There’s a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth where “endo” is concerned. But are we all clear about what it means?

Since 2015, President Duterte has been promising to end once and for all the unlawful labor practice called endo, which derives from the phrase “end of contract.” He even certified the anti-endo bill as urgent in September 2018.

But on July 26, we learned that Duterte vetoed the anti-endo bill passed by Congress.

This veto is odd on two counts.

First, its announcement could not have been more chaotic. Palace Spokesperson Salvador Panelo announced the veto on the night of July 25, took it back 30 minutes later (blaming “poor hearing” and saying Duterte is “still studying the pros and cons”), then finally confirmed it the day after.

Second, the veto was not exactly a loss because even some labor groups found the bill to be nothing more than a paper tiger.

What exactly is endo? How weak was the anti-endo bill that Congress came up with? And was Duterte justified in vetoing it? 

Defining endo

Before anything else, we need to pin down what exactly endo means.

Consider a shoe manufacturing firm. If it outsources security and janitorial services to third-party manpower agencies – services arguably inessential to the shoemaking business – that’s a perfectly acceptable form of outsourcing, and that’s not endo.

Endo, instead, could happen in two ways.

First, if the shoemaking firm directly hires shoemakers using “fixed-term” contracts that end in 5 months (otherwise known as “5-5-5” contracts) to evade regularizing and giving them the benefits that are due them, that’s endo.

Second, if the third-party manpower agencies hire security guards or janitors through similar 5-5-5 contracts – again to circumvent the law’s regularization requirements – that’s endo, too.

Note that endo is distinct from – and commonly conflated with – the hiring practice called “labor-only contracting.”

In our example, labor-only contracting would happen if the shoemaking firm hires shoemakers through another third-party manpower agency. Since shoemakers are directly related to the shoemaking business, you might argue they shouldn’t be outsourced as well.

Just how extensive are endo and labor-only contracting? It’s hard to say for sure, but we can look at indicative data.

As of May last year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) counted 224,852 workers hired through labor-only contracting, spread across nearly 100,000 establishments nationwide.

Note, however, that this number still excluded workers hired through endo.

Meanwhile, in 2016, official data showed there were 572,034 contractual or project-based workers in establishments hiring 20 or more employees (Figure 1). They constituted about half of all non-regular workers, and were found mostly in construction, administrative and support services, and wholesale and retail trade.

Lastly, there were more than 691,341 people hired through agencies in 2016, mostly factory workers, security guards, and janitors.

Figure 1.

Weak bill

Sad to say, many groups found the anti-endo bill that reached Duterte’s desk, Senate Bill 1826, weak for a number of reasons.

First, many blame the fact it was not harmonized with the House version, which many deemed more potent.

Second, the Senate bill stipulated that “all employees, except those under probationary employment, are deemed regular, including project and seasonal employees.”

But this is a mere codification of previous Supreme Court decisions which already considered project and seasonal employees regular in the duration of their work.

Third, unlike the House bill, the Senate bill also failed to explicitly mention anything about “fixed-term employment,” which previous Supreme Court decisions had previously ruled valid.

Fourth, the Senate bill provided that labor-only contracting happens if the workers recruited by third-party manpower agencies are “performing activities which are directly related to the principal business” of the firm.

But who’s to say such activities are “directly related” or not? That determination will fall on industry tripartite councils whose responsibilities are conspicuously unspecified in the bill. Absent any decision from them, that task will fall on the DOLE secretary.

This, however, leaves much room for discretion that might only allow businesses to continue skirting regularization requirements. In addition, as things stand, the DOLE secretary already passes judgment on cases relating to labor-only contracting.

Enforcement

In sum, lawyers say that the anti-endo bill adds little to the current body of labor regulations and court decisions on abusive labor practices.

Arguably far more pressing would be the immediate and effective enforcement of such laws.

In March 2017, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III signed a department order that made it more difficult for third-party manpower agencies to engage in contracting or subcontracting. But shrewd companies and third-party manpower agencies with deep pockets will find these added regulations easy to comply with.

More recently, DOLE also intensified its inspection of firms’ compliance with labor laws. Of the 474,329 workers regularized from 2016 to June 2019, Secretary Bello claimed 28% benefitted from their intensified inspections.

Secretary Bello admitted, though, that his hands are tied when it comes to contractual workers in government, more commonly known as “job order” or “contract of service” employees. In 2017 they numbered a whopping 660,390.

Capitulation

Weak as it is, the anti-endo bill was vetoed by Duterte for the wrong reasons.

Specifically, Duterte’s veto message betrays his woeful (but not altogether surprising) capitulation to the interests of big business.

For instance, Duterte – or rather his economic managers – said that “empirical data shows that the Philippines is currently at a disadvantage already in terms of cost and flexibility of labor use compared to its peers in the region.”

Many economists are only too familiar with this spiel: Higher labor costs are supposed to turn off prospective investors and hurt our competitiveness in the region.

Yet labor market regulations are, in fact, not top of mind for business owners.

The 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Report showed that businesses in the Philippines were mostly concerned not with restrictive labor regulations but with inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, and widespread corruption (Figure 2).

Meanwhile, in the latest Business Expectations Survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral, only 13% of businesses identified labor problems as a major constraint, vis-à-vis competition (55%) and insufficient demand (23%).

Figure 2.

Duterte’s veto message also mentioned that the anti-endo bill might “oppress or destroy capital and management” and disrupt the “healthy balance between the conflicting interests of labor and management.”

But endo and labor-only contracting are precisely instances where businesses, in the pursuit of profit, oppress workers and disrupt the balance of industrial relations. Big business cannot play the victim here.

Paper tiger

The Duterte government roared to end endo, but the final product of their collective efforts sounded more like a meow.

No sooner had the Palace announced Duterte’s veto than the father-and-son tandem – Senator Joel Villanueva and his father Representative Eddie Villanueva – refiled anti-endo bills in both the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.

Can we be confident that Congress will get it right this time around? – Rappler.com

The author is a PhD candidate at the UP School of Economics. His views are independent of the views of his affiliations. Thanks to a lawyer friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) for valuable comments and insights. Follow JC on Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).

What is patriotism in the digital age? Does a global culture mute our love of country? 

Why do many millennials seem unperturbed by the violence in our midst? 

Rappler Managing editor Glenda M. Gloria sits down with award-winning writer, longtime UP professor, and activist Jose "Butch" Dalisay Jr to talk about how patriotism has evolved through time.

In this chat, Dalisay defines the crux of the issue: Why should we choose to love this country?

He says: "Patriotism should be a more critical kind of nationalism. Something that's more aware of what it is exactly that you are loving. There is a lot not to love in this country.... The only way I can reconcile that is to say, the country that I truly love and could die for is the ideal Philippines that we are working to rebuild, a Philippines with a society that is just and prosperous and humane."  – Rappler.com 

Instrumental music by Boy Hapay

I remember the time when my daughter was still learning to walk. She would wobble, lose her footing and then stumble onto the floor. It went on like this for a couple of months until she was old enough to walk unaided and independently.

I am turning 29 in a couple of weeks and somehow I feel like on most days, I am my 8-month-old daughter, still staggering through life, unsteady and unable to balance the weight of my own being.

I was 16 when I left Davao for college. It was my first time to leave home, live alone, and subject myself to teenage liberation.

A friend told me that we should take advantage of our youth, and that our days should be spent doing something new. Every day, we did just that – we drank beers on top of cars, smoked weed on a church’s steeple, spent our last P100 on helix piercings, presented our reports with hangover breath, and fell in love with boys who promised that we'd to be their forever. 

The taste of freedom was overwhelming like I was living in someplace magical. It felt like these moments of happiness would last forever. A part of us foresaw the inherent consequences of our actions but nobody prepared us for the weight of it.

At 18, a friend died from drug overdose; another suffered a punctured uterus and hemorrhage from going to a backdoor abortionist; some quit college midway; and many went back home and broke the news to their parents that they themselves were going to be parents too.

By the time I was 21, I rid myself of all addiction but realized that I wasted two years of my life investing in an unhealthy relationship – the kind of relationship so toxic and abusive that I swore off any possibility of romance in all forms. But it is hard to break off the habit especially when I treated love as a solution to make sense of an all-consuming void. A month after the breakup, I was again dating and two weeks after I turned 23, I got married.

I would like to think that I got married because I was in love but in all honesty, when you are 23 years old, sometimes what you think as lasting love is almost always a thinly veiled fleeting passion.

For marriages to last, it has to be bound to something long-lasting and not just tied to promises and zeal that would only burn for days.

The relationships we form in our 20s is crucial. It is where we get our sense of community, purpose, and identity. We lose pieces of ourselves in the relationships that we're tethered to and gain a new set of perspective from the people who surround us.

With youth comes the naivety of thinking that I only need one person in my life. When I got married, I thought my husband was a special snowflake in a field of cookie cutters. But later, I realized that him alone was no longer healthy. Like in all aspects of growth, I needed a community to challenge me; the ideas from family, opinions from friends, judgment from co-workers, goals from classmates, and even discourse from strangers helped me in terms of healthy mental and emotional development.

I moved to Japan at 25 and had a two-month-old daughter by the time I turned 26.

Becoming a parent was a big shift in my life. I was a mother 24/7 for 365 days; it was something I could not escape. It forced me to renounce certain personal goals and pleasure just to make sure that my daughter has stability and security. My life after having a child is a blur of playdates, first experiences, patience, affection, and parent-teacher meetings. 

Motherhood for me is cathartic. My daughter makes me want to evaluate my own life and inspect closely the demons that I have been hiding in the secret corners of my mind. It sounds cliché but she makes me want to be a better person, to analyze my self constantly, and to look through the kitsch and distinguish the quality in all aspects of my life. Most importantly, she is teaching me the value of impermanence – to love someone who you know will eventually leave you.

Next month, I will turn 29 and in all honesty, I thought by now I would have figured out what I want to do but on most days, I feel like I’m sleepwalking, just waiting for my own oblivion. 

The years just flew by and I forgot to look for myself in my 20s. I have many things I wish I figured out before having a husband and a kid. The responsibility of tethering myself to relationships requires a great chunk of me that I am still not prepared to let go. 

I think there is an inner 16-year-old in me who refuses to accept that I have succumbed to the humdrum noise of domesticity, to living in the city and actually planning for the future. Sometimes I still think about the comfort of chaos – quitting my job, blowing off our savings to travel the world, and leaving behind all obligations. The temptation for self-destruction can be appealing especially when happiness is not guaranteed and even when our lives are bound to virtue and morality. 

