A Lianga Diary

When Voting Right Is Not Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 05:53:00 +0000

On a recent late afternoon road trip back to Lianga, I made a quick food stop at a 7-Eleven store still quite a distance from my hometown. Near the cashier’s counter was a prominent display containing the franchise’s now very popular coffee tumblers displaying the faces of the prominent candidates vying for the presidency of the Philippines in the May national and local elections.

I watched curiously as a young and sveltely attractive millennial still in office uniform confidently stride up to the counter drop her purchases on the counter then go the tumbler display, pick one with the picture of Vice-President Leni Robredo and quickly add it to her items for check out. Since I was next in line to her, I caught her eye then asked her, “Why Leni?” She smiled then gamely replied, “I like her style, her honesty, her integrity, her advocacies and personal charisma.”

I just smiled back and nodded and later as she confidently sauntered out of the swinging doors into the fading sunlight, I wondered to myself if I should have told her to her face that she might be voting for the right person but not for not all of the right reasons. I wondered also if she had followed through in her thoughts and reflections the real ramifications and consequences of the consequential choice she apparently had already made.

If the recently published Pulse Asia survey results covering the March 17 to 21 period are to be believed (and there are many Filipinos who rightly or wrongly, fervently do not), Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte retain their commanding lead among voter preferences for the presidency and vice-presidency for the coming May 2022 polls. Despite the fact that Vice-President Leni Robredo has made an almost two-digit leap in her popularity rating since their last survey, she remains a rather distant second choice to Marcos. Sara Duterte, on the other hand among the vice-Presidential bets, continues to enjoy a seemingly insurmountable lead over Senate President Tito Sotto and Kiko Pangilinan who is Robredo’s vice-presidential candidate.

Other published surveys like the one conducted by Publicus Asia for the March 30 to April 6 period has come up with different numbers but project a largely similar trend for voter choices. If indeed, we take all of these projections as snapshots in time and useful at the very least as tools for quantifying what can be extremely subjective and volatile indicators that are so difficult to accurately capture and analyze, then we can tentatively project possible scenarios.

If indeed, the past few weeks have witnessed an unprecedented “pink surge” all over the country (proven arguably by the massively attended campaign rallies even in supposedly Marcos or Duterte bailiwicks followed by surprising political endorsements from local political leaders some who are even supposedly affiliated with the Duterte or Marcos grand alliance) that has seen Leni Robredo’s presidential campaign powered by exceptional grassroots voluntarism generating new enthusiasm, energy and a reawakened sense of purpose, then it is still theoretically possible for the Vice-President to repeat her come-from-behind win in the 2016 national polls and win again over Marcos who narrowly lost to her in the vice-presidential contest then. However, even a surprising and unprecedented Robredo presidential upset win would necessarily be fraught with dire and even existential problems.

A victorious President Leni Robredo will be pitted alone against a government bureaucracy controlled by the remnants of six years of Rodrigo Duterte’s populist strongman politics. The new legislature will probably be dominated by pro-Duterte representatives and senators who would then present an enormous stumbling black to a Robredo administration eager to push through priority reformist legislative programs and initiate institutional reforms. A Supreme Court packed with Duterte appointees will be another intimidating obstacle the new president will have to outmaneuver in the quest for an overhaul of the judicial system.

A Duterte vice-presidency under a Robredo administration will not only create complications and coordination problems for Leni but it will by its very existence threaten the legitimacy and survivability of her fledging government. A new locus of power with an uncooperative Sara Duterte in the center would not bode well for a President Robredo who has billed herself as a reformist candidate and one dedicated to setting right what is wrong with the current government setup. She will have to be watching her back all the time while pursuing a policy of progressive reformist reform.

This brings us to the millions of people like the millennial I met at 7 Eleven recently. I should have told the young millennial to her face the abject truth. For her vote in May 2022 elections to be truly impactful, it must transcend the so called Pink Revolution. It must necessarily transcend even Leni Robredo herself and her slate of candidates. It is not enough to vote for her and power her on to the highest office in the land.

The vote for Leni Robredo must be a commitment for change, for a rededication to the ideals that almost forty years ago powered a revolution that crushed a dictatorship yet failed to live up to its underlying dream, a reformist revolution whose aftermath was quickly corrupted by the very same demons that it sought to destroy and banish. EDSA I was that revolution and yet today even the yellow color that was its enthusiastic battle cry then has instead become tainted and soiled, discredited and rejected.

If this revolution has to be pink or rose or whatever color of the spectrum, in the end it does not matter. It must evolve to become a social movement that will be the engine of social and political change. Leni Robredo will need it if indeed she will indeed, by a miracle, become our next president. If she loses the race, then the clamor for change and the relentless energy that has powered her campaign and advocacies will still be there and by God, if the drone shots of her mammoth rallies can be believed, there is an untapped force there waiting to be properly harnessed that can be an irresistible engine that will sure rise to the occasion to challenge any attempted return to dictatorship and authoritarianism.

The May 2022 polls, despite opinions to the contrary that it is just another ordinary and inconsequential electoral exercise, one we as a nation will have to go through every couple of years or so, is actually one that will determine to a large degree the survival of our struggling democracy or the harbinger of its impeding demise. The ideals of liberal representative democracy, freedom of speech and the press, public accountability, and justice and equality for all are being challenged all over the world. Authoritarianism and the divisive and incendiary rhetoric of populist extremists dominate the political discourse.

The results and, more importantly, the aftermath of the May elections will tell the world where we stand in this existential debate. So this is why a vote for Leni Robredo is not and will never be, by itself, enough.

Never Again

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Thu, 05 May 2016 10:06:00 +0000

I was looking through the almost 400 posts I have written for this blog and I was struck by the sudden realization that a few of them are still strikingly relevant today especially in the context of the Filipino electorate going to the polls in just a couple of days from now in what is probably the most critical local and national election in this country's recent history.

In November of 2013, I published a piece on Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who was at that time just returning home after leading an aid mission from his city to the hell that was Tacloban City in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda(view post). To my chagrin, many readers who skimmed through it thought it was an unreserved paean to the man who three years later could become, if most recent national opinion surveys can be believed, the next president of the Philippines. Closer reading of that post will clearly reveal that - that is certainly NOT the case.

Rodrigo Duterte in 2013 and today remains a truly dangerous man.

I will not detail here his already much touted achievements as the longtime mayor of one of the most progressive cities in this country. Like many Filipinos, I live in Mindanao and have been a frequent visitor to Davao and one cannot deny the positive benefits of Duterte's ironfisted rule.

Yet it is also obvious that city has become so indelibly stamped with the larger than life persona and mythic character of the man himself that many residents there and even most outsiders can no longer conceive and imagine of a Davao without Rodrigo Duterte or at least any other Duterte at its helm. The prevailing fear is that the absence of his style of firm, paternalistic yet unforgiving leadership would surely be chaos, anarchy and even the gradual destruction of their beloved city. One immediately is reminded of Gotham City with its Batman or Metropolis with its Superman.

The appeal of the Punisher as a national political savior cuts through all social levels and income brackets and much of that attraction is largely the result of the deep disgust and disgruntlement of many Filipinos with a government and political order dominated by a scandalously wealthy and deeply entrenched political and economic elite who continue to rake in the lion's share of the wealth being generated by the country's fast growing economy. They now believe that the 1986 People Power Revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos has failed to bring about a truly democratic government and a real inclusive national economy(view post).

Enter the man from Davao who styles himself as the man of the people with the supposedly incorruptible heart of gold and firsts of iron. Never mind the lack of a clear, comprehensive and workable program of government or a clear idea of how to deal with multiple national and international issues facing a prospective leader of this country. Never mind the cussing and gutter talk or the womanizing and the charges of sexism. Ignore the fact that like most traditional politicians he heads a political dynasty with children and relatives in the city government and that he has been linked to undeclared millions in cash deposits and real estate properties.

Rodrigo Duterte instead calls on all of us to just trust him. To let him bring his patented vigilante brand of justice and discipline from Davao to all over the country. To let him do what needs to be done at whatever cost. He has not shied away from bragging about killing people in the past, criminals and lowlife they may be and he has talked about turning the waters of Manila Bay red with the blood of these people when he becomes President. Shutting down Congress or abolishing the Constitution? He has said he would do that too if he needs to.

That is why I had said in the past and will say now he is indeed a dangerous man.

The ideal political leader in a democratic order or even in an imperfect and developing democratic system like the Philippines is one that has a true vision for the country and how it can achieve lasting peace, political progress and real economic prosperity for all. He encourages people empowerment and peaceful discourse. He obeys the rule of law and because of that he shuns corruption and the abuse of political power.

He respects all people irregardless of gender, religion, color or political beliefs and he inspires others, whether they are his followers or not, to do the same. In essence, he brings out the best qualities in his people and not their worst. His followers do not threaten, insult, harass or demean those who do not agree with them whether on the internet or in the real world (as if there is now a true distinction between the two).

In the almost three decades since Edsa 1986, this country has been through so much. We have had more than our share of missteps and shattering disappointments as a people and a nation dreaming of real political and economic rebirth. Yet we also have achieved much even if the going has been tough and not as fast as we would have liked it to be. We cannot fall back on the false promises of easy shortcuts that can achieved using questionable methods or based simply on the personal word of a charismatic yet deeply flawed man who wants to promise heaven for all of us in return for the crown of absolute kingship.

The Philippines does not need a Rodrigo Duterte. We have suffered too much and lost so much as a nation under almost two decades of the "benign" dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, another would be "king" who incidentally Duterte has said he greatly admires. We need another political strongman like the Punisher on May 9 like we need a a swift kick in our nuts, or a hard left straight to our noggins - from Manny Pacquiao.

Shades Of Grey

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 14:47:00 +0000

One early morning during the last week of January this year, a farmer intent only on a leisurely inspection tour of a parcel of coconut land perched on a hill behind the village church in Barangay Salvacion in San Agustin town some nineteen kilometers north of Lianga got more than what he bargained for. He instead unwittingly stumbled into a group of armed men in motley fatigue uniforms who apparently had decided to set up a temporary bivouac on that high ground overlooking the barangay.

The intruders quickly ascertained that the poor farmer did not pose threat to them and promptly sent him away but not after warning him to keep his mouth shut about their presence and the location of their camp. Scared half to death, the guy scampered down the hill as fast as his wobbly legs could carry him.

Several days later in Barangay Britania just three kilometers south of Salvacion, rumors started spreading about another group of strangers also in full combat gear this time on a motorized boat which had supposedly landed just north of the main village site. Where that group eventually went was not clear. Britania, of course, is the main jump-off point for tourists eager to visit the already famous Britania Islands which lies just a short distance from that village's shoreline.

This part of the country is still considered a hotbed of the decades old communist insurgency movement and the locals here have long and bitter memories of the dangers of being caught in the deadly crossfire of periodic clashes between the Philippine government and the New People's Army. So the sightings of armed groups moving within the peripheries of their immediate communities caused no small degree of trepidation and even panic.

Also alarming were stories of members or supposed representatives of these unidentified intruders going around local villages and settlements and allegedly "soliciting" cash and food supplies from small stores, businesses and even, in some cases, from ordinary homes. These persistent reports remained however unverified to date.

I was told by people in both Salvacion and Britania that Philippine Army units and police forces based in San Agustin were immediately notified of the presence of these armed groups but apparently no real action in response was taken by government security forces. Local leaders were merely advised to downplay the reports and to tell their people to keep calm and go about their normal lives.

In the days following the initial sightings of these armed groups, many of the questions that were being raised as to their true identity and the real purpose of their presence in the San Agustin area have yet to be fully answered. Even the few uncertain facts and information that have emerged about them have raised more additional questions that no one either in the local government or in the military or police forces here is willing to discuss openly.

What is known is that on January 28, Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel had discussed with high ranking Philippine Army officers in Tandag City the reports of "unidentified armed groups" being sighted in the "hinterland barangays" of not only San Agustin but also Barobo town and Bislig City in the province's second district. With the governor at that time were Maj. Gen. Oscar Lactao, the commanding general of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, Lactao's subordinate brigade and battalion commanders from the 401st Brigade and Police Senior Supt. Narciso Verdadero, the acting police provincial director for the province.

Maj. Gen. Lactao was in Tandag to pay a courtesy call on Gov. Pimentel and attend a meeting of the Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Committee chaired by the latter. In the course of the meeting, Vice-Governor Manuel Alameda who is from San Agustin and whose sister, Libertad, is the municipal mayor there supplied additional details about the incursion of these armed groups. Mayor Felixberto Urbiztondo of Barobo and a representative of Mayor Librado Navarro of Bislig City who were also present then chimed in and cited similar cases of groups of unidentified armed men being detected entering their areas.

In the press conference following the meeting, Maj. Gen. Lactao supposedly issued assurances that the "matter has already been discussed" by him together with the Gov. Pimentel, Vice-Gov. Alameda, P/SSupt. Verdadero and Col. Alexander Macario, the newly installed commander of the 401st Brigade. Macario and Verdadero, according to Lactao, had already been "tasked by the governor to look into the matter and report back in three days" although the"plan of action" that Macario and Verdadero will have to remain "a secret."

Community leaders both in Salvacion and Bretania have allegedly pieced together from information gathered from various sources that the armed intruders most probably belonged to paramilitary forces under the leadership of Datu Calpit Egua, a maverick Manobo chieftain based in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur. Egua is said to be engaged in small scale gold mining activities in some areas in both Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur. He reportedly commands a private army of more than sixty Bagani or tribal warriors who, many human rights groups in Mindanao have alleged, are armed and supported by the military and are used by government forces in the counter-insurgency war against the communist New People's Army in the Caraga region.

The term Manobo refers to a diverse ethnic grouping scattered mostly in the provinces of Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, the Davao provinces, Bukidnon and North and South Cotabato. Predominantly an upland culture occupying the mountain highlands, they are said to be one of the largest if not the largest ethnic group in the country.

Datu Calpit, as he is widely known, has been targeted several times in the past by the NPA and its political leadership who have described him as a "powerful warlord" who has been responsible for extrajudicial killings and other heinous crimes like rape and torture against the very same indigenous peoples he belongs to. Maria Malaya, the spokesperson of the National Democratic Front for northeastern Mindanao, has accused him of using his armed followers to seize control if not outright ownership of many gold mining sites especially those located in the so called "ancestral domains" of the tribal communities. In July of 2014, leftist insurgents conducted a punitive raid on the datu's compound in Sta. Irene, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur. Calpit was wounded and four of his men were killed but the NPA lost twelve of their own in the apparently bungled attack.

The training, arming and use of bagani or tribal warriors from the indigenous peoples and cultural minorities for use in the counter-insurgency war is, of course, is a tactic used not only by the Philippine armed forces but also by the communist insurgents themselves. The bagani have intimate knowledge of their native terrain and are considered to be fierce and fearless fighters which make them very effective as territorial forces in an unconventional guerrilla type of conflict. But they have also been accused of committing human rights abuses including the killing of innocent civilians and non-combatants,

The rather lukewarm response of the government military and police forces to what many of the local people here would have considered as a serious security threat in the entry of these rather unexpected armed visitors does bring credence to the theory that these combat ready interlopers were indeed "non-hostile" or even "friendly" forces and thus were not to be considered as a serious danger to the communities they were "visiting." As to what their actual purpose or mission was to be in the areas they were found to be present, of course, is the question that remains unanswered.

To date, there has been no additional news of more sightings of unidentified men in the Salvacion and Britania area but that does not mean that they are no longer in the vicinity of these villages. Much of the mountainous areas surrounding these barangays are quite remote and unpopulated and certainly no one is actively trying to look for them or pinpoint their exact whereabouts at present.

There were reliable reports that about a week after they were sighted, the entire group reportedly left the Salvacion area on-board a large, non-military truck but their next or final destination is unknown. Yet there is a lingering sense of great unease among the population there. Many of them have to contend with the nagging suspicion that the end to the story of their mysterious visitors has yet to be really told.

What has also become evident to residents here is that they may have once again been touched by that one unsavory and shadowy aspect of the decades old " asymmetrical" war between the Philippine government and the communist insurgency - the use by warring forces of non-official, proxy or third party forces in their efforts to weaken if not destroy each other.

In this murky, protracted and secretive war that is so typical of what many military scholars and historians consider the fourth evolution of classic warfare, the battle lines shift and constantly change. At times, the distinctions between opposing sides and between combatants and non-combatants are unclear, determining who are permanent friends and temporary allies as opposed to who are the true enemies an often baffling and dangerous task. It is a bewildering conflict where, most often, few things are in clear black and white - just overlapping and confusing shades of grey.

