On Heroism

The media has recently been replete with the story of Prince Harry, third in line for the British crown, whose tour of duty in Afghanistan was cut short for security reasons after an Australian magazine - and later an American internet reporter - divulged his assignment. Upon returning to England amid all the trumpeting broadsheets and tabloids, he said in all humility, "I am no hero." Maybe so, but the fact is that he exposed his own life while serving his government's armed forces in a very dangerous place.

Now, contrast that with the infamy Mr. Jun Lozada. He steals money from the government, albeit "moderately". He performs consultancy work outside of his government position, which is prohibited by civil service rules. He connives with a mischievous senator to sting Malacanang. He had his cellphone all the time that he was allegedly kidnapped. In front of cameras, he weeps without tears and, in the next moment, laughs while maintaining his weepy face. And he basks in the limelight as power grabbers call him a "hero". He makes me puke!

Cat's out of the bag!!!

Well, well, well. Another Senator has called Mr. Lacson and Mr. Lozada's bluff. As to why a lot of people still believe in Lozada, this can only be explained by the blind hysteria stoked by Mr. Lacson's mischief. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Gullible, gullible middle class people:

Palace victim of Lacson sting operation—Enrile

By Christine F. Herrera

SENATOR Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday accused Senator Panfilo Lacson and whistleblower Rodolfo Lozada of engineering the ongoing exposé of high-level corruption in the national broadband network deal as a way of undermining the government.

“I believe this whole thing is a ‘planned affair,’ contrived by Senator Lacson and Lozada to make it appear that it was government that made Lozada leave for Hong Kong to elude the Senate hearing, but it was in fact Senator Lacson and Lozada who planned it,” Enrile told Standard Today.

“I would say the planned affair was very clever, very tricky and very mean,” he said.

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news1_feb29_2008


As the invisible brains behind the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, Mr. Enrile is well-versed in the manipulation of events to bring about cataclysms in the country.

The Lozada Brouhaha

Many people are awed by the oratorical prowess of Shakespeare's Mark Anthony in the play Julius Caesar. With masterful use of rhetorical devices, the presumptive heir to Caesar's throne whips an initially disdainful crowd into a frenzy against Brutus and his cohorts. But what many fail to remember is that upon finishing his speech and seeing the lynching mob whose emotions he had fanned, Anthony whispers wickedly to the audience: "Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot."

Anthony's portentous aside, while unvoiced, is nonetheless clearly etched in the faces of Jose de Venecia, his son Joey, and the paleo- and neo- aristocrats at the Philippine Senate. Capitalizing on an ill-planned and monumental blunder of abortively preventing Jun Lozada from testifying at the Senate, these Anthony wannabes have seemingly fanned the riotous instincts of a gullible middle class whose primary occupation is to fantasize and plot the downfall of anyone residing in Malacanang.

Mr. Allan Peter Cayetano let slip his true intentions when he said on television that "the issue of the kidnapping of Jun Lozada is just as important - if not more important - than the NBN contract itself." Stripped of the tearless whining and the Gollum-like faces of Mr. Lozada, the fact is that his testimony on the NBN scandal is so flimsy it cannot support a prima facie finding - much less proof beyond reasonable doubt - of the complicity of Mike Arroyo, Abalos and Neri. Mr. Cayetano, who graduated from the Ateneo Law School in 1997, knew this. Which is precisely why he maneuvered the Senate hearings to first focus on the claim of kidnapping before shifting to Lozada's insubstantial testimony on the NBN contract. Sensationalism as a cover-up for lack of substance is a tried and tested ploy of mischief-makers.

Not all the hoi polloi are fooled. A friend recounted how, inside an FX taxi he was riding, two women were discussing the Lozada testimony. The driver, usually the invisible man as far as his passengers are concerned, interjected: "Bakit, naniniwala ba kayo dyan kay Lozada?" The two ladies flustered and lapsed into silence.

What is truly disgusting is seeing Satur Ocampo defending Jose de Venecia, a figure whose reputation during the Marcos and Ramos administrations is as sordid as a pile of rubbish. And there was the spectacle of Bayan chair Renato Reyes being cozy with gun-toter and warlord of Makati, Jejomar Binay! An easy explanation would be: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Or maybe it's because the Left already had a modus vivendi with Yoda, which is now threatened by the change in the Speakership. Or maybe the Left does not want to make the same strategic blunder of failing to ride the wave of popular sentiment which they committed in 1986. But out of the window go all avowals of principled politics.

Mr. Joker Arroyo is correct when he said that Jun Lozada is no Clarissa Ocampo. A self-confessed grafter who has made no penance despite the public confession of "petty" thievery, Lozada's testimony is convincing only to those who are blinded by the belief that everything GMA is evil. The rest of the population do not buy Lozada's theatrics. A whistleblower who says in public that to steal $65-million is a "permissible" act as "moderated greed" is beneath contempt and should not be given the stature of a Daniel Ellsberg. To call him a hero is to call horse dung pure gold. And, one may ask, how much was he given out of the "patriotic funds" of social malefactors? Lozada may no longer tee off at Wack-wack now and in the future, but he certainly will be found putting in some other green ... maybe abroad?

Atty. Katrina Legarda minces no words in her column of Feb. 17, 2008 (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storyPage.aspx?storyId=109389):

Just like Winnie Monsod, I was angry when Jun Lozada omitted to state that he went to see Atty. Fely Aquino Arroyo last September 2007 – long before Jun Lozada was considered by the Senate as a possible witness (note: he met with Senators Lacson and Madrigal only in December 2007). This is a malicious omission. But if you want to rationalize it, you can say he was angry and afraid and just wanted to hit back, the way he was being attacked by Senator Joker. The point is: Jun Lozada made it to appear to everyone who was listening, and he NEVER corrected this lie of omission, that Atty. Fely Aquino Arroyo made him go to her house for the sole purpose of convincing him not to testify.

Jun Lozada is not an innocent in the dysfunctions and corruption of government contracts. You cannot be a whistle-blower unless you are a participant to the contract and its negotiation. Jun Lozada was the bagman of Neri, a man he still seeks to protect lest all his bank accounts be revealed and lost. Joey de Venecia wanted a powerful sponsor too, so he went to the president’s brother for help, but because the president’s brother was in Canada, Joey de Venecia was sent to Ricky Razon. I am sure, having an idea about how these things work, that Razon was supposed to tell him whether he had a chance in hell of getting his contract approved – Razon was NOT there to be his sponsor or his bagman. De Venecia had no intention of giving one cent to Razon. In short, everything was about the MONEY. Joey de Venecia and his backers and sponsors lost in the high stakes game of procurement. So he cried. And people forget that his contract price was $262 million …. And yet he claims that the true cost of the contract was only $132 million. To whom was Joey de Venecia’s padded cost going? $130 million din yun.

This is not to exonerate any of the "commissioners" of the aborted NBN contract. It is a 100% certainty that some people were going to get commissions for facilitating the consummation of the contract. To the extent that Lozada says this is standard practice in government contracts, he is telling the truth. This practice can be found even in congressional and senatorial PDAFs and other perks, and not just contracts entered into by the Executive Department. Which reveals the true nature of the Lozada hearings - a "petty" thief kvetching before his peers!

That "commissioning" is prevalent in all branches of the government does not, of course, make it right. And it is but correct that the citizenry should ever be vigilant against graft and corruption. It is a never-ending task that may be likened to cleansing the Aegean stables: as long as there are horses inside, there will always be dung to wash away.

But vigilance has never meant vigilantism. If there is solid evidence against any grafter no matter what his position, then let the chips fall where they may. One of the hallmarks of a civilization is that guilt must be proved through established procedures and not in unholy congressional inquisitions nor through lynch mob mentality fed by the machinations of some people who have no claim to the privilege of casting the first stone.

Self-abasement and politics

Politics drives home the point that to get along in life a person must have some master. The master can be a person above you in terms of power and/or wealth. Or it can be an ideal - freedom, democracy, social welfare. Or it can even be material - money, cars, houses. But a master one must have.

