Akbayan and the Struggle for a New Philippines
Walden Bello - 22.07.2011 13:41
(Speech at the Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo Awards Event, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington State, July 2, 2011.)
Let me, first of all, express my appreciation for your inviting me to this event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo, two heroes of the US working class and the Filipino community. As a member of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP - Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino), I was privileged to have known Gene and Silme, though not perhaps as intimately as many of you in the Seattle community. I remember two people who were determined to rid Local 37 of gangsters and yellow unionism but also individuals who were intensely committed to the Filipino people’s struggle to rid their country of the Marcos dictatorship.
A Different Atmosphere
I am very happy to be with friends here today. The atmosphere here is in great contrast to the one during the Third Ministerial of the World Trade Organization, where I was treated to pepper-spray and went through the unique experience of being beaten up by a Seattle policewoman. In this regard, I must tell you that there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that while she was beating me, my response was to scream, “More, please.”
This is the first time I visit Seattle as a member of Congress. And a propos of this, let me say that I never imagined that I would see the day that I would be serving along with Imelda Marcos in Congress. I spend a lot of my time on the House floor trying to escape her because she is always trying to recruit me to serve in her Committee. She is the head of the House Committee on the Millennium Development Goals, a post to which the Speaker of the House, in what I can only interpret as an ironic mood, appointed her. It is an experience to hear her speak. She comes across, as my friends John Cavanagh and Robin Broad described it, as a “brilliant crackpot.”
The country was rid of the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986, but the next quarter of a century was not an easy one. Electoral democracy was reestablished but the old oligarchic class structures reasserted themselves. Structural adjustment and neoliberal trade policies pushed by Washington, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund resulted in the devastation of our agriculture and industry, driving a large part of our labor force—10 per cent according to some estimates—to search for work abroad. Unbridled corruption, especially during the nine years of the Arroyo administration, left government coffers empty and people extremely distrustful of politicians.
Akbayan and Aquino
The coming to power of the administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III a year ago, after Mr. Aquino’s massive win at the polls, gave our people tremendous hope and expectations that a new era was at hand.
My party Akbayan, the Citizens’ Action Party, had aligned itself with Mr. Aquino’s candidacy, and Mr. Aquino’s asking Risa Hontiveros, who was with us till yesterday, to run as a guest candidate on the Liberal Party slate, was emblematic of the value he placed on this alliance.
We in Akbayan supported the coalition that brought “Pnoy” to power because this coalition had a strong reform agenda based on two pillars, ridding the country of corruption and tackling the country’s enormous poverty problem, who could serve as the basis of more comprehensive reform. Our presence in government was a sea change for our party, for, ever since we participated for the first time in the electoral process in 1998, we had been, for most of the time, a party in opposition. Indeed, we had been unrelenting in our efforts to expose the corruption of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) and her effort to change the constitution to perpetuate herself in power. Now we were confronted with the challenge of being part of a coalition in power, of having people in Congress and in the executive who were expected to deliver concrete reform.
Overcoming Obstacles
It has not been an easy first year. On the anti-corruption front, a major instrument to bring GMA and her cronies to justice, the Truth Commission, was prevented from functioning by an obstructionist Supreme Court filled with appointees of the former president. More important, the Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, stood like an immovable stone blocking all efforts to investigate and prosecute the former first family and her accomplices. Until she was removed, the anti-corruption campaign would be stalled. This is why we in the administration coalition in Congress devoted so much time and effort to impeaching her, which we finally succeeded in doing in March of this year in a historic, lopsided vote. Rather than be prosecuted in the Senate, Gutierrez resigned. This has paved the way for using the office of the Ombudsman to bring Mrs. Arroyo and her cronies to justice. Meanwhile, prosecution of notorious NBN-ZTE broadband scandal is moving. Cases have also been filed against GMA for the diversion of funds of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration and the Department of Agriculture to her and her cronies’ personal coffers. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is bringing former presidential son Mikey Arroyo to court for massive tax evasion.
In my first privilege speech during the 15th Congress, I said that Mrs. Arroyo, who had joined us as representative of the Second District of Pampanga, had no business being in Congress and that she belonged instead to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. For this speech, I was accused by GMA’s allies of violating parliamentary courtesy and brought up before the House Ethics Committee. But however the case against me fares in the House Ethics Committee, I am now so much more confident, after all these developments, that justice will be meted out and that we will see in the not too distant future former president Arroyo transported in an armored car in the 20 kilometers from the House of Representatives to the National Penitentiary.
I think that largely because his integrity is unimpeachable and owing to his perceived determination to clean up government, Mr. Aquino, after a year in office, continues to enjoy a trust and approval rating of 71 per cent of our people.
