Good day everyone, what a tiring week, it has been, and now to top it all up, I am going to discuss to you the good and the bad side of BUHAY party list.

To start things off, I would first discuss what I believe is the bad side of the BUHAY party list. First I am a supporter of the RH bill, which they staunchly oppose, I believe there us nothing wrong with this bill, I don’t think our country would disintegrate to total immorality if we legalize abortion. Think about it, there is a thousand ways for anyone in this country to get an abortion, and not one of those thousand ways is legal, therefore they are not safe. If we actually legalize abortion we could curb the black market for abortion pills, doctors, and such. Also, even Spain, a close friend of the Vatican, allows abortion. Let us not be withheld by conservative beliefs.

Second, I think there is something wrong when they told us that they do not have plans for the upcoming election, when they answered the previous question (would you want to be a dominant party?) with a negative answer then further elaborate that they would want to remain as the top party list. Kind of confusing isn’t it? You don’t have plans, but you want to remain as the top party?

Now for the good things about this party, well all I can say is that they have a very efficient set of representatives, and that their bills reflects their advocacies of Pro-life, Productivity and Good governance.

The second thing I like about this party is that once the decision of the COMELEC on their problems of representation was given, both factions respected it. A good sign of maturity.

P.S

I still support the RH bill on the merits of choice and safety, I too do not believe that we are over populated, rather we are not distributed properly.

“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. “
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

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May The Force Be With You

A party with a vision for change, a party that merged Christians and Muslims, and a party that developed a unique system of leadership is now recognized as the most dominant party in the country – the Lakas-CMD.

With the collaboration of two known parties namely Partido Lakas ng Tao, spearheaded by Former President Fidel V. Ramos, and the National Union of Christian Democrats, which was fore fronted by Raul Manglapus, Lakas-NUCD was created in preparation for the 1992 elections. A couple of years after, it formed a coalition with the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino for the 1995 elections and was then known as Lakas-Laban coalition. By 1998, the party was bonded with the Union of Muslim Democrats of the Philippines and formed the name Lakas-NUCD-UMDP. And by 2001, the party was renamed to the current title Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD). And to make the party stronger, it merged with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s mother party, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI).

Albeit this party was formed from different races in different times, they still proved their dominance by sticking to their number one obligation which is to serve the country; yet issues, questions and intrigues seem to put a crack on to this democratic stronghold. One of which was the act by the Palace to remove Jose de Venecia as Speaker of the House, and the issue that he too, for delicadeza, should let go of Lakas party due to the trouble he had made. A strong force that can really put a crack to the walls of the party, can they really stand still and recover from it?

All people have their weaknesses, even the strongest person in the world would have an opening of his weakness, yet Lakas-CMD can still shove all these intrigues and problems. The question here is how long will they hold the position of dominance? How long will they prove everyone that merging is not just about sticking to the strong but about sticking for a good cause? They have merged Christians and Muslims, yet Muslim leaders can’t be seen in the picture. Can this be just sort of a part of the game or just nothing but a show off to gain the sympathy of the mass?

No one can really tell how people play in this game of politics. Lakas-CMD may be the best party so far, but until when can they hold their advocacies? As of now, proving this recognition would be a better way to drove all these dragging concerns that doubt the most dominant party’s power. Acting in our country’s worst may let us, the Filipino people, feel what it is to act on our country’s best. With great power comes great responsibility.

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Title: LADLAD Political Party: Bare It All!

Gloomy morning, a fitting start for a gloomy interview? As we walk through the posh Ateneo hallways one idea keeps running in our minds; what kind of person is Danton Remoto? As we enter his office, we were greeted with warm smiles and cheerful greetings, truly a negation of our unfounded fears. What we thought would end up as a boring and rigid interview turned out to be nothing short of a balakubak exposé.

Of course, the first question we asked was what the LADLAD party is, and what are your plans and agendas for the said party. Mr. Remoto gave us a heartthrob smile and told us the facts about the LADLAD party, and it goes like this:

1. LADLAD political party is a political party that fights for the equality of gays and lesbians in our society. If you are thinking about gay marriage worry not, because the LADLAD political party does not advocate same sex marriage, when they say equal rights, they meant equality in the workplace, schools, and other places.

