THE NATIONAL
GUILDER
Ang Opisyal na Pahayagan ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines Hulyo-Setyembre 2015 www.cegp.org
BALITA CEGP, youth groups protest Camp Aguinaldo on Lumad slays in Surigao | pahina 3 Kabataan nagprotesta laban sa panunupil ng gobyernong Aquino | pahina 10 Aquino’s last SONA full of false feats on education and youth concerns | pahina 11 KOMENTARYO Resisting the Tides of Tyranny and Repression | pahina 6 APEC’s Neoliberal Offensive and its Effect on Philippine Education | pahina 7 LATHALAIN Sa bungkalan ng lupa at bala | pahina 5
Gusto nako og kalinaw. Davao Bisaya: I want peace.
#StopLumadKillings
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EDITORYAL COLLEGE EDITORS GUILD OF THE PHILIPPINES Pambansang Komiteng Tagapagpaganap 2014-2016 MARC LINO J. ABILA Pambansang Pangulo The LPU Independent Sentinel Lyceum of the Philippines University IAN HARVEY A. CLAROS Tagapagpaganap na Pangalawang Pangulo The Torch Publications Philippine Normal University LIANA ACUZAR Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Luzon The Louisian Courier University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao FRANEL MAE POLIQUIT Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Visayas Tug-Ani University of the Philippines Cebu ROCHAMAE BIHAG Pangalawang Pangulo para sa Mindanao Mindanao Varsitarian Mindanao State University ATHENA GARDON Pambansang Pangkalahatang Kalihim The Manila Collegian University of the Philippines Manila CHARINA CLAUSTRO Pangalawang Pangkalahatang Kalihim para sa Luzon The Communicator Polytechnic University of the Philippines-College of Communication NAYZA TRAYCO Pangalawang Pangkalahatang Kalihim para sa Visayas UP Vista University of the Philippines Visayas-Tacloban NUR JANNAH KAALIM Pangalawang Pangkalahatang Kalihim para sa Mindanao Himati University of the Philippines Mindanao
PAMBANSANG KALIHIMAN JUBERT CABREZOS The Philwomenian, Philippine Women’s University MARY ROSE IGGIE ESPINOZA The Arellano Standard, Arellano University MICHELLE LADO Cyber Isko, University of the Philippines Open University RONILO MESA The Manila Collegian, University of the Philippines Manila ELIJAH FELICE ROSALES Ang Pahayagang Plaridel, De La Salle University GENESIS SORIANO The Spark, Southern Luzon State University-Lucban College of Engineering JOANNA MARIE UDARBE The Manila Collegian, University of the Philippines Manila
College Editors Guild of the Philippines Pambansang Tanggapan Pamuhatan: Room 305 National Press Club Bldg., Magallanes Drive, Intramuros, Manila 1002 Numero ng mobile.: (+63)928-980-2646 Email: cegphils@gmail.com Website: www.cegp.org Facebook: fb.com/CEGPNationalOffice Twitter at Instagram: @CEGPhils Issuu: issuu.com/thenationalguilder
THE NATIONAL GUILDER
Ang Opisyal na Pahayagan ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines
MARC LINO J. ABILA Punong Patnugot IAN HARVEY A. CLAROS ATHENA GARDON Mga Katuwang na Patnugot JHON DAVE BRIOSOS, CHARINA CLAUSTRO, MARY ROSE IGGIE ESPINOZA, RONILO MESA, PATRICIA SANTOS, ALVIN YGOT Mga Kawani sa Isyu Para sa mga kontribusyon at pakikipag-ugnayan sa patnugutan, maaaring magpadala ng email sa cegp.newsdesk@gmail.com.
Pagwasak at pagsibol Ang pagpatay sa tatlong pinunong Lumad ang nagsambulat sa publiko ng maigting na kampanya ng pasistang gobyerno upang supilin ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan. Agosto 28 nang pasukin ng mga elemento ng 36th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army at grupong paramilitar na Magahat/Bagani ang komunidad at paaralan ng mga Lumad sa Sitio Han-ayan, Brgy. Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur at noong umaga ng Setyembre 1 pinaslang sina Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos at Juvello Sinzo na silang nagsisilbing mga pinuno ng paaralan at komunidad ng mga Lumad. Bunsod ng insidente, aabot sa 3,000 Lumad ang lumikas sa Lungsod ng Tandag, kapitolyo ng Surigao del Sur, dahil sa takot para sa kanilang mga buhay. Bago ang insidenteng ito, aabot na sa 66 na katutubo ang naging biktima ng extrajudicial killings sa ilalim ni Aquino, habang sa kabuuan ay nasa 262 na ang bilang ng mga walang habas na pinatay sa ilalim ng kontra-insurhensyang programang Oplan Bayanihan ng kasalukayang administrasyon. Ginagawang balat-kayo ng administrasyong Aquino ang Oplan Bayanihan upang protektahan ang interes sa negosyo ng mga dayuhan at lokal na dambuhalang korporasyon ng pagmimina at pagtotroso na nais dambungin ang mayamang lupain ng Mindanao at gipitin ang mga kritikong walang takot na naglalantad sa tunay na kalagayan ng sambayanang Pilipino na naaapekektuhan ng kanilang operasyon. At habang papalapit ang katapusan ng termino ni Aquino, ang sunod-sunod na pagpaslang, pandarahas at panggigipit sa mga aktibista at mga tinaguriang “kalaban ng estado” sa Lungsod ng Davao, Surigao del Sur, Sorsogon, Bukidnon at iba pang probinsya, ay nagpapakita lamang na nagkukumahog na ang kanyang rehimen na pagtakpan ang mga kasalanan nito sa taumbayan. Bukod sa pandarahas sa mga katutubong ipinaglalaban lamang ang kanilang karapatan sa lupang ninuno, ang panggigipit ni Aquino sa mga itinuturing na kalaban ng estado ay tumatawid din hanggang sa kalunsuran. Noong Hulyo lamang, ilang araw bago ihatid ni Aquino ang kanyang huling State of the Nation Address (SONA) ay umigting ang paniniktik at pananakot sa mga miyembro ng progresibong grupo. Ang banta sa buhay at kaligtasan ng lider-kawani na si Antonietta Setias-Dizon, pagsasampa ng mga gawa-gawang kaso kay Karlo Manano at iba pang lider ng Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, pag-aalok ng diumano’y part-time job at paniniktik sa liderestudyanteng si Lovely Carbon ng National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) at marami pang insidente na pawang mga ahente ng estado at militar ang may kagagawan at lumalabag sa mga demokratikong karapatan. Sa pagtatangkang busalan ang bibig ng mga progresibo ay ginagamit ni Aquino ang sandatahang lakas upang hainan ng gawa-gawang kaso ang mga ito. Marami pa sa hanay ng mga makabayang grupo ang nakararanas ng panggigipit mula sa pasistang estado. Ayon sa huling datos ng Karapatan, aabot sa 536 na bilanggong politikal ang iligal na dinakip at ipiniit sa ilalim ng rehimeng Aquino. Kasama na dito ang pagkakakulong sa mga consultant ng National Democratic Front (NDF) sa usapang pangkapayapaan na sina Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria, Adelberto Silva at Concha Araneta na sinampahan ng mga gawa-gawang kaso ng militar. Laganap pa rin ang paglabag sa karapatang pantao, habang patuloy na nagbibingi-bingihan ang pamahalaan sa panawagan ng mamamayan na tugunan ang kanilang mga daing at panawagan. Malaking kabalintunaan ang tuwid na daang ipinagmamalaki ng gobyerno, sapagkat walang ipinagkaiba ang rehimeng US-Aquino sa nakaraang administrasyong Arroyo madalas nitong inuuyam. Kung tutuusin ay mas masahol pa ang rehimeng Aquino sa bilang ng mga napaslang sa loob ng limang taon sa poder. Sa pagkalahatang pagsusuri, mababatid na walang pinagkaiba sa bawat isa ang mga kaso ng extrajudicial killings—bawat isa ay namatay na ipinaglalaban ang karapatan sa lupain, sariling pagpapasya at batayang serbisyo, mga karapatang pilit na ipinagdadamot ng pamahalaan sa mga sektor na kinabibilangan ng mga nasawi. Ngunit hindi katulad ng pamahalaang ito, hindi inutil ang mga mamamayang Pilipino. Sa patuloy na pagdilig ni Aquino ng dugo ng mga inosenteng mamamayan sa kanyang hungkag na tuwid na daan, sisibol ang isang pag-aaklas na siya mismong sisira sa sistemang mahabang panahon nang nagpapahirap sa taumbayan.
BALITA
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
CEGP, youth groups protest Camp Aguinaldo on Lumad slays in Surigao National News Bureau The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and national youth groups trooped to the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Camp
Aguinaldo in Quezon City last September 4 to condemn the slaughter of three Lumad leaders in Surigao del Sur. CEGP national president Marc Lino Abila slammed the military and paramilitary groups for perpetrating crimes against indigenous peoples in eastern Mindanao.
Sinubukang i-disperse ng mga nasa loob ng kampo ang mga kabataan at manggagawang nagprotestsa noong Setyembre 4 sa Gate 2 ng Kampo Aguinaldo para kundinahin ang pagpaslang ng militar at paramilitar sa tatlong lider-katutubo sa Han-ayan at Km. 16 sa Brgy. Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur noong Setyembre 1. Kuha ni Patricia Santos.
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“Lumad killings and journalist killings have something in common. Last month, two radio broadcasters in Mindanao were gunned down. Lumads and indigenous peoples, who only protect their ancestral lands, are also victims by the reign of impunity intensified by the Aquino administration and its cohorts in the AFP,” Abila said. The harassment and threat from the 36th Infantry Battalion (IB) and Magahat/Bagani paramilitary group to Manobos in Han-ayan, Lianga, Surigao del Sur forced them to evacuate to Km. 16. Magahat members eventually killed Alternative Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) executive director Emerito Samarca, Malahutayong Pakigbisog alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU) chairperson Dionel Campos and his cousin Bello Sinzo early morning of September 1. The 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan de Oro City denied the military’s participation to the incident but the Manobos saw 36th IB forces along with the Magahat group when it happened because they were roused from sleep and forced out of their homes at dawn. The AFP cannot deny this as a whole community of Manobos can testify the claims. Lumads have been affected by military operations in Mindanao since the entry of large-scale mining companies and corporate plantations. “In defense of their lands from destruction, Lumads opposed and fought militarization brought by Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan to curb resistance and protect big business interests. Similar to when a radio commentator expressed his opinion and criticism, armed goons of the government are ready to execute whoever disagrees with the status quo,” explained Abila. The military has been targeting Lumad schools and communities, tagging them as NPA schools and members, firing indiscriminately, burning and pillaging villages, and threatening and harassing tribal elders, leaders, students and teachers. “The Guild demands for Aquino and AFP’s accountability for this incident and other several cases of human rights violations, disband paramilitary groups and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples and Filipino people. CEGP will continue to educate the youth on the implications of militarization of rural communities in the country,” called Abila.
Caraga youth groups strike AFP and paramilitary for killing school director and Lumad leaders Caraga News Bureau Caraga youth groups demanded justice for the brutal killing of Alternative Center for Agriculture and Development (ALCADEV) Executive Director Emerito “Emok” Samarca, Manobo tribe leader Dionel Campos and his cousin Bello Sinzo. They gathered bringing their slogans of condemnation and demand for justice at Guingona Park, Butuan City on September 1. The Magahat/Bagani paramilitary under 36th Infantry Battalion and 75th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army killed the three victims. The dead body of Samarca was found in one of the classrooms of ALCADEV with stab wounds and slit on his neck. Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU) Chairperson Dionel Campos and his cousin Bello Sinzo was shot dead in the presence of their tribe members in the community around 4:00 am of September 1. Forty-one students from different youth organizations integrated with the community from August 29 to 31 and were invited to witness the 11th foundation anniversary of ALCADEV in Km. 16, Sitio Han-ayan, Brgy. Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur. About 40 members of the military and Magahat/ Bagani arrived and set up camp in the community at around 7:00 pm of August 31, a few meters away from Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) and ALCADEV. TRIFPSS and ALCADEV are alternative learning institutions that provide basic and secondary education to Lumad youth. The paramilitary also burned down the community cooperative store and threatened the staff. “We felt the fear of the children and their parents when they [military] arrived at the community. We express our deepest sympathy to the families of victims and the whole community. We are one with them in calling for justice over this gruesome massacre”, Butuan-based student journalist Francis Cadampog said. “Under Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan, the military red tags schools and vilify the members of the community. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) recruits Lumads to paramilitary groups to attack their fellow Lumads and clear out the community for large-scale mining and logging operations. AFP and Aquino should be held responsible.
Youth, religious, peasant and Lumad groups in Butuan City immediately called for justice and condemned the slay of ALCADEV Executive Director Emerito Samarca, MAPASU Chairperson Dionel Campos and his cousin Bello Sinzo by the elements of 36th and 75th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army and paramilitary group Magahat/Bagani early morning of September 1 in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Photo from CEGP-Caraga Chapter. We call for justice for Tatay Emok and all the victims of human rights violations in Caraga,” said Karapatan-Caraga Secretary-General Eliza Rose Pangilinan. As of press time, more than 3,000 individuals, including infants, children, women and the elderly, were forcefully evacuated to Tandag City Sports Center due to continuous
military presence in their communities in Lianga which threaten their lives and safety. Lumads and their supporters called on the public for donations to help the Lumads displaced by intense militaruzation of indigenous peoples communities in Caraga Region.
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PAHAYAG
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
CEGP blasts recent threats and red-tagging of journalists The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) denounces the recent red-tagging of two journalists and views the separate incidents as attacks not just on press freedom but threats to the lives of media practitioners. Campus journalists are alarmed with the heightened threats and violation to democratic rights of journalists, activists, human rights defenders and common people allegedly perpetrated by government forces. On September 16, while covering a protest action in front of the Regional Trial Court in Malolos City, Bulacan, Atty. Bonifacio Alentajan, lawyer of Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, coaccused with retired Gen. Jovito Palparan on the enforced disappearance of University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, approached Bulatlat.com reporter Janess Ann Ellao and demanded to be interviewed. Alentajan wanted Ellao her attention and started touching her elbow and right arm. Ellao felt uncomfortable and immediately distanced herself from the lawyer. This made the lawyer yell at her and called her “impolite”. Alentajan walked away while shouting. Afterwards, a reporter overheard the lawyer saying to his fellow lawyers “Putang-ina, yung reporter na yun, leftist naman.” (Son of a b*tch, that reporter is a leftist.) On September 18, two days after the incident in Malolos City, a Facebook page called Justice and Truth Will Prevail posted a meme stating that award-winning journalist Inday Espina-Varona is an asset and propagandist of the communists referring to her blog and articles published on ABS-CBN online news site on the issue of militarization and Lumad killings in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Varona have been following the developments of the issue since it broke out on September 1; attending several forums in schools, even the one hosted by the military; interviewing volunteer teachers, Lumad students, parents and leaders; and going to the Lumad evacuation center in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur then to the wake of Alternative Center for Agriculture and Development (ALCADEV) executive director Emerito Samarca in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. The Guild suspects that the page is managed by military elements to spread anti-red propaganda online. The Philippines remains as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. These separate incidents of red-tagging are serious and should not be taken lightly as life and security are put in jeopardy. CEGP remains steadfast with its principles to tell the truth d stories of the marginalized and is one with the professional media in the struggle for genuine press freedom. As young journalists, we deplore such coercions to the freedom of the press and other people’s democratic rights. We call on our colleagues in the campus press and friends in the professional media to defend our rights and uphold the truth to effectively serve the Filipino people.
Facebook page Justice and Truth Will Prevail posted this meme on September 18 accusing award-winning veteran journalist Inday Espina-Varona, former editor of Philippines Graphic magazine as a Red propagandist due to her writings regarding the recent Lumad killings in Surigao del Sur.
