This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 46, January 1-7, 2006
2005 People of the Year We in
Bulatlat have chosen to welcome the New Year by looking back at those
personalities who may be described, as far as we are concerned, as 2005 People
of the Year. They are those who provided shining examples of courage or
brilliance – or both – at a time that desperately calls for these. BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
We would perhaps
all agree that 2005 has been – to say the least – a most interesting year for
the Philippines. It was certainly a very turbulent year, and many in our midst
are awaiting 2006 with a certain sense of wariness, as though anticipating more
mayhem.
We in Bulatlat
have chosen to welcome the New Year by looking back at those personalities who
may be described, as far as we are concerned, as 2005 People of the Year. They
are those who provided shining examples of courage or brilliance – or both – at
a time that desperately calls for these.
Here they are, in
no particular order:
Teofisto
Guingona, Jr.
– The former vice president, now in his 70s and obviously weakened by illness,
still finds it fitting to support what he considers worthy causes as he did
during the martial law period. He was in the news all over the world last
October as he braved water cannons wielded by policemen enforcing the
Macapagal-Arroyo government’s calibrated pre-emptive response policy (CPR).
Not only that: he presided over the CCTA, which emerged as an alternative
venue for ferreting out the facts behind the various charges of human rights
violations, electoral fraud, and corruption against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
following the killing of the impeachment complaints at the House of
Representatives.
Neri Javier
Colmenares –
The year 2005 was a year of challenges to the Macapagal-Arroyo administration,
as questions about its legitimacy were once again brought to the fore. When we
talk about the legal challenges to Macapagal-Arroyo’s regime, the first person
who would come to mind is lawyer Neri Javier Colmenares. Known to friends as
“Atty. Neri,” the eloquent speaker who has done graduate work in law at the
University of Melbourne, was instrumental in the formation of the Committee
for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) – a breakthrough in alliance work among
lawyers, paralegals and law students – amid a series of killing of, and
assassination attempts against, members of the legal profession. CODAL would
eventually become the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties as the
Macapagal-Arroyo regime became more and more brazen in its suppression of
civil liberties and other basic human rights. Colmenares consistently provided
the public with sharp and insightful legal commentaries on issues, such as the
CPR, killing of the impeachment complaint, Visiting Forces Agreement,
Anti-Terrorism Bill and the controversial Executive Order 464.
Abp. Oscar Cruz
– The
archbishop of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese in Pangasinan hogged the
headlines almost everyday early this year for his exposés on jueteng,
an illegal numbers game. He knew the anti-jueteng campaign is like
banging one’s head against the wall, as his exposés implicated no less than
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. True enough, he was subjected to all sorts
of smear drives, i.e. called a sexual molester and a kidnapper. While many of
his witnesses have either been bought or terrorized into silence, on he goes
with the fight.
Rene Galang and
Ricardo Ramos –
They are the
outspoken and fiercely dedicated tandem that led the strike of Hacienda
Luisita workers for land rights, higher wages and more benefits. The two
firebrands led the fight and stuck it out to the end, in defiance of unending
harassment and even a string of killings of their constituents and supporters
– inspiring the highest respect even from those who do not see eye to eye with
them politically. Ramos himself would end up losing his life, but this did not
deter Galang from pursuing the struggle. The strike has ended and favorably so
for the Hacienda Luisita workers.
Susan Roces-Poe
– A
former actress, the widow of the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr.
won the admiration of multitudes for continuing her husband’s quest for the
true results of the 2004 election, which is widely believed to have been
marred by massive cheating. She was much quoted in the news for her fiery
statements, among them one calling President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a “liar,”
which she followed with “Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw!” (A
liar is a sister to a thief). In a rally in front of the House of
Representatives following the killing of the impeachment complaints, Mrs. Poe
showed just how far she would go in this quest by fighting it out with cops
who tried to stop the protesters.
The “young
Turks” of Congress –
The fact that young men like Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Teddy
Casiño and Gilbert Remulla were the ones who most actively pursued the
impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did much to
arouse and maintain high popular interest in the process. They captured the
imagination of a nation largely used to seeing its youngsters subservient to
elders and authority even when they are in the right.
Hadji Abdullah
Dalidig –
The Customs employee and provincial chairman of the National Citizens’
Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in Lanao del Sur gave one of the most
shocking exposes on fraud in the 2004 election. He had the numbers to show the
extent of the cheating in Lanao del Sur. He had been trying to bring this
issue up even in 2004, but election officials refused to pay him any heed. In
the congressional hearings and Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability
(CCTA) sessions where he appeared, he was very
much composed though he had to put up with threats and bribery attempts even
at the very moments of his testimonies.
Donato
Continente
– Donat, as he has come to be known, was one of the longest-held and
celebrated political prisoners in Philippine history. In 1989 he was
implicated in the killing of Col. James Rowe, an adviser to the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) under the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG).
In jail, he endured some of the worst forms of torture but that was never
enough to break his convictions. His plight and struggles inspired countless
human rights defenders, and upon his release in June this year after 16 years
of incarceration, he immediately made his hands full of work for the release
of others like him who were put behind bars for their political beliefs.
Haydee Yorac –
The
feisty and brainy lawyer who once headed the Commission on Elections (COMELEC)
and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) left this year,
never to return. But it’s likely no one is going to forget the 2004 Ramon
Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service. For who could forget how Yorac,
severely weakened by chemotherapy, with supreme effort had herself propped out
of the sickbed and onto a wheelchair to make a media statement condemning the
Macapagal-Arroyo government’s moves toward compromise in the case against
tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco on the misuse of the coconut levy funds?
Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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