De Lima does an Aquino, hits courts

March 31, 2012

By Evangeline de Vera
Malaya

JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said her efforts at curbing lawless elements are being thwarted by “less-than-respectable elements in the judiciary.”

Speaking before the annual convention of the Philippine Prosecutors’ League at the Manila Hotel, De Lima said the public saw in the past year certain accused individuals apply for and being granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the Department of Justice from prosecuting them, while a former president questioned before the Supreme Court the authority of her department to issue watch-list orders and hold departure orders.

“Therefore, I cannot help but ask myself, what is going on here? How dim-witted do they think we are? Half the problem is the existence of less-than-respectable elements in the judiciary, who issue blatantly unfair and illegal orders without even blinking an eye. But the point is, we cannot take what they dish out lying down,” she said.

De Lima was apparently referring to former NBI director Magtanggol Gatdula, who had gone to the Manila regional trial court seeking redress for being sacked and charged with involvement in the kidnapping of a Japanese woman last year.

She was also referring to the case of former president Gloria Arroyo who went to the SC last year questioning the constitutionality of Department Circular No. 41 which became De Lima’s basis for issuing a travel ban against Arroyo.

The SC has yet to rule on the constitutionality of DC 41 but it has issued a TRO against the travel ban.

The issuance of the TRO was among issues raised in the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato Corona who was appointed by Arroyo to the top SC post shortly before she stepped down from the presidency in June 2010. Article VII of the eight articles alleges that Corona favored Arroyo through the Supreme Court’s issuance of the TRO in November last year. Early this month, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Corona’s impeachment was triggered by the TRO.

About two weeks ago, Palace spokesmen said they would cease commenting on the impeachment issue. Last week, President Aquino said he would no longer respond to allegations being hurled by Corona’s camp.

De Lima, in the case of the writ of amparo, defied the Manila court’s order allowing the inspection of the vehicle used by an ambushed NBI official. The ambush is being blamed on Gatdula. De Lima said the order of the RTC is not yet enforceable because the DOJ has a pending motion for reconsideration that automatically stops the effectivity of the court’s order.

De Lima said that the DOJ has the role of projecting the image of determination by pursuing all avenues to protect and uphold its mandate “by resorting to all legal remedies available to us.”

“Do not hesitate to question their acts and hold them accountable. I tell you, half the battle is won if we could help prevent crimes from being committed by projecting a warrior-like image of competence, integrity and endless resolve,” she told the prosecutors. – Evangeline de Vera

http://www.malaya.com.ph/03302012/news7.html

A new Manny Pacquiao

March 31, 2012

By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Manila Standard Today

WHEN pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao asked one of his aides to get a chair and have us sit next to him at the 12th Annual “Flash” Elorde Awards Banquet of Champions, we were pleasantly surprised. Not too long ago, he was visibly upset by our comments after his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez and our condemnation of his indiscriminate ways and the leeches, who surround him.

But then, it seemed so long ago and time and circumstance have combined to change it all in a blessed way.

After we sat down, Manny proceeded to ask us about our favorite passage in the Bible and we answered Psalm XXIII — “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Sufficiently impressed when we told him, the psalm says it all, Manny recited several excerpts from the scriptures, chapter and verse, in amazing fashion. We couldn’t believe how much he had memorized and the ease with which he quoted the Bible and reflected on the meaning of the passages he cited. This was certainly a new Manny Pacquiao, far removed from the wild and wooly individual, whose lifestyle brought untold pain to his charming wife and threatened to wreck his family.

God, in His infinite wisdom, effected a complete change in Manny because, from our own knowledge of Pacquiao, he was a soul worth saving and one who could be put to far greater use in setting an example to others to mend their wayward ways because he wields such an influence.

At the Elorde awards night, he and Dyan Castillejo, the indefatigable reporter, who chronicles so much in terms of Manny’s life and times, requested us to attend Pacquiao’s fellowship at ABS-CBN on Thursday evening, where she is indeed a leading light.

We went, not merely to please Dyan and Manny, but to see first hand how Manny, the “Fighter of the Decade” deals with the word of God and to discover even further, his comfort with an obviously new calling.

We were impressed not just with the facility with which he handled the role of a preacher-man, but the genuineness with which he reached out to use his own life’s example as a magnet to get people to change their ways and to believe in the word of God and to learn to love Him like never before.

