Embrace boredom

“When you pay attention to boredom, it gets unbelievably interesting.” -Jon Kabat-Zinn

NOBODY seems to be bored anymore. Everywhere I look, people seem to be tinkering with something. You rarely see anybody just sit on a bench in the park just taking in the moment.

I’m bringing this up because at least two of my friends sent me a private message of a link on what stress can do to the brain. My immediate response was that people burn out because they rarely have time to be bored.

I present that the culprit of this modern phenomena is the smartphone.

According to Suchi Rudra in her article “Boredom”: Embrace it or escape it, “the average smartphone user checks their phone at least 150 times a day more than half that time it’s not because someone is texting or calling.”

We just fidget with it. We check it when we’re riding the taxi, jeepney or bus. We check it while we are sipping our favorite beverages. Hell, I bet you see this all the time: people walking while texting or worse, posting on Facebook and tweeting something. The smartphone has turned people into zombies.

There have been movies positing that a zombie apocalypse will be brought about by some groundbreaking drug (i.e. World War Z, I am Legend). Well, I submit the zombie apocalypse is here and it is brought to us by the ever-dependable smartphone.

We have been distracted so much and engaged with the inanities of social media that we stopped listening to our thoughts. The least of it is letting our mind wander.

I admit. I have become one of the smartphone zombies out there. Although, I still have the common sense to stop walking when replying to a text message.

Still, this disturbed me.

Last week, I was meeting a friend from UP Diliman at VIP Hotel and I told Da King to drop me off at Cogon. I thought of riding a motorela to the hotel. But the thought that I will inexplicably be fidgeting with my smartphone once my ass lands on that seat made me decide otherwise.

I decided to walk from Cogon to the hotel. I walked through the streets Doña Nieves, Domingo Velez, Corrales, then Monte Carlo. I passed by the old Iglesia Filipina Independiente Cathedral.

While walking, my smartphone was securely tucked in my pocket and I didn’t even stop for a smoke. I must say that the walk did me good. The flood of memories came rushing in my mind.

I remember playing in a junk shop at Doña Nieves street. I remember biking with my cousin the entire length of Corrales street, avenue, and extension when I was still in grade school. I remember meeting football friends in Monte Carlo. Those guys there really, I mean really love football. And of course, the compound at Domingo Velez where I practically grew up. I remember the fruitcakes that Lola Puring would bring out at about this time of the year.

Boredom and burnout are correlated as some psychology books suggest. Burnout is the result of doing too much and boredom is a result of doing too little.

So a thought came to my mind. Maybe boredom isn’t as bad after all. All the structured thinking you do at work and even playing Wordscapes can tire your brains out at some point. Smartphones have become the convenient alibi to avoid our deepest inner thoughts.

Organized religion has also contributed to this fear of being idle. Remember the saying, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”? I say being idle once in while lets your mind romp through trains of thought. I bet you can even strike a brainstorm.

When you feel you’re starting to get bored, don’t pick up your smartphone. Don’t pick up anything, not even a book.

Embrace boredom. Your mind will automatically defragment the “bad sectors” of your hard drive (read: brain) from the constant structured thinking.

Again, embrace boredom or risk burning out too young.

Ad for the wishy-washy

“Maybahay, ******** ko 13 oras – Garantisado: buong gabi ligaya.” – www.borsa.ru

CALL it what you will but because of the kind of vibes this administration emanates, its spin doctors and apologists often never fail to follow suit — with “funny” repercussions, if I may add.

I call it the steamy and macho kind of vibes.

Last week, one of the outspoken (which most of whom usually are) apologists of Digong Dada, La Salle political science Prof. Antonio P. Contreras, posted a public rant of sorts on his Facebook wall.

“Rappler complains about the ethics of a broadcaster allegedly threatening one of its reporters, but it doesn’t even bother choosing the kind of ads it allows to be published on its page. Horribly disgusting! John Nery must be furious at this obscenity,” he first posted.

The rant was about a story of Rappler reporting about yet another Digong drummer boy RJ Nieto goading Palace spokesperson Harry Roque to throw hollow blocks at Rappler journalist Pia Ranada on live talk radio over DwIZ 882AM. The quote I cited at the beginning of this column is the exact wording of the ad Contreras pointed out as “horribly disgusting.”

