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Bagyo, baha at diktadura

Bagyo, baha at diktadura

Malawakan man ang pananalanta ng bagyo at pagbaha ng 1972, at ginawa man itong pamamaraan para sa konsolidasyon ng diktadura at katiwalian sa pamahalaan, makikita ring malaki ang ambag ng baha ng 1972 sa pagmomobilisa at pagmumulat sa mga mamamayan. Ang malawakang pagbaha ang nagbigay-daan upang mapasangkot ang maraming mga mamamayan sa pagbibigay ayuda dahil napagtanto nilang kulang o walang ginagawa ang pamahalaan upang maibsan ang pagdurusa ng marami.

At cross-purposes with itself

At cross-purposes with itself

It explains why it is abridging the people’s right to information: it is to prevent the citizenry from demanding that government truly address the roots of poverty by, among other means, curbing the dishonesty in public office that contributes to the hopelessness, hunger and despair that has led many Filipinos to take up the gun. His own regime is in that sense at cross-purposes with Mr. Duterte’s oft repeated promise to end corruption.

Unreason as norm

Unreason as norm

Both reactions provoke further criticism and even outrage not only from ordinary citizens but even from their fellow officials themselves. No one can blame those who, as a result, end up concluding that regime bureaucrats focus on non-essentials because the administration they’re serving can’t even articulate its own policies and actions.

What is the weight of a monument?

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.

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