The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) can be best described in three words: unequal, defeatist and destructive.

Recent government propaganda, however, has been trying to depict the JPEPA as an indispensable agreement — even as the country is currently reeling from a food crisis brought about by the same neoliberal framework that JPEPA was designed from.

With this, IBON is again releasing this summary below, which briefly explains why the country stands to lose from JPEPA and why the Philippine Senate should reject this patently unequal deal.

1. The JPEPA is a grossly unequal deal.

Under the JPEPA, Japan protects numerically more sectors of its economy from investment liberalization than does the Philippines and in addition is also very specific in protecting what it deems as vital sectors.

Advanced Japan lists at least 16 sectors to be so protected, many of which even require a minimum of 66% of full nationality. Japan rightly includes such strategic areas as mining, telecommunications, air and water transport, shipping, and banks and financial institutions for small businesses.

Underdeveloped Philippines, on the other hand, lists just five specific sectors: mining, rice and corn, geothermal energy, atomic energy and shipping. The other items are just formulated generically and are meaningless in terms of explicitly supporting and protecting specific sectors of the economy.

2. The JPEPA gives false or marginal gains for the Philippine economy.

There is much hype that Japan will open its doors to Filipino nurses and caregivers under JPEPA provisions on “movement of natural persons”. The pact allows for the entry and temporary stay of persons who engage in supplying services as nurses or certified caregivers for one to three years (which may be extended). There are, however, strict requirements that must be fulfilled as well as regulations to be followed under Japanese law.

Among the prerequisites are that nurses and caregivers should be proficient in both spoken and written Japanese and be qualified under Japanese law. Although these professional and language requirements are not unreasonable, they are limiting as far as deployment of Filipino health workers to Japan are concerned.

In all likelihood very few nurses and caregivers will be able to surmount the considerable language, technical and cultural barriers. Even assuming Japan lifts its quota limits, only a few thousand health workers may hurdle these barriers.

3. JPEPA lays the basis for increased toxic waste from Japan.

Under JPEPA, the country risks becoming a big dump site for Japanese waste materials, not just the recyclable ones but also toxic materials fit for disposal such as clinical and chemical wastes. Once the pact is ratified and implemented, these wastes can be imported tariff-free, from their original tariffs of 3% to 30% set under the Most Favored Nation treatment of the World Trade Organization.

In the face of widespread protests against JPEPA, the two governments have since come up with a side agreement that supposedly addresses these issues. However, this does not detract from how the Philippine government, under the pretext of developing local waste treatment and disposal capacity, did concede to the entry of these wastes by lowering existing tariffs to zero, notwithstanding the provision on “non-relaxation” of environmental protection.

4. “Free trade” does not result in development for backward countries.

On the contrary, historical and current experience show that: 1) industrialized countries like Japan developed on the basis of protection and discriminatory support; and 2) Third World countries like the Philippines that prematurely liberalized have suffered.

Japan certainly has more to gain from so-called free trade with the Philippines. The Japanese economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) of US$4.4 trillion in 2006 is 50 times larger than that of the Philippines. Japan is also the biggest foreign investor in the Philippines with a cumulative US$3.9 billion as of 2005, constituting over one-fifth of the country’s foreign investment stock. Japan accounted for 17% of the Philippines’ total trade in 2005 and is its second largest trading partner, while the Philippines accounted for just 1.4% of Japan’s total trade.

Underlying these figures are economies of vastly different industrial, agricultural and service sector strength. The myth of “comparative advantage” and the so-called “level playing field” between such economies is merely a smokescreen for giving the stronger economy free rein to profit from the other.

5. The JPEPA’s liberalization agenda severely limits the Philippines’ freedom to set economic policy.

Government controls on how foreign investors operate in the country are necessary to ensure that the Philippines gets concrete and substantial benefits from such investments. This means, among others, ensuring control over investors’ operations through equity and ownership requirements or joint ventures. It also means ensuring benefits to the domestic economy through local content requirements and technology transfers.

