a three to six month program to weed out illegal drugs

Imagining a three to six month program to weed out illegal drugs in the city (May 2016)

A person from a poor community, with poverty as an aggravating factor, although raised by his/her family as a law-abiding person, may learn negative values and skills from peers and acquaintances. Skills for illegal activities, such as theft or drug pushing, may be learned from others whom that person associates with. If the said individual’s social bonds with family, schools and community are weak, there is higher propensity for him/her to continue with delinquent or criminal activities. However, if the social bonds are strong, that person may feel guilt and decide to conform to family or school values such as honesty and industriousness. Elements of social control likewise have to be strong: the support of the family, community, and government/law enforcers should be there to prevent delinquency and criminality.

Deviant and criminal behavior can be eliminated by removing the rewards of bad behavior, increasing the consequences, or controlling the rewards and consequences for the behavior, to effect reformative or restorative interventions. Also, since positive behaviors reinforce positive behaviors, the rewards for positive behaviors may be encouraged, good values and new skills can be taught and learned during the intervention/counselling. For example, an accused person charged with theft can undergo counselling interventions that focus on strengthening personal values such as honesty, respect for others and property, and for skills development trainings for the said offender to learn decent ways to earn. The offender can then return to society as a reformed person who can aspire and live a decent life through decent, legal, and sustainable work or livelihood. Counselling is an essential part of character building, rehabilitation, and reform.

The effective use of social control methods may be promoted to keep individuals from committing deviant or criminal behavior. Curfew for minors and surveillance against alcohol and drug abuse go together to prevent residents from undesirable behavior, minimize crime-conducive situations or exposure to substance abuse, especially after curfew hours. Barangay officials should also constantly remind residents to obey laws/ordinances and to report abuses. These policies may work by keeping the community involved in maintaining law and order, especially for the minors.

With the broad aim of improving physical security, designing out crime and achieving tight coupling (connection) among the police, courts, corrections and the communities in the city, the problem of illegal drugs may be solved. The presence of "motivated offenders" (drug lords and dealers) and "suitable targets" (drug users/addicts), and the absence or lack of "capable guardians" or law enforcement (police and courts for drug-related crimes) are assumed. With the aim of addressing both predatory crimes and drug proliferation, the city to be secured should be equipped with high definition surveillance cameras placed in strategic locations for law enforcers (also equipped with body cameras when conducting law enforcement operations) to strictly monitor the movement of suspected drug dealers. Other criminal behaviors can also be monitored with those cameras. Civilian watchdogs and media should also have access to live video feeds.

Since the police and anti-drug groups already have the intelligence capabilities and lists of persons-of-interests in the illegal drug trade, the city can strictly enforce its laws against drugs with the help of technology: surveillance cameras, interconnected database systems, communications, educational / informational media platforms, and others. Drug users and addicts should be encouraged to enter rehabilitation programs. Likewise, facilities and personnel should be prepared for the task and supported by the government. The police and support groups are to be instructed to lawfully arrest all drug dealers and stop the drug syndicates through due process. Police work should be done properly, cases should be filed and acted upon swiftly by the courts, and the corrections should be decongested (by adding new facilities and personnel). To augment the police force and make barangay officers “capable guardians” in communities, proper trainings and greater coordination with police should be done. Residents may also play a support role in reporting undesirable elements. But more importantly for residents, community institutions such as schools and churches should effectively promote good values and avoidance of drugs or other illegal activities as part of their activities.

Scalawags and other corrupt officials in the police and military, and members of crime syndicates, should all be weeded out, arrested and prosecuted during the first three months. There should be suitable rewards for effective implementors of the program, and adequate protection for crusaders and their families. Law enforcers should address the bane of repeat offenders, abusive government officials, and perpetrators of heinous crime. However, the reimposition of the death penalty should no longer be considered as a deterrent. Certainty, rather than severity, of the penalties and effective law enforcement would deter crime and facilitate justice.

The city may be grouped into geographic sectors in weeding out drugs and syndicates, while increasing the number and capacities of police and capable guardians of the city. This may be done until the entire city is covered by the tightly coupled network of anti-drug police organizations, in cooperation with the communities, courts, and corrections.

Applying tight coupling among the police, courts, corrections, and communities, their increased coordination and capabilities to prosecute and rehabilitate offenders, can radically diminish the number of drug offenders and prevent the return or entry of other criminal elements in the city. Citizens are to be accustomed to proper safekeeping of communities and maintenance of good health among members of the community, as well as enforcement practices that strictly abide by ethical, legal, and humanitarian standards.

Illegal drugs is a global problem that may be as threatening as terrorism. It is a menace that needs remedy because it damages or destroys the lives of its victims as well as the families and friends of those affected. At the end of the program, there should already be no more motivated offenders, suitable targets/victims, and there should be more capable guardians in the city. The program may be implemented by other city units or adapted as a nationwide program. This should only be part of an integrated and holistic package that includes comprehensive structural, organizational, and cultural reforms.

Marcos myth, historical revisionism

a compilation of statements and articles:

 

Statement of the UP History Department:

"MALAKAS AT MAGANDA: Marcos Reign, Myth-Making and Deception in History"

Matakot sa kasaysayan pagkat walang lihim itong di nahahayag.
(Fear history for it respects no secrets.)
--Gregoria de Jesus, Lakambini ng Katipunan

The darkness of dictatorship descended upon the Philippines when Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and the dictator ruled the nation with impunity.

Great danger now lurks behind a deceptive nostalgia for a past that never really existed--that the Marcos years were a period of peace and prosperity. This is patently Marcos myth and deception. Under martial law, the country was plunged into a climate of repression and plunder and then into a social crisis that exploded in the 1980s.

Marcos myth-making and deception are not new. Martial law itself was set up by grand deception. Marcos raised the Red scare to justify martial rule, but the communist movement then was still in its infancy; it was in fact under martial law that the communist and Moro rebellions grew in leaps and bounds. Marcos claimed to break up an old oligarchy, but martial law instead created a new type under his control, a crony oligarchy. Marcos also couched his dictatorship in deceptive legalese--“constitutional authoritarianism,” but it only served his yearning for perpetuity in power. The fact is martial law rudely preempted the 1971 constitutional convention, which sought to prohibit Marcos from extending his hold on power. He thereafter ruled for 14 years until he was ousted.

To prop up authoritarian control, the Marcos propaganda machine contrived deceptive images of Philippine society as in the slogans “New Society” and “City of Man,” which sought to paint a picture of a “compassionate society”; but Imelda Marcos actually put up whitewashed fences to hide urban blight and squalor from foreign tourists. The Marcoses also portrayed themselves in the likenesses of the legendary personae of Malakas at Maganda in the Filipino origin myth, which made them appear as fount of life in murals and photographic visuals. But the dictatorship actually engendered some of the darkest and direst years of Philippine history.

Economic crises characterized the Marcos years, as economists have consistently revealed, the most telling indicator was the extent of poverty. Poverty incidence grew from 41% in the 1960s to 59% in the 1980s. Vaunted growth was far from inclusive and driven by debt, which further weighed down on the nation. From 1970 to 1983, foreign debt increased twelve times and reached $20 billion (Dr. Manuel Montes, 1984). It grew at an average rate of 25% from 1970 to 1981. Much went to unproductive expenses like the Bataan Nuclear Plant, which was unsound and wasteful.

The Marcos regime then imposed an International Monetary Fund debt-repayment program that resulted in new taxes, massive lay-offs and a towering inflation that stood at 54% in 1984. While wages nominally rose by 29%, prices increased by 92% and the economy declined by 5.5% in 1984. BusinessWorld Research (2016) reckoned for 1984 the highest misery index (inflation + unemployment rates) between 1966 and 2015. From the mid70s, the situation resulted in the massive outflow of labor overseas. The grinding poverty of the majority showed in a sharp increase in two areas, infant mortality and insurgency. Crime rates increased; rebellion surged.

Even as inflation cut away at the allocations for health and education, there was an obvious increase in the military budget. Government also increased its contribution to government corporations held by favored friends. Monopolies were created in the sugar and coconut industries that pampered a select group. Marcos cronies made a lot of money through behest loans, which were repaid by tax money. Meantime the international media documented shopping sprees, not to mention lavish parties, by the Marcoses that gave scandal due to the scale of wanton spending. Marcos thus earned an infamous Guinness entry as a man believed to have stolen the most from a single country.

To say then that EDSA interrupted our becoming like Singapore is a big joke, a malicious lie. Marcos had mismanaged the economy; it was in shambles long before the EDSA revolt. From 1970 to 1980, among East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines registered the lowest GDP per capita at 3.4% (An Analysis of Economic Crisis, ed. Dr. Emmanuel de Dios, 1984).
Peace and order, a spurious claim, actually meant an iron-fisted clampdown on civil liberties. Through presidential decree and executive order backed by the full force of the military apparatus, Marcos padlocked Congress, jailed the opposition, gagged media, emasculated unions, and banned student councils. Thousands were jailed without warrant and due process, not to mention countless killings and disappeared. Yet the national crime rate climbed continuously from 183 in 1976 to 279 (per 100,000) in 1980 (De Dios, ed. 1984 citing Philippine Constabulary data). In 14 long years, repression had also stunted the growth of independent-minded new leaders from the younger generation.

