 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Unified ID Card By Antonio C. Abaya Written April 23, 2006 For the Standard Today, April 25 issue Not being a lawyer, I usually shy away from making comments on decisions and judgment by the Supreme Court on the issues of the day that are brought up to it by contending parties.. Not only because I do not feel competent enough to make those comments, but also because I am more than a little amused that the level of legal and constitutional debate in this country is extraordinarily high, but the level of practical commonsense is abysmally low. Filipino lawyers and politicians (who are mostly lawyers) are without doubt among the most clever and eloquent in the world as they split legal and constitutional hairs and liberally quote chapters and verses of the Law, including the Constitution, when they defend their positions or demolish those of their adversaries. That�s fine. But the country is a basket case. It cannot generate enough jobs to give everyone a decent and dignified livelihood. It cannot even come up with practical solutions on, for example, how to collect and dispose of garbage. Or how to manage traffic flow without comedic gimmicks like White Flags and Pink Cloths. There is also something dysfunctional that the Asian country with the most number of lawyers per 100,000 population or per square kilometer is also the most lawless. How to explain this, I don�t know. But obviously I am not the only one intrigued by this conundrum. I think it was Sen. Nene Pimentel, himself a lawyer, who once publicly sighed in despair that we should close all law schools for at least ten years. That, at least, is more benign than Shakespeare�s solution: �First, we should kill all the lawyers.� Having said that, however, I applaud the Supreme Court�s decision to (a) uphold Executive Order 420 ordering the establishment of a unified identification system; and (b) declaring unconstitutional some parts of Executive Order 464 which prohibited heads of executive departments from testifying before House or Senate committees looking into certain anomalies (about which more in a separate article). I have been supporting a national ID card system since the time of President Aquino, as a way of improving governance and administrative control. This has traditionally been opposed by liberals, out of concern for the privacy of individuals; and by communists, out of fear that the ID would be used to flush them out of the woodwork. President Ramos made things worse during his watch by backing the ID as a device for keeping track of the movement of people. Naturally it raised hackles among both liberals and communists that Big Brother was indeed taking over. But communists have no moral right to pontificate against a national ID since in the Maoist society that they want to impose on us, a national ID card would be their first measure of social control. I supported an electronic national ID as a way of cleaning up the voters� registration list and thus help insure clean and honest elections. Who can possibly be against clean and honest elections? Recognizing the fact that more than 100 countries have compulsory national ID cards, the Supreme Court has noted that the proposal is not even for a national ID card, but only for a non-compulsory unified ID card that would merge or consolidate the IDs issued by government agencies to their members, such as the GSIS and the SSS. These are as good a place to start such a card as any, since their combined memberships run into millions and cut across social and economic classlines. But it does not make sense to put PhilHealth cards next in line, as their members are mainly from the lower socio-economic strata and would not help convince the vital middle class of the utility and beneficence of this ID. It would make better sense to put the Land Transportation Office (LTO) next in line and merge and consolidate the driver�s license with the SSS and GSIS membership cards. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the passports that it issues should be next. .Both driver�s license and passport cut across socio-economic lines and, when combined or merged with the SSS and GSIS membership cards, would provide a wide enough matrix for national identification purposes With such a matrix in place, but not before, the unified ID can now merge with the wider universe of the voters� ID, absorbing those who are not yet members of the SSS or GSIS, or are not yet holders of drivers� licenses or passports. In effect, the unified ID card becomes a national ID card, even without calling it as such. But its ultimate raison d�etre should be clean and honest elections, not to keep track of the movement of people. The private sector can be convinced of the advantages of the unified ID card. Banks, for example, can demand a unified ID card from those who open an account or apply for a loan. So also for those who want to connect to utilities (power, water, telephone, cable TV, internet). If they were to cross-reference their records, they can tell which applicants have outstanding balances with which organizations. Property owners can also make the unified ID card a requirement for prospective tenants. Too often have we read of lessees using leased properties for illegal purposes (illegal drugs manufacture, storage for smuggled goods) who cannot be located or traced when the property is raided and embargoed. Other government agencies can also require the unified ID card from those who want to file for NBI and police clearances, gun permits, board and bar exams, professional licenses, corporation and business licenses, income tax returns, the buying and selling of chattel, etc. It takes the place of the useless, stupid and unverifiable community tax certificate, which anyone can secure in any municipio, using as many fake names and fake addresses as one�s illegal or questionable activities require. It is beyond comprehension to me, a non-lawyer, why this useless and easily faked piece of paper is still being required for the notarization of documents in this country of lawyers. On the other hand, an electronic unified card, if properly conceived, designed and implemented, narrows the working space for criminals and sociopaths. You have to prove that you are who you say you are. There is nothing insidious about that. In the US, you cannot secure a driver�s license or open a bank account without a social security card, the American equivalent of the national ID card. In Europe, you have to show a national ID card when you rent a car, lease a house or open a bank account, etc. Thumbs up for an electronic unified ID card! ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org TONY ON RADIO (2). Tony Abaya will be interviewed by Gemma Cruz-Araneta on Friday, April 28, in her radio program Krus na Daan, on Station DZRJ (810 khz) from 5 to 6pm. The topic for discussion will be Jobs and Joblessness in the Philippine economy. ***** NEW ARTICLES IN www.tapatt.org. The following articles were emailed to us and have been incorporated into the Reference Material section of the website. The notation in parenthesis indicates the sub-section where each article can be found. Dark Days for Philippine Democracy. Editorial in The New York Times, April 06, 2006. (On Philippine Politics). Filipinos Get Ready to ChaCha Again, by Fabio Scarpello, in Asia Times, April 11, 2006. A European view of Philippine political opera in the time of the ChaCha. (On Philippine Politics). The Next Miracle Economy: Vietnam, from Weiss Research, April 06, 2006. �This is not another Taiwan or Singapore in the making. No, Vietnam is poised to be an Asian Tiger in a class all by itself � so much so that the bankers of the world are scrambling to get into Vietnam�� (On Vietnam and the Vietnamese). ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Unified ID Card� Dear Mr. Abaya, Having written to you before, you are well aware that I am follower of your down-to-earth wisdom, and so I wish to request your permission to use some of your archived columns, unfortunately edited to approximately 750 word, in reading tests for my students. I have been tasked with conducting Saturday morning English lessons to 25 young men from disadvantaged areas who have won themselves a scholarship that will provide them the education they need to obtain a job in the marine industry. This scholarship is a joint venture between the Propellor Club of Manila, comprised of those associated with the shipping industry, and the Salvation Army of Australia. My task is to raise the students English proficiency from Band 4 of the International English Language Testing System, to a Band 6 within 100 hours. (I am pleased to report that after 60 hours Band 6 is now the minimum in class with many achieving over Band 7). However, I am using this opportunity to open their eyes to their own history and current events. As part of their Listening training, lectures have been given them on HIV/AIDS, including condom use especially in overseas ports, the Manila galleon trade, World War II in the Philippines, etc. Each and every week, I hand out a few chapters of a book for reading, and with discussion on the week following. Animal Farm was a great favorite, especially when in the discussion, we could bring in events such as EDSA 1, communism in the Philippines, Rizal's predictions, etc. to compare them with the message of the book. Thus, columns such as yours, which are not only written in excellent English, but designed to create thought and discussion, I feel are invaluable. Unfortunately, you are very unlikely to be read under normal circumstances by my students and their peers, but we should at least try to expose them to more sensible commentators than they listen to on television news. With very best regards Alan C. Atkins, [email protected] April 25, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Thanks a lot Tony, this is exactly what we have been wondering over the past few years. The (national ID card) system was taken into use in Finland really looooong time ago, can't even remember when it was, sometime in the last millenium. Actually we do not even need any ID card as such, just the number that is given to you when you are born. That number follows you forever; it is needed in all possible transactions. Even the credit cards are verified by using the last digits of the ID number. Only time when an SSS - type of card is useful is when paying for prescribed medicines at a pharmacy; it is an evidence that you are in the SSS system and entitled for hefty discount. But you can get the same discount also later from SSS if you do not happen to have that card with you in the pharmacy. The actual ID card is needed also to show your legal age if it is questioned in some restaurants or so if you don't have a driving license to verify your age. Driving license is by far the most common ID document, and it is valid for very long time as compared to such a short time as here in the Philippines. That is one more thing I really do not understand here; what is the real reason for the connection of your birthday and the expiry date of the license ? Well, never mind; there are many much more important, basic issues to be solved; implementation of a unified national ID system is absolutely one of those. BR Simo Hoikka, [email protected] Program Manager, Bridge IT, Nokia (Phils.) Inc. President, Philippine Finland Association April 26, 2006 MY REPLY. One�s birthday is tied to the expiry of one�s driver�s license in order to spread the renewal of those licenses throughout the year. They do not want 80% of the driving public renewing their licenses in the last weeks of December. Makes good sense. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww A resounding YES! for a national electronic ID card. Peace and Joy Every Conscious Moment! Tom and Ruth de Guzman, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mr. Abaya, Why do we have a GSIS and an SSS? Maybe we can just have one? With many of the populace working a government job and a private job, maybe it is time to rethink the pension scheme? Why do the Americans only have one? The SSS number cuts the swath of various agencies. income tax, license, military, et and the list goes on. Why have a different number for SSS and Income tax when it will be a more streamlined operation and much data sharing across the different services. Making government smaller and more manageable is a more noble goal for the top execs. But that is me. Jojo Vicencio, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Ako rin, di ko maisip bakit meron pang cedula (except sa income sa barangayor kung saan eto nakukuha) at requirement sa kung anu ano! Kahit sino pwede makuha kahit saan! Jovito Palo, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Mr. Tony Abaya, As usual, I can not agree with you more on your article "Unified ID Card". The amendments to the computerization of the election being discussed in the senate should take this into consideration: one must have an ID in order to vote. Even the so-called people's initiative being forced upon us should have the ID numbers as a reference forquick checks. And the Residence Certificate. My blood boils every time I think of it. Every time I read your articles, I want to do something about things that are obviously wrong in our society. What can we do? Here is what I am going to do, I will get the email addresses of all the senators, congressmen, governors and public officials and email to all of them your articles (or maybe a synopsis as they may not have the time to read long articles or that they can not concentrate that long). I will also ask all my egroups to do the same, send them messages, send them your articles. If you have in your files some of the email addresses, that would give me a jumpstart on this little project. More power to you, Mr. Tony. By the way, I have known (about) you since your Erehwon days when I was still working for Caltex on Padre Faura. Also I personally know your brother Mon. Glicerio Sicat, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya: Thank you for your article on the Unified ID Card. I am also in favor of it as its issuance will help improve governance, assuming that the governors will not abuse its use. We citizens should guard against possible abuse by authorities by seeing to it that enough safeguards are installed in the card to prevent mistakes and possible harassments in the future. We should commend the Supreme Court for not only being the last bulwark of democracy but also for being the last refuge of the people. I am referring to its two recent decisions, i.e., declaring unconstitutional the two most important Sections of EO 464 and the so-called CPR. This leads me to comment on your statement that we have more than enough lawyers. I totally agree that ours is a dysfunctional system, but not because of the many lawyers. It is because of lack or absence of morality in most of our leaders who cannot distinguish right from wrong. Who are more preoccupied in enriching themselves rather than helping their impoverished countrymen. Who are thinking more of preserving their power than serving the people. Whenever the names Lee Kuan Yu or Mahathir Mohammed are mentioned, I pity more our country. When can we have the likes of such leaders whose hearts are for country and people. I think we need more lawyers who will stand up and fight oppression, who have the courage to file disbarment proceedings against an abusive secretary of justice, who will file impeachment proceedings against the Comelec Commissioners who participated in election cheating and in illegal contracts. And lawyers whose masters are not their clients and their fees but justice. Because the fidelity of lawyers to the Constitution is higher than that accorded to clients, and in fact it is the highest fidelity demanded of lawyers. The paramount duty of lawyers then is not to win cases for clients at all cost, because such act will in no way distinguish him from a prostitute, but to serve the ends of justice because by such act he distinguishes his profession as a noble one. And indeed lawyering is a noble profession like soldiiery and priesthood, minus of course the scalawags in the law profession. The quintessential question then is how do we produce good lawyers, as how do we produce good leaders? More than the knowledge of the law can the bar exam separate the bad from good men. What does it take in one�s training to be good? Good men should outnumber or overpower the bad ones to prevent evil. I remember when I was in college my professor in Social and Political Thought required us to read Utopia by Sir Thomas More and Siddharta. The former delves on achieving a perfect society and of raising good leaders, while the latter tells the self-sacrifices of a wealthy man who later became the Buddha. These two classic books may be of help for those who have reforms in their minds in governance or in living their daily lives. By the way, if I remember right, it was not Shakespeare who said - "Let�s kill all the lawyers" - but one anarchist in one of his plays. (It�s the same thing, since the anarchist was a fictional character invented by Shakespeare. ACA) Best regards and God bless. Ben Entico, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mr. Abaya, I second the motion that there should be a unified card issued by the government in place of the resident certificate or cedula. Must abolish the piece of paper residence certificate which is not even check if the numbers you wrote in an form referring to that numbers were correct. There is no picture on it. Just a thumbmark. Is there any private or government institution that checks the validity of a thumbmark other than the NBI or police? Most do not even declare their correct income to their municipalities just to get that piece of paper. So there is no control and crosschecking. However, it will be difficult to remove the cedula system, thus removing money earnings to municipalities. In the US, the Social Security ID card and the State Drivers License are the two most sought government-issued documents required in legal transactions and application forms. For those who do not have a drivers license, the State issues a State ID card to identify a person�s profile and abode. Depending on the State, validity is five years. Philippine municipalities require residence certificates as a tax collection measure as well. This is equivalent to the City Tax in most US States. Well, if we can bring taxes and fees to the national government and remove them from local government perhaps we can reduce the amount of corruptions and incompetence in the municipalities. But I'm not sure if the main or higher administration is also efficient. I noticed in City Halls, particularly the Manila City Hall, you will encounter temporaries doing hard admin work while the regular employees seat behind their tables reading newspaper or browsing their favorite tabloids. If we trim down their budgets, will they ever get rid of those lazy and incompetent regulars that do nothing other than to stamp and log their signatures which I'm not sure if those signatures are really needed. In China they have a red book (I forgot the name) for each citizen where it logs all pertinent info from addresses, parents, school, etc to identify movement of people and the distribution of government benefits. Without that personal book you cannot find work or enter a school. Nonoy Ramos, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, You are correct. Multiple ID's make it difficult to track one's identity. In the US the social security number is used for almost everything from birth to death. I guess Filipino lawyers find the condition of disarray beneficial to their own political and personal interests than to serve the country and its people they represent. It is a sad commentary for Congress people who talk a lot but do less. Dr. Nestor P. Baylan, [email protected] New York City, April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww As for me, it may clean the system, more so with the elections. Si Abalos na lang ang problema. He he he Mike Delgado, [email protected] April 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reaction to �Illegal Revolutions� (March 26, 2006) I agree with the conclusion. More power! Bert Ada, [email protected] April 21, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reaction to �Freedom of Depress� (March 14, 2006) In your March 14 article, you wrote: �Freedom of the press, Filipino-style, is truly depressing.�. ***** That is the One-Liner of the Year! Victor A. Lim, [email protected] Faculty Member, Asian Institute of Management April 21, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reaction to �Cafeteria Catholicism� (April 11, 2006) Hey... I liked your article. You might be interested in my comments, here: Cafeteria Catholicism � April 22 06 9:19 AM When I first saw this headline in my RSS reader I let it slide for a few days. I had supposed it was just another conservative rant about how terrible it is to think for yourself. But on closer inspection it's not a bad article at all. The one thing I might add, however, is that the Catholic Church is admittedly imperfect on Earth and, in some respects, in a state of development. So the hope in Cafeteria Catholicism (and its many different perspectives) may be that over time the Church will embrace valid points while rejecting the false. Regards, Michael Clark, [email protected] April 21, 2006 http://www.earthpages.org http://www.michaelwclark.com wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Collaborative Solution Management Hi Tony, I've set up a Wiki facility to see if I can get the best minds in the blogosphere to collaborate on a single "Solutions Manifesto" that addresses fundamental issues that afflict Philippine society. Wiki technology is an open source application that is Web-based and allows anyone who logs on (even anonymously) to edit content directly. The application manages version and provides the Administrator some ability to control access and content; but all-in-all, it is open for all and the resulting content will merely reflect the quality of the contributions. Check it out here: http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/getrealphilippines_solutions/ If you click "edit page" on the left sidebar, you will be taken to a page editor facility that provides a WYSiWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) environment to edit and save that page. You can even add pages if you want. . Hope to see you there! Cheers, benign P, [email protected] Get Real Philippines! http://www.getrealphilippines.com/ wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I�m a Catholic. Should I boycott the �Da Vinci Code� movie? By Jose Maria P. Alcasid, MD, [email protected] April 23, 2006 Amid the impassioned and heated debate about The Da Vinci Code movie, the most elementary and basic of questions that concern most Filipino Catholics regarding this controversial issue seem to have fallen by the wayside. Surely, plenty of printer�s ink and some TV airtime have been spent to parrot a motley mix of opinions in the news media lately over the merit or lack thereof of the said movie. And in a raging controversy with grave moral implications such as this one, the same old justifications rear their ugly heads time and time again. �Why so much fuss? It�s only fiction,� remarks one fellow. �Keep an open mind while you watch the film,� admonishes another. �Why boycott the movie when you haven�t even read the book?� queries an apparently conscientious soul. �Don�t protest. You�ll only give it more publicity,� urges another. But really, how doctrinally sound are these comments in light of the nature and plot of the movie? It is no secret that one of the central themes of The Da Vinci Code revolves around author Dan Brown�s dubious and absurd claims that Our Lord Jesus Christ married St. Mary Magdalene and that the alleged union produced an offspring from which a divine lineage sprouted. Hence according to this distorted depiction that run contrary to historical truth, St. Mary Magdalene became figuratively the Holy Grail that carried the divine seed. And insidiously interspersed within this sinister and anfractuous scheme, the wily author craftily weaves in pagan and Gnostic heresies, sexual distortions and perversions and the whole shebang of other spurious claims. To add insult to injury, the revisionist Dan Brown concocts an equally ludicrous accusation that the Catholic Church has perpetrated �the greatest cover-up in human history� and that �almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.� (The Da Vinci Code, p.249) He insinuates that �The Bible is the product of man�Not of God�Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible which omitted those gospel which spoke of Christ�s human traits and embellished those gospels that made him god-like�[T]he modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who had a political agenda � to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ�� (The Da Vinci Code, p.231-234) Now, to a serious and discerning Catholic I ask, wouldn�t these prevarications constitute blasphemy? And by the way, how would one define blasphemy in the first place? According to the Merriam-Webster College dictionary, blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God; or irreverence towards something considered sacred or inviolable. Without batting an eyelash The Da Vinci Code fits the bill to a tee. It attacks and reviles the sacred person of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the very core beliefs of our holy religion. It denigrates He Whom we, Catholics, hold as holy and inviolable.[1] It�s only fiction you say? Well, read my lips. It�s B-L-A-S-P-H-E-M-O-U-S fiction littered with egregious historical errors and doctrinal flaws. So if you value your Catholic Faith, steer clear off it and don�t even dare touch it with a ten-foot pole! Keep an open mind? Be careful lest your brains fall out! But honestly, can Catholics sit out this movie in theaters and come out with a clear conscience knowing they�ve aided and abetted the consummation of a blasphemy? Oh, you mean I didn�t read the book yet? I don�t have to take cyanide to know it�s poison. Besides, as the old adage goes many a curious cat ended up kicking the bucket, right? One can certainly form an intelligent and viable opinion on the The Da Vinci Code book or movie without ever reading or seeing it by sifting through a plethora of reliable information and resources gleaned from the Internet, news media and several excellent books published to refute its many lies. Don�t protest because it only gives it more publicity? Yes� the kind of negative publicity that scares the living daylights out of the movie�s promoters! Why else do you think Sony Entertainment hired the services of Sitrick and Company, one of Hollywood�s foremost public relations and damage-control experts - if not to try to stave off the brewing storm spurred by the movie?[2] And there�s more. The promoters of The Da Vinci Code movie are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that the relatively harmless exercise of watching a film doesn�t turn into a thorny moral issue that would give moviegoers a problem of conscience once they set foot on the theater�s lobby. They want to exorcise the �B� word out of the controversy and hope dissenters keep those protest placards safely stowed away in their respective homes But seriously above everything else, a Catholic's attitude.in face of this contentious movie should be that of outright REJECTION! None of this politically correct �I�m personally opposed but�� hogwash! Once you�re faced with blasphemy you just can�t wink at it, cross your arms and squirm your way out of it. As Our Lord Himself warned, �He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.� � Matthew 12:30 Yes, a Catholic must reject as offensive the assertion that the Catholic Church �is guilty of the greatest cover-up in history.