#anti duterte

[wandering-scavenger]

HELP THE YOUTH STAY EDUCATED ABOUT THE MARCOS DICTATORSHIP

Pre-order these books here.

With Sara Duterte as Vice President and now Secretary of Education, we must prepare for the likelihood of historical revisionism in the youth's education, which first started when corrupt Dictator Ferdinand Marcos' body was allowed to be transferred to Libingan ng Mga Bayani (Cemetary of Heroes) despite the protests of thousands of Filipinos.

"presumptive vice president Sara Duterte-Carpio on Thursday said the Philippines needs a future generation of Filipinos who will advocate for “peace and discipline” in the communities."

The daughter of a man who killed thousands of people, and paved the way for the Marcos family to be accepted by Filipinos once more. She intends to do this under the leadership of Bong Bong Marcos, who has refused to apologize for the murders, tortures, sexual abuse, and theft that his family and cronies have committed.

Before they get their claws deeper into our education system, please try to buy any one of these books for your younger relatives or future children.

We cannot allow them to change history. We cannot lose hope. We must continue to fight for our country, even if it just means staying educated.

If you are not Filipino, please pass on the news about what is happening to our country. Help the world know what is happening to us, because this could happen to you.

#ph elections 2022 #ph elections #anti marcos #anti Duterte #Philippine history #halalan2022 #halalan 2022 #historical revisionism #let leni lead #letlenikikolead2022 #letlenilead #leni robredo #leni kiko 2022 #kiko pangilinan for vice president #kiko pangilinan #leni rebredo for president #History #World news #injustice #Si Marcos Diktador

[antifainternational]

After a Filipina antifascist's colleagues were murdered by death squads, she is on the run & seeking refuge elsewhere. The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has stepped in to help her with her attempt to get to a safe country. Help us literally save people's lives. Support the Defence Fund.

#antifa #duterte #antifascist #the international anti-fascist defence fund #antifascism #solidarity is our weapon

[whatisonthemoon]

On CIA’s Intense Religious Efforts to Combat the “Christian Left” in the Philippines

Excerpted from "A Commentary on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church" by Christians for National Liberation (in the Philippines)

More on the cultural field, the CIA and its conduits have used and continue to employ the Christian religion to disrupt and distort the progressive aspect of Christianity and the victory of the Filipino people against Spanish colonialism that made use of Catholicism in order to subjugate the Philippines for more than 300 years. It can even be construed that the CIA backed up financially the Iglesia ni Kristo (INK), founded by Felix Y. Manalo in 1914, which attracted a significant membership and started to build big I.N.K. churches after World War II. The CIA could have done this covertly in order to make the I.N.K. the Filipino opposite church of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), founded on August 3, 1902 by Filipino Katipunan revolutionary priest Gregorio Labayan Aglipay with Union Obrera Democratica (UOD) labor leader Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr., popularly known as Don Belong. In fact, the US imperialists were very much displeased when they came to know that Obispo Maximo or Supreme Bishop Aglipay secretly gave support when the Socialist and Communist Parties of the Philippines merged in 1938 and when he expressed interest and enthusiasm in the universal theory of Marxism-Leninism after he read Marxist classics in Spanish sent by his friend, James S. Allen of the Communist Party US, as the bishop said in 1939: 

The first one I read has already confirmed me in my convictions about communism and that the salvation of mankind lies only in its hands. I have always declared that we must concentrate all our efforts in making this a better world, without wasting anything in vain delusions about what lies beyond this life. And it gives me a thrill discovering that Lenin, Marx, Stalin and all the friends of the Proletariat are one with me in this.