There was, on Manny’s face, a look of sometimes childlike innocence. In many ways, we felt it was a reflection of his transgressions being washed away by genuine repentance and a new Manny Pacquiao being born again—and we hasten to add —within himself.

All his life his wife Jinkee has been both a tower of strength and a woman of faith and Manny has realized that she too is a blessing in his life and has learned to love her and share a life together with their four children in the embrace of the Lord and His word.

Manny has touched the lives of millions by his incredible achievements in the ring, earning respect and redemption for our country which was long denied the recognition it richly deserved. Beyond that, outside the ring, he has been a picture of humility and an individual, who cares for his people like very few others do.

It somehow pains when people suggest that Pacquiao is using God and religion to further his political ambitions, because it does seem terribly unfair. If anything at all, we sincerely believe that God is using Manny to spread His word because whenever Manny speaks, a multitude listens.

The applause he received at ABS-CBN several times during his address and the warmth with which he was embraced by the over-flowing congregation that gathered at the Dolphy Theater spoke volumes of how much he touched them both individually and collectively.

We know for a fact, that he touched us deep within our soul by the message he carried and the story he told.

Having known Manny since he was a 16 year old kid, striving to break away from the bondage of his family’s poverty and to carve a name for himself and a better life with his God-given talent as a boxer, we can sense the honesty within him.

To him, with God’s grace, many more doors may open but the one thing that will always remain enshrined in our hearts and in our minds is that Manny Pacquiao opened the door and his heart to God and it has served him and blessed him as well as those of us who admire and care for him in a special sort of way.

Manny Pacquiao is indeed a champion for all seasons and for all-time and is truly one of God’s new-found warriors!

(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/March/31)

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/2012/03/30/a-new-manny-pacquiao/

So much to invest one’s life for

March 30, 2012

GLIMPSES
By Jose Ma. Montelibano

Tony Meloto and Luis Oquinena with Skoll Board member Kirk Hanson [Credit: Gawad Kalinga

I thought that England would have cheaper gas prices. The past two days as a visitor in London, however, has taught me that oil producing countries do not always subsidize what their people consume. Gas here is P100 per liter and they have British Petroleum!

I also thought that England would be a model of efficiency. After all, Hong Kong was run by them as a colony and British rule produced a highly productive and efficient system. In fact, Hong Kong citizens ended up hiring Filipino domestics. But visiting Great Britain just proved to me that there are flaws in every country no matter how advanced, just somewhat different in nature or form. It came as a shock to this Third World citizen that it would take two hours for my small group to clear Immigration!

It was not that Immigration officers were making it difficult for tourists to get their travel documents processed; in fact, they were friendly. It was more systemic. There were several hundreds of non-British nationals who arrive but only a few Immigration officers were there to process all of us. I thought to myself that our NAIA 1 had taken a bad bashing from everyone about being one of the world’s worst, but our visitors get better Immigration service. And although we were again evaluated as somewhat deficient with our security measures, we don’t get bombs in our planes, or high-jackers who ram our planes into buildings.

Filipinos have much to be grateful for, and have much to complain about, too. Even when we compare ourselves to other nations, we have many that we find better and many we find worse. Filipinos who want to migrate are choosy – most apply to a few countries and avoid many more. Intuitively, I believe Filipinos know that the Philippines has great value but many just need more opportunities to build their dreams. Even those who become Overseas Workers keep wishing they could return. Just stay in the arrival area of our international airports and sense the joy of our arriving workers.

The most suffering of our people are the very poor. Strangely, they are less complaining about their lot. They suffer in silence so much so that many of us are not jolted enough to see or hear them. And despite having a most active, aggressive and attention-grabbing media, the poor without a voice do not find many champions among them. In tri-media, and in the Internet, poverty is less a topic than politics. Many who write about the suffering of people simply use that as a reason to heap blame and criticism against their pet political peeves, those they are paid to attack, or personalities who have embarrassed them in some way. The sincere ones are easy to spot – their lives bear out the principles they mouth.

In London, Oxford specifically, are gathered those rare ones who disagree passionately with the wrong they see around them and then dedicate their lives to solving them. Their voices of criticism are listened to and respected because their criticisms are dwarfed by their contributions to the solutions. This week at Oxford are people who have proof of concept for solutions they offer and, beyond that, are poised to create bigger impact than their past successes. And these game-changers are matched with social entrepreneurs who dare to fund innovative and courageous initiatives that show promise of resolving many of the world’s problems.

