One of the most nightmarish experiences that any Filipino or foreigner can experience in this country (if they survive) is to spend time in our prisons. Thus, every kind of maneuver is made by those who manage to avoid incarceration — be it suddenly getting sick after years of carrying on healthily and checking into a hospital with a convenient serious diagnosis of illness from a compliant doctor, to effectively running away from the law and becoming a fugitive. Other variations of escaping the brutish conditions that our prisons have been allowed to come to, is to ask a judge to order confinement at the NBI or the PNP temporary incarceration places where the public is on view and vice versa. Then perhaps the conditions are less obviously dreadful, the bullies or other evil denizens that prisons have within their bowels are on public view, a minority, and therefore controllable.

Ma. Isabel Ongpin

Uncomfortable to dreadful to horrible as conditions are in the national penitentiaries, far worse are the city jails where prisoners who have not been tried, have no date for their trials, are seemingly forgotten by the authorities, are packed without any concern to the conditions of overcrowding, the resulting heat from too many bodies in one place and the unsupervised behavior of one to another. The lack of fresh air, the inability to lie down or sit down, maybe having to keep standing for lack of space, brings out the worst in those who have to endure it. Here sleep is impossible except in relays. These are the ultimate hellholes of prisons that we have allowed to degenerate far below humane standards of confinement.

Our prisons are grossly and dangerously overcrowded. Under these conditions, bullies and their supporters (for self-defense and for whatever reason) proliferate, cannot be controlled and cause mayhem, havoc and murder. The weak, the inexperienced, the young become victims.

Police authorities or prison custodians are few and the prisoners are many. That is one reason why these custodians are apt to be distant, even afraid of the mass of prisoners so that they are allowed to rampage. Some authorities prefer to let the toughies persecute the meek, a sin of omission that brings on dire consequences.

No need to tally here the kind of food given from the miserable budget allowed, beside the number of prisoners to be fed.

Human dignity and humanitarian conditions are not in the universe of these prisoners. These prison conditions have been here for decades. Why is there no attempt at reform, no compassion for the locked-up? And what about practical steps like building better, more humane prisons?

Only private do-gooders, religious members, some educational institutions who concern themselves with prisoners mitigate the conditions but only in penitentiaries. And as outsiders, they cannot quite reach everyone or do enough. City and town jails are usually overlooked because of the idea that prisoners are there temporarily which is far from true. Many stay for years, even decades without being tried.

In the last administration there was a public/private project to build a large, modern (presumably humane) prison facility in Nueva Ecija. It was about to be bid out, but for whatever reason the project fell through. This administration seems to have put it on hold, which perpetuates, if not worsens, the already dreadful prison conditions. In the Build Build Build world, is there no room for a humanitarian priority like new facilities for prisoners?

Aside from better physical facilities, there is a need for more professional rehabilitation procedures like education, livelihood activities, psychological help, spiritual guidance and a general acceptance that prisoners are human beings that can be rehabilitated. Only private parties seem to be aware of these needs. Government policy seems to be indifferent.

Unfortunately, our prison officials are not trained custodians but retired personnel from other careers, mostly military, thrust into being prison managers. They see their positions as temporary, tolerate the onerous conditions in jails, are passive to the need for reform or make an overall judgment that criminals do not deserve compassion or assistance.

Considering our slow and inefficient justice system, the inequality in our society, and the poor quality of police crime investigation work, as well the latest draconian treatment of loiterers and street habitués who are willy-nilly incarcerated, injustice is rampant. A good number of prisoners who are convicted are fall guys, convicted of crimes that they were not masterminds of but were paid accomplices or maybe even innocent bystanders. Drug addicts in jail are mostly poverty-stricken users, not the big-time drug lords. And if there are big-time drug lords, check out the kubos, the amenities and luxuries that they somehow continue to enjoy while incarcerated. They are so much more important than others that their testimonies are given worth.

The above presents a slew of social problems in the justice system of our society. How to solve them will be a herculean task of delivering equal justice for all. One little first step, perhaps seemingly inconsequential, would be to have a more humane incarceration of our fellow human beings, in equality and justice, and with concern and compassion.

This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines

WE take our natural environment too much for granted. Look how we treat trees in urban area; we marginalize them by crowding them with structures, damaging their roots, cutting off branches disrespectfully, cluttering their surroundings with concrete, fire, trash. Notice how signs for plumber and electrician services or advertisements are thoughtlessly nailed to their trunks. Sometimes we even fell them and one mindless excuse is that their leaves require much effort to sweep away. Yet trees are necessary for shade, temperature control, aesthetics.

All of nature has a purpose in this world. Open spaces, water bodies, foliage, grass and what comes with them—birds, insects, animals—are essential to the health of the planet.

