Ahh… the days when ideologies directed the course of student governments are indeed gone, I mused. And this transported me back to the decade when youth power was at its peak, turning campus elections into a battleground for warring ideological groups wanting to take control of the student force. The WVSU Student Council is one interesting case.

Before the fall of Marcos, the WVSU Student Council was run by the League of Filipino Students (LFS), a communist student organization. The LFS legitimized its control of the council through two political parties – Lakad and Kasama. LFS members were fielded as candidates of these two parties but after the election, it was already difficult to distinguish who belonged to which party. It’s the LFS that was already running the student government.

Lakad and Kasama merged in 1986 to form Lakas, and another organization emerged – the Makabayang Kilusan ng mga Mag-aaral sa Sambayanan (Makimasa). Because it is also composed of LFS members, the same thing happened. And it became evident to students that the elections were nothing but stage plays to legitimize the control of the LFS of the student force.

To give true meaning to the exercise, the socialists under the banner of the now defunct Bansang Nagkakaisa sa Diwa at Layunin (Bandila) organized their own political party – the Lupon ng Nagkakaisang Mag-aaral (Lupon) and joined the elections in 1987. Three political parties were expected to field candidates that year but, it turned out, Makimasa disbanded. The elections then became a contest between the communists and the socialists.

Years later, personal differences rocked the ranks of Lupon and one leader bolted out to organize the Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Malayang Mag-aaral (Sumama). I will not discuss anymore what was the reason why he left Lupon but the joke then was “sumama ang loob nya” (he felt bad), that’s why he formed Sumama, bringing with him the same ideology behind Lupon.

With their respective ideologies inspiring their respective political lines, campus political parties were then in the forefront of the struggle for student rights and welfare. They fought for student representation in the WVSU Board of Regents, ousted a corrupt university president and demanded for the upgrading of school equipment and facilities.

Political parties – be they campus-based, party-list or mainstream organizations – can never really claim as such if they don’t have ideological lines. Ideologies define party platforms and they distinguish the non-traditional political aggrupations slash issues-oriented politics from the traditional slash personality-oriented ones.

It is disheartening to note that even in campus politics, ideologies are no longer embraced. Campus politics should be the training ground for future leaders. But what good would it bring our country when this early, the youth is already taught that the best way to win elections is through charm and choreography, and not by the kind of programs that they should be proposing?

One group can never have a political line without an ideological line. These two are like twins. Even the Nazi party has an ideology – fascism – which guides its political line of “national socialism” and the quest for the “racial purity of the German people.” In navigation, the political line defines the port of destination while the ideology serves as the map and the compass.

I have seen student governments turn themselves into mere event organizers, taking charge of acquaintance parties, JS proms, beauty contests, concerts and some outreach programs. They have already forgotten that they are there for a purpose – to uphold student rights and welfare. But how can they do so if they don’t know where to begin?

French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser once said, “Ideologies are indispensable in any society if men are to be formed, transformed and equipped to respond to the demands of their conditions of existence.” Let’s go back to school and study ideologies again, so we will know where exactly to begin.

I am not saying that Rosemarie “Baby” Arenas and her son Ramoncito are vampires but the tandem reminds me of mothers, like Martha Brodie, who can’t fight their own battles and instead use their poor children to do the fighting for them even if it is very evident that their sons and daughters are incapable of the tasks. Here, Baby Arenas is sending her son Citoy to fight her war even if it is so obvious that he can’t win.

Indeed, the campaign to take the congressional seat in Iloilo’s second district away from the Syjucos –Secretary Augusto Syjuco and his wife Representative Judy Jalbuena-Syjuco – is not Citoy’s but his mom’s. This can be gleaned from the media interviews that she gives, her press conferences and in the comical campaign materials of her son that features not only Citoy but also his mother.

I can understand if the later generations of the Roxases and the Osmeñas will include the images of their outstanding fathers and grandfathers in their campaign materials but I can’t understand why would Citoy include her mom’s picture and name in his tarpaulin streamers, posters, stickers and campaign jingle. Aside from the fact that it is his mother who’s paying for all these materials, does Citoy really think Baby Arenas can make him win? And what has Baby Arenas contributed for the betterment of Iloilo?

A background check on Baby Arenas reveals that she is more of a liability to her son’s candidacy than an asset. News materials available in the Internet, dating back to as early as 1994, show that she was not just romantically linked to former President Fidel Ramos but she also figured in a number of controversies ranging from her refusal to pay the architect of her house, to her alleged involvement in the PEA-Amari scandal. In fact, Malaya columnist Ducky Paredes could never say anything good about Baby Arenas and her children.

