Category Archive for: lugar

komentaryo

Why say #NoToMartialLaw in Mindanao

It is beyond me how Congress can turn a blind eye to the human rights violations that have happened, and which continue happening, in Mindanao, even as Martial Law has been declared over the region the past eight months.

As with Duterte’s Drug War, there is very little rationale here, and even less reason to continue it for all of 2018. In fact, all we’ve got is a flattened Marawi, a rehabilitation process that will cradle corruption, and communities militarized, thousands displaced, and thousands of dead bodies.

Here, culled from the mapping of impunity of Karapatan. State violence in Mindanao DURING Martial Law.  (more…)

komentaryo

Duterte, Lapanday

It was quite the show of unity, President Duterte’s visit to the farmers camped out in Mendiola, members of the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. (MARBAI) who have been fighting to get back their land from the Lorenzos of Lapanday Foods for the past six years.

Was it a surprise? Not quite. Duterte has always had it in him to perform tasks like this one, showing his support when needed, delivering the best soundbites that are still a surprise to hear given a history of Philippine presidents who wouldn’t even touch real issues of oppression and violence, inequality and social injustice with a ten-foot pole. But the President is one to have his heart in the right place for particular kinds of oppression, and one to raise his fist in front of farmers who most need to see it. (more…)

kultura

London Biennale Manila Pollination: The Revolution Loses Steam

The idea of an art biennial in Manila is reason enough to get excited about the London Biennale’s Manila Pollination. The dominant mainstream market-oriented gallery system and the annual celebratory art fairs in Manila have generally meant a lack in critical rigour and artistic vision – two elements that art goers hope a biennale can make up for.

Founder (in 1998) and co-curator of the London Biennale Filipino artist David Medalla says in the curatorial note that this biennale is about ‘challenging and transforming the notion of the art world “biennale” as a large state or corporate-sponsored event… by throwing open borders and encouraging a more intimate and community-based dialogue between the artists and audiences’. Originally only based in London, this alternative biennale has evolved to include various communities in other countries through what are called “pollinations” in places like Rio de Jainero, Berlin, Belgium, and Rome. This is the first Manila Pollination of this scale, as opposed to an obscure exhibit or two in the past. (more…)

komentaryo

From neglected houses, to homes for the poor

It was on March 8 when I first heard of how members of urban poor organization Kadamay had taken over units of a government housing project in Pandi Bulacan. It seemed like the best way for our women (and men of course!) to celebrate International Women’s Day: to take over public housing units already overgrown with weeds and grass, neglected and idle for years, some dilapidated.

Here were people willing to take these structures for what they were, without electricity and water, some without doors and windows, all seemingly unfinished, with windows that make it look like these have a second level, but in fact it’s all just façade. These are one-room houses, approximately 12 feet by 9 feet, many without toilets (just holes in the ground). These are built in an area of Pandi that barely has any trees, and is far from town.

No one cared about these houses before members of the urban poor took these over. And when I say no one cared, I mean even beneficiaries refused to use these houses, given what these are.

Meanwhile the urban poor are happy enough, just to be able to call these houses their new homes. (more…)

komentaryo

From Luneta to the Hague: a timeline of the #WestPHSea dispute #mediacrisis

Still reading up — and there is a lot of reading up to do — about the decision on the West Philippine Sea, but have found it scary irresponsible that mainstream and social media have taken on this celebratory tone, with the contingent demand that we all join in with as much fervour and gratefulness to former President Aquino.

But a sense of recent history, of what brought us here, is important towards understanding why Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay is correct about handling the results of this case with calm and restraint, and pushing for bilateral talks with China after this ruling. A sense of history would reveal that this is as much the Philippines’ fault, we had our share of missteps and mishaps, which undoubtedly brought us to this point as well. (more…)