OPPOSE THE TOTAL SELLOUT
OF OUR NATIONAL PATRIMONY
Editorial|February|2009

In 2007, the Arroyo administration sold PhP90.6 billion worth of public assets and properties in its desperate attempt to keep the buckling economy afloat, and to cover up for heavy losses from the global economic recession and domestic corruption. This is the biggest in the history of Philippine government, and needless to say, the worst.

While peasants remain landless and squatters on lands they have been tilling for decades, the vast plains and arable lands have been converted to golf courses, subdivisions, malls, et cetera––all of which are owned by foreign corporations and their local counterparts belonging to the ruling elite of Philippine society. The frontiers have not been spared and are now corralled for logging and/or mining concessions.

Under such schemes, our economy remains oriented in exporting raw materials and human workforce, but overly dependent on foreign imports and financial capital. By ardently delivering the country’s commerce and industry into the hands of foreign monopolists, the government has ultimately placed the Philippine economy in a backward state.

The Arroyo government argues that this scheme is actually the face of development and progress, a Strong Republic. But the actual state of majority of the Filipino people belies the devious claims of the Arroyo administration. Simple arithmetic would show that the Land Use Conversion, Trade Liberalization, and Privatization programs are counterproductive to the national economy and only benefits the likes of the First Family.

In the last two years alone, more than 80% of Filipino families have had to make dowith Php110 a day while the top 20% takes 52.8% share of the country’s total family income –– a grave disparity in the distribution of the nation’s wealth. The worst is underway now that Malacañang
is pulling all strings in ramming its agenda to change the charter. Hellbent to stay in power beyond 2010, the president subscribes to the advice of IMF/WB and the US government to grant 100% land ownership to foreign businesses to “save” the country’s ailing economy, in exchange for financial aid and political support.

This will consequently hasten the privatization of the remaining governmentowned and controlled corporations (GOCC), and open the economy totally naked to foreign plunder and pillage. At this rate alone, the entire country is going right down to its grave.

Macapagal-Arroyo’s subscription to this scheme being pressed by international monopolists under neo-liberal globalization is a total degradation of Article XII of the Philippine Constitution.
If the president and her cohorts in Malacañang and the Congress succeed in maneuvering to dismantle all Constitutional protection on economy and national patrimony, the entire country will undoubtedly plunge into a deep crisis far worse than any it had in history. With various issues being churned on all sides to divert the public’s attention from this matter, there is a need for all nationalists to be ever more vigilant in exposing and opposing the vile attempts to desecrate the very vanguard of our democracy--our Constitution.

More Than Expressing Our Views
CHRISTIAN LLOYD M. ESPINOZA
February|2009

The pilot issue of Kartilya garnered positive response from both students and some faculty members, and even from other student writers of various publications in different schools. There have been enthusiastic encouragements to publish a regular issue and to widen the circulation. Financial impediments and day-to-day academic life have unfortunately caused some delays for the release of this second issue.

Kartilya has been founded under the basic guiding principles of La Liga Politica in advocating liberty, integrity, fraternity, and equality. It pursues the visions of the framers of our organization to create a venue for intellectual discussions that serves as a vehicle to elevate the political consciousness of students and in inculcating nationalist and patriotic ideals.

As such, we have devised a method to encourage LLP and non-LLP members, and students from other disciplines to write so as to ensure that a wide range of articles can be collected for publication. So far, as it turned out, just about enough articles have been submitted that the editorial board has not had to go through the much arduous phase of debating over which articles to discard for later publication. We have also enlarged the editorial board in our efforts to ensure a pluralist body representative of different political tendencies. Admittedly, though, we have not yet been successful in composing a board that is broad enough to fully represent different political beliefs.

However, Kartilya should not only serve as a spot for Political Science majors and students from other fields of disciplines to express their political views. It should foremost promote social awareness and critical thinking across the entire UM community, extending to the larger society outside of the university.