CEGP appeals for immediate justice on Dr. Gerry Ortega slay with Reyes brothers’ capture The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) demands on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve the murder case of radio broadcaster and environmentalist Dr. Gerry Ortega with the arrest of its primary suspects. The arrest of former Palawan Governor Mario Joel Reyes and his brother, former Coron, Palawan Mayor Mario Reyes Jr., last September 21 in Thailand opened a chance for justice to a case of media killing in the country. On September 25, Thai authorities have deported the Reyes brothers for overstaying. The Reyeses were said to be coddled by a drug lord in Phuket since they flew to Vietnam using fake passports on March 18, 2012 to avoid arrest. Doc Gerry, a vocal critic of mining in Palawan, was shot in front of a thrift shop in Puerto Princesa City on January 24, 2011. The island province of Palawan is considered as the Philippines’ last environmental frontier. Ortega launched a massive campaign to oppose mining operations in the province through his radio commentaries. To date, the Ortega assassination is one of the cases of media killings with identified masterminds, another one is the infamous Ampatuan massacre which put the Philippines as one of the dangerous countries for journalists. The atrocities of the Aquino regime to the rights of journalists, activists, unionists, peasants, indigenous peoples and common people heighten by the minute. The Guild is steadfast in calling justice not just for Doc Gerry but for other victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Campus journalists demand immediate the resolution and justice for Ortega and his family as this is not just a simple murder case but an affront to freedom of the press. The DOJ, by all means, should assert its will to render justice and not to be restrained by technicalities. We are expecting that the Reyes brothers will exhaust all ways to escape the hands of justice. Therefore, DOJ should use its mandate with potency and urgency. It has been four years since Ortega was killed. Press freedom advocates and human rights defenders are hoping that the masterminds to this crime will be prosecuted and sentenced. The Guild, along with its member student publications and affiliate organizations nationwide, strongly calls for justice. We will not allow another unresolved case of media killing. CEGP is the oldest, broadest and only-existing alliance of tertiary student publications in the Asia-Pacific region.
JUSTICE FOR DR. GERRY ORTEGA! STOP JOURNALIST KILLINGS! END IMPUNITY!
LATHALAIN
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
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Sa bungkalan ng lupa at bala Jessie Angelo Lee at Elijah Felice Rosales Ang Pahayagang Plaridel, De La Salle University
Kuha ni Marc Lino Abila
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ahigit apat na dekada na ang lumipas mula nang mapagkasunduan ng Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas at ng pamilya Cojuangco na ipamahagi ang Hacienda Luisita sa mga magsasaka nito. Hanggang sa kasalukuyan, hindi pa rin natatanggap ng karamihan ang ipinangakong lupa. Marami nang manggagawang-bukid ang naglakasloob na ipaglaban ang kanilang karapatan subalit bala ang isinukli sa kanila ng angkang Cojuangco-Aquino. Noong panahon ng unang administrasyong Aquino naganap ang Mendiola massacre. Ilang taon matapos ito, nasawi ang pitong magsasaka sa tanyag na Hacienda Luisita massacre. Ito lamang ang umabot sa midya, subalit marami pang buhay ang tahimik na pinaslang sa ngalan umano ng kapayapaan sa loob ng Hacienda. Dalawang batas na rin ang ipinasa upang isulong ang reporma sa lupa ngunit sa pagsusuri ng mga progresibo, panig ang parehong patakaran sa mga haciendero. Sa ilalim ng Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), stocks o bahagyang pag-aari sa sakahan ang ibinigay sa mga mambubukid ng Luisita. Samakatwid, nasa kamay pa rin ng panginoong maylupa ang kapangyarihang manipulahin ang matatanggap ng mga magsasaka. Naipamahagi naman ang ilang parte ng Hacienda sa ilalim ng CARP with Extension and Revisions (CARPER). Gayunpaman, nakahanap pa rin ng paraan ang mga negosyante upang gipitin ang mga mambubukid at pilitin silang ibenta ang nakamit na lupa kapalit ng maliit na halaga. Sa ganitong kalakaran, paulit-ulit na babalik sa kamay ng makapangyarihan ang kontrol sa kontrobersyal na sakahan. Dalawang batas na ang ipinatupad subalit wala pa ring repormang nagaganap. Kailan aanihin ng Luisita farmers ang bunga ng kanilang matagal na pakikibaka? Talamak na sabwatan, kabi-kabilang panlilinlang “Dinadaan nila sa komplikadong pamamaraan [ang pag-aangkin ng lupa],” paglalahad ni Pia Montalban, organisador ng Hacienda Luisita Peasant Supporters Network. “Pinapalabas nila na hindi sila ang may-ari [ng ilang bahagi ng Luisita] subalit kung susuriin ang mga korporasyong bumili ng lupa, Cojuangco pa rin ang may-ari.” Tinutukoy ni Montalban ang mga pribadong korporasyong kasalukuyang kumakamkam sa Hacienda, tulad ng Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO) na binili at binakuran ang malaking bahagi ng sakahan. May controlling interest sa TADECO ang Central Azucarera de Tarlac Resources & Asset Holdings Inc., na pagmamay-ari nina Martin Lorenzo at Fernando Cojuangco. Ginamit ang Stock Distribution Option (SDO) sa Luisita noong ipinatupad ang CARP sa ilalim ng unang rehimeng Aquino. Ibinida ng patakarang ito ang pagiging shareholder umano ng mga magsasaka. Sa kaso ng Luisita, nakasaad na makatatanggap ng dibidendo ang bawat mambubukid ng Hacienda. Isa si Rosario “Tatay Rudy” Corpuz sa mga manggagawang-bukid na sumailalim sa repormang ito. Ayon sa kanya, pawang kalokohan lamang ang SDO dahil walang katumbas na halaga ang stocks nila bilang magsasaka. “Nakatambak sa bahay yung mga sertipikong nagsasabing shareholder ako pero wala akong natanggap ni piso.” Dagdag pa rito, binabawi rin ng mga namamahala ng Luisita ang sertipiko kapag hindi na aktibong nagtatrabaho sa bukid ang may-ari nito. Sa tulad ni Tatay Rudy na matanda na’t wala nang kakayahang sumalo ng mabibigat na gawain, hindi ito nagiging makatarungan. “Komo sila ang hari, kahit no or yes, iisa pa rin ang tatakbuhin [ng sistema].” Nahihirapan din si Garry Gonzales sa kasalukuyang sitwasyon nilang mga magsasaka ng Luisita. “May lupa ka nga pero hindi ka naman binibigyan ng pamahalaan ng puhunan. Napupunta lahat sa mga Cojuangco [ang pondong galing sa gobyerno],” natatawang sabi ni Gonzales. Tuloy, natutulak silang manghiram ng perang pambili ng binhi, pataba (fertilizer), farming equipment, at iba pang mahahalagang gamit sa pagsasaka. Halos doble ang interes na pinapataw sa kanila kaya nababaon sila sa utang, lalo na tuwing hindi maganda ang ani. “Nagpagod lang kami para sa wala kung hindi sagana ang ani,” saad niya. Maraming manggagawang-bukid ang napipilitang iparenta—at ang iba, tuluyang ibinebenta—ang lupang nakamit sa CARPER dahil na rin sa sobrang kahirapan. Pag-amin ni Kristine Gomez, asawa ng isang dating magsasaka, ipinarerenta niya ang kanilang lupa sa halagang P7,000 kada taon. Aniya, napakalayo ng sakahang ipinagkaloob sa kanila
ng CARPER kaya hindi lohikal na tamnan ito’t balik-balikan araw-araw. “Magastos sa pamasahe. P150 din mula dito sa amin papunta doon [sa bukid].” Batay sa mga salaysay nina Montalban, Tatay Rudy, Gonzales, at Gomez, walang ipinagbago ang sitwasyon ng mga magsasaka ng Luisita. Hindi pa rin tunay naipamamahagi ang malawak na sakahang ipinangako limang dekada nang lumipas. Sa isang panig, may mga lupang pilit na itinatago sa ibang pangalan para itakas sa pananagutan sa batas. Patunay ito ng mga nagaganap na manipulasyon sa loob ng Hacienda. Ilang isyung hindi tinatalakay sa midya Patuloy na binabatikos ng mga progresibong organisasyon ang pamahalaan sa usapin ng reporma sa lupa. Marami umano itong butas na madaling punain at dapat baguhin. Isa na rito ang teknikalidad sa pamamahagi ng lupa. May ilang magsasakang bagamat tumanggap ng maliit na parte ng bukid sa pamamagitan ng CARPER, kalat-kalat naman ang lupang ibinigay ng gobyerno. “Sabihin nating sa 0.66 hectares na para sa isang pamilya, may 0.2 hectares doon na okay pero yung ibang bahagi, nasa lawa o kaya nasa sementeryo o sa kabilang barangay,” natatawang paglalahad ni Montalban. Dulot nito, hirap na hirap ang ilang mambubukid na sakahin ang kanilang pananim. “Hindi mo naman masasakahan yung sementeryo, lalo naman ang lawa.” Sa buong 6,453 ektarya ng Luisita, 4,915 lamang dito ang maaaring sakahan ayon sa pananaliksik ng Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Puna ni Montalban, dapat isinama sa listahan ng unproductive land ang mga lawa, sementeryo, at iba pang imposibleng sakahang lupa. Aniya, “Binawasan na nga nila ng 1,538 hectares ang maaaring ipamahagi, tapos may lupa pang hindi nasasaka sa binigay nila.” Sa usapin ng karapatang pantao, patuloy pa ring ginagamitan ng dahas ang mga magsasakang nakikibaka para sa kanilang karapatan. May ilang nasasawi dahil sa pambubugbog ng otoridad o kaya tinamaan ng bala sa maselang bahagi ng