OPEN DOOR FOR JAMES BALAO

As a 12-year old high school student in the 1980's, I was sent to a leadership training sponsored by the Cordillera Schools Group. Among the training facilitators was James Balao. My mentor, Ms Zosima Yamoyam, told me about the young facilitators - intelligent young people who finished college and chose to serve the people instead of finding lucrative employment. I was so impressed with the work they were doing, as told me by Mrs. Yamoyam. I wanted to be like James and the other young facilitators (Lita Jane Killip and Jill Carino). Ms Yamoyam, through all my years in high school, guided me and did everything to mold me in their form.

James Balao continued to serve the masses. He courageously used his education for social transformation. He did not let up even when he knew that he was under enemy surveillance.

On September 17, 2008, James Balao disappeared. Up to this time, he has not been found.

I opened my mail yesterday morning and read the latest update from the Cordillera Peoples Alliance on Balao's disappearance. The CPA published in its website a letter from his father, Mr. Arthur Balao. In the letter, he is appealing to his son's captors to release James immediately that he may continue his mission of serving the masses, and take care of his bedridden mother afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. The letter broke my heart into several tiny pieces that I was moved to write the poem "Open Door."

OPEN DOOR (for James Balao)

I keep looking toward an open door

One night I saw your vivid silhouette
I gingerly reached for it as it crystallized
into a figment of my constant imagination
Must you know about the muffled cries
That punctuate the serenity of night
Or the darkness of promise set against
The backdrop of daylight?
Your sick mother sits in her wheelchair
Oblivious to your disappearance
She keeps asking you to scratch her back

Sometimes, hope looms large
In the prayers of the multitude-
The peasants, students, lawyers,
Teachers, workers, friends
Searching every corner for you
But the torrent of angry typhoons
Dissolves hope so tenuous in its tears

Yesterday, the sun was shining bright
Your friends came. We brewed rice wine
In your grandfather’s prized Ming jar
Our ancestors drank tapuy to celebrate
The old rice is very red, almost violet-
the ones from Kalinga you always liked
We looked at your old photos, writings
Remembered your words, your passions
Your love for truth, justice, equity, honor

Alas, I woke up this morning
To the sound of strong rain hammering on the roof
Droplets of rain are wetting our creaking floor
From the hole you did not patch last month
You missed that or planned to patch it later?
I sit by the window hoping the rain peters out
And sunshine crawls its way inside your room
The radio just announced that six miners
Trapped inside tunnels gave up the ghost
But ten conquered death, shaming the typhoon

A lot of work still needs to be done
My son, the door you left without a word is open
It will remain open until you return.
x-----------------------------x

Elton Jun Veloria, a senior Mass Comm student of St. Louis University translated "Open Door" into Tagalog, a language I am not proficient at in the literary sense. It took him less than 15 minutes to work, punching the keys of my laptop on my antique table. Here is the translation:

Isang Pintuang Bukas

(Alay kay James Balao)

Ako’y laging nakatitig sa isang bukas na pintuan

Isang gabing mapanglaw naaninag ko ang hugis ng ‘yong anino

Maingat ko ‘tong inabot habang ito’y tuluyang umukit sa kawalan,

Ng aking nilikhang patuloy-tuloy na imahinasyon

Kailangan mong malaman ang piniping iyak

Na gumambala sa katahimikan ng gabi,

O di kaya’y ng dilim ng pangakong binitiwan

Laban sa paligid ng liwanag ng araw

Nakaupong naghihintay, ang ‘yong inang binalot ng karamdaman,

Walang muwang sa iyong pagkawala

Hiling nyang kamutin mo ang kanyang likod

Minsan, pag-asa’y mistulang naaaninag nang buong linaw

Sa panalangin ng marami-

Mga magsasaka, mag-aaral, manananggol,

Mga guro, manggagawa, kaibigan

Hinahalughog lahat ng sulok para sa’yo

Ngunit ang poot ng rumaragasang unos

Ang siyang lumulusaw ng pag-asa sa maselang yaring luha

Kahapon lamang, ang Haring Araw ay masidhing sumisikat

Ang ‘yong mga kaibiga’y dumating. Aming hinanda ang tapuy

Sa mamahaling banga ng ‘yong lolo

Mga ninuno nati’y uminom ng tapuy at nagdiwang

Ang lumang kanin ay mapula, muntikang magkulay lila

Yaong galling sa Kalinga, ang .yung laging ninanais

Minasdan namin ang mga litrato mo at inakdang likha

At nagunita ang ‘yong mga salita at mga pagnanais

Ang pag-ibig mo sa katotohanan, hustisya,

pagkakapantay pantay at karangalan

Ako’y biglang nagising kaninang umaga

Sa tinig ng malakas ng ulang bumabayo sa bubong

Ang mga patak ng ulan ay bumasa sa kumakaluskos na sahig

Mula sa butas na iyong tinapalan sa lumipas na buwan

Ikaw ba’y pumalya o binalak mo itong gawin sa susunod na pagkakataon?