In one column for example, Paredes exposed how Arenas made a fast buck when the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti had a concert in Manila in 1994. “It turns out, after all, that this is not a Rosemarie Arenas operation. It never was,” Paredes wrote amid reports that it was Arenas who organized the concert. The truth was that Luciano Pavarotti was on an Asian tour to promote opera and give the rest of the world a chance to listen to a great tenor. The Philippines was already included in the concert circuit.

“Then, Rosemarie Arenas got wind of it. She came in by buying up 300 orchestra seats which she is now reselling for a minimum of P25,000 and in some cases P50,000 and even more. Thus, Baby Arenas is, in this venture, a mere scalper. Before anyone knew it, she had taken over the whole thing,” wrote Paredes in a February 1994 column.

Paredes, in several columns, also described Arenas as a rumormonger, spreading false stories against then First Lady Amelita “Ming” Ramos. Arenas, in one instance, reportedly asked then President Ramos to order an investigation into the alleged smuggling by the party of the First Lady of 34 pieces of luggage from Bangkok. Of this, Paredes wrote: “So, here is a woman trying to engage the attention of a man who at one time probably gave her a lot of it and now probably regrets it. She is now unable to get even a wink in her direction.”

And it’s not the former First Lady who was caught red-handed in a smuggling attempt but Baby Arenas’ beloved son, Citoy. This happened in late 1994 when Customs officials intercepted 600 watches worth P1.5 million that Citoy, his son Vincent, another unnamed son of Baby Arenas and one Enrique Manzano wanted to smuggle from Hong Kong.

“Since the Arenases left their luggage at the airport, Enrique Manzano, their traveling companion, was left to fend for himself. Well, the customs people discovered the 600 watches in two of the six suitcases that Manzano was checking out,” Paredes wrote in a November 11, 1994 column.

“One of the suitcases had briefs in them (together with the watches) with the name “Vincent” written on the waistband. Manzano says that the luggage where the contraband was found were not his. (Obviously, since why would he wear briefs with the name “Vincent” on them.),” added Paredes, who served as Press Secretary in the Cory government.

Thank God for the Internet, it is one rich source of information on Baby Arenas. She is one interesting subject of a case study. In fact, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at the George Mason University in Virginia included her in its “Women in World History” project, particularly on the subject “unofficial power” which is described as power “exercised in private, far from public view.”

The CHNM wrote: “The basis of Arenas’s power was the fact that she was a major fundraiser in the presidential campaign of Fidel Ramos. Arenas’s use of power is portrayed as negative, in part because she exercised it to its maximum potential. Unofficial power is prone to abuse, in part because it is largely unaccountable. It is not, however, invisible. Since women are the support system in kinship politics (women run election campaigns and raise funds), this becomes the source of their power later on.”

The Ramos administration is already a thing of the past. Baby Arenas’ powers has long waned. She now wants to regain them. And her own Carl Brodie is now on a quest to find virgin women for her.

It is on this group of coralline rocks where a statue of the Virgin Mary stood for over 20 years until last week when it was removed upon orders of the same person who had it erected there.

That person is Socorro Ruchanie Gadon, owner of Willy’s Beach Resort who left her Catholic faith and moved to a Born-Again Christian church in 1992.

Gadon may own the resort but certainly not the rock formation protruding by the beach of Boracay, across her business establishment. Nature put it there, not her. She may have enhanced the rock formation by erecting a grotto there using her own money but what it has become for the people is already beyond her caprice.

She claims the statue is against her new-found religion. But while her religious beliefs are to be respected, she should have also respected the sensibilities of those who consider the grotto not just a Catholic image but a symbol for the island.

The grotto upon Willy’s Rock has become part of Boracay already, and it now belongs not only to those who have come to experience the sun, the sea and the sand in this famed island but also to those who are yet to come and enjoy the beauty that gave Gadong her riches.

A visit to Boracay is never complete if you missed Willy’s Rock. In fact, you can never claim that you have visited Boracay if you can’t show a photo of you with the grotto in the background.

Indeed, the grotto has evolved from an expression of faith into a landmark owned not by one person but by the public.

And if Boracay is the magical hen that lays the golden egg for the resort owners in that island, the rock formation and the grotto are among her feathers.

Here in Iloilo City, there is the Local Cultural Heritage Conservation Ordinance that mandates the preservation of heritage or legacy structures.

Owners, administrators, lessees or any other people in charge of heritage or legacy structures are even prohibited from undertaking any repair, rehabilitation or construction of any kind unless there is a favorable recommendation from the Iloilo City Cultural Heritage Conservation Council (ICCHCC).

In the event that the repair or rehabilitation is urgent, building owners, administrator or lessees are mandated to make sure that the façade showing the architectural design of the building is retained, restored and preserved.

While Willy’s Rock may not be classified as a heritage or legacy structure, it has already become synonymous to Boracay and Gadon should be the very first person to know that. Before removing the grotto, she should have asked permission from the people who made Boracay the country’s premier tourist destination.

Remember the Rotary Amphitheater beside the Museo Iloilo? Before that structure was demolished several years ago to give way to the parking area of the new Iloilo Provincial Capitol, a grand farewell program was organized by various groups that have used the amphitheater as venue for their respective advocacies.

It was their final respect to what has become an icon of free expression and performing arts in this part of the country.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo officiated a final mass there, followed by a program participated in by the Rotary Club of Iloilo, local bands, activists, civic groups and other religious denominations. It was a simple way of saying that that landmark has already become public property.

In my hometown Cabatuan, an image of the Pieta (which depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus) has already become a permanent feature of the dusk Good Friday procession for generations.

Owned by a prominent family, it caused a controversy years back when its caretaker reportedly announced that he is bringing the image with him to Igbaras where he is moving with his wife.

After learning of his plan, the townfolks protested because the Pieta has already become a community property and spending the Holy Week in Cabatuan is never complete without seeing the Pieta being paraded around the town during Good Friday.

Respecting the clamor of the people, the caretaker agreed to leave the Pieta in Cabatuan.

Yes, Ms Gadon, there are private properties that have become part of the public realm because they have been sanctified by usage as community properties, including Willy’s Rock.

At first glance, the grotto upon it may be identified with one religious denomination, but looking deeper into its role in the development of the island will make one realize that Boracay will never be the same again without it.

I know a lot of people who are addicted to Farmville and they admit spending a lot of energies tending their respective farms. I never realized that farming is so attractive to Filipinos. If they can only channel their Farmville addiction to actually working in the farms to produce agricultural products, then we would be assured of food sufficiency.

Our country is facing a food crisis and its agriculture sector is now on a decline – particularly rice production – as brought about by various reasons, ranging from the conversion of rice lands to climate change. Last year, according to agriculture officials, the country’s farm sector posted a lower-than-expected production growth rate of 0.37 percent as strong typhoons significantly slashed the output of farmers and fisherfolk from October to December.

Farm production for October to December 2009 declined by 2.43 percent, with paddy-rice production getting slashed by 13.88 percent to 5.36 million metric tons (MMT) during the period, as against the 6.22 MMT produced in October to December 2008. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported that for the whole of 2009, rice production went down by 3.31 percent to 16.26 MMT. It was also predicted that in the first half of 2010, rice production in the Philippines will fall 1.7 percent because of the looming El Niño.

The declining figures paint a bleak picture for agriculture, considered as the lynchpin of the Philippine economy. Now, we lag behind our Southeast Asian neighbors as far as meeting food security targets is concerned. In fact, we are now the largest customer of Vietnam’s rice exports. Sometimes, we unknowingly import Cambodian rice that has been exported through Vietnam.

Worse, rice in the Philippines is more expensive compared to those sold in Thailand and Vietnam, according to the BAS. In the last week of January 2010, the retail price of regular-milled rice in the major Manila wet markets was P15.36 per kilo. In peso terms, for the same quality of rice, Vietnamese households pay only P6 per kilo, while Thai households pay P7.60 per kilo.

Because rice has become unaffordable already, Filipinos now eat much less rice when compared with its neighbors at similar income levels, according to the Action for Economic Reforms (AER). Filipinos consume 95 kilos of rice per capita per year or a cup of milled rice per meal. In sharp contrast, the Vietnamese consume up to 165 kilos of rice per capita per year, Cambodians 169 kilos, Indonesians 149 kilos, and the citizens of Myanmar eat as much as 213 kilos of rice per capita per year.

Compounding these growing problems in our agriculture sector in particular, and in our economy in general, is the unattractiveness of agriculture-related college courses among high school graduates, because many of them believe that enrolling in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary medicine will not usher them to good opportunities after they graduate. From 2000 to 2007, enrolment in these courses declined 17.06 percent, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).

