QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com The annual state of the nation address is a must read for all citizens who are eager to know the president’s self-rated accomplishment report and priority programs. It is also relevant for what it fails to mention or what the president refuses to acknowledge. It is both a historical document…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Have you ever wondered why there are rallies calling for land reform but none that advocate for women’s right to suffrage? The answer is obvious: The first is a demand by landless farmers which is being virulently opposed by the powerful landed class while the latter is already a political…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com I was a congressman for four years (2009-2013) which equaled the number of my undergraduate years at UP Diliman (1996-2000). When asked about my two-term stint in Congress, I often claim that it’s like college but not quite like college. Of course it’s a joke since my college life was…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com 1. Rallies are violent, street rallies are illegal, and they cause destabilization. A rally is neither a picnic nor a carnival but it is also not a riot and a mortal combat activity. A rally will end and disperse peacefully if the police is not ordered to attack the protesters.…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com I’m an ex-con or ex-congressman. I was a two-termer (not two-timer) who represented the country’s first elected youth party. I was the third poorest solon and believe it or not I left the institution without getting rich. I have no relatives in government, I didn’t call Garci, and I certainly…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Outsourcing may be a popular business innovation but when applied to politics it becomes an atrocious aberration. Political participation is reduced into voting since we expect mainstream parties to oversee and dominate the bureaucratic political processes. Meanwhile, more and more people are shunning political association as they opt for the…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com At the risk of oversimplifying the definition of revolution, I dare say it involves three dynamics: critique and destruction of the existing social order, building a new world, and the continuous reinvention of the self. Of the three, the most familiar is the first – activists denouncing the bankrupt society…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Next to tree planting, the most popular green initiative of politicians today is the adoption of ‘ban plastic’ ordinances. The new normal is the total dislike for anything plastic and the coming together of various stakeholders in the community to save the future generation from the scourge of garbage, and…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com The ‘new’ in the communist New People’s Army signifies many things and each deciphering is helpful to understand why this rebel force has never been defeated by successive governments. The original communist-led people’s army was the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon and Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan. The Huks were a…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Is the military already acceding that the communist New People’s Army is the modern-day Katipunan? Because why would an army general tag Benito Tiamzon as NPA supremo when the government is adamantly insisting that the rebel group is neither revolutionary nor belligerent. In Philippine history, the only other notable supremo…
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com For the longest time the military has bombarded the public with the propaganda that it is Joma Sison who is leading and controlling the Philippine revolution from his base in Western Europe. This reasoning was accepted without question by many anti-Left intellectuals and they used it to malign natdem activists…