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 CONTENTS IMPAC T June 2008 / Vol 42 • No 6

EDITORIAL
How to Feed a Hungry World .................................. 9
E-VAT is oppressive ...... ........................................ 27 In Defense of Human Rights from Global
COVER STORY Solidarity to Global Resistance! ........................ 10
Housing the Urban Poor: Asset Reform in
Socialized Housing ............................................... 14

Cover photo by Roy Lagarde / CBCP Media

From Sugarcane Farm Worker to Vegetable
Entrepreneur ........................................................... 19
DEPARTMENTS

Quote in the Act ....................................................... 2

News Features .......................................................... 21
Statements ................................................................ 23
Quality education: Liberating people from From the Blogs ......................................................... 26
poverty ................................................................... 16 From the Inbox ........................................................ 28
ARTICLES Book Reviews .......................................................... 29
For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food ........... 4 CINEMA Review .................................................... 30
GM crops not the solution to World Hunger ........ 8 News Briefs .............................................................. 31

THE big majority of legislators are landed or at least

conveniently under the influence of those who own
tracks of them. This being the case, anything that will
go against the interest of landlords, or so they are
aptly called, because of their power and influence that
are as vast as their lands, will definitely grapple with (DAR) and the leadership, for the anomalies that kept
anything but a walk in the park. the program riddled with holes and at the verge of
disaster.
The Executive Department is of the same mould. Being
political, all its decisions will be made according to A 50-billion-peso allocation will theoretically make
the dictates and the best interests of politics. Its any program such as CARP a whooping success. But
performance of certifying as urgent the Comprehen- reportedly most of it were “reallocated”, which is a
sive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) on the day that the mild term for stolen, to something else such as ghost
legislators were to trash it out was a tactical chame- NGOs traceable to the highest officers of the land.
leon that upheld the political logic. While Mang Accountability may be, in fact, a bigger issue than just
Andoy thought that Gloria Arroyo was being too reform. Which is why, some say that extending CARP
sympathetic with plight of the poor farmers, the Yulos is like extending the life of a milking cow.
of Laguna, Floirendos of Davao, the Cojuangcos and
the Arroyos of Negros were not even pouring wine to Be that as it may, but the Catholic Bishops’ Conference
celebrate their victory that has long been theirs. They of the Philippines (CBCP) is of extending CARP with
knew that politics and all its schemes bite harder than reforms—and that, for a very serious reason: the poor.
the romanticists who talk about the interests of the “The long neglect of agriculture, most acutely expressed
poor and the pursuit of the common good. in the current rice and food crisis, has articulated
clearly the disadvantaged plight of the small farmer,”
But worse is the situation of the poor that drew a says Cagayan Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma who
wedge among themselves. The socialists think that opens this issue with his article “For I Was Hungry And
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) You Gave Me Food”.
is overburdened with loopholes to beg for a little
success. Hence, their militant constituency would Melo M. Acuña writes our cover story. He opens with
rather aim for a Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) disturbing questions: Will quality education liberate
which is about stewardship or a kind of land alloca- Filipinos from poverty? If so, why the increasing
tion program for farmer-beneficiaries as a socialist number of classes without classrooms, or teachers
philosophy would have it. The reformists, on the other with low salaries—not to mention the endemic corrup-
hand, sees CARP as the more feasible and blames its tion that continue to plague the agencies in the govern-
implementor, the Department of Agrarian Reform ment? Read on.

Volume 42 • Number 6 3

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 ARTICLES

Introduction

oday is the 20 th anniversary of the

T signing into law by President

Corazon C. Aquino of the Compre-
hensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).
Congress passed Republic Act (RA) 6657
one year after President Aquino issued

‘For I Was
Proclamation No. 131 instituting the Com-
prehensive Agrarian Reform Program
(CARP) when she still had legislative power
under the Freedom Constitution of 1986.

Hungry and You

Both Proclamation 131 and RA 6657 were
based on a clear mandate given by the 1987
Constitution to cover under Land Acqui-

Gave Me Food’
sition and Distribution (LAD) all agricul-
tural lands in excess of what a landowner
may legally own, for reallocation to land-
less farmers and farm workers.

Populorum Progressio
Last year we celebrated the 40th anni-
versary of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical
“Populorum Progressio.” The teaching of
the encyclical1 may have influenced the
adoption of the CARP:
“He who has goods of this world and
sees his brother in need and closes his
heart to him, how does the love of God
abide in him?” 2 Everyone knows that the
Fathers of the Church laid down the duty
of the rich toward the poor in no uncer-
tain terms. As St. Ambrose put it: “You are
not making a gift of what is yours to the
poor man, but you are giving him back
what is his. You have been appropriating
things that are meant to be for the com-
mon use of everyone. The earth belongs to
everyone, not to the rich.” 3 These words
indicate that the right to private property
is not absolute and unconditional.
That same year, 1967, the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
organized the National Congress for Rural
Development. 4 During this Congress we
came to the conclusion that the Church
must go to the barrios because the coun-
tryside was the area most neglected by the
government development programs and
the Church’s pastoral care.
This spurred the activation of Social
Action Centers (SACs) in the dioceses
and archdioceses and, at the national level,
the National Secretariat of Social Action
(NASSA), and the Commission on Social
Action, Justice and Peace (ECSA-JP). The
congress also provided impetus for the
growth of the organizations of farmers and
workers. Since 1967 many realities have
changed in the countryside and the pace
of development has been speeded up by
the passage of the CARL in 1988.
(Mt. 25:35)
A Pastoral Reflection on CARP
Extension with Reforms and Agrarian
Reform Program Implementation
By Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, S.J., D.D.
National Rural Congress II
The CBCP launched last year a pro-
cess of renewing our commitment to rural
development with emphasis on listening
first to the people we wanted to help.
Dioceses and archdioceses have held con-
sultations with Basic Ecclesial Communi-
ties (BECs) and Social Action Centers
(SACs). There have been Diocesan and
Sub-Regional Consultations (SRCs) with
rural people’s organizations (POs)—es-
pecially farmers, fishers, indigenous
peoples, and women—non-government
organizations (NGOs) and church groups
working with the rural poor sectors. Re-
gional congresses are now being held.
The National Rural Congress II will be
conducted on the 7-8th July convening at
the San Carlos Seminary, Makati City.
Bishops-Legislators’ Caucuses
We have also organized three cau-
cuses with legislators working for the pas-
sage of a CARP Extension with Reforms
Bill.
As Catholic bishops, pastors, and
teachers, we listened to the voices of the
rural poor and civil society organizations
(CSOs) working with them and, as we sat
in dialogue with legislators, we sought to
address CARP and Agrarian Reform
through the lens of our faith, because so
much is at stake in moral and human terms.
For many of our citizens, farming is a way
of life, not just another business or indus-
try. Agriculture is the way our farmers and
rural workers provide a decent life for their
families, acquire dignity and help feed a
hungry world. Providing food for all is a
Gospel imperative, not just another policy
choice or economic activity.
• While the CARL is based on a clear
Constitutional mandate, it is imperfect
and its implementation has had many
flaws. Still it is important that we rec-
ognize it has brought about some good
and that its constitutional mandate
should be respected. As Bishop Pablo
Virgilio David 5 summarized this at the
end of the first day of the Rural Pov-
erty Seminar:
And so, dear brother bishops, how

4 IMPACT • June 2008

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can we allow this law – which has been
paid very dearly by the farmers of the
country and debated extensively by Phil-
ippine lawmakers—to be junked, just be-
cause it is imperfect? If CARP has been
unsuccessful to some extent, it is because
it has not been fully implemented, or its full
implementation has been blocked system-
atically by so many forces with vested
interests, and who are only too eager to
see it discontinued by calling it a failure.
Our resource persons have made that quite
clear for us.
The clamor should instead be—bring
CARP to its completion! Extend it, albeit
with necessary reforms that will make it
achieve its original purpose. Give it the
funding and the support that it needs to be
able to effect tangible results in the lives
of our rural poor. Empower the agricul-
tural sector through an agricultural
vol42_no06.pmd 5 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food
credit scheme that will enable them to
make full use of the land and find a way
out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
• Agrarian Reform has been neither an
overwhelming success nor an
underwhelming failure. It is a glass
half-full or half-empty depending on
one’s perspective. We have chosen to
err on the side of optimism. Govern-
ment claims that by the end of 2007 the
Departments of Agrarian Reform
(DAR) and Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) have distributed
7.14 million hectares or 79 percent of
its scope of 9 million hectares. This
has reportedly benefited 4.37 million
farmers and farm workers. But there are
still 1.44 million farmers and farm work-
ers to be assisted to obtain ownership
of 1.86 million hectares.
• More than 300,000 hectares are tied up
in litigation of one type or another,
slowing down the beneficial effects of
the reform program, oftentimes in ways
less than transparent. The Office of
the President, which is obviously less
knowledgeable about the reform pro-
gram than the DAR itself, has at times
reversed DAR orders without con-
sulting the Department, sometimes
depriving farmers who have held
Agrarian Reform land titles for a de-
cade of continued land tenure.
• The Agrarian Reform Communities
(ARCs) program of the DAR has as-
sisted more than a million farmers. They
are found in 1,874 communities in 8,146
barangays. However, the farmers ex-
tended support services are only about
one-fourth of those who acquired land-
ownership and only about 27 percent
of rural barangays are covered by pro-
Volume 42 • Number 6 5
 For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food

gram beneficiaries’ development.

• There are landowners who say that the
payment of compensation has been a
tedious process and that they have
been treated less than fairly. They,
too, deserve prompt justice.
• Government agencies rely too much on
the Agrarian Reform Fund and fail to
use their own resources to provide
services to Agrarian Reform Benefi-
ciaries, thus reducing the total amount
of support that can be given to small
farmers.

Our Purpose and Key Proposals

In these reflections, we seek to chal-

lenge a lack of awareness, which can lead
to indifference or excessive self-interest.
We focus on the ethics of how land is
protected, and how agriculture is struc-
tured, compensated, and regulated to
serve the “common good.” We also call
Peoples of Faith to think more about and
act on these important but often neglected
concerns in the light of their faith.
In this document, we outline some
“signs of the times,” lift up principles from
Catholic Social Teaching (CST), and sug-
gest elements of an “agenda for action.”
We also highlight the global dimensions
of land, food and agriculture today and
how they contribute to the growing gap
between rich and poor at home and abroad.
But more than anything else, we seek to
place the life and dignity of the human
person at the centre of the discussions
and decisions on land and agriculture.
Considering all these and other facts,
it remains our sense that it is wise to extend
the effects of the law and to fund it prop-
erly. As we said in our Pastoral Statement6
last year:
We ask that the CARP, defective as it
is, be finally completed next year
as it has been targeted. And if it is
not sufficiently implemented by on 15 June 2008. It is not just a ques- must be kept or made productive and
then, the program should be tion of her father’s legacy but of what Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries helped
further extended and funded more is right for the country and in the eyes to become profitable owner-cultiva-
seriously and generously. But we of the Church. tors.
ask that the law itself must be • The House of Representatives and the • DAR, DENR, DA, and local govern-
reviewed and improved. Senate, after conscientious study and ment units must enforce rules banning
Having had the benefit of consulta- debate, should pass the Bill as soon as the conversion of irrigated and irrigable
tions with so many of our people, we now possible. lands.
raise the following proposals: • The DAR and other agencies must • The DAR and the Land Bank of the
• Even as we thank the President for apply the convergence principle prop- Philippines must ensure that landown-
belatedly certifying the CARP Exten- erly to speed up covering land and to ers are treated fairly and compensated
sion with Reforms Bill as urgent, we ensure that all Agrarian Reform Ben- properly with appropriate encourage-
seek her call for a special session to eficiaries—including those who re- ment to set up and maintain sustain-
allow both Houses of Congress time to ceive public alienable and disposable able enterprises that would increase
deliberate on and approve the bill be- agricultural land from the DENR—re- production of goods and services and
fore CARP’s LAD mandate “expires” ceive support services. Reformed land generate jobs.

