That narco muck

WORLD’S 8th Best Mayor in 2012.

President, League of Cities of the Philippines.

Chairman, Central Luzon Regional Development Council.

Human rights lawyer.

Narco-politician…

No simple incongruity there but absolutely wrong entry in a resumé as solid as Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan’s.

Hence, hizzoner's vehement denial of any link in the illegal drug trade that was the basis of the National Police Commission’s order stripping him of his police powers last week, along with two dozen other mayors and a governor.

"It is an utterly absurd charge, and I challenge the Napolcom to immediately file charges against me if it has an iota of evidence that I am involved in drugs.” So Pamintuan dared Napolcom.

Furthered he: “Even as I challenge the Napolcom to walk it's talk and file charges against me instead of just maligning me, I call on the agency to be cautious and more circumspect in pointing at anybody supposedly into illegal drug trade, without evidence.”

And spewed: “Napolcom is an investigative body, it should know the law."

Vintage the activist Ka Gatdu there.

And – to me, not necessarily with but standing by him – Pamintuan should have stopped there, having already raised the standard of due process. The burden of proof laid upon the Napolcom, with the imperative of justice – to Pamintuan, et al, serving officials as they are – now all too compelling, if only for the sake of their constituents, if not for their very honor.

Especially as the suspension of the mayors’ supervision over the police was – in the words of Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Amador Corpus – “because of their alleged involvement in illegal activities which constitute acts inimical to national security or negate the effectiveness of peace and order in the country.”

“Biruin mo ikaw ang pangulo ng League of Cities tapos ikaw pa ang masasama diyan.  Ako ang tagadala ng polisiya, gusto ko we follow the policy of the President, anti-drugs tapos bigla na lang na ganyan.” Lamentation that cuts to the very core of Pamintuan’s political being. And I – standing by him – cannot but feel him.

He should have stopped there. But he could not have helped invoking his patron. For effect – “I have met and talked with President Duterte in many occasions, the latest was about two weeks ago in Malacañang. Knowing him, he would have told me straight on the face if I were in his list of local officials supposedly into drugs, like he did to other mayors linked to drugs," Pamintuan underscored in a radio interview, saying that he would seek an audience with the President after the ASEAN summit to clear his name.

In vain

Pamintuan may have taken the name of the President in vain there.

In a press statement, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency clarified that the Napolcom resolution was effected by an inter-agency intelligence task force composed of the Philippine National Police Directorate for Intelligence, the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and PDEA.

Created in January 2017 through a directive from the National Security Council, the task force vets, validates and updates the list – originally disclosed by the President in September 2016 – on a monthly basis which is submitted to the Office of the President by PDEA as the task force secretariat.

PDEA said it was in September 2017 that this list of Pamintuan et al came out with the DILG comparing “Duterte’s list with the updated list prepared by the Inter-Agency Validation Task Force.”

It would appear that at Pamintuan’s meeting with Duterte “two weeks ago,” the President had already received the list that had his name. Why, the set of Napolcom resolutions were dated Oct. 30 – precisely around that time of the meeting.  See some interesting story there?      

Of the Napolcom resolution, PDEA chief Aaron Aquino was quoted thus: “Undeniably, illegal drugs have contaminated the bureaucracy. The data shows a continuous involvement of government officials and employees in the drug trade.”

Malignant with speculation now, but ace police reporter Jess Malabanan of Interaksyon 5 was quick to point out that it was at the time of Aquino as director of Central Luzon Police Office-3 that three shabu laboratories were raided in Angeles City. Not so veiled an inference there of Aquino knowing full well what he was saying. 

SupportED

As SunStar Pampanga bannered and iorbitnews.com trended, Pamintuan has been avalanched with support from his constituents, both individually and by sector.

The city council has dutifully, if not loyally, issued a statement of support to Pamintuan, stressing how they “have witnessed Pamintuan’s efforts in support of the Duterte administration’s fight against corruption, criminality, and the use, abuse and proliferation of illegal drugs.”

And pledged their “unconditional support” to their mayor on account of his “anti-drug programs and policies that are contradictory to the claim that he is involved in illegal drugs.”

To reiterate, I stand with Pamintuan.

It is just that I believe his redemption from this maculation of his character can only come through the judicial process. Not on Duterte’s say-so. Not even by presidential fiat. No, Duterte – his legions of believers notwithstanding – is no Christ who can transform a Simon into a Peter.

