BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
7/21-22/2012
Russia is about to pass a law declaring the status of citizens working with non-governmental organizations receiving grants and financial assistance abroad as "foreign agents." According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, "the proposed law does not prohibit anything…the aim is to make political activity of organizations operating in Russia transparent." On the contrary, he is increasing state funding for NGOs by at least three times …in anticipation that the new law would reduce the amount these NGOs normally receive from abroad.
The author of the bill, Russian MP Aleksandr Sidyakin, dismissed all the hysteria and delirium explaining that the bill used similar US legislation as "blueprint." No doubt the bill is intended to regulate and monitor foreign-funded groups disguising as NGOs. If approved, members who fail to register their organizations shall be punished by fines …and repeated violations could send them to prison for up to two years. However, works in the field of culture, science, art, health, sports, welfare services, the protection and preservation of flora and fauna, charity work, and philanthropic donations are not considered "political activity."
This column mentioned this bill because in this country, Filipinos, acting as foreign agents, managed to penetrate the most sensitive positions in government often influencing policies on crucial matters. They even exploited the delegates that drafted the 1987 Constitution resulting in unlimited access to scrutinize and criticize the government. This is evident by the incorporation of Sections 15 and 16, Article XIII of the Constitution pertaining to the role and rights of alleged "People's Organizations."
The attitude of these NGOs towards the government oscillates, and always in accordance to the declared "advocacy" of their foreign funder. Should the government show signs of refusing to support Western maneuvers, their local agents would no sooner drumbeat the issues of human rights, curtailment of freedom, and even discrediting political parties and their leaders.
Such interference in our internal political affairs and in the decision-making processes has been justified in the name of freedom of the press, in advancing the rights of women, the cultural minorities, and of their vaunted crusade to protect certain sectors without us being made aware that they are in fact planting the seeds of divisiveness.
Sad to say, many of these organizations are operated and even managed by former activists. Such is ironic because many of them are psychotic self-righteous and narcissistic intellectuals who for years had been immersed in romantic chauvinism to change society. To maintain their relevance, they persist on harping the so-called Marcos dictatorship without reexamining that the government they helped install turned out to be more corrupt, although dressed with all the regalia of freedom and democracy.
For that drawback, they now act as crusaders against corruption in a system that is more corrupt. They have become crafty mercenaries in doing propaganda work to make sure we have a pliant government susceptible to foreign blackmail. The role of Transparency and Accountability Network with its subsidiary, Transparency International – Philippines, is most glaring. While they are consistent in condemning certain public officials and government agencies as corrupt, they have yet to come out with the same stinging report of venalities in countries funding them.
For that matter, we are the only country that made formal arrangement with the US-funded NGO called AGILE or Accelerated Growth, Investment and Liberalization and Equity by according to it, access to our state of finances like monitoring the operations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Aside from posting round-the-clock Filipino agents, they have a voice in shaping the policies of the two agencies. In fact, it was AGILE what lobbied for the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Many of these foreign-funded NGOs possibly act as fronts of foreign intelligence agencies. They also come out with their own reports and statistics, and often designed to embarrass the government. For instance, human rights can readily become a hot issue once the government loses the confidence of the country funding their NGOs. Similarly, they fund investigative journalism, using the usual parameter of freedom of the press to discredit the government. But the same NGOs would not say a word why those who refuse to sing along with them are denied access to their controlled mainstream media.
Local agents of foreign-funded NGOs act as effective collaborators in blocking the implementation of legitimate economic policies. Most familiar is their insidious cry to save and protect our environment. They oppose, for instance, the construction of dams that would irrigate vast hectares of lands to boost our food production, and to the new mining act to increase our exports and provide more employment to our people. It was the same NGO that turned out to be more faithful to Shell Corporation by its vigorous campaign to stop the operations of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant despite the loss of $2.2 billion paid to Westinghouse.
Today, many Filipinos employed by foreign-funded NGOs are practically engaged in espionage and are working against the interest of their own country. Looking at their stand on certain policies, they amount to nothing more but economic sabotage, for purposely their objective is to undermine our government.