The openness of Filipino Christians to struggle for national liberation, as shown by the Filipino Catholic clergy who joined the revolution against Spanish colonialism, and even to Marxism as manifested by Bishop Aglipay in his statement mentioned above, had led US imperialism to continue commissioning the CIA to persist in utilizing the Christian religion to hide the exploitation and oppression of US imperialism in the Philippines. For instance, the CIA initiated the entry of Christian “socialism,” which became the ideological foundation of the Christian Social Movement (CSM) headed by Manglapus and Manahan among pro-US imperialist politicians to counter Filipino nationalist politicians, led by the late Senator Claro M. Recto. Senator C. M. Recto was a staunch anti-US imperialist critic and was believed to have been a victim of the CIA, as he died mysteriously of heart attack, though he had no known heart ailment, in Rome, Italy after an appointment with two Caucasians in business suits in 1958. During the 1960s to the 1970s, the CIA established the Campus Crusaders for Christ (CCC) in various universities and colleges throughout the Philippines; the New Tribes Mission (NTM) stations and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) centers were formed by the CIA in the mountainous areas of the national minorities throughout the Philippines. And since the 1980s up to the present period, all sorts of CIA-backed charismatic congregations, the Dating Daan of Eli Soriano, the Sonship Kingdom of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy (a megalomaniac and self-appointed Son of God in Davao and a friend of tyrant Duterte; has expropriated Lumad lands; owns Son Shine Radio with 16 transmitters stationed strategically throughout the country, fully supports tyrant Duterte’s Build, Build, Build projects; and actively participates in the surrender campaign of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC), “praise the Lord” groups, “Christ to the Orient” and “free believers” have proliferated. And usually, the use of the Bible and Christianity for the CIA-backed evangelists is to attack the mainline Christian Churches that adhere to human rights in Philippine society.

Currently in this 3rd millennium of Christianity, the newest “church,” that may have been introduced by the CIA in the Philippines, is the “Christ the Way of Salvation: Divine Covenant International Church.” It projects itself as a global church and claims to have many congregations of worshipers in the US, Spain, the Philippines, and other countries. Based on the findings of the CNL research team, this newest “international Church” has worshipping centers in various places in the Philippines such as in Manabo and Pilar, Abra; Nueva Era, Ilocos Norte; Rosales, Pangasinan; Romblon; and other areas of the country. This “International church” sees itself as very different from the mainline Christian Churches (RC, UCCP, IFI, UMC, ECP, LCP), though almost all its members come from the mainline Christian Churches.

Some may question the veracity if the “Christ the Way of Salvation: Divine Covenant International Church” is, indeed, a CIA-created and -inspired one. For one thing, the CIA makes use of various international fronts and conduits to conceal its mission to maintain US imperialist global hegemony. But one may conclude that it may have been established by the CIA: first, when such a Christian church is “international” in scope and is very well-funded; second, though biblically based, a so-called “International Church” limits itself to only a few New Testament passages and does not mention the prophets of the Old Testament and the various denunciations by Jesus Christ addressed to the rich and powerful; third, it does not recognize as “apostolic” the traditions of the mainline Christian Churches (particularly the Roman Catholic and Orthodox in other countries); fourth, it considers itself as very different from the mainline Christian churches and does not worry itself about ecumenical concerns; fifth, it does not bother itself as regards the global problems of wars, poverty and inequalities among peoples and nations; and, sixth, it merely stresses spiritual conversion and salvation of individual persons. One example of this is defined and found in The Way of Salvation. It states: 

There are differences within Christian churches that have created various denominations… These denominations have differences regarding their beliefs in God and salvation… [But] the church that preaches the true gospel today is the true one that continues the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles… There are three integral phases in the complete Christian conversion and salvation…: (1) Confess Jesus As Lord; (2) Receive the Life of Christ… by accepting the three sacraments: baptism, footwashing [CNL], and Holy Communion; [and] (3) Live by the Spirit.

Some Church leaders and CNL cadres in Northern Luzon, Philippines even suspect that CIA elements may also be using the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol in order to spy on the activities of the progressive Church people. The basis of this is the fact that the CNL research team found out in 2019 that some ordained priests and ministers in Northern Luzon were issued Interpol badges at ₱500 per badge. One priest was, in fact, given an Interpol badge, ranking him as a brigadier general! Those given Interpol badges were told to submit regularly their findings on people involved in various criminalities, including those engaged in the communist insurgency. Such suspicion by some Church leaders and CNL cadres may have been based on the fact that even the United Nations’ Security Council is under the direct control of US imperialism and other imperialist powers. Therefore, it is easy to assume the great possibility that the CIA forces currently at work in the Philippines are already using the Interpol in order to spy on the CNL, even though the Interpol clearly states in its international policy that it “is strictly non-political and is forbidden to undertake any activities of a religious, racial, or military nature; and only government-approved police bodies may hold Interpol membership.”

