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COMMENTARY

AT GROUND LEVEL

SATUR OCAMPO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rights ‘superbody’ needs monitoring

It has been 36 years since president Corazon Aquino created the Presidential Human Rights Committee, in a much-hailed move that signaled to the Filipino people that her administration was firmly committed to the protection and promotion of human rights.

SC rules: Red-tagging is threat to life, liberty

For almost six years, red-tagging has been a major component of the bloody counterinsurgency campaign – initiated and implemented by the Duterte regime and sustained by the Marcos Jr. administration – through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

BALIK-TANAW

PROMOTION OF CHURCH PEOPLE’S RESPONSE

Balik-Tanaw | Called, transformed, sent

In the First Reading from Isaiah (6:1-8), the prophet Isaiah has a powerful vision of God’s holiness. He sees the Lord in all His glory and is overwhelmed by His presence. Isaiah realizes his own unworthiness and sins, but instead of being turned away, God purifies him and calls him to be His messenger. Isaiah’s response is simple yet profound: “Here am I, send me.”

Balik-Tanaw | Good news

I was walking with a colleague to the Surigao house we share and came to talk about her first foray into the city. A development worker, she had come from Iligan and had just been onboarded into a response team here in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Odette in 2021. Her work then must have been challenging, made even more difficult by the prevailing Covid. Being new here myself and getting a lot of help settling in, I was immediately reminded that I arrived at a better time.

BALIKSAYSAY

FRANCIS GEALOGO

Pandemic at pamamahala

Nauulit sa mga leksyon ng Influenza Pandemic ng 1918 ang kasalukuyang hamon na kinakaharap ng daigdig ukol sa COVID 19. Tila nagiging hadlang ang di maagap na pagtugon ng pamahalaan sa pagkalat ng sakit. Ang pagtapyas sa badyet sa kalusugan; ang kakulangan ng personnel at pasilidad na haharap sa pagkalat ng sakit; ang turuan at sisihan ng mga pinuno sa kung sino ang dapat na responsable sa pangunguna sa pagsugpo nito; ang racistang pananaw sa pagkakasakit; at ang kakulangan sa pagkilala sa epektibong sistema ng kwarantena ang tila nag uulit sa panganib sa kabuuan ng populasyon sa pagkalat ng sakit.

Kaninong usapan? Kaninong kapayapaan?

Mula pa noong panahon ng pananakop ng mga Espanyol, hanggang sa kasalukuyan, nabibigo ang mga usapang pangkapayapaan dahil hindi nito tinutugunan ang dahilan ng pagrerebelyon ng mga tao.

Ang heneral at ang Taal

Sinasabi pa ngang ang dagliang tugon ng mga mamamayan gaya ni Malvar ang kabaligtaran ng tila walang pakialam o kibit balikat na tugon ng pamahalaan sa kalamidad.

BLOODRUSH

SARAH RAYMUNDO

Blood Rush | Unrest

This latest terrorist designation on the NDFP is a fascistic act of casting the net so wide in order to tag the armed revolutionary group as a growing network. That it comes with the government’s inability to contain the probable spread of the much feared COVID-19 Delta variant is no longer a shocker.

BLOOD RUSH | Edel Garcellano’s Decolonial Project*

Garcellano’s “The Philippines As Yugoslavia Revisited” wields academic freedom as a tool to crystallize the best aspects of so-called competing paradigms. But this is less an affirmation of the “marketplace of ideas,” a faux heterodoxy that has no other function but to fragment and marginalize in the name of pluralism than Garcellano’s thoughtful engagement with dialectical thought and totality.

Community Pantry Ph: Hugpungan ng ginhawa at pag-iral ng use value

Sa pagsulpot ng mga Community Pantry sa buong kapuluan, nagkaroon ng bagong hugpungan o pagkakatagpo-tagpo. Sa hugpungang ito, matingkad ang diwa ng kolektibismo na may potensyal na makipagtalaban sa gutom, karahasan at pandemya. Litaw rin ang materyal na pag-iral ng use value (laban sa exchange value) upang makamtan ng mamamayan ang kanilang mga pangangailangan.