CHEd records show that in school year 2000-2001, there were 94,900 students enrolled in agriculture-related courses offered by some 40 state universities and colleges. By 2002-2003 school year, the figure dropped to 84,609, and to 78,201 in 2003-2004. This went down further to 70,680 in school year 2004-2005. In 2008, the first semester enrolment for agriculture and other related courses reached only 65,734 students.

How can we obtain agricultural modernization and achieve food sufficiency if there is a looming shortage of agriculturists in the Philippines? It was even proposed to provide scholarships to courses in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary medicine to encourage enrolment.

But who needs scholars when millions of Filipinos have now become virtual agriculturists, courtesy of Farmville?

Well, perhaps, the Department of Agriculture should start considering the Farmville formula. Expand the farmer’s farm as he or she progresses, provide him or her with “Ribbons” and rewards for completing certain tasks, etcetera, etcetera…. In governance, they call that “best practices” and anyone is encouraged to replicate and innovate them.

If Facebook can make farming so attractive, why can’t our government do the same?

Of course, everyone knows Dinagyang was simply copied from Atiatihan, the origin of which remains unknown. The influence of Tarzan over the festival has never been formally discussed before but media effect theories support this contention.

There are two versions of how the atiatihan (mimicking the ati dances) was born. The first was said to have originated when the Malays celebrated the barter of Panay in the 12th century by painting themselves black to blend with the ati (Aetas).

Legends have it that the Aetas, the original inhabitants of the island, sold the lowlands to the Bornean datus who sought refuge in Panay after fleeing the tyrannical rule of Sultan Makatunao. After the pact was sealed, an unprecedented merrymaking exploded, which prompted the Malays to paint their bodies with soot to ease insecurity among the natives. To commemorate the barter, the Malays celebrated the atiatihan every year. It then evolved to become a tradition in Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo.

Another version, dating back to the Spanish colonial period, says that the festival began with the Aeta’s practice of going from house to house in Ibajay town in Aklan during Christmas to ask for gifts. The men played their gongs or bamboo flutes while the women danced. The townfolks then give them food and drink, old clothes, and household utensils, among others.

When the Aeta stopped coming, the people of Ibajay, who realized they had begun to look forward to its yearly practice, blackened themselves with soot, put on colorful headdresses and loincloths just as the Aeta had done, and danced from house to house asking for gifts.

Accounts have it that through the years, it became a rowdy and spectacular show performed on a grand scale by everyone in the town wearing masks and costumes, beating cans, bamboo tubes and boards, or blowing on whistles and trumpets, and parading through the main streets until they wore themselves out. Every household was open to guests who were offered sumptuous food. The celebration spread to other towns and became a regional festival.

Historians say the Spaniards, noticing that the practice persisted despite Christianization, incorporated Catholic elements into the feast. And in the 18th century, a priest moved the date of the festival to coincide with the feast day of the Santo Niño, the patron saint of Ibajay.

Born in 1968, Iloilo’s Dinagyang evolved into a festival during the 1970s when then Tourism Minister Jose Aspiras urged every city to create one in order to attract tourists. Its development was a product of television, particularly of the TV series Tarzan, from where choreographers copied dance steps, drumbeats, costumes and headdresses that have now become part of the festival.

The setting of Tarzan, then shown over RPN 8, is in Africa. So wonder no more why the Dinagyang dance steps, drumbeats, costumes and headdresses are all of African influence. Give an Aeta a bottle of Tanduay and he will show you the original ati dance step, and it will surely be far different from what you’ve seen on Sunday.

The drum is never an Aeta musical instrument. Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, in a 1919 report, wrote that the musical instruments identified with the Aeta were the flute, a kullibaw jew’s harp made of bamboo (the instrument made popular by folk singer Joey Ayala), a traded bronze gong, and the bamboo violin.

The traditional clothing of the Aeta is very simple. Young women wear wraparound skirts, while elder women wear bark cloth strip which passes between the legs, and is attached to a string around the waist, according to Kroeber. Elder men wear loincloths. There are no headdresses in the Aeta culture. Who would dare invent and wear headdresses in a tropical country anyway?

TV was a powerful medium back in the 1970s and the exposure it gave to African culture through Tarzan shaped the Dinagyang, a phenomenon that social psychologists associate with various media effect theories. Go to YouTube and look for old Tarzan clips and you’ll see a striking resemblance between the dances of the tribes of colonial Africa and our hall of famer festival.

If you are not contented with Tarzan, you can also compare the opening scene of the 1988 movie “Coming to America” with our Dinagyang and you’ll never see any difference, except for the absence of the Santo Niño in the Eddie Murphy film.

When we were kids, we would imitate the ululating Tarzan yell while taking a bath at the Tigum River in Cabatuan, a manifestation of the power of TV over our generation – a generation that included the Dinagyang Festival, a bastard child brought into this world without a true legacy.

With the slogan “Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our future”, the UN wants us to understand that humans are part of nature’s rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it, and that biodiversity is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that provide us all with health, wealth, food, fuel and the vital services our lives depend on.

The UN also wants to highlight the fact that human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate.

By and large, the IYB is primarily a campaign against ignorance and apathy, a challenge to educate urban and rural populations on the perils of biodiversity loss.

Biodiversity loss is often described as the forgotten crisis. According to the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB), we are losing plants, animals and other species at unprecedented rates due to deforestation, large-scale mining, massive wildlife hunting and other irresponsible human activities. This poses a significant threat to our food security, health, livelihood, and the world’s overall capacity to provide for our needs and those of future generations.

So, if we talk about the rice shortage or the food crisis, we are not just talking about declining rice production due to increasing global temperature or to shrinking rice paddies due to land conversion and urban expansion. We are talking about biodiversity loss.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about three-quarters of the “varietal genetic diversity” of agricultural crops have been lost over the last century and that hundreds of the 7000 animal breeds registered in its databases are threatened by extinction.

It also reported that just about twelve crops and fourteen animal species now provide most of the world’s food. “Fewer genetic diversity means fewer opportunities for the growth and innovation needed to boost agriculture at a time of soaring food prices,” reports the UN agency tasked to defeat hunger.

Rod Fuentes, ACB executive director, explains: “The loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest threats that we face. No one will argue that it is in the area of food security, perhaps more than any other, that biodiversity’s value is most clear. Nature provides the plant and animal resources for food production and agricultural productivity. When we destroy biodiversity, we destroy our source of food.”

If we also talk about the health crisis, we are also taking about biodiversity loss. Nature is a source of medicines that save lives and avert illnesses. Studies show that about 119 pure chemicals are extracted from less than 90 species of higher plants and used as medicines throughout the world, like caffeine, methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen) and quinine which has antipyretic (fever-reducing), antimalarial, analgesic (painkilling), and anti-inflammatory properties. On the other hand, antibiotics like streptomycin, neomycin, and erythromycin are derived from tropical soil fungi.

More than 60 percent of the world population relies almost entirely on the plant medicine for primary health care. But the pharmaceutical potential hidden within the natural world is largely untapped – only one percent of the plant species in rainforests have been tested for their possible pharmaceutical value, and other ecosystems have been largely unexplored as well.

If we continue to lose species and habitats at the current rate, untold numbers of beneficial medicines will be lost forever.

Biodiversity, according to the ACB, is also a source of livelihood to millions of people as the economy of many communities is driven by the use of species in industries such as biotechnology, forestry, agriculture and fisheries. Moreover, biodiversity provides social benefits including recreation and tourism, as well as cultural and aesthetic values.

Adds Fuertes: “Our biodiversity resources and the ecosystems that support it is our lifeline and is a crucial contributor to global environmental sustainability. Forgetting the biodiversity crisis is therefore akin to cutting our lifeline to the world’s natural treasures.”

As we observe 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, let us remember that biodiversity loss is not just an issue of losing plants and animals but it is an issue of human survival.

While climate change may sound less interesting compared to regular campaign issues like how corrupt the other candidate is, questions on intellectual or residential qualifications, who has a better infrastructure proposal, and warlordism, among others, it has become a major concern considering that its effects are no longer alien to voters, especially the many who have experienced floods and other natural calamities.

Climate change is now defining how houses are to be built, how cars are to be developed and how city-regions are to be planned, and there is no question why we should not be talking about it. Candidates should disclose their thoughts about it, unless they don’t have any thoughts at all. If they don’t have a program on how to address climate change, how can we expect them to solve the food crisis due to the continuing drop in rice production, or unemployment arising from the relocation of industries to flood-free areas?

Other cities and provinces have already instituted programs to counter the impacts of climate destabilization. Some have even earned international recognition for the innovative measures and initiatives that they introduced, which highlights the kind of foresight and understanding of issues the local chief executives of these cities and provinces have, and indicative of leadership that deserves reelection.

