Arroyo to workers: Vote for TU bets, get tax exemption

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REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE
Payback
By Patricia Evangelista
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
I HAVE recently learned that I owe a debt of gratitude to Justice Secretary
Raul Gonzalez. "Some degree of gratitude," must be due to the fact that I
spent my college life in the University of the Philippines. I apologize for my
omission, and can think of no way more apt than to share what he calls the
"world-class education" that I have acquired in the four years I spent in UP.
I will attempt to do justice to the underpaid and overworked professors who
teach with ancient blackboards where today's lectures are superimposed over
diagrams from three years before. If I cannot, perhaps the good secretary
would be interested in taking the class I took in my freshman yearâ€”Philo 11:
Introduction to Logic.
In a statement just this week, Gonzalez laments the decline in quality of
UP graduates. "That school," he thunders, "breeds the destabilizers that haunt
the country every year."
In the interest of clarity, let us define the word "destabilizer. " A
destabilizer, or an obstructionist, is one who deliberately chooses to oppose
current norms. They mistrust much of what is claimed, perpetually demand for
answers and admit only truths that they believe have basis in fact, logic,
theory, precedence or their own personal standards. In the academe, however, they
are called neither destabilizers nor obstructionists. The common word for
these vile creatures is "scholar."
The reason students are sent to school is not to learn how to parrot
government memoranda, or memorize the capitals of provinces in alphabetical order.
Students study to learn how to thinkâ€”not just to acquire a sheet of printed
parchment to post on the wall. The capacity for critical thought is what
separates the man from the beast. A dog can be trained how to sit, a monkey can
walk across a tightrope, but it is the man who can choose to stand up and
speak.
Contrary to what Gonzalez believes, it is not opposition to the government
that characterizes the UP scholar. It is the opposition to passive
acceptance, and a compulsion for thought. Gonzalez claims that he is not against all
UP students, God forbid, because there are some who are "bright and good." I
assume he means those of us who do not rally, who do not march, who do not
choose to side with the Left. By "bright and good," he means "bright and good
to the government of GMA."
"It is the people's tax that is keeping UP alive," he claims. Agreed. "It
is the State that is paying for their schooling." Agreed. "I think some degree
of gratitude should be there also." Agreed.
There is a difference, however, between the State and Secretary Gonzalez.
He is not the State, however much he tries to convince us. Neither is the
government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The State is the people, the debt is to
the people, the gratitude is to those who paid their taxes in the hope that
the country's best and brightest will do some good in the future.
The academe, more than anywhere else, is the hotbed of debate, a place
where multiple perspectives clash, and every sort of ideology, theory and
philosophy has a place. Disagreement is a norm, and is seen as a manifestation of
critical thought. That UP breeds destabilizers is not a bad thingâ€”after all,
if stability means the kind of government we have today, then I stand for
destabilization, too. All of us agree on our debt to the countryâ€”all of us want
to pursue the national interest. But because we are scholars, because we are
taught to think, the manner we pursue that national interest and the
definition of that national interest vary from student to student. The red-shirted
activist in Mendiola is no less aware of that debt than the political
science student who plans to join government.
This need to check the government, Gonzalez claims, "is degrading the
national interest." Who defines national interest? To Gonzalez, certainly not the
people, and certainly not those who have been shot, strangled and maimed
because of the administration' s relentless pursuit of national interest.
Democracy is not the absence of dissent; it is the tolerance of the freedom
to dissent, and the awareness that dissent can check the State's enormous
power. And still Justice Secretary Gonzales, in all smugness, demands that
this "high tolerance to educational freedom," should be raised in the annual
budge hearing. I cannot believe I live in a country where education is
threatened because it is used. This is not simply an issue of an old man trying to
strut his machismo by aiming potshots at students. It may be hard to believeâ€”
as this is the man who, I have a sneaking suspicion, is the opposition's
hired gun, the man who "forgave" Susan Roces because she was "too pretty to put
in jail," the man who told former President Aquino to first take care of her
controversial daughter Kris before she opposes GMA; and the same man who
claimed that the only reason he didn't absolve three suspects in the Subic Bay
rape case was that he had to "appease the mob." He is the man whose snappy
comeback to the impromptu Oblation Run held a week ago was to ask the
fraternity men to "take off your masks and run naked."
But irrelevant of the man, his denouncement of UP is an attemptâ€”no matter
how moronic, and no matter how laughableâ€”to justify actions that would
otherwise be unjustifiable. It is one of the dozens of persistent suggestions that
the government is always on the side of right, that to oppose it is treachery
and that to question it is to go against all standards of morality, honesty
and patriotism. And all this is dangerous, at a time when people are tired
of marching in the streets, tired of throwing out one corrupt leader after
another, tired of the perpetual struggle for the rights and freedoms that are
inexplicably being curtailed. The government thrusts us back into the Dark
Ages, where leaders are omnipotent and "the people" do not exist. Right is
right, and wrong is wrong, and probing into the nature of the "enemy" is
assumed to be support for the enemy. Those who oppose policies are "destabilizers, "
or "NPA sympathizers" or "oppositionists. " To report truth that will
compromise government approval ratings is "inciting to sedition," a crime of which
Gonzalez once accused the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
"Why fight the State?" Gonzalez demands, "Why try to bring it down?" Gonzalez
claims that he is proud to say he is from the University of Sto. Tomas, and
that it is the reason he is "well-behaved. " I offer my sympathies to UST,
and since I am also aware that there is much that is "bright and good'" in that
school, I believe Gonzalez must be a case where good education has failed
in creating an educated man. If this man is the epitome of what it is to be
well-behaved, I'm glad that that's a compliment I've never been paid.

Date: Feb 9, 2007

Boycott big, bad Globe starting Feb. 8

In response to Globe Telecom's "barefaced and shameless" defiance of a
National Telecommunications Commission order to rollback unlimited
texting rates, consumer group TXTPower today announced a nationwide
boycott of the firm's services starting February 8.

In a statement emailed to the media, internet forums and mailing lists
at 1:00 am today, TXTPower said "consumers should make their power
known to Globe and like-minded corporate scum who disrespect
consumers and who defy the law."