6 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 6 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM


Once again we reiterate this social
teaching of the Church:
Agrarian Reform 7 (is) a moral obliga-
tion more than a political necessity, since
the failure to enact such reform is hin-
drance in these countries to the benefits
arising from the opening of markets and,
generally, from the abundant growth op-
portunities offered by the current process
of globalization (Compendium, No. 300).
Likewise, in closing, we repeat what
more than 33 bishops and archbishops
said in our letter to our legislators:
God has not chosen a select few to be
stewards of his creation. All of us are
called to be responsible stewards and must
vol42_no06.pmd 7 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
equally share with each
other His bountiful bless-
ings—the fruits of creation.
As one in the body of Christ
our Savior, we are reminded
of such responsibility and
must not get tired of doing
good deeds especially to our
poor sisters and brothers,
in His holy name. 8
The Challenge Ahead
For all those who de-
vote their lives to land and
agriculture, we offer words
of support and appreciation,
as well as a plea to work
together more coopera-
tively and constructively for
the common good.
We offer elements of a
moral framework for those
involved in agricultural
policy: political leaders, ex-
perts, advocates, and activ-
ists. We urge them to look at
land and agricultural choices
and at how these choices
touch the most vulnerable
within our rural communi-
ties and in the larger na-
tional and global commu-
nity.
Finally, we encourage
members of the broader faith
communities to give greater
attention and priority to is-
sues of land, food and agri-
culture, and their connec-
tions to their faith.
Land, food and agricul-
ture are at the heart of this
moral challenge:
• A table is where families
gather for food, but some
have little food or no table at all.
• A table is where leaders gather in
government and international nego-
tiations and other forums to make de-
cisions on trade and aid, subsidies and
access. But some have no real voice at
these tables.
• For Catholics, the table is the altar at
which we gather for Eucharist to trans-
form “the fruit of the vine and work of
human hands” into the Body and Blood
of Christ. It is also the table from which
we are sent forth to secure “a place at
the table” for all.
We cannot secure a place at the table
for all without a more just agricultural
ARTICLES
system. Some small farmers are losing their
place at the table. Some farm workers never
had a place. Moreover, so many people in
our own land and around the world, seek-
ing to feed their children, have no real
place at that table. The moral measure of
our efforts is how our communities of faith
work together to secure a place at the table
of life for all God’s children.
We hope these reflections will con-
tribute to a broader dialogue about the
ethical and human dimensions of land,
food and agricultural policy.
All creation is a gift. Scripture tells us
that “the earth is the Lord’s and all it
holds” (Ps 24:1). All of us, especially those
closest to the land, are called to a special
reverence and respect for God’s creation.
The Lord who loves the poor be with
us in this, our common task. I
(Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro, Most. Rev. Antonio
J. Ledesma, SJ, is the Chair of the National Rural
Congress II. This piece was delivered at the people’s
celebration of the 20 t h anniversary of the signing into
law by President Corazon Aquino of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), at the
National Shrine of St. Michael and Archangels,
Malacañang, June 10, 1008)
Notes
1
Populorum Progressio, Encyclical of
Pope Paul VI, On the Development of
Peoples, March 26, 1967, N° 23.
2
1 Jn 3. 17.
3
De Nabute, c. 12, n. 53: PL 14. 747; cf.
J. R. Palanque, Saint Ambroise et
l’empire romain, Paris: de Boccard
(1933), 336 ff.
4
5-11 February 1967
5
Rural Poverty Seminar, Catholic Bish-
ops Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP), 22-23 January 2008, Pius XII
Catholic Centre, Manila, p.6
6
“The Dignity of the Rural Poor-A
Gospel Concern” (A Pastoral State-
ment), Catholic Bishops Conference
of the Philippines (CBCP), p.1
7
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church, Catholic Bishops Confer-
ence of the Philippines (CBCP), Ma-
nila, 2004, No. 300, p.187; cfr. also
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
Towards a Better Distribution of Land.
The Challenge of Agrarian Reform (23
November 1997), 35: Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, Vatican City 1997, p.33
8
Letter to Legislators, dated April 1st, 2008,
presented to President of the Philip-
pines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the
presence of Papal Nuncio Archbishop
Edward Joseph Adams, Apostolic Nun-
cio to the Philippines, Titular Archbishop
of Scala, Luzon North NRC II Consulta-
tion, Baguio City, 4-7th June 2008,
Volume 42 • Number 6 7
 ARTICLES
GM
GM crops
crops not
not
the
the solution
solution to
to
World
WorldHunger
Hunger
By Fr. Sean McDonagh, SSC
I
f GM crops are the panacea for solving
the world food and energy crisis as
Robin MaKie alleges in The Observer
(27 April, 2008) and Kevin Myers, “If Ever
The World Needed GM Food production,
It’s Right Now”, The Irish Independent,
(April 29, 2008), its seems strange that it
has not been endorsed by the recently
released report from the International
Assessment of Agricultural Science and
Technology for Development (IAASTD).
The IAASTD report is a unique collabora-
tion between public bodies, such as the
World Bank, the United Nations Environ-
ment Programme, the World Health Orga-
nization and representatives from govern-
ments, NGOs and scientific bodies. It is a
thorough sifting of the evidence about
agriculture and food production, running
to 2,500 pages. It took four years to com-
plete and involved the work of 400 scien-
tists.
It does not endorse the claims of the
biotech industry that GM crops will feed the
world and produce sufficient biofuels for
global transport. It argues that a drastic
change in agricultural practices is neces-
sary in order to counteract soaring food
prices, hunger, social inequality and envi-
ronmental degradation. It maintains that
GM crops are controversial and that they
will not play a substantial role in addressing
the challenge of climate change, loss of
biodiversity, food security, poverty and
hunger. It did not rule out a role for GM
crops in the future, but highlighted the
8 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 8 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
problems which the current regime of pat-
enting seeds has on farmers and researches.
Hans Herren the co-chair of IAASTD
believes that, a business-as-usual ap-
proach, is not an option. The report main-
tains that the most pressing agricultural
need was to support small-scale farmers
who operate in diverse ecosystems. These
farmers need to be given access to better
knowledge, more appropriate technology
which is geared to farming in their particu-
lar location as well as more credit, so that
poor farmers are not at the mercy of loan-
sharks. They also need better roads and
infrastructures, so that they can get their
produce to markets.
Professor Janice Jiggins of
Wageningen University, one of the con-
tributors to the IAASTD report questioned
whether GM crops had been proven as
safe.[1] Robert Watson, the director of the
IAASTD, and chief scientist at the UK
Department of Environment, Food, Rural
Affairs, responded to a question from the
newspaper, The Daily Mail, “Are GM
crops the simple answer to hunger and
poverty?” with the words, I would argue,
no. [2] The report concludes that; Assess-
ment of the technology lags behind its
development, information is anecdotal
and contradictory, and uncertainty about
possible benefits and damage is unavoid-
able.[3] The GM lobby often accuses those
opposed to GM as being anti-science.
Nothing is further from the truth. Robert
Watson has pointed out that, “investment
in agriculture science has decreased, yet
we urgently need sustainable ways to
produce food. Incentives for science to
address the issues that matter to the poor,
are weak”. [4]
Guihem Calvo, who is an adviser with
the Ecological and Earth Science division
of UNESCO, one of the agencies which
sponsored the report, told a Paris news
conference that, we must develop agricul-
ture which is less dependent on fossil
fuels, favors the use of locally available
resources and explores the use of natural
processes such as crop rotation and the
use of organic fertilizers. [5]
The IAASTD report argues that small-
scale farmers and ecologically sensitive
methods of farming are the way forward.
Furthermore, it believes that the agricul-
tural knowledge of indigenous people and
peasant farmers can play an important
role, along side more accessible agricul-
tural science, in meeting the food demands
of today.
This reinforces my experience gained
working with tribal and peasant farmers in
Mindanao, in the Southern Philippines,
during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. I,
and many missionaries, who have worked
on the ground in the Majority World, be-
lieve that famine and hunger have more to
do with the absence of land reform, lack of
access to cheap credit and basic technolo-
gies rather than with the lack of GM seeds.
The bias against women, which is so
prevalent in both international and na-
tional agricultural policy, is also a major
factor. Women, who are often the central
players in agricultural production in the
Majority World (Third World), only re-
ceive a miniscule proportion of that credit.
According to the Nobel Prize winner,
Wangari Maathai, African woman receive
less than 10% of the credit given to small
farmers even though women are the pri-
mary caretakers, holding significant re-
sponsibility for tilling the land and feeding
the children. I
Notes
[1] Sean Poulter, “GM food ‘not the
answer’ to world’s food shortage cri-
sis, says report”, The Daily Mail, 16
April, 2008.
[2] Ibid.
[3] John Vidal, “Change in Farming Can
Feed the World”, The Guardian, April
16th 2008.
[4] John Vidal, “Change in Farming Can
Feed the World”, The Guardian, April
16, 2008 .
[5] Ibid.

I
n a remote and beautiful part of county
Sligo in North West Ireland I stood in
a low roofed insulated building looking
into one of several dozen large fish grow-
ing tanks. Thousands of fish called Arctic
Charr are swimming around and around
growing by the day. Cold, natural, fresh
spring water is pouring in from the moun-
tain. It is circulated, filtered and aerated.
Bill Carty, the owner, casts a handful of
feed pellets into one of the tanks and it
churns in a feeding frenzy as this future
source of high protein food gobble up
their meal. This sustainable form of healthy
fish farming has to be the way of the future
as fish stocks in oceans and rivers are
dangerously declining, some species are
already extinct and others are on the edge
due to excessive and unsustainable fish-
ing. There are more and more hungry people
to feed.
Last week Irish fishermen staged a
How to Feed a
Hungry
Hungry World
World
By Father Shay Cullen
public protest in Dublin and gave away
fish and threw more into the river Liffy to
highlight their protest at the strict Euro-
pean Union restrictions on the number of
boats allowed to put to sea and the ton-
nage of fish they are allowed to catch. The
price of fish is soaring along with every-
thing else.
The rising price of diesel has dimin-
ished their earnings and more and more
bans on the use of destructive fishing
equipment curtail their catch but protect
the breeding habitat of sea grass and coral
reefs. What has diminished the fish popu-
vol42_no06.pmd 9 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
lations in the once teeming oceans is water
pollution and the deadly destructive fish-
ing practices such as the bottom trawl that
destroys the corals and the use of drift
nets—”walls of death”, as they are called.
The EU bans are saving several spe-
cies of fish from extinction and making
large scale ocean fishing unprofitable.
Decades of irresponsible destructive fish-
ing practices created millions of tons of
“bycatch” fish, shrimps and crabs and
other sea creatures which were thrown
back into the sea dead and put some of
them on the endangered species list.
The Japanese whaling and shark fish-
ing is condemned worldwide as destruc-
tive and cruel as they harpoon the gentle
creatures and drag them half alive on to
factory ships and slaughter them on board.
They only cut off the shark’s fins and
throw back the wounded creature to die in
a horrible death. These destructive prac-
tices have given the fishing industry a bad
name. All the more then is the future in
sustainable and healthy organic fish farm-
ing, as I witnessed in the Cool Spring
Arctic Charr fish farm at Cloonacool last
week. Bill’s wife Mari Johnston cooked
one fresh Arctic Charr in the nearby
kitchen and it was one of the most deli-
cious fish I have ever eaten. All the more
am I convinced that the development of
the Tilapia fish ponds at our Preda organic
farm in Zambales, Philippines, is the right
and sensible thing to do.
The greed of money mad moguls is
ARTICLES
one of the driving forces behind the mas-
sive rise in the cost of food commodities
world wide. Wealthy traders hoard their
stocks forcing prices to soar beyond the
ability of the poor to buy food. Since 1992
to the present, the price of rice has risen 74
percent, soya bean by 87 percent and
wheat by an astounding 130 percent, corn
is up 31 percent in the same period.
Rich nations give their agri-corpora-
tions and wealthy farmers massive subsi-
dies prompting massive over production
and the dumping of the surplus in devel-
oping nations thus killing off local farming
and preventing food security. Rich na-
tions create import taxes that prevent the
farmers in Africa from selling their lower
priced quality cotton and other products
in the rich nations. Many are facing famine
as global warming, created by the refusal
of wealthy industrialists and politicians to
curb CO2 factory emissions and nations
like India and China refuse to cutback on
fossil fuel consumption. This creates
droughts, massive typhoons and crop fail-
ures and destruction. Director-General
Jacques Diouf of the UN Food and Agri-
culture Organization (FAO) said in Rome
last week that there is an additional 820
million hungry people in the world than in
1996. In Somalia alone there are 2.6 million
people, 35 percent of the nation, facing a
food crises, none can afford to buy food.
The global injustice of this imbalance in
the sharing of the planets resources is the
greatest shame of all humanity. I
Volume 42 • Number 6 9
 ARTICLES In Defen

