GENERAL MANUEL TINIO - YOUNGEST GENERAL IN THE KATIPUNAN
Manuel Tinio was born to Silveria on June 17, 1877 in Licab, a barrio of Aliaga that became an independent municipality in 1890. He was the only son and had two sisters, the eldest, Maximiana, married Valentin de Castro of Licab and Catalina, the youngest, married Clemente Gatchalian Hernandez of Malolos, Bulacan. Manuel was his mother's favorite, his father having died when Manuel was twelve.
When the Philippine-American War broke out on Feb. 4, 1899, General Manuel Tinio, military governor of the Ilocos provinces and commanding general of all Filipino forces in Northern Luzon, had 1,904 men (the "Tinio Brigade" ), consisting of 68 officers, 1,106 riflemen, 200 sandatahanes or bolomen, 284 armorers, 37 medics, 22 telegraphers, 80 cavalrymen, 105 artillerymen and 2 Spanish engineers.
He distributed them along the more than 270-kilometer coast from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Province to Bangui, Ilocos Norte Province.
Two American reporters, Sargent and Wilcox, described the coastal trenches in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur Province: "On the shore at Salomague, there is a fortification about five feet high and one hundred fifty feet long. This barricade is built of sticks arranged in two rows and filled in between with sand and coral stones. Its walls are about four feet thick, and it is built in the form of a crescent with the concave part toward the sea.
By April 1899, Tinio had built 640 defensive trenches from La Union Province to Ilocos Norte Province. They were designed by Gen. Jose "Pepe" Alejandrino, a Belgian-educated engineer from Pampanga Province.
In November 1899, General Tinio, who was based in Vigan, Ilocos Sur Province, was ordered to go down south to Pangasinan Province to block the Americans pursuing Aguinaldo and his party who were retreating northward. His deputy, Gen. Benito Natividad, stayed on as post commander in Vigan with a few officers and 50 riflemen.
After losing to the Americans at San Jacinto (November 11) and Pozorrubio (November 15), General Tinio withdrew to La Union Province to continue protecting Aguinaldo's retreat. He engaged and delayed the Americans in Rosario, Sto. Tomas , and Aringay. This gave Aguinaldo's retreating party enough time to reach Candon, Ilocos Sur Province, on November 21, from where Aguinaldo decided to move east to the mountains in the interior.
On November 23, Aguinaldo reached the highland town of Angaki (now Quirino), Ilocos Sur Province, and stayed there until the end of the month. Tinio withdrew his forces to Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Province, and later moved on to San Quintin, Abra Province.
On November 26, the warships U.S.S. Oregon, U.S.S. Samar, and U.S.S. Callao bombarded Caoayan, Ilocos Sur Provinceand, unopposed, landed 201 volunteer infantrymen and marines led by Lt. Col. James Parker.
The Americans proceeded to occupy the adjacent town of Vigan, the provincial capital. The post commander, Gen. Benito Natividad, and his men, had evacuated the town at the onset of the shelling of Caoayan.
Brig. Gen. Samuel BM Young, who was chasing Aguinaldo and Tinio relentlessly; reached Candon on November 28. He learned that Aguinaldo was at Angaki, 25 kms. away to the southeast, while Tinio was up north some 40 kms. away. Young realized immediately that General Tinio's purpose in taking his forces to the north was to lead the Americans away from following Aguinaldo. Forthwith, he sent Lt. Col. Robert Howze's battalion to Concepcion, Ilocos Sur Province, to resume the pursuit of Aguinaldo, while the bigger part of his force marched towards the north in an attempt to destroy the Tinio Brigade, the last remaining army of the Republic.
On November 29, Tinio was positioned about 20 kilometers south of Vigan at Tangadan Pass, located between Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Province, and San Quintin, Abra Province.
Not too far south of Tinio was Tirad Pass, Concepcion, where General Gregorio del Pilar was killed a few days later on December 2 while trying to block the American pursuit of Aguinaldo.
On November 30, Aguinaldo and his party left Angaki for Cervantes, Ilocos Sur Province. As the latter offered good conditions for defense and an abundance of food, Aguinaldo planned to stay there for a long time and defend himself.
On December 2, on the same day that Del Pilar died at Tirad Pass, Aguinaldo fled from Cervantes. He and his entourage endured the long, difficult trek over the Cordillera mountain range, until they descended on the Cagayan Valley on May 28,1900. Aguinaldo finally established himself at Palanan, Isabela Province, on September 6, 1900.
On December 4, at 2:00 a.m., Tinio's men, estimated to number 800, sneaked into Vigan under cover of darkness and attacked Company B, 33rd Infantry Regiment of US Volunteers (USV), which consisted of 153 soldiers. Severe street fighting ensued and continued for four hours until the Filipinos were driven out.
The Annual Reports of the United States War Department 1903, in its summary of major engagements in the Philippines, listed 8 Americans killed and 3 wounded, and 100 Filipinos killed at Vigan. A separate report added that 32 Filipinos and 84 rifles were captured.
Four US soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for heroism at Vigan. They were: Lt. Col. Webb Cook Hayes (son of former US Pres. Rutherford Hayes), Lt. Col. James Parker, Pvt. James McConnell and Pvt. Joseph Epps. General Young ordered a general assault upon Tangadan Pass in the afternoon of the same day of the Vigan attack. Companies F, G and H of the 34th Infantry Regiment, USV, engaged the Filipinos for 3 hours. In the dark of night, they were able to climb an adjacent hill without being noticed. Realizing that their position had now become indefensible, the Filipinos withdrew, leaving 35 dead. Thirteen Americans were wounded.
General Tinio and his men returned to San Quintin, Abra Province.
The following day, December 5, the Americans attacked San Quintin and Bangued in succession. Tinio withdrew to Dingras, Ilocos Norte Province then proceeded to Solsona, Ilocos Norte Province. He spent the next couple of months in the mountains of Solsona, where he began fortifying the peak of Mt. Bimmauya, northwest of Cabugao, Ilocos Sur Province.
The Americans at Vigan were soon reinforced by 160 men shipped from San Fabian, Pangasinan Province.
Lt. Col. James Parker (LEFT) proceeded north from Vigan past Cabugao and reached Batac, Ilocos Norte Province on December 7. The U.S.S. Wheeling landed more marines and army troops farther north in Laoag and Bangui on December 10. On December 17, United States troops captured the Cabugao and Sinait trenches and had Tinio's men, under Capt. Francisco Celedonio, on the run.
In the middle of the night on December 20, Celedonio sneaked back into Cabugao with a commando unit, abducted and bayoneted to death Presidente Municipal Basilio Noriega and his son-in-law, Benigno Sison y Suller, an innocent bystander. Noriega had been falsely accused as being a pro-American sajonista (Saxonist or pro-Anglo-Saxon). He was in fact condemned without trial by tiktiks (informers) who held personal grudges against him. His son-in-law unfortunately happened to be there and was a witness to the kaut (abduction).
Their bodies were found the following morning in the wooded area north of the church, each marked on the forehead "traidor de la patria" (traitor to the country). Ironically, Benigno's family of Sisons and Sullers and their Azcueta-Serrano wives and in-laws were the wealthiest and biggest contributors to the revolutionary movement in Cabugao.
Today in Philippine history, June 16, 2020, Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr, died of heart failure and pneumonia
On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, Beer Tycoon Eduardo "Danding"
Cojuangco Jr., who led San Miguel Corporation (SMC), a food and beverage
empire that produced San Miguel beer, died of heart failure and
pneumonia at the St. Luke's Medical Center. Cojuangco served as chairman
and chief executive officer of SMC for decades. He was 85.
(Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. with Former First Lady Imelda Marcos on June 19, 2011)
Cojuangco had a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes' list of
the world's billionaires, with interests in cement-manufacturing,
orchards, a stud farm and Australian wineries, aside from SMC. SMC, one
of Southeast Asia's largest conglomerates, with a workforce of more than
28,000 people, has ventured into fuel and oil, power and
infrastructure.
Aside from business, Cojuangco delved into politics and sports, and
owned three teams in the Philippine Basketball Association namely: San
Miguel Beermen, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, and Magnolia Hotshots.
But Cojuangco had also been mired in controversy.
He fled from the Philippines when President Ferdinand Marcos was
overthrown by an army-backed "people power" revolt in 1986. During his
years in exile, he was known to have traveled to the United States and
Australia, where he bred thoroughbred racehorses.
Cojuangco had been linked to the 1983 assassination of former Sen.
Benigno Aquino Jr., but the allegation has never been proven and
Aquino's family later said he was not involved. The killing of Aquino
while in military custody at Manila's international airport sparked
street protests that culminated in a failed coup and the 1986 uprising
that toppled Marcos.
Cojuangco had also been accused of involvement in the misuse of large
amounts of coconut levy funds during the Marcos years that were intended
to develop the country's coconut industry. He has denied any wrongdoing
and has never been convicted amid allegations of illegally amassing
wealth during the Marcos era.
In the 1960s, Cojuangco served as governor of Tarlac, the base of the
Cojuangco clan, which has interests in sugarcane plantations. After
returning to the Philippines following Marcos's downfall, he ran for
president in 1992 under the Nationalist People's Coalition but lost,
although the political party he founded has remained an influential
political bloc.
Cojuangco backed the successful presidential bid of Joseph Estrada in 1998, the year he regained the chairmanship of San Miguel.
Cojuanco was born on June 10, 1935 in Paniqui, Tarlac. He was the eldest
child of Eduardo C. Cojuangco Sr. and Josephine B. Murphy. His mother,
the daughter of an Irish-Canadian U.S. Army volunteer who married a
Filipina woman, was born and raised in Baguio. His father Eduardo Sr.,
the son of Melecio Cojuangco, was of Chinese descent.
Cojuangco was educated at Lafayette College in Pennsylvaia. Besides
English and standard Tagalog, he also spoke the Filipino regional
dialects of Ilocano and Kapampangan, which are the native languages of
Tarlac province.
He was married to Soledad "Gretchen" Oppen-Cojuangco of Negros
Occidental. They had four children: Margarita "Tina" Cojuangco Barrera,
Luisa "Lisa" Cojuangco-Cruz, Carlos "Charlie" Cojuangco and Marcos
"Mark" Cojuangco.
Charlie is the current Representative of Tarlac's 1st District, while Mark once served as Pangasinan Congressman.
As of 2018, he lived with his partner, 1996 Binibining Pilipinas Universe winner Aileen "Leng" Damiles. They had two daughters.
On This Day - June 15, 1945 - Miriam Defensor Santiago was born in the city of Iloilo.
On June 15, 1945, Miriam Defensor Santiago, a public servant, a judge and legal scholar, and an outstanding Philippine senator, was
born in the city of Iloilo.
(Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago)
Miriam learned to take charge early in life. As a precocious child and
the eldest of seven, she was running the household well before she was
out of
grade school. Her mother was a career woman who eschewed housework, so
responsibility for the daily marketing, for supervising the family's
untrained village maids, and for organizing her younger brothers and
sisters to do their chores devolved upon her.
She also saw to it that the Defensor brood arrived promptly and
well-scrubbed for weekly catechism classes and Catholic mass. Discipline
was her
mother's watchword, and young Miriam came to accept her authoritarian,
achievement-oriented environment as "the natural working of the
universe".
The Defensor family enjoyed high status but little wealth. Her father,
Benjamin Defensor, was a lawyer and trial judge; her mother, Dimpna
Palma, was
a locally prominent educator. They circulated socially among Iloilo's
elite, but the family budget had to be managed carefully to make ends
meet,
and, until Miriam was nine years old, the family occupied a modest
house with a nipa (palm frond) roof. Miriam's playmates were equally
poor;
together they fashioned homemade toys from sardine cans and bottle caps
and played happily in the sand. "We enjoyed the luxury of filth",
Miriam says looking back.
Miriam Defensor was enrolled in the kindergarten of Lincoln School,
later called Lincoln College, the private school where her mother was
dean. She
quickly demonstrated her insistence on fair play. When her kindergarten
teacher's niece teased her one day by repeatedly erasing her work from
the
blackboard, Miriam lost patience, grabbed the girl's hair, and wrestled
her to the floor. "My teacher never forgave me", she says, explaining
why
she
graduated only sixth in her kindergarten class—one of the few times in
her school career when she was not first.
Miriam continued in Lincoln until her mother quarreled with the school
president and resigned. At grade five, therefore, Miriam entered La Paz
Public
Elementary School. There she took her turn minding the canteen at recess
time. Students who did so were permitted to select one food item in
lieu of
pay; this delighted Miriam, who had no money to buy school snacks. As
her reward she always chose banana cake, "because for me," she says, "it
was the
height of luxury."
Defensor was a voracious reader and, unable to afford books of her own,
became a frequent patron of the United States Information Service (USIS)
library in downtown Iloilo. Her deepest childhood anxiety, she says, was
that "the world's book supply would run out and I would, in my middle
age, have nothing left to read."
She also excelled at writing and, in the fifth and sixth grades, was
student editor of the elementary school newspaper. When she entered
Iloilo
National High in 1957, she immediately bested all others in the
examination to be editor of its paper, The Ilonggo. She held this post
for all four
high school years. The literary pages were also filled with her work,
and as a freshman she won a school-wide spelling contest.
Defensor's precocious talents made her an instant high school celebrity.
This was probably a good thing, she thinks, since it permitted her to
stand
out without arousing the jealousy of her friends— "it habituated them to the things I would do later". The latter included graduating as
valedictorian and receiving the "All-Around-Girl Award".
Her mother had long since instilled in Miriam a drive to fill every
moment with worthy activity. This drive propelled her into a life of
super-
achievement. But alongside her brilliance in school, and her diligent
management of household and siblings, MIriam Defensor began to develop a
deep
spiritual life. This she did quite on her own, since neither parent was
devout, and her father had virtually abandoned the Roman Catholic Church
in
anger over the high-handed behavior of some Spanish priests.
At Lincoln MIriam had been inspired by the serene voices and ethereal
personalities of the teaching nuns. For a while she yearned to be one
herself,
but she remembers her father telling her, you wouldn't be serving God
very much that way." She abandoned the idea but in high school began a
lifelong
habit of going to mass daily; she had, as she says, "the gift of faith."
In 1961, at age sixteen, Defensor entered the University of the
Philippines, Iloilo campus (UP Visayas). Here she began to prepare for
the study of
law, since her father had advised her that she would never be able to
support herself with literary pursuits. Political science the usual
pre-law
curriculum, was "embarrassingly easy".
She speeded through the four-year curriculum in three-and-a-half years
so that she could devote her final semester to her love, literature.
As a college student, Defensor studied so efficiently that she had
plenty of time left for other activities. From her freshman year onward
she edited
the college monthly magazine. She also competed in debating and, in
summers, took outside courses in journalism and stenography. Having
decided that
she could write better stories than the ones she was reading, she
proceeded to do so and began selling them to national magazines. In
everything, she
was brilliantly successful. She won award after award. For example in
1963 she won first prize in the university competitions in orator
poetry, short
stories, and essays. All the while she maintained excellent grades, so
that when she graduated in 1965 she did so magna cum laude.
Miriam at the University of the Philippines
Early in her college career Defensor had undergone a prolonged,
debilitating illness. From a stubborn case of amoebic dysentery, she
slid into a
serious bout of depression: "I felt that my physical energy were totally
exhausted and that I had nothing left to give." Having been taught by
her
mother always to be doing something useful, she believed herself to be
utterly worthless, and lay in bed for weeks on end and wept. She
attributes her
recovery to her maternal grandmother who patiently and lovingly nursed
her back from the depression. By the time she recovered MIRIAM had
missed all
but one month of the school semester and was still so weak that she had
to write holding her pencil with both hands. With gritty determination
she
took her final examinations—and earned the highest average in the
college.
After university graduation Defensor went directly to the UP College of
Law in Quezon City. In fact, she acknowledges, she studied law mainly
"out of
a sense of filial duty". At UP she found the law courses tedious, and
she became scornful of the approach of most the professors, who simply
"spoon-
fed" the students, pointing out necessary readings, probable issues, and
correct responses.
This was a boon for Defensor however. Her superior memory made the
courses relatively easy. Still, she studied industriously. While others
students
read their law books once or twice, she read hers five times. Even so,
she recalls, "it didn't take that much intellectual energy". Once again
she
found lots of time for other things.
Defensor was a sparkling success at UP, thereby breaking ground for
other women students. She was the first female to win the Ferdinand
Marcos Gold
Trophy in debate and the first female editor-in-chief of UP's Law
Register. In 1968 she became the first female editor-in-chief of the
hallowed and
influential Philippine Collegian as well. She was chosen corps sponsor
for UP's Reserve Officer Training Corps and, in both 1968 and 1969, won
the
prestigious Vinzons Achievement Award for leadership. She also managed
to find time to write short stories for the nation's leading weeklies.
The
money she earned from writing supplemented her competition-won
scholarships so that she was virtually self-supporting in law school.
One journalist
referred to her as, "Super Girl at the UP Campus".
The mid-to-late 1960s were days of great political ferment at UP. A
campus leader of high profile, Defensor nevertheless shunned the
radicalism
popular at the time in favor of the more moderate stance of the UP
Student Catholic Action. "I never could really bring myself to hate the
Americans
as much as my rabid friends did", she says, attributing this to her
childhood gratitude for the USIS library in her hometown. "The radical
leftists
always criticized me for being wishy-washy, but I just stood my ground."
However, Defensor did join in objecting to Philippine military
participation
in the war in Vietnam and, as editor of the Philippine Collegian, she
exposed UP involvement with the Dow Chemical Company in Vietnam-related
chemical
weapons research. Based on purloined university documents given to her
secretly "in the dead of night", her editorial, "Dow is Here",
revealed that
the company had leased research facilities at the UP College of
Agriculture at Los Banos. The editorial was reprinted verbatim in a
popular Manila
daily. Embarrassed, UP President Carlos Romulo tried to persuade
Defensor to reveal her midnight source. She refused.
As an honor student at UP College of Law, Defensor was courted by
Manila's most prestigious law firm, the law office of Alexander Sycip.
Sycip
entertained her in his lavish home, but he warned her that in his office
one often had to work all night and through the holidays. Far from
being put
off, Defensor was impressed. But in the end she declined his offer. As
the recipient of a largely state-funded education, Defensor felt
obligated to
repay the public's investment, and "the best way I could do it", she
says, "was to work in government".
As it happened, she had also been approached by Secretary of Justice
Juan Ponce Enrile. Upon graduation in 1969, she became his special
assistant.
When Enrile moved to the Defense Department Defensor stayed on under the
new secretary of justice, Vicente Abad Santos. Abad Santos had been
dean of
the College of Law at UP, although Defensor had not known him there. For
the next several years she would work in daily contact with Abad
Santos, and
he became her professional mentor.
Miriam met the man who would become her husband, Narciso Santiago, Jr.,
at law school but, as she says, law school was about all they had in
common.
She was from an established, but not well-off, family from the Visayas;
he was the son of a newly rich family from Luzon. She was a diligent
honor
student who always sat in the front of the class; he was an indifferent
student who sat in the back.
They met one day when Defensor, arriving late to class because of a
meeting with President Marcos, slipped quietly into the back of the
room. There
sat Narciso with his friends, gambling and rating the legs of their
women classmates. "I was absolutely flabbergasted", she remarks,
"because I
always thought all students were like me, terrified of the professors
... in his case, he was having a grand time." Their romance was a case
of the
attraction of the opposites. Although she had many other beaus, Santiago
was especially ardent. After finishing law school Miriam agreed to
marry him.
On June 1970 their wedding took place. Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., a friend and provincemate of Narciso, was the sponsor.
"My husband had very flexed ideas about marriage", Miriam recalls. He
believed that a marriage must produce a child. So I accommodated him and
my
mother-in-law, who gave me a cash reward for my efforts. Their first
child, a son, Narciso III, was born 13 April 1971. Defensor Santiago,
who had
added her husband's name to hers, took two months' maternity leave and
then plunged back into her work at the Justice Department.
As special assistant to the secretary, Defensor Santiago now found
herself very close to the center of her country's political life.
Ensconced in a
little room beside the secretary's office, she was assigned to do
everything his regular staff members could not do, or could not do
quickly enough.
She researched materials, drafted speeches and memoranda, and prepared
him for television interviews. Moreover, she often drafted speeches on
law and
justice for President Marcos.
Abad Santos monitored her work closely and, in academic fashion, graded
it, noting "good," "very good," or "excellent," as the case might be.
From
Abad Santos, Miriam Defensor Santiago acquired her own, now famous,
management style, which she candidly calls "headbashing." Miriam
herself, was
spared Abad Santos's tantrums, however; in fact, he had the much
appreciated habit of complimenting her in public.
Defensor Santiago was not content to meet the demands of a full-time
job, marriage, and motherhood. (In one of her short stories written
about this
time, a young lawyer says of herself, "Adrenalin runs in my veins.") In
1971 Miriam accepted an evening teaching position at Trinity College in
Quezon
City and also began to write law articles and legal textbooks.
Her most sensitive assignment as special assistant to Enrile had been to
prepare a confidential memorandum for President Marcos on the
advisability of
declaring martial law. Locked away in a room, she and three others pored
over their law books. "Our conclusion", she recalls, "was that the
president
was better advised not to avail [himself] of this drastic measure. We
felt that the many crises that had surfaced at that time did not yet
suffice to
mandate such a dramatic action."
Two years passed before Marcos decided that the time had come: he
declared martial law on September 21, 1972. Congress was dissolved and
many of the
president's political opponents were arrested. Abad Santos, who, like
Defensor Santiago, was not personally in favor of the declaration,
managed to
resolve his doubts in favor of the president and cooperated. Following
the lead of her mentor, Miriam "almost automatically adopted the same
attitude." Like many others at the time, she nourished the hope that the
urgent problems of the day could better be solved "in one bold stroke".
Marcos adopted a new constitution and declared it legal on the basis of
a voice vote in villages around the country. Defensor Santiago's book,
The
1973 Constitution, was an analysis of the new constitution for students
and lawyers. Bowing to the strict censorship of the times, she refrained
from
expressing her doubts about the legitimacy of the document in print.
However, with her law students at UP—including, at one point, the
president's
son—she held that the constitution had not been validly ratified. The
Supreme Court justices who upheld the constitution, she said, "were
suffering
from a state of doctrinal confusion." Despite such reservations, she
carried on as special assistant to Abad Santos, who had become minister
of
justice in the martial law government.
By 1974 her Saturday morning writing had resulted in a scholarly study
on "The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the Sea" and a textbook
entitled
International Relations. She was also writing regular columns for the
Philippine Daily Express on the subject of feminism. At that time she
believed
"there was an authentic need for a women's liberation movement," since
"women were generally oppressed by the social and cultural system. Now
that I
am older," she says fifteen years later, "I don't think it is relevant
or that it is cost efficient ... you alienate more people than you win
over."
In the fall of 1974, with the blessing of Abad Santos, Defensor
Santiago took a leave of absence from the ministry to study at the
University of
Michigan in the United States. She and her husband and son moved to Ann
Arbor where, as a Dewitt Fellow, she began work toward a master's
degree.
(Her desire to study abroad dated from her disappointment with the UP
College of Law. At that time, she had wondered, "how could U.S. Supreme
Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes have achieved such stature if he went to a
law school like mine?")
At Michigan, Defensor Santiago enrolled under Professor William W.
Bishop, a distinguished legal scholar of international law. Under his
rigorous but
kindly tutelage, she honed her analytical powers and, for the first
time, enjoyed law as an intellectual discipline. "Michigan is where I
really went
to school," she says. "It was like graduating from a fishbowl into the
ocean." Bishop encouraged her to work for a doctorate, which she
achieved by
disciplined study during the academic year 1975-76. Her thesis was
published in 1977 as Political Offenders in International Law, followed
over the
next decade by seven other articles on major legal questions.
In Ann Arbor, Defensor Santiago and her family joined in the social
life of the local Filipino community. For parties she cooked rellenong
bangus, a
stuffed fish dish requiring painstaking preparation. Normally, she
recognized, someone in graduate school did not take the time to do that,
but her
perverse streak compelled her to prove she could.
The Santiagos returned to the Philippines in 1976 and Miriam joined
Abad Santos at the Ministry of Justice. When he moved to the Supreme
Court three
years later, she stayed at the ministry but, on occasion, helped him
draft decisions. But when later in 1979 she was offered the post of
legal officer
with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva,
Switzerland, Abad Santos encouraged her to accept, and she did. Thus,
with her
son and "most competent maid", Defensor Santiago moved to Europe, while
her husband—who was not permitted to work under Swiss law—remained in
Manila.
Her duties involved planning and attending conferences on refugee law
and analyzing draft treaties affecting refugees. In 1980, however, her
father
developed terminal cancer and she returned to Manila to care for him; he
died six months later. Nevertheless, she remained in Manila and became
consultant to the UP Law Center. On October 2, 1981, her second child,
Alexander, was born.
The young lawyer was then invited to become legal consultant at the
Philippine Embassy in the United States, where President Marcos's
brother-in-law
was ambassador: "that was an invitation I couldn't refuse," she notes.
When she reported for work, however, she found she had little to do but
attend
cocktail parties.
Quezon City Trial Court Judge
On leave in Manila a few months later, ostensibly to arrange to move
her children and husband to Washington, Defensor Santiago learned of an
impending nationwide reorganization of the judiciary. She seized the
opportunity to fulfill a deathbed pledge to her father—"that I would do
my best
to serve my country as a trial judge, as he had." She sought an
appointment as regional trial judge in Quezon City, the part of Metro
Manila housing
the legislature of the Philippines and many of the government offices.