While some of us accept and appreciate our environment, most of us do not think that in present circumstances of modernity, particularly in urban areas where there is population density and structures galore, perhaps Nature needs a helping hand to stay alive and well.

This means Nature does not only need to be conserved and protected but it needs to be expanded.

Real estate developers should be more positive about the environment. They should include it in every project not just allowing what is there of the natural environment to play a role but to expand and enhance it. Landscaping in the grand and meaningful sense should be part of any real estate development. Thus, open spaces, water bodies, trees, grass and flowers should be part and parcel of every project they undertake. These must be created. The natural environment in real estate should not be a token but an emphatic ingredient.

Governments, both local and national, should lead the way. Infrastructure should not be confined to the building of roads, bridges, transport, structures. It should blend them with greenery, foliage, trees, water bodies to bring about health, aesthetics and the well-being that Nature gives human beings. In the infrastructure now in place in our country, the addition of greenery and taking away over-cemented areas (as in our town plazas) to bring them closer to Nature would be a worthwhile positive action.

Our country is blessed with a pleasant tropical climate, humidity, two seasons, a rich biodiversity of plants and trees. But let us not leave it at that but take a more active role in bringing them to our urban areas, our public spaces, our homes and institutions. We should have healthy indoor plants in our buildings and homes, plant the unique and varied endemic trees we have in our public spaces. We must have Nature in our daily surroundings for our physical and mental health.

I notice that in the concrete jungle that is New York City there are numerous pocket parks with trees, flowers and greenery that mitigate the harshness of cement. Jakarta, a crowded Asian metropolis like our Metro Manila, has giant trees and open spaces in its downtown area which give it a singular tropical touch so fitting to it. Kolkata has the Maidan, a huge park with no structures, no stalls, no commerce, just open space, greenery and trees for the public to enjoy.

Lately, I came across Berlin’s park, the Tiergarten, in the middle of the city. Formerly a royal hunting ground it was turned into a park. Affirmative action was taken by adding to its area, buying up more land until the park area reached 250 hectares in total. Then it was planned by professional landscapers who designed walkways, ponds, hedges, flowers and trees.

World War II created havoc. Bombing, food scarcity necessitating vegetable gardens, the need for fuel in the bleak postwar winters felled the trees. It was a ruin with only 700 trees left out of 200,000. But the public’s belief in having the park brought it back. The local government brought in 220,000 trees between 1949 and 1959 to rehabilitate the park. They were planted and nurtured with Berlin s postwar mayor, Ernst Reuter, personally planting a linden tree. The Tiergarten is a park again, a natural environmental space that has been given a place in one of the world s most modern and progressive cities.

There are lessons we can learn and apply from the above examples. One is that Nature is part of life in this planet. Another is that Nature has to be nurtured and protected and expanded.

This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines

After my remarks on impunity last week, a friend brought to my attention a disturbing study on Impunity (via InterAksyon), showing that among 59 countries, the Philippines led in the Global Impunity Index.

MA. Isabel Ongpin

The so-called Global Impunity Index has been drawn up after extensive recent research by the Impunity and Justice Research Center of the Universidad de las Americas, a private university in Pueblas, Mexico.

The study focused on 59 countries out of 193 United Nations members. Only 59 were included because of the unavailability of updated information from the rest.

Sadly, the Philippines led the Global Impunity Index among the 59 countries studied, at 80 percent. It was followed by Mexico (where Universidad de las Americas is situated) at 75.7 percent, Colombia at 75.6 percent, Turkey 68.7 percent, Russia 67.3 percent. At the opposite end, meaning the countries low in the Impunity Index, were Croatia at 27.5 percent, Slovenia 28.2 percent, Czech Republic 34.8 percent, Montenegro 34.9 percent, Bulgaria 37.5 percent. In between were South Korea 63.3 percent, US 56.4 percent, Japan 49.3 percent, Spain 53.6 percent, Singapore 46.4 percent, Germany 43.1 percent.

The study divided impunity into three dimensions – security, justice and human rights – and used 14 factors to measure them. Alas, the Philippines did not show good results in any. Five factors related to problems of security, which are not so much how many policemen are in the streets but how they carry out their operations. We have seen and experienced the errors of law enforcement here as we speak, which redounds to the capacity and preparation of the police in particular.

Another five factors related to justice in reference to its administration and delivery. Here the low rate of judges to citizens resulting in delay in the delivery of justice (surely including the venality within the system) explains the high levels of impunity that are present and perceived. Under these circumstances, wrongdoers just game the justice system and impunity results.

The last four factors refer to human rights, of which clear violations are witnessed daily in the implementation of the law or keeping order. Recent events, particularly those showing the dismal attention and respect of human rights in law enforcement show that they are under siege here.