By Sr. Maureen S. Catabian,

RGS

W
OMAN, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have
taken away my Lord, and I do not
know where they have laid him”... Famil-
iar words from Scripture came alive as I put
myself in the situation of countless moth-
ers, wives and children who have lost
sons, daughters, husbands and parents—
victims of forced disappearances and ex-
trajudicial killings in the Philippines now
counting 903 under the Arroyo regime
since she took office.
The recent session of the Human
Rights Council (HRC) at the UN in Geneva
where the Philippines was one of the coun-
tries reviewed in terms of human rights
record is a disheartening experience. As I
watched the video on web where the Phil-
ippine government delegation presented
its report to the UN HRC it made me realize
how truth can be deliberately distorted,
rendered tentative and maliciously de-
signed according to State manipulations
and maneuverings.
Having been part also of an ecumeni-
cal NGO delegation in 2007 to submit the HR
Report to the UN HR Council in its 5th
Session, I have felt the same helplessness
when we had a dialogue with the Philippine
Mission in Geneva. Similarly, last June 2,
2008 “the Philippine UPR Watch delega-
tion was astonished at the continuing
denials, twisting of facts, unabashed name-
calling and even ad hominem arguments of
the Philippine Mission to the conclusions
and observations of Prof. Philip Alston.”
At a side event participated in by Prof.
Alston, he “firmly stood by his findings
and recommendations on the state of hu-

In Defense of Human Rights

from Global Solidarity to
Global Resistance!
10 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 10 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

In Defense of Human Rights from Global Solidarity to Global Resistance!
data, facts and figures validate the truth
that the Philippine military and the Arroyo
regime are responsible for the spate of
extrajudicial killings and other human rights
violations indelibly linked to the counter-
insurgency policy of the government. They
must be accountable to the Filipino people
and the international community for the
blood that is in their hands because of
command responsibility.
The UN HRC as an international struc-
ture can only respond and play its role
within the limits which is accorded them by
the international community where power
is still in the hands of the most influential
countries and the rich corporate giants
backing puppet governments.
The political killings must be stopped!
The evil system that is perpetrating and
perpetuating these killings must be un-
masked and exposed as well as the masters
and gods that it is serving! Clearly it is
serving the god of mammon, lies and de-
ception and not the God of truth, justice
and dignity.
As Good Shepherd people bringing
the cries and anguish of the victims and
the suffering from the grassroots level—
we must be willing to stare at the evil in the
eye—so it can be expelled out from our
system even if it means looking at our own
man rights in the Philippines and the ac-
countability of the state for the continuing
impunity.” (Italics not mine)
“The US-backed Arroyo regime, fac-
ing serious challenges to its political
survival, has courted the support of the
US and ensured the loyalty of the
US-trained Philippine military by escalat-
ing military actions against legal progres-
sive organizations and personalities un-
der the guise of countering terrorism.
Hence, the rise in extrajudicial killings.
Moreover, the regime has been
emboldened by the US war on terror to rely
mainly on a military solution to the armed
conflict rather than address the roots of
the armed conflict by instituting basic
social, political and economic reforms.”
Objective reports substantiated by
vol42_no06.pmd 11 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
eyes as if in a mirror!
Human lives snuffed out and human
spirits maimed are human lives snuffed out
and human spirits maimed!
The HR report of the Philippine gov-
ernment heard at the UN HRC session
given voice over by the Philippine military
through its delegates and ambassadors is
the voice of the Global Empire that has
become so localized and deeply entrenched
in Philippine government system that we
could no longer even recognize whose
voice it is that speaks.
Human lives have become disposable
in the face of mammon and structures that
have become monstrous and globalized!
As Neoliberal Globalization and War on
Terrorism looms over the global commu-
nity—a different form of global solidarity
is being called forth from the ground—
Global Dissent where resistance becomes
the essence of self-respect.
NGOs can effect transformation and
bring the voice of the suffering grassroots
people to the UN and other universal
structures but they must be willing to
name and denounce the “evil” so as to be
able to announce the good news of the
woman of the Resurrection—” I have
seen the Lord!” because Jesus, called her
by name—Mary! I
Volume 42 • Number 6 11
 ARTICLES
The empty
European
village
By Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD
I
t takes a Village to Raise a Child,” was
Hillary Clinton’s Big Idea in the 1990s.
Hillary’s supporters and detractors
alike regard that slogan as a thinly-veiled
code for increasing the government’s re-
sponsibility for the care of children. The
demographic decline of Europe illustrates
what would happen if we took this Village-
Raising-Children image seriously.
The State Village takes over a sub-
stantial portion of the economic responsi-
bility for the family, regardless of the mari-
tal status of parents. As state support
becomes more significant, the mutual sup-
port of family members becomes less im-
portant. Parents no longer feel the need to
marry each other, or even cooperate with
each other. The state replaces the married
couple as the primary support for children.
And as a not-so-unintended consequence,
state-funded child-care frees women from
child-care responsibilities inside the home
so they can work outside the home.
Welfare state advocates on both sides
of the pond are quick to point out the
benefits of state support. But let’s look at
the cost side of the equation.
A recent report by the family-friendly
Madrid-based Institute for Family Policies
reports the broad European demographic
12 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 12
trends. The number of marriages has
dropped precipitously since 1980. The
percentage of children born outside mar-
riage has increased to one third. More
children are born outside of marriage than
inside marriages in Estonia, Sweden, Bul-
garia and France. Divorce rates have
soared.
The birth rate in the 25 countries of the
European Union is now 1.56 live births per
female, while in the US the birth rate is 2.09,
right around the replacement fertility rate
of 2.1. Some countries are at critically low
levels: Slovakia, Poland, and Romania have
birth rates less than 1.3, with Germany at
1.32. In the absence of immigration, the
population of these countries will drop in
half approximately every generation.
The fall in marriage and fertility may
seem like abstract numbers on the chalk-
board. So let’s take a look at the human
face of these demographic trends. Even
with government support, raising a child
alone is a daunting prospect. Women who
would want three children if married, are
understandably reluctant to try to care for
more than one child on their own. When a
woman believes her marriage may not last,
she will, quite reasonably, want to estab-
lish herself professionally before having
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
 The empty European village

Do countries with sub-

replacement fertility
need more government
support, or less?

children. Instead of nity.

being married to her Unfortunately, the Institute for Fam-
child’s father, a ily Policies recommends more of the same,
woman in a divorce- failed welfare state policies. Steve Mosher,
prone culture is mar- president of the US-based Population
ried to a combination Research Institute, has a different ap-
of the market and the proach. “Not one of the schemes adopted
state. by the European countries has succeeded
The average in recovering the birth rate to replacement.
woman’s age at first Why?” he asks rhetorically in his new
marriage has in- book, Population Control: Real Costs,
creased from 23 in Illusory Benefits.
1980 to almost 29 in “Statist solutions will not solve the
2005. Not all those problem of the empty cradle, for it is the
women are living celi- modern welfare state itself that relentlessly
bate lives. Some are suppresses fertility. By its very existence,
sexually active in situ- it discourages the formation of the very
ations that can not kind of strong, independent families that
possibly support a are necessary for robust fertility by frac-
pregnancy. Nearly turing the intergenerational dependency
one out of every five of the family, by adopting “gender-neu-
pregnancies ends in tral” policies that undermine the
abortion, making it complementarity that is at the heart of
the leading cause of successful marriage, by providing abor-
death in the Euro- tion on demand, by mandating sex educa-
pean Union. The tion for children, by pushing state-funded
number of abortions contraception schemes on teenagers and
across Europe each young adults, and above all, by high tax
year equals the en- rates.”
tire population of I think Mosher is correct. The statist
Slovenia. Village has sucked the life out of marriage,
One out of ev- which just happens to be the one self-
ery four European sustaining institution that can oppose the
household is a lone pretensions of the state to control all of
individual. Two out social life.
of three households The European experience demon-
have no children. Half strates that the Village needs the family far
© Martin Child/Brand X/Corbis

of European children more than the family needs the Village. I

have no siblings. So (Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD is the Senior Research
much for the Frater- Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute, and the
nity part of Liberty, author of Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to
Raise a Village, newly reissued in paperback. This is
Equality and Frater- reprinted with permission by MercatorNet)

Volume 42 • Number 6 13

vol42_no06.pmd 13 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

 ARTICLES

A
dequate and humane dwelling is a
basic human right (Compendium
#166). The Catholic Bishops Con-
ference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) State-
ment on the Nation’s Housing Problems
in 2007 pointed to the lack of decent hous-
ing, particularly among the urban poor, as
central to the proliferation of other “prob-
lems such as immoralities in the home, the
abuse of children, the lack of education,
unhygienic conditions, joblessness among
the people, malnutrition of children and
criminality.” And as far as these problems
manifest themselves in our society, “we
cannot say our urban poor people enjoy
[this right] today.”
Improving the lives of slum dwellers,
however, requires more than building and
providing them sturdy and beautiful
houses, which covers only the physical
aspect of the solution. When we speak of
asset reform in urban poor housing, the
“asset” being referred to is security of
housing tenure. This entitles urban poor
families to a claim on the land they have
been occupying for years, thus providing
a more solid and lasting basis for one’s
housing rights. In the Philippines an
estimated 15 million people or three million
families do not have this asset. Living as
informal settlers, sometimes called squat-
ters, they make up from a third to almost
half of the population of many cities in the
country. Lacking security of tenure, they
Housing the Urban Poor:
Asset Reform
are vulnerable to displacement and forced
eviction, events which shove them to fur-
ther impoverishment.

in Socialized
No band-aid solutions

The government is, first and fore-

most, responsible in ensuring that its un-

derprivileged citizens are given secure
housing tenure. A research called the
Philippine Asset Reform Report Card
Project conducted by the John J. Carroll
Institute on Church and Social Issues
(JJCICSI) with the Philippine Partnership
for the Development of Human Resources
in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA) assessed the
government’s response to the growing
problem of insecure residential status in
the country. The three socialized housing
programs covered by the study are the
Community Mortgage Program or CMP,
presidential proclamations and resettle-
ment.
To the credit of the government, these
housing programs are no band-aid solu-
tions. CMP allows low-income families in
informal settlements to collectively pur-
chase and formalize ownership of the land
Housing
By Gerald M. Nicolas
they are occupying for years through a
community mortgage. Through Presiden-
tial Proclamations, parcels of government-
owned lands are declared open for distri-
bution to qualified beneficiaries. Resettle-
ment programs, on the other hand, benefit
urban poor families whose homes are de-
molished as a result of a court order (usu-
ally on a privately-owned property), a
government infrastructure project or clear-
ing of danger zones (e.g. riverbanks, wa-
terways, railroad tracks, dumpsites, under
bridges). To avoid reinforcing a dole-out
mentality among the poor beneficiaries,
these programs incorporate requirements
such as low-cost monthly amortizations
and community organization.
A “pasang-awa” performance
But the results of the survey, gath-
ered from interviews with 468 socialized

14 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 14 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

 Housing the Urban Poor: Asset Reform in Socialized Housing
housing beneficiaries, generally suggest
that the government’s performance is far
from impressive. As far as the three urban
housing programs are concerned, the
study shows that these programs have
been relatively successful in providing
some degree of tenure security to urban
informal settlers. The granting of formal
land ownership, however, has been slow
in most cases, particularly for presiden-
tial proclamations and resettlement
projects. Majority or 94 percent of the
respondents from proclaimed sites do
not have their own land titles yet, while
only 54 percent of the original relocates
interviewed have been given their no-
tices of lot awards. At the rate the govern-
ment is going in processing these neces-
sary tenurial documents, a significant
proportion of the respondents can still be
considered “potentially displaceable set-
tlers.”
While the study showed that the prob-
lem of security of tenure has been ad-
dressed to some degree, a major source of
dissatisfaction expressed by the benefi-
ciaries is the inadequacy or poor quality of
basic services extended to them. CMP
beneficiaries appear to be the least satis-
fied when it comes to the provision of
services. Those residing in proclaimed
areas are the most satisfied, possibly ow-
ing to the fact that these are relatively old
and long-established communities.
Across all housing types, the poor state of
basic services ranks as the most pressing
problem experienced by the beneficiaries.
Table 1 summarizes the net satisfac-
tion ratings of the respondents with re-
gard to the land acquisition process and
basic services provision. Table 2 shows
the limited access of socialized housing
beneficiaries to basic support services par-
ticularly to individual water meter, which
explains the low satisfaction ratings given
by the respondents.
In terms of perceived changes in wel-
fare, families subjected to resettlement
vol42_no06.pmd 15
appear to feel
least well-off.
This finding,
which is true es-
pecially for
more recently
relocated
households,
confirms the as-
sertion of ex-
perts that off-
site and off-city
housing solu-
tions are less
likely to result
in improve-
ments in welfare
compared to on-site and in-city relocation. by the beneficiaries of the three programs
The fact that the state of basic services to the land acquisition process. This high
and housing in resettlement projects ap- net satisfaction rating should signal to the
pears to be better compared to CMP sites government that it must continue and more
(at least as perceived by beneficiaries) still vigorously implement these programs ca-
did not result in higher levels of well-being tering to poor informal settlers. There is no
for relocated families. Economic needs, doubt that these programs do provide
like access to employment, are prominently tenure security which is an asset much
cited as a problem experienced by resettled valued by the urban poor. At the same
families. time, vast improvements can still be made
The access to essential services— in fast tracking the granting of formal own-
water, health, employment, electricity, sani- ership and upgrading the quality of basic
tation—basically draws people towards services in these communities. But since
cities and urban areas. This also often the government cannot solve the housing
justifies, but not necessarily legitimizes, problem of the country alone given its
the presence of informal settlers in our limited and mismanaged resources and
cities. And while it has always been be- lack of political will, involving other stake-
lieved that improvement in the other di- holders and the urban poor themselves
mensions of human settlements will soon will definitely help make a dent on this
follow once persisting urban malady.
land tenure is In the final analysis, the urban poor
secured— need more than just housing. The measure
which CMP, of genuine asset reform in urban housing
proclama- is reflected not by the number of houses
tions and re- constructed and lots awarded by the gov-
settlement ernment but by the quality of life the ben-
programs pri- eficiaries face after the ceremony. I
marily ad- _______________
dress—the
inadequate With excerpts from the Philippine
provision of Asset Reform Report Card: Socialized
these basic Housing Sector written by the JJCICSI
services in team led by Dr. Anna Marie A. Karaos,
socialized housing projects, as reflected in Executive Director. The Philippine Asset
the study, underscores the government’s Reform Report Card Project also looked at
lack of attention to these other factors. asset reform programs in other sectors
The failure of key shelter agencies and namely indigenous peoples, fisheries, and
local governments to effectively coordi- agrarian reform in partnership with other
nate with and obtain the cooperation of NGOs. For more information about the
other line agencies has hampered the timely research, please contact Faith Ramirez of
and adequate delivery of needed basic PhilDHRRA at 426-6740/ 436-1779/ 436-
services to the urban poor. 0702 local 110.
Despite these problems in basic ser- (Gerald M. Nicolas is a Research Assistant of John
vices, a notable finding of the study is the J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues
high positive net satisfaction rating given (JJCICSI) of the Ateneo de Manila University.)
Volume 42 • Number 6 15
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
 C O V E R
S T O R Y

Quality education:
Liberating people
from poverty
Will quality education
liberate Filipinos from
poverty? If so, why the
increasing number of
classes without
classrooms, or teachers
with low salary—
without even
mentioning the
endemic corruption
that continue to plague
the agencies in
government?
By Melo M. Acuña

I
n a developing country such as the
Philippines, where poverty stares at
the eyes of a big percentage of its
population, education provides a ray of
hope. An educated populace can help
transform society by producing leaders
who put upfront the personal interests of
the governed ahead of their own.
Education is expensive, but try igno-
rance, or so, says an old saw. Because
according to the human capital theory, the
economic development of a nation is a
function of the quality of its education. So
that, the more educated people are, the
greater the chances of economic develop-
ment or, conversely, the more drop-outs
there are, the lesser the chances of eco-
nomic progress.
But how can this theory be true to a
particular nation that exponentially gradu-
ates millions of students per year while the
economy unstoppably, in fact, habitually,
plummets?
Education and poverty
Parents living in poverty do not have
much option but to work for survival which
usually translates into gathering the chil-
dren to generate something that will feed
the brood.
Education, no matter how sublime, is
not within the short-range purview of
hunger or the demands of the day to day
existence. Going to school is a luxury that
is affordable only for those who have time
to spare after looking for food.
Families wallowing in poverty often
put education the least of their priorities.
Destitute parents are sometimes forced to
allow their young children to work to help
put food on the table instead of sending
them to school.
“When families have limited re-
sources, children as young as five years
old are forced to work at the cost of drop-
ping out of school, risking their health or
even their lives.” said Keiko Niimi, Deputy
Director of the ILO sub-regional Office in
Manila.
There are currently 500,000 families
living in Metro Manila according to Presi-
dential Commission on the Urban Poor
Chairperson Undersecretary Percival C.
Chavez. This roughly translates to
3,000,000 individuals.
The above figure is a big jump from the
2006 record of National Statistics Office
(NSO) showing 167,000 poor families or
1,156,000 individuals in Metro Manila. The

16 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 16 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

 Quality education: Liberating people from poverty
figure represents 7.1% of the total number
of families nationwide. This may partly
explain why we have street children and
teenagers involved in petty crimes.
Quality Education
Recently, President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo signed an executive order recog-
nizing the need to “formalize” pre-school
education making it mandatory for every
barangay to have a daycare center. These
daycare centers will become “learning
centers” that will cater to two to five-year-
old children. Education Secretary Jesli
Lapus said a million pre-school children
will benefit from the daycare centers.
The institutionalization of the exist-
ing daycare center pre-school education
will help improve the current standard of
vol42_no06.pmd 17
education in the country, according to
Atty. Lutgardo Barbo, president of Philip-
pine Normal University (PNU). He added
that such move is definitely better than
adding another academic year for elemen-
tary or high school education.
However, Barbo noted that public
schools that have a high pupil ratio per
classroom definitely affect the kind of edu-
cation children received. In a classroom with
a leaking roof, with 80 or more pupils with no
appropriate materials, and a teacher who
receives a low salary, all these factors do not
add up to quality education, says Barbo.
Lack of Budget
Congressman Mariano Piamonte, Jr, a
Teacher Party List representative ob-
serves that the country’s Educational
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
system lags behind other ASEAN coun-
tries like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia
and Taiwan, because of its lack of budget
resources.
“If one’s to compare our expenses on
education, we are below our neighboring
countries in Asia,” the legislator said.
The DepEd’s budget this year, accord-
ing to Lapus has gone up to P149 billion a
year, a marked increase from P120 billion
during his first year with the Education
portfolio. He said while he wishes for a
much bigger share next year, one must deal
with the “debt service component,” mean-
ing a bigger portion of the total annual
appropriation going to foreign creditors.
With the debt cap of 33 percent, from
a budget of over a trillion pesos, more than
P300 billion goes to foreign debt servicing
which would make DepEd’s budget roughly
12 percent of the country’s budget.
He said they have significantly re-
duced textbook acquisition costs from
P76.98 in 2006 to P31.00 for elementary
schools last year and from P107 to P44.00
for high schools.
“We try to maximize what we have,”
Lapus added.
University of the Philippines Profes-
sor Clarita Carlos also said education does
not receive what it is supposed to get in
terms of appropriations. An expert in Phil-
ippine Government and Politics, Political
Dynamics, comparative Government and
Politics, among others, Carlos laments the
fact that the country’s national university
exists on a shoe string budget. She feels
sorry that the students have to make do
with old laboratory equipments. “We have
intelligent students but using old labora-
tory equipments hinder them to develop
their imagination to the maximum. It’s really
a pity,” she said, saying that the bulk of
DepEd’s budget goes to teachers’ salaries.
A former President of the National
Defense College of the Philippines, Carlos
said the billions of pesos given to the
Armed Forces of the Philippines, the big-
gest bureau under the Department of the
National Defense, could have been put to
good use had it been allocated for improv-
ing the quality of education.
High Tuition fees
Most schools increase tuition fees to
improve school services, raise teachers’
salaries and upgrade equipments. Al-
though the move eventually translates to
benefit students, still it proves to be
counter-productive to poor students. Noel
Sales Barcelona, a CBCPNews Correspon-
Volume 42 • Number 6 17
 Quality education: Liberating people from poverty

dent reported the concerns aired by col-

lege students as in the case of Jef-Jef, a 21-
year old Accounting student from De La
Salle-Araneta in Malabon City. The col-
lege student said seven out of ten junior
and senior students are quitting school
due to high tuition and miscellaneous fees.
A Political Science student from City
of Malabon University also said an in-

http://www.deped.gov.ph/cpanel/uploads/issuanceImg/factsheet2008(May12).pdf
crease in registration fees for Malabon
and non-Malabon residents proved to be
too much. The registration fees ranging
from P3,000–P4,000 seem to be too high.
This is aside from the “penalties” charged
from low-performing students.

Teachers’ training

The dearth of students taking Educa-

tion courses is another contributing factor
that affects the quality of education since the
scarcity of Education students would even-
tually translate to lack of qualified teachers.
Although teaching has been considered the
noblest among professions, Piamonte noted
that it does not attract much students com-
pared with other courses.
“Teaching has become a lesser degree
unlike in other countries where teachers are
looked up to as very important persons,”
Piamonte said. He noted that in England,
teachers even receive as much as managers
and presidents of some business firms and
that explain why their teachers are the best
and brightest in their country.
Barbo said that while they still have
teachers’ board examination topnotchers
at PNU, they are seriously implementing
extension programs through distance learn-
ing modules. The goal is to further improve
the quality of teacher education and ulti-
mately the basic education in the country.
The declining number of students
enrolling the course is a clear manifesta-
tion that a Bachelor of Science in Educa-
tion degree no longer attracts most stu-
dents. Barbo said they usually attract 2,000
high school seniors to take the entrance
examinations every year. At PNU, suc-
cessful college entrants are required to
pay a reasonable amount of P1,200 for 21
units per term.
Dr. Angelita Romero, PNU Vice Presi-
dent for Academics said they already be-
gun implementing the Accelerated Teacher
Education Model where a four-year pro-
gram can be acquired in three years. “This
is offered to carefully selected and screened
students and our recent board topnotchers
came from this program,” she added.
Piamonte appreciates efforts exerted
by teacher-training institutions reminding
them of the importance of having qualified
students in their fold. He said there is a need
to have qualified teachers and professors in
the country’s education program, those
with MA and doctoral degrees.
Liberating people from poverty
Education liberates people from pov-
erty. It is the people’s last hope for human
development. But how will a family send
its children to school and get an education
when its foremost concern is to look for
food to feed family members?
Perhaps it is where the state has to
come in. As mandated by the
Constitution, every Filipino has a right to
education, and this should be made acces-
sible, especially for the poor.
In his book “Pedagogy of the Op-
pressed” Paulo Freire highlighted the im-
portance of education in the transforma-
tion of people and society. “Education
either functions as an instrument which is
used to facilitate integration of the younger
generation into the logic of the present
system and bring about conformity or it
becomes the practice of freedom, the
means by which men and women deal
critically and creatively with reality and
discover how to participate in the transfor-
mation of their world.”
The Catholic Church has always been
clear in its stand on Education and Devel-
opment. Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical
Letter Populorum Progressio in 1967 said
“Among the causes that greatly contribute
to underdevelopment and poverty, in addi-
tion to the impossibility of acceding to the
international market, mention must be made
of illiteracy, lack of food security, the ab-
sence of structures and services, inadequate
measures for guaranteeing basic health care,
the lack of safe drinking water and sanita-
tion, corruption, instability of institutions
and of political life itself.”
At the end of the day the same bug-
ging questions come into fore: will quality
education liberate Filipinos from poverty?
Or does education make any difference at
all to a country where the poor become
even poorer and the endemic corruption in
government defies education? While art is
for art’s sake, will education not pierce the
needs of the stomach—ironically beyond
mere erudition? I

18 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 18 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM


From Sugarcane Farm Worker to
Vegetable Entrepreneur
By Sally Bulatao
W
earing thinned rubber slippers,
the skin of his heels cracked, his
face and arms browned by the
sun, this farmer, 51-year-old Sandy Lejita,
was the picture of gentle pride. We were
there to visit his vegetable farm which he
had developed since he became an agrar-
ian reform beneficiary in 2003 when 130
hectares of Hacienda Carmen was covered
by agrarian reform. He was one of 92 regu-
lar farm workers given a collective CLOA
(certificate of Land Ownership Award) en-
titling them to receive a land parcel after
final survey and partitioning.
Expecting about a hectare of land to
be covered upon final awarding, Sandy
began to develop a 3,600 square meter
piece on the fringes of sugar cane fields
into a plot that he had planted to ampalaya
or amargoso. Pending final awarding of
the land to individual owners, most of the
land is on lease to the Hacienda through
the encargado (farm manager). They de-
scribe it as gipa-ariendo.
vol42_no06.pmd 19
Ask him about this venture and he has
all the numbers at his fingertips. He plants
only about half of the plot at one time
because he can only afford one canister of
amargoso seeds that costs P1,519 for 100
grams. Following technical specifications,
one seed should grow on ground measur-
ing 25cm x 300 cm. When he did not have
enough money to buy seeds, he obtained
the seeds on loan from the distributor in
Libertad who also bought his ampalaya
harvest at P20 per kilogram. If he sorts his
produce, he can make P30 per kilogram for
first class ampalaya.
Sandy reckons that he spends P7,000
for every ampalaya crop which lasts five
months before he has to replant. This
includes the cost of the seeds, the bamboo
poles and nylon string used to make the
trellis for the vines as well as the cost of
fertilizer and insect spray.
One cropping allows him to harvest
ampalaya eight times with each harvest
generating gross revenue ranging from
P1,500 to about P4,000. Computed at an
average of P2,000 a harvest, eight harvests
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
ARTICLES
gives him about P16,000.
Although the trellis lasts for about
four crops, he says that he and his laborer/
partner usually deduct P3,500 (half of the
P7,000 capital) from the gross revenue and
the difference, they divide in half between
the two of them. Vicente, his partner, is a
relative of Sandy’s wife, Angel.
That amounts to P6,250 each for Sandy
and Vicente for five months of work. Not
much. But compared to P150 a day as farm
laborer, for work of two days a week, it is
about even. But the potential to earn more
from their own farm is huge, if only they
could raise a little more capital.
All the ampalaya they harvest is sold
in Libertad where the buyer purchases
everything they can deliver. At the Murcia
town market, ampalaya was selling for P35
per kilogram on the day we visited the farm.
Sandy is also a carpenter. At the back
of his house stands the frame of a bahay
kubo that he intends to set up at the farm.
He has discovered that there is a spring at
one end of the farm and he looks forward
to putting up his old water pump there. He
Volume 42 • Number 6 19
 From Sugarcane Farm Worker to Vegetable Entrepreneur
also earns extra income from sharpening
saws at P30 per saw.
He showed us his gmelina trees be-
hind his home lot. He says all his four
children, now all grown up with families of
their own, have houses made of wood that
he had harvested from his trees.
He is also ready with some seedlings
of fruit trees. He plans to plant them on his
own farm lot once he secures his land title.
He has seedlings of tomatoes and egg-
plants, too.
His wife Angel is 49 years old. She
cooks and sells native cakes and other
food items. She even sold a big papaya to
Quidan Kaisahan (QK) staff for P20. She
thinks that if she had the capital, she can
earn more or at least as much as Sandy.
Sandy was a member of the union in
the Hacienda. They were affiliated with
NFSW (National Federation of Sugar
Workers). He was one of the leaders who
successfully negotiated the first CBA (col-
lective bargaining agreement) at the Haci-
enda. After being designated a CARP ben-
eficiary in 2003, he took a job as encargado
at the Hilado farm. He stayed one year
only. He could not stand being on the
“other side,” he said.
From 1973 to 2003, Sandy was a sugar
farm worker doing one of the lowliest of
farm labor, weeding in the cane fields at
Hacienda Carmen in Murcia, Negros Occi-
dental They call it paghilamon. Luckily
for Sandy, those years did not break his
spirit. He feels he is strong enough to make
his farm productive once finally awarded
to him and his family. He remains a natural
leader of his fellow agrarian reform benefi-
ciaries. He has invited nine of them who
are also engaged in ampalaya farming to a
20 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 20
meeting with QK on 17 August to discuss
how they can improve their vegetable en-
terprise.
Willy, a community organizer of QK
assigned in Blumentritt, had invited Sandy
to the LED (Local Economic Development)
planning meeting on 27 July where farmers
engaged in some form of agricultural en-
terprise were encouraged to attend and
discuss the possibility of clustering some
of their enterprises.
QK is at the initial stage of managing
an agri loan facility. This comes after a
successful micro-finance operation with
its sister institution Pag-inupdanay Inc.
(PI). They realize that agri loans are more
risky. To address this, QK is on the look-
out for onsite farmer entreps like Sandy
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
who can serve not only as models in their
communities but as a source of technical
assistance in doing an agri-enterprise al-
ready familiar to them.
QK’s Business Development Service,
on the other hand, is also in its early
stages, testing its capabilities in value
adding along the value chains of com-
modities in which their target groups are
engaged. Today, QK has a modest agri
loan portfolio of about P700,000. The agri
lending program started three years ago
with about P300,000. QK’s agri window
includes production loans to farmers pro-
ducing sugarcane, rice and more recently,
cassava. The farmers sell dried cassava
chips to La Tondeña which processes the
raw material into alcohol. Coffee farmers in
QK-assisted areas sell organic coffee beans
to the Figaro Foundation.
Going very cautiously, QK has a record
100% repayment rate with this facility. The
big question is how quickly they can ac-
celerate the program while maintaining the
quality of lending. Likewise, they are now
designing the kind of enterprise support
that would strengthen the agribusiness
initiatives of the farmers in the areas where
participatory local governance has already
taken root. More farmers engaged in
agribusiness, more farmers running their
farms like entrepreneurs—this is the vi-
sion QK shares with Sandy, and with ev-
ery day that passes, with more and more
farmers. I
(Sally Bulatao co-founded Ibon Databank in 1978
together with Sr. Sol Perpinan, RGS, and served as
its Executive Director for several years until 1988.
She headed the National Dairy Authority in 2001-2006
and now acts as the Supervising Trustee of the ASI-
based Center for Small Entrepreneurs.)

Bishop calls for
‘total closure’ of
mining in Albay
MANILA, June 12, 2008—
A Roman Catholic bishop
demanded the ‘total clo-
sure’ of a hotly contested
Korean-controlled copper
and zinc mine in Rapu-Rapu
Island, Albay.
Sorsogon Bishop
Arturo Bastes claimed the
people would definitely be
“too happy” if the Korea
Resources Inc (Kores) and
LG International Corp. will
leave the area.
The Korean state-run
mining companies took over
full control of the project in
April after its previous op-
erator, Lafayette of Austra-
lia, pulled out over environ-
mental issues.
Bastes said the
Lafayette got “bankrupt”
after its investors finally
backed off due to public
clamor against environmen-
tal destruction.
“They (Lafayette) have
no more investors. They
can’t even pay their person-
nel anymore. It’s no longer
financially viable,” he said.
The bishop said Rapu-
Rapu mining is supposed to
be the government’s “flag-
ship” project in its revital-
ized mining industry pro-
gram but it turned out to be
a “fiasco.”
Bastes also said that
Lafayette still has over P130
million pesos balance of
taxes payable to the gov-
ernment.
“The government
vol42_no06.pmd 21
should impose total closure
of the mining there. It has
ruined not only the envi-
ronment but also our
economy,” Bastes said.
The Rapu-Rapu mine
has been forecasted to gen-
erate revenues of $US350
million a year from annual
production of 11,000 tones
of copper and 13,000 tonnes
of zinc.
The Kores and LG
Group acquired Lafayette’s
majority stake shortly after
the mine was fined for spills
which contaminated sur-
rounding waters in 2005.
At least 40 fisher folks
and residents of Rapu-Rapu
picketed the South Korean
Embassy in Makati City to
stop Korean investors from
taking over the mining op-
eration.
The Bicolanos, to-
gether with environmental
activists and peasants,
urged Ambassador Hong
Jong-ki to provoke the pull-
out of the investments of
Kores and LG International
in the mining operation.
“There is no reason to
continue the Lafayette min-
ing project. It’s three-year
operation in Rapu-rapu is-
land has brought so much
environmental destruction,
community displacements,
human rights violations and
livelihood loss,” the envi-
ronmental group Kalikasan
claimed in a statement. (Roy
Lagarde)
Anglican and
Catholic bishops call
for an end to the
slaughter of civilians
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, June
10, 2008—”Shocked” by
the high number of casual-
ties in recent senseless at-
tacks in Dehiwala,
Moratuwa and Polgolla, the
Catholic and Anglican bish-
ops of Sri Lanka signed a
joint statement calling on
the government to find a
political solution to the civil
war.
“Killing of any human
being is unacceptable but
the killing of innocent civil-
ians is abominable. We ve-
hemently condemn these
acts of wanton violence and
terrorism,” the statement
said.
The bishops also ap-
pealed to Tamil Tiger rebels
asking them to desist from
using violence.
They called on both
sides to enter into negotia-
tions to find a way out of
the crisis that has plagued
Volume 42 • Number 6
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
N E W S
FEATURES
this country for so long.
“It is most urgent that
the President and the gov-
ernment obtain the coop-
eration of all political lead-
ers to forge a consensus as
regards to a political solu-
tion since peaceful means
is the only way to lasting
peace,” the prelates said.
In another special
press release the Anglican
bishop of Colombo, Msgr.
Duleep de Chickera, urged
“all parties to remain calm”
because ethnic relations are
fast spinning out of control
exacerbated by the eco-
nomic hardships people
face.
Given the situation he
urged the government and
the rebels “to show greater
political discernment and
maturity to pull our coun-
try from the brink” and “col-
laborate […] towards
peace.” (AsiaNews)
21
 N E W S
FEATURES
Rising fuel prices
could lead to unrest
NEW DELHI, India, June 5,
2008—In India and Malaysia
fears are mounting of major
price hikes and public protests
after their respective govern-
ments cut public subsidies that
kept fuel prices low.
In India, petrol and diesel
prices rose by about 10 per-
cent, with the price of cooking
gas jumping by 17 percent. Still
local prices are far below mar-
ket levels. Indeed, Indian Pe-
troleum Minister Murli Deora
said diesel prices must double
and petrol must increase by 50
per cent.
For experts the measure is
“necessary”. They estimate
that India’s three largest oil
companies lost about US$ 17
billion because of selling at
under the market rate to con-
sumers. What is more the com-
panies told the government
that if they were not allowed to
raise prices, they would lose
almost US$ 58 billions this fis-
cal year or 3 per cent of the
Gross Domestic Product
(GDP).
With inflation reaching 8
per cent in recent weeks, the
highest since 2004, fears are
growing that prices might rise
even further, especially since
India imports nearly 75 per cent
22 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 22
of its crude oil requirements.
Street protests have al-
ready taken place (see photo)
led by opposition Hindu na-
tionalist Bharatiya Janata
Party. But the ruling coalition’s
own leftwing parties have also
joined in.
To cope with the problem
Communists want the govern-
ment to lower petroleum taxes;
however, the latter represent
the major source of indirect
taxation for the government.
The Indian rupee is one
casualty of the current eco-
nomic woes. After gaining 12.3
percent in 2007, it lost 7.9 per-
cent this year (one of the worst
performances among Asian
currencies), closing at 42.7775
per dollar yesterday.
Another casualty of ris-
ing energy prices is Prime Min-
ister Manmohan Singh’s Con-
gress Party. Increasingly vot-
ers are turning away from the
governing party just one year
short of next year’s federal
elections.
In Malaysia, petrol prices
rose by 41 percent. The gov-
ernment is expected to bring
local prices into line with those
of the market by August;
should it not do so subsidies
might end up representing
CBCP head:
Independence Day
should signal
freedom from poverty
MANILA, June 12, 2008—
A top official of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines today chal-
lenged political leaders to
give a new meaning to Inde-
pendence Day by ushering
a new kind of politics that’s
grounded on principles.
CBCP President and
Jaro Archbishop Angel
Lagdameo said they wanted
political leaders to show a
new way of governance in
the country—liberated from
injustices and graft and cor-
ruption.
Independence Day, he
said, should signal a new
kind of politics where lead-
ers are able to decide objec-
tively based on people’s
needs.
Lagdameo rued the ab-
sence of “human freedom”
in the country despite hav-
ing gained political indepen-
dence 110 years ago.
“Ang ating bansa ay
malaya sa control ng mga
dayuhang bansa, pero ang
mga mamamayan naman ay
alipin ng kahirapan,” (Our
country is free from the
clutches of foreign nations,
but our countrymen are still
slaves to poverty) he said.
“Slavery because of
homelessness, unemploy-
nearly a third of total govern-
ment spending or about 7 per-
cent of the GDP.
In Malaysia opposition
parties have accused the gov-
ernment of failing to live up to
its promises and pledged to
take to the streets in protest.
Prime Minister Abdullah
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
ment, lack of education or
ignorance, health insecurity.
Ang ating mga mamamayan
ay alipin ng kapwa
mamamayan dahil sa
inhustisya at graft and cor-
ruption,” (Our countrymen
are slaves by fellow coun-
trymen due to injustice and
graft and corruption),
Lagdameo added.
The CBCP head said
that for the country to have
absolute freedom, it has to
learn how to rise from the
effects of numerous crises
by effectively working to-
gether.
“Siguro magiging
makatotohanan ang
pagdiriwang ng Araw ng
Kalayaan kung mapapalaya
ang ating mga kababayan
sa pagka-alipin dahil sa hun-
ger, hopelessness,
homelessness, unemploy-
ment, ignorance o sa
pamamagitan ng mga pro-
poor projects,” (Perhaps the
celebration of Indepen-
dence Day will become real-
istic if our countrymen are
freed from the slavery of
hunger, hopelessness,
homelessness, unemploy-
ment, ignorance or through
pro-poor projects)
Lagdameo also said.
(CBCPNews)
Ahmad Badawi had already
come in for criticism following
the last elections which he is
accused of winning unfairly.
Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Paki-
stan, Bangladesh and Indone-
sia have already had to cut
fuel subsidies. (AsiaNews/
Agencies)
 STATEMENTS