katawan mula sa pulisya. Isa si Tatay Rudy sa mga manggagawang-bukid na muntik nang bawian ng buhay matapos siyang martilyuhin sa ulo ng militar. Bukod pa rito, sinasagasaan din ng bulldozer ang pananim at tirahan ng mga mambubukid na nagsasaka at nakatira sa mga lupang binili na umano ng mga “bagong” may-ari nito. “Yung bahay ko dati, nando’n kaso simula nang bakuran na ‘yon [bahagi ng Luisita na binili ng TADECO], isa-isang binuldozer ang bahay at mga pananim namin,” kwento ni Boy Alcaide, magsasakang naging biktima ng pandarahas. “Nandito noon ang AFP, mga pulis, SWAT, na parang mga kriminal kami.” Sa halip na ipagtanggol sina Tatay Rudy at Alcaide, sila pa ang sinampahan ng korte ng mga kasong serious physical injury at trespassing, kahit pa patunay ng pang-aabuso ng pulisya at militar ang malalalim na sugat at malalaking pasa nila sa ulo at katawan. Sa pag-aakala ng marami, wala nang karahasang nagaganap sa Luisita matapos ang malagim na Hacienda Luisita Massacre noong 2004. Gayunpaman, batay sa karanasan ng mga magsasakang kasalukuyang naninirahan doon, hindi natapos noong 2004 ang laganap na human rights violation sa loob ng kontrobersyal na bukid. Madilim na hinaharap “Land-to-the-tiller must become a reality, instead of an empty slogan.” Ito ang naging pahayag ni Corazon Aquino bago siya manungkulan bilang Pangulo ng Pilipinas. Ipinangako rin ni Pangulong Benigno Simeon Aquino III na ipamamahagi ang Hacienda Luisita sa ilalim ng kanyang administrasyon. Walang natupad alinman sa dalawa. Sa halip, nagtatangka pa ang pamahalaang bumuo ng solar power project sa humigitkumulang 50 ektarya na bahagi ng Hacienda. Bunsod nito, may ilang magsasakang tuluyan nang mawawalan ng lupang mapagtatamnan. Sa bungad naman ng Luisita matatagpuan ang Luisita Hotel at Luisita Golf Course—mga dating sakahang isinailalim sa komersyal na pagbabago upang hindi na maibahagi pa sa mga mambubukid. “May panahon tayo ng kalayaan pero hanggang ngayon, hindi ko pa rin nararamdaman yung kalayaang yun,” nakayukong pag-amin ni Gonzales habang papalubog ang araw. Sampung oras na naman siyang nagbungkal at nagpaunlad ng lupang hindi pa rin niya pagmamay-ari.
*Ang akdang ito ay unang nailimbag sa Ang Pahayagang Plaridel ng De La Salle University.
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KOMENTARYO
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
Resisting the Tides of Tyranny and Repression Sharon Cabusao Research Consultant, Crispin B. Beltran Research Center
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t has been 29 years since the EDSA People Power uprising that toppled the US-backed Marcos dictatorship. Yet, the same apparatus of political and military power that propped up Marcos’ dictatorial rule has remained entrenched in Philippine society, thanks to the continued backing of the same foreign power that provided military, political and financial aid to the Marcos dictatorship – the US. Old and new laws repressive particularly of labor rights have decimated the hard-won gains of the labor movement. Workers’ rights to free association and to strike, supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution, are severely restricted. Job security has long been eliminated through the contractualization of labor. A more recent law introducing the two-tier wage system has actually stripped workers, especially young entrants to the workforce, of an already measly minimum wage. Truly, nothing bodes well for the working class Filipino family and the future graduates of the country, as far as labor laws are concerned. Mainstream media may not be as openly controlled as during the Marcos dictatorship, but the cooptation of
leading media establishments, the covert censorship of news reports unfavorable to the regime, the extrajudicial killings of journalists by powerful political figures have proven just as effective deterrents to the flourishing of a genuinely free and independent press. The human rights group Karapatan has documented, from July 2010 to December 2014 alone, 700 victims of illegal arrest and detention and 229 cases of extrajudicial killings. These are just a few of the forms of human rights abuses committed during the Aquino regime against journalists, activists, labor organizers, rural and urban poor leaders and many others who dared to defend their rights or that of the communities they represent. We now have more than 500 cases of political prisoners under the Aquino government – highest since Martial Law. Many campus leaders, journalists and student organizations are themselves strangers to political repression and censorship. The pervasive repressive measures against student organizing, particularly of militant and patriotic groups or associations challenging school policies and tuition fee increases mock the very concept of academic freedom. Police presence in campuses known as “hotbeds” of
student activism – a legacy of the Marcos dictatorship – underscores this travesty of academic freedom that very instrument by which the studentry asserts its democratic rights enables the well-rounded exercise of their intellectual and rational faculties that in turn help them develop into discerning, progressive and critical thinkers. With the blatant commercialization and foreign orientation of our educational system, campus repression only serves the purpose of churning out and endless supply of skilled but cheap and docile labor for foreign multinational corporations and local big business. The rising tide of tyranny in this country is an issue that demands attention. It is an issue that particularly concerns the youth who have everything to gain from a genuinely free, democratic and just society, and in the same vein are bound to suffer the consequences of an unchallenged tyrannical rule. The earlier generations have shown the way. It is now imperative for the best sons and daughters of our people to rise and lead the current generation in taking up this challenge of our time.
Open Letter for Writers Dear friends and fellow writers, On the night of June 1, more than 50 heavily-built men, all in black uniform, and wielding heavy guns and armalites swooped down on our rented house as my husband and I were preparing to sleep. They hammered the metal gate and broke our front door, as they shouted at us to drop to the floor. When they brought us out of our bedroom, I saw several of them rummaging through our house – dark, menacing shapes darting in and out of the rooms. They arrested my husband, Adelberto, a consultant to the current peace talks between the Philippine Government and the National Democratic Front. He was arrested on trumped-up charges of multiple counts of murder. They arrested me as well, and our 65-year-old helper, Isidro, though we were not named in the warrant. Perhaps to justify this, the armed men brought in what they called “evidence,” and charged the three of us with the crime of “illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.” They tried to coerce me into signing their inventory but I stood my ground, and refused to take part in their brazen falsity. They did not present any search warrant and neither
were we read our Miranda Rights. They took away our things, among which was a laptop computer containing photographs that I have taken of children, nature, and street scenes; all my short stories, a novel, poems, a film script – every piece I have been meticulously working on through these years despite my absence from the literary scene. This is my story, but it is not mine alone. Today, there are more than 400 political prisoners in various detention cells all over the country. The rising impunity with which the government of Benigno Simeon Aquino III is committing human rights abuses has spawned hundreds of cases of illegal arrests, torture, extra-judicial killings, and disappearances of rural and urban poor leaders, organizers, students, activists, revolutionaries, journalists, and many others who dare to struggle. Too long have we been lulled by this government’s rhetoric; its guile in accusing others while conveniently forgetting its own greater sins against the nation and against our people. Some of you might ask: why concern ourselves with all these? We are writers and artists who seek to articulate the
best ideas of our generation. We are individuals who, by the very nature of our pursuits, are wont to distill and discern truth. Just as we abhor falsity in the written word, so must we rise indignant when writing for a just cause becomes a basis for persecution. I deeply and severely hope that something good will come out of this injustice inflicted upon me and that we – our diversities notwithstanding – will stand up in chorus to defend the universal values that define the core of our humanity – freedom, democracy, and social justice. Sincerely, Rosanna “Sharon” Cabusao Camp Crame June 23, 2015
*Rosanna “Sharon” Cabusao was a former foreign news editor for Pinoy Weekly. She’s also a member of GABRIELA and research consultant for Crispin B. Beltran Research Center. Currently, she writes her column for Pinoy Weekly while in detention in Camp Crame.