The foundation of giant eBay, the Skoll Foundation, is once again putting together almost 1,000 men and women with shared noble visions and the courage to pursue them, people who have made big money and people they are investing heavily to make their hard-earned money serve humanity beyond their families. These are people who know the most serious problems, acknowledge and debate them, then put their lives and wealth on the line to address the problems. With these people, through their advocacies or wealth, talk is cheap and complaints even cheaper unless followed up with the right action. That is also why, despite their awesome expertise or wealth, they seldom are bothered by whiners and gripers.

It is such a rare source of pride that a home-grown initiative is placing the Philippines, and Filipinos, on the special map of achievers and game-changers in the global community. A special 2012 awardee of the Skoll Foundation is Gawad Kalinga as an outstanding global model of social entrepreneurship and especially cites its capacity to draw out the best of people. Volunteerism grounded on the nobility of the human spirit has allowed Gawad Kalinga to help hundreds of thousands of the very poor and building up a collective concern poised to help millions more. BBC’s One Square Mileprogram has already interviewed Tony Meloto and Luis Oquinena, Chairman and Executive Director respectively of GK, and will air this globally on April 6.

Yes, there is much to complain about, much to attack. There is also so much to admire, to be inspired at, and to invest one’s life for.

Helping Others is Our Path to Happiness

March 30, 2012

By Fr. Shay Cullen
(His columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line)

What brings out the crowds to cheer on a hero, a liberator, a Messiah like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the greatest of all, Jesus of Nazareth, and many more. All but one of the above was executed or assassinated and all were brutalized and jailed unjustly for their beliefs and mission. They had a common goal to bring justice, freedom and truth to the world held captive by tyranny and evil.

These great people of our generation, despite their human frailties, Jesus excepted, gave their lives for others without counting the cost. They are inspiring leaders that lived out the deepest values that makes us so human and dignified human persons. For believers, Jesus is divine but he humbled himself to be fully human like the rest of us and shared our human condition and came to redeem it.

We admire them in varying degrees because they are what we would all wish and aspire to be, but cannot find that same courage and bravery in ourselves. And yet they are liberators of our spirits and of all who are captive to fear and insecurity because they have stood non-violently against tyranny and oppression.

They took a stand to defend the helpless, the victims of poverty, cruelty violence, hatred, bigotry and torture and they suffered the same themselves. They took a stand for us. They knew from experience what they were standing against and what they were ready to live and die for. We cheer for them because they represent our highest aspirations, yet we frequently fail to stand up for ourselves and our neighbors.

As always happens when the tyrant and oppressors or their agents of violence arrive with guns, sticks, knives and swords, the messiahs are left in the open alone, deserted, betrayed. Then the cheers, hosannas, and euphoria die away and they are led to the gallows, the firing squad or the crucifix to pay for their bravery and self-sacrifice. Then fear triumphs and the once euphoric followers flee and hide. It is then that a great silence descends as a voice is choked off, a vision is mocked and trampled upon, and tyranny seems to triumph.

But then when we see the same today in an equally cruel and selfish world. Are we not disgusted to see so many ignore the poor, the hungry, the abused child and turn away? That is the hour for us to decide on whose side we are really on, the liberator or the oppressor? Can we overcome fear and speak out or do we fear pain and punishment so much that we would allow a neighbor, a friend to suffer and die, children to be abused and we do and say nothing, but deplore and denounce it in others? That is a betrayal of our faith. To believe in justice but not to help victims is hypocrisy.
There are many thousands of great and good people doing heroic things everyday to alleviate the hurt of others. They are involved in charities, they volunteer to help the downtrodden and the needy wherever they find them. We are challenged to go and join them, find a way to end our apathy and complacently and our selfish indulgent ways.

We need to ask how can I help? Everyone can help ease the hardship of another and that means more than to the needy than we can understand. If we suffered like them, we would understand pain. Just to see that there are others far worse off than we ourselves are the start. We only need to count our blessings and appreciate what we have when others have so little to be motivated to help.

If we are healthy, we can help the sick, if we are rich we can share with the poor, if we have strength we can lift up the fallen and the weak, if we have faith we can move mountains of apathy. That’s what Jesus of Nazareth did and those who followed him.

Giving our lives for others is the highest form of love that Jesus of Nazareth practiced and other great heroes. We can’t reach those heights perhaps, but we can start to help people in small ways and then we can be small heroes. You’ll be happier for it and so will they. END

http://www.preda.org/en/news/fr-shays-articles/helping-others-is-our-path-to-happiness/

The importance of arresting retired general Jovito Palparan Jr.

March 30, 2012

AHRC – Media Statement
Mindanao Examiner 

IN THE STREETS of Metro Manila, it is common to see photographs or posters of missing persons posted on walls and electricity poles, with details of the missing person and how to contact the relatives looking for them. These families have taken it upon themselves to look for their loved ones, in the absence of any help from the government.

What is not common however, is the poster of Jovito Palparan Jr., a retired military general, also posted widely on public walls in Manila. He is not a missing person, but a person who went into hiding after the court issued arrest orders against him, to answer allegations of his and his men’s involvement in the disappearance of two activists, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno in 2006. The inability of the government to arrest him is not surprising; in fact, him being actually arrested would be more of a surprise.

Failure to arrest persons subject to court arrest orders is not unique to Palparan. The failure or inability to arrest is unfortunately a norm more than an exception throughout the Philippines. Even ordinary criminals or escapees from jail can in fact roam freely. Unless they make trouble again, or they apply for employment requiring police clearance, they are not likely to be arrested. Under such circumstances, how can society expect Palparan to be arrested?

Firstly, Palparan is not an ordinary man. Before he retired from the military, he commanded military units and was assigned to various different regions. His military accomplishments–regardless of whether they conform to the articles of war and human rights norms, which the military establishment claim to adhere to–are publicly endorsed and recognized by his former commander-in-chief, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Secondly, Palparan is well known to the government. All of his personal and military records are well documented by the Armed Forces, not only as a military officer, but also as a civil servant subject to civil service laws. In performing his duty in the military, he is subject to both administrative and criminal proceedings. As a known military general well endorsed publicly by the former president, it is hard to imagine that the government, particularly the military establishment, does not know where Palparan is.

Thirdly, Palparan’s military career and achievements was strongly endorsed during Arroyo’s presidency. In other words, Arroyo consented to Palparan’s actions and his rhetoric justifying the fight against counter-insurgency and protecting the rights of only those people he considered as ‘humans’. Now that Arroyo herself is under hospital arrest and being prosecuted for election fraud however, where does Palparan’s support lie?

Despite the change in leadership and government knowledge regarding Palparan, there are today posters put up in search for him. This is a clear indicator that the assumption that any police or military officer who committed violations during Arroyo’s time could be held accountable once the leadership is changed, is deeply flawed. The dominant thinking that change of leadership is prerequisite to accountability for gross human rights violations has been flawed for many years; this did not happen in the present Aquino term, nor did it occur in the regime of Corazon Aquino after Marcos, or in Gloria Arroyo’s regime after Estrada.

Rather, it is clear that those accused of crimes, regardless of whether they are government civil servants, policemen or military officers, have developed sophisticated methods of escaping from accountability. At the same time, the relatives and victims of human rights violations are also developing creative means to deal with this absence of accountability; the distribution of Palparan’s poster being one such method.

Escaping arrest for instance, is not a special skill unique to Palparan. Needless to say, the current Philippine Senator Panfilo Lacson himself had gone into hiding and absconded from his responsibility as a lawmaker to evade the very jurisdiction of law he was mandated by the people to uphold. In his defence, he also claimed innocence of the murder charges against him for the assassination of the former publicist of President Estrada. After the court dismissed the charges, he surfaced bragging about his exploits while in hiding.

Like Palparan, Lacson is also a ‘decorated police officer.’ He had been accused for committing torture and human rights violations during his career as a police officer before joining the Senate. The difference is that the charges on Lacson were dismissed, while Palparan’s charges had just begun. In the Philippines, jurisprudence says that flight is an indication of guilt; Lacson can now afford to show up in public, while Palparan cannot. However, there is one thing that these individuals have in common: the capacity to hide from the law using their connections with the police and military.

The spread of posters of Palparan in the streets of Manila, initiated by Karapatan and the families of the victims who took responsibility in asking to locate him, demonstrates an utter state of impunity that continues to thrive in the country. In the case of Palparan and his men involved in forced disappearance, even the Department of Justice and its attached special investigation unit, the National Bureau of Investigation, have openly admitted being unable to arrest them, despite their resources and intelligence network all over the country. While the government may be willing to arrest Palparan, it seems its willingness does not match its ability.