Statement of the 6 th National Lay Gathering

Holy Cross Parish, General Santos City, May 19-24, 2008

“The laity share in the priestly, prophetic and royal office of Christ
and therefore have their own role to play in the mission of the
whole people of God in the church and in the world.” (#2 On the
Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity)”

W
e, the delegates of the 6th Na-
tional Lay Gathering, coming
from all over the country, num-
bering 367, come together once again to
share our aspirations, dreams, successes,
joys, frustrations, and sorrows and our
being lay participating in building the King-
dom of God, with the theme, “The Laity’s
involvement in the Mission of the Church:
A continuing challenge in journeying
with the people’s struggle towards Church
Renewal and Social Transformation.”
For this year, the main objective of the
gathering is to reminisce the past with
gratitude, share the present with full of
challenges and look for the future with
enthusiasm as agents for church renewal
and social transformation endeavors.
As we gather, we asked ourselves “how
are we in our present conditions.” Most of
us have grown mature and are still very
much alive in church and development
works. We also discussed many issues
affecting the lay, which can be categorized
as ad intra (internal to the laity) and ad
extra (external situation). We encountered
problems of attitudes and behavior of some
lay leaders who have become “counter-
witness” to the evangelization effort of the
church, such as drunkenness, gambling,
back-biting, and apathy to socio-political
issues. Committed lay leaders are getting
scarce and it requires more initiative and
creativity to reach out more laypeople espe-
cially the young ones. We are usually multi-
tasked and we take for granted motivating
second liners. Some of us are afraid to assert
our rights as equal partners in the ministry
or apostolate. We feel deficient in Christian
education, particularly in the basic doc-
trines, theology, and social teachings of the
Church. Thus, most of us feel marginalized
or “treated like third class citizens in the
Church.” In addition, we are sometimes
confused by the ambivalent stand of the
church hierarchy regarding our involve-
ment in socio-political issues which is sup-
posedly our arena for evangelization and
transformation. There are incidents of be-
ing disowned, not given blessings, or being
told to resign from church ministries once
we get involved in these issues.
Meanwhile, we have experienced the
effects and influences of globalization with
its exploitative and oppressive practices
that promote the values of individualism,
materialism, consumerism, indifference,
vices, drugs, and gangsterism especially
among the youth. In the economic arena,
we are concerned with the issues of land-
lessness, insecurity of land tenure, food/
rice crisis, increasing poverty, intensify-
ing intrusion of trans-national corpora-
tions that continue to hound the poor
people. These are compounded with oil
price hikes and exploitation of labor through
contractualization and flexibilization. More-
over, in the political aspect, rampant graft
and corruption, through dynasties and
monopoly of powers, have resulted to
poor delivery of basic social services. In
areas target for development aggression,
military are deployed as advance party,
thereby clearing the area for foreign inves-
tors and strengthening the ruling class’
political grip over the people. Further-
more, the continuous destruction of natu-
ral resources and environment, by logging
and mining, has aggravated the misery of
the lay people.
In the midst of all the above issues
and concerns, and despite threats and
financial constraints, we, the laypeople
continue to assert our rights as equal
partners in the ministries of the Church,
and carry on our active participation in the
works for social transformation. We sup-
port and promote the advocacy on Human
Rights issues, Environmental protection,
good governance, and peasants and work-
ers’ issues. In carrying out these duties,
we have made initiatives to develop our
skills and knowledge in leadership, facili-
tating, organizing, administering, and man-
aging the Church pastoral programs,
through on-going education, trainings,
and values formation. We continue to build
and strengthen the Basic Ecclesial Com-
munities (or GKKs, GSKs, Kriska, MSK,
etc.) as new way of being Church and
Church of the Poor. We keep to our hearts
the four roles of the laity as called for by
PCP II, as follows: a) called to community
of families; b) called to Christian presence;
c) called to service and evangelization,
and d) called to social transformation.
We are genuinely joyful and elated by
the success of this gathering, and we would
like to sustain the unity and empowerment
that this encounter has brought us. As a
challenge, we call on the Lay Forum Phil-
ippines to be instrumental in establishing
and strengthening network among lay
people down to the grassroots level, and
continue the initiatives of implementing
programs and services that support the
needs of lay workers, particularly the
TulayKo. On the other hand, we call on all
lay people to strengthen their respective
lay organizations to attain genuine lay
empowerment, and to give support to Lay
Forum Philippines as expression of soli-
darity and unity.
We continue to believe that we, lay
people, have a great contribution to the
realization and fulfillment of the Reign/
Kingdom of God. We deepen our commit-
ment and involvement in the Mission of
the Church towards her renewal and social
transformation.
We pray to the Almighty, who is the
source of all being, inner strength and
courage; to His Son, Jesus, our compan-
ion in this journey; and to the Holy Spirit,
who keep us “fired from within,” to sustain
and nourish us in this great effort of bring-
ing about “new heaven and new earth,”
where justice, peace, love, and solidarity
prevail.
Signed: 367 Delegates

Volume 42 • Number 6 23

vol42_no06.pmd 23 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

 STATEMENTS
Mining-Free
Sibuyan Island:
Upholding the
Integrity of
Creation
SIBUYAN shall be a mining-free island:
A
dhering to the Roman Catholic Com-
pendium of the Social Doctrine No.
470 which states that the programs
of economic development must carefully
consider ‘the need to respect the integrity
and cycles of nature because natural re-
sources are limited and some are not
renewable.’ No. 467 further says that ‘re-
sponsibility for the environment, the com-
mon heritage of mankind, extends not
only to present needs but also to those of
the future.’
Taking action on the United Nations’
(UN) Millennium Development Goal
(MDG) to ensure environmental
sustainability integrating the principles of
sustainable development into country
policies and programmes and reversing
loss of environmental resources; reduc-
ing biodiversity loss, achieving by 2010, a
significant reduction in the rate of loss;
and reducing by half the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe
drinking water.
Advocating the Philippine Agenda
21 which envisions a better quality of life
for all through the development of a just,
moral, creative, spiritual, economically
24 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 24
vibrant, caring, diverse yet cohesive soci-
ety characterized by appropriate pro-
ductivity, participatory and democratic
processes, and living in harmony within
the limits of the carrying capacity of na-
ture and the integrity of creation.
Considering the scientific facts that
Sibuyan, nicknamed the Galapagos of
Asia, features flora and fauna found no-
where else on the planet. It is where the
world’s densest forest flourishes in which
the National Museum identified, in a single
hectare, 1,551 trees comprising 123 spe-
cies, of which 54 were endemic. Orchids
abound as do other vascular plant spe-
cies; Nepenthes sibuyanensis, a pitcher
plant species, is endemic as its scientific
name suggests. There are 131 species of
birds that share the skies with ten species
of fruit bat; the plethora (nobody knows
quite how many) of land-dwelling mam-
mals, reptiles, and rodents include at least
five species of mammals that are endemic.
Recognizing the assessments of The
Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, that
Sibuyan is a center of endemism; the Phil-
ippine National Herbarium (PNH), as a
critical plant site; all accepted by the
Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) as scientific facts,
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
hence, the island is considered as
biodiversity hotspot. Further, a paper of a
University of the Philippines–Los Baños
researcher proves that there are 35 endan-
gered and endemic species in almost all
barangays outside the protected area.
Rejecting the Special Permit to cut
69,709 trees issued by then DENR Sec.
Angelo T. Reyes within 406 hectares of
land, equal to 9,455.183 m³ or 4,000, 8998
board feet.
Implementing Presidential Proclama-
tion No. 746 declaring Mt. Guiting-guiting
as Natural Park; and the whole island as
an initial component for the National Inte-
grated Areas Program (NIPAP) as a man-
grove forest swamp reserve per Presiden-
tial Proclamation No. 2152.
Recognizing the 2005 proclamation of
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then
DENR Sec. Angelo T. Reyes of Cantingas
River as the cleanest and greenest inland
body of water in the Philippines. In addition,
when the president visited Sibuyan Island,
she said, “Sibuyan Island, has a high eco-
nomic growth potential, notably as a tour-
ist destination.” And in her 2006 State of the
Nation Address (SONA), she clearly indi-
cated that “Romblon… With tourism... can
become rich.”