These linkages between foreign investors and domestic entrepreneurs will not spontaneously arise and have to be consciously built, yet the JPEPA would disallow policies to build these. Investment provisions on “National Treatment” and “Most Favored Nation Treatment” will prevent the Philippines from favoring Filipino entrepreneurs over Japanese investors. There are also explicit “Performance Requirement Prohibitions” which disallow the Philippine government from requiring Japanese investors to achieve a certain level of domestic content, purchase goods and services in its area of operations, among others.

All these are designed to give Japanese investors greater protections, to ensure that they retain their advantages and to enable them to extract the maximum profit from their operations.

6. The JPEPA will worsen Philippine de-industrialization and cause job losses.

The government claims the local exporters would gain through export growth as tariffs are reduced and removed altogether. But the majority of Philippine exports to Japan are industrial manufactures that are actually subcontracted from Japanese transnational corporations (TNCs) and assembled using imported inputs while taking advantage of cheap Filipino labor.

If anything, the JPEPA actually raises the danger that some electronics and auto parts suppliers based in the country, whether TNCs or any genuinely Filipino enterprises, will be affected. Of course, there is no genuinely Filipino electronics or auto industry to speak of. But there are still such suppliers based in the country that import raw materials or components and assemble them either for re-export or as inputs to other electronics or auto assemblers in the country.

Such firms may have to close down if the removal of tariffs on these items makes them cheaper to import than procure from locally based manufacturers. Local steel makers will also be facing steeper production from Japanese producers. The resulting plant closures and layoffs could well mean some tens of thousands of jobs will be lost.

7. The JPEPA will increase landlessness and undermine agricultural livelihoods.

There is also much hype about supposed export gains from a more open Japanese market for Philippine bananas and pineapples. However, food exports are actually a small and even diminishing share of total Philippine exports to Japan, accounting for only 7.4% of total exports to it from 2001-2006. While food exports potentially have high local linkages to the local economy, grassroots farmers and farm workers are unlikely to benefit from JPEPA.

Agriculture in the Philippines, including that of bananas and pineapples, is in general very backward and underdeveloped because of the lack of true land reform and the absence of government support and extension services. Further, foreign agri-business TNCs, such as Dole and Del Monte and their big domestic corporate growers, account for virtually all banana and pineapple exports from the Philippines.

Local farmers are reduced to entering into oppressive contract growing and farm lease arrangements with these TNCs. These arrangements place all the risk of cultivation onto the farmers and force them to buy overpriced inputs. Such arrangements raise the high possibility that small farmers may lose their lands and become workers for hire or join the exodus to the cities.

8. The JPEPA is not about Philippine development.

The JPEPA’s provisions on trade and investment liberalization are designed to give Japan’s corporations the greatest benefit to make huge profits, at the expense of the greatest damage to the Philippine economy.

The pact also contains other measures that complement that central thrust. While packaged as being aimed towards developing domestic productive capacity, their real objective is to make it even easier for Japanese firms to trade and invest in the Philippine on terms that are the most beneficial to them.

These include the supposed cooperation in trade and investment promotion, trade facilitation, technical assistance to meet Japanese requirements and regulations, capacity building in paperless trading, training to facilitate improvements in the competitiveness of workers, human resource development and language proficiency training. n

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

Today, we lay to rest the first journalist slain in 2008 and the 56th under the Arroyo administration. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines joins the family, friends and colleagues of newspaper publisher and columnist Benefredo Acabal in mourning the murder of another member of the Philippine media.

Acabal published the tabloid Pilipino Newsmen and wrote a column under the name Freddie Yanco. Before putting up his own paper two years ago, he wrote for other tabloids, among them Toro, Saksi and Puntos. His murder orphaned four children, aged four to nine years old.

Acabal was brazenly chased and gunned down by a lone gunman in front of eyewitnesses in Pasig on April 7. While police investigations have yet to conclude if Acabal’s murder was related to his work, his friends and colleagues strongly believed it was. Acabal reportedly received several threats prior to his death.

The manner of his killing, in the heart of Metro Manila no less, highlights the level of impunity the murder of journalists and activists in this country has reached, and why the death toll under the Arroyo government – which long ago had already established itself as the highest under any administration, including the 14-year Marcos dictatorship – continues to rise.

