Sick not with flu

I’m getting sick and tired of seeing Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque everyday on national TV while informing the public of new cases of H1N1 virus in the country.

Don’t get me wrong, just like everybody else I want to know the latest news on the virus. But what sickens me is my suspicion that the Secretary might be doing this not in service to the public, but in aid of elections.

Duque’s political ambition is not unknown to many. Word has it that the Health Secretary might gun for a Senate seat in the next year’s elections.

And by all indications, he’s doing a good job of keeping his face and name plastered and spoken on TV repeatedly. Indeed the virus scare is a perfect opportunity for him and his handlers to ensure name recall.

Not only because the H1N1 is something that all of us is interested in, it is also a perfect running story for Duque. But as he goes on with his daily ritual of “updating” the public on the virus; he only succeeds in sowing fear and panic among the populace.

Why? Because in almost all of his daily press conferences and media interviews all he and his underlings dish out are statistics that seem to shoot up every minute. I remember hearing the Secretary over the radio while preparing leaving for work one morning that confirmed H1N1 cases in the country number only to about a hundred plus. But when I again saw and heard him talking in a noon time news cast; I was stunned to learn that confirmed cases rose to almost two fold.

I read somewhere that the DOH is doing all of this in the name of “transparency.” But could anyone enlighten me why the hell their figures are screamingly different from that of the World Health Organization?

As of this writing, confirmed cases in the country now reached 473. But according to the WHO website, the Philippines have only a total of 344 and 33 newly confirmed cases. One can only speculate why the hell these two agencies hold differing statistics.

But the mere disparity in the statistics of our leading local health agency and that of its global counterpart is a serious cause for alarm for all of us who have been subjected to Duque’s daily fare of scaring the public with his swelling numbers. This is a just cause to investigate how the DOH is currently handling the pandemic.

Is the DOH really prepared and on top of the situation? Or is it only capable of keeping tabs of how many Filipinos are getting sick of the dreaded flu virus and terrorizing the public everyday?

Sowing fear and panic is a clear form of terrorism according to Gloria’s Anti-Terror Law.

I admit, I am scared. But not so much because the flu’s coming to get me sometime soon (I am armed with a hand sanitizer hehe). But because I think the DOH is inordinately ill prepared should the pandemic reach catastrophic proportions in the country.

Note that the Philippine medical system is currently in tatters because almost all of our health workers are scrambling to leave the country for jobs abroad. Who’s going to nurse us should the DOH’s prediction that 25% of the country is in danger of being affected by the novel flu strain?

Not Duque, I suppose. He doesn’t even bother to inform us of how many of those in his rising statistics have been cleared of the flu. Makes me even more convinced that he’s only in it to advance his political ambitions.

But then again, I hope I’m wrong.

(Photo courtesy: Reuters)

MELISSA ROXAS’ SURFACING A VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE, BUT THE SEARCH CONTINUES FOR CARABEO & HANDOC– BAYAN USA

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, an alliance of 14 Filipino social justice organizations across the United States, is elated to confirm that Filipina-American activist Melissa Roxas, 32, surfaced hours ago in Manila as of Sunday, May 24th. BAYAN USA confirmed this report with the human rights group Karapatan. A detailed account about the circumstances of her surfacing is still forthcoming.

“We are happy to hear about Melissa’s surfacing, but we are still concerned about the whereabouts of her two companions, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc, who were abducted along with Melissa on May 19th and are still missing to this day,” states BAYAN USA Chair Bernadette Ellorin. “We fully intend to pursue the demand for the surfacing of Carabeo and Handoc, as well as justice for Melissa. This abduction should never have taken place.”

Roxas, Carabeo, and Handoc, all members of a medical mission team in La Paz, Tarlac, were reportedly abducted at gunpoint by at least eight masked men in the middle of the night last week. Upon learning of Roxas, Carabeo, and Handoc’s enforced disappearance, BAYAN USA, along with BAYAN Philippines and Karapatan, exerted strong efforts calling for their immediate surfacing, including releasing an online petition addressed to US elected officials that gathered hundreds of signatures in a matter of hours.

“Because more than five days had passed since their abduction, we believe Melissa’s surfacing is a direct result of rapid community response and international pressure exerted from the Philippines and the United States first and foremost,” Ellorin continued. BAYAN USA in Southern California has also been working closely with Roxas’ family in Los Angeles in their campaign efforts to surface Roxas and her companions in the Philippines.

Roxas, a founding member of the cultural organization Habi-Arts in Los Angeles and founding Southern California Representative for BAYAN USA, went to the Philippines in 2007 to pursue human rights advocacy full-time. Her move was set amidst an acute human rights crisis in the Philippines that includes reports of rampant extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrest, torture, and summary executions. In 2005, Roxas participated in an international fact-finding mission investigating human rights violations throughout the Philippines under the Arroyo administration.