Containing Poverty
The anti-corruption campaign is moving ahead. So is the anti-poverty program. The main mechanism to deal to contain poverty that the administration has chosen is the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT). The CCT gives families as much as P1400 a month ($32) in exchange for keeping their children in school and subjecting them to health checkups. Patterned after successful programs in Brazil and Mexico, the extra cash provided by the CCT is often the only resource that poor families have to devote to health and education, which is critical to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. In the last 12 months, some two million families have been enrolled in this program.
The results of the CCT and other poverty-containment initiatives of the administration have made a difference in the lives of Filipinos. According to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, between the first and second quarters of 2011, there has been a 5.4 per cent drop in the number of hungry households. In other words, there are fully a million fewer hungry households in just three months. The total hunger rate has fallen to 15.1 per cent of households from the 21 percent during the last semester of the Arroyo administration, and the 2.0 per cent rate of families experiencing severe hunger is the lowest since 2003.
Embarrassments
Of course, the administration has had its share of embarrassments. The tragic Luneta Grandstand hostage-taking fiasco that resulted in the deaths of tourists from Canada and Hong Kong comes to mind. Another is the factional rivalry so well reported in the press. And, of course, one cannot justify the president’s buying a Porsche (even it if was third hand) or his not serving as a good model for public health by his continued smoking.
And while his total ban on logging is a major step forward in reversing deforestation, he must be told he must stop going around the country inaugurating coal-fired electricity generating plants since every schoolchild knows that coal is a worse emitter of greenhouse gases than oil. Yes, we have an energy crisis in the Philippines, but we cannot afford short cuts like establishing coal plants and take advantage of the crisis instead to really adopt renewable energy options.
Challenges Ahead
We in Akbayan never had any illusions that there were diverse forces in the administration coalition and that some of these forces are averse to the structural reforms that we, as the principal progressive force in the Philippines, feel are necessary to bring about dynamic economic growth, greater equality for our people, and a sustainable society.
The challenges are many, and in the next five years of this administration, we will fight to bring urgent structural reforms, among which are the following:
- First, a new deal for the Philippine working class that banishes the plague of contractualization and casualization;
- Second, the reversal of the policies of trade liberalization and globalization that have destroyed so much of our agriculture and industry;
- Third, a moratorium on the repayment of debts we have paid many times over, which now takes up some 20-25 per cent of the government budget;
- Fourth, full implementation of the agrarian reform extension law (CARPER) and the consolidation of land reform;
- Fifth an end to demolitions and evictions and the provision of innovative socialized housing services to millions of urban poor families;
- Sixth, a halt to deforestation and environmental degradation
- Seventh, a new macroeconomic paradigm to bring about Philippine development that takes advantage of the country’s natural endowments in agriculture.
We cannot promise we will win all of these battles, but we can promise that we will give the struggle our all.
The Battle over Reproductive Health and Population Management
In the next few months, the key political battle will be the fight over the Reproductive Health, Family Planning, and Population Management Bill. The key aim of this measure, which has been brought before the House floor after seven years of struggle, is state provision of free contraceptives to poor families, free counseling in family planning, and sex education for young people.
400,000 abortions and over 150,000 maternal deaths now take place yearly because of the lack of access to contraceptives and family planning services. Infections from HIV-Aids are rising because of lack of protection. Moreover, the Philippines’ failure to control its population growth, is one of the principal forces preventing sustained and sustainable development and keeping so many of our people poor. The rest of the big countries of Southeast Asia—Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia—have successfully managed their population growth and gone a long way to substantially eliminating poverty.
Just to give an example, Thailand had a smaller GDP than the Philippines in 1975, but it had roughly the same population size, the same high population growth rate, and the same percentage of people living in poverty. In the period 1975 to 2005, Thailand was able to reduce its population growth rate to 1.3 per cent while the Philippines’ declined to only 2.3 per cent. During that period, Thailand’s GDP grew by 4.9 per cent, while the Philippines’ grew by a minuscule 0.4 per cent. By 2005, Thailand’s GDP was $176.6 billion while the Philippines’ was $99 billion. By 2005, there were 84.6 million Filipinos, or over 20 million more than the 63 million Thais. By 2005, owing to its successful population management, Thailand’s GDP was $2,750, or nearly triple that of the Philippines, which stood at $1,192. As of today, only 13 per cent of Thais live under the poverty line, while some 30 per cent of Filipinos do.
But we are falling behind not only Thailand but Indonesia, once the basket case of Southeast Asia, which has only 7.5 per cent of its people living in poverty, and even Vietnam, where the poverty rate is 14.5 per cent.
I give these shocking comparisons to underline the stakes in the battle for reproductive health and population management in the Philippines. And, in this connection, I wish to thank for president for the political courage he has shown in supporting the Reproductive Health Bill. In the Philippines, it takes courage to go against the Catholic Church hierarchy, which has threatened political retribution to members of Congress and other elected officials who will vote for Reproductive Health Bill. My partymate Risa Hontiveros, by the way, is one of the country’s staunchest champions of reproductive rights, and, not surprisingly, she is also one of the figures most demonized by the Church hierarchy. But the long and the short of it is, we have no choice but to win this battle.
The Crisis of the Labor Export Paradigm
As Chairman of the Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, I have gained a deeper understanding of the travails of our countrymen and countrywomen, who are forced to go abroad to seek work any kind of work because of the way wrong policies or lack of good policies on such issues as reproductive health and population management have prevented Philippine development.
Every crisis in almost every part of the world becomes an internal crisis for the Philippines because there are almost invariably many Filipino workers whose livelihoods are threatened by natural disasters and political events, such as developments in the Middle East. We try to do the best we can to protect our workers. For instance, after an investigative mission to Saudi Arabia last January, we came out with a report recommending the non-deployment of domestic workers to the country owing to the grave dangers of rape, sexual abuse, and maltreatment they faced there.
And just last May, after an investigation of the case of 11 trafficked workers in Mississippi, we came out with another report urgently calling attention to the expansion of labor trafficking to the United States and recommending steps that both Philippine and US authorities could take, such as prosecution of the US transnational services firm Aramark and investigation of the possible collusion of people within the US Embassy and labor traffickers. Yet these measures are like the proverbial Dutch boy’s finger in the dike. Unless we forge a new macroeconomic paradigm that provides the jobs and opportunities at home for our people, abuse and exploitation of our most vulnerable workers will continue to proliferate.
Good Intentions, Wrong Move
The president understands this. Indeed, he has stated that one of his objectives is to create the conditions under which our workers are no longer forced to go abroad to find decent work. But while one cannot dispute the president’s concern for our OFWs, sometimes it leads to policy fumbles. For me the most troubling of these was his not going to Oslo last December to attend the Noble Peace Prize ceremonies for the Chinese dissenter Liu Xiaobo so as not to offend the Chinese government and prompt it to execute three Filipino OFWs condemned to death for allegedly smuggling drugs. He was criticized heavily for this in human rights circles, and the Chinese went on to execute the OFWs anyway. Good intentions sometimes lead to bad policies, but the president is learning.
China and the West Philippine Sea
This is evident in the way he has behaved on the South China Sea issue. China is currently presenting the Philippines with its gravest foreign problem. Displaying hegemonic ambitions, China has claimed the whole South China Sea, disregarding the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones of countries like the Philippines and Vietnam and intimidating our research ships and fisherfolk, sometimes even firing at them, according to some accounts. Having apparently learned that China does not respect weakness, the president has refused to give into intimidation by Beijing, refusing to give any credence to China’s claims.
For our part, Akbayan filed a bill in the House of Representatives proposing changing the name of the South China Sea to the West Philippine Sea. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Malacanang accepted our suggestion, and our government’s new official name for the South China Sea is the West Philippine Sea. I would appeal to all of you to join us in calling that body of water by its new name. And please tell your children, too, that the South China Sea is now the West Philippine Sea.
We do not seek a military confrontation with China. In fact, we disagree with the administration’s invoking the assistance of the US government in the conflict because this has the danger of converting a territorial dispute into a superpoer confrontation. We must rely on our partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and we call on China to settle the issue via peaceful multilateral negotiations. And we appeal to you, the Filipino community and our friends in the United States, to join us in opposing China’s aggressive expansionism in the West Philippine Sea. We may be weak in conventional military terms but let this message be clear in Beijing (and in Washington as well): we Filipinos won’t allow ourselves to be pushed around any longer.
Friends, the challenges we confront in the Philippines, are many and difficult. In this connection, we have always seen the Filipino community in the US as well as the broader American people as important allies in our country’s continuing fight for freedom, equality, and development. Gene and Silme, KDP and the Coalition against the Marcos Dictatorship (CAMD) helped invaluably in forging the trans-Pacific links of solidarity. I am confident that we will continue to nurture and strengthen these bonds of kinship and solidarity.
I thank you.
*Walden Bello - Representative of Akbayan in the House of Representative.
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Akbayan to Aquino: Dig for the truth, scrutinize whistleblowers and prosecute GMA
Akbayan Party today asked the Aquino administration to remain firm in digging for the truth behind the series of anomalies involving the previous government, which they said should lead to the prosecution of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA).
The statement was made even as the political party called for a careful scrutiny of all whistleblowers and possible witnesses in light of the claims made by former election supervisor Lintang Bedol and former Maguindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan.
“The coming forward of personalities wanting to expose the election irregularities of Ms. Arroyo should reopen the unfinished and unresolved issues of cheating in previous elections and expose the widespread syndicate of election fixing and fraud in the government,” Akbayan Rep. Kaka Bag-ao said.
Bag-ao said now is the time to make all possible and credible whistleblowers to come out without fear and expose the high crimes of Arroyo, her family and cohorts.
However, the partylist lawmaker counselled the Aquino government to carefully scrutinize the statements and claims of possible whistleblowers.
“Since some of those who would like to blow the lid on the alleged election cheatings are themselves accused of committing or contributing in the said crimes, the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government must assess the credibility of these possible witnesses while encouraging others to also come forward,” Bag-ao cautioned.
Bag-ao also slammed the Arroyo camp particularly Lakas party lawyer Raul Lambino for saying that the Aquino government “coddled” Bedol and Ampatuan to get back at the former president and to “distract” the people from President Aquino’s plunging popularity ratings.
“Lambino should stop his doublespeak. Nobody’s buying it. No one was coddled. Truth is, they are now ratting on their boss because they are now feeling the heat generated by the government’s serious anti-corruption campaign,” Bag-ao said.
“If there's any coddling that happened, it took place during the GMA administration," Bag-ao pointed out. "After all, who coddled Garcillano? Who pampered those who were implicated in the 2004 election irregularities? Abalos, the election chief at that time, was involved in several anomalies, and yet he was treated with velvet gloves by the Arroyo administration. "
Bag-ao said the one of the Aquino government’s electoral promises is to make accountable all those who “ravaged” the country during the nine-year reign of the Arroyo regime.
“The government is only fulfilling its promise. If the likes of Bedol has something significant to say that will finally link Arroyo, the big boss to her colossal crimes, then by all means let the government extract crucial information and evidence from these individuals,” Bag-ao asserted.
However, Bag-ao said if the said individuals have no new and vital information to provide, then the full weight of the law must be applied to them.
“Kung wala silang sasabihing bago para ituro ang pasimuno ng mga krimen na ito, ay dapat lamang mabulok sila sa bilangguan,” Bago-ao said.
The Akbayan lawmaker also defended Presidential adviser Secretary Ronald Llamas from Lambino’s accusation that he acted as an emissary for Ampatuan.
“As far as we know, Secretary Llamas was not involved in this. Besides, Llamas is not the issue here, GMA is. Those who are maligning him are just afraid of the truth,” Bag-ao concluded.
 http://www.akbayan.org.ph/
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Akbayan to Arroyo: Take a leave, don’t use Congress as a political shelter
Former Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros today urged Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) to take a leave from Congress to insulate the House from the dishonor that the inquiries on poll fraud and PCSO corruption would bring upon the former President.
“As Congress and other government bodies start looking into the mega-anomalies that happened during the previous administration, it would be prudent for Rep. GMA to take a leave from Congress. These controversies are clearly linked to the former President, and new testimonies would attest that GMA herself has a direct hand on these anomalies. As a member of Congress, it is her right to avail of the privileges accorded to a lawmaker, but that would undoubtedly besmirch the reputation of the 15th Congress,” Hontiveros said.
She said that she should not use Congress as a political shelter.
“GMA should take leave of absence and spare Congress the embarrassment that she inflicted upon herself,” said Hontiveros.
“As a congresswoman, she could manipulate the situation and transform this into a battle between Congress and the Executive, or claim that the Executive is harassing a member of Congress. She can use her congressional privileges, from the so-called parliamentary courtesy to her immunity, and make Congress her own political asylum. We can’t allow that to happen, and out of delicadeza GMA should just take a leave from Congress,” Hontiveros added.
Hontiveros also chided lawyer Raul Lambino for claiming that the revival of the poll fraud controversy is a Malacanang ploy.
“This is nothing of that sort. Don’t tell me that the GMA camp actually assumed that with the election of a new government, the Filipino public would simply forget about Garci and the cases of corruption that happened under the GMA administration. GMA’s past is simply catching up with her,” Hontiveros said.
“Sya ata ito na ang tingin sa publiko ay utak dilis. Maraming baho na sinubukan nilang pagtakpan nuong sila ay nasa pwesto na hanggang ngayon ay umaalingasaw,” Hontiveros said. “Babaho at babaho ang mga anolmalyang ito hangga’t hindi nila pinapanagutan.”
http://www.akbayan.org.ph/
 Website: http://www.akbayan.org.ph/
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