Category Archive for: bayan

komentaryo

Tiktok and Surveys: The Dutertelenovela and political content

When Pulse Asia’s March surveys—both for Senatorial Elections and Trust Ratings of top government officials—came out, none of it was a surprise. Instead, what it was to me was a by-product of what I had been seeing on social media. And no not my own social media account and certainly not on my algorithm. Neither is it on Facebook or YouTube.

Instead, I’m talking about Tiktok, using an account that I use solely to watch Philippine political content since November 2021, when I realized that more and more people were on the app, watching content I wasn’t seeing on my own algorithms. It was on Tiktok that I saw the deluge of content that was rewriting Martial Law history, reframing those years into a time of peace, order, prosperity, which made the Marcoses the victims of people power that kicked them out in 1986. By the time the 2022 election results were in, all of it made complete sense relative to what I was seeing on Tiktok.

I am reminded of this now, in relation to the way the Tiktok content on the Dutertes have been shifting since March 11, when the patriarch was brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, to face charges of committing crimes against humanity through his drug war. By the time the Trust Ratings and Senatorial Survey came out, all of it made sense, too.

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kultura

Superstar High

My entry point to Nora Aunor’s icon was borne of the women around me as a child. First my mother, who is a Noranian—the kind that watched her critically-acclaimed films, was happy to hear Nora expanding her repertoire with Richard Merck, even if in 1980 she got the chance to do an interview with the Superstar, and was made to wait for so long and was limited to so few questions, confirming—and writing about—the urban legend that was the Superstar’s diva behavior.

The other woman was my first yaya. I have few memories of her, save for two: she was a lesbian, and she was a Noranian. Mama would buy her all the fan magazines with Nora on the cover, she would watch Nora’s movies on her days-off, and she treated Superstar on RPN 9 like weekly mass she needed to attend. For a stretch, she would constantly re-read these tiny pocketbooks that were Nora’s biographies.

Yet, I was no second-generation Noranian. As I told an audience of Noranians during a forum to discuss President Noynoy Aquino’s refusal to confer her the National Artist Award in 2014, I am of a generation that grew up choosing between the taray of Maricel Soriano and the pa-tweetums of Sharon Cuneta. The taray queen (of course) was my icon.

Now I realize that much of who Maricel (and later on Judy Ann Santos) could be as a popular icon was borne of Nora.  The non-conforming, non-people-pleasing, real and truthful, complicated and complex woman, of a different shape, size, and tenor, with diverse inclinations—this was a path paved by Nora.

Growing up with Nora politics

Born in the mid-70s, I grew up knowing Nora Aunor as Superstar. My awareness of her was about the weekly TV show, where she sang, danced, and bantered with Kuya Germs and Jograd dela Torre. This version of her seemed more real, like she was free to be herself here, speaking in her signature quiet Tagalog, humble if not self-deprecating, enjoying the diverse songs she was being made to sing, throwing punchlines with the best of them when needed.

As I grew into socio-political awareness, Nora was a constant. She was Marcos loyalist who in 1986 appeared at the gates of Camp Aguinaldo for the EDSA Revolution, taking part in people power when it was time to kick Marcos out. We know of her loyalty to Erap, sure, as she would have it for FPJ—these are invisible showbiz ties that bind. Yet we also saw Nora cut those ties in 2001at EDSA Dos, when she came and stood with us as we kicked Erap out of office.

Popular politics has always had Nora, which is to say that my sensing of her as Superstar was as much about local pop culture as it was about the socio-political. Nora was one to appear at protests specific to issues, from higher wages for teachers to justice for victims of State violence, as she would endorse a diverse set of political aspirants every election (and even hope to win an election or two herself). This public persona is one that is heavily criticized, judged as being balimbing, with all its inconsistent political convictions.

Yet Nora might have been on to something.

Read the rest on Vera Files.

komentaryo

The good, the bad, the petty: Chiz and the Sara impeachment #SocialMediaDiscourse

I do not doubt that there is a whole lot of reasons to continue discussing the impeachment of VP Sara Duterte, specifically whether it is right or wrong that Senate President Chiz Escudero is doings things at his own pace, and whether that puts the whole impeachment at risk and / or risking the possibility of getting an acquittal for VP Sara. I tend to think that SP Escudero is far smarter than all of this. He’s not new to this circus, and certainly has engaged long enough with politics in this country to know not to put even his own political career at risk by a failure to thoughtfully and carefully flesh things out, anticipate outcomes, adjust as things unfold.

And if your biases against Escudero don’t cloud your judgment, he actually made a lot of sense at that February 20 press con, talking about how the Senate, in fact, is taking the necessary steps it can take at this point in time, owing to the fact that the Senate is not in session, and many Senators are busy campaigning either for another term in office, or for other elective positions. He is firm in the refusal to rush the proceedings, or to call a session, and denies either side of the political spectrum to pressure him into doing or saying anything: “I will not dignify nor listen to partisan legal opinions or positions for or against the impeachment of VP Sara.”

At this point in our political discourse, that pretty much gives Escudero the license to ignore everyone. For good or bad, partisanship is the rule these days, not the exception. (more…)

komentaryo

How are we under this Marcos presidency?

Still breathing a sigh of relief. At least that’s me, half the time, three years in.

Having shifted quite easily from campaigning heavily against a Marcos return in 2022, to watching BBM perform his Presidential becoming, it was only a matter of time before I realized I had eased into this new status quo with a voice in the back of my head: thank heavens it’s not another version of Duterte. At least not a fascist of the same scale, at least not going off the rails at midnight press cons, at least not falling back on threats and fear mongering to justify violent anti-people government policies, at least not shameless and disgusting in all the worst ways populists across the world are.

Yes, BBM is still a Marcos, yes. And yes, he is still not taking responsibility for the murder of citizens and the plunder of national coffers during his father’s time, yes.

But.

This Marcos is not a Duterte. Not so far. (more…)

kultura

Victor Paz, archaeologist

It would be in the middle of El-Nido-Palawan-nowhere, in the archeological site of Ille Cave, as it would be under the scorching sun on the untouched beach of Calitang, that I would find myself sitting with Dr. Victor Paz, archeologist.

It was not a conventional meeting. I had nothing planned on a trip alone to El Nido, save for some quiet time and plenty of reading. But it was difficult to say no to visiting an archeological site few have gone to and even fewer have written about. That I stayed – a night and two days more than I thought I would in any camp – is really because of Sir Vic.

Which is not to say that he talked me into it, as he would at the end of each day say: “You’re staying for tomorrow ha, Katrina.” Not a question, not an order, but a statement of fact. You wouldn’t know to say no.

It isn’t because Sir Vic is not one to compromise. In the course of talking to him I found that this was a man who has lived enough to know compromise like the back of his hand. It was refreshing really, to find Sir Vic to be that rare breed of academic who knows his limitations as someone who works at the University of the Philippines, and as an archeologist in the context of a nation that might not know what that even means.

He says it at some point in the interview, as we were talking about community engagement in archeological sites like Ille: “We always go against the default thinking that is merely about looking for treasure.”

But that’s getting ahead of this story.

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