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June 23, 2009
2. Highlights of the Week!!
Highlights of the Week!!
• Orientation: Got the lowdown on KPD and the affiliates, the national political spectrum, and the three main campaigns on which all the organizations are collaborating. The campaigns are those against: 1) Charter Change (constitutional amendment); 2) the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant; and 3) the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). I’ll explain the first two in this post, but I’ll have to cover the VFA and the highly controversial U.S.-Philippines military relations in a later post after I have better figured out the issue.
• “TindigNation” Planning Meeting: This was an impressive gathering of a wide range of political interests all united for one purpose – to prevent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) from changing the constitution (Charter Change or “ChaCha”). ChaCha is a ridiculously obvious attempt by GMA to: 1) remain in power once her second term expires next year (either by term extension or adoption of a parliamentary system in which she would become Prime Minister); and 2) eliminate most of the 1986 Constitution’s nationalist provisions – such as the guarantee of Filipino ownership of Filipino natural resources – for no reason but to cede to (or perhaps collaborate with) foreign interests.
The interests present at the meeting plan to launch a coalition called TindigNation (an arguably clever fusion of tindig, meaning “stand up”, and indignation). The individuals in attendance represented academics, university student groups, political parties, various progressive groups like KPD, and even local big business (because ChaCha would augment the advantages of foreign corporations over domestic ones).
At the moment, the coalition is focused on preventing current legislative efforts to allow the constitution to be changed by Constituent Assembly (“ConAss”), or the convening of the Senate and House as a joint assembly. If a constituent assembly is held, ChaCha is likely to occur because its wide support in the 238-member House of Representatives would trample the main sources of resistance found in the 23-member Senate. Congress is in recess until July 27 (also the date of the President’s highly-anticipated State of the Nation Address, or SONA!), so KPD and the coalition will be mounting some major organization and mobilization efforts during the next few weeks.
• Creating a brochure for the Anti-Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (anti-BNPP movement). This was my baby for the week. I have to say, it looked and sounded pretty good (though I’m starting to doubt myself because I haven’t seen or heard of it since I passed it on for final approval and printing.) Since I had to become a pro on the issue, here’s the deal:
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was a project of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s-80s. It was a disaster. It was built by Westinghouse Electric, an American corporation, at the price of $2.3 billion. It faced strong opposition from the start and became a symbol of the corruption and other assorted evils of Marcos regime. It sits on the edge of a humongous volcano which makes up the whole northern Bataan Peninsula; it is near a couple major fault lines; and, it had a large number of structural defects which were found after it was closed following the topple of Marcos. Furthermore, debts from the BNPP annually comprised about 20% of national debt servicing for over 30 years. Naturally, a push has emerged in Congress to recommision the plant for commercial operation. KPD is working with a coalition (the Nuclear-Free Bataan Movement) set out to prevent what would be a truly remarkable feat – the revival of such a hugely unpopular disaster.
• Anti-BNPP protest: This was a great follow-up to the brochure production and briefings on the BNPP issue. A few days before the protest, I traveled to the province of Bataan with KPD and ASSERT leaders to attend to final preparations (Bataan is about 2 hours from here, across Manila Bay to Mandaluyong’s northwest). The protest, held on Saturday, took the form of a 3,000-person march through the Bataan countryside. It was both a commemoration of a 1985 protest that helped to close down the BNPP in the first place and a protest against the current efforts to revive the plant. The 7-mile march ended in the provincial capital, Balanga, where the protest finished with a program of speeches, song, dance, and short theatrical performance.
The event was a great introduction to - and display of - the capabilities of KPD and its affiliates to work together, organize, and mobilize at the grassroots level. Members of ASSERT, PKMM, KAISAKA, MAKABAYAN and KPD all contributed to the organization and execution of the event. Also impressive was the media coverage which the event secured; it got a sizable write-up on the second page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the country’s major newspapers.
• And one more highlight I must include – Movie about Van Gogh at the French Film Festival with a bunch of KPD and ASSERT people I had met an hour earlier. French film, English subtitles, Tagalog-whispering Filipino audience, and one unwell Dutchman. A pretty confusing evening. And if you’re interested, I’d give the movie a B-.
I hope you enjoyed all the acronyms and abbreviations.
Posted by Isaac Jabola-Carolus at June 23, 2009 10:23 AM
