Achieving Happiness

Juice ko! Pagkatapos daot-dautin ng mga katulad nina Raul Gonzalez at iba pang elitista sa gobyernong ito (sandamkmak sila) ,   si Erap Estrada dahil artista at naging pulitiko, eto naman at mabaliw-baliw sa tuwa ang mga alyado ni Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo na tatakbo na sa ilalim ng bandila ng administrasyon ang Bench model at kontra-bida sa Captain Barbell na si Richard Gomez.
Majority leader Prospero Nograles is quoted as saying that Goma’s inclusion in the admin slate will draw crowds to their rallies and meetings.
Juice ko ulit.

I wonder what kind of platform of government Goma will present. Probably one that focuses on the campaign against drug addiction and one on sports. Play basketball and don’t do drugs. After all, he once ran for congress under the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD) party-list (which was exposed to be directly led and funded by one of the ruling parties (I don’t remember which, Lakas-NUCD?)

I never liked Gomez. I think the first and last time I was ever intrigued by him was when I saw him play a mentally retarded person who had the power to talk to and command snakes in the movie ‘Tuklaw.’ I was what, 10 years old?
He has always seemed like an arrogant person, quick to take offense, self-righteous to a fault, with a superiority complex to boot. I will admit that I do try to keep up with local showbiz news (especially when I was editor of Hong Kong News and had to edit showbiz stories for the Palabas section), and Goma has always struck me as someone very ambitious, but also very full of himself.

I wonder what makes him think that he can run for public office. I mean, sure that he’s good looking and popular (not that the former was ever a requirement for politicians, but it does help that one doesn’t look like a rock or a foot), but what the heck are his stands on national issues?! How does he analyze the current economic and political situation?! How are his diplomacy skills? (He loses his temper in basketball competitions with his fellow actors, for crying out loud).

But it’s not really Richard Gomez who deserves the flak here. It’s the Macapagal-Arroyo camp and its increasing desperation. Gad, now Gloria and her slate will be pinning their hopes on an actor who played a evil metal-man on a local soap opera (that had a plot ripped off from Smallville). They’re hoping that if they make Goma sing and dance and flash his wide, toothy smile at the crowd, they will forget all about the president Goma and his slate-mates are supporting and trying to save.
I want to be fair to Goma — hey, maybe the guy does have a few intelligent and pro-people ideas up his noggin — but the fact that he chose to run under the Arroyo slate is so against him.

Also, I haven’t forgotten  how he campaigned for the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in 1997, and he looked so silly and fake in a Barong Tagalog.
If we put Chiz Escudero or Alan Peter Cayetano (he   definitely has my vote) next to Goma, who will command more respect and not just get catcalls?

—-

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s generic and almost
scripted response to the Melo Commission’s report was expected, but it’s
obvious that she still wants to keep up the pretense that she is giving full
importance to the issue of extra-judicial killings by asking the European
Union’s assistance in further investigating the matter. She has completely
ignored the report of the Nobel Prize winning international human rights
institution Amnesty International on the killings; if the EU lays down the
exact same findings and conclusions, that the extra-judicial killings of human
rights advocates and political activists are a state policy, will
Macapagal-Arroyo respect the EU’s findings?

Where’s the report? We want to see it and analyze it in full. Macapagal-Arroyo is clearly going to
use the report and flaunt it in the international community as proof that she
has acted on the extra-judicial killings. Already, the representative of the
European Union (EU) Alastair MacDonald has said that the report was a good beginning,
but foreign diplomats and the rest of the international community should know
that it’s a report that none of the families of the victims support or laud.

Arroyo’s silence on the issues of command
responsibility and the Melo Commission’s conclusion that Major Gen. Jovito
Palparan is behind the killings exposes her true approach to the matter. She is
deliberately ignoring the Commission’s most important finding, that Palparan is
responsible for the killings. By doing this, she once more absolves Palparan
and puts him under the cloak of her protection. By protecting Palparan, she
also saves herself because both of them are the masterminds of the bloody
campaign against political activists and human rights workers. She has no
genuine intention to give justice to the victims of extra-judicial killings and
to go after the perpetrators. A shocking 830 activists, members of progressive
party-lists, and human rights advocates have been killed since her term began, and none of the killers have been
brought to justice.

Also, Macapagal-Arroyo’s orders to the Department of Justice and the
Department of National Defense (DND) to coordinate with the Commission on Human
Rights was also for show. He said that Sec. Raul Gonzales himself admires
Palparan and wanted him to work at thee DOJ. Sec. Gonzalez is one of Palparan’s
biggest fans, and next to National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales, is the
most virulently anti-human rights bureaucrat under Macapagal-Arroyo.

