SONA 2015 and the indigenous people of Capas, Tarlac

When we got to the protest zone at Commomwealth Avenue, only the contingents from Southern Tagalog and the indigenous peoples of Capas,Tarlac, and Mabalacat and Porac, Pampanga so far have arrived, patiently sitting on the sidewalks, seeminly unperturbed by the threat of a heavy rain..

We sat down with the Aytas from sitio Pisapungan of barangay Santa Juliana of Capas town in Tarlac. Their sitio leader informed us they came in five jeeps. Pretty soon, we were talking about how life is in their village.

The women were holding a “patalsikin si Noynoy” placard of the ACT Party-list. Other indigenous people carried the Katribu group streamer proclaiming “US-Aquino Kontra Katutubo.”

But from their stories, we got to know that they came to the rally to convey their aspirations to the government, not to agitate for the ouster of the president. 

Barangay Santa Juliana is located on the mountainside, and the Pinasapungan River runs between several sitios.  The river is almost two kilometers wide, which they have to swim during the rainy season to get from one side to the other. They are happy to say though that the river teems with fish for their food.

They earn their living through vegetable farming, and their main crop is the “puso” from a banana variety that has seeds. They raise also other vegetables like kamote and taro. They plant two traditional rice varieties that do not need much water to thrive: the binundok (hard) and binikol (soft). 

They have a school for around 200 children, and the teachers stay at the barangay during schooldays, going home only during the weekend.  The school is only up to Grade 4. For further schooling, the children have to go to the town. Some of them have finished high school.

They also suffered the wrath of Mt Pinatubo. They said they rebuilt their homes with the help of an international organization, a Korean group. Up to now though, electricity has not reached their area.

Their culture, they affirmed, is still very much alive. They have not lost their traditional music and their talipi dance. The women still roll tobacco leaves for their customary way of smoking with the lighted end inside their mouth.

All of us were not able to hear President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address, where he highlighted the major achievements of his administration for the last five years, resurrected the ‘sins’ of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration, swiped subtly at an unnamed target, obviously Vice-President Binay, and, like a high school valedictorian, praised and thanked almost everyone including his household help and his hairdresser except ex-Cabinet member Binay.

On the other hand, the Aytas or kulots would have wanted Aquino to hear their social services ‘wish list’: better educational opportunities for their children, carabaos for transporting their crop harvests to the town market, better access roads and a bridge across the river, and electrification of their barangay.

Aquino said, “Ang agenda: ayuda, kaalaman, kasanayan, at kalusugan para walang maiiwan. Ang isa sa mga mekanismo: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Sa Pantawid Pamilya, kapalit ng tulong sa mga benepisyaryo, pangunahin nilang dapat tutukan ang pag-aaral ng mga anak. ... Siyempre, bukod sa Pantawid Pamilya, may kontribusyon din ang Alternative Learning System para masigurong pati ang mga katutubo at street children ay hindi napapag-iwanan.”

Will the Aytas of Santa Juliana be able to benefit from these programs?

“Ayon nga po kay Bro. Armin,” the president said, “ang suma-total ng naipagawa nating mga classroom at na-hire na guro ay higit pa sa pinagsama-samang nagawa mula sa nakalipas na 20 taon bago tayo manungkulan.”

Will the Santa Juliana school initially expand to Grade 6 and eventually to Grade 12 for the katutubo children?  Aquino made this clear: “Nagpatupad tayo ng K to 12 dahil hindi praktikal ang pagsisiksik ng kaalaman sa 10-year basic education cycle.”

The president narrated: “Noong 2011 po, inimbentaryo natin ang mga sitio; tinukoy natin kung sino pa ang nangangailangan ng kuryente. Gawa ng Sitio Electrification Program, nakapaghatid na tayo ng liwanag sa 25,257 sitiong natukoy sa imbentaryong ito. Dagdag pa rito, dahil sa paggamit ng solar at iba pang teknolohiya, kahit malayo o liblib na lugar, nagkakakuryente na rin. Ngayon po, 78 percent na ng target ng SEP ang energized na. At tinitiyak sa atin ng DOE na bago tayo bumaba sa puwesto, lahat ng naitala noong 2011, may kuryente na.”

