MANILA, Philippines – On February 8, 2015, I resigned myself to a summer of yellow.

It was raining in Roxas City that afternoon, as workers, project coordinators, campaign staff members and production specialists buzzed around the Capiz gymnasium to prepare for the Liberal Party (LP)’s national campaign kick off the next day. If the yellow tarpaulins with the wide smiles of candidates in yellow shirts and the yellow stage weren’t enough, the next day, there would be an abundance of yellow confetti.

Covering the ruling party’s 2016 campaign has been… interesting.

My distaste for its party color aside (it’s nothing personal – yellow just never works for me), there’s the seemingly endless cycle of stump speeches, motorcades, hand raising, running-around-to-catch-a-candidate, and running around some more to get to the next sortie.

To cope with the chaos, you try to find a rhythm – a sense of normalcy and predictability, if you will, in the odd and unpredictable world of Philippine politics.

With a little over 20 days left in the campaign period, I’ve definitely found that rhythm.

So if, unlike me, you’ve had more important things to do than run around the country to follow the LP’s candidates, here are a few things that are staple – or even musts – in their sorties around the country:

Long waits, buwis buhay moves. The past few years have taught me that journalism entails a lot of waiting. It applies when covering campaign sorties as well.

Standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II and running mate Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo (and their campaign staffs) generally make sure they’re on time for sorties and engagements, although 30-minute to 1-hour delays are sometimes unavoidable.

But the waiting also happens even after the candidate enters the venue or after the last speech is delivered.

Roxas, for instance, always makes it a point to mingle with the crowd – be it in covered courts, cordoned-off streets, or gymnasiums – before he even sets foot on stage.

That’s easily 30 minutes or more of waiting while he goes around to shake hands, talk to, and take selfies with supporters who’ve been in the venue hours ahead.

It also means having to cross barriers – literal ones included. I once told one of Roxas’ aides that their boss is fond of “buwis buhay (risky)” moves. He doesn’t think twice about jumping over metal barriers, leapfrogging gymnasium barricades, and wading through crowd of supporters.

Working the crowd also means you’re pushed and pulled in all sorts of directions. Untucked shirts, ruffled hair, and scratches on his arms and even face are all in a day’s campaign work for Roxas.

Waiting is especially a requirement when the sortie includes party chairman President Benigno Aquino III. Security protocol entails you need to be in the venue at least an hour before he arrives. It’s a pain but also a welcome break when you’re tired and sleep-deprived.

Of speeches, promises and the 4Ps. While most politicians promise specific infrastructure or development projects tailor-fit for the province they’re campaigning in, that’s not usually the case for Roxas and Robredo.

Their promises revolve around their platform (freedom from fear, freedom from hunger, and the freedom to dream). Robredo herself admitted as much during a recent speech in Pasay City, where she assured coconut farmers that they would prioritize the distribution of the controversial coco levy fund. Roxas made the same promise during his own speech.

It might seem odd to some but if you’ve trailed the ruling party closely, it’s obvious why.

Theirs is a campaign that is anchored on the continuation of “Daang Matuwid,” the Aquino administration’s tagline for its anti-corruption, transparency, and good governance platform. Its flagship programs and achievements – the popular Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), PhilHealth expansion, infrastructure projects, economic growth – are, in a way, the ruling party’s campaign promises.

Aquino, in his speeches, always makes it a point to enumerate gains in a particular province or area, particularly infrastructure projects funded by the national government.

The program flow for most LP rallies is the same in most sorties. After Senate bets get their time on stage, a local politician or a 4Ps beneficiary usually goes onstage to introduce Robredo (or her stand-ins, typically daughter Aika or Patricia).

After Robredo or one of her proxies delivers a speech, the President is introduced. It’s the President himself who introduces his anointed candidate, Roxas.

If Aquino isn’t there, it’s usually the highest-ranking local ally – a congressional representative, governor, or mayor – who introduces Roxas as “the next president of the Philippines.”

The stump speeches. The tandem attends at least 3 rallies – usually in succession – in one day’s worth of campaigning. Robredo’s stump speech has changed little since the campaign season began.

The Camarines Sur representative’s speech is mostly a retelling of her life – from her “political reawakening” towards the end of martial law, how she met the late Jesse Robredo, how she struggled juggling life as a mother and a law student, why she chose to be a lawyer for the poor, her husband’s death, and the difficulties of running against a well-entrenched politician in her province.

Her speeches are peppered with quick anecdotes from her life – how she had to ride a habal-habal while 6 months pregnant just to reach a fishing community and why she had to quit her job in the Public Attorney’s Office (she’d end up representing the jueteng kubradors her own husband had apprehended).

“Laylayan” (fringes of society) has become a word ubiquitous in Robredo’s speeches. She does, after all, present herself as a candidate who is most familiar with the life of those most in need.

A few other things stand out.

Robredo always makes it a point to emphasize the bond between her husband and Roxas, whom she’s jokingly referred to a Jesse’s second wife. Roxas gets the most mentions when she starts talking about the plane crash that claimed Jesse’s life. Then transportation secretary, Roxas oversaw retrieval operations and was the first Cabinet official who relayed the bad news to Robredo.

Roxas’ stump speech is a little less personal than his running mate’s. He sometimes starts by hollering “aylabyu (I love you)” to the more enthusiastic members of the crowd, even before he begins greeting local and national officials in the venue.

Depending on the crowd, Roxas talks about the Philippines of the past before trumpeting instances of improvement under “Daang Matuwid” – the 4Ps, universal health care, infrastructure projects, and the like.

His has evolved several times since the official campaign period began. A little over a month into the 90-day campaign period, audience interaction became key for Roxas’ speeches.

In almost all of his rallies, he picks out a woman – typically a 4Ps beneficiary and almost always one of the more talktative and enthusiastic ones from the crowd – and invites her to come on stage with him.

Roxas asks about the woman’s life, her struggles, and her motivations for pushing forward.

There have been times when Roxas’ guest of honor steals the show from the standard-bearer himself. In General Santos City, Lelita Dablo brought the house down when she unabashedly started berating Vice President Jejomar Binay for failing to answer allegations of corruption against him.

"Lelita, dalhun kita sa bilog na pilipinas para ma istorya mo sa bilog sang Pilipinas (Lelita I'll bring you all over the Philippines so you can tell the entire country),” Roxas quipped after a long and impassioned speech from Dablo.

During a recent rally in Mandaue City, Cebu, a woman brought along with her a notebook and a pen so she could get Roxas’ autograph. The same notebook and pen collected autographs from Robredo’s daughter Aika and the rest of the LP stalwarts present during the rally.

The women he picks out from the crowd, Roxas would later say, represent the typical Filipino – one who works hard and perseveres for her family, in the hopes of a better life.

Jokes, and then some. Rallies usually stretch for hours, starting even before Roxas or Robredo arrive and sometimes, ending long before they’d left.

It’s not a surprise that the LP’s candidates make it a point to crack a joke or 2 (or 3, or more) during their speeches.

Roxas’ most well-received jokes poke fun at himself. He jokes about flying in to the province he’s visiting because, as a Capizanon, he doesn’t even need an airplane or helicopter (the joke here being: Capiz is known for its aswangs).

Another joke after he thanks the crowd for their warm – and sometimes rowdy – welcome involves wife Korina Sanchez. “What I’m worried about now is how I’ll explain the lipstick mark on my cheek when I get home,” Roxas would quip, to the delight of the audience.

Senate bet and former TESDA chief Joel Villanueva likes telling a joke about 3 friends stuck on an island and who are granted 3 wishes. The first two wish to go back home while the third, because he misses his two friends so much, wish for them to return to the island.

Reelectionist Senator Ralph Recto likes teasing the crowd, telling them that his wife, Batangas Governor and “Star for All Seasons” Vilma Santos prepared food for the crowd… at their home back in Lipa City.

COOP-NATCO Representative and Senate Bet Cresante Paez would say that actor Tom Cruise cautioned him against his 2016 run, because it’s “Mission Impossible.” Paez would counter this by saying that with him, everything is “Paez-ible.”

Another Senate bet, former Pampanga governor Mark Lapid likes teasing the crowd, asking them if he’s better looking than his father, former movie star and incumbent Senator Lito Lapid. Once he gets the crowd to commit that he’s the better-looking one, his father arrives on cue, to the delight of the audience (admittedly, it’s usually the lolas and titas who get a kick out of Lito Lapid’s cameo.)

President Aquino himself cracks jokes during sorties. It’s a long joke that deserves to be quoted in verbatim:

Suffice to say, tito jokes abound in LP sorties.

Songs, chants, and yellow confetti. When you’re trailing a national candidate, you tend to notice the littlest things about that candidate – his mannerisms, quirks, favorite shoes, even the way he drinks his coffee (it’s Nescafe instant coffee and stevia for Roxas).

You also tend to drown in the candidates’ jingles, hymns, songs.

LP rallies – or at least the bigger ones – feature performances from Frenchie Dy, Jett Pangan, and a handful of other performers.

But the main attraction is always Noel Cabangon, with his “Tribute to Daang Matuwid.”

The song plays in the background as Aquino, Roxas, Robredo and local bets take turns raising each others’ hands onstage.

Cue: more yellow confetti.

Jingles are another weekly (or – sadly – daily) LSS (last song syndrome) for embedded reporters. Roxas and Robredo have at least 5 jingles between them.

There’s a painfully catchy “Roxas-Robredo” jingle played during motorcades and visits to markets, a shorter Roxas jingle, Robredo’s “kababaihan” jingle (that’s usually played during her “Zumba events”), and another Robredo jingle that is played when she arrives or shortly before she speaks.

True, these can get repetitive. But I guess that’s the challenge for every campaign reporter – to find the unique and the interesting in the daily grind.

One thing's for sure, though. As soon as May 9 rolls by, I’ll do my best to stay away from anything yellow for a while. – Rappler.com

Rodrigo Duterte's scandalous remarks about raped Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill just goes to show that a lot can happen a few weeks before the elections.

The story, picked up by foreign news groups like the BBC, Vice, and The Guardian, has sparked a fierce debate online. A scroll through my Facebook feed reveals an upheaval.

There are previously undecided voters saying they are now sure of who not to vote for and previously decided voters now thrown into uncertainty. There are Duterte supporters tearfully, sadly coming to terms with his remarks and still proclaiming their undying loyalty to him. 

Voters, the homestretch of the campaign season means the time to reflect fully and deeply about who to cast your ballot for this May 9.

It's great that many have taken to social media to explain their thought process. I picked up some interesting insights on why people have chosen to forgive or not forgive Duterte for his remark. 

It is important to note though that Duterte does not ask for forgiveness. He's "sticking to his guns," saying he was just recalling what he said during the hostage-taking incident and simply wanted to be accurate in his retelling. 

Netizens have also factored this in in their posted reactions. I searched "Duterte" on Facebook and scrolled through a good number of posts to see what sentiments dominate.

Condemn Duterte?

 1. Coming from a poor family is no excuse.

"Hindi rin po ako anak ng conyo, at hindi rin po ako parte ng 'elite' na kung tawagin ng mayor na ito. Subalit, hindi ko ginagamit ang panggagahasa (rape) bilang paksa ng biro," said someone on my social media feed.

(I am also not the son of a rich person, and I am not part of the "elite" which this mayor is talking about. But I don't use rape as the subject of jokes.)

2. A person who makes such remarks is unfit for the presidency.

This was how Malacañang chose to respond to the issue but it's also how some social media users are gauging Duterte. If Duterte can't control his manner of speaking as a presidential candidate, how can he control it if he becomes president? Can we trust such a person to represent the country and make us proud in international settings? 

3. His remark shows, at the most, tolerance for rape, at the least, insensitivity to the issue of rape.

One female Facebook user quoted the words of Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson to express her own views on Duterte. Robertson described Duterte's remark as "a disgusting endorsement of sexual violence." Voting for Duterte, said the netizen, is a vote for sexual violence.

4. He desecrated the memory of a rape victim to gain political points.

"You insulted her, her family and her co-missionaries by making her a part of your campaign speech, an object that your gullible (?) supporters laughed about," said another female Facebook user.

Forgive Duterte?

 1. His actions speak louder than words.

Netizens who feel this way cite his pro-woman programs. Davao City, under Duterte, was the first in the country to implement the Women Development Code. The local government put up a center for battered women and gives financial assistance to women who want to avail of tubal ligation.  

2. Better to have a president who makes bad jokes than one who is corrupt and incompetent.

"[I'd] rather have a President that has a bad mouth but a good heart than a President that sounds so good but their hearts are covered with mud (Hypocrites)," said one Facebook user.

People who hold this view point out the flaws of other presidential candidates: Jejomar Binay's corruption allegations, Grace Poe's inexperience, Mar Roxas' promise of continuity for the supposedly inadequate "Daang Matuwid." 

3. He was the "hero" of the hostage-taking incident.

Some netizens chose to share the uncut, unedited YouTube video of Duterte's reaction to the uproar, saying news groups are biased in their reporting. The uncut video includes Duterte recalling how he offered himself as a hostage to resolve the first hostage-taking incident involving Felipe Pugoy. He said the remark was not made in jest but in anger at the murder of Hamill. 

4. At least he's honest.

Some netizens applauded Duterte for his brutal honesty and authenticity. The mayor said he has never hidden his foul mouth, saying he picked it up while growing up in a village where people speak the same way. He felt sorry that others took it the wrong way. 

"He did apologize for saying those words and perhaps for being insensitive. But he doesn't have to apologize for who he is, because, that's who he is," said one Facebook user.

So what will it be for you?

Right now, Duterte is the front runner in the presidential race, based on pre-election surveys. I'm hazarding a guess that his rape remarks will hit his numbers among the upper- to middle-class and the youth. But a lot can still happen in the remaining 3 weeks before the elections. (READ: The Punisher and The Bully) – Rappler.com 

With so much of Southeast Asia linked to China through trade and tourism, the latest news out out of the Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank should give many in the region good reason to pause. 

