buyer without authority from Marcos for $32 million.

Swift immediately filed a lawsuit against Bautista in New York Supreme Court seeking the painting, other art works owned by Marcos and the proceeds from the sale of the painting.

Second suit

As Swift was preparing to file a second lawsuit against others involved in the sale of the painting, discussions took place between himself and the buyer of the painting. In June 2013, the buyer agreed to pay the class suit members $10 million.

The $10 million was deposited in the class settlement fund in the Hawaii Federal Court. Swift said that in exchange for the payment, the class and its members would release the owner from all claims to the painting.

The notification said the Hawaii court will hold a hearing on Oct. 10 and then will consider whether to finally approve the settlement agreement as “fair, reasonable and adequate.”

It will be recalled that in April 1986 a suit was filed against the strongman Marcos on behalf of 9,539 Filipinos, or their heirs, who were tortured, summarily executed or disappeared during Marcos’ rule between September 1972 and February 1986. The estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos was substituted as the defendant upon Marcos’ death in 1989.

The Hawaii Federal Court entered a judgment on Feb. 3, 1995, in favor of the class in the amount of $1.96 billion. But the collection of the amount was hindered by the concealment of assets. For this, the Marcos estate was found in contempt of court. In January 2011 the court entered a judgment of contempt for $353 million.

Swift’s notification said that should the court grant final approval, the settlement of $10 million will be distributed to class members. The lawyer will ask the court to give $1,000 each to eligible class members in 2014.

Read More

Habiba Sarabi: Rebuilding lives in a once fabled land

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo



RM Awardee Habiba Sarabi, governor
 of Bamyan province, Afghanistan.
Photo by Ma Ceres P. Doyo


 After the land of turquoise blue lakes, awesome cliffs and sweet pomegranates had been turned into a place of terror, violence and death, after the once fabled land of misty valleys, craggy hills and historic monuments had become a battlefield, what is there to do?


“Rebuilding lives and the land in a socially divided nation” is the daunting task and challenge for Habiba Sarabi, governor of Bamyan province in Afghanistan. This was also the running theme of her sharing sessions with those eager to learn from her experience.

The first and only woman governor in a “fiercely patriarchal” nation that has gone through years of strife brought about by foreign domination, warring tribes, warlordism and terrorist attacks, Sarabi has shown what an educated woman, wife, mother and leader can do for her suffering people.

Hopeful persistence

Sarabi, 57, is one of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awardees. In choosing her, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) recognized “her bold exercise of leadership to build up a functioning local government against daunting odds, serving her people with a hopeful persistence grounded in her abiding commitment to peace and development in Afghanistan.”

Coming from a family of relative means, Sarabi studied pharmacy in a Kabul university and later specialized in hematology in India. She was teaching at Kabul Medical Science College when the fearsome and extremist Taliban seized power in 1996, sowed terror among the populace and imposed harsh measures, especially on women.

Taliban rule GOV. HABIBA SARABI of Bamyan province, Afghanistan. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

But before the rise of the Taliban, Afghanistan was already a troubled country. Russian occupation (1979 to 1989), the civil war among mujahideen groups (1992 to 1996) and Western intervention had already sown the seeds of chaos in the predominantly Muslim country. It did not take long for Afghanistan to become a lair and training ground for anti-West extremist groups, the ones linked with Osama bin Laden among them. This was not the case when Sarabi was growing up. “The tribes got along,” she said.

To escape Taliban rule, Sarabi fled with her children to Pakistan where the children could continue their education while she became a teacher and activist. She joined other Afghan women in organizing the Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (Hawca). She went to refugee camps, held classes on women’s rights and organized doctors to work in the camps.

Despite the risks during those years, Sarabi would traverse on foot the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border to supervise some 80 literacy classes. She served as general manager of Afghan Institute of Learning in Peshawar, Pakistan.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Sarabi and her children returned to Kabul. She immediately set up a Hawca office, resumed teaching and continued her work in the field of women’s rights and literacy.

Appointed governor

An ambassadorial post was offered to Sarabi but she declined it. In 2003, she was appointed to head the Ministry of Women’s Affairs under the government of President Hamid Karzai. Her abilities did not go unnoticed. In 2005 she was appointed, that is, on her own proposal, as governor of Bamyan (population 500,000), a poor province in the central highlands, 150 kilometers from the capital Kabul. The appointment was a challenge because Sarabi was not a native of Bamyan. There were some opposition and even jokes about her.

With her businessman husband and three grown children left behind in Kabul, Sarabi buckled down to work at her new post.

Bamyan saw many changes on Sarabi’s watch. Roads and other infrastructure projects as well as health services were among her priorities. But the education of women was always important to her. Now, more women in Bamyan are building careers, something once forbidden by the Taliban.

Educating women

“When you educate a man, you educate only a person,” Sarabi told a crowd of young people. “But when you educate a woman, you educate a community.” Women’s rights, along with peace and prosperity, are among her dreams for her people. “That is why we have to work with families, so that we can educate the men,” she said. To make them see.

Among her immediate concerns are child and maternal mortality and the lack of health professionals. Safe drinking water is badly needed. Agriculture is not easy in Bamyan because of poor soil, Sarabi said. Afghanistan is a land of harsh winters (as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius) and fierce summers.

Before Sarabi became the governor, Bamyan had only 41 health centers; in 2009 the province had 89. Bamyan had no asphalt roads in the past; now 200 kilometers are asphalted. The number of students has increased from 100,533 in 2005 to 135,000 in 2009. There used to be only 367 students in higher education (seven of them women); this increased to 2,627 (418 women) in 2009.

There used to be only 100 beds for tourists; now there are 1,000. The number of policewomen has increased from one to 21.

Ethnic differences

Because Bamyan happens to be a place with natural, historical and archaeological assets that have great potential for tourism, Sarabi established the 570-km Band-e-Amir National Park, which is Afghanistan’s first. Bamyan is the site of the tall ancient Buddha statues that the Taliban destroyed. (What remains is now a Unesco Heritage site.) The destruction caused international furor.

“Though we are Muslim, we wanted to preserve those ancient Buddha statues,” Sarabi said. “The Taliban wanted to erase our history.” Being a member of an ethnic and religious minority (she is a Hazara and a Shi’ite), Sarabi is very aware of conflicts and hostilities that could arise among her people because of ethnic and religious differences. But she remains undaunted.

Sarabi recalls an incident where male religious leaders accused her of preaching during a religious feast, something women were not allowed, and she could have been punished. “Luckily we had video footage of that occasion,” she said. “I was not preaching at all.” She was giving instructions.

Rebuilding trust

Death threats do not scare her. The governor puts great importance on transparency and accountability in governance and the rule of law. (She had sent her own bodyguard to jail.) The media, she said, have been a big help.

Sarabi notes with sadness that one of the casualties of the conflicts in her country is trust. “It is easy to build trust, but it is hard to rebuild trust. We have to earn the confidence of the elders,” she said. One has to be attuned to the “sensitivity of society,” she added.

“We have to inspire the next generation, we have to go beyond the family,” she said. Her daughter and two sons are very lucky that they are educated, she mused. She is very proud of her daughter, who has a Master’s Degree in Development Management from Germany and is now in the United States working for her doctorate in economics. Sarabi expects her back.

Sarabi does not hide her cynicism about international aid. “They have their own …,” she said. But she is aware of the implications of the withdrawal of international forces in 2014, including the decline in foreign aid. The challenge is awesome, the future is uncertain but there is no stopping Sarabi in continuing what she has begun.

Recognition

International donors have noticed Sarabi’s accomplishments. She is considered among the top performers in local government. This has earned for her province budgetary rewards.

The Ramon Magsaysay recognition is not Sarabi’s first. She was among Time magazine’s 2008 Heroes of the Environment. She also received citations from the French government in 2007 and from a US organization in 2005. This year she received an Outstanding Performance Award after selection “by referendum” in 34 provinces.

Sarabi is only the second Afghan to receive the RM award, which started 55 years ago. The first was Sima Samar, a woman and doctor, who was awarded in 1994. Sarabi and Samar know each other. This year’s batch of RM awardees brings to 301 the number of awardees. The award is named after the charismatic Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, who died in a plane crash in 1957.

The RM Awards honors “change-makers” who have created “ripples from the base of the pyramid,” women and men who have shown “greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.” http://globalnation.inquirer.net/84673/habiba-sarabi-rebuilding-lives-in-a-once-fabled-land

 

Read More