Naranasan mo na bang PUMATAY ng MAHIHIRAP?

Upang MAAGAW ang MUNTING dampa na bunga ng kanilang SIKAP?

Si Manny VILLAR! ARMALITE at DAHAS ang pangtapos sa MAHIHIRAP!

(Subaybayan ang kwentong buhay ng mga taong biktima ng LAND GRABBING ni VILLAR sa Paradise Park, San Pedro Laguna, sa Norzagaray, Bulacan, sa IloIlo, sa Las Pinas,. . . WOW! Malapit nang BUONG PILIPINAS!)

MANNY VILLAR!!! HINDI LAMANG C5 AT TAGA! ! !

ALAM AT GINAGAWA LAHAT NG KLASE NG PANGWAWALANGHIYA!!!
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Ang Mga Senador ni Villar, Tunay na OPO-POPOSISYON !

GILBERT REMULLA, ADEL TAMANO, PIA CAYETANO, TOOTS OPLE , RAMON MITRA, GWEN PIMENTEL, SATUR OCAMPO, LIZA MAZA, BONGBONG MARCOS, ARIEL QUERUBIN, MIRRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO, BONG REVILLA

OPO, Gusto naming maging BILYONARYO, tulad ni VILLAROYO!

OPO, PARARAMIHIN namin ang MAHIHIRAP para marami ang MANGARAP!

OPO, MagpapaTUTA kami kay MANNY, para EVERYBODY HAPPY!

OPO! OPO! OPO! OPO! OPO!OPO! OPO! OPO! OPO! OPO! OPO!OPO!

Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. and party leaders have lamented an alleged disinformation campaign aimed at dividing the party and launched during the Holy Week while most media offices are closed.

In a statement, Teodoro described as part of “divisive intrigues” a newspaper report claiming that the politically influential Garcia family of Cebu has been asked by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo to withdraw support for him.

Teodoro said that the Garcia family and One Cebu, the largest and most influential political organization in Cebu, have not wavered in their support for his presidential bid.

On the other hand, Deputy Speaker Ma. Amelita C. Villarosa, newly installed Lakas-Kampi-CMD chairperson, disclosed that Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has also rejected the news item as a political hoax aimed at derailing Teodoro’s presidential bid.

Villarosa said Garcia, founder and chairperson of One Cebu, insisted that the name of Mr. Arroyo was never mentioned when Teodoro and her family had a dialogue to assure the administration presidential candidate to dismiss as pure intrigues the news reports that they were supporting the candidacy of Nacionalista Party standard bearer Sen. Manuel Villar.

“Gov. Garcia also assured me that except for Teodoro and the Garcias, there was nobody else in the meeting. There was not senatorial candidate present,” Villarosa said.

The Mindoro Occidental solon aired strong suspicions that the news report was calculated at dividing Lakas-Kampi-CMD to immobilize Teodoro’s presidential campaign.

The news report (not in the Bulletin) claimed that an administration senatorial bet had confided that Teodoro’s resignation as party chairman was triggered by the First Gentleman’s lobby against the administration presidential candidate.

Mr. Arroyo, reports said, had called up members of the Garcia family to ask them to drop Teodoro in favour of Villar.

“I deny the report that Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia allegedly told me that the First Gentleman called up the members of her family to withdraw their support to me. I have been going to Cebu to attend One Cebu party rallies to show our unflicning support for each other,” said Teodoro in a statement.

He added: “The support of the Garcia family and of One Cebu party to my presidential bid has always been solid and unconditional. It has never wavered.”

“I appeal to all not to believe in the divisive intrigues being spread around and instead focus on the serious issues affecting the future of our country,” Teodoro said.

His partymates were furious about the allegedly disinformation campaign to sow intrigues within the party.

“Intrigued!” declared Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado.

Arroyo’s eldest son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, appealed to the media to “stop confusing the public.”

Reps. Elpidio Barzaga (Cavite), Danilo Suarez (Quezon) and Anton Lagdameo (Davao del Norte) said they are fully convinced that Teodoro made the right decision when he gave up his post as Lakas-Kampi-CMD chairman.

“Gibo made the right decision not because he is bolting the party because as stated by him in writing, in order to fully concentrate on his campaign,” said Barzaga.

