The Yellow Priest

Philippines: Aquino's presidency and the Yellow Priest

President Aquino faces challenges at his 100-day mark. Good thing he has the "Yellow Priest."

October 15, 2010

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Is change finally coming to the Philippines?

For one Filipino-American Catholic priest and supporter of the new president Benigno Aquino III, the answer is a qualified "yes."

The Taiwan-based Father Joy Tajonera is part of a group that urged Aquino to run for office after the politician's mother, democracy icon Corazon Aquino, passed away.

He began shuttling back and forth on the two-hour flight between Taiwan and Manila during the campaign, and became active in the "yellow ribbon movement" supporting Aquino's candidacy. He even had a bright-yellow, Roman Collar shirt and yellow cossack made to show his support for Aquino and for change — an eye-catching get-up that earned him the label "The Yellow Priest" from the Philippines media.

Now, just past 100 days into Aquino's presidency, Tajonera's still a believer. And he insists Aquino — nicknamed "Noynoy" or "PNoy" — is the real deal.

"One encouraging thing I hear from both young and old is optimism — that it's possible to hope that the country will be better," said Tajonera, who at 51 is about the same age as the new president. "That sense of hope is what helped Noynoy get elected — people are clamoring for change."

The Philippines has long been one of Asia's underachievers, trailing far behind its peers in the region due to a potent mix of corruption, clan-based politics, long-running armed rebellions, incompetence and the out-sized influence of a landed elite.

Aquino hasn't changed that overnight, of course. But Tajonera insists that the fledgling president has already succeeded in projecting a clean, humble image for his government. He's gotten the style right — now everyone's waiting for him to make more progress on substance.

Other analysts also give Aquino good marks."I wouldn't give him a perfect score, but I would say he passed the test of his first 100 days," said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform in Manila. "So far so good, in the sense that he has made key initial steps for fighting corruption and poverty — he's appointed people to key positions."

Most Filipinos seems to agree; Aquino's latest satisfaction rating was 71 percent, compared to just 11 percent dissatisfied, according to a survey by Social Weather Stations.

Philippines media made much of his recent, lower-key trip to the U.S. — spending a third what his predecessor did for a state visit to New York City, by lodging at Sofitel instead of the Waldorf, and eating at street-side hot-dog stands instead of Le Cirque.

Tajonera ticks off several more examples of Aquino's more modest, down-to-earth ways. PNoy has scrapped "wang-wang" — the practice of Presidential motorcades using wailing sirens to get through metro Manila's notorious gridlock. He's done away with self-promotional billboards on public projects, which were widespread under his predecessor.

He gave his entire inaugural address and first state of the nation address not in English but in Tagalog, the Philippines' main dialect — a first for a Filipino president. "There's a divide in the country between those who have and have not — and those who speak English well and those who do not," said Tajonera.

And Tajonera has personally observed that government officials and police have a noticeably less "arrogant" and more polite, upright attitude.

Case in point: when one of Tajonera's relatives was caught speeding as he rushed to make a lunch with the priest during one of his trips to Manila, he tried bribing his way out of a ticket in the tried-and-true Philippines style — by passing a banknote to the cop along with his license. This time, it didn't work.

Still, there's plenty of reason to doubt whether PNoy can change the broader system. The most significant challenges are his lack of control of Congress and the courts, which could hobble his efforts at reform, said Tajonera.

Most Supreme Court justices were appointed by his predecessor and political rival, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a deeply unpopular and allegedly corrupt figure who nonetheless has her own formidable power base in Congress. And PNoy's governing coalition is "more a coalition of convenience than an honest coalition," said Tajonera, with many Congressmen wanting their share of pork in exchange for continued support.

Casiple added that Noynoy faces a "steep learning curve" because of his relative inexperience, and is learning under "very stressful conditions," including a hostile opposition and "political landmines" left by the previous administration."He has a lot of problems before him," said Casiple.

Meanwhile, PNoy stumbled in his response to the Sept. 7 hostage crisis, in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed by a disgruntled ex-cop.

And human rights groups fault Aquino for failing to stop so-called "extra-judicial killings" of leftists (16 so far on his watch, according to rights group Karapatan).

Perhaps most difficult to surmount is the skepticism of Filipinos themselves, who have long suffered under bumbling, corrupt leadership.

"Filipino people, especially the poor, have been disappointed so many times, sold out so many times, used so many times, it's not so easy to say things will change — it's easier said than done," said Tajonera.

That's one reason he's continued his active involvement in the "yellow ribbon" movement, a call for grassroots commitment to change. The group, organized by the late president Corazon Aquino's former appointments secretary Margarita "Margie" Juico, advertises a list of 10 pledges for good citizenship, including paying taxes, respecting the police and soldiers and taking care of the environment.

"The government cannot be reformed if the citizenry is not willing to change," said Tajonera, one of a core group of 50 to 60 people in the movement. "If you want change to happen in our society, then you must become part of the change."

The significance of the "yellow ribbon" goes back to the dark days of martial law (1972-1981) under Ferdinand Marcos. Supporters of pro-democracy activist Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino — father of the current president — wore yellow ribbons and sang the old U.S. ditty "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree" as a show of solidarity for Ninoy during his seven years imprisonment.

(Ninoy was later exiled to the U.S. and assassinated on his return to the Philippines, launching his widow Cory Aquino into the presidency on the back of the "People Power" movement.)

For Tajonera, the significance is also deeply personal. He remembers declining an invitation to join Ninoy for Thanksgiving when he met him in New York City in 1982, something he now deeply regrets (Ninoy was gunned down the following year). Again in 1986, he declined a call from Cory Aquino's people to return to the Philippines and help build a new government. Now, he's finally ready to help.

"It's my redemption," said Tajonera. "Twenty-eight years ago I said 'no' to Ninoy, and 28 years later I said 'yes' to myself. This is the time."

He says he was among the first to urge Noynoy to run for the presidency, while attending his mother's funeral last year. Then, Noynoy's response was non-committal. "He just smiled — of course, it's a priest telling you what to do," he said. "It's typical Pinoy [slang for a Filipino] — you just smile, and don't say no. But I'm happy I did it."

Now, the unassuming bachelor who smiled politely that day holds the reins of power. Time will tell if he's able to put the Philippines on a better course.

"Corruption is one problem. Our attitude is another — we have an attitude of being complacent," said Tajonera. "Nothing will change with that kind of attitude, it won't work if you want to move the country forward."

"My hope and dream is the same as PNoy — that our country can learn the lessons of Marcos and Gloria. If we do that, then change is not impossible."

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Plane baby sparks debate

Was Plane Baby's Migrant Mother a Victim, Too?

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (Sept. 19) -- The sensational case of a Filipina migrant worker who gave birth on a flight from the Middle East and dumped her newborn in the trash highlights broader problems facing migrant workers, activists say.

The case gripped the Philippines and global media in recent days, after plane-cleaning staff found a baby in the trashcan of a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain to Manila.

On the Internet, outrage over the mother's behavior was mixed with Facebook cooing over the baby -- dubbed George Francis for the airline's flight code, GF -- and offers to adopt if the mother didn't come forward. Gulf Air staff looked after the infant at the Manila hospital where he was sent.

But on Thursday, the story took a dramatic twist when a Filipina migrant worker came forward and confessed to being the baby's mother. She told a Philippines lawmaker that she had worked in Qatar as a maid and was raped by her employer, according to The Associated Press.

When her pregnancy was discovered, her employer forced her to return to the Philippines, she said, according to Rep. Lani Mercado, the AP reported. She abandoned the baby out of fear for what her family would say.

