TRANSNATIONAL CRIME (SEM-CDA)

Transnational crime is a threat to domestic and international interest and security which has to be addressed by individual states. The (PCTC) Philippine Center of Transnational Crime enumerated their six major concerns on the elements of the transnational crimes namely; illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, money laundering, terrorism, arms smuggling, trafficking in persons and piracy. The kidnapping of local and foreign nationals by members of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sipadan, an island resort of Malaysia and a cyber crime involving the spread of a love bug virus that crippled computer softwares worldwide are clear examples of recent crimes falling under this category. The trafficking of Filipino nationals to Italy using Hungary and other countries as transit points and the smuggling of illegal drugs from Mainland China to our shores are some of the frequent transnational crime incidence encountered by Philippine authorities.

The objective of all law enforcement, both domestic and international, is to help maintain the viability of those institutions of state that collectively express the character of a country and embody the commitment of the citizenry to that country. Although clearly open to variation in emphasis and form from state to state, the core principles of the security of nations are; preserving sovereign control over the direction and function of social, political, and economic systems; preserving the interests of their citizenry and maintaining an interest in the stability and functionality of neighbors and affiliated nations. All countries are, at various times and for a range of crimes, both victim and host. Apportioning blame to individual states neither cures crime nor prevents it recurring. It merely serves to marginalize those so labeled, and reduces the likelihood of interventions by those and other states.

One of the responses of the Philippines to this problem is stated in the Executive Order No. 100 s1999 which was signed by President Estrada empowering the PCTC to exercise and control over the “Loop Center of the National Action Committee on Anti-Hijacking and Terrorism (NACAHT), International Criminal Police Organization ICPO-INTERPOL NCB-Manila, Police Attachés of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Political Attachés/ Counselors for Security Matters of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)” (PCTC, 2008)

The most significant threats to regional security and stability are the developing sophistication and globalization of organized crime groups, which are likely to increase their cooperation in areas of mutual interest; all forms of fraud, money laundering, cyber crime, and corruption, which will continue to have a significant impact on regional economies; the increase and diversification in regional drug production, abuse and trafficking; and the likelihood that insurgency groups in the region are likely to become more dependent on crime- particularly drug production and trafficking - to finance their political campaigns.

WORLD VISION (SEM-CDA)

"To follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God” is the stated goal of the international relief and development organization, World Vision. Although the World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization and is inspired by our Christian values, they serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

Globally, this organization helps transform the lives of the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries. It s considered the largest child sponsorship agency globally. In the Philippines, World Vision currently helps improve the lives of more than 120,000 children and 16 million Filipinos in 33 provinces and 44 cities nationwide. In fact, my mother has sponsored a child in World Vision and when I asked her if she has plan of stopping it, she said “If only I earn 9 figures a month, I will sponsor more and more children”. Just like her, helping children is one of my goals in life. I often thank God for being so blessed that I have never experienced looking for someone who can pay for my tuition fee. I have never tried going somewhere just to beg for some money in order to survive. I promised to myself that I will not die unless I have accomplished my goal working with the Lord Jesus Christ in transforming the lives of the poor children.

In line with the economic development, “Philippine poverty threshold recorded at PhP15,057 or 26.9% poverty incidence of families in the whole country. In order to send children to school, provide health care and feed nutritious food, parents has to make a way to increase income. However, the lowering of peso purchasing power coupled with unpredictable weather patterns makes poor Filipino families even more vulnerable”. (World Vision, Phils) An access to capital is not enough to succeed without practical trainings towards family economic growth. The organization believes that in order to enable the poorest of the poor families to meet their needs, a holistic and effective economic development intervention is of utmost importance. Economic Development of World Vision in the Philippines upholds the integrated, holistic development rooted in the description of Jesus’ as a child in Luke 2:52. I hope that no matter what criticisms the World Vision would get from other international organizations, they will continue to change the lives of people. I don’t see anything wrong with their deeds and I know that if anyone would take the World Vision away from the Philippine settings, 1/8 of the population would suffer and that is something that I do not want to happen.

REAL DRAMA.. August 23, 2010

Who will not be saddened and disappointed with the infamous hostage taking drama that happened in the Philippines last August 23, 2010? This incident had a big impact in the Philippines. In fact, I consider this as another slap on our country.

