Achieving Happiness

The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 denied Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran’s motion for temporary release for May 1, 2007 International Labor Day. We received word around 3pm this afternoon, and suffice it to say, Ka Bel was not happy.
Being the trooper that he is, however, he quickly rallied and said that other means must be utilized to make sure that he’ll be able to deliver his speech for Labor Day. Thank goodness for my trusty Zen — its battery gave out five minutes after Ka Bel finished recording his speech for the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) -led rally tomorrow.
Tomorrow is also Anakpawis Party-List’s miting de avance. It’s going to be scorching hot tomorrow and the risk of heat stroke is nothing to laugh at or dismiss. I keep thinking - pataasan na lang ng kamulatan bukas to stop ones’ self from rushing under the shade and staying out of the sun (and hence keep some distance away from the stage and the main program).
I don’t have sun glasses and I really wish I could get some. The sun’s glare is so blinding sometimes that my eyes tear up.
—
I feel awful for Ka Bel. I mean he has been looking forward to the miting de avance for weeks and hoping that he’d be released by then. But then again, it wasn’t as if we really pegged our hopes on the promise of the Arroyo administration that it will not stand against Ka Bel’s legal motions calling for his immediate release (but then again, miracles still do happen).
The Arroyo government is so keyed up and every day up to election day we can bet that GMA and her henchmen will be paranoid-alert and refusing to give a single inch to her detractors and critics. Ka Bel’s lawyers have already filed a motion for bail (filed last Thursday) and we are still waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision regarding that. May pag-asa pa. (It hurts like hell though, the fact that sleazebuckets like Raul Gonzalez are free and clear and get to strut around spouting garbage but Ka Bel remains detained.)
In any case, Ka Bel is still keeping his spirits up. I told him that in a way he’s lucky to be staying inside an airconditioned room while the rest of us will be frying, baking and broiling under the sun. (Right, as if he ever minded the heat, basta nasa rally si Ka Bel, enjoy siya and never ever complains! Aaargh, nakakainis talaga).

Anyways, kita-kita-kits bukas sa mga sumusunod na assembly
points sa ganap na alas-11 ng umaga:

@ PLAZA STA CRUZ, sa harap ng Santa Cruz Church

@ PLAZA MORIONES, Tondo,Manila

@ PLAZA MIRANDA,Quiapo Church,Manila

@ TM KALAW corner TAFT Avenue, Manila.

@ SAN ANDRES corner, TAFT Avenue, Manila. Sabay-sabay na magmamartsa patungong Liwasang Bonifacio para sa main program.

Hwag kalimutang magdala ng tubig, maliit na tuwalya, sunscreen or sunblock (naks), pamaymay at portable refrigerator at/o aircon unit.

My reaction to movies such as Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s ‘Sunshine’ reveals so much about me, I think: I liked it a lot. It was a sad, uncompromising movie about life and sacrifice. And it’s a science fiction film.
What sound does the sun make when its light hits any surface? It’s an explosion of brightness and one expects deafening sound, but there isn’t any. There’s just immense heat and silence, but the sight is more than enough to make you go blind: it’s a blinding kind of sound; a deafening kind of sight.
What I like best about is how unhysterical it is. All the acting is understated, the dialogue plain and straightforward, and the plot unremarkable but serious. It’s  about eight scientists heading towards the dying sun to send a nuclear payload the size of Manhattan and create a chain reaction that would jumpstart the said star.  It’s a simple story well told and well showed. I demand nothing from it.
Right now I am thinking of my father whose favorite color was yellow and whose favorite flower was the sunflower. He would’ve liked the movie and its simplicity, the starkness of it and how the characters were able to see themselves in relation to the rest of the world, to humanity. Life means nothing if it meant millions of others losing others when you could do  something about it. It was pretty zen-ny.
—
The self-confessed killer of Julia Campbell has surrendered himself.
He tells of an accidental killing that absolutely makes no sense. He supposedly bludgeoned Julia with a rock when she bumped into him. He thought she was somebody else, some neighbor he had a beef with, so he hit her with a rock he found by the wayside.
This doesn’t make the least sense. It’s like one of those Twilight Zone episodes wherein terribly bad things in small but lethal doses happen and the aftermath is catastrophic especially when one realizes that they could’ve been avoided if in the  10 seconds just before the event happen one stopped and  took a moment to breathe deeply.

—

Frequently Kim accuses me of being an escapist. He thinks its because I read too much fiction, and so reality often makes so ill that I retreat or get hyper with disappointment or anger or just general pissedoffedness.

I tend to avoid people I don’t like or don’t know much because I can’t pretend that I like them.  I suck at civility, and often my silence is mistaken for standoffishness when actually its plain awkwardness and even shyness. As I grow older I find myself turning more and more into a hermit crab. Am crabby,too. Oh I don’t know. It’s the painkillers wearing off, hah!

Actually, if I could, I’d simply hand out pieces of paper with my apologies written on them. Be like T.S. Garp when he mangled his tongue in that horrible car accident where his youngest son Walt died and his eldest Duncan lost his left eye.

"I am sorry for being unsociable, but I sincerely wish you well." Or

"I can’t smile right now but it doesn’t mean I dislike you: it’s just not a good time right now."

What I really want to hand out is this: "Let’s all try to be good. I’m doing my darnest."

–

We’re supposed to vote for 12 candidates in May, but am having trouble completing my list. Most of my relatives are turning to me and asking me for my list because I’m supposed to be the ‘political one’  in the family. Anyways, this is my top six: Koko Pimentel, Alan Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Manny Villar and Joker Arroyo. I’ll probably vote for Chiz Escudero and Sonia Roco, but am not sure about the rest. I cant bring myself to support Ralph Recto because he’s the main author of the EVAT and it drives me nuts that he keeps on extolling its supposed virtues.

I know that Bayan Muna et all endorses Recto, but jeez, all I can think off is all the press releases I’ve written against the EVAT and its impact on the income and livelihood of the poor. Hindi ko malunok ang partikular na endorsement na iyan, so, well, I won’t vote for the man.

  Finally got to see ‘Pan’s Labyrinth.’ It’s a sadly dark and darkly sad film that questions the impact of violence in the lives of children. Broke my heart into a million pieces. Was reminded of Grecil and the thousands, millions of other children victimized by unjust wars, by the violence of adults and their inhumane politics and twisted beliefs and values.

Whenever Bush says that America should fight terrorism, he is not thinking of saving Iraqi children, or children in Afghanistan or in Palestine.

When Macapagal-Arroyo says that the Philippines is winning the war aainst poverty, I don’t think she has poor people in mind but the already rich– they’re the ones who are succeeding in keeping their mansions, luxury cars and dollar bank accounts.

Always, always it is the children who suffer. Everyday, whenever I come home I have to pass through a small squatters community just a stone’s throw away from our house. There are literally swarms of children running around barefoot, wearing theadbare clothes, snot freely flowing from their noses. The pavement is rough , but they never seem to mind stubbing their little toes on the rocks and pebbles. They laugh and giggle and scream with glee at the simplest things, indifferent to the heat and dust and the fact that their toys are broken pieces of wood or old cans tied together.

Some of the children are babies — six month-olds left in the care of their ‘older’ siblings aged six or seven. I don’t think many of them attend school, they just stay at home with their mothers whom in turn wait for their husbands to return at night hopefully with money to buy rice and fish.The older kids take care of the babies while the mothers wash clothes or cook on the clay stoves they keep just outside their shanties.

In the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) operations against the progressive party-lists and their officials, members and supporters, the soldiers and paramilitary forces or their equally demonic henchmen make sure that their targets are killed- shot in the head and/or in the heart. No chance of survival or recovery. So far there have been 840 human rights advocates and political activists killed, and I’m not sure of the exact number, but am sure that most of those killed were married and had children.
Multiply the number by at least four — for each activist killed, four others are directly victimized, the wife or husband, and the children. The parents will be able to cope, to somehow find the means to recover and heal and fight for justice for their slain loved one.

