Kaya Natin: POLITICAL EDUCATION

SECRECY or TRANSPARENCY?
CORRUPTION or ACCOUNTABILITY?
LIES or the TRUTH?

Where do you stand?
It’s time to take a side.
It's time to believe that there are still many Good Government Leaders in our Country.

The Kaya Natin!
LECTURES
On good governance and ethical leadership
When: May 18, 2009 (Monday) 6-8pm
Where: Miriam College, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City
Admission is Free!
Slots are limited up to 100 participants only.

Listen to the Inspiring Leadership Stories of the
New Kaya Natin! Champions:

Former Mayor Mary Jane Ortega
San Fernando, La Union;
Mayor Florante Gerdan
Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya;
Mayor Roque Verzosa, Jr.
Tagudin, Ilocos Sur;
Mayor Fermin Mabulo
San Fernando, Camarines Sur;

Ginny Villareal at (02) 426-5657
ginnyvillareal@ yahoo.com .

PRG-TF MEETING TOMORROW

The 3rd force will meet tomorrow, May 7, 7pm in Makati, potluck. For details kindly contact with Bro. Pastor Melo at gocarmelo@yahoo.com

- Patrick Pantaleon, Convenor, PRG

On Torturers

Punishing torturers has to have qualifiers. For those who committed the actual torture, they should undergo psychological rehabilitation, and lessons on human rights inside prison cells. For those who masterminded or who signed approval of torture, imprisonment and/or (if imprisoning them endangers the lives of those who would render judgment) they should be committed to community service for thirty years without fanfare.

- Wilhelmina S. Orozco

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND FAITHFUL CITIZENSHIP

My fellow citizens and co-agents for change,

The organizers and participants in this Good Governance Summit hold a singularly unique position of being part of a brain trust that would help chart how to reshape Philippine society in a manner that would promote the common good. We are all on the same page. Getting leaders of different persuasions into one assembly is a major challenge. That you are all here today is a tribute to your openness and capacity for change. We -- you and I -- all share the strategic and exciting role of being change agents.

The use of the term good governance in our country is of recent vintage. It was only about three years ago that global Filipinos, in collaboration with onshore Filipinos with a homogeneous global mindset, started introducing the concept of good governance. Today, civic-minded groups rally around good governance. Even politicians pay lip service to it. Some profess the desire for a "Saul to Paul" conversion and transformation.

The concept is widely encompassing. In the Philippine context, united, just and peaceful governance should establish a strong and prosperous nation -- anchored on grassroots economic empowerment, strengthened by an effective political system where accountability and the rule of law prevail, and nourished by a system where Filipinos proactively and responsibly participate in the mainstream political life.

Freeing the political markets to eliminate or neutralize political monopolies and cartels would encourage gifted, pro-society and upright aspirants to emerge in the political landscape. And what is the role of the general citizenry in bringing about this envisioned change? The answer lies in encouraging faithful citizenship in key modalities for change.

The activities of organizations represented in this Summit cover key areas of involvement by the citizenry, including, among others: 1) voter registration, especially among the youth and global Filipinos; 2) country governance values, principles, policies and programs; 3) leadership qualities, vetting of candidates and enhancement of the clout of the politically marginalized parts of society; 4) public fora and debates; and 5) promoting competition in the political markets to bring the best, brightest and most honest to public service.

One can take comfort in the fact that most elements in civil society have attained a sense of unity of purpose. That element of unity focuses on the common goal of promoting good governance as a means of reaching out for the greatest good of the greatest number.

We encourage all the Summit participants, as well as those outside the Summit – laity and clergy alike -- to be involved in the activity modes that would help bring about change. Only then can we collectively hope to see our country join the community of progressive nations of the world.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo
Ateneo Professional Schools, Veritas Hall, Rockwell, Makati City
April 29, 2006, 1:30-5:30 PM

SUMMIT: PHILIPPINE MARKETING CRISIS

This Summit is a rallying call for the immediate creation
of strategic solutions and pragmatic approaches to Marketing
in order to survive, to thrive and even drive growth in a
recession.

It is an affirmation that Filipinos, cooperatively, can
“move over crisis,” manage the crisis over obstacles.

Topics/Speakers

Philippine Economic Outlook 2009-2010, Prof. Bernie Villegas

Insight Marketing: Probing into the Filipino Consumer in Turbulent Times Yoly Ong

Global Economic Situation: Let’s Look Beyond the Obvious

The Law of Supply and Demand in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry Oscar Sañez

The Role of Government in Boosting Brand PHILIPPINES Cerge Remonde

From 4 P’s to 8 P’s of Marketing: The Expanded Services Marketing Mix Dr. Jochen Wirtz, Ph.D.

Market Driving Strategies Josiah L. Go

The Business Management Systems Model for SME’s Dr. Luz Suplico-Jeong

Changing the Mindset of Filipino Entrepreneurs Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III

Advertising Beyond the Box Dave Guerrero

Reputation Management: The Rise of Public Relations Dr. Nards Garcia

Marketing the Philippine Entertainment Industry: Let’s Celebrate Something Good in Difficult Times Ms. Charo Santos – Concio, To be confirmed.

THE PHILIPPINE MARKETING CRISIS SUMMIT
YES, WE CAN!

June 16-17, 2009
Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza
_____
Anne Bartolome. email.solutions@databasehub.net

Human Right Policy

..."if the past teaches us anything, that unless there is serious prosecution and something beyond simply a legislative investigation, something more binding, something more permanent, that within five or six years, we’ll be faced with another major torture scandal just like this one, except it will be worse, because the world will remember this exposé. They’ll think that we tried to correct, and we didn’t correct, and they’ll realize that this is in fact American state policy, that torture is part of the apparatus of American power." Alfred McCoy

QUIZ: WHERE IS FIJI?

FIJI ELECTION NEWS: How the military took over

Frank Bainimarama (file photo)
Cmdr Frank Bainimarama has ruled out polls before 2014

South Pacific nations have suspended military-ruled Fiji from a regional bloc for its failure to hold elections.

The 16-member Pacific Islands Forum had given Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama until 1 May to set a poll date this year.

But Commodore Bainimarama - who seized power in a 2006 coup - said that elections were impossible before 2014.

Forum chair Toke Talagi said there was no place for "a regime which displays such a total disregard for basic human rights, democracy and freedom".

The suspension means Fiji cannot take part in bloc events or receive development funding from the forum, said Mr Talagi, who is also the premier of Niue.

Cmdr Bainimarama ousted elected leader Laisenia Qarase in December 2006, accusing him of corruption and discrimination against Indo-Fijians.

He says a new constitution is needed before polls can be held and, on Friday, said that he would not be rushed into elections.

In early April a Fijian court ruled that Cmdr Bainimarama's coup was illegal - but President Ratu Josefa Iloilo ignored the ruling and dismissed the judges.

Media restrictions were also tightened and a number of foreign journalists expelled.

Australia and New Zealand have accused Cmdr Bainimarama of running a military dictatorship.

Frank Bainimarama (BBC file photo)

MEETING OF MINDS

The 3rd force will meet on May 7, 7pm in Makati, potluck. For details kindly confer with Bro. Pastor Melo at gocarmelo@yahoo.com

- Patrick Pantaleon, Convenor, PRG

FROM INDIA: ELECTION NEWS

by Soutik Biswas | 10:27 UK time, Friday, 1 May 2009

Mumbai is voting. Across a basketball court inside an "international" school turned polling station in the posh Cuffe Parade area, turnout is a steady trickle. On a notice board outside, the school promises "piped music, air-conditioned classrooms, biometric attendance and wireless internet", among other things, to its students.

Unsurprisingly, the school is in one of the city's smartest neighbourhoods and part of the south Mumbai constituency, infamous for its apathy to politics. Turnout in this constituency has barely touched 30% in previous elections.

I bump into Shilpa Khandelwal, a young clothes designer. She has just cast her ballot at a polling booth at the school. The booths are examples of modest Indian ingenuity: small cubbyholes are partitioned and covered by white cloth and held together by bamboo near the school's hard basketball court.

Ms Khandelwal talks briskly, exuding a confident air. "You know what, the rich and upper middle classes have made a mistake by staying away from politics here," she tells me.

"Politicians are only looking at slums in this debauched voting system," she says with a hint of anger in her voice.

So she has decided to rectify the mistake by casting her ballot this time. It helped that she attended a talk recently about the virtues of the vote; it helped her to understand why ballots can make a difference, "however small".

"I don't remember the person who gave us the talk. But he told us how important it is to vote. We can influence and change a lot of things, even in a small way, by voting" she smiled.

Ms Khandelwal hopes that this time residents of south Mumbai - where last November's bloody attacks took place - will wake up and vote in large numbers. It's three hours into the voting, and she feels that turnout still looks a tad thin.

"For me," she says, "the issues are of good governance, improved security, infrastructure, education". I ask her whether she has a regular supply of drinking water and electricity.

"Oh, all that is fine here."

On the other side of the basketball court, the poor and the hoi polloi of the area vote. They live and work on the margins of this constituency. Shaila Kara Naqvi is waiting for her husband, who owns a small shop selling electrical goods. He is voting inside. She says civic amenities are shabby where she stays. "We have lot of problems with water and electricity. Water just comes on the tap for one hour every day."

BBC INDIA ELECTION TRAIN:Heading to Hyderabad