Desperate Plea

My Dear Fellow Ilonggos,

Please please DO NOT ELECT RAUL GONZALEZ as mayor.

Do I really need to explain why?

 

Basil Lime Honey Lemongrass Chicken

So now that I’m here at my parent’s house enjoying the quiet life…so far from the craziness of international political activism (and missing it like I can’t explain!) In the meantime I’m enjoying taking care of my family. Today I made some really good chicken by combining different recipes and fudging around a bit, so I figured I better write down what I did before I forget in case I wanna make it again! Of course, all measurements are approximate

Basil Lime Honey Lemongrass Chicken

about 1.5 lbs. of chicken breast

which I cut into strips (for faster marinating – don’t forget to cut against the grain) about an inch thick and then marinated in:

3 cloves (2 tbsp?) minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

juice of 1 lime

3 stalks of lemongrass (which I cut in half, tied and muddled)

1/4 honey

1/4 c. minced basil

black pepper

I pounded the chicken a bit when it was in the marinade and marinated for about 2 hours.

then, i toased about

2 tbsp sesame seeds in a wok (had some extra, really old sesame seeds around the house)

I stir-fried the chicken on high and took it out when half cooked. Of course, while frying, I put a little salt to bring out some flavor. Then I took out the chicken and  stir-fried 3 stems of scallions just until soft, re-added the chicken and cooked it till it was just about done. Then I added:

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp vinegar

2tsp brown sugar

the sesame seeds

1 tbsp flour

which i had mixed together beforehand to make a sauce. I also aded the rest of the marinade. When it seemed the four had cooked out and the sauce was kinda thick, I added vegetables (some frozen veggies and a can of bamboo shoots that I had onhand) and some cashew nuts. I cooked it till all the vegetables were soft and everything was coated. I tasted it a couple times while it was cooking and added additional salt, soy sauce (it was quite bland as listed, so I actually added a  lot more salt) and pepper.

 

I served this 2 ways: over plain rice and also as a filler with bihon and rice paper, to make Vietnamese-style summer-roll inspired idea (thanks to my Brisbane Viet Tan peeps!). Both were really really good! I just used whatever vegetables I had on hand, but next time I’d like to try broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn, snow peas, muchrooms…all the usual in Chinese stir fry. I’d also probably add more ginger (my ginger was still frozen and so I had a hard time peeling it, and we were out of ginger powder) and cashews – i only added a handful of cashews to this batch and i think they didnt really lend anything to the dish in their small quantity. I’d also make more sauce on a second attempt – the sauce was really good! Also, now that I think of it I think you’re supposed to add salt to marinades (helps with osmosis?), so i’ll look it up and try it or not accordingly next time.

best of all, the tanglad, basil, and spring onion came fresh from my mommy’s garden (aka growing in random places in the backyard). yay!

 

Thought for the day: Filipinos do not suffer from a lack of discipline

Thought for the day:

I’ve heard so many people say that the Philippines is not advancing because there is something culturally wrong with Filipinos. Perhaps by far the most popular statement is that “Filipinos have no discipline.” I’ve even heard some old timers yearn for the early days of Marcos because people at that time “had so much discipline.”

I would like to vehemently disagree. The problem is not that Filipinos have no discipline. The problem is that Filipinos have too much discipline. The problem is that Filipinos have so much discipline and are so well-taught not to speak up against figures of “authority,” that they just grin and bear it even when they see something wrong happening. Filipinos have so much discipline that they stay fervently loyal to particular people, names, groups and areas, even when these objects of their loyalty have moved far beyond whatever it was they or their predecesors did to earn that loyalty in the first place. Filipinos have so much discipline that they listen to their parents when choosing a course or career; they make life decisions based on their parent’s natural proclivity towards stability rather than their own natural proclivity towards greatness. Filipinos have so much discipline they work and work extra hard in a system that makes the its perpetual victims because “that’s just the way it is.”

The problem is not a lack of discipline. It’s too much discipline.

 

From Panay to Beograd

It’s been a while since I last wrote, and so much has happened. I spent almost the entire month on January in the Visayas with the parents, which was amazing. I was not expecting to miss them as much as I found I did; it was so refreshing to be around people who know me and my history and to not have the burden of the properness of Filipino society. Moreover, being with them allowed me to connect to Antique and Iloilo in a way that was not possible when I traveled there without them. But that’s a story I will reflect on at a later time.