This was considered a plum post. Appointments to trial judgeships
anywhere in Metro Manila were generally awarded only to those who had
served in the
provinces for seven to ten years. In her case, she had not seen a
courtroom in her entire adult life.
With characteristic forwardness, Defensor Santiago went directly to the
chief justice of the Supreme Court, Enrique Fernando, who had once
offered
her a judgeship on Mindoro Island, and asked to be nominated for Quezon
City. She requested Quezon City, she told him, so that she could
continue
teaching at the UP College of Law. ("Fernando was known to be very, very
partisan in favor of UP.") Her mentor (now Associate Justice) Abad
Santos was
also enlisted to support her candidacy. Leaving nothing to chance, she
sought the help of Juan Tuvera, an old, personal friend, who was
President
Marcos's executive assistant. It was Tuvera who approached Marcos with
the appointment letter and who stood by and watched as the president
signed
it.
As a regional trial judge, Defensor Santiago heard major cases in
criminal and civil law and handled special proceedings. In any given
week, she
might hear criminal cases ranging from bad checks through drug dealing,
robbery, rape, and murder, and civil suits involving adoption, probate,
or
large claims between competing businessmen. The Philippine judicial
system follows the European system in eschewing jury trials: the judge
determines
guilt or innocence and metes out sentences.
Defensor Santiago assumed her new post, determined to redeem the
reputation of her country's judiciary. Philippine judges were then
widely perceived
to be corrupt—a perception she believes to have been all too accurate.
She was determined "to prove that a party could go before me and rest
assured
that I would decide the case on the merits, that I would never receive a
bribe to decide a case."
To emphasize this position, she established strict procedures limiting
access to her chambers by litigants: "You can always tell me everything
you
want to tell me ... in the courtroom when the other party is present,"
she announced. Those who tried to bribe her, she threatened with
citations for
contempt of court. To make the point, she sent some immediately to jail,
ordering them released, relieved but shaken, shortly thereafter. She
admonished her staff against accepting or forwarding to her any gifts
from interested parties. In a procedure manual she wrote, now used
widely by
other judges, she stated: "The first rule of this courtroom is no
bribes, no extortion." To a judge who sent her unsolicited advice about
one of her
cases, she replied through his messenger that, "if he wants to decide my
case, then I should take steps to have the case transferred to him."
Rebuffing influences from all sides, Miriam Defensor Santiago eventually
got her message across. After six months people stopped trying to
influence
her decisions.
Defensor Santiago'S most famous case pitted her stubborn independence
against the government forces of Ferdinand Marcos. By presidential
decree,
criticizing the government in a public assembly was an offense
punishable by death. And, as she points out, "an illegal public assembly
was defined as
a gathering of two or more people."
Following the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., in August 1983,
rallies, demonstrations, and strikes against the Marcos government
proliferated.
The government made selective arrests. During a military rally on the
occasion of a jeepney driver's strike in 1985, several speakers who
criticized
the government—and in particular the First Lady—were rounded up by the
police and military. They were held under a Preventive Detention Action
Order
issued by the president himself. Those arrested included film director
Lino Brocka. When he and his companions requested release on bail,
Defensor
Santiago faced the question: "In a martial law situation, can a mere
regional trial jury overrule the president of the republic ?"
Judges in the past had prudently sustained such arrests a denied bail.
Defensor Santiago now experienced indirect intimidation from military
men and
anonymous death threats. She knew that a decision against the president
might place her in jeopardy assassination ("at that time people had a
mysterious habit of getting killed in vehicular accidents") or of being
detained herself. Having scrupulously examined the issues, however, the
judge
ordered Brocka and the others released.
In the severely repressive climate of the times, her decision was
sensational. Because of it, she became a hero to those opposing the
Marcos regime,
and she welcomed the publicity because "it represented an opportunity
for me to demonstrate that the judicial system was working, that it was
intellectually honest."
Aside from restoring integrity to the judiciary, Defensor Santiago was
eager to restore efficiency. Among the problems she found was
interminable
delay. Delays occurred, in part, because there were too many litigious
Filipinos. But aside from this, there was the habit of postponement of
cases.
Lawyers routinely appeared in court on their appointed days, only to
request postponement, usually pleading "diarrhea" on the part of
themselves,
clients, or witnesses. (Lawyers were paid by clients whenever they
appeared, even though the case was not brought to trial.) In many
courtrooms this
habit was so entrenched that the vast majority of cases scheduled to be
heard on any given day would be postponed.
The young judge moved decisively to break this habit, refusing to grant
postponements without real cause. In so doing, she says, "I created my
own
monster". The faster cases were tried, the sooner her decisions had to
be rendered. She had to work doggedly to prevent a backlog and was under
great
personal stress. Nevertheless, she had a case disposal rate of fifty per
month, one of the highest in Metro Manila. What is more, her
meticulously
constructed decisions were rarely appealed; three are pending before the
Supreme Court. During this period, she received four major awards:
Outstanding Woman in Iloilo in 1984, and in 1986 the National Police
Commission Distinguished Achievement Award, the Lion's Club Award to
Outstanding
Women in the Nation's Service, and the prestigious Jaycee TOYM (Ten
Outstanding Young Men) Award, opened to women the previous year.
As the crisis attending the later years of the Marcos regime deepened,
Defensor Santiago carried on her personal battle for judicial integrity
in her
courtroom and addressed constitutional issues in her classrooms. But she
adhered strictly to the prohibition barring judges from taking part in
partisan political activities. Privately, she came to feel that the
downfall and disgrace of Ferdinand Marcos was inevitable, but also
rather sad. In
her years in the Justice Department she had come to admire him as a
truly gifted Filipino, "a man with the law at his fingertips ... and a
masterful
politician."
Commissioner, Commission on Immigration and Deportation
By the time of the February Revolution of 1986, however, Defensor
Santiago was seen as an exception in Marcos's corrupt government. She
seemed to
represent the spirit of integrity that many Filipinos hoped to see
restored under the new president, Corazon Aquino.
Although President Aquino's husband had been a sponsor Miriam's wedding,
the two women had never met. Defensor Santiago first came to the
attention
of Aquino as the Judge who stood up Marcos in the Lino Brocka trial. The
president offered her several positions, but Defensor Santiago declined
them
all so that she could continue to work close to her home in Quezon
City—she treasured having lunch with son Alexander—and to the UP campus
where she
was still teaching. Finally, faced with finding a new chief for the
country's notoriously mismanaged Commission on Immigration and
Deportation (CID),
Aquino made a special appeal to Defensor Santiago to accept. Miriam
likes to say that her first instinct was to say, "insanity does not run
in my
family!" But in a heart-to-heart talk with the president she relented,
although not before express her preference for a Supreme Court
justiceship. "I
told her ... if you think this is the best way for me to help you, so be
it. It's my duty to accept."
On January 4, 1988, the "fighting judge" of Quezon City took charge of
the CID and showed how a "traditionally corrupt government agency can be
reformed."
With breathtaking decisiveness, she threw out the fixers, transferred
suspected bribe-takers from sensitive positions, and filed
administrative
charges against corrupt employees. She swept away corruption-breeding
disorder and red tape. She declared war on crime syndicates and exposed
drug
pushers, pedophiles, gunrunners, and passport forgers.
During this time, Miriam Defensor Santiago received the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service.
Secretary, Department of Agrarian Reform
Impressed with her performance in the CID, President Aquino appointed
Santiago as Secretary of Agrarian Reform in 1989. Miriam lost no time
in
overhauling the department's policies. She instituted three major
policies in agrarian reform.
First, to concretize the basic philosophy of the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Law (CARL), she stressed that all doubts on the inclusion of
lands in
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) should be resolved in
favor of inclusion.
Under her term, the DAR policy was to prefer the contract-growing
principle over the lease-back arrangement, particularly with respect to
corporate
farms or plantations. Under the lease-back arrangement, the tiller would
end up as the lessor who receives rent and remains a mere laborer of
multinational corporations. In contrast, the principle of land to the
tillers would still be practiced under the contract-growing scheme. The
contract
grower would have a say on how much would be produced and in marketing
the produce.
Most important, under her term, the DAR shifted its land acquisition
thrust from the voluntary offer-to-sell (VOS) scheme to compulsory
acquisition of
lands to hasten the pace of the CARP. The VOS scheme implemented during
her predecessor's term was riddled with anomalies and corruption.
Miriam
assumed her duties when the DAR was being rocked by the highly
controversial and fraudulent Garchitorena land deal. The former agrarian
reform
secretary was forced to resign due to the scandal. One of Miriam's first
acts as agrarian reform secretary was to halt all land transactions
under
the VOS method, and order the investigation of all past and pending
transactions.
Miriam's boldest move as agrarian reform secretary was to ask President
Aquino to inhibit herself from deliberations of the Presidential
Agrarian
Reform Council (PARC) on the stock distribution scheme of Hacienda
Luisita. The president was the chairperson of PARC, while Santiago was
its vice
chairperson.
The Cojuangcos availed themselves of the CARP's stock-transfer option
scheme allowing the President's family to distribute shares of stocks to
the
Cojuangco corporation instead of distributing land titles from the
estate. Critics decried the scheme, saying it allowed the owners to
retain control
of the estate.
Miriam endorsed to Congress an alternative "people's agrarian reform
program" (Parcode) drafted by the Congress for People’s Agrarian Reform,
a
coalition of farmers' groups including the militant Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the conservative Federation of Free Farmers
(FFF). She
said the Parcode was a "superior piece of legislation" and "rational,
highly logical, and consistent". The Parcode put land retention limits
to five
hectares. Under the CARL, the retention limit was 11 hectares, which
virtually exempted 75% of all agricultural lands from land reform.
Miriam’s
endorsement was hailed by farmers' organizations.
Santiago ran for President
After President Corazon Aquino declared her intention not to seek
another term in the 1992 elections, Santiago ran for president, seeking
Aquino's
endorsement. She founded the People's Reform Party (PRP) as her vehicle,
inviting Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. to be her running mate. The party did not
have
any other candidates at the national level and endorsed only two local
candidates Alfredo Lim and Lito Atienza for the position of mayor and
vice
mayor of Manila.
Aquino decided instead to back her Secretary of National Defense Fidel V. Ramos in his bid for the presidency.
Santiago was leading the canvassing of votes for the first five days.
Following a string of power outages, the tabulation concluded, and Ramos
was
declared President-elect.
Santiago filed a protest before the electoral tribunal citing the power
outages during the counting of votes as evidence of massive fraud. Her
election protest was eventually dismissed. Many believed that this
election was marred by fraud because of the nationwide power outages.
The public outrage over the presidential results prompted Newsweek to feature her and her rival on the cover with the question:
"Was the Election Fair?"
In another cover story, Philippines Free Press magazine asked:
"Who's the Real President?"
Senator of the Philippines
Santiago ran for the Senate of the Philippines in 1995 elections, again
as a candidate of her own PRP. She was elected to the senate and served
as a
senator from 1995 to 2001. As a Senator, Santiago became a vocal critic
of the Ramos Administration. She filed the most number of bills in the
Senate
during her term. Santiago again ran for president in the 1998 elections
and invited former Marcos crony Francisco Tatad to be her running mate
against Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino candidate Joseph Estrada but lost by a
landslide. After losing the election, Santiago returned to the Senate.
In
2001 Santiago ran for reelection but lost.
In 2004, Miriam won her second term as senator. In late 2006, a group of
her former students nominated her for Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. All
candidates were requested by the Judicial and Bar Council, the
nominating body, to submit an application and bio-data and undergo an
interview. No one
showed up but Santiago. Deeply humiliated, she threw a series of public
tantrums and tried to save face by saying she would give way to the
senior
associate justice, because at age 61 she was "too young for the post".
Santiago ran for reelection in the Philippine Senate election in 2010
under the her PRP and as a guest candidate for six different political
parties.
She finished third among other senatorial candidates, she garnered more
than 17 million votes.
In 2012, Santiago proved to be the most important personality in the
Impeachemt trial of the Chief Justice Renato Corona. She, along with
fellow
Senators Joker Arroyo and Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., were the only
senator-judges to vote to acquit the chief magistrate.
Also in 2012, Santiago sponsored two controversial bills: Sin Tax Reform
Act of 2012 (with Senator Franklin Drilon) and the Responsible
Parenthood and
Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (with Senator Pia Cayetano).
Judge of the International Criminal Court
On December 12, 2011, Senator Santiago was elected to a nine-year tenure
as judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague,
Netherlands. Although she is currently listed as a judge by the ICC, she
has yet to take her oath and assume her office there. Santiago was
absent
during the March 9, 2012 oath-taking of new judges due to medical
reasons, citing her elevated blood pressure and bone marrow aplasia, but
later went
on to reveal that she had written the president of the ICC to request
that she be the last of the six newly elected judges to take her post to
allow
her more time to fulfill her responsibilities as a Philippine senator.
Senator Miriam Santiago died on Thursday 8:52 in the morning, September 29, 2016.
References
James R. Rush for the Ramon Magsaysay Award
Foundation, September 1988, Manila
(
Acosta, Omar M. "German Women Held for Selling Infants." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 25 June 1988.
"Nine Suspected 'Bamboo Gang' Men Nabbed." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2 July 1988.
Barrameda, Nes. "Santiago Defends Airport Revamp." Manila Times, 5 July 1988.
"Santiago Defies Order of Justice Secretary. " Manila Times, 13 April 1988.
Callo, Kathleen. "Death Threats, Armed Guards Easy Parts of Miriam's Job." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10 February 1988.
"Child Prostitution Network Busted." Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 February 1988.
"CID Chief Hurls Chairs at Erring Employees." Manila Chronicle, 25 June 1988.
"CID Names Government Officials Listed as Aliens." Business World, (Manila), 24 March 1988.
Defensor Santiago, Miriam. The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the
Sea Problems and Perspectives. Makati: Development Academy of the
Philippines,
1982.
The Archipelago Concept in the Law of the Sea." Philippine Law Journal 49 (1974).
"The Culture of Corruption." Outline of extemporaneous speech delivered
before the Manila Rotary Club, 14 January 1988. Typescript.
"Fighting Graft and Corruption in Government." Paper presented at
Awardee’s Forum, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila, 1 September
1988.
Typescript.
"The Infinite Intelligence." Manila Times, 21 April 1988.
International Relations. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1974.
Interview by James R. Rush. Tape recordings, September 1988. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila.
The 1973 Constitution. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1973.
Political Offenses in International Law. Quezon City: University of the Philippine Law Center, 1977.
Staff Manual. Regional Trial Court, Branch 106, Quezon City, 1983.
"The Supreme Court Applies 'Clear and Present Danger': But Which One?" Philippine Law Journal 60 (1985).
"Suerdo." Philippines Free Press, 3 July 1971.
"What About This Women's Lib Thing?" Focus Philippines, 27 January 1973
"Defensor Santiago Vows to Lead by Example at CID." Business World (Manila), 21 July 1988.
Estacio, Athle Wijangco. "Miriam Defensor Santiago: All Set to Dig in
Her Heels at the CID. " Sunday Times Magazine (Manila), 3 January 1988.
Flores, Jamil Maidan. "The Wages of Virtue." Philippine Panorama, 3 April 1988.
"Immigration Men at Airport Reshuffled." Manila Times, 2 July 1988.
Mangaser, Lito. "Miriam Loses Temper." Manila Chronicle, 7 July 1988.
"Santiago Eyes Legalization of 300,000 Aliens." Manila Chronicle, 17 June 1988.
Manlogon, Melanie. "The Lady Is a Tiger." Midweek. 6 April 1988.
Paunlaqul, Milagros D. "CID Boss Cracks Down on Corrupt NAIA Personnel." Journal (Manila). 23 June 1988.
"CID Busts International Swindling Ring." Journal (Manila), 20 February 1988.
Pelaez-Marfori, Berry. "I Was Born to Raise Hell." Chronicle on Sunday (Manila). 8 May 1988.
Republic of the Philippines. Commission on Immigration and Deportation. Accomplishment Report. January to August 1988.
"SC Upholds CID on Pedophiles." Manila Bulletin, 20 July 1988.
Severino, Horacio. "The Wrong Way to Fight Aids." Chronicle on Sunday (Manila), 10 April 1988.
"Tough Job, Tough Lady." Asiaweek, 1 April 1988.
Various interviews with and letters from persons acquainted with Miriam Defensor Santiago and her work.
)
On June 14, 1945, combined forces of Filipino and American
soldiers defeated the Japanese troops of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in
the epic Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon.
(Japanese General Yamasita in Ifugao)
This was a three-month uphill battle between the guerrilla forces under
Colonel Russell Volckman in the Cordilleras on the border of Ifugao and
Mountain Province close to Cervantes town in Ilocos Sur.
The fall of the Japanese to the hands of the United States Armed Forces
in the Philippines paved the way for the entrapment of Yamashita's
forces in the Cordilleras. Yamashita finally surrendered in September
1945.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was known as the “Tiger of Malaya”, a nickname he earned for conquering Singapore.
On June 13, 1896, Casimiro V. del Rosario, who was recognized in 1984 as National Scientist in Physics, Astronomy and Meteorology, was born in Bantayan, Cebu.
(Dr. Casimiro del Rosario)
Dr. Del Rosario is known for his researches on ultraviolet light of different wavelengths, effect of radioactive radiation on euglena (a genus of unicellular organisms), high voltage electrical discharges in a vacuum, and many other accomplishments.
He finished BS in Civil Engineering with honors at the University of the
Philippines in 1918; MS in Physics at Yale University in the United
States in 1924; and PhD in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania in
1932.
Notably, Del Rosario was the co-founder of the Bartol Research
Foundation (Franklin Institute) in Philadelphia, an institution which
did pioneering researches in physics.
Del Rosario also headed the Philippine Weather Bureau (now Philippine
Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Adminstration
(PAGASA)) for 11 years. He was vice chair for the National Science
Development Board in 1958.
He was given the Presidential Award in 1965 for his outstanding works in physics, meteorology and astronomy.
On This Day - June 12,1898 - General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the Philippine Republic as an independent country, demanding a “dignified place in the concert of free nations.”
The Philippines declared independence after more than 300 years under Spanish rule.
Every June 12th, Filipinos celebrate their freedom by flying their national flag high in the sky.
While there were many who fought for Filipino independence, there are a few people who are honored and remembered as heros for their contributions in securing the country’s independence. José Rizal was a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement and inspired a wave of nationalism through his writings. Andrés Bonifacio, “The Father of the Philippine Revolution”, formed a secret society called the Katipunan and led a number of successful campaigns against the Spanish. General Emilio Aguinaldo was another notable figure who fought alongside the United States during the Spanish-American War. It was he who, on June 12, proclaimed the Philippine Republic as an independent country, demanding a “dignified place in the concert of free nations.”
Alongside celebrating the heroes mentioned above, Filipinos also attend parades, speeches and a 21-gun salute in the capital city of Manila. The national anthem is sung far and wide throughout the archipelago, and people usually enjoy the day off at parks and malls. It wouldn’t be a holiday without some famous foods like kare-kare (oxtail and vegetable stew topped with thick peanut sauce) and halo-halo (shaved ice sundae).
Happy Araw ng Kasarinlán, or Independence Day, to the Philippines!
On June 11, 1978, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1530,
the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), more popularly known as the
Pag-IBIG Fund was established to answer to the need for a national
savings program and an affordable shelter financing for the Filipino
worker. Pag-IBIG is an acronym which stands for Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industria at Gobyerno.
Under the said law, there were two agencies that administered the Fund.
The Social Security System (SSS) which handled the funds of private
employees and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) handled the
savings of government workers. Less than a year after on March 1,
1979, Executive Order No. 527 was signed directing the transfer of the
administration of the Fund to the National Home Mortgage Finance
Corporation, which was one of the operating agencies of the then
Ministry of Human Settlements.
Seeing the need to further strengthen the stability and viability of the
two funds, Executive Order No. 538 was issued on June 4, 1979, merging
the funds for private and government personnel into what is now known as
the Pag-IBIG Fund. However, it was only on December 14, 1980 when
Pag-IBIG was made independent from the NHMFC with the signing of PD
1752, which amended PD 1530. With the improved law in effect, the Fund's
rule-making power was vested in its own Board of Trustees. Likewise,
PD 1752 made Pag-IBIG membership mandatory for all SSS and GSIS
member-employees.
The administration Fund underwent some changes after former President
Corazon C. Aquino assumed leadership of the country. Pag-IBIG
contributions were suspended from May to July 1986. This gave way to
the Presidential Task Force on Shelter to conduct a thorough review of
the Fund and its operations. The task force later affirmed that Pag-IBIG
Fund was run professionally and that there were no anomalies in the
Fund.
On August 1, 1986, former President Aquino directed the resumption of
Pag-IBIG membership under Executive Order No. 35. Membership was still
on a mandatory basis but under more liberal terms. For one,
contribution rate was reduced from three percent to one percent for
employees earning over P1,500. Employer share was likewise cut from
three percent to a fixed rate of two percent. The Maximum Fund Salary
was raised from P3,000 to P5,000.
On January 1, 1987 voluntary membership to the Pag-IBIG Fund was
returned under Executive Order No. 90. While many companies chose to
discontinue their Pag-IBIG membership, quite a number, including big
companies like PLDT and Dole Philippines opted to retain their
membership to the Fund despite the voluntary nature of registration.
Facing challenges head on, confronted with the sudden reduction in its
membership base, Pag-IBIG stood unfazed and took the challenges head on.
As a first step, the Fund implemented an intensified marketing campaign
that focused on membership retention and generation. It was during the
years as a voluntary fund that Pag-IBIG evolved from an institution
primarily for savings and housing into an agency with a wider reach that
covers almost all other needs.
Pag-IBIG introduced innovative benefit programs that heeded the calls
for expansion of membership to include self-employed groups with
informal income, overseas Filipino workers, and non-earning spouses. It
also launched other novel programs such as the Multi-Purpose Loan for
its short-term loans program, and shelter programs that address both
individual and institutional housing requirements. Clearly, the
voluntary nature of Pag-IBIG membership did not stop the Fund from
growing in depth and breadth. During the period, the Pag-IBIG Fund has
claimed its rightful place in the country's economic and financial
system, finally gaining the acceptance of its members, not by force, but
by its continuing efforts to impress upon the members that the Fund
exists solely for their benefit as well as their beneficiaries.
On June 17, 1994, after eight years as a voluntary fund, the nature of
Pag-IBIG membership reverted to mandatory when President Fidel V. Ramos
signed Republic Act 7742. The new law became effective on January 1,
1995.
Today, more than a decade after the universal Pag-IBIG coverage law was
implemented, the Pag-IBIG Fund continues to be a strong partner in
realizing Filipino workers' dreams. Over the years, it initiated more
programs and projects, particularly those that address the needs of
members belonging to the bottom economic level. The Fund has established
special housing partnerships with teachers and uniformed men, among
others. The Rent-to-Own Program was introduced, providing members
another affordable way of homeownership. The Fund's efforts towards
housing the Filipino did not go unnoticed. During the World Habitat Day
celebration in October 2006, Pag-IBIG was given the prestigious Scroll
of Honour Awards by the United Nations Human Settlements Program
(UN-Habitat) for "making the dream of affordable housing a reality for hundreds of thousands of households."
Pag-IBIG is the first Philippine government agency to be awarded such
recognition. The Fund likewise strengthened its partnership with
accredited developers by way of its various institutional lending
programs, among which is the much-sought after program for the
development of medium and high-rise condominium buildings. The program
provides a ready inventory of condominium units for sale at affordable
prices, and allows members to experience condominium style living in
areas close to their places of work.
In recent years, the Fund has embarked on its successful bid in the
financial market, moving a step closer to its vision of becoming a
premier and globally competitive provident financial institution. In
2001, the Fund floated P2 billion-worth of Pag-IBIG Housing Bonds to
generate additional funds for its shelter financing programs, which was
warmly received by both institutional and individual investors. The
bonds matured in late 2006.
HDMF Law of 2009 Recognizing HDMF's contributions through the years and
the need to further strengthen its capability as the biggest source of
housing finance in the country to date, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9679 or the Home
Development Mutual Fund Law of 2009. The law was signed on July 21,
2009. Under the new HDMF law, membership to the Pag-IBIG Fund is made
mandatory for all SSS and GSIS covered employees; uniformed members of
the AFP, BFP, BJMP and PNP; as well as Filipinos employed by
foreign-based employers.
Now more than ever, Filipino workers will enjoy the benefits that are
available only to Pag-IBIG members. Likewise, the law grants the HDMF
exemption from tax payments like other government provident
institutions. With its tax-exempt status reinstated, Pag-IBIG will have
more funds to finance housing and short-term loans as well as
investments in government securities. Income from these endeavors is
distributed exclusively to Pag-IBIG members in the form of dividends.
The HDMF Law of 2009 also gives the Board of Trustees the authority to
set the contribution rates, thereby paving the way for members to save
more for their future. Similarly, this will bolster the Fund's resources
for home financing.
To this day, the Pag-IBIG Fund continues to harness these four sectors
of the society to work together towards providing Fund members with
adequate housing through an effective savings scheme.
References
Philippine News Agency archives
About page, Home Development Mutual Fund (http://www.pagibigfund.gov.ph/)