The failure and inability of the government to arrest Palparan should therefore be examined thoroughly by the country’s justice institutions to address unresolved cases and the ongoing impunity of past regimes. The skills and habits to evade accountability developed by the offenders of the law, particularly the security forces expected to uphold the law, must first be learned and understood. No reform can be made possible without this knowledge. This is not only about arresting Palparan or him evading prosecution, but rather narrating the state of justice institutions that exist in the country. (listadmin@ahrchk.net)

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20120330075640

A Pulse Asia poll could have saved Jesus from crucifixion

March 31, 2012

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR 
By William M. Esposo 
The Philippine Star

When Pulse Asia released last March 20 its February 26 to March 9 nationwide poll on public perception regarding the on-going impeachment trial of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona, Presiding Officer Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE) dismissed its impact on the jurors, even alleging that it was a ‘survey’ that condemned Jesus Christ to be crucified. JPE could not have been more wrong.

On the contrary, if Judea Governor Pontius Pilate had conducted a scientific survey like those done by Pulse Asia (and SWS), then the New Testament might have been written differently. The viva voce type of selection that Pilate conducted, when the crowd was made to choose between Christ and the criminal Barabbas, wasn’t based on a truly representative sample that reflected the cross section of Jerusalem folks. The Pharisees, Christ’s biggest enemies, fielded a “hakot” (planted partisans) crowd that was complemented by the followers of Barabbas.

The Jerusalem mob was like a sample of 80 percent communists and 20 percent pro-democracy Filipinos. Given a choice between communism and democracy, the communists would naturally drown out the pro-democracy folks. However, as we know from experience, we Filipinos aren’t disposed to accepting communism. Our disdain for communism was so intense that Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos thought he could win in the February 1986 Snap Presidential Election by tagging Cory Aquino a communist. Few ever believed Marcos that Cory was a communist.

The crucifixion was an all-Pharisees show. They wanted Christ crucified after reaching the conclusion that Christ threatened their power base with what He was teaching. They panicked when they saw the big crowds that Jesus was attracting, the last of which was His entry to Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. The Pharisees had to rig the viva voce and injected into the crowd many of their minions.

Many use the Jerusalem crowd as basis for saying that the mob is fickle, citing how Christ had a triumphal entry into Jerusalem and, in a matter of days, He was condemned to be crucified. Not quite, really. The crowd that welcomed Jesus was not the same crowd that asked Pilate to free Barabbas and crucify Jesus. In that era, there were no mobile phones, mass media, much less telephones. It was impossible for the Jerusalem crowd to have changed their tune overnight from hailing the Messiah to crucifying the blasphemer, as what Christ was accused of by the Pharisees. There was also no incident or event between Palm Sunday and Good Friday to account for the dramatic shift in Jerusalem public opinion.

If there was no crucifixion, that would have created major complications in the writing and propagation of the Jesus Christ story. There could not have been a resurrection too if Christ was not crucified.

JPE was wrong to compare a Pulse Asia survey with the pro-Pharisees crowd that clamored for Christ to be crucified. First of all, the viva voce selection was conducted with a biased and polluted sample. Second, viva voce itself isn’t reliable. A hundred loud voiced and strategically positioned men would have easily drowned out the voices of two hundred women, unless, of course, these are two hundred nagging housewives. A Pulse Asia (and SWS) survey is conducted with a scientifically determined sample that truly represents the sentiments of people during a particular period.

Your Chair Wrecker has long been involved in the making of surveys, dating back to my years in advertising and politics. We commissioned the survey firms, Mercy Abad a favorite service contractor. We do not undertake the actual survey. Most, if not all, major marketing firms conduct market and consumer surveys to guide their strategy formulation and decision-making process. A market survey tells you how many are disposed to buy a certain product, where they are located, when they’re inclined to buy the product and so forth. A consumer survey tells you the personality or psychographics of your target market and is often a priceless guide to determining advertising strategy and brand positioning.

It’s important that we know who are the reliable survey firms because there are those who operate bogus surveys in order to influence public opinion. Your Chair Wrecker remembers one such suspicious poll that was conducted towards the last phase of the 1998 presidential election campaign, an election that Joseph “Erap” Estrada won with a big margin. All reliable surveys predicted the Estrada victory except one that concluded that then Speaker Joe de Venecia would win the presidency. That survey became a comic relief in political circles.