While we recognize that there is no indication that the murder of journalists is part of official policy – unlike what international human rights experts have observed about the extra-judicial killings of dissenters – we contend that lack of official action on the slayings of our colleagues and the government’s repeated attempts to muzzle the press have emboldened those who would seek to exercise the ultimate censorship.

For so long as this administration fails to arrest, prosecute and convict the murderers, for so long as it persists to threaten us with laws designed to curtail the exercise of our calling, the blood of our colleagues will stain this government as much as it does the actual killers and masterminds.

We call on the public, our audiences and readers, to stand up with us to demand respect and protection for press freedom and the people’s right to know. Whatever the imperfections of the Philippine press are, it continues to serve as a crucial vehicle for the people to get the information they need to make informed decisions about their individual and collective lives.

As we prepare to commemorate World Press Freedom Day next month – commemorate, not celebrate – we once again declare, we will not be cowed.

My trip to Geneva, Switzerland as part of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation culminated yesterday in a picket-protest in front of the United Nations headquarters.

After listening to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita deliver the Philippine National Report to the UN Human Rights Council, I joined some 30 Filipinos and Swiss citizens who had put up a picketline right outside the UN gates to dramatize our people’s continuing quest for an end to the killings, disappearances and the impunity by which human rights atrocities are committed in the Philippines.

The Philippine report, presented by no less than Sec. Ermita with his extraordinarily large contingent of bureaucrats flown in from Manila, was a self-serving, selective and totally one-sided depiction of the Philippine human rights situation. The aim of the report was to depict the Arroyo administration as a vanguard defender of human rights and good governance in the country.

I was particularly flabbergasted to hear Sec. Ermita boast of the government’s superlative gains in fighting graft and corruption in the Philippines. I almost fell from my seat listening to him expound on government efforts to strengthen the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan, the success of its electronic procurement system, and effectivity of its lifestyle checks. In the light of the latest swine scam and the NBN-ZTE deal, this is chutzpah of the highest degree, inspired by no less than a cheating, lying and stealing President.

Fortunately, not all countries took this line hook and sinker. At least 16 countries expressed concern on the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances and, in typical diplomatic language used in the UN, practically told the Philippines it was not doing enough on the matter, especially with regards to the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston.

Other issues of great concern to the international community were the violations of the rights of Filipino migrant workers and those of women and children.

In other words, the Philippine government’s attempt to downplay the killings and disappearances and project the image that the situation was improving did not wash. In part through the efforts of the Philippine UPR Watch, the truth came out and the Arroyo government was held to account for its failures by the international community.

I am leaving Geneva with the knowledge that the world is watching the Philippines and is in solidarity with its quest for truth, justice and accountability.

Yesterday, April 10, Microsoft launched their new wave of technologies in the Philippines using their global theme, “Heroes happen here.”

I can’t help but think how inappropriate the theme is for our country.

After reading Fr. Intengan’s ZTE Primer document, I find it hard to imagine how heroes can ever happen in this country. In the guise of shedding light on the controversial deal, Fr. Intengan suggests 3 things:

1) That Jun Lozada lied when he claimed he was abducted; this, of course, assumes that the government account of the incident is true

2) That Jun Lozada’s and the other whistleblowers’ testimonies are all hearsay and therefore have no value

3) That the Senate hearings should now be stopped and charges in court should be filed instead.

Under ordinary times, Intengan’s primer might resonate among peace-loving and decent people. But when you have a president embroiled in serious charges of corruption and cheating, and who uses stonewalling, lying and deceit to respond to these charges, it takes an extraordinary leap of faith or supreme naivete to expect relief from a dysfunctional judicial system.

I have three simple questions for Fr. Intengan: If the First Gentleman threatened you by shouting in your face “Back off”, will you have the courage to make it public, considering that he is the husband of the most powerful person in the country? Will you file charges of grave threat in a court of law? Or will you wait for a signed confession by FG or affidavits by others present during the incident attesting to the truth of your charges before filing a case in court?

Incidentally, the ZTE Primer was distributed to students of Fr. Intengan’s class on Sexual Ethics at Ateneo some time in March. During the class, Intengan declared that Lozada was part of a destabilization plot and his kidnapping was a hoax. He also played the wiretapped conversation between Jun Lozada and Joey de Venecia. And to think that Intengan advocates the rule of law in his primer (see the last paragraph of the attached primer).