The woman had been identified as the possible mother through the passenger manifest after blood was found on her seat on the plane, 40D, according to ABS-CBN News.com.

The woman has come in for plenty of criticism. But migrant workers activists say people shouldn't be so quick to judge. In many cases, migrant workers are justifiably worried that seeking justice for sexual or other abuse can backfire.

"I'm sure one of her reasons for not complaining is because in many cases if you complain, you are the one who will be in prison," said Eni Lestari, chairwoman of the Hong Kong-based International Migrants Alliance. "And in many cases, these women are not being protected by their own governments.

"In some countries, there will even be a threat of being accused of agreeing to have sex with the boss, when they didn't," she said. "In the eyes of the law, they can become a criminal, not the victim."

Lestari said most Asian migrant workers, like the Gulf Air mother, are women who work as maids. Often they have few or no days off, and suffer from physical or sexual abuse. In Hong Kong, she said, the legal burden is on the migrant worker to prove, through physical evidence, that sexual abuse occurred.

"Many such cases are unreported, leaving migrant workers dealing with the whole trauma and effects of sexual abuse, even while they have the responsibility of being the bread-winner of their family," Lestari said.

Some 11 million Filipinos live and work abroad because they can't find work that pays a living wage at home. They're part of a global migrant workforce estimated at 214 million. According to the website of the rights group Migrante International, about 2,000 Filipinos leave the country every day bound for 182 countries worldwide.

"The abuses and exploitation they experience in their place work are prevalent. These range from contract violations, rape, sexual harassment, mysterious deaths, among others," the group says. "Women migrant workers in particular are most vulnerable to abuses and maltreatment."

A 2009 U.S. State Department human rights report said foreign workers in Qatar had disputes with employers over leaving the country. "In some cases, sponsors sexually harassed and mistreated foreign domestic servants," the report said. "Most domestic servants did not press charges for fear of losing their jobs."

The report cited one unnamed foreign embassy in Qatar that reported 700 cases of sexual harassment against maids in 2008 alone. "When the domestic employees brought harassment to the attention of authorities, the employees were often deported, and no charges were filed against the employer."

But an Amnesty International staffer said Qatar and the Middle East shouldn't be singled out for poor treatment of migrant workers. "It's a worldwide phenomenon," said Wilnor Papa, Amnesty's campaign coordinator for the Philippines. "What we see here is not enough protection given to migrant workers."

Papa said the plane baby case likely reflects migrant workers' low levels of education, poor awareness of rights, and lack of sufficient legal protection from countries hosting migrant workers. "It's really sad that because of her fears of how family and the law would treat her, she would rather give birth and leave her child there [on the plane]," Papa said.

"She's not given that many options, and she doesn't know her options, and that's one of the problems," he said. "Not a lot of the migrants are educated, and not many know the law can protect them."

He said many migrant workers end up doing different work than they signed up for, and some even get trafficked into illegal brothels after being lured abroad with promises of legitimate jobs.

Papa said that while returning to the Philippines from London via the Middle East on a flight last year, he talked to migrant workers returning home -- including a nurse who'd been put to work as a maid, an engineer who'd become a driver, a woman whose hands had burnt because of a cleaning agent her boss forced her to use, and another woman who had been abused. "Stories like this happen on a regular basis," he said.

Papa said both sending and receiving countries needed to implement existing laws protecting such workers, and pass tougher ones. He noted that few hosting countries had signed or ratified the U.N. Convention on the rights of migrant workers. (Forty-three countries are party to the convention, including the Philippines, according to the U.N.'s website. Qatar is not among them.)

The International Migrants Alliance's Lestari said there are also ongoing discussions on a draft international convention for domestic workers, which could provide a mechanism to better protect migrant maids' rights.

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Anti-Fils backlash

Anti-Philippines Backlash in Hong Kong After Rampage

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(Aug. 31) -- With anti-Philippines feelings running high in Hong Kong, the Philippines allowed police from the Chinese territory to inspect the bullet-riddled bus where eight Hong Kong tourists were gunned down last week.

Since the Aug. 23 shooting, Hong Kong and mainland China have sharply criticized the Philippines for the botched raid on the bus. The raid ended a daylong standoff after a former Philippine policeman armed with an assault rifle seized a busload of tourists in central Manila, demanding his job back. He had been fired over alleged extortion.

Photos of Philippine police and schoolgirls posing in front of the bus the day after the tragedy added fuel to the fire after they were posted on Facebook and other websites.

The tragedy has strained ties between the Philippines and Hong Kong, the semiautonomous Chinese enclave just across the South China Sea. The Chinese government has called on the Philippines to quickly wrap up its probe of the tragedy.

Hong Kong police on Monday examined the bus and inspected weapons used by police and the hostage-taker in the shootout, according to Agence France-Presse. The Philippines police command also issued a gag order on its cops before an official probe is complete, the news agency said, after one prematurely told the press Sunday that the assailant was likely responsible for all the hostages' deaths.

Some have questioned whether some of the hostages may have been accidentally killed by the Philippines police during the chaotic firefight aboard the bus in the final minutes of the showdown.

The Philippines government has already admitted to making errors. Today, it called on the media to work with it to restrain coverage of future stand-offs, according to AFP.

Philippines police were faulted for not better controlling media coverage of the hostage crisis. The hostage-taker was able to view live TV coverage from a monitor inside the bus, and began shooting hostages shortly after seeing on TV the police arresting his brother near the bus, according to AFP.

In Hong Kong, an anti-Philippines backlash was running high. One politician said she had fired her Filipina maid and encouraged others to do the same, according to a video posted to YouTube and translated at the EastSouthWestNorth blog. (More than 100,000 Filipinos work in the territory, most of them women working as maids.)

Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan came in for a hail of Internet abuse from Hong Kong nationalists after he "tweeted" remarks that were viewed as too sympathetic to the Philippines police, such as the following: "If they killed the guy (hijacker) sooner, they will say why not negotiate first? If they negotiate first, they ask why not kill the guy sooner? So sad."

Chan later apologized in a statement posted on his website, but insisted his remarks had been mistranslated.

Tens of thousands joined a march in Hong Kong on Sunday to mourn the victims.

Meanwhile, one of the surviving hostages wrote a first-person account of the ordeal, published in Hong Kong's Ming Pao weekly and translated by ESWN. In the account, Lee Ying Chuen says the hostages at several points mulled the idea of trying to overpower the gunman.

"Why did we waver?" Lee wrote. "Because we were afraid, because we thought that the gunman did not really want to kill anyone, because we thought that the matter would be peacefully resolved and, of course, our biggest mistake was to overestimate the capabilities of the local police."

The gunman had also spaced out the hostages two to a row, one on each side of the aisle, to prevent them from more easily banding together, Lee wrote.

Hong Kong's Apple Daily produced one of its infamous animated news clips of the hostage crisis, using details from news reports and a dramatic re-creation to show what may have happened on the bus.

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Five bus hijackings

Five Bus Hijackings Less Deadly Than Manila's

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(Aug. 24) -- The Philippines police are under fire over a botched effort to end a Manila hostage drama on a tourist bus that left the hostage taker and eight Hong Kong tourists dead. Buses -- rarely subject to security controls and easily controlled by a single assailant -- have often been prime hijacking targets. But other incidents in recent years have ended without the death of hostages. Some examples:

June 22, 2009, China. An apparently deranged man wielding a knife boards a bus in Hunan province. As the cool-headed female driver argues with him, the passengers leave via the rear exit. After the hijacker stabs her seat, the driver takes him a short distance, telling him to "calm down" and "sit down and relax." The man later exits, and the driver continues her route. No one is injured.




March 28, 2007, the Philippines. Armed with hand grenades and guns, a disgruntled owner of a day care center hijacks a bus with 26 day care children and four teachers, demanding the government give free education to the students and housing to their families. After day-long negotiations, he surrenders and releases the hostages. No one is injured.

May 31, 2004, U.S. After imbibing tequila, Antonio Hernandez-Hernandez hijacks a Greyhound bus in Utah after attacking the driver with a knife. His goal: to drive to Nebraska for a showdown with his estranged ex-wife. He orders the passengers off the bus, then leads police on a chase. The driver stops the bus and flees when Hernandez-Hernandez goes to the restroom; he later surrenders to police.

April 25, 2003, Germany. A Lebanese man seeking the release of one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers seizes a bus with 16 hostages and leads police on a highway chase. Police stormed the bus and captured the assailant, whose gun fired only blanks. No one was injured. Two similar bus-jackings occurred in Germany in the same month, with no injuries.

Nov. 17, 1997, Egypt. Islamic militants hijack a bus after massacring nearly 60 tourists at a top attraction near Luxor on the Nile River. The bus encountered a military checkpoint, and a firefight ensued. One terrorist was shot and wounded. The others escaped to nearby hills, but their bodies were later found in a cave, apparent suicides.

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Botched bus rescue

Philippine Police Slammed for Botched Bus Rescue

Aug 24, 2010

TAIPEI, Taiwan (Aug. 24) -- The Philippine police came in for a hail of criticism today after a botched raid on a hijacked bus left the perpetrator and eight of his hostages dead.

Critics leveled a litany of charges about Monday night's raid, faulting police for a chaotic command structure, failure to secure the crime scene, and allowing media to film the raid. There was also consternation that they had brought the hostage-taker's brother to the scene but then taken him into custody, and that they had no better means at hand to break into the bus than a sledgehammer.

Members of a Philippines police SWAT team begin their assault of the tourist bus seized by dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza Monday at Manila's Rizal Park, Philippines.

The raid came 10 hours after Rolando Mendoza -- a 55-year-old former policeman disgruntled over having been fired -- boarded a tour bus armed with an assault rifle. Mendoza held the tourists from Hong Kong as hostages.

The Globe and Mail reported that when Mendoza boarded the bus there were 21 tourists and four locals aboard. During the standoff, he released some for medical and other reasons. When the police raid began, Mendoza was reportedly holding 15 hostages. Mendoza and eight of the hostages died in the final minutes of the siege.

The victims included Canadian-Chinese dual citizen Kam Wing Leung and his daughters, Song Yi (Jessie) Leung, 14, and Chung See (Doris) Leung, 21, according to the CBC.

In the semiautonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, flags flew at half-staff in mourning as residents voiced outrage over what was widely seen as a mishandled rescue operation. The Associated Press reported that demonstrators changed "You caused the deaths of Hong Kongers!" outside the consulate of the Philippines.

"It's disappointing that Hong Kong residents tried to make a pleasure trip to Manila and ended up with death and casualties," Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang told a news conference. "This is very tragic. And the way it was handled and particularly the outcome -- I found it disappointing."

Pete Troilo, director for business intelligence at Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a Manila-based security and political risk consultancy, said the fiasco reflected the Philippines' lack of sufficient police resources.

"The Philippines National Police and [the Army] have been plagued by a lack of training and equipment for decades, and there's really no movement to change that," said Troilo.

As one example, he said one strategy for storming the bus would have been to use a "small, controllable explosive" device to blow off the door of the bus, then a lightning entry into the bus by commandos.

Instead, police were televised live repeatedly trying and failing to bash their way in through the bus' windows with a sledgehammer. "The only thing that did was obstruct the view of what was happening inside the bus," Troilo said.

He noted, though, that a bus is "not the easiest target to assault" due to the nearly 360-degree view of the situation from inside the bus and the difficulty of penetrating into a narrow aisle where passengers can easily be used by the hostage-taker as human shields -- a strategy the perpetrator used Monday night, according to remarks by Philippines President Benigno Aquino III in a midnight press conference just hours after the raid.

Troilo said the botched raid highlighted a broader problem of poor handling of a range of crises, including kidnappings. "In the Philippines, these types of crisis-management situations typically turn into a frenzy," he said. "You have not only the media, but different politicians and power brokers trying to portray themselves as a leader in the situation, and you often have family members involved, which was the case here."

"So all of this turns into a sideshow, and it really detracts attention from the safety and security of the victims, and bringing the case to a quick resolution," Troilo said. "Unfortunately, in this case the melodrama cost lives."

One Filipino official told a local radio station that Mendoza was able to see police approaching the bus via footage he could view on a television inside the bus, according to GMA News. He also reportedly became agitated after seeing television reports showing police taking his brother into custody.

The official, Jesse Robredo, told Philippines media that protocol for media and crowd control in such crisis situations would be reviewed.

A police official told a local radio station that the hostage-taker turned belligerent after police attempted to arrest his brother, who was at the scene. He said the police lacked better equipment to penetrate the bus.

"In our inventory, the sledgehammer was the only thing we can use in the situation," he told a radio station, according to GMA News. "What we did not expect was the bus' windshield was strong enough to withstand blows from a sledgehammer."

Several Filipino congressmen criticized the police's handling of the hostage crisis, with one slamming the lack of a clear chain of command at the scene, according to Inquirer.net, and another saying that "heads must roll" after the tragedy.

The Philippines human rights alliance Karapatan faulted the police for bungling the hostage crisis, and for not addressing the hostage-taker's "legitimate" grievances earlier -- though it condemned the manner in which he aired those grievances.

"The [Philippines police] grossly mishandled the hostage drama that caused the death of nine people and the wounding of others," a spokesman for the alliance said, according to the Manila Bulletin. "They should have handled this more delicately considering that many lives were at stake."

President Aquino offered his condolences to China and the people of Hong Kong for the loss of life in an address today. He promised more training for police forces to better handle future crises, and a full review of the botched raid.

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P.Noy takes the helm

'P.Noy' Takes Helm in Philippines

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(June 30) -- Benigno Aquino III was sworn in as president of the Philippines today, vowing to turn the tide on corruption and poverty in this longtime Asian underachiever.

A crowd estimated at about 500,000 witnessed the swearing-in ceremony of the son of democracy icons, who rode to power on a wave of nostalgia and emotional outpouring following the death of his mother, Corazon "Cory" Aquino, nearly a year ago.

Corey led the famous 1980s "People Power" movement that ended martial law, following the murder of pro-democracy activist Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, her husband and the new president's father, in 1983.

"You are the reason why today, the suffering of the people will end," Aquino told crowds, according to The New York Times. "Here, on this day, ends the reign of a government that is indifferent to the complaints of the people."

The new president, perhaps taking a page from U.S. rap mogul P. Diddy, has changed his nickname from "Noynoy" to "P. Noy", according to ABS.CBNnews.com. "Pinoy" refers to a person of Filipino descent.

A free inaugural street party and concert followed the ceremony, featuring top Filipino stars and entertainers.

In his inaugural address, Aquino vowed to pursue justice against human-rights abusers and corrupt officials. On a lighter note, he also promised an end to noisy, red-light-running presidential motorcades that have become an irritant in metropolitan Manila and a symbol of the elitism of the Philippines' political leadership.

"No more wang-wang," he told the crowd, according to The Associated Press, using local slang for wailing sirens.

Aquino takes power after a decade of popular disillusionment over corrupt and allegedly corrupt leadership. Former President Joseph Estrada stepped down amid a corruption scandal in 2001; he was convicted of plunder and later pardoned.

Estrada's successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, stands accused of vote-buying and left office a deeply unpopular figure. She maintains her innocence.

Aquino repeated his campaign pledge to investigate allegations against Arroyo, who was also sworn in today as a member of the Philippines' House of Representatives. That sets the stage for a showdown between Aquino's fresh government and Arroyo's powerful base of allies in Congress.

Aquino immediately swore in a cabinet and convened his first cabinet meeting, according to the Inquirer.

The 50-year-old bachelor has drawn much gossip over his love life, particularly on whether he will soon marry his girlfriend, Shalani Soledad. Then there's the question of who will assume first lady duties. His four sisters -- Ballsy, Pinky, Viel and Kris -- have said they will "take turns" helping him.

He's also drawn fire over his smoking habit. He regularly lit up on the campaign trail, and has brushed aside calls for him to quit, saying he'll need to puff away more than ever as president due to the massive stress of the job.

He told the media that U.S. President Barack Obama offered moral support on quitting during his congratulatory phone call earlier this month.

"Mr. President, I understand we have the same issue with smoking," Aquino said he told Obama, according to the AP. "He [Obama] said, 'Well I quit that already. I have quit. It's your sole problem. At the time that you decide to quit, I'll send the advice.'"

Some are skeptical that Aquino will be able to solve the Philippines' deeply rooted problems. The archipelago was rated 139 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption perception index, the lowest of any major southeast Asian country.

One in four Filipinos live at or below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, and the Philippines has a per-capita income of just $1,900. As many as 11 million out of a population of 90 million have moved abroad to work, unable to find decent-paying jobs at home.

Economic power remains concentrated in the hands of a landed elite, many of them dynasties whose massive wealth and lavish, sprawling estates date to the days of Spanish colonization (1521-1898).

Aquino himself is from just such a family, and his extended family's own plantation, Hacienda Luisita, has been the subject of controversy. He himself, like his late mother before him, is widely viewed as "clean," but he will oversee a political structure in which corruption is endemic.

See a CNN "Talk Asia" interview with Aquino here.

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The comeback clan

Marcos Family: Philippines' 'Comeback Clan'

AOL News, May 14, 2010 -- There may be no second acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. But that rule certainly doesn't apply in the Philippines.

Monday's election saw the political resurgence of the Marcos family, with the 80-year-old, shoe-loving matriarch Imelda Marcos winning a House seat, her son Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. winning a Senate seat, and her daughter Imee winning a provincial governor's seat, all from their family stronghold of Ilocos Norte, in the north of the archipelago.

Outsiders might find it odd that a family linked to allegations of massive plunder and the Philippines' notorious martial law era could remain a political force.

But commentators say it reflects a distinctly Filipino brand of clan-based, patronage politics -- and shows how far the country's democracy still has to go before it grows up.

"I don't want to underestimate the Filipino people, but I think this [election] was a chance to make the right choice, and unfortunately we still failed -- and I'm not just talking about the Marcoses," said Maria Belen Bonoan, senior program officer for the Philippines at the Asia Foundation.

She noted as well the second-place showing of a convicted plunderer, former President Joseph Estrada, in Monday's presidential race. (Estrada is now alleging fraud in the vote, the results of which are not yet official.)

"Sometimes I feel ashamed about the whole thing, but I think it's part of our progression and evolution," Bonoan said. "We democratized a long time ago, but as far as real democracy goes, people are still trying to grasp and learn."

The Marcos family was worth an estimated $35 billion in the 1970s at the peak of their power, Imelda told a British journalist in 2006. Autocrat Ferdinand Marcos -- Imelda's late husband -- announced martial law in 1972, banned free media, dissolved Congress and oversaw a repressive regime that jailed and tortured its political opponents, some of whom disappeared without a trace.

In a 2004 report, Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog, ranked Ferdinand Marcos as the second largest alleged embezzler among world leaders in the past two decades with $5 billion to $10 billion in alleged graft, a spot behind Mobutu Sese Seko, the rapacious "Father of the Nation" of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo).

The Marcos family has been the target of some 9,000 criminal and civil suits, but no one in the family has done jail time. The suits are generally dismissed or overturned on appeal, though a few are still pending.

Imelda denies any corruption by herself or family members, telling Reuters recently that "Marcos was not a thief" and that she hoped to get back some of the $5 billion in alleged ill-gotten family assets already seized by the government.

Ferdinand Marcos' regime crumbled in 1986 after one of his most outspoken critics -- Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, father of the likely new president Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III -- was shot and killed on his return to the Philippines. That assassination remains unsolved to this day. The "People Power" movement led by Ninoy's wife, Corazon Aquino, forced Marcos from office, and he and Imelda fled to the U.S.

Locals in Ilocos Norte don't seem disturbed by the Marcos family's checkered past. They gave Imelda a landslide victory -- about 80 percent of the vote -- on Monday.

The Asia Foundation's Bonoan explains that by noting that many Filipinos still base their votes on clan loyalties. She added that throughout the Philippines, vote-buying is pervasive.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said that locals remain loyal to the family due to a long history of patronage.

"During Marcos' time, the whole province was pampered with so many infrastructure projects," he said. "So they managed to retain that support, even during People Power."

He said the Marcos family possessed in spades that most important of political assets: name recognition. And younger voters "have no experience of the martial law period," he said. The junior Ferdinand, "Bongbong," has charisma, to boot. "He's young, handsome and articulate," Casiple said. "If you don't know about the background of the Marcos family, you would be really attracted to him as a politician."

The comeback of the Marcos family and Aquino's likely ascent to the presidency sets the stage for a high-profile family feud over the legacy of Ferdinand Sr.'s rule.

Media reports have raised talk of a settlement with the Marcos family over a long-running effort to recover all of the family's allegedly ill-gotten gains.

Aquino has also said he will create a "truth commission" to probe his father's assassination, including possible links to Marcos, as well as other martial law-era crimes. But analysts say the probe is unlikely to get far, as many of the key figures are dead and the ones still living aren't talking.

The Marcos family has long campaigned for a military burial with full honors for Ferdinand, whose body now lies on display in a glass case in the family's mausoleum. Two presidential candidates were open to the idea. But not Noynoy Aquino. "We have so many problems from his time until now, why should we honor him? " he told reporters.

Bonoan raised a more practical concern, quipping: "What are they going to bury? It's not a real body anymore, it's wax. Everybody knows that, it's not a secret."

Original site

Noynoy set to take power

Aquino Victory Looks Certain in Philippines Vote

AOL News, May 11, 2010 -- Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, the son of the iconic figures of the Philippines' move to democracy, is set to take power after the nation's first automated national elections went off better than expected, albeit with widespread glitches.

The result isn't yet official, but in counting today, Aquino had 40 percent of the vote, with the trailing candidates at least 15 points behind. His mother, Corazon Aquino, was president from 1986 to 1992, after his father, Benigno, a senator and democratic activist, was assassinated in 1983.

Four of Aquino's rivals have conceded, with only former president Joseph Estrada, second in the polls, refusing to give up.

The election saw isolated cases of the violence that plagues Philippines elections, and snafus with automated voting machines. But the turnout was a high 75 percent, and the vote appears to have been a success.

Ahead of Monday's vote, final testing saw problems with the voting machines, and some observers feared that elections could fail or fuel fierce post-vote protests because of technical problems.

When his win is made official, as is now expected, Aquino will face the daunting task of bringing change to this perennial Asian underachiever, which is rich in natural and human resources but has lagged its regional peers due to widespread corruption and the dominance of a landed elite.

Aquino ran on an anti-corruption, anti-poverty platform and successfully sold himself as the "cleanest" candidate, while his rivals were tainted with allegations of graft. "I will not only not steal, but I'll have the corrupt arrested," he told reporters in a news conference today, according to The Associated Press.