The DND, and the DOJ aim to shield Palparan and the Armed
Forces of the Philippines from criminal charges and liability for the killings. AFP chief of staff
Hermogenes Esperon himself has already said that the military cannot and will
not go after Palparan because the latter is already retired and out of the
service. The machinery that Macapagal-Arroyo is mobilizing to supposedly act on
the issue of extra-judicial killings is oriented towards protecting the killers
and ensuring that the investigations never end in the conviction of the
perpetrators.

Her hypocrisy in declaring that she upholds human rights and
abhors human rights violations is most contemptible. If Macapagal-Arroyo were
sincere in putting a stop to the political killings, she would have publicly
ordered the scrapping of the AFP’s Oplan Bantay Laya I and II, and thrown
Palparan behind bars long ago. She has consistently refused to give up Palparan
and instead held him up as an example to the rest of the AFP – a model killing
machine. How does she sleep at night knowing full well that she condones and
supports the brutal killing of activists, journalists and human rights
advocates? It is most certain that the international human rights community can
see through her double talk and her hypocrisy. Her administration’s attack
against Amnesty International has already cemented her government’s true
character as anti-human rights.

In the meantime, ano kaya kung patakbuhin ni Arroyo si Palparan?

Attended the tribute to Sir Nick , Prof. Monico Atienza last night at the UP Film Center. He remains unconscious, confined at the Philippine General Hospital since he fell into a coma last December 23, but its certain he knows that the Kilusan he has served so long, faithfully and well has not forgotten him.

The tribute was organized jointly by his colleagues in CONTEND (or the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy) and friends, comrades in the First Quarter Storm Movement which he leads as president. It was well attended, and the friends, colleagues closest to Sir Nick gave such heartfelt speeches, especially Prof. Leoncio Co who has known Sir Nick since high school at the Far Eastern University. Prof. Co, like  Sir Nick, was a political detainee and was tortured by the military.
They go back a long time, from being happy go lucky but brilliant students they became serious activists who led the UP student movement and the Kabataang Makabayan (KM).
Prof. Co spoke of his friend and colleague’s quiet strength in the face of severe physical and mental torture, and how he, Sir Nick, was able to overcome the limits imposed by the frailness and fragility of his health and body after he was released by the military in the late 70s, and his near death after being ambushed by the military in the mid 80s.  Prof. Co  described his friend’s sense of humor (much tempered by painful physical experience), his very focused attention to the details of analyzing and living as a revolutionary. 
He shared how Sir Nick has always been a devoted activist, one who saw teaching as powerful and useful means of educating students to Philippine social realities and helping them see their place in society — not as palamunin ng sambayanan or boasters and braggarts or whiny, complaining middle class citizens, but as instruments of change. Servants of the exploited, tagapaglingkod sa mga manggagawa at magsasaka.
(As an aside, Prof Co was my teacher in Rizaliana or Philippine Institutions 100   when I was a sophomore, and I will never forget his classes because he was a witty, sharp and charismatic teacher. He gave graded recitations, he was a cross between Simon Colwell and Joey de Leon. To determine whether his students really read the assigned books and essays, he gave essay-writing exams; and graded them based on how you argued your point or substantiated your claim. He was all about analysis.)
There were also a lot of cultural numbers, with groups like Tambisan sa Sining, Pisara, Alay Sining performing. Friends and former students also gave musical tributes–  Paul Galang and his group, Nato Reyes of Bayan accompanied Sara Maramag with  his guitar, Jess Santiago.
It was a elegant, warm and beautiful tribute to a man who has given his all to the cause he believes in; to the student and teacher’s movement. A writer, a poet, a teacher, a friend, a comrade and a true servant of the people. He translated Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’ into Filipino, and he wrote numerous essays on language and its role in defining history, truth and  struggle. He was a teacher who encouraged his students and became their guarantor when they couldn’t pay their tuition; he was a teacher who helped his students not only find jobs at the university, but to find meaning in their lives as they lived with and fought for the oppressed.

Sir Nick, all our love to you, and we hope to once more shake your hand, hear you laugh, and again walk alongside all of us on the long road to genuine freedom.  Salamat nang marami sa iyong  pagpapayo, paggabay, pagtuturo, pag-oorganisa at pagpapakilos sa laksa-laksang kabataang estudyante at kaguruan  upang silang lahat ay maglingkod sa sambayanan.
—–

Liham para sa paghingi ng tulong para kay Prop. Nick Atienza mula sa FQSM

Dear Friends,

We are writing you on behalf of Prof. Monico M. Atienza, who
has been comatose since December 23, 2006. An undetected mass in his throat
gradually blocked air passage, which finally led to successive heart seizures.

Atienza is the president of the First Quarter Storm (FQS)
Movement, an organization of activists in the 1960s and 1970s. In various ways,
he has continuously helped and inspired activists of people’s organizations and
institutions, especially the youth and students.

 As a political prisoner during martial law, Atienza was
heavily tortured and held in solitary confinement. Government intelligence
claimed that he was a ranking member of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Philippines and head of its National Organization Department when he was arrested in 1974.
Released in 1977, he went back to the university.As secretary-general of the militant Kabataang Makabayan
(Patriotic Youth) in the late 1960s, he was among the indefatigable architects
of the youth and student activism that eventually expanded to help establish
today’s formidable progressive mass movement in the Philippines.

In 1987, he survived an assassination attempt by a death
squad of the Philippine military which claimed the lives of two colleagues. Atienza’s
health, already deteriorated by the torture in 1974, all the more worsened with
the injuries he sustained in the incident. A shrapnel remains imbedded in his
head and a leg wound would not heal to this day.

Now confined at the Central Intensive Care Unit of the
Philippine General Hospital, Atienza is kept alive by a life support system.
His condition remains critically stable.
Atienza has no source of income other than his teaching at
the university. The meager health benefits available to him are not enough to
sustain the cost of hospitalization and probable therapy.

Let us all help a great comrade, mentor and friend.

 Donations may be personally given to Bernardita “Didith” V.
de Guzman of the First Quarter Storm Movement or deposited to:

 Bank: Bank of the Philippine Islands

Address: Diliman Branch, Quezon City, Philippines

Account Name: Alberto S. Aguilar

Savings Account Number: 4259-0220-91

Swift Code: BOPIPHMM

 For Task Force Monico M. Atienza,

 (Sgd.)

Bonifacio P. Ilagan

Chair, First Quarter Storm Movement

26 December 2006

UNIDENTIFIED men shot and killed two members of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna in Sorsogon province, while two others were found
dead in

Ligao

in neighboring Albay province on
Tuesday.

A police report showed that Ruben Ermino was dropping passengers from his tricycle in Barangay Tabi, Gubat town in Sorsogon, when two men on a DT Yamaha motorcycle and wearing helmets shot him at close range at noon.

 Seven hours later, two men barged into the house of Demetrio Imperial in Barangay Sogoy, Castilla town, and killed him on the spot.The bodies of the other victims — Miguel Dayandate and Julio Camero — were found in Ligao- Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan.25, 2007

This is my close friend Atty. Edre Olalia. He’s a human rights lawyer, and ever so often he would forward me corny jokes or email me  papers he has written (on the ASEAN counter-terrorism convention; on the impact of the worsening political repression on the work of human rights lawyers and advocates). Perfectly all right, and I am grateful because I always learn something new (and the jokes aren’t always terrible. Some are even funny).
But there are some texts that he sends that completely drain the sunshine from my day. Texts informing the recipient that one more, two more, three more political activists/human rights advocates/member of a progressive party-list or militant people’s organization has been gunned down.

The spate of brutal killings in Bicol in the last few
days can only be blamed on the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP). These, like all the previous killings, are part of the implementation of Oplan Bantay
Laya II and the AFP’s campaign to weaken the progressive party-lists by killing
their members and discouraging the civilian populace from supporting the said
groups. It’s clear that justice will
continue to be denied the victims and their families because the military has
once more sheltered the killers.We can only weep and rage at how brutal the killers are, killing fathers in front of their two-year old children; destroying families with carefully aimed bullets, shooting at point blank range.

The relentless continuing attacks against Bayan Muna and its
members and sympathizers cannot be pinned on anyone else but on the AFP acting
out on orders of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. Sino pa ba ang pwedeng singilin sa mga pamamaslang na ito? Malas? Trip lang ng mga pusakal na kriminal? Ng mga walang magawa sa kanilang mga baril at bala kaya pumapatay ng mga aktibista?

Macapagal-Arroyo’s statement that she will
wield an iron fist against terrorists is also directed against political
activists, human rights activists and members of progressive party-lists and
people’s organizations.She has already called workers and their militant unions as ‘terrorist.’ She has called Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran as ‘terrorist.’ Her Sith minions Raul Gonzalez and Norberto Gonzales continue to accuse the progressive party-lists as fronts for the CPP-NPA-NDF, and thus tacitly siccing the AFP on Bayan Muna, AP and Gabriela.

 Bayan Muna and its
sister political parties  have proven their
mettle in the last elections, and will continue to win the support of the
electorate because of their principled and strong espousal of pro-people causes.
Congress has become a venue for the poor and exploited sectors where they
could air their grievances and demand
justice because of the entry of progressive party-lists. The Macapagal-Arroyo government and the AFP,
however, see all this as a threat to their system of corruption, hence they’ve
resorted to a bloody campaign of extermination and seek the expulsion or defeat of the
progressive party-lists. They will not succeed in this. 

If only for the sake of all those who have been killed for
their advocacy of the politics of change and pro-poor principles; for those who continue to risk their lives daily to campaign for people’s issues such as an immediate and substantial wage increase; genuine land distribution; job security; decent housing and social services for the urban and rural poor; for those who fearlessly denounce the corruption of those in government and the treachery of this government in selling off the nation and its resources to foreign corporations, the
progressive party-lists will continue their work and defend their place in
congress and participate in the May midterm polls.

Dahil hindi sila mananalo sa debate kapag kahirapan na ang pinag-uusapan, this administration does not discriminate between armed
groups and civilian organizations.The incumbent but illegitimate president herself refuses to reign in the AFP
and its paramilitary forces in their bloodthirsty attack against civilians, and
in fact encourages the extra-judicial killings by refusing to have the AFP
leadership especially in the regions subjected to investigations. Basta nagsalita nang kontra sa gobyerno (sa mga probinsya lalo na), ipakausap sa bala.

What’s most infuriating is how Macapagal-Arroyo
pretends. She continues to abet these killings while feigning concern when confronted by
members of the international community who have expressed shocked at the
escalating body count. There is no hope for human rights so long as
Macapagal-Arroyo remains president and she continues to give the military free
reign to attack and violate the civil, democratic and human rights of all those
who dare stand up against her anti-poor, repressive regime. In the meantime,
Gloria’s fear of the Filipino people and
the sectors who oppose her anti-poor, anti-people and anti-sovereign policies
is clear as day. Why else resort to treachery and extra-judicial killings?
Since she has failed to convert the Filipino people to her lies that under her
administration, the country is on the road to progress and that democracy is
well and alive, she has resorted to relying on the military and fascist
solutions to do away with the opposition.

Everyday is killing season for the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Every morning before I start writing, I check two websites to help clear my brain. No, these two sites aren’t Inq.net and  Abs-cbn interactive - they’re gofugyourself.typepad.com and thesuperficial.com. Both of them websites on American actors and actresses and their daily travails when it comes to hair, make-up, fashion, and how they conduct their love lives. Almost daily there are updates on who just made a fashion faux pas (wore the wrong shoes with the equally horrible dress/suite/pants); who went where to do what (and lost her bikini top while surfing; or got out of a limo and gave the paparazzi an eyeful of shots of white granny underwear).
The writers are mean, but they’re witty and hilarious, and while I’m sorry for the stars and starlets they diss, I can’t help but laaaaaaugh and my morning is set. I can face reading the newspapers and swimming through the muck and slime that comprise most of the reports on how the country is doing from the viewpoint of Malacanang, its spokespersons and its agencies.
I wish that there was a website wherein pictures and reports of how the likes of Gloria Arroyo, Mike Arroyo and their firstborn (loud and obnoxious man! I saw him loitering in the second floor corridor earlier this afternoon, talking loudly and laughing like he owned the world) Mikey spend their leisure time; and  we can bet they’d all look decadent and lazy and disgustingly well-fed (ugh, a horrible thought came to mind - GMA’s sex life. Ugh ugh ugh! Mike Arroyo and GMA naked in bed, ugh).
——

Having finished seasons 1 and 2 of Grey’s Anatomy, have begun on the first six seasons of CSI Las Vegas. How I wish I could have Gil Grissom’s detachment at the face of conflict and tragedy! He keeps his sanity and his humor intact by clinging firmly to objective reality, by analyzing the circumstances, the details that shape the events that have such devastating consequences for people.
"The truth is in the evidence. People lie, but the evidence doesn’t.’
Science is so cool.
That’s why it’s so infuriating how the AFP with the help of the US were able to determine that it was really Khadaffy Janjalani’s body that was dug up last December. It took one, simple DNA test. It was that easy. Tapos hindi malaman kung sino ba talaga ang mga demonyo at halimaw na pumapatay sa mga aktibista. Sino-sino sa partikular sa hanay ng mga militar at paramilitar ang naghahasik ng lagim  at bumabaril, pumapatay sa   mga miyembro ng mga progresibong party-list at mga simpatisador.
Aaagh.
—-

