The FOSS Act: towards a better (software) world

By Rep. Teddy Casino, Bayan Muna
September 15, 2008

I would like to first of all thank everyone for attending the opening ceremonies of the 2nd House of Representatives FOSS Week.

I would like to especially thank my staff, especially CJ, Abby and Gerald who have been working on this for the last two months.

Also our friends from the IT department of Congress, the Committee on Information and Communications Technology and the Committee on Trade and Industry, especially their respective chairpersons Representatives Joseph Santiago and Tony Alvarez, who we collaborated with on this endeavor.

Lastly, I thank the participating groups without whose presence this exhibit wouldn’t have pushed through.

Aside from educating members of the House and the congressional staff on what FOSS is and how it can help them in their work, this exhibit is also meant to bring attention to House Bill 1716, or the proposed Philippine FOSS Act, which will be initially deliberated upon by the appropriate committees this Wednesday.

Basically, the bill aims promote the use and development of FOSS by mandating the government to use open standards, open formats, and FOSS in its data storage, communications, documents and ICT goods and services except in situations where such software are not available. It also encourages the private sector to develop a truly Filipino FOSS-based software industry.

But why choose FOSS over traditional, proprietary software? In a nutshell, because FOSS is cheap (in fact, most FOSS are distributed gratis to the public by their own developers and can be freely distributed). It is flexible and development-friendly (FOSS source codes are accessible to consumers who may study, modify and customize the software). It is interoperable (FOSS adhere to open standards and are meant to work across various platforms and protocols). And it is stable and safe (the opening of the source codes and the use of open standards have allowed hundreds of thousands of users around the globe to serve as a virtual research and development team, providing patches and solutions to bugs and glitches in real time over the internet).

Mandating the use of FOSS to government agencies will lower cost of ICT implementations. Rather than spending on software which have FOSS equivalents, additional hardware can be acquired instead. FOSS more importantly, reduces dependence on proprietary technologies which are usually owned by foreign monopolies and carry very restrictive and oppressive license and patent conditionalities. In this way, it will also pave the way for the reduction, if not eradication, of software piracy since by its very nature, FOSS can be modfied, copied and given away for free by its users.

The extensive use of FOSS in government is not an impossible task. In fact, many government agencies or sub-agencies have started migrating their information and data systems, in one way or another, to FOSS and open standards and formats. These include the DOST, NEDA, DTI, NSO, many LGUs, the Supreme Court and of course Congress.

The challenge for Congress, really, is to come up with a policy framework that would lead to the use and development of FOSS. Mandating its use in government is just one step. The more daunting task is to ensure our people’s access to information through technologies that are affordable, democratic and developmental. The use of FOSS, open standards and open formats plays a crucial role in this task of empowering our people. You can not make digital information accessible to the greatest number of people unless the programs that you use to tap such information are, by themselves, accessible and free of unecessary restrictions.

There are many more issues covered by the bill but the biggest hindrance to its approval is lack of information. To be blunt, I’d say that most congressmen do not even know what FOSS is, much less cares whether they use FOSS or proprietary software.

Which brings us to the importance of this exhibit. In order to pass a law on FOSS, members of Congress should first know what it is – this is our mission for the coming week.

Once again, thank you very much for coming and I hope to see you in our various events for this week, especially the committee hearing for HB 1716 this Wednesday.

Maraming salamat po. May the FOSS be with you.###

Towards a pro-Filipino and pro-people Mining Act

To our comrades in KAMP, our compatriot indigenous peoples from north to south, the Center for Environmental Concerns, guests and observers, warmest militant greetings from Bayan Muna!

During the Marcos dictatorship, the joke used to be that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos had a very simple mining policy: that is mine, this is mine, everything is mine. I guess the times have not changed that much.

Seriously now, the policy framework of the current government, as enshrined in the Mining Act of 1995, can be summed up as follows: the more the merrier, the bigger the better. Never mind if the site targets are in populated areas. Never mind if most, if not all remaining mineral deposits in the country are in the ancestral domains of our tribal brothers and sisters. Never mind if mining operations are environmentally hazardous. As long as it is large-scale, foreign-owned, and geared for export, then by all means, mine the country. It is a policy premised on the sell out of our indigenous peoples, the national patrimony and the environment.

You know better than I the catastrophic impact of such a mining policy. The big time mining projects and applications for the same have fomented divisions and conflicts in and among various tribes and have caused the forced evictions and displacement of indigenous peoples in Abra, Benguet, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Mindoro, Zambales, Caraga, Davao Oriental, SoCSKSarGen, the Zamboanga Provinces, and in non-IP areas like Samar and Negros, to name a few.

The entry of mining companies severely alter the customary laws and ways of life of our indigenous communities. Their laws, interests and opinions are least considered by the government and mining firms. The word of the DENR secretary and the President usually prevail over any opposition from the communities. The current Mining Act and related laws allow the use of deception, bribery and strong-arm tactics to force mining operations into an area.

Many tribal communities have become severely divided between those for and against mining. So does mining destroy not only the environment and the people's livelihood but their families as well. No amount of royalties and local taxes can compensate for IP communities displaced by mining operations. Their land is their life.

Bayan Muna stands with the indigenous peoples, environment defenders and the rest of the Filipino people who oppose this kind of a mining policy. While we hold the view that mining is highly important in nation building, it should not be done at the expense of our people's rights and the environment. Our country's natural wealth of mineral resources is finite and needs to be reserved for Filipino citizens and optimally exploited for the genuine development of the nation.

In this light, we are one with you in opposing all forms of foreign, large-scale mining operations in the country. We are one with you in asserting your rights and protecting the environment. We are one with you in calling for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995.

In this light, we must work towards a new mining policy that respects human rights, especially those of indigenous peoples, and gears the industry towards building a progressive, independent and self-reliant national economy. This of course should be based on the requisites of addressing the country's industrialization requirements and to modernize the backward and inefficient agriculture production under a framework of genuine agrarian reform, social justice and food security.

Such a mining policy would be the complete opposite of the current government framework that is premised on nothing but profits and tongpats, thus the stress on large-scale, foreign mining operations for export.

We believe that we can promote and propagate our People's Mining Policy with renewed vigor and in an additional arena, the halls of the legislature. Our measure (House Bill 1793) to repeal the Mining Act of 1995 is now pending in the House Committee on Natural Resources. We have realized, though, that it is not enough to call for the repeal of the Mining Act. If we want to up the ante and totally engage government in a policy debate on matter, it is important to come up with a concrete, alternative proposal. This is the importance of fleshing out the People's Mining Policy into an alternative piece of legislation. We hope KAMP and all tribal organizations will help us in crafting such a bill.

Such a pro-Filipino mining bill is premised on the principle that our national patrimony - our finite mineral resources, our lands, our biodiversity - should be conserved and developed according to our terms and our needs as a people. It should not be exploited just to meet the demands of the free market.

In particular, we hope to take the cue from your sector on the following issues:

1. the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and ancestral domain;

2. a wider and more democratic free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) process for all communities affected by mining, especially IP Communities;

3. democratic consultations and participation at every stage and level of mining activity in tribal lands;

4. job priority, security, living wages, safe working conditions for mine workers;

5. stringent application of international environmental standards and safeguards;

6. a total mining ban in environmentally- critical areas and conservation priority areas;

7. absolute prohibitions on the dumping of mine wastes and tailings into rivers, lakes and seas.

These are just some of the ideas that we would want to incorporate into the pro-Filipino mining bill. You are in the best position to contribute your ideas on what the indigenous peoples would want to include in the bill we are to draft.

Let me emphasize though that we harbor no illusions that Congress will pass such a bill or change the current situation faced by the indigenous peoples. Our bill will be a political statement, an alternative policy that will show the public what should be done. Its main aim will be to expose the criminal nature of the present policy and the government that implements it and to engage government and the industry in a public debate to highlight the issues and push forward our mass campaigns against large-scale, multinational mining operations.

In other words, this will just be an additional arena for our battle. Our main battle front is still in our communities. Our main weapon is still our mass struggles and campaigns.

We shall await your proposals for inclusion in the pro-Filipino mining bill to be filed by Bayan Muna in Congress.

Thank you and tuloy ang laban ng katutubo at sambayanang Pilipino! #