Analyzing the effects of mining in the
island, based on gathered data for 21
small- and large-scale tenements, active
and exploration mining leases from the
Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), it
is projected technically that such encom-
pass 16,600 hectares (has) or more than
36 percent of Sibuyan Island’s total land
area. All but 2 or 90 percent of mining
leases overlap 6,400 has or 25 percent of
the management area of the Mt. Guiting-
guiting Natural Park. More than 1,600
has or 25 percent of the overlap area is
located in the Protected Area. Ninety or 90
percent of mining leases cover 6,500 has or
36 percent of mangrove, montane, primary
lowland and secondary lowland forests.
There are 12 leases which cover approxi-
mately 870 has or 40 percent of rice lands
and 13 leases which overlap approxi-
mately 5,200 has or 51 percent of coconut
lands. Four mining leases overlap 2,000
has or 26 percent of the Sibuyan Mangyan
Tagabukid (SMT) Certificate of Ancestral
Domain Title (CADT) and 20 has or 30
percent of the SMT Ancestral Domain
Claim; that this analysis may vary because
there still areas being applied for.
Respecting the rights and accept-
ability of the people that there have been
vol42_no06.pmd 25
a series of protest actions since 2006 num-
bering to thousands of people participat-
ing and petitions signed by almost 90
percent of Sibuyan populace.
Condemning the deceit, lies, bribery,
and manipulations of mining companies
in connivance with some local govern-
ment officials to the communities.
Saddened by the brutal killing of
Hon. Armin Rios-Marin, a Kabang
Kalikasan ng Pilipinas/World Wildlife
Fund (KKP/WWF) environmentalist,
barangay human rights officer, president
of the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC),
Parents, Teachers and Community Asso-
ciation (PTCA) and trustee of the Sibuyan
Island Sentinels League for Environment,
Inc. (Sibuyan ISLE). Alarmed by the stra-
tegic lawsuits against public participa-
tion to more than 85 advocates including
teachers, farmers, housewives and con-
cerned citizens, by mining companies
through their employees.
Disappointed with the promises of
elected local government officials who
have promised to preserve and protect
Sibuyan Island against mining and eco-
logical destruction.
Concerned with the rapid social divi-
sion among communities and families.
Afraid of the possible massive dis-
placement of Sibuyanons for what will
remain from their lands would only barely
9,012 hectares unable to sustain the whole
populace of the island out of the total
35,847.76 hectares of mining claims and
protected area from Sibuyan’s total land
area of 44,860.00. That is barely .16 hect-
are or .0016 sq. km. for every Sibuyanon
(excluding the land to be tilled for food,
e.g. rice, corn, cassava, among others)
considering the 2007 Sibuyan popula-
tion of 56,541.
Majority of our people are poor, but
we will not permit that these mining ac-
tivities will make our
people poorer. We live
though the abundance of Cantingas River
the island, and we will
never allow our source
of living will be affected
by such activity. We do
not believe that mining
is the sole solution to al-
leviating poverty. There
are alternatives such as
eco-tourism, sustainable
agriculture, and fishery,
among others. Mining
per se is a search and
destroy mission and it
will leave our lands bar-
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
STATEMENTS
ren after exploitation. Responsible min-
ing is not feasible in Sibuyan¯we adhere
to responsible stewardship as guardians
of the environment instead.
Hence, the Catholic Bishops’ Confer-
ence of the Philippines in its 2006 state-
ment, firmly says: “The right to life of
people is inseparable from their right to
sources of food and livelihood. Allowing
the interests of big mining corporations to
prevail over peoples’ right to these sources
amounts to violating their right to life.
Furthermore, mining threatens people’s
health and environmental safety through
the wanton dumping of waste and tailings
in rivers and seas.”
“Our experiences of environmental
tragedies and incidents with the mining
transnational corporations belie all assur-
ances of sustainable and responsible min-
ing... Increasing number of mining affected
communities, Christians and non-Chris-
tians alike, are subjected to human rights
violations and economic deprivations. We
see no relief in sight.”
The struggle against the pillage of
Sibuyan Island continues, despite the
aggressive promotion of mining by the
Arroyo administration. As long as the
residents and other environmental advo-
cates stay firm on their vision of a Sibuyan
free from clutches of large-scale mining
companies, so will the Sibuyanons con-
tinue to have an island they call home.
Every mineral is already tainted with
the blood of our martyr; every tree to be
cut shall shed blood of every child and the
unborn; and every dig on our lands shall
create an incurable cancer of our lives.
Justice for Armin is justice for
Sibuyanons. Justice for Armin is the pull-
out of all mining operations and applica-
tions in the island of Sibuyan. No more, no
less.
THE SIBUYANONS
Volume 42 • Number 6 25
 FROM THE
B L O G S
PAGCOR
Equals Power
P
AGCOR means power be
cause it rakes in billions
of gambling money, it has
a big and deep bottomless
pocket to throw money around
in order to neutralize the laws
of the land, to buy the support
of and pay for the loyalty of
chosen key public officials, to
allow no one and nothing to be
on its merry way in creating
gambling addicts, in foment-
ing the culture of gambling and
in thus effectively destroying
the social significance and im-
pact of honest work and noble
toil. Yes the gambling phenom-
enon is as bad as this!
PAGCOR is a government
owned and controlled corpo-
ration. That is why it partici-
pates of the omnipotence of
the gloriously ruling adminis-
tration. Blessed are those who
give their unwavering support
to and official endorsement of
the infamous gambling corpo-
ration. And woe to those who
dare counter its promotion of
the gambling culture in the
land, who attempt to stop its
exploitation of persons under
its dominative control. Hence
the saying: Be pro-Pagcor and
be counted among the blessed.
Go anti-Pagcor and be cursed
as long as you shall live.
PAGCOR is mindful of
throwing some pesos here and
there, for this or that charitable
project. It even spend much for
the expensive and insistent
advertisements of its glowing
venture and its much taunted
self-glorification in being a
world class gambling corpora-
tion with some kind of a hazy
“global” mindset plus a misty
“Filipino” spirit—or something
the like. Nice sound bites but
those somehow intelligent will
not buy it, while the ignorant
would not understand it. Mis-
representations are eventually
26 IMPACT • June 2008
vol42_no06.pmd 26
costly to sell and hard to buy.
It is an exercise in futility to
clothe vice with the attributes
of virtue, to sell rotting gar-
bage as a perfumed commod-
ity.
One can just wonder what
these leading government un-
derlings would do—after dedi-
cating themselves to the pro-
motion of big and luxurious
Casinos, to the cleaning of the
pockets of their gullible clients,
to the funding of dubious if not
downright corrupt and corrupt-
ing agenda of their Boss-
Chief—when they all come face
to face with the following infal-
lible realities: One, when they
are eventually thrown out of
their juicy and perky positions
for one reason or another. Two,
when they meet big accidents,
have incurable sickness, be-
come old and weak. Three, when
they finally look squarely at
the face of the grim reaper at
their death bed.
Would that they have the
opportunity to return every-
thing and anything they have
not earned rightly or justly.
Would that they have the
chance and the time to repent
for their misdeeds against their
neighbors—especially all the
people they enticed to gamble
and particularly the gambling
addicts they produced to the
lost of their good names, the
detriment of their professions,
the breakage of their homes.
Irrespective of race, color
and creed, in the name of jus-
tice and for the sake of har-
mony, no one should take what
is not rightfully his or hers,
nobody should even cover
what legitimately belongs to
someone else. These basic pro-
hibitions apply to all gambling
corporations, all gambling op-
erators and all gamblers!
www.ovc.blogspot.com
Homosexuality
T
ime and again, the sensitive reality and pursuant
delicate issues about homosexuality—be this fe-
male but specially male distinct sexual orientation—
come to fore, for one reason or another, on the occasion of
this or that question. And more often than not, people feel
and react differently, harbor nice or hurt feelings. Just as
there must be some factors that people can agree about
human sexuality in general, so too there are certain objec-
tive realities or ontological facts that are beyond biases and
prejudices in conjunction with homosexuality—such as
the following.
One: The intrinsic dignity of every human person with
the inalienable human rights thereto essentially ap-
pended—all these basic truths transcend human sexuality.
In other words, all persons are fundamentally equal before
the divine natural and positive laws—irrespective of their
given sexuality.
Two: The mere sexuality of someone does not make
him or her automatically a good or bad person, a saint or a
sinner. More than just sex by itself, it is how, when and why
this sexual constitution is made operative or acted on that
in fact earns the person concerned his or ethical merit or
demerit.
Three: The nature and contributions of every human
person make him or her good, suitable or capable of certain
agenda—although definitely not for everything. In the
same way, the personality constitution or given condition
of someone ill-equip him or her for some resolutions or
actions—although certainly not for all professions or
missions.
Above general principles forwarded, it might be right
and proper to now specifically address the more concrete
and relevant question regarding constitutional male or
female homosexuality—not merely situational homosexu-
ality nor simple effeminacy which are well distinct from
strictly constitutional homosexuality.
Question: Would it be right for homosexuals to get
married among themselves? Advisory: It might be both
necessary and practical for them to ask if there could be a
real effective conjugal union between them, notwithstand-
ing all their honest designs and sincere desires to the
contrary.
Question: Would it is right for homosexuals to become
nuns or priests? Advisory: It might be not only wise but
also prudent for them to consider if they have the genuine
vocation to do so, considering in a special way, their
particular psychologico-affective and pursuant emotional
constitution.
Question: Would it be right for homosexuals to remain
single, to stay as they are? Advisory: It might be more
proper and relevant for them to know and pursue a satis-
fying and beneficial occupation or profession according to
their inborn talents and/or acquired skills—instead of
simply thinking about a given condition or state of life.
www.ovc.blogspot.com
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

E-VAT is oppressive
I t is in consonance with the dictate of reason and in
line with the necessity of societal living that the
citizens pay taxes to the government to fund its work
for the common good, to pay public officials for their
service to the people. The truth is that both direct and
indirect taxes are ethical demands from the government
to be duly responded to by citizens who are capable of
paying for their public welfare and developmental op-
portunities—precisely in exchange for their taxes duti-
fully paid. This arrangement is in line with the elemen-
tary norm of take and give by the citizens vis-à-vis
corresponding rule of take and give by their govern-
ment.
But considering the dreadful political realities in the
Philippines and attending to the depressing socio-eco-
nomic condition all over the land, what is standard has
become obscene, what is customary has become crimi-
nal to many Filipinos, and even lethal to an increasing
number of them now wallowing in poverty and misery.
This is the present status and import of the detestable
and unconscionable E-VAT—the big symbol of contra-
diction, the vibrant sign of oppression for the hungry and
the sick. There are at least three cogent serious reasons
why this particular modus of taxation is not only villain-
ous to the people but also venomous for this country.
First is the unenviable fact that the present govern-
ment is known for many intriguing agenda except for
honesty and integrity, famous for various official glori-
ous claims except for telling the truth and being trans-
parent. For those saying otherwise, they better wise up.
vol42_no06.pmd 27
EDITORIAL
A ruling administration that is infamous for its long
standing monumental graft and corrupt practices—
something known even to the international commu-
nity—cannot be trusted with the proper handling of
taxes dutifully and painfully paid by the citizens. It is like
trusting thieves with the house silvers something that is
not only ridiculous but downright irrational.
Second is the sickening reality that the poorest of
the poor Filipinos pay exactly the same E-VAT as the
wealthiest of the wealthy in the land. This is not a jab at
the rich who have affluent resources due to honest
sweat and toil. This is simply meant to call attention to
the obvious: even beggars pay E-VAT from sunrise to
sunset every time they buy consumer goods—in exactly
the same amount paid by big and fat dishonest public
officials from the national to the local levels of govern-
ment. The hideous reality is that even a new-born baby
is already taxed the moment he or she uses electricity,
needs alcohol and cotton—especially so when the child
starts eating and begins wearing appropriate clothing.
Third is the scandalous fact that notwithstanding
all direct and indirect taxes paid to the government by
some 86 or so million Filipinos plus the local and foreign
debts incurred exactly by the same government, even
the still unborn citizens are already deep in debts. This
is neither interesting nor funny. This is an unconscio-
nable and unacceptable reality. No wonder then that
the incumbent government having been qualified as
corrupt from top to bottom is popularly much dis-
trusted and rejected.
Volume 42 • Number 6 27
6/16/2008, 6:52 PM
 FROM THE
I N B O X

father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

Lessons learned
“Did you see how poor people live?”
the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from
the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered: “I saw that we
have one dog and they had four. We have
a pool that reaches to the middle of our
garden and they have a creek that has no
end. We have imported lanterns in our
garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and
they have the whole horizon.
“We have a small piece of land to live
on and they have fields that go beyond our
sight.
“We have servants who serve us, but
they serve others. We buy our food, but
they grow theirs.
“We have walls around our property
to protect us, they have friends to protect
them.”

O
ne day, the father of a very wealthy
family took his son on a trip to the
country with the express purpose
of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and The boy’s father was speechless.
nights on the farm of what would be con- Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for
sidered a very poor family. showing me how poor we are.”
On their return from their trip, the rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net

moved by this beggar’s need did you do this to me?” the

The beggar King that he immediately stripped
off his new clothes and put on
the tattered threads of the beg-
gar. Without a second thought
young man stammered after
gaining more of his compo-
sure.
“Because I had to find

O
nce there was a time,
according to legend,
when Ireland was
ruled by a king who had no
son. The king sent out his
couriers to post notices in
all the towns of his realm.
The notices advised that
every qualified young man
should apply for an inter-
view with the king as a pos-
sible successor to the
throne. However, all such
candidates must have these
two qualifications: They
must (1) love God and (2)
love their fellow human be-
ings.
The Young man about
whom this legend centers
saw a notice and reflected
that he loved God and, also,
his neighbors. One thing
stopped him, though, he
was so poor that he had no
clothes that would be present-
able in the sight of the king. Nor
did he have the funds to buy
provisions for the long jour-
ney to the castle. So the young
man begged here, and bor-
rowed there, finally managing
to scrounge enough money for
the appropriate clothes and the
necessary supplies.
Properly attired and well-
suited, the young man set out
on his quest, and had almost
completed the journey when
he came upon a poor beggar by
the side of the road.
The beggar sat trembling,
clad only in tattered rags. His
extended arms pleaded for help.
His weak voice croaked, “I’m
hungry and cold. Please help
me... please?”
The young man was so
he gave the beggar all his pro-
vision as well. Then, somewhat
hesitantly, he continued his
journey to the castle dressed in
the rags of the beggar, lacking
provisions for his return trek
home. Upon his arrival at the
castle, a king’s attendant
showed him in to the great hall.
After a brief respite to clean off
the journey’s grime, he was
finally admitted to the throne
room of the king.
The young man bowed
low before his majesty. When
he raised his eyes, he gaped in
astonishment. “You... it’s you!
You’re the beggar by the side
of the road.”
“Yes,” the king replied with
a twinkle, “I was that beggar.”
“But...bu...bu... you are not
really a beggar. You are the
king for real. Well, then, why
out if you genuinely love
God and your fellow human
beings,” said the king. “I
knew that if I came to you as
king, you would have been
impressed by my gem-en-
crusted golden crown and
my royal robes. You would
have done anything I asked
of you because of my regal
character. But that way I
would never have known
what is truly in your heart.
So I used a ruse. I came to
you as a beggar with no
claims on you except for the
love in your heart. And I
discovered that you sin-
cerely do love God and your
fellow human beings. You
will be my successor,” prom-
ised the king. “You will in-
herit my kingdom.”
rowena.dalanon@cbcpworld.net

28 IMPACT • June 2008

vol42_no06.pmd 28 6/16/2008, 6:52 PM

 B O O K
REVIEWS

May I Have This Dance? Take Five

One Hundred Meditations to De-Stress Your
Joyce Rupp Days
Spiritual writers thrive in us- Joseph M. Champlin
ing metaphors to express
their profound relationship Busy people often claim they have no time left for prayer be-
with the Divine. In this book of cause they are so tied up with their schedules attending day-
personal reflections on to-day activities. But this book of
prayer , the author likens short meditations debunks that
prayer to a dance with God, fallacy. The blurb throws this chal-
an experience that leaves one lenge: “Everyday you take five to
totally lost in contemplation of read the headlines, check your
the Divine partner. Rupp ex- e-mail, or grab a cup of coffee.
tends an invitation that is so So why not take five to re-charge
unique readers won’t be able your spiritual battery?” With hun-
to resist. Through the pages dred short meditations to rumi-
of the book, she entices read- nate on one can be sure that
ers to give in to the rhythm of each day will not go un-re-
life, allowing God to take the charged. Each meditation is
lead through ups and downs capped with a spiritual sugges-
one may experience in daily tion, scriptural thought and a bib-
existence. Reflections found lical story. An easy read, this vol-
in each page are borne out of ume is sure to make one’s day
Rupp’s personal experience completely de-stressed and
ministering various groups spiritually attuned.
through workshops and re-
treats which she has given
through the years in differ-
ent parts of the world. Pub-
lished by Claretians this
book is an excellent read
for those who wish to Humane
deepen their spiritual life.
Indeed a busy lifestyle of- Treatment
of Persons
ten leaves many of us feel-
ing weary and dried up.