But some wonder whether the un-charismatic Aquino, himself part of an elite family with large property holdings, will be able to deliver on his promises.

He has pledged, for example, not to raise taxes, not to distribute pork-barrel spending, and to pursue the outgoing, unpopular president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on corruption charges, according to the Financial Times.

But one political analyst says he's heading for a reality check. "He needs a little bit more of pragmatism or political reality will overwhelm him," says Ramon Casiple, head of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms, told the Financial Times.

At least nine were killed in election-related violence, with supporters of rival candidates involved in a shootout with police.



On election day Monday, Aquino himself experienced a five-hour delay in voting due to problems at his election station in Tarlac, his home province, according to ABS-CBN News.

His rival Estrada took exactly eight minutes to vote, out of superstition that eight is his lucky number, since he is the eighth of 10 children, according to the Manila Bulletin. Estrada, a former movie star, was ousted in 2001 amid allegations of massive graft. He was later convicted, then pardoned.

Monday's election also featured world boxing star Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao's bid for a House of Representatives seat (he was ahead in the polls as of late today), as well as the comeback of Imelda Marcos, the shoe-collecting wife of deceased autocrat Ferdinand Marcos. She won a House seat, as did outgoing president Arroyo.

Filipinos enthused about the new automated voting system in comments posted on BBC, saying it had curbed monkey business on election day.

Social media also figured prominently in the election, with one Filipino media outlet, ABS-CBN News, gushing that its Twitter page on the vote -- tagged #halalan, the Filipino word for elections -- vaulted past pop star Justin Bieber on Monday to become the third-highest "trending" topic.

Original site

Noynoy in the lead

Aquinos' Son Has Big Lead in Philippines Race

AOL News, May 7, 2010 -- A son of pro-democracy icons looks set to win Monday's presidential election in the Philippines. But problems with a new automated voting system have cast a shadow of anxiety over the vote.

A win for leading candidate Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino would return power to a dynasty that has near saint-like status in the Philippines.

His father, Ninoy Aquino, was a democracy activist and vocal opponent of martial law. He was gunned down and killed at Manila Airport in 1983. His mother, Corazon Aquino, subsequently led the famous "People Power" movement that ended martial law and ushered in democracy. She was later elected president from 1986 to 1992.

But skeptics doubt whether their uncharismatic son can effectively tackle the problems -- especially corruption -- that have fed the country's decline from one of Asia's richest nations after World War II to a perennial laggard.

"He has done a very, very effective job as presenting himself as the least corrupt candidate," said Pete Troilo, director of business intelligence at Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a risk consultancy. "But I doubt that he has the fire in the belly to really implement the shift in governance that the Philippines needs."

Aquino has 42 percent support, up four points from mid-April. Two trailing contenders are in a statistical tie at almost 20 percent each, according to a poll released today.

That makes Aquino an overwhelming favorite to win Monday's vote, although his competitors insist a comeback isn't impossible.

The wrench in the works: A new automated voting system, to be used for the first time in a nationwide election, was found to have serious glitches in a final test this week.

The technical hiccup led to talk of a possible postponement of the election. That could result in a succession crisis since the current, unpopular president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, must step down June 30 according to the constitution. For now, election officials are insisting the vote will go ahead Monday.

Philippines elections are notorious for deadly violence, vote-buying and other fraud, and post-vote protests. Recent years have also seen frequent worries that Arroyo may try to extend her term. Arroyo's government has repeatedly denied this and said she will step down as legally required.

Any technical snafus delaying a result could fuel such conspiracy theories and worsen the Philippines' usual post-election unrest. Troilo, the risk consultant, said his firm is forecasting an "extremely high level of protests" after the election because of the uncertainty of the new voting system. "Apprehension is at an all-time high," he said.

Under pressure to ensure the new system works smoothly, Philippines election commission officials recently did something typical in this heavily Roman Catholic country.

They prayed. A lot.

"We pray, O God, that by your Divine Intervention, we will have the most honest, peaceful and orderly elections on May 10, 2010, of which we can be proud as the most credible electoral exercise in the history of our nation," said Commission on Elections chairman Jose Melo, in a prayer session at the commission's office with the Archbishop of Manila, according to a report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Corazon Aquino's death last year led to an emotional outpouring and calls for Noynoy to take up the torch and run for office. He agreed reluctantly to follow his parents' path -- after retreating to a convent to seek spiritual guidance. "Why should I veer away from their footprints?" he told Time magazine.

But critics note that he served in the Philippines Senate without distinction and say he lacks the strong personality needed to clean up Philippines politics. The country ranked No. 139 in Transparency International's 180-country Corruption Perception Index last year, far worse than China (79), India (84) or even Indonesia (111).

Others complain that Aquino represents just another elite, landed family and as such won't likely be able to address the Philippines' sharp rich-poor divide. The country's per-person GDP, at $3,300 on a purchasing-power basis, lags behind many Asian peers, and about one-third of the Philippines' 100 million population live in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Aquino's main rival, Manuel Villar, is a self-made billionaire with a rags-to-riches story, who has tried to run a populist campaign promising more significant land reform. But his numbers have sagged in recent weeks amid criticism that he's too close to the deeply unpopular, outgoing president, Arroyo.

Villar is now statistically tied with movie star and former President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in 2001 by a second "People Power" movement amid allegations of corruption.

The Philippines' economy relies in part on huge remittances from Filipinos working abroad. The country is also Asia's second biggest call center outsourcing location after India, hosting operations by most of the top U.S. outsourcing firms.

Original site

Silicon Sweatshops, Part 1

Despite strict "codes of conduct," labor rights violations are the norm at factories making the world's favorite high-tech gadgets.

Global Post, November 17, 2009 (first in a 5-part series)

With Kathleen E. McLaughlin

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Firings with no notice. Indifferent bosses. Labor brokers that leech away months of a worker's hard-earned wages. And a corporate shell game that leaves no one responsible.

Such conditions are widespread at the contract factories cranking out some of the most popular gadgets on the holiday season’s gift lists, according to labor rights activists and workers interviewed by GlobalPost.

Whether it's your cherished iPhone, Nokia cell phone or Dell keyboard, it was likely made and assembled in Asia by workers who have few rights, and often toil under sweatshop-like conditions, activists say.

By the time a gadget reaches Apple's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City or any other U.S. retailer, it may have passed through the hands of a heavily indebted Filipina migrant worker on the graveyard shift in Taiwan, a Taiwanese "quality control" worker who'll soon be fired without warning, and a young Chinese worker clocking 80-hour weeks on a final assembly line, at less than a dollar an hour.

Recent years have seen a drumbeat of reports on such abuses. In 2006, in an audit following a British media report, Apple found that workers in a factory assembling iPods in China were working excessive overtime hours.

Earlier this year, the Pittsburgh-based National Labor Committee, a nonprofit human rights group, alleged that workers at a supplier to Microsoft, Dell and other brands in Dongguan, China, were clocking mandatory 81-hour weeks, on average. (Dell said in an email that a "corrective action plan" has since been developed after a joint audit of the firm with other customers. A Microsoft spokesperson said it was investigating the supplier firm and would make any "necessary improvements.")

Embarrassed companies have vowed to do better. They've drafted "codes of conduct" for their Asian suppliers, and promised more factory audits to catch abuses.

But here's the problem, say activists: While such codes may be great public relations, they're not working to fix the problem. Worse, the codes permit the big brands to pat themselves on the back, even as workers continue to be exploited in the shadowy world of Asian electronics supply chains.

"These codes of conduct and audits are new tools that every brand will have, and they feel so proud of themselves," said Jenny Chan, a labor rights activist formerly with Hong Kong labor rights group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM). "But the codes have limits. To see fundamental change, you have to get labor groups involved and gain the trust of workers. Otherwise it's just a cat-and-mouse game between auditors and suppliers."

The problem is compounded by a lack of transparency. Asian electronics supply chains are notoriously murky. Contractors shift orders across borders and between factories and subcontractors, and many major brands treat their supplier list as top-secret information.

That makes it difficult to pin down who's making what for whom and, therefore, difficult to fix blame when allegations of abuse come to light. When a factory catches flak from labor rights groups and negative media coverage, the big customers often cut orders or sever business ties — a surgical strategy that activists say fails to address underlying, systemic problems in the industry.

Apple’s response: “We take corrective actions when required”

Even by the industry's own assessment, its codes are routinely ignored.

In its latest annual report, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) published results of joint audits in 2007 and 2008. (EEIC members employ some 3.4 million workers. Members include Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.) It found rampant violations of its code of conduct on working hours and wages and benefits.

Or take Apple's own findings. In its latest "supplier responsibility" update, published in February 2009, Apple found that nearly 60 percent of audited suppliers violated its code of conduct guidelines on work hours and days off.

Other common violations included under-paying for overtime and deducting salary as punishment. And Apple found a few factories that falsified records, employed under-aged laborers and hired workers who had paid recruitment fees exceeding the legal limit.

All of that raises a question: Why aren't the big brands being tougher in enforcing their codes?

Apple insists it is doing a lot. "Our audits are done across all our suppliers," said Apple spokesperson Jill Tan, in a phone interview. "It's a pretty rigorous process, and we take corrective actions as and when required. We audit aggressively, and post all results on our website."

The company's code is a "dynamic document which we continually update," Tan said, and audits are done both by Apple itself, and third-party experts.

Asked how Apple responds to those who say it's hiding behind codes that are ineffective in securing workers' basic rights, Tan said, "It's not just a matter of posturing, we look into this very meticulously. To me, we're pretty open. We don't see how we can provide more information beyond what's already available."

"I'm not sure there are many manufacturers or vendors out there who audit as aggressively as we do," said Tan. "I'm not sure there are many out there who take this as seriously as we do. Have you come across any other companies that provide this much detail in their audits?"

(Apple declined GlobalPost’s request to go beyond the public relations department and interview Bob Bainbridge, the firm's director of social responsibility for suppliers.)

Dell also rejected the idea that industry codes aren't effective. "We take exception to that," said spokesman David Frink. "Given the size and breadth of the global supply chain, full implementation of these important standards is a long-term effort to which Dell is fully committed," the firm said in a later email.

Our investigation

In May, GlobalPost covered reports of labor abuses at just one Taiwan electronics firm believed to supply Apple, Nokia and Motorola at its factories in Taiwan and China. Since then, we’ve interviewed 12 current and former workers at this same company. We heard the following new allegations:

• For Taiwanese workers, routine violations of Apple and industry codes of conduct on work hours, days off, overtime, worker complaint mechanisms and the right to organize;
• For Chinese workers, violations of a major electronic industry group's code of conduct on all of the above, and allegations of under-aged labor;
• For Filipina migrant workers, "placement fees" far in excess of Taiwan regulations, with fees and deductions amounting to nearly a full year's salary — a "core" violation of Apple's code.

These allegations, which are documented throughout this series, are by no means limited to this one supplier. Taiwan's labor broker system applies to many Southeast Asians who come to work on the island. And labor rights groups have done numerous studies of the scope of the problem (see links below).

But the news is not all bleak.

In our reporting, we heard sincere commitments to deal with these issues by frustrated executives who struggle with these complex economic realities. We also learned of a groundbreaking project to improve conditions at a Taiwan supplier for HP that appeared to have excellent results. Though limited in scope, the project offers some degree of hope that the big electronics brands can do more to fix the problem.

Next in the series: "Shattered Dreams"

Original site

Is Abu Sayyaf back?

Philippine military closes in on hostage-takers

A spate of kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf raises concerns that the Islamist militants are regrouping under new leadership

By Jonathan Adams
Christian Science Monitor
Security and Terrorism update
February 23, 2009

• A summary of global reports on an issue in terrorism and security.

The Philippines military said over the weekend that it has cornered a militant group that has held three Red Cross workers hostage in the jungle for more than a month.

Just a few years ago, the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf was thought to be a spent force, after they were targeted in a successful US-backed military campaign. But a spate of kidnappings in recent months has fueled concerns that the militants have regrouped under new leadership.

In the latest incident, a Sri Lankan peace activist was abducted on Feb. 13, one of 10 hostages now in Abu Sayyaf's hands.

The three aid workers were kidnapped Jan. 15 on the island of Jolo, part of an island chain in the Philippines' deep south that's long been a hotbed for Islamic militancy. (Click here to see a map of the region.)

Agence France-Presse reports that the military has trapped Abu Sayyaf kidnappers and their Red Cross captives in a 1.5-square-mile area of jungle, and is weighing its next move.

"We have a range of options from the most benign to the most violent – that is the final military option," [Military chief Gen. Alexander] Yano told reporters.

"We are dealing here with lives and one of our main objectives is really to safely recover the hostages alive."

Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni, and Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba were abducted by gunmen while returning from inspecting a water and sanitation project at a prison in Jolo.

The Mindanao Examiner reported that Abu Sayyaf wants to swap its three Red Cross hostages for some of its 135 members now jailed in metro Manila.

The Abu Sayyaf has demanded the pull out of troops in Indanan before it can negotiate with the government.

Gov. Sakur Tan of Sulu province, who heads the task force working for the safe release of the hostages, rejected the kidnappers' demand and called on the Abu Sayyaf to free their captives unharmed. Tan said the government will not pay ransom to the kidnappers.

In a separate operation, the military also announced it had isolated an area on the restive island of Basilan where Abu Sayyaf kidnappedwas holding three public school teachers who were kidnapped on Feb. 7, according to the Business Mirror.

"They [Abu Sayyaf members] were just circling around their base camp as we have already surrounded them. However, we could not just hit and hit them because we might endanger the victims," [Commodore Alex] Pama said....

Pama said the spate of kidnappings in Sulu and Basilan have stretched out military forces in Western Mindanao.

An Associated Press report cited a confidential government report as saying that Abu Sayyaf had raised $1.5 million in ransom last year, and had grown slightly in numbers, to 400.

The rebirth of Abu Sayyaf raises renewed fears of terrorism. So far Abu Sayyaf has focused on raising money through kidnappings, but it is likely to pursue high-profile assaults to reassert its stature as a terror group, the report noted. Abu Sayyaf has also allowed foreign militants, mostly members of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, to make the region their home.

"As long as they are there, they can provide safe haven for Jemaah Islamiyah where they can train the next generation of bombers and terrorists. That's why they're a threat," said Col. William Coultrup, who heads the U.S. counterterrorism forces in Mindanao.

The US military began to take a keen interest in Abu Sayyaf after it kidnapped 20 hostages – including three Americans – from a resort area in 2001, according to a recent Weekly Standard article. Later the US sent a few hundred troops to the Philippines to provide counterterrorism training, equipment such as night goggles, and intelligence from unmanned aerial vehicles.

That assistance helped the Philippines military hunt down and kill Abu Sayyaf's leadership and drive remaining fighters to remote islands.

In an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in December, a US official blamed the renewed violence on insufficient security following that campaign.

One US official explained, "If you withdraw too quickly without leaving appropriate law enforcement to maintain order, you leave a vacuum."

US officials and analysts say fighting Abu Sayyaf and other terrorists here is a long-term mission with no clear end in sight. They number as many as 200, with another 200 to 400 "lurking in the wings," says Scott Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments.

"It's immune to destruction. If the [counterterrorism] efforts are successful, their numbers just contract. People bury their weapons, disappear back into the villages, wait for the dust to settle, and then recoup themselves to various degrees. But they are by no means destroyed," he says.

Original site

Exposing the 'sham'

Filipina activist boosts overseas workers

Connie Regalado prods officials to do more for workers hit hard by the global financial crisis.

By Jonathan Adams
The Christian Science Monitor
January 26, 2009

Quezon City, Philippines -- In her office in this hectic part of metro Manila, Connie Regalado paints signs for a rally the following day. Her latest cause: calling on the government to do more for overseas Filipino workers who are losing their jobs due to the global economic slump.

A couple days earlier, she and other activists went to the airport to pick up 82 such workers, who flew from Taiwan at their own expense. They'd been axed from semiconductor-factory and other low-end jobs, victims of downsizing. The government was also at the airport, boasting of "one-stop shop" services for the workers, inviting them to the presidential palace, even offering them an appearance on a TV game show.

Ms. Regalado wasn't impressed. "It's a sham," said Regalado. "The 'one-stop shop' services aren't even palliative measures. There's no comprehensive plan to address the problem."

That no-nonsense approach has guided Regalado over nearly two decades of activism. Cynical yet committed to social justice, Regalado has dedicated much of her adult career to improving the working conditions, political voice, and basic rights of overseas Filipino workers.

Such workers make up more than 10 percent of the country's 96 million population, with 4 million Filipinos on contracts abroad, another 4 million with immigrant status, and more than 2 million more working undocumented in the United States, Malaysia, and elsewhere, according to Regalado. Last year these workers remitted some $15 billion to the Philippines – about 10 percent of the country's total economic output.

Filipinos go abroad in such great numbers out of necessity. Men leave wives and children behind to take construction work in the Middle East or join fishing-boat crews. Women leave behind husbands and children to work as maids in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Regalado has been there. In 1983, she was a maid for two years in Singapore. In 1991, she left two children with her parents to become a domestic worker in Hong Kong. There she saw how exploitative bosses and unfair government polices push such workers around.

In Hong Kong, they fought back. Regalado and others blocked the government – three times – from cutting domestic workers' pay, which was already at minimum wage. They also persuaded the Filipino consulate to provide services on Sundays, the only day off for many domestic workers. They stopped a proposal that would have allowed an employer to fire a foreign maid if she got pregnant.

Regalado has been a key player in effecting much more far-reaching change. When she first went to work in Singapore and Hong Kong, overseas Filipino workers had no voting rights.

That changed in 2003, thanks to the activism of Regalado and others, with the passage of the Overseas Voting Act. For the 2004 elections, activists also organized the Migrante Sectoral Party and tapped Regalado as its chairwoman. In elections the following year, the results – in terms of the law and the party – were disappointing. Only 370,000 overseas Filipino workers registered to vote, with just over half of those voting. Regalado's party failed to win a seat.

But passing a law was just the beginning, she says. Now they need to push the government to better implement it. They need to make it easier for Filipinos abroad to register and cast their ballots. She cited the example of a Filipino construction worker in Saudi Arabia, who now must take leave and travel 500 miles to register to vote.

She's optimistic, too, about her party. Regalado's eyes brighten when she talks about expanding its base. Finally, she says, once-disenfranchised migrant workers have their own political voice.

"For a long time, politicians pretended to bring our voice inside Congress," she says. "Even if we didn't win one seat [in 2004], it was a breakthrough for us to be recognized as the one, legitimate group that can fight for the issues of migrant workers."

Her party will have another shot in 2010. In the meantime, Regalado wants to amend the basic law on overseas workers' rights. Another issue: services for overseas workers are currently paid for by a 10 billion peso ($205 million) fund, consisting of $25 payments from overseas workers, which they are charged when they sign a contract. Regalado says the funds should come from the government. "We don't have any illusions that legislation is a solution to these problems," she says. "But it can give temporary relief to migrant workers."

Regalado cut her teeth in student activism at university in Cebu, organizing and attending rallies and study sessions before Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Later she was a government social worker in Mindanao, but quit in frustration after witnessing corruption from "the top down to the bottom."

Instead, Regalado organized female laborers at the Dole Pineapple plantation. That experience carried over easily to Hong Kong, where her work began as outreach through the Roman Catholic church. In Hong Kong, too, she wasn't afraid to work, at times, from inside the system. She accepted a three-year term representing Filipinos on Hong Kong's Committee on the Promotion of Racial Harmony from 2002 to 2004.

Still, she seems most comfortable in an outsider's role, calling governments to account in her soft, measured voice. At present, she's focused on laid-off workers. Her group estimates some 1 million overseas Filipinos will lose their jobs in 2009 and 2010. In Taiwan alone, some 11,550 will likely be dismissed this year.

When laid-off workers at the airport asked her if they should play along with the government, Regalado's response was telling. "I said, 'I think it's good. Go, and list down their promises, and then later we can go to them and say, "Where are your promises now?" 'And we can expose their commitment."

Original site

Marooned in Mindanao

Humanitarian crisis brews in southern Philippines

By Jonathan Adams
International Herald Tribune
Sunday, December 21, 2008

TALAYAN TOWN, Philippines: The 50 soldiers came into Hassan Kalipa's home in broad daylight, looking for rebels. He served them coconuts.

Later that day - Aug. 29 - gunfire erupted a couple of kilometers away from Kalipa's village of Linamunan, in the southern Philippines, which has seen an upsurge in fighting between government forces and rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in recent months.

The soldiers moved a mortar into the village to fire on the rebels. So, fearful of getting caught in the cross-fire, Kalipa, 31, and other Muslim farmers and their families fled their village.

They ended up in a camp in a public market here, about seven kilometers, or four miles, from Linamunan.

Kalipa and his fellow villagers are among hundreds of thousands of civilians whose lives have been turned upside down by conflict in the southern Philippines.

More than 2,000 are living in tents and thatched huts in the evacuation camp in the predominantly Muslim province of Maguindanao. Kalipa says some of the displaced return to their villages during the day to farm rice, coconut and corn fields, then come back to sleep in the camps.

They will not go back for good until the military leaves - and takes its mortar with it. "We're afraid to go back to our homes," Kalipa said.

The displaced villagers are the human fallout of a political failure: the breakdown in August of the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Four months after talks broke down and violence erupted, the lives of the villagers remain on hold.

As far as such conflicts go, casualties are low - which may explain the relative lack of attention to this troubled corner of Southeast Asia. In a report in late October, the International Crisis Group estimated that more than 200 had died in renewed violence since August, half of them civilians.

The relatively small numbers are due to the nature of this war. The military is playing a cat-and-mouse game with three MILF commanders blamed for attacks on civilian areas in August, with only occasional, brief engagements that often produce no casualties.

But even if casualties are light, a heavy climate of fear has paralyzed entire communities and polarized them along religious lines. The result, say aid workers, rights groups and others, is one of the worst humanitarian situations since all-out war raged on the island of Mindanao in the 1970s.

In a report in late October, Amnesty International accused both sides of human rights abuses. It says that the conflict displaced 610,000 at its peak.

Some 240,000 people have since returned to their homes; the rest are still living in relatives' homes or in primitive evacuation camps. The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has delivered food and aid to nearly 130,000 in 100 such camps.

"While the armed conflict in the Philippines's south is not new, the number of civilians directly affected by this most recent escalation of hostilities has increased dramatically, with no clear end in sight," Amnesty International said in the report. If perpetrators of rights abuses are not brought to justice and violations continue, the group said, "Mindanao may find itself approaching a human rights crisis."

One obstacle to talks is what to do about the three "rogue" commanders. The MILF wants a halt to military operations against the three and an independent investigation into allegations of atrocities. But the government considers them criminals who must face justice.

"They must take control of those people," Hermogenes Esperon, presidential adviser on the peace process, said in an interview at his office in the capital, Manila. "Otherwise, how could we be talking at the negotiating table?"

Still, the government is optimistic about the resumption of talks. It recently named the head of a new negotiating panel and says talks could resume by Christmas. But the MILF poured cold water on that, saying Dec. 14 in a statement on its Web site that the government's recent comments were "empty talk."

Even if the two sides do resume dialogue, the way forward in the peace process is far from clear. After 11 years of on-and-off negotiations, the MILF had accepted a preliminary deal, due to be signed Aug. 5, that would have expanded an autonomous Muslim area and given it greater control over its resources and revenues.

But Christian leaders in Mindanao loudly opposed that deal, fearing some Christian areas could come under Muslim control. They helped persuade the Philippine Supreme Court to issue an injunction against the agreement. The court later ruled the deal unconstitutional, arguing it would have effectively partitioned the Philippines.

Looking back, most analysts and observers put most of the blame for the breakdown on the government. They say it did not sufficiently consult with affected communities ahead of a deal and did not shore up support in Manila for the agreement. The MILF "has reason to feel deeply dismayed about what happened with the court rulings," said a U.S. official who did not want to be quoted by name discussing sensitive peace negotiations.

"The government underestimated the public backlash to the settlement, and they were caught off guard," said Scott Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a risk consultancy. "They felt they could ramrod this through and everyone would just sign on the dotted line. But it raised a firestorm."

In an interview at his Cotabato City home, the MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu blamed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration for failing to win consensus on the Aug. 5 deal from the legislative and judicial branches. Kabalu said that the rebels want to resume talks but that some now question the administration's sincerity in wanting a deal.

"Many believe a peace deal isn't really possible under this president," he said. But he added that the group would give the government "the benefit of the doubt, to prove we are really for peace."

They may have little choice. Forty years of fighting has shown that there is no military solution to the problem in Mindanao, many specialists say, including Esperon, the government peace adviser, and Abhoud Syed Lingga, director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, a nonprofit nongovernmental research institute in Cotabato City.

"The situation now is moving toward a strategic stalemate," Lingga said in an interview at his office. "There are no good options for both sides except to negotiate a solution."

Back in the evacuation camps, the civilians wait. Aid groups are helping, but conditions are still rough. Kalipa said 11 people had died in his camp in recent weeks, suffering from diarrhea and high fever.

Amigos Maminto, 60, has been displaced for the second time. In the 1970s, as war raged in Mindanao between the military, Muslim rebels, and Christian and Muslim vigilantes, Maminto and many others fled their homes.

Some 35 years later, he has once again fled his home in Linamunan, this time with four of his children and several grandchildren.

"As long as there is no peace deal between the government and MILF, I expect a similar situation in the future," Maminto said. "I fear fighting will happen again."

Original site

The Rats Return

Christian vigilantes a sign of troubled times in Mindanao

The return of Roman Catholic militiamen for the first time in 30 years is a sign of a community that's become dangerously polarized along religious lines

By Jonathan Adams | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor December 12, 2008 edition

Aleosan, Philippines - On a muddy, shaded track between fertile farmlands, 30 men lounge in flip-flops and tattered camoflauge, displaying their beaten-up M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles.

They call themselves ilaga or "rats" in a local Philippines dialect. They're vigilantes: Christian farmers who have taken up arms to protect their land and families against Muslim rebels in this troubled corner of the southern Philippines.

Most have no military training, says their puckish leader Felimon Cayang, who styles himself "Commander Max." He shows off his souped-up M-16, tattoos, and religious "amulets" – patches tied to his necklace and underwear bearing images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and worn for protection in battle.

He says his group held their own in a day-long firefight in July with a much larger group of Muslim rebels led by Commander Umbra Kato, just a few miles away.

They suffered no casualties. As for the other side, Commander Max says with clear satisfaction, "I don't know how many we killed, but we found blood."

Here on the island of Mindanao, such Roman Catholic vigilantes haven't been a force since the 1970s, when all-out communal war raged. Their return now, some 30 years later, is a sign of a society that's again become dangerously polarized along religious lines.

It's one sad consequence of the breakdown of peace talks between the Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Four months after talks broke down, the military is still engaged in a deadly, cat-and-mouse game with three "rogue" commanders, including Mr. Kato. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians remain in makeshift camps, afraid to return to their homes. And Malaysian monitors who helped enforce a cease-fire left Nov. 30 after their mandate expired.

With the peace process in tatters and no clear way forward, many fear that the gains of 11 years of negotiations are fast disappearing amid recriminations and communal mistrust.

"The opportunity for a democratic and peaceful solution to the conflict is becoming narrower and narrower," says Abhoud Lingga, director of the Institute for Bangsamoro Studies in Mindanao. "For us peace advocates, this is alarming."

The town of Aleosan lies on the faultline of communal divisions in Mindanao. The Moros – as Muslims here call themselves – regard this and surrounding areas as part of their ancestral homeland. But much of Aleosan's land has now been owned and farmed for decades by Christians from the central Philippines, who settled here after World War II with government encouragement.

Sitting in his sunlit office here, Aleosan mayor Loreto Cabaya says he helped organize a civilian militia – including some ilaga – to prevent Muslim rebels from grabbing land ahead of a peace deal. The deal, which was supposed to be signed this past summer, envisioned an expanded Muslim autonomous area with greater control over its resources and revenue. Seven of Aleosan's 19 barangay (villages) – those with Muslim-heavy populations – looked set to become part of that Muslim area.

It never happened. Instead, the Philippines Supreme Court issued an 11-hour injunction blocking the government from signing the deal. Later, it ruled the deal unconstitutional, arguing it would have effectively partitioned the Philippines.

Mr. Cabaya agrees. He says he can accept giving the Muslims more land and autonomy, but he thinks the proposed deal went too far. "I think the conflict will be worse if demands of the MILF are met, because their demand is [for] a separate state," says Cabaya. "It's being disguised as autonomy, but in essence it's a separate state."

Opposition from Christian leaders like Cabaya helped scuttle the deal. Getting them on board in any future peace process will be critical.

When the two sides do get back to the table, there will be a lot of trust to rebuild. After being burned by the Supreme Court, the MILF now has little faith that the Philippines government is a reliable negotiating partner. "We can resume talks," said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu. "But we doubt very much [that] we can achieve a satisfactory and viable outcome."

Analysts are skeptical, too. "The fundamental problem is, how do you create an autonomous Islamic region in Mindanao that's satisfactory to everyone?" says Scott Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a Hong Kong-based risk consultancy. "If you limit it to areas of overwhelming Muslim presence, you could probably sell that. But once you get into marginal areas, it's increasingly difficult."

Aleosan is one of those areas. It's still clearly on edge. Government howitzers in a neighboring town guard against more rebel incursions. Mayor Cabaya is shadowed by two M-16-toting bodyguards, whom he's retained since tensions began this summer. "We haven't let down our guard – they're still out there," says Cabaya, referring to the rebels.

The ilaga are also keeping their powder dry. They're a ragtag bunch, some in their 60s and even 70s – veterans of the vicious 1970s vigilante wars here. They keep a wary watch over their farmlands, fearing another round of fighting – especially now that international monitors have left.

"Both sides are always preparing," says Eduardo Cabaya, who doubles as a municipal councilor. "As long as Umbra Kato is out there, we'll be here."

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