Is Santa Juliana included in the last 22% of sitios that will benefit from the Sitio Electrification Program during his last year in office?

The president asked: “Di na nakakagulat na nitong nakaraang taon, tumaas ng 27 percent ang car sales sa Pilipinas. ... Sa dami ng nakakapagpundar ng bagong sasakyan, dalawa po sa pinakamalaking kompanyang nagbebenta sa Pilipinas ay inaabot ng dalawa’t kalahati hanggang tatlong buwan bago makapag-deliver ng kotse.”

The Santa Juliana folks do not dream of cars. They only want carabaos to help ease the burden of manually transporting their goods to the marketplace. They also dream of the day that they will no longer plod through muddy roads during the rainy season, or swim across the big river when going to from one sitio to another.  No big-ticket infrastructure needed here like the Cavite-Laguna Expressway that he inaugurated recently.

President Aquino boasted: “Mula 2010 hanggang 2014, nagtala tayo ng average GDP growth na 6.2 percent; ito ang pinakamasiglang yugto ng ating ekonomiya sa loob ng 40 taon. Kung aabot po tayo sa 6.8 percent ngayong 2015, makakamtan natin ang pinakamataas na six-year average growth sa loob ng halos anim na dekada.”

The benefits from this growth, sad to say, have not trickled down to Santa Juliana. 

EDSA@28: "Where have all the flowers gone?"

NOTE:  This is a slightly different version of the photo-essay that this blogger wrote for 28Feb-06Mar issue of Fil-Am Star, a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco, CA for "Filipinos in Mainstream America."

February 25 this year, the 28th anniversary of the People Power or EDSA Revolution of 1986, was a special holiday in the Philippines but it was for schools only.  Being a Tuesday, it was a regular working day in government and in the private sector.

Commuters to their workplace in the morning could have noticed that the People Power Monument was adorned with yellow flags and the yellow flowers, and a wreath-laying ceremony was going on led by Vice-President Jejomar Binay. 

 

They could have missed the festive crowd of past celebrations.  For the first time, the anniversary observance was brought outside Metro Manila to Cebu City, where the peaceful encounter or “salubungan” of the military and the civilian contingents was re-enacted with popular movie actor Dingdong Dantes as then Gen. Fidel  V.  Ramos, and Sen. Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV as his uncle then Senator Butz Aquino of the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM).   

 According to reports, President Benigno Aquino III chose Cebu as commemoration venue because this was where his mother Cory called for civil disobedience and where she stayed with the Carmelite sisters during outbreak of the EDSA revolt. 

 

Outside of government-sponsored anniversary events, there was the call of the Million People March to Scrap Pork Barrel movement for a “Black Tuesday at EDSA.”  It urged their followers on social media to assemble at the EDSA Shrine in black and express indignation against RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. 

 

 While there were not many who came to advocate “Stop Cyber Martial Law”, “No to E-Martial Law” or “Junk RA 10175,” this is a hot issue in social media discussions.   To netizens, the specter of the oppression of the freedom of speech and information looms from the Supreme Court ruling on online libel even if it declared  three provisions of the cybercrime law unconstitutional -- unsolicited commercial communications, real-time collection of traffic data, and restricting access to computer data. 

 

This reminds us of the noose around our necks when the Marcos dictatorship controlled mass media, the wealth of the nation, and the coffers of government.  We learned more about our government and the lifestyle of those in power from reportages in foreign publications, reproduced and circulated through network of friends of friends by multiple “Xerox” journalists, an underground real social media of those times.

 

Breaking loose was what we did twenty eight Februaries ago.  We knew it was a military rebellion that Cardinal Sin called for the people to support. But It transformed into a truly civilian uprising when the multitude of Filipinos secured Camp Aguinaldo and later Camp Crame in support of the secession of Defense Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) from the Marcos government.

 

 In the midst of that peaceful revolution on EDSA, somebody picked my pocket. By today’s spending standards, the money contents were not much.  A Protestant minister who found it empty in a gutter mailed it back to us some time during those euphoric days after Ferdinand Marcos, his family, and his trusted cronies were flown out from Malacañang Palace to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

We were too busy with the camera, and with so many revolutionaries milling around during that bright, sunny 25th day of February and getting into multiple body contact every so often, we could not have noticed somebody's sticky fingers fishing for our wallet in our back pocket.