I am a Filipino and I love this country but I can’t help myself not to feel embarrassed on how the authorities handled the whole situation. Why? First, there was only one hostage taker, and how many policemen were present during that time? It was very obvious that our policemen lacked the training, evidently unequipped and highly incompetent. Second, I would like to criticize the role of the media. As a democratic country, citizens have the right to be informed and I believe in the right of free press but I would like to emphasize their limits. The hostage taker is the mere beneficiary of the all the information that the media broadcasted to the public. It is their duty to relay information but they should know their limitations. Next, we could have spared the lives of all the Hong Kong citizens if only the SWAT, the PNP and the government didn’t mess up. My analysis to this one has something to do with the “democracy” that the Philippines has. The growing public concern about the government and media’s compliance with democratic rules are undermining the legitimacy of the freedom. I would not be surprised if the public lose faith in the integrity of the government’s aims for this country.

People say, “The damage has been done”. It only means that people wants to move forward and not to point fingers to anyone. What I know is that ROLANDO MENDOZA is the one primarily to be blamed for this incident. I cannot blame the decisions and actions that the Hong Kong government did. Moreover, I pray that the Philippine government will be able to responsibly learn from this incident in all aspects and I would like the other countries to know that to harm anyone is never and will never be the intention of the “entire” Filipino people.

CHILD SOLDIER (SEM-CDA) August 28, 2010

A very serious issue was tackled last August 28, 2010, it was about Child Soldiers. Through the efforts of the SEM-CDA student and through the help of the two speakers; Sergeant Andrew Kervin Ras and Colonel Dickson Hermoso, Chief Public Affairs Division, OJ7, GHQ, AFP, information needed by the students was just distributed smoothly.

Both speakers provided a brief background on the issue, the government agencies responsible on monitoring the welfare of the children, the actions being taken by the government and their plans on how to combat the child soldiers.

The following are the reasons of involvement of children in armed conflict enumerated by Col. Hermoso:

Source of income, poverty, indoctrination by parents and/or soldiers, seeking justice from, prejudicial experience, in consideration of price or reward and jihad or holy war.

Republic Act 7610, also known as: “Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, signed last June 17, 1992. “An act providing for stronger deterrence and special protection against child abuse. Exploitation and discrimination, providing penalties for its violation and for other purposes”.

It is the policy of the State to provide special protection to children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination, and other conditions prejudicial to their development; provide sanctions for their commission and carry out a program for prevention and deterrence of and crisis intervention in situation of child abuse, exploitation and discrimination.

Although a number of countries have undertaken demobilization and reintegration programs for child soldiers, there remains a dearth of documentation and dissemination of program experience and best practice to guide the countries. It is not enough to just give and give information; what we need now is an action. We shall not wait for more shed of blood from children and innocent people; if third party facilitator can help the Philippines lessen the tension between the Philippine government and the Moros, then the Philippines has to look for a better 3^rd party facilitator immediately even if it would not be easy on our part since it can lead to international conflict.

Honestly speaking, I’m not satisfied with the answer of Col. Hermoso when Ms. Dela Cruz asked him, “who should be the next third party facilitator of the Philippines”.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (SEM-CDA) August 28, 2010

A seminar on “Public Diplomacy” was conducted last August 28, 2010 to help students understand how different government agencies act on certain issues related to the promotion of countries and protection of citizens. The Assistant Secretary of the Department of Tourism, Domingo Enerio became the speaker for that day. First, he gave an introduction of his experience while working in Japan in 1991 because he believes that “experience is the best teacher”. Although at first, he has to undergone adjustments in order to relate well with the nationals in Japan. “Working in the Department of Tourism, you get the chance to experience diplomacy”, he said.

He also encouraged everyone to analyze the situation that happened in the Philippines last August 23, 2010 since the Philippine government and agencies consider the incident as another challenge for the Philippines in promotion of friendly relations with other countries most especially to Hong Kong. Also, he would like the students to be more open-minded; because as a future diplomat, it is our duty to defend our country, to convince other people to invest in our country and to find better ways on how we can help the Philippines to develop. He also stated that “no matter how negative your country is, you always have to defend it because every country has its own beauty”. Moreover, he provided the students some of the activities of the DOT in line with Public Diplomacy (familiarization trip, rebranding and internet campaign) to sustain growth in tourist arrivals and investments, to create opportunities for increased local employment and to create new tourism products and services.