Realization of this fact can be pretty humiliating. Just a few minutes ago, I called up our governor to plead for a loan. Not for personal or business reasons, which would or should result in some earning, but in order to augment funds for our people who are running in Monday's barangay elections. This is not something I usually do. In fact, I hate what I did. The only saving grace about it is that it is a loan that I was asking for, not a dole-out.

Paglaum, Lanang!

Bring Government Back to the People: Paglaum, Lanang!

(A Vision of, and a Statement of Belief in, a Better Lanang)

Election season is upon us once again. This phenomenon which occurs every three years brings with it the despicable spectacle of people transformed into commodities, selling their votes to the highest bidder and turning democracy into cattle on the auction block.

Many of us abhor this practice. In an ideal society, democracy should be the process where citizens are given the opportunity to intelligently choose their leaders. The entablado is supposed to be a place for the airing competing political views and platforms of government so people can choose those who would hold the reins of government.

But the reality of Philippine politics is vastly different. In our country – and Lanang is no exception – politicians seek to be elected not so they can serve those who vote for them. Rather, elections are used as a means to access power and the opportunities to commit graft and corruption that come with power. Thus, we see congressmen whose aims are to fatten their bank accounts, build mansions and air-conditioned cockpits, and collect mistresses for their harems … the roads of their congressional district be damned. And we see national leaders whose sole aim is to preserve themselves in power by pretending to be blind to the plunder of the nation’s wealth by congressmen and local officials.

The Vicious Cycle of Philippine Politics

There is a direct relation between the phenomenon of vote-selling and the intentional neglect of politicians. For the politicians, an “investment” of P500 to P1000 per voter every three years brings with it untold returns in terms of 10%-15% payola from public contractors, as well as the occasional shakedown of legitimate businessmen in the guise of “investigation in aid of legislation”. It is to the benefit of politicos to keep their constituents mired in poverty and ignorance, because they know that progress and wisdom will cause them to lose their grip on power. For the electorate, selling their votes give them direct benefits – if only for the short term – of being able to buy half a sack of rice and a box of canned goods on the day after elections. The benefits are temporary, but they are sought because they know that for the next three years their needs will be forgotten and neglected anyway.

The two principal characters – politicians and voters – thus feed upon themselves in a vicious circle where people sell their votes for temporary relief from the oppression of poverty and politicians buy the votes for access to power and pelf. These vicious circles are found in varying degrees of extent and intensity from the barangay up to the national levels of governance.

This must be put to a stop.

Breaking the Cycle by Confronting the Issues

The solution is to get back to the true meaning of democracy as articulated by President Abraham Lincoln – “Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Kuha-on an pang-gobyernohan tikan han mga politico ngan ibalik ngadto han tawo!

Bringing the government back to the people where it belongs means having a local government responsive to the plight of its people. This will require confronting the following issues head-on:

Economic - The available resources must be availed of to their full potentials.

Coconut farming is the predominant economic activity, and yet we still dry our copra in streets and sell them in Tacloban. In the technological world we live in, this is unforgivable. We must bring technology to Lanang by producing not just the raw material (copra) but also the processed and, if possible, the final consumer product that we can introduce into the national market.

Except for paltry efforts individual fishermen who invoke the image of Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” the marine resources of the Pacific Ocean remain untapped. On the other hand, Taiwanese and Japanese poachers are the ones who are raking in the profits. A more organized/collective and scientific approach is necessary so our fisherfolk can effectively and efficiently harness the gifts of the sea.

Perhaps the most overlooked assets of Lanang are its places of incomparable beauty. Bacayawan beach, now marketed through the internet, has been visited sporadically by tourists both foreign and domestic. Still underdeveloped are the attractions of Tongkip Beach. Hidden places of beauty can be found in up the Llorente River, in Mina-anod Island with its surfing possibilities, Balingasag Bay where visitors can jetski and hanglide, and Aronghol where tourists can go cave exploring. With in-depth planning and enough business savvy, the potentials of these places can be utilized.

Infrastructure – Public infrastructure are necessary to pull Lanang out of poverty.

