Oca: Isang Istorya ng Pakikibaka

PINAGKAITAN SIYA ng kapalaran na maging martir ng armadong paghihimagsik upang kaipala’y biyayaan ng kasaysayan ng takdang papel na gagampanan sa patuloy na pakikibaka tungo sa ganap na kalayaan at pambansang demokrasya.

Pakikibaka – ito ang buod ng kasaysayan ni Oscar Samson Rodriguez.

Pakikibaka – ito ang mismong ubod ng kanyang buhay.
Buhay na wari’y sadyang pinilas mula sa pambungad na bersikulo sa unang kapitulo ng mapagpalayang ebanghelyo nina Karl Marx at Friedrich Engels – ang Communist Manifesto -- “Ang kasaysayan ng lahat ng naitayong lipunan ay kasaysayan ng pakikibaka – pakikibaka sa pagitan ng mga naghahari at pinaghahariang uri…” 

Pakikibaka. Uring anak-pawis na ang kamusmusan ay tigib sa hagkis ng karalitaan, sa hagupit ng kalakarang piyudal, sa giyagis ng paghihimagsik.

Pakikibaka. Kayod sa araw, aral sa gabi. Sa limang kahig, iisang tuka. Kalam ng sikmura’y hindi na ininda. Sipag, sikap, tiyaga, tiis, tikis – pinuhunang pawis, luha’t dugo makatapos lamang sa pag-aaral. 

Pakikibaka. Alab ng damdamin, puyos ng dibdib sumiklab, nagngalit mula paaralan tungo sa lansangan. Nagningas, lumiyab sa digmang bayan. Ka Jasmin isinilang, sa rebolusiyonaryong kilusan pumailanlang. Bartolina ang sinadlakan. Sa pusikit na kadiliman, isang dipang langit ang tanging tanglaw. Rehas na bakal na pampiit, paninindigang makabayan pinaalab pa nang higit.

Pakikibaka. Sandigan ng katotohanan, saligan ng mga karapatan, tanggulan ng bayan. Kampeon ng mga inaapi’t pinagkakaitan ng katarungan.

EDSA Uno. Bagong pulitika – paglingkuran ang sambayanan binuhay, pinairal sa Kapitolyo, sa bawat takbo sa Kongreso.

EDSA Dos. Atas ng kabayanihan muling tinupdan ng magiting na prosecutor ng bayan.

Pakikibaka. May hihigit pa kaya sa dusa’t pighati dala ng delubyo ng Bulkang Pinatubo? Sa gitna ng kawalang pag-asa, sa harap ng panawagan ng mga eksperto kuno, kasama na ang noo’y senador na Kapampangan daw, na hayaan na ang kalikasan at lisanin na ang lalawigan, matatag siyang nanindigan na ipaglaban ang lahing Kapampangan at hindi ito pababayaang mabura na lamang.

Pakikibaka. Patuloy na pakikibaka. Mula sa kanyang kabataan hanggang ngayon na ang timon ng pamahalaang lokal ay kanya nang tangan. Tangan tungo sa kadakilaan. 

Ang istorya ni Oscar Rodriguez ay kaganapan ng pagsanib ng isang indibiduwal na buhay sa takbo ng kasaysayan. Na siyang piling pagkakataon ng kabayanihan.

“Ang mga bayani ay may kaukulang panahon, kung paaanong ang kapanahunan at mga pangyayaring umiiral ay lumilikha ng mga bayaning kailangan nila.” Ana ngang isang makabayang makata sa kanyang pagpapakahulugan sa konsepto ng “bayani ng kasaysayan.” 

Ang istorya ni Oscar Rodriguez kung gayon ay marapat lamang na maisulat. Hindi para sa kaluwalhatian ng kanyang pangalan. Kundi sa mga aral na dulot nito – ang sidhi ng pangangailangan sa pakikibaka sa pagbabago ng lipunang Pilipino. At ang aral ng kasaysayan mismo: “Ang kahapon ay saligan ng ngayon, ang ngayon ay haligi ng bukas.” 

(Bilang paggunita sa ika-51 guning-taon ng deklarayson ng Batas Militar, handog ko kay Kagalang-galang Oscar S. Rodriguez, nagsilbing kinatawan ng ika-3 Distrito ng Pampanga at punonglungsod ng San Fernando sa maraming taon, ang paglimbag ng talumpati na aking binigkas noong Setyembre 19, 2006, araw ng kanyang kapanganakan, kung kailan aming inilunsad ang aklat na pinalad kong naisulat – Oca: Isang Istorya ng Pakikibaka, ang salin sa Tagalog ng orihinal ko ring inakda – About Oca: A Story of Struggle.)

 

The state of the Clark Freeport, for real

 A PAGE straight out of the state-of-the-city address playlist of San Fernando Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag was the state-of-the-Clark-Freeport address of Atty. Agnes VST Devanadera, president-CEO of Clark Development Corp.

In so many ways, with the “first parallel” as starting point: the first-ever lady mayor of Pampanga’s capital city delivering her first-ever SOCA; the first-ever female boss of CDC making the first-ever SOCFA in the state-owned estate.

Video presentations occupied the pre-address wait: mostly campaign promises accomplished, in the case of Balle-Caluag; an unabashed homage to the self for VST Devanadera.

Darkened hallways preceded both addresses – instantly stirring in the mind dramatic bridal entrances, sans the wedding march.

And then the dance performances, not so much inserted intermissions as integral parts of the SOCA/SOCFA program at par with the national anthem, invocation, and the city or corporate hymns.

Indeed, “showca” as the double visionary Deng Pangilinan of iOrbit News punned both. The similitude ends there.

The state of the Clark Freeport that Devanadera presented before a herded audience of locators and CDC employees was long on pomp, plaudits and platitudes, but short on the actuality obtaining in the freeport.

Why, it even resurrected that delusion of long ago – at the time of Rufo Colayco, or Sergio Naguiat at CDC, if memory still serves right – of a Disney or Universal at the then sub-zone now New Clark City. Keep on wishing upon that star, folks.

Too bad for Devanadera, her SOCFA cannot, even but thinly, gloss over the glaring state of things at the freeport – RESTIVENESS.

Investors and locators, for over a year now, have the proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads with the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the CREATE Law, and Revenue Regulation 21-2021 and Revenue Memorandum Circular 24-2022 issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue that expunged certain duty-free and tax privileges they have enjoyed as locators in a special economic zone/freeport, and later mandated by RA 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises, enacted in February 2021.

The Clark Investors and Locators Association holds that the IRR and the BIR regulations “effectively invalidated the cross-border doctrine, the very rationale for the existence of freeport zones such as the Clark, Subic Bay and others.”

Consequently, CILA says, a growing number of their membership has altogether ceased considering expanding their operations and even started thinking of decamping to other more business-friendly neighboring nations.

But for the perfunctory “we support our locators, being the freeport’s lifeblood,” what has CDC done to help them?

So, Devanadera said in SOCFA that the locators’ cause has been taken to House and Senate committees and measures have been filed for hearings. Alas, the locators have heard too much of that mantra from the same House and Senate members they had met with that it has lost not only urgency but, more so, any efficacy.          

Restive too are South Korean investors in the P2.6-billion The Sharp Clark Hills tourism estate who decried the developer for allegedly refusing to endorse them to the CDC for their approved sub-lease agreements.

Hyped as a residential complex combining apartments and resorts, boasts of state-of-the-art condominium buildings, with support amenities such as a clubhouse, swimming pool, gym, spa and other related facilities, The Sharp Clark Hills is “magnet to Korean investors.”

While the rift between investors and the developer – a sub-sub lease agreement fiasco – is no direct concern of the CDC, it impacts on the general atmosphere of the freeport as “a livable, vibrant and dynamic work and play destination.”

And yes, the investors are planning to take their grievances right at the doorstep of Devanadera. 

Restiveness even older and longer than CILA’s is that pervading the rank-and-file CDC employees.

As though the removal of their allowances, benefits and incentives (ABIs) – up to P14,000 monthly – with the implementation of the Compensation and Position Classification System were not enough, a “mandatory” migration to GSIS from their current retirement and pension provider SSS has been imposed upon the employees by the CDC.

A clear double whammy for the poor workers at CDC there. But does the CDC leadership even care?

So, an earlier press release from Devanadera’s office cited the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations as confirming that CDC’s actual committed investments reached P2.314 billion, surpassing the target of P 1.729 billion; and that this “serves as the foundation for setting organizational goals and offering performance-based incentives for employees.”

The jaded Association of Concerned CDC Employees had a ready retort to this: “Tell that to the Marines.”

Many firsts, we concede, have been achieved in the first year of Devanadera’s incumbency at CDC. At least three cited here:

First-ever in the history of Clark, dating back to the period of its American occupation, that a tricycle managed to breeze through the main gate and reached the first traffic light before being apprehended. This was only last month, the historic, if law-breaking, feat celebrated in social media. 

First ever that a human trafficking ring was busted inside the Clark Freeport – at the Colorful and Leap Group Co. located in Clark Sun Valley Hub last May – resulting to the rescue of 1,090 individuals – 389 Vietnamese, 307 Chinese, 171 Filipinos, 143 Indonesians, 40 Nepalese, 25 Malaysians, seven Burmese, five Thai, two Taiwanese and one from Hong Kong, the biggest haul in a police rescue ever.

