I did not know that the Philippines did not have anti torture laws. The fact is even if we had any it would not matter much. Killing is Illegal but journalist , judges, activist, government officials are being summarily executed for speaking out, for trying to make a difference. Laws don’t stop killings, Laws don’t stop tortures, PEOPLE STOP KILLING and TORTURE. As long as a majority of the Filipino people fail to face up to the realities of our country we cannot stop these inhumanities.
from here:

In fact, there remains no law criminalizing torture in the country.
“There is currently no law specifically penalizing acts of torture: criminal cases have to be filed against perpetrators of torture for crimes such as maltreatments; rape; murder if torture results in the death of the victim, etc,” the report states.
It adds: “This situation is contrary to the international commitments of the… Philippines under Article 7 of the ICCPR and the CAT.”
There is also no domestic law criminalizing enforced disappearances, the mission report notes.
Basas says an anti-torture bill has been filed in the House of Representatives during the 13th Congress, but despite overcoming hurdles in the House, the Senate failed to act on the bill.
“Now that the 13th Congress has adjourned, we have to re-file the bill again,” Basas says.
The fact-finding mission report also says the Human Security Act (HSA) or the local anti-terror law contains provisions that create an environment that increases the risk of human rights violations – including torture – being committed against detained suspects.
The new law expands the law enforcers’ powers of arrest and detention, increasing the chance of torture being inflicted on victims, the report points out.
The fact-finding mission “seriously doubts” that the mechanisms and initiatives reportedly put in place by the Armed Forces to ensure respect for human rights will work.
To address the phenomenon of torture in the country, the FIDH mission says the government should:
– Release all persons arbitrarily detained or to “bring charges against them and produce them before a court of law;”
– Stop using civilian auxiliaries of the AFP in the fight against terrorism and, as a minimum and immediate step, ensure that they are properly trained in the field of human rights and prevention of torture;
– End arbitrary labeling of groups as terrorists or enemies of the State without affording them the opportunity to challenge such assertions before the court;
– Seriously investigate all allegations of extra-judicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances involving law enforces and military personnel;
– Criminalize torture;
– Amend the HAS in conformance with the Philippines’ international human rights commitments;
– Ensure the inadmissibility in court of confessions obtained under duress;
– Compensate torture victims;
– Improve the government witness protection program; and
– Fulfill commitments to ICCPR and CAT.
Aside from these recommendations, Amnesty International-Pilipinas Executive Director Aurora Parong says the government should also ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which is regarded as the most important development for the effective prevention of torture in the global arena.
“There’s no ifs and buts when it comes to torture. Torture is never acceptable, both during wartime and peacetime… This is one of every person’s non-derogable rights, one of the very basic human rights,” Parong says. – GMANews.TV

The sad thing is that most media coverage here is being concentrated on the charter change moves of the president, Humanitarian Crisis be damned.

Evacuees trickle back to villages in North Cotabato

By MANNY MOGATO and KAREN LEMA
Reuters
MANILA – Families displaced by fighting between government troops and Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines slowly returned to their bombed-out villages on Thursday but many remained in shelters, too frightened to leave.
About 160,000 people had fled their farmlands in North Cotabato province and adjoining areas since last weekend to escape military airstrikes and mortar fire aimed at Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels holed up in the area.
Military operations ended on Wednesday and the army is trying to coax families back, escorted by armoured vehicles and troops.
“We expect a considerable number of people to return home today. Since late Wednesday they were slowly going back, we are assuring them of their safety,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Julieto Ando, an army spokesman.
The local government said about 20,000 people had made their way back but there were conflicting reports on numbers and some aid agencies said many refugees were still too frightened to leave.
Only about 10 percent of the displaced are in evacuation centres with most people staying with relatives or friends.
“The security situation has improved but it will probably take a bit of time before people feel secure enough to return home en masse,” Stephen Anderson, country director for the World Food Programme (WFP), told Reuters.
“We have to be looking ahead to people having to potentially rebuild their lives, a lot of houses, villages have been destroyed.”
Bomb disposal teams were combing through the villages to make sure they were clear of any landmines or booby traps.
A way of life
The government launched its attack on the MILF after accusing the rebels of occupying villages in North Cotabato. Six civilians were estimated to have been killed in the fighting while 46 rebels and 5 soldiers were estimated to have died, according to the military.
The MILF has said five of its members were killed.
Analysts have said both sides were flexing their military muscles after yet another setback in long-running talks to end a near 40-year separatist conflict in the southern region of Mindanao that has killed more than 120,000 people.
Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic Philippines have been fighting for some measure of independence since the late 1960s in one of Southeast Asia’s most intractable conflicts.
Earlier this week, the United Nations said it was concerned about an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the south.
But Manila dismissed the U.N.’s characterisation of the situation and said people in the poorest region of the country were used to conflict.
“Some of them need a little counselling, most do not. A lot of them are used to it. It’s not the first time that this has happened,” Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral told Reuters.
“They already know if there’s an exchange of gun fire, they should leave their homes, then if the shooting ends, then they go back to their homes, that’s a way of life in Mindanao.”

I think this is even for filipino-blacks and filipino-whites. You just have to turn on the television and be beset by probably a third of Filipino artist. I remeber overhearing a few people in the mall one day. “Ang ganda ng anak mo kamukhang kamukha ang tatay niya, pauwiin mo dito mag artists” (Your daughter is pretty beautiful, looks a lot like her father, you must make her come home to the Philippines and try her hand at acting.) I was able to glance at the picture the person I overheard was looking at and it was a filipino -white household.
from this freakonomics post.

3) Mixed-race kids do have one advantage over white and black kids: the mixed-race kids are much more attractive on average.

I have this semi favorite movie, its a romantic drama, staring Lea Salonga and Aga Muhlach. It was timely because it was coincided with the beginning of the exodus of nurses/caregivers from the Philippines to the US and UK.
This meant that a relatively simple, formulaic and somewhat unoriginal story were mitigated by the caliber of acting that aga and Lea brought to the film.
This meant that the story was personal to many Filipinos whose love ones just had to go to another nation to at least have a chance for a better life.
The movie consisted of few distinct episode.

1. The Aga Leah Relationship in th Philippines. Aga as an ambitious office drone and Lea an ordinary Filipina.
2. Separate Live Aga in the Philippines and Lea in San Francisco. Lea’s path to the American Dream , self reliance and a relatively successful but painful transition to her new life.
3. Together in the US, Aga doing Menial Labor and Lea as a successful Real Estate broker

The point is that Lea has to choose between her life in the US and being with Aga. She chose to leave her life and be with Aga.
The point is when I first saw the film, I think I was 10 or 9 then , It hit me that why is it expected that the girl sacrifices everything for their love to remain. (I have a different perspective now, maybe part of growing up.).
Stupid me was easy to agitate and around 6 years later when I was older and the movie was shown on tv I was still irritated enough that I asked friend and classmates what they thought about the film, and probably more than half of the people I tlaked to didn’t care much for the film, I didn’t find anyone who found that Lea had to sacrifice.
How does this figure into Gender Equality in the Philippines? Its that Filipina women are presently expected to hold jobs and still be like the previous generation’s mothers. In short they are expected to be superwomen.  The crux of the matter is that in the Philippines it is expected and save for a handful of women’s rights groups in the Philippines helping women in their expanded roles are not in my countries psyche.
On a related note because of Nurses (mostly women), domestic helpers, entertainers and the like, their are a growing number of people termed as house husbands. This is refreshing because it is slowly being acceptable. This means that the old mores are slowly giving way to the realities of a small world.
got this article from crooked timber post here :

Gender equality on the slide?