As I write this I am in Belgrade, Serbia, attending a CANVAS training. I am to become a trainer teaching people skills necessary for successful nonviolent struggle. Again, I am facing the same insecurities. The trainers are meant to be veterans of successful nonviolent struggle. There are amazing people here, the Canvas core are basically the people who organized the toppling of Milosevic; there are organizers from the Rose Revolution, the Cedar Revolution, the anti-apartheid movement and the anti-Pinochet movement.

I, on the other hand have not been directly involved in a successful movement. I suppose, though, that I am a member of the post-Marcos struggle. I was not part of EDSA I or even II for that matter, but I am the result of them and I continue the greater struggle that those events failed to achieve. Well, I suppose for now that justifies my participation here.

Thus, as our struggle continues, I find myself taking the mindset of a student, trying to understand how to bring the ideas to our struggle in the Philippines. Who am I to teach others?

As I sit here doubting myself, knowing that certain other people in our part here doubt me as well, I remember that the Canvas organizers themselves know my history, my lack of experience, or perhaps I should put it as they know the experience I do have. Yet, they still insisted I come. Perhaps there is something they see in me.

Today was our first day of sharing and I am incredibly excited to begin the curriculum. Our introduction to Belgrade has been amazing…in the less than 48 hours I’ve been here I can say that I love this country! I have completely been over-consuming milk and cheese and hard homemade bread – those very European things that I loved in New York that are hard to come by in the Philippines that are in abundance here. And I love how I am now the smallest person around! After living in the Philippines where I am bigger than most girls, where for the first time in my life I was called fat, everyone here calls me the tiny Filipino. Oh, and did I mention that they sell beer in plastic litres! Like soda!

Serbs are huge partyers, perhaps even more so that Filipinos. We partied till 3 am last night, then I woke up at 6:30 earlier to work out before breakfast. After not sleeping well Tuesday night or Wednesday night, not sleeping at all on Thursday night to go to the airport at 3AM Friday morning, I have no idea how I’m surviving, but I feel great. Reverse jet lag?

I had a ridiculous amount of really good wine last night, and I find that I really like Serbian music! The Middle Easter/African influence is very much felt in the minor keys and syncopation, every time a song started last night I would say to myself, “hey, that’s a cumbia beat,” or “hey, that’s a salsa beat.” As ethnomusicology, how I miss thee. I think it’s time for me to JSTOR.

So just call me Ceca (pronounced Tzetza)

 

New

So it’s been a while since my last post and as today is the last time I’ll have internet access before the end of the year, I feel compelled to write something to closeout the year in some way.

So since my last, only semi-political post, a million and one things have happened in the political situation as well as my life (as related to politics anyway). From Manila Pen to the Spain Junket to Bukidnon, tuloy tuloy pa rin the headlines. Is it lazy for me to say I’m burned out and don’t want to write about those things and just want to enjoy holiday mode?

2 large reasons why I’m burned out are probably the overflow of year-end events and Christmas parties (that actually started at the beginning of December, hence the lag since my last post), as well as Simbang Gabi. Office during the day, Christmas party at which you continue to work because these parties inevitably become networking events at night, then church at 4 AM, then start all over.

Something interesting however, has happened in this past month, and that is my unexpected forray into the inner circles of the Liberal Party. Now, don’t get me wrong, despite whatever Mon Casiple may say about me, I am far from a card-carrying Liberal . Do I think that the LP is the most progressive (or at least has hte potential to be) of the traditional political parties? Well, yes. But in the end, do I still believe it’s a traditional political party? Of course. And that is the exact reason why I still am not open to committing myself. That and I must say I’m still romanticized by the outsider-activist within me.

I suppose I had my first taste of elite class…stuff while working at the Brennan Center. That was the first time I was around people whose family names I actually recognized (um, FAO Schwartz for example). That was the first time I met people whose bathroom soap cost more than my most expensive pair of shoes (NOT exaggerating). People who could eat at Nobu just because they felt like it and call up Bill and Hillary just to chat.

But of course, elitism has a completely different level of ridiculousness here in the Philippines. (the Gini Coefficient comes to mind). I’ve gotten used to a simple life here. I buy fish and vegetables at the local urban poor wet market. I jump on and off moving busses commuting around the city. I had milk and cereal at a hotel this month and realized it was the first time I’ve had fresh milk and cereal since I’ve been here in the Philippines and it was unbelieveable how good it tasted.