But the children? Who fights for them? Who speaks out for them? They are helpless victims, innocent bystanders viciously attacked by a government that cares nothing for their rights or their parents’. Because they’re poor and because they fought back by speaking out. 

When they suffer violence, when they are starved and beaten and denied everythings else that they need to survive, how do children process or understand the experience?

In ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ the little girl Ofelia retreated into a fantasy world where she had hope of being happy, of serving a purpose other than being a little girl caught in the middle of a civil war. Do most children do this? Or do they just feel the hunger pangs, suffer the pain, and wait for relief, often in vain? They have no choice but to rely on adults, and how horrible is it to know that more often than not, adults are the ones behind the suffering of millions of children?

History is never written by children. They are too young, and they cannot explain what it is exactly that is going on around them. Many of them when asked make observations that to adults sound cute and funny, but what if we asked them serious questions, questions on how they feel about not having enough to eat, about being poor, about never being able to go to school or properly dressed when its raining - what would they say, how would they describe the experience?
Siguro mag-iiba ang takbo ng mundo kung titignan natin ang lahat mula sa pananaw ng mga bata, sa kanilang simpleng pag-unawa ng kung ano ang tama at mali, at kung ano ang mga kailangan para mabuhay ng maayos, marangal at masaya.

At the risk of sounding bitter and pissed off, I am annoyed and pissed off. The recent Social Weather Stations Survey (SWS) points out a massive dive in the ratings of the bloc of progressive party-lists led by Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party. Instead of the three party-lists securing three seats each, the survey projects that only Bayan Muna will get three seats while the latter two will have to make sure to fight to keep one seat each.

One seat each?!

Anyways, I’m angry because I know it’s a statistical improbability and impossibility for Anakpawis to keep only one seat. Mayabang na kung mayabang, pero nasa amin ang dalawang pinakamalaking mass organizations na KMU at KMP, gayun na rin ang COURAGE, PAMALAKAYA, PISTON, KADAMAY at Amihan. Our electoral campaign machinery has never worked better (well, ok, so it’s only the second time, but heck, we’ve done well because the first time we ran, we secured two seats).

I am offended on behalf of the thousands of full-time political activists now working ’round the clock distributing flyers and leaflets, putting up posters, going house-to-house AND taking the risk of being shot and killed by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who cannot and will not get it into their human rights violating, thick skulls that our party-list is not a front for the Communist Party of the Philippines or the New People’s Army. Grrrr.

Anyways, I will not let this ruin my entire day. I’m getting wrinkles already because of sun exposure and my cheap sunscreen doesn’t seem to be working enough (SPF 15 lang kasi. Dapat daw 35? High-strength, industrial grade sunscreen ang kailangan in countries like the Philippines where there’s practically no ozone layer left!).

—

Am looking forward to another penguin cartoon movie. After Happy Feet which featured my all-time favorite Emperors, there’s Surf’s Up where Adelie penguins take center stage.

The Adelies in Happy Feet (Ramon, in particular, voiced by Robin Williams) were so funny, and so clumsier looking than their taller, bigger cousins the Emperors. They waddle more. In Surf’s Up, they’re supposed to be surfing dudes and I can’t wait to see that.

O ayan, I’ve managed to calm myself down somewhat. Hmmph.

—

The last two weeks have been downright exhausting, but it’s not the work at all but the freakin’ heat and humidity. I feel like a donkey plodding up a steep slope while laden with small boulders packed in metal boxes with tissue and excelsior.
     The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s mission came and went, and we’re eternally grateful to Canadian senator and incoming chair of the IPU’s committee on human rights of parliamentarians Sharon Carstairs, IPU secgen Anders Johnsson, and committee secretary Ingeborg Schwarz for speaking up for Ka Bel and pressing for his immediate release.
    Sen. Carstairs in particular was very determined to push for Ka Bel’s release on humanitarian grounds. During their visit to Ka Bel last Friday, April 20, she kept expressing concern over  Ka Bel’s health and how the stress of incarceration was affecting him and his wife Ka Osang.
    Earlier this afternoon, Mr. Johnsson called up Ka Bel and told him that the IPU had already communicated its intent to deliver a report in the next general assembly of the IPU in Bali, Indonesia next month, and that they had told National Secretary Norberto Gonzales what the gist of it would be, namely this: nabastos ang mga opisyales ng IPU mission sa mga pakikipag-usap nila  sa  gobyernong Macapagal-Arroyo lalo na kay Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez na kulang na lang  ay ipagtulakan sila palabas ng pinto.
    Anyways, despite the rude and undiplomatic treatment they received, the Sen. Carstairs et al managed to extract some small commitment from the government that if Ka Bel’s lawyers file a motion for bail, the government will not contest it and perhaps, just perhaps, even support it.
    Let’s all cross our fingers and toes.
    If Gringo Honasan was able to get himself released on bail — and he was caught evading arrest and was in actual hiding for two years — why isn’t Ka Bel being allowed bail? His lawyers led by Atty. Romeo Capulong have filed for bail once before, but the court turned it down.
    Now, well, let’s wait and see. Perhaps the Macapagal-Arroyo administration will try to evade more flak from the international diplomatic and human rights community and spare itself the embarrassment of explaining itself and allow bail for Ka Bel.
    Sana by May 1, International Labor Day Ka Bel would be out and about, once more breathing the free (if polluted) air of Quezon City and marching in the streets of Manila in time for Anakpawis’ miting de avance on Labor Day.
—-
    All week I’ve also felt bad about Julia Campbell and her brutal murder. It’s horrible that someone like her suffered such a terrible death. Her blog entries and the pictures she took or had had taken of her showed what a a warm, humane and giving person she was.  Here’s hoping that the police don’t flub the investigations and get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding her killing and catch the real killer (and not some innocent Joe Shmoe).

—

Gad, I really wish I could get a pair of Crocs, but it would be really immoral to shell out P1,700 just for a pair. They’re so comfortable, and I regret not buying a pair back when I was in HK because I couldn’t find them in chocolate brown.

Anyways, thank goodness for the local brand Planet which has come up with their version of Crocs, they’re called Gators and they cost P150 (hahahahah!) a pair and they feel just as soft and comfortable as Crocs (no kidding. It’s amazing).

—

I’ve been rereading Douglas Adam’s ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ , and again I am amazed at how far-reaching and mind-bendingly fertile his imagination was. The stuff he wrote redefined fiction and science fiction, and  ever so often, I would come upon a paragraph or an entire page that was so full of
innately ridiculous but seemingly logical and sane sounding observations and ‘facts’ that I ended up in a coughing fit.
I like reading fiction that makes me forget my problems as an activist and, heck, even as a human being. It makes me so sick, sometimes, frustrated at how effed-up the world is, how people kill each other and can never get along even over the most simple things!
At heart I am a pacifist, and it goes against my deepest and most basic nature to be confrontational or combative about my beliefs. Reading Douglas Adams helps me achieve a bigger (albeit less serious, but that’s ok) perspective on life and living. Heck, maybe the answer to all of this chaos, life, the universe and everything is really just ‘forty-two.’ Ask the white mice and the dolphins while we still have time and our planet hasn’t been demolished to make way for an interstellar freeway.
—-

                           
                            This is Grecil Buya, nine years old and killed last March 31 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The next time you even begin to think that the AFP are protectors of the people and vanguards of peace and order, security and justice, think of Grecil, think of her young life brutally taken.       —–
The Black and White Movement has come up with a black and white list of politicians whom it thinks should be blackballed in May.
On top of the black list are the likes of the Macapagal-Arroyo scions, Speaker Jose de Venecia, and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao.
   
Included in its white list  (meaning endorsement) are party-lists Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Gabriela Womens Party and Kabataan Party. It’s too bad that the BWM didn’t include Suara Bangsa Moro Party, but still and all we are grateful for being included in its list of party-lists which should be supported.  (Let it be put on record, though, that if I were allowed to deliver more than one vote, my other vote would be for Suara).
    We are grateful that the efforts of  our progressive party-lists to inject the politics of change and the politics of the masses in the mainstream are being recognized. Despite differences in the nitty-gritty of political means and ideological beliefs (the ways and means of pushing forth a genuinely pro-people agenda in government; the espousal of certain causes wherein class interests class such as wage increases, genuine land distribution and an independent foreign policy when it comes to the economy and diplomacy), there are common grounds wherein we can all traverse.
Hanapin kung saan tayong lahat ay maaring magkaisa at sumulong nang sabay-sabay. 
Right now, fighting against human rights violations, worsening political repression, and a looming repeat of massive electoral fraud are things we can all work together on.

Mag-t-shirt tayong lahat ng isang kulay na hindi pa napapangalanan;
Panindigan ang mga salitang ‘karapatan,’ ‘katotohanan’ at ‘katarungan’
Mag-lakad ng magkaka-balikat, kung di man magkakaakbay;
Bigyang galang ang mga pagkakatulad habang kinikilala ang mga pagkakaiba;
Isa-isang tabi ang mga mas malaking pagkakaiba pansamantala.

Or at least until Macapagal-Arroyo is kicked out of office please.
—-
    In the labor movement, the fight  for economic reforms are given shape in the creation of collective bargaining agreements. The political form of this fight is in the process of negotiations with managements, the labor department and the national government itself which lays down the ground rules for industrial relations and policies governing labor.
    There is no separating the economic struggle (working for better work conditions; for higher wages; for greater share in the crops; for lower oil prices and  lower electricity and water rates; for  job security,  social security, protection and benefits) from the political form.
The weakness or intensity, the a conservatism or aggressiveness of the efforts to secure these sought for reforms relies on the politics and ideology behind the framework of understanding the social considerations, the historical context, and the relation and contradictions between all these. The politics and the ideology, in the meantime, is dependent on the specific class standpoint one takes, supports and works for.
    It’s funny that thoughts like these are what’s swirling in my brain right now. I’ve been reading Ka Bel’s old files back in 1982 when he was a political detainee under the Marcos dictatorship. Daluyong talaga noon ang mga manggagawa sa lansangan!     Sunod-sunod ang mga welga, at paralisado ang mga empresa at engklabo. Economic battles taking the political form of strikes.
    Pag papatalsikin na si GMA, welgang bayan ang magiging tugon ng manggagawa at mamamayan. Utang na loob, hwag nang makinig sa kung sinong obispo na sasabihing mag-prayer rally na lang sa Quirino Grandstand at binubuhusan nang malamig na tubig ang init ng galit at hinanakit ng taumbayan sa mga kawalanghiyaan ng pamahalaan.
—-

I think Manny Pacquiao has taken one too many punches on head far too many times. I can’t believe he’s still running for congress! It’s such a sad thing that his good intentions will now be twisted and manipulated into serving the interest of the Macapagal-Arroyo government.
    It’s not at all that I think he isn’t intellectually capable or not educated enough for the post (utang na loob ang daming bobing sa kongreso, mga tapos ng unibersidad pa sila at sandamakmak ang diploma sa dingding ng opisina nila); it’s just that, well, he has so much wealth and his influence is considerable enough to command support for worthwhile projects and endeavors that do not have to be connected with politics.
    Imagine him speaking for children’s rights.
    Or against urban militarization.
    Or higher allocations for health and education.
    He could donate money to build schools and hospitals. Lead a campaign against illegal drugs. Boxing for the environment! Ang dami-dami niyang pwedeng yakaping advocacy.
    Yet here he is, running for congress. Shet. Sana naman hwag nang madagdagan ng ampaw ang kongreso.

——

Aaaaagh! Rage killing in the University of Virginia, 32 or 33 dead. I can’t even begin to understand this report. It’s completely…insane and senseless.

All the newspapers today are swamped with stories and pictures of GMA and her ailing husband the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who very recently underwent critical open-heart surgery.
I don’t know what it makes me, but hell, I couldn’t care less what the heck happens to Mike A. It also makes me ill to read all the statements being issued by members of the Genuine Opposition expressing comfort to GMA and saying that there’s a ceasefire between the administration and the opposition BECAUSE THE FG JUST WENT UNDER THE KNIFE. Are they for real? Are they sincere? Because if they’re not, they should’ve just kept their mouths shut. Sino bang naniniwala that there’s any love lost between Mike A and, um, Alan Peter Cayetano (whom I’m going to vote for).
Ok, ok, Mike Arroyo has kids and grandkids, and he loves his brother. Pero utang na loob, it’s not like he’s a good and honest man! (and his brother and eldest son are so angels, either. Let’s not even talk about the wife, omigod). Arrgh! Maybe I should just stop now before I rant some more and write something I might regret later like oh say ‘I hope Mike A. kicks the bucket.’
So I’ll stop.
—-
Because of the four day Lenten Break I hadn’t been able to keep up with the news. It was only yesterday that I read about how the military shot and killed a nine-year old girl in Compostela Valley, Grecil Galacio. She had just finished grade two, was into the latest dance crazes popularized by shows like Eat Bulaga and Wowwowwee, and liked playing with spiders.
She was killed by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 101st Infantry Battalion, and the commander of said IB, Brigadier General Carlos Holganza says that he stands pat behind his men in saying that the girl’s brutal murder was all part of the campaign against the New People’s Army (NPA). Grecil, Holganza says, was an NPA guerilla.
They found no gun near Grecil’s body (or maybe it was an imaginary gun and Grecil was pretending to be firing it in the direction of the soldiers hiding in the trees or among the bushes?)
Her classmates insist that she was an ordinary little girl  (maybe not so ordinary because she was smart and sometimes got into trouble - she liked to daydream I think, sitting near the river, looking for spiders, weaving stories in her little head).
Grecil’s parents are distraught (they raised her, fed and clothed her, loved her all the while even as she forget to tell them about the recognition rites at school where she was supposed to receive a couple of awards as a good student and then one afternoon through the sunlight and the silence shots ring out and there they find their child, their little one, lying in the backyard in the dust and among the pebbles and the budding shoots of grass her bloodied arm, her skull shattered pierced by bullets from an M16.  Their Grecil. All of nine years, cold, dead, shot to death by soldiers who now insist that she, when alive, was a threat to them and to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines  because she, Grecil all of nine years old, was  a member of the NPA).

She wasn’t what the soldiers said she was; her bewildered parents insist that she was just their little girl. Now no one will know what Grecil could have been.

—-
Oh Little One!
Collector of fighting spiders,
Dancing to novelty songs,
Daydreamer by the river,
You will be remembered.
You who sang loudly
Often out of tune
But still with attempts at melody
You will not be forgotten.
The innocent image of you,
Laughing and lively
Then suddenly lifeless
Will be remembered.
They who took your life
With bullets, with hatred
With twisted reasoning
And defiant, even arrogant pride
Their crime
Will not be forgotten.
—–

Panoorin!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMohSv6n8Oo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7psfqtXRB3g&mode=related&search=

Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo visited Ka Bel this afternoon at the Philippine Heart Center. Ka Satur had with him a big fruit basket. It was a happy meeting between the two progressive lawmakers and lider ng mamamayan. I am of the biased opinion that these two men have the two best smiles in the Kilusan. They smiled at each other like Cheshire cats (only unlike the felines’, Ka Bel and Ka Satur’s smiles were sincere and not mocking), shook hands and hugged tightly like brothers. Ka Satur was in his in jeans and white shirt with the Bayan Muna logo, and Ka Bel was in his white and red-speckled hospital johnnies.

Ka Bel was quite happy to see Ka Satur, and fellow Anakpawis Rep. Rafael ‘Ka Paeng’ Mariano was also there so it was mini-reunion of sorts.

"Parang tumaba ka sa kulungan,a!" was Ka Bel’s first greeting. Ka Satur laughed, and it was a laugh that held back nothing.
Ka Satur was incarcerated for 19 days and in the interim dragged to the airport and into a Cessna, then back again to his detention room in the Manila Police District. He stood firm though it all, but his ordeal has clearly wrought an important and valuable change.
It was noticeable how Ka Satur has become less..laidback. I’ve worked with Ka Satur when I was in Bayan Muna, particularly when I wrote the statements for the International Solidarity Mission back in 2002; he always struck me as a calm and contained person. Mabagal ang kulo, is how he would be described. He seldom raised his voice in anger even during rallies - calm and collected, a genuine diplomat and negotiator. He was capable of keeping his temper in the face of such stupid allegations of AFP commanders. There were a few press releases I wrote for him that he asked to be rewritten because they were ‘too matapang.’

It must be admitted that this calmness Ka Satur has is, sometimes, well, a little frustrating, lalo na kung isyu na ng pamamaslang sa mga aktibista at masa ang pinag-uusapan, kalmado pa rin siya sa paglalahad ng indignasyon.  By nature I think he is not prone to emotional outbursts or even small expressions of indignation or outrage. He is one who keeps his anger bottled, and has a wealth of patience - resulta malamang ng 14 na taon nang pagkakakulong, he’s a kind and contemplative,quiet and patient man, never excitable.

This afternoon though, when he visited Ka Bel, he looked different. Stronger and, yes, there was a streak of anger in how he asserted himself when Ka Bel’s guards from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said that photo-taking was not allowed, even via camera-phone.
"Ano’ng basehan ng pagbabawal ninyo?" He asked, steel in his voice. "Ano’ng batas ang nagsasabing bawal kumuha ng litrato dito?"
He sounded and looked so commanding, so authoritative that the CIDG guards quailed in their army boots. They couldn’t answer, they didn’t have an answer. I myself know that there’s no written rule or law prohibiting taking pictures or shooting videos via camera phone inside Ka Bel’s detention hospital room. I know that hospitals do not allow video cameras inside hospital premises, but there’s no rule against camera-phones.
The CIDG guards fell silent as Ka Satur insisted on being told the rules. I almost felt sorry for them. Ka Satur stepped right up to the guards, firmly edged them out the door, then turned his back on the whole lot.
Oy vey.
Let it be known: Satur Ocampo will not take crap from the Macapagal-Arroyo government, and he will not tolerate the slightest abuse of authority or curtailment of civil rights. He subjected himself to the law, gambled his security and very life on it, and with the backing of an outraged human rights community, was released.
Pero siyempre wala naman talaga kasing kwenta yung kasong isinampa sa kanya sa simula pa lang.
Anyways, it was a happy visit. Like I said, neither men couldn’t stop smiling. Ka Satur said that there was hope that Ka Bel would be released soon because, well, like he said, the case against him (SO) was very weak, but the case against Ka Bel was even weaker, so much so that it’s practically dead except that the Arroyo administration particularly the likes of Raul Gonzalez and Norberto Gonzales refuse to acknowledge it, the bastards (No, Ka Satur didn’t say that, I did).

As I kissed Ka Satur’s cheek before he left, I wanted to rib him - ‘Nakakatakot ka na, Ka Satur!’

But only the unjust and the exploiters are afraid of righteous anger. And it is true: what cannot defeat you can only make you stronger.