We have been back in Manila for just over two weeks and have settled into a nice routine. Although I find myself missing my friends who came to visit, I am also happy to enjoy daily life with James and my grandma. I have been spending my days doing my remote internship, working out, eating delicious food, and relaxing at home. Here are some highlights of these last two weeks that I wanted to share.
My visit to the Department of Justice
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| This is technically the Supreme Court of the Philippines, but it's on the same street as the Department of Justice so I thought this was a good enough pic to use in this section. |
After some back and forth as is what usually happens in legal proceedings, the OPCC dismissed the case, stating that there was not enough probable cause and that the police officers were just going about their regular duty. C4HR appealed the decision to the Department of Justice by filing a petition of review in April 2023. They asked me if I could visit the Department of Justice's head office in Manila and ask for a follow up of the case. I was a bit confused, because I certainly could not go up to a random court or the DOJ in the United States just to ask for an update. My supervisor clarified that people here in the Philippines followed up on things in person all the time, and it was completely normal.
Using this task as an excuse to buy locally-made loafers I will use for all professional settings, I made my way to the DOJ. I had no idea what to expect but just tried to look for the entrance. I found one that had a security clearance, and I was about to register when a guard asked me what I needed. I told him that I wanted to follow up on a case, and he directed me to another entrance that was somewhat hidden by the concrete wall surrounding the DOJ compound. He told me to go to Window 1. I followed his directions and found another entrance that took me to a small outdoor waiting area facing a section where clerks sat behind windows. There were four windows, each for different types of inquiries. Window 1 was for petitions of review. I looked around me, and there were only a few others. It also didn't look like I had to dress up professionally (I had no regrets though). Eventually, I figured out that I had to sign in and that was how order was determined, and after only a few minutes of waiting, I went up to Window 1.
I had printed out the first few pages of the petition of review and handed it to her. She confirmed that it had been filed in April 2023, and there were pleadings submitted in May and June 2023. She then told me that it was still pending. I thanked her and signed out on the record book. One of the women who arrived before me asked when I had submitted the petition. I told her in April, and she was shocked at how long it had been. She had filed hers in October and commented, "Aren't we supposed to get a proper response within sixty days?" I didn't know that, but I looked it up later and sure enough, she was right. We chit chatted a bit, and she said some words of encouragement for me finishing up law school.
A big reason I was asked to follow up with the DOJ was because my supervisors want to submit the case to the International Criminal Court, or ICC. The ICC has launched an investigation into the war on drugs, and pretty much any victim or victim's representative can submit files to them. It has been a subject of controversy in the Philippine government, with presidents claiming that it impedes on the nation's sovereignty and judicial system. On the other hand, what recourse do victims have when their own justice system fails them? Isn't it beneficial for them to have access to a means of having their voices heard that is outside of their own government, the one which is the direct cause of their victimhood?
I have a lot of thoughts about the ICC and the international legal order in general, especially with what has been going on in Palestine and the legal cases filed in the ICC and the International Court of Justice. The ICJ issued a ruling that Israel should do what it can to provide genocidal acts, and yet not only is the ruling non-binding, it is also being blatantly ignored. Although it is not enough, I have still been inspired to see the shows of international solidarity in these arenas, particularly by South Africa and the Irish lawyer who advised their legal team. When I feel helpless, I think of how many people are doing what they can with the tools we have at hand. I want to think of a world where we no longer have these tools built by colonial systems, but for the immediate cause at hand, I think using these tools in service of the cause is better than doing nothing at all.
So as much as I believe the ICC is problematic, I am still glad to see that it continues to have jurisdiction to investigate the war on drugs in the Philippines. And I am glad that I can do my small part in continuing to help the family of C4HR's client as they seek justice, wherever it may be.
#NoToJeepneyPhaseout!
I had heard about the jeepney "modernization" program from my Filipino-American activist networks, and here, I had the opportunity to hear more about it. James, my sister, her partner Riley, and I went to a lounge that was hosting a fundraiser and educational event about the program. There were some local artists selling their goods, so we took time to look at the selection and make some purchases. Then a moderator and a jeepney driver gave a presentation about the history of jeepneys and the phaseout. It was all in Tagalog, but there was some English in the presentation, so at least James could understand the sense of it. You can read more information about what is going on in the picture of the handout below.
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| The two presenters are on the left, and the presentation can be seen on the projector screen. |
Listening to the jeepney driver speak was infuriating and moving. He had been a driver for 41 years, and it was his livelihood. He talked about how all he and the other drivers want is to continue to support their families, but the modernization program is threatening to leave them destitute (government "assistance" covers only a tiny fraction of what a new vehicle costs), while only enriching foreign manufacturers and corporations. As someone who's been in the labor movement for a few years, this was all familiar to me, and it felt especially meaningful to engage with the topic in my own country.
What I wanted to reflect on here was the idea that jeepney drivers should not have to surrender their individual franchises to form cooperatives. Normally, in my line of work, I am anti "independent contractors" and "franchises," which often leave workers in exploitative working conditions under the guise of "independence" or "controlling their schedules." I would also be inclined to believe that worker cooperatives are more beneficial to them, rather than workers being left to function on their own. (I did discuss some thoughts on this idea in this entry about mining cooperatives in Bolivia here.) Furthermore, when it comes to the "freedom of association," which was discussed at this talk, I usually deal with the right to associate with others, rather than the right not to associate.
The speakers talked about how forcing jeepney drivers to consolidate their franchises and operate as a cooperative violated their right to freedom of association because it forced them to form an association. This version of a cooperative would be detrimental to their well-being because they would not have the same control over their livelihood that they would operating an individual franchise. Considering how this presentation provided nuance to assumptions that I hold, I found it enlightening. It also underscored the importance of letting directly impacted people lead any movement that concerns them, rather than indiscriminately applying any sort of universal principle to every single movement.
If you would like to learn more, check out this campaign from the International Transport Workers' Federation.
A book I finished a few days ago
While in Mumbai, James and I visited a store called Kitab Khana. I wasn't searching for anything in particular, but this book caught my eye.
Several things about me led me to purchase it. One, the anthropologist in me loves stories about individual people, their cultures, and their communities. Two, I am especially fascinated by people who live in isolated or "extreme" places. And three, I have a soft spot for tour guides and people who work in tourism. (I have zero interest in actually doing extreme mountaineering, as I have mentioned in this blog entry.) So I read it throughout our trip in India and when we got back to the Philippines. I won't spend too much time talking about the details, but this interview with the two Nepali authors gives a pretty good "too long didn't read" version of it.
I loved the book. Like I do with most things, I have a lot of thoughts about it, but I love all the effort that went into telling the story of so many individual Sherpas (which is the name of the indigenous group) while also discussing the outside historical and political forces that led to them being the legendary guides of Himalayan expeditions. From a labor perspective, I really appreciated learning about how Sherpas do the extremely difficult work of not only getting up Everest themselves, but also taking care of their clients and being in charge of ensuring the highest standards of safety. They are the ones who risk their lives to go to the mountain before the official start of the climbing season each year and affix ropes into the side of the mountain and bridge gaps across deadly crevasses, just so that rich foreigners can go and say they climbed Mount Everest. They are the ones who cook at the camps and provide sustenance for their clients, and they are also the ones who have helped to clean up the mountain.
The authors took great care to make sure that they represented the Sherpas in a culturally sensitive manner, which as an anthropologist I applaud them for. They also did not shy away from talking about the brutalities of managing the extreme mountaineering industry in the Himalayas. At the very beginning, the authors described the avalanche in 2014 that killed sixteen Sherpas and no foreigners. I also appreciate how they chose to end the book, with a chapter called "Descent." The authors compared two attempts to bring down the bodies of people who perished in Everest's "death zone," where no helicopters can pick up bodies and groups of people have to carry them down. One attempt involved a wealthy Indian businessman and a team of five Sherpas, who carried the body down to where it could be picked up. The chapter described the grueling experience that the Sherpas went through and the risk that they took, and how they were (rightfully) motivated by the handsome sum of money they would receive at the end. The other involved a Sherpa who died while on an expedition, leaving his wife behind. She could not afford to bring him down; though she had raised money, the 2015 earthquake shattered any plans of getting a team together to pick up his body. The chapter ended with this quote from her.
While it's wonderful that some Sherpas have made names for themselves and been able to explore the world (a team even made it to the South Pole), it is still devastating to think of the human cost. At this point, the Sherpas rely on the tourism money for their livelihoods, which has enabled their communities to flourish and their children to seek opportunities that older generations never had. I guess I bring this up because it made me reflect on the wider tourism industry in general and, again, the desire to "conquer" and challenge Mother Nature. It is also a commentary on whose stories get to be told and whose are ignored. While I haven't read any other mountaineering accounts, I imagine that they glorify whatever white or wealthy individual they center, and make only passing reference to the people who make it possible in the first place. Decolonizing travel discourse is so important, since so much of tourism and travel is still inaccessible to the people who make it happen. I am glad to have read this book and learned about the Sherpas, and I hope you join me as I continue to think about how cultural exchange can be made more equitable for all people involved.
Personal stuff
On a more lighthearted note, my sister Cara arrived from the Netherlands a few days ago and I finally got to meet her partner of three years, Riley! Cara and Riley met while they were on Fulbright in Taiwan, and incidentally, Riley is also from Wisconsin like James. Small world 🥴
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| James, me, my grandma, Cara, and Riley |
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| The four of us finally in the same place |
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