Political Dynasty

It all started with an email from an old friend urging:

Send this to all Filipinos you know. Save our country.

THE EVIL OF DYNASTIES
"Virtual Reality" column of Tony Lopez
Tue, June 12, 2007 Issue of The Manila Times

Just how bad dynasties are to the economy and the country can be gleaned from the amount of taxpayers' money these people have access to. Take the Senate. There will be siblings - Pia and Alan Cayetano.

In addition,Alan's wife, Laarni, took his old congressional seat from Taguig. There will probably be a father-and-son senator - Nene Pimentel and Koko Pimentel.

The No.2 most popular senator, Chiz Escudero, has his father, Sonny, as congressman from Sorsogon, his son's old turf. Ed Angara is senator; his son and namesake is a congressman.

A senator draws P200 million in pork barrel; a congressman, P70 million. Therefore, Pia, Alan and Laarni will rake in P470 million a year, or P1.4 billion in three years. Nene and Koko will have P400 million between themselves yearly, or P1.3 billion in three years. Chiz and Sonny will enjoy P270 million per year, or P810 million in three years, just like the Angara father-and-son tandem.

How much does the average poor make a day? A third of the 85 million population, or 25.5 million of the people of this country make less than $1 a day, or P365 (or P17,155) a year.

According to Ping Lacson, the P200-million pork barrel of a senator is just a starting figure. If a senator sponsors a Cabinet department during the budget hearings and sessions, he/she is given access to P350 million in the line budget of that department. So P200 million plus P350 million, that's P550 million.

What do the Filipino people get in return for electing these people? Very little, if any.

In the last 100 years since Filipinos began electing their
representatives, the Philippines dege-nerated from being the No. 1 economy, trading and commercial power in Asia to No. 73 least compe-titive country in the world. Today,the Philippines is less free than it was a century ago. Did you know that the Philippines used to be Asia's industrial power?

As late as the 19th century, the Philippines was already one of
Asia's premier industrialized countries and was the center of culture and education. The country was producing iron-ore sheets, refined iron ore, liquor from molasses using then unheard-of boilers, fine textiles for export, and was using steam engines and steamships. It established the first bank in Asia, made the first typhoon forecast in Asia, and set up the
first European-style universities in Asia.

Manila had a street car system, just like San Francisco; and had a ferrocarril line from the city to Dagupan in the north and from Manila to Batangas and Bicol in the south. By 1895, Manila had an electric light system. The first conglo-merate were established by Filipino tycoons. What happened after that?

During the last 100 years, Japan became a military power and the world's No. 2 economic power next to the United States.

During the last 50 years, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and
Singapore became economic miracles. Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore became nation states (they used to be unknown islands while Filipinos were already conducting diplomatic relations with Europe and China). In fact, at one time, the Sultan of Sulu was a frequent visitor in China because he
liked it there. He stayed there for three months, but died of syphilis. The Chinese erected a monument in his honor.

In the last 30 years, the Philippines became the slowest growing
economy per capita in Asia, bar none. During that time, Congress produced 15,000 laws and law schools 30,000 lawyers, half of whom are active. So two lawyers for every one law. Yet, the Philippines has a very poor human rights and economic rights record.

We got our priorities wrong. We gave the people the power to vote even before the people and those they elect learned how to govern properly, or at the very least, prepare or educate themselves to have a modicum of competency and honesty.

These days, people kill people just to be able to serve the people.

People bribe people just to be able to serve the people. That is the meaning of a heated electoral contest. And of fraudulent elections.

Should our politicians be blamed for the nadir we have fallen into? I will say No if those families mentioned in the first part of this column will return their pork barrel and declare, "from now on, I will truly serve the people." C'mon, give the money to the 12-million school-age children who are out of school because of extreme poverty. You don't deserve so much money.

You didn't earn it.

My response:

In sending this to all Filipinos you know to save our country, please add my comments below:

“What do the Filipino people get in return for electing these people (dynasties)? Very little, if any” declares the "Virtual Reality" column of Tony Lopez. He starts by enumerating the current crop of families controlling the Philippine government and laments the decline from a century ago as number one economy (untrue – Japan was numero uno) to today’s sick man of Asia status.

All men are created equal? Nature favors biodiversity, not similarity (triplets are rare, one every 240 mega births; Malaysia even brags that they celebrate differences), so we should expect some individuals to be better than others, and some dumber. Those that excel become the elite. Tough, but empirical truth.

Since the time of Aristotle who gave the classical definition of oligarchy, it is government by a few, usually the rich, for their own advantage. It is compared with both aristocracy, which is defined as government by a few chosen for their virtue and ruling for the general good, and various forms of democracy, or rule by the people. The major distinction between oligarchy and democracy is that in the latter, the elites compete with each other, gaining power by winning public support. A dynasty is an oligarchy of a prominent and powerful family.

The formation of oligarchies within the various forms of democracy is the outcome of organic necessity, according to sociologist Robert Michels who first developed the theory of the Iron Law of Oligarchy. If laws are passed to control the dominion of the leaders, it is the laws which gradually weaken, and not the leaders.

Oligarchies can often become instruments of transformation, by insisting that monarchs or dictators share power. We can patiently wait for the inevitable change to happen (hoping for the change to be for the better) or leave the change to the next cycle of mass extinction to make a new start.