As far back as your Chair Wrecker can remember, the SWS and later, the Pulse Asia, surveys were generally correct in their election forecasts. The differences happen in tightly contested races where a last minute shift went undetected. There is reason to doubt those who are quick to denounce SWS and Pulse Asia surveys, especially if they happen to be election losers. The major surprises, more often than not, can be traced to cheating, especially wholesale cheating.

In the May 2010 presidential elections, both Pulse Asia and the SWS predicted the national results quite accurately. The percentages of winners, presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino and vice presidential candidate Jojo Binay, were very similar to the last poll conducted by Pulse Asia and SWS. The surveys also reflected the drop of Manny Villar from a close second to third in the presidential race, also the last minute victory of Jojo Binay over Mar Roxas. The old cheating operations didn’t have time and the technology to rig the 2010 elections.

Pulse Asia and the SWS provide us a basis for checking if clean elections had been conducted. The Pulse Asia and SWS surveys may not qualify as evidence to prove election cheating but their track record of accuracy gives us a starting point for questioning the results and conducting an investigation.

Shakespeare: Madness in great ones must never unwatched go.

Chair Wrecker email and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com

How We Help End Hunger

By Fr. Shay Cullen 
(His columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line) 

Hiking through the Zambales hills visiting the villages of the Aeta indigenous people is an exhilarating and yet saddening experience. I have been thinking about my recent visits to the villages of the aboriginal people that first settled the Philippine islands and survived for thousands of years as hunters and gatherers in the abundant rain forests. Today, their future is uncertain and fraught with danger.

There, they developed a simple but beautiful culture that was at one with nature. They never over-hunted; their numbers were well-balanced for survival and healthy living. They had a well developed herbal medical practice that helped them survive thousands of years like the natives of the Amazon forests without modern medicine or much contact with the western world.

They protected the natural habitat and the native birds and animals thrived. Their cultural dances imitate the creatures of the forest such as their respect for nature. Today, all that has changed, the forests and animals are long gone and a greatly diminished environment is all that remains.

When the American-Spanish war broke out in 1898 and soon became the American-Filipino war, 90 percent or more of the rainforests were intact. Today, there is hardly three percent left, all have been logged out and mostly shipped abroad. After the World War II, the logging hardly ever stopped still today it continues. In Pangasinan on Western Luzon Island, a fifty kilometer road has been cut there the last remaining rainforest.

Loggers are still at it and either the government agencies are in cahoots or totally inept to stop it. In the village of Hukay, Calatagan Batangas, huge swaths of mangrove have been cut to shreds damaging the land, causing erosion and the ocean to invade the rice fields and causing a huge loss to the agriculture in the area. Food loss is the result, hunger soon follows.

Their survival depends on mixed farming and the bonus of the mango harvest. They too are facing food crises as prices of rice and other essential commodities increase and the prices that they get for their root crops, bananas, wild honey and mangos have been getting lower. Traders exploit them without compassion. It is only the Preda Fair Trade that buys from them at just and fair prices and delivers some social benefits to enhance their lives and help some of their children go to school. Government services and help hardly ever reach them.

They are part of the 4.5 million Filipinos who say they go hungry from time to time and part of the one billion people seriously hungry all the time worldwide. When drought hits, the result of climate change due to industrial pollution, famine can overwhelm them in a few months. That’s when the rains fail and the soil turns to dust blown in the wind. That’s when you see the skeletons of dead cattle and emaciated skeletal babies dying in their mother’s arms.

As I said in a previous column, 300 children die every hour every day worldwide for the lack of food. Malnutrition is with us and the millennium goal to eliminate or greatly reduce this hunger will not be reached by 2015.

The poor people in the developing world are facing a growing food crises that is getting more serious. Most of them do not have fertile land or the means to plant and nurture it. The best lands are owned and protected and unused by rich and wealthy families. It is investment in property for them not land to use for growing food.

Besides, even unused public land is not distributed with the means to help poor families grow their own food, they are turning the land into housing projects for the rich or they are leasing the land to foreign companies for food production to be shipped back to foreign lands.

There will be an additional 2.5 billion people in the world by 2050, how can they survive? If we act now and get involved with the agencies fighting the world hunger through Fair Trade and social justice, we can help halt the destruction of the environment and end chronic hunger. This we cannot ignore, we cannot turn away, we have to stand up for them and help them overcome the food crises. END

http://www.preda.org/en/news/fr-shays-articles/how-we-help-end-hunger/