(This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to subscribers on May 2, 2019.)

I’m writing to you on a day that lies between Labor Day, May 1, and World Press Freedom Day, May 3.

It’s an important day because it bridges two events closely related to one another. Labor Day is a public holiday for paying tribute to all working men and women. Journalists are among the working class, and journalism today, in the Philippines and elsewhere, is a profession under threat.

Let’s quickly run through the threats:

• An alleged “ouster plot matrix” released by President Rodrigo Duterte that accuses journalists and a lawyer’s group of conspiring to unseat him. Malacañang said on Wednesday, May 1, Duterte doesn’t have to prove his grave accusations, yet.
• The President accusing the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism of being paid to do black propaganda after they published a series of stories about his and his family members’ wealth.
• The 11 active cases  against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, Rappler executives, and staff. She’s been arrested twice and has had to pay over P2 million in bail and travel bonds. Plunder convict Imelda Marcos’ bail? P450,000.
• Eighty-five attacks on media, including 9 killings of Filipino journalists, as recorded by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in 2018.
• Duterte’s threats against Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN for their reporting and alleged wrongdoing of their owners.
• Duterte’s ban on all Rappler reporters from all his events and activities.

These threats send a clear message: journalists should toe the line or face consequences from no less than the country’s Chief Executive.

Rappler readers always ask me, how can they help Philippine media stay independent and critical?

One answer lies in the elections, now only 11 days away.

Your power is in your vote. You can choose candidates who value a free and independent press. 

Perhaps some insights from the campaign trail can help you make a decision. Reporters have many interesting stories to tell about how candidates interact with the press during the campaign period.

Ideally, candidates should be very open to media during this crucial 3-month period because it’s when they’re supposed to be explaining their platform and stances on various issues so the voting public can be fully informed by May 13.

Of course, candidates have every right to decide whether or not to be interviewed by media. But I think the openness of candidates to these interviews, especially chance or ambush interviews where anything goes, says a lot about their regard for media as essential to the electoral process and their commitment to transparency.

I asked my fellow Rappler campaign reporters about how the candidates they cover interact with media. 

Here’s a cheat sheet:

PDP-Laban

• Though its stalwarts Nene Pimentel and Koko Pimentel have generally been supportive of independent media, they’ve allowed Malacañang to ban Rappler reporters from covering their campaign rallies, even if rallies are supposed to be public events. President Duterte is PDP-Laban chairman and he’s imposed a ban on Rappler since February 2018.

Hugpong ng Pagbabago

• Rappler is not banned from HNP rallies.
• Imee Marcos always rejects interviews when there is a controversy about her, such as when her educational attainment was being questioned.
• Bong Revilla also ignores ambush interview requests.
• Sonny Angara is often game for interviews, but his staff always ask for the questions in advance.
• Jinggoy Estrada and Pia Cayetano hardly participate in ambush interviews.
• JV Ejercito, Koko Pimentel, Francis Tolentino, Jiggy Manicad, Dong Mangudadatu, and Ronald dela Rosa often game for interviews.
• Bong Go only informs select media about his interviews. Because of this, outlets critical of him often don’t get to participate.

Otso Diretso

• All of them are always open to ambush interviews, even twice during a campaign event.

Labor Win 

• They are generally game for ambush interviews.

Grace Poe

• She is generally game for ambush interviews, but her staff ask for the questions in advance.

Senatorial candidates who once supported moves to decriminalize libel or lower penalties for libel also deserve mention.

Media organizations have long pushed for the decriminalization of libel because it’s often used by politicians to harass journalists. Decriminalization means libel can still be punished civilly (guilty journalist has to pay a fine), but is no longer criminal (journalist does not go to jail).

The United Nations Human Rights Committee had described the criminal sanction on libel in the Philippines as “excessive” and in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Philippines had signed.

These are the senatorial bets who supported the decriminalization of libel during their previous terms as senator:

• Sonny Angara
• Bam Aquino
• Mar Roxas
• Grace Poe
• Koko Pimentel
• Jinggoy Estrada

Many of them took this stance before the Duterte administration. With the President’s attitude toward critical reportage, it will be interesting to see if they change their position.

Let’s not forget there’s at least one former media practitioner now running for senator – Jiggy Manicad. During a public debate, he said he wants libel to stay a crime. Days later, though, he walked back on it, saying he would “reconsider” his stance.

Earlier this week, members of the media, including myself, cast our votes. The Commission on Elections allows early voting for media personnel because, on election day itself, we’ll be focused on news coverage.

My Instagram feed is full of photos of fellow journalists proudly holding up their inked thumbs.

It’s a reminder that journalists too are Filipino citizens who deserve to be protected by our laws and respected by people in power. 

INSIDE STORIES ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

To add something new to our #PHVote coverage, Rappler’s campaign reporters have been making weekly podcasts about the 2019 campaign trail. Here are the episodes so far: 

• Sara Duterte and honesty
• Comparing Hugpong ng Pagbabago and Otso Diretso campaigns
• Explaining Bong Go's rise in the surveys
• Skip the gimmicks, we assess senatorial candidates based on platform
• Anthony del Rosario on HNP's 2022 plans, locking horns with Alvarez
• The problem of the Opposition

– Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – For most students, summer break is already here. While it's a good time to unwind, the break could also be a good opportunity to get a head start on the next term.

History professor Leloy Claudio teaches us some hacks on how to make the summer break productive.  – Rappler.com 

Rappler has asked the Supreme Court to have President Duterte lift his ban disallowing it from covering him. The suit could not have come at a more auspicious time — around the annual commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on Friday, May 3. 

In the beginning the ban physically barred only Rappler reporter Pia Ranada and only from the President's office; then it extended to all Rappler reporters covering all extension offices under the President. Now even public events in which the President happens to be present is closed to Rappler. (READ: TIMELINE: Malacañang's evolving statements on Rappler ban)

The ban does not always work in all cases; sometimes a Rappler reporter manages to slip through. If Rappler is able to continue reporting on the President and his office and to publish accounts of off-limits events, credit goes to it alone, for its resourcefulness and high sense of public duty — as watchdog on the powers that be.

No explanation was given for the ban, although Duterte did not — and still does not — conceal his disdain for Rappler’s uncompromising reporting and opinion making, although, again, he has not cited a particular case.

Duterte only has to be displeased to feel inspired by the keenest sense of vengeance. Three cases preceding Rappler’s are outstanding:

One, for looking into cases of death-squad murder in which he was implicated, Senator Leila de Lima has been kept in detention for more than two years now on a charge of the feeblest sort — conspiracy to traffic in illegal drugs: it was put together from the testimonies of life-term convicts only too eager to sing what song they were told to sing.

Two, for standing up to him, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was ousted in a coup mounted by her own Supreme Court.

Three, for making him accountable for thousands of deaths in his war on drugs and for exposing his family’s unexplained wealth and shady connections, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is being dragged from court to court for libel and mutiny, a crime he has been long amnestied for.

Rappler’s CEO, Maria Ressa, and some staff and board members are themselves accused of crimes: libel, alleged by an apparent surrogate complainant, and ownership-law violations and tax evasion, alleged by the state. Ressa herself has had to make bail eight times to buy her temporary liberty.

Being crimes punishable by imprisonment, apart from fines, they make the ban look benign by comparison, the sort some journalists might even welcome if it happened to them — they would be shut out of Duterte’s life. In fact, such a ban has repercussions not only for the entire media profession, but for the citizenry. Evidently, that’s understood enough by at least the 41 people who have signed up in a suit supporting Rappler’s own.       

The ban, indeed, is unconstitutional, a direct assault on press freedom and an undermining of a freedom that belongs to everyone — freedom of expression. As I wrote here not too long ago:

“Press freedom may only derive from the more general one of freedom of expression, but, because of its institutional nature, it has a practical primacy over the other. It is relied upon not only to facilitate the search for truth but, by some process of distillation, to sort through the controversies attending that search. The intent is to afford the individual beneficiaries of the freedom of expression, the citizens themselves, a more or less informed mind before they even attempt to speak or act it.

“Take away press freedom and other freedoms become useless. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly make for nothing more than a free market of chatter and gossip. The press is replaced by one lone self-interested, self-installed sanctifying voice.”

If there’s anyone deserving to be banned it’s Duterte himself; he should be at least stopped going live on radio or television or online, if only to spare normal, civilized humans, fragile children in particular, his prurient utterances — never mind his incoherencies. (READ: [OPINION | NEWSPOINT] From incapacity to absurdity)

Given his type of narcissism, one that blooms lustier and lustier with each live performance, we'd never know how far he would go with his indecencies. Thank God they've been so far only mouthed.

For everyone’s sake, the media should give themselves time to edit Duterte at least for taste and other basic proprieties. That is, after all, part of their job. – Rappler.com 

Journalism is a heinous crime in a place where people feast over online disinformation like a smuggled high-grade marijuana.

This deception scheme that has gone global is the devil of our lifetime. It reeks of hate, lies, and absurdity. It has propelled the corrupt, liars, and mass murderers into power. (READ: Who were targets of disinformation in 2018?)

However, it is the online garbage that makes sense to vulnerable social media users because it feeds their egos. That is why it is also extremely addictive. (READ: Understand platforms, content to fight disinformation – experts)

People are so exposed to online disinformation that when legitimate news debunks lies, it is reduced into propaganda in their perspectives. And when the battle of credibility between an award-winning veteran journalist and a paid blogger takes place, the crass and unverified claim of the latter wins.

In the middle of all these online clutter, could truth-tellers still stand a chance?

The answer is yes. But journalists need to pay a hefty price – they would be branded as criminals, destabilizers, and evil. For telling the truth, they would gain enemies from their circle of misinformed friends. To be fair, this is not shared by all journalists.

This happened to me and my fellow campus journalists in college. Since freshman year, I’ve been the Editor of Fulcrum, the student publication of Palompon Institute of Technology in Palompon, Leyte. It is in this time that I witnessed the changes in leadership and how it shaped regulations and fiscal power in the process.

In February 2017, I wrote an editorial piece that debunked accusations that our campus publication is a “purveyor of lies.” The ramifications were unparalleled. The person who accused the publication told a friend of mine that a libel case awaits me.

Terrified, my staff asked me if they would be prosecuted too. Indeed, that was a horrible time for everybody in my team. No one knew exactly what to do.

My thoughts raced: “Did I write a libelous statement?” “Are we all going to jail because that was an editorial?” “What about my future?”

Despite what happened, we continued to be fearless in our reports. We dove deep into mounds of paper trails that were once regarded as not newsworthy.

One story, the most controversial of its kind, was the investigative story I wrote along with my Deputy Editor 1. We looked into the finances of our student council and we found out that they had been operating without following the standard financial protocols of a student organization.

That was not good for the image of our school. Well, at least, in the perspective of our school administrators. Those unleashed a period of administrative intimidations and ridiculous rants about our individual characters. Asserting their expertise, administrators started questioning the validity of our operations.

Just last year, administrative summons intended to covertly censor our stories and limit our activities have become episodic. Some of our key officials asked us to suspend the publication of the investigative story on the student council’s financial discrepancies. A new policy restricting student operations until 7 pm was also imposed to stop us from operating since we usually work at night to adjust with our overlapping student schedules. (READ: The different faces of press freedom violations vs campus journalists)

In the same year, we posted about our stance condemning the atrocities committed during the Marcos dictatorship. Our statement earned us flak from netizens who were Marcos apologists. Some of them red-tagged us, called us “yellowtards,” and accused us of accepting bribes. But apparently, those weren’t enough because someone sent me a death threat shortly after.

