Judicial massacre

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:20 AM November 26, 2016

Since Nov. 23, 2009, the Philippines has had two presidents and is well on its
third one. But the horrific events that forever marked that date in Philippine
history and made for shocked headlines all over the world have yet to find
reckoning.

Elections have always been a bloody business hereabouts, but the worst
election-related violence the Philippines would see was the Maguindanao
Massacre, in which, on that grim day in November, 58 people32 of them
media workerswere killed in one blow. The media workers had joined family
members and election supporters of then Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael
Mangudadatu who were on their way to the capitol to file his certificate of
candidacy.

But they never got there. Mangudadatus candidacy for Maguindanao

governor was a challenge to Andal Ampatuan Jr., whose father had long held
the office; in the best traditions of dynastic politics, the son was running on
the self-entitled premise that the position was his to inherit. But in the face of
a rival political familys challenge, the Ampatuans, one of the most powerful
clans in the region, decidedaccording to later testimonyon a step so
heinous that even now it boggles the imagination.

In a remote strip of road in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman, Ampatuanyes,

the town even bears the name of its overlordsMangudadatus convoy was
ambushed by armed men. Reports say even Ampatuan Jr., then mayor of the
neighboring town of Datu Unsay, took part in the killing spree.

Fifty-eight persons were summarily mowed down, and, in a diabolic coda to

the crime, were dumped en masse in common graves dug up by a hastily
conscripted backhoe operator. Everything in the crime scene, including the
bloodied vehicles of the victims, were scooped up and dumped into the pits,
then covered up.
The perpetrators must have imagined it was a perfect crimeno traces, no
witnesses, the Ampatuans in full control of the place. Except: How in the
devils name can the sudden disappearance of 58 people be explained away
just like that?

When the news finally broke and the victims bodies were exhumed, the
Philippines and the world immediately knew the incident constituted a black
milestone: an act of election-related mass killing unprecedented in its
savagery and cold-blooded planning, and, in particular, the single deadliest
attack against the media, as the Committee to Protect Journalists has called it.

In the days following the sensational news, then President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo was forced to disarm the Ampatuansher staunch political allies who,
according to a separate inquiry into her Hello, Garci cheating scandal in the
2004 polls, were mainly responsible for the rigged numbers she got from their
bailiwick.

Eventually, 197 individuals were haled to court for the massacre, including the
Ampatuan father and son. Not all of them are currently on trial; only 106 so far
are being tried at Branch 221 of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City. One of
the principals, Ampatuan Sr., has since died.

Not one suspect has been charged in the massacre. A number of witnesses
have died under suspicious circumstances, while families of the victims have
been reportedly plied with bribe offers by the Ampatuans to drop the charges.
The youngest Ampatuan under detention, Sajid Islam, was released on bail in
2015. And the familys defense lawyer in 2014, who claimed that the
Ampatuans were merely framed to seize political power, is now President
Dutertes chief legal counsel.

That seven years have gone by and no one has been made accountable for
one of the most barbaric crimes in recent memory is itself a crime. As Fr. Rey
Carvyn Ondap, who officiated at the Mass at the crime site on the seventh
anniversary of the massacre, mournfully put it: This is no longer an
Ampatuan massacre; this is a judicial massacre.
Whom to believe?

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:32 AM November 25, 2016

There is no mistaking the Duterte administrations animus toward Sen. Leila

de Limaa thorn on the Presidents side since 2009, when he was still mayor
of Davao City and she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights. So it
came as no surprise that drug dealer Kerwin Espinosas testimony at the
Senate last Wednesday included dramatic allegations against De Lima. But we
should also be alert to the possibility that the project to get De Lima,
whether as alleged protector of the continuing illegal drugs trade in the
national penitentiary or as alleged recipient of ill-gotten campaign donations
or as alleged immoral woman, has now reached a new turn: It is now also an
entertaining show to distract citizens angry over the Marcos burial.

