THE PHILIPPINES PEOPLE, POVERTY AND POLITICS

Also by Leonard Davis

RESIDENTIAL CARE: A COMMUNITY RESOURCE SEX AND THE SOCIAL WORKER CARING FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS

The Philippines People, Poverty and Politics

Leonard Davis Principal Lecturer, Department of Social Administration City Polytechnic, Hong Kong

Palgrave Macmillan

©Leonard Davis, 1987 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987

All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly & Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

First published in the United States of America in 1987

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davis, Leonard. The Philippines. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Philippines-Politics and government. 2. Philippines-Description and travel-1975-3. Poor-Philippines. I. Title. DS686.5.D383 1987 959.9'046 86-27990

ISBN 978-1-349-07170-8 ISBN 978-1-349-07168-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07168-5

ISBN 978-0-312-00412-5

ISBN 978-0-312-00412-5

To the late Sister Nanette Berentsen, CJP

Contents

List of Plates IX

Preface xi

List of Abbreviations xiii

Glossary XV

Map of the Philippines XX

1 Custom, Practice and Impression 1

2 The Country in Context 30

3 Poverty, Sickness and Disease 63

4 Prostitution 99

5 Persecution and Oppression 125

6 1985: The Child, the Priest and the Crowd 166

7 Resistance and Revolution 180

8 Certainty and Uncertainty 198

9 Postscript 217

Bibliography 221

Index 223

Vll

List of Plates

Plate I Plate II

Plate III

Plate IV

Plate V

Plate VI

Plate VII

Plate VIII

Plate IX

Plate X

Plate XI

Plate XII

Plate XIII

Children of the Philippines Everyday life (a) Making rice cakes (b) The pump is often the centre of the community (a) Mantoganoy (b) During the mass wedding at Mantoganoy (a) Pedal power in Jolo (b) Mysterious fires often destroy large squatter areas (a) A farmer's small house made of nipa, near Lake Mainit, Agusan del Norte (b) The Muslim communities are among the poorest. These children are Badjaos, a timid people who build their homes on stilts and flee easily in the face of danger (a) Genus Carabao (b) Sister Nanette (second from the right), to whom this book is dedicated, with the author and a group of health professionals The memory of Jose Rizallives. The painting depicting his life and death is in the museum at Fort Santiago, Manila (a) The garbage tip in Manila is known as the Smoking Mountain (b) Children and pigs rummage along the river bank (a) Dolfs Bunag teaches a health worker to pull teeth, in Kitcharao (b) A leper woman (c) This boy's fat tummy is caused by schistosomiasis (a) Olongapo, a centre for prostitution (b) Santa Monica, Manila, a centre for child prostitution (a) Tribal woman and child. Tribal Filipinos are among the poorest people in the rural communities (b) Attending a bodong, in Bontoc (a) Father Brian Gore celebrating mass in prison. He was held on false charges of multiple murder for more than a year (b) Father Pete, the smiling priest (c) A loyal church worker, Albert Garrido (a) A KAPATID poster in the TFDP office, Manila (b) A TFDP poster from Mindanao, where some of the worst atrocities have occurred

lX

X

Plate XIV

Plate XV Plate XVI

List of Plates

(a) Informers, intelligence, insurgents or innocent bystanders? (b) Prison conditions are very poor (a) Father Tullio Favali (b) Cesar Climaco (a) Conrado Balweg (b) Marcos, tested in crisis: posterfor 1986 election

Preface

It is no easy task to move into another country, another culture, and to make sense of the attitudes, values and experiences of the people that are the result of traditions, origins, history and opportunity. The experience of the individual faced with this mountain of new material - reading, discussion, observation and participation - is unique. It is also selective, relies heavily on the perceptions of others, weighs up opposing views, and emerges as a reflection of the author's own beliefs, values and aspirations. 'Truth' is impossible to establish. The Philippine presidential elections in 1986 made that quite clear. Facts - in the form of statistics, direct observation and personal accounts - remain open to question but are more difficult to refute. In this book - describing poverty, brutality and the determination of the United States- the reader is asked to focus on the implications for the individual citizen and his family, on the quality of their lives, and on the uncertainty of their very existence. The people I have spoken to, the people I have lived with, deserve better than this. Is it possible that Corazon Aquino can introduce sufficient change to prevent a real revolution?

I have received considerable support and encouragement on my travels in the Philippines and, above all, friendship. Many people crossed my path just once; others throughout a six-year period. Sometimes, the circumstances have been difficult; always the welcome has been complete.

As case illustrations, I have used - as far as possible - those associated with people I have known, people I have met, people I have admired. Some have died but are well known - Nanette Berensten, Cesar Climaco and Tullio Favali- and their memories and achievements live on; others have died almost anonymously, many children among them.

In writing this book I have drawn on a number of unmarked documents and unreferenced photocopied articles, circulated in haste to groups of church workers and others. A list of formal references is given in the Bibliography. I am, however, especially grateful to Sophie Dick of Kapatiran-Kaunlaran Foundation Inc., Manila, for permission to use in Chapter 4 some of her information on prostitution, especially in relation to Samar, Leyte and Pagsanjan; to the Komite ng Sambayanang Pilipino (Filipino People's

Xl

xii Preface

Committee), Utrecht, Holland, for allowing me to make use of their publication, Health - The Fruit of Struggle; and to the publishers of IBON Databank Philippines, Inc., Manila, for permission to extract material from one of their fortnightly issues of !BON Facts and Figures, no. 160, 15 April1985.

All the photographs in the plate section were taken by me except plate XV( a); I do not know who that photographer was.

This book would never have been written without the help of two groups of people: the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines; and the Columban Fathers, a missionary group working in the country.

