Here's a tiny doodle I did recently during a very boring meeting. It's part of a standing dare between me and Ina, which should take effect after this is uploaded now.
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.
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.
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.
tes and journeys and people I've met across the way. That, and lots of cardboard boxes and packing tape.
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].
Here are some intermittent snapshots during the ASEAN Summit protests in Cebu City from January 10-15, 2007.
