Mars S. Marata Online
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
"Babawi Tayo"
“Babawi Tayo”
This was what Manny told the fans days after his defeat
against Marquez. I admired him for this.
This is reassuring. By saying this, Manny rightly thought that millions of his
fans felt “knocked down” too and they have to be cheered up . By whom? Ironically by
Manny himself who is practically at his deepest
morale following his defeat. Despite being at the low spirits, he stands up,
shakes off the dust of defeat and reassures his fans of the inevitable coming of a
new day, a fresh start.
I don’t agree with Mommy D that it is Manny’s change of
religion that caused his defeat. Neither do I agree with the insinuations that
Marquez won because he remains a Catholic and in fact availed of the “blessing” before the fight
from Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo who linked typhoon Pablo to our favorable
view on RH Bill. It is as if RH Bill equals decades of logging, mining and
other wanton destruction of the environment.
Comparing Manny’s attitude with
Pabillo’s “theology of destruction” I can say that it is Manny who reads and
understands the Bible better. He is theologically mature compared to the bishop who spent many
years in the seminary.
I agree with Boboy Fernandez’s theory of “over confidence”
that plagued Manny’s camp. If one is over confident, complacency sets in. When one
is complacent, he becomes lazy. A camp
with lazy soldiers places its gates and trenches open to enemy’s easy attacks.
Rightfully, it unfurls a silk carpet to “victory hungry” Marquez.
I don’t exactly expect or hope for a Pacquiao- Marquez V. It’s enough that Manny
assures the Filipinos of a “babawi tayo” attitude. Outside or inside the boxing
ring is not so important to me. What is important is that we, as a people, have
to rise again after being knocked down by many typhoons in our lives.
“Babawi Tayo.”
Monday, October 22, 2012
Obet
(Or How Our Prison School Began)
Obet was accused of theft with other two young boys. When they came to Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail in Oroquieta City as detention prisoners in August 2010, they were thin and pale. Their smell indicated that they had not bathed for many days already.
Obet was accused of theft with other two young boys. When they came to Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail in Oroquieta City as detention prisoners in August 2010, they were thin and pale. Their smell indicated that they had not bathed for many days already.
Because they were minors, they were not placed in regular
cells where living was too difficult. Instead they were each assigned to the
three cells of the trustee building within the compound. Here, mobility was
better compared to the regular cells where inmates were locked up almost 24/7
except in one hour sun exposure during Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Obet chose cell number 3, our cell. He was shy. And as our offering, one buddy and I gave out our night’s meal for him. He took the food and consumed everything in the plates. We thought he and his buddies might not have eaten for days too, which he later confirmed to be so.
Months had passed and his other buddies Albert and Jason finally got visits from their respective families who hailed from Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur and Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay respectively. I asked Obet why did his parents not visit him. He told me he lost their contact numbers and the remaining option was to write them. His parents who were vegetable vendors in Oroquieta City did not have any idea what happened to their son. “So, write them a letter and we’ll ask the guards to deliver it to your parents,” I told him.
Weeks had passed and I did not see anybody visiting Obet. I asked him about the letter because I knew how it was to have no visitors when you see fellow inmates enjoying the company of their loved ones even for a very limited time inside the jail. He just smiled whenever I raised the idea of writing his parents, and would just tell me he would do it.
It was Jason who told me that Obet did not know how to read
and to write his name. I confronted him and he told me the truth. I asked him
if he was interested to learn how to
write his name and he was excited about it.
So I asked Annie Jean to buy for us an eraser, a box of chalk, and to bring some used pre-school books of my kids back home and paints. With Obet, we transformed one prison wall full of ‘vandalisms’ into a green board where we could write our lessons on. Like the looks of chalkboards at DepEd schools, I wrote the alphabets and numbers right at the upper portion of the board for Obet’s easy reference.
It was a sort of challenge for me as a former college instructor. Although my field was not a pre-school I felt it was my responsibility to help Obet learn basic literacy and vowed I would learn to teach him in the process. Besides, I had very few things to do inside the jail so we decided to hold classes for us to enjoy and to learn. It was also a very effective means of fighting boredom, one of the worst companions of prisoners.
We met at our makeshift classroom every 5:00 P.M to 6:00 P.M., Mondays to Fridays.
As we were into the third week of our class, one strict prison
guard approached me and said the warden wanted to see me about “your class.”
(To be continued)
Labels:
alternative education,
literacy,
prisoners,
youthful offender
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
MOA-AD sparks fresh assaults
Here's a piece of history from my journal...
August 19, 2008
My morning trip
to Kapatagan was unusual. The Aurora-Cagayan national highway which was
normally busy with transportation and other
human activities became desolate. Heavily armed soldiers manned the checkpoints,
most of which were newly installed. Only a handful of motorcabs plied their
usual routes. Public buses, vans and trucks are not on their usual trips. Only very few schoolchildren were hiking on
the roadsides to their respective schools.
Early
morning yesterday, alleged fighters of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) attacked the municipalities of Kolambogan and Linamon in Lanao del
Norte and Maasin in Saranggani Province. A day before, two bombs exploded in Iligan City
hurting about 6 people and was blamed on the MILF.
In Kolambogan,
the rebels bombed the seaport, ransacked
the rural bank and other commercial establishments and set afire a PNP patrol
car there. They also shot at civilians along the way and fired at a Rural Transit
bus plying towards Iligan.
Thousands
of panic-stricken coastal residents in said towns scampered for safety in the
neighboring province Misamis Occidental, particularly in Ozamis City
aboard pump boats.
Among
the 26 reported casualties were one Lt. Col. Angel Benitez with his three military
aides, the rest were civilian motorists and by-standers, radio reports said.
One
resident who became and unwilling host of some rebels who requested to be let
in to her house in Kolambogan amidst the chaos, narrated later of her encounter
with the rebels. She said those she saw were in their early twenties and “they
looked like university students.”
One
of the high-powered wielding young boys allegedly told her in Tagalog “we are
not bad, we only want the implementation of the MOA.”
Her
encounter with whom she called “courteous” rebels was short-lived.
The rebels
retreated shortly upon the arrival of government troops at noon time that day.
They brought with them more than 50 civilians from the area as their shield
against the pursuing troops, radio reports said.
Last
night, Kapatagan residents missed their night sleep on reports that at 3:00 dawn
today, MILF forces would attack the town and other neighboring municipalities.
So
were the residents in Pagadian
City and those in other
coastal towns of Zamboanga del Sur and Sibugay provinces.
Annie
Jean called me from Margos
Regional Hospital
informing that a bomb threat has been reported twice in the hospital. Kumalarang
town was allegedly taken over by the MILF. She said rebel movements were allegedly
spotted in the Moro-populated towns
Dinas, Dimataling, Pitogo and others.
Few
hours after the attack yesterday, Pres. Gloria Arroyo condemned the MILF attack
as “treacherous.” She ordered that government troops to protect “every inch of
Philippine territory.”
Later,
Philippine Armed Forces Chief Gen. Alexander Yano ordered an “all out war”
against the MILF.
Ustadz
Eid Kabalu, spokesperson of the MILF told reporters that the attacks were not
sanctioned by the MILF Central Committee and that their ground troops acted on
their own. MILF leadership could not control the ground forces, Kabalu’s
statement implied.
It
can be recalled that barely two weeks ago, few villages in North
Cotabato were also attacked by the MILF. Thousands of civilians fled
their homes and farms.
These
series of fresh hostilities happened in the face of the controversial
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) singed in August 5 in Malaysia between the government and
MILF negotiators. The MOA is now at the Supreme Court for decision.
Two Sides
There
are two major sides on the MOA. Those who favor for its enforcement argue that
the MOA is harmless in that this is only
a document setting the talking points of the ancestral domain issue on which
both sides got stuck in their past talks.
The MOA
identifies 721 barangays to cover the Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity, an increase
if more than a hundred barangays originally demanded by the MILF which was 600.
Those who are opposed to its implementation said that it is an outright partition of large Mindanao areas in favor of the MILF. Those who are for
the MOA said there is nothing to worry about it because a plebiscite has yet to
be conducted to determine whether or not residents in the covered areas are
amenable to the proposed area of the Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity.
Amidst
this clash of perspectives, the Supreme Court came in hopefully to shed light
on the matter and to dispel all doubts clouding it.
Impatient
GRP
Peace Panel Adviser Rodolfo Garcia told ANC that those who were involved in the
attacks were the younger members of the MILF who got impatient with the
developments in the negotiations.
This
kind of reasoning, which the MILF also uses to justify the attacks unmasks the
MILF’s state of organizational disunity. The manner by which its ground troops
treat civilians in their operations in the field indicate the barbarity of the
guerillas, one observer noted.
Sen.
Nene Pimentel in media interviews argued that all these things now are to be
blamed on the Arroyo administration.
He said that the
MOA that was originally brokered by Peace Adviser Ret. Gen. Germogenes Esperon
served as the ignition force of the highly volatile peace condition in Mindanao. The MOA, argued Pimentel created false hopes
among the many Muslims in Mindanao that they
will finally have their Bangsa Moro when in reality it only further delays the
final resolution of their quest.
Any questions
raised about the legality of the MOA have been viewed by many expectant Muslims
as serious blocks to finally achieving their dream of a homeland in Mindanao.
Labels:
Bangsa Moro,
mindanao,
Moro Problem,
Peace Process
Monday, August 20, 2012
Crumbling wall
The hitherto
volatile Muslim-Christian relation has been put to serious test anew with the
recent carnage that took place in the sleepy riceland barangay of Sto. Tomas in
Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte on July 10 this year.
Two Maranao
youths were found dead, their bodies bearing gunshot wounds and their heads were each severed
at a vacant lot owned by one of the alleged four Visayan perpetrators
who belonged to a reputable family in the barangay. After few weeks of manhunt, two were
formally charged in court and one of them
was captured in Cebu by police
authorities. He is now detained at the Provincial Reformatory Jail in Tubod,
Lanao del Norte. A manhunt is ongoing
for the other one while formal charges for the other two are now being prepared
by authorities. Conflict over share of the proceeds of drugs or gun deals were
among the angles being eyed by the probers.
Right after
the incident, people’s reaction, especially that of the non-Muslim residents in
Sto. Tomas was a mix of uncertainty over their safety and aghast to the
perpetrators. They practically fear, on the one hand, of an impending backlash
from the relatives of the victims, which is characteristic of the Moro’s
tradition of rido (clan-based
vendetta), and blame, on the other the
perpetrators for causing such seemingly unforgivable violence in their midst.
Elementary
school attendance was heavily affected. Only 50 out of 200 elementary students
attended school even two weeks after the incident, a school principal told this writer. The
teachers, being mandated to report to work in the absence of a contrary
official order, surmounted insecurity by
regularly attending classes.
The air of
fear certainly affects not only the residents of Sto. Tomas. Neighboring barangays
are now afraid to visit the place, lest
they be mistaken for the relatives of the perpetrators, exposing
themselves to the potential violence
that the aggrieved families may afflict them. Even the employees of the local
government are extra - cautious too. In fact, one preset activity in the
barangay was subject to questions by those involved whether it is safe to pursue it.
These and
similar feelings prompted a meeting of concerned Muslim, Christian, and government leaders from Lala, Sapad and
Kapatagan towns on July 11, a day after the incident . Security forces from the
Armed Forces and the Police were also part of said meeting which took place in
the Function Hall of Kapatagan.
One observer, who’s been known to possess an
“anti-Muslim” sentiment came out of the meeting with optimism. He told me he
appreciated so much the declaration of Muslim leaders before the other
delegates of the meeting who assured them that they will not allow nay tolerate
rido-like tendencies or behavior among their members especially on the issue at
hand. Such leaders, who were aware that
the crime did not have anything to do with faith but probably with drugs or
gunrunning, urged in fact teachers and parents to let their children go to
school as they used to do before the
bloody incident. Just as the Christians are wary of the past “Muslim-Christian”
conflict in the 70’s, present-day Muslim leaders also felt the same, the
observer said.
That July 11
meeting punctuated yet again of the importance of dialogue. Churches and
government leaders should do similar activities more often. If the July 11
meeting initiated cracks of the wall of biases of this observer I spoke with,
there is no reason that others of the same mindset will not reexamine
themselves.
Labels:
dialogue,
kapatagan,
lanao del norte,
mindanao,
peace building
Friday, June 1, 2012
Pollutant
ILOILO CITY- The American speaker who I mentioned in the
preceding article entitled “Disaster” continued lashing at the “unpreparedness”
of people in the countries severely affected by natural disasters. He did this
while announcing his credentials being a global expert in disaster risk
management for 38 years now.
Right after the foreigner wrapped up his more than 30-minute
talk, the lady moderator asked for comments and questions from us-- the
audience who have been tightly squeezed inside the congested hall. In a matter
of seconds, former Sen. Heherson Alvarez of
Climate Change Commission stood up and announced his admiration to the
speaker.
But before his admiration could sink in, his tone immediately
twisted to emphatically criticize the first world’s huge emission of carbon
dioxide that is primarily responsible for the excessive warming of the earth,
melting glaciers and eventually causing the irregular increase of water levels
at a global scale.
“You should reduce your emission if you are genuinely
concerned of abetting future mega disasters,” was in effect what Alvarez wanted
to tell the speaker who seemed to overlook the real causes of the natural
tragedies that hit several places of the
world. First world ’s carbon emission is placed at 80
percent while 20 percent is shared by second world and third world countries,
according to Alvarez's figures.
This line of Alvarez reminded me of the article I read from
the Internationalist magazine while I was still inside prison in 2010. The
article, which title I forget now, analyzed which contributed how much to
global warming. It argued that it is the first world particularly its giant
corporations that are truly responsible in the destruction of the earth’s
ecological balance at its present horrendous proportion in pursuit of profit.
With this level of culpability, the first world should lead
in the rehabilitation efforts for mother earth, the article further noted. As response to the challenge, first world governments are giving incentives to
companies that meet carbon emission standards, among others.
This effort and other
similar regulations are laudable.
But what we need is more than carbon emission regulation. What we need is the protection of the remaining resources we have from being continually exploited and the restoration of those that have been ravaged in the name of profit.
But what we need is more than carbon emission regulation. What we need is the protection of the remaining resources we have from being continually exploited and the restoration of those that have been ravaged in the name of profit.
I wonder if
environmental rehabilitation and protection can go hand in hand with the
Capital’s inherent drive for super profits. I learned that no matter what the costs could be,
Capital is innately willing to go as long as huge profit is assured.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Disaster
Right after lunch the participants broke up into various
groups to listen to a variety of lectures by local and international experts on
environmental research, river
management, disaster risk reduction and management (drrm) and others.
I joined the group that preferred the topic on drrm. One speaker that caught my attention
was an American who claimed to have worked on drrm for almost four decades now. He recalled some
natural tragedies that caught international attention which included the
tsunami in Indonesia, a flood in Fiji, a flood in Aceh, lahar mudflow in
Pampangga, Ondoy, Sendong, etc, etc. “One common denominator in all of these,”
he said was that “the people in these areas were not prepared.”
In the case of the Philippines ,
he lashed at the ningas cogon
attitude of Filipinos to explain the level of preparedness (unpreparedness to
be exact) of our people to the challenges of drrm in particular and to climate
change in general. He said we are eager to talk about disaster prevention and
mitigation and preparedness usually right after a disaster strikes us. But
later our eagerness subsides especially when we feel that its possibility of
recurrence is not imminent.
LGUs usually complain that we can not be adequately prepared
because of funds constraints. But when calamity strikes, we wonder how we are
able to muster a lot of financial,
logistical and moral support for our victims and the rehabilitation of
devastated communities which expenses far exceed the resources that could have
been allocated for mitigation and preparedness.
After his talk, I asked myself: are the communities I work
with now prepared for disasters like flood, landslide and earthquake?
The answer to my own question brought me to the realization that the country does not lack
human and material resources to address the challenges of climate change. What
we basically lack I think is the will to
combat the worst disaster that has inflicted our national psyche: complacency.
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