For many years, scientists and environmental advocates have cautioned the government against approving more proposals for land reclamation and coastal development projects in Manila Bay. The historic bay, they emphasize, is unsuitable for such projects because of the risks posed by floods, intensified typhoon-induced storm surges and other related consequences.
And perhaps, each generation is just defined by vastly different things that represent particular socio-political, cultural, and technological moments.
A people’s counter-SONA protest action, noticeably broader and bigger than that of the previous year, presaged bigger and broader protests during Marcos Jr’s second year in Malacañang.
For many Filipino migrant workers abroad, advancements in technology have been able to provide comfort as they navigate the long and painful separation from their children, spouses, and parents back in the Philippines. They can check if their children have done their homework, watch their graduation ceremony live, virtually join a family reunion or birthday celebration, or share a prayer with their ailing mother or father. Smartphones, the internet and social media have become essential tools in their lives as migrants. For most Filipino migrants, visits back to their home provinces are expensive, and these are not even possible for many undocumented OFWs.
It’s generally conceded that the Philippine criminal justice system grinds exceedingly slow. But for the Marcos Jr. administration, the system has been working well after just one year of the family’s being back in Malacañang.
After the SONA, the likes of Jeff Celiz, Lorraine Badoy Partosa, and NTF-ELCAC mouthpieces look like “kulang sa yakap” from Marcos. They don’t have SONA soundbites to misuse.
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.
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.
Sometimes, people just throw up their hands and shake their heads dejectedly: “But what can you do?” But often there’s really no alternative but to fight back, to push back. It happened again, twice, this week.
Human rights violations, highlighted by extrajudicial killings and questionable arrests, detention and filing of nonbailable trumped-up charges following red-tagging, continued during the first year of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s occupation of Malacañang.
Finally, describing the case as of “transcendental importance,” the Supreme Court affirmed its Jan. 10, 2023 decision declaring as unconstitutional and void a tripartite agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU), signed in 2005 by the Philippine government with the governments of China and Vietnam.