Maybe it is high time for our local legislators to pass a similar law. Such is underscored by the fact that they have become a threat to our national security than serving as watchdogs to secure our freedom and democracy. Worse, we take their intrusion into our internal political affairs as legitimate without their local quislings thinking that they cannot do what they are doing here in countries funding their NGOs.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
The author of the bill, Russian MP Aleksandr Sidyakin, dismissed all the hysteria and delirium explaining that the bill used similar US legislation as "blueprint." No doubt the bill is intended to regulate and monitor foreign-funded groups disguising as NGOs. If approved, members who fail to register their organizations shall be punished by fines …and repeated violations could send them to prison for up to two years. However, works in the field of culture, science, art, health, sports, welfare services, the protection and preservation of flora and fauna, charity work, and philanthropic donations are not considered "political activity."
This column mentioned this bill because in this country, Filipinos, acting as foreign agents, managed to penetrate the most sensitive positions in government often influencing policies on crucial matters. They even exploited the delegates that drafted the 1987 Constitution resulting in unlimited access to scrutinize and criticize the government. This is evident by the incorporation of Sections 15 and 16, Article XIII of the Constitution pertaining to the role and rights of alleged "People's Organizations."
The attitude of these NGOs towards the government oscillates, and always in accordance to the declared "advocacy" of their foreign funder. Should the government show signs of refusing to support Western maneuvers, their local agents would no sooner drumbeat the issues of human rights, curtailment of freedom, and even discrediting political parties and their leaders.
Such interference in our internal political affairs and in the decision-making processes has been justified in the name of freedom of the press, in advancing the rights of women, the cultural minorities, and of their vaunted crusade to protect certain sectors without us being made aware that they are in fact planting the seeds of divisiveness.
Sad to say, many of these organizations are operated and even managed by former activists. Such is ironic because many of them are psychotic self-righteous and narcissistic intellectuals who for years had been immersed in romantic chauvinism to change society. To maintain their relevance, they persist on harping the so-called Marcos dictatorship without reexamining that the government they helped install turned out to be more corrupt, although dressed with all the regalia of freedom and democracy.
For that drawback, they now act as crusaders against corruption in a system that is more corrupt. They have become crafty mercenaries in doing propaganda work to make sure we have a pliant government susceptible to foreign blackmail. The role of Transparency and Accountability Network with its subsidiary, Transparency International – Philippines, is most glaring. While they are consistent in condemning certain public officials and government agencies as corrupt, they have yet to come out with the same stinging report of venalities in countries funding them.
For that matter, we are the only country that made formal arrangement with the US-funded NGO called AGILE or Accelerated Growth, Investment and Liberalization and Equity by according to it, access to our state of finances like monitoring the operations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Aside from posting round-the-clock Filipino agents, they have a voice in shaping the policies of the two agencies. In fact, it was AGILE what lobbied for the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Many of these foreign-funded NGOs possibly act as fronts of foreign intelligence agencies. They also come out with their own reports and statistics, and often designed to embarrass the government. For instance, human rights can readily become a hot issue once the government loses the confidence of the country funding their NGOs. Similarly, they fund investigative journalism, using the usual parameter of freedom of the press to discredit the government. But the same NGOs would not say a word why those who refuse to sing along with them are denied access to their controlled mainstream media.
Local agents of foreign-funded NGOs act as effective collaborators in blocking the implementation of legitimate economic policies. Most familiar is their insidious cry to save and protect our environment. They oppose, for instance, the construction of dams that would irrigate vast hectares of lands to boost our food production, and to the new mining act to increase our exports and provide more employment to our people. It was the same NGO that turned out to be more faithful to Shell Corporation by its vigorous campaign to stop the operations of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant despite the loss of $2.2 billion paid to Westinghouse.
Today, many Filipinos employed by foreign-funded NGOs are practically engaged in espionage and are working against the interest of their own country. Looking at their stand on certain policies, they amount to nothing more but economic sabotage, for purposely their objective is to undermine our government.
Maybe it is high time for our local legislators to pass a similar law. Such is underscored by the fact that they have become a threat to our national security than serving as watchdogs to secure our freedom and democracy. Worse, we take their intrusion into our internal political affairs as legitimate without their local quislings thinking that they cannot do what they are doing here in countries funding their NGOs.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
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