KOMENTARYO
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
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Photos from National Union of Students of the Philippines and College Editors Guild of the Philippines
APEC’s Neoliberal Offensive and its Effect on Philippine Education Prof. Jose Maria Sison Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle
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olleagues and Friends, the Philippines is hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation this year, with a slew of about a hundred APEC-related meetings— many of them in Philippine cities like Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Tagaytay, and Clark Freeport—and culminating in APEC’s annual Economic Leaders’ Meeting to be held in Manila in November. APEC hype has started to grip media attention, at a time when the Filipino people are reeling from the impact of the severe crisis and renewed offensives of global capitalism under the neoliberal policy regime. The Filipino youth, in particular, have been feeling the brunt of the crisis affecting the domestic economy and educational system. The masses of students and their families are staggered by the rising costs and deteriorating quality of education, and by the severe unemployment that faces them once they look for jobs. They are thus keenly interested in how these problems are in fact being worsened by so-called reforms in Philippine economic and educational policies, which in turn are directly linked to the neoliberal offensives and APEC. I. APEC as Instrument of Neoliberal Offensive against the People of the World APEC claims to promote economic cooperation among the countries of the vast Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, its 21 member-states are home to nearly 3 billion people, account for 60 percent of the global economy, and thus hold tremendous collective potential for socio-economic development and interstate cooperation. However, APEC’s record since its founding in 1989 shows that its big-business orientation, neoliberal agenda, and major policy directions have mainly advanced the dominant interests of developed countries led by the United States and Japan. Consistent with the US-initiated Washington Consensus, APEC has aggressively pushed the key components of neoliberal globalization, namely trade and investment liberalization, deregulation, privatization and denationalization, into more than half of the globe. In fact, APEC’s 1st Economic Leaders’ Meeting (ELM) in 1993 was called by the US to help jump start the stalled WTO Uruguay Round and try to break the resistance of underdeveloped countries in piecemeal fashion.
This was quickly followed by the so-called Bogor Goals adopted by the 2nd ELM in 1994, which explicitly aimed for establishing trade and investment liberalization in the region—by 2010 for developed-countries and by 2020 for underdeveloped countries. Since then, APEC has served as a platform to coordinate the interests of developed countries, build consensus (if not fully resolve conflicts) among them especially on free trade, investments, and finance, and lure underdeveloped countries deeper into the neoliberal trap. The US, as one of the original members, has consistently used its clout within APEC to bully other member-countries into submission and thus maintain its overall hegemony. On the surface, APEC is supposed to build voluntary and non-binding consensus among government representatives through annual meetings. Behind the scenes, however, the APEC Business Advisory Council and Business Summit act as channels for powerful corporate lobbies. They work hand-in-hand with various APEC committees, such as the Committee on Trade and Investment, which are also staffed by big bureaucrats, technocrats, and corporate appointees. The APEC mill grinds a continuous output of policy research and detailed guidelines and recommendations representing consensus across the political and economic elites of Asia-Pacific, which are then given imprimatur in the annual ELM. This year’s APEC theme, “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World,” merely repeats the deceptive post2008 mantra “Reform Agenda for Inclusive Growth” of the World Bank, also parroted by the Asian Development Bank. Behind such saccharine slogans as “democratizing the fruits of economic growth,” “fostering SME participation in global markets,” “investing in human capital,” and “building resilient communities,” the topmost agenda items for APEC 2015 continue to revolve around regional economic integration (REI) into the neoliberal framework. These priority items include advancing proposals towards a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP); the Strategic Blueprint for Promoting Global Value Chains (which represents the core of economic integration); the Accord on Innovative Development, Economic Reform and Growth (which represents a broad set of economic “structural reforms” and “innovations”); and
the Connectivity Blueprint for 2015-2025 intended to ensure the “seamless flow” of people, information, and trade (especially in services) throughout the region in the service of US-led monopoly capitalism. The FTAAP, first conceptualized in 2006 and further explored in 2010, is being proposed by APEC as a comprehensive and binding agreement on “next generation” trade and investment issues that will support the WTO and advance the goal of REI. In APEC’s so-called Beijing Roadmap drawn up in 2014, the FTAAP is supposed to be formally negotiated outside of APEC but backed up by APEC’s consensus-building processes. So far, two major pathways to the FTAAP are being proposed: the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, which calls for a high level of regional integration and includes many Asia-Pacific countries but not China; and the ASEANbased Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is a looser form of integration and includes China but not the US. The TPP and RCEP are in a race to be chosen by APEC as the main template for the FTAAP. But it remains possible for APEC to adopt a hybrid FTAAP that includes parts of the TPP and of the RCEP, and thus become a binding framework for US-China cooperation and competition in this part of the world. There are efforts to make all APEC countries also members of the FTAAP, and suggestions to expand APEC’s membership, thus making the FTAAP even more all-encompassing. The APEC is thus an important arena of both continuing collusion and growing conflict between two imperialist powers, the US and China, at the expense of weaker and smaller countries. The US-led bloc (which includes Japan, Canada and Australia) continues to enjoy the upper hand worldwide and is determined to complete the TPP talks and the US pivot to East Asia. China, on the other hand, is fortifying its own position by cementing closer political and economic ties with Russia, India, and other South Asian states and Central Asian states inside an expanding Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and globally through the newly launched BRICS Development Bank. Despite its own internal problems, China continues to extend its powerful economic clout inside and beyond the Continue to page next page
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THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
region by setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with 49 other countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America. When it is fully established by end-2015, AIIB may rival or complement the IMF as a new imperialist tool that China can wield to mobilize resources for its own hegemonic ambitions and to dictate the terms of inter-regional integration and connectivity, especially through its grand Silk Road project. Whether the US-led TPP version or the China-friendly RCEP version dominates the process, and even before final agreement is reached on the FTAAP, APEC is already putting in place the building blocks of regional economic integration from one year to the next. While the documents it spews out are supposedly non-binding, they are already being implemented by memberstates and big business in “follow-the-leader” fashion. Essentially, the TPP is being sneaked in through the backdoor in some modified form. The result will be a fait accompli setup that more thoroughly liberalizes trade and investments, destroys remaining vestiges of national protection, and opens up the human, capital, and natural resources of underdeveloped countries and peoples in the Asia-Pacific to exploitation by the US and other dominant capitalist powers. Riding on the slogan “Investing in Human Capital Development,” APEC is pushing for more integrated educational and skills-training systems that emphasize science and technology, cross-border enrollment, the role of ICT, and “enhanced cooperation between education providers and businesses as employers.” Riding on the slogan “Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities,” APEC is using the supposed goals of “resilience, sustainability and food security” to justify the tighter integration and interlinking of Asia-Pacific countries. It is pushing for the further tightening of the TNC-controlled global production and supply chains, corporatedriven infrastructure connectivity, and other regional cooperation schemes. Food security and climate resilience are used to justify corporate control of Asia-Pacific marine and coastal resources through so-called “Green Economy” and “Blue Economy” initiatives. Riding on the slogan “Fostering SME Participation in Regional and Global Markets,” APEC aims to further entrap small and medium enterprises into imperialist REI and FTA schemes, turn the most successful ones into export-oriented and import-dependent sweatshops under TNC control (as components of the so-called global value chains), and undercut independent national industrialization. II. The Neoliberal Offensive in Education APEC’s economic agenda includes the neoliberal scheme to “reform” the educational system of its member-countries so that these are better aligned to supply the skilled-labor, professional, scientific, and ideological-cultural needs of the global capitalist system and its imperialist overlords. The “Education for All” (EFA) decade, launched in 1990 and reiterated in the Dakar Framework of Action at the World Education Forum in 2000, was quickly hijacked by the World Bank and other UN agencies. Since then, the developed countries have been implementing neoliberal reform in their own schools and pushing for its worldwide implementation. The Dakar Framework is so steeped in neoliberalism and UN superficiality that even international NGOs like Oxfam, ActionAid, and Education International are critical of it. Behind the EFA façade, the UN commitment is limited to Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 2A which states that by 2015, “children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.” This target, which does not even address the quality of education and does not cover secondary schools, has not been achieved. Some 58 million children of primary-school age (9%), and 63 million adolescents of secondary-school age (17%) are out of school. Out-of-school rates may have dropped from 1996 to 2006, but they flattened out from 2007 onwards. An alarmed UNICEF stated that, at current rates, it would take another 200 years to achieve MDG Target 2A. Rather than ensure universal basic education, neoliberal school reform is focused on the corporatization of higher education, and on re-gearing of primary and secondary schools to supply the skilled labor needs of global capitalism. It pays lip service to education as a universal right, but its focus is not on delivering education as a social service but as a marketable commodity. Commercialized education has long been a coping mechanism for many poor countries, but neoliberal school reforms from the 1980s onwards have made commercialization far worse. Curricula, teaching methods and materials, and grading and testing systems have been revised to better suit the needs of big business and global production chains. Students are made to compete for high grades and exam scores, in order to sell themselves at a higher price in the skilled-labor market. Schools and teachers are also made to compete, with global academic standards and rankings in mind, to sell themselves and their services at higher prices.
