Torn and frayed in Manila

Bulgarian goes beserk in Bulacan

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I thought I would post this video of an amok Bulgarian buffalo masquerading as a Philippine carabao both because it is of interest in itself, and because it will give readers from outside the country some idea of provincial life here (and of our inimitable news presenters). I saw the video on Howie Severino’s site—Howie is the journalist in the video and this is the description of the event on his blog.

This water buffalo was anything but gentle. After creating havoc along a kilometer-long stretch of the parade route, it stopped to catch its breath next to a waiting shed. Some brave souls detached the wagon and tied the carabao to the waiting shed. A policeman hit the carabao on the head with a plastic chair, provoking the crazed creature into charging spectators who until then were enjoying the rare spectacle. The carabao ripped the waiting shed from its moorings and dragged the metal wreckage a few hundred meters.

No other carabao has run amok in the long history of the Pulilan festival, according to town mayor Vicente Esguerra. He also approved of the town police’s decision not to shoot the Bulgarian buffalo in the midst of its rampage, despite some calls from spectators. “There are so many people here because of the fiesta. If the police used a gun, someone could have been hurt,” Esguerra said.

About an hour after the carabao became the unexpected attraction, it was too tired to resist any longer and was loaded on a trailer for its trip home to Plaridel. Mayor Esguerra said he would not allow Bulgarian buffalos to participate in the parade any more.

I do like that deadpan last sentence.

Although I am sorry for those members of the audience who were scared or hurt by the buffalo’s rampage, I can’t rid myself of all sympathy for this poor beast who must have been very confused and irritated by the festival crowds. After some days at work I feel like behaving in exactly the same way ...

A heavy uniform cigarette tax has to be the right move

This evening I stood behind a woman at Seven Eleven who bought three packets of Marlboro Lights for P110. What kind of an incentive to quit is that? Even someone on the minimum wage here can easily afford to kill themselves by smoking cigarettes.

To give you an idea of how incredibly cheap that is, a pack of Marlboro in the UK costs £5.50, about P460. Three packs would therefore cost the equivalent of P1,380, or over 12 times more than they cost here.

The IMF has pointed out that a single rate of cigarette tax in the Philippines would yield anywhere between P31.8 billion and P33.8 billion in additional revenues in the first year of implementation. Along the way it would also save hundreds of thousands of Philippine lives by dissuading people from smoking (the Philippines is the 15th biggest consumer of cigarettes in the world and the largest consumer in ASEAN).

So since a flat cigarette tax would have such huge benefits for both government revenues and for public health, why isn’t this tax implemented tomorrow? Because, as an article in the British Medical Journal put it, “the Philippine tobacco industry is "the strongest tobacco lobby in Asia".

Hell, Lucio Tan, the owner of Fortune tobacco doesn’t even pay his current taxes. Those of you with long memories will surely remember how during the presidency of Tan’s friend Erap a tax evasion case in 2000 was conveniently thrown out because the Department of Justice conveniently forgot to file a records request on time (thanks Erap!)

A Philippine court has dismissed a 25.27 billion peso tax-evasion case against Lucio Tan, a Chinese-Filipino tycoon and close friend of Philippine President Joseph Estrada, on a technicality, media reports said Thursday.

The Court of Appeals dismissed the case against Tan, 66, because the Department of Justice filed a records request 11 days late, the reports said.

Even as I type this I am sure the domestic and the US tobacco companies operating in the Philippines are preparing some nice fat brown envelopes to make sure that that inconvenient IMF report is quietly shelved.

Impermanence in Philippine life

The socioeconomic structure of the Philippines may be as fixed as the stars in the heavens, but its substructure is amazingly fluid.

Names*

Filipinos have a more casual attitude to names than most. The other day I met someone called Grace. At least that is what everyone calls her but it turns out her name is really Sophia, nickname Pia. So where did Grace come from? “When I came to my Manila everyone called me Grace, I don’t know why!” Perhaps in a few years, Grace/Sophia/Pia will add an “h” to her one of her names to give it that little bit of class.

Has any other country had a head of state with a stage name? President Estrada/Ejercito/Erap (two of whose charmless sons carry the name “Estrada”, with the lovely JV bearing his dad’s natural name “Ejercito”) with his famously hazy family boundaries and interrupted presidency is a good example of impermanence in Philippine life.

Families

The fluidity of familial life here is partly a consequence of the wanderings of the priapic Filipino male. Last week, for example, a friend told us that he was startled on a visit to his family home by a reference to his bunso (youngest sibling). “But I am the youngest”, he protested. Well, it turns out he wasn’t the bunso of the family, although it must have been a bit traumatic for him in his forties to discover he had a younger half-brother.

Traumatic but not at all unusual; I am sure almost all Filipino readers will know of similar tales.