Facebook may even break from the #IamwithEdPam uploads of his supporters but still the muck smacked on his character by the Napolcom resolution won’t wash away.

Pamintuan may take heed of the US president that he so often quoted in the past – the Great Emancipator, with this gem: “I do the very best I can, I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me won't matter. If I'm wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won't make a difference.”

Get your day in court and bring yourself out right, Sir. 

The vanishing Parul Sampernandu

"THERE IS a very big market, not just during the Christmas season but all throughout the year. There is only the need to expand the lantern lines and transform them to other decorative art for events like Valentine’s and even Halloween.”

Master parul maker Roland Quiambao talks of upping the ante for the local lanterns in terms of innovations to make them all-season and take their magical brilliance to the international market.

Quiambao deserves all the support he can get, from government and private business, in this endeavor that surely shall assure the parul craft – and the city – a global niche.

At the rate “innovations” go in the lantern industry now though, the parul Quiambao dreams of taking to the world market may be anything but that which put the city in the Christmas map.

Year after year, a ghost of Christmas long past metaphorically goes our parul sampernandu. An elegy, if not a eulogy indeed, makes this piece published here over three years ago.   

Bedazzled, bothered

IT MADE its Hollywood debut in 1993, holding its own stellar right in a Tinseltown already bedazzled by Liam Neeson in Schindler’s List, Tom Hanks and Denzel Wshington in Philadelphia, Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, and the very young

Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio in their breakout film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

A year earlier, it was the toast at the World Expo in Spain. Its kaleidoscope of dancing lights and colors rousing Vivas! and Oles! from the dons and donas of the Iberian peninsula.

In Austria, it added up to the magnificence of the Stadtturm in Innsbruck; permeated the Rathausplatz Christkindlmarkt in Vienna with the Filipino spirit of Christmas; and became an object of curious wonder at the Ethnology Museum also in Vienna.

It brought Yuletide joy to the Lord Mayor’s House in Dublin, Ireland.

It was the star of hope, love and joy that welcomed homesick Filipinos to the Good Shepherd Cathedral in Singapore. 

It has become the seasonal motif, indeed the distinguishing seal, in Philippine embassies and consulates in Canada, Russia, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia and the United States.

In New York, it mesmerized the cosmopolitan crowd of Fifth Avenue when it was exhibited at the Philippine Center.

In San Francisco, it became one unifying factor for Fil-Ams when it was displayed at the main entrance of the St. Patrick’s Church, even as it spawned a Ligligan Parul around the SoMa area, initiated by community organizer MC Canlas, a native of San Fernando.

In 2013, it made history as the first-ever Asian (outside China) entry in the exclusivist and revered Xiamen Lantern Festival.

That same year too, it drew crowds to the 2^nd Annual Parol Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii where Vice Mayor Jimmy Lazatin defined the "message of hope that the lanterns of San Fernando bring to Filipinos here and abroad"

It has been all around the globe. All around the country too, from the main avenues of Davao City to Manila’s Roxas Boulevard to the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

It has put the City of San Fernando in the world map as, in the words of CNN, “Asia’s Christmas capital.”

It is the signature craft and product of the capital city. Indeed, its officially registered OTOP (one town, one product).

As well, the core of its biggest fiesta and annual extravaganza – the Giant Lantern Festival, which was awarded as the first runner-up for Best Tourism Event in the Philippines at the recent 10th Pearl Awards in Bacolod City organized by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) and the Department of Tourism.

So much has the parul sampernando done for the city and its citizens.

But for the perfunctory paeans like this piece and the obligatory laudations from the local officials at every launch of the annual lantern festival, where has the parul sampernandu gone?

It has made its presence everywhere – around the globe, around the country – but has vanished from home altogether.

The Parul Sampernandu (as proper noun now in keeping with the event) makes its presence only in the Giant Lantern Festival. Its smaller actual edition maybe in some little corner of a lantern craftsman’s workshop in the flood-prone areas of Barangay Del Pilar.

Search all those roadside lantern stalls, whether makeshift or concrete – and despair: They have only flashing LED lights in transparent plastic cables, shaped into stars, flowers, Santa and his reindeer, Christmas trees, even helicopters. But no parul sampernandu  – as we know it: alambre frame covered with colored papel de japon or thin plastic fabric, its price dependent on the number of bulbs and the variety of “plays.”      

This is a sad commentary of the times. We persist in celebrating a tradition, yet, unmindful of its dying. As we are bedazzled by the brilliance of the giant lanterns, so must be, moreso, bothered by the fast disappearance of the parul sampernandu from our city.

