President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III (photo from www.gov.ph)

The Aquino Administration submitted its budget proposal for 2011 to Congress this week. It is through the budget where one can see the priorities of the government, in how much it intends to spend on various programs of government. For 2011, the government under the Aquino administration intends to spend P1.645 trillion.

In his budget message, the President claimed that the spending proposal of the government for next year is anchored on “reform”. The budget claims to have a “bias to the poor and the vulnerable”. However, right at the onset, it is still oriented towards severe austerity, masked with the euphemism “fiscal responsibility,” a government spending orientation that has been the standard policy for decades. It is a policy intended not to simply ensure that the “meager resources” of the government are spent wisely for the people, to ensure that the government is able to pay its foreign and local creditors its monstrous, anomalous and scandalous debt.

Just to show you how scandalous and hypocritical the government’s budget orientation is, the Aquino Administration proposes to pay foreign creditors and financial institutions a whopping P823.27 billion next year (P357.09 billion in interest payments, P466.18 billion in principal amortization not formally included in the P1.645 trillion total budget). According to the initial budget analysis and report of IBON Foundation, the increase in interest payments alone “is the largest absolute increase in interest payments in the country’s history and, at a 29.2% increase from the year before, is the second largest percentage increase after the 32.6% growth in 2000.”

Despite this obedient debt servicing policy of the government, the country’s enormous debt burden will not get any better. The government projects that the outstanding debt of the country will stand at P4.79 trillion by the end of 2010, and despite the P823.27 billion proposed debt service for 2011, the outstanding debt will increase to a monstrous P5.19 trillion by the end of 2011. This is a cycle of self-destruction which the government can actually stop through many options for debt cancellation or even debt moratorium, if it only had the strong political will to serve the people instead of serving its foreign creditors.

If indeed the government is intent to “maximize the efficient use of our scarce resources,” how then can it afford such scandalous debt payments? That’s where the budget cuts on social and economic services spending for the people come in. But isn’t that what the government its for? To serve the people? Apparently not.

The University of the Philippines, the nation’s premiere state university, is bound to get its largest budget cut in its history, with a slash of more than P1.3 billion, a 20% decline from its budget this year, and a 32.6% decline from its budget last 2009. The Philippine Normal University will get a worse 24% budget cut. State universities and colleges on the whole, will get a 1.7% budget cut, despite increasing enrollment in state schools because of the increasing cost of private higher education. Aquino’s budget message affirms the policy of gradual state abandonment of tertiary education which has only resulted in the increasing cost of education in state universities. According to Aquino, his government is “gradually reducing the subsidy to SUCs to push them toward becoming self-sufficient and financially independent, given their ability to raise their income.” Government apologists justify the state abandonment of public universities by saying that resources are better spent at basic and secondary education, but they totally miss the point by failing to identify the logic of the correlation between the increase or decrease of either state function.

Despite the nominal increase in the basic and secondary education budget for 2011, the Aquino government intends to cut the budgets of many other social and economic services. According to an initial study of IBON Foundation, the government intends to cut the budget for the following sectors: agriculture and agrarian reform (falling by P23.1 billion or 26.0%), communication, roads and other transportation (P7.9 billion or 5.2%), water resources development and flood control (P4 billion or 21.4%), and power and energy (P3.4 billion or 65.5%). It also almost completely cuts off government subsidy to government agencies and corporations that are supposed to provide several state functions, like the National Food Authority, and intends to privatize other similar government corporations.

Oddly enough, even as the government scrimps on social and economic services spending, it nevertheless finds a way to fund its war against Filipino rebels in the countryside. It gives the military its largest budget in recent history, with an 81% increase to P104.5 billion. Bullets instead of books? This just goes to show the utter insincerity of the government in forging peace and socio-economic justice by addressing the roots of rebellion.

Is this the “daang matuwid” or the “reform” President Aquino promised? It doesn’t look any different from the policies of any past administration. Granted such, what kind of change are we supposed to expect? Only the naive expect something different to result from something committed over and over again.

I took a nap late in the afternoon, then I woke up early in the night to a morbid spectacle on live TV. The early evening news programs had been extended. The usual soap operas had given way to a hostage drama on simultaneous nationwide broadcast. Apparently, it was also syndicated on major global news networks. Then, unexpected turn of events happened rapidly one after another right before our very eyes. From the dramatic arrest of the hostage-taker’s brother, and his relatives wailing pleas to stop the arrest, to the actual firing of bullets from the bus, and the tenseful reporting made by the TV commentators, to the bloody end of it all.

I couldn’t believe we were seeing it all on TV! Despite the lingering moralist thought that I shouldn’t patronize this blatant sensationalism, and the ugly thought that people were dying at the very instant in the same frames and footage we were witnessing, I couldn’t take my attention off from the intense series of events. Admit it or not, we were all glued to our TV sets. How can we explain ourselves? It felt really wrong, but we couldn’t resist not to miss a second of it. Sure, we find police thrillers and action movies gratifying, but we all enjoy it with the comfort of knowing it is all faux. But last night, it was real.

There’s probably some psychological explanation to it.

What I don’t quite understand is how quite a number of Filipinos, at least those who have been tweeting their thoughts online, are extremely concerned with how other countries will see the Philippines after the tragic hostage-taking incident. I mean, fine, I understand. As a journalist had said, where is everyone’s sense of proportion? Some people never expressed this extreme sense of national shame or remorse with, say, peasant landlessness, social and economic injustice among our people, extrajudicial killings, etcetera. These are legitimate issues that are similarly causes of national embarrassment to the eyes of the world, aren’t they?

It bothers me how we’re so concerned with our “tourist” outward image, and not-so with our internal conditions. Perhaps that’s why some of us are content with cosmetic changes in our society? As long as it looks good, some of us live well, as long as the tourists don’t see the rotten situation many of our people live in, it’s okay!

Can we not take this cosmetic, tourism-inspired nationalism notches higher and aspire for deeper changes that address the root causes of all the phsyical unsightly things we are oh so concerned of? Only then will we forever get rid of the very sights and images some of us are so ashamed to show foreigners.

The Sampaloc campus is also quite beautiful, with its paved walkways, manicured gardens and plazas, old and new buildings. It may not be as expansive as Diliman or Loyola Heights, but its very compactness makes one feel like being embraced by a small but diverse community. Walking to class in the late afternoons has been a pleasure. I find pleasure walking among hundreds of students loitering around the gardens and plazas. In Diliman or Loyola Heights, I can walk around campus without bumping into anyone. I walk out of the walls of UST and I find myself in the busy streets of Sampaloc, Manila.

These are of course, impressions of face value. In the next four years (or more? might even be less?) I will surely experience various disappointments and struggles. As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, there will come times when I will find myself in conflict with university rules, though, it’s not a prospect that I fear, confident of a sense of judgment of what is right and fair. There will come times when I will find myself holding on to my motivations for wanting to become a lawyer, there will be times I will want to just quit school for various reasons. But for now, here’s to looking forward to being a “Thomasian”.

Kabataan Party-List Rep. Raymond 'Mong' Palatino, flanked by his family and national officers of Kabataan Party-List, takes his oath as re-elected Congressman before Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero

Last Friday, we had our first nominee, incumbent Congressman Mong Palatino take his oath as re-elected Representative of Kabataan Party-list before Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, one of the more prominent legislators closest to the youth sector.

It was a short and simple gathering over lunch. Our regional leaders were also present, as we were also holding our National Council meeting during those days.

More than two hundred youths from different universities and communities in Metro Manila marched yesterday, June 15, 2010, to the gates of Malacanang to protest the worsening crisis in education

Yesterday was the first day of classes for most schools, colleges and universities in the country. As millions flocked to their respective campuses, more than 8 million of our fellow Filipino youths and children will not even get to step inside a classroom. This marks one of the highest number of out-of-school youth in our nation’s modern history.

In Gloria Arroyo’s nine years in office, the nation has experienced budget cuts in education, tuition and other fee increases left and right and as mentioned, the highest out-of-school and drop-out rates in years.

Despite the constitutional guarantee that education is a right of each and every Filipino, going to school has increasingly been such a financial burden to millions of Filipino families, if they can get in a school at all. Even public elementary and high schools, with up to 61,343 in classroom shortage and 54,060 in teacher shortage, cannot accommodate all Filipino children, nor can they provide the kind and quality of education needed for national development. The Department of Education itself declared that there are as many as 5.6 million out-of-school children.

The students were able to squeeze past through the barbed wire barricades of Mendiola and march to Gate 7 of the Presidential Palace

The nation’s public universities, on the other hand, has been suffering budget cuts almost every year forcing them to extract tuition and other fees from their students and forcing them to sell resources which would otherwise have served their constituents. The Philippines actually has the lowest percentage of youths studying in state universities. In other countries, state universities and colleges accommodate majority of college-age youths. In the Philippines, we force them to either enroll in private institutions with steep tuition rates, or to not enter college at all.

While our parents’ wages have been stunted for decades, the government has allowed tuition rates in private schools and public universities to escalate. It has in fact almost doubled since Gloria Arroyo became President. In 2001, the national average cost per unit in colleges and universities was at P257.41. In 2010, it has almost doubled to P501.22. In Metro Manila where most of the country’s colleges and universities are located, it is worse. From P439.59 per unit in 2001 it has ballooned to P980.54 per unit in 2010. These don’t even take into account the long list miscellaneous fees being implemented by schools, which hide the real cost of education.

How do you expect children and the youth to enter or stay in school when their parents’ wages don’t keep up with the rising cost of education? When schools want to increase tuition every year, the government doesn’t do anything about it (in the name of institutional and academic freedom), leaving schools owners the free hand to milk our parents dry, forcing many of us to work ourselves. Nalulugi daw ang mga school, kailangan magtaas ng tuition. What a lie! Owning and operating schools has become one of the most profitable business ventures in the country. The country’s top 5 school earners raked in almost P16 billion in revenues the past six years. It is no wonder mall owners and other businessmen are buying and setting up schools and colleges left and right.

Ironically, when we ask for increases in wages and subsidies, the government makes all sorts of excuses to prevent it and even confronts the people with state-sponsored violence when we assert it.

What’s even more insulting is that the Arroyo government had the gall to bleed its people to hunger and poverty with increases in VAT and other taxes justifying them with promises of more spending in social services.

Without even brushing up on the health and housing sector, the fact is education spending was the lowest in two decades during the Arroyo administration. On average, the Ramos administration spent 15.5 percent of the national budget on education, the Estrada administration spent 18.7 percent. The Arroyo administration spent only an average of 15.1 percent of the national budget on education. Looking at it in another way, while Ramos spent on average an equivalent of 3.1 percent of the GDP on education and Estrada 3.7 percent, Gloria Arroyo spent only 3.3 percent when she took officein 2001, and dropped it even further to 2.19 percent in 2008. These figures are miles away from the 6.0 percent prescription of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiztion (UNESCO).

So where did the VAT and the tax increases go? Aside from the billions being plundered by politicians, in truth, these tax hikes and budget cuts are only meant to ensure that the government can pay its monstrous and anomalous debt obligations to its foreign creditors, the very institutions that prescribed these policies in the first place, the same policies it is forcing down the throats of billions of people, from Greece to California.

In her TV advertisements’ own words, “sa totoo lang!” this is the Arroyo legacy in education.

Militant youth groups called on the incoming Aquino administration to hold accountable outgoing President Gloria Arroyo for her crimes against the people, and ultimately reverse her administration's policies of state abandonment of basic social services such as education

One of the many challenges therefore to the incoming Aquino administration is to reverse the policies of the Arroyo administration in education.

Aquino must increase state spending in education. Since the 2010 budget has already been passed, incoming President Noynoy Aquino must allot his discretionary and emergency funds to public schools for 2010. For 2011 and beyond, he must keep his promise to increase public spending on education, up to the prescribed 6 percent of the GDP, as promised by the Aquino-Roxas ticket.

Aquino must also implement a moratorium on tuition and other fee increases and allow our parents’ wages to catch up with the cost of education. You can’t expect parents to be able to send their children to school when you keep tuition rates unchecked while stunting their wages.

Aquino must also promote a nationalist curriculum, uphold the democratic rights of students, improve teachers’ welfare, improve science and technology development, promote transparency in education contracts and ultimately review and revamp existing policies in education.

Kabataan Partylist presented an eight-point education agenda that incoming President Aquino must address in order to improve the state of education in the country

At the onset, I was taken aback. Not only because I had come from a relatively more liberal environment in the University of the Philippines, but I simply found it repulsive that there are specific prohibitions on what I’ve always thought were personal and political rights.

I understand the concept of “academic freedom” on the side of educational institutions and that they are granted institutional liberty to define what to teach and how to teach concepts and even character and values, but when institutions use this liberty to invade the realm of personal conduct and even appearance in guise of character-building, I think it is wrong.

Aside from prescriptions on personal and inter-personal conduct, there are also vague prescriptions on political actions such as rallies and strikes. In the list of policy guidelines, it is noted that in order to achieve and maintain “peace and order,” students must refrain from “joining boycotts, assemblies, parades or marches, or other gatherings that tend to create unnecessary noise and/or disturbance.” Another provision desists students from “instigating or leading illegal strikes/rallies or similar concerted activities resulting in the stoppage or disruption of classes.”

These provisions virtually bans all rallies, because all rallies create “disturbance”. It is in the very nature of such demonstrations. These provisions were used consistently to suspend and expel student activists in the university.

That was odd, too, I thought. Were they spitting at their own rules when they sent contingents to oust a president in 2001 and sanctioned mobilizations and campaigns to abolish the ROTC that same year, or when they joined anti-government demonstrations in 2005, 2006 and 2007? Were they not creating disturbance when they vehemently campaigned against the Reproductive Health Bill? Also, how come they are honoring and claiming national heroes and martyrs as their own, when they branded them as subversives and heretics during the times they were fighting for independence from the institution’s own colonial roots? Should we not emulate them?

I do not fault the university for bending its own rules–for its hypocrisy. In fact, such instances reinforce the basic idea that institutions of learning and education can never be insulated from the economic and socio-political environment, regardless how they try to refrain from engaging in political activities. As a community of concerned individuals, there will always be an attachment among its members to the greater society.

I hope that students of this university I’m going to be a part of will not be afraid to heed the call of the times. When the times call for us to defy our own rules, so be it, with our without the sanction of the university. They may call us heretics or hooligans, and they may even expel us, but history will judge us as heroes and revolutionaries who served the people with all our hearts and passion, the same way the very institution now claim fame and honor to a handful of patriotic martyrs of the past. In taking sides with the oppressed, we would have served God more than any of them probably would.

I eventually signed the conforme because I will not be able to enroll if I didn’t. More importantly, regardless of the conforme’s prescriptions, I have faith in what is just and right, and I know we can defend any action based on the Catholic institution’s own universal ideals of peace and freedom for all peoples.

Like any other form of protest, from rallies to boycotts and walk-outs, graffitis are meant to defy prevailing conditions. They create disturbance precisely because they draw attention to social issues and call people to actively get involved in such protest campaigns, without having to go through mainstream and “legal” limitations.

Graffitis may be unsightly, but they were not meant to be beautiful in the first place. Its very aesthetic, which some have descibed to be “unsightly”, connotes stealth and speed precisely because it is illicit. Protest graffitis are not murals or paintings that take many hours to complete and costly paints and colors to beautify. Youth activists, or any activist for that matter, do not have such luxuries.

The illegality of graffiti is all but expected in a society where the people who rule implement various regulations that seeks (desperately) to maintain the status quo. In a country where such status quo means an impoverished majority, a majority unable to afford tertiary education, graffitis that affirm the people’s right to social services and human development are nothing more but forms of legitimate resistance to the ruling order. Illegal, of course, but definitely legitimate.

Worried about the cost of the paints the government will have to use to cover the graffitis? Why paint over them then? It will simply affirm the guilt and the responsibility on their part. What’s so repulsive with a bridge post or a wall that screams for the people’s right to education?

I will not discourage our members from freely expressing our calls and our slogans through graffitis. And even more, I encourage people to explore similar creative forms of protest. No apologies from us.

A standard landscape snapshot of the Chocolate Hills in Carmen, Bohol, taken from the viewdeck where all the other thousands of tourists take their snapshots

Our second day in Bohol was spent going around the usual tourist spots in the province. With just a day, we could only cover so much.

Our first destination was the world-famous Chocolate Hills, a two hour drive from Panglao Island. It started to drizzle while we were on the way to Carmen, Bohol where many of the hills are located. The hills, numbering more than a thousand, are actually spread over two other municipalities in the center of the island province. Named Chocolate Hills because of their Kisses-like shape and their brown color during the summer, they were apparently formed through thousands of years of tidal and land movements.

Thankfully, the skies cleared up a bit just as we arrived at the hill with the tourist view deck, just in time for a few snapshots. There were hundreds of local and foreign tourists, too. The hike up the hill can be very tiring. There is a zig-zag concrete ramp up the hill for those who can’t take hiking up a hundred or more steps straight up.

Along the highway from Tagbilaran to the Chocolate Hills in Carmen, Bohol, a few hectares of tall mahogany trees make for a beautiful and serene route. Located in the town of Bilar, the trees were artificially planted as part of an environmental project in the 60's of then-President Carlos Garcia, himself a son of Bohol

From Carmen, Bohol, we stopped by a place along the highway to cross a bamboo hanging bridge to the other side of the river. When we got to the other side, there were some souvenir shops selling peanut kisses. There was also a local showing off his talent of shaving coconut husks with his teeth. There was another bamboo hanging bridge for those wanting to go back to the other side. I don’t really know what’s so special about this stop, but it seems to be in the standard itinerary for tourists with a tour guide. There were dozens of other tourists in the area.

Bamboo hanging bridges at Loboc, Bohol. I'm not sure what's so extraordinary about this tourist stop.

For lunch, we had a feast onboard a floating restaurant that cruised a few kilometers along the picturesque Loboc River. It was a short but beautiful river cruise along what seemed to be a very healthy river with lush foliage along the banks. Young girls and boys in their teens are also game to show off their diving stunts along the way, jumping and tumbling from tall trees. Some residents, mostly women, were also bathing along the river, though I’m not too sure if it was all a show or if they were genuinely taking baths. It can feel quite contrived, it looks so picturesque a countryside scene for me. Depending on which river cruise company you choose to board on, you may stop over a floating stage where some residents will sing and dance to native tunes to entertain visitors.

Loboc River, Loboc, Bohol

The river cruise will take almost two hours, an hour upstream and another hour going back to the river docks right across the historic Loboc Church. There was an unfinished concrete bridge near the docks that would have smacked right into the church had it been completed that serves as a major eyesore, however. It’s a monument of stupidity, if you ask me, and a source of frustration at the government too.

Loboc River, Loboc, Bohol

On the way back to Panglao Island, we stopped over a small zoo-like sanctuary along the highway where some live tarsiers and other native animals were displayed.

We also stopped by another place where they were displaying a giant python (in a cage) to hundreds of tourists. I also don’t know what’s so special about that tourist trap, but it seemed to be in everyone’s itinerary–at least those who chose to go with standard tourist guides.

Baclayon Church, Baclayon, Bohol

We also stopped over at Baclayon Church, the second oldest stone church in the country. We went inside and toured the church museum. Outside, you can cross the highway and walk along the sea-side plaza where you can see the pier from a distance. The crystal clear and shallow waters may make you want to jump in the sea.

Baclayon Church, Baclayon, Bohol

The pier fronting the town plaza of Baclayon, Bohol, near the historic stone church

Our tour ended with a visit at the “Blood Compact” monument in Tagbilaran City. I’m not sure why we erected a monument commemorating foreign invaders’ victory in coopting some of our ancestors into submission. Did I miss something in my Philippine history?

Blood Compact Site Memorial, Tagbilaran, Bohol

Bohol is much deserving to be one of the country’s best tourist destinations. It is not only a beach or resort destination, with many white sand beaches and dive spots to choose from. It also offers a picturesque countryside, one-of-a-kind landscapes, historical monuments and churches, a beautiful river cruise, unique wildlife from tarsiers to dolphins, eco-adventure activities all within minutes of each other. It’s like having a complete tropical tourist package compressed in one lovely island province, or being in an all-natural tropical theme park. We of course, were not able to experience the entire thing, which makes for a very good reason to come back.

Alona Beach, Panglao, Bohol

Almost a month ago, my family spent a weekend in Bohol. We availed of the usual tour package, a two night stay at a Panglao island resort and a day tour around the usual tourist spots in the island-province. I’ve never been to Bohol till then, but because much has been written about it as as one of the country’s emerging top tourist destinations, I’ve heard enough about it to be familiar with what to do in the island in a span of three days. Admittedly too short to immerse oneself, in any destination for that matter, but isn’t that what tourism is about, to sample destinations, just the good and the beautiful at face value?

Alona Beach, Panglao, Bohol

It was the week when my mother and my younger brother celebrated their birthdays, and a short trip to Bohol was what my mother thought would be an apt way to celebrate the occasions. We stayed at Flushing Meadows Resort at Dauis, in Panglao Island. It’s relatively isolated from the other resorts clustered and located in the major stretches of white sand beaches in the island, though the resort has its cove with its own small stretch of fine white sand (which only appears during low tide, though).

We decided to check out the other beaches in the island on our first day. We first proceeded to Panglao’s most prominent beach, Alona Beach. Aside from its fine white sand, the beach boasts of many small resorts clustered along the coast, just like Boracay. Alona hosts various restaurants, many of which display the rich and colorful choices of seafood spread out along the beach walkway to attract tourists and visitors. There are also bars and clubs along the beach, for those so inclined to party at night.

Another prominent beach in Panglao is Bolod Beach which plays host to the vast Bohol Beach Club, one of the largest resorts in the country. The resort, however, charges a fee, consumable within the resort, for non-overnight visitors to the beach club. Bolod Beach is probably the widest and largest stretch of fine white sand in Panglao, comparable to Boracay at low tide. The white sand is as fine as milk powder, and at low tide the shallow waters extend for hundreds of meters from the shore.

Sunset at Bolod Beach, Panglao, Bohol

We arrived at Bolod Beach as the sun was setting, while the sky was in magical red and purple hues. Groups of friends and families were frolicking in the beach, divers were coming ashore from an afternoon of diving, and Korean and Chinese tourists were having an exclusive beach buffet dinner right at the beach. Everyone was having a grand time. We ended the night with dinner at the beach club’s restaurant.

Bolod Beach, Panglao Island, Bohol

Bolod Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines

Thousands of workers marched on the streets of Manila together with hundreds from other sectors of society to commemorate Labor Day

More than two weeks ago, I marched in my third Labor Day rally in Manila, together with thousands from different sectors of society, to commemorate international workers’ day. Being the last Labor Day celebration under the Gloria Arroyo government, the theme of the mobilization was centered on ensuring her departure from the Malacanang, her nine-year regime having been characterized by record high unemployment, depressed wages and grave abuses of workers’ rights, and on ensuring the people’s commitment to prosecute her for her administration’s sins and failures. Being a few days before the national elections, the celebration was also an opportune time for various sectors to demand from all the candidates a pro-people and nationalist labor platform, a discussion of which has been all but silenced with all the shallow and petty mudslinging that characterized the three-month campaign period.

Reps. Liza Maza & Satur Ocampo marching with leaders of workers' unions and other sectors

Rainier Sindayen, Chairperson of the University of the Philippines Diliman student council, leads the chants as the thousands marched through Quezon Boulevard onto Liwasang Bonifacio

Hundreds of students, and other youths, members of Kabataan Partylist also marched together with other sectors to commemorate Mayo Uno, reaffirming the call for the government to ensure jobs for the half million new young graduates this year

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo delivers his speech in front of the thousands that converged in Liwasang Bonifacio

Sectoral leaders burned an effigy of President Gloria Arroyo inside a jail cell to symbolize the people's commitment to prosecute her for the sins, excesses and failures of her decade-long administration

Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza gives her speech in front of the crowd, reaffirms the role of women in genuine social change

Flags of different organizations, including that of Kabataan Partylist's, are waved upon the closing of the program at Liwasang Bonifacio, in preparation for the march to Mendiola

Marchers on Quezon Bridge on the way to Mendiola

The crowd at Mendiola stretched from the foot of Chino Roces Bridge across to Recto Avenue

The crowd at Mendiola, torches were brought together to create a bonfire, while sectoral leaders delivered rousing speeches to cap the day-long commemoration