What saddens me is the fact that there are actually some people who believe Intengan. And for what reasons? Because Jun Lozada is always smiling when on TV? Because he seems to be enjoying the limelight and his newfound celebrity status? Because he is going around the country to share his story? Because he has gone beyond the Probinsiyanong Intsik image that has endeared him to the people?

Because of these, you are all too willing to gloss over the truth he has revealed and the heroic sacrifice he and others before him had to go through as the price for the truth.

And yet, we are quite liberal in making heroes of other people with less than noble purposes.

We reluctantly accepted Chavit Singson as a hero, because he conveniently supported our desire to rid our nation of an immoral president. But we cannot accept Jun as a hero, because we’re not ready to rid our nation of an amoral president. Why? Because GMA’s successor could be worse. Because the economy is doing well, at least on paper. Because 2010 is just around the corner. Why can’t we just wait? And these, even if we believe that she probably cheated, that she and FG are probably involved in corruption, and that she and her cabinet members have lied brazenly to cover up the truth.

We routinely make a hero of taxi drivers who return oodles of money left by passengers in their cabs. It is the most unnatural thing to do in this country, and is therefore considered heroic. But we cannot make Jun a hero for telling the truth at heroic costs, even though that too has become the most unnatural thing to do in this country. Why? Because it might lead to a regime change. Because GMA’s successor could be worse. Because…

We proudly call our OFWs our modern-day heroes for their heroic sacrifices, although I have yet to hear an OFW say, “I will work abroad so I can help make the country better”. For the most part, they do so for the survival of their family. But we cannot proudly call Jun a hero, even though the easiest thing for him to do for the survival of his family was to keep silent. And yet he spoke the truth, precisely to do his share in making this country a little better. Why can’t we make Jun a hero? Because the country may not end up getting better. Because GMA’s successor could be worse. Because…

We lavishly praise Pacquiao to be our hero, for indeed he gives pride to our country every time he wins. But he trains and fights hard to win, mostly for the prize money (that’s what professionals do), and reaping pride for the country is an incidental, though happy, consequence for our nation. But we cannot praise Jun, not even scantily, to be our hero, even though he inspired pride for our country amongst the youth for rejecting the prize money offered him in exchange for his silence. Why? Because it’s possible we may not be proud of what happens after a regime change. Because GMA’s successor could be worse. Because…

I share with you Jun’s reflections two months after he came out (see attached document) so you might understand a little better the sufferings he continue to go through as the cost of doing the right thing. I echo Jun’s challenge: before you judge him, you should ask yourself — “What have I done for the country?”

If you say you contribute to the well-being of this nation by, first, being a good provider for your family, and then, by contributing to the community through Gawad Kalinga and other civic projects — that’s well and good. And you might even add, let’s not get involved with politics or anything that might imperil the perceived stability of our government.

Jun, too, could have done the same thing — avoid the Senate at all cost so he can continue to be a good provider for his family, so he can help the underprivileged through his work at PhilForest, and so he might not shake the perceived stability of our government. That would have been well and good. But he decided to go beyond what is good. He decided to do what is right by exposing the evil and demanding accountability, even if it meant instability to his life, to wake up a people in stupor — ready to accept evil, thinking that doing good will drown out the evil.

And so I ask the final question — If you were in Jun’s place, would you have done good or right?

The advertising application of Microsoft’s launch theme is quite interesting. “Heroes happen here” is usually followed by a pair of curly brackets like this { }. Visually, the brackets are used to frame an ordinary person, to single him out of a crowd. The message is simple: ordinary people can do extraordinary things when equipped with the right tools (of course, from Microsoft).

That can very well apply to our times. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things, propelled by the right heart and mindset — to do, not just what is good, but what is right. And it starts with you and me.

Are you ready to put your name inside the curly brackets?

Heroes happen here { }.