It must, therefore, be very clear to all Christians—the ordained, the religious, the laity—that US imperialism and the CIA provocateurs go on using the Christian religion and the anti-communist propaganda to thwart the participation of Christians—the ordained, the religious and the laity— in the Philippine NDR which has a socialist perspective. And although it would be expounded on in the CNL’s 8th topic, CNL’s Concluding Remarks: God’s Kingdom as the Reign of Truth, Justice, Peace, Love, Equality and Liberation, all CNL members further pray that all Filipino Christians relegate the Church’s more than two-century old partiality to capitalism, be open to dialogue with Marxists, and be inspired by Pope Francis who said in his November 11, 2016 interview at the Vatican City: “It’s the communists who think like Christians.”

#christianity #catholic church #pope francis #communism #anti-communism #CIA #religion #new tribes mission #duterte #rodrigo duterte #philippines #politics #counterinsurgency #theology #Iglesia Filipina Independiente #CNL #christians for national liberation

[carlocarrasco]

COVID-19 Crisis: National Task Force (NTF) aims to fully vaccinate over 70 million people by June 30, 2022

COVID-19 Crisis: National Task Force (NTF) aims to fully vaccinate over 70 million people by June 30, 2022

Have you been harassed by anti-vaccine fanatics lately? You better not pay attention to them because the Philippines still needs all the public’s understanding and cooperation to overcome COVID-19’s varied effects (in terms of health, economics and society) and push forward with the national recovery efforts. As part of those efforts, the National Task Force (NTF) announced that it is aiming to…

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#2019 Novel Coronavirus (NCoV) #anti-vaccine #anti-vaxxers #Carlito Galvez #Carlo Carrasco #China virus #COVID-19 #COVID-19 booster #COVID-19 Crisis #COVID-19 vaccine #disease #Duterte #free booster shot #free COVID-19 vaccines #free vaccines #fully vaccinated #GMA Network #GMA News #health #journalism #Myrna Cabotaje #National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) #news #NTF #Omicron #Omicron variant #Philippines #President Duterte #President Rodrigo Duterte #Rodrigo Duterte

[sha-n-dowbannedlol]

im sorry for the political posts but i legit dont have the energy to write anything rn. if these partial results are anything to go by, everyone in this country is so fucked.

the ones currently winning as president and vice are both children of past presidents whose legacy is extrajudicial killings. we are, quite literally,

fucked.

#shan is tired #and scared #we're all fucked #im fucked too with the amount of anti marcos and anti duterte posts i have lol

[memecucker]

Abortion has been banned in the Philippines for decades which has the effect of hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths because many times people can’t afford a doctor willing to conduct an abortion and have to turn to black market abortifacients and self proclaimed “folk healers”. The connection with Roman Catholicism is obvious and while Duterte has been the closest to an “anti-Catholic” president in modern history he maintains a hardline stance against abortion and it may be a personal belief (he’s not exactly known for feminism) or it may be a product of him forming a political alliance with Iglesia ni Cristo which is the Filipino version of the “far right Asian church with weird theology” thing.

Basically what I’m getting at is obviously American Christians are to be blamed for things happening in the US but these kinds of problems are not specific to “white American Evangelicals” but are a global thing

[radicalgraff]

"Stop Killing Farmers"

Seen in Bulacan, Philippines.

In the Philippines, there have been hundreds of documented killings of peasants, farmworkers, and fisherfolk related to land dispute cases and agrarian reform advocacy since former President Duterte took power in July 2016.

These attacks are not coincidental instances of brutalities, but are part of a systematic program by the most rabid fascist elements in the government.

On December 4th, 2018, the former President issued Executive Order 70, forming the National Task Force to Eliminate Communist Armed Conflict. Since then, this publicly funded task force has released unsubstantiated statements accusing legal organizations and even elected officials of being terrorists. It has consistently red-tagged KMP and other poor people’s organizations as “front organizations” of so-called “communists-terrorists” through press statements, public banners, leaflets, and other activities.

The threats precede arbitrary arrests and killings, followed by more accusatory and mocking statements from officials and government spokespersons.

Memorandum Order 32, in particular, worsened political killings, militarization, and other human rights violations in Negros, Bicol, and Samar regions.

Worse, misuse of the Anti-Terror Law, allows any criticism and opposition to government policies to be construed as acts of terrorism and lead to arrest.

I'm the Philippines, widespread repression and killing of farmers fighting for their right to land is a state policy.

#stopkillingfarmers #graffiti #graff

[republikkkanorcs]

“Nobel Laureate and legendary Filipino-American investigative journalist Maria Ressa has been on the frontlines of the fight for democracy for decades. Ressa knows very well what happens when democracy is eroded and disinformation is rampant. And she knows how not to let it become routine and numbing. At great risk to her own life, she has taken on anti-democratic forces on several fronts, from Al-Qaeda terrorists in the aughts to present day authoritarians. And she's paid dearly for it. She’s faced trumped-up criminal charges in her native country after the news site she founded, Rappler, published a series of stories exposing government corruption, and scrutinized former president Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs that left thousands dead or disappeared. And just last week she was acquitted of a contrived tax evasion charge by a court in the Philippines. It's the latest victory, not just for Maria Ressa herself, but for her country's fight for press freedom. And the fight for Press Freedom is the fight for freedom, itself.”

[apas-95]

I’ve been seeing this post be circulated, as a part of the justified pushback to the sudden outpouring of support for radical feminism in the wake of new oppressive measures:

And while the text of it is, on the face of it, seemingly fine and correct (excepting the western obsession on foot binding), the fact it’s by Esperanza is, in a way, hilarious.

For those not in the know, Esperanza is a ‘proletarian feminist’, who supports AF3IRM, a ‘nordic model’ anti-sexworker group, which works towards the criminalisation of the sex trade, under the guise of ‘protecting women’ from sex trafficking and the like - which mostly manifests in doxxing and harassing sex workers while assisting the NYPD.

Esperanza launders this to a communist audience by referencing the measures taken by historical socialist states against sex trafficking, either pretending to or genuinely not realising the difference between law enforcement under a socialist state and a bourgeois one - that increased presence of capitalist police only endangers sex workers, given that capitalist police are the oppressor, are the enemy of sex workers.

This is all rhetorically justified by constant reference to the global south, to some ‘pure’, proletarian feminist movement free from the privileged, western decadence of transgender ideology and sex workers who want rights. The absurdity of supporting, say, Duterte’s death squads in policing sex work, to ‘protect women’, is somehow lost.

To be platforming Esperanza as a counterweight to radical feminism is something of a joke. AF3IRM is a very openly transmisogynist org (the founder, speaking at a convention, saying “they’re proposing stuff like “female penis,” ... ‘NO! What is that?!’”, to much applause), with Esperanza herself having repeatedly accused trans women of ‘faking being trans’ or mocking their ‘failed transition’, and appearing on podcasts alongside open TERFs, declaring that gender critical ideas Have Some Good Points.

This ideology is one that refuses to acknowledge the struggle of sex workers as a workers’ rights struggle, one that pinkwashes the bourgeois police, and one that openly aligns with reactionaries. Esperanza, here, is not offering an alternative to bourgeois feminism, she is repackaging it, wrapped in orientalism and Maoist slogans.

[arkipelagic]

This year the Philippines went down four places in the Freedom on the Net 2023 report of the Freedom House. Previously with a score of 65 out of 100, the country’s score went down to 61 after the organization noted how conditions have worsened in the Philippines as outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte used an antiterrorism law to block news sites that had been critical of his administration.

Last June 2022, former National Security Advisor to the National Security Council Hermogenes C. Esperon, Jr. ordered the blocking of Bulatlat and 26 other websites.

In his capacity as the NSA, Esperon “requested” for the blocking of the 27 websites, alleging that they were affiliated to “communist-terrorist” groups, and citing the Anti-Terror Act as justification for the request. The order was left untouched when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. eventually took office in the same month.

Freedom House also pointed out how the Marcos Jr. administration also required all Filipinos to register their SIM cards under their real name, undermining anonymous communication in what remains a dangerous environment for journalists and activists.

“The Philippines’ decline in internet freedom occurred amid an erosion of political and civil rights under former president Duterte, who completed his six-year term in June 2022 and whose war on drugs led to thousands of extrajudicial killings,” said Freedom House.

#philippines #press freedom #redtagging #x

[rayjideguia]

On October 11, 2014, Jennifer Laude, a Filipino trans woman, was killed by US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, whose presence in Zambales was made possible by the Visiting Forces Agreement. 

In September 2020, then President Rodrigo Duterte, known for his misogyny and whose regime was marked by extrajudicial killings from his drug war and anti-communist crusade, granted Pemberton absolute pardon, cutting short his time served by four years. Months prior in the same year, during the height of the pandemic, the Congress railroaded the passing of the anti-terrorism bill amidst rampant red-tagging of activists and dissidents; LGBTQIA+ protesters were arrested, detained, and harassed by police. 