It was not a heavy price though for the victory that came afterward. We soon forgot about it when word got around that the dictator had fled, and we went honking down the avenue on board a good friend’s Volks Beetle exchanging cheers with other sweat-drenched, exhausted yet ecstatic souls along the way.

 

The dictatorship was ousted and democracy restored, but for the past twenty years it has been a rough roller coaster ride through coup d’etat attempts, infuriating brown-outs, a second EDSA revolution, uneasy peace in the south, natural disasters, impeachment cases, allegations of plunder and pork barrel scams, widening gap between the rich and poor, from the first presidency of mother Cory to the incumbency of her son Noynoy.

It looks like the spirit of the 1986 EDSA has dimmed in the minds of the veterans of that revolt, more so among those who are still in government service.  We can understand if the generations younger than 28 have not found meaning in the people power history.  The lessons learned from that political experience have not been imparted to them.

 

We remember that at the EDSA@26 commemoration at the People Power monument, people wrote down on big white boards their personal stakes for the country:  “Anong Taya mo Para sa Pilipinas Natin?”

People wrote: jobs, peace in Mindanao, iteration of Aquino’s “daang matuwid”, etcetera, virtually a wish list from the peaceful revolution of 1986.  Has the Revolution failed? Or, did we fail the Revolution?

Ramon Magsaysay@104: "Daang Matuwid" 1954

Source:  Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation Website.

We were innocent schoolboys when Ramon Magsaysay was president of the republic, and the only memory we have of him is his signature campaign jingle Mambo Jambo and the grief of the neighborhood and our teachers when he died in a plane crash on 17 March, 1957.

We knew he was from Zambales from our principal who tearfully recalled before our grade 3 class the pranks he played on them when they were classmates in our town's private high school.  We'd have the bragging rights years later when we've become an alumnus like him of the same school, Zambales Academy.

We remember Filipino First, the catchphrase associated with Carlos P Garcia.  It was under him or Diosdado Macapagal that the country was placed in an austerity program, and so for some years we scrimped on town fiestas or canceled them altogether.  But definitely it was Macapagal who changed independence day from 4th of July to June 12.

Our political consciousness matured through the long years of living dangerously under the Marcos regime.  We too were in the thick of the EDSA revolt of 1986, and the highs and lows in the aftermath from Cory Aquino to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  

We've always maintained a certain wariness of the so-called Yellow Magic, too many myths have been woven around it, we think.  Thus, we try hard to dissociate Benigno Simeon Cojuanco Aquino III from his mother to give him a chance to shine in his own color.  

We wish him well in leading us in the struggle for that "Daang Matuwid".  It's not a new battle cry,  it's vintage Rizal in another form and context, it also harks back to Ramon Magsaysay, who had as much charisma and magic like his (PNoy's) mother, who called for "morality in government" in his first state of the nation address (SONA) on 25 January 1954.

Here's the pertinent excerpt from The Guy's SONA, an echo that still rings very true today--

"MORALITY IN GOVERNMENT  

"And now let us consider the moral state of the nation. There is little in the immediate past of which we may be proud. Since the change of administration, we have unearthed one case after another of outrageous corruption, abuse of power, and manipulation of the laws for self-enrichment.  The sordid record is just beginning to unfold. I fear that further inquiry will yield even uglier facts.

"What, we have been asked, are we going to do about all this?

"We must, first of all, remove unworthy government officials and employees.   Where the evidence so warrants, we will prosecute those who justly deserve prosecution.   Not only considerations of morale and discipline but also the very progress of our work make this demand upon us.· We shall not be able to move ahead for as long as those entrusted with the promotion of the public welfare are busy exploring and exploiting opportunities for selfish ends. We simply cannot tolerate such men in the government. They must go.

"I wish to make clear that the spirit of justice, not of persecution, will guide us in this undertaking.  The innocent, the honest and the efficient need fear nothing from us.   This Government will protect and defend their rights by enforcing impartially and without political bias our civil service rules and regulations.  In the Executive Department, I will not permit anyone to exact political vengeance on honest and efficient employees by dismissing them without cause or harassing them in any other way.  The victory we have won is not a license for political persecution.