We say this even though Espinosas testimony, though flawed, nevertheless

raised serious concerns. The question, then, is what is the right balance to
take, to appreciate Espinosas revelations without falling for the bread-and-
circus type of entertainment.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, was
among those who quickly saw through local police rationalizations and called
the killing of Espinosas father Rolando and another inmate in a Leyte jail an
execution. He responded to the younger Espinosas appearance at the Senate,
as the main resource person in the inquiry into the suspicious killings, with an
abundance of caution: Saying he had some doubts as to the veracity of the
testimony of Kerwin, Lacson noted that there were gaps in the drug dealers
disclosures. If I were the investigator, I would try to find out what was really
true. If you would objectively see it, its not really solid as presented by
Kerwin, he said.

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De Lima, as expected, attacked Espinosas statements about her as

fabricated, giving that as her reason for not directly asking him questions at
the hearing: I feel that it would be pointless, useless, futile for me to do so
given a very nice script, at least insofar as the portions of his testimony about
me are concerned. Was this a missed opportunity for the senator, or did she
opt out of the circus?

But the most serious concerns raised by Espinosas testimony actually have to
do with his sweeping accusation against police officials. He said he paid
protection money to everyone from policemen manning checkpoints to the
police officers in charge of Eastern Visayas. Among other names, he said he
paid Chief Supt. Vicente Loot, now retired and a newly elected town mayor,
P120,000 a month, Chief Insp. Leo Laraga P20,000 a week, Supt. Santi Noel
Matira P20,000 a week, and Supt. Marvin Marcos P3 million to fund his wifes
candidacy. All four have vigorously denied the allegations; the latter three
were among those involved in the police raid that ended with the killing of
Espinosas father. (Laraga said it was he who fired the shot that killed Mayor
Espinosa.)

These and other revelations provoked the PNP chief, Director General Roland
Bato dela Rosa, to weep on national television. I do not know now whom to
believe [anymore], he said. I place in God the PNP. I love the organization
There are still many policemen who can be trusted.

As we have argued in this space before, the role of the police in President
Dutertes so-called war on drugs is pivotal. Both the President and Dela Rosa
have admitted on many occasions that some policemen were in collusion with
or were actually part of the illegal drugs trade. Both the President and Dela
Rosa have clearly stated that they fully supported police efforts to stop the
drug trade, even to the extent of killing suspected drug personalities in the
line of duty.

And yet there is no process, there is no clear and nationwide effort, to hold
policemen involved in illegal drugs to account. Is it any wonder that, five
months into the most lethal antidrugs campaign the police has ever
conducted in our history, with well over 4,000 killings reported, Dela Rosa
does not know whom to believe?

Good Fridays

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:10 AM November 27, 2016

That youth is not always wasted on the young was proved in the hours after
the shock burial of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos remains in the Libingan ng
mga Bayani the other Friday, when young people gathered in various areas
nationwide to register indignation at the deed. It continued to be proved
throughout the day and well into the night at the People Power Monument on
Edsa, where they massed and clamored for motorists to honk for justiceand
were thrilled to be duly acknowledged.
In the succeeding days up to Black Friday, students and young professionals
made their presence felt in protest actions intended to relay a clear message
to President Duterte, the Marcos heirs, and nine Supreme Court justices: The
dictators burial in the Libingan is an insult to the nation and to the victims of
martial law. It is unacceptable.

Millennials had been getting a bad rap lately, as a rule thought to be flighty,
self-indulgent, ignorant of history, and insensitive to the suffering of martial
law victims (thus, it is said, the surge of the dictators son and namesake).
Who would have thought theyd rise to the occasion?

Breathtaking was the sight of these allegedly clueless young people leaving
their classrooms, their offices and their hangouts in a spontaneous outpouring
of disgust on Nov. 18. They came out bearing hand-made signs expressing
what they felt and voicing it for good measure, in their trademark cool. Dig out
the dictator: Hukayin! Hukayin! Or: No to Marcos! Yes to Ilocos
empanada! And, the height of twit: I am a temperamental brat!