Under the current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the largest Balikatan Exercise took place in 2023, a military exercise that was bolstered by counterterrorism training since the War on Terror campaign by the US. His father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., serving as the blueprint of violence and repression for Duterte, formalized the export of Filipino labor through the 1974 Labor Code in an attempt to stimulate the struggling economy, resulting in the human trafficking of Filipinos to this day.

This is the political milieu that informs the narrative of “Balikbayan. Through the protagonist Stella, a trans woman, whose motivation is to find her missing sister Katrina, supposedly teaching in Texas but ended up as a victim of tokhang in the Philippines eleven years later, the play tackles the entanglements of the US War on Drugs and Terror, neoliberalism, and extrajudicial killings under the Duterte regime, and how women, both trans and cis, are subjugated and dehumanized by the same system.

Like our page and save the date! 

April 13, 2024, 7 PM @ IGB Gallery, UP Diliman 

#Balikbayan #Balikbayan2024

#theatre #jennifer laude #US imperialism #balikbayan #writing #dramaturgy

[pannaginip]

AlterMidya on Twitter @altermidya:

TINGNAN: Nagprotesta sa Department of Justice at Court of Appeals ang mga progresibong grupo mula sa Southern Tagalog para ipanawagan ang hustisya para sa mga biktima ng 'Bloody Sunday Massacre'.

Tatlong taon na mula nang paslangin sa magkakasabay na raid ng pulis at sundalo ang mga aktibistang sina Manny Asuncion, Chai Lemita, Ariel Evangelista, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Bacasno, Randy at Puroy Dela Cruz, at Abner at Edward Esto, pero wala pa ring napapanagot dito.

Larawan mula sa Kodao Productions

2024 Mar. 7

Philstar: A year since 'Bloody Sunday' raids: 34 cops face murder raps, harassment of activists continues

Human rights and labor groups called for swift action on the complaints filed against state forces involved in the “Bloody Sunday” raids that killed nine activists in Calabarzon.

A year after activists were killed as police and military personal executed search warrants on March 7, 2021, rights watchdog Karapatan and labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno said that attacks against and red-tagging of human rights defenders and unionists continue.

Union leader Manny Asuncion, and fisherfolk leaders Ariel Evangelista and Chai Lemita-Evangelista, housing rights activists Melvin Dasigao and Mark Lee Bacasno, indigenous Dumagat farmers Puroy and Randy Dela Cruz, and banana farmers Edward and Abner Esto were killed during simultaneous police and military operations in Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal. Authorities also arrested several others during the raids.

"Instead of immediately acting on the complaints filed against state forces involved in the massacre and arrests, what the Duterte administration did was to use 'Bloody Sunday' as a threat to workers tirelessly fighting for just wages, job security, and respect for labor rights," said KMU chairperson and senatorial candidate Elmer “Bong” Labog said.

The raids came two days after President Rodrigo Duterte told security forces they could kill communist rebels and “ignore human rights.”

"Even when they pleaded for their lives, they were mercilessly murdered while illegal weapons were planted in their homes to further the ‘nanlaban’ narrative and justify these killings, as the Duterte administration has repeatedly done in its sham and brutal drug war," [Labog] added.

In 2020, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the Philippine government needs to revoke policies and rhetoric that result in killings and other human rights violations.

2022 Mar. 7

#junk anti terror law #philippines #bloody sunday massacre #extrajudicial killings #state violence #red tagging #afp-pnp #indigenous rights #dumagat #fishing industry #environmental issues #labor rights #duterte administration

[milkboydotnet]

The openness of Filipino Christians to struggle for national liberation, as shown by the Filipino Catholic clergy who joined the revolution against Spanish colonialism, and even to Marxism . . . had led US imperialism to continue commissioning the CIA to persist in utilizing the Christian religion to hide the exploitation and oppression of US imperialism in the Philippines. For instance, the CIA initiated the entry of Christian “socialism,” which became the ideological foundation of the Christian Social Movement (CSM) headed by Manglapus and Manahan among pro-US imperialist politicians to counter Filipino nationalist politicians, led by the late Senator Claro M. Recto. Senator C. M. Recto was a staunch anti-US imperialist critic and was believed to have been a victim of the CIA, as he died mysteriously of heart attack, though he had no known heart ailment, in Rome, Italy after an appointment with two Caucasians in business suits in 1958. During the 1960s to the 1970s, the CIA established the Campus Crusaders for Christ (CCC) in various universities and colleges throughout the Philippines; the New Tribes Mission (NTM) stations and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) centers were formed by the CIA in the mountainous areas of the national minorities throughout the Philippines. And since the 1980s up to the present period, all sorts of CIA-backed charismatic congregations, the Dating Daan of Eli Soriano, the Sonship Kingdom of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy (a megalomaniac and self-appointed Son of God in Davao and a friend of tyrant Duterte; has expropriated Lumad lands; owns Son Shine Radio with 16 transmitters stationed strategically throughout the country, fully supports tyrant Duterte’s Build, Build, Build projects; and actively participates in the surrender campaign of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC), “praise the Lord” groups, “Christ to the Orient” and “free believers” have proliferated. And usually, the use of the Bible and Christianity for the CIA-backed evangelists is to attack the mainline Christian Churches that adhere to human rights in Philippine society.

A Commentary on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church – Christians for National Liberation

#christians for national liberation #CIA #counterinsurgency #philippines #quote #christianity

[archaicbro]

on the 2022 philippine elections

Originally posted under @annuka‘s blog here

One thing non-Filipinos and Filipino diaspora should know is there’s been a concerted effort to reimagine the 20-year Marcos dictatorship as a purely benevolent effort that ushered a golden age into the Philippines. It’s not. Thousands of human rights violations, billions of dollars in debt, and hundreds of cronies still in power spawned from that dark age.

Along with the disinformation campaign, there’s a revival of support for the Marcoses among the demographic of middle-aged to older people who didn’t suffer from the atrocities of the dictatorship. Authoritarian nostalgia. Then there are the youth who earnestly believe in the authoritarian propaganda sown with anti-intellectualism, mistrust of journalistic institutions, and academia. It also doesn’t help that there’s strong regional hegemony and oligarchic families who were either Marcos cronies or have vested interest in supporting this particular political dynasty over others. It should be no secret, especially to US-based people, that conglomerates such as Alliance Global and dynasties like the Cojuangcos (et. al) have significant ties to politics that allow them to influence lawmaking and more. I don’t think I have to spell out the significant economic desperation that will descend on the Philippines—and investors are already hesitant to put any stakes in our country.

In terms of international politics, the Philippines rests in a strategic area in the middle of Asia and the Pacific. We’ve long been used as a base by the US, and due to the Duterte presidency, we’re losing our sovreignty—which was supposed to be upheld with the decision by the International Tribunal Court in the Hague—over the West Philippine Sea to China. There was also a concerted effort to improve relations with Russia (though there’s some treadback on that front). In other words, the Philippines is being passed from the US to other countries. And given that the Marcoses are held in contempt by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (and banned from US territories), it’s not implausible to see relations further deteriorate. The best thing that Filipinos can hope for, imo, is an incompetent presidency where nothing of substance happens. It’s no secret that Ferdinand Marcos Jr./Bongbong Marcos has done nothing of real impact in his time as a senator. But if he’s steered and influenced, or worse, enacts the same policies as his dictator father, the Philippines will suffer greater losses than it already has. Or just plain steal the $10 billion or more plundered by his dictator father back. I’m sorry for the incoherent thoughts. I’m just sick and tired of this happening again and again. I’ve gone through several national elections already, and I get why leaders in the opposition are tired and jaded. I understand why veteran journalists march on, unfeeling.

We have a saying here: Pilipinas, ang hirap mong mahalin. It’s hard to love the Philippines. And it’s only going to get harder now.

All I ask at this point, to everyone who don’t live in the Philippines, is to not lose the will to fight. Help us fight for future. Don’t let us be a memory.

#philippine elections 2022 #philippines #philippine politics #halalan 2022 #world politics #potato post #tag: politics

[catdotjpeg]

Anakbayan-USA stands with the jeepney drivers as they begin their strike today! We commend the 40,000+ jeepney drivers in Metro Manila and beyond for their unity and strength in waging this historic work stoppage. After 5 long years of struggling to participate in the jeepney phaseout and modernization program, the drivers are taking a huge stand to oppose and expose the phase out’s anti-people roll out.