Reveling and nostalgia over past glories is unproductive. I know, I know, we cannot plan for the future without considering past history. There is a famous George Santayana quote: “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The quote is often mangled, only the second part mentioned, and the wording varies greatly. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that everyone seems to completely misinterpret Santayana’s warning and advice, to ends which are completely opposite from the original meaning.

The Philippines is young, emerging to join the independent and free societies barely a hundred years ago, after domination by Spain for four centuries. Yet even in those four hundred years, world history records narrate, most nations are ruled by hegemonies, family dynasties that inherit power from ancestors until conquered by another forceful leader who eventually establishes his own dynasty (Genghis, for example) and the cycle repeats (Hitler is an unusual exception – he did not live long enough).

It is also on record that the so-called free democratic societies a leader or group soon emerges that become the dominant force and ruler. In the Pinoy context, this is exemplified by a former Senate President’s railroading bluster, “What are we in power for?”

“During the last 50 years, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore became economic miracles.” Yes, but they did not carry the baggage of Pinoy: pride of being an Asian leading nation. Those cub Tigers had no other way except succeed or perish; we literally took the road to hell led by Filipinos.

“In the last 30 years … Congress produced 15,000 laws and law schools 30,000 lawyers, half of whom are active. So two lawyers for every one law. Yet, the Philippines has a very poor human rights and economic rights record.” (In American slang about screwing a light bulb, it takes two lawyers to do it). These poor individuals strived to become lawyers believing this is the avenue to political power. About a quarter of candidates pass the bar, the failures become law court clerks that specialize in collecting special fees “for the boys”.

But Lopez absolves the politicians for the present mess blaming instead the electorate for making injudicious choices. In conclusion, Mr Lopez proposes doling the pork money to the poor, a step that helps insure the mendicant mindset of that class in our society whom Dr. Jose Rizal tagged as indolent. And the dole-out process is called political patronage, a tool of dynasties.

Desperate Patients

Filipino-Americans are up in arms against a popular soap opera over the racist quote of the character of Susan Mayer (played by Teri Hatcher) in the hit series in the U.S. “Desperate Housewives”. In the premiere episode of its fourth season, Mayer asked for the credentials of the gynecologist who examined her and told her that she was approaching menopause. She said, “Can I check those diplomas ‘coz I just want to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.” The episode posted on YouTube.com drew criticisms from the Filipino community on the Internet. Angry Filipino-Americans said they have written the show’s producer objecting to the “racist slur and demanding an apology.

Do American sitcoms shoot scenes extemporaneously and are script less ala Pinoy style? More likely the script dialogue was deliberate and specific. I strongly smell something fishy as the timing coincides with Congressional deliberations on the cheaper medicines legislation. The seedy reputation of Big Pharma raises suspicions, coming in the wake of the recent controversy between the Department of Health (DOH) and the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) on breastfeeding, and their atrocious pricing policy.

One of the oligarchs of America alongside the Military and the Federal Government is Big Pharma, a component of Big Business. Holding a vital function in Big Pharma is the propaganda machine called Public Relations or PR with the primary mission to furbish the company image. Common PR practices are the (1) Astroturf referring to grassroots citizen groups funded by corporations or public relations firms, (2) Corporate sponsored front groups created or used by PR firms to appear as "independent" third parties, and (3) third party technique which has been defined by one PR executive as, "put your words in someone else's mouth.”, putting their words in the mouths of journalists by hiring reporters to write stories which favor their clients, or by funding tendentious university research which they then publicize as "proof" of their client's position.

The third method was apparently chosen with studied precision - a highly popular sitcom for maximum effect and a likeable spokesperson, Teri Hatcher, who exuded lingering heroine features from her previous role as Lois Lane of Superman fame. The allusion to mistrust of Philippine medical facilities is deserved following the hubbub of the Nursing exam leak and cheating abetted by the mishandling of the licensure by the Professional Regulatory Commission. And to top it all, the PR spin shows arrogant contempt for a corrupt regime. Funded with a bruited war chest of $1 billion, placing pejorative words in Hatcher’s mouth is no big deal

The Hatcher episode is just the first salvo of Big Pharma aiming to sink the cheaper medicine vehicle. The PR spin is expected to intensify and will not remain clean and mild, the stakes being extremely high.

Update

Others view the “DH” incident from an acute angle, that it's good to find an issue around which Fil-Americans and Filipinos could get over their differences and finally unite (fractious Pinoys naturally disagree), but also pokes fun at onion-skin Pinoy sensitivity citing the sardonic racist humor of the soap has spattered other minority groups: taunted Latinos (larcenous, randy and hypocritically Catholic), African-Americans (criminal-minded), and Chinese (ignorant but grasping). Another says the producers are elated by the goaded attention, deserved or not, to boost waning interest. Racist brickbats have not been one sided.

Wasp Jokes

After successive waves of ethnic jokes it was inevitable that the harassed minorities would retaliate. A clever and anonymous cartel of these groups pooled its creative talents to produce the last word in ethnic humor: WASP jokes. Like its irreverent forebears, the WASP joke (the acronym signifies “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) pokes fun at the peculiarities ─ real and imagined ─ that characterize the WASP. These would include the innate predilection toward big business:

Q ─ What do you call six WASPs sitting around a conference table?

A ─ Price fixing.

Q ─ What is the WASP version of the Holy Trinity?

A ─ General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. (Note: Pinoy version is Caltex, Petron and Shell)

Q ─ What do you get when you cross a WASP with a chimpanzee?

A ─ A three-feet-high blond company president.

Q ─ (On his reading habits): How do you keep a WASP uninformed?