Surprised

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:35:00 +0000

One can suppose with the benefit of hindsight that there must be more than a bit of irony in the progression of events. When Typhoon Ruby (international name, Hagupit) entered the Philippine area of responsibility in early December of last year, the locals in Lianga and its surrounding communities rushed out in a frenzy of activity all of which was supposed to be in preparation for what was forecasted to be a major storm. The memories of the devastation left by 2013's Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and 2012's Pablo (Bopha), after all, remains painfully fresh in the minds of all Filipinos here.

Then Ruby did not quite live up to its hype (although it did cause extensive damage and did claim at least 18 lives) and so when PAGASA, the national weather service, announced that a tropical depression was following on Ruby's wake and will make landfall in Surigao del Sur on Dec. 28, the response to what would later develop into Tropical Storm Seniang (international name, Jangmi) was understandably tepid to say the least. Everyone thought it was just going to another one of those run-of-the-mill weather hiccups common this time of the year in this part of the world.

It turned out that Seniang struck hard where Ruby veered away and this part of the country as well as many other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao got clobbered hard. Hundreds of thousands of people ended up paying dearly for their complacency. "We all prepared for Ruby," one survivor in Cebu province in the Visayas tearfully lamented, "but no one warned us about Seniang."

Lianga was luckier than most other affected communities. It did not suffer extensive damage from high winds or flooding but storm winds toppled down major power lines and the continuous heavy rainfall clogged the local water distribution systems. For almost three full days, the majority of Surigao del Sur province, Lianga included, was shrouded in darkness. No electricity and for the most part without water.

In San Agustin town, the critical bridge link across the Hubo River that connects Lianga and the other southern and middle towns of the province to the capital city of Tandag was swept away. With landslides also cutting off portions of the national highway to the south and west of the town particularly the road section near Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur which joins Lianga to the regional center in Butuan City in Agusan del Sur, the town and its adjacent sister municipalities were practically isolated as transportation by land became almost impossible.

Butuan itself suffered a citywide power outage that lasted days and many areas were still without electricity when the new year came in. People queued up at water refilling stations and supermarkets to stock up on drinking water as the city's water supply system shut down. The humming and growling of power generators owned by those who could afford them could be heard all over as businesses struggled to stay open but the majority of ordinary people for whom that option was unavailable had to survive the best way they could.

Yes, no doubt, about it. We here were caught with our pants down by Seniang. But that statement raises the question as to whether we should have been so innocently caught unawares.

In the first week of December, the national government had made a big show on the news media about its preparations for Ruby. Provincial and local officials in the areas projected to be hit by it including those of the province of Surigao del Sur were also quick to announce their readiness to meet any contingencies. I saw President Noynoy Aquino himself on national TV chairing meetings of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and pronouncing himself ultimately satisfied with the action plans being made by cabinet officials and the heads of government agencies who would be at the forefront of the disaster response efforts.

Yet barely weeks later, Seniang waded in right smack into Surigao del Sur as predicted by PAGASA days before and then wrecked havoc despite all the much touted preparation efforts. One wonders how much warning and how much readiness time do we really need to anticipate the negative effects of weather events we all know, as a matter of fact, are quite common in this country this time of the year?

Anyone who has lived here and who was not born yesterday knows that the last months of every year are always the time for strong storms and rainy weather. You don't have to ask the local farmers and fishermen for advice about when to plug the leaking holes in your roof or buttress the rickety walls of your hut against gusty winds. The locals know their weather lore instinctively. They can literally feel the storm months coming in their aching bones.

Beyond that, this is after all the Philippines, an active front line in battle against climate change, where what were once hesitant predictions about the rise in the frequency and severity of tropical storms and typhoons are fast becoming hard fact and cold reality and where even the President has acknowledged that every coming new year may continue to bring a never ending "cycle of disaster and rehabilitation." How can we all be so really surprised and be caught unawares by Seniang?

By this time, after so many years of first hand experience, we should have committed and prioritized time, money and resources to "hardening" or redesigning our critical infrastructure systems against the damaging effects of violent weather. We should have put in place, at the very least, the rudiments of a comprehensive disaster mitigation and management plan especially on the provincial, municipal and even barangay levels. We should have demanded more concrete action rather than media blitzes and political posturing on behalf of our leaders and more civic concern and consistent support and cooperation from all ordinary citizens,

Surprised by Seniang? Yeah right. The hard truth is we all knew that somehow and from somewhere the bad weather was coming and that it was coming sooner or later. Yet despite the warnings and the clear advantage of experience, we chose to do little except hope and pray that if the storms do come, they will somehow miraculously vaporize into nothingness or like the much feared Ruby skip daintily away from us.

And want to know what was the greatest irony of all? It was when Seniang came and decided to remind us of our folly and teach us a lesson we all so richly deserve and then we had the gall to act so surprised.

Pining For Home

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:26:00 +0000

Like many netizens all over the world, I am not particularly trustful of or comfortable with Google, that global internet presence which, whether we like it or not, insidiously intrudes into and then profits from almost everything we do in the online world. Its multinational hugeness and its pervasive dominance in all things related to cyberspace worries a lot of concerned individuals even those who regularly use its many services and who benefit from them in the personal or economic sense or both.

Yet occasionally, this internet colossus comes out with something that manages to surprise us all. Something that in this selfish, money-centered and cynical world (of which Google is, whether deservedly or undeservedly, in the eyes of many, a personification of) somehow pulls and tugs at that emotional core that hides in all of us, something that whispers and resonates to that softer side of our human nature, something that affirms that universally held hope that even in this selfish and cynical world, there is a premium still for love, friendship, generosity, loyalty and all those other pure, virtuous and noble sentiments of the human heart.

Last Dec. 14, Google Philippines published a video on You Tube that has been viewed and shared by more than a million people to date. Titled "Miss Nothing", it is basically a tribute to the more than two million Filipino overseas workers abroad who have left their families and homeland behind in order to work for a living all over the world. In less than two minutes it emotionally paints through images and music their loneliness and sense of isolation and how through the magic of modern wireless digital communication they desperately struggle to keep their tenuous links to their loved ones back home alive and meaningful.

The video, coming out just as the entire world is poised to celebrate the Yuletide week is a poignant reminder of the bitter sacrifices these Filipino expatriates have to make in their desire to secure the economic future of their loved ones and how their absence from home is impacting on the lives of the families they have to leave behind. I happen to be a member of one such family and viewing that video online struck me right where the heart is.

The last time our whole family, all five siblings and our parents, were all together for Christmas was in the mid-1980's. In the years that followed, two of my brothers left the country and now live and work permanently abroad. My two sisters got married and left Lianga to raise their own families elsewhere. As the years turned to decades, our family house here has become more of a sanctuary and repository of memories, an empty shell and no longer the bustling family home at Christmas that it used to be.

Its old, musty rooms no longer echo to the excited conversations of people rushing about. No more thudding feet shaking the old staircase as impatient legs run up and down its length while other voices vainly shout for everyone else to slow down and keep things quieter. No more bodies jostling for their places at the dinner table or quarreling for the choice cuts or slices of whatever is the piece de resistance of the Noche Buena feast.

No more huddling together for warmth during the midnight mass. No more sleepy heads trying not to doze off in the midst of the seemingly unending prayers and rituals or trying to dream of ways to find an excuse to slip outside the church and loiter with friends in the church courtyard until the mass ended. No more rushing out in the piercingly cold, early morning chill after church services and shouting Merry Christmas to all and then running home to be the first at the front door in a yearly race that never made sense to me then and even now and yet simply had to be done as a matter of tradition, senseless thought it may be.

No more mouths oohing and aahing and drowsy eyes gazing upward in wonder as Christmas rockets explode in fiery bursts of colors in the skies above the roof of the house, the fireworks display courtesy of the male siblings feverishly working next to their makeshift launch platforms in the backyard, the acrid haze of gunpowder smoke drifting in and filling the entire house. No more of the happy times spent together secured, comforted and rejuvenated by the love of family and the sense of a shared unity against the strangeness and indifference of the outside world.

Of course today, all I have to do is use my smartphone, tablet or computer to start a video chat with all of the members of my family who far away. The long, invisible tendrils of the internet can bridge continents and oceans. It brings home to us the voices and images of our loved ones even if their virtual presence is a poor consolation and an illusion at best.

Yet beggars can't be choosers. This is the great sacrifice that must be made. This is the new reality, the way we now, whether as Filipinos or as any of the many other nationalities whose own families have been torn apart by their own version of modern day diasporas, must live. This is the future we must face.

Google knows this and spares no effort to assure us that love always finds ways to connect even from the most remote and almost inaccessible places. It effectively seeks to give credence to our eternal hope that the love that binds all whether we be family, lovers or friends can and will transcend all obstacles and cross vast distances and even time itself to find its way home.

For that video alone then, I think Google Philippines deserves a pat in the back. It may never be able to shake off accusations that it is part of a ravenous and monstrous multinational corporation seeking control and domination of the internet for power and profit but, hey, it is Christmas and there are battles that can be put off and postponed for another day. For now, a wary ceasefire and a congratulatory handshake for a job well done is in order.

Let me close this post with the story of the unrepentant atheist who, despite his vocally fervent assertions that he did not believe in God, Jesus Christ or any deity for that matter, still decided to go through the motions of celebrating Christmas. While sitting at the head of the Christmas table and surrounded by his family in the family living room lavishly decked in Yuletide finery including a magnificently lighted Christmas tree, he was chided by his fellow non-believers and asked why he bothered wasting his hard earned money and precious time with what was clearly sheer nonsense.

With a smile and a roguish wink, he replied, "It is all bullshit really but any holiday that celebrates love for family and for all humanity can't be that bad. Never mind the theology and the philosophy. If Christmas is simply about families and all peoples celebrating love and togetherness even for a day or two then God and the Devil be damned. I am 100 percent for it!"

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Unfinished Business

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 12:26:00 +0000

Nothing irritates and distresses me more intellectually and emotionally than fellow Filipinos who should be old enough to know better and should be well-informed enough to understand clearly but who are quick to say to my face that the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution was a failed revolution because the ideals, principles and objectives it had fought for remains unfulfilled and unrealized 28 years hence.

I can be considerate of those who are too young to have been discerning witnesses if not actual participants in the crucial events of those historic few days in February of 1986 and have not bothered to really familiarize themselves with unbiased and accurate accounts of what was clearly one of the most important defining events in the recent history of this country. It is often all too easy to dismiss or, even worse, actually belittle and consider insignificant something that one does not truly understand or know enough about.

I can also disregard the fence-sitters who, 28 years ago, never did commit themselves and merely waited to see which side would prevail in the end and only then loudly proclaim themselves to be wholly, in body and spirit, to have been with the winning side from the very beginning. They did not matter three decades ago and sadly, despite their noisy protestations, still remain irrelevant to this very day.

Finally, I can discount the die hard apologists for the Marcos dictatorship who even nowadays still cling to their delusion that the more than two decades of Apo Ferdinand's authoritarian rule was the best thing that ever happened to this country, the very same people who still desperately peddle like inveterate hucksters their own revised and doctored version of the events leading to EDSA uprising. As far as they are concerned the so called Yellow Revolution will always be just an ill-advised coup d'état, a disastrous putsch that really changed and achieved nothing except unjustly removing from power the one man they all worship as the greatest leader in Philippine history.

But for the rest of us who were privileged to have truly lived through those monumental few days in February of 1986 there can be no excuse for not being able to fully understand and appreciate, after the passing of almost three decades, the true implications if not the true meaning of the EDSA people power revolt 28 years ago. For in truth, the revolution we thought we had already won then is, in reality, is still sadly being fought today and the final outcome, far from being an assured and certain victory, remains largely in doubt.

Any dedicated student of politics and history always comes to the sad yet inevitable conclusion that all revolutions and uprisings whether it is of the armed and violent kind or the peaceful and civilian-backed variety of which EDSA 1986 is the primary model, remains basically and fundamentally incomplete as a transformative event even when it has achieved its primary objective of overthrowing what may have been popularly perceived to be a tyrannical and despotic government. The period immediately following such a successful change in power is often a tumultuous and chaotic time and can plunge a nation into grave crisis and bloody conflict.

The ensuing aftermath of the wave of protests, riots and and civil wars of the so called Arab Spring in many countries in the tumultuous Middle East which began in 2010 clearly illustrates this point. The mere overthrow of a hated government or political leader rarely solves the political, economic and social problems of a country plagued by massive unrest and general discontent. As in the case of a severe yet curable physical disease in a patient, a good doctor will always be cognizant of the reality that, even with proper medication and treatment, the sufferer often gets worse before getting better, if he does survives the ordeal.

The critical difference between a failed revolution and a successful one that insures the emergence of a viable and resurgent democracy and the inevitable economic progress and prosperity that comes with that positive development is clearly the continued, widespread political awareness and vigilant, keen participation by the citizens of a country in the long, protracted and peaceful process of the rebuilding of that nation. In short, truly successful revolutions are actually continuing phenomena that virtually never end and are constantly being fought on a day to day basis in the ongoing life of a people.

If many of us who were there when the 1986 EDSA revolution was being waged now feel that that very revolution has failed us and that it has not given us the democratic utopia that we, for almost three decades now, have so desperately hoped, dreamed of and fought for then perhaps we should ask ourselves if we have since then until today have remained true and faithful to the very same ideals and principles that had motivated us to risk everything to be, if not physically but at least in spirit, with the multitudes rallying on the streets of Metro Manila and all over the country almost three decades ago, all demanding for democratic change. Have we stopped agitating and protesting too soon?

The EDSA People Power Revolt of 1986 was a desperate call to action for the Filipino people that was supposed to initiate a long and protracted process of revolutionary change that was meant to be sustained and powered by the nation's long festering hunger and yearning for true democracy and a society that was just, peaceful and truly prosperous. It was never meant to be the beginning and the end of such a struggle.

So let us stop all the finger-pointing and the blame games. The dream of EDSA 1986 continues to remain a dream to this day because we Filipinos collectively as a people have not been worthy of its legacy.

In the heady days after Marcos fled the country, we celebrated and congratulated ourselves for the victory we have not really in actuality even completely won. We left the streets, laid down the banners and stilled our voices too soon. We became complacent, blinded by the "victory" we thought we had miraculously won against overwhelming odds. Then we let the unscrupulous and the venal including all the corrupt ghosts of what was dysfunctional about our political past steal our glorious revolution from us.

Note:

I prepared this post to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution last February but inadvertently lost the draft stored in a Microsoft Word document file that got buried among many other abandoned files tucked in the innards of one of the hard drives of my desktop computer.

I was lucky to accidentally rediscover and recover it recently and decided to post it now trusting in my belief that its message remains relevant many months after it was supposed to come out.

I do apologize for my long absence from this blog, I am back and remain determined to to keep updating it and more frequently if possible. As always, I am grateful for the emails, comments and suggestions I continue to receive from readers of this blog.

I have always said that I write primarily for my own personal satisfaction (a form of therapy, if you can call it that) but I am not only flattered and emotionally gratified but also greatly humbled to know that there are people out there in cyberspace who continue to tell me (often to my surprise and wary disbelief) that I should write more.

So please keep your emails and comments coming. In more ways than one, they always brighten my day.

As a footnote, I decided to give this blog a new and hopefully more simplified, streamlined and uncluttered look. It is my hope that I have succeeded in doing so but if not, the fault is entirely mine.

The Pindang Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:17:00 +0000

I was among the more fortunate to have had the opportunity to sample a sinfully diverse selection from the cornucopia of festive culinary delights traditionally offered by most Filipinos to family members, relatives and friends for copious, if not gluttonous, consumption during the recent Christmas and New Year celebrations. That meant mouthfuls of the ever ubiquitous ham (of several kinds), repeated generous servings of pasta thick with sauces of both the red and white varieties including one or two others of an indeterminate shade in between these two extremes, countless portions of chicken thighs and wings both roasted or fried in batter and slices of fish either grilled, steamed or stewed with fresh veggies in the traditional way.

I have not even included in the first list list the obligatory chocolate and cheese cakes, whole wheat bread loaves with raisins, chocolate doughnuts, bibingkang kanin (rice cakes topped with caramelized coconut cream), empanadas (pastry stuffed with meat, vegetables and egg slices) and a multitude of other desserts and side dishes. The often excessive enthusiasm and unusual profligacy even normally frugal Filipino families put into preparing for the orgies of feasting during the Yuletide and year-ender festivities never ceases to amaze me.

Yet for the breakfasts whether it is near the end of the old year, the beginning of the new one or anytime for that matter, nothing for me still conjures the most gustatory anticipation and the exquisite mouthwatering thrill than the scrumptious, sweet-salty crunchy goodness of my mother's homemade pindang.

I have written some years ago of this sun-dried meat delicacy (see here) and have described how much a sentimental part of my rather rural and countryside lifestyle here in Lianga this quintessential Filipino dish was, is and will always be. Pindang can be made from pork meat or beef (carabao or water buffalo beef, in particular, yields a dark, chewy pindang) But the best pindang, in my view (an opinion greatly influenced by my late father), is made from the meat of the wild pig.

In my early childhood during the 1960's and 70's, these undomesticated cousins of the porkers which we used to raise in our backyard here in Lianga roamed the then still dense forests around the foothills that surrounded this town and its sister communities. Once in a while, the hunters would come to town and sell off the carcasses of the wild pigs they had shot or caught in traps along the thickly forested mountain trails. From these fierce and savagely combative, stiff-bristled, tusked versions of the more docile swine ordinary folks like me were more acquainted with came the dark meat that was highly sought after by many locals.

The pindang from the wild pig was leaner, less fatty and, therefore, tougher than those sourced from the usual pork but there was a gamey and subtle pungent flavor to it that was strangely irresistible to the taste buds unless you are one of the more picky or less adventurous souls who are repelled by its rather exotic taste and aroma. Nowadays, of course, wild pig meat is a rarity and I have no idea if there is even anyone here who still makes pindang from it.

Even Mama at present seldom makes pindang any more from freshly slaughtered pig meat (like she used to do so in the past). The reason is that the work that goes into the preparation process is as laborious as it is tedious. The meat has to be cleaned thoroughly and meticulously separated from the skin and fat layers and then sliced into thin, manageable slices. The tough and largely inedible connective tissues must also be excised using a sharp knife and a deft surgeon's touch.

The less choice and tougher cuts of pork meat may also require tenderizing which meant cutting them across the grain and then pounding the cuts to submission with a specially made meat mallet equipped with a wicked metal head whose striking surface was scored by rows of rather blunt and shallow spikes. The dull, pounding sound it made when used had a rather ominous, emphatic thud to it that usually caused me, as a young lad, to shudder every time with a vague sense of apprehension.

The meat slices are then marinated in equal amounts of salt and sugar finished off with a dusting of choice spices and then set out to dry for a day or so in the hot sun and warm air on improvised frames made of chicken wire and bamboo supports which were hanged from vacant clotheslines. When sufficiently dried to a dark hue and hard waxy consistency, they were then packed into sealed plastic containers and stored in the refrigerator, ready anytime to be pan fired or broiled in charcoal when desired.

Now in her seventies, Mama has ingeniously found a way to let us, her children and grandchildren, enjoy pindang with the minimum of fuss and and effort. When visiting the city, she buys from meat shops several kilos of pork belly meat cut bacon style into long and thin strips. She marinates the meat and then dries them in the sun in the usual way. Served piping hot after being deep fried in oil, this new version of the classic pindang is now a much sought after taste treat whenever our family gets together.

Crisp to the bite and golden-brown like bacon, the hint of sweetness is contrasted by the slight salty tang, the whole gamut of flavors enhanced by the juicy fat layers in the meat. It is not, of course, the classic pindang of old but it is a more than worthy approximation or substitute for an old yet beloved meaty breakfast treat whose rustic yet seductive appeal continues to wow the taste buds of generations past and present in this part of the world.

Christmas Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 13:13:00 +0000

It has been reported in the American news media the past week or so that an elementary school in Frisco, Texas in the United States has banned the use of Christmas trees within its premises and has also forbidden students to use the colors red and green in its annual winter party. The principal of the school explained that the the local Board of Education is enforcing the policy that "no religious belief or non-belief shall be promoted by the district and its employees" and that the school "didn't want to offend any families and since each family donates money (to the party), (it) feels that this is the best policy."

The ban surprisingly came just after Texas Governor Rick Perry signed recently into law the so called Merry Christmas Bill which essentially allows students and school staff to freely discuss and celebrate holidays as they please. Many parents and concerned Texas residents have been outraged and have angrily spoken up to condemn what they felt was political correctness carried to the extreme by the administrative staff of the Nichols Elementary School .

In Lianga like everywhere else in the Philippines and in most Christian nations all over the world, nothing else epitomizes and symbolizes the Yuletide season than the ubiquitous Christmas tree. In this town, it is even a more common component of the traditional Christmas dressing-up of homes than the more indigenous Filipino parol (Christmas star) or belen (nativity crèche or tableau), a fact that quickly is obvious to someone who takes the time to go around and visit the houses of relatives, friends and acquaintances here this Yuletide season.

I have always been fascinated since early childhood with Christmas trees and have wondered even as a young boy how something so clearly alien and foreign to the early founding cultures of this nation can be so quickly accepted and assimilated by us Filipinos as an essential requirement of our contemporary Christmas celebrations. After all, what do trees of spruce, fir or pine have to do with this tropical country? Especially the ones bedecked in twinkling lights, ribbons, red balls and other trimmings, candy canes, angel and reindeer figurines, and whose evergreen branches gleam with painted glitters and the simulated dusting of fake snow and ice.

Most historians point to 16th century Germany as the time and place for the first verifiable records detailing the use of decorated trees to commemorate and symbolize Christmas. Apparently the practice quickly spread through Europe and Great Britain. In the then English colonies of North America which would eventually become the United States, German immigrants introduced and promoted the custom and Yule trees become part and parcel of the Christmas lore and legend in that nation. American colonization of the Philippines in the early 20th century and more than a century of American influence ensured that Filipinos became quickly enamored of Yule trees, however patently strange and absurd they must have originally been to our forbears.

These same experts and most folklorists speculate that the first use of Christmas trees was a consequence of early pagan or animist religious beliefs (adopted and integrated later into Christianity) which include the worship of trees and tree groves associated with mythic gods and other supernatural beings. In the Philippine context, the belief in tree spirits and other unnatural creatures both benign and malignant who reside in trees and forests is also endemic in traditional cultures and such superstitions remain stubbornly embedded in the Christian and Catholic and even Muslim faiths of Filipinos today.

Thus it is easy to hypothesize why the practice and tradition of putting up Christmas trees this time of the year became so easily accepted here in this country. What better way can there be to ensure good fortune and good luck for the coming new year than the setting up in the main room of one's house of what essentially amounts to a shrine to all good spirits and the invisible yet powerful guardians of nature, enticing them to enter the home and bless and protect all of its occupants from all forms of harm and misfortune.

Ironically, the pre-Christian and therefore "pagan" origins of the practice of putting up Christmas trees (and its gradual integration into modern Christmas symbology) has led to heated debates in many countries particularly the the United States on whether the custom should be considered religious or secular in nature. For the Roman Catholic Church, however, two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have tacitly affirmed acceptance of the Yuletide tree tradition. John Paul II, in particular, has referred to it as a symbol of the birth of Christ and of "the tree of life" that has "blossomed in the desert of humanity."

Of course, in the Philippine setting, the Christmas tree tradition has adapted to the realities and nuances of both the local setting and native cultures. Fir, spruce and pine has given way to local substitutes from bamboo, palm or coconut fronds to garden shrubs of all types. In the more urbanized areas where access to living trees or shrubs is difficult, the use of artificial trees ingeniously made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), aluminum and even optical fibers is widespread. My mother's Christmas tree now is even made of Magkono (Philippine ironwood) branches artfully arranged and festooned with the traditional trimmings and glitters.

Yet no matter what type and manner these now durable symbols of the Christmas spirit are made of and how they are decorated and embellished, it is clear to me that much of our sentimental attachment to Christmas trees can be universally traced to mankind's subconscious fascination and admiration for the ability of evergreen conifers like pine, spruce or firs to not only survive yet even flourish in the harsh and freezing cold of winter. Even in the tropical clime we here in the Philippines are born and used to, no image is more evocative of Christmas than the mental picture of magnificent pine or fir trees, their branches heavy with the weight of powdery white frost, standing majestically still and silent in the midst of snow covered landscapes underneath the twinkling stars of a clear winter night.

The Christmas tree is certainly a tradition borrowed (or imposed in the opinion of many) from other cultures not our own. But perhaps, in the deepest recesses of our Pinoy hearts, just like in the hearts of all men of peace and goodwill all over the world, there has always been a universal need for a tangible symbol of the deep human longing and yearning for some degree of hope and surety that, in spite of the all the chaos, conflict and despair existing in the world through out the ages, there is always a chance for something better, something worth living and working for in the dawning of a new year and in the immediate future to come. The evergreen tree standing proudly and defying the inhospitable cold of winter is clearly a potent and appropriate icon for that.

In this sense, the Yuletide tree is both pre-Christian and Christian, both secular and religious. It is also, for us Filipinos, a tradition while seemingly anomalous, yet is also not necessarily in contradiction to the spirit of our native cultures. The decorated trees (both natural and synthetic) that stand in the living rooms of our homes in Christmastime are, in the secular sense, unintentional monuments to our innate optimism as a people, illuminated symbols trumpeting our resolve to continue to strive and move on despite all the trials and challenges we as individuals and as a people have faced and will continue face ahead. In the religious sense, they can be viewed and understood in many diverse yet not necessarily contradictory and complementary ways.

The controversy and debate on whether this custom or practice impinges upon religious freedom or the doctrine of the separation of church and state is therefore, as I see it, pointless as it is unnecessarily divisive when the priority should be for universal unity and tolerance despite our intrinsic differences as unique peoples and cultures. Christmas, both as an idea and as an actual celebration, please bear in mind, will always be for all the wide-eyed and trusting children that are in all of us irregardless of our actual ages and our individual religious or political persuasions. Myth, legend and a sense of magical wonder will always be an invaluable part of it

We should all see to it that it will stay that way always.

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My prayers and best wishes go out to all of you who have followed this blog for the past six years or so. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you wherever you may be.

Dying Beautifully

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:38:00 +0000

Seventeen years ago my father died peacefully in his sleep and in the manner he always said he wanted to leave this world - without fuss, without unnecessary pain and without subjecting his family to the rigors and demands of a death coming only after a protracted and prolonged bout with some dreaded and debilitating disease.

He had lived a rich and full life, most of it lived in the service of others. He had been a physician and healer for most of his life, a rare artist with the surgeon's knife, a tool which he wielded with such consummate skill and panache that stories of the many medical miracles he had wrought in the operating room in his time are still being told and even embellished to this day among old-timers here in Lianga.

When he went to sleep on that night many many years ago and did not wake up at dawn as he normally did for the most of his life, he was already a much loved and respected man in this town. In death, lying serenely in bed with the bed covers unrumpled and with nary a trace of discomfort on his face, he was the picture of a man who had left life with no regrets and with no hint of bitterness or ambivalence. It was the way he always wanted to go, quietly and quickly.

It has often been taken as an article of the wisdom of the ancients that a man reaps what he sows. Thus it is a sure consequence of divine justice for a man to pass on to the next world in a way that is commensurate with the manner in which he had lived his life. Bloodthirsty warmongers and merciless killers of men are believed to be fated to end their lives just as violently and in the same sickeningly bloody fashion with which they gleefully dispatched from life their helpless victims.

Those less savage in nature yet still grossly insensitive and cruelly callous to the sensibilities and emotional needs of others while still living are doomed with facing the prospect of the gut-wrenching process of being suddenly snatched from life into death alone, lonely, neglected, uncared-for and forgotten. Good and loving men, on the other hand, are said to be deserving of calm, peaceful and comfortable deaths, their passing greatly mourned and the memory of their lives and works long remembered and never forgotten.

Dying the death one deserves or wants is, of course, never a sure thing and there are many instances and ways of losing one's life which, from the point of view of those who have been left behind, offer no logical or rational context from which to draw even small comfort or emotional closure from. Take for example the death of thousands of innocents as a result of the fury of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas recently. Where indeed, many of the survivors ask, is the divine reason and justification for the seemingly random yet massively wanton destruction and loss of life foisted on this nation in the wake of that natural disaster.

Yet Jose Yu Otagan's remarkably calm and serene exit from life in the early morning hours of December 20 exactly seventeen years ago to this day is remarkable in itself because, unlike most ordinary men, he got exactly the death he wanted, desired and which he had, in his very private and intimately vulnerable moments, so earnestly asked for. Dying the way he did also helped his family and relatives cope with the sudden and crushing pain of unexpectedly losing him just when he was on the verge of enjoying the golden years of his full retirement from almost three decades of caring for the medical needs of others.

Perhaps his passing on, the way he did, does prove in one shining instance that there is indeed, in the great divine plan that determines the secret workings of the vast cosmos within which we live out our current existence, a great karmic law that does reward the virtuous and, in the same arcane, seemingly whimsical yet sure manner, punish evildoers by granting men, the death they so truly and so gloriously deserve. Perhaps, the granting of such a gift is never automatic and mandatory but set in motion by a divinely benevolent will akin to the granting of divine grace, a favor given unexpectedly yet never arbitrarily as a manifestation of the Creator's love and His recognition of a particular mortal life lived in an exemplary manner.

If that is indeed the case then perhaps, after eternal life and admittance to heaven and paradise, the grant of a beautiful death may be the gift of the greatest and inestimable value. For the dying it lessens beyond doubt the trauma of the transition from one life to the other. For the living it affirms their faith and trust not only in the Maker of all life but also in the spiritual rewards of a life lived justly and unselfishly.

In life we who still live may be different in many things but we are all the same in the inevitability of our death and exit from this life. How we die may be as important as how we live our lives and those who die beautiful deaths may be the most blessed among us.

Dangerous

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 12:55:00 +0000

A video of a recent news interview of Rodrigo Duterte, Davao City's maverick mayor, emotionally recounting his impressions of the chaotic situation in typhoon ravaged Tacloban City after he had led a group of Davao based rescue and aid workers who were among the first responders in Leyte is going viral on YouTube and Facebook. A single posting of that same video on Facebook (one of many posted and shared on that site) that I viewed yesterday evening had already garnered more than 8,000 likes and almost 2000 comments.

In that interview, a visibly emotionally wrought Duterte struggling to keep control of himself told reporters that in his view the state of national calamity declared by President Benigno Aquino III "was not enough" and that "there has to be a state of emergency because there is no local government functioning" in the stricken areas. "The people," he insisted, "have no electricity, no food, no water... all their dead are on the streets... the survivors are looking at the heavens.. Those that they depend on, the police, the army, and even the social workers of the government, all of them are victims, all of them are dead. Even the police and the army there are dead... God must have been somewhere else ... or that He forgot that there is a planet called Earth."

The short, grim monologue punctuated on a several instances by pungent swear words and curses in both Tagalog and Bisaya (which he was clearly trying in vain to suppress) ended with a fervent plea for help in any form or manner for all the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. "We have to help," he said. "No matter what, no matter how little."

Mayor Duterte is, of course, well known for his brash, unorthodox and iron-fisted management style as chief executive of the local government in Davao City particularly in his pet areas of crime prevention and control and the maintenance of local peace and order. He is widely credited and cited for making Davao, which used to be haven for criminals and lawlessness in the 1980's, one of the safest cities in Southeast Asia yet himself remains a favorite target for condemnations and criticisms from human rights groups like Amnesty International who have accused him of tacitly encouraging if not out-rightly supporting the extrajudicial killings of criminals and crime suspects within his jurisdiction.

In the past, Duterte has been portrayed as being not adverse or hesitant to using a tart tongue, or worse, a quick fistic blow or even a series of punches to chastise and discipline in public erring officials and constituents. He is so respected (or feared, depending on who you talk to) for his public image as a overzealous, trigger happy yet thoroughly effective crime fighter by many Filipinos in and outside of Davao that he has been given the sobriquet "The Punisher" in 2002 by Time magazine in reference to the fictional vigilante anti-hero character popularized in Marvel comic books.

It also seems that this rather pugnacious and pugilistic nature has been inherited by the members of the family political dynasty with which he has ruled Davao for decades. His daughter, Sarah Duterte-Carpio, who was mayor of the city from 2010 until 2013 was thrust into the national spotlight after punching in the head a regional trial court sheriff during an altercation in connection with the demolition of a shantytown in the city during her term.

In the case of the recent news interview, however, one cannot refrain from feeling sympathy (even empathy) and grudging admiration for the man. Here is a local government official from a city far away from Tacloban, obviously with his own local concerns and problems, who responded immediately, on his own initiative, to the unfolding tragedy happening in another distant city and who quickly managed to mobilize and get a rescue and assistance team into the disaster area even before other agencies and groups from the national government (who should have been there first) could get their act together.

Obviously he was among the first public officials to actually wade into the battered and ravaged ruins of what used to be eastern Leyte and among the first to personally see and evaluate, from a first person perspective, the true horror, the depth and extent of the tragedy of the massive destruction left by Yolanda. One can forgive him for becoming emotional while recalling what must have been an searingly agonizing experience. One can also forgive and ignore the curses and the swear words. He was clearly entitled to them being the man he is and in view of the raw honesty of the emotions one can clearly see in his face and demeanor as he was speaking out.