This program would mandate that individual drivers join a cooperative or corporation that must acquire at least 15 modern public utility vehicles, each costing P2.4-2.6 million or $43,000+ US dollars. Only larger businesses or corporations will be able to afford this requirement, resulting in the disappearance of small business owners and ordinary drivers in the jeepney industry.

In the midst of ruinous inflation on top of the pandemic-caused one year service stoppage, the government is forcing drivers into predatory debt with no subsidies. Many drivers will be pushed to work under larger businesses who will further exploit them. Many drivers will lose their livelihoods, and be thrust into an economy where thousands toil as contractual workers or thousands more leave the country each day in search of employment.

Truly, the only winners of the jeepney modernization plan are the big corporations who already have access to huge amounts of capital, the banks doling out the loans and reaping all of the interest, the foreign car manufacturers producing all of the vehicles, and the capitalists amongst the ranks of the government.

The Philippine government wants to push forward a bogus modernization plan to reap the benefits for themselves. Vice President Sara Duterte blasts the strike for its supposed "hardship on students." But what is the reality?

The strike is only temporary, while the lasting impacts of the jeepney modernization pose the greatest hardships on students: higher fares to pay for these new vehicles, joblessness that this plan forces students and their families into, and a lack of future opportunities.

If the government is not willing to provide a modernization plan that has lasting impacts to secure the livelihoods of the drivers and prioritizes working class people, how can we expect that they will do any different for any other sector?

The people deserve safe, accessible, and quality public transportation. Drivers deserve to have true inclusion in the modernization plan that has lasting impacts and secures their livelihoods.

We call on all youth to stand with the striking drivers!

No to Jeepney Phase Out, Yes to Pro-People Modernization!

TAKE ACTION

- Follow the "No to PUV Phaseout Coalition" on FB - Post a selfie or poster with your support for the protest. Use the hashtags #NoToJeepneyPhaseout #NoToPUVPhaseout #SupportTransportStrike - Donate to BAYAN USA to support the strike

-- “No to Jeepney Phaseout! Yes to Pro-People modernization!”, Anakbayan-USA, 5 March 2023

#donation post #philippines #no to jeepney phaseout #no to puv phaseout #support transport strike #labor rights

[exalteranima]

One of the many, many, many tragedies of growing up Filipino is living in a country where genuinely evil people are playing 5d chess while everyone else is still figuring out the rules of rock paper scissors.

I wish I had a better explanation for how the hell Here Lies Love flew under the radar of people's outrage for so long. The Marcos propaganda machine was gonna keep chugging along, with or without the musical existing. But there's no denying that what David Byrne and Fatboy Slim did was highly irresponsible - which I guess is what you'd expect of white British guys who see Southeast Asian geopolitics as some quaint historical trivia no different than the existence of that Nazi-fighting bear.

At the time Here Lies Love came out, it was probably easier to brush it off as harmless because nobody could even fathom the possibility of the Marcoses coming back. There was no Duterte, no Trump, no Brexit, no creeping shadow of fascism and regressive right-wing populist movements. The only people who were making noise about it were probably just brushed aside as alarmist "the sky is falling!" kooks. (And knowing my country there was probably a lot of post-McCarthyist "you're just saying that 'cause you're a filthy commie" red tagging too.)

I also can't help but wonder if maybe the rock/pop critical divide may have shielded Here Lies Love from criticism. I have a lot of long, meandering thoughts about rockism and poptimism (I am a Muse fan, after all), and I think people underestimate the power of cultural bubbles that insulate you from everything else going on in the world. Which is just my fancy long-winded way of saying 96% of Filipinos probably didn't even know Here Lies Love existed unless they were rock music nerds like me. (I'm not gonna go into the glowing critical reception of the stage adaptation since I know nothing about theater fandom.)

I'm not sure exactly what the point of this rant is. Maybe it's just that it's so easy to dismiss something as "not a big deal, not my problem" until you're actually old enough to see the snowballing effect of when it does become your problem. You might think Here Lies Love is just fun, harmless entertainment divorced from its history ... until that history starts bashing at your door with an axe.

(also I know some people - especially on Twitter - want to wait and see first in case the Broadway staging takes a more overt anti-Marcos slant. but IMO it's still not very reassuring to spend an entire musical humanizing a criminal only to sheepishly go "oh, but what they did still wasn't cool" every few minutes. go ask the families of the people Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy murdered how they feel about that sort of thing.)

#personal #here lies love #history #politics #criticism #philippines #why did I even make this vent post