In her recent Young Blood piece titled On Edsa on a Friday, millennial Cecilia
Ejercito explained how she overcame niggling doubt and joined the protest
action: Who knows when the freedom to make a stand will disappear? Mine
may not have been the strongest voice at that rally. Even on my way there, I
was doubtful about what my contribution could possibly be. But if we leave it
all to the strongest voices, how can a movement be sustained? Sometimes all
it takes is a little push from different people (knowingly or not), to get you
where you need to be Never doubt what influence you can have in driving
one person to take one step, and in effect, driving an entire movement. When
that happens, maybe the bigwigs will be persuaded to do whats right, too.

Black Friday saw this same spirit at Rizal Park in Manila, where the youth held
their own among an estimated 15,000-strong crowd, and never mind the bad
weather. Similar scenes of protests were seen in Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de
Oro, Davao, Iloilo, Los Baos, Legazpi, Quezon City, Tacloban and Zamboanga.
Marcos, Hitler, diktador, tuta! they yelled, reprising their elders chant in the
1970s. Stand with the brave, bury Marcos in another grave, read their
streamer. Also: Hold the Marcoses accountable.

The generation that did not live through martial law is learning its lessons
from its forebears.

I used to be scared, but not anymore. My choice is to fight, cried a UP

student at Rizal Park. That cry was heard by the veterans of Marcos-era street
protests, and it felt like a true passing of the baton between generations.
Activist nun Sr. Mary John Mananzan was moved to wax nostalgic, recalling
what she saw and heard back in the day, and to acknowledge how far the
young people have come. Millennials, she said, you are the hero!At the
Quirino Grandstand, in the gathering dark, the protesters raised their bright
tablets and smartphones to the sky, the pinpricks of light illuminating
everything around them. Indeed, its a new battleground.

But the struggle continues, and wonder of wonders, the young generation is
taking its place at the frontline. These good Fridays are presenting an
unmistakable sign of hope: that the spirit of resistance to injustice is not dead,
and would not fade with the dwindling survivors of martial law.

Held back by SC
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:30 AM November 24, 2016

In several instances, he has never been shy at exercising the clout of his
office: in the thousands of drug-related killings to prove his resolve in tackling
the countrys drug problem; in the sharp rebuke that compelled the Anti-
Money Laundering Commission to reveal the bank deposits of certain
personalities in the news; in the very public condemnation of the United
States to underline his pivot to China and Russia, and just last week, in the
clandestine burial of ousted authoritarian President Marcos in Libingan ng mga
Bayani despite widespread opposition from martial law victims.

So whats stopping President Duterte from similarly going whole hog in his
support of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law that he vowed, in his first State
of the Nation Address, to implement fully?

It took almost 14 years for the law to hurdle various objections from Congress
officials allied with conservative groups and the Catholic Church before it was
finally approved in 2012. Yet the law continues to be held hostage by several
temporary restraining orders, the latest being a TRO on contraceptive
implants that the Supreme Court imposed in July 2015, based on a petitioner
groups claim that they are abortifacient.

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On Monday, former president Fidel V. Ramos asked the high court to

immediately lift the TRO, joining the calls led by the Department of Health, the
Commission on Population (Popcom), several pro-choice advocates, and
former health secretary Esperanza Cabral.

Cabrals group asked the Court to rescind its Aug. 24, 2016 order rejecting the
DOHs previous appeal to lift the TRO that banned the agency from providing
contraceptive implants to the public, and voiding certifications issued by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 77 contraceptive drugs and devices.

While Popcom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III warned against the
rising number of teenage pregnancies that must have been abetted by the
TRO, Cabrals group said the failure to lift it would lead to a shortage of
contraceptives in the market as government-funded supplies were due to
expire in 2018, including P248 million worth of hormonal contraceptivesa
sheer waste of limited resources.

Which only proves, according to Cabrals group, that the end-goal of those
opposing the RH law is to totally remove womens access to contraceptives.
With all FDA decisions favorable to contraceptives likely to be appealed, what
follows is a never-ending process that would keep contraceptives off the
market.