Those same or harsher intimidations are continually being experienced by other campus publications across the country.

Sure, there is Republic Act 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of the Philippines, but it has become outdated that it has no teeth against violators anymore. Ill-intentioned individuals could interfere with editorial policies. Worse, student journalists could be prosecuted, harassed, threatened, and intimidated without penalty.

In the national scene, deliberate weaponization of the laws to subdue brave journalists like Maria Ressa is at play. While the government argues that they had no hand on the series of cases filed against Ressa and online news network Rappler, it is obvious that the legal attacks were meant to paralyze their operations. (READ: LIST: Cases vs Maria Ressa, Rappler directors, staff since 2018)

Last month, the Manila Times published an "association matrix" that "links" Rappler, Vera Files, PCIJ, and NUPL to the destabilization plot against the Philippine President. Two days later, managing editor Felipe Salvosa II resigned because it encroached his beliefs.

Whether we like it or not, the curtailment of press freedom extends beyond the corners of campuses. Now, it wreaks havoc in newsrooms where uncompromised journalism takes place.

Indeed, the forces of evil are gaining momentum through the online space. We have seen the power of online disinformation over past, present, and future. It creates a sphere of deception that cripples critical thoughts and consequently, our democracy.

While there are still journalists like Ressa and Salvosa who do not allow evil forces to prosper, journalism still has hope, and campus journalists like me still have the right people to emulate in fighting our own little campus battles. (READ: [EDITORIAL] #AnimatED: A revolution against disinformation)

In a world that is drugged with online disinformation, journalism is treated like a crime. But this is where the real job of a journalist takes place. After all, a misinformed society needs the power of the truth to convict the real criminals and condemn the real crimes.– Rappler.com

Marthy John Lubiano is a Rappler lead mover in Palompon, Leyte. He is a graduating Bachelor of Arts in Communication student of Palompon Institute of Technology and is the Executive Editor of Fulcrum.

This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to Rappler subscribers on April 30, 2019.

April 30 was the last day for all government officials to submit their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for 2018.

SALNs have proved powerful in the nation's recent history, for better or for worse. For instance, "misdeclarations" of assets in SALNs were among the reasons behind the ouster of two chief justices: Renato Corona in 2012 and Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2018.

It can also hold into account public officials at every level, from a rank-and-file clerk up to the President of the Philippines. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism recently scrutinized the SALNs of President Rodrigo Duterte and his family since 1998, much to his chagrin.

Through these SALNs, Filipinos get to find out the wealth of every government official, and how it changes every year. But one low-key section in this document is just as telling.

Besides their properties and liabilities, public officers also have to list down their relatives up to the 4th degree of consanguinity or affinity who also are in the government service.

These track not only elected politicians from the same family but also those who are appointed or hired in national or local offices, including the armed forces and the police.

This part of the SALN is a solid way to track the reach of political dynasties in the country.

For instance, in their 2017 SALNs, 13 of the 23 incumbent senators have relatives elected to various posts. Fourteen of them have relatives appointed as heads or directors of agencies, or hired as employees or staff members. On the other hand, 4 senators did not list down any relative in government: Leila de Lima, Gregorio Honasan II, Loren Legarda, and Francis Pangilinan.

Here's that section of the SALN in the one submitted by Senator Cynthia Villar for 2017. It shows that she has relatives appointed to the Cabinet, and elected to Congress, the city hall and city council, as well as two barangay halls.

Of course, it's unfair to say that the more relatives an official has in government, the more sinister or greedy he or she is. There are still genuine public servants around, it just so happened that they are related to a politician. Some may have also obtained properties through legitimate means, too.

However, it's sad that until now, only certain families hold political power in almost every town or city. For next month's midterm elections, I counted at least 86 political clans with candidates for provincial governor or House representative that also fielded bets for other elective posts. There could be more, definitely, but it's already more than the number of provinces in the country!

Dynasties extend or even expand their power through different means: running for reelection, switching positions to go around term limits, fielding more relatives to other positions (especially in newly-created districts or provinces), or a combination of these tactics at the same time.

There are also cases of dynasties battling each other, like the Singsons vs Zaragozas in Ilocos Sur, and the Villafuertes vs Andayas in Camarines Sur.

Even when dynasties implode – like in my home city Makati where two Binay siblings are duking it out – however interesting the battles are and despite the presence of other candidates, a dynasty member still wins in the end most of the time.

These political clans argue they are the best ones to solve local problems because they're already "familiar" with them, but for many areas, the socioeconomic situation seems to remain stagnant.

The questions remain, though: Why do Filipinos still elect political dynasties to power?

Are there no strong alternatives to battle these bigwigs? If there are, what prevents them from actually bringing the fight to them? Are voters desensitized already, that as long as these families do their jobs, they'll continue electing them, however bad some of them are?

Does the political setup need to change? Should we force the issue and compel our lawmakers to pass a long-demanded anti-dynasty law, or will this forever remain a pipe dream?

Until things change, this will be the forever gripe of mine, and perhaps of many other voters, too: 2019 na, pero sila-sila pa rin ang nasa pwesto. Lagi na lang bang "no choice"? Ano ang kailangang magbago? – Rappler.com

Here are related #PHvote stories you shouldn't miss:

• 2019 local elections, in numbers
• Duterte's 3 eldest children running in 2019
• Duterte: ‘Ayaw ko ng dynasty, but we are forced’
• Aquino vs Marcos looms in 2019 Senate race
• Alan Cayetano hits back at critics: Better a 'serving' political dynasty than crooks
• Rappler Talk: Emil Marañon III on stopping the Cayetano dynasty
• In QC, mayoral bet Crisologo challenges Belmonte dynasty
• WATCH: Zamora vows to free San Juan from Estrada dynasty
• It's Singsons vs Zaragozas for control of Ilocos Sur
• [OPINION] Abolishing term limits will entrench dynasties
• [OPINION] Return of the clans

I remember the day I decided not to have children.

It was October 31, 2011. My news feed was harping on about world population; the United Nations had announced that a baby born in the Philippines was the 7 billionth person on the planet.

That hit me on two levels: as a Filipino, I was already frustrated with the country’s (over)population (non-)policies, so the announcement felt like a backhanded compliment.

Second, I was already working in climate change, and the things I knew and understood to be true were all incredibly distressing.

As I dove into Halloween festivities that year, I officially plunged into fear, terror, guilt, shame, anger, and frustration to swim in a sea called “Climate Anxiety.”

How can any parent responsibly bring a child into the world in the age of climate breakdown to face threats to health and well-being never experienced by the generation that came before them?

With this question in mind, I reconsidered my now deemed egocentric love for tiny little human beings, and softly nudged others to rethink their own baby-making plans. (READ: My life, my choice: ‘Why I chose not to have children’)

But not wanting children was only one manifestation.

I stopped even banal things like posting travel albums on my social media accounts, an important ritual in post-colonial societies approaching middle income status, because I was fearful of unintentionally inspiring younger people that a jetsetter lifestyle full of flight carbon was a legit life goal.

Having grown up in a mall-going culture, I was now too refusing to visit these commercial centers as I did regularly in the past, giving up free air conditioning in year-long summer seasons – all for the fear of being mind tricked into the newest fast fashion purchase.

I hated watching the news on the latest extreme weather event but rolled my eyes when I chanced upon one that didn’t mention climate change. When Tropical Storm Sendong (international name: Washi) hit my home region, killing hundreds of people, I was questioning what made me so special that I was spared. (READ: Life after Sendong: ‘A place we can now call home’)

As a woman with mild anemia, I was also afraid to stop eating meat, but more terrified of the consequences if I didn’t.

To my family, I became the climate wonk with multitudinous, sometimes crippling rules to life. To many friends and colleagues, a depressing misplaced activist who could hardly get it together.

I have sobbed countless times after delivering Climate Reality presentations over the past 8 years. I once burst into tears on a report about how the Syrian war was essentially climate-induced, to the horror of my post-grad colleagues.

As with regular anxiety, people are said to deal with climate anxiety in different ways.

If I believe what I’ve read out of research from groups like Futerra Sustainability or the Yale program on Climate Change Communications, I recognize I dealt with mine just by moving and moving forward.

When I realized that joining protest rallies and making picket signs for climate campaigns I engaged in were not effective enough where I was, I found myself working in proactive climate policy.

And when that did not yield the results I was hoping for, I ended up exploring climate finance, until I convinced my own family to inadvertently support the clean energy revolution I was always rooting for. The same family I annoyed for years with my climate gospel are with me on the first solar service provider established in my hometown.

From promoting a switch to renewable energy in my region, to making my own friends plant trees to celebrate my birthday, then embarking on a veiled campaign to convert my family into flexitarianism with me – I focused on what could be done in my own sphere of influence, starting a wave of positive impact actions for myself.

It helps to find your anxious tribe, too.

When I first heard UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres speak in person at the Global Power Shift conference in 2013, she was in tears talking about how she worried for her daughters’ futures. I met one of her daughters years later, and was pleased to learn she was just as sweetly emotional as her mother.

I also became friends with Yeb Saño, the former climate diplomat famous for weeping while he delievered a UNFCCC conference speech. I joined the Climate Pilgrimage with him in 2018, alongside many more like me, and we were in Katowice at COP24 when Greta Thunberg was introduced to global climate politics in a speech that became vindication for climate anxious folks the world over. (READ: Climate change pilgrimage: Winning hearts and minds)

These days, I’ve managed my anxiety well enough to function and divide my time between commercial endeavors and development consultancies. Perhaps the most important disclosure is finding someone who could embody what I could never be in the climate change space.

I live the vicarious Extinction Rebellion activist life through my partner, who will happily drive a boat in the way of an oil tanker, lead a mob inside a fossil fuel giant’s office, or stand in front of a moving coal train shipment.

The knowledge that someone close to me is doing the work I could never do, became a means for myself to survive the drone of multilateral conferences and forums I need to attend to keep up with my part of the climate duty bargain.

I suppose, one seeks to find fullness in the essence of a duty bearer, even when one cannot comprehend the duty-bearing origins.

We just have to do what we’ve gotta do. And in the wise words of Dory, “Just keep swimming!” – Rappler.com 

Philline Donggay is co-founder and Chief of Communications at Greenergy Solar PH, the first commercial rooftop brand offering solar and related services in Northern Mindanao.  She holds a Master’s in Social Sciences for Tri-Sector Collaboration from the Singapore Management University, and remains an active volunteer for 350.org and the Climate Reality project. 

I am Gualberto Laput, 53 years old, resident of Guading Adasa Street, Dapitan City, and founder of the Dapitan Historical Society. 

I am a Dapitanon. 

Last April 28, you were interviewed by members of the media at a lunch in my hometown with former Dipolog City mayor Evelyn Tang-Uy, who is running for mayor in Dapitan. Just like a lot of my fellow Dapitanons, I was hurt, insulted, disgusted and angry at the comments you gave about Dapitan and its people.

Towards the end of the interview, you said: “Tayo hong mga broadcasters bumabanat not just for the sake [of hitting somebody], but para umayos. Alam ho natin yan, kahit taga-Manila na media o taga-probinsiya na media, iisa lang naman ang pinag-aralan natin sa eskwelahan ng journalism.”

(Broadcasters like us cover not just for the sake [of hitting somebody] but to find solutions. We all know that, whether you're media from Manila or from the province, since we learned the same lessons in our school of journalism.) 

But I find your comments about Dapitan and its people unlikely to come from a sensible journalist, outrageously unfair and full of mistakes, which are indicative of incomplete and inaccurate background information.

The entire interview could be digested in 5 statements by which you said:

1.“Saan ka ba nakakita ng city na you only have one bank?” (Where can you find a city with only one bank?)

Dapitan has 4 banks–  a government bank, LandBank; a thrift bank and two rural banks. But that is beside the point as banks are not a requirement for a place to become a city. Only the Congress can create cities. And there were no requirements except for an approved City Charter until 1983 when Batas Pambansa Bilang 337 became a law that enacted the Local Government Code.

For the sake of your education, my dear Mr. Tulfo, please know that Dapitan became a city because of its historical value – it is where Dr. Jose Rizal spent 4 years in exile. In their cityhood effort, Dapitanons cited the creation of Trece Martires City in Cavite as an antecedent.

On June 22, 1963, President Diosdado Macapagal signed Republic Act 3811, which provided the Charter of the City of Dapitan.

2.“Pumunta ka ng Dipolog, maraming fastfood. Bakit ba ang taga-Dapitan hindi marunong kumain ng Jollibee?” (Go to Dipolog, where there's a lot of fastfood.  Don't people from Dapitan know how to eat Jollibee?)

We sometimes eat Jollibee, but we cherish our home-cooked food. You see, Dapitan’s development thrust is tourism because of its rich history both on the life of our national hero and that of the Catholic Church. (Walking Rizal's steps: Where to go in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte)

Dapitanons’ way of life is very much part of tourism, and how else can we impart ourselves other than offering the food we eat.

Did you know that the popular Spanish bottled sardines of Dipolog City actually has roots in Dapitan? The great grandmother of the family that started the Spanish sardines business was a Dapitanon and a cook of the Jesuit priests in Dapitan. She learned how to preserve sardines from the missionaries, who found out that sardines in our place taste good.

Lately, a United Nations-funded study discovered that the great taste of sardines here is because of the upwelling of the sea in which nutrients from seabed are brought up and finally carried to the shores. Nutrients are followed by planktons, which are food of fish, including sardines. So, the next time you eat Spanish sardines, think of a natural phenomenon called upwelling, and history put into a bottle.

By the way, Mr. Tulfo, tourists don’t go to a place because of Jollibee.

3. “Alam kong may negosyo dito, pero isa lang ho ang may-ari, yung Dakak… It’s a sad reality na it’s a city… Papaano matatawag na lungsod ito na ganito naman, backwards.” (I know there are businesses here but there's only one owner, Dakak... It's a sad reality that it's a city... How can this be called a city when it's like this, backwards?)

Dakak is prominent because it is a five-star resort, and its owners also built the first theme park in the city complete with restaurants, ice cream stall, rides, cinemas and nightly production that currently highlights the preservation of Butanding or whale sharks.

But we also have a lot of other businesses. If you go to our coastal barangays, it is covered with beach resorts, some of which are even owned by businessmen from Dipolog City. We also have floating cottages at a cove in Barangay Taguilon. The biggest of which is owned by a close relative of the Uy family, the political rival of the Jalosjoses who own Dakak.

The heart of Dapitan remains sleepy though. And that is exactly how we want it to be – we preserve our heritage and our history. There you can find the relief map of Mindanao in front of St. James the Greater Church. Rizal’s map is within the city plaza, which is patterned after the plazas in Europe.

Dapitan is mainly an agricultural place. And business and industrial growth is confined outside the city proper because we want to have a balance between making money and preserving our heritage in the center of Dapitan.

Besides, you cannot call us backwards. Examples: we have a five-star resort and smaller resorts, a lot of budget hotels, bed and breakfast inns, and five-star restaurants down to eateries. Try our “Pinakurat” with “puso” Mr. Tulfo, it’s better and healthier than hamburgers or French fries.

If you say we have backward development than our neighboring Dipolog City, include this in your news: a day after Teatro de Dapitan joined all legitimate movie houses worldwide in showing Avengers: Endgame, Dipolog’s Orient Cable TV provider illegally aired the Marvel movie.

Tell your friends in Dipolog to build their own movie house if they want to stunt Dapitan’s economic growth. It’s legal and much better than piracy. 

4. “Pati yung police station, gusto kong maiyak nung nakita ko. Tinanong ko yung driver kung dyan ba kinulong si Rizal, hindi naman daw. Estasyon ho ng police yun, akala ko estasyon ng guardia civil.” (Including the police station, I wanted to cry when I saw it. I asked the driver if that was where Rizal was jailed, he said no. It was a police station, I thought it was a station of the Spanish era civil guards.)

At present the Dapitan Police Office is temporarily located at the old City Hall, pending completion of the new police station.

Our local government, and we Dapitanons, have no plans of demolishing our old city hall, again, because of its historical value. It was constructed during the American time. And it was designed akin to the 18^th century Casa Real, the Spanish governor's residence where Jose Rizal stayed during the first few months of his exile. (READ: Rizal's student in Dapitan recalls service, duty, sense of dedication)

We want to restore the old city hall and make it a museum.

By the way, Mr. Tulfo, there is a big difference between exiled and imprisoned.

5. “Ganito ba talaga sa Dapitan? Buti na lang pati yung mga tao hindi nakasuot ng kamisa de tsino ng Espanyol…” (Is it really like this in Dapitan? Good thing the people aren't wearing kamisa de tsino of the Spaniards.)

Why not? Visit us again in December when we hold our “Handuraw” (remembering). You can join us in wearing our traditional Spanish-era clothing, and we will together eat our homemade food. Perhaps, while having dessert and coffee, we can share to you our story, our life and about Dapitan, which we dearly call home. – Rappler.com

Gualberto Laput is a journalist and founder of the Dapitan Historical Society.

Are they going to make a difference?

Many advocates hope so.

Voters between 18-30 years old constitute 31% of the registered electorate. We’re talking about 18.8 million young Filipinos who can sway the senatorial elections.

No wonder advocates are rooting for them.

Disappointed with survey results, they turn to university-based mock elections to show that the youth know better. It is, after all, the unusual names who make it to the top. Diokno, Colmenares, and Gutoc are among the favorites in these student-sponsored mock elections.

But what about the rest of the youth? We need to get this right.

Survey shows

To make my case, I will draw from Pulse Asia’s recent survey, conducted from April 10 -14. My colleagues there have been helpful in disaggregating the data according to age brackets.

Two age brackets cover the youth demographic: 18-24 years old and 25-34 years old.

The figures below are derived from the likely voters among survey respondents. The survey allowed for multiple responses, up to 12 names. This explains why the figures do not add up to 100%.

What do we see?

Both age groups share 16 of 18 top candidates.  

They are voting for Lito Lapid, Grace Poe, Bong Go, Bong Revilla, Cynthia Villar, Koko Pimentel, Pia Cayetano, Bato dela Rosa, Sonny Angara, Jinggoy Estrada, Nancy Binay, Mar Roxas, Bam Aquino, Francis Tolentino, JV Ejercito, and Serge Osmeña.

10 of these 16 are from Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Only two are from Otso Diretso.

All 7 incumbents running for reelection are included. Four are former senators hoping for a comeback, two of whom were involved in the PDAF scam.

And most importantly, all 16 are in the overall top 18 of Pulse Asia’s most recent survey.

In other words, the Filipino youth are slated to vote for exactly the same group of people as everybody else.

What this means is that the mock elections among university students do not reflect the overall voting preferences of their peers.

What it also means is that the idealism accorded to young people might all be wishful thinking.

Not even the presence of Colmenares among 18-24 year old voters will make a difference. And think about it: Gutoc, Ka Leody, and Diokno, social media rock stars for their fiery speeches, are nowhere on the list.

Those who bet on the youth and their positive impact on the elections will be disheartened to discover the truth.

Perhaps the only redemption is that there is no solid youth vote for Larry Gadon, who thinks everyone is bobo and for Imee Marcos, who thinks she has academic credentials.

What do we do?

To be honest, these figures are all too difficult to accept. Inasmuch as we believe that the youth can make a positive difference, the signs show otherwise.

They are poised to vote for candidates who represent the worst in our democracy: dynasties and political opportunists.

The “woke” among us might end up just blaming them. To do that though is a mistake. Remember that they simply echo the voting preferences of everybody else.

But for now, against all odds, maybe it’s not yet too late.

While time is running out, we can treat these numbers as a call to action. We can devote the remaining days to mobilize the youth in our communities and make sure that they go out and vote.

Believers of the youth vote, however, must make an effort to engage those outside their echo chambers. Based on Pulse Asia’s recent survey, only 35% of voters have a complete slate. Opportunities therefore still exist for alternative candidates.

Finally, there is a long-term lesson here. Education makes a difference to one’s political preferences. That university-based mock elections reveal radical choices is indicative. Imagine the political potential of a highly educated youth sector.

But theirs cannot just be any kind of education. It must be one that provides them with the space to critically imagine a just future. And it must empower them to speak truth to power.

Too bad then that many schools and universities treat the liberal arts as tiresome add-ons. The adults among us must not give up on helping our youth discover what they can really do for the future of our country. – Rappler.com

Jayeel Cornelio, PhD is the Director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University and a fellow of Pulse Asia. He is the editor of the forthcoming volume “Rethinking Filipino Millennials: Alternative Perspectives on a Misunderstood Generation”. Follow him on Twitter @jayeel_cornelio.

This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to subscribers on May 1, 2019.

Manila’s streets turned red once again on Wednesday, as protesters filled the streets to commemorate International Labor Day. But today’s Mayo Uno was not the usual condemnation of the Duterte administration on speakerphone – although this staple was still there, yes. What’s worth noting is that groups came together to support Labor Win, a coalition of labor leaders who are running for senator to push for pro-worker legislation.

But who are they? And why is it so important that leaders from labor groups bid for seats in the Senate? 

Labor Win was born out of frustration. The coalition is composed of longtime advocates who have been at the helm of the labor movement:

• Kilusang Mayo Uno founder Ernesto Arellano
• Former Bayan Muna representative Neri Colmenares
• Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino head Leody de Guzman
• Federation of Free Workers president Sonny Matula
• Labor lawyer Allan Montaño

Earlier into his presidency, Rodrigo Duterte promised to end contractualization by signing an executive order “drafted” by the labor groups. In May 2018, an executive order was signed, but a crucial provision on contracting employees was taken out – much to the labor groups' dismay.

And so they banded together – this time, as senatorial aspirants who will be able to institute pro-worker reforms through legislation: end endo. Scrap regional boards. Decent wages for all.

They were merely echoing the cry of the masses, they said. And so they launched their campaign, hoping that the unions under their organizations would rally support behind them.

Labor Win’s credentials and platform are promising, yet it seems the odds are not in the slate’s favor. A crowd favorite, Colmenares ranked the highest among the 5 in the April 2019 Pulse Asia survey, but still outside the Magic 12. If the elections were held at that time, he wouldn't have won as he ranked 19th to 23rd.

De Guzman, or “Ka Leody,” as he is fondly called, placed farther in the preelection survey. He has taken the 32nd to 52nd rank in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

The sad thing about this is, the situation is not surprising at all. In a piece I recently wrote, sociologist and University of the Philippines professor Herbert Docena said the labor vote is “weak, if not at all non-existent.” He attributed this to decades-long contractualization and anti-labor policies in the workplace that have weakened the movement.

"That’s why they rank low in surveys because the workers are disorganized," he told me.

Despite the Labor Win candidates’ dismal performance in preelection surveys, Docena said the fact that they came together is already a win for the labor movement. After all, they had been working separately for a long time due to historical and political differences.

It was Ka Leody de Guzman who told me this is an opportunity to make the labor vote stronger – if not now, then in the future polls: "Kung hindi man ngayon ay magandang simula ito sa pagpapatuloy at pag-build ng labor vote, labor agenda, at later labor party. O baka maging labor government. Hindi naman masamang mangarap, ’di ba?"

(If we don’t make it this time, this is still a good initiative to sustain to build the labor vote, labor agenda, and later labor party. Who knows, we might in time have a labor government. We can dream, right?) – Rappler.com

Here are related #PHVote stories you shouldn’t miss:

• To the Senate halls from the streets: Will the labor vote prevail this elections? 
• Can progressives win Senate seats?
• Labor Senate bets: We have 'real credentials' to push for pro-poor policies
• Labor leaders coalition on Senate bid: End contractualization
• Group endorses Labor Win, 4 Otso Diretso bets to champion workers' rights
• Labor bets to gov't workers: We will restore right to negotiate, strike
• Amend labor code to end endo, labor candidates pitch to voters 

This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to Rappler subscribers on May 3, 2019.

We’re down to the last 10 days before we troop to polling precincts on May 13! Through their votes, Filipinos will determine what the government’s composition – especially that of Congress – would be like during the last half of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in office. 

Fortunately, there is still time to catch up – you can still dive into the candidates’ qualifications, their platforms, and whether or not they deserve one of the 12 circles you’re going to shade on the ballot.  

We try to get you above the noise of the campaigns with podcast episodes that tackle well-chosen election-related topics with our editors, reporters, and researchers, from the anatomy of campaign sorties to why there are still dead people on the voters’ list.  

So why are we doing podcasts? Because you can listen to them anywhere and anytime no matter what you are doing!  

Just open your preferred podcast streaming website (Spotify, Itunes, or Soundcloud), go to Rappler’s podcast page,  and listen away – while you are doing the dishes or stuck in traffic (and we know how much time we spend in traffic)!  

Below are Rappler podcast episodes that you can listen to before May 13: 

#PHVote: Bakit may mga patay na nasa voters' list pa rin? (Why are dead people still on voters’ list?)

In this podcast, I sat down with Rappler news editor Miriam Grace A. Go to discuss how families can remove their departed relative from the voters’ list so their names won’t be used in election fraud. 

#PHVote: Paano ang pagboto sa party list? (How do you vote according to party list?)

Confused as to how party-list groups are elected into Congress? Listen to this podcast, where I again talk to Rappler news editor Miriam Grace A. Go on the process and the history of proportional representation in the House of Representatives. 

#PHVote: Ano ang papel ng mga titser tuwing eleksiyon? (What is the role of teachers during elections?)

We already know that the role of teachers indeed go beyond the 4 walls of the classroom. But do we know how crucial they are during elections? Rappler education reporter Sofia Tomacruz explains to me the dangers teachers face as they stay on the front lines of preserving a democratic exercise such as voting.

Campaign Convos: Sara Duterte and honesty

Is honesty really a non-issue? Did musician Billy Joel hit it right when he said everyone is so untrue? In this podcast, Rappler reporters Lian Buan and Pia Ranada talk about honesty as a qualification for candidates and why Malacañang is so hesitant to make a stand on it. 

Campaign Convos: Comparing Hugpong ng Pagbabago and Otso Diretso campaigns

In this two-part podcast, Otso Diretso campaign reporter Mara Cepeda and Hugpong ng Pagbabago campaign reporter Pia Ranada discuss how the two opposing slates conduct their campaigns, including how specific candidates stand out, for good or bad.  

Campaign Convos: Explaining Bong Go's rise in the surveys

We know his name. We know his selfies. But do we know how he rose in the surveys? Listen to Rappler reporters Paterno Esmaquel II and Pia Ranada discuss Bong Go’s campaign, which has benefitted so much from his close association with President Duterte.

Campaign Convos: Skip the gimmicks – we assess senatorial candidates based on platform

In this two-part podcast, Rappler’s 4 campaign reporters Pia Ranada, Lian Buan, Mara Cepeda, and Camille Elemia assess the senatorial candidates based on their platform and track record, wading through the noise and beyond gimmickry.

Campaign Convos: Anthony del Rosario on HNP's 2022 plans, locking horns with Alvarez

Rappler reporter Pia Ranada sits down with Hugpong ng Pagbabago secretary-general and Davao del Norte Governor Anthony del Rosario to discuss what their senatorial bets’ lead means for the regional party in preparation for the 2022 national elections looms. 

Campaign Convos: The problem of the Opposition

Beyond lack of resources and support from local politicians, the opposition senatorial candidates are dealing with challenges rooted in the political and ideological differences of its candidates. In this podcast, Rappler reporters Lian Buan and Mara Cepeda discuss the implications of these problems.

The above are just a few of the many multimedia material we’ve produced in time for the 2019 elections. We are still going to release new ones as we near May 13 and, of course, even after the polls. 

Please visit Rappler’s Videos & Podcasts page to get updates! Don’t forget to like Newsbreak on Facebook and follow @newsbreakph on Twitter. 

If you have any suggestions or a topic in mind that we should tackle in our podcasts or even for stories in general, feel free to send us an email at investigative@rappler.com!

Vote wisely on May 13! – Rappler.com

Kailangang pag-ukulan ng pansin ang bahagi ng statement ng Pulse Asia hinggil sa kanilang huling isinagawang survey para sa halalang pang-senador. Batay sa panayam ng Rappler sa pangulo ng Pulse Asia na si Ronald Holmes, isa sa bawat tatlong botante ang hindi makakakumpleto ng labindalawang ibobotong senador.

Hindi naman kasi tayo required kumpletuhin ang bilang ng senador na iboboto. Hindi sapilitan. Pwede ngang walang iboto. Kung gusto mo lang bumoto sa lokal na eleksyon at hindi sa senador, ayos lang. Pero kung lalabis naman sa itinakdang bilang ng dapat iboto, labindalawa sa Senado halimbawa, magiging imbalido ang balota.

Idinagdag pa ni Holmes, ang karaniwang botante na na-survey ay boboto lamang ng "a mean of 8 and a median of 9 (out of a maximum of 12) of their preferred candidates for the senatorial elections."

Ibig sabihin, karaniwang may bakanteng tatlo o apat na senador sa iboboto ang mas nakararaming botanteng PInoy. E sa wala kang mapusuan, hindi ba? E sa hindi mo kakilala ang ibang kandidato, hindi ba? E sa iilan lang ang pinaniniwalaan mong maglilingkod nang matapat at maayos, hindi ba? Walang masama dito. Ang totoo, ang mas masama ay iyong piliting kumpletuhin ang nasa balota, kahit pa ibinoto mo lang ang isang kandidato dahil naisipan mo lang isingit. Maliit na bagay, isiningit.

Marami itong personal na pasingit sa eleksyon ng lokal na pamahalaan; mula sangguniang barangay hanggang sangguniang panlalawigan o sa mga posisyong hindi one-on-one ang pagboto gaya ng sa mayor, gobernador, o congressman. Pasingit, ipapakiusap sa iyo ng kandidato matapos kang kamayan, matapos iabot ang polyetong nagtataglay ng kaniyang bio-data at mga nagawa, polyetong sana'y walang nakasingit na sobreng may perang pambili ng boto.

Dahil sinusuyo, sasabihin sa iyo ng kandidato o ng kung sino mang emisaryo, "Boss, Pakisingit," ipakikiusap sa iyo. Oo nga naman. Dahil sabi nga sa survey, isa sa tatlong Pinoy lang ang makakakumpleto ng labindalawang senador, pwedeng ganito rin ang para sa konsehal ng lungsod o munisipyo o board member ng lalawigan. Pakisingit lang daw kahit sa huli. Kahit iyong panghuli lang sa listahan mo.

Lalapitan ka ni kumpare o kumare, ng kababata o kapitbahay, ng kung sinong inaakalang pakikinggan mo sila. Pakisingit ang kandidatong sinusuportahan nila. At ikaw, sa kagustuhan mong makumpleto, isisingit nga.

Sa pakisingit na ito, nananalig ang mga kandidatong may name-recall. Itong lubos kong kinabubuwisitang konsepto ng personality politics sa bansa kasama ng salitang "winnable." Hindi baleng hindi alam ang gagawin kapag nanalo, hindi baleng tahasang nagnakaw, basta may name-recall at winnable, mananalo pa rin. Basta pamilyar ang apelyido o mukha, magaling umarte. Basta sikat. Ang mga kandidatong ito ang nakikinabang sa pasingit kapag halalang pambansa.

Delikado ang pakisingit kahit sa huli lang ng iyong listahan ng iboboto. Delikado ang, sa kagustuhan mong makumpleto ang iboboto, magsisingit ka sa huli ng ang tanging batayan mo ay naaalala mo ang pangalan, ang retokadong mukha, ang apelyido, ang pinagbidahang pelikula o teleserye.

Sa darating na halalan, punuin ang balota kung kaya. Punuin ng pinagnilayang mabuting kandidato. Oo, kahit iyong hindi pumapalo sa survey dahil hindi sikat. Dahil walang pelikula o hindi nasangkot sa anomalya. Punuin ng kandidatong ang puhunan ay talino at hindi apelyido. Pero kung kulang ang iyong iboboto, gaya ng karaniwan, okay lang iyan. Kaysa maisingit mo ang hindi karapat-dapat.

Tandaan mo sanang pareho lang ang bilang ng kandidatong bunga ng iyong matagal na pagsusuri at pagninilay; iyong mga kandidatong nasa unahan ng iyong listahan. Pareho lang ang bilang niyan sa kandidatong isiningit mo lang dahil popular, o ang pangalan ay lubhang pamilyar dahil sikat o corrupt. O sikat na corrupt.

***

Nasa New Silay-Bacolod City airport ako ngayon habang isinusulat ang pampuno sa espasyong ito. Pabalik na ako sa Maynila. Naanyayahan ako bilang tagapagsalita ng mga guro at administrador ng ilang piling paaralan sa bansa. Inorganisa ng International Leaders in Education Program – Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program ang National Conference on Teacher Leadership na ginanap sa Colegio San Agustin dito sa Bacolod.

Nagsalita ako hinggil sa paksang social media dynamics and ethics para sa mga guro at administrador. Mukhang simple ang paksa, sinsimple lang ng paggamit ng social media, pero siyempre hindi. Komplikado ito. Maraming kawing-kawing na paksang dapat mapagnilayan ng mga guro at administrador ng paaralan.

Habang naghihintay ng flight, binalikan ko ang status ko sa Facebook noong isang araw. Isinulat ko ito habang nag-aagahan sa isang sikat na fastfood chain, habang hinihintay ang pagkakaton kong magsalita sa nabanggit na seminar.

Ganito ang nakalagay sa status ko, na sana ay mapagnilayan din ninyo:

Ang daming kandidatong sinasabi kung ano ang nagawa nila para sa bayan. Ang karamihan, kung anuman itong nagawang ito, naisagawa dahil sa pondo ng bayan o buwis na galing din sa atin. Isinusumbat ang kani-kanilang ipinagawa o ipinaayos. Na para bang sinasabi, "o hayan, inayos ko ito, ipinagawa ko 'yan (gamit ang buwis ninyo – hindi ito sasabihin, siyempre). Ipinagawa ko, imbes na nakawin ko ang pondo, pasalamat kayo..."

Tapos papalakpakan ng marami sa atin. Papalakpakan ng marami sa atin na para bang utang na loob natin na matino sila habang nakapuwesto o kapag nakapuwesto na sila. May maling mindset dito.

Hindi ako nanumbat bilang guro. Na sasabihin sa dating estudyante, "Pasalamat ka sa akin, natuto ka..." o "Pasalamat ka sa akin, ipinasa kita..." dahil responsibilidad kong matuto siya (hindi man pumasa). Though in some instances, may mga kakilala akong ganito. Feeling pinakaimportanteng tao. Feeling siya ang sentro ng mundo.

Walang service crew ng fastfood na nagsabi sa akin ngayon habang nag-aagahan na "Pasalamat ka, nag-serve ako sa iyo, kung hindi, tirik ang mata mo sa gutom..."

O traffic aide na nakikita ko ngayon dito sa abalang lansangan ng Bacolod: "Pasalamat naman kayo at inaayos ko ang traffic..."

O piyon: "Pasalamat kayo at inayos ko ang daan at tulay..."

Tanging pulitiko lang ang mahilig manumbat. Na para bang utang na loob natin na hindi sila garapalan kung magnakaw. Ang malungkot, nagpapasumbat naman ang marami sa atin.

Malapit na ang halalan. Pero hindi mo pa kailangang magdesisyon agad. Magnilay ka pang mabuti kung sino ang iyong ihahalal. Hangga't maaari, hindi yung nanunumbat o magnanakaw. O magnanakaw na nga, nanunumbat pa. – Rappler.com

Bukod sa pagtuturo ng Creative Writing, Pop Culture, and Research sa Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas, Writing Fellow din si Joselito D. Delos Reyes, PhD, sa UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Research Fellow sa UST Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities. Board Member siya ng Philippine Center of International PEN. Siya ang kasalukuyang tagapangulo ng Departamento ng Literatura ng UST. 

This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to Rappler subscribers on May 3, 2019.

I am Raisa Serafica and I head MovePH, Rappler’s civic engagement arm. Our unit is in charge of growing a community of advocates through campaigns, trainings, events, and other activities. 

I mostly enjoy elections because of the community engagement and energy Filipinos display during this time. 

Comments sections could sometimes blow up as supporters of different camps exchange views. Every now and then, I would see woke Twitter users sharing their takeaways on the kind of leaders they want. Student organizations would conduct their own mock polls and voter education events in their schools and campuses. I enjoy these kinds of things because they keep my hope that our democracy still works.  

But, of course (and unfortunately at that), the engagement that we see is not always positive and healthy. 

As May 13 nears, we see more and more incidents of vote-buying being reported online. Misleading and fake posts that are meant to discredit and undermine the election process are being shared on social media. Instead of engaging in insightful debates, some supporters would spew hate and use ad hominem attacks. 

This brings me to my call: stay engaged and do it right. 

If you’re looking for an example, let me cite this group of 20 young, passionate campus journalists whom I met exactly a month ago. Coming from different provinces in the Philippines, they flew to Manila because they wanted to do more than just vote during the elections. These Movers, as we call them, wanted to amplify the issues in their areas by writing about their local elections. 

Like what Rappler news editor Miriam Grace A. Go said in a previous newsletter: 

[These Movers] are in a unique position because they not only provide a platform for the local voice that’s already there, or put the spotlight on concerns otherwise unknown outside their areas, they also understand how local issues can both shape and be shaped by national policies, and therefore by the vote the people will cast for candidates for national positions. 

What these Movers are doing and are planning to accomplish in the 2019 elections are great examples of civic engagement done right. They understand the unique position they are in and the opportunity they can seize by serving as local voices this election. Thus, they have risen to the challenge to be active movers this elections. 

If you are inspired by the way these young people are helping in their communities, here are ways you can do so:  

Describe the leader that you want 

What kind of leader do you want for the Philippines, for your towns and cities? MovePH is crowdsourcing what Filipinos are looking for in the senator, governor, congressman, mayor, and other local officials that they would vote for. We want voters to have a conversation on leadership and governance. Check this link to see how you can join the campaign and show #TheLeaderIWant through photos. 

Share results of campus mock polls 

Who among the senatorial candidates have made a positive impression to warrant the students’ votes? MovePH is collating the results of mock polls done in different universities around the country. Share the results of campus mock polls in your area and help us make sense of the youth vote. 

Report vote-buying incidents 

Make sure to guard your vote. Remember, vote-buying is not just giving or taking cash. The transaction takes many forms. You can report vote-buying in your area by posting online and using #VoteBuyingPH. You can also send us a message to MovePH or Rappler. 

Volunteer for poll watchdog groups 

Election watchdogs help establish the credibility of elections. Organizations like the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) are looking for volunteers who can join them in election monitoring. 

Report election-related false information 

With the elections coming up, false information is bound to be rampant online. You can do your part in keeping the elections free of lies and disinformation by sending dubious URLs and links to factcheck@rappler.com. 

– Rappler.com 

Nakasalalay sa boto mo sa Mayo 13 ang kalidad ng buhay mo sa susunod na 3 taon.

Nakabitin ang maraming minadali at mapaminsalang polisiya ng administrasyon. Kabilang sa mga ito ang pagpapatuloy ng kampanya kontra-droga, maka-China na paninindigan ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte, at ang pagsusulong ng federalismo sa pamamagitan ng pagbabago ng Konstitusyon.

Hindi natin kakailanganin ang isang Senado na basta na lamang magpapatibay sa mga ito at sa iba pang hakbangin nang walang pagkilatis at walang paglilimi. Hindi trabaho ng Senado na maging sunod-sunuran sa lahat ng gusto ni Duterte at pagbigyan ang lahat ng nais niya.

Ngayon, higit kailanman, kailangan nating maghalal sa Senado ng naninindigan, nagkakaisang oposisyon na kokontra sa mga mapanirang pamamaraan ng administrasyon.

Sa artikulong ito, susuriin natin ang mga kaduda-dudang polisiya, at kung bakit para sa kapakanan mong iboto ang oposisyon sa Mayo 13.

Kampanya kontra-droga

Una, hindi natin kailangan ang Senadong patuloy na magbubulag-bulagan sa walang-saysay at di-makataong kampanya kontra-droga. Halos 3 taon na ang lumipas nang magsimula ito, ngunit lalo lang lumalala ang problema natin sa droga.

Maging si Duterte mismo ay nagsabi noong Abril 2 na lubhang nabigo ang kaniyang kampanya kontra-droga: “I cannot control those drugs, son of a bitch. Even if I ordered the deaths of these idiots, drugs remain, still intensifying.”

Ipinangangalandakan­­ ng dating punong tagapagpatupad ng kampanya kontra-droga na ngayon ay tumatakbo sa Senado na naging “successful” o matagumpay ang kaniyang kampanya. Wala siyang batayan kundi ang hinuha niya.

Ani Bato dela Rosa, “If many believe that the number of drug addicts has gone down, then somehow we are successful.”

Sa katunayan, maaaring maging makapangyarihang tinig ang Senado laban sa kampanya kontra-droga.

Napigilan nga ng Senado ang badyet na P900 milyon noong 2018 para sa “Oplan Double Barrel” at ang P500 milyon para sa drug surveillance program na “Masa Masid” ng Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Ngunit ganap ba nitong napahinto ang Philippine National Police sa pagpapatupad ng kampanya kontra-droga?

Nakababahala na maraming senador ang nanatiling tahimik tungkol sa kampanyang ito, o kaya ay nakontento na sa mga paimbabaw na pahayag nila. Para na rin nilang ipinagwalang-bahala ang libo-libong extrajudicial killing at hinayaan si Duterte at ang mga pulis na ipagpatuloy ang kanilang nakapangingilabot na aliwang pagpaslang sa mga inosenteng mahihirap.

Para hindi na dumami pa ang bilang ng mga namamatay, kailangan na nating wakasan ang kampanya kontra-droga. Ngunit magiging suntok sa buwan ito kung mananatiling mas marami ang maka-Duterte sa Senado.

Paninindigang maka-Tsina

Kung walang malakas na oposisyon sa Senado, asahan mong patuloy ang pagpasok ng maraming Tsino at pangingialam ng mga opisyal ng gobyerno ng Tsina sa ating mga ugnayang domestiko.

Ang foreign policy ay isa ring area kung saan epektibong maiwawasto ng Senado ang mga aksiyon ng Pangulo.

Halimbawa, dahil sa mga mapanggipit na loan agreement na pinasok ng Department of Finance, nasa kapangyarihan ng Senado na suriin ang mga katulad na kasunduan sa pamamagitan ng paglilitis sa mga opisyal na nagkasala at baligtarin ang mga naturang kasunduan kung kinakailangan.

Pero gaya sa kampanya kontra-droga, masaya na ang karamihan sa mga senador na hayaan lang si Duterte.

Pinakatalamak ang bulag na pagsang-ayon ng Senado pagdating sa patuloy na agresibong pananakop ng Tsina sa mga teritoryo natin (at sa pang-aabuso nila sa mga likas na yaman natin) sa West Philippine Sea.

Nagkakaisa ang mga eksperto na naging pabaya ang Senado sa pagtatanggol sa ating soberanya. Lulubha pa ito kung mananatiling mas marami ang maka-Duterte sa Senado.

Sa ika-36 anibersaryo ng PDP-Laban (ang partido ni Duterte), inimbitahan pa ng ilang senador ang matataas na opisyal ng Communist Party of China bilang mga panauhing pandangal.

Sinabi rin kamakailan ni Imee Marcos na dapat hindi natin binangga ang Tsina sa pamamagitan ng pagsasampa ng kaso sa The Hague: “We started it. We picked a fight and then it turns out we’re no match against them. What kind of thing is that? We’re really looking for trouble.”

Mabuti na lang, nariyan ang Otso Diretso– at ilang indibiduwal na tumatakbo sa pagkasenador tulad ni Neri Colmenares– na may marurubdob at matitibay na katuwiran laban sa labis na pagsamba ni Duterte sa Tsina. Narinig natin sila sa pinakahuling senatorial debate ng CNN Philippines.

Federalismo sa pamamagitan ng pagbabago ng Konstitusyon

Panghuli – at marahil ang pinakanakababahala – ang kabiguan nating maihalal ang sapat na miyembro ng oposisyon sa Senado ay maaaring magbigay ng daan para sa ganap na pagsusulong ng federalismo ni Duterte.

Ipinasa na ng Kamara ng mga Representante sa pangatlo at panghuling pagbasa ang draft ng konstitusyon na magbabago sa ating sistemang unitary patungo sa isang sistemang federal.

Ngunit ang draft, na dinirekta ni outgoing Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ay tahasang nagtanggal ng mga term limit ng mga mambabatas at ng pagbabawal sa political dynasties – isang hakbang na pinaniniwalaan ng mga eksperto na maglulundo sa pagpapalakas ng mga dinastiya.

Inamin din ng mga economic manager ni Duterte na maaaring salantain ng federalismo ang ekonomiya ng bansa sa pamamagitan ng pagpapalobo ng “budget deficit” (o kakulangan ng pondo) at lubhang pagpapataas sa interes ng mga utang. Maaari rin nitong pataasin ang mga gastos sa pagnenegosyo sa buong bansa.

Pinakanakagigimbal, mayroong mga tinatawag na “transitory provisions” sa draft constitution, na ikinatatakot ng mga eksperto sa batas. Maaaring gamitin ng administrasyong Duterte ang mga ito para manatili sa kapangyarihan at magdeklara ng “revolutionary government.”

Lubhang nakababahala ang masyadong mabilis na pagpasa sa di-katanggap-tanggap na draft constitution na ito. Sinuwerte lang tayo: bahagyang nahuli ang Arroyo draft upang ganap na mapagtibay.

Pero kung walang sapat na oposisyon sa Senado, madali na nilang mapagtatagumpayan ang proyektong ito para sa federalism – kasama na ang lahat ng kasumpa-sumpang probisyon nito.

Ani reelectionist Koko Pimentel, maaari na raw pabilisin ng Senado ang pagpasa sa federalismo matapos ang eleksiyon sa Mayo 13.

Iboto ang oposisyon

Binibigyan tayo ng pagkakataon ng eleksiyon sa Mayo 13 na pigilin ang Senado na maging bulag na tagasunod ni Duterte – kung maituturing pa silang hindi nga bulag.

Ngunit ipinakikita sa mga survey na lubhang nakatitiyak ang Filipino na iboboto pa rin ang mga kandidato ng administrasyion. Tanging si Bam Aquino ng Otso Diretso ang nakapasok sa “Magic 12” sa pinakabagong survey ng Pulse Asia.

Ang huling taon na nagkamit ang oposisyon ng iisang puwesto sa Senado ay noon pang 1967, o mahigit kalahating siglo na ang nakalilipas.

Ang ganitong kawalan ng oposisyon sa Senado ay maaaring tuluyang bumuwag sa ating mga demokratikong institusyon at magpahirap sa buhay ng milyon-milyong Filipino.

Kung pinahahalagahan mo ang buhay – at gusto mo nang wakasan ang walang-saysay na pagpatay dulot ng kampanya kontra-droga – iboto mo ang oposisyon.

Kung iginagalang mo ang soberanya ng ating bansa – at nais umiwas sa pagpasan sa mapanggipit na utang mula sa Tsina, at gustong tutulan ang pang-aabuso ng mga Tsino sa ating mga likas-yaman sa West Philippine Sea – iboto mo ang oposisyon.

Kung gusto mong tutulan ang proyektong federalismo ng administrasyon – at gustong pigilan ang di-kinakailangang gulo na idudulot nito sa ating sistema ng pamahalaan – iboto mo ang oposisyon.

Huwag kang panghinaan ng loob sa mga nakadidismayang resulta ng mga survey. Sa halip, buong dangal kang magtungo sa iyong polling precinct sa Mayo 13 at bumoto para sa mga kandidato ng oposisyon na tumutugma sa sarili mong mga pananaw at paninindigan.

Para rin ito sa iyong kapakanan. – Rappler.com 

Ang may-akda ay PhD candidate sa University of the Philippines School of Economics. Ang kaniyang mga pahayag ay di sumasalamin sa mga posisyon ng kaniyang mga kinabibilangang grupo o organisasyon. Salamat sa tulong ng Salimbayan sa pagsasalin sa Filipino ng orihinal na artikulo. Sundan si JC sa Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) at sa Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).

Naipit ka na naman ba sa trapik sa EDSA?

Naisaayos na raw inflation, pero wala namang bumabang presyo ng bilihin? Sawang-sawa ka na ba sa "new normal" na paghihigpit ng sinturon?

Sabi ng gobyerno, patuloy na lumalala ang problema ng droga sa kabila ng mga bangkay ng pusher sa bangketa. Ngayon ang kampanyang nagmasaker ng tinatantyang 27,000 ay lumipat naman sa Central Luzon. Pero tone-tonelada pa rin ang pumapasok na cocaine sa bansa. Sa katotohanan, sinasabi ng mga otoridad na ngayon lang sila nakakita ng ganito karaming cocaine sa mga baybayin! 

At kita ba ng dalawa nating mata ang naglipanang mga manggagawang Intsik na umaagaw ng trabaho mula sa mga Pinoy?

Ang daming isyung kailangang pagtuunan ng pansin pero abala ang pamahalaan sa pagbebenta ng engrandeng pakanang laban umano kay Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte tulad ng “matrix” kuno.

Ang siste, sumemplang sa takilya ang kakatwang conspiracy at nagkabuhol-buhol ang dila ng tagapagsalita ng Pangulo na si Sal Panelo.

Kumambyo naman sa susunod na kabanata: ang pag-aresto sa "sharer" ng videong “Totoong Narco list” na nag-uugnay sa pamilya ng Presidente sa droga. 

At malinaw na rin ang direksyon ng kwento: mukhang idinadawit ang oposisyon at ang mga pinuno nito tulad ni Vice President Leni Robredo at ang Magdalo party, ang balwarte ng masugid na kritiko ni Digong na si Senador Sonny Trillanes at ang kandidato sa pagka-senador na is Gary Alejano.

Saan ka naman nakakita ng suspek na nakapagpainterbyu pa sa evening news ng mga higanteng network ng telebisyon?

Nangangalingasaw man ang kwento, tuloy ang nilalangaw na soap opera. Nabaling ba ang atensyon mo mula sa kalbaryo ng buhay? 

Isang linggo na lang at eleksyon na. Narito ang 8 tipo ng mga kandidatong mas dapat pagtuunan ng pansin at di dapat iboto: 

1. Photo-op king! Dakilang alalay at tanging tunay na nagawa ay ang maging pambansang photo-bomber.

2. Ang mga naakusahang mandarambong na nakakabit ang pusod (at bank account) sa pork barrel queen na si Janet Napoles.

3. Ang isa sa mga arkitekto ng Martial Law– ang orig na disinformation campaign ng bansa. 30 taon na ang nakalipas at naglalako pa rin ng kasinungalingan na walang nakulong dahil sa paniniwala sa malagim na yugto.

4. Ang mga garapal sa pagsisinungaling sa publiko: ngayo’y nilalansi tayo sa pag-gradweyt niya sa kolehiyo – anong panggogoyo ang magiging diskarte niya sa Senado? 

5. Ang implementor ng giyera kontra droga: tanging pamana niya ang tinatantyang 27,000 patay mula sa kampanyang kontra-mahirap at kontra-human rights. Tanging accomplishment niya: pinayaman niya ang mga punerarya. 

6. Laos na aktor na laos na rin ang sales pitch – parang kabayo ni Leon Guerrero na sumuko na sa latay ng latigo.

7. Mga walang silbi at walang integridad na yes-men (at women) na iiwas, magtatago o makiki-chorus sa papuri sa popular na presidente.

8. Mga tagapagtaguyod ng political dynasties.

Iboto ang lider na swak sa prinsipyo mo – yung maglilingkod, independyente at magtatanggol sa 'yo. – Rappler.com

This is a #PHVote newsletter sent to subscribers on May 4, 2019.

This is Camille Elemia, Rappler’s Senate reporter. I also cover PDP-Laban for the May 2019 elections.

With only a week to go before D-day, I think I should help you manage some expectations.

A few days ago, Pulse Asia published the results of its April survey. Fourteen senatorial candidates have a statistical chance of winning, and most, if not all, of them are from the administration slates, meaning from the ruling PDP-Laban or endorsed by Hugpong ng Pagbabago:

• 10 administration candidates: Cynthia Villar, Pia Cayetano, Bong Go, Sonny Angara, Bong Revilla, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Aquilino Pimentel III, Imee Marcos, Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito
• Grace Poe, an independent candidate, who is a member of the current majority bloc in the Senate
• Nancy Binay, who is running under her father’s party, but is a member of the majority bloc
• Lito Lapid, a returning senator whose friends in the Senate are administration allies
• Bam Aquino, the lone opposition candidate, who is at the bottom tier of the rankings, from 10th to 14th .

All these mean one thing: if the results are to be followed, the next Senate will be filled with Duterte’s allies.

Rappler reporter Lian Buan, who covers the Otso Diretso slate, pointed out in an article that these results fuel fears that the country is seeing a return to the pre-Martial Law era.

The last time the opposition managed to get just one seat in a senatorial race was in 1967, when only Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, Marcos' chief critic and Bam’s uncle, won a seat in the Senate.

That year, 7 of the 8 seats up for grabs went to Marcos’ party mates in the Nacionalista Party.

Incumbent senators

Of the 12 incumbent senators who will stay until the 18th Congress, 8 are considered allies of the President Rodrigo Duterte, with varying degrees of affinity with him:

• Senate President Vicente Sotto III, a staunch ally of the President
• Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, a member of the majority bloc but has opposed and revised some Duterte-backed legislation, such as the TRAIN law and the restoration of death penalty
• Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, staunch presidential ally
• Sherwin Gatchalian, member of the majority bloc and has voted in favor of Duterte’s pet bills
• Richard Gordon, staunch ally of the President and has cleared Duterte, his family, and his men from allegations of wrongdoing
• Panfilo Lacson, member of the majority bloc. He would both criticize and laud Duterte, depending on the issue.
• Manny Pacquiao, staunch ally and party mate of Duterte
• Joel Villanueva, member of the majority bloc, but has remained quiet on some controversies against the administration

The 4 opposition senators that will remain are: Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, and Leila de Lima, who is detained and cannot vote on key issues.

The opposition will also be losing a key – and most vocal – figure, as Senator Antonio Trillanes IV finishes his term.

In effect, with Trillanes gone and De Lima practically “disabled,” the minority bloc will be down to 3, if no one from the opposition makes it in the Top 12 in the coming elections.

This means it is highly possible that the new Senate will be composed of 20 allies and only 3 minority senators who could vote.

The configuration, however, has not affected the survey numbers. A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 72% of Filipinos were satisfied with the Senate’s performance, and only 10% said they were dissatisfied.

The Senate received a “very good” net satisfaction rating of +62 – up by 4 points from +58 in December 2018.

Asked about it, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the results show that “the present Senate is “transparent” and “independent.”

Well, we have 8 days to find out. – Rappler.com

Here are related #PHVote stories you shouldn’t miss:

• Villar, Poe share top spot among Senate bets in Pulse Asia survey
• How 7 reelectionist senators voted on key issues, bills
• Where do 2019 senatorial bets stand on key national issues?
• For an 'independent Senate,' Makabayan endorses 9 candidates
• Can progressives win Senate seats?
• LIST: 2019 Senate hopefuls facing cases, complaints, probes

If the polls are any indication, the May 13 elections will be a continuation of the electoral trend that brought Rodrigo Duterte to power in 2016.  

The Hugpong ng Pagbabago candidates are not running for their stand on the issues, on character, on their record of public service. 

Sara Duterte, the President’s daughter, made it very clear that it’s the opposition slate’s loyalty to her father that counts when she said a candidate’s honesty should not be a factor in these elections.

The acid test is their willingness to swear absolute, unthinking fealty to the President. Apparently, if the surveys are right, most Filipinos agree with Sara and are willing to hold their noses and overlook the fact that quite a number of the Hugpong candidates are out-and-out rascals, liars, or plain ass-lickers and are willing to put the likes of Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, Imee Marcos, and Bong Go in the Senate.

The need to believe

In times of crisis, there is a desperate need for people to believe in something and someone. And after putting up with what they viewed as the corruption, incompetence, and hypocrisy of previous administrations, a great part of the electorate has placed its faith in Duterte to lead them to the promised land. 

A disgruntled middle class that had high hopes in the post-Marcos “Edsa Republic” and felt betrayed by its failure to deliver on its promises is the driving force of what is essentially an insurgency against liberal democracy, a force that is sweeping most of the rest of the country along with it.

That several thousand people have been killed in the President’s war on drugs is something that Duterte’s supporters say is a necessary cost to be incurred on the way to the good society. That inflation is making life difficult for most people is a detail, something not to be blamed on the President.

That corruption continues to be rife and is, in fact, synonymous with some of those running under Duterte’s banner is something to be tolerated because he’ll eventually whip the corrupt in line. And when there are reports on the President’s unexplained wealth, they shrug and say no one is perfect. 

Mass politics of authoritarianism

In the U.S., political analysts have noted that whatever he does, some 30% of the population will always approve of Trump. There is a similar phenomenon going on here, except that here some 70-80% appear to approve of Duterte whatever he does. 

This is not because those 30% of Americans and 70% of Filipinos are stupid, as implied in the derogatory term “Dutertards” that many anti-Duterte people have used to describe his base. The reality is that we are no longer paddling in the waters of democratic politics as usual, where factors such as money, interests, issues, and name recall spell the difference, though they continue to have some influence.  

Many analysts have said that they have not lived through a period as tumultuous as the last 3 years. That is because we were launched in 2016 into a whole new ball game, one where the country was seized by a collective fever that some call the politics of faith, others term the politics of charisma, and still others say is authoritarian politics.  

Whatever one calls it, what it essentially is is the willingness of people to hold their critical faculties in abeyance and allow themselves to be swept away by the hope that an authoritarian leader will lead the country into a future that he himself has only vague ideas about.  

An intimidated opposition

Mass authoritarian mobilization of the electorate is what the traditional opposition has been up against, and it has made the mistake of allowing itself to be intimidated by it.  

From the very beginning, the Otso Diretso slate projected a marked lack of confidence, with some of the candidates publicly proclaiming that it would be hard to win against Duterte.  

A Liberal Party spokesman, in fact, said that the electoral campaign would provide an opportunity to “consult” people on why the previous administration lost the trust of the people, effectively making the elections a referendum on that administration than on the current one. 

It was probably smart to avoid sporting the color yellow given the success of the administration’s propaganda machine equating it with incompetence, hypocrisy, and elitism, but the behavior of Mar Roxas, the opposition’s leading candidate, was downright demoralizing. He displayed a marked reluctance to campaign with the rest of Ortso Diretso, apparently seeking to soften his image as an opponent of Duterte and sell himself instead as an economist. (READ: Mar Roxas seeks to defeat ghosts from 2016 bid)

Instead of being appeased, Duterte predictably took to making Roxas a “punching bag,” to use the words of Senator Panfilo Lacson. Individual candidates like Chel Diokno, Florin Hilbay, Samira Gutoc, Gary Alejano, and Erin Tañada did well in television debates, but the opposition never graduated from being perceived as a ragtag group that did not pose a serious challenge to the administration machine. 

If the polls are showing that it might be difficult for even one of them to reach the “Magic 12,” they have partly themselves to blame. However much people might support what you stand for, they will find it difficult to identify with people who behave like they’ve already lost. 

An aggressive campaign on human rights, due process, the dangers of dictatorship, and the state of the economy is what the opposition should have mounted. While taking a strong stand on these issues might not be in sync with the mood of the electorate at this particular juncture in the country’s political history, the opposition should have realized that human rights, due process, opposition to one-man rule are enduring values, values that may be temporarily eclipsed by a collective derangement like that which has currently infected the nation but to which people will eventually return once they have come to their senses, even if that takes a generation.  

They should have defined the electoral campaign not simply as a fight to win the coming elections but as pivotal point in the struggle to preserve democracy and brought to the enterprise an aggressive and passionate spirit.

Ray of hope

Yet there has been a ray of light during these elections, though it has not come from Otso Diretso. This sign of hope was the coming together of “Labor Win,” a coalition of representatives of labor federations. 

This was not planned. It was something that jelled in the middle of the campaign period, when the different candidates from labor realized that instead of running alone, they would do better to band together in order to effectively project the demands of labor and the masses to the electorate.  

Though it does not encompass all of the labor movement, Labor Win is a notable achievement, given the traditionally fractious state of Philippine labor.  

The candidates are veteran labor organizers and activists, a welcome whiff of sanity in the midst of the collective derangement.  Nobody could provide a better contrast to the rascals in the Hugpong than Leody de Guzman of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Ernie Arellano of National Confederation of Labor, labor lawyer Alan Montano, Sonny Matula of Federation of Free Workers, and Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna.   

Labor Win is significant for two reasons.  

First, it may provide a precedent for people from labor and people’s organizations coming together for future electoral coalitions.  

Second, given the greater media coverage of the underdogs in the Senate race during this election campaign, they have brought to the fore the bread-and-butter issues that are the daily concerns of people such as inflation, the water crisis, contractualization, and unemployment.  

And, owing to their roots in the working class and the masses, they have addressed these issues with a credibility that few of those in the administration slate and Otso Diretso could ever manage.  

While Sonny Angara of Hugpong was complaining about not having the opportunity to shower together and have “sexy time” during the severe shower shortage, only the Labor Win candidates could convincingly project the anger and frustration of the people about not having water to enable them to deal with basic body necessities owing to the incompetence of the water bureaucracy.  

Labor Win may yet pull a big surprise, not in terms of landing in the Magic 12, but in terms of performing well given the odds, proving that an election based on burning issues and records of service to the people may yet be possible in the Philippines.

May 13 will not just be a mid-term election. It will be one of the most consequential elections in the history of the country, one whose results may bring us closer to a full-fledged authoritarian system.  

Paradoxically, such an outcome may be the jolt that is needed to get us to finally realize that we are no longer in the realm of politics as usual and force the still disorganized democratic forces to finally take seriously the task of forging an effective mass political movement to head off the Final Solution. – Rappler.com

The author was a member of the House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015.

Over the past months, the Kaliwa Dam project of the Duterte administration has been at the heart of a roiling controversy. Touted as a long-term solution to Metro Manila’s water ills, opposition to the P12.2-billion dam has snowballed, due to its foreseen social and environmental impacts, as well as its majority financing via a Chinese government loan with seemingly onerous provisions.

Yet beyond most criticisms of the project, the Kaliwa Dam also faces substantial viability challenges. As I point out in this piece, not only might the proposed dam’s balance of costs and benefits render it unviable, the venture’s poor financial prospects could saddle consumers in Metro Manila with higher, long-term water tariffs.

NEDA's evaluation of the Kaliwa Dam

In October 2013, the infrastructure staff of the National Ecoomic Development Authority (NEDA) submitted its project evaluation of the New Centennial Water Source Project (NCWSP) – a planned public-private partnership (PPP) project of the Aquino administration.

Involving an integrated dam system in Rizal and Quezon provinces, the NCWSP included not only the 600 million-liters-a-day (MLD) capacity Kaliwa Dam, but also a 1,800-MLD Laiban Dam, a Laiban Hydro-Electric Power Plant, water conveyance tunnels, and two water treatment plants to be developed by private concessionaries.

In their report, the NEDA staff ultimately recommended developing the Kaliwa Dam component of the NCWSP through either foreign or government funding – but not without expressing “reservations” on “attendant risks and issues.”

Why these reservations? Among others, the NEDA evaluation stressed the following:

• Sedimentation risks (Pars. 26, 62): Based on prior studies, NEDA acknowledged that the Kaliwa Dam could face “a possible short dam lifespan” due to the high rate of sedimentation.
• Weak accounting of spillover costs (Pars. 64, 66): NEDA emphasized that its economic evaluation did not account for “environment and ecological costs” as well as “social and heritage costs” resulting from the dam’s construction.
• No downstream impacts (Par. 78): NEDA underscored that its analysis was not able to assess the adverse downstream impacts of the project in the Agos river basin in Quezon province.
• Costs possibly higher (Par. 85): NEDA recognized that the dam’s cost could escalate significantly due to the project’s location in an area prone to “severe erosion and earthquake hazards.”

But even with all these assessment gaps, the Kaliwa Dam barely met NEDA’s viability criteria at the time.

While NEDA found the Kaliwa Dam project to be economically viable (see Table 1), the project’s estimated economic internal rates of return (i.e., 18%-20%) were hardly above the government’s passing rate of 15% at the time. 

This was especially worrisome since average cost overruns for large-scale dam projects have been estimated by the World Commission on Dams to be around 56% of their initial budgets, while a 2014 study by Oxford researchers on hydropower dams has found that such ventures typically exceed their projected costs by a higher 96%. Put simply, even a minor overrun could reverse the viability figures of the dam project.

Equally crucial, the NEDA evaluation found that the NCWSP and Kaliwa dam demonstrated poor financial prospects. Tellingly, the project was estimated to cost its proponents far more than what they could expect to receive from the venture’s operations (see Table 2). In paragraph 84 of the evaluation, NEDA noted that this could risk increasing water tariffs, if MWSS passed on some of the financial burden of the project to downstream concessionaires.

Unviable? Expensive?

Yet these concerns were far from confined to NEDA staff. In its earlier 2012 Water Security Study for Metro Manila, the World Bank actually anticipated these issues over the project’s viability.

Assessing nine water supply projects for the Metro Manila (see Table 3), including the Kaliwa dam, the World Bank analysis integrated several factors neglected by NEDA’s evaluation, such as leakages in the extraction and conveyance of water, as well as environmental assessment and watershed maintenance costs.

Already, these differences produced conflicting results. Compared to NEDA’s marginally-viable rates, the Kaliwa Dam’s EIRR in the World Bank study was estimated at an unviable 14% (and an even lower 11% in its sensitivity analysis). Indeed, the World Bank concluded: “Only the Kaliwa Low Dam project [among the water sources examined] is below the hurdle rate of 15% EIRR, thus failing to pass the decision criteria for the economic viability test.”

Just as strikingly, the Bank also furnished evidence that the Kaliwa Dam could prove disadvantageous for consumers. Among the water supply projects, the long-run average cost of the Kaliwa Dam was calculated at P9.28 per cubic meter (see Table 4) – the most expensive per unit in the entire list.

Policy-based evidence-making?

Perhaps the Kaliwa Dam’s design could have undergone changes when the Duterte administration slated the project for foreign funding in 2017. But if this were so, it would mean that official statements concerning the dam’s evolution have harbored critical inconsistencies.

Repeatedly, NEDA statements (here and here) on the project have indicated that recent decisions have only concerned changes in its funding source. Major design alterations outside the proper approval channels would add yet another anomaly to the project’s implementation.

Development projects should be based on accountable and rigorous decision-making, but too many signs indicate that the Kaliwa Dam project has yet to be adequately assessed. Has the dam become another showcase of “policy-based evidence-making," similar to how a former NEDA secretary put it concerning the ill-conceived, ill-fated Aurora Freeport project in 2013?

Make no mistake: while affected communities stand to lose most from the dam’s development, water consumers and taxpayers will also shoulder the long-term risks and burdens of the Kaliwa project. Both a reassessment of the dam project in light of other alternatives, as well as more public oversight over large-scale Build Build Build projects, are urgently needed. – Rappler.com

Jerik Cruz is a lecturer from the Department of Economics of the Ateneo de Manila University, working on urban, environment, and development issues. His views in this article are his own.

The principle of academic freedom is the product of a hard-fought centuries-long struggle to protect the free exchange of ideas from being undermined by state intervention and contaminated by political partisanship.

While I was a professor at the University of the Philippines over a decade ago, I found myself defending the candidacy for tenure of a sociologist with a brilliant academic record from colleagues who sought to deprive her of tenure for her left-wing political affiliations. The intellectual achievements of the candidate, I insisted, should be the sole basis on which a decision should be made, and the majority of the sociology department agreed with me. Unfortunately, a small politically conservative minority succeeded in overturning that decision.

Today, at another institution where I have taught, the University of California at Berkeley, a similar disturbing process is underway, though this time the ones pushing it come from the extreme Left.

The object of controversy is Dr Lisandro Claudio, one of the finest contemporary Filipino historians, whose appointment is being seriously considered by the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies. People connected with the extreme left in the Philippines are making a last-ditch effort to block his candidacy by circulating a petition against him. The aim is apparently to make his hiring appear so controversial that it would scare the department from appointing him.

Those objecting to Dr Claudio are not doing so on academic grounds. How can they? He has just won the most prestigious award in Asian studies globally, the George McTurnan Kahin Prize awarded by the Association for Asian Studies, for his recent book, Liberalism and the Post-Colony. 

The book is an exceedingly well-researched and thought-provoking work of political biography focused on 4 influential mid-20th century Filipinos: Camilo Osias, Salvador Araneta, Carlos P. Romulo, and S.P. Lopez.  It is the latest of Professor Claudio’s path-breaking books.

Proud of liberal politics

They are objecting to him owing to his politics. Claudio is not just a scholar but also an engaged intellectual who is proud of his liberal politics. He has been outspoken in his criticism of extremism on both the Right and the Left. 

It is this that has gotten him into trouble with the extreme Left in the Philippines and its partisans in the United States. For expressing his views, often in caustic terms, on the extreme Left, the latter have tried to pass him off as a McCarthyite. 

It is a strange and false accusation since McCarthyism is the active persecution of someone with a liberal or progressive political persuasion, and Claudio has not persecuted anyone. He has been critical of the extreme Left (and extreme Right) and, yes, he has sometimes made fun of what he considers their Neanderthal views, but that is not being McCarthyite. It is the free expression of differences, intellectual jousting, sometimes with a comic and sarcastic touch a la Voltaire. That is stimulating, indeed enjoyable debate, not persecution.

I have had my disagreements with Professor Claudio, the most recent over some aspects of his treatment of the liberal tradition in the Philippines. However, we have aired our differences in accordance with the highest standards of academic debate, where truth and logic are supreme and name-calling and propaganda are out of bounds. 

The debate we have had over his prize-winning book Liberalism and the Post-Colony is emblematic of the way he engages those who may not agree with some of his contentions. It is an engagement that is civilized and open to the assertions of the other side. That is the way Professor Claudio approaches those who disagree with him, by engaging them in debate, not persecuting them.

If there is anyone who can be called McCarthyite, it is those who seek to get Berkeley to disqualify Dr Claudio on political grounds. This is McCarthyism of the extreme left, which is just as despicable as McCarthyism of the right.  

It is unfortunate that there are those who should know better who have allowed themselves to be seduced by a scurrilous petition authored by political forces external to the university. They who are contemptuous of academic freedom and are determined to hijack a great university’s hiring process in the service of their sectarian, extremist politics.

I continue to treasure the academic freedom afforded by the University of California at Berkeley, which provided me with a haven while I was in opposition to the Marcos dictatorship 40 years ago. I am confident that Berkeley, the birthplace of the famous Free Speech Movement, will not allow itself to be intimidated by the enemies of free speech. – Rappler.com

Walden Bello is currently the International Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York and a retired professor of the University of the Philippines. The author of 23 books, he was named the Outstanding Public Scholar of the International Studies Association in 2008. He taught at UC Berkeley from 1978 to 1982.

Editor's note: Leloy Claudio hosts a regular show on Rappler, "Basagan ng Trip."  

People ask me, "When did you find out that you were gay?" I simply respond that it’s no different from when anyone found out about his or her sexuality: it just happened.

In my case, it happened when I was in 4th grade, when I suddenly took an interest in boys from higher grades. While pretty girls caught my attention, it was the boys who kept it.

I couldn’t help that I was attracted to them. I also couldn’t believe and accept it then. I kept on denying my sexuality; my very self. Barely entering puberty, I cried myself to sleep, scolding myself that I couldn’t be gay because I would go straight to hell.

As with many other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, I was born to a home, neighborhood, and country that could not accept me.

I was raised thinking homosexuals were mistakes of creation. So when I found a flaw in me, I called on the Creator himself to bargain.

Praying myself away

For countless nights, I prayed a part of myself away.

I will be good, I said. I will be better, I said. Just take it away. Just turn me straight and normal so I could have an easier life so holy and pure that I'd be willing to surrender.

Then I joined a youth Christian movement in high school. If I could serve my God better, I thought, maybe he would listen to me.

There, I was taught that prayers should be structured. Remember ACTS, they said – "Adoration of God, Confession of sins, Thanksgiving for blessings, Supplication of desires."

The wishes always had to be last, only after praising an all-powerful being and repeating many times that I am intrinsically a sinner for being born different. I then had to give thanks for the blessings despite my infractions.

Then I wished the same wish over and over. It still didn't work.

I Googled if it were possible to turn myself straight if I forced myself to like girls. There were no conclusive answers but I still hoped my sexual preference could be reversed.

I chose my crushes and tried to get close to them up until we reached dating status. But no matter how hard I tried, the farthest I could go was admiration. There were no sparks and I felt empty.

The prayers and the attempts to love a girl continued until before I went to college. At that point, faking it became unbearable.

I gave up on self-destruction and began to accept who I was. Perhaps the Creator didn’t really make a mistake. I began believing that this was who I was meant to be.

I am gay and there is nothing wrong with me. You cannot fix what is not broken.

I have since accepted myself, feeling comfortable sharing my sexual orientation with my friends and my family. I have spent unforgettable nights at gay bars, dated guys in the open, and yes, felt the thrill of real love.

There's nothing to cure

So when President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that he was supposedly gay (well, maybe he was joking again), and that he was cured, I remembered my days of self-inflicted conversion therapy.

He implied that being queer was a disease that could be cured by a beautiful member of the opposite sex. It was even a good thing, he said, that he was able to cure himself.

He even taunted his chief critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV by claiming he was gay.

People can say that he said it in jest, but it remains a fact that the President’s words carry weight, especially since he has claimed to be an ally of our community.

With one stroke, he resurfaced the wrong notion of homosexuality as a disorder and the twisted view of being gay as something that is undesirable.

The World Health Organization used to label homosexuality as a disorder, but it has since recognized it as a legitimate sexual orientation.

As for the belief that being gay is wrong, history has taught us that when there is destructive animosity among us, the problem always lies with those who hate, and not the objects of their hate.

I call on the President to stand with what is right. – Rappler.com

New suspicions have arisen about President Duterte's health. These were provoked by his disappearance from public view for 10 days, the longest during his incumbency, and heightened by attempts to cover it up with pictures and video clips taken from his healthier days and passed off as current. 

The 74-year-old President last appeared on May 13, to cast his ballot  in the midterm elections, before reappearing on May 23, at the graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy. But his reappreance inspired little reassurance about his condition. He passed the more strenuous parts of his role at the rites to a substitute, notably that part requiring him to stay long on his feet, like handing out the diplomas. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana would say later that he was told to stand in because the President felt sleepy.

He definitely looked worse. Ashen-faced has become his normal look, but he sat slouched and had his eyes closed at unusually frequent and long intervals. A woman peered over his backrest with a caregiver's dutiful keenness, and his perennial sidekick, Bong Go, now a senator-elect, stuck out his worried face now and again from a crouched position at his elbow.

He had to be helped as he rose from his chair to take a couple of steps to the lectern. His speech took only 8 minutes – he normally goes on and on, whether speech-making, giving a press conference, or karaoke-ing – but he managed to insert his wonted cuss interjection at least once and found an excuse to use the word "rape" a few times, in an apparent joke, which either went flat or was lost altogether on his audience.

He had arrived more than two hours late. If he had not come he was certain to have become even more conspicuous by his absence with his seat empty while the one beside it was filled brightly by Vice President Leni Robredo, who is commanded by the Constitution to succeed him once he becomes incapacitated. He just had to drag himself up and go; he would certainly be afraid to leave the presidency to the leader of an opposition that his regime not only emasculated but persecuted.

In fact, he cannot risk a successor who cannot guarantee him immunity from prosecution – plausibly for treason, in ceding to China control over the resource-rich West Philippine Sea; for extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs; for unexplained wealth, in his secret accounts; and for abuse of power, in the prosecution and detention of some of his critics on implausible charges. Indeed, he can ill afford to be out of power. 

Such prospects of eluding accountability are brightened in fact by the outcome of the elections: his coalition swept the senatorial races 12-0, increasing its majority to 20-4. That should ease the passage of constitutional amendments providing for a shift to a federal system, the ploy that gives his regime a chance to perpetuate itself in power by arranging that it be the overseer of the long-drawn-out transition to federalism. The amendments have passed the Lower House, and are up at the Senate for vetting, before they go to a national vote. 

But it seems that even inside the regime Duterte's health has been an issue – he may not be able to hold up long enough. On the fourth day of his disappearance, the police presented to the press a man  accusing the opposition, naming Robredo among others, of enlisting him in a plot against Duterte. The intent presumably was to invalidate her preeminent right to succession by cooking up some legal groundwork for a case of rebellion against her.

In the end, though, the police themselves admitted that they had nothing on the confessed plotter that would warrant further investigation, let alone prosecution. Duterte, in the meantime, was back in the public view, and enough new life has since been pumped into him to enable him to manage a relatively active 3-day visit to Japan. 

No law, to be sure, compels the President to make his state of health public– martial law or no martial law, Ferdinand Marcos did not have to reveal his kidney transplants. 

Duterte may have been more open, but never to the extent of revealing any particular medical condition. For the longest time the most serious speculations revolved around fentanyl, the potent opioid he admitted taking. Lately he has been going for hospital checkups, although, according to his spokespersons, not for anything serious. 

But the specter of succession betrayed in the frantic efforts undertaken by his political heirs tends to belie that. – Rappler.com