The multilateral lender in its 2016 Asian Development Outlook, released this March 30, forecast China’s economic growth would continue to moderate. So too, it forecast, would the Philippines. 

In its flagship annual economic report, the ADB saw China’s growth slowing to 6.5 percent this year, and 6.3 percent in 2017. 

In contrast, Beijing has predicted growth of 6.5 to 7 percent this year, and an average of 6.5 percent over the five years ahead.  (READ: China posts slowest quarterly growth)

The slowing growth rate has already reduced by up to 0.3 percentage points the economic outlook for developing Asian nations overall, notes the ADB, given China’s trade and supply linkages.

Philippines GDP is now forecast to grow 6 percent this year. That's a downward revision from the ADB's previous 6.3 percent outlook for 2016 and in contrast to the government’s official 6.8 to 7.8 percent projected growth rate. 

Yet, if it was simply a slowing, but still growing, China that the economic power’s trade partners had to contend with, that would be challenge enough. Instead, in a potentially ominous new development for businesses in the region, new worries and ensuing protests have arisen over whether China’s version of “rule of law” and treatment of dissent has now extended beyond its borders.

This goes beyond ongoing projections of Chinese power into the West Philippines or South China Sea. 

No longer have only Mainland Chinese citizens been caught up in China’s legal and security system. So, too, have Hong Kong citizens as well as passport holders from Sweden and the United Kingdom vanished and then reappeared over the last few months under mysterious circumstances.

The capitalist, freewheeling city-state of Hong Kong has been pretty much left on its own to run as an autonomous special administrative region of China since the British left this one-time Crown colony in 1997.

That could now be changing. As China’s GDP growth rate moderates to the slowest in a quarter century, more attention may well be being placed by authorities in China on stomping out anything that could trigger questions about their leadership and ability to run the nation.

Going missing

In a tale that reads as if from a Cold War spy thriller, Gui Minhai, a Swedish national born in China, went missing last fall from his condominium in the Thai city of Pattaya on the Gulf of Siam. Four of his colleagues also disappeared.

One, Lee Bo, vanished at year’s end from Hong Kong, the home base of their publishing company Mighty Current Media and its now closed retail arm Causeway Book Store. Mighty Current has specialized in part in publishing and marketing controversial and outright gossipy books, often highly critical of China’s communist leadership.  Gui and Lee’s other three book publishing colleagues reportedly disappeared while in Mainland China.

Gui subsequently reemerged on China’s government-run state broadcaster CCTV.  In a tearful broadcast confession, Gui said he had returned to China to face justice for his involvement in a 2003 fatal hit-and-run accident in the city of Ningbo.  Family and friends are skeptical and wonder if the filmed statement was coerced.

And Lee reappeared back in Hong Kong at the end of March after more than two months in mainland China.  According to the Washington Post, he was quoted by a Chinese website as saying he would never again sell “fabricated” books or run a bookstore again.

Why the disappearances?  A leading theory focused on Mighty Current Media’s possible publication of a tell-all book on the twice-married Chinese president Xi Jinping’s alleged love affairs. 

This time, as the rumors – and conspiracy theories – went, Mighty Current’s plans may well have spurred Xi to send Chinese security forces across the border into both Hong Kong and Thailand to spirit away the Swedish and British passport holders back into China against their will.

“An upsurge in cases of possible enforced disappearances in China in the context of an ongoing crackdown in dissent is deeply worrisome,” the global writers’ organization PEN International said in a statement released in London in early January.

Reason to pause

More intrigue will follow. Western media are reporting that Chinese dissidents in the United States and Europe are saying that close relatives back in China may have been detained by police, as part of an investigation into the authors of a mysterious letter that appeared on the Internet in China, calling for Xi to resign.

Steve Herman, Southeast Asia bureau chief of Voice of America and a longtime Asia reporter now resident in Bangkok, noted earlier this year on the disappearance of Gui from Pattaya, “A critical unanswered question is whether there was collusion between the Chinese government and Thai authorities. The lack of concern expressed by the ruling military junta is notable.”

Ominously, he added, “China has demonstrated that it has the long reach to apparently abduct people beyond Hong Kong, including here in Southeast Asia.

A climate of fear may well come should it ever be confirmed that Mainland Chinese security forces have abducted people from the streets of Hong Kong and Thailand.  But until then, business goes on.  

The tale of the missing booksellers and a seeming growing crackdown on criticism of China’s leadership by individuals at home and abroad, however, should give Southeast Asia reason to pause.  

Whether in Hong Kong, Thailand or one of China’s other major Asia trading partners including the Philippines, leaders should recognize that it is a clear, and transparently enforced rule of law – not looking the other way on “enforced disappearances” – that will be essential for business confidence and economic growth in the long run.

China, too, must recognize at some point that its strength will lie ultimately in the free enterprise and free speech of its citizens. – Rappler.com

Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is managing director of advisory firm RiverPeak Group, LLC.  Follow him on Twitter at @CurtisSChin.

A quick thumbnail: Grace Poe sounds like a street evangelist begging public utility commuters for loose change; Roxas, a little boy tugging at the hemline of his mother’s skirt; Miriam, well nobody but same old feisty Miriam; and Binay is, uhm, mukhang guilty (looks guilty)?

To be sure, every candidate can talk the talk, though overall, their rhetorical registers are somewhat sanitized, or affectatious and studied on the safe side. And by sanitized rhetorical register, I mean that kind of self­-consciously calculated utterance that smacks of classroom politics where the one who garners the most thunderous claps wins.

Teddy Boy Locsin took some flak for suggesting that the major players of Philippine politics should stop using the (Tagalog) language that’s “so bullshitty, so useless a tongue for debate,” if they want to elevate, or uplift the people’s voting consciousness.

On the basis of that observation alone, the whole presidential debate therefore feeds us nothing but boringness exemplified.

You’ve heard one, you’ve heard all. Excepting the drawing power of their respective celebrity endorsers, the bottomline is always about man’s lust for power and greed.

But while most candidates are taking the safe beaten path when it comes to their semantics or rhetorics, no other candidate except Duterte can say point­ blank that he can and will kill criminals and drug addicts if the need arises.

If his projection is reliable, within 6 months in office, the whole country will be as peaceful as Eden. Well, 6 months sounds a little whimsical and ambitious, but that is not my concern.

My question is: can all of Metro Manila’s or the country’s key cities’ cemeteries, crematoriums, and columbariums accommodate the carcasses of criminals and drug addicts harvested from his campaign for national peace and order?

I swear, I don’t know how he does what he does, but poll and survey stats seem to indicate that the Filipino is about ready for a leader who can do just that—kill criminals, drug addicts, and the corrupt.

By tongue­-in­-cheek Simon Cowell standards, Duterte does exude the political gung-ho of somebody who can run the country by dictatorship, if not by mob rule—you know, guns, goons, and gerontological dude guts.

Shooting from the hip

To be honest, I don’t know Duterte like I know opportunist Kris Aquino and Korina Sanchez; and only from those quote­s and memes breaking social media do I know that he has effected a shoot­ from­ the­ hip kind of rhetorics, and he has been masterfully wielding it since he was first thrown into the spotlight.

“Si Mar, bayot. Hindi niya kaya. Kaya ko kasi lalaki ako. Hindi ka lalaki Mar, paano ‘yan? Takot kang pumatay, takot kang mamatay. Subukan mo ako. Maghawak ka ng shabu sa harap ko, pasabugin ko sa ulo ko. You try holding shabu in my presence. ‘Pag ‘di kita binaril sa ulo, ‘tang­ina mo,” he once said.

(Mar is gay. He can’t do it. I can because I am a man. You are not a man, Mar, how is that? You are afraid to kill, afraid to die. Try me... You try holding shabu in my presence, I will blow your head off, you son of a b_tch.)

“Ang hirap sa ‘yo Mar, you are a pretentious leader.” (The trouble with you Mar is you are a pretentious leader.)

“Ito namang isa (si Roxas), ako raw ay diktador, pala­away, mainitin ang ulo. Kaya walang sumusunod sa gobyerno ninyo, kasi ikaw, bakla ka.” (This Roxas here says I am a dictator, a trouble­maker, and hot­-tempered. The reason nobody follows your orders in your government is because you, you are gay.)

“I have been with government for a long time. There is so much money. Do you know why I don’t want to steal? Because I was a prosecutor before I became mayor. I used to be a special prosecutor of the Tanod Bayan, the body before the Ombudsman. I used to prosecute people all around Mindanao because of embezzlement and malversation.”

“Nakita mo si Binay maglakad? Nakita niyo yung unang debate na di na makahakbang? Ewan ko kung ninenerbiyos o 'yan ang dahilan basta magnakaw ng pera di na hihinto yan...Sa bilangan ng pera? Mahirap kasi ang mag­-ano (bilang) ka ng bilyon.”

(Have you seen Binay walk? Did you see during the first debate how he could hardly walk? I don’t know if he was just nervous or if that’s caused by stealing money non-stop...Counting money? It’s tough when you’re counting billions.)

“They say I am a threat to democracy. Really? I’ve been mayor for 22 years in Davao. Cite me a day or a moment when I was a dictator.”

“Ako raw ang berdugo ng bayan. My God, vice president, ikaw ang berdugo ng pera ng tao.” (I am supposedly the national executioner. My God, vice president, you are the executioner of the people’s money.)

Poor Roxas, Binay, et al. are nothing but mere trigger points on which he launches his brand of irreverent irony peppered with a dash of shock factor here and there.

Political mind games

Politics is as much a mind game for Duterte as it is his playing field, his rivals should know that by now, ­and it bothers just thinking Roxas is clueless, or that Duterte is just provoking him. And it gives Duterte so much sense of triumph and satisfaction just poking fun of Roxas, more so when he sees the latter all roiled.

People believe it’s the shady, murderous shroud about him that makes Duterte the most interesting and convincing in most parts, but I think it’s really the nonchalant attitude that has mostly cemented the prevailing mindset that he could very well be the much­ awaited savior of the Philippines, ­a nation whose fate is skidding slowly past the point of redemption.

"The criminals have no place in this city except jails, detention centers, and God forbid, funeral parlors."

"Stop or leave. If you cannot or will not, you will not survive. You can either leave vertically or horizontally."

"I tell you criminals. Don't come to this city."

"A leader must be a terror to the few who are evil to protect the lives and well­being of the many who are good."

"I do not care if I burn in hell for as long as the people I serve live in paradise."

"Cut the trees and I will cut your heads."

“The trouble with us in government is that we talk too much, we act too slow, and do too little.”

“God must have been somewhere else or forgot that there was planet Earth.”

“Don’t f_ck with my team. ‘Di ako papayag ng ganyan (I will not allow it). Anarchy?”

A word of advice to Roxas: revenge is a dish best served cold. ‘Nuff said. – Rappler.com

Emeniano Somoza is an overseas Filipino worker at the world’s second largest petrochem company. He is also the editor­-at­-large of The Syzygy Poetry Journal.

Dear Mayor Duterte,

I don’t know you personally, although I know what you have done for women in Davao City and the support you have given our women’s groups there, including our One Billion Rising (OBR) campaign for the last 4 years.

I have been to Davao many times for OBR and have seen first hand the projects you implemented there – the Davao City Women’s Code, and the Davao City One Stop Crisis Center for Women – all achieved side by side with our women’s advocacy groups there like Gabriela and many others.

The incredibly diverse, radically political and fiercely creative OBR annual Rising events that happen there each year, joined by so many, if not all sectors of society in Davao, is testament to the dignity and respect and value given to women and girls there.

I also know how you fight for the Lumad and workers - insisting on their rights - fighting against militarization that continue to kill and harass them. I was in UCC Haran at the Lumad camp in Davao, and our brothers and sisters there told me how you continue to send food for them.

I see how you stand by our most marginalized, like the ongoing Kidapawan injustices happening to our farmers, more than any other leader. I see the way your heart beats loudly against the injustices heaped against them.

But these days I am having sleepless nights thinking of the male machismo entitlement in which you wield words on a privileged whim because of your elevated status as a man of position and power.

I grew up in a household where my father also wielded words – words that were used as swords to assert his male superiority and power over my Mother.

Words that hurt her person and shattered her soul. Words that destroyed any feelings of value or security she may have had in order for him to feel more powerful, to feel manly, to feel in control. Words that were meant to put women in their place – inferior, no value – violent language.

You see Mayor Duterte, you remind me of my father, who fought for the poor and the marginalized, and despite being a Marcos man, always told his children we should always be proud he never stole from the government, which is, he reminded us, why we did not live in Forbes Park like the Marcos cronies.

He was of the people, for them. He served them. I witnessed this truth my entire growing up life. But at home he called my mother names and put her down. He was mean to her. He womanized.

He called women every derogatory name much like how you do. His male macho privilege permeated our home, our family – and his devaluing of women created fear, insecurity, anger, instability, duplicity, double standards.

My first sense of injustice came from him, and for many years I could not see past all the good he had done as a public official, all the policies and programs he created in Makati for the women and the poorest communities as vice mayor for years, because all I could see and feel was my mother’s hurt.

All I could see was how his constant misogynistic macho sexist diminishing of her affected her life, affected ours. I can still hear her cries and smell her fear. For decades, I never said anything, again to protect my father’s good public name and the service he had done – even if the truth about him burned with rage inside me.

It took many years, and doing the work I do now with OBR and Gabriela to realize that it is not him I should be protecting. The ones causing hurt should be the ones exposed, even it means losing family and friends.

When I am at a crux or crossroad of principles, beliefs and courage about these issues – all I have to do is imagine her, my mother. As I wish you would imagine your mother every time you crack a joke about women or talk about them in a derogatory way, or make a joke about rape.

Mayor Duterte, rape is rape. I don’t have to tell you what that means. But you need to understand the full gravity of rape and rape culture. And where your actions play a part in perpetuating that.

Rape culture is denying the weight and seriousness of the crime by joking about it. It doesn’t matter that you tell us later on what the context of the story was.

All that matters is that you made light of it, and allowed your followers at that rally to laugh along, diminishing the gravity of the rape.

Words are important Mayor. You cannot throw them out playfully and casually and not look at the consequences of what your words do.

Allowing, excusing rape culture

Rape culture is allowed to exist when you first say Jaqueline Hamil – an Australian missionary – was “beautiful, and looked like an American actress”. You could have mentioned that she was a missionary, there to help and serve.

Instead of noting her physical attributes, which commodifies and objectifies her. Which treats her as an object, instead of as a woman, a person, with more than just looks. Without you realizing it, you have already diminished her by objectifying her on that level alone.

Rape culture is then further perpetuated when you say your most criminal words, to paraphrase: “that she is so beautiful, it’s a shame – the mayor should have been first”. You meant first to rape her. You meant the mayor should have had first dibs, first right over her.

Again, it does not matter that your words came out of rage as you said later. Think of what you are saying here Mayor. The mayor should have been first to rape her.

To me that is not rage; that is, again, chauvinist sexist misogynist male privilege. And more seriously, it is a diminishing of the act of rape. It is trivializing rape. It is the normalizing of rape.

Imagine if Jacqueline was your daughter, and someone else had said your words about her. I have no doubt you would be coming after them with your guns.

I have no doubt you would be placing the full force of your position and might over them, not even for a sorry, but because you would not even see that as injustice, but as a grave insult to your loved one.

I don’t think, for a second you would allow that person to sit, in front of the media, and try to justify their words and action by relaying a long protracted story on context. I don’t think you would take it sitting down if that person said they are not sorry at all and sees no need to apologize.

I don’t think you would accept it if that person simply tried to take the gravity of the situation away by saying he was just using "crass language" because he was “angry”. Nothing justifies rape as a joke.

And then rape culture is deepened by a refusal to own your actions. You didn’t really apologize directly - it was enshrined in even more defensive justifications. More than an apology it is the lack of humility in which to admit you did wrong that also perpetuates rape culture. The laws and policies implemented mean nothing if respect and dignity for women is not fully embodied in concrete thought, actions and words.

'You are influential'

Mayor, you are running for the highest position in the land, and by all accounts, are topping the polls. You are influential. People believe in you, follow you, are relying on you to change this corrupt poisoned system that has driven our people to such unimaginable abject poverty and suffering.

This belief from the people holds you even more accountable than most. Holds you in even greater responsibility for your words and actions. And we put this out now because we know you have been on the side of women in the past, your Davao record as Mayor speaks for itself.

Davao rises so gloriously and fiercely for its women now because of the belief you have also put into the women’s movement there. This is not an attack. It is a request for you to look deeper into your heart that we all know beats more authentically than most leaders for the people and their best interests.

You cannot speak on revolution and rights, if you do not give equal weight to this issue. The issue of rape and rape culture. Revolution after all, first begins with the radical shift in consciousness of deeply entrenched mindsets. Patriarchal mindsets.

No change can happen without this. And no transformation can happen without the humility to acknowledge where one has done wrong.

Mayor, this photo is of Lola Narcisa – one of our Filipina comfort women – fighting for justice for what happened to her and thousands of other comfort women who were raped and sexually enslaved during World War II.

Just imagine this, as you imagine your own mother or grandmother as one of our Philippine comfort women – fighting for justice for what happened to her and thousands of other comfort women who were raped and sexually enslaved during World War II.

Abducted by the Japanese army at 14 years old. Held for two years in a “comfort station." Raped sometimes by 70 soldiers a day – a day.

In silence for 50 years. Speaking out and fighting for justice for nearly 23 years now. She has carried this all her life, and still no justice.

She is one of the lucky ones. The others have lost their minds, and families who shunned them. Many lost organs, and the ability to bear children from so many rapes.

Most have already died. Lola Narcisa continues to fight for them, and for the next generation of comfort women. Some today as young as 9 years old, raped by police, by military, sold and trafficked, sexually violated for P15 just to get to school or half a kilo of rice just so that their families can eat.

Imagine this as you imagine your own daughters.

Rape ruins a life, and takes it away a life recovering, healing, surviving in constant breakage and pain instead of a life thriving, living, creating, growing.

Lola Narcisa has given her entire life to this cause. For speaking up after all the years of silence, and facing daily the risks of being re-raped by indifference and apathy that rape culture allows to exist.

She is still marching on the streets although barely able to walk now, even when justice is not forthcoming because rape culture breeds impunity.

She is still fighting so that the legacy she can leave behind for us is consciousness, a deeper understanding of what rape does to a woman.

Her life and sacrifice should propel us now with everything to fight against rape and rape culture in all its forms. Rape is no laughing matter for her.

Mayor, in this country you profess to love, our country you are pledging to serve, one woman or child is raped every 53 minutes, 7 out of 10 are children.

Majority never get justice. Rape culture allows this.

Please give Lola Narcisa, and the countless, oftentimes nameless, faceless, invisible women and girls dignity. Please allow humility to deepen your education and understanding of rape.

And please, please, use your privilege, your influence, and your power, to end rape culture. – Rappler.com

Innocent victim of rape image via ShutterStock

This first appeared as a Facebook post of Monique Wilson.

Monique Wilson is an internationally acclaimed actor known for her lead role in the original London production of “Miss Saigon” and for founding the New Voice Company theater group. She is also the Director of One Billion Rising, a global campaign to end violence against women.

Na unsa na man ka mayor? Imbis nga midaghan na ang mirespetar ug mobutar sa imoha, morag mahagbong ka sa imuhang puwesto numero uno

Ngano man intawon nga ipanghambog nimo sa mga priso nga ikaw ang mo-uuna sa pag-lugos didto kang Jacqueline Hamill? Abi nimo naosab siguro ang pag-tanaw nila ni Felipe Pugoy ug kaubanan  karon nga nanghambog ka nga ikaw unta ang una magboong sa Australyana. Miingon siguro sila, “Aha, si Mayor, kaubanan gyud nato; rapist sab….busa mo itugyan na nato ang atong kaugalingon sa iyaha!” Ay kung ingon ana wa diay kay kalainan nianing mga kriminal!

Sa imong pagpanalipod sa imohang gisulti, imong gipatin-aw sa medya nga mao gyud na imong gigikanan – nga dako sa dalan ka, ug sa dalan ug mga kanto sa Dabaw ingon ana ang sinulti-an.

Tinuod kana. Midako pud ko sa kanto-kanto sa Ozamiz, ug akong naihumduman nga daghan mig istorya bahin sa mga guwapa nga taga-amo. Pero Mayor, maski ang pinaka-balasubas ug pina-ka-bastos sa amo-a, way gyud mangandoy nga among lugoson ni sila aron motagad sila sa amo-a.

Wa gyud. Kay kabalo ka Mayor, kaming kanhing mga istambay sa tubaan ni Donya, dako kaayog pagtahod sa mga kababa-inhan.

Gasugod kini sa among mga inahan, nga ga-antos ug husto para lang maka-butang ug pagkaon sa lamesa kada adlaw. Para sa uban sa amo-a, ang kasaligan lang ang ilang mga inahan kay way pulos ang ilang mga amahan: pala-igit, sugarol, daghang kabit, ug ni usa ka sentimo way nahatag sa pamilya.

Ang inahan mao gyuy ibutang sa sanggaan. Ug bow na bow ming tanan.

Sa among tana-aw Mayor, kining imong panghambog ga-mansa ug dako sa dungog sa atong mga inahan. Gi-insulto nimo ang ilang mga nabuhat para sa kanato nga ilang mga anak.

Gi-insulto sab nimo ang among mga igsoon, anak ug mga apo nga babayi. Sa imong dili tarung nga pag-sibya nga kay matahum sila, mahimo sila lugoson, gapakita lang nimo gaunsa ka-ubos ang imong pag-tanaw sa ilaha.

Ang akong anak mag-dalaga na Mayor. Kada adlaw ako siyang pahinumdoman nga itahod niya ang iyang lawas, ug likayan niya ang mga lalaki nga ang tan-aw sa iyaha usa ka “sex object” lang, kay kining mga taw-hana, walay pag-tamod sa ilang isig-katawo. Karon, kung mangutana siya kung ngano ingon ana ang pang-litok sa usa ka  sa mga kababainhan, wa koy laing masulti kung dili, “Ay Inday kining mga miabot sa bantawan sa sociedad, usahay modako pud ang ulo. Ug, kay macho na ilang pag-tanaw sa ilaha, mahimo na sila molitok ug bisan unsa, maski na ang pinaka-law-ay.”

Kabalo ka Mayor kung unsay isunod nga pangutana niya: “Ay kung ingon ana diay, way kalainan si Mayor Digong kang Felipe Pugoy no, Pa?” Moyango na lang ko.

Mayor, ingon ani ba ang imong pag-lantaw sa mga batan-ong mga babayi? Unsa kahay ikasulti ni Inday Sara niani?

Ug unsa kahay masulti sa imong hinigugma nga inahan kung madungog-an niya kini? Maka-ingon siguro siya nga “Hala, nawad-an naman ni akong anak ug pag-tahod sa among mga kababain-han! Asa man tong mga panundlo ko sa iyaha?”

Daghan baya ming mga Bisaya nga gusto motabang sa imoha kay sa among pag-tanaw ubay ubay na man sab ang imohang nabuhat para sa mga Dabaweño. Sa mga Bisdak (Bisayang Dako) ug sa mga taga-Mindanao. Way taga-ato nga sama sa imong kabantog, ug maski si anhing Landring Almendras o Nene Pimentel wa maka-abot nianing ang-ang nga na-abot nimo.

Karon nawad-an mi ug bilib sa imoha Mayor, ang among pagtan-aw kanimo nga lider naili-san ug paglingiw sa among mga nawong sa imong mga panulti.

Mi-grabe pa kay gapalabilabi ka sa pagpangayo ug pasaylo sa imong masakiton nga mga pulong. Mayor, wa ka bay pag-tagad sa mga pag-bati sa pamilya ni Hamill? Sa iyang inahan, amahan ug mga igsoon?

Mayor, kinahanglan ka mangayo ug pasaylo sa pamilya ni Ma’am Hamill, sa mga ga-suporta sa imo, sa mga kababa-inhan ug kalalakin-an, sa tibuok sociedad. Way pulos kining ipadayon nimo imong pag-gahi ug ulo. Moingon ang katawhan nga galimbong ka lang sa ilaha niadtong miingon ka nga “humble servant” ka sa ilaha. Sa mga amiga nako way kalainan ang imong hulagway sa kang Pugoy. Ikaw pa man unta ang ilang kandidato.

Mayor, nakurat na ming mga taga-Mindanao niadtong miingon si Manny Paquiao nga ang mga bayoton ug tomboyon dili tawo ug kinahanglan ipapatay sama sa gitudlo sa Bibliya. Imong gidungagan kini: niay usa pa nga taga-Mindanao  nga mi-mansa sa dungog nato.

Husto na ning kabuang, mayor. Dili angay sa imoha!

Daghan sigurong dili mouyon sa imong mga supporter nianing mensahe. Pero sa akong pang-huna-huna, mas maayo nang ipahibalo sa imoha nga kaming mga botante nasilo gyud sa maayo sa imong gipanlitok. Ug among  pangandoy nga unta sa mga sunod nga semana ipakita nimo Mayor Duterte nga dili ka sama kang Pugoy.

Mao ra ni. 

English tanslation:

What is happening to you, mayor? Instead of gaining the respect and votes of more people, it seems like you'd be falling from your number one spot.

Why, oh why, would you brag to prisoners about you wanting to go first in raping Jacqueline Hamill? Did you think that they would view Felipe Pugoy as a comrade now that you've bragged about being the first to molest the Australian? They probably said, "Aha! Mayor is really one of us; a rapist, too... so let's submit ourselves to him!" If that's how it is then there is no difference between you and those criminals.

In standing by what you said, you have made clear to the media what you are made of – that you come from the streets, and in the streets and street corners of Davao, this is how they talk. 

That is true. I grew up in the streets of Ozamiz, and I remember lots of conversations about the pretty women in our area. But mayor, even the most crass and the most disrespectful of us never dreamt of raping anyone just so that they would give us attention.

Never. Because you know, mayor, we, who spent our time drinking at the local watering hole, have a lot of respect for women.

This started from our mothers, who worked long and hard just to put food on the table every day. Some of us only had their mothers because their fathers were deadbeats: full of shit, gamblers, whores, and didn't even contribute one centavo to their family.

The mother is the one who is put on the pedestal. And we all look up to them.

In our eyes, mayor, what you said put a stain in our mothers' honors. You've insulted everything they did for us, their children.

You've also insulted our siblings, children, and grandchildren who are women. In your disrespectful way of broadcasting that, because they are beautiful they should be raped, you have shown how little you think of them.

My daughter is almost in her teens, mayor. Every day I remind her to respect her body and stay away from boys who only view her as a "sex object," because these guys have no appreciation for their fellowmen. Now, if she asks why one of our leaders talks about women that way, I can't say anything other than, "Oh Inday, these people who have high social status, sometimes also get big-headed. And, since they think they're so macho, they say just about anything, even the most obscene things."

You know, mayor, what her next question will be: "Oh, if that's how it is, there's no difference between Mayor Digong and Felipe Pugoy right, Pa?" And I'll just nod. 

Mayor, is this how you view young women? What would Inday Sara say about this?

And what would your beloved mother say if she heard this? She might say, "Oh no, my son has lost respect for us women! Where are all the things I taught him?"

There are so many of us Bisaya who want to help you because in our eyes you've done a lot for Davaoeños, for the Bisdak (people who grew up Bisaya) and those in Mindanao. Nobody else from our parts is as famous as you, not even the likes of Landring Almendras or Nene Pimentel have reached the heights that you have.

Now we've lost faith in you Mayor, our view of you as a leader has changed into us turning our heads and looking away at the things you say. 

It's even worse because you've constantly asked forgiveness for the hurtful things you say. Mayor, have you nothing to say to Hamill's family? To her mother, father, and siblings?

Mayor, you need to apologize to Ma'am Hamill's family, to your supporters, to women and even men, to the whole country. There's no sense in keeping on with your stubbornness. The people will say that you lied to them when you said you were their "humble servant." To my female friends, you are no different from Pugoy. And to think you are supposed to be their candidate.

Mayor, we Mindanaoans were shocked when Manny Pacquiao said that homosexuals aren't people and should be put to death according to the Bible. You added to this: here is another Mindanaoan who has stained our honor. 

Enough with this foolishness, mayor. It doesn't suit you!

Most likely, many of your supporters don't agree with your message. But in my opinion, it's best to let you know that we the voters have been hurt by what you've said. And our hope is that in the coming weeks you show us, Mayor Duterte, that you are nothing like Pugoy.

That is all. – Rappler.com

Patricio N. Abinales is an OFW

Kung ang una mong reaksyon sa title ko ay “Bayaran!” please stop reading. Hindi ito para sa mga troll na ginagamit ang Duterte campaign para magmura at mang-insulto. Madaling maniwala, lalo na 'pag galit. Ang gusto kong kausap 'yung mga willing mag-isip. 

Alam kong malaking problema para sa mga Duterte supporter ang droga. Siguro may kapit-bahay kang adik o baka mainit ang dugo mo sa rugby boy. O baka araw-araw kang pasahero ng bus driver na naka-shabu. I get it. Sa sobrang inis mo, gusto mong patayin ang mga mokong na 'yan. Basta, tapusin na. Pikit na lang 'pag may dugo. 

Siguro nga hindi pa nasusubukan ng Pilipinas ang all-out war against drugs. Pero sa tingin mo ba dahil lang ito sa kakulangan ng political will? Dahil lang walang kamay na bakal? Well, ito ang balita, p're: hindi gumagana ang all-out drug war. Gumagasta ka lang ng malaking pera, marami ang namamatay, pero marami pa ring naka-shabu. 

Paano natin nalaman ito? Kasi 'sang katutak na ang bansang sumubok ng drug war at nagsayang lang sila ng pera at buhay. Kapag may kausap akong Duterte supporter, tinatanong ko sila: meron ka bang alam na all-out drug war sa kasaysayan ng mundo na gumana? Wala silang ma'sagot. Liban na lang siguro sa Davao. 

Pero 'tol, teka lang, hindi bansa ang Davao City. Madaling palayasin ang pusher sa Davao City at papuntahin sa karatig-lugar. Kung takot silang mamatay sa Davao, mangangapit-bahay lang sila, ligtas na buhay nila. Hindi nito nilulutas ang problema, tinatabunan lang.

At tandaan: Davao is a city; Mayor Duterte is running to be president of an entire country. Name me a single all-out national drug war that has worked, and I will vote for Duterte. 

Since 1971, $2.5 trillion na ang ginasta ng US sa tinawag ni Richard Nixon na “total war on drugs.” Pero mismong si Pangulong Bill Clinton ang umamin na kahit pinatupad niya ang giyerang ito, wala nangyari. “If all you do is try to find a police or military solution to the problem, a lot of people die, and it doesn’t solve the problem,” sabi ni Clinton. Kung ang Amerika na mismo na pagkarami-raming pera at pagkalaki-laki ng police force, hindi magiyera ang droga, paano pa kaya tayo? 

Para kasing kabote and drug lord at drug pusher. Basta merong kostumer, hahanap sila nang hahanap ng paraan. Kahit patayin ni Digong ang mga drug pusher, hindi sila mawawala. Malaking pera kasi ang drugs at meron laging handang sumugal ng buhay nila para sa k'warta. Also, may economic angle ito, 'tol: kung marami kang pinatay na pusher, panandaliang kokonti ang supply ng droga. 'Pag nangyari 'yun, tataas ang presyo ng droga. 'Pag tumaas ang presyo ng droga, mas maraming susubok magbenta ng droga kasi mas marami ang kanilang kita. Ito ang tinatawag na deadly cycle. 

Pero ito ang pinaka-scary: Nang giniyera ng mga utak-pulbura ang drugs sa Peru, Colombia, at Mexico, nag-armas ang mga drug lord bilang tugon. Kung dati mga manggagantso lang sila, bigla silang naging mga warlord. Sa tingin 'nyo ba kasi hindi papalag ang mga kartel, sa dinami-dami ng perang pinuhunan nila riyan? 

Ang karahasan ay nanganganak ng mas marami pang karahasan. Halos 60 years na ang all-out drug war sa Colombia. Sa panahong ito, marami na silang inihalal na parang Mayor Duterte: mga lider na handang pumatay ng drug lord at kriminal. Ano ang resulta? 

220,000 taong patay. Hindi lang drug lord, kundi mga inosenteng tao. At ang mga drug lord at kartel? Andyan pa rin. 'Yun nga lang, armado na sila at handang pumatay ng pulis, sundalo, at sinumang kaaway. Gusto 'nyo bang magaya sa Colombia ang Pilipinas? Madaling sabihin “Kill the drug lord!” Pero kaya mo bang panindigan 'yan for 10 years? 20 years? 30  years? 100 years? 

So, paano na? Paano na natin tutugunan ang problema ng droga? Tugunan natin ang puno't dulo nito: kahirapan. Hangga’t merong mahihirap na batang malungkot at desperado, hindi kokonti ang mga pusher at user. Hangga’t hindi natin nasisiguro na nasa esk'wela ang bata at hindi nasa kalsada, hindi mawawala ang shabu. 

Magabal ba itong prosesong ito? Nakakainip ba? Sure. Pero kung walang tiyaga, walang nilaga. At ang ulam ng mga apurado? Dinuguan. – Rappler.com 

Si Lisandro Claudio ay affiliated assistant professor sa Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, at research associate sa Institute of Philippine Culture. 

MANILA, Philippines – They were all in their teens. John Russel Garcia, John Paul Tena, Kirby Bokingo, Jaymee Gubaton, Bren Loren Calabines, and Rodalyn Bautista were graduating Grade 10 students. 

They had their whole lives ahead of them: graduations, college, careers. But everything ended in a fiery crash on a road in Tagaytay in the wee hours of January 17, 2016. 

It started as a joyride. According to news reports, the youngsters were in a car driven by Calabines, who had a student license. It was his father’s car; the boy reportedly took it without his parent’s permission. The car hit a concrete barrier and several trees before bursting into flames. All 6 teenagers died in the horrific crash.

Every hour, someone dies on our roads. Every day, 28 people don’t make it home alive. In a year, that adds up to 10,379 people – or about 188 busloads.

The high costs of road carnage

It’s high time that the CEO of our country made road safety a development priority. Road crashes take a heavy toll on our society and economy.

• Road crashes tip poor families into deeper poverty. 

These families have less savings and assets to absorb the shock of having a family member killed or injured in a crash. A study showed that seven out of 10 poor families reported their income to have decreased after a road death. To cover the loss of income, 6 out of 10 poor households were forced to take a loan after a road death.

• Injuries from road crashes strain our public health system. 

When the poor get hurt in a road crash, they seek medical attention in public hospitals. These injuries place a huge burden on health care services. In general, public hospitals in the Philippines shoulder an average of 25 to 75% of the victims' total costs of medication and treatment.

• Road crashes drain a whopping P394.6 billion of our country’s GDP. 

Ricardo Sigua heads the road safety research lab at the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies (UP NCTS). He estimated that 2.6% of our gross domestic product (GDP) is lost due to road crashes. In 2004, that loss amounted to P105.2 billion. 

In 2015, the Philippines had an estimated GDP of P15.1 trillion. Please do the math.

Eight questions 

Calling on the 5 candidates running for president! Please answer the following questions: 

1. What infrastructure will you build to keep pedestrians safe? 

Walking in Metro Manila is no walk in the park. The sidewalks are narrow. Vendors and motor vehicles often encroach on what little space there is. The footbridges are often steep, unfriendly, and inconveniently located. 

As a result, walking in the megacity can be fatal. More than 57,877 persons on foot were injured or killed in Metro Manila from 2005 to 2015, said Thinking Machines. “Pedestrians made up 46.2% of Metro Manila’s 4,024 road fatalities since 2005,” said the data science consultancy.

“That’s more than the number of drivers (39.8% or passengers (14%) that were killed.”

2. Will you build protected bicycle lanes? 

Two-wheeled travel can be deadly in Metro Manila: Crashes involving bicycles are over seven times more likely to result in death or injury than car crashes, reports Thinking Machines. According to MMDA data, from 2005 to 2013, 1,127 people on bicycles died in crashes. That comes out to 125 deaths per year.

Clearly, bicycles and motor vehicles don’t mix. Protected bike lanes are physically separated lanes that are exclusively for people on bicycles. These lanes will keep them alive and make the roads safer for everyone. 

3. How will you make public transit safe?  

Eight out of 10 people in Metro Manila ride public transit. That figure includes children, the elderly, and persons with disability. 

Yet much of public transit in the country is unsafe. An MRT-3 train was derailed in 2014. Two LRT-1 trains collided in 2015.

Buses regularly figure in road crashes. According to a study from UP NCTS, the people who ride public buses are 6 times more at risk of being in a road crash than are private car passengers. Bus passengers are 5 times more likely to be in a crash than are riders of jeeps and UV express service vehicles. 

4. How will you improve road safety laws and their enforcement? 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 5 key risk factors: speed; drinking and driving; motorcycle helmets; seatbelts and child restraints; and distracted driving. Well-designed measures that address these risks will make the roads safe.

5. How will you make motor vehicles safer?

It’s time for drivers to stop claiming that their vehicles “lost brakes.” All vehicles should pass basic safety standards. They should include safety features, such as seat belts, front-impact regulations, and electric stability control, said Etienne Krug, head of WHO’s disability, violence and injury prevention unit.

6. How will you enhance post-crash response?

Further enhancing trauma care systems will guarantee the prompt treatment of those with life-threatening injuries, said the WHO. The bereaved, on the other hand, will need emotional and legal support as they attend investigations and court hearings. 

7. How will you ensure that the country meets its goal of halving road traffic fatalities by 2020? 

In 2015, the Philippines joined member states of the United Nations in adopting the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Road safety targets are included in the SDGs:

• Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages:

"By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.”

• Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

"By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons”

8. What will you personally do to make our nation’s roads safe?

Road safety is everyone’s business. Still, you, as the country’s leader, will have a big role to play. 

“Political will is needed at the highest level of government to ensure appropriate road safety legislation and stringent enforcement of laws by which we all need to abide,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

“If this cannot be ensured, families and communities will continue to grieve, and health systems will continue to bear the brunt of injury and disability due to road traffic crashes,” Chan added.

#SafeRoadsPH

Take heart, dear next leader. Road crash injuries and deaths can be prevented. 

And investments in road safety in developing countries, like the Philippines, can be very cost-effective. According to the Asian Development Bank, “some studies suggest that spending 10% of the current costs of road crashes on safety may prevent 70% of those costs in future.”

Just think: Spending 10% of the P394.6 billion lost from the country’s GDP due to road crashes may save 70% of that huge sum. Imagine investing P39.4 billion in life-saving laws and infrastructure. See in your mind’s eye all the lives that can be saved. And picture all the schools, mass transit systems, parks, and feeding programs that can be funded with the billions of pesos saved.

Dear next president, what will you do to make #SafeRoadsPH a reality during your watch?– Rappler.com

Dinna Louise C. Dayao (dinnadayao@gmail.com) is an independent writer and editor. 

This story was produced under the Bloomberg Initiative-Global Road Safety Media Fellowship implemented by the World Health Organization, the Department of Transportation and Communication, and VERA Files. 

GoPro videos have become ubiquitous among mountain bikers. The more adventurous the journey the better. Go viral on social media, and you have a winner. You might even get a payout from YouTube.

But we want to discuss another way to make money. Money for local roads in the Philippines. We want to discuss a way that officials and citizens could make a GoPro-type movie, convert it into a digital map, and possibly receive a payout from the Department of Budget and Management under a new program called Kalsada.

It’s more fun in PH!

The Philippines is a tropical archipelago of over seven thousand islands, making for many jewel destinations. The country’s tourism slogan “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tries to capture the spirit of a friendly, welcoming and fun-loving people which the adventurous tourist will experience. Palawan was recently voted as the planet’s best island destination by a top travel magazine.

In search of fun, we tried to visit one of its towns, Port Barton, two years ago. But chronic infrastructure means that sometimes you are in for a rough ride. Confronted with bad roads, we were only able to actually make it to this idyllic destination many months later.

Scaling up public infrastructure investments

The government is acutely aware of the not-funny roads situation. Overall public infrastructure spending quadrupled to 5 percent of GDP in five years. The Department of Public Works & Highways is committed to fully paving the 31,000 km of the national road network, and budgets for the road network grew from PHP 165B in 2010 to PHP 569.9B in 2016 (almost US$ 14 billion).

But improving “last mile” access to reach one’s destination means upgrading the remaining 180,000 km of local roads. To place this into perspective: that would take you halfway to the moon.

At the moment, several programs target local roads, ranging from national tourism to farm-to-market road (FMR) programs, totalling close to US$ 1 billion dollars in 2016.  About 80 provinces and 1,651 cities/municipalities are implicated. What are the challenges to make these programs a success?

How can one be sure that the right roads get built in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost? These are simple, but tough questions to answer, because patronage politics affect local roads in a major way in the Philippines. The FMR joke? Farm-to-My-Resort...

No map, no movie, no money

First problem: there are no, or incomplete, local road maps. And waiting for the official mapping agency to come to your village may take a long, long time.

Technology to the rescue: using a mobile video application that works on basic smartphone, Routeshoot, ordinary citizens and local officials can jump on their bike or into their car and create the missing digital road map. They can then, after some training, upload these movies and maps to a new, online OpenRoads portal. The portal will now map and track all national road investment financing for the local network.

If movie and maps are uploaded, a basic condition for accessing a new public investment financing program, Kalsada, will have been met. In its first year of operation, 2016, Kalsada allocates almost USD 150 million in national budget financing directly to provincial governments for their priority roads.

Good roads=good politics?

We acknowledge of course on-line roads transparency is no silver bullet. The World Development Report 2016 on the Internet & Development, titled Digital Dividends, underscores that digital technology needs “analog” complements, such as institutions that link transparency to accountability, to improve service delivery.

The transparency and performance criteria for sub-national financing found in Kalsada cannot immunize local road construction from political realities. Reformist programs will not survive in the absence of popular support. In May 2016, the Philippines electorate will have the opportunity to choose its next president, as well as seeing the leadership of all local governments.

But the simple act of posting the exact location and path of a road project means that it can be tracked and subject to citizen feedback. This gives the country at least the opportunity to check whether the right roads are getting built at the right time and cost

The road ahead

The Kalsada program puts maps & movies at the center of the money for public investment budgeting. The dramatic reduction in the cost of collecting and managing data has meant that numbers and pictures should also become part for the course in modern budgets, and even enriching them with road movies. It has become the basis for real time reporting performance dashboards for national governments.

Today, budget transparency standards have come a long way in the Philippines. The maps and movies under Kalsada are going down the road of making citizens aware of where the money goes. Will they use this awareness to hold their local politicians accountable? – Rappler.com

Kai Kaiser is a senior economist at the World Bank focused on public finance and public sector governance reform in the Philippines. Special thanks goes to the World Bank’s Big Data Innovation Program Grants and the Australian DFAT in the Philippines for supporting this work.

My social media feed is spewing out post after post of venom about Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s rape “joke”.

Whether from a stand point of castigating him or defending him, the tone of the commentary is so vile that you can’t help but wince while reading it, so contemptuous that you can feel the full force of words as if they were slapped onto a page. 

The onslaught of rage was interrupted by posts expressing another kind of emotion: fear. 

One netizen, wrote: “The support that has been shown to Duterte throughout all of this has been so mind-numbingly overwhelming that I cannot help but feel that I live in a country where it is impossible for me to feel safe if I leave my house. Today more than ever I realize just how many people are out there to cause this violence.”

Then other posts began to appear, those of women disclosing that they were once raped.

Some relived their trauma, disclosing their attack with much emotion and great detail.

Those who had not experienced rape themselves but knew others who shared similar stories.

Giney Villar, a gender rights activist, wrote: 

"I cannot finish the video because I personally know so many women who have been raped. A young girl by her grandfather, uncle, and cousins. A maid by her employer's son. A baby who died in a hospital, her vagina so swollen it was the size of a cauliflower. A DEAD neighbor, caught by her brothers, being violated by the mortician.

"And my sensitive and gentle male friends. Brilliant young man gang-raped by his classmates at the back of the school building. A third grader harassed by a teacher while being tutored. A high school freshman dragged from inside the school chapel, the only 'safe' place from the school bullies, and forced to give head by a 'brother'.

"Hands thrust inside pants, rough hands rubbing their fragile penises to give the boys a 'thrill'. Their kicking and screaming said otherwise. They were laughed at by people around them. Even the guards who were supposed to protect them. It was just in the spirit of 'fun'."

Actor and Director of One Billion Rising, Monique Wilson wrote an open letter detailing the experience of Lola Narcisa, one of the thousands of women taken hostage as sex slaves by the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II.

"In silence for 50 years. Speaking out and fighting for justice for nearly 23 years now. She has carried this all her life, and still no justice.

She is one of the lucky ones. The others have lost their minds, and families who shunned them. Many lost organs, and the ability to bear children from so many rapes.”

Now in her 80s, many of Lola Narcisa’s contemporaries have died, their pleas for justice ignored.

Forgetting empathy

Is this what we have come to? 

Women have to come forward and recount their harrowing experience for us to understand the extreme physical, emotional and psychological violence of rape? (READ: The streets that haunt Filipino women)

We have to draw on the experience of others to remind each other what empathy looks like? 

Why does an objection to joking about a deplorable act of sexual violence even have to be explained? 

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, one in 4 Filipino children have reportedly suffered from sexual violence in the home, school or community. Boys are twice as likely to experience violence across all forms and in all settings. (READ: Busting myths on sexual abuse: Who's to blame?)

Most often, the perpetrator is someone they know or someone they are related to, but almost always it is someone they trust.

Sorry not sorry

As I’m writing this, my feed is filling up once more with news about the so-called apology that Mayor Duterte has issued. He is sorry, he didn’t mean it, his mouth got the best of him because he was angry. We should all move on now, there’s nothing to see. (READ: Duterte: Not sorry for rape remark, that's how I speak)

But it is not that simple.

You see what Duterte said is something that we have all heard before.

Loaded comments and lecherous looks are passed off as a “joke”. We laugh because we are expected to. It seems better than the alternative – called out for being uptight or dumb for not getting it. 

It’s all meant to be a harmless joke until it isn’t. Until the silent smile is taken as compliance.

Sometimes an apology is offered but to put on a public display of bestowed benevolence.

Leader wanted, savior needed

I came across an article on Foreign Policy which explains the seeming infallibility of a great leader:

"Entrusting one’s fate to a Great Leader is tempting because it spares us the burden of thinking for ourselves. For democracy to work, citizens have to pay some amount of attention, be reasonably well informed about key issues, and be willing to hold politicians genuinely accountable for success and failure. By contrast, pinning our hopes on a Great Leader allows us to check our own judgment at the door: all we have to do is trust in the Leader’s alleged wisdom and all will be well." 

We are all tired of being ignored and dismissed by public officials that we want so much to trust and believe those who have our welfare at heart. We are frustrated and hurt that our daily hardships are downplayed as trivial. We are tired of feeling inconsequential in our own country.

The vitriol, the mudslinging and sheer rage that is thrown around online is the summation of the pent-up anger that has been simmering inside of us for far too long.

We all want change. We all want a genuine leader. But why is this shared aspiration tearing us apart instead of bringing us together?

What we are really looking for is a savior. Duterte’s swashbuckling ways and gutter language certainly make him look the part. He throws in some nice things, too. He’s ready to clean up the country and put his life on the line for me and even die for me to do it.

It is everything we have longed to hear.

I’m sure in his own way Duterte means it. I’m sure his track record speaks volumes.

But I can’t find it in myself to believe him. I can’t help but think that it’s all one big joke to him. – Rappler.com

There are many stories that will be told after over 160 nations – the Philippines included – signed the Paris climate deal on April 22, which also happens to be Earth Day. Let me tell you one about stars.

It is the stars that tell the Lumad or indigenous people like Jimid Mansayagan, a member of the Arumanon Manobo tribe in North Cotabato, when it is best to plant. “We call it Panikulpan,” Mansayagan, also the president of the Lumad Mindanaw People’s Federation (LMPF), said in a forum on the Kidapawan tragedy– where 5,000 farmers, some of them Lumad – figured in a deadly protest over the government’s assistance for El Niño on April 1. The forum was held by the Ateneo School of Government on April 21.

“Panikulpan” in the tribe’s dialect means the Big Dipper, which is part of the constellation of Ursa Major. “When the Panikulpan appears, that is an affirmation from the spirit. This is now the planting season,” he explained.

In the past years, however, Mansayagan said that the climate did not match the planting season – in months when they are supposed to plant, the plants failed to grow. With their planting period becoming harder to predict, the extreme heat which was brought on by El Niño, while predictable, only increased their hardship.

Mansayagan has seen the hunger pangs caused by El Niño before. It was another election year then, in 1998, when El Niño also hit Central Mindanao. He said one of the things that helped them survive the hunger was the Tabang Mindanaw initiative, which provided assistance to 900,000 families affected by El Niño.

Almost two decades after, the Lumad faced the problem of El Niño again. This time, however, the massive hunger has sparked a protest that spiraled into a violent conflict.

On April 22, as the Philippines signs the Paris Agreement, it may be a good time to remember the story of the stars, a story told and lived by the Lumad. The country, after all, led the call for including human rights in the climate change deal. The provision particularly pushes for respect for the human rights of indigenous peoples as part of the fight against climate change.

Bundle of rights

Vicentia de Guzman, a lawyer from Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino or PANLIPI, said that the Paris Agreement must be implemented in such a way that it will cover a “bundle of rights.”

“There are different chapters or layers of human rights,” she said. “In the case of Kidapawan, what we easily discerned was the civil and political rights – the right to protest and peaceably assemble.”

“But there are bigger rights they’re fighting for – economic, social and cultural rights,” she pointed out. Economic rights because the struggle affects the livelihoods of indigenous peoples; social and cultural because their lifestyle as Lumad were reportedly not given significant weight in using the resources of North Cotabato.

De Guzman said that Lumad plant for food; it’s as simple as that. North Cotabato, however, has seen the expansion of rubber and palm oil plantations; the province, in fact, is the second biggest producer of rubber in the country.

Newsdesk reported that 500 hectares were added to 12,000 hectares of palm oil plantation in North Cotabato, while an additional 307 hectares were allotted for 54,000 rubber plantations.

But the expansion is not just happening in North Cotabato. REAP, or the Network Resisting the Expansion of Agricultural Plantations in Mindanao, said that rubber plantations, covering 214,313 hectares, now occupy 43.3% of the lands in the region, while palm oil plantations increased to 42,731 hectares in 2014 from 23,478 in 2005.

While this have boosted the region’s economy, De Guzman said that concentration on planting rubber and palm oil results in monocropping, which could have adverse effects on indigenous farming practices that focus largely on growing crops such as rice and corn for food production.

Another indigenous practice that has been criticized is swidden farming, or slash-and-burn or kaingin. Forests are cleared for food crop production; the fields or fallows are afterwards left unsown or uncultivated for a period of time to become fertile again. Swidden farming has been identified as a factor behind forest degradation and a source of greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change.

Scientists and researchers, however, led by the University of Melbourne with the World Agroforestry Centre Philippines have conducted studies which challenge this notion. The World Agroforestry Centre Philippines wrote that the carbon mitigation potential of fallow systems could be higher than what has been previously determined.

Last but not the least, De Guzman said that the signing of the Paris Agreement must promote and protect collective rights. “It’s the last layer rarely understood by many – collective rights, which is exercised not by individuals but by the whole community. This is right to clean air and water, ecological justice and ancestral domain.”

How to do it

By including a provision on human rights protection, the Paris Agreement provides a holistic approach to addressing climate change. It changes the narrative of battling climate change from being mitigation-centric to putting the welfare of people at the core of it all.

There are opportunities to further explore how this could be done in succeeding climate change talks. Currently, it is only under REDD+ or reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation where specific mechanisms for human rights protection, particularly those of the IP, are spelled out.

REDD+ incentivizes developing countries that enhance carbon stocks through sustainable forest management. The REDD+ safeguards require that before REDD+ activities can be conducted, however, the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples must first be secured. Countries will not be able to receive results-based payments if this condition is not met or complied with.

While international guidance on human rights protection under a new climate deal is something that could still expanded and strengthened, locally, De Guzman said that there are already existing means where the voice of indigenous peoples can be considered by those in power.

For one, the Indigenous Development Plan of IPDP must be considered when doing the Annual Investment Plan of local government units. The IPDP contains the indigenous practices for farming, forest protection, and resource utilization that – if supported and integrated into the AIP – could be helpful to the whole LGU.

“We’re lobbying for participatory governance,” De Guzman said. “People should participate in governance and not just be consulted.”

This is a right enshrined in our local laws, respected by an international climate agreement, and one that can be understood better if we allow indigenous peoples to tell the story of stars – and actually listen to them. –Rappler.com

The author is a former reporter of Rappler. In 2013, she started working as a communications specialist under the environmental cluster of the Ateneo School of Government. Since then she has participated in the UN climate change negotiations as an adviser and eventually a member of the Philippine delegation.

Retire, the President told 239 police generals as he convened a national crime summit. At least 150 people had been kidnapped in Manila alone, and 31 banks had been robbed nationwide. Rape cases rose by 8% from the previous year.

It was 1993, and President Fidel Ramos had had it. Ramos won the presidency the previous year, the same period when 4 Americans were abducted by kidnap-for-ransom gangs. Here was a retired Constabulary general who didn’t need any lesson on peace-keeping but who was now struggling with crime. Kidnappings, bank robberies, carjacking – all these were scaring away investors. 

In a show of political will (a much bandied-about term nowadays), the usually deliberate Ramos faced the institution he once led and asked its senior generals to retire. The call caused pandemonium in the then newly-created Philippine National Police (PNP) but earned applause from a wary public that was crying for blood.

Days later, Ramos would calibrate his moves by not immediately accepting the generals’ departure. Instead, he created a 9-person committee to “process” their retirement applications.

Presidents and crime

Fighting crime isn’t just today’s fad. 

Presidents in the last 3 decades have invested money and time in anti-crime campaigns, created all types of task forces, appointed their own anti-crime “czars,” and joined numerous photo-ops with arrested big-time criminals.

Under the Ramos administration, the burden of combatting crime was passed on to the popular vice president, Joseph Estrada, who was named head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC). In a campaign where he put to good use his theatrical skills, Estrada spewed threats against criminals, paraded them before the cameras, and created elite units that gunned down gangsters on highways and raided safehouses with TV crew in tow.

From the ashes of kidnappers rose Estrada’s chief crime-buster, a clean-cut police officer who would later become chief of the PNP, run for president, and get elected as senator: Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, commander of the PACC’s Task Force Habagat.

In its prime, the PACC virtually ruled the PNP, its men almost invincible and the envy of lesser mortals in the police-military establishment. The PACC lorded it over, and in the process made the PNP second class in its own backyard. 