We have thus resolutely pursued in publishing this issue despite the aforementioned limitations on the firm belief that this shall further pave way for discussions on issues that confront our society.

We believe that the articles on this issue of Kartilya are enough collection of embers to ignite the nationalist spirit among our constituents. Indeed, our task is a daunting one, but if sustained, will further enflame into a burning passion for us to collectively act in changing the course of history towards a genuinely democratic and progressive society.

This is our commitment, this is our firm resolve.

A Call to Arms
ABRAHAM JAMBANGAN JR
Supreme Chancellor, LLP (2008-09)
February|2009

The great foundations of our organization do not rest only upon its members. Its pillars are foremost grounded on the masses of students and the people. Upon its establishment, the foreparents of La Liga Politica have made it clear that the organization must not only exist for itself.

This fundamental principle has bound us to continuously live the tradition of elevating our political consciousness not as a matter of sheer idealism but of undying commitment.

Our organization is a composite of individuals who belong to various tendencies in the political spectrum––that of the Left, the Right, and of those who prefer neutral at the Center. Such broad representation provides us the advantage of covering almost every angle of any issue that concerns the students and the people.

The previous year has been of hard struggles and sacrifices: conflicts and debates on certain organizational and political issues erupted; personal tensions have sprung. Yet we have come out of it firmer just as what our handshake symbolizes: “our principles may conflict, our friendship may be shaken, but we shall remain brothers.”

All through the years we have never allowed differences to divide and weaken our ranks. Instead, we have been able to seize these opportunities and made them serve as sandstone to sharpen our minds as we solve the puzzle of attaining genuine democracy in our society.

With the entrance of another year, we must set ourselves ready to fulfill our tasks. The birth of our very own publication, the Kartilya, shall aid us in our commitment to serve.

But the prime machinery in awakening the studentry and the people is our solid membership. There is so much to be done especially so that the entire nation is now confronted with insurmountable socio-political tribulations. As we embark into a new phase of fulfilling our commitment to serve, we must gear ourselves to battle. The line has been clearly drawn and we have vowed to take the side of the oppressed, the voiceless, and the dispossessed.

We thus call on each of our members to sharpen their blades by integrating with our constituents. We must polish our armors by upholding our Constitutional rights yet critically scraping the rusts that brittle it inside out. We must tightly harness our saddles to our vessel and buckle up that we may not fall.

Together let us assemble a strong army that is fully equipped with battlements and well-knowledgeable of the socio-political terrain. When this shall have been done, our existence will have served its purpose. We do not have illusions of posing as the ‘el salvadores’ for we are conscious that only the people are the true makers of history. Onward to the battlefield!

The State of Philippine Democracy
RONNIE C. CLARION
February|2009

On her way to guillotine on November 8, 1793, Madame Roland uttered what has now become a classic line: “Oh liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!”
(Excerpt from Florentino H. Hornedo’s The Power to be)

The above passage reflects the dire conditions of the country Philippines. Indeed, her people suffer from being deprived of freedom in almost all aspects or phases of their lives. Situations in our land portray the exact opposite of what we are supposed to enjoy as an independent country
considering that we practice a democratic system of government.

One observance in a democratic setting is the conduct of elections through popular will. It is clearly emphasized that the people’s will is the sole decisive force by which elections could be processed. And in the same way it is through elections that the masses find a venue for a better change. But there has never been an exemplary election.

The May 2004 election is just the same with that of past elections where subversion of the people’s will is prevalent. Election periods have become big-time jobfairs where there is a nationwide employment for dirty jobs. Candidates hire people to work and campaign for them to secure votes by whatever means –– bribery, job offers, and other favors.

And since Philippine elections are characterized by massive cheating, the hegemony of money over honesty serves as the basis for electing bogus government officials rather than honest public servants. Many of the candidates would not tell of the uncertainties faced by the Filipino people under their administration, or of the grim future that awaits the nation should they be elected to position. Nearly all of them would always set sugarcoated promises and visions.

