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It is tempting to reduce this to a “security success” or a “counterinsurgency incident.” But such language hides more than it reveals. Armed conflict in Negros did not begin with guns. It began long before, in conditions that have shaped the lives of generations.
Even without a war and an oil shock, and even in times when oil prices are relatively low or declining, the Filipino people are still being oppressed and exploited by local pump price profiteering, and global monopoly and speculative pricing due to oil deregulation.
Jeepney drivers and Filipino consumers do not have to be at the mercy of oil companies. The oil industry does not have to be deregulated. Oil prices can be controlled. The government does not have to be useless.
Unlike many Asian countries, the Philippines has long dropped, in the name of deregulation, key policy tools, such as state-controlled strategic oil reserves, regulated pricing schemes, and price stabilization mechanisms, which could protect Filipino consumers during global shocks.
International institutions never held the United States accountable for its repeated acts of aggression against Iran or, for that matter, any of the other countries that suffered from US attacks.
By accommodating multiple US military facilities and weapons platforms, the Philippines exposes itself to becoming a potential target in conflicts involving the US.
Malalim ang ugat, at malawak din ang sanga-sanga ng sistemang korap. Lahat ng sangkot, dapat managot.
Demonstrations at COP30 reveal systemic failures, silenced indigenous peoples’ voices, and the widening gap between promises and reality.
For all his faults and frailties, those who knew him up close, and personal, regarded Behn with profound, palpable affection and respect. Such was the magnitude of his life that his funeral became a political rally.
Civil society is not asking for favors. It is asserting its rightful role in shaping the future.
A far different reality happens in the Philippines characterized by disenfranchisement, environmental degradation, and deepening inequality.
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.
Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organisations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively – not warring parties.
“The shrinking of civic spaces in the Asia-Pacific region is a dire warning of the broader challenges faced by civil society at the national level. It is a call to action for governments to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights of civil society and people's organizations to participate in decision-making processes.”
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.
That is why I think this is a missed opportunity for a festival to demonstrate how it can protect, through its mandate, a work which, like the rest, claims to reveal truth in the face of power.
Ano ang hinaing ng maralita pagkatapos ng SONA at bagyong Carina?
From the Marcos Martial Law period to 2000, one lawyer was killed each year (18 in 18 years). From 2001 to the present, there have been 204 lawyers killed at a yearly rate of about 8.87.
For many Filipino migrant workers abroad, advancements in technology have been able to provide comfort as they navigate the long and painful separation from their children, spouses, and parents back in the Philippines. They can check if their children have done their homework, watch their graduation ceremony live, virtually join a family reunion or birthday celebration, or share a prayer with their ailing mother or father. Smartphones, the internet and social media have become essential tools in their lives as migrants. For most Filipino migrants, visits back to their home provinces are expensive, and these are not even possible for many undocumented OFWs.
After the SONA, the likes of Jeff Celiz, Lorraine Badoy Partosa, and NTF-ELCAC mouthpieces look like "kulang sa yakap" from Marcos. They don't have SONA soundbites to misuse.
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