Suarez said he expects Teodoro’s poll survey ratings to rise because he has been unloaded of the responsibility of attending to even the smallest affairs of the party.

“He will continue to be our presidential candidate and we will continue to give him the support needed to win the election,” Lagdameo said.

SYNCMYWORLD !!

Even the New York Times took notice of how corrupt is the Kamaganak.INC of the Cojuangco clan.

HACIENDA LUISITA, the Philippines — Like his father before him, Buenaventura Calaquian worked the sugar cane fields at Hacienda Luisita, a plantation owned by the family of former President Corazon C. Aquino. In the long-running, sometimes bloody battle over control of the land here, Mr. Calaquian, 58, has come out better than most.

For the last few years, he has illegally occupied 3.7 acres on which he cultivates rice and vegetables. He spends most days watching his fields from a makeshift shack whose thatched roof is patched with flattened cardboard boxes. Small profits from tomato sales have allowed him to buy 50 ducks that now swim in a nearby creek.

“I never want to go back to sugar cane,” Mr. Calaquian said as his wife, Maria, 46, used a single bucket to carry water from the creek over to several uneven rows of tomato vines. “This is better.”

Despite the government’s assertion that a two-decade-old land distribution program has been a success, most farmers in the Philippines have yet to benefit significantly. The uneven ownership of land, this country’s primordial problem, continues to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of large landowning families and to fuel armed insurgencies, including Asia’s longest-running Communist rebellion.

The land problem has drawn fresh attention since Mrs. Aquino’s son, Benigno Aquino III, declared his candidacy for the May 10 presidential election, running on his mother’s legacy of “people power.” Though Mrs. Aquino made land reform a top priority, she allowed landowning families to eviscerate her distribution program. Critics say there is no greater example of the failure of land reform than her own family’s estate.

For the past five years, the family has been fighting in the Supreme Court a government directive to distribute the 10,000-acre Hacienda Luisita — the second-biggest family-owned piece of land in the Philippines, about 80 miles north of Manila — to 10,000 farmers.

In 2004, the military and the police killed seven protesters during a strike by farmers fighting for land and higher wages. Since then, the family-controlled Hacienda Luisita Inc. has managed to plant only 40 percent of the estate with sugar cane; the rest has been seized by individual farmers or remains idle.

Criticized for his family’s position, Mr. Aquino, 50, the front-runner in the presidential election, announced recently that the family would transfer the land to the farmers after ensuring that debts were paid off.

“It will be theirs clear and free,” Mr. Aquino said in an interview in Manila.

But Mr. Aquino’s cousin, Fernando Cojuangco, the chief operating officer of the holding company that owns the plantation, said that the extended Cojuangco family, owners of this plantation since 1958, had no intention of giving up the land or the sugar business.

“No, we’re not going to,” Mr. Cojuangco, 47, said in an interview here. “I think it would be irresponsible because I feel that continuing what we have here is the way to go. Sugar farming has to be; it’s the kind of business that has to be done plantation-style.”

He dismissed the widely held view that Mrs. Aquino, his aunt, had made land reform a centerpiece of her government.

“Is there a document that it was a centerpiece? I always asked that question even to her ex-cabinet members. Was there a cabinet meeting where she said this is the centerpiece?”

In 1987, when Mrs. Aquino, born a Cojuangco, began carrying out land redistribution, the government estimated that 10 percent of the population controlled 90 percent of the country’s agricultural land.

The government says that under the program it has redistributed 10 million acres of privately owned land and 7.4 million acres of public land, allowing each farming family to acquire up to 7.4 acres with government-backed loans. The government says owners who relinquish land have received compensation; for sugar estates, the payment is $2,000 per acre.

Last year, the government extended the program to redistribute 2.5 million acres of “problematic lands” that the authorities have been unable to distribute “because of the resistance of some big landowners,” said Nasser C. Pangandaman, the secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Mr. Pangandaman described the program as a success. But most farmers’ groups, scholars and businessmen question the department’s figures.

“The department has never provided us with a clear and credible inventory of the lands that have been distributed,” said Rafael V. Mariano, a congressman who is a member of Anakpawis, a union-based political party.

What is more, lawmakers, most of whom come from large landowning families, included loopholes in the program, critics say.

“Because of the loopholes, landlords have been able to find all sorts of ways and means to recover their land,” said Roland G. Simbulan, a professor of development studies and public management at the University of the Philippines.

The biggest loophole, critics say, was a stock and profit-sharing program that Mrs. Aquino agreed to under pressure from large landlords. Instead of redistributing their land, about a dozen families, including her own, were allowed to turn farmers into shareholders.

The government eventually found that the Cojuangcos had violated the agreement by failing to share profits with the farmers and ordered that the land be distributed, said Mr. Pangandaman of the agrarian reform department.

Mr. Cojuangco said the ruling was a politically motivated attack against his family. The family company treated the workers well, providing health care, homes for some, interest-free loans and a guaranteed minimum wage, he said.

The farm workers at Hacienda Luisita voted in favor of the stock and profit-sharing program in 1989. But because of the decline of the sugar industry and mechanization, the amount of available work diminished steeply so that some farmers were working only one day a week by the late 1990s, said farmers and union officials.

Since the 2004 strike, many have been unable to return to work at the hacienda even as they lacked the funds to buy the seedlings and fertilizer necessary to plant crops on land they are occupying.

In a barrio called Paunawa, Esmeraldo Alcantara, 42, was one of several frustrated jobless men collecting brush to sell for about 30 cents a bundle.

“If I had land and capital, that would be ideal,” said Mr. Alcantara, who controlled a two-acre plot that he had given up trying to plant. “But since I don’t, going back to work at the hacienda would be better. But I can’t do that, either.”

A sign at the village entrance warns motorcyclists wearing helmets or bandanas to stay out — a reminder of the tumultuous strike, when union officials, farmers and supporters were assassinated, sometimes by hit men riding motorcycles. (The Philippine military, which accuses farm leaders of being tied to the Communist rebellion, is believed to be behind these kinds of killings.)

Mr. Cojuangco said he was not afraid of venturing into the hacienda that his family has controlled for three generations.

“I can go out there to the barrios,” he said.

Lito Bais, the head of the farm workers’ union, said, “If that’s true, then why isn’t he doing that?”

“I believe that as long as the Cojuangcos are here, they’ll never give up the land,” Mr. Bais said. “And as long as we’re here, we’ll never give up the struggle for this land.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15phils.html

Gilbert Teodoro: Light at the end of the tunnel
HINDSIGHT By F Sionil Jose (The Philippine Star) Updated January 10, 2010 12:00 AM

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Gilbert Teodoro: I believe that the 1987 constitution was reactive. It was enacted for a single purpose; to transition the country from a dictatorship to a democracy. Unfortunately, it stopped there. It instituted checks and balances to the point that it completely disregarding synergy.

Being this ancient, I have a lot of hindsight, although of course we all know that hindsight is the lowest form of wisdom. I am old enough to have heard Quezon before World War II deliver those fiery speeches at the Luneta then divide Quezon City — named after him while he was still alive — among his mestizo friends.

I knew of how the late President Sergio Osmeña, a very honest man, would go down to Malacañang to check that the GI sheets in the grounds had not been pilfered. Then President Quirino, who was wrongly accused of having bought an expensive bedpan; and on to that greatest of all our presidents, Ramon Magsaysay, how the masa adored him! Then the disastrous regimes of Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Erap Estrada, and now, Gloria Arroyo.

Being an unsinkable optimist, I’ve pinned hope on leaders like Raul Manglapus, Pepe Diokno, Emmanuel Pelaez, but they never got to be president.

The list is short — I had hopes, too, for Haydee Yorac, Richard Gordon, Oscar Orbos. Now, here comes Gilbert Teodoro, Jr.

I first got to know Gilbert when I saw him and his wife on one of those asinine TV talk shows in mid 2009. His answers to the vapid questions were sensible and well thought out. Aside from these qualities of intelligence, he exuded sincerity. I called his office and asked to see him and he readily agreed.

My first meeting with him took place at his office in Camp Aguinaldo months before he was proclaimed the administration’s candidate.

I knew Gilbert’s father; he was the head of the Social Security System — a major institution with billions; he was able to protect the SSS from the rapacity of Imelda. He was a judicious public servant, punctilious and efficient. Gilbert Senior was strict, and Gilbert Junior is grateful to his old man for his Spartan upbringing; this way early enough he understood the wellsprings of his father’s unblemished integrity.

But what does a rich boy know about poverty, which is the country’s gravest malady today? His answer: a doctor treating a leprous patient does not have to have leprosy himself to treat the disease.

Though the manor where he lived was in Manila, he commuted to Paniqui, in Tarlac to that irenic Ilokano barrio Matalaptap, where he got to live with the children and know the language.

As a trapo — he honors the label — he learned how it is to be cast in the dumps, the humbling punishment of being there, and the healing rise from the bottom of the pit.

Then, in those years that he served, first as a three-term Congressman, he saw the real face of poverty, and from this visceral experience, he has come upon ideas about how to alleviate it, not by institutionalizing the solutions but assuring, for instance, that the peasantry should be comfortable through entrepreneurship and by other methods by which farm incomes will rise.

Gilbert Teodoro has more assets — in contrast to the others who aspire for the job. For one, he topped the bar examinations, and has a master’s degree from America’s most famous university, Harvard. He is a colonel in the Reserve Force.

Integrity? Vicente Paterno, one of the superb technocrats whom Marcos recruited to work for him is most admirable; of all the Marcos inner sanctum acolytes, to the best of my knowledge, he is the only one who had come out to say mea culpa; this requires so much courage and humility as well. Shortly after I had that first meeting with Gilbert, Paterno confirmed my estimate of the man when he said, as quoted in the papers that he knew of only two Arroyo cabinet members who were really honest: Esperanza Cabral of the Department of Social Welfare, and Gilbert.

During the recent onslaught of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng when so many sections of Luzon were flooded and hundreds were killed in the floods and landslides, Gilbert, who headed the National Disaster Coordinating Agency, was often criticized for not doing enough, and if he did something, it was too little and too late.

What the critics forgot is that Gilbert was merely the coordinator of that massive relief effort, that other agencies had not acted fast enough. Still, during this period, Gilbert worked very hard, spent many sleepless nights and those who saw him on TV noticed how haggard he looked.

As Gilbert explains it, that disaster was, for him a defining moment. That catastrophe and his unequivocal stand to the challenge of the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao were the most difficult tests of his endurance and iron obligation to his office.

Gilbert’s wife, Monica, belongs to the affluent Prieto clan of Manila. She spent her young years in Switzerland and speaks impeccable French. Gilbert’s family and hers knew each other; it was in Manila where Gilbert met Monica in 1999. They have a son, Jaime, who Gilbert says, worshipped his grandfather, Teodoro Sr.

Monica is a member of the Lower House where she has already left her imprint by creating a committee for the welfare of children — as different from the committee concerned with the welfare of women. Focusing her attention on children, she has authored bills that benefit them, including one that raises the statute on rape from 14 to 16 years. In short, a man who has sexual relations with a minor, 16 years and below, is guilty of the crime of rape.

Gilbert admits to having disagreements with his wife but these are soon enough settled; Monica, he says, is headstrong — a streak that runs in her family, and is grateful for the stout support she gives him.

The election in May will certainly be very different from past elections. First, since it will be automated, it is expected that the results will be known quicker and there will be less chances for cheating. Second, thousands upon thousands of new voters will go to the polls — many of them students who, like the young everywhere, will not be conned by popular celebrities and dazzling showbiz gimmicks. They will certainly vote for candidates who, they feel, will give us good government. In the last elections, evidence of this burgeoning political maturity surfaced in Isabela, in Pampanga and elsewhere where politicians like Grace Padaca and Among Ed Panlilio were hoisted to pivotal positions on the basis of their exemplar personalities and not as flashy TV stars or media icons. This is how it should be, that we be proud of our leaders because they have something between their ears, that they can stand shoulder to shoulder beside other leaders of the Western world.

At the end of a recent talk at the Philippine Military Academy, I was asked by a cadet to forecast the future. I said my crystal ball is foggy and that I also suffer from astigmatism. Given these liabilities, even without that crystal ball, I can see so many changes coming. So much of these depend on the elections this year. I hope we will not usher to Malacañang scoundrels, thieves and nicompoops — and that I had my eyes on Gilbert Teodoro.

My announcement was greeted with applause.

I did a bit of inquiring. The military officers know what he had done in the two years that he was Defense Secretary — a post which he vacated to run for the presidency even if he didn’t have to. They know, too, that he did not take a single peso from the department coffers, that he protected the integrity of the bidding process.

For the cadets at the Academy, he offered academic freedom, but reminded them at the same time of their obligations wherein they were not free. As for the PMA honor code, if in the past, cadets who broke it were given a second chance, he saw to it that there would be no second chance now for those who violate the code.

Two generations ago, then Senator Pacita Madrigal Warns declared that “millionaires don’t steal.” Considering the Filipino experience, the declaration was met with disbelief and ridicule.

For the moment at least, we have a politician who has validated Manang Pacita’s statement. Gilbert said that he will retire from public service when he reaches 51. With his background and record, could he possibly be the man on a white horse — or atop a tank — who will be the ultimate modernizer? Abangan, for there is no assurance that he is the man. I am sure, though, that if he wins, he will try as best as he can not to disappoint us.

It was with this thought that I sought him again the other week. We met at a coffee shop at The Fort in Taguig. I asked these questions which, I know, are in the minds of so many of us.

You are listed as one of the richest in the Arroyo cabinet. What is the nature of this wealth, how did you come to it? What does money, which is power, mean to you?

GIBO: My wife and I both inherited from our late fathers. Perhaps my father would have wanted me to pursue a profession other than public service, something more gainful such as investment banking and the like, as he was in public for 32 years and my mother for more than 10 years. But that was not to be.

True, money is a route to power. But it is also a shield against the improper influences of power. It provides a degree of independence. Thus I am thankful to have been provided for by my family

That old cliché, blood is thicker than water, is in the minds of many Filipinos. You belong to one of the richest families in the country. How will you convince our people that your high office will benefit the people and not your family?

The strongest way to convince people that one’s family will not be unduly favored is through one’s platforms, policies, and actions. I believe in encompassing interests rather than narrow interests as defined in Mansur Olson’s book Power and Prosperity, which, by the way, is an excellent read. There are interests that transcend class and benefit the majority; these are the interests one seeks to buttress. The best evidence that I have my own views is that I embarked on my latest political journey aboard a new ship, making my own choices and decisions, not under the auspices of any familial patronage.

You served Marcos who plundered this nation. I presume you understand why it is necessary for this country to have a strong leader and, therefore, a strong state. Given your experience, what does Marcos mean to you?

As with any leader, history, including its biases, will be the judge. All leaders had something positive to contribute, and people must learn to winnow the chaff from the grain in reviewing a leader’s legacy. I believe the country, more important than needing a strong leader, needs strong leadership. This is the difference between what I perceive to be contemporary viewpoints, the failure to distinguish between the person and the institution. Oftentimes, strong leadership is built around an individual and stays that way, while I believe in creating lasting institutions with the clear position that my participation will be temporary.

Poverty is our foremost problem. How will you resolve it in the six years? Our political economy—will you reform it? What is your view on foreign investment?

One cannot resolve poverty. One can only set the stage for people to get out of it. If a government has for its primary purpose the resolution of poverty, solely or principally through government intervention, then it will be taking on a burden which is not fully its own, thereby creating a moral hazard. In the final analysis, only the individual can free himself or herself from poverty. A government can only create the basic conditions that will provide a favorable atmosphere to alleviate poverty.

My goal is to make the Philippines a favorable platform for investments both domestic and foreign, with some conditions, for example protection of workers’ rights, of the environment, of our farmers. The goal is to provide proper government investments, such as infrastructure, and policies such as transparency, to afford confidence in our economy and in our people — basic education reform. Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article entitled “Innovate, innovate, innovate,” where he says it is once again the age of innovation. A country to get ahead must innovate and invent something new that the world does not have and that it will need. The Philippines is not exempt from this reality.

Your program on health and education will require a vast outlay of resources. You need to increase revenues. Will you finally, really tax the very rich?

Tax reform both on the policy level and the administration level is extremely important. One must be able to balance between those two goals. I favor strict enforcement balanced by simplified taxation systems and perhaps some easing of tax rates. Our corporate tax rates are one of the highest in ASEAN. We have to study how we can make up the shortfall enforcement while easing tax rates to attract investments.

Certainly you are aware that your connection with an unpopular administration diminishes your chances at the polls. How will you defend your position?

It is I who should be the focus, not the administration. I have my own views, goals, achievements, and the capacity to govern. It is convenient, of course for the opposition to use the administration line of attack, but I believe our people will be able to see through such a tactic.

As a member of the administration party you will be beholden to the same people who are perceived to have wrought havoc on government. You will have to repay them because you are Filipino. Is this perception correct?

If I were to be running just to be a lapdog or a paid hack, I can very well be that with less risk. I will not risk a carefully guarded reputation and a legacy that I want our son to be proud of.

We will be hundred million people in less than five years and will have difficulty feeding this population. What are your ideas on population control?

Population management is essential, not merely because our resources are not limitless but also to reduce the risk of disaster. With the visible effects of climate change on our country, we have more vulnerable areas and fewer areas where people can stay. Population is a big issue. It is a problem that continues to fester while everyone gets lost in the acrimonious debate on which is the right institution to deal with it. So nothing gets done.

Granting that the cornerstone of population management is a moral choice freely and knowledgeable made by couples and that government should not make that moral choice, several things must follow because the debate must not stop there. We cannot pretend the problem does not exist. The following construct must logically follow: 1. There must be institutional responsibility and accountability. If government is not the proper agency to deal with the problem because it is a moral issue, then our moral guardians must take the responsibility and the consequent accountability for positive results, and not merely for information and education; 2. Government must support the choice freely made by a couple; 3. No to abortion.

As secretary of National Defense you have had a first hand view of the military. What is the most important problem in the military and how did you handle it? What does this experience mean to you?

There are two major problems of our military: resources and doctrines. In terms of resources, there is a serious shortfall both in manpower and equipment. I trace this back to the failure of our country to properly plan for and build up a credible AFP since our independence after WWII. We have low defense spending and a force that is small for our country’s geographical make up.

In terms of doctrines, we still have the mindset of addressing ideological wars in a conventional sense, while we should be building up our small unit expertise for internal security and law enforcement purposes. This though is now being introduced by the AFP hierarchy. Recent literature, particularly with what is known as 4G warfare or fourth-generational warfare, preaches that although territory is important, the key element now is people, or a single person. You have to arrest that person to stop a security situation. The best example is Osama bin Laden. Here you have Bravo, Kato, Parad, and their ilk. This is what we have to re-engineer our AFP to deal with.

Surely you know of the Ampatuans, the clan wars in Moro Mindanao. What can be done about it? What have you done?

It would have been militarily impossible to disarm a sizable armed threat while facing a restive MILF during the time the MOA-AD issue was being heatedly debated, and amid irresponsible threats of some local and national leaders which led to actual skirmishes, creating a volatile and confused situation on the ground, At that time our troops were also focused on the repeated kidnappings in Sulu and in the Zamboanga peninsula. Now because of the ceasefire with the MILF we can disarm. But the question is how long we can maintain our current police and military strength in the area so the equilibrium holds. Your guess is as good as mine.

Granting that the two rebellions will be diminished under your term, how will you insure that they will not recur? What will you do with the armed men in both organizations?

There is one essential thing that must be done so as not to allow security situations to recur: effective deterrence. This is achieved through a combination of various things like presence of police and military personnel in the area for an effective length of time, infrastructure development, capacity building of LGUs, livelihood opportunities; education, and such other empowerment measures. But the underlying factor is the disarmament of non-state armed groups.

You are in favor of changing the Constitution. What are the main provisions that you want changed by a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly?

I believe that the 1987 constitution was reactive. It was enacted for a single purpose; to transition the country from a dictatorship to a democracy. Its tactical objective was to dismantle Marcos mechanisms. Unfortunately, it stopped there. It instituted checks and balances to the point that it completely disregarding synergy. It is a constitution which breeds false expectations because the state guarantees a proverbial heaven on earth.

We must ingrain into our people’s mindset that our political system must evolve with the times. It must effectively address the operational environment. It cannot be stuck in the quagmire of its own making. Although we must be equally vigilant and steadfast in preserving the Bill of Rights and the independence of the Judiciary. I am in favor of a freely elected constitutional convention that will have no other mandate but to study and to consider the subject.

Our relationship with the United States is the cornerstone of our security policy. What are your thoughts on this relationship? Should the Visiting Forces Agreement be renegotiated?