The present precarious Macapagal-Arroyo administration is the result of cunning and unlawful election process of May 2004. If we are to portray the state of the nation under the ruling regime, it is characterized by a high record of human rights violations which seem to have become the trademark of her rule. The spate of political killings and abductions of political activists have alarmed both national and international human rights organizations. Mass leaders and supporters of partylist groups that are critical to the government’s inability to operate democratically have been the prime targets of harassments, killings, and enforced disappearances.

Deprivation could not only be observed at home but outside the country as well where displaced OFWs are sent to war-torn countries. Forced by circumstances due to high unemployment rate in the Philippines, poor Filipinos take risks for opportunities abroad. Though temporarily residing outside of the country, dollar remittances of these workers have not been spared of corruption. Their remittances keep the indebted Philippine economy afloat yet the government has always been lukewarm in providing total assistance to our overseas workers who pay billions of pesos for their supposed welfare and protection.

Though presented with piles of proofs, the Batasan, the Office of the Ombudsman, and even the Supreme Court have not done any decisive action regarding these matters. This only demonstrates the supremacy of the Executive branch over the other two branches of the government, a blatant abuse of power. One can form a judgment of the complicity among officials in different agencies and departments. With all her cronies and underlings, Arroyo has been able to wash herself clean of all the responsibilities on the matters at bar. These make it easy for the ruling clique to crush dissents from below.

So long as we are headed by a bogus government and not by honest public officials, we can never fully enjoy our freedom to which we are entitled and we are bound to live in an autocracyobsessed society. Hence, we are restricted to act according to there own rules and not on how they ought to rule in accordance with the Constitution. Military-instigated killings under the present administration which dispenses Marcosian authoritarianism will continue as long as the bureaucrats who serve as puppets to American and foreign dictates stay in power. Democracy can never grow on such a toxic soil.

CHA-CHA: one-way ticket to the blue
ANGELO RUSS YBAÑEZ
February|2009

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be making her biggest miscalculation. Cha-Cha is now laying the ground for a decisive confrontation between the US-backed Arroyo regime and the Filipino people who see it as Arroyo’s oneway ticket to prolong her rule.

As early as the public debut of the Hello Garci scandal, President Gloria Arroyo and her minions have been brokering to change the charter. Desperate to hammer down her agenda unnoticed by the public and the media, the administration dubiously initiated a “people’s initiative,” soliciting signatures to amend the Constitution––a process that is supposed to be initiated by the people themselves. The project was pursued despite the earlier ruling of the Supreme Court that it was baseless and illegal.

The Arroyo administration has also attempted to bait the MILF to surrender by capitalizing on the ill-fated MOA-AD and riding on the movements for federalism. Arroyo however failed to get the support of the federalists in both chambers of the Congress.

It is seemingly obvious that Mrs. Arroyo maliciously intends to stay in power beyond year 2010, or at least set an escape route to get away from the piles of complaints and accountabilities that await her once she steps down from power. With this alone, she has all the reasons to secure the backing of all government machineries and the political support of the United States.

Such is why Arroyo is committed to grant 100% ownership of our natural resources to foreign businesses, using Cha-Cha as a prime instrument to ensure economic, intellectual, and actual physical control of the entire country. The neo-liberal policies of deregulation and privatization have brought about faster pace of denationalizing major sectors of our economy. Reinforced with the bias for comprador-type of businesses, this scheme opens up vital areas such as logging and mining concessions, public utilities, and government mega-projects, lubricated by ‘development aids’ of multilateral financial institutions.

The use of political supremacy to coax the small factions of the Opposition to submit to her tutelage is also an integral part of GMA’s schemes. President Arroyo controls two of the biggest political parties in the bureaucracy, LAKAS and KAMPI, and uses it as a machinery to materialize her political ambitions. Employing militarist tactics, GMA has also stepped up her campaign against critical groups and individuals.

