Achieving Happiness

Last week I attended a three-day seminar-workshop on the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed in 1998 between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) under then president Joseph Estrada.
It was the most hopeful activity I’ve ever participated in — mapping out a society in all means and ways better than this, where there is a economic, political, cultural and justice system oriented towards serving the needs of the poor; where their rights are respected and upheld. How ugly, how dark and despairing the Philippines is right now! All the happy images one sees are either so superficial or so sad because they are all fleeting and temporary.

—

I’ve written about the CARHRIHL before in Businessworld, oh years ago. I did research and made interviews, I cited comparative laws, and it really is a remarkable achievement because it’s the only document of its kind in the entire world because it was signed by two separate, warring governments. Yes, the NDFP represents a separate, independent government and though it is not in power, it’s a government all the same.

Anyways, it’s only  now that’s I’ve really internalized what the CARHRIHL means, and I am filled with much hope. Light shining through an endless pitch black night and all that. Pledge to commit to hope and fight against despair  and all that lies between us and  a free and prosperous country where workers and farmers do not live as slaves, where intellectuals create and pay tribute to those who give shape and form  to their visions of math and science and literature and art and architecture and engineering.

—

I am outraged at what’s being done to NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison. It’s beyond my power to describe my anger at the hypocrisy  of the Macapagal-Arroyo government in saying that justice has been achieved with Prof. Sison’s arrest. Ano daw?!
Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara were gangsters. They betrayed the revolutionary movement and worked with the military and the ISAFP. They were legitimate political targets of revolutionary justice — but it wasn’t Prof. Sison who ordered their  assassination.
In truth, though — it’s really not as if the Arroyo government or its Dutch counterpart care about either Kintanar or Tabara. They  care less about them than they do about helping bring about genuine justice and peace in the Philippines. It’s all about economic agreements and political compromises and the relentless, insurmountable level of annoyance Prof. Sison causes the US, the Philippines and the Dutch government because he remains among the most influential freedom fighters and critics of anti-people policies internationally.
The Macapagal-Arroyo government has killed some 900 political mass activists and human rights advocates in the name of its counter-insurgency program. Some 200 others are missing. What has the Dutch government have to say about this? Or the European Union? In the last five years, legislative measures of both have become more and more politically repressive in character, a sign that their economic interests are under serious threat. They want to further consolidate their wealth and establish heightened security for it, and they work with the US to do this. The attack against the NDFP in the Netherlands and Prof. Sison’s arrest is the doing of the US and the Dutch government, with both extracting more economic favors from the Philippines in exchange for the favor.
Justice, my foot.
—-

Prior to leaving for Australia, Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation
1377 offering amnesty to the members and leaders of the revolutionary movement
in the Philippines.

Who is the GRP trying to fool with this offer of amnesty?
The NDFP and its allied forces are by no means taken in by this. It’s easy to
see through the motives of the Arroyo regime for offering amnesty –- it wants
to project an image of being a peace maker and a magnanimous bearer of the
olive branch, while it continues to viciously attack the civil, political and
human rights of Filipinos all over the country. The hypocrisy of the
Macapagal-Arroyo administration clearly has no limits. In the meantime, with congress joining the
fray by allocating P500 million to bankroll this racket of an amnesty program,
we can be assured that all the money will just end up in the pockets of corrupt
officials.

There’s nothing unique or different with this latest amnesty
offer of the government. Much like all amnesty programs previously offered by
past government, the recent offer is also pathetic. For the revolutionaries, it’s like being  being given a small plot  in hell in exchange for their  living hopes of heaven in the Philippines.  What — a sack of rice every month?  Hindi sa minamata ko ang isang sako ng bigas, pero ano yun kumpara sa isang nayayakap na pangarap, buhay at humihingi na isang araw isisilang ang isang lipunang may tunay na katarungan at pagkakapantay-pantay?

Pera na naman yan. Without doubt, this amnesty program is yet another
money-making scheme of the government; another ploy to extract more funds from
the national coffers and distribute it in the form of bribes to local officials
who will supposedly support and this amnesty program. Pa-forum dyan, pa-photo-op dito. Tapos there’ll be fake NPA surrenderees. Local government units
will create their respective amnesty programs and the most corrupt of these
LGUs will just use the funds to buy a new luxury care for their executives or
fund trips abroad. At the expense of all other efforts to forge a genuine and
lasting peace in the Philippines, the Arroyo regime embarks on yet another inherently corrupt endeavor.

Asa pa. None of the forces of the NDFP will participate in
this. Revolutionary forces all over the country continue to wage war against
the countless injustices Malacanang and the Armed Forces of the Philippines inflict on the Filipino poor. They are well aware of the lies Malacanang and
the likes of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales are peddling when it
comes to offers of amnesty: they want to subdue the revolutionary movement by
offering measly and unstable livelihood programs to its members. Sino  ba ang gustong maging bahagi ng gobyerno na ito? I mean, willingly? Gad.  Hindi na nga ako nagtataka  o nagagalit sa mga middle class na  kandarapang mag-abroad at gustong magpalit ng citizenship. It’s their right — this government does make one ashamed of being Filipino.

It’s also impossible to ignore the possibility that this scheme is also meant
to justify the deportation of Prof. Sison from the Netherlands. Despite the
non-existence of an extradition treaty between the Philippines and the Netherlands, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime’s infamy and sneakiness recognize no boundaries:
it’s possible that it will use this offer of bogus amnesty to secure custody of
Prof. Sison from the hands of Danish authorities. If extradited, Prof. Sison’s
life will be in certain danger from assassins directly handpicked by the
mercenary intelligence and security henchmen of the Macapagal-Arroyo government.

Sure, Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita is now saying
that Prof. Sison is not covered by the amnesty offer – but they have lied many
times before about their motives when it comes to offers like this. They have
succeeded in their scheme to have Prof. Sison arrested on the preposterous
charges; there is nothing to stop them from further twisting this amnesty offer
into a ploy to expedite Prof. Sison extradition.
In the meantime, there is growing international condemnation for the Dutch government’s
brutal raid of the NDFP office and the arrest of Prof. Sison. Its continuing
political and criminal persecution of Prof. Sison will eventually prove
politically costly for the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.
No right-thinking
individual will believe that the GRP is sincere in its overtures of peace and
reconciliation. Instead of reopening the peace talks with the NDFP, the
Macapagal-Arroyo government has resorted to criminalizing the chief political
consultant of the NDFP and facilitated his arrest. Civil libertarians, human
rights advocates and international supporters of the Filipino people’s
continuing struggle for a just and lasting peace condemn what has been done to
Prof. Sison with the same vehemence and outrage that they protest against the
relentless extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

—

The point is this: There’s a war, and so long as the root causes of this war remain  unresolved, there will be no end to this war. The most than can be done is to lay down and live by the rules that will make the conduct of the war as humane as possible. Wield your weapon with respect, and never use it against civilians, non-combatants, and those who have laid down their arms in honest surrender.

Kintanar and Tabara were combatants. They remained armed up to the day revolutionary justice was laid down against them. They remained participants in the war, and they were on the side of the killer government. There.

—

Gad, I know how I must read so cold and callous when I write this; pero how else to understand all this? Just because we don’t like it, just because it does not agree with the way we view the world and how we want it to be, it will never change the fact that there is a war, and that there is killing, and that those who are being oppressed and violated and denied the fruits of their labors and their every right to live and be happy and raise their families also have the  right and even the duty to fight back. International humanitarian law affirms this, the International Declaration of Human Rights recognizes this.

In choosing sides, one takes the consequences, and it will be both the people and history who will decide on whether you’re a criminal or a patriot.

Magkaiba ang sukatan ng hustisya ng mga pumapanig sa mamamayan at sa mahihirap. It’s justice with clear bias, a decided  leaning towards the poor, and against those who exploit them. Hustisya ng iilan, o ang katarungan para sa nakararami.

—

Hilarious! Fashion critics dissing the Drizabone-wear of the global leaders attending the APEC meet in Australia. One said that they all looked like they blew into town for an agricultural trade fair; another said that they appear like wash ups from an estuary.

Issued by the International DEFEND Committee

18 August 2007

Since his release from military detention and the
nullification of subversion and rebellion charges against him in 1986 after
the fall of the Marcos fascist dictatorship, Prof. Jose Maria Sison has
been subjected to a series of false and politically motivated
charges in 1988, 1991, 2003 and 2006. One after the other, these
charges have been dismissed and nullified by Philippine courts in 1992,
1994 and 2007. Thus, they have been proven as malicious and pure
fabrications of the Philippine military, police and intelligence
authorities.

 But the Philippine, US and Dutch governments have used the
false charges to persecute Prof. Sison. The trumped-up charges of
subversion in 1988 and multiple murder in 1991 and the charges of
subversion and rebellion nullified in 1986 have been used by the Dutch
government to prevent the legal admission as refugee and residence of
Prof. Sison in The Netherlands.
Even the most unfounded propaganda attacks from the time of Marcos to 2006, which never materialized into formal complaints, have been used by the Philippine, US and Dutch
governments

to malign him as a "terrorist." These governments
do so even as Philippine prosecutors and courts dismiss and nullify the
formal complaints and charges.

 1. Under the Marcos fascist dictatorship, the Philippine
government subjected Prof. Jose Maria Sison to arbitrary detention from
1977 to 1986 and to various forms of physical and mental torture,
including water cure, punching, more than five years of solitary
confinement, prolonged deprivation of basic necessities as well as
medical and dental care and repeated death threats. He was arrested and
detained without judicial warrant and was charged before two military commissions for subversion and rebellion. He was thus put in
jeopardy of being punished twice for the same alleged offense of
seeking to overthrow the Philippine government.

 2. After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, the Aquino
regime released Prof. Sison from military detention on March 5,
1986. The two charges of subversion and rebellion against him were
nullified through the dissolution of the military commissions as
organs of repression. He joined the faculty of the

Asian

Studies

Center

of the state institution, the University of thePhilippines in
April 1986. From September 1986 onwards, he went on a tour for a series
of university lectures and solidarity speeches in Oceania, Asia and Europe on the situation and prospects of the Philippines.
The Philippine military authorities publicly attacked his
lectures and pressured the Aquino regime to cancel his Philippine
passport. They trumped up a new charge of subversion against him in
September 1988.

This became the basis for the cancellation of his Philippine
passport.

 3. After the arbitrary cancellation of his passport, Prof.
Sison applied for political asylum in The Netherlands in October
1988. The Dutch Ministry of Justice used the false charge of
subversion and related false claims against him from the Philippine
government as the basis for issuing a negative decision on his asylum
application in

July 1990. The US State Department admitted publicly that
the Philippine government intervened in the asylum case in order
to oppose it. But the highest administrative court, the Judicial
Department of the Council of State (Raad van State), made a judgment in
1992 annulling the unfavorable decision of the Dutch Ministry of
Justice.

It recognized Prof. Sison as a political refugee and
criticized the ministry for using secret intelligence dossiers against him
in contravention of the principle of fair administration and
for delaying for more than four years the approval of his asylum
application.

4. Despite the 1992 judgment of the Council of State, the
Dutch Ministry of Justice refused to grant asylum to Prof. Sison.
It also ignored the repeal of the Anti-Subversion Law by the
Philippine government in 1992 and the consequent dismissal of the
charge of subversion against Prof. Sison by the Pasig city court and the related nullification of the specifications against him. It likewise disregarded the resolution of the Manila City prosecutors in April 1994 dismissing as something based on pure speculation the
1991complaint of multiple murder arising from the Plaza Miranda
bombing in 1971. It continued to use the false charges against Prof.
Sison and argue that to grant him asylum would run counter to the
commitment and credibility of the Dutch state to its allies. Further, it
cited raw intelligence dossiers to fabricate the claim that he is in
contact with "terrorist" organizations. It was thus already
using the "terrorist" label against him as early as in the
years from 1990 to 1994.

 
5. In response to the new appeal of Prof. Sison in 1993, the
Council of State, as the highest administrative court, issued in
1995 the judgment reaffirming its previous ruling that he is a
political refugee under Article 1 A of the Refugee Convention and that
he is under the protection of Article 3 of the European Convention
on Human Rights. It ruled that Article 1 F of the Refugee Convention
did not apply on him because there was no sufficient evidence
against him for crimes that would exclude him from consideration as a
refugee. It directed the Dutch Ministry of Justice to grant him legal
admission as refugee and residence permit if there was no other country
to which he could transfer without violating the Refugee Convention and
without putting him at risk of ill treatment prohibited by Article 3
of the European Convention on Human Rights. But the Dutch Ministry
of Justice ignored the judgment of the Council of State and
continued to refuse him legal admission as refugee and the permit to
reside in The Netherlands.

 6. Prof. Sison appealed to the newly-created Aliens Court in
1996 against the refusal of the Dutch justice ministry to grant
him asylum. The court ordered the Dutch government to make a new
decision. The Dutch government ultimately took the position before the Law Unification Chamber (REK, Rechtseenheidkamer) that it had
the freedom of policy or discretion to refuse to Prof. Sison legal
admission as a refugee and not to give him residence permit but to cease
and desist

from expelling him from The Netherlands in order to avoid
the

violation of the principle of nonrefoulement in Article 33
of the Refugee Convention and Article 3 of the European Convention
on Human Rights. Being dependent on justice ministry personnel, funds
and facilities, the REK upheld the position of the Dutch
Ministry of Justice and dignified the brazen lie that Prof. Sison was
liable for
the false accusations of the Philippine government and for
"contacts with terrorist organizations" on the basis of
intelligence dossiers already examined and evaluated by the Raad van State in 1992
and 1995. It ran counter to the 1992 and 1995 judgments of the Raad
van State, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in
the Chahal case, the dismissal of all charges against Prof. Sison in
the Philippines from 1992 to 1994 and the total absence of any
criminal charge against him abroad.

 7. In April 1998 the justice secretary of the Philippine
government issued an official certification declaring that there was no
pending  criminal charge against Prof. Sison and referred to the 1992 nullification and 1993 dismissal of the 1988 charge of
subversion as well as the 1994 dismissal of the 1991 charge of multiple
murder related to the Plaza Miranda bombing. From 1994 to 2003, the Philippine government, including the military and police
authorities, took a rest from filing any formal criminal complaint against
Prof. Sison. The Philippine military authorities merely hurled
propaganda attacks against him, despite the fact that the Philippine
government had already requested the US government in November 2001 to
designate Prof. Sison as a "terrorist". It was only in 2003
that they submitted to the Department of Justice a complaint against him for the
June 2001 killing of the intelligence officer Col. Rodolfo Aquinaldo.
The Filipino lawyers of Prof. Sison succeeded in having the
complaint archived because of its patent falsity and political
motivation and because of the lack of Philippine jurisdiction over him in
the light of Philippine and international law.

 8. The US government designated Prof. Sison as a
"terrorist" on August 12, 2002 and the Dutch government followed suit within 24
hours on August 13, 2002 despite the completely clean legal status of
Prof. Sison, despite the absence of any specific act of terrorism
that can be ascribed to him, despite the absence of any kind of
criminal charge or investigation involving him and despite the
Hernandez doctrine in Philippine jurisprudence concerning political
offenses and the absence then of any anti-terrorism law in the
Philippines. The "terrorist" blacklisting of Prof. Sison by the US
and other governments has placed him in a position worse than that of
a convicted murderer. He is prohibited from gainful
employment. He is deprived of his social benefits, including living allowance,
housing, medical insurance, civil liability insurance and old age
pension. His bank account is frozen. He is prevented from receiving
royalty payments for the publication of his books. He is preempted
from receiving compensation for damages due to him for winning
his human rights case against the Marcos regime. His fundamental
rights have been violated, including the right to the essential means of
human existence, the right to the presumption of innocence, the
right to defense, the right to be informed of reasons for the
sanctions, the right to judicial protection, the right to private and
family life, the right of free movement, the right against slander and
defamation and the right to be secure against threats to life and
reputation.

 9. Out to please the US and Philippine governments
politically, the Dutch government, with the open lobbying of Philippine
authorities, pushed the Council of the European Union to blacklist Prof.
Sison on October 28, 2002. Two days after the blacklist decision of
the Council, the Dutch government repealed its blacklisting of
Prof. Sison but persisted in violating his fundamental rights and
causing material and moral damage to him by invoking the Council decision.
The Dutch and British governments are the main interveners in support
of the Council of the European Union in the case filed by Prof.
Sison against the Council before the European Court of First Instance in
Luxembourg since February 2003. The Dutch government is the main source
of the lies given to the court that (a) Prof. Sison is liable for "terrorism" (and not for rebellion under the
Hernandez political  offense doctrine of Philippine jurisprudence) for being
allegedly the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and head
of the New People’s Army and (b) the 1992 and 1995 judgments of the
Dutch Council of State and the 1997 judgment of the REK on his asylum case
held Prof. Sison liable for "terrorism" (contrary to
the fact that these courts recognized him as a political refugee under Article 1
A of the Refugee Convention and as someone protected by Article 3 of
the European Convention on Human Rights).

 10. In 2005 Arroyo and her henchmen in the Cabinet Oversight
Committee on Internal Security and the Anti-Terrorism Task Force
started to escalate false accusations against Prof. Sison in the mass
media and pushed military officers to file baseless charges of common
crimes (like murder, robbery, kidnapping and the like) against him
in connection with incidents ascribed to the New People’s Army
in various parts of the Philippines. The campaign of slander was
obviously intended to reinforce the "terrorist" blacklisting
of Prof. Sison by various foreign governments and to justify the intensified extrajudicial killing, abduction and torture of  progressive
legal activists. It was also intended to link Prof. Sison to a
broad united front of legal political forces striving to lead the people
to oust the Arroyo regime for having cheated in the presidential
elections of 2004. The filing of criminal charges against Prof. Sison
culminated in an omnibus charge of rebellion in April 21, 2006 against
him and 50 other people, including underground revolutionary
leaders, progressive congressmen and anti-Arroyo military officers.
The purported facts of the charge of rebellion covered the
entire period, from the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines
on December 26, 1968 to the filing of the charge on April 21,
2006 and disregarded the nullification of charges and the amnesty
proclamations from 1986 to 1995.

11. On April 23, 2007 the Council of the European Union sent
to Prof. Sison a letter with a one-page statement that repeats the
two lies provided by the Dutch government, as mentioned in No. 9
above. On May 22, 2007 he sent a letter of reply and told the Council that
the statement of lies had already been presented by the Council
to the European Court of First Instance, has been debunked in court
and does

not amount to a statement of reasons as required of the
Council by the court in cases of "terrorist" blacklisting. Then
the Council made a new decision on June 28, 2007 blacklisting Prof. Sison on
the basis of the aforesaid lies it had made before. This new decision of
the Council is obviously intended to serially perpetuate Prof.
Sison in the `terrorist" blacklist, continually violate his
fundamental rights,

cause material and moral damage to him and undermine or
render useless any favorable judgment of the European Court of
First Instance on his case against the Council of the European Union.

 
12. The European Court of First Instance issued its judgment
on the Sison case on July 11, 2007 annulling the decision of the
Council placing him on the "terrorist" list and freezing
his financial assets. The annulment is grounded on the Council’s infringement of
Prof.Sison’s right to defense, its failure to give a statement of
reasons from the second time that it blacklisted him and the
violation of his right to judicial protection. The court does not require the
Council to pay for the material and moral damages suffered by Prof.
Sison due to its decision and fails to mention that the Dutch
government has invoked the decision of the Council in order to inflict
material and moral damages on him. However, the court requires the
Council to pay for the costs of the litigation to the lawyers of Prof.
Sison as plaintiff and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines as intervener. Insofar as it can be established that the Dutch government has directly inflicted material and moral damages
on Prof. Sison, he can take legal action to seek compensation for
such damages.But it can be expected that the Dutch government will resort
to every legal trickery to evade accountability.

  13. In the meantime, Prof. Sison has won a resounding legal
victory in the Philippines. The Philippine Supreme Court issued on July
2, 2007 a judgment nullifying the omnibus charge of rebellion and
all the supposed evidence from 1968 to 2006 against Prof. Sison and
his 50 other co-accused. In effect, the supposed evidence cannot be
used again against all or any of them in any new charge. The
solicitor general has publicly admitted that the value of the state’s
stock of purported evidence has been wiped out. This is the latest
instance when Prof. Sison is cleared of a criminal charge. It
previously happened in 1986, 1992, 1994 and 1998. At this moment, the
Philippine and foreign governments persecuting Prof. Sison should be at
a loss in holding him liable for any criminal offense or any semblance
of this.

The Philippine government can fabricate a charge of
rebellion against Prof. Sison only from the date after April 21, 2006 and a
charge of "terrorism" from July 15, 2007 which is the date
the Human Security Act of 2007 became effective. However, the Human Security
Act of  2007 is now under fire by a broad range of democratic
forces, human rights organizations and legal experts in the Philippines
and abroad for being patently unconstitutional.

 Prof. Sison has won a significant legal victory with the
July 11, 2007 judgment of the European Court of First Instance. But he
still needs to complete his legal victory by contending with the
preemptive June 28, 2008 decision of the Council retaining him in the
"terrorist" blacklist and by filing a new application for annulment of
said decision insofar as he is concerned. He still has to defend
his fundamental rights and demand compensation for the material
and moral damages inflicted on him.

We expect that the Philippine, US and Dutch governments will
continue to persecute Prof. Jose Maria Sison by using against him
their  political power and the existing fascist
"anti-terrorism" laws and decisions that they have devised in order to justify state
terrorism and wars of aggression. We need to continue and intensify
both the political and legal struggles of democratic forces and the
people of the world in order defend the fundamental rights of Prof.
Sison and other victims of the global trend of fascisation and
aggressive wars generated by the imperialist powers and their reactionary
puppets.

 We must struggle to stop immediately the persecution of
progressive leaders like Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the suppression of anti-imperialist and democratic forces and peoples fighting
for national liberation, greater freedom, social justice, development and world peace!!!

 Fore reference:

Ruth de Leon

International Coordinator

International DEFEND Committee

Email: defenddemrights@ yahoo.com

Telephone: 00-31-30-8895306

Website: www.defendsison. be

FREE JOSE MARIA SISON!

The International Committee Defend condemns in the strongest
terms the unjust arrest this morning, August 27, of Filipino political exile
Prof. Jose Maria Sison, by the Dutch Police, on trumped-up charges, and the
simultaneous police raids in Utrecht on several houses of Filipinos, including the NDF International Information
Office. The arrest of Professor Sison came after the Philippine Supreme Court
dismissed several politically- motivated cases filed against him and several
others. The case filed against him by the Dutch police are similarly
politically- motivated and must be dismissed immediately.

Also, the European Court of the First Instance in Luxemburg
on July 11, annulled the inclusion of Professor Sison in the European Council’s
‘terrorist’ listing because the Council of the European Union failed to give a
valid reason for his inclusion.

Professor Sison or Joma, was arrested when he reported to
the Utrecht police after he got an invitation from them supposedly about new information on
the complaint he filed in 2001.

According to Sison’s lawyer who accompanied him to the
police station, Sison was asked to go to
a room supposedly to be asked questions. And after he was alone in the room he
was whisked away without the knowledge of his lawyer, to the National
Penitentiary in Scheveningen in The Hague where he is now under detention.

International Committee Defend strongly denounces the
‘Gestapo-style’ manner in which the Dutch police arrested Professor Sison and
conducted the raids. Defend said the police used a ruse to take Sison into
custody. Also during the raids, the raiding team in some cases, did not show
any search warrant and forced their entry into the houses by breaking the doors
even if people were inside. In some of the houses that were raided, only minors
were present.

Julie Sison, wife of Sison, said at around 9:30 am, the
Dutch police in plainclothes did not even ring or knock, but instead broke down
their front door. She was reportedly asked to sit in one corner of their house
while the police carted away their computers, documents, CDs, and other files.
The search lasted until early evening.

Simultaneous with Joma’s arrest and the search on his house, the NDF International Information
Office and several other houses of Filipinos in Utrecht, were raided. The Dutch police
confiscated computers, laptops, papers, diskettes, CD Roms, and DVDs.

The arrest of Professor Sison and the searches in several
Filipino houses are clearly politically- motivated. EU envoy Javier Solana has
said that the terrorist tag on the CPP, NPA and Professor Sison would be
dropped if they capitulate.

The Philippines,
Dutch and US are using judicial proceedings to put political pressure on the
NDFP to surrender to the Manila government.

Committee Defend will hold the Dutch government accountable
for any harm that may happen to Professor Sison, including rendition to any
country outside the Netherlands,
while under their custody.

Committee Defend announces that there will be protest
mobilizations in the Philippines, Canada, US, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia,and several countries in
Europe.

IMMEDIATELY RELEASE PROF. JOSE MARIA SISON!

JUNK THE TRUMPED-UP CHARGES!

STOP THE POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF FILIPINO PROGRESSIVES IN

EUROPE!

International Committee DEFEND

Utrecht,The Netherlands

For reference:

Atty. Jan Fermon, Lead Counsel in the European Court of First Instance case

+32-475441896

Atty. Michel Pestman, Counsel, +31-20-3446200

—-

I supposed we should all have seen it coming. After all, they’ve been dealing with monsters, so what else can be expected from these monsters but monstrous acts? the raid of the NDF office in Utrecht and the arrest of Prof. Jose Ma. Sison are all part and parcel of the agreement between the Macapagal-Arroyo government and the Dutch authorities to utilize all means possible to have JMS permanently included in the UE terrorist watchlist.

Sobrang transparent ng ginawa ng Dutch. They stretched and abused their powers to have JMS arrested and, in the bargain, gather more material evidence they can twist and manipulate against the NDF by confiscating all their documents, computers, books etc. They had previously failed to lay down sufficient basis to justify JMS’ inclusion in the terrorist watchlist, so now they’re working overtime to manufacture reasons by putting together "proof" based on data they’ve confiscated.

Murder charges, utang na loob. The RP and Dutch governments are accusing Prof. Sison of masterminding the killings of Romulo Kintanar and Antonio Tabara, and used this as basis for the arrest. There is no concrete proof or evidence linking Prof. Sison the killings, but they are still being laid at his feet. Command responsibility? They don’t have proof either that it’s the NPA who did it. If it were the NPA, the liberation army would’ve stated that they were behind the killings.

Hindi ito tulad ng extrajudicial killings na isinasagawa ng gobyernong Macapagal-Arroyo na may malinaw na plano na may pangalan pa nga -Oplan Bantay Laya I and II. Ang pagpaslang kina Kintanar at Tabara ay mga hindi pa resolbadong kaso dahil malinaw naman sila hindi inasikaso ng PNP at sa halip binabaan na lang nila ng kongklusyon na batay naman sa kanilang suhetibong pagsusuri.

Now the likes of Sen. Biazon are saying that JMS should be repatriated so he can face the charges here.

What, and JMS will be assassinated as soon as he gets off the plane? Or if he isn’t immediately shot to death, he’ll be charged with countless crimes and imprisoned for life?

I remember when Kintanar and Tabara were killed, when the media reports came out, there was immediate but grounded fear that their murders would be attributed to the CPP-NPA-NDF, and automatically, idadawit na naman ng gobyerno ang mga legal people’s organizations accused of being fronts for the revolutionary triumvirate. Dagdag gulo na dala ng mga pekeng akusasyon. 
Now, sure enough, the RP and Dutch governments are using the killings against the NDF. They’re clutching at straws, making up proof as they go along, but hey — they already have JMS in their custody. Nevermind that the had to  twist  and ignore their own laws and legal processes to do  it.

—

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales says he is willing to testify against JMS if and when the Dutch authorities request him to.

