MANILAKBAYAN

Last year, we were able to organize a simple soup kitchen/poetry night for our brothers in Mindanao, who marched from the hinterlands of the south to Manila, with the strong will to register their sentiment --- pull out military troops in their school grounds. 

I remember telling myself when I was there with them, listening to their stories (even if i can barely understand them), that what they did was really an act of courage. It is not easy to stand against a big corrupt system, especially when you are a Lumad( a collective term for the indigenous people in Mindanao, more like the Aetas of Central Luzon and Igorots of the North). I told myself that this act of courage, this act of standing against the big corrupt system will surely have its repercussions once they get back to their ancestral lands. 

The only weapon that they had was their knowledge of the IPRA Law, which states that all Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines has their right to their ancestral lands, to practice their culture, and to thrive in ways that their ancestors taught them how to, but they said that whenever they invoke IPRA and any other laws that was implemented to defend them, they were accused of being members of the NPA, of being rebels that fight against the government. Say that the NPAs of Mindanao taught them what IPRA Law is, but was it the government who passed this law? The question here is not where or how they acquired the knowledge, the real question is why this IPRA Law cannot protect them from militarization and other abuses.

I was correct in fact when I told myself that there will be grave repercussions of them standing up, acting against the big corrupt system. On the first of September this year, two of their brothers were slain by paramilitary groups, not to mention numbers of abuses and harassment that came along with it. 

Now, they will again march from the hinterlands of the South, to once more call the attention, or maybe they need more than that, for the state to act and resolve this socio-political phenomena. 

To quote a man from the land of curry, “A civilization will be measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

residual (W/T)aste

MTV generation

Isinilang ako isang  taon matapos ang EDSA uprising. Salamat at hindi ko naranasan ang Martial Law, dahil ayon sa mga kuwento ng mga matatanda, aktibista man o hindi,  magulo at madugo ang panahong iyon, lalo na sa mga  pangkarinawang Pilipino.
May curfew, bawal ang long-hair, maraming pinapatay, maraming bigla na lamang nawawala(desaparacidos), na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa rin natatagpuan ang bangkay. Mayroon akong nakilala, isa ang tatay niya sa mga deasaparacidos, at hanggang ngayon, dekada makalipas ang panahon ng Martial Law, sinusulatan niya pa din ang kanyang ama, sa paniwalang isang araw, babalik at kakataok itong muli sa kanilang pintuan. Wasak.


Wala ako sa posisyong mag-patunay o ni magkwento ng kasaysayan nuong panahon ng Martial Law, ngunit mayroon/maraming manunulat na maaring pagkatiwalaan ang pwedeng basahin at pwedeng mag lahad ng katotohanan tungkol sa kung ano ang itsura ng Pilipinas nuong Martial Law. Andiyan sina Luis Teodoro, Lualhati Bautista, Bienvenido Lumbera at marami pang iba.Sa isang random interbyu sa TV, narinig ko ang isang tricycle driver na nagsabing mas mabuti pa nuong Martial Law,mas maginhawa ang buhay, mas mura ang bilihin, tapos mayron pang isa, estudyante, sabi niya ay mas okay daw ang Martial Law dahil maraming naipatayong infrastructures at eskwelahan. Tama siguro sila, sa nauna, siguro'y yun ang opinyon niya, dahil mas malala ang kahirapan at korapsyon ngayon, sa pangalawa, medyo hindi ko mapagtagpo ang konsepto ng Martial Law at ng pagpapatayo ng infrastructures at eskwelahan. Parang ambabaw.

Sa isang interbyu din, sinabi ni Marcos Jr. na sa tingin niya'y bilang pamilya(Marcos), hindi sila dapat humingi ng paumanhin sa mga Pilipino. Eto yung buong statement:
“We (the Marcoses) have consistently said that if during the time of my father, some were hurt, were not helped, or were victimized in some way, we are sorry that happened. Nobody wanted that to happen. These are instances when people fell through the cracks.”

However, continued Marcos Jr., “Will I say sorry for the thousands and thousands of kilometers [of roads] that were built? Will I say sorry for the agricultural policy that made us self-sufficient in rice? Will I say sorry for the power generation? Will I say sorry for the highest literacy rate in Asia? What am I to say sorry about?”

Sinagot ng punto por punto ni Luis Teodoro ang statement ni Marcos Jr., at sinabing anak siya ng Tatay niya. Bilang aktibista nuong panahon ni Marcos Sr., isa si Teodoro sa mga mapagkakatiwalaang istoryador ng panahon niya.

Parehas ang tono ng pangangatwiran nung isang estudyanteng na-random interview, at ni Marcos Jr. Justified daw ang pagdedeklara ng Martial Law dahil nakapagpatayo naman ng mga infrastructures at eskwelahan, dinagdagan lang ni Marcos Jr. ng highest literacy in Asia. Produkto daw ang mga ito ng Martial Law. Ayos. Malinaw. Pero, kailangan ba ng Martial Law para gawin yung mga ganung programa de gobyerno? Hindi ba trabaho ng normal at functioning government ang mga sinabi nung estudyante at ni Marcos Jr.? Naalala ko pang nag-wishful thinking si Marcos Jr. na dapat daw ay Singapore na tayo kung natuloy ang mga plano ng ama niya, pero sa tingin ko, hindi yun ang punto, ang punto ay bakit siya nagsasalita na parang ang ama niya ang masusunod sa lahat ng plano sa gobyerno? Na parang isang icon na magdidikta ng kung ano ang dapat at tapat? Ah oo nga pala, kaya nga pala "diktadurya ni Marcos" ang isang katawagan sa panahon ng ama niya. Ang malalang katotohanan ay bakit natin ito pinakikinggan? At ang mas masahol pa ay paniniwalaan? Ah kasi mayroon tayong demokrasya. Lahat ng opinyon, kahit medyo may kababawan at kabobohan, kailangan pakinggan.

Pero, nakakalimutan natin na lahat ng ginawa ng mga Marcos, ang perang ginamit, mga ng eroplanong sinakyan, mga sapatos na binili at pinang pa-aral sa mga mga anak, ay galing sa kaban ng bayan. Yun ang nakalimutan natin. Mayroon kasi tayong awe-effect sa mga pulitiko, gaya ng sa mga artista, affection na nagmula sa mass media, na sa halip na magpa talas ay nagpapapurol ng isip, na parang ang misteryo ng araw araw na buhay ng mga political elite/celebrity ay di mapapsok kailanman ng karaniwang tao. Doon naka pako ang ating mga kaisipan, sa hindi maintindihang "god given blah" ng mga "may kapangyarihan" na mag-hari.
Minsan nasabi ko na sa isang independent film na ginawa namin(Agam-agam),  hindi natin utang na loob sa mga public servant ang kanilang serbisyo publiko.


From "Imeldific" to "Noynoying"


When Aquino Jr. ran for presidency, he was haunted by the questions of two unsolved atrocities; Hacienda Luisita and the Mendiola massacre, where the government forces open fired on unarmed peasants. The former occured in their their bailiwick, Tarlac, while the latter happened in Manila, where thirteen farmers were killed by the armed forces of the Philippines, thirty nine sustained gunshot wounds, and twelve of the farmers were injured. Both of the protests were said to be in line with the discontent of the farmers, demanding genuine agrarian reform. Now, Marcos Jr. is being scrutinized by the media over his father's skeletons in the closet.

We are just recycling our politicians. When Aquino Jr. was about to run for presidency, i remember one of my relatives saying "Sino sa mga yan(presidentiables) ang hindi magnanankaw? Si Noynoy lang!" Well, i remember telling him that it was not the point, saying that the media and its spin doctors are really doing a great job "packaging" Aquino Jr. as the next president. And now i am really excited to know who will he campaign for the next elections.

Aquino Jr., in his stay in Malacanang had proven that he is the haciendero that his uncles and and Auntie's was. Smiling in a burial of "supposed to be" heroes, not attending the burial of a transgender who was murdered by a U.S. Marine in Philippine soil, saying that he does not attend burials of people he doesn't know, pocketing  the funds given to the victims of thyphoon Haiyan by foreign countries, consenting DAP/PDAF, having utter disregard to public service by privatizing hospitals and schools, under the banner of his true agenda in the government, Public Private Partnership(PPP).
Marcos Jr. on the other hand is no different. First of all, did he ever make any essential stand about the real struggle of the Filipinos? To name a few, we have the wage increase, genuine agrarian reform, the horrors of contractualization, endless demolitions in the name of privatization, and the all poweful-cliche word, corruption. What does he have to say about it? Does anyone know? And even if he has something to say about those things, does he have the appropriate material evidences to back it up, I mean he was congressman and now senator. Right?

Aquino Jr. did not author any bill in the congress,  therefore did not pass any law, but he won and still the president. I am really confused now of how we choose our candidates. If a person did not function properly in congress, then he might be a great president. Sounds logical, eh?
To quote Chomsky, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”


Residual (W/T)aste

What we are experiencing right now is an era of residual wastes, the residual wastes of "great" men, of tyrannical men, governing us, speaking as if we are from the fruit of their father's loins, as if they have made progress possible because of what their parents did during their times. Here we have Aquino Jr., constantly invoking his parents who died "heroically," blah blahs, and so on, on the other side, we have Marcos Jr. trying to force us to see the "light" in his father's dark regime.
Public sevice is not about reclaiming the glory of one family's surname, it is neither about the Marcoses nor the Aquinos. Why then we still consider them as our servants? Why then we still hope that they can, and they will govern the country accordingly?

What permanently remains in this country is interest. What i mean to say are the business' interests, multi-national, trans-national, regional business interests. Election is more of a formality of who the next puppet would be. Big capitalists interests are the only thing that remains, once this farce of election hype subsides.

I can taste this residual waste in my tongue whenever i walk the streets of Manila, whenever I wait in one of those damned waiting sheds with names of politicians in it, whenever i hear news about SONA, whenever i see a man under a bridge, living inside a kariton with his dog, whenever i see children begging in the streets for money or food, whenever i'm in my room, contemplating silently, asking what did these motherf*ckers do to our land, i experience this bitter, extremely poignant taste in my mouth, leaving a more unpleasant after taste.