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Women are being commodified in capitalist countries and made as slaves in backward, agricultural countries. Women are the ones being pimped by governments of backward, agricultural countries to serve as slaves of more affluent countries.
I could not remember any precedent in history where there is such a mad rush for positions in Congress by officials, relatives, and close allies of an outgoing administration.
The ruling elite and one segment of the middle class would want to make the people believe that one person could fulfill the unfinished tasks of Edsa 1 to lull the Filipino masses into complacency and dependence. In fact, they do not want another people power uprising to take place, reasoning that it would shake the political order. And that is where the problem lies.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
An illegal arrest backed by lies, the use of torture, denial of visitation rights even from the government’s own Commission on Human Rights, the fabrication of pieces of evidence and witnesses, the refusal to honor the order of the Supreme Court -- all this point to what Makabayan senatorial candidate Satur Ocampo aptly called as a “grand slam day for impunity” and a “classic throwback to the martial law era.”
The Senate, which had its finest moments when it blocked the railroading designs of the administration-dominated Lower House, is now revealing its worst form because the May 2010 elections are just around the corner and the Senate has always been a jumping board for those who would want to become president. Sad as it is, the disappointing state of the Senate and the sorry state of the election campaign, and the election itself, is merely a reflection of the dismal and backward state of Philippine society.
The Comelec, by providing Arroyo the opportunity to perpetuate herself in power through the representative-prime minister route and Estrada the opportunity to regain power, is keeping impunity alive.
Majority of victims of human-rights violations in the Philippines are peasants. They are the ones most denied not just land but justice. So any candidate for president who claims to be for justice should, first and foremost, commit to the implementation of a genuine agrarian-reform program. This is why the Hacienda Luisita land problem is a defining issue for Noynoy Aquino.
If there’s anything new that deserves much anticipation in 2010, it is the role to be played by reform-minded, cause-oriented groups and the “civil society” movement. Reforms that respond meaningfully to the demands for effective leadership and governance as well as wide-ranging social and economic reforms need a more assertive social movement.
By REP. RAYMOND PALATINO
Manny Villar’s brave decision to openly embrace a platform-based unity with the Left has smashed the taboo in Philippine politics. From now on, the participation of the Left will be expected in future electoral contests for top political posts.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
While it would take more than a change in president to effectively address the worsening economic and political crisis, if Arroyo and her minions are able to get away with keeping themselves in power -- by declaring a failure of elections, martial law, or charter change -- the Filipino people would sink faster and deeper into the quagmire of backwardness and poverty.
And this impunity would not end for as long as Arroyo wields power whether as president, congresswoman, or prime minister. Impunity would also persist if Arroyo’s clone cum anointed one, Gilbert Teodoro, emerges the winner in the presidential elections by some stroke of luck, especially of the Garci kind.
When it comes to human rights and democracy, the Arroyo government never fails to provide ironies.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Underneath the never-ending and intensifying political conflict is the permanent and worsening crisis of the economy. The raging economic crisis feeds the growing dispute among the various factions of the political elite contending for control of political power and monopoly of economic spoils – a conflict that has become more pronounced and increasingly vicious under the nine-year old Arroyo administration.
When Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was quoted as saying that Arroyo’s first agenda if and when she gets elected in Congress is to pursue moves to amend the 1987 Constitution, it confirmed people’s suspicions that it was all about keeping herself in power.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
The impunity in recent political killings in the Philippines could have emboldened the Ampatuan clan to commit the massacre. If the perpetrators of more than a thousand extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of political activists could walk scot-free, perhaps, they thought, they could get away with killing less than a hundred people.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Malacañang is threatening to reimpose an oil price control if oil companies will not follow the conditions outlined by Mrs. Arroyo. Government, however, has given up the high ground with its lifting of EO 839 and continued adherence to the discredited deregulation policy.
The more your hear and see the less you know. This seems to best describe what politicians articulate during press conferences and say in public, the current leading candidates for president included.
Noynoy Aquino may not have stolen money from the nation’s coffers but he has been stealing land from the farmers of Hacienda Luisita. The issue of the farmers of Hacienda Luisita is not merely a test of his mettle as a presidential candidate but, more importantly, it is a test of his sense of justice.
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