The annual Giant lantern Festival is not all there is to the parul sampernandu, There is the greater need of its preservation as craft, as product, for the Fernandinos. Thereby the imperative of its continuity – for generations to come – as cultural icon, as the very symbol, aye, the very soul, of the city.

Duplicitous duality

“COMPARED TO previous years, more airlines are now appreciating Clark’s marketability and its increasing number of local destinations.”

So, reported Clark International Airport Corp. president-CEO Alexander S. Cauguiran, citing the increase in flights – 282 a week – as “confirming the viability of the national government’s dual airport policy” that President Duterte directed on the Clark International Airport and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

No, Cauguiran is too modest to toot his own horn for laying the schema before the then-still president-elect on the Clark-NAIA duality – his lifelong advocacy finding in April 2016 the collective push of local stakeholders in the – what else? – Advocacy for Dual Airport Priority (ADAPT).

Complementation rather than competition. Concedes Cauguiran of the modus vivendi between Clark and NAIA: “Clark can never be the main airport of Manila and we do not compete with NAIA operations since Clark caters to passengers from Northern and Central Luzon while NAIA targets Metro Manila and the Southern Luzon population.”

He enthused: “Right now, we are tapping a goldmine by servicing our catchment population of 21.4 million potential passengers and airlines are appreciating this.” Referencing the Ilocos, Cagayan, Central Luzon and Cordillera regions.

The immediate results are proof positive of Clark’s viability – 1.1 million passengers already just for the period January to October 2017, projected to rise to 1.4 million by the year’s end.

All this even before the start of the construction the new passenger terminal and runway!

Yes, at last, at last, at long last – after the epic mirages of Al Kharafi, Bristeel, Philco Aero and what not – the new passenger terminal is fast shaping to be for real. All of its eight million passenger capacity in addition to its current 4.2 million actual capacity per year!

The project, set for completion in 2022, is – a CIAC press release stressed – “spearheaded by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Bases Conversion and Development Authority President Vince Dizon who also led the bidding last August 22 for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract of the new passenger terminal project.”

Ay, there’s the rub – Tugade!

SMC gains edge in Clark airport project

So, reads a headline in the inquirer.net dated Oct. 28. Lousy headline writing there impacting bitter sarcasm, if unwittingly.

There is absolutely no mention of Clark in the whole of the news story that is all about SMC’s long-time dream of an international airport in Bulacan, to wit:

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) obtained the coveted original proponent status for its proposal to build a P700-billion “aerotropolis” in Bulacan province, giving it a big advantage ahead of a bidding process yet to be set by the government.

This was confirmed yesterday by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, who spoke to reporters at the sidelines of the Philippine Aviation Day business forum in Makati.

Tugade said a final decision would be made by the board of the National Economic and Development Authority, chaired by President Duterte…
“A formal proposal (for Bulacan) was submitted to us, and we have gone over it, the completeness of the proposal. We have forwarded it to the Neda for final approval,” Tugade said.

On another private sector offer to build an international airport in Sangley Point, Cavite, Tugade said they were waiting for the formal submission of the proposal.

Where stands Clark with an airport in Bulacan? Can it maintain its dual airport status with another – a much, much bigger one – in the same neighborhood?

Please do not dismiss this point with a nonchalant “Plano pa lang naman yung Bulacan airport.” It is an insult to our intelligence. 

The “coveted original proponent status” is just much too much for SMC, astute a business conglomerate as it is, to just let go to naught. As the news story itself says: An original proponent status gives a firm an advantage should the project be auctioned off under a Swiss challenge, a bidding process that allows other interested parties to submit competing offers. However, the original proponent holds the right to match the best offer that will come out of the exercise and win the project.

And bringing into the SMC equation the International Air Transport Association with its “support for a new air gateway close to Metro Manila with a capacity of at least 100 million passengers per year” makes a virtual fait accompli.

Ay, even as Tugade is being idolized hereabouts for his “spearheading” the development of the Clark airport as worthy pair to NAIA, he could be idiotizing us with these slick, if duplicitous, moves to bring about SMC’s airport dream in Bulacan.

What says you, Cauguiran, Sir?     

Immunity index

NOVEMBER 2 is International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

Impunity comes in various guises, feeds off indifference, then impacts all too terribly on the people. My take on the subject in this Zona piece of June 2012.   

CULTURE OF impunity. The phrase so oft applied in unsolved media killings, extra judicial executions, abductions and disappearances, that it assumed exclusivity for human rights violations.