Indeed, Perez added, the ongoing TRO would result in a limited brand or kind
of contraceptives for couples to choose from, in effect depriving them of their
reproductive health and rights.

While it is perfectly legal and valid for health centers to provide implants to
women who request them as long as the contraceptives are not provided by
the DOH, the reality on the ground shows that the implementation of the law
remains spotty and irregular. This, according to a report made public by the
Commission on Human Rights last week.

The report noted that policies issued by local governments often contradict
provisions of the RH Law, and impact negatively on women, like the case in
Sorsogon City where an executive order by Mayor Sally Lee resulted in the
withdrawal of all artificial contraceptives in city and community health
centers. The Manila City government meanwhile continues to bar local
funding for artificial contraceptives, transferring responsibility for this to the
national government and to private entities. Then theres the natural fear
among government employees about defying the law so, erring on the side of
caution, they simply deny RH services to couples asking for them.

The result: additional financial burden to women, and health risks resulting
from too many and too frequent pregnancies. Isnt this an injustice to couples,
especially women, who only want to be responsible parents raising children
they can afford to?
Like Benjamin de Leon, president of Forum for Family Planning and
Development, Inc., one can only urge the SC (justices) (to) broaden their
understanding. They are not scientists (who can determine the dangers of
contraceptives, a job the FDA can do). They are jurists, and as such, they
must determine what is good and just for the majorityin this case, half of the
countrys population.

Deadly pressure

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:15 AM November 22, 2016

Per the latest reports, President Duterte has ordered an investigation

of the allegations of corruption in the Energy Regulatory Commission
made by Francisco Villa Jr., the ERC director who killed himself on Nov. 9 over
supposed pressure to agree to questionable decisions by his colleagues in the
agency. The President has also called on the ERC officials to resign, citing the
reports of systemic corruption he said he had received.

The twin calls for investigation and resignation are laudable. Resignation alone
would not solve anything; a proper inquiry into the actions of the officials
named by Villa in his suicide notes, and the circumstances on the job that led
to his tragic decision to take his own life, would be the productive course to
take.

These would ensure, at the very least, that Villas grim fate would not be in
vain but would lead to some measure of meaning and purpose, especially for
the family he left bewildered and grieving. A suicide is always a devastating
occurrence; it is doubly so in this case, for as his family has attested, Villa was
a dedicated public servant who just wanted to do good in his job, but was
apparently frustrated time and again by the official misconduct that he saw
around him and in which he was also being forced to participate. The loss of a
good man in public service is not only to Villas family, but also to a nation
increasingly bereft of such men.

Villa, 54, was so torn that he contemplated suicide a number of times, and
wrote a series of notes detailing his ordeal, according to his sister, journalist
Charie Villa. Specifically, the notes mentioned that he was under tremendous
pressure to violate his oath of office by approving procurement contracts
without bidding, and hiring consultants as chair of the ERCs bids and awards
committee.

And he named names: My greatest fear in the bids and awards committee is
the AVP by Luis Morelos which the chairman and CEO, Jose Vicente B. Salazar,
chose through a rigged selection system. This will be a criminal act, he wrote.
He was also anxious about the possibility of being called out by official
regulatory bodies:

I have fears about my BAC (bids and awards committee) work Our mistakes
may bring on [Commission on Audit] observations and disallowances. Those
may affect me financially.

Villa, a lawyer who spent 13 years at the ERC and rose through the ranks to
become director, was single, and lived with his sister in their parents home in
Paraaque City. Their father was the late Ombudsman Francisco Villa, whom
Charie credits, along with their mother, for having instilled in them the
conviction to do what is right and to fight for it. Her brother took that lesson
to heart, working 12-hour days and trying to keep himself scrupulously
upright. But when pressured to allow maliit na bagay which ate at the
fabric of what he believed in, he couldnt take the pressure, she said.