TXTPower's call for a boycott asks subscribers incensed by Globe's
intransigence to choose any or all of the following:
Limit SMS and Calls through the Globe network. Find other ways
to communicate.
Postpone automatic and card reloads
Postpone GCash transactions
Postpone line applications
Refrain from getting icon/music/visual downloads from Globe
Refrain from using Globe's GPRS and 3G services

"Yes, we must boycott and sacrifice now before Globe transforms all of
us into a community of people with no self-respect and no sense of
consumers rights. We must boycott Globe until it obeys the NTC order
and restores the old Unlimitxt rates," the statement said.

TXTPower spokesperson Anthony Ian Cruz said "Globe fully deserves to
be boycotted and hated by its subscribers. The company continues to
disobey a valid order from the NTC and insists that it has a right to
impose a 100-150 percent price hike for its unlimited texting service
without any public hearing."

"We are confident that subscribers will participate in this boycott.
They have been asking what they could do to teach Globe a lesson in
humility. This boycott aims to do that. Globe has to respect its
subscribers and it has to obey orders from lawful bodies," said Cruz.

On Feb. 5, the same day NTC issued an order against Globe, the company
reported record high annual profits of 11.8 billion pesos for 2006, up
14 percent from 2005. Revenues were up by four percent at 57 billion
pesos. 1.2 million subscribers also joined Globe's network in 2006,
the same year the company introduced Unlimitxt.

TXTPower said the boycott will be lifted once Globe obeys the NTC
order and rolls back the price of unlimited texting service.

An uproar of protests greeted Globe's implementation of new unlimited
texting rates on Feb. 1. The new rates of P20, P40 and P80 for one,
two and four days of unlimited texting caught the ire of subscribers
who have long availed of Globe's Unlimitxt Permanent Service price at
P15, P25 and P50 for one, two and five days. ###

Date: Feb 11, 2007

No Knights In Shining Armor

Jose Ma. Montelibano

If the coming senatorial elections are our measure, politics in the
Philippines are not confusing. Rather, they are a source of shame.
There is nothing confusing about candidates shifting from party to
party; it is just downright ugly. If they had not been doing this
once too often, it can be very sad. Today, it is simply sickening.

The reason why Filipinos did not take to the streets to pressure the
removal of Gloria during the Hello Garci controversy is not that they
believed her to be innocent. The fact is that a clear majority thought
she lied and cheated, and that sentiment or conclusion has held true
till today. Yet, even when she was most vulnerable, Filipinos chose to
watch by the sidelines and opted not to make another people power
revolution.

I remember monitoring the events of early 2005 when allegations of
jueteng payoffs hit the men in Gloria's family. I watched as the
jueteng investigations picked up steam until a new bomb, the Hello
Garci tapes, was dropped from nowhere to almost literally light up a
fire. I witnessed the eerie presidential silence following the airing
of the tapes over the radio airwaves, except for a pathetic
presidential spokesman falling all over himself trying, without
knowing how, to diffuse a shocking scandal.

The crescendo continued all the way to the San Carlos Seminary along
EDSA when an NBI officer and an intelligence officer admitted to
making the tapes available to political personalities. It was such a
ripe moment for something dramatic to take place, maybe a rally that
could turn to a popular revolution. I stayed glued to the television
set, alert and determined not to miss what could be a historic event.

Before midnight, however, I was jolted back to reality. Just when I
thought I would see a superior force brought down by its own
monumental mistake, the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was
rescued at the last moment. Many thought that Gloria crossed her
rubicon when she survived the Hyatt 10 mass resignation. I believed
otherwise, and keep pointing to that moment when two sons of a deposed
president were covered live on television after leaving an ultra tense
San Carlos Seminary saying that their father was ready to be installed
president again. At that moment, I knew the fight was over, and that
an embattled Gloria would survive, thanks to her own enemies.

The Hello Garci controversy followed by the Hyatt 10 mass resignation
showed that Filipinos were coming of age. Despite her unpopularity,
despite the majority of Filipinos believing Gloria was guilty of lying
and cheating, the people did not make an aggressive move to tip the
delicate scales so that Gloria would fall. The maturity was not
manifested by the Filipino's inaction, but the reason why he chose
not to act.

Two preceding successful people power revolutions showed what an
exasperated citizenry can do to remove unwanted presidents. In June
and July of 2005, the same citizenry decided not to repeat itself
because they could not see and believe that the possible alternative
leaderships that could ensue were not any better than what they were
changing. For the first time, anger and frustration at a present
leader was not enough to risk installing a new one who could be worse.

The truth is that there was no clear leader who would take over in
case Gloria resigned, or was removed. That plus the fact that the
people had no one they could rally towards, and later install
president. I know there was much disappointment not just from the
consistent opponents of Gloria but from ordinary people as well. The
disappointment ranged from Gloria's not having been removed to there
being no one acceptable enough to take her place.

One and a half years later, it is not surprising that Filipinos simply
shrug their shoulders when senatorial candidates jockey for inclusion
to the administration or opposition slate without any clear
principles to protect or promote. Decisions for alliance have nothing
to do with a vision, or a party platform; they have everything to do
with advantage, with gaining more winnability.

It is not very productive discussing the frailties of our traditional
politicians. And the inclusion of fresh faces refer to a few young
politicians with very old names. There are no exciting dreams, no
inspiring visions, that are being offered to the people. Politics
still, after all, have little to do with alternative ideas to a
frustrated people. They remain very personalistic, very anchored on
money and machinery. Filipinos will have to sit this one out again,
hold on to their dreams by themselves once more. There are no knights
in shining armor, not yet, not this time.

When help is not forthcoming from the outside yet a painful situation
has to be resolved, then Filipinos can look only to themselves. And
while a personal transformation can begin a change of mindset and
perspective, it is collective enlightening and concerted action that
will usher in a new life to the nation. The urgent challenge to
Filipinos, therefore, is to recognize, accept and be passionate over
dreams that must be fulfilled. A society that has slid to being one of
the world immoral will never be at peace until the glint of honor
returns to their societal lives. Tolerance or patience has often been
viewed as a virtue, but not so when we are tolerant to wrongdoing,
when we are patient over exploitation.

It is said that seeing what is right but not doing it is cowardice. It
is easy to fault other people for doing what is wrong, but pitiful
when we have a choice to be heroes yet choose cowardice.** *

Date: Apr 15, 2007

Do Not Be Ashamed to Save Your People (the case in UP)

Believing in the inviolability of the small set of rules that they have managed themselves to acquire, they condemn others from a different dialect background, or who have not had the same educational opportunities as themselves, for not following those same rules. Enthused by the Stalinesque policing metaphor, they advocate a policy of zero tolerance, to eradicate all traces of the aberrant behaviour. This extreme attitude would be condemned by most people if it were encountered in relation to such domains as gender or race, but for some reason it is tolerated in relation to language. Welcomed, even, judging by the phenomenal sales of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

David Crystal, British linguist

The hypocrisy of so-called Filipino nationalists in the University of the Philippines system sickens and nauseates me. They define their nationalism as:

1.A belief in a strong national (or central) government, or strong central government supervision. Te, kun pro-Federal ka, indi ka na Pilipino?

2.A belief in imposing a uniform language on all Filipinos, in this case Tagalog. Te kun indi ka gali Tagalog, indi ka na Pilipino?

3.A belief in anti-Americanism. Ang Amerika may Republican kag Federal nga gobyerno. Te, kun pro-Republic kag pro-Federal ka, indi ka na Pilipino?

What is really sickening is that many of these so-called nationalists fancy themselves as dissidents fighting against a monstrously oppressive system, when in fact they are the ones propagating the ideological basis for the monstrously oppressive internal colonialism to be found in Philippines.

You must be bewildered by now. So I will try to explain by means of concrete examples.

When I was a politically ignorant young Biology student in UP Diliman way back in 1980s, I became fascinated by UP teachers and students who went around proudly proclaiming their nationalism. It was so in vogue then, so radically chic. One day I attended a seminar by some of these self proclaimed nationalistic teachers. I cannot remember any of their lectures except one.

This nationalist teacher, very much respected by the nationalist students, stood up and right away commenced his lecture on nationalism and anti-American imperialism with the statement (in Tagalog of course):

Please forgive my Tagalog. I am a Visayan and I cannot speak it well. I have a Visayan accent.

The other listeners in the audience just nodded their assent as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to say. I just stared in shock. I think my mouth had dropped open. It was the first time that I had encountered overt discrimination by UP nationalists against non-Tagalog Filipinos. To make things worse, being a Visayan, I felt the discrimination in my very core, that it was against my person.

The honored teacher was apologizing for being a Visayan! What a dishonorable ethnic traitor he was!

Yet it was so much in vogue in UP then. To be a left-leaning Filipino nationalist (which I soon decided was just the same as being a Tagalista centralist opposed to any form of Federalism or devolvement of state powers to the provinces, and totally devoted to the destruction of the non-Tagalog ethnolinguistic peoples of the Philipines) was the rage, the stylistic fad, the fashionable mode, the trendy craze.

So I attended more seminars. The nationalists harped that American imperialism is bad, that American dominated multinational corporations were gobbling up the wealth of the Philippines and sending it straight to America.

Being of an inquisitive mind, I did not just nod my assent like a tick-tock automaton. I started thinking about the companies and corporations that I encounter everyday in the Philippines.

Eventually, I did a little research in the Securities and Exchange Commission, which lists down all the top Philippine companies. It turned out that more than 90% of the top Philippine companies and corporations were based in MetroManila. Most of the profits that they made in their provincial operations went straight to their executives and stockholders in MetroManila.

I decided to call these companies Manila Based Companies or Corporations (MBCs). Like Multinational Companies (MNCs) that the nationalists so hate, they suck in profits from their operations in peripheral areas and spew them out in their center, which happens to be MetroManila.

For years I waited for the nationalists to criticize MBCs the way they attack MNCs. Nothing. It was as though that there was nothing wrong with Manila plundering the rest of the Philippines, because such a thing never existed in the minds of the nationalists.

In additional seminars by UP nationalists, I learned that imperialism is more or less synonymous with neo-colonialism , and that it is bad. In imperialism or neo-colonialism, one country controls another by indirect economic means. Even worse was colonialism, which was direct political control of a colony by a mother country, which placed the colony under the direct supervision and control of a government apparatus whose upper echelons were located in and were loyal to the mother country. In such a case, the center in the mother country could legally direct events, implements its laws, and unilaterally tax the peoples in the colony.

I was dumbfounded. Using this definition of colonialism, all Philippines provinces are colonies of MetroManila!

As usual I did a little investigation. I learned to my amazement that an article in the Encyclopedia Britannica agreed with me, claiming that when Europeans withdrew direct political control of their African and Asian colonies in the late 1800s and early 1900s, control of the typical colony usually passed on to the city that functioned as the colonial capital. The ethnic group in control of this capital then often became the new colonizers. The Encyclopedia Britannica article called this system of exploitation internal colonialism.

A bitter hostility to American imperialism coupled with a deliberate obliviousness to the internal colonialism going on in the Philippines was almost pathognomonic of the UP nationalists of the 1980s, and perhaps even until now.

Another characteristic of Tagalista UP nationalists is that they seem to pretend that the Philippines non-Tagalog ethnolinguistic peoples do not exist. They go about bashing English, then advocating its replacement by Tagalog, deliberately ignoring the fact that Tagalog was forcibly first imposed by the Manila-based Japanese puppet government of World War II on non-Tagalog Filipinos. Executive Order No. 44 issued by collaborationist President Jose P. Laurel, ordered the integration of Tagalog into the core subjects of the University of the Philippines. As usual, in this deceitful act of internal colonialism UP led the way. Other schools followed suit. The above action of the Japanese and their colonial puppets was completely illegal in the sense that the framers of the 1935 Philippine Constitution specifically refused to recognize Tagalog as a national language in the Philippine Constitution, as it was and is clear that doing so would discriminate against non-Tagalog Filipinos and turn them into second class citizens. In imposing and enforcing Tagalog, the Japanese also never held any plebiscite, or any democratic process.

The main motive of the treasonous World War II Filipino nationalists (who were actually Tagalistas) then were the same as now: the replacement of English by Tagalog as the Philippines lingua franca in the name of National Unity and anti-colonialism. Irony of ironies! The enforcement of Tagalog was actually not an anti-colonial action, but a weapon of colonialism itself, the better that a central Unitarian government from Manila could colonially control the whole Philippines.

Unlike many UP students who swallowed all the nauseating nationalistic baloney like starving robotic morons, I started analyzing this nationalism that many nationalist UP teachers and students advocated. As stated above, it seemed to have three main components.

1.A belief in a strong national (or central) government, or strong central government supervision.

2.A belief in imposing a uniform language on all Filipinos, in this case Tagalog.

3.A belief in anti-Americanism.

Blind force feeding of this rotting nationalistic baloney gave me severe indigestion. Where the heck lies the loyalty of the nationalistic UP educator, to Manila or to the rest of the Philippines?

In my opinion, there is a real need to reform the UP system of education in the matter of ideological orientation with regards to the idea of what the Philippines was, is, and should be.

The reader might ask, why am I attacking UP so much when I myself am one of its products? I graduated magna cum laude in Biology in UP Diliman, and finished Medicine in the UP College of Medicine Manila. I have spent more than 10 years of my life in UP. Naturally, I gain no pleasure in criticizing the school that trained me to be me. I naturally hope and pray that UP would get reformed sometime in the future so that it would cease being the instrument of internal colonialism that it has been since World War II.

The reason is simple enough. This nationalism being advocated by many UP teachers and organizations will one day be the death of the non-Tagalog ethnolinguistic peoples of the Philippines. The UP type of nationalism is in essence Tagalista internal colonialism.

In our case here in Iloilo, this type of nationalism, if unopposed, will cause the Ilonggo people to die out.

History is rife with cases of colonialism. The colonizer normally tried to impose his language, and with it his ethnic identity, on the colonized. Colonized ethnic peoples (captive peoples, peripheral peoples) who could not or would not resist disappeared.

What does this mean?

If you want your people to survive, do not be ashamed to save your people. Speak out for them, however wrong it may seem by societys prevailing standards.

(For comments please email to jdpensar@yahoo. com or text to 09219193330. )

Date: May 1, 2007

Arroyo to workers: Vote for TU bets, get tax exemption

05/01/2007

Minimum wage workers could finally get exempted from paying income taxes if only they would vote for candidates of the administrations Team Unity.

This is the supposed reward that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo dangled to workers groups in her Labor Day speech on Tuesday at the Folk Arts Theater in Pasay City.

Ito naman masasabi ko para sa Team Unity congressmen at senador. Kung sila mananalo, puwede ring i-commit sa inyo na itong darating na Congress, magpapasa tayong batas na exempted ang minimum wage earners sa pagbayad ng income tax (This is what I can say for Team Unity congressional and senatorial bets. If they would win, I can commit to you in the next Congress that we will pass a law that would exempt minimum wage earners from paying income tax)."

This announcement of Mrs Arroyo in a gathering that looked more like a campaign sortie than a workers day celebration, received applause from some 5,000 workers at the FAT.

Meanwhile, Akbayan party-list Rep. Ana Theresia "Risa" Hontiveros said workers should not believe Mrs Arroyo's promise. She said the administration in fact blocked the passage of a bill that would have given minimum wage earners tax exemptions.

"It is an outright lie. It's as if the paucity of her so-called non-wage benefits is not enough, she still has to lie about it," said Hontiveros.

Hontiveros authored House Bill 4865 (substituted with HB 5296) that would have granted tax exemptions for minimum wage earners.

She said the bill was filed immediately after the imposition of the expanded value-added tax. The measure seeks to amend the Internal Revenue Code to increase non-taxable income to 50, 000 annually, with corollary increases in tax exemptions for different wage brackets.

Under the bill, a family with an annual income of P 200,000, for instance, would only pay P22, 600 in taxes instead of P37, 500 in the current tax schedule.

Hontiveros said the bill was already approved on third and final reading last year and a similar measure was approved by the Senate.

However, she the administration-dominated House Committee on Ways and Means refused to hold a bicameral conference to enact the bill.

"It is an empty promise. The administration could have pushed for the approval of the bill if it were sincere with its non-wage benefits for workers," Hontiveros said.

The labor groups that were present at the FAT included the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Federation of Free Workers, Trade Unions of the Philippines and Allied Services and the Philippine Government Employees Association.

The President said that what she was able to do so far was to only issue an order exempting minimum wage earners from withholding tax deductions.

Mrs Arroyo, in a memorandum to Finance Secretary Margarito Teves in December 2005, ordered that minimum wage earners in the private sector and their counterparts in the government sector (Salary Grades 1-3) be exempted from the collection of withholding tax effective Jan. 1, 2006.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue implemented the order under Revenue Regulation 1-2006.

The President ordered the finance department to draft a legislative proposal restructuring the income tax system for salaried individuals to reduce or remove the income tax burden on the low- and middle-income groups.

She has also directed the finance department to pursue a package of income tax-related reforms and efficiency measures next year in order to broaden the income tax
base and improve tax collections from self-employed individuals and professionals.

Also in her speech, Mrs Arroyo ordered the regional wage boards to speed up the resolution of pending wage issues." She said the 10 percent salary increase of government workers would be effective on July 1, 2007.

She thanked the workers from the moderate labor groups twice for not joining attempts to destabilize the economy and her government.

She scored those who criticize her administrations job generation, saying it was able to generate one million jobs per year, unlike the Estrada administration which created only 500,000 jobs in two years.

She said 1.5 million jobs were created in January 2006 to January 2007.

The President also said that under her government, the minimum wage shot up by P100 per day. - GMANews.TV

Date: May 17, 2007

Article taken from an online newspaper.
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On migrant workers

I read with interest the article Our migrant workers, heroes or villains.

Slavery is alive and well and thinly veiled by the agreement to give shelter and food, and to pay low wages. The article sounds all too familiar and change the "Indonesians" to "Africans" and really the article could have been pulled from the history books.

The West goes on about the abolition of slavery, marks the anniversaries, makes movies about it all, and feels guilty, but in fact it has always thrived all round the world.

Who sold the African tribesmen to the "white masters" in the first place? Fellow Africans made themselves very wealthy with the trade of these bodies. It is all relative. Indonesians become servants and laborers in Malaysia and Singapore, but are "not good enough" for Hong Kong and Taiwan. In these countries Filipinos are the norm.

Here in Indonesia too, rich Indonesians employ poor Indonesians and one will find that there are employers of servants at every level. Drivers have maids too. It is all about what one can afford to pay and how much one wants out of their own version of misery.

The problem is, Asians don't see this whole situation as slavery. Servants are historically an acceptable part of their culture, playing a big part in the household and for the most part, well cared for.

Egos are also part of the problem. Certain countries do think they are better, more intelligent, more advanced and these people feel that certain jobs are above them.

In Malaysia, Indian laborers were brought in early on to build all the roads and plantations -- without them Malaysia's roads and plantation industry would never have been developed. Now, these highways and roads and plantations are being maintained by Bangladeshi and Indonesian workers. The Indians in Malaysia have turned the tables and are now all lawyers and doctors.

Migrant workers across the board are assumed unintelligent, ignorant and uneducated. I do realize I am making generalizations here -- talk to a Filipino maid and you may find she is an economics graduate or a qualified nurse.

The problem with migrant workers from Indonesia, Myanmar and Bangladesh, is that they are recruited straight from the countryside, from poverty, and allow themselves to trust indiscriminate recruitment agencies.

REBECCA DUCKETT-WILKINSON
Jakarta

Date: Jul 9, 2007

For Printing in the Western Visayas Informer Newspaper column LANGUAGE TRADITIONS & FEDERALISM and Negros Daily Bulletin Newspaper column SAVE OUR LANGUAGES THROUGH FEDERALISM

By Dr. Jose Palu-ay Dacudao

July 8, 2007

Some Reactions to WIKA move, Part 15 Michael Krauss Speaks

In SOLFED@yahoogroups.com, cyberbellee wrote:

Linguistics Expert Warns Of Language Extinction

Source: University of AlaskaFairbanks

Date: March 4, 2007 Science Daily

Humans speak more than 6,000 languages. Nearly all of them could be extinct in the next two centuries.

So what?

University of Alaska Fairbanks professor emeritus Michael Krauss addressed that question during his presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, which begins today in San Francisco.

"I claim that it is catastrophic for the future of mankind," Krauss said. "It should be as scary as losing 90 percent of the biological species."

The reasons are multiple, he said. From an ethical standpoint, all languages are of equal value, he said. But the value of a language goes far beyond academic discourse, Krauss said. Languages contain the intellectual wisdom of populations of people. They contain their observations of and adaptations to the world around them. Humanity became human in a complex system of languages that interacted with each other.

"That is somehow interdependent such that we lose sections of it at the same peril that we lose sections of the biosphere," Krauss said. "Every time we lose (a language), we lose that much also of our adaptability and our diversity that gives us our strength and our ability to survive."

Krauss is one of four researchers scheduled to speak during a session on the dynamics of extinction Friday, Feb. 16, 2007 at the AAAS meeting at the Hilton San Francisco. The cross-disciplinary session focuses broadly on the phenomenon of extinction, including factors that cause endangerment and extinction and interventions that can delay or end the extinction process.

Krauss has been affiliated with UAF for more than four decades. He is founder of UAF's AlaskaNativeLanguageCenter and recently received the Ken Hale prize for lifetime achievement from the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas.

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Addendum:

For our valued readers who still are unaware of the background of this series, this is an explanation of the WIKA issue from the point of view of a patriotic Ilonggo. You may skip this part if you have already read this in previous articles of this column.

I am endeavoring to submit for printing a series of messages from language preservers who are opposing the WIKA Supreme Court move.

The international language of science and commerce used to be Latin for 2000 years; and countries all over the world for two millennia had no qualms in teaching their Sciences and other subjects in Latin. There is no record in any country for two thousand years of any idiot crazy enough to have advocated the whole-sale replacement of Latin from school curricula by petitioning the courts that Latin was against the basic laws of the land; and if there was one, he probably would have been hanged for economic and political sabotage, as Latin was a necessary language of international commerce and politics during that period in time.

This endeavor is part of the efforts of many well-meaning patriotic ethnic Filipinos (including practically all members of Save Our Languages Through Federalism or SOLFED and Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago or DILA) all over our country and overseas to oppose the WIKA move in the Philippine Supreme Court that is eventually aimed to make Tagalog (honey-coated as Filipino) as the main medium of instruction in all Philippine elementary and high schools, and eventually in all college levels. We have no other choice, for if left unopposed, WIKA and their moves will one day be the death of the non-Tagalog ethno-linguistic peoples of the Philippines. We hope and pray that readers of this article will join us and spread the resistance. WIKAs move has pushed us into a historical nexus with regards to the fate of our ethnic identities, and one alternate future that we must oppose is a future wherein our peoples exist no more.

The strategy that WIKA is using consists of initially maneuvering the Philippine Supreme Court into making a decision that would resolve that the use of English as medium of instruction is unconstitutional or against the basic law the land. Some of the WIKA members, in order to protect themselves from the just criticisms of non-Tagalogs fearing for the survival of their ethnic identities, may have even incorporated into their strategy the deviously false claim that their move to abolish English is meant to protect all Philippine languages; and if so dont you believe this lie and get yourself out of the WIKA movement ASAP before they could use you for their nefarious ends and immortalize your name forever as one of the killers of the Philippines ethno-linguistic diversity. If one would challenge them to the nitty-gritty WIKA, whose leadership is 99% composed of writers in Tagalog-Filipino, has no plans whatsoever to teach and promote non-Tagalog languages in Philippine schools.

Wika Ng Kultura At Agham (or WIKA for short) in actuality is a malignant mockery of its name. It deceitfully misrepresents itself as a savior of our cultures and sciences when in truth its plans would destroy them. WIKA is the leading Tagalista organization and movement in our country, Tagalista being an adjective applicable to individuals and organizations who advocate Tagalog Nationalism. Tagalog Nationalism in turn is an ideology which supposes that nationalism (the idea of a strongly centralized Unitarian Philippines) is good and that to be a good nationalist, one must be a good Tagalog. In other words Tagalistas, beneath all their highfalutin nationalist facade and perverse cultural and scientific baloney, can be detected by their actions that promote an ethnically uniform Philippine society composed of all-Tagalog citizens.

After all of WIKAs hypocritical and deceitful talk is done, this is what they are really aiming for. Make no mistake about it. The final fantasy of these so-called nationalist ethnic killers is to murder our ethnic identities, and replace them with their chauvinistic idea of one uniform Filipino people. If initially successful, they will not stop with their Supreme Court petition.

If no one would oppose them now, our peoples they will devour until our peoples exist no more.

Why? Probably because of the following motives.

1.These WIKA ethnic killers and allied Tagalistas are protecting their multimillion monopoly on Filipino textbooks; and want to expand this. This is their livelihood and/or especially beloved hobby. It is they who define the kind of Filipino (a honey-coated Tagalog dialect) to be used. They wish to dictate the course of Philippine literature, according to their own elitist criteria. The more their brand of Tagalog is used, the greater are their economic earnings and the potential for more profits for themselves.

2.They are on the ultimate ego trip. If they succeed, they could now fancy and project themselves as the new nationalist heroes of the Philippines. Sila na ang bida sang Pilipinas. They would not care a whit about the damage that they would be doing to the Philippine economy and our multi-ethnic cultures. Instead of being shocked and saddened at news that a Philippine ethno-linguistic group is dying, they perversely revel in such news, triumphantly proclaiming that the Tagalog that is being forcibly rammed down through the educational system of the Philippines is now being accepted by the dying people.

3.Furthermore, the more Tagalog is used in our schools, the greater is their social prestige and political power. Consequently, they would increase their chances of getting into juicy positions in schools, government institutions, and political offices.

Any English policy, however beneficial it is to the peoples of the Philippines, threatens their Filipino monopoly and racket.

At a time when monetary remittances of overseas Filipinos, who need to be trained in English, are vitally necessary in order to prevent a catastrophic collapse of our economy, what these parasitic chauvinists propose could be interpreted as treasonous economic sabotage of the ethnic peoples of the Philippines.

Moreover, note that English acts as a neutral sociologically leveling tongue in the Philippines, a buffer that is saving our non-Tagalog peoples from extinction, for if two persons from different ethnic groups would speak English, the use of this language causes them to be sociologically equal. In other words, if a Visayan and a Tagalog were to talk to each other in English, they would be sociological equals.

Since the Philippines has always been a multi-ethnic country (in truth even before there was a Philippines), the ideal educational system is one that uses multiple official languages; with the indispensable English language as the main medium in the Sciences and Commerce subjects, and at least one grammar and literature course that teaches the traditional ethnic languages in the schools territory, in order to preserve our rich and diverse cultures. The Filipino, that Tagalistas are defining and ramming down our throats should be replaced by multiple official languages, as this Filipino provides us no economic benefits whatsoever and moreover is destroying our ethno-linguistic diversity.

For us non-Tagalogs, a WIKA triumph is equivalent to ethnic and cultural catastrophe. If they succeed completely, we die. The Visayan peoples will die. No more Ilonggos, no more Cebuanos, no more Warays, and so on. And so will every other non-Tagalog ethnic group. No more Ilocanos, Kapampangans, Pangasinense, Bicolanos, and so on. Language extinction will be gradual, not easily noticeable on a day-to-day basis, but will be certain. The smaller groups will be the first to go; while the larger groups such as Cebuano will be gone in 300 years.

[Already our fellow Western Visayans in Palawan and Romblon (the Cuyo, Unhan, Romblomanon, and so on) are nearly gone, in just 65 years of the Filipino policies of Tagalistas. These languages and the Western Visayan peoples that they define have existed for more than a thousand years. Just imagine ancient peoples that have existed for more than a millennium wiped out in just fifty years!]

No ethno-linguistic group can resist such social pressure, requiring all of its youth through their formative years to learn, write, speak, and think in a language not its own.

May all Visayans resist WIKAs move, wherever you are. May all non-Tagalog Filipinos resist this move. It would be the least that you could do for your native ethnic people and culture. May all Filipinos, including enlightened Tagalogs, who would like to preserve the cultural diversity of the Philippines, resist this move.

(For comments please email to jdpensar@... or text to 09219193330.)

Date: Apr 14, 2008

Is hybrid rice the answer?
By Marianne Go
Monday, April 14, 2008

As the country faces a growing global food crisis, groups are debating whether hybrid rice is the answer to the rice supply problem.

Non-government organizations are urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) to promote the use of traditional rice varieties to rebuild the countrys rice stocks for long-term production rather than resort to high-yielding hybrid seeds.

The Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) and Centro Saka called on Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to rely more on traditional rice varieties instead of promoting high yielding hybrid varieties, which the group said places small farmers at the mercy of private firms.

The two groups made the appeal as the countrys top hybrid rice producer announced it has planted at least 800,000 hectares of hybrid variety in the effort to make the country self-sufficient in rice.

Henry Lim Ben Liong, chairman and chief executive officer of SL Agritech Corp. stressed the great potential of hybrid rice (HR) in making the country self-sufficient because of its high yield.

At present, average production from traditional rice varieties only yields 3.8 tons per hectare or 76 cavans.

The average yield of hybrid rice variety is almost double at 6.5 tons per hectare, according to Director Frisco Malabanan of the governments GMA rice program.

Malabanan added the countrys 4.2 million-hectare rice farmland has 300,000 hectares planted with hybrid varieties.

He said the country is expected to produce 17.3 million metric tons of palay, or 11.2 million MT of milled rice for this year but this could not fill domestic consumption at 12.1 million MT.

Lim, however, said the HR variety with its high yield harvest can considerably boost the countrys rice production program.

Lim said they have been planting the SL-8H hybrid rice variety which has been averaging a yield of eight to 10 tons per hectare.

Lim cited the testimonies of several farmers who tried planting the hybrid variety which they all claimed has given them financial rewards.

On the other hand, the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) and Centro Saka groups argued the planting of hybrid rice variety also needs some chemicals from the private firms providing the seeds.

Jessica Cantos-Reyes of R1 said hybrid seeds can only be used one time, unlike traditional rice varieties which allow the farmers to reuse some of the harvested grains.

Because of its one time application, Reyes pointed out the farmers would have to regularly purchase more expensive hybrid seeds.

The hybrid seeds, Reyes further explained, do not require as much effort in planting, allowing the farmer to just throw and spread the seeds and apply ever increasingly expensive fertilizer to enhance their growth.

Although traditional rice seeds require a more tedious and methodical way of planting, Reyes said it is not as dependent on fertilizers and other chemical inputs, thus allowing for a more sustainable, though lower yield crop.

Reyes warned the promotion of hybrid seeds allows SL Agritech to corner the market.

While rebuilding the countrys rice stock may take a little longer, Reyes assured the growth would be sustainable over the long-term since small farmers would not be burdened by maintaining expensive hybrid seeds and chemical inputs.

Refocus

Centro Saka, for its part, said the government should begin investing and channeling resources to the provision of good seeds, irrigation facilities and other incentives that would encourage and enable the rice farmers to produce more food.

The P43.5 billion for rice production that has been declared for release by the President is no small change to a sector that has been perennially starved of funds, Centro Saka pointed out. The group warned the money has to be channeled correctly.

Centro Saka said the bulk of resources for grains production currently goes to hybrid rice production, which is the governments centerpiece intervention in rice production.

This is contrary to the position taken by the countrys rice producers who have long rejected the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program (HRCP) which began in 2001, Centro Saka argued.

The group claimed hybrid rices contribution to total rice production remains minimal at only 12 percent.

In contrast, good seeds contribute 50 percent of production, while certified seeds make up 38 percent.

Thus, it should be logical and fair for government to provide more funds to the sector that contributes the most, Centro Saka said.

The group warned that spending billions on the expensive hybrid rice program is a waste of government resources with no significant impact.

While hybrid rice may have the potential to plug the supply deficit temporarily, the costs are too steep in the long run, the group said.

The countrys seven-year experience with the hybrid variety showed the program caused a serious drain on government resources with only dismal returns.

Moreover, the damage to the environment by intensive use of chemical-based inputs for hybrid rice production is simply unacceptable, Centro Saka said.

The administrations fixation with hybrid rice, is based on the misguided belief that only hybrid rice can produce significant increases in production. This is completely false, Centro Saka said.

In fact, even without expanding the area devoted to rice production, the Philippines can produce enough rice to feed its growing population, they said.

Reyes said one factor to improving production is to ensure irrigation of agricultural lands and put an end to land conversion for commercial use.

Arguments

A recent study made by SEARCA and PhilRICE said yields from good seeds and certified seeds can reach a maximum of 9 metric tons/hectare and 10 MT/ha., respectively.

Using the latest rice hectarage of 4,272,000 hectares, Centro Saka calculated the country can produce as much as 38,448,000 metric tons of palay or 29,904,000 MT of milled rice by using good seeds.

This is even assuming that milling recovery is only 60 percent which is the current national average, the group said.

With the use of certified seeds, rice production could go up to as high as 42,720,000 MT or about 25,632,000 MT of milled rice, Centro Saka said.

This is more than enough to wipe out the annual production short-falls and ensure rice self-sufficiency for our population, they said.

Actual field experience with farmer developed varieties also show that yields of up to 7 MT/ha. are achievable using organic farming practices, Centro Saka said.

This compares favorably to the less than 6 MT/ha. average yield for hybrid rice.

Rice farmers who employed the system of rice intensification managed to produced yields reaching as high as 9 MT/ha. Moreover, the small rice farmers have been reporting milling recovery rates that range between 70 to 75 percent, much higher than that registered by hybrid rice.

What is even more notable is that the small rice farmers were able to achieve this level of production without government support.

But the government, the group said, has not tapped the expertise of these organic rice farmers.

With the right mix of government support and rechanneling of resources to common-sense interventions like irrigation, post harvest facilities and research and development, more small rice farmers stand to produce more food on a less costly and more sustainable basis, Centro Saka said.

Neglect

Irrigation remains a crucial component of rice production and has been shown to contribute as much as 25 percent to production increases, Centro Saka pointed out.

The group claimed the government had neglected irrigation development for decades.

They cited the recent study made by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which revealed the Philippines exhibited no growth in irrigated lands as compared to its neighbors in Southeast Asia.

Myanmar and Laos, the two poorest members of ASEAN managed seven percent and two percent growth, respectively.

Under the Arroyo administration, there was even a decline in irrigation development with new areas covered by irrigation dropping from 28,148 ha. in 2002 to only 12,127 ha. in 2004. Areas rehabilitated by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) were almost halved from 269,665 in 2002 to 129,451 in 2004.

Irrigation data for 2006 shows that around 2.2 million hectares of the countrys rice lands are irrigated while 1.4 million hectares are rain-fed.

As much as 90 percent of currently rain-fed areas are irrigable, Centro Saka claimed.

If government manages to construct irrigation facilities in these irrigable lands, the country stands to add as much as 1.26 million hectares to the countrys irrigated lands, and potentially double current production yields, the group said.

Clearly, by simply providing farmers with good seeds, promoting organic rice farming and constructing additional irrigation facilities, government could set the country on the road to self-sufficiency in food production, the two groups stressed.

The groups said the government should focus on the implementation of the Rice Master Plan that small rice farmers have long been advocating. - Rudy A. Fernandez

Date: Apr 14, 2008

Isabella II the Pera Scandal - Tagalistas Force Curse Word for Money Into Binisaya

By Dr. Jose Palu-ay Dacudao

Isabella II of Spain (October 10, 1830 Died April 10, 1904, reigned from 1843 to 1868) was one of the most colorful figures of the Spanish Empire of the 19^th century, which then included the Philippine Islands. Practically every period of her life was surrounded by contentious and scandalous issues, which would certainly beat most modern scandals so beloved of modern mass media and internet blogs and websites.

Early years: Isabella was born in Madrid Spain, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, and of his fourth wife, the Bourbon Maria Christina, who also happened to be his niece. Upon the death of her father, Isabella was proclaimed Queen on 29 September1833, at the age of three, with her mother as queen-regent. As a consequence, the first Carlist war ensued, when Isabellas uncle Carlos, her fathers brother, contested her right to the throne, invoking the old Salic law of the Salian Franks of 6^th century Europe, which forbade the ascension of female progenies to the throne. Clever Ferdinand VII, Isabellas father, had in his lifetime induced the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes, to invalidate this law. Those who supported Carlos and his descendants right to kingship became known as Carlists, and in the ensuing decades, they fought several wars for their monarchial cause.

Teenage years: After surviving the war and several tumultuous years of reform that saw the Liberals and Progressives establish a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary government, dissolve the religious orders, and confiscate the property of the religious orders, the pro-Isabella faction of the Army led by Generals Leopoldo ODonnell and Ramon Narvaez managed in 1843 to induce the formation of a Cabinet they controlled, presided by Joaquin Lopez, which straightaway instigated the Cortes to declare Isabella official Queen of Spain at the age at thirteen.

On 10 October 1846 the Moderados forced Isabella to marry, at sixteen, her cousin, Prince Fernando Francisco de Asis de Bourbon-Cadige (18221902), who also happened to be a homosexual.

Adult years: One could say that Isabella, during her childhood and teenage years, was merely a hapless puppet, dangling on the strings pulled by the real Queen-makers. As this has often occurred in the histories of Monarchies, one could certainly absolve poor Isabella of any faults. Many monarchs have ascended above such vulgar issues and have matured to become great leaders in their more mature years. Isabella did not.

Isabellas reign was marked by byzantine intrigues, secret deals, barrack conspiracies, and military pronunciamientos as political parties battled it out, no holds barred. Moderados ruled from 1846 to 1854, Progressives from 1854 to 1856, and Unión Liberals from 1856 to 1863. Thereafter, Moderados and Unión Liberals kept out the Progressives by fair means or foul, fostering such a hostile atmosphere that things erupted into the glorious revolution of 1868. Contributing to all the intrigue and hostility was the Queen herself. Isabella would unscrupulously favor her favorite generals, statesmen, and corrupt and money-guzzling sycophants, even at the cost of ruining the reputation of her court. Isabella was forced out of her throne and out of Spain into exile in France (the Bourbons, Isabellas clan, are an old French aristocratic family) by the 1868 revolt led by General Juan Prim.

When Spain started stabilizing, Isabellas corrupt and unscrupulous reputation rubbed off on her own son Alfonso XII. Although many politicians wanted him to be King, the Cortes, suspicious that Isabella would unduly influence her son from her exile in France, chose instead a somewhat neutral Italian prince, Amadeo of Savoy, who reigned as Amadeo I (1870-1872). It was not until a coup de etat in 1875 that Alfonso XII (November 28, 1857November 25, 1885, reigned from 1875 to 1885) ascended the throne as king of Spain.

You might ask: Why is such an inept monarch as Isabella II being featured in an essay on languages? Well, Isabellas scandals did not stop at her court intrigues. She was also widely regarded all over the Spanish Empire as a nymphomaniac. Of her 12 offspring, it was widely rumored that few or none of them sprang from her legal husband, a known homosexual. Alfonso XII himself, later King of Spain, was said to have been sired by Enrique Puig, captain of the Royal Guard, or General Francisco Serrano.

Monarchs usually get to have their features minted in the coins of their kingdom, and Isabella was no exception. Her face was carved on the coins circulating in the Philippine Islands during her reign.

Thus it happened that the Spaniards in Manila would often refer to a coin marked by Isabellas face as Perra. Ignorant Tagalogs listened to their Spanish superiors, and also imitated that word, as pera. What does it mean?

You guessed it. Perra means a female dog, also called a bitch, which as everyone knows would copulate with any male dog during the period of her heat. Many Spaniards then would contemptuously refer to their Queen as the bitch, and would refer to coins marked by her face also as bitches.

Visayans usually refer to money as kwarta, derived from the Latinquartus (meaning one-quarter) ; and even today, Americans call the coin representing ¼ of a dollar a quarter. Tagalogs, on the hand, have adopted pera into the Tagalog language. Silly pathetic Visayans, with an overdose of colonial mentality for Manila and the Tagalog language, can nowadays be heard using this same bitchy pera word instead of kwarta.

The Tagalista policies of the Manila-based government and Manila-based Corporations, including showbiz companies, are to blame for the spread of this cuss word into Visayan languages, through their enforcement of Tagalog into our educational institutions, government communications, and the mass media. The only sure way of countering the ill effects of such policies is to teach our traditional languages, such as Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a in our schools, replacing Tagalog, while maintaining the effective teaching of English as a neutral leveling tongue for all Philippine citizens and as our key in communicating in the international world of commerce and science.

Next time you hear a brainwashed Visayan pathetically masquerading as an Alog tell you, I will give you pera, tell him in turn, What, are you trying to give me a BITCH?

[However, if possible, make sure he knows the reasons for your objection, that it is only part of a greater problem, which is the unfair imposition of Tagalog on our culture.]

(For comments please write to the forum in www.solfedphil. org or text to 09274489818. )

Date: Apr 29, 2009

How pera (tagalog word for money) came to be. Its not a good word as one might think, this after reading the article with full text below.

"Perra means a female dog, also called a bitch, which as everyone knows would copulate with any male dog during the period of her heat."