On Wednesday, May 27th, BAYAN USA member organizations across the United States will be launching actions denouncing the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a military pact that allows for the basing of US military troops in over 20 ports throughout the Philippines. Included in these actions will be the call for justice for Melissa Roxas and for the immediate surfacing of Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc. BAYAN USA firmly believes the continuing, unabated human rights violations committed by the Philippine military and death squads are generously funded by US military aid to the Arroyo government. BAYAN USA also ultimately holds the Arroyo government accountable for the pattern of killings and abductions against civilians critical of the regime since 2001.

“As we continue to campaign for justice for Melissa, Juanito, and John Edward, we are consciously raising awareness of the role of US tax dollars in funding these abductions and other human rights violations. There are hundreds more victims of politically-motivated abductions in the Philippines that are still missing to this day,” Ellorin ended. ###

SURFACE FILIPINO-AMERICAN ACTIVIST MELISSA ROXAS NOW

BAYAN-USA, an alliance of 14 Filipino American organizations and chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan Philippines), is calling on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Department of National Defense, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to immediately surface Melissa Roxas, an American citizen of Filipino descent who was abducted in the Philippines on May 19. BAYAN-USA also urgently calls on our representatives in the U.S. Congress to act quickly to ensure the safe return of Roxas.

Roxas is a well-known Filipino American activist, who served as the first Regional Coordinator of BAYAN-USA in Los Angeles and co-founded the cultural organization Habi Arts. Roxas is an active human rights advocate and was instrumental in organizing a BAYAN-USA contingent that participated in the International Solidarity Mission in 2005, an international fact finding mission that called attention to the escalating human rights violations in the Philippines. Roxas went to the Philippines in 2007 to pursue human rights work, where she became a full time volunteer health worker. She was abducted on May 19, 2009 at approximately 1:30 PM in Sitio Bagong Sikat, Barangay kapanikian, La Paz, Tarlac. She was with two other volunteers, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc.

Based on reports filed by the human rights group KARAPATAN and the La Paz police, Roxas and her companions were taken by at least 8 armed, hooded men riding two motorcycles and a Besta van without any license plate numbers. There has been no word on the whereabouts and condition of Roxas and her companions since the abduction. The circumstances of Roxas’ abduction typify the abductions and enforced disappearances of over 200 innocent civilians, allegedly last seen in the hands of suspected state security forces.

“We are deeply concerned about the abduction of Melissa Roxas, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc. We call for Melissa and her companions to be immediately surfaced unharmed,” said BAYAN-USA Secretary General Rhonda Ramiro. “We condemn the ongoing abductions and human rights violations that have been rampant under the Arroyo administration and victimized thousands of innocent people.”

The search for Roxas and her companions will be spearheaded by the human rights organization KARAPATAN, while BAYAN-USA, its member organizations, and allies will undertake an international campaign to exert pressure on the Arroyo government to surface Roxas. “We appeal to our elected officials, members of the Filipino American community, and all people in the U.S. who believe in human rights to take action to surface Melissa and her companions. Since we were founded in 2005, BAYAN-USA has campaigned ceaselessly for an end to the human rights violations in the Philippines, and we will not stop until we obtain justice for Melissa and all victims of human rights violations under Arroyo.”

Disaster has a passport Mr. Bean, err, Mr. Tsao

Yup, Hong Kong based columnist Chip Tsao sure looks like our favorite funny man Mr. Bean. But unlike Mr. Bean, who could make us laugh to tears easily without even muttering a word, Mr. Tsao is not at all funny. And, this self-confessed “patriotic Chinese man” has learned of it the hard way.

Recently, Tsao wrote the article “The War At Home” that appeared on Hong Kong Magazine and on its online site March 27, 2009. In his piece, Tsao ranted about Manila’s claim over the disputed Spratly group of Islands. This, according to him is “beyond reproach.”

“The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter,” wrote Mr. Tsao.

Of course, Mr. Tsao’s unsavory remarks made a whole nation’s blood boil. Filipinos from all walks of life and from all over the planet, lambasted the writer for this out and out “racial slur.”

Outrage

Reactions from angry Filipinos flew in from different directions. This ranged from demanding an unconditional public apology from Mr. Tsao and from the publishers of the magazine; to the filing of a stern diplomatic protest by the Philippine government; to a nationwide boycott of all things Hong Kong. Migrante International, the largest OFW alliance worldwide, even wanted Chip Tsao declared “persona non grata” in the Philippines.