After 30 minutes, we had an open forum. The 1^st question was raised by Katrina Gonzalez; “What are the mechanisms that the DOT would be taking to prove to others that the Philippines is a safe country to visit?” and this is how he answered it “We need to do something to counter this incident. We want to be aggressive but we don’t want the people to see us too aggressive. We need to show to our neighbors that we are sorry for what happened. We have to accept the blame. We’re thinking about “full ads in Hong Kong”. But the Hon Kong said, “Don’t do that yet!” Next plan is; plan of high level of delegation to go over to Hong Kong to express our sympathy. But the HK said, “Don’t come if you don’t have answers yet”. We have to be careful this time with our decisions and actions.

He was able to answer all the questions and I can say that, “he is a good speaker”, because he was he successfully laid down all the information that a future diplomat has to know. The most unforgettable statement he said was “YOU ARE THE NO. 1 AMBASSADOR OF YOUR COUNTRY”.

Major Concerns of Philippine Foreign Policy

Last Monday, August 16, 2010 we discussed the major concerns of the Philippine Foreign Policy which includes; Regional arrangement and multilateral organizations - the Philippines shall promote its national interest in regional arrangements by establishing a solid relations starting from its neighboring countries all the way to the member countries of other international organizations that can provide an improvement to the Philippine economy. The Philippines shall pursue the strengthening of legislative and legal frameworks as well as the structures of institutions and the government shall continue to actively participate in regional/international concern and human rights.

The second major concern is the territorial rights over the South China Sea and Spratly’s Island. There are other claimants to this the said areas such as; China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan making it difficult for the Philippines to just claim it since every country has justification for the territories they have been claiming for. If only the Philippines can develop a strong territorial integrity, we can have a larger claim to these areas.

Next on the list is the direct foreign investment wherein the investment infrastructure and export or lented enterprises shall be promoted. Europe along with US, China, Japan and ASEAN will be sources of direct foreign investments, technology transfer and trade through Development Diplomacy.

Fourth major concern is tourism. One of the objectives of the current president of the Philippines s to attract more foreigners to visit our country that can help improve our economy but the country must improve all the possible areas that can easily attract more foreign investment as visitors traveled in the country.

Lastly, the overseas Filipinos; the government shall continue to provide progressive consular and legal assistance to Filipinos abroad and must strengthen the welfare mechanism for OFWs by aggressively forging new bilateral arrangements with most of the countries. The government shall continue to ensure the interest also of the OFWs since we cannot deny the fact that the Philippines benefit from the remittances the Filipino overseas bring to the country.

US,China & Japan..ASEAN..Islamic Community (August 09)

Philippines and its bilateral relations with the US, China and Japan, Philippine foreign policy in the context of (ASEAN) Association of Southeast Asian Nation and Philippines and its relation with the (OIC) Organization of Islamic Communities were the topics discussed last August 09, 2010. I believe that strengthening Philippine relations with these three States can lead to the betterment of the economy however gaps due to different interests hinder them from establishing a solid bond just like in the case of the China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, who has the power to possess and control it? Not only that, what is the position of the US in this conflict? China has accused the US of interference in the regional dispute over territorial claims in South China Sea and that the US should not “internationalize” the issue where China and other nations have conflicting territorial claims.

Next, in relation with Japan, what were the agreements we had in the past that needs to be improved to ensure better economic relations, (JPEPA) Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement? But one of the most alarming initial findings on the JPEPA are the indicators that the Philippine government has agreed to make the Philippines a dumping ground of Japan’s waste products and hazardous wastes is not the only issue in this agreement that we have with Japan; there are so many lopsided provisions in JPEPA that need to be brought up to the attention of the Filipino people and concerned industries.

In relation with the US, although US has contributed a lot to the Philippines, just like the education system, we cannot hide also the fact that there are also issues between the Philippines and the US just like the Visiting Forces Agreement that has to be amended to achieve equality between the two states that has entered an agreement.

With the ASEAN, P-Noy had his first speech last August 09 stating all his plans regarding the Philippine foreign policy and to sum it up, he would like to have a greater relation with other member-countries of the ASEAN which leads to the development of the Philippine economy.

Lastly, is about the (OIC) Organization of Islamic Conference. We have all the talks and agreements with the Moros since this is one of the issues that the Philippines has been trying to resolved, but is it true that it would have been impossible for the Philippines and the Moros to establish a peaceful talks if it was not because of the OIC? Because I am not that familiar with the OIC and what I only know about it is that, we cannot be a member of this organization becuae majority of the population in the Philippines are Christians, we are not a Muslim country but in my own opinion, being an observer in the OIC should not be an issue since we have the Moros who are so determined with their sovereignty and also, the Muslims have the right to be informed.