A program was introduced in San Fernando City, Pampanga allowing tricycle operators to avail of a P9,000 loan, payable in one year, so they can purchase four-stroke engines so they can comply with the provisions of Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act of 1999 which calls for the phase out of two-stroke motorcycle engines. Two-stroke engines burn less fuel and produce harmful smoke emissions. Had the city not acted to the aid of tricycle owners, the law could have never been fully implemented.

In San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, families can bury their dead in the memorial park developed by the government for the minimal fee if they can plant a tree at the Memorial Tree Park, found in another location, with seedlings provided by the City Agriculturist. After five years, the family should exhume the bones and transfer them to the foot of the tree they originally planted in the park, which would bear the nameplate of the deceased. The program has addressed the problem of lack of affordable burial sites and the need to involve the community in the fight against environmental degradation.

The same city has also convinced its constituents to pay a water levy of seventy five centavos per cubic meter of water that they consume. The water levy generates 1.2 million pesos annually, which goes to a trust fund which the city government uses in rehabilitating its denuded watershed. Started in 2005 and employing an integrated forest land use approach that determined type of reforestation and agricultural activity based on land slope, at least 250,000 trees were already planted in the watershed area, thus ensuring a stable supply of drinking water for city residents.

Other local government units have encompassing programs and policies. In Bacolod City, an ordinance was passed creating the “Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Program” which tasks the city to promote research and extension work on climate change adaptation through local research institutions, the academe and relevant stakeholders and engage in programs projects and activities particularly in land and water use change forestry, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, coastal zones and fisheries, farming practices, and indigenous clean energy.

Negros Oriental is also passing a similar ordinance, with suggested actions that include relocating homes from riverbanks, avoiding building highways along coastlines, contour farming, planting of bamboos along riverbanks and a vulnerability audit to come up with a list of environmentally risky activities, which would be the basis for an action agenda that would call for the inclusion of climate change measures in the provincial development and investment plans, and in the annual plans of the local government units.

As the 2010 elections draw near, it is imperative for candidates to reveal their action plan to address climate change. Iloilo is very vulnerable to the various phenomena attributed to climate change and it would be very gratifying to see those who wish to lead us outline their plans on how we can avoid the loss of lives, properties and sources of income amid this very threatening global crisis.

We can no longer wait for the next climate change summit in Mexico before we can breathe a sigh of relief seeing that something is being done so that floods and droughts would no longer exact a heavy toll on our natural environment, our economy and our well-being. We can’t leave our fate to world leaders who live very comfortably to make our sufferings their priority. Nor we can’t expect our national leadership to be more assertive in pushing for a climate change mitigation agenda when all it does is to pay lip service to the Filipino people.

There are a lot of local actions than can provide global solutions to the perils of climate change. But these local actions need to be empowered by electing leaders who have a clear view of what must be done to counter the troubles that industries in First World countries have brought upon us. We may be less responsible to climate change but we are more vulnerable to it. And such vulnerability requires us to start pushing for climate change mitigation measures right in our own doorsteps.

Hector Tarrazona

I’m pretty sure many are not yet familiar with Hector Tarrazona, but his name rings loud to me. The reason is obvious. Tarrazona and I are both from Cabatuan, Iloilo. I first heard of his name when I was in my senior years in high school, months before a group of military officers under the organization We Belong came out in the open in January 1986 to express their displeasure over how the dictator Ferdinand Marcos ran the country.

Tarrazona was one of the seven military officers who announced the formation of that group, more known later as the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM). RAM was actually organized years earlier as an underground group and Tarrazona was one of its founders, a member of the 11-man Ad Hoc Steering Committee of RAM. His involvement in the anti-Marcos movement within the military was an open secret in our town back then.

Our English teacher, now Cabatuan councilor Victor Maroma, always talked about him and how proud he was that one of his former students had stood for a great cause. Tarrazona was salutatorian of his high school class. I also felt proud being his townmate, especially after seeing him on TV alongside Gringo Honasan leading the revolt against Marcos. One immortal photo after EDSA I shows RAM leaders like Honasan, Tarrazona and Red Kapunan on top of a military tank rejoicing a day after Marcos fled Malacañang.

Years later, I had a chance to meet Tarrazona at the office of then Board Member Perla Zulueta at the old Iloilo Provincial Capitol. He was doing a research for his master’s degree and had chosen Zulueta as one of his respondents. A soft-spoken unassuming gentleman, one would never suspect that he was one of those who lit a candle during the darkest hour of our history. His personal account of the EDSA revolution and his views on the problems of the Filipino society are recorded in the book he wrote, After EDSA.