Our relationship with the United States is a cornerstone of our policy, as our relationships with ASEAN, the OIC, and other regional and multilateral groups, and our bilateral relationships as well. Our bilateral relationship with the United States has transcended the traditional diplomatic, economic, and military spheres but has permeated into this country’s cultural and social fabric in the informal sense. We have shared ostensible political values such as the different constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and the concept of democracy. It is a strong relationship both in the formal structured sense and the informal personal sense.

We should leverage this relationship as we should our relationship with other countries, identifying mutually advantageous and mutually beneficial points of cooperation, after a transparent and arms-length realization of each country’s conditions. It is a paradox that one of the most effective deterrents against conflict between states is close interaction between their armed forces—soldiers do not make wars, politicians do. The VFA is such a mechanism. Recently we have seen it at work in the non-traditional military sense, in what we call HADR—humanitarian assistance and disaster response. In typhoon Frank last year and in Ondoy, Pepeng etc. this year US troops immediately came to our assistance. Thus the VFA should be judged from a broader perspective than just criminal jurisdiction. Second, the VFA is merely an implementing treaty of Mutual Defense Treaty which embodies both countries’ bilateral military obligations. To sum up I am in favor of more VFAs with other countries.

China’s growing influence in the Asian region and the world is increasing. What would our relations with China be? With China’s claim on the Spratleys? Our rich and powerful Chinese minority?

Our connection with China is strong, both in an economic sense and in a cultural sense. It is perhaps without fear of rebuttal that I can say that within ASEAN, save for Singapore and maybe Thailand, the Philippines is where the Chinese have assimilated with the least prejudice and with the least difficulty.

China’s rising economic power is a reality of the world. Its economic growth is a welcome development because it has been a strong economic partner of our country. We must enhance our economic relations with China in a sustainable way. Yet the geopolitical realities still remain — China has embarked on an unprecedented military build up. It has blue water naval capabilities to include aircraft carriers and it cannot say that Taiwan is the sole focus of such a military enhancement. It behooves China’s leadership to be transparent and to be forthright in stating its military objectives. It must also be clear in its policy regarding states such as North Korea, which are popularly believed to be under its influence. The Philippines must assert its sovereignty realistically and responsibly in accordance with legally supportable aspects of international law. We must be steadfast in this.

Some two decades ago, James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly postulated that our “damaged culture” hinders our development. If culture both as anthropological and aesthetic concept is a factor in the building of a nation, how will you handle it?

I believe that the effort to disregard the rich cultural diversity of our country led to a lot of damage. The single language, single ideology line of nation-building has not been a positive development for our country. It has bred bigotry and division.

I believe that we must accept that we are diverse. We are an archipelago, for heaven’s sake. We must encourage that diversity and teach each other what we are, so that a culture of tolerance and respect evolves. Even the contributions of our colonizers such as languages, both Spanish and English, must be appreciated and their use enhanced. The world itself because of increasing interconnections is getting increasingly culturally aware. We should be the same in our own country.

Is your wife an important factor in your decision making?

Yes, any member of one’s nuclear family is an important element of decision making for two reasons: trust and the fact that your decisions affect them, too. They are an important source of feedback, as are other groups in your political atmosphere. But at the end of the day, the reality is that they are one, rather than the only, element in decision-making. The determining factor should be conscience and the appreciation that several factors need to be weighed in arriving at a decision.

Among the many insights into the Filipino character, which our history unfailingly illustrates, is that, despite our faults, we are a talented and heroic people with a revolutionary tradition. You are a student of history, what makes a Filipino a hero?

A hero takes extraordinary steps, with total disregard for personal safety and security, for the benefit of others.

Heroism bears the essence of individuality in the context of using it for collective good. Thus the soldier who dies while saving others in a flood, the seven-year-old who saves his younger siblings from an inferno while his parents are away, to the schoolteacher who spends her own money to buy food for her students who had to be temporarily housed in the public school because of the flood — they are all heroes.

What is your vision for our country?

I want to see a Philippines that is peaceful, has strong institutions of governance, has modern infrastructure, has food security, is technologically and educationally advanced, with a people who have the capacity to make rational decisions for themselves, true freedom of thought and of expression, a power in Southeast Asia and perhaps the Asia-Pacific, ecologically rich and diverse, in short a country where our people would want to remain.