God bless,

Enteng

In one of my interviews with ABS-CBN, the news reporter asked me, despite all the scandals and corruption (Hello Garci, One Billion Peso Fertilizer Scam, Irrigation Scam and Six Billion Peso NBN-ZTE Broadband Scam) that have hounded this present administration, why do you think do majority of young Filipinos choose not to do anything about it. She further added that there seems to be no uproar from the Filipino youth and young professionals from all over the country, does that mean that we are okay with all these scandals that are mushrooming almost on a weekly basis? I asked these same questions to my students and friends and here are their answers (summarized already):

Student A: Sir Harvey, Naiinis naman talaga kami sa nangyayari pero wala naman kaming magagawa eh, estudyante lang kami at kahit sino namang ilagay sa gobyerno natin, pareho pa rin silang lahat na magnanakaw. They will only protect their own self-interests.

Student B: Sir, I’m not happy with how our country is being led by our government leaders but I think the best way I can contribute to this country is by becoming a good student, study hard, find a good job and be a good citizen in our country.

Yuppie A: I don’t want to get involved in politics masyadong magulo yan kaya I’d rather just stick to doing my job well and helping my own family besides I’m already helping this country by helping send my younger siblings to school.

Yuppie B: I was part of EDSA II and actually took helped organize the concerts at the EDSA Shrine but as much as I’m very frustrated with how this government is being run, I am no longer convinced that political engagement is the way to go for our country. I would rather focus my energies and resources to helping NGOs and Foundations like Gawad Kalinga and Pathways.

Reflecting upon these answers which I also often receive from the e-mails Filipinos here and abroad send me, I believe that their answers are all valid and I respect them although I don’t totally agree with all of them. Allow me to share with you what I think on each of these answers:

Student A’s answer is typical of a person who is disgruntled with what is happening to our country but who apparently feels helpless about the situation. When I receive this kind of an answer from people and my students, I tell them about what they can do and organizations they can join like Team RP but when they are invited to take part in activities that aim to promote good governance and greater transparency in our government, theyfail to join and act. Sad but true, many Filipinos just love to criticize and point out what is wrong with our leaders but when they are given an opportunity to act about these pressing issues, they refuse to make time and move out of their comfort zone.

Student B’s answer is for me a selfish answer, yes, I believe that a student’s main and foremost responsibility is to study hard and finish education but what about our own responsibility as citizens of this country? In a utopian society, this answer would have been okay but in our present situation as a country in crisis where the gap between the rich and the poor continue to grow and where more than 20 million Filipino families grow hungry each day, this is no longer acceptable especially for students and young professionals who study at the top universities and who come from the middle to upper class of our society. This answer is an easy cop out and
it’s selfish because at the end of the day, just by confining yourself to you own life won’t help our country as much as it will help you.

Yuppie A and B’s answer is all well and good since I admire them for continuing to work hard to provide for their families while at the same time continue to get involved with volunteer work for Gawad Kalinga and Pathways to Higher Education. I admit that I was like Yuppie A and B who just confined myself to working towards helping poor but deserving students go to college and finish their education but I realized that this isn’t enough. I realized that if we are able to reform our government institutions and leadership then there won’t be a need for organizations like Gawad Kalinga and Pathways. We need to realize that in order for us to help uplift the lives of the poor we need to attack the problem at its roots and that is the inability of our government systems to provide these basic services to them.

Isn’t the National Housing Authority supposed to be the one to help provide adequate shelter to every Filipino family? Isn’t it the Department of Education’s job to assist every Filipino child gain access to quality education? A recent study by the World Bank has said that more than 30 billion pesos goes to corruption every year. Imagine if we are able to work together and pressure government into being more transparent and accountable towards curbing corruption then we would have more resources to provide housing for every poor family, irrigation and fertilizers to farmers (which would help alleviate our growing food crisis), higher salaries for our public school teachers, enough textbooks for our students and access to quality healthcare for every Filipino. Working for and helping Gawad Kalinga, Pathways and other non-profit organizations are very much needed in our society today but let us also not forget that unless we work hard towards fighting for and institutionalizing credible and lasting reforms in our government and its leaders, then we will always have to do the fire-fighting because we have failed to solve the cause of the fire.