Prayer keeps us in con-
stant communication with
the Divine, “an inner dance
in which God takes the
lead, guiding us through
the joys and sorrows of
life.”
Between
Sundays
Daily Gospel Reflections and Prayers
Paul Bourdreau
How to make the Word of God alive in one’s heart during the
days of the week in between Sundays? This book provides
the answer. The author, an American priest who has written a
few publications on homiletics adds yet another one on the
list with this inspiring volume. Yes, it is a daily reflection on
the Gospel and more! In this volume of weekday liturgy
Bourdreau provides snippets of gospel reading for the day
followed by a short reflection that links the Gospel with the
daily circumstances of our lives. Each reflection is followed
by a short prayer and an invitation to make the lessons of
Scripture concrete and vibrant in our lives. The volume cov-
ers the various liturgical seasons with a section for special
feastdays. This book is published by Paulines.
Deprived
of Liberty
Source Book on
Human Rights
Standards for
the Protection
and Promotion
of the rights of
Person
Deprived of
Liberty
Rodolfo D. Diamante, Cesar G. Banaag, Karen Dumpit
(Editors)
This book comes right at the time when the country is reeling
with accusations from local and international human rights
bodies of abuses as seen in forced disappearances and wan-
ton killings of human rights activists. Presented in three parts,
the source book contains provisions promulgated by the United
Nations upholding the rights and dignity of every person, and
discusses as well various Human Rights Treaties of the United
Nations in which the Philippines is a signatory. The book also
explains the Rule on the Writ of Amparo, an injunction by the
Philippine Court to solve the spate of extra-judicial killings and
forced disappearances that have been happening in the coun-
try since 1999. An excellent guide to human rights advocates
who work for the protection and promotion of people deprived
of liberty, the book is published by Coalition Against Death
Penalty and Commission on Human Rights.

Volume 42 • Number 6 29

vol42_no06.pmd 29 6/16/2008, 6:53 PM

 ENTERTAINMENT

naging matapang sa
CATHOLIC INITIATIVE gitna ng maraming
pagsubok. Naging
FOR E NLIGHTENED masunurin sa asawa
MOVIE APPRECIATION si Sarah hanggang sa
mamulat sa
katotohanang may
sarili siyang pag-iisip
Title: Caregiver
na dapat ding igalang.
Cast: Sharon Cuneta, John Estrada, John
Manalo, Makisig Morales, Boots Anson-
Isa rin siyang
Roa, Jhong Hilario, Rica Peralejo, Mickey
mapagmahal na ina na
Ferriols, Lotlot de Leon, Monique Wilson, pinagsusumikapang
Anita Linda ipaliwanag at ipadama
Director: Chito Roño sa anak ang
Producer: Star Cinema kahalagahan ng
Screenwriter: Chris Martinez pagtitiis at pagtupad
Genre: Drama sa pangako. Hindi rin
Distributor: Star Cinema matatawaran ang
Location: London, England pagbibigay ng pelikula
Running Time: 110 min. ng dignidad sa isang
trabahong madalas ay
Technical Assessment: 3.5 minamaliit at
Moral Assessment: 3 pinandidirihan: ang
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 13 and below pagiging caregiver.
with parental guidance Gaano man kaliit o
kababa ang isang
hanapbuhay, nagiging
mataas ito at kapuri-
Tinalikuran ni realidad ng buhay sa puri kapag binigyang
Sarah (Sharon London. Ang hirap dignidad at halaga
Cuneta) ang pagiging ng trabaho bilang mismo ng mga taong
guro upang caregiver at ang nasa trabahong ito.
makasunod sa a s a w a n g masyadong talamak sakripisyong Ang taong
asawang si Teddy nakalugmok sa mga sa pag-iisip ng mga pinagdaraanan ang nagmamalasakit sa
(John Estrada) sa bigong pangako at manonood. Mahusay m g a trabaho ay
London at maging wasak na pangarap. ang pagkakaganap ng nakikipagsapalaran sa nagmamalasakit sa
caregiver doon. Bagama’t hindi mga tauhan mula sa ibang bansa kapalit ng k a p w a .
Iniwan ni Sarah sa maikakailang for- mga bidang sina pangakong higit na Nakakabahala
Pilipinas ang anak na mula at de-kahon ang Sharon Cuneta, John magandang buhay. lamang ang mensahe
si Paulo (John C a r e g i v e r , Estrada, John Manalo Hindi nga lahat ng ng pelikulang walang
Manalo) nang nakapagbigay pa rin hanggang sa mga umaalis at asenso sa Pilipinas
mabigat ang loob. ito ng bagong artistang may maliit nangingibang-bayan kung kaya’t mas
Pagdating sa London pananaw ukol sa lamang na papel tulad ay nagiging pinipili ng mga
ay pagsusumikapan kalagayan ng mga ni Anita Linda. Natu- matagumpay. Hindi P i l i p i n o n g
nilang mag-asawa na kababayan nating ral ang mga linya at lahat ng pangarap ay magpakababa sa
maka-ipon upang Overseas Filipino tamang-tama ang natutupad at ibang bayan upang
agad makuha si Paulo Worker (OFW) sa timpla ng mga eksena. nasasagot ng paga- guminhawa lamang sa
at mamumuhay sila London. Bago ang Hindi man ganoon abroad. Sa katunayan, buhay. Bagama’t may
bilang isang pamilya k o n s e p t o n g kabigat ang dating sa karamihan sa mga bahid ito ng
sa London. Ngunit caregiving at hindi pa mga manonood, hindi tunay na problema ay katotohanan, hindi ito
hindi ito agad ito masyadong pa rin maitatangging hindi nag-uugat sa ang ganap na
mangyayari dahil sa natatalakay sa nadala ng Caregiver pera kundi sa katotohanan, at dapat
sanga-sangang pelikula man o ang mga manonood kaibuturan ng pa ring malaman,
problemang telebisyon. Naging sa isang lugar at pagkatao na nananatili unawain at
haharapin ni Sarah matapang ang buhay na malayo sa saan mang lugar maramdaman ng mga
kapiling si Teddy. pelikula sa hamong ating ulirat. mapunta, kumita man kabataan na ang
Unti-unti ring ipakita ang isang Ipinakikita ng ng malaking halaga. sariling bayan ang
mamumulat si Sarah aspeto ng pagiging Caregiver ang Kapuri-puri ang siyang dapat unang
sa napakaraming OFW na hindi pa napakaraming katauhan ni Sarah na paglingkuran.

30 IMPACT • June 2008

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PAKISTAN
Pakistan blasts Burma still strug- Study blames gas Ex-Thai minister
deadly US air strike gling 40 days after drilling for mud vol- turns himself in
The gov’t here de-
cyclone
nounced a US air strike that
killed 11 Pakistani soldiers
along the Afghan border on
June 11. Pakistani officials
said clash erupted when Af-
ghan troopers crossed the
lawless frontier in an attempt
to occupy the Pakistani para-
military post. They claimed
US-led coalition then
launched an aerial attack on
the post.
SOUTH KOREA
N. Korea ‘on brink’
of serious famine
A human rights group
based in Seoul released video
containing testimonies of in-
fluential North Koreans in a
bid to stress the urgent need
for food aid to be flown into
the country. The group says
from evidence gathered,
North Korea is on the brink
of a famine. The last famine
in the 1990s killed about 3
million people.
JAPAN
Firefighter fired for
driving 20 years with-
out license
A firefighter in Takaoka
City lost his job after offi-
cials found out, during a re-
cent routing inspection, that
he had been driving ambu-
lances and fire trucks for
over 20 years without a
driver’s license. He had been
bringing in his father’s
driver’s license and show-
ing it to others while hiding
the photograph with his fin-
gers.
vol42_no06.pmd 31
BURMA
cano A former Thai govern-
Thousands of people re-
main in desperate need five
weeks after Cyclone Nargis
devastated the southern delta
region. Two weeks ago UN
Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-Moon said
he’d been given assurances
by Rangoon that all foreign
aid workers would be al-
lowed in. But the military
regime has kept tight con-
trols on the movement of
foreign aid, leaving
grassroots workers doing
their best to fill the gaps.
AFGHANISTAN
Transgender now a prison
Afghanistan asks separate sex in South
monetary aid for re- Indian state
construction
President Hamid Karzai
has launched a campaign to
raise $US50 billion dollars
for reconstruction and de-
velopment. Other countries
like the US, France and Aus-
tralia already pledged aid to
help the reconstruction ef-
fort. But relief organizations
warned that too much global
aid is spent on security while
development projects vital to
fight poverty and strengthen
the state are neglected.
CHINA
Chinese financial aid
to Pacific rising
A latest report indicated
an enormous increase in the
amount of money China has
pledged in development aid
to the South Pacific. The
research was done by the
Australian based, Lowy In-
stitute for International
Policy, and the paper is titled,
“The Dragon Looks South.”
INDONESIA
Authorities say they are
considering using a new sci-
entific study, which blames
East Java’s mud volcano on
bungled gas drilling as proof
in a criminal probe into the
disaster. The study found the
mud volcano, which started
flowing in 2006 was caused
by drilling by oil and gas firm
owned by the country’s rich-
est man Aburizal Bakrie, not
an earthquake as argued by
the company.
Ex-Bangladeshi PM
INDIA
Hasina freed from
After 11 months behind
bars, former Bangladeshi
A state in south India has
become the country’s first
to recognize transgender
people as a separate sex.
Advocates hope the move
of the Tamil Nadu govern-
ment will boost the status of
transgender communities,
which trace their origins
back to ancient Hindu scrip-
tures.
VIETNAM
Suicide blast kills 12
Former PM Kiet dies police officers
Former Prime Minister
Vo Van Kiet has died June
11 of pneumonia in Singapore
at the age of 85. During his
years in the Politburo in the
1980s, and as PM from 1991
to 1997, he was considered a
major force behind the eco-
nomic reforms that helped
pull Vietnam back from pov-
erty and hunger. He also
strengthened foreign ties with
nations like the US and
Singapore.
Volume 42 • Number 6
6/16/2008, 6:53 PM
N E W S
BRIEFS
THAILAND
ment minister has surren-
dered to local police to face
charges of insulting the mon-
archy which attract a heavy
penalty in the Kingdom.
Jakrapob Penkair resigned
as the Minister for the Of-
fice of the Prime Minister
last May. He was forced to
stand aside from his post
pending an investigation.
BANGLADESH
PM Sheikh Hasina was re-
leased recently from a
makeshift prison. Her re-
lease is seen as a face-sav-
ing deal that allows her to go
abroad for medical treat-
ment, while ensuring the par-
ticipation of her political
party in planned national
polls.
SRI LANKA
An alleged Tamil Tiger
rebel has detonated explo-
sives outside a police station
in northern Sri Lanka on June
16 killing 12 police officers
and wounding 40 other
people. Authorities say the
insurgent carried the explo-
sives on his motorcycle. The
latest attack comes as secu-
rity forces step up pressure
on the rebels inside their ter-
ritory with air attacks and
ground offensives.
31
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