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Isko to resume peace talks if elected to Malacañang

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Braganza: ‘Mayor Isko is sure to be for the resumption of the talks. He was part of it, front, back and center’

Manila Mayor Isko More is likely to resume formal negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) if elected in May, the presidential candidate’s representative told peace advocates in an online forum last Wednesday.

Moreno shall pursue a people-centric approach to the formal peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP, his deputy political officer Hernani Braganza said.

“Mayor Isko is sure to be for the resumption of the talks. He was part of it, front, back and center,” Braganza said.

Moreno attended at least three formal rounds of the GRP-NDFP negotiations, twice in Oslo, Norway in 2016 and once in Rome, Italy in January 2017.

Braganza, himself a veteran government peace negotiator, was part of the GRP Negotiating Panels under the Gloria Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte governments. He also participated in backchannel negotiations under other GRP administrations.

Braganza highlighted that the core of Moreno’s peace agenda is to provide Filipinos with more and participative democratic spaces as well as poverty alleviation.

He said that Moreno recognizes that poverty is the root cause of the armed conflict. “Mahirap pangaralan ang gutom na tao,” he added. (It is hard to reason with hungry stomachs.)

Braganza said he is optimistic that a Moreno GRP would focus on signing agreements on education, housing and employment with the NDFP.

He said that if elected, Moreno is likely to “fast-track” the negotiations and sign agreements within six months to allow his administration to focus implementing agreed-upon socio-economic reforms.

“Remember, each administration only has less than 2,200 days,” Braganza told the online forum Peace and the Presidentiables organized by the Citizens Alliance for Just Peace.

Ready to talk

Braganza affirmed that as long as the NDFP wants to negotiate with the Manila government, Moreno would always be ready to speak for them.

He added he believes Moreno would uphold the milestone documents previously signed by the GRP and the NDFP, including The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

He himself disagrees with a reformulation of the framework of the negotiations that the NDFP would not agree to, Braganza said: “Terms of surrender na iyon kapag ipipilit mong baguhin ang framework ng usapan na hindi sumasang-ayon ang kabilang partido.” (Insisting on changing the framework of the negotiations on the other party is already imposing their terms of surrender.)

Braganza said he assumes Moreno would study proposed agreements initialled by the GRP and the NDFP in June 2018 that included a proposed Stand-Down Agreement, Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks, an Interim Peace Agreement, and an NDFP proposed draft on the Amnesty of jailed NDFP consultants and political prisoners.

“Kung ano ang prosesong maabutan ni mayor, pag-aaralan niya. Pwedeng gawin,” Braganza said. (The mayor [Moreno] would study things where the talks left off. That is possible.)

Braganza said the next president should be innovative in order to end the five decade-long civil war.

“You know, the best innovation is extinguishing what fuels insurgency. Prof. Joma Sison himself told me that the government does not even have to negotiate with the NDF,P as long as it does its job in developing the country, respecting human rights and serving the people,” Braganza said.

According to Braganza, Moreno would be amenable to a reassessment of the terrorist designation of the CPP, NPA and the NDFP but added that he believes that the mayor would push through the with the resumption of the talks even if the terrorist tags are upheld.

He added that that Moreno will likely retain the GRP’s anti-insurgency group National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict but clarified that its policies would be reviewed and its budget realigned to more social services, such as livelihood programs. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘In the first place he is not qualified to be one’

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“Let us respect Isko’s declaration that he is not a communist because in the first place he is not qualified to be one. We should look at him as a high bureaucrat capitalist dedicated to preserving the present anti-national and anti-democratic ruling system and serving the exploitative interests of foreign monopolists, big compradors and landlords, unless he becomes enlightened and proves himself otherwise.” — Jose Maria Sison

Impak ng salitang pabalbal sa ebolusyon ng wikang pambansa

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Ni Carlos Marquez

“HESBI na, erap, at me kadla yota.”

“Teka muna, p’re. Goli muna koaks.”

“Dehins na. Naspu ka na ‘lang.”

“’Pre, dyahi sa katabi sa yepdi. Hobarns koaks.”

“’Pre, sitaks na lang yota.”

Hindi iyan palitan ng mga taga-Mars. Pabalbal na usapang iyan na matagal nang uso – bago pa mag-yorme si Kois.

Ang buod ng usapan: Niyaya ang kabigan dahil may pupuntahan. Maliligo daw muna. Huwag na magpunas ka na lamang. Nakakahiya daw dahil mabaho siya at baka maamoy ng makakatabi si diyep. Sagot sa kanya, magta-taksi na ‘lang sila.

Ang totoo niyan, ang mga pabalbal na salitang Filipino ay naging bahagi na ng kulturang Pilipino at mas matindi ito nuong dekada sesenta. (Ang “balbal” o “pabalbal” ay ang Filipino o Tagalog ng English na “slang”). Ang pabalbal na salita, o tinatawag ding salitang-kanto, ay bahagi ng kasiglahan o dinamiko ng wikang Filipino. Maaaring ang iba sa mga ito ay tanggap na at nakalista na sa opisyal na talasalitaang Filipino. Isa pa itong patunay kung gaano nakakalibang ang Wikang Pambansa.