Today the Filipino people continue to seek peace and prosperity as the social structuress that gave rise to inequities, debt-dependence, poverty, corruption, human rights violations, rebellion, and criminality have remained after the EDSA revolt. What we ought to do is to expand the spaces for people empowerment and inclusive socio-economic development, uphold selfless public service, seek truth and justice in all corridors of government, render our obligations to Inang Bayan, and make sure that the tyranny of the past will never be written out of history.

We need to critically evaluate the past so that we do not blindly look for solutions to problems of underdevelopment from those who prospered under the dictatorship or those who allow the same sources of social inequities and injustice. We enjoy greater freedoms today precisely because we fought the Marcos regime and the purveyors of Marcos values that, once in the past, bled this nation dry.

The sad thing indeed that could happen is to fall for the trap of seeking a better society from a mythical “golden” past. In that past, Marcos myth-making served to hide the power grab and greed of a Malakas at Maganda. Today Marcos deception seeks to evade accountability.

We reject deception and demand accountability!

Department of History
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

March 28, 2016

 

 

 

 

UP history profs slam 'mythical' golden era under martial law

By Rosette Adel (philstar.com) | Updated March 30, 2016 - 6:57pm

 

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/03/30/1567657/history-profs-slam-mythical-golden-era-under-martial-law The professors of the University of the Philippines (UP) History Department on Wednesday issued a statement clarifying that the martial law era under late President Ferdinand Marcos is not a period of peace and prosperity. The professors decried that the distortion of history is a "deceptive nostalgia" that never really occurred, citing that the darkness of dictatorship started when Marcos declared martial law in 1972.
“The darkness of dictatorship descended upon the Philippines when Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in 1972, and the dictator ruled the nation with impunity,” the professors said.
“Great danger now lurks behind a deceptive nostalgia for a past that never really existed—that the Marcos years were a period of peace and prosperity. This is patently Marcos myth and deception. Under martial law, the country was plunged into a climate of repression and plunder and then into social crisis that exploded in the 1980s,” it added.
The professors warned the voters to not fall for the myth describing the Marcos years as the country's “golden age." The statement denounced the deception and demanded accountability from the Marcoses.
“The sad thing indeed that could happen is to fall for the trap of seeking a better society from a mythical ‘golden’ past. In that past, Marcos myth-making served to hide the power grab and greed of a Malakas at Maganda. Today, Marcos deception seeks to evade accountability. We reject deception and demand accountability!” the statement read.

They further explained that even economists know about the extent of poverty during the martial law era.
“Economic crises characterized the Marcos years, as economists have consistently revealed the most telling indicator was the extent of poverty. Poverty incidence grew from 41 percent in the 1960s to 59 percent in the 1980s,” the professors said.
“Vaunted growth was far from inclusive and driven by debt, which further weighed down on the nation. From 1970 to 1983, foreign debt increased twelve times and reached 520 billion. It grew at an average rate of 25 percent from 1970 to 1981,” they cited.
In a televised interview, vice presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said EDSA interrupted the growth of Philippine economy that could have led to development similar to Singapore’s.
“Kung walang EDSA, baka para tayong Singapore ngayon. Bakit ko sinasabi ‘yun? Sinasabi ko ‘yun dahil pareho ang mga basic na services na dinadala ng Singapore, pareho ang mga sektor na dini-develop ng Singapore,” Bongbong said.
“Two-thirds ng utang natin ngayon ay dito sa administrasyon na ito kaya’t papaano nila gagawin na hindi katumbas talaga dun sa kanilang sinasabi 'yung kanilang talagang ginagawa?” the senator added.
The UP professors responded by saying Marcos Jr.’s statement is a “big joke” and a “malicious lie,” citing that the country posted the lowest gross domestic product during the Marcos years.
“To say then that EDSA interrupted our becoming like Singapore is a big joke, a malicious lie. Marcos had mismanaged the economy; it was in shambles long before the EDSA revolt. From 1970 to 1980, among East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines registered the lowest GDP at 3.4 percent,” they said.
On March 2, more than 400 professors of the Ateneo de Manila University  also released a statement condemning the "willful distortion" of the country's history saying the Marcos era is a golden past. They described the twisting of history as “shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the martial law regime.”