Enculturation though starts in small, petty things, which often repeated, graduate to big things. Like the culture of the lie attributed to Goebbels: If a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes a “truth.” Or something accepted as a relative truth. 

Hence, if a wrong is done often enough, it becomes not necessarily right, but altogether tolerated, aye, accepted as a no-wrong.

Thence – to my simple mind – rises the culture of impunity. Impunity, if I remember my seminary Latin right, rooted in im – without, and punitas – punishment.

So, even as I continue to join my media comrades raise clenched fists every 23^rd of the month to remember the Ampatuan Massacre of November 23, 2009, and shout for an end to the culture of impunity, I keep my own impunity index on the petty side of things un-right, if not illegal.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers dropping and picking up commuters in No Loading/No Unloading Zones right under the very noses of traffic enforcers.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers – again! – taking the outermost lanes and zooming through red lights right on plain sight of traffic enforcers.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers – again, again! – keeping their vehicles’ headlights off in the dark of night. That’s no simple driving with reckless imprudence, that’s wanting – not waiting for – an accident to happen. So, where’s the LTO?

Then there are the tricycles traversing stretches of the national highways in direct violation of the law, being confined only to crossing them. So, where’s the local government?

There too are the whole families of three, four, five, once I saw even six, on board single motorcycles, where but tandem riding is decreed.

And helmetless motorcycle riders or those who wear them on their elbows not on their heads. Notwithstanding all those No Helmet, No Travel rules posted just about everywhere,

And what do you make of the padyak-sikels who lord it all over city streets – making terminals atop bridges, counterflowing traffic at will, do pick-and-drop passengers wherever?

The culture of impunity most manifest in our roads and highways.

They all flout the law with nothing more than their stupid grins to flaunt, but nobody dares apprehend them. Not even reprimand them. Veritably empowered with an immunity from suit! And these are but the “small folk” far below the ladder of power and influence in local society.

If, in their “lowness” they can get away with these small violations, so can the high and the mighty get away with bigger violations, murdering newsmen not exempted.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country is ever invoked at each unsolved high profile or extrajudicial killing, abduction, disappearance.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country should be invoked at each unpunished illegality, no matter how seemingly trivial.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country demands the draconian exercise of political will. By all persons in authority. With full respect to the rights of the people, but of course. 

Will. Will not. A whale of a difference in the nut.

      

Diwa ng himagsikan

ISANG MADUGONG pakikibaka tungo sa pagbagsak ng naghaharing uri.

Ito ang klasikong bigay-kahulugan sa katagang rebolusyon o himagsikan. Kahulugan na umusbong mula sa pagkalas sa Inang Inglatera ng 13 nagkaisang kolonya ng Amerika noong 1776, at sa pag-aklas sa Pransiya laban kay Louis XVI noong 1789.
Naging modelo rin ng klasikong kahulugan ang himagsikang Sobyet ni Lenin noong 1917, ang digmaang sibil sa Tsina noong dekada ’40-‘50 na pinagwagian ni Mao, at ang tagumpay ni Castro at Guevara sa Cuba noong 1959.
Hindi natatapos ang himagsikan sa pagbagsak ng naghaharing uri. Sa kaisipang Marxista-Leninista-Maoista, nakaukit ang pangangailangan ng isang patuloy na himagsikan, kaipala’y upang harangin ang likas na pagnanasa ng mga ibinagsak na makabalik muli sa poder at sa rurok ng pamamahala sa estado. Sa wikang Ingles: the need for a continuing revolution to block counter-revolution by the reactionary forces, both foreign and home-grown.
Ang reaksyonaryong puwersa ang pinakamasidhing kalaban ng himagsikan. Ito ang sagabal na bibigo, sisilat o kikitil sa kaganapan ng tagumpay ng himagsikan: ang pagtaas ng antas ng pamumuhay ng masa. Na matutupad lamang kung ang liderato ng pamahalaan ay manggagaling mismo sa kanilang hanay.
Suriin natin ang ilang aspeto ng kasaysayan.
Hindi natapos ang himagsikan sa Amerika nang isuko kay Washington ni Cornwallis ang lahat ng puwersang Ingles sa Yorktown, Virginia noong 1781 gayong ganap nang naglaho ang tangan ni George III sa 13 nagkaisang estado.
Bagama’t itinadhana ng Declaration of Independence ng mga estadong ito na ang lahat ng tao ay nilalang ng Diyos na pantay-pantay, hindi kasali dito ang may 650,000 aliping Itim, 250,000 aliping bayad-utang, at 300,000 katutubong Amerikano o Indian na noo’y naninirahan sa mga kolonya. Pati na ang mga kababaihan ay hindi sakop ng pahayag ng kasarinlan. 
Kinailangan pa ang Emancipation Proclamation ni Lincoln at ang digmaang sibil noong 1861-1864 o kulang-kulang 100 taon mula Himagsikang 1776 upang mapalaya ang mga Itim sa pagka-alipin. 
Kinailangan pa ang martsa ni Martin Luther King at ang kanyang talumpating I Have a Dream sa Washington, D.C. noong 1963 o 100 taon na naman mula kay Lincoln upang maging ganap ang pagsasa-batas ng kalayaan ng mga Itim at maging kapantay ng mga Puti sa mga karapatan. 
Ang kada-100 taon na mga kaganapan na yaon ang maituturing na milestones in the continuing revolution sa Amerika. (Na masasabing nagkaroon ng sukdulang kaganapan sa pagkahalal kay Obama bilang unang Itim na pangulo ng Estados Unidos noong 2008).
Iba naman ang kinahinatnan ng himagsikan sa Pransiya. Pinugutan ng ulo si Louis XVI at kanyang reynang Marie Antoinette. Ang mga naghahari at nagpaparing uri – monarkiya at simbahan – ay binawian ng poder, ari-arian, pati na rin buhay.

