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COMMENTARY

AT GROUND LEVEL

SATUR OCAMPO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bantayog ng mga Bayani honors 13 ‘pillars’

Engraved in golden letters on the granite Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog Memorial Center in Quezon City are the names of the heroes and martyrs who fought with the people against the long Marcos dictatorship.

‘Not war with China; don’t rely only on US’ – Marcos Jr.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV last Wednesday, as reported in another national daily, he made two related comments that could represent important government policy stands. First, regarding China’s increasing aggressive moves against Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea; second, about the United States’ repeated assurance of its “iron-clad” defense commitment under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

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.

Balik-Tanaw | Tubig ng buhay sa uhaw na mundo: Water to wine: A call to justice and transformation

In Jesus’ time, while water is essential, it is often unsafe to drink due to high possibility of contamination. Waterborne diseases were very common and were a major cause of death especially to the poor. Historically, wine being fermented, was a safer and more practical option, frequently diluted with water to purify it and extend its use. In our scripture reading, at Cana, there were six stone jars filled with water for purification, these were meant for ritual purposes, yet as we look beyond the narrative and fill the gaps of the story, these tapayans, or clay jars were not just religious objects but practical necessities. These are symbols of survival in a world of scarcity. If there’s no clean water and no wine, what else could there be?

BALIKSAYSAY

FRANCIS GEALOGO

Vandals

Sa imahinasyon ng mga bayaning nakikipaglaban sa pananakop, mahalaga ang pagpapahayag na maituturing na vandalism na gumagambala sa kapanatagan ng mga naghaharing uri. Matatandaan na sa El Filibusterismo, mahalaga ang pangyayari ng pagkatuklas ng mga paskil na nagpapahayag ng paglaban sa pang-aabuso ng mga prayle at iba pang mga pinunong Espanyol na naging dahilan upang hulihin ang mga pinaghihinalaang mga estudyante at magkaroon ng panic ang mga pinuno ng bayan sa pinaghihinalaang kilusang konspiratoryal na magpapabagsak sa pamahalaan. Sa nobela ni Rizal, pinatalsik sa pamantasan ang mga pinaghihinalaang mga estudyante kahit na iyong wala namang kinalaman sa kilusan.

OFW sa kasaysayan

Kakaiba ang ganitong patakaran dahil kung ang ilang bayan ay nakasalalay sa pagpapahalaga sa kanyang manggagawa upang manatili para sa ikauunlad ng domestikong ekonomiya, institusyonal namang sinusuportahan ng pamahalaan na mangibang bayan ang kanyang mga manggagawa para magtrabaho sa ekonomiya ng ibang lipunan.

BLOODRUSH

SARAH RAYMUNDO

Maduro’s bus and Venezuela’s El Caracazo

El Caracazo in 1989 and the current Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela show that resistance to imperialist plunder and mass immiseration and murder of the people through the IMF-WB and the whole neoliberal project is possible and the absolute right and duty of the people.

BLOOD RUSH | People’s war for the 21st century

In the midst of a heightened climate of impunity, this current volume locates the place of the people’s war as a revolutionary process in which alternatives are approached in terms of tactical and strategic objectives. In doing so, resistance is foregrounded as both an actual reality and a goal of people’s war taking place in two different and parallel spheres, namely, organized and legal street protest and the underground revolutionary armed struggle.

What makes The Accord* special?

Those activists taught us how to expand, how to imagine the world with compassion, a sense of mission and commitment, freely, creatively and scientifically. None of our goals end when our personal ambitions shatter. There is a bigger picture to this accord and even to the so-called student power that made it possible.

FIRST PERSON

BULATLAT CONTRIBUTORS

First Person | Si Kelot

There is nothing farther from the truth, if we go by the sharpness of her poetry and the chronicles of her life: all inflected with a sense of purpose, survival, and integrity.

First Person | How we strive to become people’s doctors

The worst illnesses of our country are the ones that make us believe that social change is impossible, and that the suffering of millions of Filipinos is inescapable. The worst living conditions is where med students and health workers believe that they have no role in campaigning and fighting for just and lasting peace.

KALIBUTAN

KALIKASAN-PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Navotas coast

Four factors why #Habagat2018 became a flood disaster (Part 2 of 2)

The challenge to build genuine solutions to flood risk factors should not have been new to the administration of Rodrigo Duterte. These proposals were outlined already in the 2016 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change, a comprehensive 100-day agenda document hand-delivered to Duterte himself.

KONTEKSTO

DANILO ARAO

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?

Konteksto | Bayaran?

Sa paghuhubog ng opinyong pampubliko, lahat ng porma ng peryodismo ay may kaakibat na pagsusuri’t imbestigasyon.

OPINION

BULATLAT EDITORS

Repression on a loop

This atrocious prohibition is not at all new. Seventeen years ago in September of 2007, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board under Consoliza Laguardia imposed an X rating on a short indie film titled “Rights”, made to press for the safe release of Jonas Burgos.

ON THE FRINGES

BULATLAT STAFF

How attacks against workers’ rights ‘censored’ us

How unfortunate, really, since there were only three journalists in the restaurant at that time – Marya, Zeng, and I. And all three of them happened to be holding a spoon on one hand and fork on the other and not a camera to capture the moment.

QUESTION EVERYTHING

MONG PALATINO

Question Everything | Banning Joma Sison on social media sets a dangerous precedent

One does not need to subscribe to Sison’s political doctrines to see the ban as an act of censorship. If not challenged, the ban can be expanded and used as a tactic to enforce digital crackdowns. It gives tyrants the license to dictate who or what can be accessed or streamed on our networks. It is therefore a threat to our civic space.

Fact-checking as a political movement

When disinformation is widely shared at a dizzying realtime speed by paid cyber mercenaries, can fact-checking stand a chance? There are short-term and long-term interventions that may require the enforcement of technical and regulatory mechanisms. For our part, we must not lose sight of the political solution because the roots of the information disorder are also linked to deeper structural infirmities in society.

ROOT ACCESS

COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS UNION

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