"To guide us in the conduct of public business, we must return to the timeless moral and political principles which we have either forgotten or taken for granted. There is the principle that honesty is the best policy in public as well as in private life. There is the principle that, while politics is indispensable for the workings of democracy, it cannot be superior to the interest of the nation.

"In the effort to secure for ourselves and our children a government of integrity and efficiency, I will welcome whatever legislation may be enacted by Congress that will serve to prevent, deter; and discourage corruption, increase the penalty for malfeasance in office, and lay down definite rules of ethical conduct in government.

"In the last few years there has been a decline of morality.   Character building alone, without a solid moral foundation, has been found inadequate in developing a sound citizenry. We should improve and strengthen the implementation of the Constitutional provision on optional religious instruction through practical and just measures.

"I shall address to the Congress on another occasion  a special message on the problems of students who have proved their right to participate in public affairs, as well as on the need to stimulate and foster the growth of our native culture among our youth. 

"ACTION AND UNITY 

"These, then, are the problems that we are committed to solve. To be sure, many more will arise in the course of this administration. But I sincerely believe that solutions to them will be found, just as I am confident that we· shall be able to dispose of the difficult business at hand.

"I must remind you of an all-important fact: that what we have set out to do can be realized only through concerted action and unity. More than ever, we must think, plan, and work as one, with only one supreme goal in mind-the promotion of the welfare and happiness of our people.

"Perhaps you will say that the people are asking for a miracle. But they too performed no less than a miracle when in one great irresistible movement they dared every peril to preserve the right to have a government of their choice. Thus, they proved to the whole world, to our friends and enemies, that democracy has come of age in our land, that it has become truly and actively a part of the Filipino way of life.

"We have pledged to enrich that life.   We can do it.  We must do it. With the aid of Divine Providence, we shall    begin and continue the work until we shall have fulfilled the great promise that gave our people strength to prove themselves worthy of their heritage of freedom."

P.S. The complete first SONA can be retrieved through the hyperlink in the reference below.The second to the fourth SONAs can also be accessed from the Official Gazette online.

Reference:    

Official Gazette Online. Ramon Magsaysay, First State of the Nation Address, January 25, 1954.  Retrieved from http://www.gov.ph/1954/01/25/ramon-magsaysay-first-state-of-the-nation-address-january-25-1954/

Message to the Filipino People from Emilio Jacinto on the 365th Day of the Benigno Aquino III Government

Flag and doves detail. Bonifacio Memorial Shrine, Manila.

We thought that Epifanio de los Santos's translation of Ang Bayan at ang mga Gobiernong Pinuno and Ang Gumawa from Liwanag at Dilim of Emilio Jacinto would make good reading while we wait for His Excellency President Benigno Aquino III to deliver the State of the Nation Address on the 365th day of his governance.

"Emilio Jacinto gave his people the Cartilla," EDS (1918) wrote, "founded an organ for the defence of the interests of the Katipunan, and, finally, wrote Liwanag at Dilim, in which he embodied, in the form of axioms and sentences, the moral, social, and governing principles by which the Society was to be ruled. And in order that it might be self-supporting, he wrote the Estatutos ... along economical lines."  

Jacinto was, in today's parlance, the chief of staff of supremo Andres Bonifacio.  "They were like brothers," Gregoria de Jesus said of her husband and the younger man.  

"THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENT

"Now, when the aurora of liberty is beginning to appear and the path of true joy is the rule of the common effort until the desired goal is reached, the sons of the people must learn all those things which the subjection to Spain has prevented them from learning.

"It is important that they should know them, because they are like the flower that ripens into a fruit, and are what the wind is to the sail of the caravels that mark and point out the course of the peoples and the governments in order to make them true and permanent.

"When this is not the case, the right path is abandoned and the most beautiful project is but a histrionic exhibition and the most beautiful discourse traitorous suggestion.

"Oh, son of the people! remember the blood thou hast spilled and thy suffering and efforts in order that honor and right, which were downtrodden, might spring to new life. Consider them well, and thou wilt be sorry to have that right taken from thee again because of thy blindness and cowardice.

"Always bear in mind that with a new life come new customs.

"And, who can foretell? Perhaps ignorant and corrupt authorities may govern who will not desire thy welfare, but be lawless exploiters, who will dazzle thy eyes with the splendor of their power and with the attractive eloquence of their words. It is thy duty to be on guard, to sharpen thy intelligence, and to distinguish the good ruler from the bad, in order that thy efforts mav not miscarry.

"The people whom I address is not the local community, but that formed by the inhabitants of the whole earth.

"Nevertheless, in every community and society there is need of a head, of one who has power over the rest for direction and good example, and for the maintenance of unity among members and associates, and who will guide them to the desired goal, just as a vessel that is not guided by a skilful navigator runs the risk of losing its course and suffer dreadful shipwreck in mid-ocean, without hope of ever reaching the shores of the happy land of promise for which it was bound.

"This head is called the government, and he who is called upon to exercise its power, the governor.

"The object of all government is the people, and the security and welfare of the people must be the aim of all its laws and acts.

"For whatever may happen, the government is responsible. And its duties are to guide and lead the people to happiness. If it turns out badly and departs from the right path, it will be because it wanted to do so and because it was misled.

"And if one who sins against another is punished, what will be the punishment of him who sins against a whole people, an infinite multitude of his similars? And if the departure from the right path was due to ignorance on the part of the guide and ruler, why did he not allow, or make, another act as guide who knew the right path? Let us wipe out the habit of thinking that the ruler is the lord of the people and whatever he thinks and does is good. Let us accustom ourselves to thinking and saying that the happiness of all is the only duty of the ruler, in order that he may bear it in mind.

"I believe, and believe firmly, that the prosperity of a people lies with the people itself. A people that knows and esteems right and has as a rule of conduct kindness and dignity in all its acts, will not place itself at the mercy of any tyrant, nor submit to force and fraud, nor become the accomplice of the exalted and abominable prevaricator who rules on the heights of power.

"And as I believe in this, I call it to the attention of the sons of the people, because thus only will that custom be relegated to oblivion and no longer will we have said of us what Baltazar says in the following verses: 'While the perverse and traitors raise their arrogant heads, the good are ashamed and hang their heads.'

'Kaliluha't sama ang ulo'y nagtayo,

at ang kabaita'y kimi't nakayuko.'

"'We have already seen that we are all equal; that the power of the ruler was not given to him by nature, and that as a man he is on the same level as the rest. Hence all power, in order to be reasonable and genuine, must be exercised for the benefit of the people from which it emanated.

"Briefly, we must not recognize the superiority of the ruler as an attribute attached to him by nature. The obedience and respect due him are derived from the power conferred upon him by the people themselves, a power which is the integration of all the powers of the people.

"For this reason, he who obeys the power conferred by the people obeys the people and identifies himself with the will of all the citizens that compose the people, which identification or accord is necessary for the very life of the people.

"This alone will prevent abominable treason, now bankrupt, from again raising her head or posing as the hero or champion of the people and of liberty.

"Otherwise the people will not travel on the right path, and the people and its liberty will be overcome by lying invocations of these three magical names which are always pleasing to the ear.

"It is already an axiom that nobody can look out for a person as well as that person himself.

"And it is incumbent upon the people, if they wish to prevent their being held in contempt and enslaved, to be firm and to unmask and repel the disguised traitor.

"The tranquillity and prosperity of a community or society demand the existence of an intermediary high power, elected by the community, whose purpose It is to insure and insure unity among all the associates, which is the source of strength and vitality.

"From the highest official to the humblest citizen they must obey and comply with the laws that have emanated from this power created by the people and established by its representative, the Congress.

"But, alas! often the just and proper is relegated to the background and the excessive ambition for power, allied with the boundless ambition for gain, struggle to open the way for iniquity.

"The power of those who govern depends upon the love and esteem of the governed, and these are obtained only by a just and prudent conduct.

"Those make a great mistake who believe they can maintain their power by means of force and the gun: they are near-sighted and do not understand the lesson taught by terrible events recorded in History.

"Nobody is as good-hearted as he who is sincere and honest by disposition, yet at the same time nobody abominates like him abuses and violence and abject meekness.

"Those who govern constantly appeal to right and to the gratitude owing by the people. That is what they continually harp upon. But he on whose side is the right is the people, because he who governs owes duties to the people, namely, to work for its prosperity and execute its will. But, how many understand or wish to understand this truth?

"The welfare of the people, and nothing else, is the real reason and object, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, of all the duties of those who govern.

"But this same welfare often disappear and suffers when heartless petulance rises to power; when protection and right surrender to bribery and to servility towards the mighty.

"It is then that criminals reap their harvests and that presumptuous stupidity rises like the foam.

"The time is come for the wicked to change their ways and spontaneously to make reparation for their great errors. They resemble the chameleon that takes the color of the tree to which it clings.

"The most efficient lever against these evils is the education of the people and a change in their customs.

"The laws must therefore be obeyed and respected, as the expression of the popular will, and not the will of those who govern, as they are merely charged with carrying out those same laws.

"The ancient custom of considering the judge as above the law has serious consequences, because law and right are both undermined by it.

"This custom must, therefore, be abandoned and it must be proclaimed that the laws are above all human consideration, because they are the expression of the will of the people, and that if the judges desire to retain their positions, they must necessarily comply with the dictates of justice; otherwise they must be removed.

"The welfare of the people is the sole purpose of all the governments on earth. The people is all: blood and life, wealth and strength, all is of the people. The army raised for the defence of the lives of all is formed by the sons of the people; the wealth of the government comes from the sons of the people; the greatness and strength of the government are due to the loyalty and obedience of the sons of the people, and all that is useful to life, is the product of the industry of the sons of the people who till the fields, breed and keep the cattle, and make the things and utensils necessary for life.

"We have seen that the people, in order to exist and progress, need a head or government whom it is the duty of the people to grant, for its maintenance, subsidies or taxes which must be imposed and invested only with the manifest consent of the taxpayers.

"WORK

"Work is a gift to humanity, because it awakens and gives vigor to intellectual power, will, and body, which are indispensable for progress in life. The sacred writings from which the Christian religion originated, narrate that work is a punishment imposed by God upon Adam, the father of the human race, for having tasted of the forbidden fruit, and this punishment has been inherited by us, his sons. But this legend is erroneous and contrary to the will of God, and from it springs the human error that work, being a punishment, is a corporal affliction looked upon like an unavoidable ailment.

"For this reason many are ashamed to work, principally the wealthy, the powerful, and the learned who make a vain show of that which they style the comforts of life or corporal well-being.

"And they finish in the mire, leading a miserable and abject life that tends to bring about the destruction of the human race.

"Whatever is useful, whatever tends to make life easier, that let us support because it is a result well worthy of our efforts.

"He who toils keeps away from a life of disorderly and bad habits and boredom, finds diversion in labor, and becomes strong, prosperous, and cheerful.

"Contemplating the so-called rich, great, and alleged wise men, we can see through their outward prosperity, social splendor, and happiness, and perceive wearisomeness, weakness, haughtiness, coupled with vicious habits, which are the source of the countless ailments that little by little destroy them.

"How much truth is there in what our Baltazar has sung in his verses 'Those who grow up 'midst the revelries of wealth, are devoid of judgment and kindness and lacking in counsel.'

'Ang laki sa layaw karaniwa'y hubad

sa bait at muni't sa hatol ay salat.'

"God wants us to work, because if we see ourselves surrounded with all we need and swim in abundance, it is the result of our efforts, hence, without doubt, work is neither punishment nor a penalty, but a reward and blessing bestowed by God upon man through the grace of his great love." 

 

Sources:  

Santos Cristobal, Epifanio de los. (1918, June). Emilio Jacinto. The Philippine review (Revista Filipina). 3(6)412-429.  Manila, P.I.  Retrieved at http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acp0898.0003.001

Jesus, Gregoria de. (1930, June).  Autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus.  Leandro H. Fernandez, Tr.  Philippine Magazine.  27(1):16-18,65-68.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acd5869.0027.001