Burgis

Sa pagkawala ng aristokratang hanay, uring burgis ang namayani, naghari at nang-api sa masang Pranses. Ginipit ang mga unyong manggagawa, sinupil ang karapatan ng mga maliliit at tuwirang nilapastangan ang adhikain ng himagsikan – liberte, egalite, fraternite.
Naghari ang lagim, namayani ang sindak sa reign of terror – na kumitil sa buhay ng daan-daang mamamayan mula sa iba’t ibang sector ng lipunan. Sumiklab ang pag-aalsa at malawakang kaguluhan na nagbigay daan sa isang golpe militar na nagbunga sa pagbulusok ni Napoleon Bonaparte na siyang nakapagpatahimik sa bansa at nagpanumbalik sa monarkiya sa pamamagitan ng kanyang pagkorona sa kanyang sarili bilang emperador. 
Si Lincoln at Napoleon, pati na rin sina Lenin, Mao at Castro – magkakaiba ng pananaw, paninindigan, pamamaraan at landasin subalit lahat sila’y tinaguriang mga bayani ng kasaysayan dahil sa kanilang kahalagahan sa critical moment sa buhay ng kanilang bansa. Ito ay ayon sa Kanluraning kaisipan na pinasikat ni Arnold Toynbee sa kanyang A Study of History. 
Tunghayan naman natin ang sarili nating kasaysayan.
Sa isang talata ng kanyang epikong Bayang Malaya ay ipinaloob ni Ka Amado Hernandez ang kasaysayan ng Pilipinas: “Nagsuot ng kalmeng bigay ng Espanya, kalmen nang lumaon ay naging kadena. At itong Amerika na bagong katoto ang dala’y de-lata, laya ang kinuha, ininom ang bayang parang Coca-Cola.”
Isang naunsyaming rebolusyon ang Himagsikang 1896 dahil bago pa man inagaw ng mga Amerikano ang tagumpay mula sa ating mga Pilipino, inagaw na ng mga ilustrado na kinatawan ni Aguinaldo ang himagsikan mula sa masa na nagpasimuno nito sa katauhan ni Bonifacio. 
The Unfinished Revolution – ang palasak na pagtawag sa Himagsikang 1896 – ay nagkaroon ng kaganapan noong Setyembre 21, 1972 – ayon mismo kay Marcos, sa pagpapantasya sa kanyang batas-militar bilang isang “rebellion of the poor” o himagsikan ng mga dukha laban sa naghaharing oligarkiya. Wagas na kabulaanan, sa harap ng mapaniil na diktaduryang kanyang isinakatuparan.     