In summary, what I would like to share with all of you are the following:

a.) We deserve the country that we have. If we want a prosperous and just country, then we should all work hard towards it. If you look at the history of South Korea and Singapore, they were able to turn their country around in less than 30 years. I believe we can do it in less time and do it even better if every Filipino will just care enough to go out of his or her way to help push for reforms in our government. As the saying goes, “Walang makakatulong sa Pilipino kundi kapwa Pilipino rin.”

b.) Genuine Hope of this country does not lie on our government and church leaders and especially not in the ruling elite and oligarchs, it rests in each one of us. As I have always said, every Filipino whether you live here or abroad can complain about the rampant corruption and problems that is present in our government but after the complaining have you asked yourself, what will you do about it? Are you willing to sacrifice some of your time and resources to making yourself heard by our government leaders? If we want change in our country, we need to change ourselves, change starts with each one of us. We need to stop making excuses about why we cannot act and why we cannot take part in actions that will reform our present government systems.

c.) If our government and its leaders were doing their job effectively then there wouldn’t be a need for a Gawad Kalinga or a Pathways. I support and firmly believe in Gawad Kalinga, Pathways and other non-profit organizations that are working hard to deliver basic services to the poorest of the poor in our country but don’t you think it’s also time that we start holding government accountable to these basic services that they have failed to provide our people? Of course it will be harder to do this and it may take a longer period of time but if we are able to institutionalize these reforms then we will be able to make our government more efficient and effective and in the end we will be able to help not just seven thousand but seven million Filipino families.

I am not calling for another People Power Revolution nor am I asking for our President’s outright resignation. I’m not also saying that people should quit supporting and volunteering for Gawad Kalinga and Pathways. In fact, I believe that we should continue to support these very laudable and inspiring initiatives. All I’m saying is that these efforts can only yield lasting benefits for the poor and the powerless if all of us would be more involved in activities and movements that would push for greater truth, accountability and reform in our government because in these times of crisis, despair and growing hopelessness in our country, the poor can’t wait and Gawad Kalinga may not be enough.

Harvey S. Keh is Director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government. Harvey as a Filipino social entrepreneur has co-founded Pathways to Higher Education-Philippines and AHON Foundation, both these organizations help in promoting access to quality education for every Filipino child. Aside from this, he is also Chairman of Team RP, a youth-led organization which is part of the BUSINA movement that promotes truth, accountability and reform in our government.

If by some chance you were moved to act by this e-mail and want to join us in pushing for genuine and lasting reforms in our government, please let him know by sending an email to harveykeh@gmail.com.

Layon ng pag-aaral na tuklasin kung may kinalaman ang oras sa kahusayang pang-akademiko ng mga mag-aaral at kung paano ito nakakaapekto sa pag-aaral ng mga mag-aaral at pagtuturo ng mga propesor.

Nagsagawa ang mga mananaliksik ng isang sarbey at panayam sa mga mag-aaral sa unang taon sa Kolehiyo ng Narsing sa Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas upang malaman kung sila ay may ideya sa konsepto ng time management.

Napag-alaman ng mga mananaliksik na may kaugnayan ang oras sa pagkatuto ng mga mag-aaral at pagtuturo ng mga propesor. Nagagamit ng karamihan sa mga mag-aaral ang time management upang mas mapadali ang kanilang pag-aaral at mabawasan ang sobrang pagkahapo.

Inirekomenda ng mga mananaliksik na gamitin ng mga kapwa mag-aaral ang time management upang mabigyang prayoridad ang mga dapat gawin at tapusin kaagad.

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Our organizations, whose members bore the brunt of the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of human rights violations, have banded to form the Philippine UPR Watch. We will send a delegation to Geneva to bring to the attention of the international community the truth about the gory human rights record of the Arroyo government.

We expect that the Philippine government report will conceal its bloodstained record the same way it hides the truth of its corrupt and immoral practices from the public. We respectfully urge the UNHRC to read through the lines and the lies of the Arroyo regime in the report.

The Philippine government brags of “a clean human rights record” following the perception of the European Union that there is a decline in the number of killings and disappearances. In fact, the Arroyo regime has done nothing to put a stop to the violations. It has done nothing to prosecute the real perpetrators. It has done nothing to give justice to the victims and their families. It has not taken seriously any of the recommendations of Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. At the outset, the government denied any human rights violations in the country. It was the domestic outcry and international pressure that compelled the Philippine government to undertake steps that are, by and large, token measures if not window dressings. The remedies opened up by other branches of the State continue to be unavailing and ineffectual to the victims.