Migrante couldn’t be more correct when they said:

“The article written by Mr. Chip Tsao smacks of unqualified racial bias that vilifies the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in Hong Kong and puts them in danger of persecution and harm. We demand no less than a public apology from Mr. Tsao and from the Hong Kong Magazine for allowing this bigoted garbage to appear on its pages.”

The Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration (BI) responded to Migrante’s call. In a directive issued Monday, BI chief Marcelino Libanan ordered that columnist Chip Tsao be barred from entering the Philippines pending a public apology on his part for the national insult. Libanan even volunteered to one day give Tsao a personal tour of the Philippines if only to drive home the point that ours is not a “nation of servants” but a “nation of professionals.”

Of late, and after stirring up a hornet’s nest of outrage, Tsao’s publisher and editors have apologized “unreservedly” for any offense caused by the article. But Tsao has yet to issue his.

In a recent AFP report, Tsao even hinted that “people in Hong Kong,” Filipinos included, who were riled at his writing, couldn’t take a joke. He explained that he has just “taken a dramatic role to express the sentiment of Chinese nationalism.”

“It’s my usual tongue-in-the-cheek, satirical writing style. People in Hong Kong are not used to this style, but native English speakers would have no problem understanding my message,” he said.

State of denial

From his own words, we can deduce that Tsao is in a state of denial and that he’s not about to say sorry in spite of the international indignation that he has caused. Tsao is still bent on passing off his racist article as a “satire,” sorely missing the point that no one’s even laughing.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE HK), a group of Filipino workers in the former British colony, through its Chairperson Dolores Balladares, a domestic worker; gave Tsao, “a best selling author and columnist,” a dressing down and a lecture on what really constitutes a political satire.

“Political satire as a journalistic device is used to challenge or even make fun of authorities and the status quo. Mr. Tsao did not do so in his latest column. Instead, he further beats up the already low and downtrodden.

Behind such lines that Mr. Tsao may likely but wrongly justify as satire, there lies the precarious reinforcement of the master-slave treatment of domestic workers. Mr. Tsao makes it appear that it is alright to denigrate us and take potshots at us.

In his failed attempt to be witty, Mr. Tsao regrettably trivialized the very serious domestic workers’ situation in Hong Kong society. Such an article to appear publicly is very dangerous for it projects that it can be socially-permissible to treat domestic workers as no more than slaves ready to be lectured, ordered around, easily threatened with termination, and made to jump at every whim of employers.”

Disaster has a passport

Chip Tsao has to realize the lesson that – as a by-line in Mr. Bean’s recent movie goes – ‘Disaster has a passport.’ This lesson was learned quite bitterly by Filipino journalist and self-confessed “diva” Malu Fernandez after she collectively derided the army of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) when she said in an article that she would rather slash her wrist than be trapped in a plane loaded with OFWs; and the US TV giant ABC who aired a ‘Desperate Housewives’ episode in 2007 which belittled the Philippines’ medical profession.

As a nation that is buttressed by the hard-earned money sent home by almost 10 million overseas Filipino workers scattered in 192 countries all over the world, we are a country that is easily fumed each time somebody attacks the dignity of even a single OFW.

Almost all of us have a parent, a better half, a sibling or a friend overseas, courtesy of the past and present regime’s three decade old Labor Export Program that is why we automatically relate to racial slurs as that of our own.

But while Chip Tsao deserved the disaster he’s in right now and that it is but just to rile at every Chip, Malu and Susan Meyers (character in Desperate Housewives played by actress Teri Hatcher) out there, we should also hold the Philippine government accountable for exporting three thousand Filipinos on a daily basis to dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs overseas in exchange for their billions of dollars of remittances.

If only we Filipinos could channel our impressive demonstration of collective outrage at the successive racial slurs we have encountered, into militant resolve and action to radically change the socio-political landscape in the country so no one would be forced to be an OFW and run the risk of being denigrated, humiliated and treated as second class citizens abroad; I’m sure Mr. Chip Tsao wouldn’t be enjoying the international attention he’s in right now because “Luisa,” his Filipina maid, wouldn’t be working for him in Hong Kong, cleaning his toilet and windows for “16 hours a day.”

Luisa would be in Hong Kong as a tourist and not as a maid. Otherwise, she’d be with her family here at home, happily cleaning her own toilet and windows while contributing, in her own little way, to the betterment and progress of her country.

This is the kind of society we Filipinos should rage about and work hard for.

Of women, fire and rapists

The month of March this year may forever be ingrained in Philippine history as among the worst to ever hit Filipino women.

Though it is supposed to be “Women’s Month,” the string of events that unfolded recently made it a lot like the government’s so-called observance of “Fire Prevention Month” (which coincidentally falls on the same month as that of Women’s); a time where, quite paradoxically, incidents of fire happen to hit us most.

On the first day of March, I was awakened by a loud and seemingly unending blare of sirens. I think this was around 9 AM. I thought there was a fire nearby, so I hurriedly went up my roof to check if there is a cloud of black smoke in the vicinity. Fortunately, there was none and the entire ruckus was just a parade of fire trucks to warn us against playing fire – March being fire prevention month and all.

Seriously though, that earsplitting commemoration didn’t sink into me until I happened to open my TV and learned on the news that a fire has razed the Baguio City Public Market and an SM Mall in Cavite. “Ahh, Fire Prevention Month nga pala ngayon,” I told myself. “Kaya pala may parada ang mga bumbero.”

For me, the government’s, particularly that of the Bureau of Fire Protection’s (BFP) yearly commemoration of the “Fire Prevention Month” is just a smokescreen to hide their utter inability to protect us from fires in one of the hottest months of the year. We all know that the BFP is poorly equipped and undermanned. So I only have pity for those brave firefighters who regularly come to blows with major fires donning only tattered and substandard firefighting clothes while their bosses up the ladder have only grease lining both their mouths and pockets for eating lechon on a regular basis and for the millions of grease money forked from private companies who sell the same substandard firefighting equipment.

That, my friends, is my brief explanation why I think “Fire Prevention Month” is a joke.

And so when I heard of the news that a twenty one year old woman was brutally murdered and molested on the night of March Fifth in Davao; I thought this incident would surely solidify the women’s movement that’s set to march on March 8 for International Women’s Day.

Also, I knew this would be a setback to the peace process, considering that the victim is a daughter of legendary New People’s Army Commander Parago. The victim was elementary teacher Rebelyn Pitao.

And then, after an alleged and much touted “30 minute” phone call of US President Barack Obama to de facto Philippine President Gloria Arroyo recently, “Nicole” was reported to have suddenly “recanted” her story on her alleged rape by US Serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith.

Her so called “recantation” was widely seen by her lawyers and the women’s groups as an underhanded ploy to weaken the Filipino people’s movement against the lopsided Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). They also asserted that the US government, with the help of the Arroyo regime, has pressured “Nicole” to issue her alleged “recantation” to weaken the rape case against Smith, thus making it possible to finally spirit him out of “detention” from the US Embassy.

Indeed, “Nicole’s” sudden turn around is suspect. Note that this happened at the height of clamor to have the VFA abrogated. And after the Obama-GMA phone chit-chat, note further that the Philippine government has resurrected from the dead moves to extradite police officers Mancao and Dumlao who is believed to hold the key in pinning the mastermind on the murder of PR man Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

The Department of (In) Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales has publicly said that Mancao and Dumlao are ready to link opposition stalwart Senator Panfilo Lacson and former President Joseph Estrada to the Dacer-Corbito killing.

Ex deal? Probably. But one thing’s for sure: This government is ready to sacrifice the dignity, not only that of rape victim “Nicole” but the entire nation’s as well, for its own political survival.

And then the unthinkable happened. Former Congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was convicted of raping an 11 year-old in 1996, was ordered released courtesy of an executive clemency issued by the de facto President. (Play Smoke’s funny Jalosjos game here. I scored 185!).

The joke that is the annual “Fire Prevention Month” has indeed rubbed off to “Women’s Month” under Gloria Arroyo. To think that we have a woman presenting herself as President.

I sure dread the day when I’d be saying “Aah, Women’s Month pala ngayon. Kaya pala may nagahasa na naman.” I hope this would come not in my lifetime.

Wrong focus

The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced Monday that they are set to tap 12,300 out of school youths (OSYs) and train them to produce health soaps for Central Luzon’s 1.3 million public school students.

“We are counting on some 12,300 OSYs to produce herb-based health soaps which we intend to distribute to schoolchildren suffering from various skin ailments in Tarlac and Pampanga,” Edcation Secretary Jesli Lapus said.

Lapus furthered that the “cash-in-soap” program was in line with Gloria Arroyo’s Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP)  in the face of the worsening global economic crisis. At the same time, Lapus says that while the program would provide alternative livelihood to the idle youths, it will also addresses the problem of head lice and skin diseases among public school children.

The education chief lauded the program because of its “multiplier effect” on Central Luzon’s local economy because of the jobs and additional income (P4,000 for making 2,000 soaps in a 20 day period)  it will generate; but he seems to be missing the point that the DepEd should be working doubly hard to provide these idle youths education and not soap making skills.

Lapus should leave jobs generation to the Labor Department and focus on addressing the issue of why we have thousands of OSYs in the first place.

The Philippine Government has once again revealed its misplaced and elitist mindset when it comes to the OSY issue. After their idea of employing the army of idle youths to collect garbage and sweep city streets, now they want them to make soap.

They belong in school for petesake.

The Government's Project OYSTER (Out-of-School Youth Towards Economic Recovery)

ON 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF PHIL-AM WAR, US-ARROYO MOVES FOR INTERVENTION INTENSIFY WITH CHARTER CHANGE- BAYAN USA

Yesterday, the Filipino people commemorated the 110th anniversary of the Philippine-American War. More than a million Filipinos laid down their lives more than a century ago in defense of our motherland against rising imperialist power – America.

Now, 110 years since, we are again faced with the prospect of yet another stage of unbridled imperialist plunder and militarization via the Arroyo regime’s charter change.

The following is a statement from our militant compatriots in the United States that details why the Filipino people, including those overseas, should exert all efforts to expose and oppose Arroyo’s cha-cha.

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ON 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF PHIL-AM WAR, US-ARROYO MOVES FOR INTERVENTION INTENSIFY WITH CHARTER CHANGE- BAYAN USA

On this 110th anniversary of the Philippine-American War, the first US war of aggression for conquest overseas, Filipinos under the banner of BAYAN USA remain vigilant and defiant over US government maneuvers, in conjunction with the US puppet administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to dominate and control Philippine economic and political affairs. In fact, moves for US government intervention in the Philippines are intensifying more than ever under the Arroyo administration. Two of the most recent forms of intervention are related to the US-Arroyo clique’s drive for Charter Change, or Cha-Cha– this week’s passing of House Resolution 737 by Philippine House Speaker Prospero Nograles and the Obama administration’s renewed commitment to the Balikatan exercises, this time in Bicol, for 2009.

Cha-Cha = Economic Liberalization

The recent passage of HR 737 as railroaded by Arroyo mouthpiece Prospero Nograles this week significantly indicates the first inclusion of the Arroyo clique’s ardent campaign to alter the 1987 Philippine Constitution. This not only indicates that the Cha-Cha campaign is alive and kicking, but is poised for the offensive. Nograles, who was put in position after the Arroyo-maneuvered ouster of former House Speaker Jose De Venecia, filed House Resolution 737 this week. HR 737 specifically calls for the amendment of Sections 2 and 3 of Article 12 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution “to allow the acquisition by foreign corporations and associations and the transfer or conveyance thereto, of alienable public and private lands.”

The resolution was approved by the House by a vote of 11-4. It’s next stop will be the Philippine Senate. In these times of devastating economic crisis, further economic liberalization of the Philippine economy is the last thing the Filipino people need. The economic provisions proposed in Nograles’ resolution will ensure more landlessness for Filipino farmers, deepening poverty, and expand joblessness in the Philippines. Despite claims from the Arroyo clique that economic liberalization will bring in foreign investments and employment opportunities, the reality indicates quite the contrary. Studies have already shown that existent policies of economic liberalization, under the auspices of neoliberal globalization, are at the root cause of global economic crisis that is burdening the already-suffering Filipino people. More liberalization will only compound the Filipino people’s burdens even more.

Cha-Cha = More US Military Intervention

It is a given that US economic interests overseas are always protected by intensified US military presence and aggression. The Obama administration’s continued commitment to the invasive Balikatan exercises, this time in Bicol, is disappointing, because it will expand US military presence in the country. It is equally disappointing that the status quo of a regular US military aid package to the Philippines remains in tact, despite unanimous documentary evidence from international monitoring bodies that these US tax dollars are being funneled towards the Philippine military’s perpetration of extra-judicial killings and abductions of Filipino civilians, under the tutelage of US military advisers deployed to the Philippines. Since the Phil-Am War of 1899, US military presence has never left the Philippines.

US military presence will surely expand and increase if Arroyo’s Cha-Cha passes in the Philippine Congress. Section 25 Article XVIII in the Philippine Constitution clearly prohibits the presence of foreign military troops and facilities on Philippine soil, yet the US government has managed to keep a military stronghold in the Philippines and mock Philippine national sovereignty, even after the closing of Subic Naval and Clark Air Force Base in 1991. It has done so through a series of US-Philippine military agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). These agreements have managed to ensure the continuing human rights violations committed by US troops ranging from sexual terrorism against Filipino women and children to direct combat of Philippine soil. Engagement in direct combat by foreign troops on Philippine soil is officially outlawed by the Philippine Constitution, and is one of the provisions the Arroyo administration is intent on changing as part of the Cha-Cha.