Ang kapal ng mukha. What the hell does he know? The man is a pathological liar and a confirmed war-mongerer. He cannot be expected to speak the truth or to play fair. He’s now patting himself on the back along with the PNP officials for helping secure JMS’ arrest. They all colluded the Dutch government in a plot to have JMS arrested and the NDF outlawed in the Netherlands. Matagal nang tinatangka ng Dutch government sa sipain palabas si JMS, but it has not been able to do so without exposing itself  because JMS by all means qualifies as political refugee who should be given political asylum. Ano kayang pinangako sng sinungaling na si Gonzales, at ano kaya ang gusto niyang makuha? Thousands of stockholders’ shares in Unilever?

(Unilever is a Dutch company - imagine ang laki ng investment nila sa Pilipinas. Check the Wikipedia entry. Boycott na mula ngayon ang Knorr, Lady’ s Choice, Selecta, Royal pasta at ang sandamakmak sa personal care products  nila kabilang na ang Sunsilk, Vaseline, Rexona, Clear anti-dandruff shampoo, Ponds, Dove, Creamsilk at Axe deo-cologne. In the meantime, there are 30 other Dutch companies in the
Philippines, including Shell, Philips, and ABN
Amro. Negosyo din bukod sa pulitika ang dahilan ng pagdakip kay JMS– the Philippine government doesn’t want to antagonize its Dutch government in any way lest the latter pulls out Dutch investments in the Philippines. As for the Dutch, the government has been denying Prof. Sison asylum for two decades. Quid pro quo deal.)   

If you have money and time to spare, see ‘Disturbia.’ I was still freaked an hour or so after the movie. I felt nervous and jumpy like I’d drunk three cups of tea one after the other. The film’s pacing was swift and decisive, and there were no unnecessary scenes. The plot was pretty simple and even corny, but the rendering was quite good — suspension of disbelief and tightrope-walking suspense and all that. Kim says it’s so frustrating how Pinoys can’t make commercial films like that, non-insulting to the viewers’ intelligence, adequate cinematography, straight-forward plot and compelling characters. Pure entertainment that doesn’t require much brain power, but makes the emotional adrenalin kick in. There’s such a high in clean and even empty fun, to be amused and entertained without any bad after-effects.
—
I’ve heard that Malu Fernandez has resigned from the Manila Standard Today and People Asia over the massive outpouring of rage and outrage over her infamous OFW-bashing article. That’s the least she could’ve done, because not even that will assuage the offended sensibilities and feelings of OFWs, their families and every other right-thinking Filipino.
When I read her article three weeks ago I was too shocked to even comment. It was as if my brain shut down, refusing to acknowledge the truth that a supposedly credible newspaper/publication actually allowed such a piece to be printed. Also, some part of me recoiled at the very idea that such thoughts such as Malu Fernandez’ exist and proliferate out there.I mean, yeah, yeah, I know there are worse biases, but hers are  plain mean.
I didn’t lose any sleep over it, I didn’t feel like screaming for her blood, but for a passing moment I wished that an OFW would just walk up to her and slap her silly.
I wonder what kind of career she’ll have after this controversy where her entire person (including physical appearance, size and weight) has been put into question and viciously picked apart (and one cannot help but agree that she deserved it).
Maybe she should work in a call center as an agent. If she does, I hope she gets all the customers who yell and curse blue bloody hell and are racist and bigoted in the bargain.

—

It’s not amusing how the US embassy and US military officials in the country are flatly  denying that they’re building a military base in Mindanao. According to them, they’re just putting temporary structures where US troops can rest, eat, play, clean their guns, store their weapons and other equipment and maybe take their dates and molest and rape them.

Right, temporary structures that will cost millions of dollars.

According to reports, the US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Navfac) awarded a
$14.4-million contract to Global Contingency Services LLC of Irving, Texas, for
“operations support” for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines.
The latter is the unit established by the US special operations command that has been stationed in southern Philippines since 2002. Its role is to assist Manila in the war on terror with training and intelligence.

The Navfac is allegedly the unit within the US military in
charge of providing the US Navy with operating, support and training bases.
Global Contingency Services LLC is a partnership between DynCorp.
International, Parsons Global Services and PWC Logistics. The June contract is supposedly part of a
bigger $650-million, five-year contract for Global Contingency Services to
“provide a full range of worldwide contingency and disaster-response services,"
including humanitarian assistance and interim or transitional base-operating
support services in Jolo, Tawi-Tawi and Maguindanao.

Whom are they trying to fool? If they were really intending for their facilities to be temporary, why don’t they build nipa huts instead and put up a high bamboo fence around them.

It’s infuriating how the VFA has been in effect for nine years and the Balikatan exercises have been taking place since 2001 but the US troops are still here! Hindi naman yata natuto ang mga AFP sa mga tinuturo ng kanilang American counterparts. O pulos palso ang mga tinuturo ng mga sundalong Kano at sinasadya nilang panatiliing palpak ang fighting capabilities ng AFP para panatiliin silang umaasa sa training ng US. Either case, napaka-bobong sitwasyon.

—

This just in: Professor Jose Ma. Sison has been arrested by the Dutch police in relation to certain murders in the Philippines. A judge issued the warrant. JMS has been taken to The Hague and his detention even without formal charges can last from three to 105 days. Omigod.

She’s all better!
I mean, at least she’s not dying. She’s walking around now, and she’s masungit and stand-offish again (when she was sick she was too weak to be mataray). I always have a hard time getting her to look at the camera, or at least to not have her look away from the lens.
Thank you to to those who sent  kind wishes for Poofy, especially to Me-Ann.

—-

Nato Reyes in his blog Like a Rolling Store wrote an interesting and well-written entry about the third and final installment of the movies loosely based on the Robert Ludlum Bourne series, the Bourne Ultimatum. He said that the film gave an eye-opening tour of the inner workings of  the Human Security Act which is largely based on the US Patriot Act, as well as the over-all paranoid, always on the offensive orientation of the US military and intelligence  sector.
Kim and I saw the film last Saturday, and we were both freaked by the idea that what we were seeing was actual reality albeit tweaked to suit Hollywood and not to get the CIA or the Pentagon’s ire. But close enough, close enough.
Movies featuring the US military might and intelligence-gathering abilities are not so fantastic — meaning, they’re so closely based on reality. It’s been said that the contents of spy thrillers when it comes to description of technology, methods and means of extracting, collating and synthesizing information are based on real developments, existing technology that’s at most five to ten years old. 
As for the logic and rationality  behind  liquidation  operations against  civilian or diplomatic targets, well, there’s nothing new about that: it’s all cold-blooded reasoning and killing under the guise of protecting and defending US democracy and national security.
Unlike Nato, though, I was more interested in the workings of Jason Bourne’s mind. I mean, he was an assassin, and before he got amnesia, he believed that he was killing enemies of the US government and by extension, the American people. Then, when he was almost killed and his brain was swept clean of memories of his identity and mission as an assassin for the CIA, he had a change of heart (and mind) about what his work and what he thought he stood for. He was hunted down, but instead of simply asking why he was being hunted, he mainly sought to find out who he was and what he did in life to make him a target. He didn’t seem to have any problems about being hunted by the CIA (he knew what the CIA’s all about) , but he wondered why exactly was he a target.

I wonder if the rank and file of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) think the same way — that they’re defending democracy against the scourge of communism as embodied by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its supposed legal fronts; and that what they do — conduct military operations including the abduction and execution of political activists and human rights advocates — is in service of the greater good, for truth, justice, freedom and the Macapagal-Arroyo way.
To kill without question, without clear personal, rational understanding, how does one do that? Criminals do it all the time, I know — for financial gain, to protect their ill-gotten, narrow and immediate (okay, sometimes long-term) economic interests; but soldiers?
How do they justify themselves and their work? Trabaho lang? Sweldo at benepisyo lang? May malinaw at malalim ba silang dahilan sa pagtangan ng armas, at paggamit nito?
Am certain Jovito Palparan is nothing like Jason Bourne. Palparan never sounds or looks the slightest like a man who carries deep convictions or genuine love of country and the people. He looks and sounds like a  relatively intelligent serial killer whose main reason for killing is the thrill he gets from knowing that he has power over who lives and dies, when and how they will die.
I also doubt that there are are nights when Palparan (or any of his men, or ordinary members of the ISAFP) lies awake, sleepless, conscience-stricken, shocked and angry at himself for all that he has done in the name of protecting democracy.

In the meantime, there’s T/Sgt. Vidal Doble. I wonder how he really feels about the entire wire-tapping job he did and how he really reacted, what he really thought when he heard Pres. Arroyo telling Virgilio Garcillano to manipulate the May 2004 polls in her favor. Did he twink even the slightest? Did he laugh? Was he shocked, or did he even register the least surprise?

As for GMA, how the hell does she face herself in the mirror every morning? Does she actually believe that she’s a good person? It’s beyond me how anyone doesn’t go stark raving mad at the thought of having done nothing to stop the murder of over 900 civilians. Not a single tear, no expressions of remorse, no nothing.

I am always wondering about people’s motives, how they go about explaining themselves to themselves, how they justify their existence. Maybe most people simply live, they simply are, and ask no questions about  or analyze anything, I dunno.

I don’t know if they’re the lucky ones. Sometimes being socially and politically aware is a curse.

—–

If I were a character in the Matrix Trilogy, and Morpheus told me to choose between the red pill and the blue pill, I probably wouldn’t be able to make an immediate decision. And yet…

Sigh. I still took the red pill.

Mong (Palatino) tagged me in his blog and I suppose I have to respond because 1) Mong is one of my favorite bloggers and mass leaders; and 2)am bored.

Here are the rules for tagging: A person who gets tagged must write in his or her blog ten
weird things or habits or little known
facts about himself or herself. He or
she should also state this rule clearly. At the end of the blog entry, he or she should tag six
other people, except the one who tagged him or her.

Okay. Ten weird things, hmmm.
1. I feel sorry for inanimate objects that get broken. I mourn for lost objects and worry that they’ll feel sad because I lost them (combs, handkerchiefs, sweaters).The electric fan in our bedroom conked out three days ago and I felt bad because we had to replace it. Now it stands next to the other electric fan and am worried that it might feel hurt at being replaced.

2. I have the ability to wipe out memories of sad and painful things that happen to me; I can literally forget  about people who hurt my feelings. It’s not automatic, it requires will and concentration, but after a month, it’s like I have amnesia and I don’t remember what the hell what happened and I don’t connect the person to the events Sometimes it’s like I don’t even recognize the person.The things  I want to remember, however, I never forget, even if they’re painful.

3. I went through an Ernie shirt phase (horizontal stripes); an all-black phase (when I first got into KMU, for a whole year I wore nothing but black shirts, socks, Converses); and I dislike prints.

4. I used to go out with a philosophy major who believed that if he didn’t get married by the time he was 25, he would die. Over the phone he asked me to marry him (he was 22 at the time, and I was 20) because of the supposed curse, and it was all i could to stop from laughing. He’s still alive,  married with kids, and he’s 33.

5. I would much rather swallow phlegm than spit in public.

6. When I sneeze, it comes out like a cough. I think it’s because I’m too embarrassed to sneeze in public. Sneeze-coughing is painful on the sinus.

7. I lived  on my own in hippie-paradise Lamma island in Hong Kong for 6 months. It was a 10 minute walk to the  nearest dumpster, and to get there I had to walk through trees and on a semi-dark , cemented road. I worked all day and only got home at around 7, 7-30 pm (I either ate dinner out, or shopped for groceries good for two meals), so by the time I could take the trash out, it’d be around 9, 9-30pm. Everytime I made the trip to the dumpster, I swung the garbage bag like  I was a walking  pendulum and sang out loud because I was nervous about the near complete silence broken only by croaking frogs and nocturnal birds nesting. I think I was trying to convince any lurking ghosts that I was brave.

8. I frequently talk to myself in my head. I have at least three Inas inside me — the logical/rational one (who goes to work); the irrational/emotional one (whom Kim married); and the creative but anti-social one (the one whom, ironically, my friends know).

9. I am a compulsive ear-cleaner. I’m trying to control myself, though. I read that a little ear wax is needed to keep the ear canal safe because with the wax, dust and even insects (!) can get in.

10. When I was in high school, I used to eat peanut butter straight from the jar. It was homemade peanut butter pure, sweet and non-oily that my mom’s colleague made and sold every week. I only stopped when I got a really horrible stomachache and since then I haven’t been so enthusiastic about peanut butter.

—-

So far I’ve worn and lost at least four pairs of pearl earrings. I am so annoyed with myself. I wouldn’t mind so much if they weren’t real pearls (or if they were cheap),  but they were real and they were gifts. I keep forgetting to remove them and put them on this china plate I have where I keep my watches etc. Aaaaargh. Maybe next time I should just glue-gun them to my lobes.

—
I want to go hiking! Maybe this weekend we will. It would feel great to breathe clean and open air, and to  feel cool wind against my face. Sometimes I can only take so much of civilization and how everything seems so dirty and depressing. It doesn’t help to go to the malls because they’re all full of people who are just like me, trying to escape the pollution.
I love the Japanese garden on the top level of Trinoma, though. The fountains are so peaceful, and I don’t really mind the people milling about.

—

Poofy is getting better. We had a really close shave last week because the blood test results said that her kidney has been reduced to the size of something larger than a walnut and its function was down to 25%.
I cried and cried and cried all night Friday because I was sure that she was already a goner. The vet wasn’t very cheerful about her chances, so when I opted to take Poofy home instead of keeping her at the vet’s, the vet said that that would be better because at least Poofy would be surrounded by those she loved. Poofy was weak, she could barely lift her head, and her paws felt so cold to the touch.
Anyways, I don’t what else to call it but a miracle when Poofy started getting better as of Sunday morning. She coughed, spluttered and vomited the oatmeal and glucose water I spoon-fed her all Friday night and Saturday morning, but after a few doses of Maalox (for her acid stomach), I was able to start her on Ensure. I gave her 24 ccs of the supplement every 30 minutes, and I didn’t sleep until 4am Sunday to make sure she was steadily fed her liquid diet. By Sunday afternoon, she was lifting her head and grooming herself. She didn’t pee for 24 hours, and when the pee came out it was a vile yellow, but she looked 100% better.
My mom (who never visits me - I visit her) dropped by Sunday for lunch to visit Poofy,and we were all happily shocked because when my mom walked through the door and waved at Poofy, Poofy tried struggled hard to get up, her tail frantically wagging and there was a huge doggy smile on her elfin face.
During lunch my mom called to her and again, Poofy tried to get up. That second time she not only succeeded to lift herself, but she walked! Okay, tottered is more like it. On shaky legs she slowly made her way to the dining table, then flopped on front of my mom’s chair and barked, barked, barked.
I could’ve cried.
She’s getting better and will get well soon enough, Please O Named God.

I had to rush my   7-year old dog Poofy to the  vet this morning. She’s had diarrhea since Monday morning and none of our first aid remedies worked. She lost her appetite, she stayed mostly lying down, and so this morning when I got down to the living room to greet her at 7:30 am and she didn’t even lift her head to acknowledge me I totally freaked. I took the quickest shower, dressed quickly, grabbed my bag and practically ran out the door with Poofy in my arms. She barely moved except to lick my face, and it was all I could do to stop myself from bursting into tears.

Was so lucky that the clinic was open at 8:45am. I had wrapped Poofy in her bath towel and kept whispering to her how much I loved her and patting and kissing her head and nose, and all she did was look at me with her sad, deep brown eyes. It broke my heart to see her so weak, and I hated myself for not taking her to the vet’s sooner.
The vet wasn’t in yet, but two of his assistants were, and they helped me make Poofy as comfortable and relaxed as possible. They smoothed her fur, cleaned her ears (they had these curvedm tweezer-type thingy that could reach into the inner recesses of the Poofy’s ear canal), and took her temperature. She didn’t have a fever.
When the vet finally arrived after some 30 minutes of waiting (Poofy lay on the surgical table, small spasms occasionally wracking her body), he immediately asked me questions. Interrogated, more like;  and all throughout the Q&A I felt very guilty and I knew I’d been a neglectful mom to Poofy (I really should’ve taken her to the vet last Monday when she stopped eating and when her diarrhea began).
The vet took some of her blood for testing, and hooked an IV into  her left leg. I flinched the two times the vet couldn’t find a good vein to drive the needle in, but all the while Poofy just lay there meek and docile, quite unlike the way she conducted herself the last time we were at the vets for vitamin shots (she thrashed and wriggled and was generally so misbehaved that the vet scolded me harshly for raising such a spoiled brat of a dog).
Now Poofy is confined at the vet’s, her kidney and her liver being checked because the vet fears that her organs may have begun failing (she’s not a young dog anymore). She’s still hooked to an IV because she’s dehydrated, and I’ll be able to check on her later tonight before I go home.
Gad, I feel so awful. Poofy’s been with me for seven years and she’s, well, she’s like my own child (although she’s older than me now, because in dog years, one human year is equal to seven in a dog’s life). She’s the closest friend I have who isn’t human (I’ve already lost Herbert, my rabbit; and Enrique, my turtle), and it’s a nightmare thinking that I might lose her.
—-

I’d meant to blog about it last weekend, but it slipped my mind.
Last Friday, the Manila Bulletin’s banner story went something like this" 40% Filipinos have dandruff."
I kid you not. For a moment I thought that I was looking at an issue of The Onion, so I doubled back and checked — yep, it was the mast head of Manila Bulletin all right, and yep, D-a-n-d-r-u-f-f spells dandruff.
I wish now that I’d bought a copy of that amazing issue. It has never once occurred to me that having itchy and flaky scalps was a major problem for Filipinos. I mean, gasp, what it was dandruff that’s causing all the social conflicts? The intelligence, common sense and every drop of humanity , morality and compassion the nation’s top officials have been corrupted by pityriasis capitis).
—-

Lately I feel deeply sympathetic with (to? my grammar is shot to hell) the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. I’m not very cheerful these days and I have the lowest expectations of everything (and maybe everyone as well — expecting nothing will ensure that you will not be disappointed and hence you will not be made unhappy) and in the midst of this slightly black mood I feel a wee bit happy.

Kim says I should be more determined and put my foot down and do what I want to do (find the work that will make me happy and make my soul light) and  not give in to what other people want. I will be like Nietzsche when he became disenchanted with Schopenhauer and figuratively breathe in fresh air.

—-

Malacanang should be warned against taking the long-standing
demand of the Filipino Muslims and
indigenous for political autonomy and custody of their ancestral domain
lightly. I do think that Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo should not issue statements or promises concerning the Muslim
people’s ancestral domain and political autonomy if she will not be able to
keep them because these might well result to heightened conflict. I would
advise caution (but at the very core of me, a voice is yelling that all of Arroyo’s statements regarding Muslim autonomy are merely for political expediency and to
placate the increasing national alarm over the intensifying conflict in
Mindanao.Just another political stunt .)

Pres. Arroyo has been quoted in newspapers saying that she
is all for Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to have full political, fiscal
and religious authority over a so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the
proposed name of the governing body of a new Moro homeland.

Our Muslim brothers
and sisters have long been fighting in defense of their right to religious,
economic and political autonomy and the right to their ancestral lands. Through
the decades, peace and justice has long eluded Mindanao because of the political chauvinism of the national government. While Pres.
Arroyo’s words that she will work towards the implementation of a Muslim
ancestral domain regime sound very positive, we are deeply wary that she will
not be able to make good on this promise. This is not a matter to be taken lightly
because thousands of Muslim lives have been sacrificed towards this goal, and
Pres. Arroyo should be cautioned against making promises only as a means to an
immediate solution but without real sincerity to establish genuine Muslim
autonomy and independence.

Filipino Muslims have
the right to demand autonomy given the long history of neglect and repression
they have suffered under the series of national administrations. The Muslim people’s cultural, religious and
political rights have consistently been thrown to the sidelines and their way
of life severely undermined and devastated by years of military conflict.

The poor and working
sectors among the Muslim people are in much need of economic relief as their
Christian counterparts. They need jobs and access to basic social services such
as health, education and housing. Hand in hand with political, fiscal and
religious autonomy, Malacanang should also extend full assistance to Filipino
Muslims by providing these. The exploitative monopoly of landlords and big
local and foreign businessmen in Mindanao should also be put to an end and genuine
agrarian reform should be implemented to benefit Muslim farmers. The plunder of Mindanao’s
natural resources by unscrupulous transnational oil, electricity and mining companies
should also be stopped.

We can only hope that these heartening words of the
president favoring Muslim autonomy and respect for their ancestral domain are
not just for empty platitudes and promises. This is a life and death matter for
thousands of our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ was written by American, but am struck by how the sensibility is so, well, European. I was reminded of a calmer A.S Byatt, more introspective and personal, with an obvious affection for the characters in how they were depicted, and how their happinesses and small and major griefs were described.
Reading about Clare and Henry’s life-long struggle to be normal, to stay together against all circumstances that make it essentially impossible to be normal and for them to remain beside each other through even the simplest and most banal moments was  sadly frustrating. Niffenegger’s language was hardly corny nor cloying; she never resorted to tedious narrations of Clare’s emotional suffering — the endless worrying, the long hours of uncertainty, and this helped made the book more compelling: one takes on the burden of the worry, and the sadness at the impossibility of the situation they were forced to build their lives around. Clare and Henry’s embrace is always tenuous, and it is never of their own doing much less wanting. Theirs was a life of certain and undeniable love  rendered often uncertain because of  time.
—
Last Friday night I arrived an hour early for dinner with Walkie at Trinoma, so I thought I’d first go to the Block across the street to buy something from Watson’s.
I had just gotten off of the escalator on the second floor when I thought I heard a violin playing. Singing, more like. Violins have voices of their own, and they are plaintively beautiful even when they sing of happiness.
In the middle of the main hall they had set-up a small fiberglass stage, and on it were two black chairs. Seated there were two men dressed all in black; the younger man had a violin, and the older a guitar. Together they were playing "Saan Ka Man Naroroon."
I had to stop. I stood there literally transfixed. I seldom write about music and how I am affected by it, but like most other Filipinos I grew up with music filling the house. My dad used to play the guitar, and he played while he sang and he taught my sister and I all about the Beatles, the Cascades, Asin, the Lettermen, America as he played their songs. In my earliest years, music meant comfort and warmth, of my father singing and strumming ‘Sister Golden Hair’ in the living room while my mom read on the sofa. Early mornings around 530 am while we prepared for school and my parents for work the radio would be playing music from Gene Kelley and Debbie Reynold’s "Singin’ in the Rain" — ‘Good mornin, good mornin!"
It was a happy series of moments standing there in front of the stage, watching and listening to the two musicians create beauty, to feel it fill the space of the busy mall and render everyone nearby silent (even the children became subdued and voluntarily stopped their tantrums). One song after the other — "Sa ugoy ng duyan," "Isang Dipang Tao," "Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang," "Sinasamba Kita" and it seemed to me that fragile fairy vines of green and delicate violet were starting to grow and climb the walls of The Block. I was almost expecting grass to spontaneously grow from under my feet. The music was so life-giving, pushing sad and upsetting thoughts away, rendering one dumb-struck, amazed anew at how beauty is so accessible if only we choose to see it (and help one another appreciate it).
What I liked best was the composition of the small but solid crowd that formed and clapped after every song.
There were well-to-do middle aged couples in khaki and bermuda shorts and Crocs, holding hands. High school students with spiked and gelled hair. Working class folk in rubber slippers and basketball jerseys with big armholes (they sipped guyabano juice from Zest-o doypacks and ate chicaron). Young husbands and wives with their babies in prams (the exhaustion in their faces palpable, but suddenly disappearing as they stood there smiling at each other when the opening strains of Jim Brickman’s ‘The Gift’ began).

Everyone but everyone was united by the same feeling of awe at musical talent (maybe even genius - the musicians were really, really amazing, and the sound their instruments produced were so pure I nearly cried so I bit my lower lip instead) and the sheer beauty of the songs played acoustically.

—

Right now am reading ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’ by Lisa See. I am freaked by the descriptions of the process of foot-binding!!!!

Looking forward to the film version of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. The reviewers of Pajiba (Scathing Reviews by Bitchy People) did NOT diss it and said they had a great time.

I had to cut my blog short yesterday because session was also abruptly suspended. It was also raining buckets and so i thought I’d go home as soon as possible because I didn’t bring my kayak with me and I didn’t feel like wading home. My P40 umbrella would not have been able to withstand the strong downpour either (note to self- buy a sturdier umbrella).
Last night I ended up watching episodes of the third season of House instead of, um, reading this book on international law which
I’ve been strongly advised to read. House is quite possibly the most amusing series I’ve ever come across — Hugh Laurie is such an amazing actor. Last night his character played the piano, something that Mr. Laurie himself does quite well in real life.
House is such an unadulterated bastard, and one is torn between liking him immensely and admiring him for being so intelligent and sharp and analytical, and wanting to strangle him with his own stethoscope for also being such a sunnavabitch.
I watch at least three episodes every night (yeah, am a couch potato), and when I”m done with the DVD, I’ll move on to the Monk DVD which comprises four seasons.
Why do we like flawed people?
We like them only when they’re also brilliant.
To be both flawed and brilliant is to be interesting. Which is not to say that to be both is not a heavy burden. (But then again, please Oh Named God, save us from being uninteresting, boring and ordinary).
—
I like the premise of John Updike’s Claudius and Gertrude. It tells the story of what took place in the lives of the two adulterers before Hamlet Prince of Denmark came of age.
In the novel, more is known of both Claudius and Gertrude and what made them fall in love and commit adultery and betray the King (it will be recalled that Claudius assassinated the king by pouring a vial of poison into his ear canal, and after that the king’s ghost haunted Hamlet, imploring his son to avenge him). One ends up understanding why their did what they did, and though one doesn’t applaud or support their crimes, one does get new perspective.)

I don’t remember whom it was who said that there is nothing more interesting than human lives.

—–

Places I would rather be and things I’d rather be doing than being here, sitting here in Congress being alternately annoyed and bored:

1. Baguio, eating strawberries

2. At home, watching DVDs

3. Fleur de Lys, eating cake

4. UP Diliman, academic oval, running with my dog

5. Gateway Mall, watching Bourne Ultimatum and eating popcorn.

—

The NCR Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board laid down a P12 wage increase for workers in Metro Manila. Salamat, ha? Napakalaking tulong niyan.

Since the Macapagal-Arroyo administration came to power,
minimum wages barely increased. In fact, based on data from the NWPC, from 2001
to 2006, the minimum wage as well as the cost of living allowance or COLA in
all regions decreased in real terms by 3.96%. In nominal terms, there was
increase of almost 23.66% in the minimum wage during the last six years, but
this was far from being enough to cover increasing costs of living.

  In 2006, the average
daily minimum wage including the COLA for all regions was P229.35 ($4.74) which
falls short of the P447.98 needed to meet the estimated daily cost of living
(i.e. family living wage computed by the NWPC) for all regions pegged at
P677.33 ($14.02). The difference between the minimum wage and the cost of
living has greatly increased by 72.27% between 2001 and 2006. Every year the
gap widened by 11.60%.

Based on data from
the National Wages and Productivity Board, the living wage for a family of six
as of May 2007 is pegged at P786. The previous daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, was is not even half of it
at P350 (P300 basic plus P50 cost of
living allowance).

For the last seven years, workers have been demanding a
substantial nationwide, wage increase. Beyond being a measure that will give
immediate economic relief, a substantial wage increase is a matter of social
justice. This is what will clearly constitute ’social payback’ , coupled with
price controls, pro-poor and genuinely equitable tax measures and improved
budgetary allocations for education, health, housing and other services.