� Yes, a Catholic must reject as blasphemous the core premise of the plot that Christ was not God and was married to St. Mary Magdalene and had offspring. Yes, a Catholic must reject the resurrected Gnostic heresies embedded in the text which were so ably refuted by the Early Church Fathers. And yes, a Catholic ought to PROTEST and BOYCOTT The Da Vinci Code movie! To do so would be to uphold the First and Second Commandments and to make a precious and loving ACT OF REPARATION to satisfy the grievous affront made against the honor and dignity of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ. "Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." - MATTHEW 10:32-33 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us by De Arlene, [email protected] Judas Rejected God's Love, Says Pope Benedict XVI April 13, 2006 VATICAN CITY, APRIL 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- In his homily at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Benedict XVI assured the faithful that the mystery of Judas consists precisely in his rejection of God's love. Judas Iscariot personifies "treacherous man," for whom money, power and success are more important than love and he does not hesitate to sell Jesus, the Pope said at the Mass on the evening of Holy Thursday. The Holy Father's comments came in the wake of the recently divulged "Gospel of Judas," an ancient document that puts the apostle and his betrayal of Christ in a positive light. It describes Judas, in fact, as obeying a divine ordinance in handing over Jesus to the authorities. In his homily, Benedict XVI, on the contrary, stressed the freedom of the apostle who betrayed Jesus for 30 denarii, as the canonical Gospels explain. "The dark mystery exists of the rejection, made present with what happened to Judas and, precisely on Holy Thursday, on the day that Jesus gives himself up, should make us reflect," said the Pontiff. "The Lord's love knows no limits, but man can put a limit." Rejection Benedict XVI then asked: "What does this do to treacherous man?" And he responded: "The rejection of love, not wanting to be loved, not loving. Pride which thinks it has no need of purification, which closes itself to the saving goodness of God." "In Judas," he said, "we see the nature of this rejection still more clearly. He judges Jesus according to the categories of power and success: For him, power and success alone are the reality, love does not count. "And he is avid: Money is more important than communion with Jesus, it is more important than God and his love." "In this way," the Holy Father explained, "he also becomes a liar, who plays a game of double jeopardy, and breaks with truth, someone who lives in lies, thus losing the sense of the highest truth, of God." "In this way, he becomes hard and incapable of conversion, of the confident return of the prodigal son, and throws away his destroyed life." ZE06041306 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us by Anonymous� Hispanic Leaders Speak Out! By Anonymous April 22, 2006 Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets; "Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out! We are the future. You are old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die . . . Through love of having children, we are going to take over. Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council. "They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over . . . We are here to stay." Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico, "The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot." Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas; "We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . . . I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it." Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, "Remember 187--proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens--was the last gasp of white America in California." Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Supervisor, "We are politicizing every single one of these new citizens that are becoming citizens of this country . . . I gotta tell you that a lot of people are saying, "I'm going to go out there and vote because I want to pay them back." Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave." Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General , "We are practicing 'La Reconquista' in California." Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University; "We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos . . . " Are these just the words of a few extremists? Consider that we could fill up many pages with such quotes. Also, consider that these are mainstream Mexican leaders. THE U.S. VS MEXICO: On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S. team, Steve Sampson said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in this profession." Did you know that immigrants from Mexico and other non-European countries can come to this country and get preferences in jobs, education, and government contracts? It's called affirmative action or racial privilege. The Emperor of Japan or the President of Mexico could migrate here and immediately be eligible for special rights unavailable for Americans of European descent. Recently, a vote was taken in the U.S. Congress to end this practice. It was defeated. Every single Democratic senator except Ernest Hollings voted to maintain special privileges for Hispanic, Asian and African immigrants. They were joined by thirteen Republicans. Bill Clinton and Al Gore have repeatedly stated that they believe that massive immigration from countries like Mexico is good. They have also backed special privileges for these immigrants. Corporate America has signed on to the idea that minorities and third world immigrants should get special, privileged status. Some examples are Exxon, Texaco, Merrill Lynch, Boeing, Paine Weber, Starbucks and many more. DID YOU KNOW?: Did you know that Mexico regularly intercedes on the side of the defense in criminal cases involving Mexican nationals? Did you know that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so? According to the L.A. Times, Orange County, California is home to 275 gangs with 17,000 members; 98% of which are Mexican and Asian. How's your county doing? According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide. A Wall Street Journal editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as stating that Asian mobsters are the "greatest criminal challenge the country faces." Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population. Is education important to you? Here are the words of a teacher who spent over 20 years in the Los Angeles School system. "Imagine teachers in classes containing 30-40 students of widely varying attention spans and motivation, many of whom aren't fluent in English. Educators seek learning materials likely to reach the majority of students and that means fewer words and math problems and more pictures and multicultural references." WHEN I WAS YOUNG: When I was young, I remember hearing about the immigrants that came through Ellis Island. They wanted to learn English. They wanted to breath free. They wanted to become Americans. Now too many immigrants come here with demands. They demand to be taught in their own language. They demand special privileges--affirmative action. They demand ethnic studies that glorify their culture. ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us by [email protected] The Overseas Class. By Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 20, 2006 They nurse the sick in California, drive fuel trucks in Iraq, sail cargo ships through the Panama Canal and cruise ships through the Gulf of Alaska. They pour sake for Japanese salarymen and raise the children of Saudi businessmen. They are the Philippines' most successful export: its workers. Three decades ago, seeking sources of hard currency and an outlet for a fast-growing population, then-President Ferdinand Marcos encouraged Filipinos to find jobs in other countries. Over time, the overseas worker has become a pillar of the economy. Nine million Filipinos, more than one out of every 10, are working abroad. Every day, more than 3,100 leave the country. Philippine workers sent home more than $10.7 billion last year, equal to about 12% of the gross domestic product. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, calls them "the backbone of the new global workforce" and "our greatest export." Worldwide, these workers have earned a reputation for enterprise and hard work. They include some of the Philippines' most talented people, well educated and multilingual. But as a third generation leaves to work abroad, it is clear the system has not led to prosperity. Policymakers have focused on easing the flow of workers rather than harnessing their earnings for economic development. Dependence on the export of people has become a formula for stagnation. Once one of the strongest in Asia, the Philippine economy now ranks near the bottom. The government invests little money in manufacturing, education or healthcare. The economy can't create even the 1.5 million jobs a year needed to keep up with population growth. "We have a middle class, but they don't live in the Philippines," said Doris Magsaysay Ho, head of a company that dispatches 18,000 workers a year to serve on ships around the world. Filipinos work in every country except North Korea, said Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas, whose brother is a doctor in Orange County. More than 2.5 million work in the United States and nearly a million in Saudi Arabia. The money they earn trickles into towns and villages, helping build houses, open restaurants and send children to school. But the absence of so many industrious and skilled people - mothers and fathers, engineers and entrepreneurs - exacts a heavy toll. Across the Philippines, children are being raised by their grandparents. "Now children can buy a lot of computer games, but they don't have a mother or father, or both," Santo Tomas said. For the sake of supporting their families, the overseas workers endure years of loneliness. Some, especially maids in the Middle East, suffer beatings and sexual abuse. In countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, they are jailed for running away. Yet the Philippines has grown so dependent on remittances that the thought of doing without them is frightening. "Money from abroad is the only thing that keeps the economy in motion," said Ding Lichauco, former head of the country's economic planning office. "If you don't encourage the employees to go overseas, you will have revolution." Providing sailors, maids, entertainers and other workers for a growing world market is a big business. In this competitive arena, the Philippines has an advantage. Many Filipinos speak English. They are generally better educated than workers from countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Indonesia. And they have a reputation for being good-natured. An entire bureaucracy has been created around them. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration helps find jobs in other countries, encourages workers to go abroad and processes some job applications. The Technical Education and Skills Development Agency offers free training in welding, driving heavy trucks and other skills. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration stations diplomats around the world to look after the Philippines' foreign workers. Those who bring or send their earnings home pay no income taxes. And the government offers returning workers low-cost equipment and tools to help them start small businesses. With that level of encouragement, an industry has developed to match workers and jobs. There are more than 1,500 licensed recruiting agencies. Some provide training - six months for dancers, four months for seafarers, two weeks for housekeepers - in return for a cut of the worker's earnings. A cook on a cargo ship can make more than Arroyo's official salary of $1,000 a month. A bar singer in Japan can earn more than a Philippine senator. But the fees can run into the thousands of dollars; the better the job, the greater the cost. Dozens of agencies in Manila's Ermita district attract job seekers from all over the country. Applicants line up on the streets, luggage in hand, ready to go anywhere. Notaries sit at small wooden desks on the sidewalk. Using manual typewriters, they help workers fill out the 14 documents they are required to submit. Large copy machines on the sidewalk crank out duplicates. Laboratories conduct blood, tuberculosis and drug tests to certify the workers' health. Nearby are cellphone shops, money changers, cheap hotels and restaurants. Many Arab countries, with their vast oil wealth and relatively small populations, are hungry for workers. The CDK International Manpower Services posted notices in its window seeking domestic workers and midwives in the Middle East, a gift wrapper in Dubai and a "magician balloon decorator" elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates. The agency was also recruiting workers for Burger King and Starbucks outlets in the Middle East. ("Must have fashion for coffee," the ad for Starbucks said.) Another company operating in the Middle East wanted diesel mechanics, flower arrangers, structural engineers, wedding card designers, massage therapists, website designers, accountants and nannies. In another neighborhood, three blocks from the U.S. Embassy, a crowded sidewalk serves as an informal hiring hall for sailors. The Philippines produces nearly 25% of the world's seafaring workers, more than any other nation. Hundreds of would-be sailors were hanging around in the shade of the leafy narra trees as agents wandered by, holding up signs offering jobs on ships sailing from Germany, Argentina, Los Angeles or Greece. Some sought engineers and first mates for cargo ships. Others needed chefs and waiters for cruises. A salesman offered small vials of python oil, guaranteed to cure back pain, heart disease, joint dislocation, rheumatism, cough, arthritis and skin disease. Merchants offered CDs providing instruction on how to moor a ship, plan a voyage, speak "maritime English" and handle hazardous materials. Freddie Vicedo spent three decades at sea, earning enough to build a house 20 miles south of Manila and send his children to school. Now past the mandatory retirement age of 50, he was seeking one last job. "It's OK to be away if it provides you with a home and a future," he said. "It's better than living all together in poverty." The teeming neighborhood of Antipolo in central Manila is one of the city's poorest. Thousands of families live along the railroad tracks in shanties of scrap wood and metal built one on top of the other, three stories high. Families sleep seven or eight to a room and cook over open fires between the tracks. Every month or so, someone is hit by a train. Children play in garbage. Old women play mah-jongg on a rickety table. A woman patiently