The Arroyo government has continuously trampled the Constitutional provision that guarantees equal protection of the law with her draconian Human Security Act and several presidential proclamations that curtail civil liberties. But this is destined to fail as the people can never be silenced. The Arroyo regime’s legal maneuvers and militaristic rule may have gagged many critics but it can never suppress the social volcano waiting to erupt. The people’s verdict shall continue to haunt her even if she succeeds to stay in power beyond 2010.

Of Cash and Drugs
THE MEDIA CIRCUS OVER ALABANG BOYS
Desiree B. Villanueva
February|2009

The Philippines ranks first on the list of countries whose population (aged 15-64) uses methamphetamine. A 2004 Dangerous Drugs Board survey found 6.7 million users of illegal drugs in the country. In its efforts to curb the rising toll of criminality, the government stepped up the campaign against illegal drugs.


The Cast

They are the Alabang boys; rich, powerful, influential, and alleged big-time drug syndicate caught by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency during an entrapment operation on September 20, 2008. Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph, and Joseph Ramirez Tecson were among those that have been arrested by PDEA after a season in which a number of drug lords got away scot-free. The Alabang boys are now subjects of a tug-of-war between the PDEA and prosecutors, and the Department of Justice under Sec. Raul Gonzales. A parent of one of the Alabang boys is said to be behind a lucrative government contract having to do with (drug) running.


Now showing

With the resurgence of the issue of narcopolitics, bribery, and money laundering, DOJ Sec. Raul Gonzales has made a major comeback on primetime television. The secretary has committed himself to go hands-on over the issue once and for all. When reports about a P50 million bribe offer to prosecutors and the DOJ came out, Sec. Gonzales sneered at it and retorted that if it were true “that means they are richer than Meralco.” On the other hand, PDEA boss retired Gen. Dionisio Santiago commented that “P50 million is a small amount than having to spend a lifetime in jail.” Santiago also hinted of a possible links of the boys to international drug syndicates.

The face-off between the two competent men, Sec. Gonzales and Gen. Santiago, is the amusing part. Gonzales, a topnotch lawyer and famous prosecutor of the Aquino-Galman double murder case, has maintained his position when all other cabinet members have been shuffled and reshuffled many times. Santiago has a 37- year military career and is the former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Both men can be very stubborn which is often how they get their jobs done.


Next Picture

At the height of this issue, DepEd has proposed that a random drug test on students be conducted. They are more than willing to spend their already meager budget for a high-cost, ineffective, and discriminatory measure instead of acquiring books and classrooms or the inclusion of drug-awareness in the curricula. But what can an ordinary student do?

The fight against illegal drugs is an old music we’ve all heard of over and over again. It has yet again suddenly become a media attraction. Gone were the fertilizer scams, the ZTE broadband deal, the plot to impeach SC Chief Justice Puno, et cetera. We people easily forget.

If the Alabang boys were not the main dish, will the campaign against illegal drugs remain an appetizer? What else is on the menu? It stirs up one’s mind though whether the government is serious about this campaign or is it just a convenient stage play to divert the public’s attention over the scams that involve the President. What I see is that this case will be forgotten by the forgetful public soon enough. What’s next? Charter Change?

On tuition and other fee increases
Some notes on CHEd Memoranda Nos. 13, 14, & 21
CHRISTIAN LLOYD M. ESPINOZA
February|2009


“The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.” [Art. XIV Sec.1, 1987 Philippine Constitution]


Education as an important, all-encompassing element for the progress of any given society, is guaranteed as one of our basic birth rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which the Philippines is a signatory. Our very own Constitution emphasizes this, as well, in recognizance of the youth’s indispensable role in nation-building. But in a country where the economy is encumbered with foreign monopoly, education has become an extension for further political-economic domination and cultural aggression. Not only has education in our country been tailored to fit to foreign labor demands, it has also become highly commercialized as a commodity, market-driven, and profit-oriented in utter contempt of the Constitutional provisions.

