Rep. Nereus Acosta: ‘Filipinos dying
by a thousand cuts’

THE basic radio journalism training for Mindanao journalists the PCIJ and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) are currently conducting in Cagayan de Oro had Bukidnon Rep. Juan Romeo Nereus Acosta as interview subject during this afternoon’s role-play activity on the art of interviewing session. Journalist-participants were given an opportunity to ask Acosta one question each on any conceivable topic. The Liberal Party’s executive vice president was candid enough to answer all the fielded questions and even advised the journalists about looking at the bigger picture, and linking the series of events that have happened in the past months.

Below are excerpts from the interview: 

On the recent shakeup of the Liberal Party

What media sees, or what’s being made to appear, is a franchise, that we own the franchise. The party was founded by Sen. Mar Roxas’s grandfather (former Pres. Manuel Roxas). Atienza claims he’s an LP poster boy, that his father and his grandfather were also members.  If we do that hindi matatapos ang away. Kung ganito ang away sa partido, mananatili ang diwa…if the message is there, the messenger is just as important.  If we go by what the four past presidents — Salonga, Tañada, Daza, Abad — said, then we have that claim. But beyond personalities, we have to ask: what does the party stand for? It’s an engineered coup by Malacañang.  We’ll rise with a new Liberal Party that’s not a GMA cabal. We welcome this opportunity.

LP sila. Lapian sila ng Pangulo, Lakas pala sila ng Pangulo. We remain the official LP. We’ll continue to fight the case (citing previous LP splits such as the Salonga-Kalaw, Quirino-Avelino squabbling).

On the prospects of reunification in the Liberal Party

It’s an exercise in futility. You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. The differences are fundamental. They only want to divide the party on the basis of one question: Are you pro or anti-Arroyo? If that is your basis for making a party’s identity, sorry. A party in a democracy should never be about whether you’re loyal to a president. Otherwise, just be a cheering squad. Don’t call yourself a political party. Leave us to the principles that have energized us since (Jovito) Salonga, (Ninoy) Aquino, Roxas…tama na ang pro and anti. Dapat issues-based.

On the prospects of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s ouster

I wish my forecast would have come true.  It’s up to the people. There has to be engagement.  There’s divide and rule. That’s what the President is doing.  She’s dividing media. She went to GMA -7.  She’s divided parties.  She’s dividing congress like she did with impeachment. She’s dividing the Senate, although she has a more difficult time. She’s dividing institutions and processes that we want to follow in politics.  If politics, businesses, local governments, media remain divided, it seems she’ll stay long in power.  We worry more about Susan and Cory marching together, we question motives instead of asking: What do we want for this country?  Do we accept cheating, stealing and lying? What’s good for the country?

On Proclamation No. 1017 and the shrinking of democratic space

PP 1017 is martial law in installment, no matter how they make it appear. Make no mistake, PP1017 doesn’t operate in a vacuum. 1017 is very much a part of the context of legitimacy, cheating, "Hello Garci," the destruction of institutions, patronage politics, guns, goons, and gold. If you situate 1017 in this context or milieu, then 1017 is not much about the saving of the republic but of someone who thinks she is the state.

If you are deluded enough to think you are the only one out of the 87M Filipinos who could lead state, that’s very scary.  We must defend everything that is threatened by it.

Since Edsa 1, it was taken for granted, it’s a given, assumed, it’s never questioned that the democratic space is as natural as the air we breathe. No reporter since 1986, all told, ever felt they had to self-censor, that you’ll become a Niñez Cacho-Olivarez, that they will resurrect a 21-year old subversion case (in the case of Rep. Crispin Beltran’s arrest and detention).

If the democratic space shrinks, your latitude for speaking out — the fundamental right of free expression — becomes somewhat blurred. There’s a Damocles sword hanging over it. When the President of the Republic goes to GMA-7, gate-crashes an early morning talk show to a captive Mike Enriquez, and without mincing words but veiling threats, "buti ka pa Mike, hindi kayo nagbabatikos, balanced kayo," what is she saying? Mike Enriquez is tameme.  It’s comical. 