Cover-ups and false attributions aggravate the impunity. No one has been credibly convicted even as the killings, disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and political persecution continue without let up. One more killing or disappearance is one too many.

In 2007, a human rights defender was killed every week while one disappeared every other week. In 2005 and 2006, killings took place every other day. The ‘de-escalation’ of killings and enforced disappearances committed by government troops on the population lends credence to the UN expert’s findings that these violations are centrally-directed under Arroyo’s counterinsurgency program.

We hope that the UNHRC will listen to the Filipino people’s call for justice and help stop further impunity and human rights violations in the country. At the same time, we continue to call on the European Union, the US and all foreign governments to stop financial and military aid and all forms of support to the Philippine government in light of the gross and systematic violations of human rights it is committing against the people.

Gabriela takes this as a challenge to be more determined and steadfast in educating the public — both men and women — on the rights of women and on the just place of women as productive members of the society in our continuing struggle for women’s emancipation.

Assembly points: 1pm, Taft Avenue cor. Kalaw/UST Espana

Expected to join the youth are Datu’s Tribe, Wuds, Radioactive Sago Project, The Jerks, Stick Figgas, and the Musicians for Peace.

Wear your school color, bring your school flags, represent your alma mater!

Among them is a fellow artist of ours, poet Axel Pinpin — who was a fellow for poetry in the 1997 UP (University of the Philippines) National Writers’ Workshop. For almost two years, he and four other companions — Riel Custodio, Aristides Sarmiento, Enrico Ybanez, and Michael Masayes — have been detained at the “temporary” holding facility at the PNP’s (Philippine National Police) Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba City, Laguna.

Now collectively known as the “Tagaytay 5,” Pinpin and his companions were on their way to Manila when they were abducted by a Navy-PNP composite team in Tagaytay City on April 28, 2006. Pinpin, Custodio, and Sarmiento — all peasant advocates — were to participate in the forthcoming Labor Day rally in Manila, with Ybanez driving for them and Masayes accompanying Ybanez.

After a few days, they were all presented to the media as “communist rebels” involved in a “destabilization plot” against the fictitious Arroyo regime. They bore signs of torture and would later tell relatives, colleagues and friends that they were indeed tortured — as is usually the fate of political prisoners in the Philippines, a country which loudly proclaims itself before the whole world as a democracy.

The “Tagaytay 5″ are among the more than 200 political prisoners documented by the human rights group Karapatan as having been jailed under the Arroyo regime.

As more than 200 of our countrymen continue to languish in jail for political reasons, for their efforts at genuinely serving the Filipino people, the worst criminals in the country — they who use the power that comes with high office to give full vent to their diabolical rapacity and complete disrespect for the rights of the people — run around like wild animals.

The Arroyo couple have so many times been caught with dirt in their hands; the mess surrounding the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal is just the latest, albeit the most brazen, instance. So many have been left to rot in jail for far lighter offenses. They deserve to be in jail and not even a thousand life sentences are enough to punish them for their crimes.

We support our fellow artist Pinpin and his four companions in their three-day fast, starting March 12, for Truth and Accountability, Justice and Freedom. Their fasting is in support of a three-day activity organized by the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) for jailed Ptr. Berlin Guerrero and other political prisoners.

We join our friends, the “Tagaytay 5,” as well as the other PPs and the PCPR in their call for the three-day activity: “Jail the First Couple, free the political prisoners!”

Artists’ ARREST
(Artists’ Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation)

12 March 2008

Alexander Remollino. Bobby Balingit. Bong de Leon. Buen Calubayan. C-An Lucas Reyes. Con Cabrera. Cynthia Alexander. J. Pacena. Jason Valenzuela. Kakoi Abeleda. Kapi Capistrano. King Catoy. Kiri Dalena. Lourd de Veyra. Maki Lim. RJ Mabilin. Rustum Casia. Teta Tulay. Winnie Balingit. Anino Shadowplay Collective. Anak ni Aling Juana. EarthFishFish. Gapos. Kilometer 64. Pilipinas Street Plan. Republika de Lata. Southern Tagalog Exposure. Uwawi.