EDSA

Sa EDSA noong 1986 ay ipinangalandakan din na nagkaroon na ng kaganapan ang 1896. Maliban sa pagkarambol lamang ng mga numero, ito ay isang paglapastangan sa kasaysayan.
Ang pagkakaroon ng EDSA Dos ang malinaw na patunay na wala ngang himagsikang nangyari noong 1986. At wala ring himagsikang naganap sa EDSA nitong 2001. Hindi dahil sa walang dumanak na dugo. Kundi dahil walang naganap na pagbabago. Lalo’t higit walang pagbuti sa antas ng buhay ng mga mamamayan.
Ang naganap ay isang rigodon lamang kung saan mukha lamang ang nagkaroon ng palitan sa liderato ng bayan. Mula sa isang naghaharing uri, isinalin ang poder sa kanilang kauri. Sabi nga ng aktibista noong 1986: “Kumaripas ng takbo ang lahi ni Barabas, pumalit nama’y lipi ni Hudas.”
Ano ang nagbago?
Sa panguluhan ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, nakapaligid ay sabwatang militar-trapo. Wala ni anumang puwang sa pamamahala, dili kaya’y sa kaunti mang biyaya, ang mga karaniwang mamamayan, pesante’t proletaryo, silang umaklas at umalma upang mapatalsik si Estrada. 
Tinungo ng rehimeng Arroyo: globalisasyon – ang bagong bihis ng imperyalismo. At ano baga ang nahita ng mga tao sa muling paghahari ng aristokrata’t oligarko sa panguluhan ni Benigno Simeon Aquino?
Tama si Mao. Ang masa, ang masa lamang ang tunay na bayani. Ito ang Asyanong paninindigan na umiiral din sa mga bansang Third World na gumigiyagis sa tindi ng kahirapan at panunupil sa mga karapatang pantao na hagkis ng mga papet na tigreng papel ng globalisasyon, ng mga berdugo ng kapitalismo, ng mga enkargado ng pyudalismo.
Ang tanong: Kailan pahahalagaan ang kabayanihan ng masa at gawing puhunan sa pambansang pamunuan tungo sa tunay na kalayaan, pagka-pantay-pantay at ganap na kaunlaran ng bayan? Sa isa pang EDSA? Gasgas at pulpol na ang kaisipang ito. Kailan pa tayo matututo?

Bulaang Mesiyas

Sa pangakong pagbabago, kapit-bisig at taas-kamaong binalikat ng masa tungo sa panguluhan si Rodrigo Duterte. Hindi lamang kaganapan ng 1896 ang ipinagdiwang sa tagumpay nito, ang ipinangalandakan ay ang mismong pagdating ng mesiyas na tutubos sa Pilipinas!

Subali’t sa loob lamang ng unang taon ng panunungkulan ni Duterte, hindi manunubos kundi mang-uubos ang bumulaga sa sambayanan – ang ipinagbunying mesiyas, kaipala’y may sayad na Herodes sa walang pakundangang pagpapatay sa mga inosente’t walang malay.

Sa kanyang mga pangakong napako, bunton ng sisi’y sa iba’t ibang tao – mula sa pinaka-abang tsuper hanggang sa mga pinagpala sa lipunan, ang mga may tangan ng kalakal, media, at simbahan.

Sa kanyang walang katapusang kapalpakan, hagkis ng mura’t panlalait ay sa kabi-kabilang dako – mula Amerika hanggang EU at UN.

At upang ganap na mapagtakpan ang iwing kahinaan, imbing kawalang kakayahan sa panunungkulan, pumapailanlang ngayon – mula sa kanyang tsuwariwariwang lumpen na kawan – ang sigaw ng Revolutionary Government.

Muli, ito’y isang panghahablot kundi tuwirang pagnanakaw sa tinig ng kasaysayan – “Sigaw ng Bayan: Himagsikan!”

Revolutionary Government? Sino ang patatalsikin? Sino ang magpapatalsik?

Si Duterte ang kasalukuyang naghahari. Si Duterte ang muling maghahari.

Hindi lamang ito isang kontradiksyon. Ito ay kahangalan. Ang golpe de estado na maniobra ni Marcos sa kanyang martial law, golpe de gulat ni Duterte ngayon sa kanyang revolutionary government kuno.    

Ay, di baga’t diyos-diyosang sinasamba nga ni Digong si Macoy?     

Wala kay Duterte ang himagsikang Pilipino. Pagtibayin ang puso, kasama. Tungo sa panibago at pina-igting na pakikibaka.

(Isinapanahong salin sa pinaglumaang yugto ng kasaysayan, hawi sa lukut-lukot na pahina ng dyaryong dating pinagsulatan, petsang Pebrero 19, 2001.)

