TACLOBAN CITY- A gender information desk was launched by the regional office of the Office of the Ombudsman where complaints on sexual harassment against a government official or personnel could be lodged. Jennifer Manalili, assistant ombudsman and gender development officer, said that the gender information desk will accept complaint not just from women victims but even from men who claimed to have been sexually harassed or discriminated. The gender information desk, located at the regional office of the Ombudsman, was launched on Monday (July 18). “Gender is not only about women but for all of us. Many (sexual and discrimination) incidents are happening but if it’s not reported or if they don’t have a venue to report it, we will not know it,” Manalili said. “This is our way of telling them to come out and tell us what is really going on, if there are really cases of harassment against women, children and men,” said Manalili. According to Manalili, with men encouraged to file their own sexual or discrimination complaints, this will erase the perception that only women are prone to be victimized of sexual or discrimination harassment. “But we will still need to access it if this will fall into our jurisdiction. If it falls under our jurisdiction, then we will take action on it but if they want other interventions to their complaints, then we will look at ways of how we can help them,” she stressed. Since the desk was launched, the regional ombudsman office has yet to receive any complaint. Manalili said that with the launching of gender information desk, it would now be easy to know the number of cases involving sexual or discrimination complainants perpetrated by government personnel or officials. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Kill list
Erstwhile was the drug list. This list is said to be contained in a so-called “blue book” which a drug syndicate keeps. Per public knowledge, in this book can be found the names directly involved in the drug trade, including the protectors, dealers, pushers and even the suspected police assets. It reportedly include the amount each “stakeholder” or “player” receives and owing to the “group.” Thus for law enforcement agencies which ardently track and pin down drug personalities, the blue book is essential.
Over time, with the spate of summary execution and extra-judicial killings, the drug list has metamorphosed into a species of hit list and now in the new concoction, the “kill list.” This is how the series of killing of suspected drug personalities is currently called. According to rough estimate there are 1.8 million drug users in the country of which, following President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s tall order to rid the country of the drug menace, 57,816 self-confessed drug users and 2,157 pushers surrendered and 136 killed from noon of June 30 to noon of July 11, 2016. Of this number, 85 were neutralized in police operations and 51 by unidentified hit men. PNP-accredited funeral parlors in Metro Manila are complaining because they end up losing in their business due to a number of unclaimed bodies.
Is this not a realization of what PRRD painted in his pronouncements days ahead of his oath-taking and in his inaugural speech? Indeed funeral parlors fall short to accommodate the enormous number of dug personalities killed, most of whom could aptly be identified as victims. By his utterances such as in his speech in his thanksgiving party in Davao City, PRRD in effect gave the justification for the killing frenzy to happen – the justification to end the life of drug personality being arrested if in the course of the operation, the life of the arresting officers, in fact many in each time, is under threat or if the person being arrested tries to wriggle away. The culture of death starts to sprout as feared by the pro-life advocates.
Noteworthy is that those who were killed apparently lived in shanties, in fact impoverished, not being able to make both ends meet and were pushed into peddling illegal drugs as only recourse to tide over the family’s hunger day by day, while no establishment welcomes them for employment. What about those in huge or at least decent apartments, the big time ones and the so-called big fishes? They remain alive in spite of reports that when arrested they tried to engage the police officers in shoot out. Is it because these latter type of suspected drug personalities have the means to hire good lawyers and post bail, which the impoverished ones could not afford?
Where is justice in this mode of cleansing for change? The poor cries “Ouch!” while the rich are yet off the hook and so free to roam and victimize some more. When will the local police force be able to produce the person of drug lords before the public? PRRD named five generals allegedly protecting the drug trade in the country. He also warned of same involvement of mayors and barangay officials and vowed to make them answerable for the proliferation of the illegal drugs trade in their respective turfs. He has likewise warned alleged drug lords Peter Co and Herbert Colangco not to attempt to escape or go out from jail lest they die. Meaning they are still alive and kicking to do their business while in the National Bilibid Prison.
The two allegedly belong to the Chinese international illegal narcotics network lurking in the country. The other networks as disclosed by authorities are based in Nigeria and Mexico. So far, personalities from the Chinese group have been publicized. What about from the two others international drug trade groups? When will the police officers who easily kill economically deprived drug personalities disclose the people involved in the drug trade from Nigeria and from Mexico? Who among their ranks belong to any of these three international networks of drug syndicates? Are they also in the kill list? The people cannot wait to see this kind of action as well.
Mahagnao Volcano Natural Park: Ever heard of it?
The Mahagnao Lake, perched on an upland called Barangay Danao, is one natural park that is proudly owned by Burauen, Leyte. The park, created by Proclamation No. 184 dated August 27, 1937, was originally named the Mahagnao National Park, but was later renamed as the Mahagnao Volcano Natural Park (MVNP)by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources by virtue of Proclamation No. 1157 dated February 3, 1998. The park has an area of 635 hectare land area forestlands surrounding the prestine Mahagnao Lake and has an elevation of 860 meters. Its cool environmental condition has earned the sobriquet as the “Little Baguio” of Burauen. Also, veggies favoring cooler temperature are common fixture of family yards.
While serving as Executive Director of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP-DOST), convinced PHIVOLCS or the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, a service agency of DOST, to visit the volcano and came out with a statement that “it falls under the category of dormant volcano” owing to its last eruption thousand years ago. If properly and judiciously managed the MVNP could contribute to the town’s revenue coming from local, national, and even international tourists. It is a park where eco-tourism enthusiasts will themselves enthralled by forest vegetation of wild plant species surrounding the Lake and the entire mountain area, the verdant landscapes, and imbued with panoramic, captivating natural beauty let alone the chirping of different birds, wild animals dashing aimlessly, and the freshwater species of animal life in the Lake. An added feature could be in the form of boating and kayaking as seen in Ormoc’s Lake Danao (Imelda) with an added attraction of floating “resto”, manpowered, made of light materials where one may while away his time or families and friends can take their meals – the floating structure towed by rope pulled from one end of the Lake and to the other end.
On two occasions that I visited Lake Danao, I said to myself that its modest facilities and improvements of the surroundings could be replicated in MVNP. As a person who loves to commune with nature, write technical articles and compose poems, the atmosphere and amenities of Mahagnao and Danao Lakes are what will inspire one to be more productive. The challenge is hurled to LGUs concerned to earn more for their coffers by attracting tourists. Again, as an active biologist, I am inviting SUCs and HEIs to send their graduate students to study the biota of Burauen for their thesis/dissertation studies.
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Senator Manny Pacquiao will still go boxing even as a lawmaker?
The statements revealed last week to media by Senator Manny Pacquiao is quite a revelation. It can be seen as the real feeling of someone who may have discovered inner trouble and may now entertain some second thoughts, doubts and probably a feeling of insecurity of what is in store for him in the next few months or years when he shall already be sitting as one of the nation’s elected lawmaker -Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. Quoted hereunder is his plan to go back to the boxing ring while in the Senate. “Boxing is my only means of livelihood to support my family and to help those who are in need.”
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The neophyte senator may have been interacting lately with some lawmakers and may have discovered that the incomes of Senators are just a pittance compared to the billions he has acquired literally earning these billions through the sweat of his brow to include body pains in boxing. This also gives us an idea that legislators may have extra incomes aside from their salaries and other perks because no legislator exists economically depressed lives. Congressmen and Senators are wealthy by any and all standards of living. So why he says that he cannot support his family as Senator reeks unbelievable.
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It may also be a possibility that the famous world-boxing champion may have opened his eyes lately and is convinced that he is a square peg in a round hole to be a member of that august body -the legislative branch of government whose main task is lawmaking. As an active and healthy individual it would be uneasy and boring for him to simply be sitting down warming his Senate seat just watching his peers perform their functions, and who will be actively and intelligently participating in open debates in the session hall, which Senator Pacquiao may not have the adequate competence to join.
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To quote Bob Arum, his boxing promoter, “He likes to fight and he likes the attention.” He will miss that in the Senate. He will be another Lito Lapid or a Bong Revilla and other fence sitters in the Senate who will not be noticed. In boxing definitely he will be! Manny Pacquiao was also quoted as saying that he will accept a boxing bout but he will make his job in the Senate as his priority. Really? Again, how?