In the last two years there has been an average of 15% tuition fee increase nationwide excluding increases on miscellaneous and other fees. With this rate, it is not surprising that many schools are among the top-listed corporations in terms of income generation. The government claims to be moving mountains to regulate this widespread trend and has commissioned its agencies to address the issue. Yet just as in the case of the phony CARP, the government’s sincerity to address this problem is seemingly dubious.

The Commission on Higher Education, in accordance with the Higher Education Act of 1994, promulgated and adopted several measures to “regulate” the rampant fees increases in the tertiary level. In its Memorandum Order No.13 series of 1998 concerning the guidelines and procedures to be followed by Higher Education Institutions (HEI) intending to increase their tuition fees, CHEd mandates: “…to conduct consultations with the student councils/government, faculty, alumni, and non-teaching personnel associations...”

It also provided for the creation of a Multi-Sectoral Committee on Tuition Fee (composed of CHEd, DepEd, DSWD, SRC-Youth Sectoral Representative, COCOPEA, PASUC, National Faculty Associations, and National Student Organizations), and outlined the consultation requirements, consultation process, and its procedures. Consultations as defined in the memorandum are “actual meetings and/or discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed tuition fee increase wherein the participants will have an opportunity to air their objections, sentiments and the like, without fear, and under a free and candid atmosphere.”

These, however, have all but remained rhetoric. The National Union of Students of the Philippines reports that many of their complaints and petitions on violations of school administrators with regards to the consultation process netted a cynical response from CHEd officials that “quality education is expensive.”

Still to the advantage of business interests, CHEd released its Memorandum No.14 series of 2005 which gave further leeway for schools to impose tuition fee increases without having to consult the students, provided that the increases would not exceed the prevailing national inflation rate as determined by the National Economic and Development Authority. This covered fee increases for incoming freshmen. Under this clause, schools can raise their fees virtually every year! Instead of making an allowance for the consumers who directly take the impacts of inflation and are already suffering from low wages and salaries, the program evidently serves to the interest of school owners, insulating them from inflation setbacks.

In 2006, CHEd memo 14 was withdrawn, resurrecting the memorandum no.13 which all the more gives school owners the legal right to raise the fees as high as they want although they are still required to “consult” the students––a process that is most often violated. This was reinforced by CHEd memorandum no.21 which gives freedom to the Office of Student Affairs to impose jurisdiction over student governments and student publications. The school administration may and can also establish a student council and/or publication, hence, jeopardizing the autonomy and independence of these two major student institutions, and depriving genuine student representation in the school’s highest policy-making body.

Fee increases can then practically be imposed hassle-free. During the last five years, Higher Education Institutions have continued to grow in number parallel to the growing rate of increases on tuition and other fees. Miscellaneous fee increase and other unexplained “fixed charges” have also added to this perennial burden. Students, therefore, have been shouldering the capitalization, expansion, and financing of new projects! Education commercialization is undoubtedly profiteering at its best.

Beyond declarations to provide accessible and quality education, we have yet to see a program that truly advances the protection of this basic right. Although there have been efforts in this regard, policies such as the Higher Education Modernization Act ironically undermine the very essence of this principle. Token actions and government intervention such as the student tuition moratorium does not also provide real and long-term solutions.

We thus call on our educators and the government to review their educational policies and sincerely address this issue. Concrete and serious actions must also be taken to address other issues concerning the education sector such as state subsidy and budget alloca-We thus call on our educators and the government to review their educational policies and sincerely address this issue. Concrete and serious actions must also be taken to address other issues concerning the education sector such as state subsidy and budget allocation, lack of classrooms and instruction materials, and teachers’ salaries among others.

Unless the government adopts an educational program and policy that is prostudents and nationalist-oriented, the Filipino youth will remain a reserved army of docile labor force, waiting in line to serve under foreign lordship.