2. The LADLAD political party was not given permission to run last election because the Commission on Elections ruled that they do not have enough members, and therefore they are not under represented. What does this mean? It means if the gay community wants to be heard, they need to register and join LADLAD.

3. Prof. Danton Remoto would run for the senate in the 2010 elections. The LADLAD party hopes to be represented in our legislative branch to be able to pass bills that would actually help the gay community.

As we live the office of Prof. Remoto, he asked us a trivial question…….

Mr. Dy, why don’t you register for LADLAD?

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Biruin mo nakagawa kami nito?!



Pag-ika’y napagawi sa lansangan ng Jakarta, at mababanggit ang salitang Golkar, isang tao lang ang mamumutawi sa mga labi ng mga Indones at yan ay si Suharto, na di lang nag tatag ng partidong ito ngunit nagsilbi ring ama at modelo ng bawat miyembro nito.

Ang partido ay sumisimbulo sa kagustuhan ng mga Indones na magkaroon ng maayos at mapayapang bansa pagkatapos ng pagkakalaya nila mula sa kamay ng mapang-abusong Sukarno.

Kung ikukumpara si Suharto kay Sukarno, masasabing mas naging matiwasay ang pamumuhay ng bawat mamamayan, bumaba ang pagdepende ng bansa sa mga tulong mula sa mga bansang USSR at US at nabawasan ang mga seperatistang nais makapagsarili at magtayo ng hiwalay na bansa. Di gaya ng panahon ni Sukarno na dumaan sa matinding depresyon ang bansa at naitala pa sa panahon niya ang isa sa pinaka malala at madugong pagpatay sa libo-libong miletanteng kontra sa kanyang pamamalakad, at ang pagsandal sa mga bansa gaya ng US at USSR.



Itinatag ang Golkar di lamang upang mapaglingkuran ang mga Indones ngunit pati na rin ang magsilbing boses at gabay nito sa gobyerno. Ang grupo ang naging hulmahan ng mga lider na nagsilbi di lamang sa kanilang sarili ngunit higit sa lahat ay nagsilbi sa bawat mamamayan na kanilang nasasakupan.

Ang Golkar ay maikukumpara natin sa isang makina ng kotse, na di tatakbo kung wala ang taong bayan, na nagsilbing gas na sumuporta at naging drving force ng partido at si Suharto, na nagsilbing tagamaneho at taga-manipula nito na ginamit ito upang magpatuloy ang partido na nag silbi naman ay maging instrumento sa pagkakaroon ng matibay na republika ng Indonesia.

Sa pagkawala ng pundasyon na si Suharto, ay humina rin ang puwersa ng Golkar sa gobyerno ng Indonesia. Kaya atin ring masasabi na ang partido ay naging tanyag di lang dahil sa mga prinsipyo nitong “Pancasila” na kumakatawan sa limang haligi ng partidong—maniwala sa iisang Diyos, pagiging makatao, pagiging nasyonalismo, hustisyang panlipunan, at kalayaan; ngunit dahil na rin kay Suharto na di lang nagsilbing pundasyon ngunit naging ama rin ng partido.

Datapwat, mahina ang kapit ng partido sa kasalukuyang gobyerno, malakas pa rin ang inpluwensiya nito di lamang sa paggawa ng mga polisiya ngunit pati na rin sa kulturang pampulitika ng bansa, sila ang nagsimula sa pagreporma sa lumang pamamalakad na nagsilbing bangungot sa bawat mamayan nito.

Masasabi man natin na may pagkakahawig ang mga prinsipyo ni Sukarno sa mga prinsipyo ng partido ni Suharto, di nating maiaalis ang katotohanan na pang-mamamayan ang mga prinsipyo na binuo ng partidong Golkar.

Nagmula man sa pansariling interes ngunit interes ng bawat mamayan ang namayani, interes na tumatak at humubog sa kasaysayan ng Indonesia.

Bawat partido ay may kanya-kanyang panahon, kanya-kanyang pagkakataon, may pagbaksak, may pagbangon, ngunit sa lahat ng mga ito, ang golkar kailanman, bumagsak man, o bumangon, di na maiaalis sa bawat puso ng bawat Indones, ang iniwan nitong pamana.