In truth, his voice in that interview was and remains among the only few from so many other official voices, mostly blurting out lame and inane excuses or trying finger-point blame, that made clear sense and which, with brutal honesty, has publicly highlighted the same unanswered questions which the Filipino nation and the rest of world have been asking since Typhoon Yolanda had come and gone. How could the national government of this country and its local officials in the Visayas region not been able to adequately and properly prepare for the onslaught of one of the strongest storms in history in spite of clear warnings and up to date forecasts from meteorologists many days before it made landfall?

Why was the initial response of the Philippine government to the devastation in the critically hit areas been so spotty and slow? Didn't high officials of the Aquino administration, including the President himself, made public assurances and even boasted on the national news media in the days before Yolanda hit that its agencies and personnel were already prepared and its logistical assets properly positioned to deal with the impending calamity?

Focus back on "the Punisher" from Davao who dropped everything and immediately organized and sent a relief team to go quickly into the disaster zone, the same man who, in order to make sure that his group can arrive quickly and safely in the Tacloban area, had supposedly given instructions for his rescue team members to shoot down any looters and lawless elements who may seek to harass or rob the Davao contingent. Duterte later however clarified that the order was to merely "shoot in the legs" and not to kill but only incapacitate would-be assailants or ambushers in self-defense.

The mayor also pointed out in the same interview to what may be a valid point and something even President Aquino in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour has acknowledged. This is the fact that the local governments in the typhoon hit communities have been virtually decimated and therefore no longer exist and has ceased to function. This means that unless the national government steps in and immediately assume de facto emergency control on the ground (for the meantime at least), there can be no quick, efficient and organized rescue, relief and rehabilitation program that can properly take off no matter how much local and foreign aid and assistance is available.

Finally, Duterte also harped in the same interview on the need for a strong local government with the political will to enforce forced evacuations of its constituents living in critically vulnerable locations in the face of a looming natural disaster such as a super typhoon. He stressed that with a proper warning from the national government and if it would be necessary, he would personally manhandle and drag residents of his city who are unwilling to evacuate from their homes to safer locations. That requires, he emphasized, that a viable contingency plan for such scenarios must already exist for local disaster preparedness officials and that a major part of it must include designated avenues and easy routes for access to already prepared and clearly identified evacuation centers and refuge areas.

There is no doubt in my mind that Davao mayor, because of the interview which has been seen by countless Filipinos all over the country, is now being seen as an admirable if not heroic figure, an exemplary leader in the face of what is perceived as a government that on all levels is coming across as inept, indecisive and incompetent. After all, he is not only making sense, he has actually done something for the victims of Yolanda and did it fearlessly well to the limits of his capability and capacity.

Why not elect this man and make him President? This is what majority of the almost two thousand comments I read to the Facebook post showing the interview video said or implied. Even those who were not so slavish in their praise had only favorable words for the man.

Why not indeed. In one sense, we do need men like Rodrigo Duterte who are strong, decisive and fearless leaders of men, leaders who are not afraid to do what must be done even if the weak-hearted and timid among us may shout caution and restraint or quibble with legalities and procedural technicalities.

In that same view, we do need charismatic and paternalistic leaders who will really lead this country and, if need be, pull us painfully by our very ears in the path and direction of the peace, progress and prosperity he envisions for us even if there are those, rightly or wrongly, who may want to go somewhere else or through a different route altogether. We need another Lee Kuan Yew (or heaven forbid, for those who are rabid Marcos apologists, another less corrupt yet no less resolute Ferdinand Marcos), a strong man with a heart of gold, a will of iron, nerves of steel and brass balls. Filipinos do still dream and fervently pray for a political savior, a Messiah, to take this country out of the clutches of the corrupt, the mediocre and the incompetent who have been misleading the nation for so long while enriching themselves and their cronies at its expense.

Rodrigo Duterte could be that man. For many he does certainly fit the bill. That is why I believe today, in my heart and mind, that the Punisher from Davao City is a very dangerous man.

Guilt

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 07:17:00 +0000

I spent most of Nov. 9 watching television. I started with CNN and later moved on to the local Filipino channels. All were, as expected, trying to outdo each other in airing the most gruesome and shocking pictures and videos of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in the central Philippines and the Visayas region particularly in the now beat-up and battered city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte.

I immediately realized how news worthy the emerging disaster in the Visayas was when I began seeing and hearing on-site reportage by noted CNN journalists Paula Hancocks and Andrew Stevens. Hancocks, in particular, was repeatedly cited by the news network in its initial breaking news bulletins as the first foreign correspondent to fly in to Tacloban and report live from there.

By early afternoon, more and more news updates have slowly began painting an emerging picture of the unprecedented extent of the horrendous destruction visited in many of the affected areas. In my mind, as well as in the minds of the millions of other Filipinos all over the country who were monitoring the news media, it gradually became clear that in almost all of the lovely, tropical islands comprising the central Philippines, a calamity of unimaginable proportions caused by what has been described by meteorologists as one of the strongest typhoons in recorded history, was become more and more apparent.

In Lianga which belongs to northern Mindanao but in actuality is much farther south of the Samar and Leyte provinces where Yolanda made its initial landfall, the passing of the storm on the early hours of Friday (Nov. 8) as it barreled its way northwest from the warm waters of the south Pacific (which had given birth to it) was manifested only by heavy rains, menacing dark clouds and occasional wind gusts which were never strong enough to cause serious damage and which quickly died down as the morning waxed and waned. In fact, by noontime, the cloudy skies thinned and the sun came out by late afternoon.

Of course, like most Filipinos living in the eastern portions of the country and who were projected by weather forecasters to have more than a decent chance of being caught in the path of Yolanda's fury, residents here were not remiss in making the necessary precautions and preparations. After all, Lianga is a coastal town facing the great Pacific Ocean. It was no stranger to storms and typhoons. Just less than a year ago, they had seen with their own eyes Typhoon Pablo (international name: Bopha) not only manhandle portions of Compostela Valley and the Davao provinces just south of them but also gave this town a thrashing it had not experienced since time immemorial.

In many towns and population centers along the eastern coast of the province of Surigao del Sur (to which Lianga belongs) from Hinatuan in the south to Tandag City in the north, people living in high risk areas were told to evacuate and seek refuge in evacuation centers the day before. Local government officials urged their constituents to stock up on the basic necessities and monitor the progress of the approaching storm.

This time, however, Yolanda merely breezed through far away at sea and without hesitation decided to strike with her full strength much farther up north. The Leyte and Samar provinces including Cebu and Bohol (still trying to recover in the aftermath of the recent magnitude 7.2 earthquake) got clobbered first as Yolanda maintained her swift rampage northwest across the center of the Philippine archipelago and eventually exited just north of Palawan just more than 24 hours after she struck land.

Chance? Fate? Divine intervention? Who knows? Perhaps high up in the sky or somewhere in the cosmos, in the infinite realms where divine beings play with the lives of mortals, a pair of dice was thrown or a ball thrown into a spinning roulette wheel and Lianga came out a winner.

Yet for many people here including myself, there is a vague, yet lingering, nagging sense of guilt. We here, after all, are alive and well and yet so many others not far away have perished or have lost many of those they loved the most. We still have our homes and our communities intact and whole while so many others not far away have seen theirs bruised, battered and even ripped to shreds. Our lives remain virtually untouched and undisturbed yet so many others not far away just had their lives turned upside down and their immediate futures made tragic, dark and uncertain.

We here in Lianga were indeed lucky and that perhaps is the reason why many of us here, whether we admit it or not, have been touched in our hearts and minds by twinges of momentary guilt undeserved though it may be. Because it is clear that we have been, in the case of Typhoon Yolanda, extremely damned lucky and, in truth, have been favored by Lady Luck so many times over in the past in the face of impending and imminent natural disasters while so many others, God only knows why, have not been as blessed or as fortunate.

40 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 08:29:00 +0000

Yesterday, the 25th day of September marked the end of the traditional forty day mourning period following the death of Lianga Vice-Mayor Robert "Jun" Lala Jr who passed away last August 17. His family, relatives, supporters and friends commemorated the event with a morning mass at the Sto. Niño Parish Church after which everyone proceeded to the Lianga public cemetery to visit and pray at his grave. The Lala family later hosted lunch for all of the mourners and guests at the Lala residence.

Casual research on my part reveals that the significance of the forty day mourning period for deceased individuals especially for Catholics in the Philippines is rooted more in custom and tradition rather than in actual religious or church doctrine. The number 40 is important in biblical numerology and is mentioned often in the Bible. The great flood of Noah, for example, lasted for 40 days and nights. The people of Israel led by Moses wandered for 40 years in the wilderness after leaving Egypt after the Exodus. Jesus was said to have fasted for 40 days after he was baptized by John the Baptist and tradition holds that he ascended to heaven only after 40 days had passed after his resurrection.

Many Filipinos whether they are Catholics or not believe that a person's soul after death wanders the world and may visit the various places that have significance in its previous life. Only after forty days will it be called to judgement and thereafter be allowed to ascend to heaven, descend to hell or be incarcerated in purgatory. This belief in so called "lingering souls" has been hotly debated in many religious circles and there are many priests and theologians to this day who still cannot agree whether it has any real basis in Christian doctrine.

The idea that souls do linger on earth for forty days after death is especially well accepted among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Many scholars however believe that this belief is rooted in pre-Christian and pagan Slavic religions and was only later on incorporated into the Orthodox faith. The Slavs are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group from which almost over half of the modern population of Europe can trace their descent.

Personally, I find the idea of being forced to earthbound exile (temporary though it may be) for more than a month after dying, as a nebulous and immaterial spirit, rather a ridiculous if not a distressing concept. If the transition from life to death is indeed, as most religions aver, merely a portal to another kind of life or plane of existence then to believe that a recently released spirit or soul has no choice but to flit here and there aimlessly akin to a lost and orphaned child for such a significant period of time, condemned obviously to merely witness unfolding events yet remain basically impotent and unable to materially change or influence them in any way seems only, in my view, to point an accusing finger to an Almighty Creator who in his omnipotence may also be a playful yet inherently cruel jokester.

Unless, of course, the ultimate purpose of all wandering spirits is merely to constantly haunt and scare the bejesus out of the majority of us, living mortals, who are clearly inveterate and unrepentant sinners, in which case I will start believing in ghosts and goblins.

Minding The Legacy

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 05:40:00 +0000

When Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel appointed and swore into office Marie Gene Lala as the newest member of Lianga's municipal council last September 9, he may have been largely motivated by the need to pay tribute to her recently deceased husband, Robert "Jun" Lala Jr, who was the town's vice-mayor when he passed away last August 17. But the governor may have wittingly done the people of Lianga a great service.

When Jun Lala died in office after just over a month of serving his second full term as head of Lianga's Sangguniang Bayan or municipal council, Dot Tejero who was the highest ranking council member automatically succeeded him to that office thus opening up a vacancy in the eight man legislative body. The law empowers the provincial governor to appoint a person to fill up the vacant position for the remaining portion of the unexpired term which ends in 2016.

In the past, the choice of who to appoint has always been subject to the pressures and requirements of political expediency and provincial governors have always used the rather discretionary nature of this particular appointing authority as an integral part of the much entrenched system of patronage politics that is a bitter and undesirable reality of the dysfunctional political system of this country. I have written a previous blog post some time ago about this which can be seen here.

In the case of Jun Lala who was much revered and respected by many here in Lianga, it appears that Gov. Pimentel, who is a party mate of the late vice-mayor in the ruling Liberal Party, may have felt less inclined to hand over such a juicy position (said to be worth, at the very least, almost P50,000 in monthly salaries and benefits for almost a full term of three years) to just any of his political henchmen and cronies here in Lianga without arousing the passionate ire of the late vice-mayor's considerable number of relatives and supporters who cannot be faulted for insisting that the vacancy be filled in by someone worthy of minding and continuing Jun Lala's political legacy.

To be charitable and fair about it, it can also be said that the governor did have much respect and felt perhaps no small degree of personal affection for the late vice-mayor and was therefore more than amendable to elevating someone to the municipal council who was not only acceptable to Jun Lala's family and supporters but also one who is clearly identified with his style and philosophy of public service

Now, I know Gene Lala personally and while she is certainly still quite young and a virtual unknown in Lianga politics, what many here don't know is that she comes, like her late husband who comes a well known political clan in Lianga, from a family and clan very prominent in local politics in the town of Sapang Dalaga in Misamis Oriental and thus is keenly attuned to the realities and nuances of being constantly in the political limelight. She is highly educated, extremely approachable, well-mannered and firmly shares many of Jun Lala's core values and principles.

I have always, as a matter of principle, spoken out against the practice of appointing, in the aftermath of the death of a serving elected official, any of his family members to vacant government positions. Such a practice in my view, is violative of the principles underlying democratic and republican governments. Public office, as I see it, is always a public trust and therefore cannot be inherited or claimed as a matter of right by virtue of blood or familial relations.

Yet in the case of Gene Lala, I may have to make an exception. Knowing the rather shadowy characters and dubious quality of the other persons and individuals here in Lianga (and most people here know who they are) who have been identified to have actively lobbied with Gov. Pimentel for the empty seat in the council, Gene is beyond doubt one of the better and wiser choices he could have made. The fact that she happens to be the wife of the late Jun Lala may actually work to her advantage because she can bank, if she needs to, on the residual popularity of her fallen husband and massive outpouring of sympathy for her and her family in the aftermath of his death.

There are parallels, of course, being drawn here in Lianga between Gene Lala and Leni Robredo, the wife of the late Jesse Robredo, the extremely popular, former secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), who was catapulted to a seat in the lower house of Congress (representing her district in Camarines Sur) in the wake of her husband's tragic death in a plane crash last year. I find such comparisons cute but trite.

What is however true in the case of both women, who have been forced by unfortunate circumstances to become neophyte politicians by popular clamor, is that they have to perform their duties and responsibilities as first time legislators under the highest of expectations and the greatest of pressures to do well. It would not be easy for both of them to now live under constant public scrutiny and being now always held up to the high standards set by their husbands' sterling political track records.

For Gene Lala, of course, it is important for her to realize that she can never be the consummate politician that her husband was. She will have to become her own man and chart her own course as a public servant in the almost three years she will have to serve while at the same time build upon the legacy of service her late husband has left behind. It is a formidable and daunting task and one that I would not have wished on anyone so unassuming and so self-effacing.

But the kind of burdens that fate often places so whimsically on the shoulders of ordinary men or women, all of us included, at critical times can be intimidatingly difficult to bear much less easy to comprehend as to their reason or cause. What really matters in the end is how well we carry all the many different crosses we all must bear as we individually trudge our own courses through life.

In Gene's case, however, she is both paradoxically blessed and cursed. On one hand there is the honor and prestige as well as the perks and benefits of public office. Yet she must also face up to the crushing responsibility of living up to the extraordinary legacy of public service her husband had left behind. What Jun Lala had wanted to accomplish for Lianga is now essentially her personal responsibility to eventually give tangible substance and concrete reality to.

The people of Lianga can only hope and pray that she will be, in the months and years ahead, be proven more than equal to the enormous task set before her.

Dengue

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:15:00 +0000

It used to be that in Lianga a bout with fever unless it was determined to be really a high grade one where one's body temperature rises to at least 39 degrees centigrade or higher, it was considered more of a nuisance rather than anything really serious. Nothing that regular doses of paracetamol or any of the other antipyretic drugs that help reduce fever cannot remedy in conjunction with rest and increased fluid or water intake.

The exception, of course, was made for children (especially the very young), the elderly and those already in poor health who even in the more remote and far flung barangays or villages are immediately rushed to the local health center or hospital. That is, if their families have the financial resources and the capability to do so. Otherwise, it may be up to the local mananambal (the local folk healer or practitioner of traditional medicine) to come up with some cure hopefully by using the appropriate herbal remedies and not some form of arcane yet useless sorcery.

Nowadays, any instance of elevated body temperature in both adults and children can now be a cause for panic. This is because there has been, for the past few months, an outbreak of dengue fever in this town and this health scourge has claimed several lives including that of the municipal vice-mayor of Lianga, Robert "Jun" Lala Jr., who passed away last August 17.

Now dengue, for those who know little or nothing about this deadly tropical disease, results from the bite of mosquitoes from the genus Aedes particularly the A. aegypti which is said to be responsible for transmitting the virus that causes the fever. After an incubation period that can last from a few days to two weeks, the infected individual will often experience high fever, muscular aches and pains and perhaps a measles-like rash.

If the patient survives the critical phase where there may be complications like fluid accumulation in the abdomen and chest, gastrointestinal bleeding, shock or (if dengue hemorrhagic fever develops as it occasionally does in about 5 percent of cases) severe internal bleeding then recovery begins to occur after about four to seven days. Children often suffer a higher risk of complications although paradoxically the initial symptoms may be mild.

