Ninoy In Our Times

From: missindependentmind.blogspot.com

“And if a good man arrives, the country soon corrupts him.” – Jose Rizal, Noli me Tangere

            August 21, 1983. I was in Grade 2 when that orchestrated and fateful assassination took place. To an 8-year old boy (now one can calculate my age!), Ninoy was a news. I preferred playing aragawan beys and tumba-lata than to mind what was going on. Until much later when I became aware that he had died fighting for me, for my family, and for all of us including you whether you heard of him or not, in the name of democracy in the Philippines during the dictatorial years under Marcos.

            After his death, our country was never the same again. History was being written by the people as  main authors – the same people for whom he had given up his dear life. Philippine politics and public sentiments tipped the pendulum against the dictator. Nationalistic consciousness swept the whole country. For so long the people had kept that anger towards and open opposition against the dictator. So when the opportunity to demonstrate came, the people courageously stood up, openly denounced the dictator, and disowned  their government. Those who went out the streets and took the risk regarded Ninoy’s death a difficult act to follow, yet very timely and inspiring. Alive and vibrant in them was the William Wallace’s famous aphorism in Braveheart – “they may take our lives but they can never take our freedom.” True indeed, life is empty and meaningless without freedom of action and thought.

            That struggle to regain freedom culminated in the 1986 People Power revolution.

            On the 28th death anniversary of Ninoy, justice remains elusive. The public is aware that those who were sentenced to jail and still languishing in jail are merely pawns of a king. Some even died, with them the truth. Many times the case was reopened in the hope of pinning the mastermind but it turned out apparently to be an inutile effort. Any investigative body would end up facing the same people who undeniably had feared the far-reaching shadow of once and still powerful family and friends of the late dictator.

            The mystery of that fateful day woulld remain unresolved because probing eyes that would like to seek the truth are blindly cloaked with unforgiving history. Just like the JFK case in the US, it would remain as the darkest day in our country's history. After all it was in that darkest day that the people saw the brightness of the sun, felt its heat, and enjoyed the prize of freedom. Only that Ninoy did not witness the fruits of what he had done to the Filipino people. He sowed the seeds and let the people reap its harvest.

            He said that the “Filipinos are worth dying for,” but where are those Filipinos now? Please stand up. Otherwise we need to go out in search for Filipinos whom Ninoy had died for. And we will be lucky enough if we find any, though we are certain that Ninoy did not die in vain. Unless we act as one for the sake of our country, we treasure this freedom we enjoy now, we pursue the ideals of democracy and human rights,  we indeed are worth dying for.

            His death is an instrument to an end, and he hoped for what we have yet to achieve. If we take the fight of Ninoy in today’s context, I think the man will be smiling somewhere.

             Today, some powerful elites in politics and arts, activists for human rights, and leaders of faith continue to make decisions for us. They use surveys to back up their claims and positions. When will we ever learn to voice out our say? We lost Rizal, we lost Ninoy, for us to win. who else will we lose to so that we will win? This time, we can win without losing anyone. Truly we are worth dying for though, and much more worth living for.

10 years after the Philippine Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (R.A. 9136)

The law was passed riding high with controversies, expectations and promises in 2001.

After 10 years of implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Republic Act 9136), there is so much to be desired from its promised and potential reforms and improvements in the power industry and the lives of consumers.

The privatization effort of the National Power Corporation (NPC) and its massive debts continues. The electricity rate used and paid by millions of consumers keeps rising. The mismanagement of electric cooperatives and their inexplicable losses persists.

This is to revisit the law that sought, among others, to; 1) privatize the government agency tasked to generate, transmit, distribute, and supply energy to the country, 2) unbundle the power sectors to identify which is inefficient and incurring losses, 3) create a Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to make the transaction transparent, open and competitive, 4) reduce the power rates.

In June 2011, the Philippine President, Benigno Aquino III, signed into law the extension of the implementation of lifeline electricity rate (subsidy) for poor consumers for another 10 years. The wisdom of the R.A. 9136 was that the lifeline rate would be unnecessary after 10 years of the Act because the electricity rate would have been affordable even by poor consumers.

On the contrary, after 10 years of R.A. 9136, the Philippines has the highest power rate in Asia. Thus, it is important to review the law in light of the current situation, context and its history. Click here for a copy.

This year, 2011, another bill (RH) which has been certified as urgent is riding high with controversies, expectations, and promises. Have we learned our lessons that development and reforms can not simply be legislated? According to a UN report, after 10 years (2020-2025), we will see our population growth rate at 1.27 percent even without the help of this RH bill, continuing its downward trend  from 1.67 percent in 2010-2015. Comparatively in 1970, the population growth rate was 3.08 percent.