A ─ Hide his copy of Reader’s Digest

Q ─ How do you keep him misinformed?

A ─ Find it for him.

Q ─ How do you tell a WASP at a nude party?

A ─ He’s the one reading The Wall Street Journal

Q ─ (On his politics): What does a WASP consider the chief injustice in the world?

A ─ (Chief Justice) Earl Warren.

Q ─ Name a WASP war hero.

A ─ General Franco.

Q ─ What is the WASPs favorite tree?

A ─ Birch.

Q ─ Why do WASPs fear sunburn?

A ─ Better dead than red.

His putative narrow-mindedness is a rich vein:

Q ─ What do you call 144 WASPs?

A ─ Gross bigotry.

Q ─ What do you call a WASP in Alabama with a Jewish name?

A ─ Lonely

Q ─ Why do WASPs prefer to belong to private country clubs?

A ─ It’s their final solution to the Jewish Problem.

And his lack of love for his Negro brethren is a veritable mother lode:

Q ─ What do you call a WASP with a Negro roommate?

A ─ A jailbird.

Q ─ What is the WASP version of black power?

A ─ 50 Negroes pulling a barge up the Mississippi.

Q ─ Name the two Negroes whom WASPs most admire.

A ─ Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.

Q ─ What is an Alabama WASP’s version of The Late Show?

A ─ A jury taking more than five minutes to find a Negro guilty.

Q ─ What do you call a WASP who has a Negro for dinner?

A ─ A cannibal.

Q ─ What’s a WASP dove in Alabama?

A ─ Someone who calls for a halt to the bombing of Negro churches.

Q ─ What do you call a Mississippi WASP who participates in a lynching?

A ─ A social climber.

The WASP’s physical frailty is also fair game:

Q ─ How many WASPs does it take to convict a Southern Negro of simple assault?

A ─ 24: 12 to beat him up and another 12 to find him guilty.

Q ─ What do you call a WASP prize fighter?

A ─ Lousy.

So is his religion:

Q ─ How can you tell a WASP prostitute?

A ─ There’s a Bible next to her bed.

Q ─ What do you call it when a prostitute services a WASP client?

A ─ The naked and the dead.

Q ─ What happens when a WASP couple get to know each other well?

A ─ Divorce.

Racial Bias

Why are some individuals not prejudiced? Two University professors conducted a study to investigate how some individuals are able to avoid prejudicial biases despite the pervasive human tendency to favor one's own group. What is remarkable about the findings is that only seven percent did not show any racial bias (as measured by implicit and explicit psychological tests), and that nonbiased individuals differed from biased individuals in a psychologically fundamental way -- they were less likely to form negative affective associations in general.

The authors argue that although negative affect cannot be reduced by reason alone, it could be reconditioned through positive interpersonal experiences or exposure to more positive images of ethnics in the media.

Gun Control

Rewrites of Jottings: Gun Control

Ferdinand Marcos and Martial Law are perceived by many as evil, but even the detractors must admit that not all decrees of the authoritarian regime were bad. Quite a few were actually beneficial. One of this is gun control.

Today, there are two camps with opposing views on gun control. There are the PRO-GUN (acronym for Peaceful, Responsible Owners of Guns) advocates who are fascinated by guns and who support liberalized possession of firearms, not just to own (which restricts guns to the confines of the home), but also to carry (concealed in one’s person. The main justification for ownership is self-protection and secondarily for hunting and target shooting. Gun collecting hobby is rare, indulged by a few rabid fanciers.

Opposing the PRO-GUN camp is the “Gunless Society Movement” that campaigns for a gun less society. The group claims their goal is not total elimination of firearms in our communities, but merely urges enactment of a law that strictly restricts to regular police and military personnel, in uniform and in line of duty, the reason and permission to carry firearms in public places.

A favorite argument of gun lovers is that guns do not kill, people do. The weakness in this proposition dwells in the fact that unarmed people hardly kill, merely maim. It is the man-with-gun combine that creates the mortal factor. Removing the gun from the combination enhances chances for survival. A gun settles a disagreement before words can work, usually with irreversible finality – no appeal, no reconsideration. This lesson is tragically illustrated in the Eldon Maguan and Arnie Twadles shootings, and in the deaths of lawmen who engaged in duels to conclude their heated discussion.

Without a gun, a person in an altercation uses less lethal weapons within reach , knives, clubs, fists, or can run away to fight another day. He may even use his wits to persuade rather than antagonize.

The plan of City Elders to provide Barangay Chairmen with firearms to help contain criminality in the city can only add to the increasingly difficult burden of this official. A gun holds little promise in this objective. Instead, a gun, being an instrument of violence, will surely cause more violence.

This possibility is not so remote. The City Council just recently adjudged two disputes involving Barangay Chairmen, and both incidents were complicated by alleged threats with a gun. That no fatalities resulted in the altercations are purely lucky happenstance.

Will a gun deter a crime? To get some answers, ask the bank security guards who survived the superior firepower of bank robbers that killed their fellow guards who resisted and fought back. Or, ask the lucky chauffeurs who wisely offered no resistance to the dozen armed men riding several cars that pounced on their and boss’s car to capyure the target for ransom.

It is difficult to imagine a gun preventing fraud or a snatching, and settling domestic quarrels or halting pollution by firms is best handled with the gift of gab. Rape is abetted, not prevented, by a gun. Traffic violations? – the deed is done—a gun might just invite a challenge to a duel, potentially adding more ticks to crime statistics.

Do kids have access to their parents’ guns? A senator believes so and is filing legislation to curb negligence. Imagine the dilemma of an adult faced with a child brandishing a gun (that could be a realistic toy but could be real) in boastful frolic and then pointing the gun at people. How will the adult respond --- grab the gun and maul the child? What if the trigger is pulled and a real bullet emerges after the explosion?

This cannot be dismissed as an unlikely scenario. Two actual homicides reported were perpetrated by kids below their teens, two accidents that would not have happened had there been two less guns in circulation. The guns acquired to protect the family caused the family’s devastation.

Personally, my past membership in our college rifle and pistol team served as a sobering influence regarding firearms. Participation in team competitions further deepened my awe for the power of those devices. By the time I took my oath as an “officer and gentleman” in the AFP, my respect for firearms was unshakable and these dictums deeply engrained:

“Never, never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot”;

“In jest, guns are deadly”;

“Don’t shoot in anger, it spoils your aim.” Lord Acton’s “power corrupts” statement may well have undertones that apply to ordinary people. When a tiny bit of authority is vested on a puny person, there seems to be a subtle change in personality, casting an aura of superiority and an air of arrogance that makes him or her nine feet tall. A gun certainly bestows coercive power and the “giant complex”. But many people do how to handle this ogre in themselves, the urge that would gun down a helpless Hultman teenager.

A top police officer recently cited their crime statistics, a tool normally used as an aid in strategic plans and deployment of resources, in self-defense against criticisms. This official who obviously suffers from foot-in-mouth syndrome declared that the police force needs more firepower (which raises the probability of civilians being in harms way) but seemed to lack the vision to see sophisticated needs such as forensic medicine facilities, high tech detection and database info systems or even simple computers.

If Barangay Chairmen are now issued guns, this would be highly unfortunate and should be reconsidered. It is not right to construe a gun as a badge of authority; esteem for the person and respect for the position is presumed upon election to office. No accouterment can enhance the level of esteem.

The reasonable course to take in crime prevention is to provide the agency mandated to perform this function, the police, with ample support for them to do their job: more mobility, manpower, money, motivation. management and means of communication. Thus, they can strive to earn the respect, confidence and trust of the public.

Rewrite of Jottings: Gun Control 2

December 23, 1998 Mindanao Post

When I wrote the piece about firearms awhile back, I cited a few dictums, some seemingly jocular but all in dead earnest on handling the deadly device known as a hand gun. Fatalities by lethal gunshot have since been reported involving firearms with a license to carry.

Explicitly to carry but implicitly to slay, because guns are made for that very purpose. Target shooting is just an off-shoot (no pun) and pretext for possession.

Metro Manila where ferocious people live and where lack of discipline is rampant, was recently hit with a spate of shooting incidents. Picking four of these events grimly illustrates the high costs of breaching the tenets.

Case #1 – Following an argument over parking space in a cemetery, a young mother is shot dead, her son and nephew injured. Gun wielder disclaims intent to harm. Breached: never, never, never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot. Lesson – the pistol might be loaded.

Case #2 – Policeman shot in mouth by fellow policeman irked by teasing of victim. Dictum: Don’t shoot in anger, it spoils your aim. Lesson – the act speaks for itself.

Case #3 – Bar owner buying a “hot” pistol from a police officer points gun at his waiter (cadging a cigarette) on the mouth to mimic a cigarette. Gun goes off, killing the waiter. Violated: never point a gun unless you intend to shoot, and, in jest guns are deadly. Lesson – buying a gun from a policeman brings trouble. Better yet, don’t buy one.

Case #4 – Birthday celebrant killed by a gun which he and is brother-in-law were playfully fighting for possession. Breached: in jest guns are deadly. Lesson – gun owners should shun B-day whoopee.

Mega Guns

According to a gun fancier, there are 609,000 licensed firearms owners. Of these 45,000 have permits to carry. These figures presumably do not include guns issued to law enforcers: police, NBI, Land Transportation, Coast Guard, jail guards and security agencies. Summing up all legally held guns, an estimate of one million would be close. Add to these the guns slipped out of barracks occasionally by the military and you have an idea of the risks the public is exposed to. No wonder then why so many civilians are shot – jostlers, bystanders, usizeros, LTO fixers, children, not to mention the casualties during Christmas and NewYear when revelers shot a bullet into the airand fell to earth we know not where.

Screening Applicants

A major flaw of the gun-permit system is its discretionary characteristics. Despite prescription of rigid guidelines and supplemental techniques such as a psychiatry test and firing-range practice, all depend on human judgment with its inherent errors, thus making the screening process selectively reliable.

Psychiatry tests presumably probe for homicidal tendencies of an applicant but may not pinpoint accurately a prime cause of shooting incidents – the spontaneous outburst of anger that pulls the trigger. The driving force behind hostility is a cynical mistrust of others. A person who expects others to mistreat him will seldom be disappointed. This generates anger that leads to an aggressive response. The first clue to hostile behavior in a situation an be gleaned from the answer to a question, “what is your purpose in doing this?” If it is to punish the other person for what he has done, then you are prone to episodes of anger. But psychotherapists know that people conceal unpleasant thoughts about themselves. Lying is a common human trait, even Presidents have been known to lie.

In one criminal trial in the U.S. a doctor testified that the defendant was an incorrigible sociopath and would go ahead and commit similar or the same criminal acts if given the opportunity. The doctor explained that his training as a psychiatrist enabled him to reach this conclusion from a 90 minute interview with the defendant.

The American Psychiatric Association protested and in a legal brief argued tha such a testimony “gives the appearance of being based on expert medical judgment when in fact no such expertise exists.” The statement had a strong foundation.

Virtually every research study before then has shown that when it comes to long term predictions about dangerous behavior psychiatrists are wrong more often than they are right. Personality tests cannot even detect whether a person has been violent in the past, let alone predict the future. And here we are asking psychiatrists to use an imprecise science to make absolute moral judgment.

Practice firing as training of an applicant takes time and is costly. Although it can arguably improve aiming proficiency, it also can boost egos, trigger the Rambo complex and enhance his maiming ability. Yet the shooting sessions may not help his emotional stability, nervousness and tension in a confrontation.

Gun-related violence in the U.S. has reached a point where even schoolchildren are shooting schoolmates, prompting authorities to tighten gun purchases. But buying a gun there is prohibited to only two types of buyer: those with a history of violent behavior or those with money problems. The prospective buyer’s dossier is checked from police files linked nationwide.

Screening with the aid of a polygraph (lie detector) test could substitute for the psychiatry phase, but this technique has validity as low as 64% according to critical scientists and besides has a fatal weakness. Because it is based on a predetermined set of questions (the standard format known as the Control Format Test) it can be leaked much like the PRC exams for professionals and thus creating a public danger by awarding a license (perhaps to kill).

Self-Protection Rationale

A favorite rationale for gun ownership is self-protection because of police invisibility. In reality, the reasoning is full of kinks. A foe with intent to kill will surely use treachery and superior numbers or firepower to assure success. Against a similarly armed stranger, the guns could incite violence stimulated by braggadocio. But the most telling of all is the significant number of unarmed victims shot, mocking the self-protection theory.

Just recently, newspapers and cable TV networks reported the story on the Capitol shooting in Washington D.C. where two veteran policemen were killed by a man with a .38. “One was shot when the man tried to evade a metal detector. After hearing the gunfire, the other confronted the man, told him to drop the gun but was killed. He shot the man as he went down. Two cops with 36 years combined experience men with firing-range refresher courses thoroughly familiar with guns, trained to be cool and deliberate and vigilant – if these men can’t preempt the bad guy, preferably without being killed or wounded themselves, who can? So much for self-protection.

Protecting one’s home from intruders is not too difficult. But aside from the passive locks and metal grilles, the aggressive methods pose problems of cost and legality. Take for instance the installation of booby traps around the house. These untended contraptions are highly effective slayers, proven in the Vietnam war in the ‘60s and the Samar jungles of the Fil-American conflict. But the major drawback is its inability to distinguish between a kid trespassing innocently from a hard-core burglar breaking in or from a household member. There is also the knotty question of premeditation in case the intruder dies.

A gun at home is just as lethal if the owner is careless in its custody.

A surefire, absolutely effective means to control guns is by reducing the number of permits to carry, preferably from the present 45,000 to zero. If Japan, Canada, Australia and U.K. can do it, why can’t we?

Rewrite of Jottings: Gun Control 3

Packaged with the right to bear (fire) arms is the inevitable risk of shooting one’s self in the foot. I say again what I stated earlier in an article published in 2003 reproduced below.

A Deluge of Guns

22 Oct 2003 Mindanao Post

The President, in her State of the Nation Address last year, vowed to crack down on crime as part her administration’s efforts to build a "strong republic." She said crime was undermining the country’s economic recovery efforts and eventually threatening national security.

In January, upon orders from President Arroyo, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane stopped issuing permits that allowed licensed gun holders to carry their weapons outside their homes in an effort to curb crime. About 30,000 permits of licensed gun holders were likewise canceled, drawing protests from gun owners.

Amazingly, Director General Hermogenes Ebdane has now allowed about 42,000 barangay chairmen nationwide to carry firearms in a bid to help curb crime but on condition that the firearms be only handguns no larger than a 9-mm. or caliber .38.

Although barangay leaders would be given permits to carry guns outside their homes, Ebdane said they would be barred from bringing guns to videoke bars and other nightspots where fights are likely to occur. Barangay kagawads ( legislators) and tanods (security men) cannot carry firearms.

Whatever happened to the policy proposal that strictly restrict to regular police and military personnel, in uniform and in line of duty the reason and permission to carry arms in public places? In early 1997, Cagayan de Oro city councilors also contemplated issuing Barangay Chairmen with firearms due to, you guessed it, rising crime. (Maybe the Kapitans were issued the guns on the hush-hush but no notable reduction of crimes was sensed.) I wrote a dissenting opinion at the time and I repeat here what I said then.

A favorite argument of those infatuated with firearms is that guns do not kill, people do. The weakness in this proposition is that unarmed people hardly kill, merely maim. A gun settles a disagreement before words can work, usually with irreversible finality — as tragically illustrated in the Eldon Maguan and Ernie Tuadles shootings, and the deaths of lawmen who engaged in duels to settle their heated argument.

Without a gun, a person uses less lethal weapons such as fists, clubs, knives, or run away to fight another day. He may even use his wits to persuade rather than antagonize. Will a gun deter a crime? Bank security guards who survived the superior firepower of bank robbers that slew fellow guards who resisted and fought back can best answer the question. It is difficult to imagine a gun preventing a fraud or deterring the furtive snatch thief, and settling domestic quarrels or halting pollution by firms are best handled with the gift of gab. Traffic violations? The deed is done. A gun would just provoke a goading challenge or a duel by another gun toter. The CDO City Council at that time had to adjudge two disputes involving Barangay Chairmen in cases involving threats with a gun.