But life is always about choices. It does not matter what I think about but on which thoughts I act upon that will ultimately determine my life. I know I am not alone in being dazed, confused, and struggling at 29 but there is courage in every moment that I make the right decisions. 

I treat my birthday as a form of annual rebirth and allow myself to shed the skin of my past self.

In a few weeks, there will be a cake with my name on it. I will be 29. I don’t know who I am or what I want to achieve. I still haven’t accomplished the bulk of the things that I want to do and I don’t know if I’m ever going to.

At 29, what I only know is that I am a mother, a wife, and the rest, I only pray that I will live long enough to figure it out. – Rappler.com

Kala Gabriela Largo is a freelance ghostwriter currently based in Osaka, Japan.

MANILA, Philippines – The results of the 2019 elections, to some extent, divided the nation.

Some were satisfied as President Rodrigo Duterte had more allies in the Senate and House of Representatives who can help him with his legislative agenda, but some were "disappointed, but not surprised," as they say these lawmakers may jeopardize the independence of Congress, and ultimately, our nation's democracy.

In this special episode of Basagan ng Trip, history and literature professor Leloy Claudio sits down with First Quarter Storm activists Ed Garcia and Noel Tolentino and Akbayan's Gio Tingson as they try to make sense of the country's prospects for democracy. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Award-winning Fil-Am author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard talks about loving and cherishing two countries, the Philippines and the United States.

The author, whose work with Asian-American youth was recognized by the city of Los Angeles, warns about the dangers of solely being exposed to Western characters.

"Love of the country requires a deep understanding of our history and our culture," says Brainard. – Rappler.com

Instrumental music by Boy Hapay

There’s a term I hear with increasing frequency these days: policy-based evidence-making.

The proper term, of course, is evidence-based policy-making. But in the past few years a number of government agencies have found themselves implementing policies without the benefit of empirical data and careful study.

Many of these policies originate from Duterte’s ramblings and musings, which are now as good as official policy. Minions, eager to curry favor, grant Duterte’s wishes uncritically and unquestioningly. They also often scramble for justifications after implementation rather than before.

This blind and reckless approach to policy-making is disturbing on two counts.

First, it only adds to the cloud of uncertainty now hanging over the economy and erodes business confidence, weak as it is.

Second, and more importantly, Duterte’s whims and caprices can destroy millions of Filipinos’ jobs and livelihoods in one fell swoop.

In this article let’s focus on two recent examples: the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) ban and the Metro Manila Development Authority's (MMDA) traffic policies.

PCSO ban

Almost two weeks ago, President Rodrigo Duterte appeared on TV late at night to announce a surprise ban on all games operated, licensed, and franchised by the PCSO.

Crying foul over allegations of “massive corruption,” Duterte ordered the police and military to immediately arrest all those engaged in such games. Later, Palace Spokesperson Salvador Panelo even said that “all players and participants of these gaming operations are involved” in corruption.

But 4 days later, on July 30, Duterte lifted the ban on lotto operations as if nothing happened.

Although fleeting, this PCSO ban exemplifies the pernicious effects of Duterte’s unpredictability.

For starters, thousands rely on these games as a source of income. But one morning they all woke up to find their jobs casually killed off by Duterte – an “economic Tokhang” if you will.

A lot of people also depend on the various health and medical assistance programs of PCSO.

Last year, PCSO generated nearly P64 billion in net revenues, 30% of which went to its Charity Fund which benefited more than half a million patients nationwide in the form of confinements, medicines, and lab/diagnostic procedures.

Meanwhile, 40% of PCSO’s Charity Fund is also set to partially finance the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act signed by Duterte last February.

In the grand scheme of things, PCSO’s Charity Fund doesn’t amount to much. But as things stand UHC’s implementation is already imperiled in the coming years, and the law needs all the money it could get.

The Department of Finance (DOF) projects that the law will require at least P257 billion next year, but we’re currently short of P62 billion. Funding gaps will only widen in the coming years (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Notwithstanding corruption allegations mentioned by Duterte, it hardly seems fair for him to take it out on the thousands of Filipinos who rely on PCSO as a source of livelihood and medical help.

But Palace Spokesperson Panelo dismissively said, “I’m sure ‘yung mga naapektuhan, hindi naman ganoon kahirap.” (I’m sure those affected are not that poor.)

The DOF has had to play along and said the day after Duterte announced it that they would evaluate the ban’s financial impacts.

This is policy-based evidence-making at its finest, reminiscent of the time Duterte closed down Boracay even if he had not yet seen the National Economic and Development Authority’s estimates of the closure’s economic consequences.

MMDA’s traffic policies

Ill-conceived policies are also behind the massive traffic gridlock we’ve been suffering in Metro Manila these past few days.

To abate traffic congestion, the Metro Manila Council approved in April a new regulation that revoked the permits of all 47 provincial bus terminals along EDSA.

The MMDA, which is under the direct supervision of the Office of the President, wants to prevent provincial buses from loading and unloading passengers along EDSA.

Needless to say, this policy against provincial buses is plain stupid.

Not only does it unduly discriminate against commuters coming from, and going to, the provinces, it also attacks the wrong problem because cars and motorcycles, not provincial buses (or buses for that matter), predominantly take up space along EDSA (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

A Quezon City court, seeing sense, already issued a preliminary injunction halting this inane policy because of its “far-reaching effects.”

Yet this did not prevent the MMDA from conducting a “voluntary dry run” on August 7, claiming they have yet to receive the court order.

Specifically, MMDA restricted buses to EDSA’s two outermost (yellow) lanes. But this blocked off entry and exit points for all other vehicles entering the highway. The result? Apocalyptic jams, angry commuters, and several wasted hours.

Some might say that problematizing EDSA is yet another manifestation of “imperial Manila.”

But we can’t deny that Metro Manila is our economy’s beating heart, easily accounting for more than a third of our country’s income. Choking traffic – and policies that worsen such choking – will only bring our economy closer to the brink of a national stroke.

Mayors and MMDA officials need not even do the mental heavy lifting: they need only listen to the myriad transport experts who say that our society is too car-centric. Shifting instead to a people-centric framework will work wonders in reclaiming lost space and lost time on our roads.

Unfortunately, this key insight seems to be lost even among the primary implementors of Duterte’s massive infrastructure project called Build, Build, Build.

They’re still fixated on creating more and wider roads. By contrast, transport experts have been saying all along that wider roads do not necessarily make vehicles go faster. (READ: Carmaggedon redux: Will building more roads solve our traffic problems?)

The MMDA can conjure up any number of fancy, showy policies to fix worsening congestion in Metro Manila. But until it gets its objectives right – and pays enough attention to data and research – our traffic woes will only worsen.

Traversing Cubao to Makati in 5 minutes will remain the pipe dream that it is.

Blind pilot

The PCSO ban and MMDA’s traffic policies are just two of Duterte’s recent arbitrary and evidence-bereft policies – besides the Boracay shutdown, martial law in Mindanao, and the war on drugs.

A common theme, though, seems to thread all these policies: not only do they tend to hurt economic efficiency a lot, they’re also often anti-poor.

Crafting high-stakes policies without the benefit of data and research is like allowing a pilot to fly a passenger plane while ignoring the instrument panel before him. The pilot is effectively blind, and you can’t be faulted for wishing to disembark as soon as possible.

Duterte has less than 3 years in office, but there seems to be no reprieve. Brace for a directionless, turbulent flight ahead. – Rappler.com

The author is a PhD candidate at the UP School of Economics. His views are independent of the views of his affiliations. Follow JC on Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).

This year, 2019, is the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL). As part of the celebration of Buwan ng Wika (National Language Month) and in the coming months, let us take this opportunity to learn about and appreciate our native languages. 

The Philippines is a multilingual country. We use more than 150 languages, according to the Komisyon sa Wikang Fiipino (KWF) and Ethnologue. These include Cebuano Binisaya, Tagalog, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Bikol, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maranao, Maguindanaon, Bahasa Sug, Kinaray-a, Kankanaey, Manobo, Subanen, Bontoc, Sama-Bajaw, and many others. People incorrectly call them “dialects,” but they are actually independent languages, according to linguistics. (READ: The Buwan ng Wika debate: Do we celebrate local languages or dialects?)

Why are our languages important? According to the United Nations, “Languages play a crucial role in the daily lives of people, not only as a tool for communication, education, social integration and development, but also as a repository for each person’s unique identity, cultural history, traditions, and memory.”

The purpose of the IYIL is to raise awareness of the value of all native languages, not only for those people who speak them, but for society as a whole.

Here are 5 reasons to promote native languages:

• Knowledge. Languages are portals to unique systems of knowledge and understanding of the world. A vast amount of knowledge is encoded in our vocabulary, which has developed over thousands of years of interaction between humans and the environment. If a language is lost, much knowledge about traditions, philosophies, survival skills, and natural phenomena disappear with it. 
• Diversity. Languages affect the way we think, learn, communicate, and behave. They affect our personalities and cultures. The more languages we have, the more diverse society is. Diversity is interesting, beautiful, and educational. It presents frequent opportunities for personal development and joy.   
• Peace. The more languages that thrive, the more languages that we will be exposed to. When we are exposed to new languages, our minds are challenged. We make mistakes while learning, we test our assumptions, we adapt, and we realize that the world doesn’t revolve around our own language or ethnic group. We become humbler, and we learn to tolerate, appreciate, and cooperate with other people. Recognizing and respecting each other’s languages is a way of recognizing each other’s identities, which is an important element of peace building.  
• Rights. Languages are connected to human rights. People can stand up for their rights better using the language that they are most comfortable speaking or closest to their hearts. Learning and using one’s mother tongue freely are human rights that we must protect. They are related to freedom of speech, expression, and equality.
• Inclusion. Enabling and promoting the use of indigenous languages is empowering to the communities that speak them. Education is more accessible, culturally appropriate, and effective if teaching and learning is done in the child’s mother tongue. People can also access government information and services more easily through their mother tongue. For these reasons, including native languages in government policies, programs, and activities can have a positive effect on literacy, poverty reduction, civic participation, and quality of life.   

Despite their importance, many languages around the world are marginalized or at risk. The Philippines is no exception. The KWF has identified almost 50 Philippine languages that are endangered, because the number of speakers are declining and getting older, and children are not being adequately taught them anymore. Part of the problem is government policies that have favored English and Tagalog for many decades.  