Ito ba ay sa may bintana kalakip ang pag-asang titila ang ulan

At ang sinag ng araw ay gagapang sa loob ng ‘yong silid?

Isiniwalat sa radio na anim na minero ang nakulong sa lagusan

at sinuko ang multo

Ngunit sampu ang sumakop sa kamatayan at pinahiya ang bagyo

Marami pang dapat gawin hinggil sa paghihikahos ng masa

Aking anak, ang pintuang iniwan mo nang walang anumang salita ay bukas

Ito’y mananatiling bukas hanggang sa ika’y magbalik

A DESAPARECIDO'S FAREWELL

On December 1, 2006, fellow HR lawyer Manja Bayang and I met with two women whose husbands were victims of enforced disappearance. One of them talked with pain about the uncertainties felt by the disappeared's families. That night, I could not sleep thinking of how a desaparecido must be feeling during his/her last moments.

At a few minutes past 2:00 A.M. of 2 December 2006, I woke up and wrote my poem, "A Desaparecido's Farewell." Manja and I were meeting the women that day and I wanted to give them a copy each.

We who have no immediate family members who were made to disappear can only imagine how it is to wait, to speculate, to hope, to have the hopes dashed, to hope again, to continue waiting, to keep looking toward an open door. But even the family members can only imagine how it is to be a desaparecido: to be concerned that your loved ones are frantic with worry, to be facing the imminent possibility of death, to regret not having said a word of love to a dear spouse or a child, to remorse over not having said goodbye.

I remembered the desaparecidos recently with the disappearance of activist James Balao, native of the Cordillera. It has been more than two weeks since he was last seen. We are all hopeful that he will be released unharmed.

There is a petition to surface him. I urge every freedom-loving human being to sign it.

Here is the poem " A Desaparecido's Farewell:"

My love, please do not wait up for me tonight
Or tomorrow – forgive me, I will not arrive
I am lying peaceful in an unmarked grave
In a tepid, dark place; please, my love, be brave.
Do not grieve: I have done all I needed to
Save for one weighty thing: oh, it haunts me so.

To my heart, they plunged a lance to halt my breath;
But ten more of me will emerge from my death.
Like glass chandelier launched by a livid sky
Into a thousand splinters, I will multiply.
My corroded flesh joined the barren, parched earth;
Droves of life-sustaining shrubs await their birth.

My blood is fertile peat for the grassroots’ war
For liberty from hunger, to freedom’s door.
My life is not my flesh; it’s the robust force;
It gives intense light to Revolution’s torch!
Its smolder unswerving--the masses wield it high!
While the steadfast grassroots stand, how could I die?

Promise no tears ‘cause my death is not death: it’s life.
Please celebrate my death; do not mourn, my dear wife.
From my grave - here, I hunger - beside you I stand;
I need to embrace you and caress your warm hand.
Please forgive me: there’s just one thing I failed to do---
Oh, my love, why did I not say goodbye to you?

ANOTHER ACTIVIST MADE TO DISAPPEAR

James Balao, an activist with the Cordillera Peoples Alliance disappeared on 17 September 2008. There is an online petition, "Surface James Balao" to pressure the State into releasing him. I urge everyone who cares about basic human rights to sign the petition. Below is the full text.

SURFACE JAMES BALAO!

We are alarmed and disturbed with the enforced disappearance of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) member James M. Balao since September 17, 2008. His family has no information of his whereabouts up to this moment. We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional surfacing of James, in the spirit of upholding our basic human rights, very basic of which is the right to life and security which must not be denied to anyone.

His enforced disappearance is being attributed to his work with the legal people's movement advocating indigenous peoples rights, human rights and social justice. Balao has reported that he was being surveilled since June and this heightened until his disappearance last week. The CPA and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) point to military intelligence agents as the perpetrators of this violation.

Since the Arroyo government implemented its Operation Plan Bantay Laya in 2001, members and leaders of legal and legitimate people's organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) have been targeted for neutralization by agents of the state and are unjustly labeled as communist fronts and terrorist organizations. Innocent lives have already been claimed as a result of this State policy of political and extrajudicial killings, and Balao is the second case of enforced disappearance to a CPA member or officer, since Ama Daniel Ngayaan was abducted in 1987.

We ask the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines to fully assist the family, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance in the search for James Balao.

The State policy Oplan Bantay Laya which has labelled legal progressive organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance as "sectoral fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army should be immediately terminated. We call on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to sincerely implement the recommendations of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston - "As Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the President must take concrete steps to put an end to those aspects of counterinsurgency operations which have led to the targeting and execution of many individuals working with civil society organizations".

We call on the Philippine Government to observe the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other international human rights laws and declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The search for James Balao gets more and more urgent by the minute. He must be immediately and unconditionally surfaced.

IP IMPRIMATURS TO MINING: SYMPTOMS OF INTERNALIZED OPPRESSION

By: Cheryl L. Daytec-Yangot and Mary Ann M. Bayang
Cordillera Indigenous Peoples Legal Center

In 2006, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines denounced the Arroyo administration’s Mining Revitalization Program. Reiterating its call for the repeal of the Mining Act, the CBCP said: “The right to life of people is inseparable from their right to sources of food and livelihood. Allowing the interests of big mining corporations to prevail over people’s right to these sources amounts to violating their right to life. The promised economic benefits of mining …are outweighed by the dislocation of communities especially among our indigenous brothers and sisters, and the risks to health and livelihood and massive environmental damage. Mining areas remain among the poorest areas in the country… The cultural fabric of indigenous peoples is also being destroyed by the entry of mining corporations.” A 2003 report of the Extractive Industries Review project commissioned by the World Bank warned of environmental degradation, social disruption, conflict, and uneven sharing of benefits with local communities that bear the negative social and environmental impact.

Glossing over the warnings, the Arroyo administration which aggressively adopted mining as the cornerstone of its economic development paradigm recently identified 24 major mining priority areas, eighteen of which are in indigenous territories. As if this is not alarming enough, it boasted in its report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) whose primary mandate is to protect indigenous peoples (IPs) has already issued a total of 127 Certificates of Precondition, 70 of which are for mining. A certificate of precondition removes the final obstacle to the national government’s issuance, renewal or grant of concession, lease or license over natural resources within ancestral domains. Under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), the free, prior and informed consent(FPIC) of affected IPs must be secured before NCIP issues the certificate.

Citing the issuance of the 127 Certificates of Precondition as an accomplishment is baffling for it indicates failure on the part of NCIP to fulfill its mandate. Announcing it to the international community is very upsetting considering the aftermath. Every certificate of precondition allowing large-scale mining perpetuates the oppression of IPs. Every such certification legitimizes displacement from their ancestral domains. Every displacement culminates in cultural genocide. It is hoped that the CERD will see the certificates for the license to exploit that they are and not for the accomplishments that they are not.

One may argue that NCIP would not have turned on the green light without the FPIC of the affected IP communities. But communities who labor under a state of internalized oppression are not capable of giving consent.

Internalized oppression is a construct pivotal to the understanding of IP’s psychology. It means simply that they have become co-authors of their own abuse. But more than being a cause of the escalation of marginalization, internalized oppression is the aftermath of lingering external oppression committed against them by a well-entrenched political system which has historically ignored their welfare while plundering their territories, endangering their very existence.

People who have long been oppressed are prone to eventually see their situation with the eyes of their oppressor. In neocolonial states, hunger may be defined as the need for a McDonalds hamburger, thirst is the need for Coke, illiteracy is the need for English proficiency, underdevelopment is the need for free trade and US intervention into their domestic affairs, a child’s loneliness is the need for Barbie dolls or Mickey Mouse stuffed toys, ugliness is the need for whitening products.

For so long, generations of IPs have been painfully excluded from enjoyment of the bounties within their ancestral territories which became protected areas, timberlands, national parks, government reservations, mines, or plantations of the oligarchy. Without letting up, the State has been trampling down IP rights for the sake of “national interest” translated into the interest of the ruling elite or oligarchy that dominates the political system. Because of drawn-out experiences of marginalization and underdevelopment, many IPs now view their abject state through the vision of their exploiters. So underdevelopment has become the need for an extractive industry even with its deleterious effects on their food security, culture and survival. There is nothing to see beyond the promised jobs and livelihood opportunities which have eluded them for long. They have come to accept that there are heavy costs to pay and sacrifices to make to be like the dominant groups.

The giving of FPIC’s to mining and other destructive industries is proof of the IP’s state of unenlightenment and internalized oppression. Consent to large-scale mining can never be free and informed. Communities especially indigenous ones whose culture has always championed intergenerational responsibility in resource management and who fully understand that mining deprives the future generations of resources loaned from them, will never agree to it. By giving their “FPIC,” they become unsuspecting co-conspirators in the bureaucratic process aimed at opening their natural wealth to limitless pillage by capitalist interests and their eventual dislocation from their cultural and economic base.

The recently-issued EO 726 putting the NCIP under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is, in the ultimate analysis, a premeditated move to subordinate IP rights to the Regalian Doctrine which is the latter’s raison d’etre. This is fairly obvious. Gloria Arroyo, principal author of the Mining Act of 1995, has began to sound like a destroyed compact disc with her oft-repeated declaration that mining will pave the road to national development, given that the economy is ailing. In areas where community opposition to mining is high, she put the military at the disposal of mining industries in the guise of counter-insurgency. Under the Investment Defense Force, the military has become the private army of what Romulo Neri called the “booty capitalists” who used the elections to gain policy favors and advantages from the political system. EO 726 should thus be viewed with suspicion and with suspicion comes vigilance.

The NCIP is put in a bind and its current position in the Arroyo administration might reduce it into a “fixer” to facilitate the obtainment of IP’s imprimatur to mining. But it needs to understand that its job is not to ensure FPIC; the pith and core of its existence is to protect IPs from abuse, and this means making sure that there is no “FPIC” to destructive, large-scale industries, for such “FPIC” is a weapon for auto-genocide. When NCIP issues no Certificate of Precondition to mining and other large-scale extractive industries, it becomes a measure of its zeal to pursue its mandate. It is a record that the Filipino nation can proudly announce to the international community. But when it signs 127 such certificates, it leaves a legacy of oppression –by the State, by itself and by the sector whose interest it should protect.

As the bureaucratic apparatus whose primary mandate is to protect IPs, NCIP has to break through the miserable state of unenlightenment that afflicts many IP communities. It should incorporate the construct of internalized oppression in implementing its mandate of advancing IP rights. But first, it must rise above its own internalized oppression. With that will come the courage and competence to throw its heavy weight nourished by IPRA and make the state rectify wrongs committed against the IPs. Otherwise it will metamorphose into a bureau to manage oligarchic interests in ancestral domains, if it is not so already.

Only when IPs conquer their internalized oppression can they be capable of giving FPIC. And only when NCIP conquers its internalized oppression can it liberate IPs from internalized oppression. The blind cannot lead the blind.

*Originally published by The Northern Dispatch

HONORING THE NATIONAL HEROES

Today is the commemoration of National Heroes Day in the Philippines. I am reproducing my poem published by Bulatlat to honor Andres Bonifacio, Macliing Dulag, Marcelo del Pilar and other Filipinos -many unsung- who died for our freedom.

ON NATIONAL HEROES DAY

On this day, we remember the women and men
All too aware that death was their destiny certain
When in darkness and doom they scattered flames
A big number without faces, many without names
No pit of gloom too deep, no wall of might too high
Firm resolve knew no barrier- liberty was so nigh
Their blood was shed on the land cast in despair
They fell listening to small wings flapping in the air

It mattered not if the future would concede the cost
To brighten its direction, even their dreams were lost
They tore down all stones in the castle of oppression
Not one dream survived, none but their fiery vision
Of posterity marching outside the dungeons, so free
From the wickedness of brute power and tyranny
What, alone, counted –when our time would come
We would storm power chambers to rescue freedom

On this day, we remember their supreme sacrifice
The drops of their blood that for liberty was the price
There is nothing of meaning in those ceremonies
None in the accolades, none in the lavish wreaths
None in the costly fireworks, none in the cavalcades
We insult their martyrdom, we blaspheme their deaths
While we leisurely fold our arms as a tyrant reigns
While we snore as our freedom is shackled in chains

Truth sets us free, but we live in an ambience of lies
Evil is before us, but we are blind with open eyes
Truth is hoarded in our thoughts, whispered at night
Our world is plunged in darkness, desperate for light
The streets are now aimless, their voice stifled by fear
Our conscience murmurs low; we pretend not to hear
We are unworthy legatees of the heroes' sacrifice
Freedom is trampled down by the force of cowardice

Our mastered silence is our acquiescence to tyranny
Big onus we must accept for the requiem for liberty
But redemption is never late; from slumber we arise
With the valor of ghosts, we hoist truth, conquer lies
Like a mother guards her child, let us protect freedom
Our power as one nation honors the heroes' martyrdom
Not a moment we can waste; let truth precede our way
Until freedom returns with the unfussy light of day