komentaryo

palparan, benigno, bencard: alin alin ang naiba?

what i’ve hated aboutmuch that has been blogged re Melissa Roxas via Filipino Voices is that it dissolves the issue of the abduction and torture of activists into anti-left rhetoric. and this happens, not just because of the bloggers themselves, but the comments that are allowed to take over the discussions.

so far, it is benigno who takes the cake. true, he insists we have become desensitized to extrajudicial disappearances and killings because it has become part and parcel of our everyday existence. but in the process of saying this, what he questions is Roxas’ choice of activist affiliation: why Bayan-USA? which he cleanly and easily equates with Bayan Muna Partylist, and then with the Communist Movement in the country.

benigno then asserts that Bayan Muna is the “satellite organisation fronting for a movement whose singular mission is the destruction of everything that we currently consider to be legitimate” — an ultimately dangerous accusation that puts the lives of real people in danger: and no, this isn’t just about the lives of Bayan Muna congressmen, but also the lives of Bayan Muna members.

of course benigno is not alone, other than many of those who have commented on his entry, some on jester-in-exile‘s are also quick to judge Roxas character and intelligence. Bencardsays Roxas is a “misguided alien political activist who chose to immersed herself in another country’s domestic strife <…> by her voluntary action, she has assumed the risk of being treated as an ‘enemy’.”

what this fails to consider is why Roxas can even be considered as enemy AT ALL. she was legally in the country, going about her research as an academic and as a member of an activist organization, and that IS NOT a violation of the law.

in the end, what is telling about all these critiques of and suspicionsabout Roxas’ case, is that they fail to consider their role in the bigger scheme of things, in the truth that as they label Roxas “communist” they are red-baiting too, and giving the GMA government and military more reason to believe that what they are doing to activists are justified.

they become no better than Palaparan, who today insisted that Roxas is a member of the NPA — and they had her alias as proof! — as if this justifies AT ALL that she be abducted and tortured, as if this allows the military to take the law into their own hands, just because they’ve been allowed to imagine that they are the dictators of democracy, freedom and liberation.

no thanks to benigno and his ilk.

komentaryo

big bad randy

it was a joy to find Victor Agustin writing about the issue of U.P. Prof. Sarah Raymundo’s tenure vis a vis Randy David’s announcement that he would run for congress if GMA does so in Pampanga. this was long in coming for mainstream, i.e., print media, and has yet to happen on the pages of the big-time dailies like the “http://www.inquirer.net”>Philippine Daily Inquirer.

but i guess that’s no surprise? other than Randy being a long-time opinion columnist of the Inquirer, it is telling how the blogging world was all agog and celebratory when he announced his plans to run: idolatry much? the philosopher as king, they screamed! yey, the good one gives politics a try! let’s help him out! and yes, let us slap people who criticize randy!

much of what needs to be said with regards to Sarah’s case and Randy’s political plans has been discussed via stuartsantiago and kapirasongkritika. and while the virtual noise has died down — no one has taken on my challenge to prove Sarah culpable in any student-activist disappearance, nor have Randy’s fans been able to prove that he isn’t responsible at all for the refusal to grant Sarah tenure — some truths remain clear here.

somewhere in quezon city, in a tiny apartment, a woman who has proven herself a competent and well-loved teacher and scholar is technically jobless — without courses to teach — because her own Sociology Department has unjustly refused to give her tenure.

this woman is activist. the kind who lives her politics everyday, within and beyond the classroom, the way all teachers do. her difference is that her politics has been deemed unacceptable by the same Sociology Department — and University! — within which she grew and became, within which she had nurtured her love for nation and nationalism.

this woman is daughter, sister, breadwinner. now left without the one house and home she always thought the Sociology Department was, without the friendships she had nurtured there, without the stability she thought it could afford her.

this woman is friend. someone i grew up with, who affected my formative years in the University we both love, and whose life — yes, political and activist and kikay and baduy in turns — has taught me more than any of those theorists we read in school. more than someone like randy david could ever teach me through his writings.

the dignity with which Sarah lives her life — her refusal to sell-out, her ability to stand strong on principles that are important to and true of nation — over and above her competence as a teacher and her intelligence as a scholar, is what the current crop of UP students are missing out on.

THAT is the saddest truth of all.

and that is also enough reason to keep this fight going against the big bad wolves of this world. be it GMA or be it Randy David and his Sociology Department.

kultura

tears for harry

it was the last full show, the one that began at 11:40 PM on a friday, when i watched harry potter and the half-blood prince. by 12:30, half of the people on my side of the theater were fast asleep, only waking up when the sounds became too muchto ignore, as with scenes of quidditch and spells being cast, and the run-of-the-mill wizard violence of harry’s world.

i wasn’t surprised really. the only way this would still be interesting to any audience is if they have read the books, or have a clear memory of all the movies before this. for half-blood prince in particular, the novel had too many silences about both protagonists and antagonists, about each and every character, that the movie couldn’t help but render as well. (more…)

komentaryo

the rich ba kamo?

nakita ko silang lahat.

all under one NBC tent, last thursday, stormy weather notwithstanding. apparently, art can bring all of  our alta sociadad together, given too that this was a first-of-its-kind art event: the Manila Art 2009. with most of  manila’s galleries bringing the paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works under their roofs, this was a free-for-all, really. a one-stop shop for anyone who’s interested in art in the philippines.

this apparently, is what the rich of this country have in common other than their money: art.

but of course being my middle class self, recently becoming familiar with the kind of market that continues to exist for art in this country, i had come in the fanciest of my public-school-teacher attires, flowy skirt, wedge heels, the most make-up i can bear. i failed to take into consideration the rich coming in black coats and barongs, long gowns and cocktail dresses.

my happy flowy beige-and-orange dress could only float above the din of black.

naisip ko: para silang nagluluksa.

but this was no sorrowful night. in fact, for the artists and the galleries, it seemed like the one affair they were thankful to be in. for art critics — and the wannabes like me — it was a rare chance to be in the company of all these artworks. for the rich, well, this was a time to hobnob, have pictures taken, smoke cigarettes outside because you know, it’s not allowed inside.

and it was there that i realized how justice exists in this world.

woman 1: you know, i love this event because we get to buy all this art! i think this is what will keep art alive in this country.

woman 2: yeah, the art world shouldn’t depend on governement, they should depend on the rich for support. that’s the only way.

woman 1: oh, look at that car, he’s in the way, nagta-traffic tuloy. filipinos talaga.

man (pointing at the traffic): now THAT, is art.

if the pinoy artist can depend on this rich to be their clients, and this rich can barely get themselves off of their perch, enough to really and truly understand what ails the filipino — artist and otherwise — then the art worldwill survive as a matter of course. it may remain inaccessible to the majority of filipinos, and it may be used against them by the rich, ah, but it will just fluggin’ exist.

in a tent with the tessa prietos and tim yaps of this world, buying art like there’s no tomorrow, i am reminded not just of how the rich can survive these times of crisis. they can afford to be alive and well, and spend money that can feed a poor family for a full half-year, for one piece of artwork.

such is the social crisis of our time.

kultura

on The Male Voice

a version of this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday, June 8 2009, Arts and Books Section.

It begins simply enough, with four chairs, four small tables, and two clothes racks onstage. The moment the actors begin the first monologue “I Am Man” though, it becomes clear that this is going to be more complex than that stage and its four actors.

Because there is more to making a powerful and revolutionary play than just being inspired by the Vagina Monologues, and reconfiguring it to highlight man’s “humanity”. There more to the project of New Voice Company’s The Male Voice than just telling the individual stories of countless men to pinpoint their existence as affected members of family and society. There must be more to this than that cliché of an ending: men will choose to be part of the solution, instead of the problem. (more…)