The victims were forced into working for at least 18 hours a day in a “fraudulent cyber-enabled industry,” victimizing their fellow citizens by investing in cryptocurrencies. Alas, Clark gone global in something patently criminal.

First ever that a CDC president celebrated her birthday with a fund-raising Lugaw-for-a-Cause with tickets priced at P5,000 each “good-as-sold” to locators and investors sans the reglementary DSWD permit.   
Tubong lugaw, the operative phrase in CDC ever since. The very state of the Clark estate, for real.

Personalan

NGONGO. In his rerun for the Barangay Dolores chair he once occupied for long, the City of San Fernando’s first gentleman, Melchor Santos Caluag, reappropriated the only moniker he used to be known for. That which had propelled him to the Capampangan consciousness, served him in good stead in his political battles, in both barangay and city polls, if only for a council post. That which, he is certain, will work wonders for him anew.

Another ex-multi-term barangay chair on the comeback trail in the capital city, San Agustin’s Amando “Do” Santos, made a reacquisition too, but not of some nom de guerre like Melchor’s. He refurbished the popular sport shoe blurb that scored at least three wins and one loss for him in polls past.

Ngongo. Let’s ‘DO’ it. Two samples but more than enough to reaffirm a point I made of barangay elections in a piece published here on Oct. 24, 2007.      

PASSIONATELY PERSONAL. That is a natural course in barangay elections as everybody there, at the least, knows everybody. That is even if everybody is not related, by affinity or consanguinity, to everybody.

Thus the heat of the campaign: the stake, prized as though it were the presidency of the country itself.
It does come as no surprise but as a matter of course for blood to lose its thickness in barangay politics: brother fights brother, mother fights daughter, father fights uncle, in-laws fight one another, all affinities rendered asunder.
With family wealth dispersed and doled out to the voters, barangay elections not only help the local economy in terms of liquidity but serve as great social equalizers.
Personalan, truly makes the essence of these elections. This is most evident in the names put up by the candidates. Can you get any more personal than that?

That given, barangay elections present are but a recycling of barangay elections past. Aye, what I have written here 13 years ago still very much in currency now.   

In my barangay in Sto. Tomas town, there was a Payok who ran against a Pusa. The latter is out, but the former – the incumbent – at it again. Elsewhere, there is a Manok, a Bulik and a Tatso too again. Plus a Kabayo, who is not the now dearly lamented Apalit Mayor Tirso.
I saw a Tuyo running for kagawad somewhere. And a Menudo too. Also, a Buru. Too bad my friend Paksi, a former town councilor, opted to retire from politics altogether after he lost in the municipal polls. They would have provided some culinary delight to the polls.
It is in barangay elections too that handicaps are celebrated to highlight candidacies, not disabilities. There is a Putot, a Duling – not Mayor Boking Morales’ erstwhile ever-loyal lieutenant (turned-bitter-foes and also-rans for the Mabalacat City mayoralty in 2022), a Salapi (one with extra digits, not money), a Bungi, and a Tikol and Pile in the running. And while at it, add a Komang to complete the PWD cast.

Oh, how could we ever forget the undefeated Ngongo, who after his third term bequeathed his post to his wife (now CSF Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag).

Candidates truly come in all shapes and sizes: Taba, Payat, and Sexy; Tangkad and Pandak. And Toothpick too. In all shades of color also: Baluga, Puti, Brown, and Tagpi, as one afflicted with vitiligo had for a political moniker.
With a Kalbo running around, can a Kulot be far behind? 

Strongman Atlas runs (amuck?) in Dau, Mabalacat (running for kagawad this time in the ticket of his father Boking). Wonder now if his rival Doc Aurelio will take the moniker Hercules. But for certain though there are a lot of Samsons running out there.
Personalan, so the name-calling gets real nasty.
Junior Sablay? Still too kind, make that Marcoracot, a penny-ante plunderer, a petty Marcos.
The “man you love”? Make that the manyilab (arsonist).
A candidate left by his wife becomes a pindeho. One with only a mother is a putok sa buho. Reasons don’t matter here. It’s all perception. It’s all deception.
Still, there’s much in one’s moniker that makes the big difference in the polls.

There’s a Genius for re-electing barangay chair in Magliman at the boundary of Bacolor and the City of San Fernando.

The Nike blurb “Just DO it” appropriated by and doing wonders for the capital’s Barangay San Agustin chair Amando “Do” Santos. 

There was once a barrio in San Fernando too where the contending candidates were surnamed Apostol and Jesus, and one nicknamed Satanas. Guess who won?
Satanas and Apostol lost. And the voters rued their choice.
Barangay elections, as in any other political contest, is no simple name game. All too personal they may come, so keep the passion but don’t leave out the reason.