Clampdown on the Day of Freedom

Today, the Philippines commemorates the 20th anniversary of the first People Power. It is considered as a bloodless revolution admired by the entire world in 1986. Today, interest groups once again will troop to the EDSA Shrine not just to recall the heroism of those who stood firm against the dictator in 1986. Today also marks the groups’ articulation of disgust over President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s leadership.

This celebration is stalled. The President declared a state of national emergency.

At 2 a.m. there was a failed coup attempt. One brigadier general withdrew support to the government but he was contained. Classes in all levels were suspended. The political opposition was alleged as a co-conspirator of the Left and the Extreme Right. About eight hours later, the Commander-in-Chief declared Proclamation No. 1017 with the goal to protect the government from lawless elements, and maintain peace, order, and safety. The declaration was believed to be enshrined in Article II, Sec. 4 and Art. VII, Sec. 18. No congressional bicameral concurrence was needed for the declaration.

Based on television interviews with constitutionalists, lawyers, government officials, and the military, a country under this state will observe the following:

1. No political rallies are allowed. The EDSA 1 celebration was cancelled. The police dispersed the protesters.
2. Warrant-less arrests can be made.
3. Government can take over utilities in the name of public interest.
4. There are no curfews.
5. Declaration stays unless lifted by the President herself.

Among other ways of carrying out the declaration, the government expressed its difference from martial law that is absolutist in nature:

1. No political rallies are allowed.
2. Warrant-less arrests can be made. The current scenario, however, allows a writ of habeas corpus and may question the detention. Since the courts still function, then the arrests may be affirmed or refuted.
3. Government can take over utilities in the name of public interest.
4. There are curfews.
5. Declaration stays unless lifted by the President herself.

Qualms about the declaration from vanguards of democracy cannot be muffled. The sad plight of the Philippines during the martial law is an unforgettable ghost.

Questions:

1. Is there a need to declare a state of emergency to nip in the bud the perceived lawlessness?
2. Is there a clear and present danger in rallies such that all political in nature have to be prevented?
3. What will happen to civil liberties which remain protected despite the declaration?

The coup was contained. According to President Arroyo, the government is now in control of the situation. The Armed Forces still expressed allegiance to her. The loyalty check was favorable to her.

Intelligence reports on impending threats justified the declaration. But the declaration is unnecessary as it damages other areas in socio-politics. I think it is an overreaction and it is too preemptive in nature. It clearly delineates the lines between those who are in favor and not to her administration. The ban on all rallies is a perfumed way to prevent her ouster. If the military is at your side then there is nothing to fear. But perhaps because loyalty can change colors she just ensured a scheme to maintain that loyalty.

It takes one to know one. She has lost her loyalty (if ever she was) to democracy because the declaration negates democracy itself. Multi-perspectives or diverse opinions are significant in democracy but the silencing of the opposition through the ban on rallies prohibits these. Banning rallies disallows avenues to express opposition.

The banning of all rallies also assumes that it is a form of clear and present danger. Remember that President Estrada stepped down from power after the rallies in EDSA. President Arroyo has declared the same state of emergency on May 1, 2001 after rallyists almost stormed Malacañang to oust her. It must have been traumatic and because she does not want history to repeat itself, she banned all rallies now. Protestors were prevented from merging. They were squashed while still manageable.

Perhaps, one lame argument behind the prevention of rallies is that lawless elements and opportunists might exploit rallies as a mouthpiece to drag her out of her political seat. A strong, assertive, and vocal throng of people can pressure the military to withdraw support like what General Ramos and Angelo Reyes did during the two epochs of bloodless revolutions. President Arroyo took the same stance now because of paranoia. Or schizophrenia. She uses national security as shield at the expense of civil liberties.

Freedom of expression. Freedom of assembly. Eventually, right to information and freedom of the press will also be limited as media reportage has restrictions now. There is also the threat of government takeover if the media support entities that incite rebellion or sensationalize treasonous materials. The new media behavior that constitutes a lapdog is not yet clear. But clearly, the media as venue of expression of diverse opinions, both positive and negative to the government, is now inexistent. The gagging is ominous which tends to suggest that media should be acquiescent to the government.

The real threat to national security is not posed by those who clamor development and change in governance. It is a constitutional entitlement to express the need for a better government. It is a human inkling to demand the best.

Those who cannot deliver public service but who cling on to power because of pride and reputation in effect exacerbate the real threat not just to national security but to democracy. Social unrest will not end unless the root cause is addressed.

In the coming days there will be a constitutional battle on the interpretation of the right to protect the State and the right to self-expression. It will be intellectually bloody. The quest for truth and the definition of truth will be elusive. It takes sacrifice to end the battle among Filipinos. Who will sacrifice?

