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"Let the
Flame of Truth
burn in the
hearts of many."
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CONSUMERS’ COALITION FOR TRUTHFUL iNFORMATION
member, Katipunang DakiLahi; member, Pamayanang SanibLakas 104 Gaiety st., Better Living, Parañaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines e-mail: truthful_information@yahoo.com
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CCTI Specific Statements ( Presented here in the reverse-chronological order ) |
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February 25, 2009 As demanded by our individual and collective dignity… .......“We Dare Declare........ ...Our Stand for the Truth!”. ‘Let The Flame Of Truth Enlighten Us All and Set Us Free!’.
Invoking the basic rights and best interests of the citizens of this country as the sovereign body politic and as descendants of heroic ancestors of millennia and centuries past, we now stand firm and unequivocal to seek, reveal, uphold and protect the integrity of the Truth in all out collective and individual affairs, and vow to campaign for this as a necessary reflection of our human dignity, as a standard of honorable living and interaction, in governance and in all public and private endeavors. As we do so, we are invoking the honor of our heroes, the inspiration of Rizal and Bonifacio together in synergy, the long and continuing heritage of all our heroes and heroines known and unknown. We demand an end to the “unmoderated greed” and grand conspiracies especially in the centers and corridors of power, an end to arrogant policies of secrecy and impunity, in schemes that defraud, disenfranchise and imperil our people, compromise our health and environment, mire our economy in suicidal and masochistic policies of “free trade,” and carelessly pawn away or sell down the river the well-being of our future generations. We shall not countenance irresponsible legislating, as what is now ongoing with the proposal to hastily commission and operate the nuclear power plant in Bataan, without even looking into the government-commissioned scientific and technical investigations pointing to a minimum of 40,000 defects, risking accidents that can result in radioactive contamination. This bill expects to bank not on common sense but only on the sheer number of solons in the Palace corral. We are reminded of Marcos’ Batasan. If not now, the respective constituents of these “approve-without-thinking” solons will soon start asking them for some respectable explanations about the the basis of their own votes for the BNPP, a vestige of the previous dictatorship’s frauds and deceptions. We shall not countenance the technical legality of the “executive privilege” to hide the truth and make a mockery of public accountability; in fact we demand that all government functionaries honor their duty to reply. It is only the technicality of a majority vote in the High Tribunal that supports such “executive privilege,” reminding us that the same Tribunal, subject to obvious pressures bearing on its members, once blessed as “legal” (the words used then were that “there is no further justiciable obstacle” to) the dictatorship that we eventually deposed as soon as we could muster the united will power to do so, with our commitment to the Truth as part of that will power. It took us more than a dozen years to muster that courage needed to dare declare such a stand. Let us all unite aloud for the Truth. Let us all be active stakeholders of upholding it, as unmistakably as we stood for it 23 years ago. Let us now be intolerant of deception from any which direction, even from our own ranks. Let us all build a strong CULTURE OF TRUTH for all Filipinos to manifest in our public and private lives! Let a new call reverberate in our hearts and minds, from deep within our personal and collective honor -- Mula ngayon, SA TOTOO LANG! Manila, Philippines, February 25, 2009 Consumers and Communicators for Truthful Information (Sgd.) Vic del Fierro, chairperson (Sgd.) Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, secretary-general (Sgd.) Walter C. Caancan, national spokesman
INITIAL SIGNATORIES to CCTI’s STATEMENT on the 23rd Anniversary of our Victory over Tyranny:
NEDA Papers are Public Documents!Disclose Their Contents to the People!
The CCTI seeks to point out part of Article III, Section 7, which reads: “Section 7. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law.” There has been no law passed to subject the above provision to any conditions or limitation, since the ratification of the Constitution in January 1987. But on the people's right to access to records and documents, there has in fact been favorable jurisprudence, in the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the case of Valmonte vs. Belmonte, penned by Associate Justice Irene Cortes, and promulgated in February 13, 1989 (G.R. No. 74930). A real democracy is a government of laws and not of men; it is not a government of moods. The executive may not violate the law, much less the fundamental law, whenever it feels insecure and prefers to be secretive. If no less than the fundamental law mandates that the people be fully informed of all transactions and acts of government in their name and using their tax money, the executive branch has no recourse but to comply. The CCTI is a growing organization of citizens in various walks of life who have banded together as consumers of goods and services provided by public and private entities, including advertising communications, television contests and promotions proffered to the public. Organized in October 2003 and headed by global consumer network leader Vic del Fierro as chairperson, Ed Aurelio C. Reyes as secretary-general, and Walter C. Caancan as National Spokesperson, CCTI believes that only an atmosphere of full accountability, honesty and transparency in various levels of government including the judicial branch, can possibly guarantee that the people, as consumers and as citizens are enabled to practice active stakeholdership in having only safe and efficacious products and services are allowed to be made available. Lies and even secrecies are violations of this right. We encourage all signatory-members of CCTI and all other conscious stakeholders among the consuming public to help us campaign among the rest of the sovereign body politic for the effective assertion of the people’s right to know. Reference: Walter C. Caancan, National Spokesperson, CCTI wcc.2006@yahoo.com and landline no. (63-2) 933 0446. (Sgd.) Vic del Fierro, Jr., Chairman (Sgd.) Ed Aurelio C. Reyes, Secretary-General (Sgd.) Walter C. Caancan, National Spokesperson
November 5, 2006 CCTI PROTEST AND CALL Uphold the People's Right to be Informed!Promote Full Transparency in Policy Development
The policy of full secrecy, denying information from even the members of Congress, was a gross violation of the Constitution of the Philippines, specifically Article II (Declaration of Principles and State Policies), Section 28, and Article III (Bill of Rights), Section 7, to wit: ARTICLE II. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES POLICIES Section 28. Subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law, the State adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest. ARTICLE III. BILL OF RIGHTS Section 7. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law. (underscoring supplied) No law has been passed to subject the abovecited provisions to any conditions or limitation, since the ratification of the Constitution in January 1987. But on the people's right to access to records and documents, there has been favorable jurisprudence, in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Valmonte vs. Belmonte, penned by Associate Justice Irene Cortes, promulgated in February 13, 1989 (G.R. No. 74930, underscoring supplied). The underscored passage is the improvement of the current fundamental law over the equivalent provision in the 1973 Marcos Constitution, and we are all duty-bound to disallow it’s being ignored by any administration claiming to be legitimate and Constitutional. We therefore refuse to recognize the said agreement as valid, prior to a ratification process by the Senate of the Philippines with public hearings involving all stakeholder sectors of our nation, with full media coverage and public discussion. And we ask the Senate not to abdicate, even if reluctantly, on its exclusive mandate to conduct such a fully transparent ratification process. We call on all our members, consumer-oriented organizations and fellow-Filipinos, here and overseas, to join CCTI in our quest for a culture of full transparency and truth. Let’s all protest the shroud of secrecy that concealed the government research data used as basis of policy development on our bilateral trade with Japan, the entire process and the texts of the drafts leading to the signing of JPEPA in Helsinki, Finland last September. Makati, Philippines, 5 November, 2006
(Sgd.) Vic del Fierro, Chairman (Sgd.) Walter Caancan, National Spokesperson (Sgd.) Ed Aurelio Reyes, Executive Convenor |
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June 28, 2004 Seeking and Upholding the TruthShall Serve the Non-Partisan Interestof the Entire Nation
Can we be comfortable not knowing for sure whether truth has indeed been papered over??? Have we abandoned as an impractical and therefore undesirable idea the old adage that “Honesty is the best policy?” Have we become a nation of cheaters, lying accusers and apathetic people who couldn’t care less? These are questions that we should address in earnest – sa totoo lang! -- while looking at our children in the eye or staring at ourselves in the mirror. During the recent canvassing of votes cast for President and Vice-President, it was noteworthy that the public pressure bearing on the canvassers-legislators was one of impatient haste, instead of one demanding fidelity to the truth. For this reason, whenever the solons of the administration easily outvoted an opposition demand to scrutinize the pertinent official data sources of Certificates of Canvass they had documentary reasons to cite as suspicious or inconsistent, the projected public response was an applause. The intellectuals of Metro Manila and their political allies in other areas were applauding one more defeat of what the administration’s propagandists and supporters had successfully demonized as the much-vaunted “delaying and dilatory tactics” of the opposition. The value of accuracy or even just enough credibility of the canvassing having reflected faithfully the actual will of the electorate was pushed aside as a non-issue. The interest of the Truth had to be glossed over in the name of impatient, probably even insecure, haste. Who really got the biggest number of votes for the presidency? Who was the real choice of the people” The projected public opinion apparently answered, “Who cares??? Let the losers in the conveniently hurried canvassing now shut up, concede like lambs, and cooperate with the proclaimed winners, and let us move on!" For the stability that the ever-nervous foreign investors want to see, for nothing short of survival for our foreign-investments-dependent Philippine economy. Who would care for the Truth if all of us are willing to believe hook, line and sinker, all that we are officially told. (That’s what took us so long to depose Marcos’ martial rule, by the way.) Who cares for the Truth nowadays, anyway? We do! We of the Consumers’ Coalition for Truthful Information (CCTI) do care for the Truth! And we are confident that deep down, the majority of Filipinos – on both sides of the worsening political divide – care for the Truth to be known and upheld. The widespread allegations of widespread cheating should be duly checked out, so that those who proclaim and spread lies – whether to accuse or to deny – would be exposed and taken to task for lying to the people, something the sovereign body politic should relearn to consider a despicable crime. A Culture of Truth is what our nation needs now, for democratic governance to be taken more seriously than opportunist politics, for hope and mutual trust to overcome the emergent atmosphere of mutual distrust and cynicism. Let not convenient conformism silence the honest child who, having seen with his own two eyes, now wants to exclaim, “Look, the emperor has no clothes!” We the founding leaders of the CCTI now dare to raise our voice to call upon all the Filipino people: Let us uphold the Truth in the non-partisan interest of our nation and its heroic heritage. It is neither pointless nor too late a to make such a concerted effort. We have to try to save ourselves and our children from the Machiavellian maneuvers of the enemies of our nationhood and of its honor. Together let us seek the truth, for it shall unite us and set us free!
Manila, Philippines, June 28, 2004 |
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October 20, 2003
We Seek Clarity of Policy on Transparency with Official Papers
Our attention was called to the headline story of The Daily Tribune, reporting that “all clerks of courts and other court personnel have been officially forbidden by the (Supreme Court) chef justice, with associate justices’ approval, to release any and all documents pertaining to the Judicial Development Fund (JDF).” The report said the Tribune had “obtained a copy of a signed memorandum, dated Oct. 2, 2003, from court administrator Justice Presbiterio Velasco, with an attached en banc resolution from the court, signed by Clerk of Court Luzviminda Puno."
We are aware of two provisions of the 1987 Constitutions that are
pertinent to official documents of the government, which supports the
democratic governance principle that “sovereignty resides in the people
and all government authority emanates from them”, to wit:
Constitutional Mandate for Full Public Disclosures ARTICLE II. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES POLICIES Section 28. Subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law, the State adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest.
Citizens’ Constitutional Right to Access Full Information on Matters of
Public Concern ARTICLE III. BILL OF RIGHTS Section 7. The right of the people to information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law. There has been no law passed to subject the above Constitutional provisions to any conditions or limitation, since the ratification of the Constitution in January 1987. On the people's right to access to records and documents, there has even been favorable jurisprudence, in the Supreme Court landmark decision on the case of Valmonte vs. Belmonte, penned by Associate Justice Irene Cortes, promulgated in February 13, 1989 (G.R. No. 74930). We are not saying for sure that the Tribune report is completely accurate, but we have come to see the
need to ask a set of questions, the validity of which does not depend on
the accuracy or lack of accuracy of this report.
We seek clarity on policy. Taking these provisions of the
Constitution seriously, some of our members, all taxpayers and citizens
of this Republic, are now preparing to formalize our inquiry into the
following questions:
1. Are the transactions of the judiciary, a branch of government created
under the 1987 Constitution, recorded and reflected in public documents?
Have there been limitations and exceptions duly legislated or caused by
previous jurisprudence?
2. If there are exceptions,
what are the criteria for a public document like the papers of the
Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) and other similar documents to be
included in the coverage of such exceptions?
3. How does the Supreme Court uphold these aforecited Constitutional
provisions in case they are violated?
How is violation prevented?
What are the existing penalties for natural or juridical persons
who violate these Constitutional provisions?
4. If access to these
documents, and even to whatever research materials became inputs to
these documents is guaranteed by no less than the Constitution to be
afforded the ordinary citizen, would there be any case where a member of
Congress could validly be denied that right? We do not need anonymous answers. And silence on these questions, on the part of persons who can authoritatively answer them, would be interpreted as a sign either of evasion or of confusion. In either case, may Heaven help this country. |
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October 17, 2003 Effective Care for the Environment Requires Full Disclosure and Acknowledgment of Truth
As consumers of services, including the service of management and conservation of our natural resources, which we have contracted with the government we fund with our taxes, we have reason to demand good service. No management of the environment can be possible if the department tasked to do it doesn’t have all the important data, does not admit not having data, does not admit the extent of our problems, does not admit the environmentally-destructive policies of its superiors and does not acknowledge the dangers posed and destruction already being caused by projects it consults communities about and eventually approves.
Consumers have the right to demand that a significant part of the
people’s tax money be allotted to this management function, and that, in
turn, such allotments be managed well, more for conserving than for
“selling and exploiting” these resources. We will observe the figures
and seek to find wisdom in the decisions. Considering the life-and-death implications of the necessity of stopping the environmental destruction and conserving our planet for ourselves and for the survival of generations still to come, we consider the environmental concerns of very high priority in invoking all lawful principles and prerogatives available to assert the people’s right to fully accurate and fully adequate information on environmental concerns. We will seek to remind one and all that the government runs on people’s taxes and non-government entities receive funds solicited in the people’s name and, therefore, these are at all times accountable to the Filipino citizenry for the performance of responsibilities in effectively protecting and restoring the environment.
We owe ourselves and our children no less! |
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September 30, 2003 Justice Can Only Reign If it is Firmly Based on the Truth To the Participants, Lambat-Liwanag Conference on Reconstructive and Reformative Justice and the officers and members, Lambat-Liwanag Network Council Thru: Dr. Noemi Alindogan-Medina Network Council Chairperson Dear Friends: We of the newly-organized Consumers’ Coalition for Truthful Information (CCTI) convey our best wishes for the success of your conference this afternoon. We salute you for seriously taking up the matter of Reconstructive and Reformative Justice, as a rethinking of the prevailing framework that governs our judicial system in our country. Such a paradigm as this one you are developing would surely serve well the interest of bringing the Light of Truth to our nation’s full appreciation of the concept of justice. Based on such an appreciation of the profound truth, and even just on the simple basics of fairness, it might be a necessary for all of us to remember well and sharply that Justice can only reign if it is firmly based on Truth– the essential truth and the complete and unpolluted factual truth. May we have an endorsement from your conference on this position? We know that you would not have the time this afternoon to read and study for endorsement the full text of our basic declaration of solidarity and mandate, titled “Quest for a Culture of Truth.” For this reason, we request you to allow us to distribute among the conference participants this afternoon the copies we are providing, for consideration at a latter time. We are also inviting you and your participants to join us in our first Co-Creating Workshop Conference to be held this coming Friday, 1-5 pm, at the Philippine Columbian, Plaza Dilao, Sta. Ana, Manila. Moreover, through you we would like to reach the entirety of the Academe, which has the capability to stand as one of the most crucial and potent repositories and constituencies of the Culture of Truth sorely needed by our society today. Please help us. Please be with us in this gigantic effort. Truly yours, (Sgd.) Angelo Mike Ocampo Founding President Philippine Consumers’ Welfare Union (PCWU) Founding Spokesperson Consumers’ Coalition for Truthful Information (CCTI) (Copies of this letter were distributed to the participants of the Lambat-Liwanag Conference on Reconstructive and Reformative Justice held at the Philippine Normal University on September 30, 2003.) |
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September 24, 2003 Seek for Ourselves and Our Children the Truth that will Unite Us and Set Us Free
(Coalition for Truth Lauds Cardinal Vidal’s Call)
We fully agree with the Cardinal that peace can only be
attained by saying only what is true, by following the rules of justice and by
recognizing and respecting the rights of others.
Section 7 of our Bill of Rights upholds the basic right of the sovereign
citizenry to be fully and accurately informed of all matters of public concern.
Are the people fully informed that we all have such a right in no less
than the Constitution?
“We should talk about what is happening,” Cardinal Vidal
said. “The people should be able to say something about what is happening.”
And, we would like to add, we should all rise above the empty talk
of spectators and fence-sitters, and decide to dedicate all discourse to
seriously and collectively finding real solutions to our nation’s festering and
worsening woes. Let us earnestly
seek together, for ourselves and for our children, the Truth that will unite us
and set us free. Our personal and
collective pronouncements should focus on issues and principles, and not on mere
personalities and incidents.
Our pronouncements should go well beyond eliciting hollow laughter,
firing up venomous anger or engaging in ego-contest debates. Neither
wit nor wrath, much less debating skills, can really save us now! We
need to really seek and see the Light. Together.
For such an earnest and noble purpose, all talk would demand
depth of analysis and the crucial elements of honesty and sense of
responsibility. Such needed standards frown on the wilful or even simply
simply careless spread of inaccuracies and also frowns on illegitimate
secrecies.
Honest mistakes should be instantly corrected and a high sense of
responsibility should help us avoid even such mistakes from recurring too often. In the first place, there should be proper labeling offered
or otherwise demanded to clearly distinguish fact from judgments, bits of
information from personal opinions, and responsible conclusions from wild
speculations.
We feel the resonance of the good prelate’s statement with
our basic declaration, “Quest for A Culture of Truth,” which we have released to
the media recently and has been gathering support from founding signatories of
our Coalition for Truth. We doubt that the cardinal has had the opportunity to read
our declaration, for it could only be afforded a quiet and humble birth, but it
is not at all surprising now to hear various voices such as his calling for a
stop to the rampant practice of lying that has polluted almost all quarters of
our society today. That basic
declaration of solidarity and mandate may be read in the Internet. The web page
address to open is
http://filipinos4life.faithweb.com/truthful-info.htm, and those who are
signing on or before Friday October 3 will all be considered “founding
signatories.”
The whole afternoon of that date, we will hold our first
conference on building a "Culture of Truth" at the Philippine Columbian, Plaza
Dilao, Paco, Manila. We are going to gather Filipinos who have the passion and
commitment to be active in this determined crusade against spreading and
tolerating half-truths, malicious innuendoes, and outright lies. As a gathering of such people, this first “Kalikhaan para sa Katotohanan” event is expected to harvest concrete ideas and commitments for volunteered human hours and material resources that will all be fully synergized to get the movement going, even if at least initially we don't expect to have organizational funds for our wide variety of activities. This will be our opening contribution for this year’s Consumer Month (October). |
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September 10, 2003 Don't Kill the Messegers! Don't Harass the Whistle-blowers!
We also deplore the growing pattern of harassment perpetrated on "whistle-blowers" who expose wrongdoings among public servants. The response of higher authorities to any expose’ should never be one of knee-jerk retaliation and finding fault with the "whistle-blower" to blunt or bury to oblivion the latter’s disturbing report. The people are not really distracted so easily by counter-smokescreening counter-accusations, and they legitimately, albeit often silently, demand earnest investigations, and the issuance of clarifications and/or the pursuit of corrective or even disciplinary measures, as applicable based on findings. Otherwise, suspicions and sense of discontent would surely mount among the citizenry.
Offense cannot be the best defense available
to any government functionary or office that expects to deserve the
people’s trust and respect. Silencing mediapersons or whistleblowers
only serves to immortalize their "bad news" in the public mind.
Transparency and earnestness are needed to build the Culture of Truth
and atmosphere of trust that are, in turn, essential requirements of a
working democracy. No republic can ever be strong without it. No
administration can assert legitimacy without it. No one can advocate
democracy without working for it. We therefore reiterate our call: Don’t kill or even harass the discoverers and bearers of bad news! Their noble duty to society is to fully inform the sovereign body politic about all matters of public concern – the whole truth and nothing but, and not to please the powerful just to keep their own necks safe. We take any and all acts against them as assaults directed at the Filipino people as a whole. |
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NEW
/ LATEST:
N
THIS DAY, February 25, 2009, 23rd anniversary of our victory over
the tyranny that had been founded on deception, secrecy and suppression
of Truth, we of the
E,
ET
EVERY FILIPINO dare to answer these questions: Are direct victims the
only ones who should feel uncomfortable about election-related
violations of the Truth?