A Call for Patriotism

BAYAN USA, an alliance of 14 Filipino organizations across the United States, representing patriotic Filipinos forced to leave due to unsurvivable poverty in the Philippines, believes the struggle of the Philippine-American War of 1899 is not over, as current US government maneuvers in the Philippines are still in contrast to the collective interests of the Filipino people for genuine national sovereignty. It vehemently condemns the malicious and anti-patriotic character of the Arroyo administration for betraying the national interests of the Filipino people. Not only will Cha-Cha strip Filipinos of the right to determine the fate of their country and its natural resources, it will pave the way for the official resurrection of Martial Rule and return of fascist dictatorship to the Philippines. Cha-Cha continues the mission of the US government during the Phil-Am War in securing US government control over the Philippines. It is for this reason that our resistance as Filipinos must also step up.

On this day of memory of the Phil-Am War, let us pledge to heighten our patriotism and love of country by denouncing Cha-Cha and calling on the Philippine Senate to reject HR 737 and stop the Cha-Cha train dead on its tracks. Let us continue our demand to have all US troops withdrawn from the Philippines as well as all forms of US economic aid to the Philippines.

Let us also continue to call for the impeachment, resignation, and/or ouster of the number one traitor of the Filipino people– Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

JUNK HR 737! NO TO CHA-CHA! NO TO FOREIGN PLUNDER OF PHILIPPINE NATURAL RESOURCES! US TROOPS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES! NO US TAX DOLLARS TO PHILIPPINE DEATH SQUADS! GLORIA RESIGN!

Gloria in the wrong side of history

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

When the 44th US President Barack Obama said this in his inaugural speech last night, the Filipino people’s hunch about why Obama has so rabidly tried to evade Gloria was confirmed.

While Obama was making history by ultimately becoming the first African-American President, Gloria was on the wrong side of it.

Para‘Sy’tic

“We did quite good. Slightly better than last year,” Mr. Robert Kwee, Executive Vice President of SM Hypermarket told the Business Mirror when asked recently about the local retail industry’s performance during the Christmas Holidays when shopping in the country is, traditionally, at its peak.

The SM exec’s positive assessment is likewise shared by one of Robinsons Supermarket‘s top honcho, Assistant Vice-President Bonifacio Y. Mabanta, who claimed in the same Business Mirror report that their December 1-21, 2008 sales were 14% higher than the previous year’s.

But while major supermarket chains in this side of the Earth are all-smiles because of the mind-blowing profits generated from the heavy buying Filipinos carried out during the Christmas season, retailers in countries where frenzied consumer spending during the Holidays were invented are experiencing record-low sales – quite a number of them are actually at the brink of closing shop.

Shopping gloom

In the United States, retail-sales for the shopping period of November and December 2008 plunged to as low as 8%, making this year’s holiday shopping period the worst in decades. According to Michael McNamara, Vice President of research and analysis for MasterCard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, among the hardest hit in the US retail industry were the apparel, electronics and appliance categories.

In Europe, shopping is also at their lowest levels.

Century-old British shopping chain Woolworths is closing down nearly half of its stores because of poor sales. Analysts say this is likely to become one of the most high-profile casualties in the biting financial crisis worldwide and in Britain’s economic downturn. According to reports, of the 813 Woolworths shops across England, 200 will close on December 30 (today) and another 200 will follow suit on January 2 and January 5. Expected to be affected by Woolworths’ demise are some 27,000 of its employees.

Three other known shops in Britain have actually bit the dust. They were: music retailer Zavvi, which employed more than 3,000 people; luxury tea-sellers Whittard; and menswear retailer Officers Club. Market experts are even predicting that 25 other regional and national retail chains in Britain would soon close shop by the end of next month.

So there goes the season of giving in the world’s economic heavyweights as the holiday shopping gloom in the US and Britain brought about by the unprecedented economic crisis weighed heavily on their shopkeepers’ backs.

But lo and behold, everything’s all rosy here in the local front. Here, big shot retailers have all the reason to be merry, and that’s because of the army of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) scattered all over the world.

Parasitic

SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) has reported that their earnings for the third quarter of 2008 registered an increase of 7.3% or a whopping P3.618 billion compared to last year’s P3.373 billion.

In the first nine months of the year alone, SM said their retail sales soared to as high as 20% or P81.9 billion, while their consolidated revenues have also expanded 16.9 percent to P97.4 billion.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer has also reported that just last year, the SM fleet of malls sold more than 21 million pairs of shoes, 50 million kilos of chicken, more than a million umbrellas, 18 million movie tickets and served 400 million meals to more than 900 million shoppers.

