Why BBC should apologize

(Click here if the video isn’t working)

In this skit, a postman approached comedian Harry Enfield, who was clearly agitated and shouting at someone, and asked him what was going. It then turned to comedian Paul Whitehouse, who was seated on a chair on his lawn, and beside him was a young girl wearing a grey uniform and an apron gyrating and dancing lasciviously. Harry then told the postman that he was shouting at his Filipino maid to do her job and get his friend Paul to mate with her.

He kept ordering the girl to gyrate and dance in front of Paul and even instructed her to “hump him”. When an indifferent Paul stood up to go inside the house, Harry scolded the Filipina girl, telling her to get out and just go. The scene closed with the postman sidling up to the Filipina, whispering to her as they walked off together.

The problem about this skit is that it trivializes a scene of abuse. This is not even a question of being politically correct; it isn’t even about Filipinos having no sense of humor (oy, are we not known for laughing at our tragedy?). The issue is about satirizing human trafficking and exploitation. Gender statistics may be be poor, but based on stories of sexual abuse encountered by Filipinas abroad, one could already surmise the number of Filipinas who are victimized by trafficking, promised with jobs as domestic helpers but end up being forced to become little brown f***ing machines for big, burly, old white men. It isn’t funny at all. It is unethical, disgusting and abusive.

Spreading HIV/AIDS in schools

If we are to believe these officials from the Commission on Higher Education, allowing students living with HIV/AIDS to enroll in our schools and universities would help spread the virus among students.

Last Wednesday, I was in the Technical Working Group of the Committee on Higher Education of the House of Representatives, where several bills strengthening the rights of students were being tackled. Akbayan’s version of the bill, which we call the Students’ Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Bill, has this provision:

“Section 5. Admission and non-discrimination. – No student shall be denied admission, expelled from an educational institution, punished with disciplinary action, including mandatory counseling, or denied welfare services, scholarships and other privileges on the basis of his/her physical handicap, socio-economic status, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in student organizations. Pregnant students, certified reformed drug abusers, and students with HIV/AIDS shall not be discriminated against.”

Somehow, the line on sexual orientation, gender identity, membership in student organizations, as well as the non-discrimination clause for students with HIV/AIDS, got omitted when the committee consolidated the bills to formulate the substitute bill. We therefore moved to have the original text restored during the Technical Working Group.

Surprisingly, the re-inclusion of the non-discrimination clause for students with HIV/AIDS was opposed by officials from CHED, specifically by Atty. Carmelita Yadao-Sison of the Legal Service Unit and Dr. Catherine Castañeda of the Office of Student Services. They said that the specific mention of HIV/AIDS as a ground for discrimination is short-sighted since other infectious diseases might emerge in the future. While they have nothing against the right to education of those with HIV/AIDS, they fear that allowing them into our schools and universities would only help spread the virus among students and among young Filipinos. They added that a possible compromise is to limit the non-discrimination clause only to those who have already been “certified cured” of HIV/AIDS.

Burning boy

A poem to end a long week and derail Monday – and perhaps to put one’s heart on one’s sleeve. Indulge.

Casabianca

Love’s the boy stood on the burning deck
trying to recite “The boy stood on
the burning deck”. Love’s the son
stood stammering elocution
while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love’s the obstinate boy, the ship,
even the swimming sailors, who
would like a schoolroom platform, too
or an excuse to stay
on deck. And love’s the burning boy.

— Elizabeth Bishop

Jesusland vs. Moroland

I, for one, would like a sober discussion on the peace process and the proposed Memorandum of Agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government. There is no doubt that the GRP is bungling the whole situation; its first error was when President GMA appointed a hawk, retired Gen. Esperon, at the helm of the peace process. The guy – and surely the government he represents – has no notion of transparency, or democratic, deliberative processes, the only way a broader consensus outside the GRP-MILF process could be reached on any peace negotiations.

Perhaps the bigger problem is that the ruckus is generating a strong anti-Moro sentiment and is marginalizing legitimate issues that the peace process should address. The call for the recognition of the Moros’ ancestral domain is valid, so is the need for them to exercise meaningful autonomy. Arguably, these are controversial calls that require deliberation and debate even among non-Muslims, a long and painful but necessary process. However, the strength of any peaceful resolution can only emanate from how deeply the resolution is embraced by all stakeholders. This is a reality that a tyrant like Esperon would never understand. He’d rather take short cuts or drop bombs.

Sinking Republic

Today is the 40th day of the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, a maritime tragedy that led to the death of about 800 passengers. An unknown number of bodies remain stuck inside the ship, along with several toxic cargoes, and the ship is still visible just a few meters off the shorelines of Sibuyan Island, its hull sticking out of the funereal, otherworldly calmness of the sea. For several weeks now, our office has been participating in the congressional inquiry on the disaster.

If the congressional inquiry has led to anything, it is this: a tragedy of that magnitude couldn’t have been an act of God or fate. Ignore the grandstanding of legislators who could only think in terms of soundbites. Some questions that were raised during the hearing actually point to the root of the disaster, and they tell us that the archipelago is actually littered with floating coffins.

For instance, why are roll-on, roll-off (Ro-ro) ships like the MV Princess of the Stars being used in the Philippines when in fact they are not suitable for open seas? Evidence points to the fact that Ro-ros are among the most dangerous ships to use for navigation. They are strictly regulated in other countries: they can’t sail for more than 10 miles, are only allowed to sail in inland waters, and only if they are near the shoreline. It is not appropriate for the wave height of open seas even under normal weather, so just imagine how difficult it was to steer MV Princess of the Stars when it was already in the middle of the storm. Compared to other types of sea vessels, Ro-ros sink fast because of its design; survivors of the recent tragedy all said that the ship sank fifteen minutes after the ship’s master issued his abandon call.

GMA’s Quiapo politics

But then again, what’s new? Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) may be a pathological liar, clearly a fraudulent president, a human rights violator, but she is an economist, one that got her education in the West at that. In short, she knows the economic perils of an exponential population growth and the burden it imposes on government resources. She knows, too, the strategic benefit of increasing access to reproductive health in terms of healthcare access for women and, ironically, in reducing cases abortion.

Why, then, this position? It is not devoutness, although she has claimed that God spoke directly to her to urge her to run during the last presidential elections (A curious Vatican gift to the Philippines. God is known to be partisan in the Philippines, and he has always made it a point to pick several candidates during elections). Her position is political – she doesn’t want to offend the talibans in the Catholic hierarchy, whose support has always been crucial for her political survival. One could not separate her position from the repeated refusal of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to call for her resignation, impeachment or ouster.

What unites the position of the Catholic hierarchy and GMA’s is fraud and fundamentalism. CBCP has anchored its anti-abortion campaign on the Reproductive Health Bill despite the fact that the bill does not legalize abortion. The truth is, it would take more than an act of Congress to legalize abortion in the country: a constitutional provision that requires the State to “protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception” is popularly interpreted to be a de facto ban on abortion.

Gay, Pregnant and Marked for Harassment

Here’s an article I wrote for Sunday Magazine of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Since I haven’t posted anything for the last two weeks (?), I thought I’d just share this article. Many thanks to jaefever and her mom for facilitating this opportunity.

Gay, Pregnant and Marked for Harassment
By Jonas Bagas
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – Remember the “flower platoon”?

Back when the Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC) was still mandatory for male college students, it symbolized discrimination against gay students. Real men marched in real platoons; gay students were with their pansy fellows in the flower platoon. Their only duty was to cheer for their manly counterparts or run errands for them.

Well, the “flower platoon” disappeared with the abolition of compulsory ROTC in 2001, but the underlying biases that created it still persist. They come in the form of unwritten rules or the ubiquitous “morality clause” in the student manual. They are meant to crack the whip on what some sectors still describe as “moral deviants”—lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT), as well as unmarried pregnant students.

Last Man Standing

What with the society telling me over and over again that my sexual behavior is unnatural, I developed an inclination toward studying nature. As a student I thought I could pursue the desire – thoroughly boosted by the discovery that prehistoric insects trapped inside amber could lead to the cloning of dinosaurs – as a formal course. I wanted to be a genetic engineer.

But then math got in the way. No way I could stand in front of eminent scientists, George Bush, and Pope Benedict XVI, show them the cloned baby, and declare, “Jesus is back,” if I don’t know how to multiply fractions or if I panic at the sight of mathematical symbols.

So I became a “nature enthusiast” instead, which really is an excuse of sorts. I am a yoga enthusiast and not a yogi because I fall asleep while meditating. I can theoretically become a basketball enthusiast but never a basketball player because I lack the height. So there you go, the origin of a nature enthusiast.

So here’s my confession as a nature enthusiast. After climate change, my next nature obsession is the discovery by scientists that the Y chromosome is shrinking. Others actually estimate that it could totally disappear in 125,000 years. What this means is that men could vanish, replaced by asexual, all-female humans.

Ten things you need to know about the Anti-Discrimination Bill

Yes, it has been languishing in Congress since 1999, and yes, we’re still pushing for it. It ain’t over until it has been passed into law.

The Anti-discrimination bill, filed this term as HB 956 by AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, seeks to prohibit a wide-range of discriminatory policies and practices against Filipino lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs). Homophobic groups and politicians (Remember that idiot, Rep. Abante?) have used various tactics to block the bill, from scaring people that the bill is about same-sex marriage – which is patently untrue – to misleading people that it is not needed. What with these media-instigated raids in gay bars taking place, or gay men being victimized by hate crimes, and presumably gay sons or lesbian daughters being beaten up by their parents, i seriously wonder where they got the notion that we don’t need a law against discrimination?!?

Anyway, blame Cardinal Rosales for this entry on the Anti-Discrimination Bill. He recently said that gay men should be banned from Sagalas, a statement that clearly attacks our tradition. Even before the LGBT started organizing the annual Pride March, gay men were already parading in Sagalas, as Reyna Emperatriz or Reyna Elena, as giggling sakristans, or as closeted priests. The gay community has always been part of that tradition.

After Cardinal Rosales imposed the ban, a group of gay men thought of organizing a Sagala in Quezon City exclusively for homosexuals. We’ll be there, distributing fliers on the Anti-Discrimination Bill, on safer sex, and yes, we’ll be distributing condoms, too. There goes tradition, Cardinal Rosales. 😉

PS. Contrary to news reports, I am not a Marian devotee. (I can almost hear ’em shouting, “Burn, Bagas, Burn!”)

Gay sex and the Catholic Church

Monsignor Achilles Dakay of the Archdiocese of Cebu blames ‘gay sex’ as the real culprit behind the so-called Cebu rectal surgery scandal. All I can say to Father Dakay is this: Father, there’s a whole world of gay sex taking place in your parish, perhaps even within your parish church. All you have to do is open your eyes. Where else did those erotic fantasies about priests and sacristans come from?

I wonder, after calling gay sex unnatural and perverse, what does ‘gay sex’ conjure in the mind of Father Dakay? Does the idea of oral sex between men evoke images of Dementors? Does he believe that we are all predisposed to get motel rooms that are, by some evil design, all numbered 666? It would probably surprise our dear Father Dakay to discover that when we have sex on the floor, we don’t do it inside a huge drawing of the pentagram, surrounded by candles. We don’t do a Linda Blair or an Emily Rose when we cum either; when that happens, please be assured, Father Dakay, that I’d be the first to request for an exorcism.