Nang maihalal bilang mayor ng Maynila ang dating aktor na si Isko Moreno ay kagyat na lumabas muli ang mga pabalbal na salita at naging paksa ng usap-usapan sa maraming dako. (Patunay din ito kung gaano ka-impluwensya ang Maynila – pati tunog nito ay ginagaya. Pati tot-u mabango sa mga probinsyano.) At di-kaginsa-ginsa ay lumabas ang “Diksyunaryo ni Ko-is”. Kasabay ng reinkarnasyon ng Maynila ay nabuhay ding mag-uli ang mga salitang balbal.

Narito pa ang ibang balbal na Filipino na matagal na ring ginagamit ng marami:

Parak, lespu (pulis); iskapo (takas); istokwa (naglayas, mula sa Ingles na “stowaway”); epal (mapapel, mahilig magpasikat); spongklong (istupido); erpat (ama); ermat (ina).

Malaki ang naitulong (?) ng panlipunang media sa paglaganap ng mga balbal na Filipino. Saan nabasa ang “lodi” (pabaligtad na sambit sa Ingles na “idol”), werpa (pabaligtad na “power”), petmalu (pabaligtad na malupit, na isa ring pabalbal na pagsasalarawan ng matindi o kahanga-hanga), tsibog (kain), tsika (tsismis).

Eto pa.

Jeproks, ma-porma; bagets, kabataan; gin-bulag, isang uri ng alak na kapag ininom ay pinaniniwalaang nakakabulag; senglot, lasing; amats, lasing na; albor, hiram o ipaubaya (tulad ng “Albor ko na ‘yan, ‘erap” kung medyo alanganin sa kalaban).

Ayon sa isang guro sa isang paaralan sa Metro Manila sa: “Ang wika po ay dynamic, nagbabago ito kasabay ng panahon. Ang mga salitang Filipino ay namamatay dahil walang application. Hindi nagagamit dahil sa colonial mentality at globalization.”

Hango ito sa sa isang artikulo tungkol sa dinamiko na Wikang Filipino.

Sa halip na ismiran, tanggapin na lamang at maaliw sa mga salitang balbal na patuloy na isisilang ng mga dilang Pinoy sa mga susunod pang salinlahi. #

(Bahagi ito ng serye ng premyadong mamamahayag at makatang si Carlos Marquez hinggil sa wika ngayong Buwan ng Wika.)

Joma asks Isko: ‘What are your plans for the poor vendors?’

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Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairperson Jose Maria Sison asked Manila Mayor Isko Moreno his plans for the poor vendors of Manila who many fears are being swept aside in the ongoing campaign to clear the capital city’s streets of obstruction.

In a video message shown at the end of Moreno’s speech before the Rotary Club of Manila at the New World Hotel in Makati City last Wednesday, Sison asked if Moreno is looking after the poor vendors.

“I have only a simple concrete question: No doubt that it is highly commendable that you have cleared the major streets of Manila of the graft-laden anarchy of vendors. But are there provisions for the poor vendors to peddle their goods in some permissible areas or to have alternative means of livelihood?” Sison asked.

Moreno gamely replied to the question, addressing Sison as “Manong Jo,” an honorific used by both government and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiators.

“What we did was to clear the backbone of the city. Then ang tinatanong po ni Manong Jo, saan natin inilagay ang mga naapektuhan ng pag-aayos? Sila yung inilagay natin sa mga…side street,” Moreno said.

“That is why, when you go to Quiapo, when you pass by Carriedo, open ang Plaza Miranda. You can see Hidalgo and Villalobos, naroroon ang mga mahihirap natin na nagtitinda,” the mayor said.

“So sa inyo ang Carriedo, ang Plaza, sa gilid naman ang mga vendor,” he added.

Before winning in last May’s election, Moreno served as an NDFP peace consultant for the urban poor in its peace negotiations with the Duterte government in 2016 and 2017.

In 2018, Moreno was appointed by President Duterte as Department of Social Welfare and Development assistant secretary.

Screen-grabbed from Isko Moreno’s FB page.

In his video message, Sison recalled it was him who introduced Moreno and Rotary Club of Manila president Jackie Rodriguez in The Netherlands at the time of the fourth round of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines-NDFP peace negotiations in 2017.

Rodriguez is a prominent businessperson from Davao City.

“I wish that they would help each other to bring changes for the benefit of the people of Manila,” Sison said. Sison also recalled another connection between himself, Moreno and Rodriguez in the late showbusiness icon German Moreno who groomed the young actor into stardom early in his acting career.

“I wish to share with ‘Ka Isko’ the fact that German Moreno, or Kuya Germs, his adopted father, was a classmate of Jackie and myself in Letran,” Sison said.

Sison also congratulated Moreno in his “resounding success” in becoming Manila mayor.

“In so short a time, he has done so much to impress the people of Manila and the entire Philippines with his determination and effectiveness in serving the people,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)