Dahil sa tubig…
Sa lupa…
At himpapawid ng Indonesia…
may nag-iisang
Golkar…”
--from Dyosa = )

“Hay salamat natapos na rin ang pagpiga sa aming mga utak upang makagawa ng isang obra na sumasalamin sa mga katauhan ni anze, bheng, mace at jess sa tulong ng isang kaibigan na si Fusi…”

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History

The Communist Party of the Philippines is the leading communist party in our country. The party was formed in a remote barangay in Alaminos, Pangasinan on December 26, 1968, following a split from the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas. The party was founded by Jose Maria Sison following his break with the old, pro-Soviet Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas.

CPP-founder Sison is a former member of Kabataang Makabayan (the Patriotic Youth), which today forms a youth organization within the CPP. After then-President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country in 1972, Sison was imprisoned—but was released in 1986 under an amnesty instigated by President Corazon Aquino. Since 1987, Sison has lived in exile in Utrecht, serving as chief advisor to the NDF which represents CPP and 13 other smaller communist guerilla groups in political talks with the government of Manila.

Ideologies

CPP is ideologically Maoist and has been fighting a “protracted people’s war” through its armed wing since 1969. Since then, CPP has embraced the Maoist doctrine and grown in size with the aim of overthrowing the Philippine government through guerilla warfare. It participates in the Maoist International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organization. It heads the broad revolutionary front organization, the National Democratic Front. The CPP, Marxist-Leninist/Mao Tse-tung Thought, is a revolutionary proletarian party that looks upon the legacies of the past Philippine rebellions and revolutions and of the theories of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. It assists the progress of theory and practice in the world proletarian revolution that is guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.

Armed Wing

Today, the CPP has a strong guerilla arm wing known as the New People’s Army, which opposes any US presence in the Philippines.

Political Wing

Its political wing is known as the New Democratic Front, and was created in 1976 by Fr. Luis Jalandoni in Utrecht, Netherlands.

CPP Abroad

The Communist Party of the Philippines/National Democratic Front (CPP/NDF) networks abroad has effectively influenced the activities of insurgents in the Philippines.

It started as a small core group in 1971 and reached its zenith in 1980 when it lead a successful campaign against the Marcos government. The establishment of the CPP/NDF international network abroad tries to influence the political parties, unions, and churches to assist in carrying out their objective which is to overthrow the Aquino government. Fr. Luis Jalandoni’s efforts in establishing its base in Utrecht, Netherlands marked the beginning of that group’s international works.

The stylishness of the CPP/NDF network abroad in conducting their overseas revolutionary work, greatly contributes to the struggle in the Philippines against the Aquino government. The aid given by foreign nations greatly influence individual givers. This is because the picture presented by foreign countries makes the world realize the corruption existing in the Philippines. It has survived internationally through the help of political parties, union and churches who are also fighting for national liberation and democracy.

The CPP/NDF doctrine is to overthrow the existing government through revolution. They’ve exercised an open propaganda to influence overseas Filipinos and the foreign public on the Filipino society.

CPP as an FTO

The CPP has killed, injured, and kidnapped a number of Filipino citizens and government officials as well as US citizens. While the group has remained a domestic guerilla group that never carried out terrorist activities overseas, its political effects have crossed national borders.

CPP is considered a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Government on August 09, 2002. The CPP is one of the most active terrorist groups in the Philippines. Manila had lobbied strenuously to have the organization designated as an FTO, although the CPP’s actual terror activities have been contained in the Philippines.

Issues

Throughout the 1990s, the CPP and the Philippine government engaged in a series of peace talks aimed at stabilizing the country, despite continuing sporadic guerilla attacks on government assets and officials.

Future

The political left is already part and parcel of the political landscape and that the controversy on the use of political violence can only obscure but not eliminate this development. The presence and active role of the left in the political system is inevitable, necessary and positive.

The unfortunate “total war” policy of the Aquino government, with its militarist solution can only delay the recognition of but not conceal, this fact that without the meaningful options represented by the left, we as intelligent citizens, will be so much the poorer when it comes to the range of political choices we are all entitled to.

Today, the CPP struggles to remain an effective organization. Washington’s labeling of it as an FTO will continue to adversely impact its organizational solidarity as well as military effectiveness. In the face of such challenges, the organization’s sustainability remains to be seen.