Families are loosely structured in other ways too. A few years ago I noticed a new photo of a baby on my assistant’s desk. Since she had not manifested any of the usual physical changes to that precede the birth of a child I assumed the baby must have been a niece or a nephew, but it turned out that a younger and poorer relative had had got herself in trouble and my henceforth my assistant would be bringing up the child as one of her own.

Only yesterday, Frayed and I were offered a baby! There was even a “viewing”!

The reasons for all this are quite varied, and, include the generosity of Filipino families; the notion that wealthier families have a responsibility to their poorer kin; the balikbayan (overseas worker) experience; the prevalence of intense poverty that makes it impossible for some mothers to bring up their children; the discouragement of contraceptives by the Catholic Church and politicians like former Manila Mayor Atienza; and, as mentioned, the habitual infidelity of many husbands.

Nor are the consequences necessarily bad. The famous adaptability of Filipinos, which enables them to blend into apparently radically different societies with relative ease, probably has its roots in the shifting tides of family life. From an early age Philippine children experience change more frequently and have to learn to accommodate it.

* One of the best discussions of Philippine names is Matthew Sutherland’s “Rhose, by Any Other Name”, 10 years old now but as relevant as ever.

The Pinoy genius for small-scale organization

The Philippine national project may have failed to produce either a national ideology or a functioning state, but that doesn’t mean the country is not politically organized. On the contrary, the Philippine political system is more extensive than those in many countries.

This benefits of this were recently quantified in a Save the Children report that placed the Philippines and Peru top of a list of developing countries for vaccinating children and treating them for critical diseases.

I can well believe it. Several years ago, I attended a measles immunization mission as an observer in a poor neighborhood near Antipolo. I was very impressed with how smoothly the campaign was carried out. We were met by a female kagawad who seemed to know exactly was required of her. The residents were supportive and friendly and the system of chalking doors to indicate that the occupants had been immunized was beautifully simple. I couldn’t help wondering whether I had been dragged to a poster project, but I was assured that it is like that in most barangays. I am sure that the well established set of grassroots connections here is the main reason for the Philippines’ excellent performance in the Save the Children report. (Of course that same set of connections can be used to service corrupt national interests too, but, hey this is a positive post.)

As an aside, we have nothing like this in the UK. The atomized nature of contemporary British society means that once the national and local governments have gouged you for every last penny they kindly leave you to your own devices. There ain’t no barangay captain to negotiate between competing neighbourhood interests in Britain—in fact the attitude seems to be “Noisy neighbour? Live it with pal”, even if you are an 80-year-old granny being harassed by teenage yobs.

Finally, in case there are any historians out there who want to argue that, far from belng “politics from below”, as I have implied, the barangay system was a Marcos creation, I would argue that all the old fraud did was to rename the existing barrios. Marcos didn’t need to create the barangays because to establish and run such small-scale organizations is as natural to Pinoys as the national project seems to be alien to them.

Thanks for the link Butch.

Life for five joints

We can be fairly sure that such worthy public servants as Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante (accused of diverting P270 million in fertilizer funds to the Arroyo campaign in 2004), Bejamin Abalos (accused, among many other matters, of attempting to profit by $130 million from the NBN ZTE scandal), Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia (whose son was apprehended at the San Francisco airport trying to smuggle $100,000 in undeclared cash in the States) will not be troubling the guards at a Philippine jail any time soon.

However, lest it be accused of inactivity, last Thursday the Philippine judicial system demonstrated its determination to protect us from the truly evil elements in society. It is scum like this, not Messrs. Bolante, Abalos, and Garcia, who are really responsible for the current mess the country finds itself in.

BACOLOD CITY – For selling five sticks of marijuana to undercover policemen, an amputee was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday by a regional trial court in Bacolod.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Edgardo Garvilles sentenced David Nobal Carmona, alias Kamlot, to life imprisonment and fined him P500,000 for the sale of five marijuana sticks, and to serve another 12 to 14 years in prison for possession of five other sticks. He was also fined an additional P300,000.

Carmona, 44, was also ordered to be immediately committed to the national penitentiary. Police told the court they conducted a buy bust operation in October 2003 and caught Carmona.

Carmona, who lost an arm and a leg to amputation when he was 16 years old, pleaded not guilty and claimed police planted the evidence against him.

But the court said his denial was a “weak form of defense.”

Mirror, mirror: Who is the fairest Filipino of them all?

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye

An interesting article on mirrors in the New York Times made me think there is a PhD topic on the role of mirrors in Philippine society.

One feature of life here that shocks most female foreigners is the office women’s CR. Naturally, I have never been in one, but apparently nearly all Filipino staff keep their make-up kits in a neat row on the shelf below the mirror, ready for a twice daily make-over … to what? Stare at a computer screen? For Europeans, many of whom wear no make-up at all, this is curious behaviour.