I was a member of our college rifle and pistol team, and one of my cherished mementos is a champion’s plaque that I won. This experience served as a sobering influence regarding firearms. Team competitions further deepened my awe for the power of the devices. By the time I took my oath as an “officer and a gentleman” in the AFP my respect for firearms was unshakable and these dictums deeply ingrained:

Never, never, never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to shoot.

In jest, guns are deadly.

Don’t shoot in anger— it spoils your aim.

Lord Acton’s ‘power corrupts’ statement may well have undertones that apply to ordinary people. Give a puny person a tiny bit of authority and his personality changes with a feeling of superiority and self-importance. A gun provides that feeling.

Let’s hope our Kapitans are not puny.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. --George Bernard Shaw

Update

The good news in October 2007, the Philippine National Police (PNP) will no longer apply for gun ban exemption from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in an effort to prevent unscrupulous policemen from acting as bodyguards of politicians. PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. said policemen can carry their firearms outside their stations and houses even without gun ban exemption provided that they are wearing complete police uniform. Interior Secretary RonaldoPuno reminded all policemen that they would also be arrested for carrying guns if they are not in proper uniform.

The bad news is a road rage report in an editorial – “Two lives lost and another destroyed — that’s too steep a price for road rage. But given the utter lack of road courtesy in this country, such incidents are no longer surprising. Advocates of a gun-less society will point out that the tragedy would not have happened if Hernandez did not have a pistol in his possession at the time of the accident. Because of rampant lawlessness, however, many Filipinos are unlikely to give up their guns.

The best way to discourage the use of guns for offensive purposes is by showing the public that incidents such as the one in Pasig do not go unpunished. Based on police accounts, Hernandez was within his right to defend himself from what appeared to have been a violent assault. But he went overboard, shooting to kill rather than scare or disable, and not just one but two people. Did he have a permit to carry a gun outside his home?"

A gun settles a disagreement before words can work, usually with irreversible finality – no appeal, no reconsideration.

Education Matters & Blazing News

Rewrites of Jottings: Education Matters & Blazing News

March 3, 1999

In early 1995a leading Manila daily carried a news item about the planned phase-out of Nursing in state colleges. The reason given by the chief of the newly created Commission of Higher Education (CHED) why she was recommending the phase-out was due to the fact that nursing graduates will only leave the country; only the foreign institutions who hire these emigrant nurses benefit from their schooling. So, she asks, why should Philippine government schools spend for these people whose jobs benefit only foreign countries? This logic comes from a person with a doctorate in something or other.

Later, sometime in 1998, Xavier University President Samson in a speech to the XU-PTA addressed campus concerns and mentioned among other things the closure of the Nursing School of Xavier. He said a steadily declining enrolment forced the closure of the school.

Now, there are indications of a shortage of nurses in the country. Both private and government hospitals have been losing experienced and competent nurses. They have accepted jobs in an English speaking country named England. And this country is eager for more of such English-speaking experienced nurses.

Nurses employed abroad benefit our country in two ways: the foreign currency remitted by the emigrants and the job openings they created by emigrating. This logic of course runs counter to a doctorate’s way of thinking.

In the PTA speech, Fr. Samson also expressed regrets about having to reluctantly impose tuition fee increases, knowing that these will further burden family budgets. Yet, in the afternoon 0f 17 February 1999 a rally of X.U. students demonstrated against a perceived tuition fee increase. Witnesses said that the rally was peaceful and orderly until some frat brats spoiled the message.

As a parent of teeners attending college, I sympathize with the predicament of schools, but also share the misery of parents in the tuition fee controversy. For I am painfully aware that matters of education and the academe have been forced into the mainstream of economic realities. Inflation attacks both the family budget and the school budget. But I also realize that schools that do not maintain and upgrade facilities or pay tutors attractive salaries will degrade and so will their ability to educate.

When the Magna Carta for Students bill first emerged in the news I explained to my children that studying in college is a matter of choice, just like a customer shopping for the best quality goods and constrained only by the limits of budget. The lesson: if one desires quality education, be ready to pay the price. And to drive home this point, I rebuked their elation when a class is cancelled, whatever the reason --- absent teacher, transport strike, someone’s birthday, or whatever --- they, the students, are the losers. They paid for that cancelled session but were deprived of the learning opportunity.

More than once I emphasized to them the ultimate goal of education: the acquisition of knowledge and ability to reason that will help them to be an independent, law-abiding and productive member of society, and that learning must continue for the rest of their life to keep in stride with progress in an ever changing world.

Finally, I cautioned them about too much reliance on a diploma, a piece of paper they paid for with real diligence but which can also be bought instantly from specialists in a Manila main street, complete with transcripts of records and even a thesis.

Indeed there are suspicions that some graduate students submit masteral theses they purchased at a price up to P50,000 depending on the subject. CHED deplores the practice, saying that the act falls under fraud and falsification of public documents, a crime punishable by 6 to 12 years imprisonment. But amnesty will be granted to students who snitch in court on the enterprising professor who wrote and sold the thesis. It went on to say that Congress will be asked to review the penalty for this crime, an implied threat that might end up being a heinous crime, considering the prevailing bloodlust.

