Living Dangerously in 2007; More of the Same in 2008

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The figures tell a bigger story: In September 2007, 21.5 percent of families said they had suffered from hunger, without having anything to eat, at least once in three months. The record surpassed previous surveys by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) of about 19.0 percent.5

Too, the faces of hunger can be found palpably in urban poor communities where the population has increased by 11 percent since 1997 to about 30 million today.6 Four out of 10 urban poor households live in 600 slum areas nationwide, in squalor along railways and waterways, under bridges, and on dumps.

Already pressed down by the horrible economic and social inequities, the Filipino people took severe blows from the country’s political crisis and repressive conditions. In two high-profile bombings – at Makati’s Glorietta II mall on Oct. 19, and at the Batasang Pambansa Complex that followed – 17 people were killed, including employees of Congress and the Basilan representative. The blasts took place amid renewed calls for Arroyo’s resignation over the ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) scam, the bribery scandal attending it, and the cash handouts to several government officials.

The year 2007 also proved to be dangerous for many Filipinos who without fear or favor advocate for social reform, peace and justice – for those who devote their life to the poor. Although the Arroyo government came under increasing local and international pressure to stop shooting down its critics, its iron hand used in the guise of counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism led to the summary execution of 68 more activists, the disappearance of 26 others, as well as 29 victims of torture, illegal detention of 116, and the forced evacuation of 7,542 villagers.7 The other face of this “silent war” however rages in the rural countryside where the people have endured the brunt of state terrorism through militarization, death squad operations, harassments, and other atrocities. Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them living in the provinces, lost their right to vote in the May 2007 elections due to intimidation by government troops for their alleged leftist sympathies. As the year ended, around 2,500 Manobos and Visayan settlers in Surigao Sur who had been forcibly evacuated by military operations found their homes ransacked, their rice and animals gone. Soldiers did it, community leaders said.

Efforts to protect the rights of victims of political persecution through the Supreme Court’s (SC) “judicial activism” particularly the issuance of the writ of amparo have been thwarted by the Arroyo government, with the courts issuing them shamed even more by this blatant show of military arrogance and supremacy. Until such legal mechanism and other measures are able to whip those who live by the gun into line, public alarm about the breakdown of the rule of law and the judicial system will remain valid. Mothers who cry for the surfacing of their sons and daughters abducted by the military must seek justice elsewhere.

If the year brought more pain, bullets, and bombs to the people, it was the other way around for the oligarchs as they feasted on the fraudulent elections and the disenfranchisement of voters. As expected, they retained 80 percent of the seats in Congress while Arroyo, through alleged bribery and adroit distribution of pork barrel funds under her control, averted a third attempt at impeachment against her. Malacanang in tandem with traditional politicians continued to mangle the Party-list system by fielding their own candidates and parties in the mid-term elections. Anticipating fraud and violence, however, the Filipino voters through various election watchdogs tried to guard the ballot, protect votes cast for the people’s representation in Congress, and moved for electoral reform. In the end, the May 2007 polls became a bigger proof that elections are a myth in a political system long dominated by the oligarchs.

Illegitimate presidency

Years of what is popularly seen as an illegitimate presidency, unbridled and unparalleled corruption, harsh economic conditions, and political repression brought widespread dissatisfaction among the Filipino people and lack of trust in government in 2007. This was shown in credibility and performance ratings of Arroyo in surveys conducted by the Pulse Asia and SWS that revealed nationwide distrust for her increasing from 37 percent in July to 46 percent in October, with a disapproval rating of 39 percent.

Arroyo also topped the list of the most corrupt Philippine presidents in recent history, with 42 percent of respondents saying so compared to Marcos’s 35 percent. It is partly because of this that the Philippines was rated recently by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt countries in the world; it was also second in the whole of Asia.

Two years ago, amid calls for Arroyo’s resignation 60 to 80 percent of the people wanted her out of the presidency. In the latest corruption survey, two out of 10 respondents said they wanted Arroyo removed by any means.

Economic uncertainties and periods of political turbulence marked 2007 but an increasing number of Filipinos ended the year with expressions of disquiet and with ominous signs that seeing more of the same in the year ahead could unfold some unexpected events.

(1) In 2006, there were, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, 8.2 million overseas Filipinos. Of these, 3.8 million were documented Filipinos; 3.5 million permanent residents or immigrants mostly in the United States, Canada, and Australia; and 875,000 were undocumented.
(2) Bulatlat.com, Aug. 12-18, 2007, citing a report by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).
(3) Rosario Bella Guzman, “The Philippine poverty situation: Beyond poverty measures, inequality grows,” IBON Features, May 10, 2007.
(4)IBON, ibid.
(5) Mahar Mangahas, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Oct. 6, 2007.
(6) IBON Foundation report, March 2007. Seven regions have recorded a 20-percent increased in their urban poor families.
(7) Figures cover only January to October, 2007. “Dangerous regime, defiant people,” latest report of the human rights alliance Karapatan. As of October 2007, the number of victims of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) since 2001 has reached 890.

(pinoypress.net)