With the cooperation of colleagues at the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong I was able to arrange my work schedule in a way which allowed me to complete the book: Tina Leung of the Department of Social Administration led the team - Mandy Chiu, Agnes Choi, Carmen Chung, Kitty Kwok- who worked hard to type and re-type numerous drafts of the text. Rhodalyn Morat6 kindly assisted with the index. My thanks to them all.

LEONARD DAVIS Hong Kong

List of Abbreviations

ACTS AI AFP AMRSP

ASEAN ASSO BALAI BCC BEPZ BMA CDC CIA COMELEC CNL CPP ECP Huk IB ICHDF IMF INP IRRI 4Ks or 4KKs

KAGUMA KAPATID

KBL KKK KM LIKADA MASAPA MBA MMC MNLF NAMFREL

Active Counter Terrorist Sector Amnesty International Armed Forces of the Philippines Association of Major Religious Superiors of the

Philippines Association of South-east Asian Nations Arrest, Search and Seizure Order Building Asian Links Against Imperialism Basic Christian Community/Communities Bataan Export Processing Zone Bangsa Moro Army Commonwealth Development Corporation Central Intelligence Agency Commission on Elections Christians for Liberation Communist Party of the Philippines Experimental Cinema of the Philippines Hukb6 ng Bayan Laban sa Hap6n Infantry Battalion Integrated Civilian Home Defence Force International Monetary Fund Integrated National Police International Rice Research Institute Kalihokan sa mga Kabos Alang sa Kagawasan ng

Kalingkawasan Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan Kapisanan para sa Pagpapalaya at Amnestiya ng

mga Detenido sa Pilipinas Kilusang Bagong Lipunan Kilusang Kabuhayan sa Kaunlaran Kabatang Makabayan Liga sa Kabataan sa Davao Makabayang Samahan Pankalusugan Military Bases Agreement Metro Manila Commission Moro National Liberation Front National Citizens' Movement

xiii

XIV

NASUTRA NDF NISA NPA NSL PANAMIN PC PCO PO PDA PHILSUCOM PIME PMBA PSC RUC SEALS SOF SPI SPRA STOP SVD UNESCO

WB

List of Abbreviations

National Sugar Trading Agency National Democratic Front National Intelligence Security Agency New People's Army National Service Law Presidential Assistance to Tribal Minorities Philippine Constabulary Presidential Commitment Order Presidential Decree Preventive Detention Order Philippine Sugar Company Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions Philippines Missionary Benevolent Association Presidential Security Command Regional Unified Command Sea, Air and Land Services Special Operations Force Summary Preliminary Investigations Sasa-Panakan Residents' Alliance Stop Trafficking of Pilipinas Society of the Divine Word United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organisation World Bank

Glossary

Alpha Omega anitos anting -anting apparatchik armada Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Bagong Jerusalem bakla barangay

barkada barrio Batasang Pambansa Bathalang Maykapal bodong bolo bugaw Caballeros de Rizal camote carabao carinderia cog on communides ecclesial de base conquistadores diwatas Doce Pares Dos por Dos encomiendas

ermitano fiesta funeraria Gamay nga Kristianong

Katilingban ginamos hacienda haciendero

XV

Beginning and End spirits amulets political agent (Russian) armed men New Alliance Party New Jerusalem homosexual( s) small community, smaller than a

barrio gang/group of friends village National Assembly The Creator peace pact large knife pimp(s) Friends of Rizal sweet potato water buffalo eating places type of dried grass Basic Christian Communities conquerors fairies Twelve Pairs Two by Two grants of land made by Spanish

kings hermit feast day funeral parlour Basic Christian Community

dried salted fish sugar plantation sugar plantation owner

XVI Glossary

Hukbalahtip

Hukb6 ng Bayan Laban sa Hap6n

hulbot

!lag a Ka kaaway kababayan Kabataang Makabayan kaingin Kalihokan sa mga Kabos Alang

sa Kagawasan ng Kalingkawasan

Kapisanan para sa Pagpapalaya at Amnestiya ng mga Detenido sa Pilipinas

Kataastaasang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan

Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan

Katoliko Largo Kilusang Bagong Lipunan Kilusang Kabuhayan sa

Kaunlaran Komite ng Sambayanang Pilipino kumbento Kumunoy ng Kahirapan lana libretas Liga sa Kabataan sa Davao Makabayang Samahan

Pankalusugan mestizos ninang ninong nip a

shortened form of Hukb6 ng Bayan Laban sa Hap6n

People's Anti-Japanese Army

military practice of forcefully taking detainees for interrogation or to act as guides

Rats brother enemy townmate(s) Patriotic Youth clearing Philippine Democratic

Missionary Church

Group for Freedom and Amnesty for Filipino Detainees

Highest and Most Respectable Society of the Sons of the People

Federation of Patriotic Teachers

Catholic League New Society Movement Movement for a Better Life

Filipino People's Committee priests' house Whirlpool of Poverty oil little books Davao Youth Alliance Patriotic Association of Health

Workers those of mixed blood godmother godfather type of grass used in making huts

Oplan Katatagan pakyaw system pamatdan pang at Patay-Buhi PC'ing Yapak

Piniling Nasud rebel de Samahan ng Demokratikong

Kabataan sari-sari store sekreta sitio Tadtad tambay tong tuba

wagwag we/gang bayan welgistas

Glossary

Operation Plan Stability piecework system

xvii

preparing cane sticks for planting leader Die and Live Barefoot Philippine

Constabulary Chosen People rebels Association of Democratic

Youth small general store intelligence men housing site Chop-chop street urchin bribe (for protection) drink obtained by tapping the

top of a coconut tree type of rice people's strike strikers

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

Dom Helder Camara

h China Sea Sout LUZON

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Olongapo 1 Base Subic Nava •

Quezon City •Manila

Mariveles

VISAYAS

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XX

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