The other day, I read Tarrazona’s name in the papers again. He is one of the eight candidates for senator of the Church-based Ang Kapatiran Party whose candidacies were approved by the Commission on Election (Comelec). This is the second time that Ang Kapatiran fielded candidates for Senator. In 2007, it had three candidates –Zosimo Jesus Paredes II, Dr. Martin Bautista and lawyer Adrian Sison. None of them won but they garnered votes reaching hundreds of thousands.

Aside from Tarrazona, the other candidates of Ang Kapatiran include Rizalito David, Jo Imbong, Zosimo Paredes, Maria Gracia Piñozo-Plazo, Adrian Sison, Reginald Tamayo, and Manuel Valdehuesa, all not-so-famous personalities. Its candidate for President is John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes, a councilor in Olongapo City.

Rooted in the social teaching of the Church, Ang Kapatiran Party was formed in response to the call of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991, and to the invitation of the CBCP Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics in 1997 for the lay faithful to help the Bishops in “cleaning up what they consider as the dirtiest aspect of our national life – today’s kind of politics.”

For the 2010 elections, Ang Kapatiran launched its campaign for 2,010 positions during the national convention of the Philippines’ Pontifical Council for the Laity here in Iloilo City in October 2008. The 12-point program of Ang Kapatiran is anchored on serving God and country, economic reform, quality education for all, justice, and peace.

I know Tarrazona to be a deeply religious person, reason perhaps why Ang Kapatiran drafted him as a senatorial candidate. Advocating Christianity as an “antidote” to communism, he believes in the peaceful bloodless road to change, rejecting any attempts to take over governments through armed struggle by both the extreme left and the extreme right.

In 1987, Tarrazona was among those ordered arrested for his alleged participation in the failed coup against then President Corazon Aquino after she approved the release of Jose Ma. Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines whose military arm, the New People’s Army, has been engaged in a protracted war with the government since 1969. He, however, denied the charges against him.

“Despite the fact that I hated (the Aquino) government then for unconditionally releasing Jose Maria Sison and all the communists from detention, I did not join my fellow officers in the 1989 coup attempt precisely because I did not believe then, as I do not believe now, that a revolutionary government would solve our problems as a nation,” he would later write.

“The lesson we should learn is, if the revolutionary government of Cory, who was very popular world-wide then, miserably failed, why would another group whose leaders we do not know, would succeed if we had a try for another revolutionary government?,” he added.

Tarrazona is now 65, but this senior citizen still sings in church choir on Sundays. And if his melodious voice can captivate churchgoers, there is no reason why he can’t be our voice in the Senate. Sakdagon naton siya!

This myth sprang from the rule that barangay elections should be nonpartisan where, according to Section 38 of the Omnibus Election Code, “no person who files a certificate of candidacy (in the barangay election) shall represent or allow himself to be represented as a candidate of any political party or any other organization.”

But the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), in DILG Opinion No. 17 dated 14 February 2007, says that what is prohibited under the law is for a person to run and be elected in a barangay elective position under a political party. “Nowhere can we find in the aforequoted provisions of law that the prohibition on partisanship shall be made general so as to encompass absolute prohibition against barangay elective officials from affiliating and ultimately, becoming members of any political party,” says the DILG.

On the contrary, adds the DILG, there are many legal justifications to conclude that, in fact, barangay officials can affiliate themselves with a political party.

It cited Section 8 Article III of the 1987 Constitution which upholds “the right of the people, including those employed in the public and private sectors, to form unions, associations or societies for purposes not contrary to law…” “The term ‘associations’ mentioned therein includes political parties, among others,” says the DILG. “Well settled is the rule that the right to form these associations includes the right to join the same.”

The DILG also notes that while barangay elections were made to be nonpartisan in nature by the Omnibus Election Code, it does include barangay officials. “To our mind, if it was really the intention of the legislature to generally prohibit barangay elective officials from affiliating and ultimately, becoming members of any political party, they should have used the term ‘barangay elective officials’ instead of ‘barangay elections’,” the four-page opinion reads.

“Obviously, the phrase ‘barangay elective officials’ differs from ‘barangay elections’. The former pertains to persons while the latter pertains to a political event,” it adds.

The DILG also cites Memorandum Circular No. 02, series of 1992, issued by the Civil Service Commission, which says that the inhibitions on government officials and employees from engaging in any electioneering or in partisan political activities or campaign shall not be made to apply to elective officials, among others.