As to why the great Contreras singularly called out Kagay-anon John Nery, I still cannot connect. Nery is the editor-in-chief of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Internet content and is in no way connected or involved with Rappler’s website. You can even call the two news organizations competitors.

Moving on, naturally, the public post went viral. Most of those who shared (me included), pointed out that the ad that appeared below the Rappler article was a result of Google Adsense’s logarithm. To break it down, the ads that appear on certain parts of any website that avails this ad logarithm depends on the kind of websites you usually browse. It is like an artificial intelligence of sorts. Google Adsense profiles the user according to his or her browsing history.

So, based on that particular ad, the algorithm of Google Adsense profiled the user to be a sex-craving middle-aged male with a limp member. I posted this explanation with Contreras’ public rant and most of the others who shared the “hard” post of Contreras, as well.

Before you judge, it is not a pornographic ad. As I understand it, it is an ad for a sex-performance enhancement drug. In short, it’s anti-erectile dysfunction medicine. Except for the one vulgar word in the ad, I say its totally natural to be able to “get up” when an occasion “rises” for it.  The ad is not “horribly disgusting” to me.

However, exactly eight minutes after his second edit of this post, Contreras added this “disclaimer”: “Note: This photo was only shared to me by a friend.

“Update:

“So, it looks like Google Ads played a cruel game on Rappler on this one. I just learned that ads like the one that appears below (are) driven by the preferences of the reader. On this case, the one who originally took a photo of this and shared it.

“In any case, legitimate and so-called decent and morally upright pages, like what Rappler purports to be, should now really think hard before availing of this facility of Google to avoid embarrassing optics like this one. As parties who claim to be paragons of virtue, knowing that Google randomly loads ads like this, and for Rappler to earn money from it, is somewhat problematic.”

My Facebook friends opened the same Rappler link in their respective browsers to point out what the great Contreras cannot seem to grasp. In a fraternal cousin’s browser, the same ad spot displayed a website that offers “quirky and stylish” home decors. In another distant relative’s try, a website selling ready-to-wear apparels. Mine? Well, it was just a “boring” in-house ad of Rappler calling for its consumers to uphold press freedom and advocate for fearless journalism.

Contreras, ser, a different ad appears depending on what a user regularly browses. Rappler (which didn’t claim to be a paragon of virtue, bitidub) cannot possibly filter what appears on its Google Adsense spot. Do you even know how many active users are on the Internet? Each of those users will see a different ad on the same spot that you riled about.

To those who do not know Contreras, he specializes on political theory and analysis, cultural theory and politics, and the politics of everyday lives. It is safe to say Contreras is a smart noodle (no pun intended). However, I cannot wrap around the fact that a smart guy like him still doesn’t get how Internet AI works.

If you want lewd, sexist, and vulgar language, you only need to listen to the President, Martin Andanar, Salvador Panelo, RJ Nieto, and other functionaries of this administration, Mr. Contreras. Now, those people have said an appalling amount of vulgarity on live TV and radio.

Plus, “maybahay” is vernacular for a wife. What is so vulgar about finding food supplements online just so you can satisfy your spouse in bed? Vulgar would be a city mayor saying he should be the first to fornicate with a corpse so that her beauty won’t be wasted is, Contreras.

Let’s go back to the Contreras’ hard stand yet limp reasoning. You don’t have to be ashamed of what you browse on the Internet. The Internet has been the best thing there is since the invention of the loin clothe.

In closing, I’d like to give you an unrequited advice, Mr. Contreras. Don’t just thrust away in your keyboard looking for “hard” drugs for your “friend’s” limp biscuit problem. As you have shown quite eloquently, one cannot trust everything that is on the Internet. I mean, guaranteed “13 hours”? I cannot imagine the chaffing involved in that.

Try lots of sibuyas bombay (bulb onion) in your diet. If that fails, try banging your “friend’s” limp appendage with your front door.