Paskuhan wish

"ANG PASKUHAN ay naging simbolo na ng San Fernando at ng Pampanga kaya ang city government, hinihingi na i-retain muna ang Paskuhan Village at gawin itong culture and heritage site,"

So spoke Mayor Edwin Santiago in an exclusive interview with Sun-Star Pampanga last week, reminiscing how, in its heyday, the famous Christmas-themed park served as an “iconic symbol of the city’s thriving lantern industry” and “landmark” of the province.  Fault not Santiago for his redundancies there, warped as he was in nostalgia.

Why, the Paskuhan Village was in fact one of the reasons for dubbing the City of San Fernando as “Christmas Capital of the Philippines.” So enthused Santiago.

It is then but right and fitting that the Paskuhan Village be “redeveloped into a lantern city” to showcase the eponymous industry not only of the city but of the whole province.

Even righter, “that the celebration of the annual and colorful Giant Lantern Festival be brought back to its true home, the Paskuhan Village.”

Declared Santiago: Ito ay naging branding na ng San Fernando at ng Pampanga kaya dapat lang na ibalik ito sa kung saan nararapat."

Beyond the platitudes, what has Santiago, if only on paper, to bring Paskuhan back to where it rightfully belongs?

Nada. Zilch. As Sun-Star Pampanga reported: “Santiago did not disclose yet the position of the government in terms of acquiring the management and operation of the property. He said that the matter is still under deliberation and will be disclosed once everything is settled.”

Ay, there’s the rub.

Santiago’s ruminations rose out of the reported nullification of the Paskuhan deal between the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority and Premier Central Inc., a subsidiary of SM Prime Holdings Corp.

Santiago found solid ground in the report of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that recommended to the House of Representatives to void the sale of Paskuhan, which specifically stated that TIEZA disregarded the provision of R.A. 9593 that gives the City of San Fernando and the Province of Pampanga the “right of first refusal” on the sale or lease of Paskuhan.  

The report said that TIEZA officials committed malfeasance in the performance of their duties for misapplication of the law and abuse of authority. Now, there’s some question of accountability there. Now, there’s some cry for prosecution there. As indeed the House committee provided a copy of its report to the Office of the Ombudsman for appropriate action and further investigation on possible administrative, civil and criminal cases against erring TIEZA officials. That, though merits a separate story.

For now, it will be the height of naivete to think that Premier Central will just charge its Paskuhan (mis)deal to unhappy corporate experience and move on. Or for TIEZA to simply return every single cent of the P939,656,848 Premier Central paid for the property: no questions asked, no rationalizations given. (What about the commissions? The usual SOPs?)

Even granting that it will be so, the Paskuhan will not be all Christmas present for Santiago and his city.

The right of first refusal certainly gives the city the first shot to claim ownership of Paskuhan from TIEZA. But not for free. The price though may not be as stiff as the nearly P1 billion Premier Central shelled out, given its being government-to-government transaction.

Now, has the City of San Fernando the funds? If not, has it the credit line to secure some loan from, say, the Land Bank of the Philippines, for the purchase of the once-upon-a-time Lazatin property?

Even if the city has all these, there is the greater concern of making the property pay for itself as a self-liquidating asset.

Santiago thinks of a “lantern city,” presumably the Paskuhan serving as one-stop shop of workshop, atelier or what have you of the parol craftsmen, product display and store.

Will that be enough to recoup whatever sum of investment the city shall infuse in the place?

Not by a long shot, if we go by the Paskuhan experience at the time of its inception and early years which it was precisely what Santiago is proposing now. And even more – a swimming pool, go-karting and rock climbing subsequently included on the site.  

Not even the addition of a Days Inn hotel and the Gardens of the World in the site by Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor to host the international Florikultura show in 1998 could save it from being denigrated as pastulan village – pastureland for carabaos. No, the deterioration of the Paskuhan Village did not come with the stalemate caused by the House investigation of its sale as reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Its dilapidation came within a decade from its inauguration in 1990.   

Indeed, not even the PR -savvy Dick Gordon as tourism secretary was able to revive interest – both public and financial – in the Paskuhan which he rebranded as “Hilaga.”                         

No belittling Santiago now. But pray, tell, how in the world can he possibly excel where both Gabor and Gordon apparently failed?

The Paskuhan may look like a Christmas wish come true to the city. But it is in reality a Pandora’s box. No matter the tinsel and ribbons that it is beautifully packed with.

Take it, at the city’s own peril.  

Phony populism

“MAHIRAP KAYO? Putang ina, umalis kayo. Magtiis kayo sa hirap at gutom, wala akong pakialam.”

