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 | Si Kelot
POSTS FOR "First Person"
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First Person | How we strive to become people’s doctors
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.
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FIRST PERSON | ‘Lumad students are not child warriors’
FIRST PERSON | ‘Lumad students are not child warriors’
"It was indeed very enriching for me to be given the opportunity to teach the Lumad Junior and Senior High-School students. Likewise, it was very heart-wrenching as I had learned many things from them especially in their narratives of struggles to uphold ownership of their ancestral lands and their way of life as well as their fight for self-determination and liberation from the shackles of their oppressors."
FIRST PERSON | Solidarity with the poor, defending labor rights
FIRST PERSON | Solidarity with the poor, defending labor rights
For almost 30 years, I was granted the privilege of being issued a permanent resident VISA. I have been living my mission in the Philippines and I have no further desire than to continue my mission among the oppressed workers.
FIRST PERSON | Remembering a pamanhikan in 1979
FIRST PERSON | Remembering a pamanhikan in 1979
The soft cry fades away into
the core of a clenched fist
to shout out as
a cry of protest,
a cry for freedom.
First Person | Uphold human rights
First Person | Uphold human rights
Once you curtail freedom, social unrest will rise. We have gone through this. Those who are drunk with power never learn from history.
First Person | Amanda’s doleful eyes, a window to a bright, gentle soul
First Person | Amanda’s doleful eyes, a window to a bright, gentle soul
It didn't surprise me when bright, gentle Amanda passed the highly competitive exam for the Philippine High School for the Arts and then UP Diliman, and scripted a whole play about feisty Nanay Mameng, urban poor leader Carmen Deunida. I learned she could also paint and write poetry, a true Renaissance talent maybe owing to her illustrious genes.
First Person | The case of Rey
First Person | The case of Rey
They kept Rey jailed because he had another case. This was in Lupon, Davao Oriental, where he has never set foot until case trial started after over a year in prison. Yet he was charged with murder and attempted murder against government troops in an alleged encounter between them and the New People’s Army (NPA).
Why do we want news organizations to pay for visual content? A short explainer.
Why do we want news organizations to pay for visual content? A short explainer.
So no, it's not mainly about the money. It's more on how we want this important part of journalism to be accorded the respect that it deserves and not to be neglected by these gatekeepers.
First Person | Slapshock’s Agent Orange
First Person | Slapshock’s Agent Orange
The immediate effect was to facilitate a conversation, if not an outright stand on imperialist wars waged by the U.S.
Empirical bases for ending the semester and mass promoting UP Diliman students (and ousting you-know-who)
Empirical bases for ending the semester and mass promoting UP Diliman students (and ousting you-know-who)
Remote learning cannot continue in the wake of the global pandemic and the strong typhoons, not to mention the incompetence and indifference of the Duterte administration.
How is contact tracing done?
How is contact tracing done?
So, how does this contact tracing really happen? In my case, wala (none). It didn't happen. I hope this is an isolated case but if this is the norm in most cases, gets ko yung sinasabi ng matanda na we just wait for a vaccine. For the meantime, use gasoline to clean your face masks but do not add fuel to the fire.
The denial that led to the killing
The denial that led to the killing
But her death will be a living testimony that terror-tagging is dangerous, that senseless murders happen under a regime that does nothing but to sow fear among the people.
First Person | Thoughts of a frontliner
First Person | Thoughts of a frontliner
It is not only COVID - but it made everything: hardest. DO NOT MAKE US CHOOSE WHO DESERVES TO LIVE. Because neither of us, wants to hear and utter these words: "maam, sir..sorry guid..wala lugar". (Sorry, we don’t have space.)
First Person | Baby blues
First Person | Baby blues
Will the courts show compassion and grant Ina provisional liberty so she could care for and nurse her baby girl somewhere safe? Will they recognize Ina's right to breastfeed her child who equally has the right to her breastmilk? Ina's breastmilk is her baby girl's natural immunization and best source of nourishment, especially at this time when her organs have not fully matured and there is a raging pandemic.
FIRST PERSON | Bike commuting on the 1st day of GCQ
FIRST PERSON | Bike commuting on the 1st day of GCQ
I realized it is easier to see yourself, at least in my case, bike commuting when you are working in an air-conditioned office mostly doing mental labor. Riding a bike for maybe 5-10 kilometers then becomes a welcome form of exercise to make up for the lack of physical activity during those long hours seated at your desk. That you are not stuck in traffic and you lessen your carbon footprint are also encouraging. But this is a position of privilege many bike commuters do not have. Many of them are forced to take on this burden of additional labor before and after a day of performing backbreaking work in factories and other such places where you actually sweat it out to earn a living.
First Person | Si Karletz, ang bundok na di mapapatag
First Person | Si Karletz, ang bundok na di mapapatag
“Basta aksyon, Bad yon” tawa naming lahat. Siguro nga, kung si Ka Bea, bilang chairperson ang ‘nanay’ ng organisasyon, si Ka Inday iyung tita mong makulit, si Karlets naman ang inabutan kong tito na ‘bad boy’ ng kilusan ng maralitang lungsod. Hindi dahil pasaway siya o mahirap pakisamahan, pero dahil may taglay lang siyang swabeng angas na maganda kasama mapakwentuhan, sa init ng pagtuligsa sa bulok na gobyerno, at syempre sa pagharap sa masa.
First Person | Ang araw na kami’y nawala sa ere
First Person | Ang araw na kami’y nawala sa ere
Habang pinagninilayan ko ang mga pangyayaring ito, marahil ay bahagyang natalo ang mga Lopez ngunit mas malaki ang pinsala nito sa mga sambayanang Pilipino kasama kaming ilang libong empleyado. Ito ay dahil sa pinagdamutan na sila ng estado na makakuha ng libangan at impormasyon sa panahon na may kinakaharap na krisis ang ating bansa, lalo na sa mga komunidad na tanging ABS-CBN lang ang napapanood nila sa pamamagitan ng analog broadcast.
First Person | The virus of a broken world
First Person | The virus of a broken world
I am now able to process this, thinking I am lucky to be able to have myself tested, as scores of Filipinos struggle with symptoms while ensuring that they will still have something to eat. But is it all luck? Is it just my luck to live in a territory with satisfactory practices in dealing with a pandemic? And what of it? What of the millions of Filipinos dealing with the pandemic on their own, with barely any government support? Is it their luck to die miserably, alone?
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