Opinion

“So long as it resolutely, militantly and thoroughly carries out its ideological, political and organizational building, the Communist Party of the Philippines is certain to lead the broad masses of the Filipino people of various nationalities and ethno-linguistic communities to total victory in the national democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local reactionaries, and bring about the start of the socialist revolution.”

-Armando Liwanag, Chairman, Central Committee of CPP

“Sinasabing bahagi na ng kultura nating mga Pilipino ang pagpapaubaya. Na sa kung anumang bagay nating pag-usapan, kahit saan mo man isipin—kusa nalamang tayong tumatanggap. Kuntento na.. sa kung anong nasa sistema.

Kung tutuusin, isa ito sa mga pangunahing dahilan kung bakit naging madali para sa mga banyaga ang pagsakop sa atin. Mabait kasi tayo. At kung minsan, ang kabaitang iyon napagkakamalang kahugkangan..

Kaya nga naman nang naisip nilang lumaban. Pumanig sa pagbabago at makataong sistema. Doon nabuo ang isang organisasyon para sa mga manggagawa, pisante at kabataan.

Subalit hindi naging madali ang lahat. Bukod sa mga panlabas na suliraning kinahaharap ng organisasyon , nariyan ang di maiiwasang pulitika sa buhat sa loob. Mula sa pamumuno hanggang sa mismong ipinaglalaban . Dito naitakda ang kanilang pagkakaiba-iba na nagbunsod sa pagkakawatak-watak ng organisasyon.

Sa kasalukuyan, di pa rin mabatid kung ang paghihiwalay na iyon ng grupo ay humantong sa ikabubuti ng organisasyon. Bagamat nabibilang sa makakaliwang paksiyon, di pa rin tiyak ang kanilang pagkakakilanlan. Parehong binabanggit ng magkabilang panig ang kanilang mga ginawa at ginagawa. Subalit, tama ba?

Tama na ba? Ito ba ang ninanais ng kagalang-galang na si Crisanto Evangelista? ..ni Amado Guererro? Ito ba ang kanilang adhika?

Higit sa lahat, naniniwala ako na kailangang maging malinaw sa bawat kaanib ng kahit anumang organisasyon ang dahilan ng kanilang pananatili—Ang kanilang ipinaglalaban! ..at paraan, sa layong ikatutupad nito.

Dahil sa huli, sa halip na maging alab ng pagbabago, magiging bahagi pa rin sila ng nabubulok na sistema na ginugusto nilang baguhin. Na ang pagpapaubanyang naging pagkakamali nang nakaraan ay nasa sa iyo pa rin.

Tatanggapin mo ba ito?

Ayos lang ba sa'yo?

Kuntento ka na ba rito?

Pilipino ka nga!

..pero ngayon, iba na..

..dba?!”

-Brian Belen, Erika Cayanan, Jasmin Maramag, Fatima Rempillo (BPS 3-2)

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Green day to all!

We are not going to crack “green jokes”, guys. On the contrary, what we are going to discuss is a serious matter with key relevance in our times.

With green, we refer to the environment and the various problems related to it. This concern is universal as evident in the range of calamities e.g. flooding, forest fires, globing warming that have proven destructive in the different areas of the world. Everyone is affected by it and will forever live with it. That’s why finding the solution to the environmental problems should be a constant agenda of the world’s governments.

While the existence of the green political parties may be new to some of us, it is a fact that said parties exist in several parts of the world. For instance, we can see them in countries in Europe and the USA. But I am just wondering if it also exists in the Philippines. Or at least if there is a group that made an effort to create a similar movement to set an agenda to solve any, if not all, environmental problems that beset our country today. And had there been any, it is the goal of this article to validate the contention that said groups have not been effective because the paramount concern of protecting and sustaining the environment seems not to have been achieved. Further, we are all aware that illegal practices which are destructive to the environment such as, among others, quarrying and logging are still rampant in the country.

Before delving into the nitty gritty of said political parties, let us first have a grasp of what a green political party really is. The Encarta defines Green Parties as a political movement that emphasizes environmental concerns. Green has long been the symbolic color of the environmental movement. It was first used as the name of a political party by Die Grünen (the Greens), the German green party, in the early 1980s. While protecting the environment may be the central objective of green political activists, they believe this goal can only be achieved if society changes both its values and the way it conducts its business.

What better way to advance their advocacy than to bring it to the political arena? This approach paved the way for the establishment of the different green political parties in the world as recounted in a forum entitled, “The Origins of Green Parties in Global Perspective” of the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the German Historical Institute:

April 1972	-	Australia founded its Green political party, the United Tasmania Group;
May 1972	-	New Zealand founded a nationwide green political party, Values
1973	-	United Kingdom formed its own, People (later Ecology Party and finally Green Party)
1980	-	German established its party, the German Green Party
1984	-	the USA formed its green movement, Committee of Correspondence
6 December 2003	-	The Philippines founded the Partido Kalikasan (Philippine Green Party). Another party also exists, the Philippine Republican Green Party.

It may be noted that it took the Philippines three (3) decades since the creation of the first political green party to formally create its own. No wonder that in a study conducted by the Reader’s Digest Asia, the Philippines ranked 87^th out of 141 nations in the greenest, most livable countries based on social and environmental factors. Of course, we are not shocked by the ranking given the present situation in our country. This brings us back to the question we have posed earlier regarding the existence of green parties and its effect in the country’s environmental condition.

In June 1992, during the Earth Summit, participating governments of the world embraced Agenda 21 (21 refers to the 21^st century) that is, to bring the Earth into a sustainable future. In the Philippines, we adopted and enhanced the Philippine Agenda 21, envisioning a better quality of life for all through sustainable development, anchored on five goal elements: poverty reduction, social equity, empowerment and good governance, peace and solidarity, and ecological integrity. This led to the establishment of green parties in the country, Partido Kalikasan and Philippine Green Republican Party.

The Philippine Green Republican Party is headed by Felix Cantal who run and lost as an independent candidate in the 2007 senatorial elections. On the other hand, the Partido Kalikasan (Phil. Green Party) which was founded on 06 December 2003 and has members nationwide had one of its chapters, the Cagayan de Oro Chapter in Northern Mindanao, participated in the 2004 local election. In 2007 Partido Kalikasan groups in Victoria, Oriental Mindoro and Tanauan, Batangas formed tactical alliance with existing local chapters of registered national political parties who carried their green political agenda. The Partido Kalikasan and the Philippine Greens are both members of the Asia Pacific Greens Network which meet in February 2005 in Kyoto.

Officially, there is no green party registered with the Commission on Election today. In the first party list elections in 2002, Green Philippines headed by Sarge Colambo ran and lost. Following the rules on party list elections, by now the registration of Green Philippines as a party list organization has already expired for not having won for the past 2 consecutive party list elections.

Alongside said parties’ efforts in promoting the rehabilitation and sustainable development of the country’s environment thru taking part in the elections, the Philippine government had also its share in said advocacy. The Ramos administration created the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) to ensure that all government undertakings are consistent with the global Agenda 21 commitments the Philippine government made at the Earth Summit in Rio. The short-lived Estrada Administration re-affirmed PA21 as the country's framework for sustainable development and issued Memorandum Order 47, which directs all local government units to localize PA21 through sustainable integrated area development.

Notwithstanding the efforts of green political parties and the government, we are still plagued by environmental problems. According to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Philippines is the fourth most accident prone country in the world. The two institutions arrived at this conclusion after finding out that some 5,809,986 Filipinos were killed or injured as a result of disasters or man-made calamities over a ten-year period (1992-2001). Who will forget the horrifying images of social tragedy in history when nearly 500 garbage scavengers who were living literally at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City were buried alive when a 50-foot garbage mountain collapsed on their makeshift houses at the height of torrential rains. It was a tragic commentary on poverty in the Philippines, yet the lesson remains to be learned to this day. In addition, quarrying operations resulted in extensive soil erosion on the side of a hill that cost the lives of innocent people such as residents of Cherry Hills Subdivision.

We have established earlier that green parties are there to protect the environment. We have also ascertained that such groups are present in the country. Further, we were made aware of the efforts of the government to push for the protection and sustainability of the environment. However, it is disheartening to learn that the Philippines is still confronted with various environmental problems. This condition supports our initial claim that the different green parties in the country were not effective in achieving its goal/purpose. It could be caused by the poor adherence to the policies during their implementation, the lack of responsible actions of the people. But it could also be said that their efforts may be lacking. Whatever the case may be, for the purposes of this article, we stand firm in our claim that these groups have not been effective and therefore failed to stand as a political party.

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