The highways built in the 1980s have badly deteriorated over the years. Between So-ong and Tabok, and from Aronghol to San Jose, the stretch of highway found within the town’s borders has become a tortuous slalom course for motorists. These sungkaans form a searing indictment of the neglect by national and local governments – no funds have been allocated for repair and rehabilitation. This must be remedied: If neither the national nor the provincial governments will provide us with funds for repair and rehabilitation, then we must be creative and find ways to generate the resources to do it ourselves.

A comprehensive infrastructure action plan must be put in place. Based on the needs of the various barangays, developmental infrastructure will be designed. If farmers need roads to bring their produce to town, then farm-to-market roads will be built. If fisherfolk need a port to bring in their catch, then a fishing port will have to be built. To do this, we can have access to national government funds, as well as “overseas development funds”.

Besides the physical infrastructure, technological advances need to be introduced to Lanang. Although both Smart and Globe have already put up cell sites, there is still as yet no respectable internet penetration except for those with 3G cellphones. An internet kiosk can be established that will serve as the gateway for Lanangnons to access the vast information available on the World Wide Web.

Environment – Progress would be meaningless if we destroy our environment in the process.

A balance must be maintained between the demands of development and the obligation to conserve the environment.

The extraction of sand and gravel –necessary in the building of houses and public infrastructures – needs to be properly regulated.

The felling of trees for lumber – also necessary for the construction of homes and furniture – must be approached in a rational manner. A total log ban is unrealistic. Instead, there should be regulatory measures in place, including the replacement of felled trees through a viable reforestation program.

Peace and Order – These twin objectives are inextricably twined with the ethos and morals of a community.

Programs and ordinances – both preventive and remedial – must be set in place to prevent the proliferation of drug and substance abuse, illegal gambling, as well as youthful prostitution. Hand in hand with school authorities and with private sector, the energies of young men and women need to be channeled to constructive activities that will equip them with the necessary skills to face the future.

Rewarding positive behavior and penalizing negative acts is a vital function not only of the family but also of the community. Where windows are broken, we must fix them. Dirty cops, no matter whose relatives they are, must be hailed before the courts of law and face the consequences of their actions.

And when children and the youth see that their elders abide by a code of accepted behavior, they will have stronger characters and not be easily led astray by the temptations of drugs and other criminal acts.

Cultural and Historical – “Ang ’di marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, ay ’di makakarating sa paroroonan.” So goes the observation of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

The last event of global significance that had a direct affected Lanang was World War II. The veterans – who experienced the war as guerillas or by way of administrative support – are now in the twilight of their years, soon to fade away. Yet no steps have been taken to write down their stories and preserve them not only for ourselves but also for generations to come. The same is true for Lanangnons who have shown excellence, in the local and national arenas as well abroad. It is high time that Lanang give due recognition to its sons and daughters by acknowledging their achievements.

Interaction with the national culture – as well as the effect of intrusions of cable and satellite TV – have also led to the dilution of the culture that was and is distinctly Lanang. We cannot prevent the intermix of cultures – both domestic and international – but we should take steps to ensure that they are at least remembered and honored.

It is important, therefore, that the municipal government initiate the creation of a cultural and historical society that will preserve the memory of what was Lanang.

Only by addressing these issues can government once again be brought to the people of Lanang.

Paglaum, Lanang!

Many of our fellow Lanangnons have chosen to live their lives outside of their hometown. They believe that staying in Lanang would only lead to professional and financial stagnation. Considering the realities of our town (and our country), they have good reasons to leave. And the best proof that they are correct is how well they have done in Metro Manila, in Mindanao, in Hongkong, Italy, the United States … and just about every place where you can find a Lanangnon.

But we also believe that we cannot give up on Lanang. Lanang is, in the words of an old song, “an iroy nga tuna”. It is our hometown, the place where we came from, and the place where we shall return even only in spirit.

If we believe in this, then what we have learned, and what we have earned, in other places can and should be brought back to lift Lanang from the morass it finds itself in.

The task of addressing the issues confronting our town can be made easier if we have political leaders who are knowledgeable of the situation and who have the capability to do something about it.

Thus: --

We need to elect people who will be governed by the principle that to be a leader means to serve.

We need to install leaders who will be guided not by selfish motives of power and greed but by the interests of our people.

We need to have leaders who will bring back hope to Lanang.