Category Archive for: komentaryo

komentaryo

#IAmNotMyShoes Redux #WomensMonth2015

shoes

I am in awe of this National Youth Commission campaign In Her Shoes because it is so wrong, so offensive, so sexist, and is being sold to us by the male commissioners, including actor Dingdong Dantes in bright red high heels.

Oh yes, at 1;27AM on March 12, I have the privilege of seeing him on 9News, in a replay of Pia Hontiveros’s News.Ph show. He and NYC commissioner Perci Cendaña have brought the heels they’ve been wearing for this campaign; Hontiveros has them put it on the table (lest we don’t believe these shoes to exist?), and even has the two guests put a shoe on. She then asks them: so how does it feel?

I’d like to give Hontiveros the benefit of the doubt and imagine that I heard some sarcasm in her voice. I could of course be mistaken.

This campaign though, this campaign that imagines that the valid symbol for woman power is a high-heeled shoe — this is absolutely a mistake. (more…)

komentaryo

the President’s confidence level: the Mamasapano clash

sometimes one becomes unclear about whether or not the presidential spokespersons are actually on the President’s side, painting as they do some of the more unstable images of PNoy.

with regard the question of the President seeking and listening to advice of a suspended official like ex-PNP Chief Alan Purisima, for something as critical as the Mamasapano operation at a time of peace negotiations with the MILF, Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda is quoted to have said:

“No law prohibits the President from exercising his discretion to get the views of a suspended official on a particular matter, if this would raise the confidence level of the President’s executive decision-making,” Lacierda told reporters. 

(more…)

komentaryo

the tale of the absent President: the Mamasapano clash (updated)

today, the nation watched and cried and grieved as the 42 slain police commandos of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police arrived in Manila in coffins.

the members of the cabinet were present, as were Senators Bongbong Marcos and Nancy Binay, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, former President Fidel Ramos, and Vice President Jejomar Binay.

President Noynoy Aquino was nowhere in sight. there was no member of the Aquino family representing him. there is no valid reason for this absence.

(more…)

komentaryo

taking stock: Mamasapano clash

yes, a statement, not a question. because there’s just too much not being said, or being spun? about the Mamasapano clash that has killed 50 policemen (as of last count) 44 police commandos of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force and an unreported number of MILF and / or BIFF fighters. and yet there is also an overload of information — such is the nature of social and online media in this country — and some of the more basic questions and answers get lost in the noise.

and so this is me, trying to make sense of it all. (more…)

komentaryo

#DearPopeFrancis*

Today you arrive in Manila.

Unlike Sri Lanka, there will be no elephants dressed in fancy garb to welcome you on our streets.

But I hear the President himself is set to welcome you at the airport, refusing as you have to do a State Dinner at Malacañang Palace. While he might invoke his Catholic upbringing, there have been many instances when he seemed to lack compassion and kindness, when often that is what this struggling and exhausted nation needs.

You might also meet his more famous sister. She will invoke her Catholic upbringing as well. But she has also single-handedly created a celebrity culture in this country that is about all things superficial, and she has made a career out of a shameless display of her wealth.

You will meet, too, the every-politician. In this country, religion can be a matter of convenience – if it can win them elections they will wear their Catholicism on their sleeve. It is not a measure of how well they serve the people.

Today you arrive in Manila and all the streets you pass will have been cleared of dirt and debris. You will see a Manila and later a Leyte Province that have no semblance of the cities we live in dangerously every day. That can only be a measure of how well our leaders have been able to hide what ails this nation. It’s a measure of how well they have silenced the people. (more…)