Bangsamoro Organic Law Questions Answered

     I received a reply from my journalist friend in the Philippines (who wishes to remain anonymous for this entry) today with the answer to the second of the two questions raised by my friend in De Pere, Wisconsin recently.  The question posed was will the Muslims be able to serve in the national military if and when the new law goes into effect.  The answer is so well worded (not a surprise) that it is dead on target and I can't match it, so here it is, with his quirky punctuation included.

     "my hunch was right--the answer of course is yes, because one of the implicit aims of the law is to integrate former members of the MILF and MNLF (the muslim rebels) into the AFP and PNP.  that's the only way they can defang the rebellion--bring them over to the other side.

     if you can go over a copy of the BOL online--it's the Bangsamoro organic law, by the way, not a treaty per se--you'll find this stated in Article XI, Sec. 2, on public order and safety."

     He included a link to the BOL online, but I am going on his research because he always does it so thoroughly and accurately.  And this closes the three-post series (July 30, August 1 and 2) answering key questions about the new BOL.  

Bangsamoro Organic Law

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Duterte Signs Treaty Allowing for More Muslim Autonomy

      A friend of mine, a fellow reader of "The Wall Street Journal," asked me recently what I thought about a recent article about the treaty with the Muslims in Mindanao.  I promptly replied that I was pleased with that news, even though I am grudging about giving Duterte any credit about anything.  I went on to explain that the treaty was a positive development, even though the Muslim leadership (of the former major militant opposition, the Moro National Liberation Front) would have liked more independence from Manila than they finally got.  The treaty granted self government in most major areas, except for military defense, which would remain with the government in Manila.

     My friend then asked me two astute questions.  "Isn't there likely to be continued friction between the separatists and the central government.  And will the Muslims in the newly independent area be represented in the military?"  I have to admit that I did not have ready answers.  I had been hoping for a successful conclusion to the lengthy (years long) "truce" that had basically held between the MNLF and Manila.  I had not recently looked closely at the terms of the treaty, and I did not know how to answer his question.  Of course, I promised to do some searching in my news sources and one or two contacts.

     I haven't quite gotten to the research yet, but I decided to share the questions with you.  I'll let you know when I have something further, but I welcome your thoughts in the meantime.

July 31, 2018    
rhb

For Jing, A Strong Filipino Woman

     I have frequently written about "Strong Filipino Women."  It seems that, without looking for it, this theme continues to recur, in both public and personal realms.  This one is more in the personal realm, as you will see.
     rhb July 2018

For Cristina Pantoja (Jing) Hidalgo

           

When I first met Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo in 1998, she was a member of the English and Comparative Literature Department at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in Manila, where she also had just been appointed the Director of the Creative Writing Center.  I confess to being somewhat in awe of this prestigious woman.  I had felt the same awe for the nuns who taught me in grade school, before I came to recognize them as real people and even became friends and for some years a correspondent with my eighth-grade teacher.  I think Jing may have sensed this when we first met.  It was in the CWC.  She was working busily at her desk in the Center’s imposing classroom/workshop, which, of course, added to the effect.

We became colleagues (I was an exchange professor in English Literature) and good friends over the semester.  We have remained friends, first through my several return visits, then via email, and finally, of all things, through facebook.  (For this connectiveness, I have decided to forgive facebook’s invasion of privacy, providing they are truly contrite.)  Jing retired from UP and took a position, similar to the one she had there, at the University of Santo Tomas.  She comes back to UP frequently, including for my UP Press Book Launch in 2010 for “Sundays in Manila.”  She continues to write and win national awards for her fiction and non-fiction.

Jing has recently experienced a death in her family.  I think of her often and have been moved by both her sadness and her courage.  In a recent post she echoes a hymn that she finds helpful.  “We are after all an Easter People.”  Later, recently in fact, I remembered how the strong women characters in her novel “Recuerdo” dealt with death and tragedy.  I taught this novel for years at St. Norbert and still have a folder of notes “for future reference.”  When I opened the folder, the following page was right on top.  It is a review assignment for students.  I decided to share it here with Jing.  It is unchanged except for a few parenthetical additions.                                             

                                              Notes from Lecture on “Recuerdo”

            An examination of the development of the (main) character (and narrator) Amanda shows that she learns from the stories about her ancestresses (recuerdo- I remember) that she can have a life after the death of her husband Vicente.  That she can face that tragedy and move beyond it.  And she can do so without the strength and security provided by Carl (close friend).  One can interpret most of the rest of the (novel’s) characters in light of this view of Amanda.  Here are some of the details; you supply the interpretation(s).

Leonor:  The lover of Father Gutierrez (a Catholic priest), by whom she bears two children.  Only gradually does Amanda piece together the puzzle that explains why this partnership of love ended.  Leonor never ‘left’ Father Gutierrez to become a ‘proper woman’, as family lore had suggested.

Asuncion (Cion):  When cruelly treated by her husband and placed in an insane asylum, Cion, ironically, becomes a more balanced and caring person, a friend to the nuns and to the inmates of the asylum.

Maestra Cressing:  She devotes herself to instructing the children of her town, eschewing considerations of marriage for this important duty.  When the Katipuneros (revolutionaries) arrive, she bravely persuades the officer in charge to spare the townspeople, using charm, diplomacy, and hot chocolate.

Josefina:  Amanda’s great-grandmother, (Lola Paz’s mother), the former actress who turned the ordinary into the special.  Her grandfather was an English pirate!  Her husband was tortured to death by the Spanish, and she was reunited with her children only after the war of independence against Spain.  She refused to give up her lover, telling her daughter that any fiancé worth his salt would not break the engagement for such a reason.

Lola Paz:  Her (Amanda’s) father was killed by the Spanish, her husband by the son of a collaborator with the Spanish.  She experienced déjà vu when the Japanese came and took away her son-in-law.

Lola Isabel:  Lost her son in childbirth; then her husband was taken by the Japanese, who tortured him to death, while she was pregnant with Amanda.  She bagan to keep the “manuscript” record of the family events.  Graduated from Santo Tomas.  Entrepreneur.

Beatriz:  The first family co-ed at UP, worked for the underground against the Japanese, became a professor, a Chair, and a Vice President of the university.  Star-crossed lover; faithful.

Risa:  One member of the class suggested that Risa is the most important character in the book, since she is (Amanda’s) daughter and heir of all of these stories, thus the beneficiary and witness (like the reader) of all that Amanda has learned.  Significantly she studies broadcasting.

              ----Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or <sundaysinmanila

Free Press Under Attack in Philippines

Dear Blog Viewer,

The following is my article in the May 2018 issue of VIA TIMES.  Many of the middle and working class in the Philippines remain supporters of President Duterte.  I have read their articles and corresponded indirectly with one supporter, and I respect their opinions.  What I find it most difficult to get past, however, is the president's intensifying attack on the Philippine Press.  The following sources are credible accusations by people on the spot, and they are very worrisome.  Let me know what you think.

Free Press Under Attack in Philippines

            I have had great admiration for the Philippine Press, particular its investigative journalists, since my first visit there in 1993.  Four visits later, including a semester as an exchange professor at UP in Manila, I wrote this assessment in my book, “Sundays in Manila.”

            “While the country suffers much, these ills are not hidden from Filipinos or the rest of the world.  The Philippine Press is one of the most critical and independent presses anywhere, and it attracts a large audience.  Manila alone has more than five daily English-language newspapers [more than New York] and twice that number in Filipino and other languages.  On the downside the outspokenness of the journalists has come at a tragic price.  The Philippines has been ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.”  I wrote that in 2010

            The danger to journalists may have lessened somewhat after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in 1985 and Cory Aquino’s becoming president in 1986.  The danger level, unfortunately, has returned.  According to the international media watchdog, RSF (the French initials for Reporters Without Borders), the Philippines is “Asia’s deadliest country for media,” citing the killing of four journalists during the past year, 2017.  The on-line newspaper, “Rappler,” is the source for this reference (rappler.com, Ap. 27, 2018).  (The article does not explain how the four journalists died.)  Rappler is currently contesting the revocation of its license by the Philippine Government’s Securities and Exchange Committee.  Meanwhile a judge has allowed Rappler to continue to publish, and it is gaining worldwide attention.      

            The following thread of articles from the “New York Times,” two by Filipinos, suggests that, despite his denials, Duterte is responsible for the current threat to journalists, to a free Philippine Press, and to Philippine democracy. 

            “Can Fearless Journalism Survive Rodrigo Duterte?” (NYT, Aug. 22, 2017) by Clinton Palanca.  “The Philippine Inquirer,” Mr. Palanca notes, “has held every Filipino president to account since 1985, when it was founded under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.”  Palanca then traces how Duterte bullied the “Inquirer.”  The paper maintained its criticism of the president’s “violent administration” until its owner decided to sell the paper “after months of harassment.”  It was purchased by a “fast friend” of Duterte’s who “supports his war on drugs.”      

            “Philippines Shuts Down News Site Critical of Rodrigo Duterte,” (NYT, Jan. 15, 2018) by Felipe Villarmor.  Mr. Villamor, the NYT’s Manila correspondent, traces the five-month attack on “Rappler,” alluded to above.  He quotes the note sent to its readers by “Rappler” when it received word that it was being investigated for violating the Constitution that prohibits newspapers from foreign ownership.  The note assured readers that it was confident that the government, working through the Securities and Exchange Commission, would lose. After all, “The S.E.C.’s kill order revoking Rappler’s license to operate is the first of its kind in history.”  The S.E.C. won, at least so far, Villamor reports.

“After Killing Spree, Is a Free Press Mr. Duterte’s Next Victim?” (NYT, Jan. 16, 2018).  The Times, to its credit, followed Villamor’s article almost immediately.  It did not hold its punches: “Ability of a democracy to repair the damage caused by bad leaders requires the survival of critical democratic institutions, a free press among them.”  Also to its credit, the NYT published the retort letter from the Philippine ambassador to the United States (NYT, Jan. 24, 2018) by Jose Manuel G. Romualdez.  Interestingly Mr. Romualdez bases his defense of the case against “Rappler” almost solely on his respect Teresita Herbosa, the Chairwoman of the S.E.C.  

In 1993, during that first trip to the Philippines, I had the opportunity to hear a talk by Sheila Coronel, a prominent Philippine investigative journalist at the time.  She made no bones about how she and other journalists were regularly harassed by the notoriously corrupt Manila police.  For some years now, she has taught Investigative Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.  I never forgot her extraordinary sense of duty to her profession, despite threats to her life.  I salute her and her fellow Philippine Investigative Journalists.

            Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or <anamericaninmanila.com>.

Catching up/Reviewing 2017

Greetings after a long layoff, and thanks for continuing to check in.  I aim to make more frequent entries, starting now, April 25, 2018.  OK, I know.  I said the same thing over a year ago and did not follow through, but just check and see, starting right now.

Another general observation is that I am going to move a bit more into an informal style.  So, while I will continue to proofread compulsively, I expect you will notice me being a bit more chatty and personal, occasionally even brief.  The content will remain similar to the past, with topics ranging from news from my Filipino friends through the most recent tug-of-war between Duterte and his critics.  In other words, I will be covering all sorts of topics.

For starters, however, I am now posting my December, 2017 article from VIA Times Newsmagazine.  That article contains my selected highlights from my other monthly articles from the magazine.

Here's the article, and I'll see you soon.

And the Winner Is . . . Strong Filipino Women

            The plan was to write this last article of 2017 as a review of the highlights from the articles of the past twelve months, starting with December, 2016.  Quite to my surprise, four of the twelve clearly focused on “Strong Filipino Women.” That has been a recurring theme in my writing for the past twenty-five years, but the twelve titles from 2016 gave no such clue.  I guess that shows how ingrained strong women are in the social fabric of the country, as I see it.

            1) March.  The first three articles paid scant attention to the women theme.  Then came March, 2017, with my column entitled “Duterte News: Some Good, Mostly Bad.”  Supremely ironically, it actually was all about strong women.  Half way through the article, the Duterte news turns sour.  A Filipino court (read ‘Duterte’) had just ordered the arrest of Senator Leila De Lima.  She had been speaking out courageously against Duterte’s administration, particularly the vigilante (“extrajudicial”) killings in his war on drugs.”  Senator De Lima was indeed arrested in March and remains in detention as of this writing (December, 2017). 

            As it happens, though this is not in my March article, the other major figure who has been vocal in opposition to Duterte is another strong Filipina, Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo.  A November 10, 2017 article in “DW” (“Deutsche Welle” is a liberal but reputable German international news organization) interviewed Robredo.  The Vice President had hoped to find some common ground with Duterte when he appointed her to his Cabinet (Housing and Urban Development), but that hope quickly faded.  She was ordered to stop attending Cabinet Meetings, and Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (son of the Marshal Law Dictator) insists he will replace her as Vice President.  He lost to Robredo by 200, 000 votes last year.  In my observations, it has been mostly women opposing Duterte’s extremism.

            2) June.  The second Strong Filipino Woman is the hero I found in the “New York Times” obituaries (April 29, 2017).   Our hero received front-page coverage, unusual for NYT obituaries.  Florence (“Betty”) Finch got her fighting spirit from her American father and her quiet strength from her Filipino mother.  Her father fought in the U.S. Army in the Philippine-U.S. War (1899-1902), then surrendered (in marriage) to a Filipina.  Daughter Betty married an American sailor who was killed in action trying to bring supplies to the U.S. troops on Corregidor.  Betty collaborated with the Philippine Resistance during the Japanese occupation until she was discovered, imprisoned, and tortured repeatedly.  She was liberated on February 10, 1945.  She weighed 80 pounds.  She wasn’t finished fighting.  She joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was highly decorated for her service, including the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, the first woman to do so.  The Coast Guard named a building in Hawaii in her honor in 1995.

            3) July.  I have been a fan of Wonder Woman since I was a kid and never missed a day reading the “funnies” in the daily paper.  I caught the “Wonder Woman” movie this past summer though I rarely go to movies.  Imagine my delight when I came across a picture on Facebook recently (June 27) that showed my friend Beng Dalisay holding an article from the June 26 “Philippine Star,” with the headline, “Wonder Woman in the House.”  Butch Dalisay, UP Professor and currently Vice President for Public Affairs, wrote the article as a tribute to Beng after accompanying her when she conducted an art restoration workshop in Ilongo.  Butch begins by reminiscing how he first saw Beng at UP.  He was a shy freshman, she an upperclassman at an anti-Marcos (Marcos Sr.) rally.  He ends by watching her with a similar “crush” as he sits in on the workshop, “like a mouse in a corner of the room.”

            4) November.  University Professor Gelia Castillo (1928-2017) was a Philippine treasure, “a world-class rural sociologist.”  She was declared a National Scientist in 1999; she was a long-time Consultant in residence at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which largely generated the “Green Revolution” that has supported millions of farmers and fed the hungry in the Philippines and globally.  I was honored to know her personally, enjoying classic Filipino hospitality (food and laughter).  She also had a great, dry sense of humor.  I’m smiling as I recall her comment to me when Cory Aquino rescinded the law permitting and supporting birth control: “It was a Cardinal Sin,” she said (Jaime Sin was then Cardinal of the Philippines).  To her many honors should be added, “Champion of the People.”

            Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or <anamericaninmanila.com>.