Maguindanao: A case study for justice and accountability

“Those who have less in life should have more in law.”Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay,7th President Republic of the Philippines

WITH THESE WORDS, Magsaysay tried to set the tone for a more socially-attuned administration of justice. Yet 56 after Magsaysay’s death, his words remain a mere slogan.

On November 23, 2009, 58 people—32 of whom were media workers—were waylaid in what has become known throughout the world as the Maguindanao Massacre, the worst case of election violence in the country, and the biggest case of violence against media men in the world. The incident has caught the country flat-footed, yet it also exposed several long-festering, and in many aspects, long-known yet unaddressed issues.

On one hand. the incident served as a grisly wake-up call for both national government and local and international civil societies on the issues of election violence, clan politics and dynamics, and violence against media. On the other hand, ending impunity became the priority mission of both the Philippine government and civil societies.

In coordination with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Libertas, a legal policy non-government organization, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) launched a research project that dissected the massacre case as a way to understand these issues and offer recommendations for reforms in the country’s judicial system.


The research project output is a book entitled “Maguindanao Massacre: Case Study for Breaking Impunity, Increasing Accountability, and Broadening Access to Justice.” It is a compendium of interviews, focus group discussions and dialogues with “family members of the Maguindanao Massacre victims, key informants who are private or public prosecutors, officials from the security sector, relevant government agencies, and representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) and media organizations.”

At the crux of the case study is the fact there is still no clear-cut definition of extrajudicial killing (EJK) especially for state players prosecuting the criminal act. 

The study posits that a good definition is important to set this specific criminal act apart from the other crimes. It further suggests that this particular crime be called “unexplained killing” and “to let it cover both state and non-state perpetrators.” In this way, the study broadened its scope of coverage to be more inclusive of other similar cases of EJKs, not just in Maguindanao or Mindanao, but all over the country as well.

Red-tagging of this type of crime, or identifying specific cases for special attention, also puts “value” since red-tagged cases are more closely monitored by the justice department at the regional level. The label also attracts more public attention, thereby potentially increasing the confidence level of the witnesses. “It is suggested that red-tagging be done at the point of filing information in court, and that red-tagged cases no longer be raffled. Aside from special handling by the prosecution, this will also facilitate human rights documentation and monitoring,” the case study reads.

The case study proposes that special courts be designated to hear this type of crime continuously. Study proponents also proposed—by way of citing one of the observation of its key informants—the resumption of peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), because “while peace talks are ongoing, extrajudicial killings are seen to slow down and become intermittent.” In order to further speed up the court processes on EJKs and other human rights violation cases, the case study also proposes there be mechanisms in the rules of court to allow the perpetuation of testimonies of witnesses.

According to the case study, key informants from both the government and civil societies agree that there should be an enabling law on command responsibility to exact criminal liability and for command responsibility to be applicable to all criminal offenses under the country’s Revised Penal Code. The case study also recommended that there should be “transparency in the conduct of internal investigations and in the military justice system.”

Presently, the rules on command responsibility in the Philippines cover only as high as two degrees. However, a respondent from the Philippine Army conceded that—with respect to civilian supremacy over state security forces—court martial will surrender the “subject and the case even if there is a separate crime or administrative case arising under the Articles of War,” provided that there will be clear parameters.

Even though the Philippine Senate had not yet given its concurrence to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute) pursuant to Article VII of the Constitution when—the case study was prepared (2010 to 2011), on August 30, 2011, the Philippine Senate gave its concurrence to the Rome Statute. The Rome Statute, among others, defines the coverage of the doctrine of command responsibility to all state signatories of the international.

Other recommendations put forward by the study include:

• Requiring a human rights clearance process for personnel in all law enforcement agencies.
  
  
  
  
• Enhancing and increasing coverage of the Witness Protection Program (WPP)
  
• Training of paralegals on investigation and legal support in the prosecution of cases
  
• More inter-agency cooperation and evidence-sharing among agencies involved in the investigation and prosecution of the cases
  
• Initiation of administrative cases involving human rights violations by government agencies DESPITE the absence of private complainants.
  
• More effective firearms control through improved logistics management system by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
  
• More concrete measures to depoliticize the local police force.
  
• Engagement of the Anti-Money Laundering Council in cases involving HRVs.
  

The recommendations for more effecive firearms control and the need to depoliticze the local police forces stood out starkly against the backdrop of the Maguindanao Massacre. The Ampatuan clan, the family accused of masterminding the massacre, has been accused of amassing firearms and ammunition through the help of regional and national patrons. In effect, the Ampatuan clan had been able to build its own legal private army using both government arms and ammunition.


As well, the clan has been accused of using the local police force in Maguindanao in carrying out the massacre. Under the Local Government Code, the local government units have operational control over the local police forces. In the case of the Maguindanao Massacre, the local police units were said to have been compromised by the clan through because the clan had full control over the appointments and perks of the local police officers.

During the course of the case study, it was also recommended that there should be a “community and peer support in the prosecution of criminal cases” and a “rationalized and integrated financial and other support for victims of atrocious crimes, including families of the Maguinndanao Massacre victims.” These recommendations stem from the outcome of a series of FGDs with the families of the massacre victims.

“In this respect, a cohesive financial support program with support coming from various sources may be rationalized and administered just by one agency, perhaps the CHRP or the DSWD, so that the families need only coordinate with one agency, Requirements can be streamlined by such agency, so that the families need not undergo repetitive processes for screening, which merely add to the famlies’ difficulty and frustration,” the case study recommends.

FIGHTING WIDOW. Mrs. Edita Tiamzon, widow of UNTV Daniel who was one of the journalists killed in the grisly Ampatuan Massacre. congcorrales © 2013.

The most recent case in point of this was when news that a number of the families of massacre victims have allegedly opted to settle with massacre prime suspects of the Ampatuan clan. Legal counsel Harry Roque of the Center for International law posted in his blog that the families of 14 massacre victims had reportedly signed a written authority with a “close associate” of the Ampatuans to broker a settlement with the accused sometime in February, this year.

Roque’s law firm is representing four of the 14 families who supposedly opted to settle. However, he claimed that the “settlement” was made without his knowledge and that he got wind of the settlement deal from one of his clients.

Although the news of the 14 families of massacre victims considering a settlement with the Ampatuans may come as a shock for most who have been following the massacre case, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) national chair Rowena Caranza-Paraan said that the move is not “surprising” and that it should not paint the families of the massacre victims as ”sellouts.”

Caranza-Paraan said that there are two main factors that made the families tempted to strike a settlement deal—the snail’s pace of the court trial and families’ lack of sources of income.

“It would always be the decision of the victims' families. But whether some of them decide to accept a settlement or not, the search for justice for those killed will continue because many of them will never settle,” Caranza-Paraan said.

As observed in the prosecution of EJK and other human rights violations cases in the country, testimonial evidences play a crucial role. When witnesses and families of massacre victims are killed, harassed and often times slapped with trumped up retaliatory charges in court quicker than the respondents of the cases are arrested, then it negates the whole judicial process.

“Hence, there is critical need to secure witnesses. Unfortunately, one common observation is the lack of funds and insufficient of support for witnesses under the Witness Protection Program (WPP),” the case study points out. Thus, the case study also recommends that the justice department’s Witness Protection Program (WPP) be enhanced and its coverage increased.


“Truly, the Maguindanao Massacre was an unspeakable crime. It represents all that is evil in our political system. It shows what is dysfunctional in our legal processes. The only good that can come out of it is that it compels us to train our sights on these infirmities, and galvanizes our resolve as a nation to address it. The above recommendations are made in this light, so that the lost lives of the victims may not be put to naught,” the case study reads in part.―congcorrales for pcij.org/blog © 2013.

END IMPUNITY NOW. Justice remains elusive for the families of the Ampatuan Massacre victims and the continuing reign of impunity in the Philippines. photo by congcorrales©2013

Of following orders and understanding 'em

 It is only natural for people to want to protect their hard-earned properties.

I DO NOT want to be a wet blanket—pardon the pun—especially since this city's Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC) has already celebrated its “zero-casualty” feat¹ in responding to super typhoon 'Pablo' (International code name: Bopha) that pummeled Cagayan de Oro and other parts of the island, last week.

Even if the “zero-casualty” claim has raised some, if not many, eyebrows, I still say City Hall has done quite a feat as compared to its response—or the lack of it—when tropical storm Sendong (International code name: Washi) flooded this city and claimed some 600 lives and destroyed at least hundreds of millions of infrastructure, properties and agricultural production.

While City Hall sycophants are busy patting each others back for a job well done, there is something we should reexamine if only to further improve our city's disaster response in future calamities—natural and man-made.

Let us take a closer look at the supposed forced evacuation order of Mayor Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano at the height of 'Pablo,' ang how the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) implemented the order.

Under the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Law (RA 10121), the local chief executive can exercise its police powers to order a forced evacuation in areas where widespread danger is imminent, of which Emano did on December 4 shortly after raising the alert level to code red. The city then, has been included in the list of areas under storm signal number 3.

I, personally, was sort of excited to see this order in action because one, it was going to be my first time to see a forced evacuation implemented and I only see this in the movies and news coverages on calamities elsewhere in the country.

That day, together with international news wires photojournalists—Froilan Gallardo (Associated Press), JB Deveza (Agence France Presse) and Cai Panlilio (Thomson Reuters)—we visited Sitio Tambo, a community of shacks beside Cagayan River and were surprised to see people, albeit only adult men, still in their shacks.

“We have already evacuated my wife and four daughters to an evacuation center in Zone 8 last Monday afternoon. But we opted to stay behind because we are afraid our homes would be looted. Just last night (December 3), we spied and prevented some people trying to get into the houses of our neighbors,” Felix Araneta, married, 39 years old said when I asked him why he was still in his home despite the code red alert of CDRRMC.

However, when a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) patrol car entered the community, that day, the five police officers appeared clueless as to the mechanics of the order.

I approached one of the officers and asked him if they were in the area to implement the mayor's force evacuation order in the community and how they intend to do it. The officer replied they were indeed in the community to effect the mayor's order. However, it was clear in his reply that they did not understand what forced evacuation is.

“We will go around the community to persuade the people to evacuate their homes but if they insist on staying, we cannot really force them to,” the officer said.

ABS-CBN TVPatrol Northern Mindanao anchor Primy Cane, Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Bobby Lagsa and other local reporters experience quite the same disappointment in Sitio Tibasak, Barangay Macasandig that same day^.2

Acting city police director Senior Superintendent Antonio Montalba, who arrived in Tibasak two hours late after Emano issued the force evacuation order, told reporters that—he said they were late because they were still having breakfast—they waited for CDRRMC assistant officer Engr. Armen Cuenca to go with them in implementing the order.

Just in case there will be cases filed against them for implementing a direct order of the city mayor, he reasoned to the flabbergasted reporters. Anyway, most of the people in the geohazard areas have already voluntarily evacuated their homes days before, Montalba reportedly added.

Lagsa—in a Facebook thread—quoted Montalba as saying, “wala na lang nako pugsa pud kay gabii na og gusto nako matulog (I did not force the people who stayed behind because the night was drawing near and I wanted to get some sleep),” in the CDRRMC Exit Conference on Wednesday (December 5).

It is only natural for people to want to protect their hard-earned properties. Ergo, for force evacuation to be effective, the people need to be reassured that even if they leave their houses, their properties will be safe from looting.

We can see force evacuation effectively implemented in the Bicol region whenever Mt. Mayon threatens to unleash its wrath. Truck loads of government security forces would go to geohazard areas and physically taken out of harm's way. These security forces stay behind and search every house in the community to make sure every one has been evacuated.

While the people are being transported to the evacuation centers, they could see that the security forces stayed behind to guard their homes from possible looters.

Had Montalba understood his orders, the force evacuation would have been implemented effectively. Ergo, properly implementing the “risk reduction” concept of RA 10121.

Pablo would have been Kagay-anons' first-hand experience of this law in action.

______ 

1 http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/mindanao/casualty-takes-new-meaning-in-c-de-oro.html

2 http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/mindanao/montalba-takes-his-time-food-first-evacuation-later.html

Seize the day

Challenge boundaries and push limits

Push limits of antiquated laws

Come dissidents, come restless

Seize the day and the next

Next stop, world domination

Bwahahahahah...my sinister laugh