Category Archive for: pangyayari

kultura

hell is here

once again social media Pilipinas and government officials are on the defensive, offended by references to Manila in Dan Brown’s novel Inferno. as i sit and read the novel — because there’s no other way to assess it really, but to read it — here’s something i wrote in 2010 for the now defunct metakritiko, about Filipinos and our inability to handle it when we are told some truth or other about us, and how we miss the point entirely half the time.

also this is what Cabinet official and MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino has said in response to Inferno:

More than your portrayal of it, Metro Manila is the central of Filipino spirit, faith and hope. Our faith in God binds us as a nation and we believe that Manila citizens are more than capable of exemplifying good character and compassion towards each other, something that your novel has failed to acknowledge. Truly, our place is an entry to heaven.

HAHAHAHAHA!
*****
(more…)

komentaryo

strike

today, the workers of a Coca-Cola plant in Sta. Rosa Laguna have started their strike.

that is, Coke’s drivers, haulers, fork lift operators, and pickers, almost 300 of them, have refused to go to work, effectively stopping operations in two plants (as i write this at 9AM today), as they call for their most basic rights as workers be respected by Coke. that is, just wages, workers benefits and job security. and ironically, this strike demands that workers be given the right to form a union.  (more…)

komentaryo

(mis)handling heritage

I am the last person to defend SM, and I do think we’ve got enough malls and condos in this country. But one of the first things I asked when the petition to save the Philam Life Theater began to gain ground was: why?

And no, not why did SMDC buy the Philam Life property, but why was this property sold at all?

Yet that doesn’t seem to be a question that many people are asking. Instead we are asking questions about why SMDC needs to build more condos, why it needs to build more malls. Instead we throw expletives at Henry Sy and his empire, and say he is greedy and nothing else, forgetting that while the latter might be true, what drives this greed is the fact that they can afford it. And that the government allows it.

This is not to say it’s right, as it is to ask: who allows oligarchs to buy this country’s lands and services? Why is it even acceptable that basic services are owned by one, two, three families? Whose fault is it that our oldest structures, the ones that are monuments to our past, are being sold, one after the other? Why is the only other option for these structures, neglect and forgetting?

And who is blameless in this oft repeated enterprise of a piece of heritage being lost to time or capitalists, and us all raising our fists too late?

read the rest here.

kultura

the 2013 kick-off

thank yous are in order, and while Angela and i always difficult to go all me! me! me! or I! I! I! on our blogs, almost two months into 2013, it would seem wrong to not fall back on that i, if only so i can talk to a you and articulate gratefulness.

the year kicked off with being offered a regular Opinion column over at The Manila Times. i had hoped i could get away with putting a logo instead of my face on it, but no dice. so every Thursday, my literal paper trail continues. let’s see how long i can keep it up — or how long The Times can handle me. hehe. (more…)

komentaryo

click for project stitch!

Project Stitch puts the Filipino woman worker at the forefront of changing her own impoverished life and gives an entrepreneurial bent to the task of struggle. it will allow for women in poor communities in Manila to engage in sewing cooperatives, that will work toward a sustainable and just livelihood for women.

most important? i trust the women who are behind this project. i would trust them with my life, in fact.

Project Stitch is the only Filipina project in the top 9 finalists of Project Inspire 2012. click and vote so that Project Stitch can actually happen!  (more…)