First Person | Ka Louie and the alugbati
Ka Louie came into the dining hall with his smile as bright as the rising sun.
First Person | Ka Louie and the alugbati
POSTS FOR "First Person"
First Person | The Pope Who Spoke My Language
First Person | The Pope Who Spoke My Language
By CHUCK BACLAGONBulatlat.com By all accounts, Pope Francis had impeccable timing. He passed from this world on the eve of Earth Day — a date freighted with symbolism, a secular feast day for the sacred theme that defined much of his pontificate: the care...
First Person | A journey of hope with the struggling people this Lent
First Person | A journey of hope with the struggling people this Lent
For this, we must first experience hope in our faith. Amid the struggles of our brothers and sisters, there is hope if we continue to work for justice and peace; there is hope when we allow ourselves to be with our brothers and sisters in their struggle; there is hope when we journey together as brothers and sisters.
First Person | Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians
First Person | Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians
No matter what history timeline you believe in, you cannot deny the fact that the State of Israel was only established 75 years ago. If you read up on the diaries of the founders of Zionism, you will find out that the land where Israeli Zionists are settling in right now was already inhabited by the Palestinian people. No, it was not a desert.
First Person | An intern’s random thoughts during the martial law commemoration coverage
First Person | An intern’s random thoughts during the martial law commemoration coverage
The 51st Martial Law commemoration protest in Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Thursday was a deeply moving experience that went beyond my duties as an intern at Bulatlat.
First Person | One year in detention
First Person | One year in detention
Jail, after all, is not exempt from society’s great divide based on economic and social status. And even here, the movement for freedom and democracy considers our situation as part of the struggle.
First Person | How we lived since that Jagged Little Pill
First Person | How we lived since that Jagged Little Pill
And perhaps, each generation is just defined by vastly different things that represent particular socio-political, cultural, and technological moments.
First Person | The making of the ‘Doble Kara’ effigy
First Person | The making of the ‘Doble Kara’ effigy
The burning of effigies dates back to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s rule. Burning effigies has become a regular staple during major protests in the Philippines.
Freedom of expression is the people’s right to fight back
Freedom of expression is the people’s right to fight back
We must therefore never forget that contradiction in fighting back for freedom of expression today. Freedom of expression is not a privilege of those in power, but a weapon of the oppressed to safeguard against the abuse of power—whether economic, political, and social.
First Person | Remembering Nonie
First Person | Remembering Nonie
In primitive times, when a person disappears, his tribe would presume he had been eaten by wild beasts, fallen off a cliff, captured by another tribe, or taken by the spirits. If search parties fail to locate him, the babaylan will ask the diwatas or engkantos if they have taken the missing person’s body or spirit. The necessary rituals can then be performed according to circumstances or the person’s social status.
Buryong
Buryong
Malaking sanhi ng pagkaburyong ay ang mabagal na takbo ng kaso sa bansa na may kinalaman sa bulok na hustisya. Kadalasan naghihintay ng anim na buwan para sa paglilitis at lagi itong hindi natutuloy. Marami sa mga nakakulong ay inosente at sinampahan ng gawa-gawang kaso subalit walang sapat na kakayanan para makakuha ng tulong ligal.
Please forgive me, Professor Teodoro
Please forgive me, Professor Teodoro
Time has a way of teaching you the lessons you missed when they were first taught to you, right? I've found myself staring out of windows a few times, wondering what went wrong and what I could have done differently and how else I could communicate what I think people need to understand. In the few years since our democracy started to decline, I've been in a constant rage, wanting to both embrace and destroy this heathen generation that can't seem to recognize its own good.
First Person | Sleepless for weeks
First Person | Sleepless for weeks
Buying a P2.4-million minibus is definitely not an option for Papa; his jeeps' income are just enough to sustain the family's daily needs. "Saan ako kukuha ng pera? Uutang? Maintenance pa lang niyan, lugi na ako," he says. Even so, no bank would provide him such loan at his age.
To my daughter June and her friends who said I am sorry
To my daughter June and her friends who said I am sorry
But the combination of a campaign of historical distortion, vote buying, a Duterte-appointed COMELEC, red-tagging and relentless attacks on critics and opposition has created an election result that would bring a Marcos back to
Malacanang 50 years after the declaration of martial law.
First Person | How women journalists cope with the pandemic
First Person | How women journalists cope with the pandemic
Socio-economic disadvantage compels women to neglect personal needs, which often leads to psychological problems. This is often the underlying problem of all the other problems that women talk about when they seek professional help. It is also a topic that women journalists can be reluctant to speak up on, given the perceived glitz and glamour of the news industry, and the expectations of our patriarchal culture on women.
First Person | Homecoming (on meeting Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos)
First Person | Homecoming (on meeting Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos)
And the life of Ka Oris, a lifetime of service to the revolutionary struggle where he sparkled as one of its brightest red stars, is the loudest testimony to this shared cause.
First Person | Si Kelot
First Person | Si Kelot
There is nothing farther from the truth, if we go by the sharpness of her poetry and the chronicles of her life: all inflected with a sense of purpose, survival, and integrity.
First Person | How we strive to become people’s doctors
First Person | How we strive to become people’s doctors
The worst illnesses of our country are the ones that make us believe that social change is impossible, and that the suffering of millions of Filipinos is inescapable. The worst living conditions is where med students and health workers believe that they have no role in campaigning and fighting for just and lasting peace.
FIRST PERSON | ‘I will pay them back, says the Lord’
FIRST PERSON | ‘I will pay them back, says the Lord’
By EDITH BURGOS April 28, 2021, 14 years after the abduction of Jonas Joseph T. Burgos, he is remembered and sorely missed. Jonas is remembered, more dearly now, than ever before. The abductors and brains of this cruel inhumanity of enforced disappearance have...
FIRST PERSON | ‘Lumad students are not child warriors’
FIRST PERSON | ‘Lumad students are not child warriors’
"It was indeed very enriching for me to be given the opportunity to teach the Lumad Junior and Senior High-School students. Likewise, it was very heart-wrenching as I had learned many things from them especially in their narratives of struggles to uphold ownership of their ancestral lands and their way of life as well as their fight for self-determination and liberation from the shackles of their oppressors."
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