gelo, MRTbulok, ingat!

katrina was having a chat with angelo suarez and other friends on facebook when he was detained by MRT plainclothes peeps for alleged vandalism.  she freaked out and so did i, knowing that gelo has been fiercely critical of the privatization of the MRT and, being a daily commuter, unforgiving of its neglect and poor maintenance over the years.

that the vandalism charge turned out to be trumped-up, but gelo nonetheless had to go through the harassing paces of a barangay hearing, even a medical exam of sorts, and then a QC hall of justice inquest where the case was only temporarily dismissed and the chief fiscal took his time signing the release order so that gelo had to spend not one, but two, nights in a holding room of kamuning’s station 10, was all too horribly distressing.

it could happen to any of us, and our kids, who dare be critical, not just of government but of the establishment as a whole, whose status-quo tentacles, we all know, are far-reaching, with the police and the military, more often than not, complicit in the silencing of critics.  i could only be glad for gelo that his co-parent donna refused to leave him to the mercy of circumstance and that they had friends, among them katrina, adam, and chingbee, who took turns keeping him company in station 10, making sure he was never alone and could not “be disappeared” a la, ummm, jonas burgos? — yes, that’s how paranoid we can get.

a wake-up call, certainly, in these unsettling times.  before she left to take her turn keeping gelo company, and on the advice of a concerned friend she had phoned, katrina put together for me a list of names and phone numbers i can call in case of anything.  top of the list: a lawyer friend who promises to come to her rescue at any hour of the day or night.

calling a lawyer for help, before anything / anyone else — one who knows how to deal and negotiate with police authorities — can make all the difference.  gelo did not have to spend a single night in that holding room.

reality check

asked my cleaning lady (who comes once a week), kumusta na sa kanila somewhere in fairview where she used to say nakakatakot abutin nang gabi sa daan, o sa pag-alis niya sa umaga at madilim pa: “hindi na po nakakatakot, nawala na po ang mga adik at mga tambay.”  the same goes, i hear, in mendiola’s university belt, where students feel safer, no longer harassed by snatchers and tambays, kahit gabi na.

calling out the prez and the solgen: “healing” for whom?

President Duterte’s order to allow former President Marcos’ interment at the [Libingan ng mga Bayani] is based on his determination that it shall promote national healing and forgiveness, and redound to the benefit of the Filipino people.” 

should not healing be for those who were hurt, tortured, who lost family and loved ones, who survived the atrocities but have seen the marcoses easing their way back to power with nary an apology, who have had to watch helplessly as nation forgets what martial law wrought on nation, on the real lives of real people, given press releases, media complicity, social media money and mileage?

burying marcos in libingan ng mga bayani, mr. president, will only rub salt on still painful wounds and deepen divisions in the body politic.  ang matutuwa lang po ay ang mga marcos at mga marcos loyalist, gayong they don’t need any healing except from the karmic wound of humiliation they suffered deservedly upon the stunning ouster of their overstaying and plundering dictator of a patriarch 30 years ago.

in effect, mr. president, you are forgiving marcos and martial law even as you, yourself, admitted on the campaign trail in feb 2016 that martial law was “clean” only “during the first years.”

napakasuwerte naman nila, sir.  at napakamalas naman ng bayan!

with all due respect, mr. president, for the sake of this nation that you say you love so passionately, this is one campaign promise you would be wise to renege on.  prove to us that you are the president not only of the marcoses and the 16 million supporters you love to wave at us.  it would be a giant step forward for nation, raise morale and some confidence in these unsetlling times, and hopefully start us all off on the road to moral recovery.

CITIZEN

Victor Peñaranda

One early morning the stars lost their meaning
As my wife started to labor with our eldest child.
I tripped at the thought of finding her a midwife,
Of rushing her to the confines of an emergency room
Somewhere at the rim of her pain and my anxiety,
At the brink of defying the curfew on civilians.
They could have detained or shot us if found outdoors,
For resembling homeless vagrant or sleepless militant.

This happened many years ago during martial law,
When suspected activists were abducted
From their homes and tortured in safe houses,
Left to die in the playground of an assassin’s mind.
Our fear went public like a flock of startled birds
Bursting from a vast plain into fragile existence.
From the dewdrop of my silence flowered
A tensile strength to be selfless than helpless.

To be subversive rather than subservient,
That’s how we chose to be in those difficult times
And the lessons of liberation have not deserted us:
Even when cautious we remain adventurous.
We become a country of recall when someone
Threatens to bury a tyrant in our field of heroes,
And citizens create moments of radiance while sharing
Fables that offer them momentum to be free.

August 20, 2016