Women At Their Best

AT the height of the national elections intramurals last May, presidentitiable Rodrigo Duterte ruffled a few feathers, no thanks to what some perceived his mysogynist words or prejudice against women.

Last September 28-30, at the Apo View Hotel, Davao City, already President Rodrigo Duterte seemed to belie such perception as he promised support of our women in uniform when he spoke before 514 women officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the 9th National Biennial Summit on Women in Community Policing.

Ma. Rosario A. Tumaneng, governor of the Soroptimist International of the Philippines Region (A Foundation) Inc. (SIPR) welcomed the President, and along with other officials, escorted him to the stage.
SIPR co-hosted the Summit because its main concern is to give the best for women and girls— true to the Latin words from where the organization got its name: soror meaning sister and optima meaning best.

Women’s Desk
Clarita T. Ordonez, SIPR Region Membership chairperson, said Soroptimists have been working to improve the status of policewomen in the workplace.
“In the past, policewomen were simply making coffee, or typing reports for their male bosses, or working as receptionists in PNP offices, ” she said.
To change things, SIPR worked on training policewomen for supervisory work and command posts, plus gender sensitivity education for PNP generals.
Improving the work status of policewomen is actually part of the general mandate of Soroptimists to uphold the welfare of women and girls.
“Women victims of crime— for example, rape— find it difficult to discuss their ordeal to policemen,” Ordonez said. “They are more comfortable talking about the sordid details to fellow women.”
Thus, SIPR well supported the program to establish the PNP Women’s Desk in all police stations throughout the country. And SIPR has been implementing the Adopt a PNP Women’s Desk, to take care of its needs.
The recent Summit further tackled the role of policewomen in issues concerning women such as  leadership in the community, anti-sex trafficking, understanding the psyche of generation types (Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials),  fitness and wellness.
“For the first time, topics such as spirituality and achieving inner peace was included in the Summit,” Ordonez said.

Drug War, Human Rights
During the Summit, President Duterte, as he has been promising to the men in uniform, also assured support of the women in uniform, even giving them a lecture on the legitimate way to confront criminals.
“Just do your duty … and do it right,” he said.
And then some more: P1-million seed money for the women’s social fund; P2,000 worth of per diem for each participant; plus raffle prizes—two Glock-30 handguns and a .45 ACP handgun given to him  from a manufacturer as a token of their appreciation of his anti-drug campaign, and a promise of salary increase by 2017.
Tumaneng said SIPR is “apolitical” but as part of its mission to protect women and girls, Soroptimists have long advocated for upholding human rights.

Mitzi Piad, president of SIPR Lucena, said as part of their mission to protect women and girls, Soroptimists long advocated for upholding human rights.
Every year SIPR celebrates Human Rights Day set in the second week of December.
This year, the celebration will be held at theArmed Forces of the Philippines’ Camp Aguinaldo on December 4, which will also be the organization’s Christmas fellowship.
War On Water
The Soroptimists have another battle which, as environment advocates have warned, may spark the next  World War: the war on water.

The recent Summit also included the topic Conserve Water Now for a Healthier Future discussed by Lourdes M. Javier, SIPR Advocacy chairperson.
Javier said the SIPR program includes  education of women and girls in the proper use of water, in such daily chores as washing clothes or watering plants, and teaching them on simple ways of purifying water.
On a larger scale, the program includes campaigning for women’s easy access to clean, drinking water to protect them and their children from water-born diseases,  as well as irrigation and regulation of commercial use of water, and adopting rivers and mangroves to save them from pollution.

SIPR New Website
Marilyn Ang, SIPR Four Pillar-Public Awareness chairperson, presented  the new website of SPIR, http://www.sorotimistphil.com.

Minda Garcia, SIPR Fund Development Council chairperson,  said the website includes the organization’s identifying projects, four pillars of success—membership, program, public awareness, and fund raising— resources and news.

All to fulfill the Soroptimist mission: to make a difference for women and girls through volunteer community service work.

The Soroptimists with the Bulong Pulungan Core Group.

–Cynthia U. Santiago    Photos by Ed L. Santiago

GSIS partners with PhilPost to update pensioners’ records

GSIS partners with PhilPost to update pensioners’ records

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) recently forged an agreement with the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) for the updating of records of all active GSIS pensioners aged 80 years old and above, and to ensure the uninterrupted payment of their pension.

The partnership aims to reach and serve pensioners who are residing in remote areas. It also complements GSIS’s existing program with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA, formerly NSO) on the monitoring of pensioners’ status.

PhilPost couriers, bearing letter of introduction from the GSIS, will deliver GSIS status verification forms (GSVF) to pensioners based on their registered addresses, and undertake the following validation activities:
§ Confirm the pensioner’s identity by asking personal information questions

§ Cross-check the information on the eCard, UMID card, or other valid IDs of the pensioner with those in the GSVF

§ Take photos of the pensioner
PhilPost started the delivery of the GSVF last September 2, 2016. Around 64,000 pensioners nationwide will be covered by the activity.