The men’s CR is not as exotic but I find Filipinos linger there longer than would be usual for people from my culture. The British approach to the CR is: do whatever you went in there for, for wash your hands, have a quick glance, and out again. It makes me smile when I go in the CR in a mall and see young men unashamedly preening in front of the mirror for minutes at a time.

There are worse crimes than making pretty in the mirror and I suppose I probably preened a bit too in less “beated and chopp’d” days (see below), though always in private. Nevertheless, this behaviour does seems to confirm an obsession with surface appearances, which many might say is one of the root causes of the country’s problems.

Still, as the New York Times piece points out, mirrors have fascinated people for millennia, not just Pinoys. The article also makes a reference to Shakespeare’s funny 62nd sonnet; as usual, he said it best.

Sonnet 62

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
And all my soul and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.

Le Vieux Chalet, Antipolo

Before visiting the Pinto Gallery last weekend (above) we ate lunch at Le Vieux Chalet, a wonderful homey Swiss restaurant with a 180 degree of the Manila smog (below). The food, view and the company were perfect for a lazy Sunday lunchtime. The sad thing is that when I mentioned the restaurant to people at work the next day, the response was usually “That place? Is it still going? I haven’t been there in years”. I guess that is the fate of many out-of-town restaurants—however much people like your food (and everyone I spoke to did), it’s easy to forget you. Anyway, if you have nothing better to do next weekend you could do a lot worse than heading into the hills to taste the raclette and other Swiss specialties at this little gem of a restaurant. The drive wasn't too bad either -- about 45 minutes from Makati.

Cessna lands upside down beside Roxas

It is always reassuring to know that your safety is in the hands of real experts, who are up the latest techncal lingo. Here is Jose Saplan, chief of the Air Transportation Office Accident Investigation Board on the recent prang when a cessna landed unexpectedly beside Roxas Boulevard.

“We will tear down the engine to see what caused the crash. But based on our initial findings, the pilot said the engine conked out,” Saplan said.

Thanks to the Inquirer for the spectacular pic.

Fog in the glens of Makati

The Explainer and judgments on Philippine history

I very much enjoyed Manuel Quezon’s “The Explainer” this evening, which in reviewing books by Adrian Cristobal and Federico Macaranas subtly probed the political role of the artist in society (Cristobal having been closely associated with the martial law regime). I’m full of admiration, not just for Manolo and his team, but for ANC for scheduling such a thoughtful and intellectual program during prime time.

Still, I found the relativism of Professor Macaranas and some of the younger members of the audience a bit dispiriting, especially as I am coming off the back of a biography of one of the 20th century’s great judgers, Hannah Arendt. I could almost hear her snorting “ach!” as Professor Macaranas tried to slide out of any responsibility to express an opinion on martial law collaborators (at one point he literally said “well, it’s all relative”). As Manolo tried to hint, it may well be that the more honorable collaborators such as prime minister Cesar Virata (a contributor to a recent book edited by Professor Macaranas) do deserve a measure of rehabilitation, but unless Virata’s role is critically assessed, how can we know that?

Arendt’s view, expressed in books such as Eichmann in Jerusalem, is that:

the way in which we say ‘that is right, that is wrong’ is not very different from the way we say ‘this is beautiful, this is ugly’.

In other words, to live is to judge, so we might as well as well be honest about it.

Yet the most cursory survey of recent Philippine history reveals that an absence of judgment is one of its most distinguishing features. Far from being castigated as collaborators, Philippine officials under the Japanese occupation like Frayed’s grand-uncle, Jorge Vargas, are venerated and lend their names to museums rather than, like Norway’s Quisling, to insults.

And of course the bouffant one still swans around town, rather than rotting in jail or in exile where she belongs. Jalosos, Honasan, Lacson … one could go on and on for ever with a list of the beneficiaries of the Philippines’ dawdle to judgment.

The implications of this are huge and include a nonfunctioning judiciary, the most important safeguard of individual human rights. A reluctance to judge also means that self-evaluations of charlatans like Erap are taken on board uncritically, instead of being weighed in the balance and assessed for what they really are.

Some implications of this reluctance to judge are favorable, however. A clumsy rush to condemn Vargas, for example, would have been unjust in my view, since he did his best to ensure that life under the occupation was less brutal than it might otherwise have been.

Too much judgment can easily become prejudice, something the Philippines is relatively free from. A willingness to forgive and forget is often healthy—compare the generous response of Filipinos to the Japanese with that of the Chinese, most of whom appear to still be embittered more than 60 years after the end of the second world war.

Yet, while the consequence of an absence of judgment can sometimes be “tolerance”, it can also be a denial of one of the most fundamental qualities of human individuals and societies: the ability to evaluate two choices and decide which is “best”. If we shirk that responsibility in favor of relativism we are neglecting to use one of our greatest gifts. Or, as Hannah Arendt said:

“If you say to yourself in such matters: who am I to judge?—you are already lost.”