Globalization in Retreat

2006-12-31
By Walden Bello*

(This column appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus on Dec. 27, 2006: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3826.)

When it first became part of the English vocabulary in the early 1990s, globalization was supposed to be the wave of the future. Fifteen years ago, the writings of globalist thinkers such as Kenichi Ohmae and Robert Reich celebrated the advent of the emergence of the so-called borderless world. The process by which relatively autonomous national economies become functionally integrated into one global economy was touted as “irreversible. ” And the people who opposed globalization were disdainfully dismissed as modern day incarnations of the Luddites that destroyed machines during the Industrial Revolution.

Fifteen years later, despite runaway shops and outsourcing, what passes for an international economy remains a collection of national economies. These economies are interdependent no doubt, but domestic factors still largely determine their dynamics.

Globalization, in fact, has reached its high water mark and is receding.

Bright Predictions, Dismal Outcomes

During globalization’s heyday, we were told that state policies no longer mattered and that corporations would soon dwarf states. In fact, states still do matter. The European Union, the U.S. government, and the Chinese state are stronger economic actors today than they were a decade ago. In China, for instance, transnational corporations (TNCs) march to the tune of the state rather than the other way around.

Moreover, state policies that interfere with the market in order to build up industrial structures or protect employment still make a difference. Indeed, over the last ten years, interventionist government policies have spelled the difference between development and underdevelopment, prosperity and poverty. Malaysia’s imposition of capital controls during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 prevented it from unraveling like Thailand or Indonesia. Strict capital controls also insulated China from the economic collapse engulfing its neighbors.

Fifteen years ago, we were told to expect the emergence of a transnational capitalist elite that would manage the world economy. Indeed, globalization became the “grand strategy” of the Clinton administration, which envisioned the U.S. elite being the primus inter pares -- first among equals -- of a global coalition leading the way to the new, benign world order. Today, this project lies in shambles. During the reign of George W. Bush, the nationalist faction has overwhelmed the transnational faction of the economic elite. Nationalism-inflected states are now competing sharply with one another, seeking to beggar one another’s economies.

A decade ago, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was born, joining the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the pillars of the system of international economic governance in the era of globalization. With a triumphalist air, officials of the three organizations meeting in Singapore during the first ministerial gathering of the WTO in December 1996 saw the remaining task of “global governance” as the achievement of “coherence,” that is, the coordination of the neoliberal policies of the three institutions in order to ensure the smooth, technocratic integration of the global economy.

But now Sebastian Mallaby, the influential pro-globalization commentator of the Washington Post, complains that “trade liberalization has stalled, aid is less coherent than it should be, and the next financial conflagration will be managed by an injured fireman.” In fact, the situation is worse than he describes. The IMF is practically defunct. Knowing how the Fund precipitated and worsened the Asian financial crisis, more and more of the advanced developing countries are refusing to borrow from it or are paying ahead of schedule, with some declaring their intention never to borrow again. These include Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. Since the Fund’s budget greatly depends on debt repayments from these big borrowers, this boycott is translating into what one expert describes as “a huge squeeze on the budget of the organization.”

The World Bank may seem to be in better health than the Fund. But having been central to the debacle of structural adjustment policies that left most developing and transitional economies that implemented them in greater poverty, with greater inequality, and in a state of stagnation, the Bank is also suffering a crisis of legitimacy. This can only be worsened by the recent finding of an official high-level expert panel headed by former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff that the Bank has been systematically manipulating its data to advance its pro-globalization position and conceal globalization’s adverse effects.

But the crisis of multilateralism is perhaps most acute at the WTO. Last July, the Doha Round of global negotiations for more trade liberalization unraveled abruptly when talks among the so-called Group of Six broke down in acrimony over the U.S. refusal to budge on its enormous subsidies for agriculture. The pro-free trade American economist Fred Bergsten once compared trade liberalization and the WTO to a bicycle: they collapse when they are not moving forward. The collapse of an organization that one of its director generals once described as the “jewel in the crown of multilateralism” may be nearer than it seems.

Why Globalization Stalled

Why did globalization run aground?

First of all, the case for globalization was oversold. The bulk of the production and sales of most TNCs continues to take place within the country or region of origin. There are only a handful of truly global corporations whose production and sales are dispersed relatively equally across regions.

Second, rather than forge a common, cooperative response to the global crises of overproduction, stagnation, and environmental ruin, national capitalist elites have competed with each other to shift the burden of adjustment. The Bush administration, for instance, has pushed a weak-dollar policy to promote U.S. economic recovery and growth at the expense of Europe and Japan. It has also refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol in order to push Europe and Japan to absorb most of the costs of global environmental adjustment and thus make U.S. industry comparatively more competitive. While cooperation may be the rational strategic choice from the point of view of the global capitalist system, national capitalist interests are mainly concerned with not losing out to their rivals in the short term.

A third factor has been the corrosive effect of the double standards brazenly displayed by the hegemonic power, the United States. While the Clinton administration did try to move the United States toward free trade, the Bush administration has hypocritically preached free trade while practicing protectionism. Indeed, the trade policy of the Bush administration seems to be free trade for the rest of the world and protectionism for the United States.

Fourth, there has been too much dissonance between the promise of globalization and free trade and the actual results of neoliberal policies, which have been more poverty, inequality, and stagnation. One of the very few places where poverty diminished over the last 15 years is China. But interventionist state policies that managed market forces, not neoliberal prescriptions, were responsible for lifting 120 million Chinese out of poverty. Moreover, the advocates of eliminating capital controls have had to face the actual collapse of the economies that took this policy to heart. The globalization of finance proceeded much faster than the globalization of production. But it proved to be the cutting edge not of prosperity but of chaos. The Asian financial crisis and the collapse of the economy of Argentina, which had been among the most doctrinaire practitioners of capital account liberalization, were two decisive moments in reality’s revolt against theory.

Another factor unraveling the globalist project derives from its obsession with economic growth. Indeed, unending growth is the centerpiece of globalization, the mainspring of its legitimacy. While a recent World Bank report continues—amazingly--to extol rapid growth as the key to expanding the global middle class, global warming, peak oil, and other environmental events are making it clear to people that the rates and patterns of growth that come with globalization are a surefire prescription for an ecological Armageddon.

The final factor, not to be underestimated, has been popular resistance to globalization. The battles of Seattle in 1999, Prague in 2000, and Genoa in 2001; the massive global anti-war march on Feb. 15, 2003, when the anti-globalization movement morphed into the global anti-war movement; the collapse of the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003 and its near collapse in Hong Kong in 2005; the French and Dutch peoples’ rejection of the neoliberal, pro-globalization European Constitution in 2005 -- these were all critical junctures in a decade-long global struggle that has rolled back the neoliberal project. But these high-profile events were merely the tip of the iceberg, the summation of thousands of anti-neoliberal, anti-globalization struggles in thousands of communities throughout the world involving millions of peasants, workers, students, indigenous people, and many sectors of the middle class.

Down but not out

While corporate-driven globalization may be down, it is not out. Though discredited, many pro-globalization neoliberal policies remain in place in many economies, for lack of credible alternative policies in the eyes of technocrats. With things not moving at the WTO, the big trading powers are emphasizing free trade agreements (FTAs) and economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with developing countries. These agreements are in many ways more dangerous than the multilateral negotiations at the WTO since they often require greater concessions in terms of market access and tighter enforcement of intellectual property rights.

However, things are no longer that easy for the corporations and trading powers and the corporations. Doctrinaire neoliberals are being eased out of key positions, giving way to pragmatic technocrats that often subvert neoliberal policies in practice owing to popular pressure. When it comes to FTAs, the global south is becoming aware of the dangers and is beginning to resist. Key South American governments under pressure from their citizenries derailed the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) -- the grand plan of George W. Bush for the Western hemisphere -- during the Mar del Plata conference in November 2005.

Also, one of the reasons many people resisted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the months before the recent coup in Thailand was his rush to conclude a free trade agreement with the United States. Indeed, in January this year, some 10,000 protesters tried to storm the building in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where U.S. and Thai officials were negotiating. The government that succeeded Thaksin’s has put the U.S.-Thai FTA on hold, and movements seeking to stop FTAs elsewhere have been inspired by the success of the Thai efforts.

The retreat from neoliberal globalization is most marked in Latin America. Long exploited by foreign energy giants, Bolivia under President Evo Morales has nationalized its energy resources. Nestor Kirchner of Argentina gave an example of how developing country governments can face down finance capital when he forced northern bondholders to accept only 25 cents of every dollar Argentina owed them. Hugo Chavez has launched an ambitious plan for regional integration, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), based on genuine economic cooperation instead of free trade, with little or no participation by northern TNCs, and driven by what Chavez himself describes as a “logic beyond capitalism.”

Globalization in Perspective

From today’s vantage point, globalization appears to have been not a new, higher phase in the development of capitalism but a response to the underlying structural crisis of this system of production. Fifteen years since it was trumpeted as the wave of the future, globalization seems to have been less a “brave new phase” of the capitalist adventure than a desperate effort by global capital to escape the stagnation and disequilibria overtaking the global economy in the 1970s and 1980s. The collapse of the centralized socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe deflected people’s attention from this reality in the early 1990s.

Many in progressive circles still think that the task at hand is to “humanize” globalization. Globalization, however, is a spent force. Today’s multiplying economic and political conflicts resemble, if anything, the period following the end of what historians refer to as the first era of globalization, which extended from 1815 to the eruption of World War I in 1914. The urgent task is not to steer corporate-driven globalization in a “social democratic” direction but to manage its retreat so that it does not bring about the same chaos and runaway conflicts that marked its demise in that earlier era.

Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines and executive director of the Bangkok-based research and advocacy institute Focus on the Global South. An extended version of this piece titled “The Capitalist Conjuncture: Overaccumulation, Financial Crises, and the Retreat from Globalization,” appears in the latest number of Third World Quarterly (Vol. 27, No. 8, 2006).

Smith's illegal transfer to the US embassy: A case of multiple rape

Like serial rapists who stalked the streets of Metro Manila in the dead of night not too long ago, Philippine government forces at 11 pm last night barged into the Makati City Jail and illegally pulled out rape convict Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of the US Marines for transfer to US Embassy custody in complete defiance of Philippine courts and judicial system.

This shameful and detestable act was deliberately timed with the three-day holiday from December 30 to January 1 of the new year obviously to frustrate any possible counter-action by the courts. It was also intended to avoid outbreaks of protests in the streets because people are busy preparing for the coming of the New Year. The timing is also outrageous in another sense—it was the eve of the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of the national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

The illegal and forcible transfer to US government custody of the US Marine rape convict is tantamount to multiple rape committed by both the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) regime and the US government. It is a rape of the Philippine judicial system and its courts. It is a rape of the Philippine government's own Constitution. It is a rape of Nicole once again. Above all, it is a rape of the nation's dignity and sovereignty.

Nothing like this could ever happen without the knowledge and approval of Malacanang, the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs, and the Philippine Police. US Embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop confirmed this when he told media last night that Smith's transfer was upon "orders of the Philippine government" and "in cooperation with the Philippine police".

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her entire regime must be held fully accountable for betraying our nation's sovereignty and making a mockery of the constitution under which she holds office.

LABAN NG MASA (Struggle of the Masses) calls on the entire Filipino people, including those in government, in particular those in the judiciary, the legal professions and law enforcement agencies, to rise in collective indignation and demand the ouster of a President and a regime that has demeaned our national dignity and broken the very laws which they are sworn to uphold, on top of such other high crimes as electoral fraud, plunder, widespread political killings, and pro-globalization policies which pauperized the majority of our people.

www.labanngmasa.org

Smith Transfer : Erosion of the Independence of the Philippine Judiciary and of the Justice System

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) condemns the illegal transfer of convicted rapist American serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the Makati City Jail to the U.S. embassy around 11 p.m. last night. This act perpetrated with intended impunity erodes the independence of the Philippine judiciary and of the justice system.

The decision to by-pass the judicial process was done in connivance with both the Philippine Executive and the U.S. government and the implementation, according to U.S. Embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop, "was in cooperation with the Philippine police." Bereft of any court order, the "transfer" can only be a legalized "break-out" of Makati jail. Smith is essentially a "fugitive" of the law.

Makati regional trial court Judge Benjamin Pozon has already ruled against the insistence of Smith's lawyers, the US embassy and the Philippine Executive with the Departments of Justice and of Foreign Affairs that Smith's detention violates the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). The latter cite a provision in the said agreement that says any accused American serviceman shall remain in US custody until all judicial proceedings are exhausted. Judge Pozon said the provision applies only during "the judicial proceedings in the trial court" and expires upon a defendant's conviction, regardless of a pending appeal.

PAHRA perceives that the "transfer" and perhaps eventual "freedom" of Smith is an "exchange of gifts" between Ms. Gloria M. Arroyo and the U.S. government for the latter to keep the Balikatan schedule in February, as well as an extension of support to the former despite the questioned legitimacy of her presidency. The exchange was a repeated rape of Philippine dignity – the independence of the Philippine judiciary and of the judicial system for a convicted rapist.

It is doubly ironic that for a while, Ms. Arroyo and other defenders of the VFA protested that violation of the VFA would cast doubt on the Philippine government's sincerity to honor its international commitments or treatises, the Philippine government has not drawn from the full force of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), particularly on the independence of the judiciary and on due process.

By giving in to the arm-twisting of the U.S. government, this administration is becoming an obstacle to the Philippine State's compliance of its obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights of the peoples of the Philippine Archipelago.

UPHOLD INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY. RETURN SMITH TO MAKATI JAIL.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 January 2007 )
http://philippinehumanrights.org

Enough politicking! Pass the wage hike and other pro-worker laws!

Release: 2006-12-21

The House leadership adopted HB 345 providing for a legislated, nationwide and across-the-board wage hike of P125 for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, we welcome this as a positive development.

HB 345 was passed by the House leadership not because they believe it is an overdue and much deserved relief for workers everywhere, but as part of its intramurals with the Senate and its efforts to prop up its image after the ConAss fiasco.

P125 will not suffice, much less alleviate workers' plight caused by policies pursued by government, but it is a welcome change in policy direction. It is after all a step, albeit a very small step, towards ensuring a "living wage" for the working class.

The National Wages and Productivity Commission estimated that as of October this year, a family of six in the National Capital Region would require a living wage amounting to P764 a day.
The challenge now is for the Senate to prioritize the bill for urgent passage.

We warn both chambers from diluting the spirit of the bill by turning it into another political chip for propaganda points, and instead do the right thing and give workers some semblance of hope for a better life.

We do not want the P125 wage hike bill to suffer the same fate as the public sector pay hike bill which was tossed around in an ego game between the Senate on the one hand and the House and the Executive on the other.

We also demand that Congress do overtime work to ensure the passage of the public sector wage hike bill and other measures that would strengthen workers' and trade union rights. This includes bills on the right to organize, particularly SN2466, the right to collectively bargain and the right to hold concerted actions. These bills have gathered dust due to inaction and disinterest!

After all, any wage hike can never be fully implemented if workers do not have unions that can enforce their collective interests.

NGOs urge bicam to spare education budget; support Senate version

Various non-governmental organizations today asked the House Panel to the Bicameral Conference Committee to spare the Senate's version of the education sector in the proposed 2007 national government budget from deletion or decreases. They also asked both Houses of Congress for a bigger budget in education, as their "gift for the Filipino youth" this Christmas.

"Instead of asking the Senate to let go of their increases in various agencies under the education sector, the House panel should instead consider the idea of increasing the education budget. That would be a very thoughtful Christmas gift for the Filipino youth," said Aaron Pedrosa, spokesperson of Youth Against Debt.

Pedrosa aired this in reaction to reports that the Lower House is pushing their Senate counterparts to let go of the increases they made for the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).

Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones, Social Watch Philippines' Co-Convenor and Former National Treasurer, said that their group finds the Senate version as "laudable as it supports the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially in basic education."

Briones explained that the Senate version provided an increased of P4 billion for the construction of school buildings to erase classroom shortage; increased the funding for the hiring of new teachers by P873 million to erase shortage in teachers; increased GASTE by P700 million to support greater access to free secondary education." The Senate version also provided P30 million funding for Technical-Vocational High School Program, and increased the funding for the School Health and Nutrition Program to P250 million to addressed malnutrition and improve attendance and participation rate.

The Senate version, however, deleted the controversial and graft-prone Food for School Program, and replaced it with the Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa Program with sufficient guiding provisions on how it would be implemented to prevent abuse.

Briones added that the Senate version also increased the scholarship fund of the CHED to improve access and completion rate in tertiary education, and provided more funding for SUCs to improve the quality of tertiary education.

"These increases in education budget are necessary and urgent if we are to move forward as a country," Briones explained, adding: "If we are to address poverty, we must improve access to education, and enhance employability of our graduates by providing them with responsive and quality education -- and these are the things which the Senate version provides for, so we urge the Bicam to support these items instead of having them deleted or decreased."

Briones' group (22 NGOs) was the partner of 10 congressmen from the minority and the progressive bloc of the majority which came up with the NGO-Legislators alternative budget entitled, "Imperatives of Real and Equitable Growth: An Alternative Proposal for Financing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the 2007 Budget" which the Senate adopted.

- www.freedomfromdebtcoalition.org

The road to Cha-Cha leads to Gloria

Release: 2006-12-17

Joining hundreds of thousands of anti-charter change protestors in Luneta Park today, AKBAYAN reminded the public that unresolved allegations on the legitimacy of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are at the core of the derailed charter change. The group warned that insidious attempts to tinker with the constitution shall be made again and again by the administration in order to survive the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy.

AKBAYAN Rep. Etta Rosales said that GMA was the main target beneficiary of the thwarted moves to amend the Constitution through the people’s initiative and the Constituent Assembly. “It was mainly for her political survival, and Cha-cha was designed so that the unholy interests of Malacañang, local politicians and members of the House of Representatives are achieved in one political project,” said Rosales.

Despite the scrapping of the proposed Constituent Assembly, AKBAYAN Rep. Mayong Aguja warned the public to be consistently vigilant. He said Cha-Cha is not yet dead, and it will not be buried six feet under by the administration as long as the political survival of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is in doubt. “As far as Malacañang is concerned, charter change is still an option,” AKBAYAN Rep. Aguja said. “It ditched the idea temporarily to appease the public, but it is still an odious trump card that they are willing to use. But the infrastructure to revive it is very much present, as evidenced by the House majority’s decision to archive Resolution 197, which merely freezes the Con Ass. Section 105 of the House Rules is still enforced, which means that the same questionable process can be deployed by the House majority to force the approval of Con Ass or a Con Con.”

For her part, AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros urged the public to channel their moral outrage against the convening of a Constituent Assembly to revive righteous indignation over Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s illegitimacy. “What should be realized is that this administration is using a range of alarming strategies, from extrajudicial killings to undeniably illegal moves to amend the constitution, to evade the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy. Democratic constitutional reforms can only happen when this administration is no longer in power. Thus, inside or outside Congress, or even during the 2007 elections, the voice of the people should resonate with the loudest repudiation of traditional politics and corruption,” said Rep. Hontiveros.

Militant group twits Justice Secretary's colonial mentality, Lauds Pozon for Integrity

Release: 2006-12-14

Youth Members from AKBAYAN Partylist trooped to the Department of Justice today to denounce Secretary Raul Gonzales' 'Amboy' stance on Judge Pozon's refusal to turn over an American soldier convicted of rape to the US embassy. The group said that it was outraged by Gonzales' attack against the integrity of Judge Pozon.

"Secretary Gonzales is behaving as if he is under the payroll of the US embassy. He seems to have forgotten his mandate as the Secretary of the Justice Department. He has subsumed his duty to ensure the fair administration of justice to this government's colonial obligations to the US ," AKBAYAN President Ronald Llamas said.

Llamas added that no one would believe Gonzales' claim that Judge Pozon is biased and is simply courting attention and popularity from certain groups. "Judge Pozon stood up and ruled according to the merits of the case, while it was very clear from the start whose interests Secretary Gonzales was defending. He just seems bitter that despite the state prosecutors' attempt to bungle the case, Judge Pozon still ruled in favor of Nicole," said Llamas.

"This is not really surprising, since as the alter-ego of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Secretary Gonzales should simply mirror the sentiments of Malacañang. In other words, only a tuta can effectively represent another tuta," he added.

While the group lauded the recent order of Judge Pozon on the custody issue, it stressed that the ultimate goal should lead to the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement. "The Senate must act immediately to rescind the treaty, since it is clearly favors the Americans. Although we are generally happy with Judge Pozon's ruling on Nicole's case, there will be other incidents and cases that may not be as positive. Ultimately, the Senate must follow what Judge Pozon did: break away from the clutch of American interests and stand up for the nation," said Llamas.

...and hails Judge Pozon as Defender of Philippine Sovereignty

A delegation of AKBAYAN members led by Rep. Etta Rosales is set to pay tribute to Judge Benjamin Pozon at the Makati RTC this afternoon. AKBAYAN will honor Judge Pozon with a “People’s Medal of Valor” for standing up to defend the sovereignty of the nation amidst the pressures from Malacanang and the US government.

“His integrity and steadfast determination to deliver justice in the Subic Rape Case deserve the admiration and gratitude of the nation,” declared the AKBAYAN solon. According to Rep. Rosales, “our tribute to Judge Pozon is aimed at showing the public’s appreciation of his efforts to defend the honor of the nation especially now that he is being criticized by Justice Secretary Raul Gozales and the US embassy.”

AKBAYAN will give flowers to the Subic Rape Case judge and will hold a short program for the man whom they call as “Tagapagtanggol ng Dangal ng Pilipino.”

Group serves warrant for JoeDeV and allies' illegal conass and waste of taxpayers' money

Release: 2006-12-12

Akbayan party-list today trooped to the House of Representatives to categorically reject charter change under the Arroyo administration, despite the House's offer of elections for a constitutional convention by next year.

"The House leadership under JDV is using a carrot and stick method to lure the public and the Senate to push through with ChaCha at all costs," said Akbayan Rep. Etta Rosales. "but it is not the method of charter change that is the sticky issue but the fact that it is being pushed for all the wrong reasons."

"Charter change under this administration is only clear in forging a no-elections scenario next year to keep the same administration allies in power," explained the lady solon, "aware very well that the Arroyo administration is sinking deeper and deeper into irrelevance and infamy."

"So the House should desist from bullying the Senate, a co-equal branch of government, into acceding to charter change within 72 hours," added Rosales, "that is not only a slap to the principle of checks and balances, but a self-defeating exercise."

"The Constitution provides for a bicameral system, precisely because in a situation similar to the conundrum we found ourselves in last week, the House by its lonesome in a unicameral system would have gone on its own," said Rosales "and left everyone behind and we now would be stuck with a new, albeit probably mangled, Constitution nobody wants and nobody needs."

"We in Akbayan have been clear from the beginning; charter change must come with the requisite reforms before the idea is even entertained," Rosales added, "including legislation that would protect workers from union-busting and slave wages; laws that would facilitate the installation of farmers in landlord-held lands; laws that will empower more women and protect them from the clutches of violence and abuse; laws that will penalize acts of discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation, laws that will serve justice for victims of unjust incarceration, torture, abuses and other rights violations, etc."

Rosales advised, "The House should work on those proposed laws instead of wasting more valuable taxpayers' money deliberating on a dead issue."

The State has become the very obstacle to its obligations to human rights

Release: 2006-12-09

The recent approval of House Bill 1450 which gives the House of Representatives the right to convene themselves into a constituent assembly even without the approval of the Senate smacks of political skullduggery and muddles the real reason behind House Speaker Jose De Venecia's and other legislators' intent of railroading the plan to change the charter.

It is political skullduggery because of the apparent conspiracy between De Venecia and majority members of the House to take advantage of a vague provision in Article XVII, Section 1 (1) of the 1987 Constitution which fails to clarify whether the three fourth votes needed to amend or revise the Constitution should come from the two houses of Congress voting as one body or as separate entities.

Because of the vagueness of this provision the majority ushered a semblance of "substance" to their arguments for the passing of HB 1450. Arguments that from the onset were proven correct not by its logic or by legality but by a sheer command of numbers that De Venecia and the majority played to a hilt.

Such blatant display of the "tyranny of the majority" supplants the very essence of democracy and the rule of law. Democracy should not only be based on the caprices of the majority but by a society dictated by laws and reason. What we have in Congress is no different from mob rule.

De Venecia and the majority, in spite of all their avowal that they are merely fulfilling their duty to the people, is a total disregard of the utmost reflection of the people's sovereign will.

Herein lies the crux of the matter. What we have in our country is not a government that is guided by laws, but a government that is controlled by politicians who twist and change laws to further their own vested interests. What we have is a government that is cloaked by the mantle of legality but in reality operates with impunity.

The culture of impunity is seen not only in the actions of De Venecia and the legislators who voted in favor of H.B. 1450 in spite of its unconstitutionality; it is also laid bare in Malacanang's decision to remand custody for Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to the U.S. government in spite of the decision of our court which found him guilty of the crime of rape. Impunity is the very reason why our government has failed to provide justice for victims of political killings, involuntary disappearances, and other human rights violations.

Under this context, the State has become the very obstacle to its obligations to human rights. The culture of impunity has permeated every aspect of the Arroyo government such that it has become a license for the wanton commission of violations and omission of State obligations.

As a response to this situation the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) enjoins all human rights defenders and peace loving-people of the land to consolidate our ranks, be more critical of the current condition and mobilize the broadest possible number of communities and people into a united movement that will address the different aspects of impunity and state repression. To this end PAHRA shall devote its efforts to realizing its rallying call amidst these troubled times - Resist State Repression; Defy a Coercive Environment and Break the Culture of Impunity!

Reference: http://philippinehumanrights.org