What’s Done, What’s Being Done, What I Can Do

 

HOW did 3 million victims of illegal drugs happen? How am I responsible for this? Have I done something to curb this plague in my country?
Anyone who has something to say about the issue must first answer these questions.

One who has well answered these nagging questions is Martin Infante, president of the Self Enhancement for Life Foundation Inc. (SELF).

SELF started with Martin Infante, a former drug user, who came to the Bulong Pulungan media forum at Hotel Sofitel last Tuesday, September 27,  to present what SELF has done and what else can be done to rid us of this drug menace.
Martin said he suffered drug addiction for 20 years. His family had to trick him to get him into a therapeutic community. He got sober and from there he worked on building the SELF  facility in Taal, Batangas.

Martin pointed out that the therapy he underwent was different from the usual treatment in rehab centers where patients went through excruciating pain before they got rid of their addiction, yet suffered relapses afterwards.
What Martin went through is called the Therapeutic Community (TC) approach.
“It’s one of the most effective behaviour modification programs in the world, “ he said.

Martin said the TC approach is based on the precept that getting into drugs and eventually getting into addiction are rooted to behaviour or attitude disorder.
So, aside from clinical therapy or use of medicines to heal the physical symptoms, TC provides comprehensive behaviour shaping and value formation program to heal not only the physical ailment but the mental, emotional, and spiritual maladies that the resident must had been going through even before he became drug dependent— the reasons he resorted to drugs in the first place.

At the end of the day, the victim must realize he is not alone–he has friends, family, and community supporting him, and he can  also believe,  “God’s got my back,” Martin said.

 

Leah Tumbado, SELF program director, said the TC approach has three stages:
Stage 1:
Treatment— 11 months of medical, psychological, and psychiatric assessments which include counselling and motivational group activities;
Self Discovery— 10 months regimen of daily activities and therapy sessions so residents “learn to resolve inner conflicts that lie at the core of their addictive behaviour.”
Stage 2:
Self Formation— 3 months of integration in rehabilitative stage of development;
Self Direction— 4 months of staying in a half-way house where residents undergo a facilitators training course to prepare them to take charge of key operations in the facility while others assume blue-collar tasks.
Stage 3:
Professional Integration— 6 months of after-care where residents are given option to work for SELF or pursue a career outside the facility.
Supervised Practicum and Internship Program—Interns work to acquire advanced skills i program administration even as they enjoy regular consultations with the staff to evaluate career path options.
Family Empowerment—the entire family are included in the program through the monthly Family Association Meeting so family understand the TC approach and participate actively in the healing process.

Healing Is Not Cheap
The SELF program is not cheap— costs P50,000 per resident per month of therapy and stay in the Taal facility. The therapy takes 34 months and thus costs a total P1.7 million.
“To encourage families to continue the therapy program, we offer easy payment schemes,” Martin said.
What’s important is the resident stays, gets sober, does not suffer relapses, and instead becomes a productive and responsible member of society, Martin added.

What To Do

Now, how can this be done for the hundreds now coming forward and admitting they are victims?

There is hope for them, Martin said.

SELF’s next big step is to put up a facility for training trainors— to share SELF’s success to those  who want to learn the TC approach.
Now, President Duterte said some military facilities and even a shabu lab discovered in Pampanga will be converted into rehab centers.
Even the Catholic church, though not totally in agreement with what’s happening, announced it would put up rehab facilities.

“If the Church is responding, I am happy,” Martin said.

 

Now, what can I do? Just what I had just done, like the Bulong media core (here with the SELF officers and staff)  had done, for whatever it’s worth: feature what’s good about the fight against the drug menace…before I say anything else.

—Cynthia U. Santiago   Bulong Pulungan photos by Ed L.Santiago

SELF facility photo reproduced from The SELF Journal

Dinner with Martin Andanar

THE soup was Bulalo— beef with string beans, cabbage, potatoes, and corn on a cob. He took a portion of the corn. And, using fork and knife, he sliced the corn kernels off the cob.
Little did he know, he caught the attention of the people around him…the conversations stopped for a quick second… and then someone commented, “You are doing it differently.”
You know, usually, you simply bite the corn kernels off the cob. You need not use fork and knife.
“It’s easier this way,” he said.

Little did he know, what he had just done may be symbolic of what he’s been into of late. For like using fork and knife to slice corn kernels off the cob, the man he joined to serve the country with is using what is perceived as sharp, unorthodox means to rid the country of its many ills, foremost of which is the drug menace.

Martin Andanar is the new chief of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte who, yes, is doing things differently— since, he said, he promised a major change in this country.

Andanar himself realized his new job isn’t at all easy.  That’s what he told the people around him— the core members of the Bulong Pulungan media forum who sat with him for dinner at the XO 46 Heritage Bistro in Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig, on Monday, September 26. From left, Mandy Navasaro, me, Jullie Yap Daza, Domini Torrevillas, Deedee Siytangco, Mila Alora, and Rina David.

Tough Job
There are two reasons Martin Andanar finds his new job difficult.
One, you cannot simply put President Duterte in a box: “He does not follow (prepared) speech given him.”
We all know that by now.
Two, Andanar did not expect everything the President says would be digested into various political issues: “I’d been naive. I never realized people would be nitpicking over every detail of what the President says.”
He knows that by now.

What He Knows
As PCO chief, Martin Andanar has a two-pronged job description: he is in charge of presidential communication and he manages government communications.
Communication means imparting or exchanging of information or news. Andanar serves as spokesperson for President Duterte in the absence of designated spokesperson Emilio Abella.
Communications is about the various ways of sending information such as mail, radio, telephones, or computers. As PCO chief, Andanar is in charge of managing the government’s news and information agencies, television and radio stations including the  Philippine Information Agency, PTV-4 and the Philippine Broadcasting System (PBS) Radyo ng Bayan.

From Xavier to TV5
Secretary Andanar  comes to the job with more than enough academic and professional preparation.
He went to Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro for his elementary and high school education.
He said he started his college education at the University of the Philippines, but stayed there only for one year.
“I went AWOL,” he laughed. “I started to go into broadcasting already.”
Then he joined his family in Australia and his bio shows he earned his bachelor’s degrees in social and political studies, and film and media studies at the Federation University of Australia.
He is actually prepared for public service as he studied at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown University, Northern Illinois University, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
And he may even succeed in business as he also studied entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
With his media studies, Andanar eventually made good as a media practitioner, to name a few: on television— Aksyon sa Umaga, Aksyon TV; on radio: Punto Asintado on Radyo5 92.3 News FM; and online— News5Everywhere, the news video and audio portal of TV5.
He was named Best Male Newscaster during the 18th PMPC Awards for Television in 2004, as well  as during PMPC’s 22nd, in 2008.

Politics, Marriage, and Cars
With his social and political studies, Andanar, naturally, would get into the political derby.
He said he got active during the early stages of Cory Aquino’s political journey, as well as those of Ramon Mitra. And since Mitra was supported by Manny and Cynthia Villar, he got acquainted with Cynthia’s brother, Nene Aguilar, then Las Pinas mayor, whose daughter Alelee is now Andanar’s wife.
He also made good use of his entrepreneurship course, as he went into the car repair business. And President Noynoy Aquino was a client.
“He once asked me to repair his cars,” he related to the Bulong core.

The Duterte Connection
Andanar said in 2016, he thought of finally going into business for good.
“I felt I was on some crossroads, and I thought of turning from media to entrepreneurship— establish a fiber optics company,” he said.
But then Rodrigo Duterte decided to run for President.
Earlier, as broadcast journalist, Andanar reported on Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s radical fight against criminality in his city. And Andanar beat everybody else for the first-ever exclusive podcast interview with Duterte in March 2015.
As Destiny must have it, Andanar came face to face with Duterte again when they both happened to be godparents at the baptism of a friend’s baby in August 2015.

Off-the-Record

As Duterte eventually became presidentiable, he asked Andanar who could run as his vice president. So Andanar gave some suggestions.
“Who?”
He wouldn’t tell.
“Off-the-record,” the Bulong ladies egged him on.
“Off-the-record?”
“Yes!”
“Off-the record…” he repeated, manifesting that this early, he seemed no longer naive about his dreaded nitpicking.
He then continued with his choices for vice president, which we can’t tell because, didn’t you hear? It’s off-the-record.
That’s the Bulong part of the dinner.

Filling In the Blanks
From that second encounter with Rodrigo Duterte, Martin Andanar, a native of Cagayan de Oro— a Mindanaon— was a name Duterte would remember when he was already filling in blanks on his Cabinet list.
Yes, the Communications department went to Andanar who efficiently, finally, got the dinner conversation segue from the DU30s into his department’s DOs.
One, the three communication departments of the past dispensation was put into just one department, the PCO, so that as in the olden days, there’s just one press secretary.
Two, he’s got some projects for PCO like continuing President Duterte’s Sunday TV program, coming out with a tabloid, establishing a national information hotline, and expanding the various agencies under PCO.
Three, aside from the favorite media frenzy on the Drug War, PCO is bringing people’s attention to other important government programs— economy, environment, the works— to present what this administration has accomplished in its first 100 days on October 7.

Why He is Named Martin 

Martin Andanar was born on August 21, 1974, and named Jose Ruperto Martin Marfori Andanar.

Now 42, and towering at 6’2”, Martin said he was actually  a sickly baby so his mother added Martin to his name, after St. Martin de Porres of Lima, Peru, who ministered to the sick and thus was known to be patron saint of public health workers.
Today, he is not in the health department but Andanar is in the thick of the fight against the many ills plaguing the country.
“All I wanted was to serve the country,” he said.
He and his boss need all the intercession they can get from all the saints they can believe in to bring this country to good health.
No, it ain’t as easy as slicing corn kernels off the cob.

— Cynthia U. Santiago   Photos by Ed L. Santiago