The interesting conclusion of the study is that corruption stems from impunity, not the other way around. People become corrupt when they know they can get away with it.

Having good laws are not enough. They must be implemented firmly, even-handedly and in a timely fashion. Furthermore, inequality, not wealth, fuels impunity. Countries of unequal economic levels are the ones who fail to give equal access to security and justice. Comparatively, countries with medium and high levels of human development (less stark levels of inequality) perform better.

With the above study’s conclusions showing our level of impunity, we, as a society, must demand equality from all authority be it from schools, the police, business, the judiciary, legislators, basic services, all government agencies, including ourselves, that we implement the rules that we have in place and dispense justice according to their letter and spirit.

We cannot accept being the leading country for impunity. Public opinion has to come out strongly in various ways to demand reform. We cannot tolerate that perpetrators, for example the media killers, are not brought to account, that law enforcement officers or any authorities are ineffective against these repeated crimes that go unpunished (the definition of impunity).

In these cases and in all others regarding law violators, criminal cases must be filed and disposed of as the law requires – on time and in fairness. Administrative and disciplinary rules are not exempt from enforcement with neither fear nor favor. Accused wrongdoers must face timely investigation, arrest, trial and punishment if found guilty. And reparations must be given to the victims be it persons or the state.

There may be worst-case scenarios of impunity out there among the 80 plus countries that were not studied because they did not give enough data to be included in the research. But for now we must bear the burden and accept the challenge to turn things around from having the worst “structure of the security system” and “the security system of human rights.”

This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines

Hunger still stalks many of our countrymen. It is particularly destructive with our children who, because of poverty, do not get enough to eat, become vulnerable to disease and exploitation and end up unhealthy, uneducated and unhappy. Uneducated because the need to eat superimposes itself over everything, so that all their waking hours are spent looking to satisfy hunger, eschewing going to school. Unhappy because in the long run, without education, there will be a long, hard climb to get a job; most of all, a job that will provide a decent livelihood.

MA. Isabel Ongpin

But there are still many poor children who are hungry, and because of the circumstances of their lives where hunger is a leading factor, do not go to school.

Senator Grace Poe, a presidential candidate in the last elections, had on her campaign platform the establishment of a feeding program for children in the initial and early years of going to school. Recently, Sen. Miguel Zubiri has declared that he will file a bill for a nationwide feeding program in grade schools.

This idea should come to be passed in a law, with a budget so that it will become an established reality in our society.

A feeding program that can provide at least one healthy meal a day for children who go to school will be a boon both for the child and his family as well as for the schools. The feeding program could be a learning experience for the parents (who should be drafted to help prepare it) by giving them a pragmatic example of how to prepare the right ingredients taken from our plant and animal resources that will provide the sustenance, which children need to grow and to study. Providing a meal will keep the children in school and, thus, promote universal education among them.

Some private schools, foundations and other charities are already engaged in feeding programs for children. They provide healthy meals using local ingredients like monggo (mung bean), winged beans, some fish and meat in modest proportions together with rice. And at times fruits like bananas and other available and affordable kinds that are in season.

These meals make a world of difference. They stimulate the children to go to school, keep them from feeling hungry, make them alert to the lessons and activities at hand in the school. They also relieve parents for one meal so they can lessen some stress in their lives.

A nationwide feeding program would be a tremendous leap forward toward millennium goals of education and health. It will be a huge undertaking requiring a large budget, relatively speaking. But it can be done modestly and effectively if managed well. So far, the DSWD, which is handling the Conditional Cash Transfer Program, has been doing a creditable job. Anecdotal evidence shows poverty-stricken families in cities and rural areas getting the monthly subsidy that keeps them alive in health and hope. With its current experience, DSWD can tackle a feeding program in coordination with the Department of Education. Or, the Department of Education with the advice and experience of DSWD on the Conditional Cash Transfer Program can manage the feeding program in the schools. Local government units can be part of this.

If there’s need to be an introduction of a nationwide feeding program by stages, perhaps the first stage should be in Mindanao, where poverty rates and school dropout rates are higher. The evacuation centers should be targeted. The uplands, the coasts and the river deltas, wherever people live, should have feeding programs via the schools. Eventually, the program should expand to the Visayas and Luzon, where they, too, have high poverty rates as in the Cordilleras, the Bicol Region and Eastern Visayas, especially in areas where typhoon Yolanda created death and destruction.

If one observes the few feeding programs that are established in some schools and see the effect on their beneficiaries, one will be convinced that under current poverty and hunger conditions, this is one good, effective and compassionate way to go.

Legislators, please work to achieve what is desperately needed by our hungry children.

This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines