September 2010 - Launch of the maiden issue of the Focus on the Global South Policy Review
September 19 - In Malaysia will be held the forum called "Regional
Strategy Meeting on Emerging Social and Cultural Concerns in ASEAN: Climate
Change, South East Asian Peoples’ Right to Information, Labor Migration and
Domestic Work and Platforms for Civil Society Engagement with the ASEAN." Focus Philippines will make a presentation on "Building
a Case for an ASEAN Protocol on Freedom of Information"
September 23 - 26 - Asean People's Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam. Fore more information, please send inquiries to the following: <apfhanoi-pc@aseanpeoplesforum.net>, <apfhanoi-ws@aseanpeoplesforum.net>. Ms Dorothy Guerrero, who is in the Bangkok office of Focus, seats in the Program Committee.
September 27 - October 1 - Freedom of Information Advocacy Week
September 23 - FOI Forum
September 27 - R2KRN will visit the Senate to renew the FOI campaign
September 28 - R2KRN will meet with Representatives of the Lower House
THIS month’s FOP builds on last month’s climate justice issue, looking at it in relation to recent disasters that have hit the country. This issue includes the second part of Herbert Docena’s special report on the Clean Development Mechanism, as well as commentaries from Prof. Randy David and Kenneth Cardenas written in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy.
This month, FOP underscores the clamor for
climate justice, as world leaders gear up for climate change talks at the
United Nations in Bangkok. The issue includes Herbert Docena’s special report
on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) money trail in the Philippines, which
demonstrates the contradictions and failures of market-based solutions to
address the climate crisis. The first part of Docena’s research uncovers a web
of large conglomerates and “dirty” businesses controlled by a handful of
Philippine elites, with the CDM feeding into mining, logging and power
interests, rather than changing business and production practices that are
detrimental to the climate. This month’s FOP also includes Isagani Serrano’s
‘Justice to Cool the Planet’ and a statement from Our World is Not For Sale,
which sums up the key points in a forthcoming study on Trade and Climate Change
that will be launched on October 2.
This month, Focus on the Philippines delves deeper into the Cory moment. Here, we gather pieces that do not stop at describing the sense of loss, grief, awe and gratitude that Cory’s passing has evoked in many of us. Going beyond mere eulogies, these commentaries show us that honoring the departed entails both recounting what has been achieved and remembering what still needs to be done. There is Edsa and there is Mendiola; the restoration of liberal democracy and the return of the oligarchs; People power, the death of dictatorship and the persistence of debt. Our contributors share how Cory has inspired us, but at the same time spell out where she has disappointed and failed us; Perhaps, to remind us of the limited legacy a single person can leave behind; the folly of pinning all our hopes on individual heroes; and the difficult and chronic challenges that only sustained collective intervention can surmount. Moreover, this period of contemplating Cory stresses the striking similarities between 1986 and 2010 as critical, historic junctures in the Philippines. Noting how Cory’s passing resulted in a ‘reawakening’, we also highlight how parallel conditions compel us to get out of our comfort zones and take action today, much like the grieving widow did in her time.
Cory Aquino can be regarded as a confounding contradiction, a symbol that captures our conflicted state as a people, an icon representing the many concerns and issues we still need to successfully confront, reconcile and resolve. Clearly, the struggles Cory Aquino waged, the movements she led, the causes she inspired were never hers alone.
Read on and reassess what Cory Aquino has left behind for you.
It’s that time of the year again for spectacular, spectacular and razzle-dazzle. This once a year event we call the State of the Nation Address (SONA) showcases the president’s prowess in performance-accounting prestidigitation and her skill in serving sleight-of-hand statistics. The first act is a president who can pat herself on the back, followed by sycophants gunning for the Guinness record for longest-running applause for a one-liner. With the SONA becoming more of a performance and an occasion for glitter and jazz, there’s very little room left for appraising how the country is truly faring economically and politically.
In this month’s SONA issue, Focus on the Philippines takes you back stage and unveils the truth behind the tricks. For those who missed it, this issue includes the full transcript of Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address. More importantly, here, Joy Chavez spells out how the SONA economic report should be read, as she looks at GMA’s clever use of statistics to present the government’s alter-reality. Aya Fabros uncovers the jobs situation in the country and justifies why in some situations, contrary to what GMA said in her speech, it’s ok to cuss in public. Julie Delos Reyes unpacks the deal regarding rising remittance and deployment at a time of crisis, while Mary Ann Manahan probes the administration’s ‘Miles for Progress” Campaign and provides an accounting of the president’s carbon footprint. Herbert Docena also writes about GMA’s forthcoming trip to the US, using GMA’s “state visit” as an opening to propose “A New Foreign Policy for a New World Order.” This issue also includes Walden Bello’s commentary on the coinciding crises of charter change and an unfolding economy.
As always, we look forward to hearing from you, because your views and experience reflect and comprise the real state of the nation. Send us your comments:
This issue, Focus on the Philippines zooms in on key developments in Congress, specifically Cha-cha and CARPER, which Rep. Walden Bello calls “two of the most controversial pieces of legislation this decade.” On Charter Change and Congress, FOP June includes ‘Politics failed our Constitution’, the Focus on the Global South Philippines position on this recent move in the House and Charter Change, which also identifies progressive provisions in the constitution that should be preserved. In ‘Burn that House down and rise from the ashes,’ Aya Fabros writes about her reflections on the House and puts forward some propositions on where to take things in relation to Congress, in the short and long term.
The issue also covers reflections, analysis and commentary on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER). Our new Congress rep, Walden Bello gives his own take on CARPER, in ‘CARPER: Latest episode in the battle for agrarian reform,’ as he explains his vote and relates some of his own experience in the House; while Mary Ann Manahan, Focus on the Global South Commons and Agrarian Reform lead person, presents her own analysis from the point of view of an advocate in the frontlines.
Finally, reflecting on both the personal and the political, Progressive Lawyer Arlene Bag-ao, counsel of the Sumilao farmers and close friend of slain peasant leader Rene Penas, also shares with us a very moving piece on Ka Rene and their shared struggle to achieve agrarian justice.
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