Go Satur, Go!

Those lunatics who want to strip Satur Ocampo of freedom, political clout and dignity by dragging him into jail better think twice, thrice even. If this government thinks it can easily get away with doing another Crispin Beltran, it's gravely mistaken. I wager people aren't going to be that cowed or indifferent this time around. We aren't going to pushovers for ever.

Funny how the government gave the go signal for his arrest right after the SWS survey proclaimed Bayan Muna as the party list expected to top the upcoming polls. They now want Satur to be thrown into some dingy, far-flung jail in Leyte for obviously-concocted murder charges. The Inquirer report, I think, effectively exposed the bungled weekend raid on the Ocampo home for what it is: a crude act of harassment, shorn of all credibility, legality, logic, or justice.

People are not going to take this sitting down. Certainly not the hundreds of thousands of Bayan Muna supporters who have generally remained unfazed and undaunted despite being surveilled, harassed, demonized, and even targetted for assassination by this godforsaken government.

Unlike Ka Bel, I did not have the chance to personally know Ka Satur. Heck, the guy doesn't even know me. But he has my wholehearted respect for being what he is: a sterling freedom fighter and an exemplary public servant, certainly a hundred cuts above all these morally-bankrupt racketeers masquerading as solons and government officials. It's them who rightfully deserve to be jailed and not Satur.

It absolutely pisses me off to read about how these purported "law-enforcers" (okay, okay i get the joke) are hunting Satur down like dogs chasing after game. It only reminds me of how Ka Bel was "invited for questioning", held hostage by armed CIDG agents, sent to Camp Crame, arrested and jailed on such marvelously pathetic and nonsensical grounds. Ka Bel and his lawyer Romeo Capulong engaged in all the necessary legal actions, in good faith like the honorable men that they are. One year later, he remains detained without having been proven guilty of any crime. And we expect Satur to get fair treatment under the folds of the law?

Satur has every right to bide his time, dodge and defy that good-for-nothing scrap of paper that this government calls a warrant. It's only right that he stands against whimsical and pseudo-legal procedures of a bullish and politically-insecure administration. Go Ka Satur! We'll stand by you and Ka Bel whatever it takes.

http://www.bayanmuna.net/

The Picture That Alston Did Not Want To See

This is a photograph of our friend Isaias Manano, Jr, as shown by his own mother to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston during his visit to the Philippines last February. For being the Secretary-General of Anakpawis in Mindoro Oriental and for many other reasons that do not make sense, Isaias was shot dead by an suspected military assassin while walking home last April 28, 2004.

Alston reportedly did not want to see this photograph. Well, neither did we. But we did not have the option to please ask that this photograph be taken away from our eyes, to beg off and ask to be shielded from this sight because it was an unbearable one indeed.

Almost four years have passed since Isaias was murdered. At the time of his death, the number of activists murdered by the government was pegged at 62. Now, the number of extrajudical killings has risen to over 800. The vermin suspected of masterminding the killings are now eyeing a seat in Congress. Military agents prowling the provinces and rural communities where people such as Isaias worked are now being deployed to slum areas in the cities in time for the 2007 elections. Alston, as a duly-acknowledged UN Special Procedures representative, did issue his official statement , only to be preempted and disrespectfully dissed by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales as an unwelcome muchacho "brainwashed" by the Philippine Left. Later today, President Arroyo signs the Anti-Terror Bill into law.

If all these aren't symptoms of a government gone mad, then I don't know what this is. It's like seeing Isaias die over and over again.

Remembering Braveheart
May 23, 2004

"BNARIL C ISAIAS. PATAY NA." I received this text message from a friend at 10:30 p.m. on April 28 and slumped into numb shock. The airconditioning in the fast food chain that humid night sunk into a sickening chill. Isaias was gone, the dissident exile from Mindoro who tirelessly trekked around in his cap, rubber slippers, and hunched, lean frame. Isaias, who risked sojourns throughout numerous sites of struggle, armed only with a guitar, the strongest of principles, and the humblest of words. [Continue]

Moving and Removing

February 25: We're moving out again, my husband and I. It's past midnight, the pick-up truck arrives tomorrow dawn but we're barely halfway through with packing up stuff. We should be panicking by now but for some reason, are going through our chores breezily while listening in random rotation to a whimsical mess of New Wave, J-Pop, progressive rock, Aimee Mann, and whateverelseisonthemp3player and editing work-related stuff in between.

Times like these remind me of the time when I was a kid, when my little nuclear family would change houses and neighborhoods every other year or so. It was because of this that I came to associate my childhood past not really with a single location, but with a litany of sites and journeys and people I've met across the way. That, and lots of cardboard boxes and packing tape.

It's a busy week ahead, the calm before another monsoon. But temporary solace surprisingly resides in strange comforts. I wish I could suspend and extend these crazy, transitory spells of time where, ironically, all things are again simple and clean and quiet, when one world ends where another begins.

Tribute to Dr. Aloysius Baes

Here's a short tribute to an extraordinary scientist and an exemplary environmental advocate, Dr. Aloysius Baes, reposted from www.bulatlat.com. This article was compiled from various testmonies, written and spoken, during two parangal (tribute) held for Ochie last December 23 and January. In the picture [below] is his mother, speaking of her son's life before a full audience at the Aldaba Hall in the Univeristy of the Philippines.

Dr. Aloysius Baes: Scientist, Composer and Revolutionary Par Excellence

Heroes are known not by how they died, but by how they lived in the service of the people to the very end. Dr. Aloysius "Ochie" Baes, 58, former Rapu-Rapu Fact-Finding Commissioner and environmentalist, consistently embodied this principle until he died.

His passing away at the National Kidney Institute last Dec. 21 merited an obituary in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, but there was definitely more to Ochie, as friends and colleagues called him, than what could be immediately said in a few concise lines.

A scientist by profession and an activist by choice, Ochie exemplified the best of what the iskolar ng bayan (people’s scholar) could offer to the country and to the world. At the tributes held last Dec. 23 and Jan. 29 at the Baes residence in Laguna and the Aldaba Hall in the University of the Philippines, Quezon City , respectively, Ochie's family, friends, colleagues and comrades were all brought together by narratives of his short but multi-faceted life: As a son and brother, student activist and revolutionary, Martial Law survivor, chemist and professor, commissioner, consultant, writer, poet, composer, musician, environmental advocate and scientist for the people.

Famous warrior

Dr. Aloysius Baes used to kid friends about the origins of his first name, claiming in jest that he was named after a mighty Greek god and - if still incredulous - a Nobel Prize winner who discovered a new chemical element.

The truth was that “Aloysius” is a variation of the name “Louis” which means “famous warrior.” Later, this name would exemplify much of what Ochie would become as a student leader and as a scientist.

Ochie was the eldest in a brood of four boys and one girl, a Boy Scout and proverbial “Mama's boy” born into a traditional, middle-class family. His parents had a piano at home and shared their love of music with the parish and with their children. Little did they then realize that this gift of the arts fostered upon their children would much later on reverberate in the hearts of countless activists. [Read the rest here].

Postcards from the ASEAN Sugbo Protests

Here are some intermittent snapshots during the ASEAN Summit protests in Cebu City from January 10-15, 2007.

VOYAGERS FOR PEACE ARRIVE IN CEBU

Left: Reported Navy personnel (complete with metal shields and hard hats--the ones used by construction wokers) block the Bicol contingent of the VOYAGERS FOR PEACE from getting out of Pier 3 at the Cebu City Port at around 7 a.m. last January 12.
Center: A 10:00 PM salubong (with lanterns and streamers) for the VOYAGERS FOR PEACE Manila contingent at Pier 6.
Right: The salubong for the Manila, Bohol, and Bicol contingents were covered by our friends from both local and national media. One particularly resourceful (and agile) camera crew member hitches a ride atop the last jeepney filled with protestors and covers the event from his mobile station.

U.S. OUT OF SOUTHEAST ASIA: A sea-based protest on Talisay's shores against U.S. military presence in SEA by Kalikasan-PNE, Pamalakaya, BAYAN, KMP, Anakpawis, and the local community. Activist swimmers, environmentalists and fisherfolk swam for around 300 meters, surrounded by Navy patrols, and burned the U.S. flag while standing in waist-deep waters.

PHILIPPINE GOV'T No. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR IN ASIA: Those who denounce GMA as a hypocrite for calling for democracy in Burma during the ASEAN Summit have every right to do so. Among the issues that demonstrators from various provinces have brought up are the continuing extrajudicial killings of activists, the most recent of which happened in Bicol (left). Activists from Central VIsayas also cap the VOYAGERS FOR PEACE cultural night with a presentation on the life of slain environmental activist and BAYAN Bohol Vice-Chairperson Vic Olayvar (center).

BEHIND THE BILLBOARDS: Sight-seeing at an ancestral mansion after the rallies? Nah! We're just posing in front of a giant tarpaulin billboard along Osmena Ave. claiming to showcase the 'wonders of Cebu'. Dozens of these brightly-lit billboards were erected during the Summit preparations and now line the city's major avenues along with banderitas and other festive decor for the Sinulog fiesta.

What the snapshots don't show are the numerous vendors and street children hidden in the shadows of these prominent billboards.

The Year of Crossing Over

Three years summarized in cliches*: 2004 was the year of jumping into the abyss. 2005, the year of tying up loose ends. 2006, the year of crossing over.

2006 was a year of literal and figurative departures: of working for still-detained labor leader and lawmaker Ka Crispin Beltran, of shuffling between Congress and Camp Crame and the Heart Center after Ka Bel's arrest, of getting married, of losing my mother-in-law to lung cancer, of moving house thrice, of starting work at an environmental network, of mournful but meaningful departures: Erika, Mommy Cel, Ka Pido, Roval, Ka Ochie, Auntie Tess, Ka Tirso, Lyn and Randy's fathers, Atty. Gojol and other activists assassinated by the Arroyo administration's death squads.

Will be spending New Year at the hospital, as my grandmother has pneumonia.

*Still can't figure out the exact character key for the letter 'e' with that strange mark on top.

Green Post

Green is said to symbolize the new. So, a MEANINGFUL GREEN YEAR to all!

Speaking of things green, here are some

Environmentally-friendly New Year's Resolutions
for Third World residents...

1. Conserve electricity. We will be forced to anyway, at the atrocious and unbelievable rates that electric companies such as Meralco are charging consumers. Better to divert extra energy to calling for a repeal of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which brought upon the scourge of more expensive power rates in the first place.

2. Throw away garbage properly. Metro Manila produces more than 7,000 tons of trash daily, a quarter of which ends up in clogged waterways and biologically-threatened rivers such as the Pasig. Do your part in reducing the unnecessary spread of solid waste by disposing of it properly.

The same holds for seemingly insignificant but disposable items, such as candy wrappers, empty softdrink cans, leftover food wrappers, and loose paper. It's utterly disppointing to see that people who loudly obsess with "keeping clean, neat and fresh" won't think twice of throwing litter in the streets, out of car windows, and elsewhere in public--even when there are trash cans lying around the place for the whole world to use. Although I generally maintain that the MMDA's ubiquitous pink street signs border on the morbid ("Walang tawiran nakamamatay" - 'No crossing the street: deadly') to downright moronic ("Bawal ang tao dito" - 'Humans are prohibited here'), there was one that made perfect sense in the context of this annoying litterbug mentality among Filipinos: Maliit na basura ibulsa. (Too bad that 'Bayani's boys' inexplicably display these in the middle of national highways such as EDSA.)

3. Quit smoking. It's a real health hazard, an additional (and non-essential) expenditure, and it stinks. If you can't, then try not to do it around people who would otherwise benefit from the absence of noxious second-hand smoke. Remember that the Philippine health care system isn't exactly efficient nor cheap. And that there are better ways to handle stress, social anxiety, and ennui than through puffing your lungs out as if your existence hinged on it. As the hilarious quote attributed to Brooke Sheilds points out: "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." (hahahah).

4. Say 'NO' to destructive and plunderous projects in our communities. Prevent the Lafayette and Marcopper mine spills from happening all over again: stop foreign TNC mining and large dam projects right in their tracks, way before they get a foothold on public land.

5. Write or lobby lawmakers to reject lopsided trade deals such as the JPEPA. Out of the hundreds of possible trade products in this Japan-Philippines agreement signed by GMA and Koizumi, at least 141 were classified by the DENR as "environmentally-sensitive" if handled improperly, including clinical waste, and hospital discards. Far as I know, the only real local 'commodity' that the Philippine government is really capable of exporting to Japan are nurses, so go guess who's the loser at the receiving end of waste importation?

6. Protect the local fishing industry and marine biodiversity. If you thought Nemo and Sebastian were cute, then think of how giant corporate trawlers from Japan, the US, Canada, and Australia are quickly depleting our aquatic resources, degrading our coastlines and coral reefs and depriving some 8 million Filipinos of their livelihood from small-scale fishing.

7. Boycott Petron. For causing the largest oil spill ever on Philippine waters in Guimaras. For (oops) doing it again with the Misamis oil sludge spill. For flatly refusing to compensate for the damages. For going about its perfunctory clean-up operations without providing adequate protective gear for residents paid to do so. For endangering the lives, health, and livelihood of the community in the process. Need one say more?

8. Plant trees and protect our forests. Face it: the Philippines no longer has much forest cover to speak of. An estimated 90% of Philippine old-growth forests have already been cut down due to massive log importation, commercial deforestation, and timber licensing agreements throughout the Spanish, American, and post-Commonwealth periods. But while helping a tree or two grow is noble in itself, it's going to take much more than small-scale reforestration efforts to reverse the devastation produced by the systematic and colonial plunder of our resources.

9. Don't vote for incompetent Environment USecs running for higher public office in the 2007 national elections. They didn't quite do a good job at the DENR, how can we expect them to do a better job as Senators or Congressmen?

10. Support the peoples right to free and fresh water. Land-locked countries often go to war with each other over water rights--a historical reality which has generally spared this archipelago, where freshwater supplies are theoretically abundant and accessible to the majority of the populace. This, as history also shows, is not true: in terms of freshwater availability per citizen, the Philippines ranks as the second LOWEST among all Asian countries. This is largely caused about by water privatization and pollution related to waste dumping by commercial industries such as mining and logging. Quit drowning in apathy, reclaim our water reserves for the benefit of all. #

...And 12 Resolutions for Myself
The simpler, the better. So here goes:

1. Wake up at dawn. So that I may witness the fragile teethering of a world between slumber and consciousness: the primordial and ethereal flow of repose and awakenings unimpeded by the mundane flow of human follies... NAAAH! So that I get to arrive at the office earlier AND have more time to write press releases, heheh.
2. Learn how to cook.
3. (Upon fulfillment of Resolution # 2) Cook more vegetables and eat more fruits. They come in more colors and shapes than meat and are kinder on the digestive system. Ideally, they should also be cheaper.
4. Write more often and in more forms . And not just when the need arises.
5. Paint and draw. These two things I haven't really done ever since deciding to go full-time in 2004. See resolution # 4.
6. Have time for art history research. This year, I had perfectly valid excuses for my utter absence of output. Next year, wala na !

7. Visit a mining-affected community or an area affected by large-dam operations.
8. Keep in touch with family and friends more often .

9. Maintain a CLEAN desk. This is the hardest to do. I share a cramped 2'x2' meter cubicle with three jolly male officemates, none of whom are really serious about keeping stuff tidy and aesthetically-acceptable. At home, my desktop bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain aerial photograph of wartime Manila, taken right after returning American planes bombed the city to smithereens. This year, I'll win the war against debris, disorder and dust balls! As Starstruck and First Quarter Storm veterans would say: Dare to believe, dare to struggle, dare to win!

10. Bike to work. So am saving up for a bicycle (plug: care to donate one instead?).
11. Quit my annoying habit of hair-pulling. Found the clinical term for this disorder in my sister-in-law's books: trichotillomania. It is possible to wean oneself away from this anxiety problem without drugs, that's certain.
12. And lastly: Sleep earlier. The old adage holds true: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

You Are Not a Cook

You know cooking isn't for you, and you wouldn't even consider trying to make a homecooked meal. And this is a very good thing. You've saved all your friends and family from unintentional food poisoning!

Are You A Good Cook?

A meaningful New Year to all!