Ateneo profs condemn historical distortion of Marcos era

By Patricia Lourdes Viray (philstar.com) | Updated March 3, 2016 - 4:06pm

 

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/03/03/1559107/ateneo-profs-condemn-historical-distortion-marcos-era

More than 400 professors of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) on Wednesday condemned the "willful distortion" of the country's history. "We deplore the shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Martial Law regime," the Ateneo community said in a statement signed by 412 faculty member and formators.
This statement is in response to the call of vice presidential aspirant Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. that judgement about his late father's administration should be left to history teachers and students.
The Ateneo professors stressed that the dictatorship of the late President Ferdinand Marcos was one of the darkest periods of Philippine history.
"We condemn, in strongest possible terms, attempts by some individuals and particularly public figures, to whitewash the Marcos regime's wanton violation of human rights and to distort its political-economic record," the statement read.
The ADMU statement also called on those who are running for office in the May 9 elections to take a definite stand on the human rights violations during the Marcos era.
"We challenge them to join our call never again to allow the conditions of tyranny to take root in our society," the statement read.
The statement also expressed its opposition against any attempt to give Marcos a hero's burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
In his speech during the 30th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution last week, President Beingno Aquino III stressed that the Marcos regime was not the country's "golden age."
"Napapailing na nga lang po ako, dahil may mga nagsasabi raw na ang panahon ni Ginoong Marcos ang siyang golden age ng Pilipinas," Aquino said.

Environmental advocates against the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang

http://bulatlat.com/main/2016/04/20/environmental-advocates-against-the-return-of-the-marcoses-to-malacanang/

This unity statement was signed on April 19, at the Environmental Gathering Against The Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang held at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City. We, environmental advocates and organizations, unite against the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang. We are campaigning against the bid of Senator Bongbong Marcos to be the vice president in the coming May 2016 election.
During the martial law years (1972-1986), the dictator Ferdinand Marcos implemented policies and projects which wrought massive environmental pollution and destruction. The Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines, for instance, led to massive deforestation and commodification of our forest resources. From 1965 to 1986, seven million hectares of our forests were lost because of Marcos’ timber licensing agreements.
Despite strong opposition from communities, the Marcos government constructed the first dirty coal power plant in 1983, the Calaca Coal-Fired Plant in Batangas. Up to the present, locals continue to bear the brunt of the displacement and pollution caused by the power plant.
Marcos attempted to implement numerous corrupt-laden and extremely hazardous projects such as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), the Chico River Dam Project in Kalinga, and the Kaliwa-Kanan Dam in Rizal.
These attempts were derailed because of the strong people’s resistance. Environmental heroes and martyrs like Kalinga chieftain Macliing Dulag and Calaca fisherfolk leader Erning Castillano sacrificed their lives in the struggles against these destructive projects
.
The environmental crimes committed during the dictatorship are bound to happen again if Bongbong gets one step closer to Malacañang. Until now, Bongbong and the rest of the Marcoses have refused to admit or show remorse over their sins and crimes in the past.
Bongbong is linked to entities that have unscrupulous environmental records. Jose Singson Jr., one of the major donors of Marcos’ 2010 senatorial bid, is suspected of harbouring applications and ongoing operations of illegal and destructive magnetite mining operations in the Ilocos region. His relatives, the Romualdezes, are one of the biggest large-scale mining elites in the country. Sen. Marcos has promised to give more incentives to corporate mining once he takes on the vice presidency.
The gargantuan personal funding of Marcos is suspected to have been seeded by their $10-billion ill-gotten wealth, some of which are likely sourced from the various destructive mining and other extractive projects during the dictatorship.
Thus, the growing consensus across the Philippine environmental movement is that the unrepentant environmental criminals that are the Marcos dynasty should never again be allowed to return to power.
Protect our environment!
Oppose the return of Marcoses to Malacanang!
NO VOTE for Bongbong Marcos!
Signatories:
Envi Vote Alliance
Amianan Salakniban
BUKAL Batangas
Center for Environmental Concerns
Citizen Disaster Response Center
GreenResearch
Kalikasan PNE
NILAD
PUSOD Inc.
SIBAT
UP Minggan
UP Saribuhay
AGHAM
AGHAM Youth
BAYAN NCR
Hustisya
CARMMA
KADAMAY
PALAMAKAYA

 

 

 

 

Marcos deception seeks to evade accountability—UP Dept. of History

By: Aries Joseph Hegina INQUIRER.net 3:17 PM March 30th, 2016

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/776985/marcos-deception-seeks-to-evade-accountability-up-dept-of-history