However much you want to think of the big stuff, it’s the little stuff that gets to you, leaving you too drained to move on and think of the larger issues. I’ve realized this and not too soon. This is why I try to pay attention to the small stuff, and fix them when they’re broken, so I can go on to enjoy the bigger, happier or important stuff.
I wish I could be more specific, but I can’t. It’s a general principle, though.
Think of Frodo carrying such a heavy burden as the One Ring, and having to leave the comfort and familiarity of the Shire to shuck the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. Such a little Ring, but its continuing existence meant the destruction of Middle Earth and the enslavement of millions of people (Men, Elfs, Dwarves and Little Folk). It’s the freaking little stuff!They’re enough to turn Smeagol into Gollum.
—-

Malacanang’s order to the Philippine National Police to map out a detailed plan to deal with the
electoral ‘hotspots’ and disarm all private armies would be useless so long as
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) remains partisan and involved in the
polls. There have been numerous incidents in previous
elections wherein members of the PNP clashed with soldiers who were blatantly
abusing their authority.

The PNP becomes useless and powerless in the face of the
abuses of the AFP. In the regions and provinces during the elections, AFP
troops act as virtual private armies of incumbent and re-electionist
candidates. The more corrupt elements of the AFP also blatantly campaign for
some candidates or against some others for money.

Many of the private armies of politicians are composed of
former members of the AFP and the PNP, and their arms and other weapons also
come from illegal or shady sources. Does the PNP have the power to go against
these private armies? Can Malacanang compel its allied politicians to dismantle
their private armies and surrender their arms or at least have them registered?

The Commission on
Elections and Malacanang should lay down
an order pulling out all AFP troops from all pinpointed election hotspots, it’s
not enough for the Comelec to say that the AFP is exempted from duty this
coming elections.

We can see that the AFP will take an even more active and
more partisan role this coming elections given how National Security Adviser
Norberto Gonzales has taken to proselytizing among their ranks against the
progressive party-lists Anakpawis, Gabriela Women’s Party and Bayan Muna and
their sister party-lists. The AFP is being directed to pinpoint, target and
attack campaign officers, members and sympathizers of our party-lists. We have
reason to fear that there’ll be a steep increase in the number of extra-judicial killings as the elections near.

—-
Tribute for Sir Monico Atienza tomorrow night, January 25, 2007, 630 pm at the UP Film Institute. Sir Nick hasn’t regained consciousness since he went into a coma last December 23. Friends say that there’s very little chance of him waking up.
His is a life well lived, devoted as it has been to the cause of the poor and exploited and their struggle for genuine freedom and democracy.
Pumunta tayo sa parangal para kay Sir Nick at magbigay pugay sa isa sa mga bayani ng First Quarter Storm.

Department of Labor and Employment
Sec. Arturo Brion is no better than his predecessor Patricia Sto. Tomas who was
also adamantly against giving Filipino workers immediate economic relief.

Brion is advocating a wage increase
for our overseas Filipino workers abroad, but he can’t support a wage increase
for workers here at home. There is something hypocritical about this. Also,
Brion’s boss Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo keeps flaunting that she has put the
economy on the sure road to recovery, but here now he’s saying that a miniscule
P125 wage increase for all workers will destroy the economy. Brion has no right
to blame the workers’ life and death need for a wage increase for the problems
of businesses and employers. He should turn to the anti-national economic
policies of the Arroyo administration that undermine the capability of small
and medium scale businesses to develop and strengthen.  High electricity costs, high oil prices and
transportation costs are more to blame for the problems of businesses, and not
workers’ wage increase demand.

Also,  Brion is deliberately omitting something
crucial about the function of the regional wage boards. He’s championing the
regional wage boards and their supposed approval for wage increases in the last eight years; but what
he is not saying is how many companies and employers these same wage boards granted
exemptions to. Over 75 percent of the petitions of all companies and
businesses that apply for exemptions from implementing wage board-granted wage
increases are
approved. Also, an alarming majority of companies all over
the country are guilty of violating minimum wage laws and denying their
workers law-mandated wage-related benefits.

Let’s ask Sec. Brion now – how many
workers actually benefited from the wage increases these wage boards laid down
in the last five years? Records will prove that most companies applied for
exemptions, and thousands more are guilty of violating minimum wage laws. These
are the same companies the DOLE is powerless against persecuting.

The regional wage board’s sole
function is to keep wages low. It is where workers’ wage hike petitions are
shredded and thrown in the waste basket. These wage boards do not listen at all
to workers and their justifications for the necessity of substantial wage
increases, but they accommodate all the arguments of businesses and
employers.

Brion is trying to project himself
as a pro-labor bureaucrat; but what he’s doing is mainly pushing Filipinos –
including teachers, nurses and other professional — to go work abroad as
domestic helpers because the Macapagal-Arroyo government cannot provide them
stable employment with commensurate wages. His opposition to the wage increase
bill exposes his true orientation as labor secretary. He is no different from
his predecessor Patricia Sto. Tomas who, up to the last day of her office,
opposed giving workers immediate economic relief in the form of a substantial
wage increase.

Nakakapundi na sa tuwing mga manggagawa (o sino pang miyembro ng mga sektor ng anakpawis) ang humihingi ng tulong (dagdag sa sahod, mas maayos na serbisyo sosyal, hustisya laban sa karahasan, panlilinlang at pagsasamantala),wala silang matakbuhan ang ang walang kwentang pamahalaan, mabilis pa sa kidlat kung sila’y punahin at patahimikin.

Pang mga negosyante at kapitalista ang nagreklamo (silang mga nasa opisina nilang de-aircon, o lulan ng mga multi-milyong kotse sa galing pa sa Europa), kandarapa ang gobyerno at mga ahensya nito sa paghanap ng paraan para sila’y tulungan, pakinggan, pagbigyan sa kanilang mga makasariling hinaing.

Leche.

—-

Saw the footage of the PNP beating youth and students who held a rally against the Visiting Forces Agreement yesterday. My stomach clenched with anger at  the images (check arkibongbayan.org).

Is it any wonder that this country is heading nowhere? There’s zero tolerance for democratic protests; and the PNP and the AFP have no qualms about beating young Filipinos ’til they’re black and blue. So much for protecting the future of the Philippines and preserving a legacy of political tolerance and genuine democracy.

—-

Bayan Muna holds is National Convention today. Congratulations and mabuhay ang Bayan Muna!

—-

Watched Saw I and II on DVD, and my husband and I are convinced that the psychopath in the film is related to Jovito Palparan and the other monsters he has spawned during his bloody career in the AFP.

The psychopath (innocuously named ‘John’) justified his capture and brutal punishment of people using seemingly sane and moral arguments: you have to prove that you deserve to live, that you’re worthy of our existence or you will meet the most horrible, gruesome and painful of deaths: disembowelment by rushing  through a maze of razorwire;  having a bear trap-like contraption pincushioned by knife-like nails shut tight while your wearing it on your head (think of a grape being crushed between two iron clamps with spikes); inhaling chemical gas which, after two hours, will cause you to bleed from all orifices (gaaaaaah!).

Palparan — and other beasts like Norberto Gonzales and Raul Gonzalez and the creatures of darkness  of the AFP  — justify the killing of civilians allied with progressive party-lists and people’s organizations by saying that their deaths are collateral damage in the fight to protect democracy and political stability in the country.

—

I am in serious need of a haircut. My hair is almost down to my waist and it hardly has style. Not that am vain, but I don’t want to look like a water sprite either, trailing long seaweed-like strands. Am too lazy to go the barber’s, and I cringe at the thought of going to the beauty parlor again.

Maybe I should just start wearing hats again. And bundle my main under a beret or a beanie.

—

I know how to grill chicken!!! Am so proud of myself because I didn’t burn anything last night during one of my experiments in the kitchen. I need to get a cookbook. I really need to learn how to cook because it’s embarrassing how often I resort to eating out because I don’t know know to go beyond the can opener.

I want to learn how to cook sinigang and kalderetang baka.

National security adviser Norberto Gonzales and other
red-baiters in the Macapagal-Arroyo administration should be held responsible
for every single member, leader and sympathizer of progressive party-lists such
as Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party killed.

Gonzales continues to exhort the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) into escalating attacks against the progressive party-lists,
especially this coming election season. The AFP leadership, for its part,
expose themselves as liars every time they declare themselves non-partisan.
It’s crystal clear that the AFP is actively campaigning against our party-lists
and terrorizing Filipinos who support us and our advocacies. Gonzales is a
dyed-in-the-wool hypocrite much like the administration he defends and
represents. He tries to justify his attacks against our party-lists and allied
people’s organizations by saying that
it’s all in the defense in democracy; but the truth is that it’s a campaign of
brutality and violence where civilians are killed in cold-blood.

  Gonzales is a political nobody who
sold his services to Macapagal-Arroyo who, in turn, saw the usefulness of
Gonzales’ anti-communist obsession. Gonzales is nothing and no one in the
country’s general political workings, he is a handyman whose main tasks are to
exaggerate national security threats and demonize our party-lists and allied
people’s organizations. He gets his bed and butter from the death of political
activists and human rights advocates.

  The public should be warned against
the AFP and their tactics of terrorism. Where the AFP deploys its troops,
human rights violations abound, and not a few civilians fall victim to
extrajudicial killings. This coming elections, we can see the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration further goading members of the AFP into launching more localized
campaigns to attack progressive party-lists and our members and campaign
officials. It is not messages of progress that the AFP is spreading in the name of the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration, but death and injustice.

  This early, we’re receiving reports from Anakpawis regional and provincial formations that
detachments of the AFP are going into communities defaming Anakpawis and its
sister party-list groups and their standard-bearers and representatives in
congress.

Members of the AFP and its paramilitary groups are
terrorizing community residents and threatening them on pain of death not to
support much less vote for our party-list groups. The AFP completely sheds all
pretenses of being non-partisan in the rural areas, and defame and libel our
party-lists while at the same time campaigning for the Arroyo administration
and the candidates it’s supporting in the region.

—-

The thing is, everytime I think of Norberto Gonzales, I am reminded of one of my favorite cartoon characters Norbert one of two kooky  beavers from ‘Angry Beavers’ that used to show in the Nickolodeon channel. Aaaargh.

Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo’s support for the campaign for release of  Burmese freedom fighter.  Aung San Suu Kyi lacks credibility to the point of being hypocritical  Given that she herself is behind the
continuing persecution of the progressive lawmakers of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis
and Gabriela Women’s Party, as well as the continuing detention on false
rebellion charges of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran. Her push for the full and
widespread implementation of Oplan
Bantay Laya and Oplan Bantay Laya II is also behind the persecution and
massacre of innocent civilians suspected
of being members of armed revolutionary groups. 

How
can she even begin to support the call for release of a democracy and freedom
fighter when right in her own backyard she is keeping a 74-year old veteran of
the militant labor movement and an acknowledged leader of the progressive bloc
of lawmakers incarcerated on false charges of sedition and rebellion?  Her own government and
the free reign it has given to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to
terrorize and kill civilians sympathetic to activist causes deserves to be
condemned as any other repressive regime and dictatorship in the world today.

  Rep.
Beltran is already nearing his first
year of incarceration on February 25. None of the courts where Ka Bel’s case is
being heard has responded positively to the arguments laid down by Ka Bel and
his lawyers proving his innocence.

We
have   reason to believe that President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo herself is adamantly against Ka Bel’s release, and even
without the prodding of her most twisted advisers led by justice secretary Raul Gonzalez and national
security chief Norberto Gonzales she insists on keeping Ka Bel out of
circulation by keeping him detained.

Arroyo hasn’t the least credibility to express
even mere sympathy for Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese people’s struggle to bring
democracy to their country. Under her leadership, Mrs. Arroyo has plunged the
country back to the days of martial law where political activists and human
rights advocates were hunted down and killed by paramilitary and military
elements.

—-

Gad. It’s only Monday but it already feels like Friday. Reading the papers accelerates one’s aging process and it’s not good. Maybe the real secret to beauty of all those socialites and upper class people is simple: they don’t read the papers and they don’t keep up with political or economic current events, and they stick to the lifestyle and society sections.

I really have to go and run to Quiapo and buy more of those pirated DVDs. I could use more cartoon feature-films and those old Three Stooges clips.

The other night my sister Majalla and I saw Monty Python’s last full-length ‘The Meaning of Life’ and it depressed the hell out of me. For once I didn’t see much humor in the crazy troupe’s work. Or maybe I simply wasn’t in the mood. I remember laughing only at the skits that had the  Every Sperm in Precious song and that cool one about the universe is constantly expanding (we are fans of Eric Idle), but the rest of the skits gave me a headache and made me sad.

Haven’t blogged in quite a bit. Been busy with real life, hahaha! Uhurmm.

Actually, have taken to being a housewife and doing all the work that goes with the job.I rush home from work most days to make sure that the house is clean and tidy before Kim gets home.  Am not complaining. I actually like it.Distracts me from the horrors of the world,  and the terrible tragedy of living under a government such as that of Macapagal-Arroyo (she makes me sick, literally. We’ve had to ban all talk about Malacanang from the dinner table because it obliterates our appetite and makes us want to glug down gallons of liquids with insanely high alcoholic content. Anyway).
I finished ‘Eldest’ last night, Christopher Paolini’s sequel to his first novel ‘Eragon.’ Saw the movie version of the first, and it’s not all that bad (I love dragon movies) but the dialogue sucked big time.
‘Eldest’ is much better than ‘Eragon’ language-wise. Paolini has the writing chops and  I am positively verdure with envy. I like the dragon Saphira much better than Eragon (who’s a teenager, and has the annoying traits of one, gaaaah), which I suppose means a lot about how I view people (I often like animals more than people. I’ll take my dog Poofy’s company and ‘conversation’ over some people’s I know any time.)
I hope than the second film will be better, because the plot and story-telling of the sequel isn’t so very dragging like its predecessor. More things happen, there’s more texture to the characters. I always have to keep in mind that ‘Eragon’ was written by a 15 year old, who finished it when he turned 17.  Paolini finished ‘Eldest’ when he turned 21.
—-
I am so not looking forward to the midterm elections. More political activists, members, leaders and symphatizers of cause-oriented groups and progressive peoeple’s organizations are certain to become targets of the campaign of extermination of this &*^$##$^#@ government.
Am batting for the opposition though. Not that I completely believe in their goodness of heart; but there are some I think who could do good if they really wanted and chose to.

Anything to defeat Macapagal-Arroyo and her candidates. To defeat and humiliate.
I know that for the most part of last year, this blog has been somewhat political (but not very, right?), but this year I think I won’t be so if I can help it.
If I can help it.
—–
I love the soundtrack of the Broadway musical ‘Wicked.’ Got the CD as a Christmas gift. My favorite song is ‘Defying Gravity’ where Elphaba declares her independence and vows to fight against the worsening political repression of the power-usurper Wizard of Oz. It’s a rousing, melodious and steel-honed kind of song.

‘Popular’ which is sung by Galinda (before she rechristened herself ‘Glinda’) is quite funny.
The book doesn’t end happily, so I’m glad that the musical has a resolution that’s more favorable for my new favorite Witch.

New Year, same old problems.
I wish my first blog for the 2007 could’ve been happier, but I just checked arkibongbayan.org and that drove all cheerful thoughts right out of my  head. I have to take a moment and try to be less…sad.
The last week I immersed myself in family gatherings. I’m not really the family-type,   (during reunions I often hide myself behind curtained recesses); but because I’ve been away for a bit, and before my escape to Hong Kong I was often busy with work, I thought I’d give the whole family-thing a whirl. It makes my mom happy to see me be normal for a change, and to not talk politics or make snide comments about reports in the newspapers. She would rather I sit at the dinner table and stuff myself with cake and fruit salad (and yes, I admit, there’s a part of me that prefers that, too).
I love my nieces and nephews. So there. It’s the babies who make the gatherings worth attending. They keep everyone happy, keeping conversations and discussions away from the more serious and often depressing topics of work, personal difficulties, and sickness and death in the family.
The babies crawl and gurgle and giggle and coo and belch and all the adults forget all their adult problems.
The best story I’ve heard so far is of my four year-old nephew Abby (eldest of my cousin Amy and her husband Bobby) turning to his dad one afternoon when they were all in the living room watching DVD cartoons and saying, from out of nowhere, "Daddy, pag inaway mo si Mommy ipapupulis na kita!"
That brought the house down. Abby is such an alien! We never know where the hell he gets his ideas and the words he uses.
I ate a lot and slept a lot and watched a lot of DVDs (zombie horror fest) and cleaned the house (we just moved, and it was exhausting trying to find a new place for every old thing we own). Walked around Ayala to see the lights and to drink insanely expensive tea and coffee. I didn’t write much, but I read some. Finished ‘Wicked’ by Gregory Macguire and was upset (nah, it was very good; but it was also very sad). Lent my services as personal shopper (haha, but that’s what she calls me) to Novaleeh. That trip to the ukay stores, sorting through racks of used clothes and picking out the not-so-used looking ones was the main outlet for my creativity this nearly ended holiday season.
Uso pa ba ang mga resolutions? Kasi kung oo, I have a few of them, but am not going to post them here because they’re too silly for words.
Mostly though, I will try to be a happier, less dark, less depressing person. Maybe I will even wear the dangly earrings my sister Majal gave me, and that hippie blouse that a rainbow threw up on.
—–
Watched ZsaZsa Zaturnnah and raved about it afterwards. Kim is getting sick and tired of hearing me sing ‘Babae ako, uy Didi tignan mo…’, retorting, "Oo na, babae ka na!"
We all loved the comic book and we’re crossing our fingers for a sequel. The movie was not a disappointment and we had fun fun fun (although it was a bit of a dampener, the fact that there were so few people in the theater with us when we saw it, tsk-tsk-tsk).
—-