Be redeemers for the surrenderees
In his weekday mass homily, parochial vicar Rev. Fr. Noel Lao of the Sto. Niño Parish in Tacloban City stressed a point that should be a guidepost for Christians in these days that the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte is dead serious in the war against drug menace. He exhorted the churchgoers to be redeemers like Christ for the drug personalities who surrendered and promised to reform. It is not right to just criticize the surrenderees but instead empathize with them. Noting the unprecedented number of those killed in the course of the arrest of hundreds of suspected drug pushers and an even more overwhelming number of those who admitted being drug users and pushers, he cautioned the people not to condemn them. The people should rather ask their own selves, “What have I done for them and for this change?” His query poses a challenge that penetrates beyond sheer comprehension, but the conscience of man now that “change is already here.” “Be a redeemer to them like Christ,” he egged on.
Lao, along with fellow parochial vicar Rev. Fr. Fritz Francis Del Pilar, were among the spiritual leaders, advisers and counsellors who were invited to a meeting with other interfaith church representatives held at the Tacloban Astrodome very recently. The role of the church could not be overemphasized in the holistic struggle to help the drug personalities who surrendered to truly change to a “illegal drug-less” life. Simple counselling and prayer for them are highly appreciated as gesture of morally supporting the surrenderees attempt to be better citizens.
Del Pilar, however, disclosed in an informal conversation that the Tacloban vicariate will still have to meet to synchronize efforts towards same end. He underscored the need for synchronicity. This is to at most make the intervention effective. At the Archdiocesan level, plans for rehab intervention of the church must likewise be underway. As of today, according to the Archdiocese’s spokesperson and secretary of Archbishop John Du, none of these plans have come to his knowledge. In a social media post, Tacloban City Vice Mayor Jerry “Sambo” Yaokasin expressed the significance of prayer and counselling in the transformation of surrenderees. While no rehabilitation facilities are ready to welcome the surrenderees, alternatives could be had, such as instilling Values formation upon these drug personalities. “For now, we will seek the help of the church through their pastors, priests and minister in counselling, the PNP for monitoring and the support of the private sector and NGO for the program,” he elaborated in an inquiry.
The city government embarks on a program called “Inside Out Transformation” for the surrenderees that includes prayer, counselling, community service and eventually livelihood. Absence of rehabilitation center does not seem to be an obstacle for the city government to push for the reformation of the drug personalities who surrendered. What is vital is sustaining the program and helping the surrenderees get over what hook them to the vice. To the surrenderees, this is what Yaokasin could advice, “If you are willing to change, the city government is ready to help…Do it for yourself, your family and for your future.”
CHR: Human rights should prevail
TACLOBAN CITY-While they support the campaign, they will make sure that the rights of the alleged drug users and pushers who reportedly surrender voluntarily are not violated. In fact, they are set to conduct some inquiries on certain cases involving anti-drug campaign being waged by police authorities in the region, lawyer Paquito Nacino, regional director of the Commission on Human Rights(CHR), said. “We are throwing our full support on this campaign of our government which is to end the proliferation of the illegal drugs,” Nacino said. “However, we will also make sure that the human rights of these individuals who are surrendering are not violated,” he added. Nacino said that police authorities, who are carrying out their “Operation Tokhang,” could not just barge to the houses of the alleged drug users or pushers if they are not in possession of a court order or warrant.
“The mere fact that they knock on the houses is an indication that they have to seek first the permission of the owner regardless if he is claimed to be in the illegal drug trade,” Nacino said. “Now, if the owner of the house refuses to allow them to enter, they cannot force themselves in. Otherwise, they will be committing violation against the owner,” the CHR regional director said. He said that the right to domicile is being upheld and respected by the Constitution. Thus, even police authorities are expected to also observe the constitutional right of the owner.
An alleged drug suspect in one of the barangays of Tacloban came to their office to ask support, Nacino said. The owner, who was not identified by Nacino, reportedly decline for the police men to enter at his house. However, the police authorities still went inside despite the resistance of the owner. The Operation Tokhang, taken from the Visayan words “knock and appeal” is the code name used by the authorities in encouraging alleged drug users and peddlers to voluntarily surrender to them.
Since the campaign started in July 1, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte formally assumed the presidency, there were already over 6,000 drug personalities in the region who reportedly voluntarily surrendered before the authorities. However, there were instances of resistance like what happened in Sogod, Southern Leyte involving a former police officer who was said to be in the illegal drug trade. Killed was Emmanuel Solon who chose to engage police authorities in a gun battle. This particular incident will be investigated by the CHR, Nacino. He clarified that their inquiry is just part of their constitutional mandate. Meantime, Nacino said that those who surrender ed and were asked to sign an “affidavit of surrender” does not constitute to any human right violations.