Victory to Sorry

February 10

Very busy day:

I had to cook breakfast for my visitor. I fried boneless bangus and prepared salted eggs with tomatoes as a side dish.

I rushed to school to meet the contingents to San Sebastian College. I had no time to buy my lunch so when I saw Ate Anna, I spooned some of her food. I loved the veggies.

At the contest venue, I was drafting a press release due at 6p.m while watching good and lousy orators. Ada Peñaflor, a sophomore communication major, was chosen as one of the finalists in the Community Chest Foundation’s Oratorical Contest. She bested 13 other participants and would compete on March 3 at the PICC to represent FEU-ORADEC. I am very proud of her and I hope she will win this one. I wrote her oration piece which highlights the need to practice the “principle of conjugality” to stop pornography.

She needs to have a power dress and has to be more certain with her hand gestures. If these cues are enhanced, she will become more persuasive given her very powerful voice and clear diction. She has all the components of a winner.

I encoded the press release on the 1st Tripartite Confluence. It tackled the plans of the administration, top alumni, and current student leaders to improve the image of FEU in the corporate world. As a jumpstart, alumni networking must be enhanced.

I rushed to SM San Lazaro to help my cousin do her shopping using her credit card. It was her first time to use it. Her siblings call her as Dora because she knows every nook of Metro Manila. So I said, “Swiper no swiping, swiper no swiping” to prevent loss of control in card use. We ended the night with a good meal at Rai Rai Ken. I love the lemon grass jelly.

February 11

The third batch of MC0232 speakers impressed me. Preparation and mastery are clichéd but still effective formulae. My students applied what they learned and I hope they would keep it up.

Then I learned more about my student whom I badly wanted to berate one time. She was absent for the midterm examination. I tried to inquire her whereabouts that day but no one from her classmates immediately replied. Then I asked, “Does she have any friend in class?” One said right away with a smirk, “None!” Curiously I replied, “Really?” Then the catalog of reasons:

I learned that she ran away from home because she is not in good terms with her dad. Her dad had contacted some of my female students to encourage her to return home.

I also learned about her rage against her mom for “giving her away.” She used her tuition for this midterm exam and preferred not to take the exams for fear of being turned down by the Profs. Then most of the girls said that no one likes to get along with her because she is a showoff.

Now I completely understand her personal history. Deep inside I want to talk to her and find a way to mend the fences. She needs her dad in order to brave the rain. She needs to go down from her ivory tower and learn the value of social commerce. She will be my challenge.

February 12

After four years I visited my aunt who took care of me when I was in college. She cooked, as always, good lunch – mix of Ilocano, Pampango and Visayan dishes.

It was my first time to see in person my aunt’s five-year-old grandson who is autistic. I am also his godfather. I embraced him tight and his parents took our pictures with the strawberry-choco cream cake I bought for him. Lessons learned and observations made:

1. My cousins accepted his fate only two years ago. For one year, his father did not attend masses. I understand the blow. It is normal. Now I am happy they have fully accepted him and their duty to the boy. His wife is 3-month pregnant. The couple said someone would now take care of Josh if they were gone.

2. Josh needs all the attention. He always stays on the second floor because there are fewer objects to touch. He has his own table where he can put his toys. He has a fixation to tear a paper. He loves Jollibee very much. He knows how to get his portable CR to pee. He must not eat chocolates two days before his therapy because these make him hyper. Etc.

3. He threw to the air his puzzle pieces then picked them up. He drank my Gatorade even if he had his own bottle.

4. I learned that one indicator of an autistic baby is lack of eye contact. I also read some guidelines on taking care. What struck me is the need to give physical prompting if repeated instructions are still disobeyed.

His parents must be patient. I am trying to think God’s plan for giving my cousin this special lovely boy.

I watched Munich when I reached home. No dull moment for an almost 3-hour film. Each plan to kill the Black September terrorists is worth the wait. Of course, I do not glorify violence since it breeds a horrendous cycle of murders. Eric Bana is great. His internal strife seen through his eyes will perhaps make him win a Best Actor.

February 13

I was pissed off that I could not find my E700. I hoped that it was just left home. I was pissed off for being clueless about one document I was asked to submit. I spent 3 hours surfing the net to find a prototype then I submitted my draft. They liked it but I don’t. Hmmm, when actions are only for their sake they really lose meaning.

My throat was painful. It seemed to be a prelude to catching cold. I have to take care of my self. I hope I will still be fine before my dates on February 18 and 19 with friends. I have to visit the spa for a good massage. Oh, I need a spa-mate. I am willing to pay all costs just to avoid boredom while inside the sauna. But I have no choice and turn like a hermit if I cannot lug a friend with me.

Thank God I saw my phone at home.

February 14

I need to attend a benefit concert tonight at the RCBC Plaza and assist the organizer. I hope I can escape it. It is not really my responsibility but it seems so for PR wits. To put it bluntly, I am dateless today but I am not in search of one.

Pink

I visited a friend at Chateau and I was itching to lecture her 4-year-old boy who courteously said, “You are a girl,” simply because I was wearing a pink shirt. I said “No.” His mom was mum.

I wanted to do the same with his nosy nanny who scornfully asked, “Why are you wearing pink?”

This is not an issue of sexuality. In fact it is not supposed to be a big deal. But I am very much concerned about their limited perspective. Well, he is just FOUR YEARS OLD, what can I expect? Well, the nanny had limited education, what can I also expect?

Perhaps, both have grown up in absolute patriarchal contexts with parents without ample time to include gender sensitivity while interacting with them during their formative years. Yes, I blame it on their upbringing plus the reinforced stereotypes when exposed to ideological state apparatuses like the media, school, and church. Perhaps, they have been socialized that a man should wear blue shirts, play with guns and cars, watch Manny Pacquiao as he downs Morales, be rough, and choose the eagle as tattoo while girls must have pink panties with pink lacy ruffles, beautify Barbie, cross legs when seated, and pick a pink t-shirt with Tweety Bird on it.

This dichotomy makes me sick. While it makes life easy for some as it brings about “social order,” it muffles the appreciation of diversity in a world that now recognizes individuality and again, diversity. I am concerned because another boy might just grow up like any other traditional man who will reassert the superior position effortlessly bestowed upon him by society and use it to unnecessarily dominate women. It is a clear and early indicator of chauvinism for me.

Or I might just be overanalyzing. It is too early to tell. This boy will learn his lessons and might just wear pink shirts in the future too just like many male ramp models nowadays.

I hope next time I can properly and effectively share my ideas on postmodernism and deconstruct the oppressive texts of this essentializing. Or the challenge might be better worded as: I hope I can explain these to the yet intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically immature.

Good Bye My Nurses

I had nursing graduating students last 2004 and as part of their final oral exam in Speech 1, I assigned one word for each of them. The instruction is to expound said word and link it to friendship, love, communication and respect.

During our last meeting, I synthesized all words in boldface in this text and gave this farewell speech:

Most concepts represent an ideology. They are a system of beliefs that guides all of us. In this world, some consider themselves as superior than others. Some tend to criticize and create stereotypes about those who differ from them or those who do not support their current stature. There is, hence, a dichotomy or two things put in direct clash such as feminism vs. idea of masculinity. Usually, if we do not belong to the upper or dominant class, we find racism, free trade, privatization, armchair leadership, hierarchy, and capitalism as unfair and absurd. Because these are mechanisms used by the elite to perpetuate themselves in power.

As the so-called “inferiors,” some clamor for social justice and political correctness, some form labor unions and sometimes stage a parliamentary of the street, when they fail to attain their goals in the portals of Congress. If for example, our legislature creates a law prohibiting nursing graduates to leave the country in the next five years, I think you will surely join Anakbayan or Sanlakas to protest and air your grievances. You will use all your access to information and communications technology and practice media sensationalism to get full coverage of the restraints imposed to citizens with inherent rights in a democracy such as right to abode and right to earn a living. You will dissent because the law tramples upon your sovereignty as free individual. This is where we can test your citizenship or love and responsibility to your country.

What will now happen to some of your hedonistic desires? What will happen to the pleasure you derive from your fetishism for imported brands having been influenced by America’s cultural imperialism, of course, the thrill of snow, Washington apples, California oranges, four seasons, among other abundant resources of the First World. Some will miss the wonders of genetic engineering, the opportunity to have a photo-op with Dolly. You will surely miss the splendor and grandeur of cities exemplifying urban renewal – the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, etc. Instead of singing “London Bridge is Falling Down,” you will sadly chant “Dandansoy.”

The desperate might be involved in religious fanaticism. They will raise their hands and say, “Alleluia, bring me to America!” Or some will hunt for lovers in the Internet, create a virtual reality so that their dream to wear Trench coats and turtle necks will finally happen. Some will join Extra Challenge, a Philippine reality TV program to gain attention: Join the contest of eating the most number of cotton balls, the first to fill a blood bag, the fastest to insert intravenous needles, and the wittiest in humoring a CI.

Ah…these are products of my imagination. Perhaps, these are also my sad sentiments because some of the best minds of the country will leave and serve other nations instead. But what can I do? The basic instinct of man is survival. The country’s fiscal crisis is a strong wind blowing your sails to farther but safer direction.

My plea: Do not forget your indigenous culture nor have a turncoatism from our culture to the more liberal and Westernized way of life. I’m sure you won’t because I know you are intelligent Filipinos who will be Filipinos across space and time. I know that in your veins will still run the Filipino blood because you are not cowards who practice escapist attitude by abandoning their native land and ethnicity literally and figuratively just because your country has gargantuan problems and there is a better life abroad. And I think my role as teacher who actualizes a sense of academic freedom so that discussions about theories and concepts and sometimes about spices of life become more student-centered and inspirational respectively.

I must say that this semester is my happiest. I had a lot of record-breakers. For the first time of my life, I gave a perfect score for a student’s Speech 1 performance. My friends tell me that perhaps, my standard is getting low, I’m getting old or I’m no longer the icon of a “smiling terror.”

I opposed all of them. I did not have a hard time this semester and I gave high grades in your oral exams because you are good, determined and I appreciate your unity as a class. This is the kind of attitude we need in this country. I am sad in a way because other countries will directly benefit from your expertise. I can’t criticize you for that because I have a plan myself to work abroad especially that opportunities have begun to knock. I hope we will all be together in going back to our home – the Philippines.

For those whom I have hurt because of my inevitable bitchiness, please accept my sincerest apologies. It was never meant to malign you but to remind you of certain obligations that are sometimes neglected in the pursuit of so many things. As professionals, our real meaning does not lie on how many endeavors we have accomplished but on how we have done each endeavor properly.

For those I failed to greet or give my smile while looking at me on the corridors, pardon my “kasungitan.” Honestly, I am a bit anti-social. I have a small circle of friends NOT because I am picky or I hold myself highly. I’m simply not expressive but ask my friends or read my friendster testimonials, most negative impressions do not hold water. I am someone who will laugh and make fun out of the simplest and easiest things on Earth. I have small dreams and funny perks. I collect table napkins with the company logo, I am a couch potato who enjoys Mulamin very much. I am a chocolate addict until my laryngologist prohibited me from eating much of it.

In essence, what we see in a person is not the person itself. He or she could be a social construction or how the society wants that person to be. Friendship, love, and communication are then very essential since they bring out ones true worth. Wherever or whatever you are in the future remember that good communication will be your best tool to forge harmonious relationships.

Verbal Abuse?

Perhaps, I was very stressed out. I became impatient. I was intolerant of differences. I was not peaceful. I was not able to live up to my principle that “Self-control is power.”

Wednesday, February 1:

I cannot help it. My class composed of freshmen who flunked a refresher English course last semester has not yet significantly improved even if the midterm exam is in the offing. After a series of diagnostic tests, I can conclude that their problem is not really on grammar but on their attitude towards learning.

Two meetings ago, I asked them to memorize a two-minute speech using adjectives to describe certain situations that I provided. Since there is sufficient time to prepare, I got disappointed when on the date of performance some were just doing their speeches when I entered the classroom. One even complained that she did not know there was an assignment because she was absent. I replied that it is her duty to ask her classmates what happened during the meeting she was absent. I also told her that even if that was impossible, she could simply refer to her syllabus because I already enumerated all activities for each meeting.

I saw her bit her teeth and based on her facial expressions, she was trying to suppress her pangs of anger as if she did not have any shortcomings at all. I saw her hardened jaw and sharp eyes. Worst of all, she retorted my every statement. Context: The classroom had the sound of a market where everyone seemed to have a business transaction. This added to my growing irritation.

“I am the teacher,” I told myself and I must reassert this role. I felt the need to cut that argumentation. So I shouted “QUUUIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEETTTTT! There was complete silence. I rose from my seat and stood in front of the class. I could not vividly remember my speech but its thrust:

“This is the worst class I ever had. Now I am not surprised why you flunked this subject last semester. As I have told you, attitude is the problem. What else do you want me to do? You can complain if the assignment was given just last meeting and you had very limited time to prepare. One of you even had the guts to complain.” (I wanted to single her out even further but that would be traumatic and too personal so I discontinued. I gave generalized comments.)

I looked at everyone and all of them were silent. Some tilted their heads down. “You have the duty to work as students. This is not like high school where most lectures are spoon-fed. Your attendance in my class does not guarantee a passing grade. You have to work.”

I told them that I am really very tired of them. I wanted to insult them but I could not have the heart to do it. I dismissed the class 30 minutes before the time but I could not end it without giving hopes that I have forgiven them. So I gave additional requirements. And I asked them if everything was understood. I heard a “YES.” A not-so sincere yes actually. The class was apathetic and it was pointless to exhaust more energy.

On the next meeting, I became a mechanical teacher. I just graded them and did not comment anymore. As expected some prepared, some were mediocre.

Honestly, I feel so bad about this class as a teacher. I cannot just come to school and not be emotionally involved. I think I have failed as a teacher.

I will give my conclusion after the end of this semester. I hope there will be a significant difference in their performance after berating them. Perhaps, I also need to lower my expectations. My students may have a different definition of growth in class…