And so, a caveat: beware of the diploma framed on the wall whenever consulting a doctor or other professional --- it could be spurious. And speaking of consultation, parents and students should heed the nuances of the word. Here’s what my ancient Funk & Wagnalls says of consult and its synonym: CONFER suggests the interchange of counsel, advise or information. CONSULT indicates almost exclusively the receiving of it. A man confers with his associates, consults a physician or dictionary.

Flight of the Multinationals

The Year of the Tiger, 1998, was not too gentle to the tiger economies of Asia. Even kittenish Philippines was roughed up. The flight of hot money of foreign speculators triggered the financial crisis. This was followed by the 50 – 60% devaluation of the peso which strong-armed inflation into double digits. Next came the jump in bank loan rates that induced business failures and job layoffs. To cap the debacle, multinational companies started to abandon the country in droves, shutting down their manufacturing plants and laying off their workers: Warner-Lambert, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, Novartis, Pharma Phil, Philipps Electronics, Abbott Laboratories. The latest to join the exodus is Procter and Gamble, leaving only the locals in the toiletries manufacturing industry. The departed expats merely maintain marketing operations and import their products from their other plants in nearby countries where labor, power, infrastructure and raw materials are less expensive.

Thousands of Filipinos lost their jobs, workers with middle-income salaries that used to pay for children’stuition fees, housing amortization, utility bills and groceries would now seriously worry on how to cope.

The decision of the multinationals to desert, no doubt, was influenced by two factors: high production costs and wages, and the retail trade liberalization. The implication of liberalized retailing is the marketing by foreigners of cheaper goods that will threaten the survival of not only local retailers, but also local manufacturers who are burdened by the same high costs that drove away the multinationals.

So, where are the so-called safety nets promised to cushion the ill effects of globalization? Nowhere to be found. Now the paternalistic half-century old policies protecting infant industries are coming home to roost.

Rewrites of Jottings: Education Matters 2

16 December 1998

Of course education matters, It may not matter when a farmer plants his crop, or when the police arrest him for harvesting that crop. It may not even matter when a judge passes the death sentence for cultivating the prohibited marijuana plant on public land. Not anymore. For ignorance, the lack of learning and education, could be unforgiving and a matter of life or death. Ignorance of the law excuses no one.

Education does matter, even in the face of the belief that ignorance is a right, not a privilege.

SOPHOMORIC

Retrieved from dead files, this opus was written in the early 90’s.

Like any typical secondary school sophomore, our daughter tends to collect trivia to litter her study closet. And like any doting and tolerant (to a point) parent, Mom periodically unclutters the clutter. But to make sure that nothing of value is trashed, this dad scans the “litter-ature” for any trivial gems.

Sure enough, one such piece was almost discarded. Salvaged and preserved as a souvenir was a sophomoric masterpiece created in all probability during one of those inattentive moments in a boring class. It was written on a “things-to-do” prompter sheet captioned “do it or else … This dad couldn’t resist the temptation of providing repartees (in brackets) to his daughter’s witticisms thus ---

1. Get ready for the day. (DAD: a real toughie)

2. Avoid sleeping in Chemistry. (DAD: It’s OK in Pilipino)

3. Pass activity cards on time. (DAD): But fill them up first.)

4. Study the night before a test --- not 3 minutes before it. (DAD: Caveat – sleepyheads fail.)

5. Don’t scream if there is a lizard above your head. (DAD: Only if it is under your skirt.)

6. Don’t chew gum in class. DAD: Or else you’ll be classified as a ruminant.)

7. Stop acting like a know-it-all. (DAD: Just be one.)

8. Do not accuse the teacher of sputtering saliva, bad breath etc behind her back. (DAD: Be a sport, do it frontally.)

9. Pay class funds and clean on your cleaning day. (DAD: Clean out the class funds.)

10 Stop spending all your money on snacks when you’re not hungry. (DAD: Bum instead.)

SUPERLATIVE

When the kids were in high school I got sucked into their study endeavors, confirming the truism that adult education is something that continues as long as kids hve homework. It soon became apparent that there were gaps in my grasp of the subjects that I breezed through in my day. To prop up my stature as dad (the fountain of knowledge), a rapid review of their textbooks had to be undertaken, the frenzy resembling, in modern terms, a VCR rewound and then put on fast forward.

One thing led to another and soon a breakfast university evolved the result of a common wakeup time. Having arisen minutes before the children’s alarm clock rang, I functioned as a “snooze” feature that served as the backup rouser, the fail-safe gimmick for the sleepyheads and surly risers.

The “breakfast school” usually began with general talk, gradually drifting to recent classroom lessons and activities. The unobtrusive but inquisitive grilling, laced with new words and ideas to stimulate the “why” response in their young minds, worked most of the time. But occasionally a sore spot was touched and a sudden silent calm would dim the mood on the table. Most times, the soreness was gone by the next breakfast.

Yet another interesting innovation was the computer program which I created and dubbed “learn”. The software (computerese for program) was written in a computer language called Basic and covered the school subjects. The program was designed to reinforce formal school work..

Each subject module ended with ten randomly picked questions. Correct replies were then summed up and a score given, after which a final praise or scorn rating was awarded.

It was at this stage that a choice had to be made --- whether to heed the motivation principle to scold softly but praise mightily or to give emphasis to building vocabulary; in brief, feelings versus communication. Words won out.

