Tribeless

Stories about the investment banks and stock markets plunging down has stirred up another wave of paranoia among the ruling capitalists in the world. Is this the signal of the end of capitalist/imperialist hegemony over the the world’s economies? I really hope so.

http://www.pinoypress.net/2008/09/19/the-attack-of-the-jargonites/

The Attack of the Jargonites
PUBLISHED ON September 19, 2008 AT 2:03 PM
By Carlos H. Conde

As with many business or financial story, the meltdown that just
happened on Wall Street is often difficult to digest, what with all the
jargon and the complex methodologies used by investment and insurance
companies to get to where they are now. Does anyone really know what a
“derivative” is or what a “credit default swap” really means? And who
the hell are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Reading the papers and watching the news reports about the Crash of 2008
can often feel like they were written and produced by journalists who
exist in a parallel world, a surreal, separate universe populated by
Jargonites.

And so, naturally, I turn to Jon Stewart.

But the collapse of a 158-year-old investment bank (Lehman Brothers) and
the near collapse of AIG, the largest insurance company in the world
(and in the Philippines apparently), are, evidently enough, important
stories that will have serious implications on how many among us will
live in the days and years ahead. Jon Stewart, bless his witty heart,
can’t do the explaining alone.

And so, naturally, I turn to the Internet.

There, I found the column by CNN’s Glenn Beck who used, of all things,
Tickle Me Elmo as a device to illustrate what’s happening. (Now I know
what it means when someone says “Explain this to me like I’m a
five-year-old.”)

New York Magazine’s Daily Intel had an idiot’s guide published weeks ago
about Fannie May and Freddie Mac, whose collapse were the precursor of
what just happened on Wall Street.

But if you have enough time and patience, head over to the financial
section of The New York Times. There, you’ll find detailed explanation
about the crisis, its impact, and its implications. Check out as well
the blog of Floyd Norris, the Times’s financial columnist who is able to
cut through the jargon and tell us how and why this happened.

Speaking of columnists, this crisis has once again reaffirmed why the
world needs them. Nicholas Kristoff penned a humorous (more like
sarcastic) op-ed on Lehman Brothers that, in simple, funny language,
managed to convince us that the multi-million dollar salary of its CEO
was not money well-spent.

Paul Wilmott, an expert on quantitative finance, whatever that is,
suggests that “we have to address the bad side of greed” after this.
Journalist Daniel Ben-Ami, author of Cowardly Capitalism: The Myth of
the Global Financial Casino, pricks what he calls the five myths of the
Wall Street crash. (No, he says, the subprime debacle is too simplistic
a reason for all this mess.)

As can be expected, there’s now so much hand-wringing about the future
of capitalism.

And speaking of capitalism, it amuses me that this crisis is something
that Jose Maria Sison, the exiled communist leader, has repeatedly
pointed out in the past — in statements and missives (such as this one)
that we often dismiss as strident, outdated, out-of-touch, unrealistic,
etc. – that the US economy will one day be brought to its knees by its
own greed and malfeasance.

Of course, Karl Marx essentially said the same thing eons ago, at the
time of serfs and vassals. But instead of dismissing Sison’s opinion as
anachronistic and thus have no place in a time like this, it would
probably do us some good to concede the point that the events the past
week just underscored a crucial fact: that the methods by which men
fulfill their greed may have changed but the madness that unbridled
capitalism brings about has not. (Carlos H. Conde/pinoypress.net)

Sinabi mong ako ay iyo
Ikaw na anak ng unang tao
Na dumuro sa kaibigan kong hubad,
Nakayapak at sunog ang balat
Sa walang sawang pag-aruga sa akin
Mula sa pagbisita ng araw at ulan
Kahit sa agaw-dilim
Hindi nagmaliw na ako’y pakainin
At pawiin
Ang natutuyo kong lalamunan
Sa malaong pagkatigang
Nagbudbod ng biyayang usbong
Palalaguin hanggang pagyabong
Sa kapakinabangan ng katulad niyang
Umaasam sa aking pagpapaubaya
At masaganang pagpapala

Ikaw na nagbitbit ng pahina
Nagwasiwas ng kontrata
Na magtatali sa akin sa iyong dikta
Sa makasarili mong pagpapasya

Ikaw na kaulayaw ng mga dayo
Na dumurog sa kaibuturan ko,
Nangwasak sa aking likas na anyo,
Nagnakaw sa aking yamang tago

Ikaw na nagdulot ng aking pagkasawi
Halikan mo ako

Halikan mo ang bawat tipak ng aking mukha
Hanggang sa sandaling angkinin kita
Anim na piye sa aking kailaliman
At, sa wakas,
Makapiling ng mga uod
At magsilbi kahit nabubulok
At sa akin ay magpapataba

(This is a poem i submitted to the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center for their collection of poems on peasant issues. Luckily, this was printed in October 2007)

I knew since childhood that my father has a big heart. Like any typical father, he has set aside his personal ‘wants and want-mores’ to provide for the needs of all seven of his children and his one and only life partner.

I remember how he would bring apples and pears to us when he arrives from work. It was a big deal then, since apples are considered foods for rich people only. We would hurriedly welcome him home and I would be the one tasked to remove his shoes from his tired smelly feet. I’d gladly do that, apples or no apples, if only to make him feel relaxed from his day’s work. He would usually come home with gifts for us, humble they may be. For a poor family like ours, every gift is worth more than a million comforts.

I was seven years old when my father opted to work abroad rather than stay as a clerk in a slumping corporate office in Pasig. The prospects of higher salary were just too tempting to pass. He had to leave home, his seven children, his loving wife. He had to leave for the money however painful it is for him.

Every year, he would religiously come home. It was like a hero’s visit which all of us anxiously wait for the whole year. His striking resemblance to Ramon Revilla (The Agimat Star) would often be the reaction of neighbors when he comes home wearing his sleek well-pressed slacks, striped polo, Rayban and brown attaché case. He also glows with tons of Saudi gold around his neck and fingers. Of course we are excited that Papa is back. But, what’s more exciting is what comes out from his Balikbayan Box. “May betamax kaya?”

The road from the airport to our barung-barong takes forever. While Mama takes her time to quench her longing for Papa by asking him endless questions about his work, what he eats, how often he sleeps, we would quietly speculate among ourselves, “Ano kaya ang pasalubong ni Papa?” I always wished to have branded rubber shoes so I can brag about them at school.

His box of goodies includes hundreds of office supplies – bond papers and pens. A pair of 1980’s Saudi-ish clothes, used carpets and blankets and, voila!, Betamax and mighty kid shoes. He would bring home gifts for relatives and friends, packs of L&M cigarettes and boxes of grand tobaccos. Also, only then did I realized that shoes and chocolates may be called by the same name, s-n-i-c-k-e-r-s. For a while, our house smelled like an airconditioned Saudi office. “Papa is home.”

As always, he would treat us to Max’s Restaurant in Greenbelt. We would eat our heart out and feast on the food we can only taste on a yearly basis, dine with people whom we can hardly identify ourselves with. I remember how Mama would wear her annual supply of that sweet poison perfume. While at home, he would bike around the neighborhood every morning, fix things in the afternoon and rest, only after everything’s finished. At night, we would hear Papa talking to Mama about us. Most of the time, they would speak in Ilocano so we could not understand what they were saying. But, judging from their tone, I’d say that it was about their plans for us – our education and health.

For more than fifteen years, life for Papa was like that – one month of home after 11 months of work in an alien land. He retired from work in 1998. Through his sacrifices, we were all lucky enough to be enrolled in private high schools. My sisters have all entered college – although only the eldest finished her degree in Elementary Education. I managed to enter UP and studied Civil Engineering. After three years, I became a youth organizer and eventually volunteered to work full-time for Anakpawis Partylist – an organization dedicated to help the oppressed workers, peasants and other poor people. My father’s big heart is what inspired me to give up my own dreams of becoming an engineer for the opportunity to help others through volunteer work. With his examples, I realized that a life worth living is a life lived for others.

Last September 27, on my mother’s 64^th birthday, we had to rush Papa to the hospital. He was admitted directly under the intensive care unit because of lack of oxygen. He has been suffering Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease caused by emphysema – which, according to his doctor, is incurable. After looking at his X-Ray, I grinned at the doctor’s ironical finding – “Your father has an abnormally big heart.”

After a month in the ICU, we can hardly see any improvement in his condition. He still needs to breathe through the aid of his ventilator. He still needs more than P10,000 worth of medicines which we cannot afford. We are sinking under half a million pesos worth of hospital bills. We do not know where to find that money at this point. Our hero needs help but we cannot do anything about it.

Life’s irony sometimes pricks. In Hebrew, my father’s name “Avel” means breath. Why can’t I give him just that?

————————–

I am seeking help for my father’s continued medication and hospitalization who has been in the ICU for more than a month now. For those who wish to help, kindly contact me through 0928-7296945, email areyendiway@yahoo.com or post a comment. Any support you can give will greatly appreciated by the whole family. Thank you for helping us in this time of unbearable crisis… Randy

Families of 2 missing UP students air appeal

By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
Last updated 02:36am (Mla time) 07/11/2006

Published on page A1 of the July 11, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

A GLEEFUL Karen Empeño, who is turning 23 on July 22, excitedly told her mother by phone she would take time off from her hectic schedule at school and travel home to Masinloc, Zambales, so they could celebrate their birthdays together.

Sherlyn Cadapan, in a text to her mother who was growing mushrooms in Los Baños, Laguna, broke the good news that she was pregnant.

Everything about them seemed cheerful and rosy until news came that the two activist students of the University of the Philippines disappeared supposedly while doing research on farmers in Bulacan province.

Based on news reports, Empeño, 22, and Cadapan, 29, were roused at around 2 a.m. on June 26 at their rented home in Hagonoy town in Bulacan by loud pounding on the door, and were seized by armed men wearing bonnets once they stepped out.

A male companion, Manuel Merino, was reported to have been snatched along with the two women.

The militant League of Filipino Students (LFS), which claims Empeño as a member, blamed Army soldiers for the predawn abduction, an allegation denied by the military.

Plea to abductors

After days of futile search, their distraught mothers yesterday showed up at the office of Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II at the Senate to seek his help and issued a similar plea to the abductors: Release them.

“If my daughter has committed a crime, they should bring her out. Let her go through the process. They can file charges against her,” the bespectacled, soft-spoken Erlinda Cadapan, 57, told reporters.

“What’s important to me is that I know where she is. Her life is precious to me,” she added, her voice trailing off.

Concepcion Empeño, 56, school head of the Tapuac Elementary School in Masinloc, could only nod in agreement.

Her son and Karen’s brother, Oscar, 31, spoke on her behalf: “Our only desire is to see her. If they’re linking her to the underground movement, why don’t they file charges? Why don’t they bring her out?”

Worrisome

Roxas conceded that the abduction was “worrisome” and assured the families his office would coordinate with the Commission on Human Rights, other government agencies and the military to look into their case.

“The issue here is whether the security agencies of the government are involved in these abductions. We were witness to these a few months ago when an agency of the government picked up five individuals and brought them to a safe house, instead of the prosecutor’s office,” he said.

Roxas was referring to the case of five supporters of former President Joseph Estrada who were picked up and allegedly tortured by military agents in late May.

“We don’t want to make a general statement without any basis, but that is the environment that these disappearances are happening in. That’s why we’ll help them,” he said.

Senate probe

The senator indicated that it was too early to say whether he would call for an investigation of the abduction of the two UP students.

“If the information will point to the direction that this is a security operation, then we will follow it up from there,” he said. “We don’t want to be precipitate in our conclusion, and we will follow it to where the information will lead us.”

The abduction, hardly reported in the media, came on the heels of killings of leftist activists, mostly members of the party-list group Bayan Muna, which the human rights watchdog Amnesty International said were creating a “climate of fear and impunity.”

So far, 237 activists had been killed since January 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the country’s top post from Estrada.

Sociology student

Empeño, the third of five children, is a senior BA Sociology student at the UP College of Social Sciences.

When she was abducted, she was doing research on the plight of farmers in Bulacan for her thesis, the only remaining requirement she had to fulfill before she could graduate, according to her family.

Cadapan, the second of five children, is an award-winning triathlete from the UP College of Human Kinetics, also in her senior year. She only had three more subjects to complete before she could graduate.

Church wedding

Cadapan married her longtime boyfriend in civil rites a few months ago and was preparing for the Church wedding in September, her family said.

She was a community organizer for the militant group Anakbayan and volunteer researcher for farmers in Central Luzon, according to reports.

Based on bits of information they had gathered, the families of the two victims said that Army soldiers carried out the abduction. But the Army unit based in Hagonoy has denied this, Erlinda Cadapan said.

Oscar Empeño said his family was aware of the dangers that Karen faced in doing fieldwork as a sociology student, more so when they learned that she did volunteer work for the Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Bulacan.

“In a way, we expected this to happen. Because they could easily brand her NGO as leftist even though it’s a legal organization,” he said.

Erlinda Cadapan, for her part, said she was not aware of her daughter’s work as an activist.

The human rights group Karapatan said the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the military should be blamed for the 10 assassinations and 15 involuntary disappearances in the past three weeks.

Target research

“Under the (the intelligence community’s) Oplan Bantay Laya, civilians are subjected to so-called target research. Anyone arbitrarily tagged by these so-called intelligence agents as communists or communist sympathizers are then placed on an order of battle and killed,” said Jigs Clamor, Karapatan deputy secretary general.

Clamor said the killings and disappearances were happening nationwide, particularly in Eastern Visayas, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon, Bicol and Southern Mindanao — areas identified by the military to be the hotbed of the communist insurgency.

The military has denied that it is behind the spate of killings.

Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon vowed to reduce if not totally put a stop to the political killings.

Calderon also accepted the challenge of making the police ability to solve cases of extrajudicial killings as one of the criteria for judging his 15 months in office.

“I have committed the Philippine National Police in my (acceptance) speech that during my administration … we will really put a stop to these extrajudicial killings,” he said. With reports from Luige A. del Puerto and Norman Bordadora

This is a news article in the Inq7.net. It’s a good thing that even Hollywood personalities as prestigious as Jessica Lange support the plight of Filipino workers sepecifically in Nestle Phils. I hope that this will encourage us to decisively quest for justice for Ka Fort and Boycott the bloody products of Nestle.

And of course, aside from Jessica Lange, more peoples of different nations support our cause. Let’s all make this campaign victorious. Let not the workers bleed again for Nestle’s sake.

—————————

Labor leader’s slay case reaches US
First posted 09:37pm (Mla time) Sept 29, 2005
By Marlon Ramos
Inquirer News Service

Editor’s Note: Published on Page A17 of the September 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

CALAMBA CITY—OSCAR WINNER ACTRESS JESSICA Lange has signed an open letter condemning the murder of the leader of the striking workers of Nestlé Philippines, the Gabriela International Network (Gain) said on Monday.

In an e-mail sent to the Inquirer, poet and writer Ninotchka Rosca, Gain spokesperson, said Lange signed the petition condemning the killing of Diosdado “Ka Fort” Fortuna “after delivering a fiery speech against the US invasion and occupation of Iraq at the anti-war mobilization in Washington, DC,” on Sept. 24.

She said about 500,000 anti-war activists joined the rally.

Lange won an Oscar trophy for her role as a mentally disturbed wife of a military officer in the 1994 movie “Blue Sky.”

She also got an Oscar award as Best Supporting Actress in 1982 for her role in Sydney Pollack’s “Tootsie” opposite Dustin Hoffman.

Rosca said the petition was addressed to President Macapagal-Arroyo and Peter Brabeck, chief executive officer of Nestlé’s mother company in Switzerland.

Fortuna, president of the Union of Filpro Employees-Drug and Food Alliance, was gunned down by two armed men on board a motorcycle in Barangay Paciano here on Sept. 22.

He was also the chair of the Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik), the regional arm of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in Southern Tagalog.

“We protest the assassination of Diosdado ‘Ka Fort’ Fortuna … He is the second union president at the Nestlé plant in the Philippines to be assassinated,” the petition said.

It added: “We call on Mr. Brabeck to resolve the three-year labor dispute at the plant. We call on (Ms Arroyo) to investigate reports that members of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the (Philippine) National Police carried out this murder. We call on both to respect human, civil and labor rights—without which there is only barbaric fascism.”

Rosca said the signing of the appeal “was somewhat impromptu.”

“We were mobilized under the Women’s Anti-Imperialist League (Wail) banner for this rally but those of us of Philippine ancestry felt we should also be doing something for Ka Fort, KMU and Anakpawis,” Rosca said.

She added: “After all, most Filipino-Americans belong to the working class and some have parents who were migrant workers. So we wrote the open letter and carried it to the anti-war march.”

Pips,
I think this is worth posting in everyone’s blog. Kung hindi niyo pa idol sa de Quiros, read on para maging idol nyo na rin sya. I-email nyo rin sa mga friends nyo. patok talaga. Sa tingin ko, Conrado de Quiros would want this story posted all over para marindi na lang si Gloria at mapwersa na siyang basahin. Or, on second thought, para basahin ito ng mga nag-iisip para kay Gloria. Enjoy and enlighten! hehe
____________________________________

There’s The Rub : I refuse, Part 2

First posted 02:31am (Mla time) Sept 26, 2005

By  Conrado      de Quiros
Inquirer News Service

Published on page A14 of the September 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

DEAR MADAM,

You
will notice that I do not say, “Madam President.” That is because I do
not consider you my president. As-to go by the surveys and the number
of decent Filipinos who are dying or getting sick from seeing you on
TV-do most citizens of this country.

I refuse to obey your order
for me to desist from gathering with other citizens in Makati and
elsewhere. If Jojo Binay were to defy your order and call for a rally
in his favorite city to call for your ouster, I will be there.

Notwithstanding
that I am hard pressed these days to meet deadlines, given the
never-ending meetings that the never-ending divisiveness you have
wrought upon this country compels me to attend.

Had your
predecessor, Joseph Estrada, ordered this in his time, I would have
refused to obey his order too. To his credit, he never did so,
notwithstanding that he made noises to that effect. He drew the line at
certain things, one of them being the rights of the citizens. To his
credit also,he was an elected president-he left Jose de Venecia,
who like you knows only how to manipulate things, biting his dust. If
he had ordered a crackdown on those who were trying to oust him, he
could at least have claimed to do so in the name of the people.

To
your discredit, you have more than made noises to that effect, you have
done it. To your bigger discredit, you are not even the president.

You
say “The commuters, the pedestrians, the students and the business
sectors have complained about the inconvenience and the disruption of
the businesses resulting in economic losses.” How can the commuters,
pedestrians, students, and businessmen complain about these rallies
when they are the ones who are swelling their ranks? You tend to
confuse yourself, your hangers-on in Malacañang, your Pagcor-enriched
friends in the Church, and your toadies in Congress, with them. But
then you’ve always been confused about a great many things, including
who is the president of this country.

But that is nothing. What
is astounding is that you should forget how you got to be in Malacañang
to begin with, which allowed you to stay on after last year by helloing
Garci. You did so because we defied Estrada and did what we had to do.
I’d like to emphasize the “we” because I never saw you there. It is a
testament to how saintly Pope John Paul II is that he has not
importuned his Creator to send a lightning bolt your way for using his
name to justify your paralysis. You got to Malacañang on our blood,
sweat, and tears, not on yours. The most you can do is appreciate
protest, the least you can do is not stifle it.

If we did not
inconvenience the commuters, the pedestrians, the students and the
businessmen then-though I never heard any complaints from them, they
were busy swelling the ranks of the rallies too-you would never have
slipped into the Palace by the River and been free to torment us. If
you listen close enough to the complaints emanating from the commuters,
pedestrians, students and businessmen, you will hear that they have
nothing to do with traffic, they have everything to do with the
humongous inconvenience of having you still around to disrupt not just
the economy, not just the normal processes of democracy, but the
natural flow of life itself.

I am glad that you decided to ban
rallies against you in Jojo Binay’s city-though I have yet to hear you
ban as well rallies for you in Lito Atienza’s and Sonny Belmonte’s
cities-shortly after the anniversary of martial law. It is a very good
reminder of it. Though as I said last week, Marcos was still the
president when he declared it, having a year more to go. You are
imposing a de facto martial law without ever having been voted to power.

You
say you’re “tired of chasing the bully around the schoolyard.” I say
you are just as confused about your metaphors as you are about your
mandate. The normal course is for the bully to chase the smaller kids
around the yard, not for the smaller kids to chase the bully around the
yard. The normal course, too, is for the other kids to want to stop
being bullied and fight back. Guess who’s who in this equation.

You
say we are abusing your policy of maximum tolerance. I say you are
fraying our nerves and taxing our patience more than anything in the
expanded VAT. You are not tolerating us, we are tolerating you. A
democracy, in case you have forgotten, is one where power resides in
the will of the people, not in the will of the president, and certainly
not in the whim of a putative one. A tyranny is one where the ruler
rules without the consent of the governed. That consent is gotten
through the vote, not through Garci.

You say the people fighting
you are not good for the country. That is your opinion. But this is not
a matter of who is good or bad for the country, this is a matter of who
the people want to rule them. If this were just a question of who is
good for the country, I’d pick Nicky Perlas or Ting Roxas over you
anytime. Unlike you, they have a sound vision of the future and the
integrity to realize it. But like you, they have not been voted into
power, and so can’t be president.

I demand to know what moral
authority you have to conscript my loyalty as a citizen. As I said a
couple of months ago, I refuse to give it. I refuse to be a good
citizen to a bad president. “Bad” in the sense of lame or fake-my
apologies to the lame and fake. I refuse to serve, I refuse to defend,
I refuse to pay my taxes. Feel free to consider me a destabilizer. I
was, I am, I will always be. If I weren’t so, you would never have
tasted the power you now use so wantonly.

Feel free to arrest me
as well. I can always admit that anxious as I was to protect my
country, I called up people who sounded like Jojo Binay. For this:

I… am…not…sorry.

[alas-6:30, mensahe sa celfone]
Binaril si Ka Fort kaninang alas-sais.
2 tama ng bala sa
kanyang likod.

[Nalilito ang mga kasama sa opisina.
Anong nangyari kay Ka
Fort?
Tumawag tayo sa mga
kasama sa region.
Sana buhay pa siya.
Sinong nag-text?
Kumpirmahin natin.
Hindi magandang biro
yan?
Anong nangyari kay Ka
Fort?]

Nangyari na ito
Ilang ulit na rin

Ikinukubli natin ang mga luha sa pagtatanong
Maaaring nagkamali ang balita
Maaaring nagbibiro ang naghatid
Maaaring buhay pa siya
Ngunit, hindi.

Makailang-ulit nang nangyari ‘to
Pero nagtatanong pa rin tayo

Bakit nila pinapatay ang mga busilak ang puso?
Bakit nilulugmok ang nangahas tumayo?
Bakit dinidilig ang lupa ng dugo ng mga bayaning
Dinadakila ng maraming tao?

Sa gitna ng pagkalito at lungkot
Batid naman natin ang sagot
Dahil ilang beses na tayong nagtanong
At sila mismo ang may tugon,

Dahil walang kasing-itim ang kanilang budhi.
Dahil duwag sila sa patas na laban
Dahil alam nilang sa timbangan ng kasaysayan
Kaybigat tumbasan ang kanilang kalaban

Nagtatanong tayo’t sumisigaw
Sumisigaw tayong may kapasyahan
Katarungan!

Katarungan para kay Ka Fort
At sa lahat ng bayani ng masang anakpawis!

12/18/2004 areyendiway

Nais
kung bilangin ang bawat butil ng asukal
Na
nadampot ng aking kutsara,
Isang
umagang almusal ko ang balita
Ng
masaker sa mga welgista
Sa
isang dambuhalang asyenda

 
Ngunit anong palaisipan ang tumambad!
Iniikutan ng isang langgam
Ang bunganga ng garapong sisidlan
Sa likod niya’y nakapasan
Ang isang butil ng asukal

Habang nakaligid ang laksang bangaw
Maingay sa paglipad
Nangungutya, nanlilibak
Handang-handa, sa asukal ay aagaw 

Ilang saglit pa’y inundayan
Ng sutil na hukbo ng bangaw
Ang nagpapagal na langgam
Hanggang sa ito’y sa hapag humandusay
Sa tabi ng mumong asukal
Na inipon sa buong araw na paggampan

Sa di-kalayua’y nagmamartsa
Ang hanay ng mga langgam
Nagdadalamhati, nagngangalit
Sa pagpanaw ng kauri
At kasamang dinuhagi

Isang katanungan –
Paanong ang nagpagal ay pinagkakaitan
Ng kanyang mga pinaghirapan?
Bakit inangkin ng nakapangyayaring gahaman
Ang kanyang laong pinagpaguran? 

Walang katarungan sa isang sistemang
Karapata’y’ siil, kalayaa’y  salat
Mananatili ang pang-aapi at panghahamak
Hangga’t hindi maapula
Ang mga ganid na bangaw
Ang mga nang-aagaw

Kumukulo
na ang kapeng
gawa
sa sinunog na bigas
Hinihintay
ang pagsanib
Ng
tamis sa pait
Bago
dumampi sa sikmura kong nanlalamig
Ang
init ng inuming mapanggising

I belong to a
generation that ousted two presidents.

I started schooling in 1986. Totally ignorant of the world
around me, my usual day was sleep, eat, go to school, eat, sleep… and so on.

But, I can still remember how envious I was seeing my neighbors wearing yellow
shirts bearing the face of a smart-looking man. They said, they wear joining a
revolution in EDSA. I didn’t mind what they were going to do. I just hoped I
can get one of those shirts.

Months later, I saw the same yellow shirts already worn-out hanging over my
neighbor’s fence. They moved for a new place to live. I don’t think those
shirts were “in” anymore. They were better off as rags. I thought,
all things end up like that. It is only a matter of time.

I didn’t know that I was conceived and borne at a rather disturbing period of
history. My parents used to believe that the Marcos years were one of the best
years for our economy (although they never felt it themselves). I even remember
standing-up in front of class during a debate where I chose to defend martial
law and Marcos. My classmates, and even my teacher, were quite disturbed by my
position. I felt awkward but someone’s got to play the devil’s advocate.
Looking back, I wish that that someone was not me.

As far as I can recall, my grade school years were the years of UFO sightings,
manananggals, constant brownouts, coup d’etat, massacres. Hell, i thought,
what’s new? Martial law or not, darkness remains.

Now that I have become conscious of my
place in society, I see things more differently.

I just attended a liturgical service in the Bantayog ng mga
Bayani. I saw the names of martyrs engraved in a big black marble wall etched
in gold. It inspired me to look back to my own awakening. What was my place
during the Martial law years? Uhm, well, I was just a kid then so my apathy is
excused.

So, I moved on to ask, what’s my place now? Definitely, I do
not want to be a devil’s advocate once more – I’m way over that. But don’t get
me wrong, I do not yearn to be a name in that marble wall (but who knows?). This
time, I choose to wear that worn-out shirt. Although, not the kind with the
face of a politician. I choose to find the light amidst the darkness.

Whenever I get the chance to ride a taxi cab, I usually talk
to the driver to ask his views on current issues. I find it effective since
they are some of the most opinionated people around having the chance to meet
different people while working. Last night, this old taxi driver struck me. His
old face was a good invitation for my curiosity. I asked him the usual
questions. What time he works? How much he earns each day? What his sentiments
are about Gloria? Then, I asked him if he still finds hope for his family. He
urgently replied, “Kung mag-pi-people power.” He was quick and strong in his
answer.

An old man, who had probably seen many uprisings in his
lifetime and seen things unchanged after that, still firmly believes in the
power of a united people. That old man believes there is still hope. Will I
fail him? Will I fail all the others, just as old but as hopeful?

Many governments dread even the slightest idea of a popular
uprising. It makes them insecure of their hold in power. That’s why they
downplay every attempt by the people to launch another people power. They even
arrogantly say that the people are tired of going to the streets, ousting
presidents all the time. Indeed, the people are tired but not of marching to
the streets. Rather, the people are tired of going through people power only
for greedy politicians to take their victory away from them. Now, we learned
our lessons well.

Things change, people
learn. We have our destiny in our hands.

I do not know how to end this. One thing is sure. I am not
tired, nor pessimistic. I will join the people power 4, 5, 6 ‘til infinity. I
know, darkness has no place here.

Hayaan nyong simulan ko ang pagba-blog sa tulang ito na sinulat ng isa sa pinakakinilalang makata at bayani ng henerasyon ngayon.

Open Letters to Filipino
Artists
Emmanuel Lacaba

A poet must also learn

how to lead an attack

- Ho Chi Minh

I

Invisible the mountain routes to strangers:

For rushing toes an inch-wide strip on boulders

And for the hand that’s free a twig to grasp,

Or else we headlong fall below to rocks

And waterfalls of death so instant that

Too soon they’re red with skulls of carabaos.

But patient guides and teachers are the masses:

Of forty mountains and a hundred rivers;

Of plowing, planting, weeding, and the harvest;

And of a dozen dialects that dwarf

This foreign tongue we write each other in

Who must transcend our bourgeois origins.

South Cotabato

May 1, 1975

II

You want to know, companions of my youth

How much has changed the wild but shy young poet

Forever writing last poem after last poem;

You hear he’s dark as earth, barefoot,

A turban round his head, a bolo at his side,

His ballpen blown up to a long-barreled gun:

Deeper still the struggling change inside.

Like husks of coconut he tears away

The billion layers of his selfishness.

Or learns to cage his longing like the bird

Of legend, fire, and song within his chest.

Now of consequence is his anemia

From lack of sleep: no longer for Bohemia,

The lumpen culturati, but for the people, yes.

He mixes metaphors but values more

A holographic and geometric memory

For mountains: not because they are there

But because the masses are there where

Routes are jigsaw puzzles he must piece together.

Though he has been called a brown Rimbaud,

He is no bandit but a people’s warrior.

South Cotabato and Davao del Norte

November 1975

III

We are tribeless and all tribes are ours.

We are homeless and all homes are ours.

We are nameless and all names are ours.

To the fascists we are the faceless enemy

Who come like thieves in the night, angels of death:

The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the storm.

The road less traveled by we’ve taken-

And that has made all the difference:

The barefoot army of the wilderness

We all should be in time.  Awakened, the masses are
Messiah.

Here among workers and peasants our lost

Generation has found its true, its only home.

Davao del Norte

January 1976