And then this month, welcome to the uppity of uppity events, which of course, despite how exhaused I am I always make sure to attend because if going to college at NYU taught me 1 thing, it was never to turn down food and drink at someone else’s expense. So here I am, taking my lunch at Club Filipino, having hors d’oeuvres and free flowing shiraz at Discovery Suites, and dining and dancing at Mandarin Oriental (Malacanang’s caterer by the way) with people whose last names include Roxas, Aquino, Araneta, Drilon, Daza and Salonga.

Who am I and whose life is this? When I came here I was (and still am) overwhelmingly excited at the idea of hanging out with urban poor and peasant organizers, people who lived and fought in the underground, hunted and tortured by the police and military, only to change their ways to fight the elite with nonviolent means. And now here I am, people with widely recognized names actually recognize mine. And the kicker: I don’t really know why they recognize mine.

I don’t know why I’m invited to these events. If it’s a function of having some weighty friends, of having the guts to make some memorable comment at a forum with big hitters, of being pretty much the only young woman in a room of old politicos (at least the only one who talks). I don’t know how I got into this mess. And in fact, even when I took on a staff position at IPD, I thought to myself, “Who am I that they’re actually making this offer?” And now I’m revisiting that state of incredulousness as I think “Who am I that Governor A is complimenting me, Real Estate Magnate B is giving me beso beso, and Senator C is giving me a ride home?” What’s really funny about this situation is that when my aunt from the states was here visiting, she was worried about me because she said no matter how smart I think I am, people in the Philippines will just look at me like I’m nothing by an (with disdain) aktibista. (enter the shallow understanding of what it is to be left/a reformer).

When I went to the Liberal Party Christmas party with two friends (whose names are much more well known than mine in the political sphere), Mar Roxas indicated to us to sit at a table in front of the room. My two kasama were inching towards the back but I insisted that we sit where Mar signaled. They indicated some hesitation, some hiya, “Mga VIP ba tayo?” they asked. At the time I was amused at the idea. Now, however, when I think about it, why not?

I guess these feelings show once again the remnants of the class divide in the Philippines. One of my partners felt especially out of place. As I reflect, why should we, those of us from humble beginnings, feel out of place in such situations? Why should we feel inferior to the “elite” who are elite by accidents of birth and not necessarily accomplishments or character. Perhaps this boldness was developed as I was growing up – a working class kid in an affluent school. And yet I hung with the best of them, and if I can be a little gassed (and I don’t feel bad about it in this case because, well, they were bitches), I surpassed most of them. My mom always sat in the back of the crowd during school events which hurt me more than I can say. She was embarrassed at her humble clothing and origins. Yet, I was damn proud, we came from nothing and made something of ourselves. They all came from a lot and just maintained.

And I see this mentality continuing, especially with my older relatives. They warn me that when I go out I should always dress nice, I should always act with class and they almost seem embarrassed to talk about our origins, highlighting factors that would make us sound like we come from the sosyal class and hiding other details. I, however, say it with pride. I am the daughter of a jeepney driver. I used to work in a warehouse. I hang in La Loma. And if you want to compete in terms of class, intelligence, and strength, I may not win but I’ll put up a hell of a fight.

Totoo naman, wala akong hiya.

 

Dear Fil-Ams: If you were mad about Desperate Housewives, there are 11 dead in Glorietta

Mga Kapatid:

This month witnessed an incredible display of mobilization among Filipinos and Filipino-Americans as people took to the internet, to the newspapers, and to the streets to exclaim their anger over a single line on Desperate Housewives.

I agree that outrage and action were justified; Filipino-Americans cannot allow such comments, even if they are just “in passing” or “jokes.” However, I also agree with the sentiment of most opinion columnists here in the Philippines: Why is it so easy for Filipinos and Filipino-Americans to organize, mobilize and act over less than 1 minute of a fictional drama, while there is little or no reaction to the ongoing and very real drama we are all living through?

We here in the Philippines are at a point of complete frustration. Over the past few months we have witnessed the unfolding of one scandal after another:

1) The $364 million USD (that’s right, US Dollars, not Philippine Pesos) ZTE National Broadband Network deal, which was overpriced by $160 million so that there would be adequate funds to bribe competing firms, bribe people within government to stay silent, and line the pockets of first gentleman Mike Arroyo and former Comelec Chief Benjamin Abalos.

