These red (tagged) comrades were not responsible for the phasing out of jeepneys, for rampant violations of human rights, for the collapse of our agriculture. They took up arms precisely because they know that the peaceful means to achieve genuine social change is irresolvable in the current existing system. They realized that it was the existing system, which is unsustainable, that is utopian rather than the alternative future that they were willing to die for. They were not dreamers! They were realistic! Like the 1968 French student rebellion, they demanded the impossible!
Category: Opinion
How conservatives share the same bed with fascists
Is conservatism a legitimate ideology? Yes. At its most benign, it aims to maintain the status quo and works for the benefit of the ruling class. At its worst, it supports fascism and actively works against the masses.
Opinion | Sonya Gregorio’s ‘I don’t care’ as subversion
That the explicitly murderous rhetoric of, and the culture of impunity bred by Duterte has enabled this atrocity, is a glaring fact of our current life. From injunctions like “… kaunting pagkakamali lang barilin mo na,” to promises that no policemen would ever go to jail, everything that Duterte has been saying and doing has provided the very conditions for these atrocities to emerge and fester.
COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing relevance of print media
In the context of community print publications, they should be strengthened not just by the people’s support but by ensuring that press freedom will be promoted and upheld by the government.
Opinion | Revolution is the path towards a more human existence
When you are “free” to choose between which business you give your money to so you can survive and work tomorrow for another one, you are not free. You are trapped in an endless hell for the benefit of these few businesses.
Uncertain future following close elections in former British colony
Biden has a host of issues ahead of him come January – including a healthcare crisis and ethnic and racial violence.
Media literacy should include fighting and demanding
The future of public communication rests on giving relevant media literacy. Audiences should be taught the valuable lesson of asserting and fighting for a media that we all deserve. This means fighting attempts by government to control the media, as well as demanding responsible gatekeeping by the owners of social media platforms.
Airing entertainment shows amid a super typhoon a disservice to the audience
The media should resist all commercialist trappings and not favor profit over truth-telling. Journalists and news media organizations need to brush up on the normative standards of journalism, if only to realize that bias is inherent and should not be hidden.
What is the weight of a monument?
Like the Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial in Quezon City, dedicated to a wide segment of Martial Law martyrs from community leaders such as Dulag to fighters of the New People’s Army in resisting the Marcos dictatorship, or the 1933 Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan honoring revolutionary heroes of the Katipunan who fought for independence from Spanish rule, the Anti-Chico Dam Struggle monument represents a step foward in committing our histories of resistance to public memory in more permanent form. To demolish it would be a grave disrespect of cultural and social history at the very least.
The social basis of Filipino conservatism
By JUSTIN UMALI Bulatlat.com In the wake of Facebook’s recent shutdown of state-sponsored fake pages and accounts, it’s easy to overlook that there are other aspects aside from state fascism. Since Duterte signed Executive Order 70 in December 2018, the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has busied itself…
Hostaging The Dead: An emergent trend in the Philippine state terror and war profiteering under Duterte
BY KOBI TOLENTINO Bulatlat.com Under Rodrigo Duterte, the horrendous act of taking dead bodies as hostages seemed to have become part of the military and police’s standard operating protocol. It happens when they deny the remains of alleged armed leftists from claimant families unless the latter has been co-opted. Hunting for bounties in a…