The first participant, Teresita Ang See, has led the Filipino Chinese community in the campaign to make this country a safe haven not just for the Chinese Filipino minority but, hopefully, for all Filipinos. Here is her comment:
My main organization is Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran – the name spells out the objective of the organization: Kaisa is aboutcultural integration, unity of minds, hearts and purpose regardless of race, creed, religion. We are one, we have just one objective – to enable our country to raise its head high again in the community of nations. The second part of the organization’s name is Kaunlaran, progress. Through Kaisa, and our work on cultural integration, we hope to tap the vast potentials of the Tsinoys toward Kaunlaran, towards progress. So, even the anti-crime part of my work is geared towards that – we cannot achieve prosperity and growth if our investors cannot do what they do best because they do not have peace of mind and security.
The thrust of the organization is two-pronged: the cultural integration work or Kaisa, and the social development work or Kaunlaran.
1. Cultural integration work is carried out through our research and publications, our monthly Chinese-Filipino digest called Tulay, and most importantly our Museum – Bahay Tsinoy, the Museum of the Chinese in Philippine Life. Working with various cultural groups, we raise these concerns:
1.1 Lack of support for research and publications, or even for dissemination of information. We may be able to publish books, but dissemination is another problem.
1.2 After that, museum work. Do you know that there was one summer when the National Museum had to be closed because its electricity was cut off? At another time, water was cut off and Cora Alvina, the museum director, had to beg the water agency to give them a grace period.
1.3 There is no support at all for cultural work but the positive news is that even in the most adverse conditions, we were able to reclaim a true National Museum in a cluster of three buildings which was the intention when these clusters were built.
2. The Kaunlaran work is carried out through our various social development projects. We have livelihood and educational projects for the Mangyans of Mindoro and the Aetas of Bataan; we have public housing project with the urban poor at Payatas and at Baseco; we have medicine assistance project with PGH that has gone on for 17 years now, and many others. Touching base with these people, we raise these concerns:
2.1 There seems to be no integrated holistic poverty alleviation program. The NAPC or National Anti Poverty Commission is pitiful. During our 3rd National Tsinoy Convention last February, we wanted participants, all members of Tsinoy organizations nationwide, to adopt even small projects on poverty alleviation.
We touched base with the NAPC to get a shopping list of small projects that small organizations can undertake for poverty alleviation. We ended up doing the shopping list ourselves because though the people at NAPC are hardworking and committed, they just don’t have the resources to do things that we thought should be automatic for them – like identifying needs of basic sectors in various communities. Poverty alleviation is like a bottomless pit, most projects being undertaken are mainly band-aid/stopgap measures.
2.2 Population control – let others talk about this but poverty alleviation is a bottomless pit because no matter how many people you help each year, they just keep on increasing at a rate faster than those who have been helped.
2.3 Third is criminal justice system. We do not have weapons against well-organized, well-funded, well-informed, well-armed and well-protected criminal syndicates. We only have public opinion and public pressure. Formation of task forces is at best only reactionary stopgap measure. What we need is a major overhaul of the entire criminal justice system, to train our policemen well, to give them the resources that they need. It is an urgent agenda for us. In order to tap the vast potentials of the Tsinoys to pour their resources towards job generation, we need to make them feel secure – that our profits earned in a lifetime will not be gone in just one ransom payment.
It might be noted that the Filipino Chi-nese are not a weak minority, that they can contribute to the faster prosperity of this country – a prosperity which, it is hoped, will lessen poverty-induced crimes, if its own leaders kept their money here instead of sending it abroad, if they supported a healthy political system by not contributing to the campaign funds of politicians who are known to be corrupt, and for those who are capable, like Teresita herself, to run for public office so that they can actively strengthen the political system.
To address the deteriorating justice system, Adolf Azcuna, former Ex-ecutive Secretary of the Aquino presidency, and now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, submitted the following observation:
I feel our country is at the crossroads again. After the canvassing and proclamation of the President for 2004-2010, the nation faces a number of difficult but critical choices.
First among them are the strategies to address pressing challenges of poverty alleviation, population growth, education, development and jobs, and, not least, delivery of justice to our people.
We have an ongoing reform project called APJR (Action Program for Judicial Reform) launched under the Davide watch of the present Chief Justice. It has various components, ranging from infrastructure to training to codes of conduct to providing access to justice by the poor.
The program is now well into its implementation stages: We recently placed the Pasay City courts under a case-flow management system that involves a systematic recording and reporting of the flow of cases with the help of computers.
Similarly, alternative means of settling disputes have been undertaken both in selected trial courts, and in the Court of Appeals, through mediation. The results have been encouraging, an 81 percent success rate, which is fairly good achievement. Furthermore, new law of alternative dispute resolution was recently enacted.
The court has also adopted a series of new rules that govern pre-trials, annulment and separation cases, child witnesses, corporate reorganizations, assignment of judges, code of ethical conduct for judges and court personnel, new and reformed rules for the Bar examinations, to name only some of them.
I have been tasked by the court with one pilot project to implement the APJR – throughout what is known as JRSP (Judicial Reform Support Project) – funded by a soft loan from the World Bank. This covers three clusters of trial courts: 1) Cagayan de Oro City; 2) Lapu-Lapu City and 3) Angeles City, plus the appellate courts – Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan and Court of Tax Appeals.
The reforms cover construction of buildings, acquisition of modern equipment, training of personnel, adoption of better administration and financial management, communication and even gender sensitivity.
All of these are calculated towards providing our people with a judiciary that is independent, that has integrity and competence, and delivers justice to our people and a legal profession that is likewise competent, ethical and cost-efficient and willing to serve the cause of justice and our people.
One problem we have of course is funding. Most of projects are funded by ODA sources – either outright grants or soft loans.
The other is lack of awareness by the stakeholders – those affected by the system – of the reforms planned and undertaken. This is a problem of communication and it is being addressed through a number of methods, including even engaging change management experts to give us advice on the matter.
One project we hope to launch soon, in fact the court just approved it, is the mobile courts, or justice on wheels. Patterned after those in Guatemala, which the court observed through a team sent there this year, the idea is to have a big bus with the court inside traveling to remote areas to provide access to justice by the poor.
Another is the continuing improvement of our barangay justice system, which has been lauded as a model abroad. We are thinking of adopting features of what is known as community-oriented justice system, such as that in Brazil, where the leaders of the community help mediate or settle disputes within it.
Finally, let me close by recalling something I will never forget. When we were campaigning for the adoption of the constitution in 1986 in Cotabato, we were reminded by a person in the gathering.
"Sir, please see to it that we get justice. Iyong pong gutom, Sir, kaya pa namin. Kahit papaano makakakain din kami. Ngunit kung walang justice. Sir, wala na kaming magagawa."
(To be continued)