To counteract this alarming decline in our linguistic diversity, the IYIL committee recommends mainstreaming native languages by integrating them in standard settings. Hence, we should be looking for ways to further include our mother tongues in government (national and local), education (formal and nonformal), and media. (READ: Buwan ng Wika 2019 itatampok ang mga katutubong lengguwahe)

IYIL also recommends empowerment of indigenous groups through capacity building, increasing understanding about their languages, and disseminating good practices with regards to language research, promotion, and development.  

To support these principles, it is timely to celebrate Buwan ng Wika as Buwan ng mga Wika, so that the native languages of all Filipinos are included. All our mother tongues have value. They are a part of our history, and should be part of our future too. – Rappler.com 

Multilingual Philippines is an informal network of researchers and advocates of flexible and inclusive policies related to languages, education, and diversity. This article consolidates inputs from Ched E. Arzadon, professor at the College of Education, University of the Philippines-Diliman; Elizabeth A. Calinawagan, PhD, former dean of the College of Arts and Communication and professor of Filipino and linguistics at UP Baguio; Tony Igcalinos, president of Talaytayan 170+ Multilingual Education; Napoleon B. Imperial, former deputy executive director IV at the Commission on Higher Education; Firth McEachern, “Honorary Ilokano and Son of La Union” by Provincial Ordinance 033-12; and Voltaire Q. Oyzon, former director, Panrehiyong Sentro sa Wika, Leyte Normal University. Contact multilingual.philippines@gmail.com. 

Dear Mom,

You don’t know, and it breaks my heart that I can’t allow you yet to love me more because I might scare you. Do you remember one time I got terribly sick, quivering with cold sweats? You woke up and whispered, “Stop doing that. You are scaring me.” You are so brave.

One Saturday morning I went to an HIV hub and got myself tested out of curiosity. That the rapid increase of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases among males here made me anxious, but knowledge is more empowering, I thought.  

I was confused when the counselor told me I got a reactive status. I hadn’t shown any terrible symptoms we saw on some sensationalist dramas. My awareness on HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is thorough. Most of all, I have never remembered a recent unprotected sexual encounter, except for my ex-boyfriend who is HIV-negative, and a very few guys 10 years ago.

I couldn’t help but ask, “Sir J, when shall I die? Can I join you for lunch?”

Sir J sighed and said my imagination on HIV being a death sentence is far from what’s really happening.

The 3 of us ate at the nearest eatery. With their low voices, they told me to think of my next phase as a form of self-care, not as a survival mechanism. When we’re done, Sir J offered to pay the bill for us.

My dark, self-deprecating humor set in, so I said, “You won’t let me pay my meal and my fare because I will die soon.” They didn’t laugh.

Mom, that day was overwhelming for me that I went back to the hub and joked to them about how my life was a wreck: that I might be fired from my job; that my ex-boyfriend whom I still love might stop talking to me once I disclose this to him; that my virus will sever my dreams of going abroad, my wish to be a triathlete, and my quest to find someone who will love me.

Sir J and Ma’am A reassured me that people living with HIV now are leading healthier lives, and my overthinking isn’t helping me. Besides, even if the test is very accurate, the confirmatory result from the laboratory can only declare my being HIV-positive.

Sir J stalked my Facebook account and came across your picture with dad. You took me back to childhood, Mom, and suddenly I wailed and hyperventilated, my face buried on Sir J’s shirt.

He embraced me, told me it’s okay, and said, “Do you want to know a secret? I have the virus too. But now I’m undetectable.” He showed to me the bottle of antiretroviral (ARV) pills inside his bag.

I held his hand and thanked him for letting me know I am not alone, but he needed to leave me to attend to some clients. I just needed to cry it all out and compose myself so you wouldn’t see a trace of pain as I arrived home.

My ex-boyfriend once visited our house, but you knew him as my friend. We lasted for many years, in spite of me being away from him and being a cheat. You sometimes ask where he works now, because of all my friends who had dropped by my house, he hadn’t come back. I assure you he is by far the kindest, most tender, most fragrant person I know. And I will not replace him as my best friend.

Against my peer counselors’ advice (they told me it’s safer that I would only tell this to one person, and that’s you), I told him everything. I joined him in the hub where I was tested, because the one nearest to him was reported to have rumor-mongering counselors.

He tested negative, Mom. He had moved on with someone else too.

We hadn’t talked since and I felt pushed away, but to be seen by him was my greatest privilege.

One Sunday morning, I saw Sir L, one of the peer counselors in the hub. He said he only had two hours of sleep because of his schedule. He paused and said, “By the way, the laboratory sent us your confirmatory results already.”

“So HIV-positive, huh?” I expected for the worst, but wished for him to say another.

He nodded.

“Can I see the paper tomorrow?” I had no plans on knowing my body was in shambles. I just wanted to sound unaffected.

“Sure.” He offered me water and bread, but I refused and walked home.

The new reality was something I can’t handle, so I went home not meeting your eyes. I sulked in my room the entire day, both lightheaded and wanting to vomit.

The walls of my room separated your oblivion from my depression, Mom. It’s a dark place in here. It’s embarrassing to admit I had often thought of ending myself. I had known abandonment too well, and I had known debilitating isolation too.

With all the precarities I had grown, I never claimed to dare greatly at this. But it sometimes surprises me to not betray myself by choosing courage.

You would’ve been proud if you knew my first essay on HIV had saved lives and forged strong bonds among HIV-positives, and even HIV-negatives who have nonetheless suffered almost the same sadness as mine. We both could have drowned in the anonymous display of love and prayers my new friends had offered.

The world has its way of surprising me too. I see how nourishing the world is when I wake up without discomfort from flu. I see beauty on the sidewalk when a blind street musician continues playing with a friend assisting him. I see hope with every news on HIV research. I see self-worth as I share my insights to my friends, bright-eyed and nodding.

I can’t wait to be ready to tell everything to you, Mom. I’m excited to tell you what I have read on one AIDS survivor with only one CD4 count but is now healthy because of effective treatment. I’d be clear on explaining to you what it means to be undetectable, and I'm leaning towards that.

I didn't wait for a year to be an HIV activist, because in one way or another, I had advanced the cause through writing. I would like you to visit the hub and get to know the people who have helped me cope with the disease.

Despite all these favors, I can’t promise to get any better. There are still times I shrink and hurt myself. But I believe I am enough, Mom, and that’s enough.

Sincerely,

Your son

The author’s email address is fearlesslypositive2019@gmail.com. He is 25 years old, takes his antiretroviral drug daily, and champions for public health. The author has requested that his identity not be revealed.

After declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as terrorist organizations last year, the Philippine government is now going after youth organizations. They are brandishing terror to families and their children, taking the spotlight in “reuniting families” when they are the ones destroying it.

On August 7, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa vowed to “clamp down” on all leftist groups recruiting minors to be part of their activities and as members and fighters. They narrowed this down to Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students and Kabataan Party list.

Dela Rosa now chairs the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs. It is not only ironic but is also utterly disgusting and downright preposterous.

In his words, minors joining so-called leftist groups are worse than drug addicts.  Dela Rosa  says that drug addicts can be rehabilitated. Is he just a complete idiot or do the Filipino people need to remind him that he is the architect behind the death of more than 30,000 lives?

Dela Rosa says that he wants “to know the real score in order to ferret out the truth.” Well here’s the truth: the tyrannical and murderous regime is the one creating its enemies. The real score is in the blood on your hands.

The military and the police preyed upon problems faced between youth activists and their families. While these are serious concerns, they ensured that this will prosper and develop following President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 in 2018 establishing a whole of nation approach in ending the local communist armed conflict through a national task force.

 We will never forget the names Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, and their mothers Concepcion and Erlinda, who fought for their daughters until the end. Army officials were found guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention over the two students' enforced disappearance. Karen and Sherlyn were also accused as members of the CPP. This government tore their families and they didn’t even have an ounce of regret.

We also need to retell the story of Mark Welson Chua’s murder by his fellow cadet officers which sprung from the mercenary traditions of the Philippine military taught under the Reserve Officers’ Training Program. 

From these instances, it is clear that the police and the military are not interested in reuniting Filipino families. It is clear that they are the ones destroying it. They are digging deep for their reputation that can never be found. They were tasked to control the insurgencies but hasn’t won a single war against the NPA and foreign nations posing external threats like China.

 Of course, Dela Rosa will support intensified visits of the Philippine National Police (PNP)  and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in schools and universities. Regular monitoring and military and police presence in schools and universities will lead to heightened attacks against the democratic rights of students. This is a no-brainer. For him, protecting them means outright suppression to stifle the ever-strengthening patriotic movement of the youth. 

In October 2018, the military through AFP assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Brigadier General Antonio Parlade released a list of universities where the CPP-NPA allegedly recruits students. They paraded their imbecility by including the non-existent Caloocan City College and failing to provide evidence. 

Just this July, two youth volunteers from Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid ng Timog Katagalugan and National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates Youth were abducted by elements of the 76th Infantry Battalion.

Nadaline Fabon and Ray Malaborbor were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives and are currently detained at Sta. Cruz Police Station in Laguna. Fabon and Malaborbor were helping peasants in Occidental Mindoro as a state of calamity was declared in the area because of drought.

What needs to be addressed is why thousands and thousands of youth find the path of activism justified. But the military, the police, and the government will never address this because they are the purveyor of the economic and human rights crisis in the country. 

They waged war against the poor and claimed thousands of innocent lives, they reformed the tax law and put the burden to millions of low earning families. They cry for nationalism but do not have the courage to defend our patrimony and sovereignty. They are the ones stealing hectares of land from farmers and indigenous people, selling it to foreign corporations.

This is why the youth’s patriotism will never be quelled for we continue to embrace the struggle of workers, peasants and other sectors of the society. Outside learning institutions, we have learned to relate our struggle to the struggle of the exploited masses, especially the workers and peasants.

And through time we have made the streets, factories, farmlands, and organizations devoted to a patriotic and democratic cause our sanctuary and a place for learning. This is something that Dela Rosa and this fascist government can never take away from the youth.

The Duterte regime needs incessant reminding that rebellion and resistance are in the Filipino people’s DNA. It is not the critical mass that encourages rebellion, it is this government and its inability to solve basic problems like hunger and employment that pushes people to tread the armed revolution—a reality demonized by those in power perpetuating a corrupt, murderous and poverty-plagued society. – Rappler.com

Daryl Angelo Baybado is a graduate of Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas (UST). He was a former Associate Editor of The Varsitarian, UST's official student publication. He is currently the National President of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, the broadest and oldest alliance of student publications in South East Asia. 

To some legislators, the Divorce Bill is like a red flag to a raging bull.

They come charging at it with impassioned counter arguments: 

 “Over my dead body.” Senator Joel Villanueva, son of born again Christian group leader charged with misuse of P10M of Priority Development Authority Funds (PDAF).

 Well, given how long annulment proceedings take, death can come faster. 

"Ok to divorce but not unli,” said noob Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa who is heading the Senate panel probing the drug war that he led as former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.

But even unli-load lasts for only 3 days. Then you have to load up again. 

“Ok to divorce, but you cannot remarry,” according to Senator Ping Lacson.

That option already exists. It’s called legal separation. Under legal separation, you can legally separate everything – your bed, your finances--but you cannot marry again.

“It’s not the right time for us to have divorce. I think we will have a hard time because we are a predominantly Catholic country,” said Senator Cynthia Villar, real estate magnate and author of the recently passed Rice Tarification Law that has reportedly led to the influx of cheaper imported rice and the closure of thousands of local rice mills who could not compete. Villar is currently the head of the Senate Committee on Agrarian Reform and Agriculture & Food.

We already have divorce. Under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, Muslim Filipinos can divorce. Our ancestors like the Tagbanua in Palawan, the Gaddang in Nueva Vizcaya and the Cordillerans all practiced divorce before the Spanish came and changed the rules. Various permutations of divorce were allowed under the American Period and the Japanese Occupation until the Civil Code was passed in 1950 and again outlawed divorce. To date, the Philippines is the only country in the world without divorce. Divorce is also outlawed in The Vatican City State but its residents are mostly men who vowed to celibacy so that doesn’t really count.

“Hindi ako pabor sa divorce kasi (I am not in favor of divorce because) I’m a Christian. What God joined together, let no one separate,” said bible quoting Senator Manny Pacquaio. The boxing world champion also claimed that he is a marriage counselor.

All of these counter agreements to divorce are premised on personal opinion or some baseless prediction that if a divorce law is passed, those with repressed heartbreak will finally be able to move on and do the unthinkable: trade in their Netflix binge watch weekends for a marrying-divorcing-re-marrying-divorcing spree to possibly to make up for all those years when they were imprisoned in failed marriages.

Some of the rationale is punitive.

“You err once, you make amends; you err twice, you deserve to suffer,” Lacson said on Twitter. The former PNP Chief Superintendent, who was among those cleared of murder charges in the Kuratong Baleleng rubout in 2012, said that divorce should only be “once in a lifetime”. Lacson plans to introduce an amendment to the Divorce Bill that will prohibit the spouse who filed for divorce from remarrying, but the one who did not file may do so.

Lacson hinted at a change of heart when he later tweeted: “Apropos my tweet on divorce, legislation is enhanced by listening to people, sensible or not. Even nonsense sometimes makes sense. When the measure us put to a vote, it is important that we are well-informed and guided.” 

The social media backlash may have helped in his illumination.

As different versions of the Divorce Bill have been re-filed at the lower and upper House this 18th Congress, we can expect the discussions to become even more heated. 

In the aid of legislation, how about elevating the discourse and discussing the legal basis for a Divorce Law and how simplifying the process of dissolving marriages would greatly reduce corruption? 

In 2015, Rappler published an investigative report series called,“The Business of Annulment” which exposed the rampant corruption in the judiciary. Courts functioned as annulment mills and churned out annulment decisions in wholesale quantities. Stenographers copy pasted old annulment decisions and changed only the names of the couple. To cope with the quantity, stenographers in one court reportedly resorted to making up the personal testimonies of the complainants, drawing inspiration from telenovelas. Con artists posed as lawyers and scammed people out of hundreds of thousands of pesos by giving them fake annulment decisions. Municipal officers doubled as “fixers” promising that they knew someone “on the inside” who could cut down the annulment process from the usual minimum 3 to 4 years to 6 months. One room in the Philippine Statistics Office (PSA) is stacked high with annulment decisions--all fake. 

In one particularly ludicrous case, a friend of mine filed for annulment from his estranged wife only to find out that she had secured one years ago from a court in a remote province that he had to Google to locate. She never bothered to tell him about this small detail until he told her of his plans to file for annulment.

The current annulment process breeds corruption in the already problematic and case-loaded judicial system. Its legal provisions defy logic and common sense. For example: 

1. The grounds for Annulment or Declaration of Nullity are fixed and do not include domestic violence or infidelity as grounds for annulment. (These conditions are under legal separation--that option that lets you live apart but not remarry.)  
   
   Many resort to “psychological incapacity” which means having to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the spouse cannot fulfil the responsibilities and obligations of matrimony. If that sounds vague, it’s because it is.  (READ: Rappler: Untying the Marriage Knot 101)
2. The anti-collusion provision means that there should be no consensus, connivance or collusion between the couple to obtain an annulment, meaning the could should not mutually want to severe the marriage; one must contest the annulment proceeding. 
3. The judge has the final say in granting an annulment. A judge who does not know you from Adam decides whether or not your annulment petition has merit. The judge has the power to deny your petition, forcing you to stay married to someone whom you may not have seen or spoken to in years. 

To be clear, legalizing divorce does not excuse the government from going into the bigger fixes for corruption like the automation of certain processes but if the State is serious about eliminating any whiff of corruption, legalizing divorce is a crucial first step.

It is the judicial system infested with corruption and bribery that make a mockery of the institution of marriage--not the two people who once vowed to love each other till death do them part but failed.

 ffering a humane and respectful way of dissolving a marriage honors the happy loving years that a couple spent together while acknowledging the reality that the union is no longer tenable. A simplified and realistic way to dissolve marriages through a Divorce Law that adequately reflects life’s realities that lead to failed marriages makes the heartache easier to bear for the couple and their children.

Divorce is the just way to legislate love, sex and marriage. – Rappler.com

Ana P. Santos is Rappler’s gender and sexuality columnist. She is the 2014 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Miel Fellow and a 2018 Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity. Follow her on Twitter at @iamAnaSantos.

Dahil Agosto at Buwan ng Wika, makakaasa na naman kayo ng mga magpapakitang-gilas sa kanilang pagsasalita ng Filipino sa media at sa mga paaralan. Palaliman. Palumaan ng salita. The more amoy tokador the narrative, the better.  

Maging ang mga patalastas sa traditional at new media ay Buwan ng Wika theme din. Pero ang karamihan sa mga pakikiisang ito sa Buwan ng Wika ay hanggang sa ngalan na lang ng novelty. Meaning, nagpipilit, hindi natural. Tulad ngayon, naglipana na naman sa news feed ko ang mga salin sa esoteric natural science terms and jargons na, kung babanggitin nga, can elicit laughter dahil sadyang mahaba. 

Pero mayroon din namang malinis ang intensiyon. Take “sipnayan” na salin daw sa “mathematics.” O “miksipat” para sa “microscope.” O “ilaw dagitab” para sa “neon lights.” Bunga ito ng pananaliksik dati ni Gonzalo del Rosario sa kaniyang “Maugnaying Talasalitaan” para bigyan ng tumbas ang mga terminolohiya ng agham at teknolohiya. Ginawa ito noong hindi pa bantad ang bawat isa sa atin sa kakayahan ng internet na buksan ang mundo sa iba’t ibang wika, geographical o cross-sociolect man. Kaya naman lumulutang uli ang mga pagsasaling ito ngayong panahong napag-uusapan, for better or worse, ang isyu ng pambansang wika. Well, at least naitatanghal pa rin ang wika. 

The effort and manner of using and discussing the language in a novelty, sometimes ironic, fashion calls attention, sadly, more than the message. Kumpleto sa ngunit subalit datapwat na pagpapahayag na laging galit kung hindi man nakasimangot, con todo de baro’t saya at barong tagalog, ang industriyang nagtatamasa sa likod ng Buwan ng Wika.

Nabanggit ko itong tungkol sa barong tagalog dahil noong nagdaang buwan, nag-anak ako sa kasal. Kailangan kong bumili ng barong tagalog. Kaya matapos ang trabaho sa unibersidad isang pangkaraniwang araw ng Hulyo, nagsadya ako sa malapit na department store. Maraming nag-asikaso sa akin sa tanyag na department store sa EDSA. Natuwa ako. Apat na sales personnel yata ang nagtulong-tulong upang ipaliwanag sa akin ang bentahe at disbentahe ng ganito at ganoong fabric ng barong tagalog. 

Ipinaliwanag sa akin, in minute details, kung paano lalabhan, patutuyuin, paplantsahin, hihimulmulan at aalagaan ang pinagpipilian ko pa lang noong mamahaling damit. Ipinasukat ang iba’t ibang tabas, porma, kulay ng de-facto national costume sa lalaki. At matagal bago ako nakabili dahil hindi pang-ready-to-wear ang frame ko. Walang magkasya sa akin nang maayos. Either girth is way too big or the length is way too long or the sleeves, again, too long that the excesses can cloth an entire barangay. 

Ano ba ang problema? Sa isip ko, pangkaraniwan lang akong lalaki na may inaarugang tiyan na pinalaki ng unli-rice at beer. Pero bakit walang umakma o sumaktong RTW barong tagalog? Bakit lahat ng pantalon ay napakahaba? Tinanong ko ang mga personnel to solicit their professional opinion regarding the clothing mishap. At kung bakit lahat ng damit ay parang isinukat kay Derek Ramsay o Daniel Matsunaga. Wala silang masabi, except to try my luck more, or to spend a great deal of my fortune sa isang maayos na barong tagalog. Or, sabi nga nila, mag-diet until I reached the RTW’s ramp model specifications.  

Samantala, hindi ganito ang karansan ko pagbili ng longsleeves na batik sa Jakarta at Yogyakarta. Ang tabas ng damit doon ay hindi pang-ramp model. Ang karaniwang sukat ay iniakma sa karaniwang pangangatawan ng Indon na hindi nalalayo sa frame ng katawan ko. Kaya kay sayang mamili ng murang batik long sleeves sa Indonesia dahil ikinonsidera ang maiikling braso ko, ang mabilog na tiyan, at ang maiikli, bordering on punggok, na taas. Sana ganito rin ang sa industriya ng barong tagalog na RTW. Tandaan sana ninyo na hindi mala-Derek Ramsay lahat ang built ng unli-rice-eating Filipino. 

Mabalik tayo sa industriya. Itinanong ko kung mahina ba ang benta ng barong tagalog dahil apat pa silang nagtutulong-tulong sa akin para bilhin ang tig-lilimang libong barong tagalog. Oo raw. Sa araw na iyon, sa buwan ng Hulyo, matumal pa. Lalakas daw ang benta ngayong Agosto dahil maraming bibiling guro, bata, empleyado at mga opisyal ng gobyerno. Buwan daw kasi ng wika. (Alam ko, alam ko, nakasulat lang sa memo na gumamit ka ng Filipino at magsuot ng barong tagalog. Sumusunod ka lang sa memo.)

May epekto naman pala sa industriya ng kinikilala nating pambansang kasuotan ang Buwan ng Wika. Maganda ang bentahan. Tatlo sa apat na nag-asikaso sa akin ay regular sa trabaho sa patahian, ang ikaapat, mare-regular na sa Setyembre. 

May trabahong nililikha para sa kababayan natin. Dahil sigurado akong hindi na natin ito ini-import gaya ng marami nating gamit at damit na galing na sa ibang bansa kung saan higit na mura ang bayad sa trabahador at materyales.  

Tiniyak sa akin ng pinakamataas sa apat, by virtue of being pinaka-senior sa nagtitinda, na puro kababayan natin ang nananahi at nagbuburda ng tela mula sa lalawigan ng Quezon at Laguna. Samantala, sa Quezon City malapit sa mga pinakamalalaking mall sa bansa tinatahi ang mga barong.

Nakatutuwang isiping nagkakaroon ng pagtangkilik sa damit kasabay ng pagtangkilik sa wikang pambansa. Sana lang, hindi ito pang-isang buwan. Sana buong taon. At sana, hindi lang pang-ramp model ang tabas ng mga damit na ito. 

Napag-uusapan din lang, bumabalik ang saknong ng tulang BARONG TAGALOG ni Teo T. Antonio na nalathala kaniyang aklat na Taga sa Bato:

Inang, di sa damit natin tinitimbang 
ang ating pag-ibig sa lupang hinirang.
At hindi, hindi rin ang barong pambansa 
ang siyang sukatan ng bayang malaya. 

Manumbat na sila’t sa aki’y mapoot 
kung damit na iya’y ayaw kong isuot. 
Ang barong umano’y dapat tangkilikin, 
barong noo’t ngayo’y damit din ng taksil.  

(12 Hunyo 1976)

Dahil sa totoo lang, bukod sa pakitang-tao ng pakikiisa sa pagtataguyod ng wika, suot naman talaga ng bayani’t taksil ang ating damit, mas maayos nga lang dahil nakapagpapatahi ng sukat na sukat sa kaniya. At nagsasalita sa ating sariling wika ang, madalas, taksil din sa bayan. – Rappler.com 

Bukod sa pagtuturo ng creative writing, pop culture, research, at seminar in new media sa Departamento ng Literatura at sa Graduate School ng 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. 

Radam returned to school. As a teacher.
And yet, just 6 years after contemplating a future he thought he could not escape, Radam began to live the life he had chosen for himself.In 2002, 19-year-old Radam Jalani, who lived in the small seaside village of Mercedes in Zamboanga City, was resigned to being a seaweed farmer for the rest of his life. When he was 12 years old, Radam's father asked him to quit school to help his family scrape out a living from planting seaweed. The 10 years that followed stretched out like a lifetime for Radam, taking him farther and farther away from school. 

Through the Department of Education (DepEd)’s Alternative Learning System (ALS), Radam completed his Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) degree. He has been teaching the second grade class at his old school since June 2018.

The Unicef Education Programme in the Philippines supports the ALS program by enhancing the capacity of the government to provide holistic, equitable and inclusive education for all children and adolescents. Unicef Philippines has developed priority actions targeting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged girls and boys, who have limited access to learning opportunities due to poverty, armed conflict, social discrimination or health issues.

Not too far away from Radam, Rijal Ibrahim Rasul and Jewelyn Baguio watched helplessly as their lives were turned upside down by the 2013 Zamboanga siege. Rijal had dropped out of college to sell fish with his father. When the conflict had passed, Rijal tried to find better work but he found his options severely limited by his age, religion and inadequate education. Jewelyn took a long time to recover from the trauma of hearing gunshots and had to stop working. 

Rijal and Jewelyn needed to make a living but the disruption in their lives had affected their ability to find decent work. Help came through the United Nations (UN) Peacebuilding Support Office, where the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) helped young people like Rijal and Jewelyn to find jobs and sustainable livelihoods in Zamboanga.     

The ILO worked with industry partners to transform education by matching skills with the demands of employers, thus enhancing youth employability. Rijal and Jewelyn were among those trained under a special course in hotel management. As they gained knowledge and skills, they also developed a positive mindset, which boosted their confidence. When Rijal and Jewelyn completed the course in 2017, they were immediately hired by one of the largest hotels in Zamboanga.   

The Philippines has achieved near-universal primary enrollment rate at 94.2 as of 2017. Furthermore, in the past two years, the government has substantially increased completion rates for primary and secondary education, by 8.4 and 10.3 percentage points, respectively.

We commend the government for progress on this front. However, we need to turn our attention to Filipino children and youth who should be in school, but are not.

According to the latest Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), one out of every 10 Filipinos aged 6 to 24 was out of school, and the prevalence has generally been higher among the older age groups. Of the 3.6 million out of school children and youth, 83.1% were 16 to 24 years old, 11.2% were 12 to 15 years old and 5.7% were 6 to 11 years old.

Beyond costs

The high cost of education accounts for why many of the country's children and youth are not in school. According to the APIS, financial difficulty was one of the top 3 reasons (17.9%), for not attending school. About half of all out-of-school children and youth belongs to the poorest 30% of Filipino families, most of whom live in rural, agricultural areas. In many instances, boys and girls have missed classes – or skipped school entirely – to help their families to put food on the table.

Yet, while poverty factors largely in school-leaving, it is not the foremost reason.

Early marriage and family matters topped the list of reasons, at 37%, followed by lack of interest, at 24.7%.  

It is notable that the proportion of out-of-school children and youth was also higher among females (63.3%) than males (36.7%), and that for over half of all girls and young women that have had to leave school, early marriage or family matters were the leading causes.

In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which has the highest percentage of out-of-school children and youth in the country, girls have a particularly hard time staying in school. Household chores, and poor menstrual hygiene management, including the lack of appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in school, have driven girls to distraction, causing them to miss classes and thereafter to stay away from school.

In order to reduce drop-out rates, it is necessary to curb the high incidence of early pregnancy  among young Filipinos. The Department of Education, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is leading the implementation of an age- and development-appropriate Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum that will also be implemented in the ALS.

CSE is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about cognitive, emotional, physical, and social aspects of sexuality and reproductive health. It will equip young Filipinos with the correct information and appropriate life skills that would enable them to make responsible decision-making and respectful behavior, protecting their health, well-being and dignity. Apart from reducing the incidence of early pregnancy, CSE also seeks to address violence, particularly bullying, and HIV infection.

Leave no one behind

By adopting the 2030 Agenda, UN member-states, including the Philippines, have committed to Leave No One Behind in their implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All people, regardless of their backgrounds, have rights and responsibilities to fulfill their potential in life, including out-of-school youth.

Tacking the persistent disparities in education participation and promoting education enrollment and quality is also a government strategy to address the challenges to inclusive growth, as highlighted in the 10-point socioeconomic agenda of the Duterte Administration: “Invest in human capital development, including health and education systems, and match skills and training to meet the demand of businesses and the private sector.”

Beyond the classroom, opportunities for young people who are not in school are growing. There are now many ways to transition from school or out-of-school to work or event entrepreneurship. Non-formal education should not be seen as an alternative to formal education, but rather recognized for its complementariness in providing a more fully rounded and skills-based approach, to equip young people to meet the competing demands of the workforce. Youth engagement is crucial to bringing about more relevant, equitable and inclusive education.

On August 12, we celebrate International Youth Day. This year's theme, "Transforming Education," resonates in the work that the Government and UN agencies are doing to make education fit the learner, and not the other way around. To find solutions to ensure that children and young people who have fallen back are not left behind. To give the Radam Jalanis of this country the one thing that could turn their life around: a second chance. – Rappler.com

Ola Almgren is the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the United Nations in the Philippines.

If you were to ask a Muslim to share his or her experience living in a predominantly non-Muslim community, you would often hear stories of difficulty assimilating to the local culture or experiences of constantly explaining the norms and practices common to the Muslim population. Mine is a bit far from that. 

Born and raised in Metro Manila to a Muslim father and a Muslim-convert mother, I was given early on the opportunity to be surrounded by relatives who have diverse sets of belief. Growing up, I did not feel the need to adapt to certain cultural norms because being different from the majority seemed normal and being unique is valued.

My parents who are active participants of interfaith dialogues would often let me and my siblings tag along to their engagements. That allowed us to have playmates who were Christian, Hare Krishna, Buddhist, Hindu, among other faiths. The constant exposure to diversity helped us appreciate the uniqueness of every individual – and that what matters in any human interaction is the mutual respect we can offer to one another.

All along I had no problems expressing and practicing my faith as the basic teachings of Islam were deeply inculcated in us. That was until news broke out in 2005 that some members of the terror group Abu Sayyaf (ASG) were trying to escape Camp Bagong Diwa.

Our school being near the camp, classes were cut short. The day after everything was settled, one of my classmates looked at me as if I did something wrong and that I owed him an explanation. He then repeatedly called me "terrorist." To my surprise, the only response I came up with were tears that would not seem to stop. I could not believe that a girl roughly 13 years of age would be considered a threat.

I know I am not guilty of harming anyone, but the motivation to change people's tendency to paint a group of people with the same brush grew on me. From then on, I promised myself to try my best to never misrepresent my religion in ways that would result in this stereotyping.  

In college, I stayed in a dormitory occupied by people from across the country. Each of us there had our own distinct religious conviction, but that didn’t stop us from observing our spiritual obligations. In fact, praying my evening prayer became a go-signal for my dormmates to perform their novena. During the month of Ramadan, they also wouldn’t eat dinner unless it was time for me to eat. For them, it was simply dinner but for me, it was actually iftar or the breaking of the fast. This chapter in my life restored my faith that humanity can co-exist amid our differences.

Now, I’m a community worker who often goes to different places to implement programs and activities that benefit the less privileged members of the community. There are moments when non-Muslim beneficiaries would come to me and say, “Ikaw ang unang Muslim na nakilala ko” (You're the first Muslim I've ever met) or “Mababait din pala ang mga Muslim.” (I realize Muslims are actually kind.) 

I know some people do not intend to stereotype; rather, they were conditioned to think of people who do not belong to their group only in a certain way. On the other hand, the Muslims from the community would sigh in relief, saying, “Pwede rin palang tayo ang nagbibigay." (It's actually possible for us to be the donors this time.) These expressions of disbelief and relief made me think that a change in mindset would mean a lot to us who are continually shown in a negative light.

As an archipelago of more than 7000 islands with more than 170 languages and diverse sets of belief systems, I am positive that we can become a nation that can rise beyond the idea that we should all be similar, and that we need to change those who do not fit our standards. Rather, we should recognize, appreciate, and respect the innate diversity within our borders and use that to our advantage to live harmoniously, because it is possible.– Rappler.com

August in the Philippines is Buwan ng Wika or Language Month. It's the perfect time for the country to discuss what's happening with our indigenous languages like Tagalog, Cebuano, and others. To discuss language policy in our country is to discuss our regional or national identity in Philippine society, because language is the bedrock of every existing culture in the world.

The Philippines has had a rough history with regards to national language policy. First of all, the country itself is a colonial creation, hence our first considered “national” language or lingua franca was foreign: Spanish. When our country wanted to become independent from Spain and the United States, our founding fathers sought a project wherein the lingua franca of our country should be indigenous-based.

Later on in the 1934 Constitutional Convention, the vision of our founding fathers to have an indigenous-based lingua franca was fulfilled when the delegates of the said convention added a provision saying such. Three years after this convention, President Manuel L. Quezon named Tagalog as the basis for our national language, called "Filipino." 

Dissatisfaction from non-Tagalog ethnic groups

Quezon's decision met some strong resistance, especially coming from the second (or arguably first) largest ethno-linguistic group: Cebuano Visayans. Cebuano Visayans argued that their language should have been named as the basis of Filipino language, by virtue of Cebuano being the largest ethno-linguistic group in the country in 1935 and being widely spoken in Visayas and Mindanao, the other two major islands of our country. There was a time around the early 1990s when the Cebu provincial government even prohibited singing the anthem in the Tagalog-based Filipino language. Up to this day, many Cebuano Visayans are dissatisfied with the decision of Quezon naming Tagalog as the basis of "Filipino." 

Both Tagalog and Cebuano people's arguments on language policy are wrong

To study further the linguistic diversity of our country, both arguments of Tagalog and Cebuano people to have their languages as the basis of indigenous-based Filipinos are wrong, because our country is too divisive to have an indigenous-based lingua franca. Indonesia had the same dilemma too, but Indonesian nationalist groups chose the language spoken by Malays in Sumatra as the basis of the Indonesian language, instead of choosing the dominant Javanese language.

Other countries (especially in Latin American and African countries) like Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, and Congo have foreign languages like Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French as their inter-ethnic lingua francas or national languages, and yet these countries still have a sense of nationalism despite having foreign languages as their lingua francas.

Time to revisit the national language policy of our country

For me, it is time for our country to revisit the national language policy by embracing so-called plurilingualism, wherein all indigenous languages should co-exist equally. At the same time, we should have a neutral foreign language like English and Spanish as inter-ethnic lingua francas in our country.

This proposal is not a suggestion to remove Filipino language altogether from the curriculum, but instead give Filipinos more options as to which language should be used for their daily communication. The Filipino language can stay as it is, provided that it be revised lexically and morphologically to reflect the diversity of our existing indigenous languages and to deviate itself from the Tagalog language.

Why English and Spanish?

I argue for English and Spanish as mediums for inter-ethnic and international communication for two reasons:

First, English and Spanish are widely spoken across the globe, and our country needs two languages for international communication purposes. For example, in Rwanda, English and French are the mediums for international communication. 

Second, English and Spanish are already embedded in our culture and history, and it is important for every Filipino to learn English and Spanish to understand our diverse culture and history. English and Spanish don’t associate with certain ethnolinguistic groups in our country, thus it removes the baggage of some ethnolinguistic group being alienated by the selection of Tagalog as the basis of our national language: Filipino. – Rappler.com

Joseph Solis Alcayde is a political science graduate and practitioner. He is currently taking up Masters in Public Administration at Cebu Technological University-Argao Campus. 

Bikoy vs Bikoy. ‘Yan ang pamagat ng isang in-depth report ng Rappler ngayong Lunes. Si Bikoy lamang ang kailangan upang matibag si Bikoy. Siya ang nuno ng pinagbuhol-buhol na dila.

At 'yan din ang problema ng gobyerno na tanging umaasa sa statement ng estapador at serial liar na si Joemel Advincula, alyas Bikoy, sa kasong sedition laban kay Bise President Leni Robredo at 35 iba pang taga-oposisyon, kasama ang mga pare at mga abogado.

Umaalingasaw ang pagka-desperado ng bumuo ng kasong ito – ang Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). Oo, ang OSG na ang pinaka-claim to fame ay ang pagpapatalsik sa Chief Justice na si Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Hindi lamang ito eksperto sa diskarteng ligal tulad ng quo warranto na bumabali sa maraming jurisprudence ng hudikatura. Eksperto rin ito sa paggastos ng pera ng bayan, tulad ng paglulunsad ng mga seminar sa mamahaling lugar at bonggang mga byahe sa ibang bansa.

Ang OSG, ang opisina ng abugado ng pamahalaan ay nagmistulang palo-palong tumutugis sa mga itinuturing na kaaway ng administrasyon kahit sila'y simpleng oposisyon lamang.

Balikan natin ang ipinupukol kay Bise Leni. Sedition. Ayon sa diksiyunaryo ng Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, ito ay ang kilos o gawaing nanghihikayat ng rebelyon, pag-aalsa, o panggugulo sa katiwasayan. At ang sedisyon na 'yan ay naka-angkla sa kwento ni Lolo Basyong Bikoy.

Bakit malaking dagok sa demokrasya ang mga bintang na ito? Dahil ang pag-iral ng masigabong oposisyon ay haligi ng lahat ng demokrasya. Ang oposisyon ay katunggali — ngunit hindi kaaway.

Paulit-ulit, pinatunayan ng gobyernong Duterte na wala itong pasensya sa katunggali – at handa itong hagupitin ang mga De Lima, Trillanes, at Robredo at drowingan ito ng mga inimbento at kakatwang kaso kapag naiirita na ito.

Ang pagtransporma sa opisina ng SolGen mula abogadong mag-aapila ng mga kaso sa Court of Appeals sa isang witch-hunter ay isang indikasyon ng breakdown ng demokrasya sa Pilipinas.

Bakit ito nagiging promotor ng mga diskarte laban sa oposisyon, habang may isang milyon itong backlog? Bakit mabilis pa sa alas singko ang text ng Solgen na nag-aalok ng ligal na tulong kay Bikoy?

Maraming berdugo sa pamahalaang Duterte – andyan ang mga nagpapatupad ng kampanyang Tokhang. Andyan ang mga sunod-sunuran sa Kongreso na dapat ay independyenteng sangay ng republika. Andyan ang mga abogadong kahihiyan ng kanilang propesyon.

Sabi nga ni dating senador at Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) lawyer na si Rene Saguisag, "SolGen should be tribune of people, not tuta of Duterte administration."

Naghihingalo na nga ang demokrasya at umaalingawngaw na ang kahol ng mga tuta. – Rappler.com

It is hot in Hong Kong now. Summer temperatures soar into the high 30s. The heat is oppressive and overwhelming. It is as if the entire territory is radiating the upheaval that is occurring within it. 

In the past 3 months, Hong Kong has been experiencing large-scale and widespread protests not seen in recent times. These protests, which have had wide support among the population due to many unresolved social issues, were initially triggered by the proposed extradition to China bill, but they have has evolved into something larger. The protesters have advanced 5 points that they demand the government of the Special Administrative Region accept. These are:

1. Complete withdrawal of the bill
2. The withdrawal of the “riot” characterisation of the June 12 protests 
3. The unconditional release of all arrested protesters 
4. The formation of an independent commission of inquiry into police behavior 
5. Universal suffrage

Although some of the demands may be considered by the HK authorities, the others, such as universal suffrage, will not be acceptable to Beijing. However, the protesters appear to have hardened their position on all the 5 demands. With the fact that no negotiations are taking place, the confrontation will continue to drag on. (READ: Pro-democracy, anti-repression: Hong Kong protests since 1997)

To illustrate that, inflammatory rhetoric has increased within the ranks of the protesters; the characterization of the police as terrorists, indiscriminate shooters, and murderers have become the norm. In response, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has warned that violence would lead the territory to the path of no return – a probable veiled warning to the protesters as to what can happen in the future, especially as Beijing’s forces are chomping at the bit at Shenzhen.  

From relatively uneventful protests when it started, the actions on both sides have become a downward spiral into a tit-for-tat violent pattern. The police have arrested hundreds in the rallies and have used tear gas and pellets to disrupt the protesters. On the other side, hotheads in the ranks of the protesters have taken to attacking police targets, such as district headquarters and even police family quarters, or defacing government or public property. Rudimentary weapons, such as firebombs, slingshots, and bricks, are usually preferred by the protesters.  

In a bid to overstretch the police, the protesters have taken advantage of Hong Kong’s very efficient mass transport system to shuttle from one area to another. Rallies or disruptive actions are carried out in the New Territories which can have the effect of tying down police away from more strategically important places.

The police have taken controversial measures to counter that tactic of the protesters by allegedly using triad gangs to attack protesters and going undercover as protesters to infiltrate the rallies. The problem with disguised policemen is that it provides the protesters an alibi when it comes to accusations that their members commit acts of violence and vandalism. They can always say that these were just undercover police posing as protesters.

Interestingly enough, despite the angry rhetoric and the frequent rallies, there has been no fatality so far. There have been injuries but no one from the police or protesters have been killed. In fact, it appears that the Hong Kong police are slow and clumsy when it comes to dealing with the almost daily protests that culminate every weekend as more people are available due to no work. 

It takes the better part of the day for police to deal with buildup of protests. There is no systematic action directed by the police to disrupt the leadership of the protesters. There are feeble attempts to interfere with movement of protesters, who congregate in an area, thus allowing the number of demonstrators to grow. The police are averse to bringing in water cannons and fire trucks, which are the staple crowd dispersal heavy equipment in other countries. The non-utilization of such crowd control equipment then requires the police to engage in direct physical close quarter scuffles with protesters. That can prove to be slow and cumbersome in dispersal operations, especially in the summer heat. The police are mainly reactive in deployment and operations, and the initiative is very much on the side of the protesters. 

This situation was seen in the recent disruption and occupation by the protesters of the Hong Kong International Airport. Days prior to the incident, the protesters had a visible but small presence at the airport lobby. However, none of the authorities – for reasons only they know – were willing to take action against these small number of protesters at a very important and strategic facility of the territory. Instead, the small group was allowed to linger despite the obvious security risks until it grew in numbers and led a few days later to the occupation of the airport.  

One then gets the impression that the HK leadership is fatigued by the crisis. Lam’s statement that the path of no return is approaching betrays that, and may signal a preference to pass the responsibility on to another authority. (READ: ’When will you die?' Hong Kong leader grilled at press conference)

Meanwhile, at neighboring Shenzhen, across the border, another convoy of Chinese policemen was spotted entering the city last Sunday, August 11. At the Hong Kong International Airport, Monday's protesters were dispersed and flights in and out of the territory resumed. But the protesters, as promised, have returned. As of posting, the gateway is shut down again Tuesday night, August 13. 

As Hong Kong broils in the summer, and so does the temperament of its people who are locked in a struggle, the repercussions of these events will send shockwaves to Beijing, Taipei, Washington DC, and elsewhere. – Rappler.com 

Jose Antonio Custodio is a security and defense consultant. He specializes in military history and has post-graduate studies in history from the University of the Philippines. He occasionally teaches history and political science in several universities in Metro Manila.

*Photos by Laurel Chor/AFP and Isaac Lawrence/AFP; image from Shutterstock

MANILA, Philippines – It's complicated. Loving one's country is a difficult endeavor.  

UP Sociology Professor Josephine Dionisio sits down with Rappler reporter Lian Buan to talk about the demands of loving one's country.

In this podcast, they tackle the following questions:

• How did media play a role in the patriotism of the Katipunero? How is nationalism different from ethnocentrism? What role does history play in patriotism? 

• Why should we question our deeply-held beliefs? Could our view of the Mindanao problem be wrong? When Marawi was reduced to rubble, did it not affect Christians and Muslims alike?

• Why should Filipino be taught in colleges and universities? Why is it crucial to use Filipino as a medium for intellectual discourse?

Professor Dionisio cannot emphasize enough the value of engagement in developing a national consciousness – and she often draws parallels with relationships between lovers.

More importantly, is dissent an expression of love of country?

How do we love a country that often leaves us angry and hurt? She says, quoting sociology professor Randy David: "Self-esteem is to national pride. Look for the things that you want to love and accept inside you. Then find the strength and motivation, inspiration, to nurture that love in others."

She adds, love of country is a "collective undertaking" and like any affair of the heart – requires a lot of work. – Rappler.com

Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa
Instrumental by Boy Hapay
Poem by Andres Bonifacio
Instrumental based on the song performed by Inang Laya

Listen to other Love of Country podcasts here:

• Is today’s generation less patriotic?
• Can a patriot love two countries?

I did a double take when I first saw the dismal numbers. Before this year’s State of the Nation Address, the economic managers proudly announced that economic growth during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term is “impressive,” “robust,” and “continues to gain momentum.”

Specifically, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III trumpeted the fact that our economy grew, on average, by 6.5% in the first 11 quarters of the administration.

But the government’s most recent official GDP (gross domestic product) report for the second quarter of 2019 plainly shows that the economy is losing, rather than gaining, momentum.

Recall that GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in an economy in a given period. Notwithstanding its imperfections, GDP can tell us a lot about what’s going on in our economy.

In this article let’s parse the data to spot the red flags throughout our economy.

1) The economy is decelerating.

First and foremost, the Philippine economy is slowing down alarmingly. In the second quarter of 2019, GDP grew by just 5.5% (Figure 1).

 Figure 1.

This is appallingly low for many reasons.

First, it’s the lowest in 4.25 years. I wonder how the economic managers can look at the steadily declining graph and still proclaim that growth “continues to gain momentum.”

Second, 5.5% is lower than the economic managers’ target range of 6% to 7% this year. In fact, the economic managers keep missing their own growth targets.

Third, 5.5% is also lower than analysts’ forecasts. In a recent BusinessWorld survey, the median forecast was 5.9% and nobody predicted below 5.7%.

Fourth, the country’s growth continues to dip in spite of the May polls, which should have boosted growth. Imagine how much lower growth would have been sans the elections.

Fifth, the Philippines could, in fact, be growing much faster. In the wake of the global financial crisis, potential GDP growth was estimated to range from 6% to 7.4%, according to a recent study.

Sure, our economy is still growing. Yet a further deceleration could mean lower incomes for Filipinos, fewer job opportunities, or both.

But why is our economy slowing down?

2) Private investments have shrunk for the first time in 7 years.

Figure 2 shows that private investments (blue bars) pulled down overall growth last quarter for the first time since 2012, or 7 years ago.

This is primarily on account of a steep decline in the production of durable equipment and inventories.

Figure 2.

Durable equipment comprise goods used “repeatedly or continuously in production processes for more than a year.” These might include road vehicles, telecommunications equipment, mining and construction machinery, and office machinery.

In other words, durable equipment fuel future industrial growth and development. A decline in their production does not bode well for future growth.

3) Exports and imports are grinding to a halt.

Figure 2 also shows that net exports (simply exports minus imports) contributed positively and significantly to overall growth.

This seldom happens. Usually, net exports drag down (rather than prop up) overall growth because imports often exceeded exports in recent years.

But the unusual growth of net exports hides the fact that both exports and imports – basically our trade with the rest of the world – are grinding to a halt (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Exports will likely fall further if uncertainties surrounding the Trabaho bill and endo bill are not soon dispelled.

Meanwhile, the near-zero growth of imports is as curious as it is concerning. The economic managers defended aggressive imports before by saying it's a sign that raw materials and equipment were coming in for various projects under Build, Build, Build.

Following their logic, does the recent faltering of imports imply Build, Build, Build is stalling? (READ: The pipe dream that is Build, Build, Build)

The economic managers also blame weak trade data on the escalating US-China trade war, which is expected to shave a few points off global economic growth.

But the Asian Development Bank said such trade war could prove to be a boon for ASEAN countries like the Philippines, if only we attracted enough foreign investors seeking refuge from the trade war. Somehow, we’re missing out on this opportunity.

4) Agriculture and industry are faltering.

If we look at growth from the perspective of the different sectors, the picture is no less grim. Figure 4 shows that agriculture and industry, in particular, are growing anemically.

Agriculture’s poor performance is hardly a shocker at this point. But last quarter’s 1.27% contraction was due largely to a sizable 5.7% drop in crop production.

One possible reason behind this is the unusually long spell of El Niño. Yet another is the Rice Tarrification Act which disincentivizes local production because farmers must now compete and contend with torrents of imported rice.

Figure 4.

Industry is hurting, too. Construction seems to be the main culprit here, for it brought down overall industrial growth for the first time in more than 5 years (Figure 5).

If you dive deeper, it was public construction that took the hardest hit, what with a mind-blowing 27% decline. This was counteracted by construction in the private sector.

Figure 5.

It has become routine for the economic managers to lay the blame on the delayed 2019 budget, which admittedly stymied key infrastructure projects under Build, Build, Build.

Yet the delayed budget cannot entirely explain the movement at a snail’s pace of Build, Build, Build. Ushering in a “golden age of infrastructure” is not as easy as it looks.

Services, lastly, continue to grow robustly. But there’s no room for complacency here, either.

For instance, business process outsourcing (BPO), one of our top dollar earners, is now under threat on all fronts, including increasing competition, emerging artificial intelligence technologies, and US President Donald Trump’s disdain for American outsourcing.

What to do?

In sum, private investments are shrinking, trade is grinding to a halt, agriculture is growing anemically, and public construction is collapsing.

Cracks are beginning to emerge in the otherwise smooth and sturdy facade that is the Philippine economy. No wonder the Duterte government is embarking on “expansionary” policies to patch up growth in the short run.

The Bangko Sentral, for its part, further lowered its key interest rate last week to 4.25% in a bid to spur domestic spending.

Meanwhile, the economic managers announced in May a plan to fast-track infrastructure spending. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia also recently implored Congress to pass the 2020 budget on time.

At any rate, the economic managers will need to be more forthright about the current state of the Philippine economy. They have been painting a picture of the economy that is much rosier than the data suggest.

Secretary Pernia still believes 6% growth is possible for the whole of 2019.

You may be forgiven for thinking this is a joke. To achieve that, we must grow by at least 6.45% in the next 2 quarters.

Seriously, though, how can we regain lost momentum and bring the economy up to speed? – Rappler.com

The author is a PhD candidate at the UP School of Economics. His views are independent of the views of his affiliations. Follow JC on Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa addressed the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health’s Class of 2019 on Sunday, August 11, urging them to build their identity, profession, and the nation’s democracy by embracing their values, their fears, and their journey. 

A total of 148 graduates received their dual MD/Master of Business Administration degrees. 

“You will help define what our society will look like and how our democracy will survive and evolve,” she told the graduates at the Meralco Theater. “This is a time of creative destruction. Even as we see what’s being destroyed around us, remember: we are creating the future now,” she said.

Below is the full text of her speech.

Congratulations, Class of 2019!

You’re graduating at an existential moment in history. 

When global power structures are turned upside down by technology, triggering an erosion of all our rights.

When journalists around the world are under attack, democracy is under attack. 

I know this firsthand: in 14 months, the Philippine government filed at least 11 cases and investigations. I was arrested twice in a 5-week period early this year, and I’ve posted bail 8 times in about 3 months. In order to travel, I have to post more than P500,000 in bonds. 

Journalism is not a crime. 

Yet, I’ve seen social media and our legal system weaponized against us – and any other perceived critics of government. 

We hold the line. Because we live our mission. Because – as Time Magazine wrote – we are the Guardians of Truth.

This battle for truth is the battle of our generation.  

Now more than ever, we know that information is power. Without the right information, it’s impossible to fight back – whether it’s to find a cure for a disease or to hold power to account.

We need to fight the insidious manipulation social media technology platforms have allowed: where lies laced with anger and hate spread faster than facts.  

These lies are like a virus that has infected our information ecosystem, playing to the worst of human nature, turning us against each other. They replicate and cripple our body politique – spreading a disease that still has no cure.  

A lie told a million times becomes a fact. Without facts, we don’t have truth. Without truth, there is no trust.  

This is why democracy is broken, not just in the Philippines but around the world. 

I’d like to share 3 lessons with you as you go into battle for your identity, your profession, our democracy. 

1. Embrace your values because with that comes your humanity.
2. Embrace your fears.
3. Embrace your journey.  

Embrace your values 

Remember why you chose to become a doctor. 

You chose a specialized degree that has an embedded mission for a broken society. Seven out of 10 Filipinos die without ever seeing a doctor, and the statistics promise you no sleep — like: only 3 public doctors for every 100,000 people.

To those who chose business, how are you going to fight corruption? 

Life is all about making choices. That’s what we do every minute of the day. 

These little choices define who you are, and if you’re not clear about your values, you may wake up when you’re older and realize you don’t like the person you’ve become. 

Every choice defines who you are, and they could be really simple like choosing to turn right instead of left – they lead to different paths. Or accepting a bribe because in your mind you’ve rationalized it as a gift.  

Character is created in the sum of all these little choices we make.  

Now, while you’re sitting there before going into battle, choose the values that define you. Do it now. Because when you’re tested – and it will come if it hasn’t already – you have to know the lines you’ve set. 

Draw the line: on this side you’re good; on this side you’re evil.  

This is what prevents situational ethics. This makes sure you can’t rationalize bad behavior. 

You don’t really know who you are until you’re forced to defend it. Then every battle you win, or lose, every compromise you choose to make…or to walk away from – all these struggles define the values you live by and, ultimately, who you are. 

Then when you’re in battle, avoid the hate: the US against THEM, rich vs poor, dilawan vs DDS – these labels are meant to divide us. Populism is easy. Real leadership is not.  

Find what we all have in common. That’s our humanity. 

Alone we accomplish very little – no matter how bright or talented you are. It’s about what we can do together, to find what binds us together. 

We build a stronger democracy by strengthening our common humanity. 

Embrace your fears 

I’ve been asked a lot in the past year: are you afraid? Of course, I’ve had those moments! But CNN trained me to be a conflict reporter, a war zone correspondent. I plan the way in and chart the way out of any field of battle. 

What I’ve learned is that fear spreads and is debilitating. Fear is a luxury.  

If you’re in the middle of chaos, you need to stamp down your fear to have clarity of thought – that’s essential to make the right decision. The way to do that is the 7Ps: “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”

So I go back to what I learned in school. Fear is your worst enemy. It stops you from doing what you want.  

Whatever you’re most afraid of, touch it. Hold it. Embrace it. Because once you do that, nothing can stop you.  

In my case, dealing with the fear really started last December. That was when Time Magazine named me person of the year – one of the guardians of truth – and I realized I was the only one among us who was then both alive and free. That was the seed. 

Then last April at the launch of the Clooney Foundation’s Trial Watch, for some reason, it became real. I realized I could go to jail – 63 years, in fact, as Amal Clooney pointed out. I was on a panel: Mohamed Fahmy, who was jailed in Egypt for 438 days, was to my right. Jason Rezaian, who was jailed in Iran for 544 days.  

I talked to them. I read their books. Could I endure what they went through? 

What is the worst case scenario I could imagine.  

Then I embraced it. And robbed it of its power.

Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. 

Embrace your journey

The founders of Rappler – 4 of us, women in our 50s now – well, we joke that we jumped off the cliff. In the Philippines, we’re the only news group whose business is created and controlled by journalists. That’s what we mean by independence. 

So it’s not a surprise that we would continue doing the story, even if – and especially if – it’s bad for business. Yet, despite that, we found a new business model that has our revenues up significantly since last year. We’ll take the risk to do the stories that matter.

The first casualty in our country’s war for truth is exactly how many people have died in our brutal drug war. The police admit they killed more than 6,000 people – rolled back by PDEA right before SONA to 5,600. But human rights groups and the UN estimate that at least 27,000 people were killed from July 2016 until December last year.  

Our impunity series looks at the lives behind these numbers. We fight impunity on two fronts: the Philippine government in extrajudicial killings and the exponential lies on social media – Facebook, which is essentially our internet. 

Facebook is the world’s largest distributor of news, but it ignored the responsibility that comes with that – the gatekeeping powers of journalism, that determines the quality of our democracies around the world. 

I don’t know where any of this will end. Like I said, we jumped off the cliff by standing up for our values, by upholding the mission of journalism, and holding the powerful to account. 

Facebook is our frenemy: Rappler is one of its 3 fact-checking partners in the Philippines, but finding the lies is a game of whack-a-mole. What’s more important is to find the networks of disinformation that spread the lies – and in that you see how all this is connected to geopolitical power play. In our digital forensics, we’ve shown links to the alt-right in Canada, to the alt-right in the US, to Europe, and to Russian disinformation. 

Embrace your journey. And don’t forget to have fun. 

I am daily inspired by our team in Rappler, their spirit, their sense of mission. Despite the threats we face, we are living our ideals now. This is our reality.

What you do today matters.  

You will help define what our society will look like and how our democracy will survive and evolve.  

This is a time of creative destruction. Even as we see what’s being destroyed around us, remember: we are creating the future now.  

Let’s make sure it’s the future we want.  

Get ready for battle. Embrace your values and your humanity. Embrace your fears and embrace the journey. Class of 2019, our hopes are with you. It's going to be tough but I know you will change the world for the better. – Rappler.com 

YouTube is the new battleground in the fight against disinformation. The online video sharing and streaming site is next to Facebook as the country’s most active social media platform. 

In our research on the role of disinformation in the 2019 midterm elections, we found that YouTube has served as hospitable space for “alternative news” channels to proliferate. 

At one point in the campaign, these channels have racked up millions of views, with TOKHANG TV and Duterte NEWS PORTAL landing in Socialblade’s list of the 250 most-viewed YouTube channels in the Philippines. 

The large viewership of these channels is a cause of alarm because these channels produce what we call “hyper-partisan” content. They provide a visual and emotionally resonant hook to promote a particular political agenda while disparaging opposing personalities in an uncivil manner.

From January to May 2019, we monitored more than 20 anonymous, hyper-partisan channels, which boast tens of thousands of subscribers and millions of views on their own. Many were created under the Duterte administration (2016 to present). These channels were identified by following the trail of suggested pages which indicate that pages are part of the same network.

Here are our findings. 

Misleading and emotionally arousing headlines

These channels are able to attract a large viewership by baiting attention through graphically packaged thumbnails screaming “breaking news.” Some channels use the aesthetic of mainstream media, such as using the logo of primetime newscasts. For example, TOKHANG TV subverts the authority of long-running newscast TV PATROL using fake headlines in thumbnails while twisting the content for propaganda. 

Headlines matter a lot in these channels. One of TOKHANG TV’s most viewed videos is a post entitled “PRRD MAY SINIWALAT KAY RUNNING PRIEST ROBERT REYES (President Duterte bared something against running priest Robert Reyes).” The headline suggests an exposé against one of the President’s most vocal critics. As if the headline title is not sensational enough, the thumbnail suggests even more salacious revelations. The thumbnail has a photo of Reyes and a breaking news-style graphic with the words “BAKLA PALA! MAHILIG SA OTIN (Apparently gay! Likes penis)?” 

Such misleading and emotionally arousing headlines serve to embarrass the President’s critics, making examples of out of vocal personalities. That these videos get a number of hits demonstrates the effectiveness of clickbait headlines intended to shame members of :the establishment."

Cesspool of pro-administration propaganda, historical revisionism, and disinformation

Despite the titillating headlines and thumbnails, there is often a dissonance between the title of the video and its actual contents, providing a false promise to viewers. In the 11-minute video “HONTlVER0S GUSTONG IPAGYERA ANG CHINA” uploaded on TOKHANG TV, the clip shows a 4-minute CNN interview of Senator Risa Hontiveros urging diplomatic protests against China. But the senator, in no uncertain terms, did not hint at waging war against the Chinese government. To avoid detection, notice how the spelling of Hontiveros was cleverly changed, with the number 0 replacing the letter O. This is done to shrewdly avoid detection by YouTube’s content moderators. The rest of the video had nothing to do with the headline, and instead showcased positive news about the Duterte administration. 

We also investigated whether there is a link between these channels with the observed rise of revisionist narratives about the Marcos Martial Law regime. A quick search of “Marcos” in TOKHANG TV’s channel page yielded results related to the Marcos family. The claims made in these videos are as amusing as they are incorrect. One incredulous video claimed that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos successfully developed an “anti-typhoon device” during the Martial Law years. The man behind the video, Dante Maravillas, claims that Marcos had a “space program” and “missile program.” He argued that it is not far too think that Marcos did indeed develop an “anti-typhoon missile” simply because “he is able to finance [its development].” He also blames the succeeding administrations for its loss.

These videos contain content which boost the political careers of Bongbong and Imee Marcos, such as “IBOTO SI IMEE MARCOS PARA DI MAKABALIK AND MGA DILAWAN (Vote for Imee Marcos to stop the return of the Aquinos/Liberal Party).”

Post-elections, TOKHANG TV purged more than a thousand election-related videos, replacing much of the channel’s content with inconspicuous lifestyle and travel videos, possibly to avoid detection. Many channels similar to TOKHANG TV remain active today to deliver pro-administration content.

The great radicalizer?

Outside the Philippines, YouTube is already seen as a breeding ground for hyper-partisan propaganda, conspiracy theories, and extremist thought. 

Research shows how alt-right personalities in the United States have created an “alternative influence network” of “political influencers” on YouTube that have “adopt[ed] the techniques of brand influencers to build audiences and ‘sell’ them on far-right ideology.”

While many may start out watching news reports or political explainers from a trusted media outlet, chances are YouTube’s autoplay algorithm may still lead to more fringe or extremist content. Investigations from the Wall Street Journal and Buzzfeed News, among others, reveal that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is an “engagement monster” that compels users to go down the digital rabbit hole – clicking and watching video after video after video. Zeynep Tufecki of the University of North Carolina notes that the algorithm “promotes, recommends, and disseminates videos…that appears to constantly up the stakes.”

Feeding this engagement beast is crucial for YouTube – and Google’s – bottom line. The longer users are glued to their screen, the more users are there to watch ads. In 2018, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan revealed that users are influenced by artificial intelligence-driven recommendation 70% of the time they spend on watching videos.

The confluence of extremist content and the need to feed the engagement beast (and Google’s coffers) can make YouTube as “the great radicalizer.”

YouTube told BuzzFeed News that it is addressing this problem by changing their algorithms to recommend content from authoritative sources. The site has also introduced “information panels” which provides users sources to fact-check content.

As online platforms confront their responsibility as primary sources of information to more people, users are also advised to be mindful of the content they engage with.

Read the full report here: Tracking Digital Disinformation in the 2019 Philippine Midterm Election. – Rappler.com

Robbin M. Dagle is a research associate at the Development Studies Program and part-time faculty at the Communication Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He was a member of the Digital Disinformation Tracker Project Team.

Rossine Fallorina is a graduate student of sociology at the University of the Philippines Diliman and was a research assistant for the Digital Disinformation Tracker. He is the managing editor of Television and New Media and editorial associate of Philippine Sociological Review.