Bakit sinampolan ang Bayan Muna and then Akbayan? Pag sa pork barrel, may first tranche, second tranche, what tranche am I in? Last week, there were police outside Congress. The justice secretary was there. Why would he be there himself?  It’s a signal.

When you shrink the space, you are exercising prior restraint.  And that is going to be the most unfortunate fallout of the whole crisis — when we ourselves have to limit our way of thinking.

We’ll just have to be more bold.  We just have to more determined. Repression and authoritarianism doesn’t always come in wholesale.  If we don’t take a stand on EO 464, the Liberal Party took a stand on EO 464, CPR (calibrated premptive response), PP 1017, em>pagwasak sa LP, the media have to be free. You have to keep doing it — not just through rallies but being engaged. My metaphor for this: Marcos, at least to my mind, did it clearly.  We knew martial law immediately, in one fell swoop. Ang laban natin mas claro.  Under the setup now, we’re dying by a thousand cuts. They’re testing the people if we will rise up. And they see the indifference — or fatigue — is so great. Maybe people are just tired of this system, hindi umaaalma. So resist it at all turns. Or else the thousand cuts will come and we will bleed to death.

On the comment of a Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) official that the only way for our country to stabilize is to let Arroyo finish her term

It’s (Arroyo’s ouster) not going to solve everything, but it’s going to be the beginning of a solution — acceptable and liberating.  There’s validity to point of view to move on…but my question: we might be missing the forest for the trees.  The larger view: can we as a country survive when we have grave and fundamental issues of legitimacy, accountability, leadership.  But no self-respecting country or government in this world, especially in this day and age, will progress if it doesn’t address these.  The question: ano ba talaga ang gusto natin sa gobyerno?  Should we accept wrongdoing because everyone does it anyway? But was I elected to Congress to respresent the views to ask the forest questions: what about accountability? Why can’t we demand that at every turn? Why not true? What can’t we  demand that of our officials.  Let’s have snap elections.  In the private sector, will they agree to a CEO who ? If they demand that of their sector, why can’t we demand that of our government?

You worry about programs and projects in the next three years. Worry about the future and soul of this country in the next 50 years which Arroyo is trying to destroy.

On Proclamation 1017 as basis for Arroyo’s impeachment

Magaling ang pagkagawa…1017 and 1081. Same wording, same layout. She uses an obscure section on National Patrimony to justify the takeover. Napag-isipan na nila yang PP 1017.  That’s not where the battle is.  The battle is what the proclamation was used for. What should be questioned are the acts, what they’re using PP 1017 for. That’s what’s patently unconstitutional. 

On the possibility of another People Power

The cruel irony is not lost on everyone. It is very unfortunate that on the 20th year of Edsa 1, we have a proclamation curtailing civil liberties.  My reading is that people are fatigued, cynical. They looking for a third way. We have to depart from the sense of people power and how it was in 1986, 2001, that we can change governments through sheer number of people. People power should take new forms — email, Internet, texting.  Mass mobilization isn’t enough. There are ways of mobilizing people, students. Students aren’t activists anymore. This is the time to do that — conscientization in churches, schools, NGOs…

On Arroyo’s remarks that the Senate is wasting its time on too many investigations instead of passing laws

There would be no basis to investigate if there’s no wrongdoing. First question to ask: Why are there investigations? There is basis — fertilizer scam, Garci, the Marcos wealth, Venable.  These are bases.  If you don’t want investigations, you better make sure there’s no basis for questioning what’s happening.

The Senate and the House are mandated not just to make laws but to have broad powers of inquiry and oversight. You have a vast perspective on questions asked regarding laws and implementation of laws.  If anti-graft and corrupt practices act, election code and the Constitution are violated, then that is within the responsibility of Congress. Who’s been deprived of information with EO 464? We never knew what Norberto Gonzales was supposed to say.

If investigations are so bad, how come the Senate is highest in all the approval ratings (+24)?  The House  got 0, the Cabinet -15, and Arroyo -33.

On the killing of journalists and possible legislations that can be enacted

You cannot legislate behavior or change of consciousness.  But you can enact laws to create environment to influence behavior.  You can ensure that the processes and the legal recourses are truly enforced, there’s a strengthening of the process — in police laws, court system.  We have thousands of laws and bills but we enter into a trap that a law would necessarily solve a problem. It’s like a law prohibiting premarital sex; it’s legislating behavior.  You can only change the conditions.

On the second endorsement of Atty. Oliver Lozano of the impeachment case against Arroyo

Lozano is Malacanang’s attack dog.  He’s the monkey wrench to prevent a second impeachment. The petition was not accepted. This is perceptions warfare.  I believe the people around the president are very good at this.  They’re good at messaging, signaling: "Try ninyo a second impeachment, handa kami." It becomes an attrition battle.  It wears the country out.  It’s sad.

On the threat of two mayors in Mindanao to secede from the Philippines

I fully sympathize with Mindanao’s underdevelopment. Mindanao has been a milking cow. But I don’t think we can use the bogeyman of secession on the national government to get what we want. In this democratic setup we have, threatened as it may be, we have to see ourselves as equals, as Mindanaoans equal to Luzonians and Visayans and Manilans, and assert ourselves as Mindanaoans. But it requires a Mindanao ideology. I’m afraid that’s not formed yet.  What we have as Mindanao ideologies are representations of Mindanao groups, interest groups.  Until we are a region with a clear voice of what we want to do here, nothing will rock the Malacañang boat.  That involves Mindanao politicians talking to one another, but that’s not happening.

On the Catholic Church’s proclamation that lawmakers who sponsored the reproductive health bill will not be given communion

We are not in medieval times. This is the 21st century. Our constitution, at least in theory, guarantees full separation of Church and State.  While we recognize the important role of religion, if we want to progress as a pluralistic democracy, not just one religion or institution should dominate. That is the democratic framework we seek and uphold. For one institution like the Catholic Church to say this, it’s a throwback to Jose Rizal’s time. We have to respect dialogue. If you don’t agree because of a doctrinal perspective, please respect there are other views. Policy has to bring all that together.  I was not elected a Catholic congressman but I was elected to represent as many pluralistic voices as possible. Is it anti-life when you want to give families and women the capacity to plan how they want their families to be? Why deprive them of their human right? I will stand by that principle.

On the issue of House Bill No. 3312 sponsored by Rep. Jose Miguel Zubiri proposing to divide Bukidnon into two provinces

I was outvoted.  It’s a numbers game. It’s now with the Senate.  I think it’s not fully understood. The implications of dividing a province is far-reaching politically, economically, culturally, especially in Bukidnon, home to Lumads. Take the example of Zamboanga Sibugay. They think that dividing a province is going to solve all the problems.  There is a bureaucracy. There’s a new layer.  Who’s going to pay the debts? Who’ll get the IRA? Streamlining?  I hope the Senate would give me the time and day to answer that.  Not just the political voices but the voices of the political forces.

On his future plans

I am the only LP not just of northern Mindanao but the entire Mindanao. That makes me a displaced politician.  Although I do hope the Senate doesn’t pass it (HB 3312), of course. This is the only bill of a division of a province that gerrymanders another province. My plans will have to come when something like that happens.  But I’d like to  be engaged in Bukidnon’s politics and in shaping programs that aren’t there. I will make myself available for the leadership  challenges of Bukidnon, hopefully a still united Bukidnon.  I’m a lumad in many ways — I was born and raised in Bukidnon.  But I still hope they don’t pass it.