Mortality rates in the case of dengue cases are said to range from just one to five percent but it is clearly prompt and competent medical care that can spell the difference between pulling through and dying from it. In rural and provincial areas like Lianga where specialized care for seriously ill dengue patients including blood transfusion facilities are not available, that can be a major problem.

In the week following the death of Vice-Mayor Lala, an epidemiology team sent by the Region XIII regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) in Butuan City had detected critically high levels in the population densities of mosquitoes noted for the transmission of the dengue virus in many areas around the town. The same team had recommended fogging operations which was carried out a few days later but even then they still warned residents that the outbreak will continue unless repeated fogging operations are scheduled and that local health authorities lead and assist the local townspeople in identifying and cleaning up mosquito breeding sites.

The tragedy, of course, of the dengue outbreak in Lianga was not only in the several deaths that have been clearly attributed to the disease but also in the fact that the municipal government and local health officials have been inexplicably slow in responding to the emerging health crisis when it first started. It is, for example, recommended procedure for municipal health offices in the event of a confirmed dengue case in their areas to immediately raise local alert levels, to quickly institute monitoring procedures and undertake preemptive measures designed to identify and sanitize dengue hot spots in their localities. If so needed, the technical assistance of the DOH regional office could have been sought and requested.

In the case of this town which has not been exactly a stranger to similar but more milder and smaller outbreaks in the past, it would have been logical for the local health office under Dr. Leo Sarmen, to quickly move to seek the assistance of the municipal government (under his brother, Mayor Roy Sarmen) and the DOH regional office in Butuan in order to fight and nip the outbreak in the bud before more local residents could have been infected and lives lost. Instead, I had been reliably informed that the DOH epidemiology personnel came to Lianga on their own initiative and only after receiving reports of the dengue cases here directly from concerned local residents.

Perhaps the majority of the townspeople here should also share part of the blame for the general indifference that allowed the outbreak to grow and eventually claim lives. In the aftermath of the initial fogging operations supervised by the DOH, there were reports of locations within the town that were confirmed to be ideal mosquito breeding sites. In one incident, technicians handling the fogging machines found in the backyard of one of the houses just a short distance from my own residence a large pile of assorted glass bottles, many of them containing water residue which could provide an optimum breeding environment for mosquito larvae.

At this time, the number of dengue cases within the municipality are said to be tapering off and but even local health officials are not keen on declaring it as being over any time soon. They are however hoping that the number of dengue victims and fatalities from the disease will eventually fall to zero as more and more local residents have taken the DOH health alerts to heart and have began to clean up their immediate environments aside from making sure that suspected dengue patients quickly get the specialized medical attention and care that they may urgently need.

Personally, I now see the recent and ongoing dengue outbreak in Lianga as a sobering lesson in how lives can be needlessly lost and an entire town thrown into helpless panic because of a local government and its health officials who were caught napping and unprepared in the face of a sudden public health crisis. It also illustrates pointedly how a more civic minded local population could have helped avert a serious disease outbreak simply by cleaning up its immediate environment and observing the most basic of sanitation procedures - actions that, as individuals and as members of any self-respecting and health-conscious community, people here should have been doing regularly, as a matter of course.

Gone Too Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 11:09:00 +0000

As Christians we are taught as an article of faith that the ways of God are often mysterious and far beyond our limited and mortal comprehension, that there are many painful hurtful things and events that transpire in our everyday lives that may prove difficult for us to accept as part and parcel of the divine plan that we believe determines the direction and course of our existence in this world.

One such event was the passing away of Lianga Vice-Mayor Robert Lala Jr. (known affectionately to his relatives, friends and constituents as Jun or Junjun) last August 17, 2013 as a result of complications arising from a short but deadly bout with dengue fever. His death was a sobering shock to all those who knew him because there were few men like him who lived life to the fullest and who found joy and laughter in everything he did.

I knew Jun intimately not only because he was a first cousin but because we virtually grew up together. In Lianga and later on in Cebu City, I saw him grow up from being a lovable, tousled-haired and pint-sized kid with no hint of the seeds of greatness laying dormant inside him to the much beloved and much esteemed public servant that he eventually would became. In the course of the long and difficult process that characterized the period between these two different stages in his life, Jun never lost the innate optimism, the unquestioning and limitless zest for life and the yen to help others that so distinguished him from his contemporaries and for which, in my view, he will always be remembered.

Like so many people who knew Jun when he was much younger, I could never have anticipated or could have predicted that he would metamorphose into the effective politician and much loved public figure he would later become. Perhaps we were too distracted by his too obvious love for fun and laughter and the fact that in public he was known more for his abilities as the natural comic, the consummate all-round entertainer and the perennial life of the party. It seemed then to those who thought they knew him best that he was not serious enough and lacked the focus, the clear goal and the commitment to that goal that was necessary to become truly successful in life.

In 2007, he quickly proved to everyone who had underestimated him that underneath the fun-loving and seemingly unpromising exterior he had the guts, the motivation and the vision to become, in his time, Lianga's most promising political leader. In him everything came together, the affable easygoing personality, the hereto once underestimated yet naturally astute political skills, the dedication to public service and a manifest sense of destiny, all giving rise to a meteoric ascent to political preeminence yet unprecedented in Lianga's long and colorful history.

After gaining a seat in the municipal council just barely six years ago with the highest number of votes an aspiring council member had ever gotten in any previous local election in Lianga, Jun Lala began to distinguish himself not only as politician's politician but also a leader with that most rare and sought after of qualities; a politician who felt compelled to adhere to a deeply held core of moral and ethical principles that exclusively guided and determined all his actions and the direction and thrust of his public life.

In many instances, the compulsion to do what he felt was right even when it went against the norm and against the needs of political expediency would lead to him being beset by obstacles and challenges (and in one case at least caused threats to be raised against his own life) which he could have easily avoided had he been content to remain merely "one of the boys". That he was still able to inspire and mold, when needed, an effective consensus among his political peers and achieve many of the goals he had set for himself and the municipal council he would eventually lead and then go on to become Lianga's most outstanding municipal vice-mayor to date was a clear testament to the persuasive force of his personality and the latent leadership skills that many thought he never had.

He would also from time to time bank on his considerable populist appeal and personal popularity especially from Lianga's outlying barangays and communities to be able to push through policy initiatives and government programs that more timid and tentative town officials could not dare to suggest much less espouse and actively support. This vast reservoir of goodwill and mutual affection among the ordinary people was something he carefully and meticulously nurtured and in many critical instances it was able provide him with the political clout that few municipal officials in this town both past and present ever had.

The massive outpouring of grief and the deeply felt sense of loss among the townspeople of Lianga that Jun Lala's sudden demise generated was humbling in terms of both its scope and intensity. In the wake held at his home in Lianga that lasted for over a week, the multitudes came, the crowd filling the house to bursting and spilling over into the lawn and the street beyond it, to pay their respects, mourn his passing and condole with his family. They came from near and far, from all walks of life, and all of them expressing the same feelings of great personal loss.

On the last night of his wake last August 25 , thousands filled the cavernous interior of Lianga's municipal gymnasium in order to pay their last respects to him and his memory. It was an event never before witnessed in Lianga, a spontaneous manifestation of the affection and respect for a fallen leader, the depth and breadth of which caught even his family and close relatives by surprise. Many of those who came stayed until the early hours of the next day and still chose to accompany the massive throng of mourners who joined the funeral procession that finally laid him to rest at a cemetery plot he himself had acquired over a year ago on the southern end of Lianga public cemetery, a location close to to the town's sandy shoreline and sheltered by coconut trees, aptly appropriate as his final abode because of the serene beauty of its windy isolation.

Jun had clearly touched a multitude of lives in one way or the other. He had been kind to others and had helped many when they needed help. Their grief was touchingly honest as well as intensely personal. Yet for the majority of them, Jun Lala was also the immediately recognizable face of an honest, conscientious and concerned local government looking after their needs and fighting for their welfare, something that many of us who have become jaded and inured to the rampant corruption and venality in the public service have come to believe, before he entered public service, no longer existed.

His death has in effect become a double tragedy for the people of Lianga. On one hand, there was the personal loss felt for a man who was loved because he was a good man who loved others and who took upon himself the opportunity to serve his community unstintingly and wholeheartedly. Yet in life he also helped revive and restore our faith in honest and responsible governance, in the hope that good and principled political leadership is possible when the right men and women are elected to office. With him gone from us, therefore, we have come to realize how much more than the man we have lost. We have lost a symbol, a rallying point and a visible embodiment in human form of all our hopes and dreams for a better and brighter Lianga.

In the end, the question of why such a tragedy has occurred and how it can be explained, understood and finally accepted begins to pale in significance and importance as we, who Jun Lala has left behind, begin to address the more relevant issue. How do we insure that his life and his personal and political legacy will continue to have meaning and relevance in the weeks, months, years and decades to come. For it is not enough that we all merely mourn and grieve for his memory. Surely there is something more to remembering him than just that.

Perhaps it behooves us who are still here to realize that Jun's death points us to the very reason why he was so loved and esteemed and why his passing away has become so much of a personal tragedy for all of us. During his short yet remarkable public life, Jun has always and consistently made it a deeply personal mission the unenviable task of convincing his constituents that the greatness of Lianga, whether in the memories of the past or as a much desired goal for the future, has never depended and will never depend solely on the quality of its political leadership but more importantly on the collective character and attitude of its people.

Time and time again, he would decry the worrisome predilection of the local people to put too much of the burden of leading Lianga to progress and prosperity on the shoulders of its elected leaders. He had always believed that the town in particular and the country in general will never truly move on and achieve true growth and development unless the ordinary people take up the cudgels themselves, endure and make sacrifices, and do their share in the massive work that has to be done.

In countless public speeches and in private talks with friends and confidants, he has always made emphatically clear his conviction that it is never enough for a community or a nation to have good leaders. It must ideally also have good citizens who are all committed not only to their own small and petty concerns but even more so to the achievement of what is to the greater good and what was in the greater interest and the better welfare of all.

Much has been said about Jun Lala, the man and the public servant, as being in the same mold as that of another deceased yet also beloved government official, in particular the late Jesse Robredo, the former Secretary of the Interior and Local Government, whose first death anniversary was incidentally commemorated just a day or so of Jun's passing away. Both were much admired political leaders who died tragically too young and who were widely known for their personal integrity, humility, charisma and dedication to a brand of people-centered "tsinelas" public service that runs counter to the arrogance, amorality and corruption that is the norm in the political life of this country.

Indeed we must mourn and grieve for such good men and good public servants because in life and even in death they gave us more than hope in our country and its future. They have shown us clearly and by the vivid example of their lives how our own lives, whether we be leaders ourselves or merely ordinary citizens, should be really lived. We mourn then because deep down inside, in our hearts of hearts, we see in them our very own selves at our very best, at our most noble and at our most inspiring.

If and only for that very reason then, the question of why Jun Lala had been taken so soon from us can be set aside and laid to rest like him. His life of only four decades and of it just less than a decade lived in the arena of public service does seem startlingly short and abrupt and even incomplete. But in one sense it was more than enough.

More than enough to awaken us and open our eyes, more than enough to shake us out of our lethargy and apathy, more than enough to inspire and motivate us to become better and greater than what we already are and more than enough to make us realize that we too can rise to excellence if we choose to do so. Good men and good leaders may come and go but their memory and legacy lives and continues in those who follow and emulate them. Jun will forever continue to live in those who, in tribute to him and in recognition of his greatness, will strive to live by the same principles he had always lived by and in doing so move heaven and earth to see to it that all of his hopes and dreams for Lianga will finally come true.

Too Fast And Gone Awry

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 05:04:00 +0000

If you are a visitor or tourist planning to visit Surigao del Sur, then it would be fair to assume, if you have done your research or have asked those in the know about the places and locations worth visiting here, that you would come up with a list at the top of which would be the names of the province's top three tourist destinations. That would be the Tinuy-an Falls of Bislig, the Enchanted River of Hinatuan and the Bretania Islands of San Agustin.

The first two on the list have their own unique allure and particular points of interest but I have always felt a more sentimental attachment to the islands (or more accurately islets) of Bretania for the simple reason that the jump-off point for reaching the islets is just a half-hour's drive from Lianga where I live and because my paternal grandparents were actually from the small barangay or village of Salvacion which is just thee kilometers away from Barangay Bretania which happens to be the coastal village on whose coastal waters the now fabled islets lay scattered like a loose spray of emerald green jewels floating on a blue-green sea.

In the past few years, Bretania has seen tumultuous changes brought about by the sudden influx of visitors drawn initially by word of mouth to the pristine and unspoiled beauty of its islets, their white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. Nowadays, of course, news about Bretania on the internet and aggressive advertising on the part of local tourism agencies had seen a dramatic increase in the volume of tourist arrivals.

In just over half a decade, I have seen the barangay explosively transformed from a quiet and sleepy fishing village to a hodgepodge of beach resorts crowding each other along a stretch of sandy coastline. The seaside area had been cleared of most residential houses years ago and most of the locals relocated to a new village site a short distance farther inland. Where the old houses used to be is now a patchwork of new infrastructure development ranging from the crude and simple to the elaborately ambitious as the area's landowners (both old and new) vie and compete with each other for what is clearly a burgeoning tourist trade.

I have written several posts in the past about Bretania and its lovely islets (see here, here and here). But I have not yet updated the readers of this blog on how the growing popularity of the islets and the resulting influx of visitors eager to sample its unique seascape and other scenic attractions have changed the area. These changes have, in my view, sadly not been all for the better.

As one with extensive familial roots and deep emotional ties to the area, I have always been in favor of developing the Bretania islets tremendous tourism potential. Like so many of its very own local people, I had envisioned many years ago the Bretania area as the nucleus of a growing and expanding tourism industry that would take advantage of this part of the Surigao del Sur province's unmatched beaches and unrivaled coastal scenery.

But the tourism development would have to be tailored, in the view of many concerned residents here including myself, to insure that it would primarily benefit the local people and the local economy while at the same time preserve the integrity and viability of the same natural wonders and the unique natural environment that have made this part of the world a veritable tropical paradise. In both cases, the present situation in Bretania may be not proceeding exactly as it ideally should. I have been visiting the place every now and then and I have seen with my own eyes what seems to me like a tourism destination expanding too fast and in what may be the wrong directions.

Some years ago, I had the privilege of having been invited to a series of consultative meetings called by the municipal government of San Agustin (which has overall jurisdiction over Barangay Bretania) and attended by the many private landowners, barangay officials and other parties which have private and community interests in the Bretania area. In the vigorous discussions that characterized the said meetings, a series of basic points in a general tourism development plan was agreed upon which was envisioned to be later formally embodied in a special municipal ordinance.

The dominant consensus then was to adopt a strict eco-tourism model to whatever tourism infrastructure may be built within the barangay and its surrounding area. All efforts must be made to protect and preserve the pristine condition of the local scenic attractions and limit the impact of any infrastructure development on the natural environment. Adequate sanitation and waste disposal facilities and procedures were to be given top priority by the municipal government and barangay officials. Landowners also agreed that a portion of their landholdings will be utilized for an access road that will traverse the western side of the barangay opposite that of the shoreline thus opening all areas within the community and connecting them to the main national highway.

Today, little of what was agreed upon in those meetings has been implemented. Instead, the mad rush by local stakeholders and outside investors to put up resorts and visitor facilities and take advantage of the area's growing popularity as a tourist destination has led to an every man for himself situation where the big losers are the natural environment and the area's native residents while the local municipal and barangay governments have inexplicably stood idly by.

A quick tour of Barangay Bretania today will clearly show this sad state of affairs. The main road connecting the village to Barangay Salvacion and the national highway remains a narrow, poorly maintained, three kilometer stretch of dirt road pockmarked here and there by potholes and mud puddles. The promised access road along the western side of the resorts development area adjacent to a protected mangrove forest remains unfinished and that what has so far been completed is no more than an undulating ribbon of poorly compacted dirt suited more to four-wheel drive vehicles than anything else.

Despite the heavy visitor traffic especially on weekends, the seacoast side, lined with beach resorts of every type, is a confusing, topsy-turvy mess, the weed-choked access trails winding through coconut trees and open spaces cluttered with unused building materials and debris. There seems to be little order or organization evident or proof of a coherent, generalized development plan being strictly followed.

The poor state of the existing access roads and trails particularly to those resorts and real estate properties located farthest from the national highway have also led to complaints by the owners and developers of these same properties. They say that it is only the more easily accessible areas who are cornering most of the visitor traffic and that some of these resorts near the entry point have actually been putting up barriers and fences that discourage vacationers and visitors from proceeding further inland.

Near the entrance to the development area, there is evidence of extensive building and earth moving activities. This area is adjacent to the La Entrada Resort said to belong to Manuel Alameda, the current provincial vice-governor of Surigao del Sur and another resort still under construction said to be being funded by Philip Pichay, the incumbent Congressional representative of the province's 1st district.

Both resorts (high-end facilities by local standards) have been panned by concerned local residents and environmentalists who are worried that the unrestricted expansion of resort facilities into what are essentially mangrove forest reserves which should be protected by law may have dire, negative environmental consequences. These same critics have voiced the opinion that the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should be more vigilant in seeing to it that the Bretania area's sensitive flora and environmental ecosystems are shielded from improper and perhaps too aggressive infrastructure development.

It is evident, that the quick rush by many landowners and resort developers in Bretania, who may have felt hemmed in by the limited space available for the expansion of their visitor facilities, to start building structures on the mangrove sites surrounding the main barangay site and shoreline may be the best proof that the original plan for an eco-tourism model for the development of the entire Bretania area has been practically trashed. What is even more worrying is not only have the local governments having jurisdiction there have allowed this to happen but that it may be high government officials with financial interests and real estate investments in Bretania who are at the forefront of this incursions into what should be protected areas.

The current situation in Bretania and the fabled islets it shelters is, in my view, very clear. The present and future potential of this now increasingly popular scenic attraction and vacation destination is limitless and but that can only be sustained for the future if the municipal and barangay governments there work hand in hand with landowners, stakeholders, investors and the local people. They all must come up with a coherent, viable and doable development plan for the area, one that seeks not only maximum profits from the visitor trade but, more so, one that preserves the natural beauty and allure of the islets and the very land and coastline that sustains and protects them.

I was in Bretania some days ago and it happened to one of those glorious, sunny mornings. From the seashore of the village where the large, wooden motorboats with their bamboo outriggers stretched out like bird wings lay moored, their gaily painted hulls bobbing up and down in tune with the gentle surf, the islets reveal themselves, gleaming bluish-green in the near horizon, their beaches gleaming like white, misty ribbons in the distance.

These same boats will be, their owners and operators were hoping, soon chugging their way to sea and around the islets, their decks loaded with eager passengers. But the competition between boat operators for paying customers is fierce and just as unrelenting as the mad scramble between resort owners to draw in visitors to stay in their cottages and sample their restaurant fare.

As I made my way home and out into the highway, a convoy of cars and vans began snaking their way in, slowly and in a single file along the Salvacion-Bretania road. Yes, Bretania is indeed becoming increasing popular and developing fast. The question that many here is asking is at what cost and if it is the kind of development that its people want or really need now and for the future.

Remembering Dick and Jane

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 28 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Surprisingly, I still can clearly picture them to this very day in my mind's eye. Worn, a bit dog-eared, musty smelling yet well cared for. Thin, paper-bound readers based on the Dick and Jane series of reading books some versions of which were then popularly used by Catholic private schools in the late 1960's and the early 1970's.

I was at that time just barely five years old and they were my first introduction to the world of reading. The books belonged to my older brother and sister who were already in the first and second grades of elementary school but when the sudden mood would strike me, I would clumsily leaf through them, look at the brightly colored illustrations and slowly trace one finger over the large printed text below them while trying to silently mouth out the words.

Look at Dick and Jane. See them play. See Spot run. Dick and Jane were, of course, brother and sister. Spot was their dog. Puff was their cat. Sally was their baby sister. Together with their parents and friends they lived happy and fun lives in a neighborhood that was reminiscent of my childish understanding of what was the best of post-World War II, white and middle-class, suburban Middle America.

It helped that the illustrations I saw that were idealized depictions of an America of a long and bygone era, of a time even before I was born because it was essentially the same America I saw affirmed in the old movies I occasionally watched with the rest of the family in the movie houses of that time and on late afternoon motion picture reruns on the newfangled color television set our immediate neighbor in the city owned and whose flickering images we could barely make out when we stood on tiptoes and peered into their living room from our vantage point just outside their first story window.

Nowadays, of course, the Dick and Jane readers are considered passé. In an age that stresses political correctness, racial equality and multiculturalism, they have become embarrassingly irrelevant and culturally insensitive. They have value only as collectible historical curios and it is said that well preserved first editions of these books can be worth $200 or more.

Whatever the deficiencies and inadequacies these readers had, they did much to arouse my interest in reading. These readers were the first to beckon and introduce me the wonderful world of books. They cajoled and enticed me to set my then small, wobbly and ungainly feet firmly on a path of reading and learning I was never to venture away from. They started me on a habit that eventually became a consuming obsession that was to open my mind to a vast and unlimited universe of untapped knowledge and boundless imagination.

I remembered the Dick and Jane books when I learned yesterday that President Benigno Aquino III had just signed into law Republic Act 10556 which declares every November 27 of every year as "Araw Ng Pagbabasa" (Day of Reading) which seeks to highlight government programs to promote literacy and reading skills among students all over the country. November 27 is actually the birth date of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., the President's father who everyone knows is considered a national hero in the Philippines for his opposition to the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970's and the early 1980's. He was well known as a book lover and he would have been extremely pleased to have his birth anniversary commemorated every year in such a manner.

I find it sadly ironic that, in a world where practically all of the greatest flowerings of of human creativity in the field of literature and the written word since the dawn of recorded history can be had and made available in an instant to almost anyone anywhere, the habit of reading as well as the inclination to read has become so largely passé and irrelevant like the Dick and Jane books I was once so enthralled with.

Yet the youth of today in this country, except for a few and lucky minority, have only disdain if not contempt for the written and printed word. They prefer the multi-sensual and multimedia titillation and appeal of cable television and the internet. They prefer empty, virtual experiences that leave nothing to the imagination, that fail to stimulate the mind and force it to think and ponder. They have essentially become mental sponges absorbing all yet producing little that is singularly creative or original in return.

It is high time that the government should try to encourage and promote healthy reading habits in its schools and among all Filipinos irregardless of their age and level of education. It does not matter if one has to thumb through the pages of real books or merely flick through with a finger on a touchscreen or through a mouse cursor on a computer monitor the virtual pages of an e-book or e-magazine. What matters is that everyone, particularly the young, rediscovers once more the pleasures, the wonders and rewards of reading.

Nowadays, in fact, I do most of my reading on an e-book reader on a tablet PC. That is not because I like it more that way but because it is easier (and cheaper!) to get new books and other reading items through digital files than through the actual acquisition of the real materials themselves.

But there is nothing that appeals to me more and gives me more tangible and tactile pleasure than the feel of an honest to goodness, real book in my hands. Ah! The warm, smooth and papery texture of the pages, the clean, fresh, inky scent of new books or the musty yet appealing aroma of well-worn but well-loved and much thumbed-though ones. In the end, these are all the same to me.

Merely an inviting prelude, a sensual appetizer to the unfettered worlds of fun, adventure and learning that I am about to jump heedlessly into.

Unsaid

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:26:00 +0000

As many here expected, May 13 which was the day Filipinos here in Lianga and all over the Philippines trooped to the polling places to vote for their favored candidates in this year's general elections would not be allowed to dawn without the local leadership of the CPP-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front) and its armed wing, the NPA (New People's Army), taking the opportunity to come out with a formal statement outlining their common stand and viewpoint on the then approaching electoral exercise.

Just a day or so before election day and in the darkness of the early dawn, printed leaflets were scattered on the streets at certain strategic points in Lianga by unknown persons. The leaflets upon examination contained a two page missive purported coming from the hand of Maria Malaya who is said to be the spokesperson for the NDF Northeast Mindanao Chapter. Malaya is said to be the partner of Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos who is better known for his role as the designated spokesman for the NDF in Mindanao.

In Bisaya and couched in the rigidly formalistic style favored by the revolutionary left and peppered here and there with the familiar catchwords alluding, as always, to the "reaksyunaryong eleksyon" and the "dagkung burgesyang komprador", the message expressed the deep skepticism with which the revolutionary movement sees the last elections and all elections for that matter conducted under the present "madaugdaugong sistema" (oppressive system) as a means for transforming Philippine society for the better. Yet Malaya stressed that the CPP-NDF-NPA supports the right of the Filipino people to democratically choose their leaders and has called upon progressive minded voters to come out and vote for those who they believe can represent their interests in the government, reactionary and corrupt it may be.

It also warned politicians that the movement is closely watching them and that any attempts on their part to subvert the political process and cheat voters of their votes will result in sure punitive action against them by the New People's Army. The same warning was given to the officials and personnel of the Commission on Elections, to all public school teachers who will man the polling centers and the police and military troops guarding them to do their constitutional duty and make sure that the true voice of the people will be heard and not to allow themselves to be used for "hugay na diskarte" (dirty tricks) or "dagdag-bawas" (vote subtraction or padding) and any other attempts by corrupt politicians to manipulate the election results. Malaya adds that the revolutionary left is open to receiving complaints and reports on incidents of electoral cheating from all sectors of society. The message ends in an exhortation for Filipinos to vote for those who will truly fight for the urban and rural poor, the protection of the environment and human rights.

If indeed the leaflets were indeed the handiwork of the CPP-NDF-NPA (and there is little doubt that they were otherwise the revolutionary movement would have taken steps to deny or refute their existence) it can be said that there is really nothing new and unique about their contents except for the fact that they were specifically crafted to deal with the onset of the May 13 elections. The local folks here have seen and read similar written statements said to have come from the leadership of the communist insurgency and, more or less, they have been singularly similar in tone and content. It would have been more more arresting and interesting and more importantly relevant if that particular message had chosen to deal with and discuss thoroughly the many negative issues and unanswered questions that the insurgent movement had to confront in the months and weeks leading to last elections and, in retrospect, the many past electoral exercises this country has had in its recent past.

What is really the CPP-NDF-NPA's official policy on the enforced collection by its local forces of the so called "permit to campaign" or "permit to win" fees from political candidates seeking to campaign within their areas and strongholds? According to military intelligence sources in a recent news article, NPA rebels were able to extort at least P26 million pesos from politicians nationwide during the recent campaign period. The amount supposedly fell short of the P500 million pesos the insurgency had set as a target. What is the real story on this?

What really happened in the April 20 "ambush" by NPA forces of the convoy of Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie Guingona which resulted in the killing of two of her aides? What about the allegations that local NPA forces in many areas all over the country have stood idly by while corrupt politicians and members of political dynasties have ruthlessly bulldozed their way to political power in both local and national positions. Is it true that local guerrilla fronts of the revolutionary forces have actually if secretly supported the candidacies of these politicians and continue to have ties to them in return for financial and material support for rebel forces?

On a broader level, what about the issue of the so called "revolutionary taxes" that rebel forces all over the country have been known to "collect" from businessmen and business enterprises operating in what the revolutionary movement considers its areas of control and influence? The facilities and equipment of businesses unable or unwilling to cough up the money have been burned, damaged and destroyed by insurgents in the past. Where is the line between collection and extortion and between "revolutionary taxation" and plain and simple banditry? Or does such a line really exist for the movement in the first place?

The communist insurgency despite the obsolete and discredited ideology that it professes to be fighting for continues to exist in the Lianga area and in the many other areas all over the country because it feeds on and draws its strength and reason for existence from the massive poverty and lack of viable economic opportunities especially in the rural countryside. In these places, it is often the only organized force that the rural people can run to for assistance against the many forms of social injustice and oppression that they are often the victims of at the hands of the members of the economic elite assisted and abetted by an often corrupt or indifferent government and its security and police forces.

Yet it too, if it wants to remain relevant and viable in today's rapidly changing and globalized world, must be accountable for its actions to the very people it has always projected itself as fighting for. There is a universal moral code to which even armed revolutionary movements (Marxists and atheists they may be) must adhere and hold itself to and fidelity to this code of conduct determines to a large extent whether such a movement will ultimately win popular support and achieve victory in the long run. An insurgency fighting for justice and human rights cannot resort to banditry and similar criminal activities as a matter of policy whether on a temporary or permanent basis without losing the very legitimacy and moral ascendancy it is seeking to achieve in its fight against what is supposed to be a cruel, unjust and immoral government and political system.

In the end the missive from Maria Malaya, if indeed it came from her, answers no questions and offers nothing new or substantial information concerning the current mindset of the leadership of the CPP-NDF-NPA. Like the campaign spiels and slogans mouthed by the very same politicians the revolutionary movement so publicly despises before the May 13 general elections, it says very little and is more remarkable not for what little it contained but for what it did not actually say or failed to say.

Aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:49:00 +0000

The local slate of municipal candidates under the Liberal Party, as expected, dominated the local elections in Lianga in the May 13 general elections. Mayor Roy Sarmen and Vice-Mayor Jun Lala convincingly trounced their opponents and won their re-election bids. At the time of the writing of this post, at least five of their candidates for the municipal council are set to win new three year terms.

There was some speculation here before and during the official campaign that Sammy Dollano, Sarmen's lone rival for the mayor's seat would be able to mount a strong challenge to the incumbent chief executive (see previous blog post here). Rumors had flown thick and fast that Dollano was stockpiling a sizable war chest and was on the verge of forming a well organized political machine that was capable of unseating Sarmen. In the end, nothing of that sort happened and Team Sarmen which is allied with the provincial slate of the Liberal Party under Governor Johnny Pimentel largely ruled the day.

In the race for the eight seats in the municipal council, the LP also managed to get a fresh mandate for at least five of its candidates, all of them serving incumbents. Two independents and one from the LAKAS party (allied with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and incumbent Rep. Philip Pichay of Surigao del Sur's first district who incidentally is leading the vote count against his main opponent, Abet Ty-Delgado) who made it to the winners' circle, however, all made a strong showing and ended up grabbing three of the top four slots. For an updated list of the winning candidates here in Lianga in the May 2013 local polls you can go here.

The one -on-one race for the vice-mayoralty post which pitted close relatives against each other resulted in Jun Lala, the incumbent vice-major, burying his opponent, Ernie Layno who had already previously served three terms as a municipal councilor, in a lopsided, landslide victory. Lala is actually a paternal nephew of Layno yet the contest between these two men had been a bitterly fought and closely watched fight (see related blog post here). It had sharply divided and split branches of the extended Layno clan which had once been a dominant force in Lianga politics in the past decades.

The results of the May 13 elections have seen the clan's political influence diminished as two scions of its most prominent and leading family, namely Ernie Layno and Ricky Layno (who ran as municipal councilor under the LP and Team Sarmen) all lost their political bids. Whether the clan can again get its act together and recover politically in the future is something that has yet to be seen. The emerging consensus here is that it's once vaunted clout can now be considered to be on the wane and this is a significant development, if that observation is indeed valid, since this town's politics has always been the exclusive playground of influential family and clan groupings and one where many people consider blood and familial relations as a prime basis for choosing their leaders.

On the whole, the elections in Lianga has been peaceful and orderly. Except for the usual complaints on delays largely caused the occasional malfunctioning PCOS (precinct count optical scanning) machine and the local voters' unfamiliarity with the new voting procedures under the automated voting system, the local polls can be called a procedural and technical success.

But it is obvious to me as it is to many concerned citizens and political observers here that many of the other problems that have always plagued elections in the past are still present despite all the modern technological advances and enhancements being brought into the voting process. There was still rampant vote-buying and many reported incidents of voter intimidation as well as other less overt and subtle forms of electoral malfeasance here in Lianga and elsewhere in the province. Political families and clans still rule over many areas here and political violence continues to exist.

It is, therefore, clear that the use of modern technology to modernize the electoral process alone and by itself cannot solve what is wrong, corrupt and dysfunctional about our existing political culture and our current political system. Even if the present use of PCOS machines and other forms of voting automation can finally be proven to be a fast, efficient and accurate alternative to the old manual balloting process, there is still a lot that needs to be done to ensure that future elections will finally be safe, free, credible and truly reflective of the will of the people.

But that can only happen if we ourselves want positive change. The desire and the demand for reforms must come from the masses and the majority of the electorate. The present defective and morally ambiguous political culture and the corrupt political system that it has spawned continues to exist not just because there are corrupt politicians who make use of it, and thrive on it but because we, Filipinos, whether here in Lianga or elsewhere, have been sitting idly by, allowing it to flourish and even grow strong, resilient and well entrenched.

We must first learn to firmly say no to all that it represents and then work together and hand in hand to permanently eliminate it and those that support it. Only then, as a body politic, can we truly say that we have indeed changed and moved forward as we should,

Voting Day

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:36:00 +0000

May 13 dawned sweltering and sultry and as I, my siblings and our mother together with the rest of our family rushed through the minutiae of the early day in order to to be at the polling centers to vote right after breakfast, it became immediately clear to us as we good-naturedly jostled and knocked elbows with other voters within the quickly lengthening queue outside our clustered voting precinct at the Lianga Central Elementary School that we should have made the extra effort to have come earlier.

It may be true that the the 2013 general elections here in Lianga and all over the country have become largely automated and that the old-style manual balloting and canvassing have gone the way of the dinosaurs yet it did not, of course, automatically mean that the actual voting process would immediately become (at least at this time) fast and free of the irritating errors, delays and glitches that everyone hoped by now would be mostly eliminated by modern technology and months of thorough planning and preparation by election officials. In fact, we had to stand and sweat in line for almost two hours for our chance to vote but thankfully in the end the whole thing went smoothly. This was fortunate for us in view of the many problems regarding voting procedures and malfunctioning PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines in many other areas all over the country being reported in the national news media.

In our own clustered polling precinct, the delays have less to do with the machine itself but the fact that many voters especially the elderly and first-timers have yet to familiarize themselves and become adept at using the new specialized ballots and the new voting procedures. This is after all only the second time since 2010 that the automated voting system was used.

There was, however, one thing that the many voters and would-be voters I talked to agreed upon while we all waited in line to cast our ballots. First, there must be a way to decongest the individual voting precincts by either reducing the number of potential voters per precinct or by installing more than one PCOS machine in each of them. A typical clustered precinct has to service at least 1000 registered voters and even with the polling places opened for most of election day, a high turnout can lead to inevitable bottlenecks and long queues.

The government cannot expect its voting citizens to endure hours of standing in long lines exposed to the vagaries of the weather (whether it be the searing heat of the summer sun or the wet and chill of a sudden summer rain) just so that they can exercise what is a basic and fundamental right in a democratic society. It behooves election officials and the government to ensure that all voters be able to finish his or her duty in the fastest and most efficient manner and with the least amount of delay, confusion and aggravation.

There are, of course, many Filipinos here in Lianga and all over the country who still feel very uncomfortable with the determined push oby the Commission on Elections and the government for greater automation in Philippine electoral exercises and many who still harbor deep suspicions about the credibility and reliability of the PCOS machines and the computerized canvassing procedures being presently used. These still lingering doubts are based undoubtedly on the rather checkered history of the existing automated ballot casting and counting system which happens to be essentially the same setup used in the 2010 general elections. If we all remember, the COMELEC and the then administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came under intense fire for the many equipment malfunctions and data transmission foul-ups that led to widespread allegations of widespread vote fraud and vote rigging.

Personally I have always been in favor of anything that modernizes and streamlines the voting process yet at the same time insures the sanctity of the ballot. The country cannot afford to stubbornly keep on using the traditional manual balloting and canvassing procedures that have been proven time and time again to be not only cumbersome, time-consuming and inefficient but more importantly susceptible to cheating and unscrupulous manipulation by corrupt government officials, politicians and their cohorts and accomplices.

The Commission on Elections and the government's duty is, therefore, in my view, clear. That is to upgrade, refine and fine-tune the automated voting system in current use and make sure that it will result in future elections that are not only quick and efficient but also accurate, secure and credible.

Yesterday, when I had completed filling up my ballot and had personally fed it into the PCOS machine and then was then rewarded with a message on its LCD screen that my vote had been successfully counted and recorded,, I took the briefest of moments to reflect on the many past elections I had participated in the past and how the voting process had evolved and changed in just the past few years. Times have indeed changed and may still continue to change.

Like, I am sure, most of the other voters in that room with me, I tossed off a prayer and mentally voiced the hope that my vote and the votes of the so many others that have really sacrificed their time, stood in line for hours and braved the searing heat and humidity of summer would really matter in the long run and that they would be really seen for what they are - an expression of our collective hope for a much better and brighter future for Lianga and the country and as an affirmation of our abiding belief and trust in the democratic ideals that all freedom loving peoples so earnestly want to hold themselves up to and live by yet, in most cases and time and time again, often fall short of the mark.

Choices

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:30:00 +0000

In just a couple of days it will be election day and as that fateful day draws near, the question of who to vote for is uppermost in the minds of most Filipinos particularly those including myself who remain unsure of their final choices for the more than 30 national and local elective positions that need to be filled in. That is, of course, if one is not already contemplating of selling out to the highest bidder or happens to be already committed for whatever reason or reasons to particular candidates or political parties.

I know that there are many conscientious voters here in Lianga, in particular, who like me are making and finalizing their list of chosen candidates from the senatorial level down to the members of the local municipal council. In my occasional forays around town I usually try to talk to as many of them as I can in order to get a sense of the not only the various criteria they commonly use in making their choices but also to discover if there are similar thought processes they all employ in making them.

On more than a few instances, I had been asked to reveal my own list of favored politicians, a request, of course, that in most cases I try to skillfully and gracefully sidestep and evade knowing by hindsight and past experience how deeply the typical Filipino voter, especially in the rural and provincial areas, can become emotionally and intellectually involved in the political debate during elections. One does not want a purely intellectual discussion deteriorate from mere reasonable albeit impassioned debate and just a contest of minds to real and actual combat of the more physical and deadly kind.

In the end, I always tell my friends and acquaintances that in the case of my choices of candidates for the May 13 elections and for all elections for that matter past and present or future, it would perhaps be a much more prudent, safer and wiser course of action to merely tell them what kind of politicians or political groupings I do not vote for.

Firstly, as a general rule, I have a dim view of politicians (particularly those running for local offices) who enter or join politics because they have been singularly untested or unsuccessful in their other endeavors in life and who see elective political office primarily as easy, gainful and extremely profitable employment or as a means to attain some degree of personal prestige they could not have gotten elsewhere. These usually are the offspring of well-off and well connected families. As it is, we already have too many incompetents in government and we don't need more of them wasting our time and our precious tax money.

Secondly, I would not vote for any one just because he comes from a political family, clan or dynasty even if that familial or clan grouping happens to be one I belong to. Political dynasties represent, in my view, what is intrinsically wrong and dysfunctional about our politics and our political culture at present. The fact that they constitute a majority of our aspiring and existing political leadership does not speak well of our political maturity as a people living under what is supposed to be a representative, republican democracy where the ordinary citizen is supposed to be the ultimate source of all governmental power and sovereignty.

I despise them together with those of their kind who stay too long in power because, in the ideal sense, elective office is supposed to be a public trust and one that a person aspires to because he wants to make a real difference in government. One does not buy or intimidate his way to office and then cling like a leech to a position he is understood to be privileged to hold for a limited time only and must eventually pass it on to others (and not to the descendants of his family or clan as if they have a sole franchise or right to it) in a constant passing of the baton, if you will, that will insure that fresh, new blood is always infused into public service, making it always vital, dynamic and reflective of the existing needs and aspirations of a people.

In this sense, public or government employees are not the same as elective officials because an elective position is never meant to be a full, lifetime career. It is meant to be an avocation, a period of selfless service one renders to the community and society. One is, therefore, elected on the basis of his own merits and personal qualifications and on the political ideology he represents and not just because he himself has a notable pedigree or comes from a family or clan of wealth and influence. When the time comes to leave office, he does so with grace and humility because he has done his part.

Thirdly, I do not chose leaders who cannot articulate and demonstrate their vision and idea of their role in government with unequivocal surety and clarity. It is not enough, for example, to mouth out slogans of generalities like being "makatao" (people-centered) or "maka-Dios" (God-fearing) or being for free education and free universal healthcare. The electorate must know what a candidate's core beliefs and personal political ideology are if he has really any of these in the first place and that he is not just another political hack using whatever attention getting yet overused drivel he can latch on to so than he can weasel and con his way into power. Voters must know not just what he thinks he can do but where and in what direction he wants to bring his community and country.

Finally, I cannot vote for politicians (especially local candidates I have more than a passing acquaintance with) whose public personas are not in sync with who they really are in their own homes and immediate communities. It is said that good men make good leaders and the best way to find out who a person really is is to go around and talk to his neighbors, his co-workers and acquaintances. If he is a national figure, ask the people of his own locality and immediate constituency in order to find out who and what he really is. Chances are he may be not what he says he is in public.

Our government leaders must be and should be men of character and integrity. Far above and beyond intellectual brilliance, eloquence and personal charisma, a political candidate's record of moral fitness and soundness must be the prime consideration. The reason perhaps why ordinary people see politics as dirty and immoral is simply because we elect people to public office who give it a bad name. There is no reason why we cannot insist that our government leaders must be good and honest men unless we ourselves as a people and as an electorate have been remiss in our duty to insure that that is always so.

In the end, of course, whether one is here in a small remote, rural and provincial town like Lianga or elsewhere in the Philippines, what matters is that all of us will hopefully cast their votes on election day for those who we personally believe are best suited for the offices they seek. We may not agree on what being "best suited" or "best qualified" mean and may even hotly argue and debate among ourselves about the wisdom or folly of the choices we will make. But as long as the choices are based on personal belief and individual conscience then what does it matter in end.

Democratic elections work because, as contemporary human history has shown us, right and wrong choices whether in politics or elsewhere in life all tend to even out in the end. Sure, it can seem like a messy, tangled and convoluted process but it does seem to work out in the long run. But only if we make sure that the free and unhampered right to universal suffrage is protected and preserved for all time.

It is only when we sell our votes or allow ourselves to be coerced, intimidated or pressured to cast our ballots for those who seek to subvert and corrupt the political process that we do ourselves and our nation great harm and a great disservice and injustice. The tragic thing about those who sell their votes or barter then for a favor or two is that those who do these things think they have gotten one over the one suborning them. They think they have wisely profited from bartering like a common commodity something that they feel has little practical value for them in the immediate and real world.

The truth is that when they commercialize their vote they end giving away for a mere pittance something priceless and of inestimable value. They actually end up in exchange for trifles their chance to have a clear say in the future of not only their immediate communities but their entire country as well.

And woe to these same people who, when the unscrupulous and the ruthless do come to power and will then arrogantly lord it over all, will belatedly resort to moaning, weeping and calling out for a savior, a political Messiah, someone to save them from the inevitable repression and oppression. No amount of recriminations and "I told you so's" by that time would matter one itsy bit.

If that sad time does come, those who have forfeited the right to chose wisely (tragically including the sagacious minority who may have done their patriotic duty but have simply been overwhelmed by the complacent and misguided majority) will have to end up learning to live with and endure the dire consequences of their own shortsighted greed and abject stupidity.

Hard Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:17:00 +0000

The so called "ambush" attack last April 20 on a vehicle convoy in Barangay Binakalan, Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental by New People's Army rebels which resulted in the wounding of Mayor Ruthie Guingona of Gingoog City and the killing of her driver and one of the mayor's security escorts, has focused the nation's attention once more on the issue of how should political candidates during elections conduct themselves when doing campaign sorties and similar activities within areas claim by communist insurgents as part of their "territory".

Guingona, the 78 year old wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, who will be stepping down after the May 2013 general elections suffered "shrapnel wounds in her arms and legs" as well as fractured bones in her hips and arms" according to her son, Senator Teofisto "TG" Guingona III. The mayor is presently still recovering after surgery in a Cagayan de Oro City hospital but is considered in a stable condition.

Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos, the spokesman for the National Democratic Front of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP-NDF) in Mindanao, has in a public statement apologized to the mayor and her family and has said that the attack on the mayor's convoy was unintentional. Madlos said that Guingona's security forces fired first on NPA forces manning a makeshift checkpoint and that the insurgents only returned fire in self-defense. He further alleged the NPA had only wanted to stop the mayor's vehicles, disarm her bodyguards and admonish her about "bringing armed escorts" into "NPA influenced areas."

Madlos has also tried to downplay the allegations from the government and the country's military leadership that the attack on Guingona is connected to the practice of NPA units extorting so called "permit to campaign fees" from politicians during election periods. He has insisted that the incident was actually a consequence of the CPP-NPA's policy of conducting checkpoints in order to enforce their prohibition of the bringing of armed escorts by political candidates into their strongholds.

The government of President Benigno Aquino III and many of this country's political leaders on both sides of the political fence in this electoral season have expressed their outrage and condemnation of the NPA action. Even Teddy Casiño who represents the the left-leaning Bayan Muna in Congress has "strongly criticized" the attack and has called upon the NPA leadership to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, "to hold those responsible to account, to take remedial actions and make amends to the victims' families." Whether, of course, his words will be given credence by those on the right and those in this country who believe that the leftist elements in Congress are merely the mouthpieces of the CCP and the NDF remains to be seen.

In addition to linking the attack to "extortion activities" by communist insurgents, Malacañang and the military top brass have also warned again politicians not to give in to NPA demands and that those caught doing so may end up facing criminal charges. The implication here, naturally, is that the millions of pesos raised by the CPP-NPA during elections may end up being used to purchase arms, ammunition and equipment all of which will eventually be used against government forces fighting the decades old insurgency.

The CPP-NDF and the NPA has, of course, predictably refused to publicly confront this issue head on and has consistently managed to deviously and cleverly sidestep it by insisting in its official communiques that they do have the right to regulate access to their so called "areas of influence" and to insure candidates for public office adhere to the rules and guidelines of the revolutionary movement whenever they seek to enter such areas. As to the specific question of whether the collection of permit to campaign fees and other similar dues is part of these rules and guidelines is something they have always refused to either clearly confirm or deny.

In the Lianga area where the communist insurgency continues to be an especially active and serious security threat, I have been quietly told by more than a few candidates running in the May 2013 general elections that in accordance with a longstanding nationwide practice during elections in the past, the NPA guerrilla fronts operating here have, if not overtly, solicited permit to campaign fees from them. In fact, I have written a previous blog post on this issue in connection with the 2010 elections (see here). But they also told me that local insurgent leaders have taken pains to emphasized to them that the local NPA leadership has decided at this time to adopt a more lenient and considerate policy regarding the actual collection of these fees since they do ask favors, whether financial or otherwise, from local politicians from time to time whether it happens to be election time or not.

In other words, politicians, whether veterans or first timers, are constantly and periodically being assessed on the basis of their accessibility and acceptability to the revolutionary movement. Those considered more "friendly" and potentially "useful" in the future are accorded more preferential treatment, promised support, and may even be exempted from paying permit to campaign fees. On the other hand, it is also logical to presume that those considered undesirable or less sympathetic or even antagonistic to the rebels and their cause are either forced to cough up with the money or are outrightly warned to keep out of NPA areas unless they and their campaign staff want to permanently exit not only politics but this world as well.

In the end, for those who have opted to join the political fray in the May elections, the question of whether the payment of permit to campaign fees and other dues, whether in actual cash or in kind, to an armed insurgent movement targeting the overthrow of the existing duly constituted government and substituting in its place another based on a political ideology that has largely been discredited and disowned all over the world is one clearly decided less on legality and morality but on pragmatism, practicality and expediency. One ends up paying or giving what is asked and keeping silent about that fact because every electoral candidate wants and needs to win clearly and convincingly at the political game.

The Philippine government and the military can threaten politicians giving in to "solicitations" from the NPA all they want but in the world of politics as it is in the world of business, one invests precious money, time and effort in something because the he expects a worthy return on such investments. To recoup, a political candidate must first get a mandate and to get a mandate he must win elections and to win elections he must have the necessary votes.

The people who comprise the leadership and mass base of the communist insurgency may, for practical purposes, be living outside the law and the pale of society but they are also undeniably and, no matter how you look at it, political constituents and potential voters. They constitute real and critical votes to be sought, wooed and finally secured no matter what the cost.

In the case of a small town like Lianga where, more often than not, candidates are running neck to neck for the same positions and where, in many cases, a few measly ballots can spell the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat, every single vote in the bag counts. And any politico in his right mind will do anything even if he has to defy his very own government, knowingly violate the law and, to add insult to injury, even pay through the nose for the chance to get that extra edge.

Where Oh Where?

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:18:00 +0000

Where oh where should the new Lianga police station building be located? This question is at the heart of a a minor storm of controversy that has placed this town's current town officials on edge, in the spotlight and in defensive mode.

But first, it is best to have a brief review of the salient facts.

For decades, the local police station has always been part of the local town hall building complex. After all, the town hall is the visible and tangible projection of the power and authority of the municipal government and its officials. The local police force is the hammer that the town government uses to enforce law and order so it would only seem logical that it should be headquartered where the municipal government offices are.

But with the slow and gradual growth of the town and the expanding scope of the responsibilities being assigned to local law enforcers, they began clamoring for bigger and more modern facilities. The continued existence of a strong and active Communist insurgency in the region also mandated that, for tactical and security reasons, the Lianga police force be preferably housed in a separate location from that of the municipal hall.

The Lianga municipal building has been the target of violent rebel attacks several times within the past three decades, the latest incident occurring one early morning in the summer of 2011 when a force of at least thirty NPA (New People's Army) insurgents tried to storm the makeshift police station beside the town hall building. The policemen on duty fought off the attackers in a fierce firefight that lasted for over an hour.

In a defensive action lauded by the late amd lamented Jesse Robredo, then secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the small force of less than a dozen cops held their ground and eventually forced the NPA rebels to withdraw without suffering any casualties themselves. The secretary himself came to Lianga some days later to formally recognize the bravery of the policemen and then accordingly pledged to help with the funding needed to enable local officials relocate the entire police force to a more appropriate and secure site.

From what local officials are saying, it appears that the financial assistance for the new police station was in the form of a grant with a small counterpart from the municipal coffers. The new building which reportedly would cost several million pesos would be, as the pictures here will show, a three story structure. It was the decision by the local government to site the new building (now currently in the initial stages of construction) on the southeastern corner of the town's reclamation area and just a short distance behind the new Lianga Market Mall that became the spark giving rise to continuing spirited discussion among local residents, many of who see the placement of the new building as ill-advised and not in the best interest of the whole town.

The objections, as I see it, are based on several points. Firstly, many locals consider the unobstructed view from the town center of Lianga's iconic purô or lighthouse dominating a strip of flat tidal marshland and fronting the wide blue-green expanse of the Pacific as this town's most enduring scenic attraction for visitors and tourists. The fact that the new police station building blocks and spoils this lovely vista is, in their view, a gross misjudgment on the part of the current municipal government. It would be like, in the words of a young yet vocal critic commenting on a Facebook post lauding the infrastructure initiative, like callously foisting "a Camella-like, low cost housing type of project", "an eyesore" that would ruin one of the most unique and breathtakingly beautiful seascape panoramas in the region.

Secondly, the land reclaimed from the sea behind the market mall has always been envisioned by past town leaders, as previously outlined in various land use and town planning studies done in the past and now gathering dust in musty municipal archives, as the site of a new town park and recreational complex complete with promenade areas. The idea has always been to take advantage of the magnificent coastal scenery and market Lianga as the place to go to for a stress free and relaxing vacation, where one can quietly commune with nature and the sea. The new building, many critics are saying, in this context, is simply out of place.

Finally, the same critics decry the idea of placing a building which may end up as the obvious target again of future NPA attacks right smack in the middle of the town's business district. They argue it may eventually become a security problem for the area contrary to protestations by town officials that its proposed location will improve and enhance the capacity of the police to respond to threats against peace and order. It is not where the police headquarters is placed that actually matters in the case of crime fighting and crime prevention, detractors say, but police mobility and visibility that promotes confidence in the capability of the same local security forces to effectively address such critical concerns.

Local government officials I have talked to have essentially admitted that the currently proposed location of the new Lianga police station may not be the most ideal for it and, to be fair about it, have tacitly acknowledged that many of the criticisms being made by concerned citizens have merit. Their excuse is that they simply could not find another and more suitable piece of publicly owned land on which to build the new building. They have pointed out that the DILG and the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame in Metro Manila did fast-tracked the approval of the project upon the late Sec, Robredo's request and that the incumbent town fathers had little time and no money available to look for and secure another more suitable site.

On senior official I candidly chatted with on this specific issue had explained to me that when the funding for the project was released, it had come to the bitter choice of locating the new police station within the reclamation area or rejecting it outright because the municipal government could not provide an alternate space for it on publicly owned property that was immediately available He then asked critics who have misgivings about the placement of the new public building to be patient because the local government will adopt whatever measures it can in the future to help mitigate whatever aesthetic and security concerns they may have regarding its proposed location at present.

Here's my opinion on this issue.

I have to agree with much of the objections being made with regards to the location of the new building. It does seem that the government of Mayor Roy Sarmen and the municipal council led by Vice Mayor Jun Lala had made a decision in this cast that was both too hasty and ill-considered.

I also do not have much sympathy for the position being taken by the current town officials that they did not simply had the time or the needed financial resources to look for a more suitable location for the new police station. It is clear that they had at least a year or so to do exactly that after Sec. Robredo had initially offered to provide funding for the project in 2011.

Reliable sources at the municipal hall have also hinted to me that local officials could have been able to propose other more appropriate sites in other areas within the town proper which are in actuality publicly owned land but could not do so because they could not submit to the DILG and Camp Crame the necessary papers and documents proving public ownership of these properties. It seems that past political administrations had not finalized the processing of the ownership papers of these public lots after these had been acquired by either actual purchase or by donation by private persons and that the present political leadership had lazily, and with evident lack of foresight, had not bothered to follow up on the needed documentation.

Urban and town planning together with land use and development studies are essential programs undertaken by local governments that by their very nature require them to visualize how they intend to direct the growth and development of their communities not only in the near and immediate future but for decades and even generations to come. It involves careful study and analysis of the present and future needs of a growing population and how best to utilize available land resources to their maximum advantage for the future.

In this aspect of governance, specifically with regards to the controversy regarding the new police station building, the current officials at the municipal hall have failed miserably. They have deluded themselves into thinking that any form of infrastructure development especially a critically important one offered on such generous terms by the national government can be implemented haphazardly, with undue haste and with little or no respect for the sensitivities of a large portion of its own constituents and then hope to get away with the glaring lapse of good judgement by loudly and deceitfully claiming that they neither had the time or the resources to have done the job properly in the first place.

They can, of course, now claim that the new Lianga police station building's construction on the site they have so imprudently chosen for it will have to continue because it is now a done deal and that to stop it now may lead to the possibility of losing the funding needed for the project to be implemented.

That may indeed be the case but I must say this. Lianga's present crop of town leaders can push on with this project unmindful of what seems to me valid and justified criticism coming from many well meaning citizens here and ram their choice of the new building's location down the throat of their constituents but they cannot deny the fact that such unseemly heavy-handedness and insensitivity may end up leaving many residents here with a nauseatingly bitter and ugly taste in their mouths.

Jingle All The Way

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:27:00 +0000

I have to say this. If those running for public office in the May 2013 general elections would put the same degree of effort, creativity and ingenuity into the creation of their campaign jingles that they would pour into finding permanent solutions to the problems of their constituents when and if they do get elected into office then perhaps this country would finally be able to get back on the long, hard road to lasting peace, progress and prosperity.

In Lianga nowadays, there is nary an hour that passes by when everyone's ears and sentiments are not assaulted by the loud and intrusive beat of campaign songs and jingles being blasted out of passing cars or tricycles sporting loudspeakers mounted on their roofs or strapped to their sides. A quick listen to the town's new FM radio station, Heart FM, also forces the listener to suffer and endure minutes of the same thing. With a total of at least nineteen candidates vying for local office and with each one of them compelled to come out with a catchy jingle for himself or herself (many have more than one version playing somewhere), the incurious listener is often left with no choice but live with the jarring cacophony of what amounts to political advertising on a musical albeit more visceral level.

The typical campaign jingle, of course, most often borrows the melody of some durable or contemporary chart-busting pop music song. "Gangnam Style", the K-pop sensational hit by Psy, remains the most used or, to be blithely jocular about it, abused tune as far as local politics is concerned. Another is "Call Me Maybe" by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepson. Jun Lala, Lianga's current vice-mayor, who is setting his sights on a second full term, uses a jaunty campaign ditty based on the latter to get his message across in his barangay sorties.

Other candidates prefer OPM (original Filipino music) inspired political slogans. Brian Synchangco, a first time aspirant to the municipal council has a version based on a popular dancing song, "Ocho-ocho", popularized by comedian Bayano Agbayani. But then he also has another loosely mimicking the popular Beatles hit, "Obladi-oblada", which only proves that with campaign songs and jingles anything goes and what candidates and their handlers think is precisely that illusive melodic and rhythmic beat which will catch the ears and attention of the electorate is that which then gets morphed (borrowed, mangled and mutilated if you ask some musical purists) irregardless of who sang the original song, how it came to be and where it came from.

Still other politicians go for original compositions by either well established songwriters and composers or amateur, aspiring song-makers. Ricky Layno, another new entry into the world of local politics who is also eyeing a municipal councilor's seat, has one well made ditty being sang surprisingly in Tagalog that has been loudly blared through loudspeakers within our immediate neighborhood many times the past few days. In my travels all around Lianga and elsewhere in the region, I have heard all kinds and types of campaign songs and slogans. The sheer number together with the dizzying variety and the wide range of distinctive styles and genres represented would probably put to shame the most prolific, creative musical crafting skills of the top ranked talents of today's professional recording companies put together whether here or abroad.

In many ways, the proliferation of campaign jingles and ditties in Lianga and elsewhere in the country today is a clear recognition by not only the present crop of politicians but also by their campaign managers that the voting public nowadays is no longer composed of the same deaf and dumb voters whose hunger for information about their prospective leaders and their political parties were quickly and easily satiated by the static and sensually boring pictures, posters and billboards that was the mainstay of the political campaigns of the not so distant past. The present day electorate is internet savvy, and multimedia hungry. They prefer their information and data handed to them in a way that engrosses not just one but multiple senses.

The idea is ultimately to build and enhance name recognition, to use a catchy tune to imprint a candidate's specific and individual identity into the voters' consciousness. In this functional sense, the political jingle is superior to that of poster and billboard. A politician's name and image on a poster can be quickly lost in the sea of printed campaign materials but an effective jingle through constant repetition will force voters to remember a specific candidate hopefully long enough to carry over into election day.

The key here, of course, is finding a tune with a melody and rhythm that in the words of a Lianga oldtimer I recently talked to is "easy to remember, pleasing to the ears and lively enough to dance to." It also means lyrics and a message that extols a politician's name, personal virtues and program of government without being too boringly repetitious and obviously heavy-handed about it.

In truth, I have nothing against campaign jingles and have an open mind about them despite the often the loud and intrusive way they tend to disrupt the placid and quiet comfort of my provincial life. If they are an integral part of the evolution and development of our still raucous, disorderly and infantile political culture and democratic way of life then I am more than willing to endure what must be endured.

What is more critically important to me is that voters will hopefully be willing to spend the extra effort to go beyond the song and dance, the slick marketing techniques and clever packaging to the truth and reality behind the same men and women who are all asking to be given the mandate to lead their communities and the entire country for the near future. After all, in politics as well as in the larger world of consumer marketing, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating.

Inversely, if the thing or idea being pushed so aggressively does not hold up to the all the hype and the slick advertising then everyone ends up feeling cheated, swindled and scammed. By that time, of course, all the regrets and finger pointing will be tragically too late and will merely be an exercise in abject and shamefaced futility.

On Political Dynasties

noreply@blogger.com (Benjie Otagan) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:30:00 +0000

The devious double-talk and evasive gibberish with which many political candidates running in the May 13, 2013 general elections try to escape or sidestep the hot and controversial issue of political dynasties never cease to amaze and fascinate me. This is particularly true of the many of them who are the direct or indirect beneficiaries of this rather unsavory aspect of local politics and who are therefore the most adverse to having the topic come up for discussion because they themselves have the most to explain to the electorate.

Take the case of Vice-President Jejomar Binay who recently endorsed the candidacies of three of his children ( Jejomar Erwin who is running for another term as mayor of Makati City, Mar-Len Abigail who is a reelectionist congresswoman for that city's 2nd district and Nancy who is a senatorial candidate of the UNA or the United Nationalist Alliance). "It is not enough that one's sibling, parent or relative will win," he told a crowd of UNA supporters recently. "What's important is, you're the one who's going to vote."

And then there is former President Joseph Estrada, the erstwhile "convicted plunderer" according to his bitter rival, Manila Mayor Fred Lim, who echoed the same tired message in a campaign sortie for the UNA in San Juan City. "In a monarchy, " he pompously declared, "power is inherited. Here, it is the people who decide, isn't it?" Besides, he gamely pointed out that one of the advantages of political dynasties is that there is continuity of programs and projects. Estrada's son, Jinggoy, is an incumbent senator and another son, JV, is vying for a Senate seat under the UNA. A former mistress and the mother of JV, Guia Gomez, is angling for another term as mayor of San Juan which has been an Estrada stronghold for decades.

In the province of Surigao del Sur (of which Lianga is part of) like in at least 90 percent of the country's 80 provinces, the problem of political dynasties is no less a persistent and grim reality. For over a decade now, the Pimentel-Ty clan has been the dominant and controlling force to reckon with in the province. Before them it was other political clans like the Castillos and the Murillos.

It remains closely allied to the Pichays represented by 1st District Congressman Philip Pichay who essentially inherited the office from his brother, the colorful and controversial Prospero "Butch" Pichay. Johnny Pimentel, the current governor, took over as chief of the provincial government after his brother, Vicente Pimentel, had served three full terms as governor. Another member of the clan, Tandag City Mayor Alexander Ty is bowing out after three terms as the city's chief executive but has tapped his wife, Roxanne, to replace him. His cousin, Abet Ty-Delgado, is targeting Rep. Pichay's congressional seat in a surprise move that is raising eyebrows among political observers here.

In Surigao del Sur's neighboring province of Agusan del Sur, the Plaza political clan continues to hold on to its tight grip on local politics there despite internal disagreements and bickering among two of its leading personalities. The Plazas have lorded it over Agusan del Sur for almost half a century and it remains to be seen whether the current rift between one faction led by the incumbent governor, Adolph Edward Plaza (who is allied with his two sisters, Ma. Valentina and Evelyn Plaza Mellana, all running for congressional seats in the province's first and second districts) and another headed by Rodolfo "Ompong" Plaza, a former three term congressman from the second district who is backed up by Ceferino Paredes Jr, also a former congressman and longtime rival of the Plazas. will bode well or ill for that clan and the province in the near future.

In Lianga itself, the reality of political dynasties is so much part and parcel of the political landscape that it is considered not worth any serious discussion. Here, well established political clans and families all jockey for power at every opportunity and it is always presumed that the sons, daughters, grandchildren and close relatives of politicians in power will eventually take a potshot at public office as a matter of course.

Thus municipal officials here in the past, for example, were not adverse to having at least one of their children (if such offspring are politically inclined) also dabble in politics. Typically, a serving municipal mayor will usually pull strings to have a son or daughter elected barangay captain of the poblacion or as member of the municipal council. This places the offspring in the ideal position to help cement the political position of the family for the future as well as prepare for the eventuality of the new generation replacing the old-timers when the time comes.

To my eternal disgust, I am forced to agree with both Jejomar Binary and Joseph Estrada that in a democracy where there are truly free elections participated in by a well informed and well motivated citizenry, the question of political dynasties should not be an issue. It would not be an issue because under such an ideal scenario the fact that a candidate for public office is a close relative or immediate family relation of an incumbent elective official would not matter in any way. The electorate would always choose the best qualified and best suited candidate, irregardless of who he is, when it is the time to cast the ballots.

But the Philippines is not yet a democracy with a well informed, active and well motivated citizenry. It is, like all emerging and developing democracies, a political system still in in its infancy and in the process of development and evolution. Thus its periodic electoral contests remain constantly plagued by massive vote buying, voter intimidation and outright cheating.

Its political parties are still not the engines of people empowerment that they are in the more politically mature democracies. Instead they are merely paper labels for those privileged few who have the real economic and political clout. They are not rooted on principle and ideology, rather they are mere convenient and temporary creations which are then easily discarded or exchanged for another depending on the need or the requirements and exigencies of the political moment.

In the provinces particularly where economic and political power are almost often in the hands of a select economic elite who see public office not as a public trust but as a privilege they have abrogated for themselves and their peers, how can the issue of political dynasties not be relevant. Even in the highest offices of the land, in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and elsewhere in all branches of government, the specter of members of a few select families occupying positions of power as if the possession of such offices are a God given right bestowed upon them alone is a rampant and obvious fact.

Of course, there are those who say that to fight the reality of political dynasties in this country, there must first be a law passed by Congress that not only prohibits them but defines them clearly in such a way that the full force of such a law can be used unambiguously against them. That is well and good but how can Congress, that same exclusive haven of the political and economic aristocracy where membership is casually passed on from parents to offspring or from one spouse to the other, be motivated to draft, consider and pass a law that would essentially challenge if not destroy the status quo?

In the end, the appeal to challenge political dynasties both locally and in the national level must be made to that growing and increasingly assertive sector of the Philippine electorate who are gradually becoming enlightened and aware of the defects and deficiencies in our present electoral system and our nascent political culture. It is in this unfortunate sense that Jejomar Binay and Joseph Estrada are dead right.

All government power originates from the people. If they so chose to raise to power once more in the May 2013 general elections those who have through the years and decades have selfishly taken for themselves the right to hold public office when such a right should be available and accessible to all, irregardless of name and social or economic status, who could aspire to it then they will merely encourage, strengthen and preserve the continued rule of what amounts to a political oligarchy or aristocracy and with it the cycle of political and economic oppression that has plagued the Filipino people for decades.

Or they can choose to reject the status quo and vote to advance the cause of true democracy by making sure that they reject the proponents and beneficiaries of political dynasties and the corrupt politics that it represents and then take back for themselves the power to freely choose and support their own leaders based on the basis of personal merit, individual integrity and political ideology rather than mere name recall, pedigree or personal popularity.