The verbal ratings ranged from the pat --- excellent, marvelous, terrific, superb, magnificent, sensational, fabulous, fantastic, splendid, wonderful, brainy, talented, scholarly; to the bland --- average, fair, so-so, plodding, mediocre; to the rap --- stupid, moron, imbecile, idiot, vacuous, fatuous, feeblebrain, numbskull, dimwit, ignoramus, halfwit, lamebrain, birdbrain.

Crafting the program was truly a learning experience, for me more than for the children. Learning Basic, which is essentially a system of English commands translated to machine language by the computer innards, was challenge enough. On top of this, the project demanded a re-study of algorithms and the math techniques of linear programming and PERT/CPM (both too complex to detail here) to reduce branching and pathways and thus speed-up program execution.

Little by little, I grudgingly accepted the computer’s rigid rules, its distracting beeps and bells announcing program errors, and its unforgiving nature. I learned a valuable lesson besides --- it is difficult to outwit a dumb machine.

The final outcome was a working model. Not sufficiently brilliant for commercial purposes but enough of a teaching aide for the kids. And for me, a hobby was born. High school still was not a picnic for the kids but it was no longer a drag. Stumbling and frustration did not disappear, but perseverance improved perceptively.

The lighter side of the computer episode was, of course, the games, both the entertaining and instructional. One or two of the advanced games even had the temerity to admonish: if at first you don’t succeed, read the instructions.

The accumulated software library of bought diskettes was not expensive, the total cost coming to about the purchase price of a few hardcover books. The benefaction was however marred by the non-originality of the software, both diskettes and brochures being copied …to use the harsh term, pirated. The pirating of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) was commonplace then. (Albeit to a lesser extent, it persists today, even in our centers of idealism and ethics --- the colleges --- where students are encouraged to photocopy (Xerox) whole chapters of reference books. Typical third world ethics and perverse sense of economy.)

The mealtime university lasted throughout the high school years where school hours were still regular. It came to a gradual end when college and puberty brought on a disorder bordering on chaos, where punctuality was banished and procrastination became the new order. I coined the phenomenon “adiabatic peer pressure.”

As I look back on those halcyon years with nostalgia, I wistfully describe them best with one word --- superlative.

Good News Anyone?

No wonder President Estrada is sore at media --- they are too intrusive in the affairs of state. Look at some of the scandalous activities they’re ventilating:

₧3 million bribe try in contract for textbook purchase smears Departments of Budget and Executive Secretary

₧17 billion Napocor contract imputed as scam irks Erap who screams ‘libel’

Squabbling over turf in lucrative sugar, rice imports

Fake land titling syndicate; Ghost reforestation

Adulterated rice, pesticide-dosed veggies, tampered weigh scales, dyed fish

₧11 billion EXPO scam (minimum)

RSBS scam (amount a military secret)

₧7.8 billion AFP modernization fund vanishes

Murderers, rapists serving life sentences allowed luxury living inside maximum security prison

Top sports officials bickering, insinuations fly

₧1.6 billion in fake tax-credit involving 12 corporations

Toll fee hike stirs furor; pending hikes in power, telephone metering opposed

Revelations of thievery in officialdom is not new of course. The remarkable feature of the news is the influx of inflation in the alleged stealing --- rapacity is now measured in the billions (with a B). A million or two is scornfully considered small change nowadays?

National I.D. Debate

Rewrites of Jottings: National I.D. Debate

28 January 1997

The dispute over the Identification (I.D.) System issue raging nationwide makes interesting reading. When we wrote about the topic (Identification information, Mindanao Post, 24 Dec 1996), we had no inkling of the impetus and determination (it was signed 12 Dec 1996) driving the concept that finally emerged on 9 January 1997 in the form of Administrative Order 308.

The uproar raised by the announcement was not unexpected. We did warn that there was opposition to the issue, and that drawing up implementing guidelines would not be easy, which now seems to be confirmed by the scramble to redraft the E.O. wording.

We are not inclined to join the fray and side with either of the two camps (critics vs. supporters). However, should a computer-based ID System eventually be established, we would urge a demand for safeguards against the hocus-pocus that the system will attract.

When Big Blue (IBM) started dominating the computer industry, the expression “garbage in, garbage out” was coined. Data entry at the time used punch cards. The point was driven home with ubiquitous wall signs carrying the provocative word “THINK”.

The “garbage” dictum is as apt today as it was then, maybe more so now, with so many bright minds manipulating computer data, some maliciously.

The danger to the ID system lies at the input stage – the authentication of entries on the dossier (call it what you may, but this is the precise description). Since data entry points will be numerous throughout the country (a centralized system like LTO’s driver’s licensing is too cumbersome), the network must be made foolproof, a Herculean task. At this stage, a method must be devised to guarantee that only one discreet and unique dossier is made for each person, even if that person attempts to enroll/apply at several places in the country.

Digital systems, such as bar codes similar to the Universal Product Code (UPC) used by supermarkets and the magnetic keycards used by advanced hotels, cannot be this guardian. Only analog methods that record an individual’s unique characteristics and features will do ─ fingerprints read by the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the eye blood vessel pattern read by the Eye Identifier, and security printing used in money. All three combined assures maximum security. Embedded microchips as in Smart cards may be useful but would pose questions of economy and utility.

The next precaution phase would be the revision/update stage. The plastic ID card could be lost and has to be replaced – the point where data entry could be manipulated (tampered). The photo on the ID would have to be updated periodically, again requiring complete replacement, and shredding of the old card (viewed by witnesses, just like in the burning of prohibited drugs).

Forewarned is forearmed.