Maliit na bagay (small things) is how the corrupt justify the everyday
corruption that happens in public officesthe acts of omission, active
collusion, or looking away that begin in negligible waysand how people in
position would pressure their peers and subordinates to similarly engage in,
saying no one would mind, anyway, and, hey, many others are doing it. In that
manner, the muck eventually implicates everyone, and a conscientious
objector would be compelled to blow the whistle only at his or her own peril.

Apparently, Villa would have none of that corrosive everyday evil, and he took
his own life rather than yield to the pressure. He was an honorable man, and
his death is a tragic bookend to a life honestly lived. But in his courage to
expose the truthand if the Duterte administration does seize the opportunity
for ithis sacrifice may well trigger the much-needed cleansing in the office to
which he was devoted.

Duterte in Peru

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 03:12 AM November 23, 2016

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte attends a meeting between business

leaders and heads of states of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC,
during their annual forum in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016. (AP
Photo/Martin Mejia)

President Duterte said he found his first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
Leaders Summit to be a productive one and very informative. He was
seen studying the briefing papers intently, and indeed he himself said he did a
lot of reading at the annual conference, held this year in Lima, the capital of
Peru. His choice of the topic which impressed him the most comes as a
pleasant surprise to those who heard him say, initially, that he would not
honor the Paris Agreement on climate change. Mitigation strategies as a
response to global warming, he said, was the issue that struck him the most.

This is good news, because the Philippines remains one of the countries most
vulnerable to the undeniable effects of climate change: We experience
stronger typhoons, for instance, because the Pacific Ocean, where these
storms start, has seen a rise in surface temperatures; a warmer ocean breeds
more powerful storms.

The President noted that Russia, China and Vietnam were the most eager
countries to invite [delegations of observers]. They are ready to share new
technologies on mitigation.

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Mr. Duterte also held bilateral meetings with the two world leaders he seems
to hold in the highest regard: Chinas Xi Jinping, whom he described as
wearing a wide smile during their talk; and Russias Vladimir Putin, who he
said invited him to visit Moscow and who repeated his invitation at least three
times. You know we have become fast friends, he said of the two leaders.

The meeting with Xi cements the understanding on the mutual use of Panatag
Shoal reached during President Dutertes state visit to Beijing; the one with
Russia opens the door for the sale of Philippine agricultural produce.

But a summit of leaders like the annual Apec rite is primarily a tightly
choreographed exercise in geopolitical theater. Unfortunately for the
President, he skipped the traditional gala dinner, where the leaders can do
some real networking among themselves, and he skipped the traditional
picture-taking session, where the leaders seek to celebrate unity in diversity
and also to honor the years host. Even though he sent Foreign Secretary
Perfecto Yasay to represent him, the effect of his absence was jarring.
(Traditionally, leaders skip parts of an Apec conference when there is a natural
calamity or a political crisis back home.)

Ex-president Fidel Ramos, who hosted the Apec summit during his presidency
and who called a press conference on Monday to express his disappointment,
did not sugarcoat his criticism of President Dutertes absence at the two Apec
events.

As a President, it is his duty to be there at all times even though he does not
feel well, he said in a mix of English and Filipino. So what if the President is
not feeling well? If he has a headache, theres a doctor accompanying the
delegation always. Theres also a doctor in Lima.

Ramos in particular scored Duterte, whom he had encouraged to run for the
presidency, for missing the traditional group photo. That is not enough to
prevent you from having even just a group photo with the leaders. Never mind
the dinner, just have the soup, but at the group photo, where is the
Philippines? Nowhere. As President you should be in the forefront and look as
big as these guys. With 101.5 million people, youll just hide in the back?

There is a reason why leaders continue to take part in elaborate rituals like the
Apec conference; they can meet fellow leaders face to face, take their
measure, project their countrys presence onto the world stage. Its a pity that,
aside from Xi and Putin, the champions of the Presidents projected new world
order, there was no one else he seemed to be interested in. Surely the
countrys highest interests require a broader view, a more disciplined
approach.