This is why SM’s owner, billionaire Henry Sy, doesn’t seem to miss out on the yearly Christmas cheer (unlike his fellow shopkeepers in the US and UK). And this isn’t because he’s always on Santa’s ‘nice’ list, mind you.

Mr. Sy’s mall empire is built from the combination of his sheer capitalist greed and freeloading mindset characterized in the exploitation of his army of lowly-paid, docile contractual workers and, of course, his parasitical slant towards the massive migration of Filipinos overseas.

Yes folks, Sy is in fact benefiting big time from the government’s systematic export of OFWs abroad by providing the millions of remittance-dependent families here venues where they can spend their relatives’ hard-earned cash.

If not for the government’s unrestrained labor export program which undoubtedly is the primary source of money fuelling consumer spending here in the country, Sy wouldn’t be crazy rich as he is right now and would probably still be selling shoes in his humble shoe store in downtown Manila.

Sy began expansion of his mall empire during the early eighties at the height of massive deployment of Filipinos abroad. From 372,784 Filipinos deployed in the year 1985, the same year the first SM mall in North EDSA Quezon City was opened, the government now exports more than a million OFWs annually with deployment in the first 11 months of 2008 reaching 1.221 million.

Over the years we now have ten million OFWs in 190 countries worldwide. They remit an average of a billion dollars a month with the year 2007 registering a record high OFW remittance of US$14.45 billion. If this isn’t the same money Filipinos use to buy wares sold in all of Sy’s SM malls, I don’t know what is.

So, after opening his first shoe store in Manila in 1958; Sy now owns a fleet of 33 department stores, 24 supermarkets, 13 SaveMore branches, 13 SM Hypermarkets and 15 Makro outlets. He also owns the third largest mall on Earth (SM City North EDSA) and 3 SM malls in China.

So what? Some of you might ask. Sy, like the government, just saw an opportunity in the business of exporting humans given his superior entrepreneurial skills.

It’s downright parasitic that’s what!

While we have ten million OFWs doing mostly dirty, difficult, degrading and dangerous jobs worldwide; here’s Sy raking in billions from their sweat and blood.

If you think this big bourgeois comprador is already satisfied in cornering billions of OFW money via his ever expanding mall empire, think again. Mr. Sy too has ventured into real estate hoping to cash-in on the OFW property buying boom.

In the first half of the year alone, Sy’s real estate arm, SM Development Corp. has disclosed that they have pre-sold 1,458 housing units worth P2.5 billion. The company also has five on going housing projects in Quezon City, Paranaque and Muntinlupa; and another five condominium projects within the Metropolis and Tagaytay. According to SM Investments Corp., revenues in their real estate operations surged to almost a hundred fold with sales of up to P4.2 billion.

Sy has also gone banking just recently, and guess what? It’s OFW money that he’s after…again.

When 90% of OFW remittances were coursed through Philippine banking channels in the year 2006, the ever enterprising Sy set out to corner OFW remittances by merging his bank, Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BDO), with Equitable PCI Bank.

Thanks to BDO’s aggressive promotions trained at the OFW and their families’ market, it has now become one of the leading players in the Philippine remittance business. It has also become the second largest bank in the country in terms of assets, second in terms of loans and third in terms of deposits.

But despite the outrageous amount of money he has blood sucked from our OFWs throughout the years, we have yet to see Mr. Sy who is now in the twilight of his years give-back to the sector who’s the guilty party behind his rags to riches story.

So it is in the spirit of the incoming New Year that I suggest the following New Year’s Resolutions for Mr. Sy.

1. Scrap remittance charges and fees in all BDO branches.
2. Give special discounts for OFWs and their families in all SM malls.
3. Provide scholarships to OFW dependents.
4. Hand out livelihood packages to poor but deserving OFW families.
5. Help in repatriating the thousands of stranded OFWs especially in the Middle East by paying for their airfare.
6. Sponsor the blood money for OFWs languishing in Middle East’s death row.

Have a happy new year everyone!

Swerving Millions

Retail giant SM super malls is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To mark this special occasion, they decided to adapt the theme “Serving Millions” .

The PDI staff did an interesting short article on SM’s golden anniversary.

Want to know how many pairs of shoes were sold by the SM Department Stores in 2007? More than 21 million. How many people came to SM malls during the same period? More than 900 million. How many meals were served in SM food courts and restaurants? Over 400 million. How many moviegoers relaxed and watched movies at SM Cinemas? More than 18 million.

Wait there’s more.

Last year, 50 million kilos of chicken filled SM Supermarket customers’ shopping carts. More than a million umbrellas were sold by SM Department Stores and about 15 million Christmas lights and ornaments from SM brightened up Filipino homes over the holidays last year.

Needless to say, all this riches made SM’s owner, mall magnate Henry Sy, the wealthiest man in the country. Forbes Magazine has revealed that the man is now worth 3.1 billion dollars, earning him a spot in the prestigious magazine’s Global Billionaires List.

But there seems to be no stopping Sy to amassing more wealth. Just this month, SM opened another supermarket branch in Cubao, bringing the number of SM stores in the country to 98.

According to SM, its fleet of malls is now comprised of 33 department stores, 24 supermarkets, 13 SaveMore branches, 13 SM Hypermarkets and 15 Makro outlets. There are also 3 SM malls in China.

Sy also owns the third largest mall in the world, SM City North EDSA – a 4.5 million square foot stretch of shopping dreamland in the heart of Quezon City.

“SM retail will continue to increase its presence nationwide,” SM Investments president Harley Sy said.

“This reiterates SM’s sustained commitment to the Philippine economy and its potential to deliver long-term growth and expansion amid short-term challenges posed by the global crisis.”

The younger Sy isn’t kidding. In fact, SM is set to conquer Bicolandia, opening a mall there by March next year. So this early, the Naga City Public Employment Service Office couldn’t contain its excitement for the mall’s scheduled opening.

NCPESO manager Florencio Mongoso has stated that SM Naga would be needing 4,000 workers to man its stores,which he said is good news to for his city’s 160,000 inhabitants.

He noted that an estimated P12 million would be injected to the local economy through workers’ salaries and another P40 million in city taxes.

But of course, Mongoso failed to point out that the 4 thousand jobs in SM Naga will only be good for three to six months. Same goes to all of SM’s 98 super stores, as a matter of fact.

The SM fleet of malls now has over 30,000 contractual employees throughout the country. Management prefers to call them “trainees.” They are hired through a recruitment firm which is connected to the Iglesia Ni Cristo.

Apparently, SM management prefers INC members because they are disallowed to join unions. No wonder only a measly 2,000 of its entire workforce are unionized.

This means SM actually hires as high as 120,000 workers per year because they fire 30,000 workers every three to six months.

These deplorable conditions – job insecurity, union busting, low pay – has triggered four workers’ strikes by SM workers since the 1990s. The last one was staged in the middle of 2003.

I was among the hundreds of supporters who showed up to defend the picketlines in the now 3rd largest mall on Earth. I remember SM unleashed hired goons that time to drive away the strikers and their supporters by violently dispersing the crowd using 2 by 2 sticks and rocks hauled in steel carts.

Of course, the strikers fought back using their placards and flag poles. I saw one throwing duhat (black plum) to the flanked goons whose white shirts were stained permanent because of the pesky black fruit.

Striking SM workers (Bulatlat photo)

Militant womens’ group Gabriela supported the SM workers’ strike back in 2003. They said the workers, almost all of them women, suffer “exploitative” working conditions from the hands of the SM management owned by the “Contractualization King” Henry Sy.

As patrons and consumers of Shoemart, GABRIELA is one with the struggle of the women workers who comprise 85% of the labor force. They spend the whole day on their feet, loyally serving SM customers and bringing in billions of pesos in profit for Mr. Sy in exchange for low wages, job insecurity, and inhuman working conditions. In particular, we deplore the working condition in which women are made to wear short skirts and two-inch high heels all day. They have to secure a pass before they can go to the comfort room for only 3-5 minutes. Pregnant women are not even provided with seats so they can rest occasionally.

Such exploitative conditions are experienced not only by regular workers but also by the majority of women contractual workers or trainees whose fair skin and “pleasing personality” are used as added attraction for the merchandise they are selling. They are made to stand up for eightstraight hours, greeting and assisting customers while wearing permanent smiles plastered on their faces. For all these, they get nothing more than minimum wage, no benefits and are not even allowed to join the union. Worse, the SM management treats them like merchandise that has to be dispensed with before the six months “expiry date.”

There. So, as we do our Christmas shopping in one of SM’s malls in the country, May I ask everyone to think about the plight of its workers whose measly wages and inhuman conditions in the workplace pays for the continued expansion of Henry Sy’s mall empire and is, undoubtedly, a major factor in the tycoon’s amassing of staggering wealth.

Let us also support workers’ calls for the scrapping of contractualization of labor which is considered to be the worst thing to ever hit Filipino workers apart of course from low pay and other labor woes.

And oh, just so you know, the Arroyo regime in effect legitimized the practice of labor contractualization when it passed DOLE Order No. 10-97 which provided a list of of jobs where contractualization is deemed legal.

Happy Christmas to all!