Timi’s list: four grave issues hounding the Philippines

1. When Arroyo vowed on Rizal’s grave not to run for President
» It was Rizal Day in 2002 when GMA vowed to not run as president. After 279 days, she broke that promise.

2. The Hello Garci-gate scandal
» A political scandal and electoral crisis of immense proportions that involved incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Hello Garci phone call recording pointed out that GMA rigged the 2004 national election in her favour.
» Unleashed a tide of protest ringtones which inspired anti-Bush movement in the U.S.

3. Modern day Inquisition on activists, journalists or opposition from the Left
» The imprisonment of Representative Satur Ocampo shortly before the May elections, the imprisonment of Representative Crispin Beltran, and the persecution of the ‘Batasan 5’.
» Daily occurrence of human rights abuse and the culture of impunity in the country that has claimed 800 (and counting) victims of extrajudicial killings.
» The despicable and shameful display of cluelessness of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and ARMED Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. for lashing out at UN rapporteur Philip Alston, who reported that: “there is a passivity, bordering on an abdication of responsibility, which affects the way in which key institutions and actors approach their responsibilities in relation to such human rights concerns.”

4. Growing hunger
» I won’t even talk about the hunger for justice, human rights and genuine development. I’ll just focus on the most primary form of hunger – literal hunger and the inability to satiate that hunger.
» According to an Inquirer article in 2006, “…almost 700,000 families (about 3.5 million people), 4.2 percent of the population, reported experiencing severe hunger, which was defined in the survey as going hungry often or always in the past three months.”
» In a land where food is so tightly interwoven into the fabric of our social life and cultural expressions, it is truly ironic and heartbreaking that the food-loving Pinoy is falling more deeply into the throes of hunger.