Asserts the DILG: “…What is prohibited under the law is for barangay officials to be elected in their positions under any political party and cannot be stretched to prohibit these barangay officials from becoming members of any political party as it would run counter to the right of any person to associate which is guaranteed and protected by Section 8, Article III of the 1987 Constitution.”

It also clarifies that “there is no liability, administrative or otherwise, on the part of a barangay elective official who affiliates himself and become a member of a political party. Neither can it be a ground for his disqualification. It is only when said barangay elective official chose to be elected under a political party that the prohibition applies and a violation thereof will then give rise to an administrative liability and possible disqualification from office.”

Barangay captains increase one candidate’s chances of winning an election. If these barangay captains have performed well during their incumbency and have fully earned the trust and confidence of their constituents, they can attract a lot of votes and ensure the victory of the candidate they are supporting. But since it has been established that barangay officials can never stay nonpartisan and nonpolitical, the next political reality that candidates have to contend with is the myth of loyalty and the phenomenon of turncoatism. And that would be a more exciting election story. Abangan!

It is meant to “enable Filipino citizens belonging to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties, and who lack well-defined political constituencies but who could contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole, to become members of the House of Representatives.”

Marginalized: That means a state of being confined to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of social standing. Underrepresented: That means those with inadequate representation to something, or those whose representations are disproportionately low. So who are the marginalized and the underrepresented sectors that must have representation in the House of Representatives?

Section 5 of the RA 7941 or the Party-List System Act elaborated on these sectors by specifying “labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.” But looking at the personal information sheets of some party-list representatives, it appears that many of them do not come from the marginalized and the underrepresented sectors, which makes one wonder – How can they represent the sector that they are supposed to represent?

Akbayan party-list representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel attended St. Scholastica’s College during her elementary and high school years. She earned her Social Science degree, cum laude, from the Ateneo de Manila University. Her Statement of Assets and Liabilities show she owns three houses even before she became a member of the House – two in Quezon City and one in Batangas.
The marginalized do not attend St. Scho and Ateneo, do they? Nor do they have more than one house.

Hontiveros-Baraquel also has three vehicles valued at P3.8 million, and shares of stocks with Tanghalang Lakbay Pinoy Productions Inc., Baracon Inc., Planet Dive Inc., Mom’s Inc. and Dev Asia Transport. Why would Risa, whose grandfather was a senator and a justice at the Court of Appeals (Senator Jose M. Hontiveros of Tangalan, Aklan), be classified as marginalized and be allowed to earn a seat for the underrepresented in the House?

The parents of Teddy Casiño of radical left Bayan Muna enrolled him at De La Salle University for his elementary and La Salle-Greenhills for his secondary education. His father is a lawyer who owns shares at the exclusive Makati Sports Club right in the capitalist enclave of Salcedo Village. His mother comes from a prominent family in Aklan where they own a fishpond in the town of Numancia.

Hans Christian Señeres, who served the 13th Congress before he was expelled from the party-list group Buhay, went to school in the United States after his elementary years at the Benedictine Abbey School in Muntinglupa. He enrolled at the South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia for his secondary education and earned a degree in Financial Management from the Southeastern University in Washington D.C.

Rene Valerde, another Buhay representative, declared to have a net worth of P28.3 million who lives in the posh Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinglupa. He listed, as of June 2004, owning three luxury cars – a Nissan Cefiro, a Kia RS Sedona and a Toyota Camry. He had shares of stocks with Eagle Ridge Golf Club, Mavco Holdings, Amvel Land Development, Delta Broadcasting Corp. and Next Generation Bottling Corp.

What is also not clear here are the sectors that these party-list groups represent. House Speaker Prospero Nograles, for his part, explains: “The question of representing a sector of society and advocacy is different from the person representing the sector or advocacy. You have to distinguish. You are not electing the person but a party-list. Whoever it nominates that is its concern. You can be the richest guy in the Philippines, but you can be the one nominated by the sector representing this advocacy.”

But then again, the law clearly states that it is meant to “enable Filipino citizens belonging to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties… to become members of the House of Representatives.” It does not say “to be represented in the House of Representatives.” To be actually a member of the House is far different from being represented in the House. So why settle for representation when the marginalized can actually sit and be heard in the House?

Let’s face it. The party-list system has only become a backdoor entrance for the rich to earn seats in the House of Representatives. Congress may now have some progressive members courtesy of RA 7941 but this refers more to the pocket rather than the thinking. Which brings to mind what Will Rogers once said, “With Congress, every time they make a joke it’s a law; and every time they make a law it’s a joke.”