2) The PhP 26.5 billion CyberEd deal, wherein the Philippines would get a loan from the Chinese government and award a contract to a Chinese firm to install satellite TV in almost all public schools in the nation. Mind you, the vast majority of public schools do not have adequate rooms, chairs, toilets, water or electricity (electricity, by the way, is necessary for TV).

3) The 3-page joke of an impeachment claim filed in the House of Representatives, which came complete with offers of up to Php 2 million from KAMPI (the President’s party) members to members of the opposition in order to support the claim. There is allegedly an attempt to get the opposition to support the weak impeachment claim in order to block a real impeachment claim for the following year. (The Constitution says only 1 impeachment claim can be filed per year).

4) The October 11 meeting at Malacañang, where 190 congressmen and 48 provincial governors were handed between PhP 200,000 and PhP 500,000 each in paper bags. The office of the President and various cabinet departments are all contradicting each other as they point wily fingers at each other while simultaneously confirming and denying that any money was handed out in the first place.

5) The revelation that Erap is now seeking complete amnesty from the President, and the President, “elated,” has ordered the Department of Justice to move swiftly on the matter. After 2 People Powers which divided the nation, 6 years of waiting for a result, and a guilty verdict that gave many hope that justice in this nation could prevail over wealth and connections, what are we left with?

And then comes the catastrophic #6: The explosion at Glorietta Mall on Friday afternoon which killed 11 and wounded almost 100. The investigation is still going on to uncover the real cause of the explosion, but this has not stopped various factions from airing their conspiracy theories. Fingers have already been pointed at the Rajah Solaiman/Abu Sayaaf/insert generic Muslim extremist group, rogue elements of the military, opposition forces, and even the Ayala group itself. The most common theory at this point, alarmingly, is that the bombing was a diversionary tactic by the GMA administration itself in order to take attention away from scandals #1-5 above.

I do not know if the administration is responsible and I will not venture an opinion as I believe it would be counter-productive at this point. However, the very fact that people believe their own government is responsible for this act of mass murder is a testament to the sorry state of Philippine politics today. People do not trust the government. They do not trust what Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says. They truly believe that Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is so desperate to hold on to power that she would resort to such acts. In the end, we cannot blame the people, as the almost 900 dead and disappeared journalists and activists since Madame assumed the presidency in 2001 demonstrate that this is an administration willing to turn a blind eye to murder, if not commit murder itself.

And this is all happening as the United Nations in New York is being presented with a report on the state of human rights in the Philippines this very week. UN rapporteur Philip Alston has prepared a damning report; presenting the status of human rights in the Philippines as under attack and identifying the Armed Forces of the Philippines as the main violator. In response, GMA has sent Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to the UN to work damage control. Ermita will be in New York until Sunday, October 28.

Where are the hurting masses who claim to be fighters for the dignity of our people? Why can we be so angry at an actress reciting lines and not at a president who recites whatever excuses she can to stay in power? Why is it that we are offended by a network insensitive to our race, but not by members of our own race who, instead of protecting and supporting us, lie, steal, cheat and kill us?

If ever there is a cause for which Filipino-Americans and Filipinos all over the world should mobilize, that cause is the escalating crisis in our nation. Ermita is in New York right now. Show him that Filipinos living abroad care about what is happening back home. Whether or not you choose to believe it, it affects you too.

 

Things I Miss

Feeling reminiscent:

Bagels (especially fresh toasted with scallion cream cheese)

Hard, crusty bread like ciabatta and real baguettes. (“french bread” here is still soft crust)

Foccacia bread

European cheeses, and fancy cheeses with herbs infused

Real New York Pizza, either loaded with toppings or the 2 plain slices and soda you get for $2.50

$4.00 Deli burgers and fries

Having an oven

Global cuisine (that’s actually good and affordable), Indian, Thai, Russian, Mexican, yeah

Huge sub sandwiches

Buffalo wings and…

Varieties of beer

Sushi Park

IFA-ers

West Indian Connection

Clubbing every weekend in places where you can actually move cause they’re not wall to wall packed with 16-year olds

Roti with curry goat

coconut naan

having some money

having a microwave

my x-box

Rice and beans

Sausage, egg and cheese (epecially at 3 AM from RobinRaj)

My unlimited metrocard

Suburban Barbecues that include…

Flip Cup

 

Cecilia’s Prospectus/FAQ

Ok, so evidently my plan of referring you all to a newspaper article didn’t work, which I guess is because it’s not specific enough. So, here we go, please refer to this FAQ for general questions and contact me with specifics .

When are you coming back? Are you coming back?

I’m planning on staying here for another 1-2 years. (Ahhh shocker!)

Why?

Basically, it comes down to work. The decision to stay was really hard for me, for several reasons:
1) I really desperately miss you guys
2) I really desperately miss New York
3) HUGE paycut (huge doesn’t even begin to describe)
4) I never intended to stay this long, and my mind was very much set on going back

But, in the end, after thinking long and hard, I decided my employment prospects are much better here than they would be in the US (the opposite of what is true for all other Filipinos, I know). I’ve been offered a research position at the Institute for Popular Democracy here, and they’re really being flexible as far as working with me and what I want to research and my financial and legal situations here. So I decided to stay based on the following reasons:

A) I definitely want to go back to grad school in the next couple years. If I’m going to study democratization and third world development in grad school anyway, it makes a lot more sense to actually work on those projects here instead of US policy right now.
B) The fact that my work is directly related to the field I want to study, plus the fact that this is a unique experience (which enhances the chances that I will bring diversity to the class) will probably better my chances of getting into a good grad school.
C) Instead of just following someone else’s program or doing all the research or just number crunching and then someone else synthesizing the research, analyzing it, and their name going on the report (with mine maybe in the thank yous), here I will really get a chance to pick something specific to work on, to conduct my own original research and analysis and have my own name put on it.
D) They have also expressed the desire for me to be directly and publicly involved in policy campaigns, so I’ll have a chance to gain some notoreity as well.
E) Additionally, I have already gotten some notoriety here. I’m doing well, as you can see from previous blog entries, I’ve gotten a good amount of media coverage. I’ve also appeared on tv (clips of news spots on ABS-CBN and GMA, as well as a 30-minute interview on ANC, ABS-CBN’s cable news channel). So, I’ve got some contacts in media.
F) In addition to contacts in media, I’ve also got some contacts in government. Due to my media coverage, I’ve also been offered a position with a senator (I mean, he actually sat down and met with me, we made some chika for almost 2 hours, and then he asked me if I was interested in joining his office), and have contacts with a provincial governor.
G) There is so much need here. The obvious is the need for political and economic reform, and I would say the need for reform is much more dire here than in the states. It’s a little harder for me to get excited about political reform in the states now that I’ve seen conditions here; especially given what I’ve seen and am continuing to see regarding the elections (I think the death toll is nearing 200). But the need is also really great now because there is a real chance for reform now. People are waking up and there are a number of exciting movements now.
H) The perhaps less obvious need is the need for talent. I’ve become really sensitive to the whole Philippines brain drain issue. In fact, the sentator I was talking to expressed his observation that a reverse brain drain might be starting, and he hopes it continues. Competition for jobs at think tanks and political reform machines is so stiff in the US. I mean, people ask for masters degrees as a requirement for lower-level research associates, I’ve basically done the work of a research associate in the states and you DONT need a masters for the vast majority of it. Furthermore, you’re looking at a salary in the range of 35-38k, for someone with an advanced degree! You have a masters and you get paid the same as a secretary! Here in the Philippines there is a huge waste of talent. The brightest students, who in the US would be encouraged to become CEO’s or nuclear physicists, here are encouraged to take up nursing and go abroad. Furthermore, there is a huge need for talent in political reform, and there’s a need for a new generation in the left as the old generation has had so many personal splits they can hardly work together. I almost feel it would be irresponsible of me to leave.
I) I would get to travel with this job . Staff often goes to localities all over the country, and one of the projects I’m working with actually neworks with Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia, so I would possible have a chance to go there as well.

Are you sure it’s not becasue of your boyfriemd?

Actually, I can honestly say it’s NOT because of him. We had talked about it pretty often and if I left he would have just come with me. As I was deciding, I really was adamant about not letting him come into the equation. Additionally, being with him in the states would probably be even more convenient because my uncles wouldn’t be around checking our every move. At least now that I’m staying there’s no rush to get married or anything. (I’m sure this answer is gonna spark a lot more questions haha. sigh)

So are you fully adjusted to life there? Do you like it better there?

Well, I miss New York SOOOOO much, I can’t even explain. I get so sad and nostalgic everytime I think about it…which makes me think how much worse it must be for our parents in the diaspora to be over there. I mean, I don’t hate life here, It’s fine, but I haven’t been as happy as I was in New York. I think a lot of that, though, of course has to do with all you guys, but also has to do with me not having my own place here. I haven’t really been able to feel at home because by staying at relatives’ houses, instead of my own, I’ve felt transient. The fact that I go back and forth between their places and have to think of their opinion of everything I do makes the feeling worse, like I’m not settled.

But it looks like that’s all going to change now since yesterday I put a deposit on an apartment. It’s awesome, a 10 minute walk from my office. And I love this area, it really is like the Village…small shops and places to eat and drink. Artsy and intellectual types. I really get reminiscent of lower Manhattan around here. So I think I’ll be much more adjusted once I’m settled into my spot and have my regular hangouts.

 

I Don’t Know How Else To Break This

So, I’ve been debating with myself for a while regarding how to break this news…and I’m taking the bitch way out and letting you all read this to explain myself. There are a lot more reasons that I’ve been fighting with to make my final decision. Yeah, I’m expecting amillion comments and messages in response to this, but so be it. I love you all and miss you sooooooo much. And I miss my city.

http://services.inquirer.net/mobile/07/05/19/html_output/xmlhtml/20070519-66890-xml.html

Fil-Am poll observer tarries in RP
Volt Contreras
Inquirer

May 19, 2007
Editor’s Note: Published on page A1 of the June 14, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

–>

MANILA, Philippines — Among the foreign observers of the May 14 elections, one young Filipino-American has yet to book a return flight, believing her work here is far from over.

Cecilia Pe Lero, born and raised in the United States and a political science magna cum laude graduate from New York University, has actually spent the last eight months in Manila with her Filipino relatives.

What began as a vacation from the Big Apple turned into an eye-opening lesson in Philippine politics that could shape the promising career of this 21-year-old.

Lero extended her stay so she could join the International Observers Mission (IOM) 2007, a civil society initiative to monitor the balloting and draw global attention to signs of fraud. The lone Fil-Am was also the youngest of the 16 IOM delegates from nine countries.

“It was very important for me to come back and work here,” Lero told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, on Wednesday at her uncle’s house in Quezon City. (Her Filipino parents last brought the younger of their two children to the Philippines in 1989, when she was only four years old.)

Her special area of research is democracy development and institute building, especially in the Third World, and after finishing college in May 2006, she “definitely considered traveling and choosing among several community-building and development programs [abroad].”

“But in the end I chose to come here because if I’m going to help develop a country, it should be my own,” Lero said, her voice often lost in the cacophony of tricycles and trucks plying the street outside — a reminder of how far she had wandered away from her Brooklyn apartment.

Lero managed in January to land an internship with the Institute for Popular Democracy, a reform advocacy center also based in Quezon City. As an IPD fellow, she got a chance to put her training to use as a lecturer or project facilitator.

Her original travel plans specified returning to New York in March to resume her job hunting. (She has actually kept in touch with non-government organizations in the United States and was interviewed on the phone by up to three prospective employers.)

“But all these opportunities and emotions came up,” she said, referring to the election fever beginning to peak at the time.

Lero easily got a slot in the IOM, especially because the mission included IPD among its organizers. Her scheduled flight home had to wait.

But her parents based in North Carolina were not pleased.

“They were not supportive at all,” Lero admitted, referring to her folks, both Visayans, who migrated to the United States for “common — economic — reasons” in the 1970s.

“Huwag! Bakit mo gusto pumunta doon? Delikado doon! Magulo doon! [Don't! Why do you want to go there? It's dangerous there!]” she recalled her parents saying on the phone.

“Knowing that they had worked so hard to live in America, to give up what they knew here, I’m sure they definitely had a lot of fear about my getting involved in politics here,” she said.

At this point, Lero appeared to struggle to get the words out: “But my feeling is that I can do something, it is my duty, because people who have the opportunity should help those who cannot help themselves. That’s my belief.”

“So while it may be a little, you know, hokey and mushy, I did not feel that I was losing anything by coming here. Because if I decided it would be useless, I could always just go back.”

Lero was part of a three-member IOM team that monitored the elections in Pampanga, touring the capital city San Fernando and at least six more towns, on May 12-15.

Her parents’ “fears for my safety” seemed to have been validated during her team’s road trip.

Consistent with what other IOM members have reported, Lero said her team encountered crowds curiously gathered in one place where either a town mayor or barangay (village) chair was holding court, distributing sample ballots and “envelopes” on the eve of the elections.

It particularly “disturbed” her team, she said, to see “children being used” to distribute campaign materials.

The team also caught parts of a mass being celebrated to “bless” independent poll watchers before they were deployed. And at the very moment the priest was warning in his homily about blackouts mysteriously occurring on election day, the power did go out suddenly in the neighborhood.

And based on ”reports” reaching her team, the going rate for alleged vote-buying operations in Pampanga were P500 each for members of drivers associations, P300 to P500 each for members of senior citizens groups, and P3,000 each for school teachers who were to man the polling precincts.

Lero said the IOM team sent to Negros Occidental reported encountering ”five different election returns with the same penmanship. It can become so obvious and outrageous that all they could do was just laugh.”

But seriously, she said, ”the overall feeling [of IOM delegates] is that the world is watching and that the world cares.”

”Our general belief is that Filipinos deserve better than a deficient democracy – or democracy that is nominal only,” she added.

”It’s been quite offensive and quite depressing to see how much immoral action has occurred. Before I came here, when I told people that I was going back to hopefully work on reforming the Philippine political system, a lot of people laughed at me. They said it was beyond hope, they said it was too far gone.”

”But I think [otherwise], seeing especially the outpouring of interest from civil society, seeing especially the group gathered in San Fernando who were private citizens with no organization, the multitude of volunteers of my age and younger, barangay captains who refuse to be afraid. These are stories that inspire me personally.”

They have gone “with no sleep, no food, looking over the shoulders” of their election officers and “very alert to the mechanisms of dagdag-bawas [vote-padding and -shaving],” Lero noted.

Professing no interest in entering politics in the future, Lero said she saw herself staying in academe, perhaps earning a PhD, and doing NGO work “designing institutions” and “understanding their failures.”

“People want to study things, to understand them, and so a responsible government would seek the advice of these academic experts in order to better formulate their policies and institutions. And so I hope to be someone who could offer advice to people or policymakers who are dedicated to reform,” she said.

Perhaps, she said, unlike the other IOM members who saw her “home” country in such a state these days, “my desire for reform tends to come from a lot more emotional place.”

But before she gets carried away, isn’t she supposed to be calling her airline now, or at least following up her job applications in New York?

Said Lero: “It has gotten me thinking: There are so many qualified applicants there. It’s not that I’m scared I won’t get the position, but it’s obvious that there is a lot more need here.”

©2007 www.inquirer.net all rights reserved

 

Old Photos

Here at Uncle Nene’s House I have struck the gold mine of old pictures! (from my mom’s side anyway) Prepare yourselves for a blast from the past:

My Lola on my mom’s side.

On the left that’s my Lolo and his revolver.

On the left once again, Lolo and his gun. Gotta be gangster in the province.

Lolo again.

Lola and Lolo in front of our house.

Lolo

Bobbits and Uncle Boy. Does Bobbits look intsik or what?

Cribs and whips, probinsiya style. Bugasong.

Auntie Cora, Auntie Norma, Lolo, Uncle Nene and my mom.

Same pic, but this time with a view of Ate Ikke and Ate Emily

AUNTIE NENE WEARING A DRESS!!!!! Nene, Lola, Uncle Boy, Lolo, Uncle Bebing, Uncle Ontoy.

Auntie Siony and Uncle Nene’s wedding. Back row: Nanay Inday, Auntie Paking, Auntie Remy, i don’t know, Lola, Auntie Siony’s dad, Tatay Obet, Uncle Nonoy. Bottom: Auntie Estella, My mom, Auntie Siony, Uncle Nene, Uncle Toto (ang gwapo!), Uncle Nonoy Venancio

Close up of Uncle Toto

Lolo with Uncle Nonoy, Uncle Toto, Uncel Nene. By the way, Uncle Nene still does his hair like that and still stands like that.

Uncle Nene with Kuya Egay

I think Ate Shirley and Kuya Egay

Kuya Egay and Kuya Boy I think

Ate Shirl, Kuya Egay, Bobbits, Kuya Boy

Lola and Auntie Rem in the background

Lola with Ate Leni, Ate Emily, Ate Shirl, Ate Ikke, Kuya Boy, Kuya Egay, Bobbits.