Some of us often say we are getting old as political activists and yet this country needs constitutional reforms more than ever since President Aquino III became president. Perhaps we needed to see our presidential system develop to its worst to see that we really should change the system or suffer the tragic consequences of keeping the status quo.
Most of us were at Edsa but we now realize that it is not enough to want to “change the system.” The spirit of reform that Edsa inspired soon faded away and the oligarchs were back in power. We must be able to understand and defend the reforms that are needed for a well-run country and set up a level playing field with opportunities for everyone. In other words we must know what we want to change, understand it and defend it.
Happily we now have the technology – the Internet – to form a political community of reform. That, I think is how I would describe the phenomenon of crowdsourcing. It does not depend on mainstream oligarchic media that decides what is printed or broadcasted on behalf of their owners’ interests. We used the new technology to get the message of constitutional reform across the country.
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One of the happy results of Bayanko’s crowdsourcing is that it was able to draw in the young who are said to have grown apolitical. They are into computers but use it for games and marketing. They have moved on to realize its potential for substantial political change. It is easier to communicate with them and with each other through the Internet.
I will mention three in this column — Glenn, former Biliran Rep. Glenn Chong, Greco Belgica and Christian Seneres. Glenn Chong, is a lawyer-accountant, who has continued the fight against Comelec’s PCOS system. He has mastered the topic and delivers his speeches forcefully. Through Bayanko and National Transformation his advocacy of exposing the failed elections of 2010 and 2013 has been battling the Comelec’s rotten PCOS system. Greco Belgica was the lead petitioner against PDAF and DAP in the Supreme Court. Both were upheld by the High Court. He is an ordained minister of the Gospel and president of ReformPH. Although he studied marketing and management in San Beda College and graduated from international trade and commerce at the University of California in Berkeley, he finds time to be active in political work.
Christian Seneres holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence in US Constitutional Law, and graduate of Northwestern University in Illinois.
The three are good examples of the young getting involved in activist politics for reform that others can emulate. Chong and Belgica made excellent presentations in Cebu National Transformation Council.
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Although Malacanang tried to belittle the declaration of the NTC in Cebu and an earlier one in Lipa, it failed. Through crowdsourcing in the Internet, private individuals have overcome the power of oligarchic media. It can only grow from strength to strength.
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We visited the Hainan Nanguo Natural Food Co. where we were given boxes of coconut products made in the factory. “We will always be grateful to Filipino technicians who taught us the expertise to develop these products from coconut,” Liu Han Xi, chairman of the company said. Without them we would not have this factory and the thousands it now employs. They have had to source coconut from Indonesia because what is imported from the Philippines is not enough.
Here is another example of how badly our government has neglected an industry which is the source of livelihood for millions of our poor farmers. On facebook today there is a petition on change.org. asking for signatures urging the President to sign an executive order creating a “Coconut Farmers Trust Fund” and certify as urgent the initiative bill version filed in both Houses of Congress. Sign it.
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I talked to Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon before he left for abroad. I wanted to know the progress of building new houses for the typhoon victims.
He said the Philippine Red Cross was waiting for GI sheets to arrive in Iloilo, before they begin large scale construction.
“Thousands of families devastated by typhoon Yolanda in Eastern Visayas are going to have houses soon, with Iloilo as the first province to receive a large shipment of GI sheets in Eastern Visayas,” he said. This is all very good but I wonder if Red Cross should look into other building modules.
PRC Chairman Richard Gordon, who personally supervised the shipment of the first large tranche of GI sheets bound for Iloilo at the North Star transport facility in Baseco recently, said that “Iloilo is the first province that received a large shipment of GI sheets, but this is an operation that will reach ten provinces, all across the area devastated by typhoon Yolanda.”
The 185 crates containing over 350 sheets each or a total of 64,915 pieces, will be distributed to the towns of Ajuy, Balasan, and Lemery in the province of Iloilo to benefit 5,277 families.
The GI sheets, together with all other necessary building materials to construct a shelter unit sourced in Iloilo, will be used for the construction of 2,600 core shelters and the provision of 3,700 shelter repair kits.
Gordon said that these were on top of the 7,000 houses already built by the Red Cross in Samar, Leyte, Cebu, and other places in Eastern Visayas.
Over the years, Gordon’s leadership of the Red Cross has produced over 50,000 houses across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
“Whenever there is a disaster, the Red Cross is always there, during the emergency phase, when our first priority is the provision of relief. And then, during the recovery phase, when all our energies our geared towards helping these devastated communities get back on their feet again,“ Gordon said.
Secretary General Gwendolyn T. Pang added that ‘’our hope is that by the time we mark the one year of Typhoon Yolanda, over 30,000 units would have been repaired, and over 7,000 core shelters constructed across the areas devastated by the storm. But even so, our work doesn’t end there. “
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Maybe we need more innovative approaches to the building of houses other than waiting for galvanized sheets before being able to construct.
Bayanko member Jose Alejandrino who has come back from Spain represents a group called Cidark. The group constructs “ecobarrios.” I’ve seen the brochure for a “XXI Century eco-barrio city in Tacloban” for the project. Gordon said he would look into Cidark system on his return.