6 August 2008
Support for gender equality in Britain and the US appears to have peaked and could now be going into decline, research at Cambridge University has revealed.
The study, by Professor Jacqueline Scott from the University’s Department of Sociology, found evidence of “mounting concern” that women who play a full and equal role in the workforce do so at the expense of family life.
Although there are no signs of a full-scale gender-role backlash, there does appear to be growing sympathy for the old-fashioned view that a woman’s place is in the home, rather than in the office.
The study appears in a new book, Women And Employment; Changing Lives And New Challenges, which Professor Scott also edited. The majority of the contributors form part of an ongoing research network on Gender Inequalities funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
“The notion that there has been a steady increase in favour of women taking an equal role in the workplace and away from their traditional role in the home is clearly a myth,” she said.
“Instead, there is clear evidence that women’s changing role is viewed as having costs both for the woman and the family.
“It is conceivable that opinions are shifting as the shine of the ‘super-mum’ syndrome wears off, and the idea of women juggling high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortals.”
The survey compared the results of social attitude surveys from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – using recent data from the International Social Survey Programme as well as older polls. Professor Scott focused on the results from Britain, the United States and – because the earlier surveys pre-dated the fall of the Berlin Wall – the former Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).

My parents are doctors, my mom is an ob-gyne and my dad’s a urologist, add to this my aunt and uncles who are either doctors, nurses , medical technologist; going into engineering field meant somewhat alienating myself to a lot of people. But the strange circumstance of my environment also gave me somewhat of an advantage during medical emergencies, I usually keep my head because when I was a child my mom and dad always seem to be the most level headed people around whenever a medical emergency is occurring; this also meant I usually self medicate and during the few times I go to a doctor who I do not personally know, I can usually second guess what he/she is going to do and to prescribe for my symptoms ( the truth is the only reason I go to doctors is to get medical certificates whenever I am absent for classes ).
But most people don’t have the same background and when someone you care about is in trauma or shock or in conditions like asthma and/or allergy attack people need and it is right for us to expect that the web has something of a resource for us to consult with.
Another benefit of this is that we make it easy for medical professionals from poor countries such as the Philippines to be exposed to new medical treatments, clinical techniques etc. Two weeks ago we were having dinner after my mom attended a post-graduate seminar on her specialization, my dad asked her what the topics were and my mom told here new studies, and I asked her what kind of studies were presented , she said mostly they discuss studies done in other countries mostly from US UK Germany France Canada (Industrialized Nations), I just went 3 days in 6 hours of sleep so I was a little slow that night and had to ask why are there no studies made here? My dad said something to the effect of some but effectively none.

Harvard Medical School To Help Build Wikipedia for Medicine
Brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Medpedia will feature content written by experts and scholars

Published On Friday, August 08, 2008 1:45 PM

By JUNE Q. WU
Crimson Staff Writer

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It started with late nights, four crying kids, and a worried father.
James P. Currier, founder and chairman of Medpedia—what aims to become the world’s largest collaborative online encyclopedia of medicine and health—recalls scouring the Web for medical information while comforting a sick child or two. Even for a tech-savvy entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, readily-accessible, credible information was not easy to find online.
“I felt as if medical information on the Web was more underdeveloped than other areas I was used to spending time on the Web with,” Currier said. “I’ve been building Web sites for years, and I felt that there needed to be an upgrade on what was available.”
The Medpedia Project, which Currier aims to launch by the end of the year, is a global effort modeled after Wikipedia, to build a comprehensive medical resource that will be readily accessible and understandable to both health professionals and patients.
In addition to the encyclopedic “wiki” component of Medpedia—which will be edited by approved contributors selected through an internal review process—the online Web site will serve as a professional network for the medical community and a platform for patient groups.
“In the big picture, it’s an attempt to engage the health and medical communities with Web technology, something that is only beginning today,” said Currier, who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1999 and has partnered with scholars at Harvard to launch Medpedia.
Though the free public site will be launched by year end, a preview site is already available.

read whole thing here: