ambeth & the supremes, rizal & his ultimo adios

it is ironic that 3 supreme court justices i cheered on for dissenting on the enrile bail case are the same 3 justices i am now jeering at for  buying (so to speak) not just DMCI’s, but even ambeth ocampo’s, arguments against the demolition of  torre de manila.

given her husband’s connections with DMCI, i don’t understand why chief justice sereno did not inhibit from the case the way associate justice perez did, his son being the owner of a torre unit.  and, take note, just a week after the court issued the TRO (that she voted no to) on june 23, almost a month before the first oral arguments, cj sereno in a letter to associate justice jardeleza (ponente of the case) enumerated “issues” that should be tackled in oral arguments and en banc deliberations, among them:

“What is the total damage to be sustained by private respondents [DMCI], including the workers, the subcontractors, the investors, and the buyers of the project, in case the building is demolished?”

Sereno even put a footnote quoting “Article III, Section 9 of the 1987 Constitution [as it provides] that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.”

excuse me, your honor, ma’am, with all due respect, the original clear-sky background of the rizal monument is public property that DMCI, by building beyond the 7-floor limit, dared despoil for private profit.  it’s not as if torre de manila deserved to be in the same sacred space, looming over and distracting from, the rizal monument.  it’s not as if the kind of progress and development that DMCI stands for has brought any prosperity except to a privileged few (at the expense of the many).  DMCI took a gamble, big time, on getting away with it, and deserves to lose, big time.

as for the overrated ocampo’s argument that rizal did not even want a monument, all rizal wanted was a simple grave, he said so himself in a letter to his family, which is to say that the monument does not honor rizal’s wishes, and therefore torre de manila does not dishonor rizal?  i can’t believe that sereno, carpio, and leonen swallowed  that hook line and sinker.

sixth orals

the one shining moment was when associate justice teresita leonardo de castro pounced on NHCP chair serena diokno for the NHCP statement re the front view of the rizal monument not being obstructed by the torre.  duh, nga.

The justice said the NHCP was to be blamed for what she branded as “miscommunication” and “inefficient way of dealing with the situation.”

De Castro told the NHCP chief that the “issue about the background was raised before your commission but you did not deal with it.  You had a very clear idea of what the issue is about — the background [view].”

De Castro … criticized the NHCP for not taking a stronger position on the issue so as to guide the local government. The magistrate said that even if its guidelines were merely recommendatory, part of NHCP’s mandate is still to provide the correct opinion to LGUs. 

indeed, NHCP has been glaringly inconsistent in its official recommendations.  june 2012, to the manila city council,  it was a no to the torre (keep vista points and visual corridors to monuments clear for unobstructed viewing appreciation and photographic opportunities).   november 2012, to DMCI consultant alfredo andrade, it was a yes (Your project site is outside the boundaries of the Rizal Park and well to the rear of the Rizal National Monument, hence it cannot possibly obstruct the front view of the said National Monument).  august 2014, in a position paper submitted to the senate hearing, it was back to a  no (Diokno’s letter said that the front view of the monument is not the issue, but the obstruction presented by Torre de Manila on the Rizal Monument’s back view. … the condominium adversely affects the monument’s visual corridor).  sa oral arguments, day 6, it was back to a yes (The property of Torre De Manila is not part of Rizal Park and well beyond).

still on day 6, some embarrassing gems from sereno, carpio, and leonen.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, on the other hand, asked how other cities are treating the monuments if there are any in their area, like the Bonifacio Shrine in Caloocan, which is facing the LRT 1 station and being surrounded by malls, the EDSA Shrine, which was built in front a mall and the MRT and the Ninoy Aquino monument in Makati, which is crowded with high-rise buildings.

uh, ma’am, none of those locations are sacred like luneta, formerly bagumbayan, where rizal (and many more filipino martyrs) were executed by the spaniards.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said “his (Rizal’s) dying wish was to face east but the captain of the guard said no so he died facing west.” …“Now, Rizal is still facing west. We still deny him his dying wish…”

uh, sir, rizal’s wish to face east was so he would die facing the firing squad that faced west.  is the good justice suggesting that if the firing squad had been facing east, rizal would have been okay being shot in the back?  facing east was the important thing, and not facing his killers?

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen added that “when the Constitution says conserve and promote historical heritage, it also means that we should actually grant Rizal his dying wish so that our people know that our heroes should be humble, that our leaders should not have billboards, should not have markers, should not be ‘epal’ because that is somebody that we should emulate.” … “Therefore, what we are fighting for in this case is really a monument which Rizal did not want.”

uh, sir.  sino ba talaga ang epal dito?  di ba’t ang torre de manila ng DMCI ang medyo bastos at garapal, butting in where it’s not wanted, intruding brazenly shamelessly on our vista of the rizal monument to make capital of the wonderful view?

and, grabe lang, sir, the way you dignify a message that was only for family, a message that rizal did not even bother to smuggle out, or to hide in his other shoe.

“Bury me in the ground, place a stone and a cross over it. My name, the date of my birth and of my death. Nothing more. If you later wish to surround my grave with a fence, you may do so. No anniversaries. I prefer Paang Bundok.”

rizal, of course, would not have asked more of his family.  but of nation, he certainly did, ask more, in his last poem that begins, “Adios, Patria adorada.”   ito mismo, hindi ang bury-me note, ang final testament ni jose rizal.

adios, patria adorada

this untitled 14-stanza poem, that presumably rizal finished writing on the eve of his execution, was found hidden in a lamp (some say a stove) that rizal gave a sister after a last visit on that last day.  the family made copies and sent them out to friends.  bonifacio’s tagalog translation of this emotional farewell reached, touched, the masses and fanned the flame of revolution.

needless to say, i am surprised, nay, shocked, that ocampo dares talk about rizal’s dying wishes without acknowledging, even once, this poem that we know as “Mi Ultimo Adios” – as though it did not exist, as though it did not matter, as though it were not relevant to the public outcry against torre de manila.

does ocampo really think we have all forgotten, too, or that, like him, we are content to thrill at the trivial, and glorify the mundane, about our heroes?  or maybe he’s just not into literary masterpieces, least of all one that makes you think, and feel, and weep for inang bayan?   isn’t that the height of academic irresponsibility?  rizal would not be amused.

not only is it great poetry by the most brilliant filipino intellectual ever (saludo sina adrian cristobal at jorge arago), this last poem reflects rizal’s state of mind the day before he was to face a firing squad, full of fervent hope that his dreams for a free and proud filipinas would come true, yet fearful that his sacrifice might be for nought, uncertain that he would even be remembered.

from nick joaquin’s translation

Should you find someday, somewhere on my gravemound, fluttering
among tall grasses, a flower of simple frame:
caress it with your lips and you kiss my soul.
I shall feel on my face across the cold tombstone,
of your tenderness: the breath – of your breath: the flame.

Suffer the moon to keep watch, tranquil and suave, over me;
suffer the dawn its flying lights to release:
suffer the wind to lament in murmurous and grave manner
and should a bird drift down and alight on my cross,
suffer the bird to intone its canticle of peace.

from andres bonifacio’s:

Kung sa libingan ko’y tumubong mamalas
sa malagong damo mahinhing bulaklak,
sa mga labi mo’y mangyayaring itapat,
sa kaluluwa ko halik ay igawad.

At sa aking noo nawa’y iparamdam,
sa lamig ng lupa ng aking libingan,
ang init ng iyong paghingang dalisay
at simoy ng iyong paggiliw na tunay.

Bayaang ang buwan sa aki’y ititig
ang liwanag niyang lamlam at tahimik,
liwayway bayaang sa aki’y ihatid
magalaw na sinag at hanging hagibis.

Kung sakasakaling bumabang humantong
sa krus ko’y dumapo kahit isang ibon
doon ay bayaan humuning hinahon
at dalitin niya payapang panahon.

rizal imagined a gravemound and wildflower, and in the next breath, a cold tombstone, and further on, a dark graveyard where only the dead keep vigil.  he knew it was possible that he would be forgotten, but he himself would not forget, and he would haunt us.

And when in dark night shrouded the graveyards lies
and only, only the dead keep vigil the night through:
keep holy the peace: keep holy the mystery.
Strains, perhaps, you will hear – of zither, or of psalter
it is I: O land I love: it is I who sing to you!

At kung ang madilim na gabing mapanglaw
ay lumaganap na doon sa libinga’t
tanging mga patay ang nangaglalamay,
huwag bagabagin ang katahimikan.

Ang kanyang hiwagay huwag gambalain;
kaipala’y marinig doon ang taginting,
tunog ng gitara’t salterio’y mag saliw,
ako, Bayan yao’t kita’y aawitin.

rizal did not imagine a national monument such as the one we have built him, and improved on over the years.  i have no doubt that he approves, even, that he cheers us on who see torre de manila as a symbol of capitalist oppression in a land no longer as enchanted or beautiful as when he lived and died for inang bayan.

take it down.

*

consunji,semirara, torre de manila, atbp. 
Much ado about Ambeth Ocampo
jeremy barns on torre de manila
sona, tsona, torre de manila #takeitdown
TAKE IT DOWN #torredemanila
Rizal, the Noli-Fili, and the Torre de Manila

LP members, financiers after Lumad land

Tribune Wires

President Aquino will likely face new troubles with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which has been demanding action from him on rights protection after local group Karapatan raised the issue on the killings of members of the Lumad tribe by paramilitary force to the UN body.

Karapatan sought the UNHRC intervention on the deaths of Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo, and Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development Inc (ALCADEV) school director Emerito Samarca.

A member of the oppressed Lumad tribe in Mindanao when asked what is with the ancestral lands of their in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur that caused forced evacuations, division and killings said “bulawan” or gold in the Manobo dialect was the most probable reason.

An emotional Imelda Balandres, a woman leader from the community of Lumad evacuees, who witnessed the killing of Campos and Sinzo, last Sept. 1 told The Daily Tribune in an interview that the rich source of gold and other precious minerals are the root of all the violence inflicted on them as big mining companies target their ancestral lands.

Apparently, the two primary mining companies that are interested in the Lumad lands are owned by campaign financiers of no less than the ruling Liberal Party’s (LP) 2016 standard bearer, Mar Roxas.

Nickel Asia and SR Metals Incorporated (SRMI), owned by Salvador Zamora and Eric Gutierrez respectively, are, according to Lumads and previous reports, the ones that operate “big time” in the said area.

Both Zamora and Gutierrez are known to have contributed to the campaign funds during President Aquino’s 2010 presidential bid, as they are now associated with Roxas’ machinery.

The UNHRC was asked to investigate the killings and the evacuation of almost 3,000 Lumad in Surigao del Sur through letters sent to Dr. Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons; Christof Heyns, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights Defenders; and Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on Rights of the Indigenous People’s.

“We are asking the UN HRC to investigate and recommend actions to the Philippine Government on these issues,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Karapatan said on September 1, 2015, the Magahat/Bagani paramilitary forces under the 36th and 75th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army gunned down Campos in front of the whole community in Km. 16, Diatago, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Sinzo, who was separated from the crowd, was tortured by hitting his arms and legs with wooden stick before he was shot.

Samarca, on the other hand, was found dead inside the classroom of ALCADEV with an ear-to-ear slit on the throat and gunshot wounds in the chest. “The 36th Infantry Battalion (IB), 74th IB and the Special Forces were at the periphery,” Palabay recounted the accounts of the witnesses.

“While the AFP can lie through their teeth about their involvement on the killings and all other atrocities of its paramilitary groups, the motives are crystal clear: eliminate those who are perceived as enemies of the state, including those who fight for their land and their rights,” Palabay said.
She added there was no way the government can deny its responsibility in the killings as long as it implements counter-insurgency programs like Oplan Bayanihan.

“The paramilitary groups is one way of tackling this dirty war against the Filipino people. It is no wonder why the AFP has not disbanded these groups—because they work together,” Palabay said.

The killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio, the massacre of the Capion family, the murder of Datu Jimmy Liguyon, the Tabugol brothers, among others was done through the use of paramilitary forces who are known in many names—the Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU), the Special Civilian Armed Auxilliary, the Investment Defense Force, Bagani Forces, Magahat-Bagani, Alde Salusad’s group, and the De la Mance group, to name a few.

In 2012, Heyns and then UN SR on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya had sounded the alarm on the role of the paramilitary groups in the killings, Karapatan said.

In the same year, during the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the Philippines there were already recommendations from member Nations to disband paramilitary groups that perpetuate serious abuses.

“The Aquino government has rejected this and even continued to multiply and allowed the proliferation of these groups as force multipliers. We reiterate our position that the political killings happening right now is part of the government’s policy and not simply an internal conflict among indigenous people’s as the government wants the public to believe,” Palabay said.

LP imprint all over

LP stalwart and Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice served as SRMI’s President when a plunder case was filed against the said firm that caused them P7 million in fines for over-extraction in 2007 as, it has been previously reported months back, subsidiary firms San R Mining and Galeo Equipment and Mining Corp. shipped nearly 2 million metric tons of nickel from August 2006 to September 2007 based on the records of the Philippine Ports Authority and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Government is yet to prosecute SRMI for the massive shipment of minerals which reportedly totals to P28 billion.

Although SRMI’s alleged illegal activities occured in Agusan del Norte, Lumad leader Balandres said that “their (SRMI and Nickel Asia) power to organize private armies or paramilitary groups backed by the (Armed Forces of the Philippines) for mining purposes is among the top reasons why they’re too interested in stealing our lands (in Surigao).”

If not for mining interests, violence and fear would never exist at all in the Lumad community, Balandres said.

According to rights group Karapatan, mining companies with armed men that connive with the state forces is “not new”.

“Employing guns and goons for gold is obviously not new. Mining companies are rich and powerful as they can bribe their way out to getting what they want,” Karapatan’s Palabay said.

Gutierrez, too, is tagged as the one who provided the helicopter for aerial photos of the so-called ‘Hacienda Binay’ that is now apparently a debunked stunt to sensationalize the Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee troika’s hearings against Vice President Jejomar Binay as the first allegations filed against the VP was not taken popularly.

VP Binay is ahead the LP’s frontrunner Roxas in independent and reputed surveys contrary to the one released by administration attack dog Erice which, in the first place, is shamelessly “LP-commissioned”.

Meanwhile, despite President Aquino’s denials of targeting Lumads with military offensives earlier this week in a press forum hosted by a national daily, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) says that the regime’s counter-insurgency program “sugar-coated in the guise of peace and development” is aimed at “terrorizing” Lumads.

In a document obtained by Bayan from a government agency, it is admitted by the government that 74 per cent of the membership of communist New People’s Army (NPA) are indigenous peoples and that 90 percent of insurgent operated and controlled areas are within the ancestral domain of the Lumads.
The said document states that IP communities need apparent investments, which can be hypocritically referred to as relative to mining.

The Powerpoint presentation called “Whole of Nation Initiative” spells out the target groups and priority regions for government’s counter-insurgency program. Various government agencies are being tapped to undertake “serbisyo caravans” to compliment “focused military operations” in these target areas.

The slogans used in the said document are synonymous with President Aquino’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan’s lines such as “whole of nation” and “people centered” approach.

“Those insisting that the IPs are merely “caught in the crossfire” should re-examine their position because as far as the AFP and other civilian agencies are concerned, the IPs and their communities and schools are the real targets,” notes Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes.

Human rights groups in Caraga have reported, according to Reyes, that on August 25, simultaneous “peace/serbisyo caravans” were launched in Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte (consistent with the proposed timeline in the PowerPoint presentation).

“Based on the accounts, the caravans were initiated by the AFP’s and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and included agencies such as the Department of Health, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the Department of Education,” Reyes elaborated.

Reportedly too, there were programs and public meetings in Surigao del Sur towns Marihatag and Lianga. The program included presentations to the public of NPA rebel returnees.

A week after the “peace caravans” were held, together with Campos and Sinzo, Emerito Samarca, 54, School Director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) in Lianga town, were killed on the same day.

Alleged perpetrators are paramilitary groups Magahat and Bagani that are linked with the AFP.

“That the President refuses to acknowledge that this policy exists means that there will be no meaningful action or resolution that can be expected from this administration,” Reyes said.

Due to the cases of forced mass evacuations, nine Lumad community-based schools were forced to shut down.

Church condemns killings

The Catholic hierarchy joined in the chorus of condemnation against the killings of Lumads in Mindanao and criticized the government’s response to the issue.

In homily, CBCP president Archbishop Socrates Villegas said it is “disturbing” how the government quickly exonerated those allegedly behind the killings.
“This alarming eagerness to deny culpability does not augur well for truth and justice,” Villegas said.

According to him, such declarations inspire credence only after a reliable and trustworthy investigation by impartial and competent persons shall have taken place.

“If made before any such investigation, they disturbingly suggest a refusal to hold accountable those to whom the administration so eagerly extends its mantle of protection,” he said.

President Aquino in a forum on Wednesday said the government has “no campaign to kill anybody”, as he defends the military’s alleged involvement in the killings.

The much-awaited statement from Aquino, however, dismayed various human rights groups, saying his response was inadequate.

The bishops are also backing calls for the government to urgently investigate the killings of three Lumad leaders by alleged paramilitary forces in Surigao del Sur.

“The CBCP asks the government for an honest, thorough, impartial, and speedy investigation so that the guilty may be held to account for their wrong-doing,” Villegas said.

The CBCP chief also said the use of militia groups for the government’s counter-insurgency campaign is already “troubling.”

“If militia groups cannot fit within a structure of clear authority and command by legitimate state authority, they should not be tolerated, much less employed as mercenaries by the State,” he added.

The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) earlier said the Lumad communities are under attack because of their determination to protect their ancestral lands.

Sr. Francis Añover, RMP coordinator, said the Lumad people continue to be victims of massive land grabbing and displacement because of large-scale mining operations and the expansion of huge plantations.

“The Philippine Army and its para-military groups commit grave human rights abuses as clearing up operations for the entry of big foreign and local corporations,” Añover said.

The bishops said indigenous peoples are already disadvantaged in a number of ways and the government’s failure to protect their rights “only underscores their plight as marginalized.”

“This cannot be just. This cannot be the will of God,” Villegas said. 

 

 

consunji, semirara, torre de manila, atbp.

the synchronicity is striking.

while having to deal with the shameless atrocity that is DMCI’s torre de manila, and having to listen to DMCI’s lawyer who dares declare that jose rizal is no demigod — “his statue does not possess a super constitutional power that acts like a laser sword that any building exceeds the line of sight should be torned” (sic sic sic) — yes, on top of hearing such disdainful capitalist  rhetoric while watching the wheels of supreme court justice grind exceedingly painfully slow (in contrast to  enrile’s bail), we were hit with news of yet another mining “incident” in semirara island, province of antique, that saw nine miners buried alive (the first, in 2013, killed five) in a landslide.

DMCI, which dared build that monstrous torre, and semirara mining corporation, the only large-scale coal-mining operation in the country, are both subsidiaries of DMCI Holdings Inc., a conglomerate (also into roads, power, water, real estate, concrete atbp.) largely owned and run by the david m. consunji family whose patriarch is listed as the 6th richest filipino (worth $3.2 B) by forbes magazine 2014.

quite the oligarch, di ba, who by the way, was part of the marcos cabinet 1970-75 as secretary of public works.  he got exclusive rights to semirara also in marcos times (early 1980s) that should have expired in 2012 but was extended to 2027 by the energy department in the time of arroyo (2008).

of course, less than a month after the “incident,” the DENR lifted its suspension order on semirara ops;  another suspension order from the department of energy has yet to be lifted, but we know that’s coming next, ‘no? because, really, our power plants need the coal to generate the electricity we can’t live without.

In its motion to lift cease and desist order and suspension order, Semirara said it did not violate any provision of its ECC and the accident that occurred in the mine site did not have any adverse impact on the environment.

It also said the collapse of the wall was a “fortuitous event” beyond its control, and that erosion control measures have been put in place.

FORTUITOUS?!?  nine miners died and that was fortuitous?  according to what value system?  why were those erosion control measures not put in place BEFORE that killer landslide of july 17?  in fact, it would seem that it was sheer irresponsibility on the part of semirara that killed those miners.  antique governor rhodora cadiao says the panian pit is already over-mined.

“‘Yung hinuhukay nila [sa Panian Pit], nasa mouth lang ng pit… ‘Yun ang (lupang) nag-crash sa workers,” she said. “It’s already 1/2 kilometer below sea level, mahina na talaga.”

She added that workers are afraid to go back to the area as it was already the second accident to happen on the island.

NO ADVERSE IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT?!?  more like, no adverse impact on the coal.  only the coal matters.  never mind that of all fossil fuels, coal’s extraction, and use,  contributes the most to environmental degradation, whose long-term effects we are feeling now as Climate Change.  and never mind that semirara’s coal mining operations bring no real significant benefit to community or nation except as the end-product electricity that we still have to pay for anyway.  never mind all that because, you know, coal is so much cheaper to “produce” than solar power.

what is not factored in is the fact that the mining company, in this case, semirara, did not truly produce, i.e., develop or create, the coal – Nature did that, over hundreds of millions of years, from dead plant matter subjected to geological forces of heat and pressure.  as such, it is part of the natural wealth, and meant for the benefit, of the filipino people across generations, not just a few privileged families and their cohorts in government across generations.

it’s pretty much the way we lost our millions of hectares of hardwood forests – but that’s another story of the rent-seeking / exploitation-by-the-powerful-few genre.  read maximo “junie” kalaw’s essays Forests Gone and Forests Left, excerpts from Exploring Soul & Society: Papers on Sustainable Development (Anvil 1997).

which is all pasakalye to why i agree with carlos celdran about the demolition of torre de manila:

“DMCI ito. They are a mining company. If they can make Semirara Island disappear, they can make that building disappear. DMCI is very good in demolishing things. They are into mining… To tear down is not a technological impossibility. Kayang kaya nila iyon,” he claimed in an interview with GMA News TV’s “News To Go” on Wednesday.

DMCI Holdings Inc., the parent of DMCI homes, also holds the exclusive rights to explore, mine and develop the coal resources in the 5,500-hectare  Semirara Island in Caluya, Antique. Other minerals on the island are limestone and silica.

Celdran issued his statement after the Supreme Court imposed a temporary restraining order suspending the construction of Torre de Manila.

… “The thing I like about this TRO is that it showed the Filipino people that oligarchs or large corporations like this can be questioned, can be stopped, and can be taken to task for things that they do and abuses that they do,” he added

more recently, there was this from QC rep winston castello who heads the metro manila development house committee:

“The public relations nightmare of the DMCI will continue if they would not totally remove it. I advise them to voluntarily dismantle it. After all, it would be a big contribution to preserve our cultural heritage and national patrimony,” Castelo said.

Castelo said once the Supreme Court issues an injunction to permanently halt the construction, DMCI should refund the property buyers who bought condominium units, lest it risks being blacklisted from doing business with government.

The construction arm of DMCI is also part of various big ticket public-private partnership projects with government, such as the P15.86 billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway, two sections of the P26.656 billion Metro Manila Skyway project, the P2.27 billion LRT-2 East extension project, among others.

indeed, the consunji conglomerate can afford this one setback after being so consistently blessed by government, administration after administration, over the last 30 plus years.  surely DMCI knew about zoning regulations and knew from the start that it was taking a risk in pushing on with the torre de manila project.  surely they knew there was a reason why a torre kind of building had never been attempted, or, maybe, even considered, in that particular site but they decided to take the risk anyway, thinking maybe that they could bully their way up, because wow the projected returns on condo units with a rare untrammeled view of the historic rizal park and manila  bay, and environs near and far — sunset na, citylights pa — must have been way over-the-top incredible.

besides, city hall made it so easy, and when heritage activists raised a howl, no less than the presidential action center and the NHCP intervened, because, you know, heritage can co-exist with progress, or so the media blitz across major broadsheets and news websites goes, complete with a photo of the rizal monument dwarfed by a backdrop of skyscrapers.  argh.

it’s too much.  kulang pa yung pagpapayaman nila by making private capital of our natural wealth?  pati talaga ang rizal monument sa bagumbayan, na kaisa-isa nating national monument, ay pagsasamantalahan at pagkakakitaan,  e ano kung nakakasira ng view natin of rizal  — bongga naman ang view nila from the torre?  business first before anything?

sobra na.  that torre is a dirty finger raised in contempt at nation and everything sacred that the rizal monument stands for.  take it down, guys!

[next: ambeth ocampo & the supremes]

calling out grace #marcos?

for many many people who were around during martial law in the time of marcos (at marami pa kami), grace poe’s paternity is the major major issue.  nothing but a negative DNA test would convince us that she is not a marcos daughter.