Academic globalization is often presented in glowing terms. Local universities are supposedly given better chances to compete in global rankings, accept more international students, send their brightest graduates to North America, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere, and partner with world-class universities and TNCs. However, only a few of them succeed. The bulk of schools remain as diploma mills for churning out a skilled labor force and rank-and-file professionals. Neoliberal school reforms lead to reduced government spending on public education and increased privatization. State universities, colleges and other public schools, as well as supposedly non-profit private schools, are increasingly operated as profitable businesses, often in partnership with big business. This leads to distorted academic priorities, higher tuition fees, violation of teachers’ rights, and worsening social inequities. To increase their own competitiveness and profitability, colleges and universities focus on the more lucrative programs and trim off those considered marginal or critical (such as in the humanities). They commercialize their lands, buildings, research outputs and other knowledge resources. They cram more courses into a year and shift to trimesters to produce graduates at a faster rate. They squeeze blood from their students and faculty to the last drop by increasing tuition fees and teacher workloads, by stricter requirements on student grants and loans, and
by limiting the salaries and benefits of teaching and nonteaching staff. Finally, all these measures are imposed from above, through bureaucratic processes conducted behind closed doors by politicians and World Bank- or corporate-funded consultants. Meanwhile, the roles of academic and nonacademic staff, parents and students in conceptualization, planning, and implementation are minimized. Campus protests against such reforms are hosed down with antiLeft propaganda if not outright fascist repression. In the Philippines, the so-called Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) program—the Aquino regime’s centerpiece initiative in basic education—is a clear example of a neoliberal school reform gone terribly awry. Under the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (R.A. 10533), the old 10-grade basic education system (six in elementary school and four in high school) will be replaced with a 12-grade system (with an additional two years of senior high school) plus required kindergarten. Behind the catchword of “catching up” with global standards, the aim of Aquino’s K-12 program is to align the country’s educational system more fully with the global capitalist system and to compete better with other underdeveloped countries by producing a huge reserve supply of skilled labor for the world market and particularly for the AsiaPacific region to keep down salaries and wages. The program rides on the following interrelated arguments: First, the current system needs to be “decongested” since the students are “hard-pressed
KOMENTARYO
to learn” in 10 years what students in other countries learn in 12 years. Second, today’s high schools do not adequately prepare students for college. Third, today’s high school students graduate too early at 16, and so the additional two years will give them better chances to get jobs since they will be “of legal age and equipped with sufficient skills.” And fourth, K-12 is part of global standards, which are required when they apply for work or postgraduate studies abroad. A fifth argument concedes that the Philippine educational system is among the oldest in Southeast Asia and historically one of the best worldwide, but has fallen behind the demands of 21st-century “knowledge-based economies.” These arguments fall flat because they mostly depend on the false premises and failed promises of neoliberal globalization, and on the simplistic notion that Filipinos should join the global K-12 bandwagon because everyone else is already on it. They disregard other studies that show no clear linkage between the quantity of learning time and the quality of the learning process. They disregard the fact that many countries have been on K-12 for decades yet remain grossly underdeveloped and fare even worse than the Philippines on educational indicators. They cannot even explain why, despite not going through K-12, Filipinos are among the most numerous, better-educated and willing to take lower pay and are thus the most sought overseas workers. In truth, Aquino’s K-12 is one of several educational reforms required by ASEAN Integration, as recommended by the SEAMEO INNOTECH and the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) Projects, to encourage labor migration but at the same time to set educational and professional standards for cross-border employment within the Southeast Asia region. Aquino’s K-12 is driven in very specific terms by the US-led Washington Accord and Europe’s Bologna Process, which are meant to recognize or accredit only those professionals (or engineers in the case of the Washington Accord) that have undergone 12 years of basic education. It is also driven in more general terms by the Education for All Agenda (EFA) of the World Bank and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the K-12 system, high school (especially the last two years) will focus on specialized and technical skills that the global labor market seeks. A sampling of the so-called Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) for Grades 7-10, and Tracks/Specialization for Grades 11-12, include such learning modules as housekeeping, plumbing, welding, tailoring, caregiving, carpentry, beauty and nail care, bread and pastry production, and so on. Instead of undergoing comprehensive basic education to prepare themselves to become productive members of Philippine society, the majority of the Filipino youth are now expected to prepare themselves to become the maids, caregivers, cleaners,restaurant waiters, hotel orderlies, hairstylists, plumbers, welders, carpenters, andbakers of the world. On the other hand, K-12 and other neoliberal school reforms deemphasize patriotic education, consciousness and culture. In universities, courses or subjects on Philippine history, Filipino language and literature and on Philippine government and constitution have been trimmed down. In high school, class hours devoted to Philippine social studies (Araling Panlipunan) will also be reduced, and its curriculum restructured based on themes derived from the US National Council for Social Studies. What is ironic is that Aquino’s K-12 cure will make the ailment worse because it has been wrongly oriented, poorly planned and underfunded, with signs that it will be shabbily implemented, and will have many adverse impacts that could have been avoided. First, for many years now, budget allocations of the Philippine government for public education have remained at levels far below standards set by UNESCO (at least 6% of GDP) and the World Bank (at least 20% of the national budget). Even without K-12, public schools already faced a severe lack of facilities, books, and teachers. K-12 budget requirements for 2014-2019 are estimated to reach USD 4,410 million, and even now the government foresees a deficit and is negotiating with such banks as ADB for USD 100 million to fill the gap. Thus, ironically, K-12 will worsen budgetary constraints and resource shortages for public schools, greatly affecting the quality of education and participation rates, in addition to pulling the country more deeply into debt. Second, with budget limits as a foregone premise, the additional K-12 burden will have to be shouldered one way or the other by the students and their families. This year (2015-2016), 1.4 million public school students in 4th year high school who under the old system are supposed to graduate will be forced to choose whether to undergo two more years (Grades 11-12). If they opt to take the additional years, they will need an estimated PHP 30,000 (USD 660) per student per year, greatly straining their parents’ budgets. The alternative is to forego college and to job-hunt instead as disadvantaged high school dropouts— Continue to page next page
KOMENTARYO
THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
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APEC... from page 8 exactly the situation that K-12 is supposed to avoid. Third, K-12 will deepen the privatization of the educational system. Of the roughly 1.95 million students in public and private schools who are expected to finish 4th year (Grade 10) this year, only around half can be absorbed by public high schools offering Grades 11-12. The other half will have no choice but to shift to private schools or state universities and colleges offering Grade 11 (typically at higher tuition rates even compared to 1st year college tuition), or to join the swelling ranks of out-of-school youth. The Aquino regime offers two quick fixes that will only hasten privatization and invite corruption: (1) the “SHS voucher system,” which is basically a partial subsidy to senior high school students to pay for their enrollment in private schools participating in the voucher system; and (2) a “PPP for School Infrastructure Project” designed as a private-public partnership in which private contractors are paid by the government to build more classrooms under a build-lease-program. The two schemes are under the Education Voucher System and the Education Service Contracting, respectively, which in turn are thinly veiled privatization schemes under the World Bank-supported Government Assistance Program to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program. The management of GASTPE had long been contracted out by the Department of Education to the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE). The GASTPE budget allocations, which were insignificant in the 1990s, rose to Php 20 billion in the nine years of the previous Arroyo regime, ballooned to Php 34 billion in the first five years of Aquino misrule, and will increase to a whooping Php 20 billion in 2016 alone. The cost of government subsidy to private education has become so staggeringly huge and so susceptible to abuse that the Commission on Audit, which is not even authorized to audit GASTPE, has questioned the whole privatized arrangement with PEAC-FAPE.