But the sensational killing of suspected robbers on a major highway in Quezon City in 1996 exposed PACC’s weaknesses and ruined the reputation of Task Force Habagat. The Kuratong Baleleng rubout cost the career of Habagat officers including Lacson, and triggered a protracted, messy legal battle that only ended two decades later, in 2012, when the Supreme Court finally upheld a lower court’s decision that dismissed the criminal charges against Lacson.

The next president, Estrada, had to fight crime again. But he had bigger problems to confront; he was forced out of power after more than two years in office over corruption charges.

After assuming the presidency in 2001, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created her own National Anti-Crime Commission that had its own anti-kidnapping unit, the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf).

But unable to stop big-time kidnappings, Naktaf was put on the backburner by Mrs Arroyo, who approved the creation of Pacer, or the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response, ordered to run after kidnap gangs and drug dealers with a specific deadline. It was headed by her favorite general, retired PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr, who vowed to use "military tactics" to succeed.

Yet, kidnappings and drug operations continued in 2003, prompting Mrs Arroyo to appoint this time her other favorite general, former defense chief Angelo Reyes, as Naktaf chief. It didn’t bother Arroyo that Reyes had no experience battling criminals. What was important was a show of military might. Reyes and Naktaf had their own controversies.

The incumbent Aquino government shied away from a bombastic anti-crime campaign but took the extreme path of a methodical, data-driven approach via former interior secretary Mar Roxas’ Lambat Sibat program. It’s almost anemic and too process-oriented that the community barely felt it. The Presidential Anti-Crime Commission is headed by the low-key Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr, who is not exactly Roxas' avid fan.

Did all these efforts “suppress” crime (the favorite new word of presidential front runner Rodrigo Duterte)?

Certainly not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking about it again today. On the contrary, the problems in the main organization tasked to fight crime, the PNP, persist. And a holistic approach to criminality continues to elude policymakers.

Quick fix 

Presidential candidates Duterte and Grace Poe have quick fixes to the crime situation. The Davao mayor vows to end – er, suppress – crime in 6 months through an elite force composed of Army soldiers and cops; Poe, meanwhile, intends to appoint a Marine combatant as her anti-crime czar.

The subtext of the two candidates’ approach to crime is that things can – and should – be done fast. 

As senatorial candidate Rafael Alunan III reminded everyone on Friday, April 22, during Rappler’s senatorial debate, Ramos did the “shock treatment” after he became president. Alunan cited this example to defend Duterte’s campaign pledge to end crime in 6 months.

“I asked him what he meant by that. We had a long chat,” Alunan said in elaborating on Duterte’s 6-month deadline. “He said, it's just like the way you did it in the PNP – shock treatment,” added Alunan, who served as interior and local government secretary under the Ramos administration. “We weeded out 68 generals and colonels. The shock treatment during the first 6 months kept the other [corrupt officials] under the radar. What we were doing was professional, fair, just.”

The “shock treatment” didn't happen in Ramos' first months in office, though. Yet while the forced retirement of PNP generals happened eventually, kidnappings continued. Crime did not only persist under Ramos, it soared. It was one of the biggest headaches of the general-turned-president that not even his popular vice president, Estrada, could put an end to.

Why?

4 concerns

Because a shock-and-awe approach only addresses one aspect of the problem, and achieves temporary relief.

It is effective in boosting the political stock of leaders, but it’s not enough to sustain a peaceful environment through the years. Deadlines and elite units appeal to you and me, but rarely do they untangle the web of interconnected problems related to criminality.

Let's just look at 4 of the many roadblocks in effective anti-crime management:

1. Professionalism vs patronage. The President may choose the most honest and competent PNP chief, but he can only do so much. In the appointment of police chiefs in towns, cities, provinces and regions, the mayor or governor has the last say. From a shortlist given to him/her, the local government official will make his/her choice, merit be damned. In an ideal world, a responsible politician will choose the most competent and honest cop to head the police. In a world named the Philippines, that's more the exception than the rule.

2. A politicized PNP. Bear in mind that the PNP is a relatively new organization that is still going through birth pains. A merger of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) and the Integrated National Police (INP), the PNP was created in 1991 – a marriage between the military-oriented PC and the local-based INP. Philippine Military Academy graduates, trained in combat and not in community engagement (which is the core campaign of any effective anti-crime campaign), continue to hold leadership posts in the PNP, sidelining the civilian-oriented police who seldom get the plum posts. Of course, the situation isn’t as bad as a decade ago. But add to this the constant jockeying for posts each time a new president is elected, and we can be sure that the new president will find it hard to resist the temptation of putting his own men, even if undeserving, in the PNP. Just ask Alan Purisima. And need we be reminded of Purisima's mortal sin last year?

3. Crime scene and beyond. The sad reality is, criminal cases rarely succeed in courts. And when the police are given deadlines like 6 months, chances are they will aim for quick results that will not stand the scrutiny of a judge or the hungry pockets of a prosecutor. Criminal investigation is sloppy as it is, and data proves this: Crime solution efficiency, or the percentage of solved crimes out of reported crimes, was only 37% and 28% in 2012 and 2013, respectively. This hasn’t improved much, and it’s compounded by incompetence and corruption in the prosecution sector and the courts. (The assumption here is that the next president intends to bring criminals to court, not kill them.)

4. Shortsightedness in the face of sophisticated crimes. And what is crime nowadays, anyway? Does it just involve criminals according to Duterte's parochial definition – the drug dealer, the addict, the thief, the kidnapper? How about crimes committed online by cyber thieves? Or those who steal our money via the ATM? How about criminals who smuggle products into our shores, or who traffic our women?

Can this all end in 6 months, courtesy of yet another "ranger-trained" special unit (in Duterte's plan) or yet another bemedaled officer (in Poe's plan)? 

We've heard and seen this before. Crime again becomes a casualty of short memory, which seems to afflict us all every election season. – Rappler.com

If we are to weigh the number of asides by the supporters of Mayor Rodrigo V. Duterte against those who took him to task for his rape comments– all in social media – the heft will favor the former. I have never seen so much vicious response to a valid criticism of the mayor’s foul mouth.

Most of these ripostes are ad hominem in nature, ranging from the most bile characterization of the critique to tagging the critic as part of a vast right-wing, Aquino-yellow conspiracy to upend the mayor’s campaign. Some go to the extent of issuing threats ala-Duterte to those who insist the Mayor is not fit to be head of the nation.

A smaller percentage consists of an unwavering fidelity to Duterte – he is my president, no matter what he said and no matter how blemished his record is – even as there is a silent acknowledgement that he had not been acting presidential.  Only a small percentage, a minute one, would engage Duterte opponents using reason, evidence, and analytical superiority.

This disproportionate nature of pro-Duterte voices is the first element to what I would now call the makings of a real – and first – fascist movement in the country. Duterte is the Vozhd, who has the interest of “the Filipino people” in mind, ready to defend this against those who try to sow divisions within the community – from the drug addicts on the corner to the intellectuals and elites of the metropolis. He his Der Alte who can do no wrong, his standing made more admirable by his unabashed declarations of his “failings” – from the womanizing and the pain it caused his first wife, to the killing of drug addicts, to the swagger to show Panabo prisoners that he could be like them when it comes to women, especially Anglos or mestizas. He is almost, well, God-like in his imperfections.

The second component of this new-fangled fascist movement is its unusual composition. Duterte “base of support” is not the poor – it is mainly the elite and the middle class. These are the two “sectors” of society that are most worried about their possessions and desire peace at any cost so that they can pursue their avarice.

When Marcos declared martial law, it was the elite and the middle class that were the first to commend the dictator for bringing “peace and stability” to a nation in turmoil.  The two sectors who are the most adept at hiding their greed and materialism under the mantle of civility, they finally took a stand against their erstwhile patron when the regime assassinated one of their own – in the most vulgar of manner: blowing Aquino’s head off at the tarmac.

This odd composition of followers is not merely people who are going to vote on Election Day. The sociologist Nicole Curato came back from Leyte and her communing with Duterte supporters. Her Facebook description talks of a vibrant grassroots movement that with near-fanaticism, has been campaigning for the Mayor. She writes:

I have met and interviewed Duterte supporters as part of my fieldwork in Tacloban. They are professionals who took a leave from their jobs to organise volunteers for the campaign. They are small business owners who donate modest amounts of money to print posters and tarapaulins (sic). They are students who go to communities to explain why vote buying is wrong. They are mothers struggling to put their lives together after Haiyan but found a way to raise P20 pamasahe to get to attend his sortie. A lot of them are young. All of them strongly reject politics as usual – the type where money runs our democracy, imperial Manila dominates the political conversation and promises made to the people mean nothing….I am not a fan of the mayor. But I am impressed with the energy and commitment of his supporters on the ground. This could be the legacy of the Duterte campaign – a committed grassroots movement that supports an imperfect but authentic candidate.

Vibrant democracy?

One can say that these types of mobilization signify a vibrant popular democracy. However, they are also what fascist movements are associated with – the zeal that got people like Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Evita Peron to power.

The social forces that compose this coalition, in turn, is mirrored by the political forces that have committed resources and people to the mayor. The organized supporters of Duterte include business associations which, with little fanfare, are contributing to campaign coffers. In alliance with these “reactionary forces” are cadres and sympathizers of the Communist Party of the Philippines who see in the mayor an ally and a friend. There were some hitches along the way when the mayor blurted out his pro-rape statement. The Party’s legal organization Gabriela had to criticize Duterte especially after other women’s group took it to task for failing to respond immediately to his comments. But everything is hunky-dory again, especially since the campaigns have begun to shift to other issues.

A creature of this sort came into being in Hitler’s and Mussolini’s march to power. Socialists and even Communists were drawn to these leaders’ nationalism and populism. Their anti-European, anti-American stance also was an additional appeal. Of course, they were immediately eliminated or marginalized once the Nazis and the Brownshirts had seized state power. Will this be the fate of the Left under President Digong?

The next weeks will determine whether these observations are right. If not, and the Duterte movement is indeed a democracy, unified in the name of the nation, tolerant of criticisms, and putting premium constitutionalism rather than one man rule, then I will be more than happy to eat crow.– Rappler.com

Patricio N. Abinales is an OFW.

The country needs a strong leader.

Here’s the bleak picture why: massive corruption such as the PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund] scam and DAP [Development Assistance Program] controversy, insensitive and inefficient government in delivering social services, underspending on infrastructure, messed-up transportation system with problematic MRT and worsening traffic, SAF 44 debacle, botched Bangsamoro Basic Law, slow-going post-Yolanda rehabilitation, proliferation of illegal drugs and rising criminality, and most recently, the shooting of protesting farmers in Kidapawan.

Not surprisingly, there’s no economic crisis on the list; simply because the fundamentals of the country’s economy are quite stable, thanks to the management of the Aquino administration, although inclusive growth remains still far away. (READ: 4 urgent economic concerns for Aquino's successor)

But this does not halt some politically interested folks like Senator Koko Pimentel or ex-governor Manny Piñol in pushing for an authoritarian-like type of leadership. This time we need a president from Mindanao who knows the problem of Mindanao, they said.

'This nation can be great again'

Because the picture is bleak, we need a strong man who can unite the country, and “march together toward the dream of greatness.” Because “this nation can be great again.”

No, that’s not Donald Trump’s original line; that was the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ line in his inaugural address in 1965 titled, “Mandate for Greatness.” Marcos was from Ilocos.  

What the country needs is strong leadership. Leadership that is willing to kill. Because if you are afraid to do so, you are weak. (READ: Top Philippine candidate pushes 'kill criminals' message)

We’re talking not about Mindanao or Ilocos, but about the entire Philippines, and the kind of leadership that Rodrigo Duterte offers.

His political rivals are “bayot” or gay, weak, corrupt, inexperienced, and inefficient, so he must be the alpha male, the macho leader, and the last card on the deck, the last hope Filipino voters could cling to.

Flirting with authoritarianism is not uniquely Filipino despite us suffering from the hands of a strong man for two decades.

The United States, as evidenced by the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican party, also flirted with the need for strong leadership, painting the presidency of Barack Obama weak. In Britain, the Conservatives want David Cameron to appear strong, criticizing the Labour leadership for being spineless.

Looking at history in general, the economic progress and political stability the strong men had promised are largely a myth: Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Kim’s North Korea, and the list goes on in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

While Singapore had relative “success” in its experiment with iron hand leadership, the strong man myth has largely done bad than good in Southeast Asia. Cambodia remains virtually under the strong man rule of Hun Sen, and Myanmar is still struggling in its transition to democracy after its break from the junta.

Strong man and disaster

When the Philippines slept with a strong man, it was a disaster. Economic data during the Marcos years were depressing. Growth in economy was illusory, and peace and order was only on the surface. (READ: Marcos years marked 'golden age' of PH economy? Look at the data)

Beneath the smiles and pomposity of Imelda was another layer of reality – fear, confusion, insecurity, poverty, and suppressed dissent. At the bottom was massive suffering of the people from poverty that it took decades to get the country's derailed economy back on track.

It was democracy that brought the world unprecedented economic progress and a much improved well-being of many people.  

The past few weeks provide us a glimpse of what the Philippines would look like after the national elections on May 9, 2016.

Duterte is polling at 30%, making him likely to win the presidency over his rivals Grace Poe, Jejomar Binay, Mar Roxas, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Along with polling numbers comes the chilling, ambitious plan to crackdown on criminality and illegal drugs, promising to “suppress” them in 3 to 6 months. The term “suppress” is a downgrade from an earlier term they used" “eradicate.”

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, a former Marcos defense minister, gave advice on how to make Duterte’s promise a reality. He sure knows what he’s talking about from his years of experience as a member of the “Rolex 12” and as one of the architects of Martial Law.

His suggestion is predictably simple: it is only by declaring martial law can illegal drugs and criminality be eliminated in the 3-6-month timeframe. Duterte has to mobilize the country’s armed forces, the police, and the NBI to do the job.         

True enough. When he was repeatedly challenged about his ambitious campaign promise, Duterte provided a vague plan that more or less will be the template of his administration.

The plan is close enough to martial law: declare illegal drugs a national security threat, mobilize two divisions of the army, double the salary of police officers, and give them the order to kill suspects when they resist with violence.

National security

As for the economy, his proposal rests on prioritizing peace and order and there will be economic stability as more investors will come in. With China and the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea, his statements are convoluted but he will agree to holding bilateral talks.

But when asked again in the light of the Chinese military buildup in the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal, he wants American help and will continue to pursue government’s call for multilateral negotiations and legal arbitration at the international court. (READ: China and next PH president: Tough to push 'reset' button)

In retrospect, Duterte has a proposal pretty much similar to that of the late dictator. Accordingly, the state must impose discipline on its citizens, and there must be peace and order.

Marcos waged war against illegal drugs and rising criminality and against the communists, the latter of which he used as justification to declare martial law in 1972, declaring them a threat to national security.

While staying friendly with the US – because he’s milking the Americans of dollars for his political and self-interest – Marcos positioned himself closer to the Soviets and to China. The only slight difference is that Duterte is proud to call himself the “first president coming from the Left,” and that he’s friendly to the communists but has labeled himself more of a socialist.

The question is: will he pursue martial law to root out criminality and illegal drugs as national security threat?

Most likely Congress will oppose such a move, but still, that remains to be seen. In many of his stump speeches Duterte insinuated he would abolish Congress and push for his advocacy of federalism.

But as the temperature of the campaign period increases, he shows erratic temperament – from Trumpishly insulting his political rivals to the level of vulgarity he displayed in public with the sorry extension of a sick rape joke. Such behavior is unbecoming of a head of a democratic state, and more of a trait of an authoritarian.

Loyalists and slogans

Just as Marcos had loyalists who, until now, remain loyal, and are the same loyalists pushing for the vice presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Duterte has also developed an army of fanatic supporters despite the fact that in his more than 20 years as mayor of Davao, criminality and illegal drugs have remained a problem in the city. Admittedly though, there’s a vast improvement from where it was in the late 1980s.

Irritated by Roxas’ challenge about his brand of justice, Duterte declared, although chillingly, “That’s the problem. If you don’t know how to kill and you’re afraid to be killed, you cannot be president.” That was during their debate in Cebu, and his supporters in the audience cheered.

On social media, Duterte’s supporters are the loudest, hurling insults and threats against those who hold opinions critical of their beloved idol. But when asked about the details of his campaign platform, these Internet trolls are insufferably ignorant about political processes, and about how government works.

All they spout are the sloganeering and the belief that Duterte will end the corrupt, kill the criminals, and transform the entire country into a Davao City.

Exploiting discontent

However, it would be very convenient to only point out criticisms against the possibility of an authoritarian rule under a Duterte presidency. We have to recognize that there are conditions that give rise to the need for a strong man.

There are cleavages in our political process and government system that invite padding for instantaneous results.

One of them is the people’s growing impatience at the slowness of democratic political processes and the existence of loopholes in the bureaucracy. Implementing a government project goes through several layers of bureaucracy.

In the administration’s desire to rid the government of corruption, for example, bidding on major infrastructure projects is painstakingly slow. For over 5 years, only a handful of public-private partnership projects have been implemented and completed.

Another is fear and insecurity due to threat from petty and organized crimes. Criminality's rise exposes the weaknesses of a police force that's paralyzed by protocol. You have to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt for the suspect of a crime to be sentenced.

This is a loophole that the politically savvy strong man can easily exploit: slow justice creates a cleavage that demands a more drastic solution to end criminality, a fast-paced solution that undermines processes and protocols.

The people’s anxiety and anger at government is fueled by politics, a term used pejoratively to refer to the perceived inefficiency of government, corruption, controversies, and political vendetta.

This leads to cynicism which is potent breeding ground for the strong man to develop his base – the masses – by giving them false hopes and promises impossible to keep.  

Among the present crop of presidential aspirants only Duterte and Santiago appear to be not beholden to the country’s leading oligarchs. Mar Roxas, Grace Poe and Jejomar Binay have links to the Cojuangco family.

The country’s leading elite families – Ayala, Sy, Cojuangco, Lopez, Tan, Consunji, Villar, and Gokongwei – have contributed to, and benefited from, the country’s economy with business empires ranging from power, water, telecommunications, agriculture, and manufacturing to aviation, retail, and real estate development.

In a sense, the companies and corporations owned by a privileged few have provided jobs and developed communities, yet they are regarded with disdain by populists who want to rid the country of oligarchs.

Despite the country’s economic growth enjoyed by the elite, poverty remains a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. Duterte has vowed to dismantle the oligarchs; so did Marcos, except that he replaced the old elite with his cronies.   

Democratic processes are consensus-driven where ideas are challenged without the fear of being silenced. But the process could drag and cause the implementation of government policies to take time. Proposals are tossed and debated upon, and even the conclusion remains debatable. In the implementation of government programs there is also oversight to ensure checks and balances.

By contrast, under authoritarian rule, the strong man proposes a policy and implements it right away without the benefit of deliberation. The strong man thrives in visible projects and programs, and under a Duterte leadership there is the risk of weakening the institutions that uphold democratic values, a risk that is not worth taking after that nightmarish experience of martial rule.

No matter how bleak the picture of our country is, the presidency is not all about providing instant solutions to long-term problems just to appease the voters; it is about strengthening democratic institutions of government to ensure long-term solutions and stability.

With his temperament and unbridled pronouncements that set the tone of his campaign, I don’t think Duterte possesses the qualities and sensibility of a democratic head of state.

Let’s stop flirting with a strong man when we have a principled person who has sincerity, democratic values, and the required quality to be president.

That person may come from the elite class but that person may be the only choice who presents a clearer, more credible platform of government that ensures democratic processes will be in place. – Rappler.com

Kelvene Requiroso is a concerned citizen from Cavite who is alarmed at the nasty tone of election campaigns. He can be reached through e-mail: krequiroso@yahoo.com.

Dear Sir or Madam,

A few days before the elections – before we know who you are – allow me to write you a letter. This is not my story, but I feel this is mine to tell.

Let me first introduce myself. I am not a farmer, but I feel I don’t have to be one to tell you about their plight. I eat, and this makes me a stakeholder in agriculture.

I am based in Maguindanao, one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. I volunteer for several groups that assist the poor, to help them find their dignity and find strength through community organizing.

Right now, I am a youth campaigner for #IAmHampasLupa where we promote and encourage the younger generation to engage in agriculture.

At this point, I am sure you know that farming is one of the sectors most youths don’t want to go into. The average age of farmers is 57 years old, just a few years shy of the mandatory retirement age of 60-65.

Why agriculture is not appealing to the youth is a no-brainer: a rice farmer’s average income ranges from P25,000 to P30,000 per planting season, or P50,000 to P60,000 a year. This is way, way below the P80,000 annual rural poverty threshold.

With no social security, little to no financial assistance from the government and, of course, with the loan sharks who continue to prey on our poor farmers, who would dare become one?

I was there in Cagayan de Oro, among the crowd, waiting for any pronouncement or meaningful discussion on agriculture, but there was none.

To be honest, I felt a little low that day, because you and your opponents did not really offer any solid or realistic plan to help our farmers and credible solutions to the problems of the agriculture sector. (READ: PH agriculture: Why is it important?)

And then Kidapawan happened.

What happened in Kidapawan is beyond alarming. This early, we are seeing violence as a result of food insecurity brought about by climate change. While hungry farmers were asking for food, they were given bullets instead. I cannot fathom how our farmers, who produce our food, have nothing to eat. (READ: Kidapawan and why the Philippines is always short of rice)

I know, for the past few days, you have heard these lines countless times, read it on every social media post, and watched it a good many times on television. But sir or ma’am, what are we going to do about this?

The Kidapawan tragedy is a sign that the current agriculture system does not offer a long-term solution to cushion the impact of climate change on the livelihood of our farmers. How will you address this combo of a problem, where state forces and the climate are killing farmers?

As part of a group documenting the drought that is currently wreaking havoc on several provinces in Mindanao, we have visited North Cotabato, where some of the farmers, who were part of the protest action in Kidapawan, are from.

The farmers we interviewed said it has been 6 months since the last rainfall and they are currently reeling from the 36-40 °C temperature index. El Niño has had a huge impact on the lives of the farmers, especially on their products and produce. (READ: How vulnerable is Mindanao to El Niño?)

According to a farmer from M’lang, Cotabato, a one-and-a-half hectare rice field would normally yield more than 150 sacks. But with El Niño they were only able to harvest 8 sacks. The farmlands are too dry and too burnt to sustain life for their palay.

Advice to the future president

Sir or ma’am, let me make a few suggestions. These are, of course, not based on technicalities, but on closely living with, and observing the plight of, our farmers.

First, weather reports and announcements must be democratized and delivered in a language our farmers can understand.

Armed with knowledge, they know when to plant their crops. They must be taught what climate change is, and what they can do about it. They must be taught climate-resilient farming.

I urge you to look into Ecological Agriculture, which adheres to safer, sustainable food production that puts back farming in the hands of the farmers.

You have the power to change this broken agriculture system that condemns our farmers to a life of uncertainty. Give us, HampasLupa youth, the reason and cause to encourage our fellow youth to try a career in agriculture. Whoever you are, Sir or Ma’am, the future of our country lies in your hands.

Respectfully yours,

Mohadz

– Rappler.com

Mohamadan A. Abdulkasan, a youth campaigner for the #IAmHampasLupa Movement for Ecological Agriculture, is based in Maguindanao. He also volunteers for several organizations that work on development and poverty alleviation of Moro people in Mindanao.

The hunger that is currently plaguing Central Mindanao was not the first time that farmers suffered from such depravity. It has always been there ever since settlers moved to these areas from the central and the northern Philippines after World War II.

But if it is El Niño that is responsible for the starvation, in the 1950s and early 1960s, it was the destruction of farmlands by rats, which caused the hardships in Cotabato. It was the Cebuano newspapers that first took notice of the pestilence. In the 1950s, rats infested the “imperial province of Cotabato” affecting 8% of rice production and losing the farms about U$55.3 million dollars.

Then Governor Udtog Matalam mentioned the following as being the most devastated: Koronadal, Tantangan, Tacurong, Sultan sa Barongis, Isulan, Ampatuan, Buluan, Datu Piang, Nuling, Tumbao, Pigcawayan, Libungan, Midsayap, Pikit, Pagalungan and the coastal towns of Kiamba, Maitum, Palembang, Kalamansig and Lebak. These towns still exist today, with some even reclassified into cities. Half a decade back they were settlement areas that were suffering the most.

It is human suffering that was the most dolorous.

The January 14, 1959, issue of Republic Daily stated that “[a]n estimated 200,000 people were starving today as a result of the rat scourge that has devastated a vast farming area in two provinces of Mindanao island in the southern Philippines. Officials estimated that 80% of this year’s crop in the heart of Cotabato province had been destroyed by ravaging bands of rats.”

The UNICEF Director, who visited the municipalities, returned to Cebu and described the devastation of over 2,400 square kilometers (240,000 hectares) farm lands this way: “The whole farming operation has been paralyzed,” he said. “And when I say all I mean all.” He added “[s]everal suicides had been reported in the ten most heavily stricken municipalities. The UNICEF Director who visited the area came back to report.” By the middle of 1959, agricultural officials estimated that over 86,000 families “stand to face famine” due to rat and locust infestation.

In the early 1960s, food shortages from rat infestation had spread to other provinces. This time, it was the Manila Times (February 3, 1960) that revealed that hunger was stalking towns and villages in Agusan, Bukidnon, Lanao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Orient and “the sub-province of Camiguin.” In Davao, some 5,0000 “aboriginal tribesmen” were facing hunger after rats ravaged their farms (Mindanao Times, September 3, 1960).

The national government responded by sending various anti-rat weapons, including warfarin, a blood thinner for human heart patients that has been proven to be effective against rats, to the provinces and towns. The numbers of rats killed in Buluan town (in what is now Maguindanao province) totaled 1,123, 266 (The Daily Mirror, June 10, 1960).

Agricultural extension officials mobilized communities through the most innovative of actions. In Surigao, these officials were recommending that the provincial government set aside funds “for the purchase of rat tails as an incentive to farmers to kill or catch rodents in large quantity” (Manila Times, October 24, 1964). The Butuan city board set aside P12,000 to buy rat-tails “at P0.03 per tail.” This was its contribution to the province’s anti-rat campaign. (The Manila Times, October 31, 1964).

Women in the municipality of Guiwan in Zamboanga City led the way in collecting rat tails for the town’s beauty contests “where tails of dead rats and beetles were used for ballots by the lovely contestants.” The Daily Mirror (June 8, 1960) added: “The Philippine coconut administration in this city furnished cash prizes to the winners of the beauty tilt. The result was that 15,562 rat tails and 67,000 beetles were counted.”  This “fad” of using rat tails as beauty contest ballots were replicated in Lebak, Cotabato a few years later (Manila Times, October 24, 1964).

Then there is rat cuisine. A recent news item by Business Mirroris about a farmer in South Cotabato are now hunting rats for food since the drought had worsened in the area.  As incentive, the government also rewards Juanito Masangkay with rice for every rat-tail he presents to them.

Again this is not something new. In fact in the 1950s,  central and northern Luzon towns boasted of eating field rats since they could not afford the other meats. They saw this also as a good way of ridding their farms of rodents.

Moreover, the farms also had the imprimatur of government. In fact, the latter strongly supported the idea of promoting rats as part of the regular fare. Here is R.S. Soriano’s last recommendation to the Bureau of Plant Industry in regards to how government can better run the anti-rat campaign:

“Rats as food – Still another method that also gives lasting control is to teach people to eat rats’ meat, especially the children who have not yet acquired any prejudice against the said meat. Once the people have come to like it, the chances are that there will no longer be a serious infestation for the people themselves will go after them, provided, of course, the rats are not bred or allowed to propagate for the purpose.” – Rappler.com

Amid all this divisiveness—the season of hate talk, deception, bombast and intrigues—and as time rolls fast to election day, we call for a moment of reflection and make a pitch for that one, old-fashioned qualification our leaders should have: character. 

Character should be a defining factor in making our choices on May 9. Sure, we look at programs and track record, but we cannot not stress character as a must-have item in our checklist.

We offer 4 lodestars to guide voters:

1. A solid sense of right and wrong. This is key in evaluating our potential  leaders. Do they have a strong foundation that, instinctively, pulls them towards what’s right and repels them from what’s wrong? Killing and stealing are wrong. So are lying and cheating. Doing the right thing, while easy to say, turns out to be a tough call, what with all the temptations and seductions of power.
2. Civic spirit. This entails having a larger purpose, a seriousness that aims to bring diverse people together to forge consensus and unity, and to work to reform Philippine society’s inequality. One way to achieve this is to have a great sense of the public, what’s good for most of them, at the expense of tempering personal passions.
3. Integrity. It’s about an inner moral compass that shows leaders the way through a minefield of competing interests, to navigate tricky terrains without succumbing to pressures from the few who bankrolled their election campaigns. This can be checked by going over the candidates’ positions on issues that threatened huge, vested interests—and what they actually did. It’s about having “iron in their core and cultivating a wise heart,” as pundit David Brooks wrote in his book, “The Road to Character.” 
4. Courage, humility, kindness. These are core virtues in building one’s character. Do our presidential candidates have these? The courage to withstand unpopularity when making decisions that would benefit most. The courage to say no to friends and family. The humility to learn from mistakes, to apologize when wrong, to listen to points of view that challenge their ideas. The kindness to empathize with those who have the least in life.

Of course, we do not seek perfection. Each candidate has his or her flaws.

But these 4 guideposts will help us weigh each of them and find out who’s the most wanting and the least flawed. – Rappler.com

Anxious, frightened, and alarmed – I felt these all at the same time as we passed the most critical area between the boundaries of Bukidnon and Cotabato around 7 pm last April 11.

I've known the area since I was a kid because I had lived in Damulog, the last municipality of Bukidnon before Carmen, Cotabato. Commuters are afraid to pass through after sunset because there have been attacks by communist insurgents in the area.

I was traveling with Dr Nimfa Bracamonte, my former professor, and some members of the Kabataan party list. Kabataan's 3rd nominee Vennel Francis Danao Chenfoo, whom I met during my bakwit (evacuee) experience with the Lumad in Malaybalay City, invited me to visit the farmers affected by drought.

We wanted to display solidarity with the farmers. We also wanted to condemn the heartless government officials in Kidapawan who failed to address the farmers' concerns, leading to their bloody dispersal on April 1. (READ: Kidapawan and the rice riots)

From Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, my home base, to Arakan, Cotabato, a neighboring town of Kidapawan and our destination, it took us more or less 10 hours to travel. We arrived almost midnight at a gymnasium in front of the Poblacion Barangay Hall, tired and hungry.

I saw a lot of people lying on the floor, and many were already sleeping. There were around 3,000 supporters from various places in Mindanao (Zamboanga, Iligan, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Davao, and Soccsksargen) to attend the burials of the two protesters who had been killed.

My companions and I looked for space to sleep in the gymnasium. We only had several pieces of cardboards and tarpaulins as our makeshift sleeping mats.

The conditions inside the gym were heartbreaking. I could see how these people were already used to the situation. Only two public comfort rooms were available at the gym. There was no water supply, no blankets, no pillows, and no sleeping mats, but we all had to adjust if only to extend our support to the farmers, who were much more important.

Justice for Darwin

Our wake-up call was at 4 am. We traveled from Poblacion to Sitio Katindu, Barangay Malibatuan, to the home of 22-year-old Darwin Sulang, one of the protesters killed in Kidapawan.

As we arrived for the memorial service, I witnessed the mourning of Darwin's family members. He was a security guard in Davao City and, on his rest day, would go home to Arakan to visit his family.

It was not his original plan to join the protest in Kidapawan. But he wished to help his family with transporting sacks of rice, in case government would proceed with the distribution.

But the shooting happened. Instead of rice, the farmers received bullets. (READ: Kidapawan protester: I was shot by sniper on firetruck)

These people were hungry, struggling to deal with a devastating drought. Who else could they turn to during desperate times? (READ: How climate change threatens our food security)

There will be a repeat of what happened in Kidapawan if the government cannot provide basic services and cannot protect its own citizens. Despite the government's attempts to address poverty, farmers are still deprived of their fundamental human rights.

We join the cry of the oppressed against all forms of exploitation, unjust practices, and violations of human rights – issues which have massive impact on the stability of our nation.

The farmers now have a different call. They are not only asking for rice, but justice, too, for Darwin. (READ: Gov't should be blamed for hunger, violence in Kidapawan – senators)

Now is the time to support each other, fight for what is right, and change society for the better. If not, the bloodshed will continue. Injustice will persist in different forms if we just stand in silence. – Rappler.com

Jade Harley Bretaña is a part-time teacher at Bukidnon State University, a volunteer DJ/broadcaster at the university's DXBU 104.5 MHz radio station, and a postgraduate Sociology student at the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology.

There have been many challenges the Comelec has had to deal with: its controversial Poe disqualification decision, the controversy over receipts, and the leak of voters' data, among others. Still to come: Election Day itself and the day after, in particular whether the results are credible and acceptable to the people.

But, as I told my fellow Ateneo Law professor Comelec Chair Andy Bautista Sunday, when I met him before the last presidential debate in the Phinma University of Pangasinan, definitely the presidential and vice presidential debates that the commission sponsored with several media outlets have been great. They were not perfect but the debates were a real help not so much in changing minds of partisans but of testing the candidates and providing further material for the campaign. There is always much to mine after each debate. Personally, I am glad that I helped Senator Grace Poe in all three debates and that she did very well in them.

Now it is crunch time, with only two weeks to go before Election Day on May 9. Given the consistency of the polls by Social Weather Stations, Pulse Asia, and the Laylo Survey, I think it's safe to say that this is now Mayor Rody Duterte's election to lose.

In my view, the only way he can be stopped is if Roxas and Binay voters shift to their second choice, which is usually Poe. Theoretically, Poe and Binay voters could also switch to Roxas or Binay and Poe voters could switch to Poe, but the latter two are less likely. It does not matter that Duterte has only one third of the vote, if the other two thirds does not coalesce against him, there will be no obstacle to the Davao mayor’s victory. 

Poe does have a pathway, even if narrow to victory. She must work on consolidating, even increasing her lead in balance of Luzon and overtake or equal Duterte in Metro Manila. She must get back the gender gap, be second to Mar in the Ilonggo speaking regions, and second (even if far) to Duterte in Mindanao. Critical to these is getting the Roxas and Binay local machinery to switch her. Some of that – in Bicol and Antique, for example, is happening but more of that is needed in the next week or so. 

Conversely, Duterte must defend his big lead in Metro Manila, overtake Roxas in the Visayas through a landslide in Cebu and the Cebuano speaking parts of central Philippines, and increase further his Mindanao votes, already overwhelming at 60 percent, to 70 percent. He must also remain competitive in balance of Luzon, maybe dislodge Binay as second placer in the most populous regions of the country.

Frankly, I do not see any pathway to victory for Roxas and Binay. They are likely to stay within the 15-20% range. Even if most of their vaunted machinery stay with them, that would not be enough to win.

Critical moment for Robredo

This is also a critical moment in the vice presidential race. Leni Robredo is now within reach to win against Bongbong Marcos. But that is not certain and it can be tricky because of Roxas' precarious situation.

The appeal now must be to Poe and Duterte voters to choose her over others. That's already happening but it must be actively encouraged while respecting those voters' presidential choices. One must be aware that Marcos has tied up a lot of support of local politicians and has invested in a personal nationwide machinery. If they go to the elections on a statistical tie in the pre-election surveys, he is likely to win for that reason. 

One option people could do now, given the consistency of the polling by the established firms, is to consider these surveys as a runoff election. Leaders and citizens alike should just now choose between the top two candidates for both presidential and vice presidential positions. The remaining candidates themselves might consider withdrawing and choosing to endorse an erstwhile rival. President Aquino might want to bring like-minded leaders and candidates together to come up with a united front. I am not proposing this myself not being in any position to do so but recognizing that many now are thinking about this as an option.

This practical option can only happen if the candidates themselves and top leaders make the hard decisions. While there are many voters (40% according to one analyst) who can change their minds, there are those who are core supporters of a candidate.

I am one of those with Grace Poe. Her intelligence, diligence and respect for the electorate always strike me as she engaged with us who helped prepare her for the debates. It also amazed me how calm, collected, and grounded she was given the noise and chaos surrounding her in the last stretch of the campaign. While contrasting herself from her rivals, she has never gone negative, do personal attacks, and call her rivals names. Some are upset that she wasn’t as aggressive during the debate, against Duterte on the rape joke but that is just not her style.

As President, Poe would be so good, so deliberate and organized, and yes so inspiring. Truly a servant leader, someone who will bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the presidency. I say this without qualification, as someone who has taught and mentored hundreds of leaders in the last 35 years.

What struck me most in my working with her was her sense of mission and her passion to do the right thing for this country and our people, and particularly for the poor. Clearly, this is not about her or her ambition but for a cause greater than herself and each of us. It's about where to bring the country in the next six years and how to unite all of us for a greater purpose. It would be so exciting to have her lead the country to a better and happier place.

I am glad I share the vision and values of my presidential candidate. In the next few days, I will write down the reasons why she is the best choice for President, including why this woman will not be unduly influenced by any of us, including the many funders of her campaign.  But for now, suffice it to say, that it is her compassion and ability to connect to others, especially the poor, that attracts me the most.

In last Sunday’s debate, Poe delivered a beautiful, definitely the best, closing statement. She was the only one who remembered Jessa, for whom the closing words were supposed to be spoken. Jessa’s mother had tears in her eyes when Grace looked at them tenderly, promising a compassionate government. How I wish that would come true. – Rappler.com 

The author is a campaign adviser of Poe

Kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) incidents in Sulu province have gotten out of hand. It appears that the government is powerless to do anything about it and can only react after the fact – after victims have been abducted and they, and their families, are subjected to physical and psychological torture.

While there have been a few instances wherein the authorities succeeded in pressuring the kidnappers so that the victims either escaped or were released, in the vast majority of cases – over 75%, it would appear – KFR victims were freed  because ransom was paid.

These KFR incidents have escalated in recent years and have become more audacious. Compared to earlier years when 11, 9, and 12 victims were kidnapped in 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively, in 2014, 26 persons were kidnapped. Last year, there were 20. In March and April of this year, 18 persons were abducted.

Moreover, abductions have spread out to Sabah, Palawan, and Davao aside from the usual kidnapping grounds of Sulu, Basilan, and Zamboanga.

In 2014, 4 kidnapping incidents took place in Sabah. Because the Malaysian government reinforced the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) which it had set up in 2013, the cross-border incidents were reduced to only one in 2015. But the ASG shifted its tactics and is now preying on vessels plying between Borneo and the Philippines. The 18 persons kidnapped in March and April of 2016 were all crew members (Indonesian and Malaysian) of vessels sailing between Borneo and the Philippines.

Kidnappers have also shown themselves to be merciless with regard to their victims. Two-year-old Zynielle Jay Garban was strangled and thrown into the sea as the kidnappers fled Pitogo in Zamboanga del Sur where they abducted the child, her 3-year-old brother, and a 17-year-old cousin. Barangay Chairman Rodolfo Buligao was decapitated by his kidnappers in August 2015, while the same fate befell Malaysian Bernard Then in November of the same year.

Now, the ASG executed Canadian John Ridsdel after their atrocious demand for a P300 million ransom payment was not met. (READ: Aquino orders rescue of foreign hostages)

Gov't strategy, community support

Clearly, the Philippine government's strategy against the ASG is not working. Over the last 5 years, there have been a total of over 50 kidnapping incidents in Sulu and in other places. In the case of the latter, the victims were brought to Sulu.

These 50-plus kidnapping incidents involve close to 100 victims. About 44 of these incidents were completely or partially resolved. Partial resolution means one of the victims was released but others remain in captivity. Of these resolved cases, it is estimated that 75% involved ransom payment. Based on publicly available information, a total of P668 million (US$14.5 million) was paid for 15 of these cases.

The government's basic strategy is to negotiate with the kidnappers through private parties like the victims' relatives or friends, though these negotiations are overseen by the Anti-Kidnapping Group of the Philippine National Police. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines conducts operations in the hope of either rescuing the victims or creating conditions that would allow the victims  to escape. In undertaking this strategy, the government takes due regard for the safety of the victims and civilians who may be affected by the military operations.

Two years ago, there was a proposal for national authorities to create an Inter-Agency Task Force to look into the Abu Sayyaf problem. Unfortunately, it was not given sufficient attention. The Philippine Marines also strived to build closer relationships with local communities through a Community Relations Training (CRT) program, which was receiving favorable response from communities in Patikul, the center of ASG operations in Sulu. Unfortunately, their efforts lost steam as greater attention was given to military operations.

It is time to take more aggressive measures but this has to be done with the support of the people of Sulu. Without it, any such measures are bound to backfire and fail. Exactly what these measures will be needs to be threshed out by a group that understands the situation in Sulu and the psychology of the people. Moreover, the local government officials of the province must be fully involved and must be made accountable for the peace and order conditions within their jurisdiction.

The time to address the situation is now.– Rappler.com

Victor M. Taylor has worked in the academe, the NGO sector, government and the business sector.  He started his professional career as an instructor at the Notre Dame of Jolo College, in Jolo, Sulu, which introduced him to the culture of the Muslim provinces in the Southern Philippines. He has maintained contact with the people in Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi area and has followed the situation closely over the last 50 years. He is now based in Toronto, Canada.

LISTING OF SULU-RELATED KIDNAPPINGS