star ascending

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time...
-Longfellow

The ascension of Marvic Leonen to the deanship of the UP College of Law last week makes one believe in divine justice. A consistent activist since he was law student, he was one of the founders of LRCKSK, the NGO where I worked from 2003 to 2005 (another founder of LRC, Tony La Viña, is the dean of the Ateneo School of Government). Here's a brief and inspiring story of his work as a public interest lawyer from his CV:

Prof. Leonen received invitations to join established law firms right after he graduated. However, believing that there was a need to set up more public interest groups that provided competent professional legal services to rural poor and indigenous peoples communities, in December of 1987, he co-founded a legal and policy research and advocacy institution now known as the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center Inc-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRCKSK/ Friends of the Earth Philippines).

Through this organization, Prof. Leonen was able to develop expertise in the fields of applied constitutional law, natural resources law, Philippine indigenous law, remedial law and many others. Prof. Leonen continues to learn from the various communities he works with. He has traveled extensively to different ecosystems in the Philippines working with various farmers and indigenous peoples groups. He has also visited agrarian communities in other Asian countries.

Within the fifteen (15) years that Prof. Leonen acted as the LRCKSK’s executive director, he nurtured a small organization of four individuals and one office to a nationally and internationally known public interest group affiliated with the biggest environmental network (Friends of the Earth) with four offices and thirty six (36) committed, inspired and dedicated staff. Institutional development included setting up the organization, alignment of its staff, articulating and evaluating human resource policies, conflict resolution, establishing training and mentoring modules, recruitment, fundraising and many others. By the time he left the organization as its Executive Director, it already had a substantial endowment fund to continue its operations and a lot of goodwill based on its track record of assisting indigenous communities.

Prof. Leonen was also instrumental in the establishment of other public interest law groups in the Philippines. He helped found the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo sa Pilipinas He participated in the evolution of the network of public/ alternative law groups called the Alternative Law Group Network and at one time acted as its convenor. Among others he sat in the board of the Womens’ Legal Bureau and the WomenLEAD.

Prof. Leonen also joined the Free Legal Assistance Group in 1987. There he gained his experience in civil and political rights litigation as well as paralegal training. He worked with political detainees, the families of the disappeared, victims of domestic violence and the urban poor sector.

Prof. Leonen practiced law by setting up these institutions, clarifying their terms of engagement with various communities, understanding the elements of empowering practice and evolving competence to appear and win in all levels of the judiciary as well as the quasi judicial agencies which include the Departments of Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as well as SEC and the BIR.

By the time I worked in LRC, Dean Leonen (or Marvic, as we called him then) was no longer involved in its day-to-day affairs, though he served as the chair of its board of trustees. As such, I had few opportunities to know him as a person, and up to now I see him more as a heroic archetype, a mirror that allows one to see oneself more clearly.

I saw another side of his in 2004, on the day we had oral arguments for La Bugal-B'laan vs. Ramos in the Supreme Court. Before leaving UP, he requested that we visit the UP Chapel. He knelt and prayed briefly and quietly- he seemed like a solitary figure carrying an unimaginable weight on his shoulders. I thought he gave the best performance among the lawyers in Court that day and was surprised when we lost the case. Perhaps God in His or Her wisdom is finally answering his prayer now, though not in a way that he expected or imagined.

Dean Leonen is a well-read scholar and a published writer and would make an erudite Supreme Court Justice, in the mold of Chief Justice Puno. His work with indigenous peoples and his studies in gritty New York make him one of the most cosmopolitan and postmodern law deans in Philippine history. The trait, though, which I think makes him the perfect UP centennial law dean is his tried-and-tested ability to apply cutting-edge ideas to solve concrete problems. For example, years before Justice Mendoza suggested making the bar exams more objective by using multiple-choice questions, Marvic was already using these in his exams. The buzzword in UP Law right now- from Dean Leonen's vision paper- is andragogy (adult learning). Some of Dean Leonen's exciting plans for the College of Law are in his blog here- if there's anyone who can reform our country's legal profession as an educator, it would be him. Congratulations Dean!

bagong daigdig

Isa sa mga biyayang tinanggap ko ngayong taon ang oportunidad na matutunan ang Nihongo o wikang Hapon. Ang mga banyagang wika para sa akin ang pinakamahirap na pag-aralan, kaya naman sa bawat bagong salitang aking natututunan, nararamdaman ko ang saya ng muling pagkabuhay: siguro, ganito ang naramdaman nating lahat nang nag-uumpisa pa lamang tayong gumamit ng wika upang intindihin ang mundo.

Noon, mahilig akong manood ng Voltes V- minsan mayroon itong ipinapakitang alpabetong tila ibang-iba sa nakakagawian ko. Sa larawan sa itaas, makikita ang dalawang paraan ng pagsulat ng "Ang kaarawan ko ay sa ika-9 ng Mayo." Pulos alpabetong Hiragana ang gamit sa unang pangungusap; may kahalo na itong alpabetong Kanji sa ikalawa. May ikatlo pang alpabeto ang mga Hapon, ang Katakana, na ginagamit para sa mga salitang hango sa mga banyagang wika, tulad ng kama (beddo) at kape (kohi).

May kaibigan akong Pranses na nagsabing tila salamin ang pag-aaral ng banyagang wika't kultura: pinapalinaw nito ang iba't ibang aspeto ng ating sariling kalinangan. Halimbawa, sa aking pag-aaral ng Nihongo, napalalim ang aking pagkakaintindi sa mga wikang Pilipino. Tulad ng mga Hapon, ang ating mga sinaunang baybayin ay isang syllabary, kung saan bawat letra ay kumakatawan sa isang kumpletong syllable. Kapag nilagyan ng kudlit o markang diacritical, tulad ng tuldok o maliit na linya, ang itaas o ibaba ng isang letra, nagbabago ang tunog nito. Huli, madaling gamitin ang alpabetong Romano (o roomaji sa Nihongo) sa pagbabaybay ng wikang Hapon at Pilipino- sa kaso ng Pilipino, ang alpabetong Romano na nga ang lagi nating ginagamit. Subalit kung ang Nihongo ay pinaunlad ng mga monghe at may kapangyarihan sa bansang Hapon, mga ordinaryong tao ang nagpalaganap sa baybayin: ayon kay Padre Chirino sa pagdating nilang mga Kastila, halos lahat ng mga Pilipino noon- babae't lalaki- ang gumagamit ng baybayin.

research

The issue of corruption overshadows donor relations with the Kenyan government. Much of the corruption reflects holdouts from the earlier regime of more than two decades, corrupt officials who have not yet been weeded out. Part of the corruption is new and completely avoidable, but only if donors help Kenya to improve the functioning of the public administration, not by moralizing and finger pointing but by the installation of computer systems, published accounts, job training and upgrading, higher pay for senior managers so that they do not have to live off bribes and side payments, continued support for the government's already major efforts to improve the judicial system, empowerment of local villages to oversee the provision of public services, and some humility on the part of donors. Most donor governments have corruption inside their own governments and even in the provision of foreign aid (which is often linked to powerful political interests within the donor countries). The affliction is widespread and needs to be attacked systematically and cleverly, but without useless and false moralizing.

Donors should sit down with the government leadership and say, "We'd like to help you scale up the Big Five in Kenya's villages to enable you to ensure that all of Kenya's rural poor have access to agricultural inputs, health, education, electricity, communications and transport, and safe water and sanitation. Together, let's design a budgetary and management system that will reach the villages and ensure a monitorable, governable, and scalable set of interventions across the country. We're prepared to pay if you are prepared to ensure good governance on such a historic project." Private international consulting firms could be brought in to help design these systems and to lend credibility to their implementation and performance.

-Sachs, Jeffrey, The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It In Our Lifetime. London: Penguin, 2005.

the master

One of the difficult things I would have to do this week is to deliver copies of Sagisag ng Tagumpay to the family of the late artist Carlos Valino, who graciously allowed the reproduction of his paintings for this yearbook we produced for College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC). Carlo graduated from CIC and other good friends from Nueva Ecija are connected in one way or another with the school; my cousin Father Mike, from whom I've sought spiritual advice, is its President. I wanted a book that would express the special qualities of a hospitable and friendly people, not just in the present but for all time. For this, I needed the help of a master from the province.

After searching for his home in Cabanatuan City, I finally met Prof. Valino on January 31, 2007. He was 81 years old at the time. He said that he's the uncle of Alex Valino, a former news writer of Philippine Collegian, and showed me a feature profile of him which appeared in our March 13, 1997 issue. After I showed him that the issue also has an article about Nelson Mandela, who I met in UP Manila, we instantly had a connection. Prof. Valino's painting of the Philippine Revolution hangs in Malacanang; his portrait of Carlos P. Romulo is in the Pentagon. Unfortunately, Prof. Valino died before I could present the published book to him.

I believe that, with our deep focus on spiritual life, the most beautiful colors, sweetest sounds, and most exquisite textures of the Philippines are found within our people. We need our artists to give form to this secret, invisible world, allowing us to experience it anew with our senses and contribute to the memory of humankind.

raison d'État

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire. -Voltaire

When my teacher in painting asked me if I was going to the interfaith rally and call for PGMA's resignation, I smiled and said, "No, Sir. I've changed."

When I got back home, I checked my mail from digi-ek and found messages from fellow Kule alumni who were wondering why they didn't want to join protest actions anymore. Was it because of burn-out? Or new priorities?

Here is what one of my friends wrote:

Marami nagsasabi pagod na mga tao sa politika. And then i realized na yung mga nagsasabi nun ay mga tao sa age group natin and older, mga jaded former activists or people in positions of power or mga middle management types na masaya na sa comfort zones nila. Young people have not yet had the chance to get tired of politics. At mukhang tulad natin noon, meron pa ring idealism. I am finding all this very interesting.

As for me, I feel as idealistic as ever about the Philippines, but this is tempered by pragmatism and, I hope, a bit more wisdom. After joining the moral revolution of People Power 2- and right now experiencing déjà vu (it looks like Estrada all over again)- I now choose to be guided by raison d'État or political reason.

Raison d'État was successfully used by Cardinal de Richelieu, First Minister of France, to make it the dominant country in 17th century Europe; it asserts that the well-being of the state justifies whatever means are employed to further it, the national interest supplanting the medieval notion of a universal morality. If it is true that the CBCP took into account geopolitical considerations in coming up with its lukewarm statement on the ZTE bribery scandal, they were merely following in the footsteps of the French cardinal.

I have to ask our bishops, though: what truth do you still seek? What else do we still need to know? Jun Lozada is telling the truth about how our government works today and we should defend his life and his right to continue speaking it.

Nonetheless, I choose to view this truth from different angles, one of which is structural: ours is a country in transition from a rule by law to a rule of law.

It wasn't too long ago when cheating in the elections, giving bags of cash to local politicians, and getting kickbacks were considered normal in the Presidency. How did T., one of PGMA's assistants, once describe her to me? She has to play the game so she won't be eaten alive. As we strengthen our institutions, the need for Presidents to "play the game"- for pakikisama- in order to turn the wheels of government will become less and less. The scandals faced by the current administration- exposed in part by developments in communication technology- are the birth pangs along our journey to modernity.

I agree that the solution to our current problems is systemic. Finding an alternative to the current leadership is not enough: we need mechanisms and institutions that would eliminate graft and corruption, problems which have no place in a modern and developed nation-state.

We need to computerize our voting system before 2010. We need to make government procurement more transparent. We need to eliminate the pork barrel, which is the source of a lot of kickbacks. We need more incentives for creating and distributing wealth, a more efficient tax collection system, and higher pay for our public servants.

Here's another such mechanism: wikileaks, a website where you can securely upload evidence of corruption and other unethical behavior in government.