Category Archive for: lugar

komentaryo

Deserving Duterte

If there’s anyone that I am now afraid might win the 2016 elections—because who knows what kind of electorate we have at this point—it is Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Yes, there are pros and cons for all the presidential candidates and the possibility that each will win. But what Duterte promises are such simple, commonsensical things. What he promises are things that all presidential candidates should be promising, and they should be promising it with a progam to back it up. A holistic take on peace and order and public safety that need not fall back on action star rhetoric, and need not mean committing every human rights violation imaginable. (more…)

komentaryo

#StopLumadKillings

I’ve been away, in a place with no social media and a schedule packed so tight there has not been a lot of time for the internet. This was September 6’s RadikalChick column published in The Manila Times, on the killings of Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and Bello Sinzo in Surigao del Sur, and the violence inflicted on their communities there. For more information on the #StopLumadKillings campaign, please click here for Tonyo’s website.

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While De Lima was partying*

Where is Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima?

One cannot help but see her smiling happy face waving the L sign in front of that crowd in Cebu. One cannot help but see her dancing the “Macarena,” enjoying the festivities of her birthday.

One cannot help but wonder where she is, why we have yet to hear her voice about the cases of Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and Bello Sinzo, all from Surigao de Sur. All dead in the hands of AFP units and its paramilitary group. (more…)

komentaryo

yaya meals and the sushal indignation

AFTER gaining such mileage for being the resort du jour for fancy weddings and exclusive pictorials (READ: the Senator Chiz Escudero-Heart Evangelista nuptials) – the kind that makes you wonder if it’s even in the Philippines at all – Balesin Island Resort has gotten the kind of press any business for the wealthy and elite would love.

Or hate. As the resort’s press release has inadvertently asked: What is this hullaballoo? (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

Quinapondan, Eastern Samar

the show was missing an audience when we arrived. a huge tent had been set-up at the barangay hall’s basketball court, the monobloc chairs for a hundred arrived, but there was no audience. in Guiuan where our first shows were, our venues were filled to the rafters, many women arriving with their children who wouldn’t understand the show, and would be crushed in the crowd. it took one show to realize that unbeknownst to us, these women were required to watch the show as part of 4Ps — Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. it meant registering to watch the show would be equal to a cash dole-out of P500 pesos per child — which explained too why they had brought their children. they were proof of how many children each woman had.  (more…)