2 days in Beijing

The 15 Filipina legislators and two media representatives wound up their nine-day visit of places in the People’s Republic of China with good impressions of the country’s amazing economic development since the lifting of the Bamboo Curtain in 1949. From visits to rural areas, they were impressed by the government’s programs focusing on poverty alleviation. Of the country’s 1.3 billion population, 150 million are still poor, but nobody will be poor in Year 2020 – a heartening piece of information for the congresswomen from different parts of the Philippines, where large populations live below the poverty level.

Impressed, the legislators still love being Filipinos and living in a democracy despite its flaws and failure to address their poor countrymen’s living conditions.

In the last two days in Beijing, two officers from the International Bureau of the Communist Party of China, which hosted the third delegation of visitors, Rao Huihua, director of Bureau 1 (for South and Southeast Asian Affairs), and Hu Xiaodong, secretary and translator), took them around, explaining the reasons for China’s leap to progress.

Topics brought up, with caution, at the end of the visit, were on the Chinese claim over the West Philippine Sea, and the role of media in the dissemination of information on government policies. Ms. Huihua candidly said the media helps project policies of the government, including the dispute over the West Philippine Sea, and of its being free to criticize government actions.

Seated beside Hu in the van taking the group around the city, I asked Hu Xiaodong for elaboration on the role of media. His answer: the media is free to make commentaries, provided they do not incite rebellion.

Asked if the Chinese people are aware of the West Philippine Sea dispute, Xiaodong said, “The Chinese people believe the government is too lax about the issue. They believe it should be more aggressive in claiming what historically belongs to China.”

The delegation could say no more. They were grateful for the invitation to visit China, all expenses paid. The intention was for them to see conditions in the economic superpower of the world, not necessarily to convince them about communism as a better option in governance. But they still believe in a country practicing complete (and often abusive) press freedom, justice (many times delayed) and democracy (people talking more and doing less), and talked freely among themselves, about the candidates in the coming presidential elections back home.

It was a good visit. The head of delegation, Rep. Gina de Venecia, summed it up with grateful words. “Whatever differences we have should not make us forget the thousand years of blood ties and good relations between our countries.”

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The visit resulted in the bonding of legislators – some of the best in Congress – and media. I spoke with the two representatives from the province of Zamboanga Sibugay – Dulce Anne K. Hoffer and Belma A. Cabilao. Their victory in the local polls was amazing, considering the long-time voting populations’ bias against women candidates.

Anne is vice chair of the House committees on higher education and vocational education, and of the Mindanao Commission of the Liberal Party. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ateneo, an MBA from UP, and a doctorate from the NCPAG. She taught political science for five years at Dela Salle University.

Anne’s father, a medical doctor, was a congressman representing Zamboanga del Sur. He authored the bill creating the province of Zamboanga Sibugay. After his term, he convinced his daughter Anne to run for the second district of Sibugay. Now in her second term (and aiming to run for the third time in 2016) Anne is proud of having authored a bill strengthening a rubber research institute, creation of a register of deeds in her province, and building of three national highways that connect her province to Zamboanga del Norte.

Her district has thousands of rice fields and two rice granaries, but there is need, she says, for irrigation that would result in three, instead of the present two harvests a year. Sibugay is self-sufficient, able to meet the needs of her district, but in order to have more revenue for farmers, they must be taught the new technology in rubber production.

Anne’s next door neighbor, lawyer Belma Cabilao, was my classmate in some courses at Silliman University, but she finished the law course at the University of Santo Tomas in 1966. After graduation she was a lawyer at the Jesuit Mission District, a prelature of Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur. Her good record must have led to her appointment in 1986 as OIC vice-governor of the 3rd district of Zamboanga del Sur. Governance took the better of her, and she ran for, and won the same position in the first election after the EDSA Revolution in 1988. She was re-elected to serve for two terms, from 1992 to 1998, as congresswoman for the newly created Zamboanga Sibugay. She lost in the election of 1998, but ran again and won to serve for nine years (2001 to 2010). She rested for one term while her son, Jonathan Cabilao Yampao, a San Beda College of Law graduate, was elected congressman for 2010-2013. Belma then ran for Congress again in 2013, and won, and will run again for another second term in 2016.

Belma and Anne work side by side to create better conditions for their constituents. Belma points to the improvement of roads, a water system, and reliable electricity supply.

Belma is vice-chair of the House committees on national defense and security, and ecology.

Based in Manila, Representatives Hoffer and Cabilao visit their constituents once, if they could not make it twice a month. Travelling to Sibugay is long and tedious, taking more than six hours by plane and land transport. Anne says when she goes home, she stays for a week to be more in close touch with her constituents.

Both are aware of security threats, and carry with them, of course, licensed guns for protection – from people who want their positions. I hope the time will never come for them to draw their weapons.

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