Aquino’s K-12, intentionally or not, is also poised to significantly reduce teaching positions in colleges due to the expected drastic drop in freshman college enrollments in the next two years. It is estimated that 78,000 college teachers and employees will lose their jobs or be downgraded to high school teachers receiving lower pay— if they are absorbed into SHS level jobs. This displacement alone exhibits the height of planning incompetence and disregard of labor rights. All in all, Aquino’s K-12 represents a worsening of the Philippine educational crisis and the government’s disregard of the people’s right to education in the face of the neoliberal offensives. Following the dictates of US-led impositions in education will not solve the Philippines’ serious unemployment problem and increase the job security of Filipino workers, which are rooted in more fundamental problems of underdevelopment such as the absence of genuine industrialization and land reform. If the government’s track record in public education is any indication, Aquino’s K-12 will only turn into a new area for privatization and PPPs, foreign loans, and corruption, while K-12 graduates who enter the labor force will continue to face the same problems of severe unemployment, depressed wages, and the vagaries of labor migration. Theoretically, a K-12 program, properly oriented, planned and managed, could lead to genuine reforms that will truly benefit the Filipino people and youth in the realm of education. A truly patriotic, mass-oriented, and scientific educational system will be able to train millions of youth, help empower the people and build their nation through heightened social consciousness, scientific knowledge and technical skills—while also contributing to the general advance of human knowledge and development worldwide. The Aquino clique’s K-12 is bound to fail because of blind obedience to their neoliberal masters, and their own mispriorities and incompetence.
III. Calls to Action The International League of Peoples’ Struggle calls on the people of all countries especially in the Asia-Pacific region to expose and oppose the US-led neoliberal offensives lurking inside and around the APEC. We particularly call on the Filipino people to organize and mobilize in study meetings and protest actions to help in the thorough exposure of key APEC meetings in Manila and other Philippine cities, together with their expected outcomes. We particularly call on the Filipino youth to continue to expose and oppose the various schemes of neoliberal “reform” in education, and to fight for a patriotic, scientific and mass-oriented system of education interconnected with national industrialization, agrarian reform, and democratic rights-based governance. Among the tasks of the Filipino youth-student movement are to serve as a propaganda movement for nationalism and democracy, to go deeply among the masses of workers and peasants, and to reach out to their compatriots studying and working abroad, as well as express solidarity by strengthening ties with their counterparts in the global anti-imperialist youth movement. It is high time that the peoples of Asia-Pacific address the issues surrounding APEC, link them to the global crisis of capitalism, both in the imperialist heartlands and in the neocolonies, and advance with renewed vigor the struggle for national independence, democracy, and genuine socio-economic development based on justice. We are confident that the peoples of the Asia-Pacific will always fight for national independence, democracy, industrial development and culture that is patriotic, scientific and mass-oriented. They will surely take the road of struggle in order to prevail over the current local crisis and hegemony of the imperialists, to achieve national and social liberation and to build genuine regional cooperation. Thank you.
*This article was first published at josemariasison.org on July 31, 2015.
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THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
Sa ika-32 anibersaryo ng kamatayan ni Ninoy Aquino
Kabataan nagprotesta laban sa panunupil ng gobyernong Aquino National News Bureau Nagsagawa ng kilos-rotesta laban sa tumitinding panunupil ng gobyernong Aquino ang mga kabataan bilang paggunita sa ika-32 anibersaryo ng kamatayan ng dating senador at bilanggong pulitikal, Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino Jr. Dala ang kanilang mga panawagan upang palayain ang lahat ng bilanggong pulitikal sa bansa at pagpapabasura ng Oplan Bayanihan, nagsagawa ng simbolikong protesta ang mga miyembro ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) at iba pang organisasyon sa harap mismo ng monumento ni Ninoy Aquino sa may Timog Ave. sa Lungsod Quezon. Tinakpan ng dilaw na tela ang mga mukha ng mga kabataan habang sila ay nakaluhod bilang simbolo ng matinding panunupil at pampulitikang karahasan sa ilalim ng gubyernong Aquino. “Kagaya rin noong panahon ng Martial Law ang nararanasan ng mamamayan sa ilalim ng pamumuno ni Noynoy Aquino. Sa kabila ng pagmamayabang nitong demokrasya ay patuloy na lumalaki ang bilang ng mga biktima ng iba’t ibang porma ng pampulitikang pandarahas at paglabag sa karapatang pantao,” saad ni Athena Gardon, CEGP National Secretary General.
Sa loob ng limang taon sa pwesto ni Noynoy Aquino, umaabot na sa 238 katao ang biktima ng extrajudicial killings, 26 katao ang biktima ng enforced disappearances, nasa 110 katao ang biktima tortyur ayon sa tala ng Karapatan. Umabot na rin sa 528 ang bilang ng mga bilannggong pulitikal sa bansa kung saan ang mahigit 250 rito ay inaresto sa ilalim ng gobyernong Aquino. Ilan sa mga bilanggong pulitikal ay mga kabataan: Maricon Montajes, estudyante ng UP Diliman hinuli noong Hunyo 2010; Guiller Cadano at Gerald Salonga, UP Pampanga at pawang mga miyembro ng Kabataan Partylist at Anakbayan sila ay sapilitang hinuli noong Agosto 2014; at si Juan Pablo Versoza mula sa UP Diliman at naging miyembro ng Alay Sining na hinuli taong 2013. “Si Ninoy ay dati ring bilanggong pulitikal at naging biktima ng pampulitikang pamamaslang sa ilalim ng rehimeng Marcos, ngunit ang mismong pampulitikang panunupil na dinanas ng kaniyang ama ang siyang pinapatupad ngayon ni Noynoy,” dagdag ni Gardon “Sa nalalabing buwan ni Noynoy sa pwesto, lalong nagiging desperado ito para lang patahimikin ang kanyang mga kritiko at ang mamamayang lumalaban. Kung hindi papatayin ang ating mga lider-aktibista ay iligal na pag-aresto, pagpapakulong, pagdukot at pananakot ang kanilang taktika,” paglilinaw ni Gardon.
Ayon pa sa lider-kabataan, hindi na maitago ng gubyerno ang mga kasalanan nito sa mamamayan hinggil sa mga usapin kagaya ng kuropsyon sa pork barrel at DAP (Disbursement Acceleratio Program), kontrata sa MRT, kapabayaan sa mga biktima ng Yolanda, kapalpakan sa engkwentro sa Mamasapano at ang matinding kahirapan na nararanasan ng mamamayan. “Ang dapat malaman ng gobyernong ito, wala na itong lusod kaya hindi titigil ang mga mamamayan sa paghanap ng hustisya sa lahat ng kanilang mga naging kasalanan. Sa desperasyong makatakas sa kasalanan, garapalan na ang paghahasik nito ng karahasan at lagim,” diin ni Gardon. Dagdag ni Gardon, dumami din ang insidente ng paniniktik at pananakot nitong mga nagdaang buwan. Karaniwang biktima nito ay mga miyembro ng mga progresibong grupo at organisasyon. “Nais namin basagin ang katahimikan sa araw na ito, na hindi laman ito araw ng paggunita. Ito ay araw ni Ninoy Aquino na naging biktima ng marahas na estado kaya naman ito ay araw rin ng lahat ng mga biktima ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao, araw ng mga lahat ng mga bilanggong pulitikal. Kaya naman ang aming panawagan ay itigil ang pandarahas at paniniktik ng gobyernong Aquino, palayain ang lahat ng mga bilanggong pulitikal!” pagtatapos ni Gardon.
THE NATIONAL GUILDER WANTS YOU! The National Guilder is looking for: -Reporters -Contributors -Photographers -Graphic and Layout Artists For interested campus journalists and volunteers, email your portfolio to cegp. newsdesk@gmail.com or contact CEGP Natinal Hotline at 0928-980-2646.
Bininyagan ng mga kabataan ang isang kunwaring optical mark reader (OMR) machine sa harap ng tanggapan ng Commission on Elections (COMELEC) sa Maynila noong Agosto 28. Iginawad ng COMELEC sa kumpanyang Venezualan na Smartmatic-TIM Corp. ang P8-bilyong kontrata para rentahan ang mga “OH-EM-MAR” machine na gagamitin sa pampanguluhang halalan sa 2016. Kuha ni Mary Rose Iggie Espinoza.
CEGP urges Filipino youth to take action for genuine social change beyond comfort zones National News Bureau On International Youth Day last August 12, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) calls the Filipino youth to go beyond the comforts of their homes, classrooms and the internet and engage in social issues. “The malignant crisis of the Philippine education and deliberate disregard to the rights of the people under the Aquino government demand the youth to act for the greater benefit of the poor. We must go out and be with the masses, hear their plight, criticize social ills and forward our democratic aspirations,” said Marc Lino Abila, CEGP National President. “In the light of the sorry state of affairs in the country, young Filipinos have a vital role and should speak out to uphold the democratic demands of the people for education,
social services, genuine agrarian reform, jobs and wages, and just and lasting peace, among others,” Abila added. “Our struggle for quality and accessible education is not isolated from the struggle of the Filipino people for land, jobs, wages, rights, peace and liberty. We, too, are being oppressed just like how a farmer lost his land to the landlord or how a worker toils but receives paltry wages, this government is taking away our right to education through policies like K to 12, deregulation and commercialization of education, tuition and other school fee hikes and budget cuts in state schools. How can the youth be productive forces of society if we are miseducated to be slaves to foreign interests rather than as people with the vision to change the country?” said Abila. “In the near future, we will be leading this nation. It is up to us if we preserve the current oppressive social order
or go against the status quo and serve the people. It is not enough for us to study inside our schools and rant our angst online. We must learn how to participate for social change even at this early age. Our forebears and heroes, the likes of Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto, fought hard against colonizers at the height of their youth. This is our time to do our duty and be the vanguards of the rights of the people against the oppression of the ruling class,” Abila explained. “We must forge our unity for our collective demands, study the crisis of Philippine society, join demonstrations and rallies and let our voices be heard. Just as the founding chairperson of Kabataang Makabayan Joma Sison said, ‘Only through militant struggle can the best in youth shall emerge.’ We must link arms and march toward national liberation and democracy,” Abila ended.
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THE NATIONAL GUILDER Hulyo-Setyembre 2015
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Aquino’s last SONA full of false feats on education and youth concerns – college editors National News Bureau “Time and again, Noynoy Aquino told lies to the people during the State of the Nation Address (SONA). While the Filipino youth is in dire condition, Aquino’s SONA failed to redress our grievances,” stated Marc Lino Abila, national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP).
According to Abila, Aquino’s two-hour SONA last July 27 was full of lies, inaccurate data and numbers, false achievements and blaming the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “Aquino claimed the success of his efforts to improve the education system. He bragged that in 2013, there are already no backlogs in textbooks and classrooms. But the data from Kabataan Partylist shows the opposite with
Sa kabila pag-ulan at pagharang ng mga pulis at barikada sa kahabaan ng Commonwealth Avenue sa Lungsod Quezon, ipinagpatuloy ng mahigit 20,000 katao mula sa iba’t ibang sektor ang protesta sa huling State of the Nation Address (SONA) ni Pangulong Noynoy Aquino. Larawan mula sa Philippine Collegian.
backlog of 202,356 classrooms on SY 2013-2014 and 209,539 on SY 2014-2015 and 60 million books in basic education. He adamantly pushed the colonial K to 12 with all of these,” said Abila. Aquino also proudly pronounced how Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) helped poor families to send their children to school. Abila said that “even if Aquino bloated the budget and expanded the scope of 4Ps, poverty remains even worse under his regime. According to the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), in the first half of 2014, 25.8 percent of the population is poor compared to the 24.6 percent in the same period in 2013. How can more than 25 million of Filipinos send their kids to school if they live with less than minimum wage a day, even a hundred pesos a day for a whole family? Poor Filipinos don’t need government bailouts; they need permanent jobs and higher wages.” The rising cost of tuition and other school fees, the major concern of the youth today, wasn’t mentioned. “Aquino failed to see the legitimate demands of the youth on education but thanked Bro. Armin Luistro of Department of Education (DepEd) and Patricia Licuanan of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for honing the knowledge and skills of the youth. That’s unacceptable! How can the youth get education if tuition and other fees are beyond their capacity to pay? Education under Aquino became more deregulated and commercialized with the help of DepEd and CHED,” explained Abila. “Aquino worsened the state of the youth by yoking them and their families with K to 12 and tuition and other fee hikes. We’ve been raising the youth’s concerns to CHED, DepEd, and even to Malacañang but the Aquino government failed to address our concerns on the rising cost of education. We cannot let Aquino tell his lies to the Filipino youth. He’s clearly yellow washing his continued policies on deregulation and commercialization of education for the benefit of capitalist-educators and foreigners,” Abila said. “The youth is highly disgruntled and disgusted with his nonsense during the SONA and his failure as president. We never wanted the youth to be out of school because of his unjust policies and high cost of education. We never wanted a future as contractual and inadequately compensated employees and workers. We never wanted an incompetent, inept and inutile leader like as Aquino,” Abila ended.
Free Sharon Cabusao: Gabi ng tula, musika at protesta National News Bureau Nagkaisa ang mga organisasyon at indibidwal na dumalo sa panawagang palayain si Sharon Cabusao at iba pang mga bilanggong politikal noong Agosto 14 sa Ta-as Cafe sa Lungsod Quezon. Sa pangunguna ng Crispin B. Beltran Resource Center (CBBRC), kasama ang KM64 Poetry Collective, Gabriela, Pinoy Weekly at College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), inilunsad ang isang gabi ng mga tula at pangkultural pagtatanghal para sa panawagang agarang paglaya ng manunulat at bilanggong politikal na si Sharon Cabusao. Dumalo sina Monique Wilson, dating gumanap na Kim sa Miss Saigon, Plagpul, Karl Ramirez, Musicians for Peace, Sining Bugkos, Musikang Bayan, Sining Lila at The General Strike. Bumigkas din ng tula sila Emmanuel Halabaso at Stum Casia ng KM64. Research consultant si Sharon Cabusao sa CBBRC at dating patnugot ng balita sa Pinoy Weekly. Naging fellow rin siya sa kilalang palihang pampanitikan tulad ng UP National Writers Workshop at Silliman Writers Workshop. Iligal na dinakip sina Sharon Cabusao at ang kanyang asawa na si Adelberto Silva, isang consultant ng National Democratic Front (NDF) kasama ang kanilang katiwala na si Isidro De Lima noong Hunyo 1 sa kanilang tahanan sa Bacoor, Cavite. Sinampahan sila ng gawa-gawang kaso tulad ng illegal possession of firearms and explosive devices. Kasabay ng kanilang pagkadakip ang sunodsunod rin na pangdarahas at pananakot sa mga miyembro ng progresibong organisasyon. Ang nalikom na pondo ay mapupunta sa Free Sharon Cabusao Campaign. Sumasailalim para sa sakit na chronic myeloid leukemia (B12 deficiency anemia) na nangangailangan ng maintenance. Mayroon din siyang altapresyon at colon failure.
Isa sa mga dumalo at nagtanghal sa Free Verse: A Night Poetry and Music for the Benefit of the Free Sharon Cabusao Campaign ang artista sa teatro at kasapi ng Gabriela na si Monique Wilson bilang pakikiisa sa panawagang pagpapalaya sa manunulat na si Sharon Cabusao noong Agosto 14. Kuha ni Lovely Carbon.
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! Maricon Montajes. Randy Vegas. Raul Camposano. Guiller Cadano. Gerald Salonga. JP Verzosa. Alan Jazmines. Renante Gamara. Emeterio Antalan. Loida Magpatoc. Benito Tiamzon. Wilma Austria. Adelberto Silva. Sharon Cabusao. Isidro de Lima. Concha Araneta.