FIRST PERSON

BULATLAT CONTRIBUTORS

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

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.

KALIBUTAN

KALIKASAN-PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Duterte killings

Sampung pinakamatinding kampanya para sa kalikasan (Part 2)

Bibilib ka sa pagtatanggol ng PInoy sa kalikasan, sa kabila ng matinding kahirapan, lumalalang panganib para sa aktibismo, paglipana ng sandamakmak na buwitre at buwaya (pasintabi sa tunay na hayop) sa gobyernong Duterte, at tumitinding pakikialam ng mga dayuhan sa ating bansa.

People’s response to mining plunder

The people’s armed defense of their lands and national patrimony has been a recourse that must be recognized and respected in the context of deep-seated historic injustices and brutal suppression. The revolutionary armed movement in the Philippines led by the CPP-NPA-NDFP has maintained a strong opposition to destructive large-scale mining operations.

KONTEKSTO

DANILO ARAO

Konteksto | Guro

Nagsimula ang lahat sa isang kampus sa Taft Avenue kung saan estudyante ako sa antas masterado. Nagkaroon ng bakante para sa isang lektyurer. Tinanong ako ng mga kaklaseng guro kung interesado akong mag-apply.

Konteksto | Protesta

Patuloy ang batuhan ng akusasyon sa Kongreso. Matindi ang pagdiin sa ilang personalidad samantalang maingat naman sa iba pa. Tila ayaw marinig ang buong katotohanan at nais lang makuha ang impormasyong aayon sa pansariling interes.

Konteksto | Pagbato

Hindi karahasan ang mambato ng putik o bulok na gulay dahil galit sa mga magnanakaw at kurakot. Bakit hahanapan ng pagkilos na “mapayapa” o “disente” kung patuloy ang pambabastos at malaswang pagpapakita ng karangyaan sa gitna ng kahirapan?

LAB NOTES

Advocates of Science and Technology for the People

Lab Notes | Scientists and technologists say no to tyranny

There are many other instances of how S&T has been shunned and misused in the name of self-interests of those in power. This should also show you not only the ongoing tyranny in the Philippines, but also how it negatively affects science and technology either by disregarding scientific advice if it doesn’t suit the administration’s narrative, or cherry-picking concepts when it furthers their vested interests. That is why there is a need, a responsibility in fact, for us scientists, technologists, and engineers to push back against such oppression, to collectively say no to tyranny. This is the foundation upon which the Scientists and Technologists Say No To Tyranny or (SnT) 2 alliance was built upon.

OPINION

BULATLAT EDITORS

SONA 2025: Anti-corruption, good governance as Marcos Jr. legacy?

The most obvious irony is that the flood control projects are his initiatives under the Build Better More infrastructure program, and that some of the public officials involved in the corruption behind the defective projects are the same ones who are applauding the President enthusiastically in the plenary hall.

ON THE FRINGES

BULATLAT STAFF

The anatomy of a strike

In an increasingly impersonal world dominated by capital and profit margins, strikes shatter that illusion and remind us of the fundamental relations between people and things. Strikes are the tears shed at the sound of workers gaining their rights. They are the words “Lumalaban pa rin” said with the purest conviction, by workers who live, breathe, and have families to feed.

How my parents ‘brainwashed’ me

I understood that no matter how difficult the situation then, like the makeshift toilet and the few hours of sleep due to conventions, educational discussions as well as integration in picketlines, our parents had the best intentions.

QUESTION EVERYTHING

MONG PALATINO

Question Everything | My father in America

Family reunions allowed us to catch up, reenact rituals of domestic living, and build new memories. Were they enough? For a child who sincerely wanted to express his love and gratitude, they were agonizingly inadequate.

Question Everything | Keywords, sound bites, and newsmakers of 2022

After half a year in power, the dictator’s son proved that he was no champion of human rights and freedom of expression. Impunity has persisted as evidenced in the killing of radio broadcaster Percy Lapid. Tokhang became Bida but extrajudicial killings did not stop. Red-tagging remains the de facto policy of the state in dealing with critics and activists despite the claim of the Justice secretary that it is only a term invented by the Left.

ROOT ACCESS

COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS UNION

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