So, President Duterte ranted – contextualized though in the pursuit of the common good: “It’s the majority of the people, huwag niyong ipasubo ang tao.”

Still, there is no mistaking the raving: “I’m giving you… until the end of the year, sumunod kayo kasi January 1, kapag may nakita ako na hindi na-rehistro, luma, guguyurin ko yan sa harap niyo.”

And, the unmasking – of Duterte’s populist, aye, pro-masa, image reveled in by the 16 million who made him president. Yes, the drivers and operators of jeepneys who took the streets Monday and Tuesday, included. They who are now the object of his bluster.

Here yet is another self-contradiction afflicting Duterte – the self-avowed socialist at the time of the election campaign, the tyrant of a president.

His disdain, if not utter abomination, of the masa – the very core of his political base – most manifest, not only in these fulminations against striking drivers, but in the fulsome slaughter of the poor, be they drug addicts or pushers, or innocent collaterals to his war on drugs.

There is not an iota of the socialist in Duterte. There is in him everything of the elitist, at the least of the peti-burgis.       

Else, he would have taken to heart the DG (the student activists’ discussion group) lessons of his generation at the time of the “days of disquiet and nights of rage.” Yes, those lessons unrepentant socialists like myself, pull out like mantras at every call of their continuing relevance. As I have first written in the now defunct Pampanga News issue of March 23-29, 2006 under the heading The masa antithesis:  

HINDI MANGMANG ang masa. Sila’y pinagkaitan lamang ng tamang pagkakataon upang ganap na umusbong ang kanilang katalinuhan, ng akmang kaganapan upang malinang ang kanilang karunungan – pagkakataong pinigil ng hagkis ng kahirapan; kaganapang sinupil ng hataw ng pang-aapi’t pagsasamantala ng mga naghahari-hariang uri.

That “the incompetence of the masses is almost universal throughout the domains of political life…” is a fundamental fallacy in the bourgeois postulates on the people.
The masa response: There is no inherent mass incompetence among the people: there is mass oppression, exploitation, and deprivation that caused incompetence.

Premium to the existence of class exploitative societies is the oppression of the people. Of the highest priority is the reduction of the people to their basic animal instincts, the deprivation of their natural rights as human beings, in order to best serve – in the bourgeois interest – their principal purpose as nothing more than tools of production.

Sa kaisipang elitista, ang masa ay kawan ng baka’t kalabaw na isinisingkaw sa mga bukirin, sa mga planta’t pabrika upang mabigyan tugon ang lahat ng mga pangangailangan, upang masustentuhan ang lahat ng luho at kapritso ng uring peti-burgis.
Tunay ka, kasama: Tamad na burgis na ayaw gumawa, sa pawis ng masa ay nagpapasasa.

Deprivation damns the people to incompetence, dispossessing them of the necessary knowledge and skills to rise above the lot pre-ordained for them by the ruling class.
Born poor. Live poor. Die poor. Paldac-sicaran ning cacaluluan, ibat qng quebaitan angga na qng camatayan, as we put it in Capampangan. An animal existence. To the elite, that is the masa destiny. A vicious cycle with neither definitive end nor fixed beginning.


Of that, it is not.


Incompetence, as we have stated, is reared upon deprivation which in turn is rooted in exploitation which spawns from oppression. To make possible the elimination of incompetence among the people then, exploitation needs to be uprooted.


Ang pagkapantay-pantay ng mga mamamayan ang sandigan ng isang demokratikong estado. Ang mga kalakarang piyudal, pagbubusabos sa mga anak-pawis, paniniil sa mga anak-dalita ay walang puwang dito.

So government exists for the purpose of preserving the status quo. This does not cover though the preservation of the system of class exploitation.

Ang pagtaas sa antas ng pamumuhay ng mga mamamayan ay hindi lamang pangunahin kundi sagradong gampanin ng pamahalaan. Lakip nito ang pagbibigay puwang sa pinakamaliit at pinaka-aba mang mamamayan ng bahagi sa mga gawain at pagkilos na tuwirang tumitimo sa kanilang buhay. Anumang kaganapang taliwas dito ay isang kabalintunaan sa demokratikong estado.

The bourgeois thesis of governance as a monopoly of the propertied class has been – rightfully – long consigned to the dustbin of history.

There is, though, an emerging new elitism. This, the masa should fight with a determined populism.

NO, NOT that kind of populism arrogated unto Duterte. Who, in fact, is an elitist to the core