picks lice from a girl's hair. It is not uncommon for families to hold a wake in the middle of the sweltering streets, as Danilo Paredes did for his 18-year-old daughter, Raquel. Lying in an open coffin placed on a table, she looked small for her age, but at peace amid the chaos. Paredes said he didn't know what killed her, only that he didn't have the $25 for the medicine the doctor prescribed. Residents look for any way out. "I hate this place," said Mary Grace Libao, 13. She and her friend, Clarivel de los Santos, also 13, said they wanted to be singers in Japan. "In Japan I will make enough money to buy a house for my family," Clarivel said. Thousands of Philippine musicians and singers perform at resorts and hotels from Bali, Indonesia; to Phuket, Thailand; to Tokyo. Many young women who go abroad as entertainers end up working in the sex trade. All over Japan, salarymen come to Philippine pubs to escape the tedium and stress of their jobs. They drink sake and sing karaoke with "japayuki," beautiful, scantily clad young women. In Osaka, the Philippine clubs are concentrated in the crowded Dotonburi district. Many are controlled by Japanese organized crime. Customers spend as much as $500 an evening in one of the better establishments. Large clubs typically stage a brief show in which the women sing a few songs and dance. The rest of the time, they flirt with the customers, pouring sake, feeding them and lighting their cigarettes. They can make more in tips in an evening than they could working for a month as a salesclerk back home. They can make even more if they agree to have sex. "The customers make offers," said Estrella Pumar, 31, who was heading from Manila to Osaka for her second tour. "It's up to the girls to decide what kind of life to live." The women live six or seven to a room provided by their employers. If they are lucky, they get a day off every two weeks. Many aspire to marry a Japanese man and secure a residency permit. Having a child in Japan ensures residency status after a divorce, which is how 80% of these marriages end. Wendy, 37, followed her mother to Japan in the 1990s. A brother and sister moved to Los Angeles. She spent 10 years working in pubs before marrying a Japanese man, having a son and opening her own club in Osaka, the Twin Angels. "It's better to be here than in the Philippines," said Wendy, who declined to give her full name. But someday she'd like to return home and perhaps open a McDonald's. In the meantime, she said, "we have to survive." The wards are overflowing at Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital, and dozens of patients lie on cots in the corridors. Some have just given birth. Others have just had surgery. Some will die in the hallway. The hospital in Dumaguete, about 400 miles south of Manila, was built for 250 patients but usually has more than 350. Newborns stay in the same bed as their mothers; some have suffocated when their mothers rolled over in their sleep. Patients who come here have no choice. It's the only hospital in the region they can afford. But for the doctors there is a way out: Study nursing and leave for the United States or Europe, where qualified nurses are in short supply. Medical regulations in the U.S. and European countries typically make it very difficult for foreign doctors to work there as physicians. But nurses are in such demand that some recruiters offer bonuses of $15,000, the equivalent of three years' pay for a doctor in Dumaguete. Of 207 doctors in Negros Oriental province, 79 have become nurses and more than 30 are in nursing school. This hospital is supposed to have 72 doctors, but only 43 remain. The Dumaguete district has closed two of its six rural hospitals and may soon have to close a third, said Dr. Ely Villapando, the province's chief health officer. "We are worried sick about medical doctors taking up nursing and leaving," said Villapando, 63, who also runs the hospital. "We are losing the most skilled doctors. This is a crisis in healthcare." An aid agency gave the hospital new cardiology equipment, but it sits unused. The hospital's only cardiologist left to become an emergency-room nurse in Chicago. What she earned in a month here, she can now make before lunch. Here, patients are so poor that some pay in produce or livestock. X-rays cost a chicken. A bunch of bananas covers consultation. Delivering a baby costs one goat. Villapando makes the equivalent of $437 a month. Two of his children have become nurses in the United States, one in Bakersfield and one in Texas. They send him money. "My son already has a house of his own," he said. "He has two cars. My daughter is building a house and has two cars. They could not hope to achieve that here." To become nurses, the doctors attend classes on weekends for a year and spend 2,200 hours as volunteer nurses at the hospital. Sometimes they do both jobs the same day. "Some of the patients get confused," said Dr. Joyce Maningo, an internist studying to be a nurse. "They say, 'Weren't you a doctor this morning?'" An ophthalmologist with her own practice, Dr. Eileen Marie Macia is near the top of her profession. Her father was a surgeon and a congressman. He was instrumental in building a new wing of the Dumaguete hospital. But she, too, is giving up. She is in nursing school and weighing whether it would be better to live in Tennessee or Los Angeles. "If I go to the States, I will have to forget I am a doctor," she said as she made her nursing rounds. "I love the Philippines, but it will always be a Third World country." Runaway maids arrive at the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait desperate, bruised, hungry and penniless. They slip out of their employers' homes in the dead of night through a window, over a wall or by walking out a door accidentally left unlocked. They break the law simply by leaving without permission. Some spend more than a year in the embassy compound, waiting for their passports, back pay or the resolution of their legal cases. If they step outside, they can be arrested. At times, more than 500 women live at the offices of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration next to the embassy. The building gets so crowded that the women cannot all lie down to sleep at the same time. "It's like a prison," said Annabelle Abing, who lived there for three months. More than 750,000 Philippine maids work in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries, where they often face legalized discrimination, beatings and sexual abuse. The women frequently live in isolation, forbidden even to telephone their families. If they file a legal claim against their employer, they can be deported or imprisoned on trumped-up charges. "They are treated like modern slaves," said Maita Santiago, secretary-general of Migrante International, a rights group for Philippine workers. "When workers are in distress, the government doesn't stand up for their rights for fear of the markets of foreign countries closing to Filipino workers." Perhaps the toughest country for domestic workers is Saudi Arabia. Sheila Marie Macatiag, 28, was earning $12 a month at a car stereo factory in the Philippines when she decided to take a job in Saudi Arabia to support her parents and six younger siblings. Macatiag said she was forced to work from 5 a.m. to midnight, verbally abused for the smallest mistake and never given enough to eat. During her first six months, her employers paid her a total of $200; she had paid $300 to an employment agency in the Philippines to get the job. Fed up, she ran away to the employment agency's local office. But by the time she got there, her employers had already complained that she had stolen money and watches from their vault. Police came and arrested her. Despite the absence of evidence or witnesses, she spent 13 months in jail, Macatiag said. "They told me they were going to cut off my hand or I would be sentenced to 108 years or I would die in prison," she said. "Even during trial they told me my hand would be cut off unless I admitted to the allegations." She maintained that she was innocent, but a Saudi court convicted her and she received five lashes on the hand with a cane. She has returned to the Philippines but doesn't expect to find a job. "There are so many people here and so few jobs," Macatiag said. She is hoping to leave the country again: "Anywhere but the Middle East," she said. Even if there is no abuse, the emotional toll of being away from home can be heavy. In Hong Kong, Philippine maids gather by the thousands in the city center every Sunday to spend their day off together. They fill the parks and sidewalks and overflow into the streets. Sitting on cardboard or sheets of plastic, they hold prayer meetings, play cards and have picnics. Beneath the festivity is a sense of melancholy. These women spend the best years of their lives serving others. Many leave their children behind so they can earn enough to pay for their schooling. Others forgo the chance to marry in order to provide for parents and siblings. Most make the equivalent of $420 a month and send more than half of it home. Editha Ycon, 37, has worked 13 of the last 17 years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and now Hong Kong. She has a degree in computer programming but could not find work in the Philippines. She has left her son twice to go overseas, first when he was 6 months old and again when he was 4 years old. He is now 10. "I want to stay with my son," she said. "I want to prepare his breakfast before he goes to school. I want to pack his things. I am a mother, but not really. I haven't been a mother yet." The people of Santa Rosa, a village two hours south of Manila, once made a living processing coconuts. But the men who worked in the drying sheds left the country long ago. Now the village is known as Little Italy. It depends almost entirely on remittances from abroad. Of its 8,000 people, 3,000 work overseas, mainly in Italy and Spain. Left behind are children, the elderly and the disabled. Overseas workers contributed money to build the two-story village office. A worker in Spain donated the village computer. Others helped buy an ambulance. But the village is distinguished by the more than 600 large Italian-style houses built with money sent home from overseas. Village head Benito Alvarez, who wears a USA T-shirt given to him by cousins in America, said the owners were unlikely ever to live in them. "They build the house to prove to the people they grew up with that they are a big success," he said. But what Alvarez sees as evidence of waste and opulence gives another villager a deep sense of satisfaction. Carlito Villanueva, 67, began sending his children to Spain and Italy in 1985. Now all nine of them live in Europe, along with their spouses and his 14 grandchildren. "If they had not gone, I could only see hardship for them, because life here is very difficult," he said. "I'm not sad at all. I'm very happy. As a parent, my major goal is to secure a good life for them." Each of the children is sending money to build a house in the family compound. Four have been built, and a fifth is planned. All are unoccupied, except on the rare occasion when one of the children comes home for a visit. "This is their home," he said. "Wherever they are in the world, even though they are scattered, they will come home to me." Another neighbor, Digna Escueta, 28, hadn't been home since she left to work as a maid in Padua, Italy, six years earlier. She came back for two weeks to try to straighten out a domestic nightmare: Her husband was in prison for drug use, and her daughter was out of control. Her parents worked overseas when she was growing up, starting with her mother when Escueta was 11. A brother and sister followed. Altogether, more than 50 relatives found work in Italy. Escueta married as a teenager and soon had a baby. Her husband became addicted to methamphetamine. "We grew up making our own decisions, and because of that we married young," she said. "Some children of overseas workers in this barrio fall into vice and lose direction in life." When Escueta turned 22, she also went overseas, leaving her 1-year-old daughter, Yvonne, with a cousin. Seeing her daughter for the first time in six years was not the reunion she was hoping for. Yvonne had become the terror of the neighborhood. She slugged the boys when her mother's back was turned, making them cry. She killed kittens by hugging them to death, stepping on them or locking them in a closet, Escueta said. She killed a puppy by tying a string around its neck and letting it fall off a high bed. "She loves them to death," her mother said. Escueta acknowledged that the absence of so many parents meant troubles for the next generation of Filipinos. "Going abroad has two sides," she said. "The bad side is the separation of the family. The children grow up without a mother's supervision. Sometimes they go astray. The good side is not just the income but the possibility the whole family could go overseas, which is my dream." Angelo de la Cruz, a father of eight, was desperate. He needed to pay medical bills for a son who lost an eye in an accident and care for another who has Down syndrome. He decided to leave his one-room bamboo hut two hours north of Manila and return to Saudi Arabia, where he'd worked three times. He left as a truck driver. He returned as a national symbol. In July 2004, De la Cruz was ordered to deliver gasoline to U.S. troops in Iraq. He became separated from other trucks in the convoy and was abducted four hours after crossing the border. His kidnappers demanded that the Philippines withdraw its contingent of 51 troops from the U.S.-led coalition. He expected to be beheaded. But with a narrow election victory behind her, President Arroyo could not risk offending the huge constituency of overseas workers and their families. She withdrew the Philippine troops a month ahead of schedule. De la Cruz was freed after two weeks. On his return home, he was showered with gifts: a new three-room house, a new motorcycle, a new job, a glass eye for his son and scholarships for his children. "They kept saying I was a hero," he said. "I felt like I was just an ordinary person. Many say that I am a symbol of the Philippines. To this day, I keep wondering what it is I have become." ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |