Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Joma Sison's Greetings for 2011

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On behalf of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), I wish to convey to you warmest greetings of solidarity as we enter a New Year of popular struggle for democracy against imperialism and all reaction.

We must renew and heighten our resolve to fight for national and social liberation amidst the worsening of the protracted crisis of the world capitalist system. We must expose and attack the roots of crisis and war. We must struggle against the system of exploitation and oppression and seek to end the suffering of the people through their own mass movement.

This year the ILPS will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding. In this connection, we shall hold the Fourth International Assembly of the ILPS in Manila from July 7 to 9, 2011. The theme of the assembly is: Build a Bright Future! Mobilize the People to Resist Exploitation and Oppression Amidst the Protracted Global Depression, State Terrorism and Wars of Aggression!

We urge you to participate in the assembly. You shall have ample opportunities to present your concerns and issues, to network with various organizations on a global scale and to make agreements of cooperation and common campaigns. For further information, please contact us by email: secretariat.4th.ia@ilps.info and/or 4th.ia@ilps.info


Happy New Year and Best Wishes!!!


Yours in solidarity,

Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle


(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Joma Sison)

__________


Source:

Sison, Joma. Happy New Year and Best Wishes!!! December 2010.  http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=5845



Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The truth about the NPA-AFP encounter in Las Navas, Samar

PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

THE CPP rebuts the psywar spins of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and released today further clarification about the controversial December 14 encounter in Las Navas, Northern Samar. Ten government soldiers were killed in action and two more were wounded in a counter-attack by local New People's Army (NPA) forces that the government's military had set out to annihilate prior to the simultaneous holiday ceasefire between the NPA and the AFP. The ceasefire, starting from early morning of December 16, 2010 up to midnight of January 3, 2011, was agreed upon by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

The CPP cited data from a report submitted by the Eastern Visayas NPA's Efren Martires Command about the search-and-destroy operations the AFP launched in the Las Navas-Matuguinao area of Northern Samar for more than a month up to mid-December at the very eve of the ceasefire.

"Since November, the Philippine Army's 8th Infantry Division has been undertaking intensive and extensive military operations in the adjacent towns of Las Navas and Matuguinao. From 150-200 troops from the 63rd IB, 87th IB, and other units of the 803rd Infantry Brigade, more special forces from the Scout Rangers, plus several CAFGU elements have been deployed in the area. The AFP's offensive operation was at its height on December 14, when forces of the 63rd IB were scouring Barangay Sta. Fe, Las Navas to seek and annihilate the local NPA unit operating in the area."

The CPP said that "The 8th ID's commanding officer, Gen. Mario Chan, has been lying through his teeth in claiming that the decimated troops were already returning to barracks to observe the ceasefire. They were, in fact, still in the thick of their search-and-destroy operations, seeking to score against the NPA on the eve of the ceasefire. They knew that the NPA would be constrained from retaliating during the ceasefire period."

The CPP also berated the AFP psywar spinners for trying to pin the blame on the NPA for the death of a nine-year old that day, explaining that the child was nowhere near the area where the government troops were fired upon, but was swimming in a river closer to where the NPA forces were. "The EMC-NPA reported that the child was either hit by the ambushed soldiers firing indiscriminately, or deliberately shot afterwards by government reinforcements to make fodder for anti-NPA black propaganda. The CPP and NPA welcome investigations by the NDFP-GRP Joint Monitoring Commission and other impartial bodies regarding the matter."

The CPP and the NDF-Eastern Visayas also cited reports of many more human rights violations committed by the AFP's operating troops. Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-Eastern Visayas spokesperson, reported that the AFP troops that have been launching a month-long military offensive in the Las Navas-Matuginao area committed several acts of murder and other fascist atrocities, including the forcible use of civilians as human shields in their reconnaissance and other operations.

One of those cited in Fr. Salas' report as killed by government troops was a mentally handicapped man, who the government troopers intoxicated with alcoholic drink to try to extract information from him regarding the whereabouts of the NPA in the area. The report narrated that as the man could not say anything about the NPA presence, the government soldiers stabbed and shot him to death, and then threw his body into the river. Fr. Salas' report also mentioned the shooting of a peasant youth who was fortunately able to escape, the indiscriminate bombing of farmlands and destruction of agricultural products.


Reference:


Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
Cellphone Numbers: 09156596802 :: 09282242061
E-mail:cppmedia@gmail.com
___________


Source:

"The truth about the Las Navas NPA-AFP encounter." 22 December 2010. http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/statements/releases.pl?date=101222;refer=cpp;lang=eng


Photo credits:

http://youtubevideo.isgoodness.com/watch/video/id/5cfYmVOgMH0

http://northernsamar.inetgiant.com.ph/home/boats


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Sex Sins of the Mosaic Patriarchs/Messengers/Prophets/Fathers

Updated December 9, 2011




How come sex scandals seem to be an occasional, if not inherent, part of the lives of "religious" men--those supposed prophets or patriarchs or officials of the Mosaic religions?


A good number of Catholic priests, of course, have been involved in humiliating sex scandals through the centuries although the heat has come on only quite recently. In colonial-era Philippines, Spanish friars are notorious (or infamous, depending on one's racial persuasion) for having diluted the race of the natives through not a few cases.


Protestant evangelists, particularly the television-known American evangelists, have as well disgraced their congregations. Notable among them are Jimmy Swaggart and Tammy Bakker.


The Muslim prophet Muhammad has been called a vile polygamist, "a xxx pedophile with twelve wives– and his last one was a nine year old girl."


Felix Manalo, the late founder of the Filipino indigenous church, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), was involved in the sex scandal wherein he supposedly molested and raped some 30 women members of his church--either maidens or wives of male INC members.


Should not be the religions per se. Or is it?  Is it the patriarchy? Is it because men are supposed to be sexually promiscuous or polygamous by nature?


So why are they--males--made the religious leaders???


References:

Boys, Don. Was Mohammed a Pedophile or Jerry Vines a Hater? 24 October 2003. http://www.muslimfact.com/bm/who-was-muhammad-mohammed-mohamet/was-mohammed-a-pedophile-or-jerry-vines-a-hater.shtml

Jordan, Emily. Felix Manalo: Rapist of His Members and His Ministers’ Wives. http://emilyjordan.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/felix-manalo-rapist-of-his-members-and-his-ministers-wives/

Ongsotto, Et Al. Philippine History Module-based Learning I' 2002 Ed. Rex Bookstore, Inc. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ITLRpPrrcykC&dq=isbn+971233449x&source=gbs_navlinks_s


Raw Photo Credits:

Wikipedia
http://onthefencewithjesus.com/?p=1538
http://www.gunnyding.com/islam.htm
http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/directory/m/molestation.asp
http://articles.exchristian.net/2007/06/praying-mantids-of-christianity.html


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Salute to 'Morong 43' & Appreciation to All Concerned & Optimism for the GRP-NDF Peace Negotiations


by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
NDFP Negotiating Panel


I WISH to salute the Morong 43 health workers for their perseverance in fighting for their rights and for a just cause. I congratulate them for their successful struggle and release. I am confident that their unjust imprisonment has strengthened their resolve to serve the exploited and impoverished people and render health services to them. I wish them still greater success in their noble endeavor.

I appreciate the lawyers and human rights activists who ably and steadfastly defended them and the millions of people and all the organizations and personages in the Philippines and abroad who clamored for the release of the Morong 43. I congratulate all of them, including the Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tanada III and the senior statesman former Senator Wigberto Tanada, who visited the NDFP Negotiating Panel sometime ago and pledged to work for the release of the Morong 43 and all political prisoners.

I wish to express appreciation to GRP President Benigno Aquino III for his order to withdraw the false charges against the Morong 43 health workers, thus paving the way for their release. He heeded the longrunning public clamor for their release and adhered to his own expressed conviction that any fruit of the poisoned tree cannot be tolerated in the case of the Morong 43.

The prospects are looking bright for the forthcoming preliminary talks between representatives of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels from January 14 to 18, 2011 in view of the GRP's show of respect for the safety and immunity guarantees for NDFP negotiating panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni during his current Manila visit, the current ceasefire between the armed forces of the GRP and NDFP and the release of Morong 43.


The preliminary talks are meant to pave the way for the resumption of the formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiating on February 15 to 21, 2011 by setting the agenda, ensuring further compliance with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, and other existing agreements and agreeing on goodwill and confidence-building measures, including the long-expected release of political prisoners.

Millions of people and respected organizations and personages in the Philippines and abroad have called for the release of the political prisoners, especially in the aftermath of the release of close to 400 military prisoners and the Morong 43. The NDFP negotiating panel is hoping that the Aquino government is already preparing the way for the release of the political prisoners. ###


(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Joma Sison) 


___________


Source:


Sison, Jose Maria. SALUTE TO MORONG 43 AND APPRECIATION TO ALL CONCERNED AND OPTIMISM FOR THE GRP-NDF PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=5667

Photo credits:

Jose Maria Sison's FaceBook account.
 http://allecoallende.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/the-morong-43-brainless-afppnp-respondents-and-the-search-for-the-imaginary-mario-condes/



Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Friday, December 17, 2010

In Defense of Revolutionary Jose Maria Sison

by Ina Alleco
Repost of "The Lies about Jose Maria Sison"


FORMER press secretary of the Fidel Ramos government and Inquirer columnist Rigoberto Tiglao came out with a review of the Mario Miclat’s “Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions: A Novel” (Manila: Anvil Publishing, 2010), a book which attacks the Communist Party of the Philippines, its members, and what they have struggled for all these years.

The same day, a separate review came out wherein the lies peddled in the Miclat book were exposed and the book author’s own self-serving motives for coming out with such a memoir of twisted recollections were laid bare.

Now I don’t know who Mario Miclat is apart from what I’ve read about him in both Tiglao’s column and the book review; but I will admit that I know Jose Ma. Sison (whom Miclat attacks and vilifies in his book) and what he has done for the national democratic movement and the struggle for genuine freedom and democracy in the Philippines. This personal knowledge of who Jose Ma. Sison and all that he has fought for and continues to fight for is what immediately caused me a measure of annoyance and even anger after reading Tiglao’s column.

Attacks against JMS are nothing new, and the man is used to it, I suppose. I bet he even laughs whenever reading anything that slanders him and paints him in the most unlikeable colors. But even if JMS himself shrugs off this sort of thing, people who believe in him, who are grateful for all that he has done in service of the cause of national liberation in the Philippines, people like me, well, the attacks feel like they’re also leveled against me to some degree. They feel quite personal.

Why? Because JMS is a revolutionary I look up to; and his life in the struggle for freedom is one I find greatly worthy of emulating.

Here’s a man who has devoted all his intelligence, strength and will to the cause of the poor and working people. From his youth he has given all that he had to create a movement strong enough to fight and bring down a dictatorship (and continue to expose and oppose the anti-people governments that succeeded the Marcos regime), and he was imprisoned for 10 years because of it.

After he gained his freedom, he did not retire to a life of comfort and instead continued to write and speak about the conditions of miserable poverty and oppression the Filipino people continued to face. His refusal to be silent is what led to the cancellation of his passport: the Aquino government maliciously revoked the validity of his passport when he was out of the country in 1988 and forced him to go into exile.

Here’s a man who continues to be persecuted for being a freedom fighter and is denied the right to be given asylum in a foreign country, while at the same time he cannot go home to his own country because he will most assuredly be assassinated the moment he steps on the tarmac.

Here’s a man who continues to be maligned and slandered for supposedly living the lavish life in the Netherlands when in truth he and comrade-wife Juliet de Lima maintain the most frugal of lifestyles — so simple and humble that it can hardly even be called to possess ‘style.’ After being included in the US and European Union’s terrorist list, he has also been denied the right to travel outside the Netherlands and forbidden from finding any means of livelihood. Every week he has to report to the local police station and prove that he has neither gone into hiding nor left the country.

It’s most infuriating how the propaganda agents of the enemies of the Filipino people harp on how JMS supposedly lives like a king in the Netherlands. The man rides public transport — the bus or the train — or relies on the few comrades with decidedly luxurious and uncompromisingly functional cars to take him to appointments.

He reads and writes for work and for leisure, and he spends hours on interviews or lectures about the international economic and political situation or the prospects of the Philippines for true progress and related issues. He meets with students and journalists, employees and housewives, diplomats and laborers. Anyone who has an interest in matters of national and international liberation, freedom and democracy will always find it easy to begin a conversation with Jose Ma. Sison.

As for his supposed penchant for the high life, the only gatherings he goes to are the ones where he is invited and where he doesn’t need to spend a euro: get-togethers sponsored by Filipino migrant groups; despidadas or welcome parties for friends, the occasional home-cooked dinner after meetings, or when there are visiting dignitaries and they seek to consult or speak with him.

It’s even uncertain if he has a MuseumKaart and has visited a tenth of the museums in Utrecht or nearby Amsterdam: the cards cost 40 euro and with it one can visit various museums all over the Netherlands for free. He and wife Julie survive on 800 euro a month — the subsidy grudgingly provided by the Dutch government. From this meager amount they have to pay utilities and rent, and everything that remains goes to food.

Those who have never been to the Netherlands think that life here (or anywhere else in Europe) is easy. In many ways, from the simple reasons to the more important ones, it is.

Yes it’s easier here because the air and the environment are much cleaner than in the Philippines. There are public parks where one can jog or stroll with one’s children or play basketball. There’s hardly any pollution because there are trees everywhere so breathing does not entail risks. Traffic jams are almost unheard off because the cities are well planned and road rules are strictly enforced and mostly obeyed. The government despite its corruption at least uses much of taxpayers’ money to provide and maintain social services that are more or less accessible to the general public: garbage is regularly and efficiently collected and disposed off; there are public clinics for babies and children up to to 18 years old; and health insurance is mandatory for everyone.

But Jose Ma. Sison did not come to the Netherlands on his own volition; he didn’t stay here because he was trying to escape the chaos in his own country.

He went to the Netherlands on a speaking tour on the invitation of solidarity groups and it was then that his passport was cancelled and he was rendered suddenly homeless. He remains in the Netherlands because he is compelled to by circumstances and because he is bound by the collective decision of his comrades and allies who are correct is ascertaining that he is much more useful alive here in this cold and faraway country than dead in the one he loves and was forced to leave.

No doubt if left on his own and allowed to make his own decisions without regard for the threats to his own life, he would’ve taken the first KLM flight to the Philippines. No doubt if he were home in the Philippines he would be at the thick of all activities of the national democratic movement, at the frontline of protests demanding respect for civil, political and human rights.

Those who attack Jose Ma. Sison resort to slandering him because they continue to fail in their efforts to discredit and prove wrong everything about the Movement that he helped build and continue to give guidance and inspiration to through his books and speeches and other writings. He has written books that set to rights the falsities of history as it was previously written about the Philippines, and removes the blinders that keep Filipinos unaware of how their nation has been raped and continue to be raped.

His body of written work provide a veritable map or manual to how the Filipino people can destroy the shackles that bind them to poverty and begin to build a government and a nation that puts a premium not on profit but on the sanctity of human life above everything else. His analysis of global developments also prove valuable contributions to the international struggle against imperialism: an internationalist to the core, he is always able and willing to give support to the campaigns of the working people of other sovereign countries in defending themselves against all forms of imperialist aggression.

They do their best to expose Jose Ma. Sison as a man with personal weaknesses and who has committed mistakes as a leader, husband, father, friend or brother; but they say nothing about what he has done to atone for whatever mistakes he has made and how he has more than evolved into a finer specimen of humanity and compassion through the years because of the support and love of his wife and children, friends and family. He was included in the terrorist list and on the hit list of the US and its agents in the Philippines because he remains committed to the cause that embraces all that seeks betterment and good for the oppressed;and because the Movement he helped build and lead continues to gain strength.

In the meantime, he has never lost what kept him sane through 10 years of imprisonment and through agonizing hours and days and weeks of torture in its various forms: a sense of humor that is both keen and giving; and a lightness of heart even as his will remained built of steel.

Those who attack Jose Ma. Sison make much of how he is able to laugh and sing and dance even as he speaks of revolution. They say he shouldn’t even smile because his comrades in the Philippines live in dire poverty and want.

This says much about how those who are against the revolution: they believe that only the oppressors and exploiters have the right to laugh and sing and dance; after all, they find delight in the death and suffering they cause among the poor and exploited just so they could live in castles and bathe in champagne if it was their whim.

What they don’t know is how revolutionaries like Jose Ma. Sison can continue to sing, dance, and yes, laugh and laugh til tears flow. Even in the midst of greatest despair and even as the darkness never seems to end, when one has a great and uncompromising hope, one will always be able to find joy. All hope springs from the certainty of how one day, there will be justice; how one day, there will be freedom; and how one day, there will be boundless happiness because revolutionaries from the mountains and revolutionaries from far away like Jose Ma. Sison will be able to go home. And that is no lie.


(Reposted with permission from Prof. Jose Maria Sison)


___________


Source:

Alleco, Ina. The Lies about Jose Maria Sison. In Jose Maria Sison's website, http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=5648, 4 December 2010.



Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Free Julian Assange!! Hands off Wikileaks!

by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)



THE International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) condemns in the strongest terms the unjust arrest of Julian Assange in the United Kingdom and the assault on Wikileaks by the US, UK and Australian governments, giant US financial corporations and powerful US neoconservative politicians.

Julian Assange
Assange was arrested and jailed without bail last December 8 in the UK on the basis of a warrant issued by Sweden after two women accused him of spurious sex crimes. The website Wikileaks is being harassed and sabotaged as Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, EveryDNS.net, and Amazon dropped it. There is a proposal from the US Congress to designate Wikileaks as a terrorist organization. Assange is in fact the target of prominent North American politicians publicly urging his assassination. The US is pressuring Scotland Yard to extradite him to face espionage charges.

These are clearly ultrareactionary assaults in the wake of Cablegate, Wikileaks’ release to the public domain of an unprecedented trove of more than a quarter million secret US State Department cables from around the world that expose the vile US imperialist designs against oppressed countries, rival capitalist countries and even longstanding allies; and the previous release of thousands upon thousands of secret multimedia files from US military forces exposing criminal and bloody operations in the US wars of agression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In targeting Wikileaks and Assange,I the US imperialists and their acolytes have attacked the people’s right to freedom of expression and to the free flow of information; and freedom of the press. They have shown their utter disdain for transparency in governance and for holding public officials accountable.

The sex assault case against Assange is a direct result of covert official Western operations against his person, setting him up particularly in an insidious “honey trap”. One of the complainants has confirmed ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).


Jose Maria Sison
We contradict the claim that Assange and Wikileaks have violated any laws of the US or of other countries. The Cablegate exposes have proven that far from having an open political system, the US in pursuit of world hegemony systematicaly indulges in state secrecy to hide its criminal enterprises and acts from the world’s peoples who bear the brunt of suffering from these heinous crimes. The US imperialists are fearful that the people would rebel once they are made aware of these grievous crimes that amount to fascism.

The vicious attacks against Wikileaks form part of a broader US objective to foil the Internet as a potent tool of the peoples of the world against imperialist designs. Among the recent moves along this line are:

1. The US government’s unprecedented clampdown on at least 82 websites on the deceitful claim that these were distributing and selling illegal copyrighted works and counterfeit goods;

2. Proposed US laws to stifle freedom of expression on the Internet, like the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) internet censorship bill, that would allow the US Attorney General to censor the Internet in the name of copyright enforcement; and

3. The longstanding spin of US media supermonopolies since 9/11 on an “internet jihad” by al-Qaeda and its allied terrorist groups;

We laud Wikileaks for persevering to defy the powerful assault against it by pushing ahead with its steady public release of Cablegate information despite the unprecedented attacks. We also laud the corps of thousands of Wikileaks supporters for their- multiple replication of the disputed contents of the website all over the World Wide Web. Similar acts of defiance have been made in the face of similar repressive acts against other websites. A US group of former CIA employees, Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, has in fact given its annual award for integrity to Assange.

Indeed, let a thousand Wikileaks flourish! We call on conscience-stricken fellowmen in a position of doing so to blow the whistle on the crimes, shenanigans and nefarious schemes of imperialists and their cohorts by making use of Wikileaks and other similar tools available to the people. As US imperialism is beset by an unprecedented crisis, it will resort to ever more desperate measures to the detriment of humanity. To be a whistleblower against such criminal measures is completely justified.

We call for the immediate release of Assange and the dismissal of the trumped-up charges against him. We call on the member organizations of the ILPS and their friends to mount pickets at the US, UK and Australian embassies and the offices of the corporations harassing Wikileaks in their respective countries and related direct concerted actions to demand: Free Julian Assange! Hands off Wikileaks! No to Internet censorship, war, plunder and fascism! ##


(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Joma Sison)

____________

 Source:

Sison, Jose Maria. FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! 10 December 2010. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=5568#more-5568

Photo credits:

http://www.josemariasison.org/sightsandsounds/Films&Photos/Photos/Recent%20Photos/images/Belgian%20Youth%202%20June%202004_jpg.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assangeg



Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

WHAT IS COMELEC HIDING? Release vital election documents NOW!

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT
November 30, 2010

Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
Office of Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr.
AES Watch


Two motions –one  to cite the Commission on Elections in contempt of court and the other for mandamus --  were filed today, Nov. 30, with the Supreme Court (SC) for the Comelec’s refusal to comply immediately with the decisions of the High Court of May 6, 2010 (Guingona, et al vs Comelec) and Sept. 21, 2010 (CenPEG vs Comelec).

The motion filed by CenPEG today asks that the Comelec, through its incumbent chair Jose Melo and the other commissioners, be cited in contempt for refusing to comply with the SC order directing and ordering the national poll body to make the source codes for the May 10 automated elections pursuant to RA 9369 "immediately available to CenPEG and all other interested political parties or groups for independent review."

Until now, no source code has been released by the national poll body; worse, despite the SC’s ruling upholding the right to independent review under RA 9369 it wants CenPEG to conduct the review within the Comelec premises. This restrictive condition had been refused by CenPEG, AES Watch and political parties last February 2010 because it goes against the very essence of the law and goes against IT best practices.

On the matter of the Guingona, etal vs Comelec case, the Comelec tried to comply with the SC ruling but only in form and not in substance. The poll body disclosed some materials but not the whole information being sought for, including a copy of the source code.

Previously, both CenPEG and VP Guingona, et al sought out Comelec through several requests before they were compelled to file a motion with the Supreme Court. As for CenPEG, its request for the release of the source for independent of its IT consultants and volunteers was approved by the Comelec en banc last June 2009. After several efforts to persuade the Comelec for the release of the source code including dialogs and series of letters, the poll body dilly-dallied, stonewalled, and subsequently refused to release the election software thus forcing CenPEG to seek the highest tribunal’s intervention.

With the support of the broad citizens’ election watch group, AES Watch (Automated Election System Watch), former Vice President Guingona and CenPEG wrote the Comelec a number of times for the release of 21 election documents. CenPEG’s own letters, beginning last June, were denied outrightly by the Comelec – with nary a word of explanation which is, again, contrary to ethics of public service.

We are deeply  the Comelec’s intransigence in not only complying with the letter and intent of the Supreme Court rulings but consistently refusing to disclose public information vital to an independent assessment of the automated elections and which is a citizens’ right under the constitutional provision of right to public information.

Is Comelec flexing its muscle vis-à-vis the Supreme Court which has already upheld the right to public information with respect to the election in at least three cases? Is Comelec trying to hide something with respect to the automated elections issues and problems of which had been the subject of concern – ranging from the contracts, to source code, transmission data, CF cards and other legal requirements of the outsourced technology?
At this point, the Supreme Court remains our last resort so that Comelec will finally awaken to its constitutional duty to release vital public information. We reiterate our challenge to the Comelec to exercise real transparency in action and in substance not just in words and in form by releasing not just a few, but ALL of the 21 important documents sought for by AES Watch, the office of VP Guingona, and CenPEG. It should prove its claim that the May 10 election was a “resounding success” and a “dream poll” by releasing without fear and hesitance all empirical evidences and other documents related to the election.

We also urge the 15th Congress to do what the 14th Congress failed to do: to seek a just closure and find the answers to the many unresolved questions behind the technical glitches and inconsistencies of the outsourced automated election system that occurred nationwide in the last May 2010 elections, by demanding for the release of the 21 vital documents in the hands of the Comelec and its contracted vendor before the latter makes its final exit at the end of the year. The release and the study of these public documents would surely go a long way towards correcting past mistakes, promoting truthfulness, transparency and accountability of government officials and, in instituting meaningful policy and law reforms in our election system.

We also ask that this disclosure of election information be made before Comelec Chairman Jose Melo finally bids goodbye by the end of this year.


Teofisto Guingona, Jr.
Former Vice President of the Philippines

Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)

AES Watch

For details, please contact:

Email address: aeswatch.2010@gmail.com
Mobile number: 0917-5198547
Telefax: +632-4344200; 929-8327


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Si Gat Andres Bonifacio at ang Pagbuo ng PagkaBANSA

Halaw mula sa "Kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan: Bagong Balangkas," ng katangi-tanging istoryador, antropologo, teoriko at pangunahing tagasulong ng Pantayong Pananaw na si Zeus A. Salazar


Panimula

Ang kasaysayan ng Pilipinas ay mahahati sa tatlong panahon o bahagi -- ang Pamayanan (h-k. 500,000/250,00 BK – 1588 MK), Bayan (1588 -1913) at Bansa (1913 - kasalukuyan).

Ang PAMAYANAN ay binubuo ng limang kabanata at tumatalakay sa paglitaw ng sinaunangpamayanang Pilipino, mula sa pagsulpot ng unang tao (h-k. 500,000/250,000-7,000/5,000 BK) sa kapuluan -- magdaan sa 1) pagdating at pamamalagi sa Pilipinas ng mga Austronesyano (h-k.7,000/5,000 BK h-k. 800 BK...

Nakatuon naman ang limang kabanata ng BAYAN sa pagkabuo ng estadong pangkapuluan sa batayan ng paglawak ng estado o sambayanan ng Maynila na sasaklaw bilang “estadong kolonyal” sa malaking bahagi ng kapuluan (hanggang 1896), habang nananatiling palaban dito ang nalalabing mgaestadong etniko (sambayanan) ng Tausog, Magindanaw at Maranaw, kasama na ang iba pang
“malalayang” grupong etnolingguwistiko (kabayanan) na taal sa Pilipino...

Photo art: JB
Masasabing magsisimula sa panahong ito ang pagkabuo ng kapuluan sa batayan ng pinalawak na dalumat ng “bayan” na pagdating ng panahon ay magkakaroon ng anyong pangkapuluan saadhikaing Inang Bayan ni Bonifacio. Nakaugat pa ang prosesong ito sa panahong Austronesyano;samantalang ang paglaganap ng ideyang Europeo/kanluranin ng “nación” ay lilitaw lamang sa panahonng “Bayang Pilipino: Katutubo at Banyaga” (1807-1861), bagay na magbibigay-daan sa pagkakahati ng lipunan sa dalawang magkatunggaling kalinangan, kamalayan at puwersang sosyo-pulitikal at pangekonomiya-- ang taal na bayan at ang inangkat mula sa Kanluran na nación (1861-1913). Dulot nito, magkakaroon ng magkaibang direksyong ekonomiko-pulitikal at panlipunan ang bagong kabuuangsosyo-pulitikal ng Kapilipinuhan sa pagsapit ng ika-20ng dantaon.

Sa agos ng panahon, masasaksihan ang pamaya’t mayang pagtutuos ng mga ito -- i.e., ng mga komunidad na “lumad” at ng mga estadong Muslim laban sa Kastila [Dayagram IV] --kaalinsabay ang paglawak ng dalumat at reyalidad ng Bayan sa loob mismo ng sistemang kolonyal, tungo sa paglitaw rito ng dalawang modelo o proyekto ng pagbubo ng “Bansa” [Dayagram VI]. Ang una ay ang “Inang Bayan” na nakaugat sa tradisyon ng bayan. Binibigyang halaga nito ang kapatiran, damayan, pantay na karapatan at ganap na kasarinlan. Ito ang siyang layuning pinanghawakan at kinasandigan ni Bonifacio at ng mga Anak ng Bayan sa panahon ng Himagsikan. Ang pangalawang proyekto ay ang nación/nasyon ng mga akulturadong elit na bilang mga “Filipinos” ay nakahulma sa kulturang/sibilisasyong Europeo/Kanluranin [Dayagram V].

XXXX
BAYAN

Ang Ikalawang Yugto ng Kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan (1588 – 1913)

Sa ikalawang yugto ng kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan -- ang panahon ng Bayan (1588-1913) -- ang Pamayanan, bilang watak-watak na mga kabayanan, ay tutungo sa pagkabuo bilang isang Bayan sa anyo ng estadong pangkapuluan. Sa simula (1588-1663), makakaharap ng Sinaunang Pamayanan ang isang krisis: ang pagtatagpo ng mga estadong bayan o sambayanan sa isang dako at, sa kabilang dako, ng itatatag ng banyaga na estadong kolonyal sa batayan ng dating estadongbayan ng Maynila.

Sa pagsapit ng 1896, puputok ang Himagsikang pangungunahan ng Bayan. Nanumbalik ang tiwala sa sariling kakayahan na gagarantiya ng ganap na kaginhawahan at kalayaan ng lahat; ngunit sa pamamagitan ng kudeta ng Tejeros ng 22 Marso-10 Mayo 1897, aagawin ng paksyong maka-nación ni Aguinaldo ang pamumuno sa Himagsikan na magiging Revolución ng mga elit/elitista. Pansamantalang mapagsasanib ang dalawang tradisyon ng Bayan at nación. Sa pagtatapos ng yugtong ito, magtatagumpay ang simulaing pulitikal ng nación matapos ideklara ng pangkating Aguinaldo ang “independencia” ng “Filipinas.” Naitatag samakatuwid ang estadong nasyonal na malayo’t papalayo nang papalayo sa mithiin ng Inang Bayan nina Bonifacio [Dayagram V, pah. 28].

XXXX


Filipinos at mga Anak ng Bayan (1892 - 1896)

Isang katangian ng mga ilustrado ang kanilang kanluraning edukasyon. Sina Jose, Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Juan Luna pati na rin si Emilio Aguinaldo ay iilan sa mga Pilipinong nakapag-aral sa Europa.

Isa sa mga dulot ng kanilang pag-aaral ay ang pagkamulat sa nasyonalismo at liberalismo. Bumuo sina Rizal, Lopez at del Pilar ng grupo na tinawag ng repormista o propagandista. Humingi sila ng mga reporma sa pamamalakad ng mga Kastila sa pamamagitan ng La Solidaridad. Isa sa mga hinihiling nila ay maging probinsya ng Espanya ang Pilipinas. Hindi pinakinggan ang kanilang mga daing. Hiningi nilang sunod ang kasarinlan ng Pilipinas. Ninais ng mga ilustrado na bumuo ng isang nacion na nakabatay sa mga konsepto ng bansa sa Europa. Muli hindi sila pinakinggan. Nakasalubong din ng mga problema ang propaganda. Natigil sa kanilang paglilimbag dahil kakulangan ng pondo. Nadakip din ang kanilang kasapi na si Rizal at pinatapon sa Dapitan. Sa mga pangyayaring ito, humina ang balakin ng nación.

Si Andres Bonifacio naman ang bumuo sa isang himagsikan ng mga mamamayan. Ipinanganak siya sa Tondo noong Nobyembre 1863. Sa tulong ng Katipunan, pinalaganap ni Bonifacio ang konsepto ng bayan. Ibang iba ito sa konsepto ng nación ng mga ilustrado. Ito ay nakabatay sa pagbuo ng/kay Inang Bayan at pagtatag ng Haring Bayan (estadong bayan) para sa buong kapuluan (Republika ng Katagalugan). Sinasabing ang Inang Bayan ang dapat panggalingan ng pagbubuo dahil sa kanyang sinapupunan lamang nagkakaroon ng tunay na kabuuan. Sa ilalim ng iisang Inang Bayan, nagkakaroon ng kapatiran ng mga ito. Ginamit ni Bonifacio ang metapora ng mag-anak bilang simbolo ng pagkakaisa ng mga bayan sa buong kapuluan at noong Hulyo 6, 1892, itinatag niya ang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK).


Ipinaglabang Nación at Inang Bayan (1896 - 1901)

Nagsimula ang rebolusyong Pilipino noong taong 1896. Noong Agosto 24, sinalakay ng mga Katipunero ang Maynila. Naging matagumpay sila sa simula. Ngunit hindi ito nagtagal. Mayroong tatlong pinapalagay na dahilan kung bakit natalo ang himagsikan. Ang unang dahilan ay ang pakadiskubre ni Gobernador Blanco sa planong pagsalakay. Ikalawa, ipinatapon ang 500 sundalo sa Mindanao. Ang huling dahilan ay ang hindi pagdating ng grupo ni Heneral Aguinaldo na dapat ay dumating mula Cavite.





Sa kabila ng kanilang hindi pagtatagumpay, ipinagpatuloy ni Bonifacio ang paglalaban. Hindi pinalampas ng mga Kastila ang mga pangyayari na hindi gumaganti. Maraming Pilipino ang nadakip. Isa na dito si Rizal. Pinatay siya sa Bagumbayan noong ika-30 ng Disyembre noong 1896. Habang lahat na ito ay nangyayari, naiisip ng mga kasapi ng puwersang mula sa Cavite, na hindi ang pamamalakad ni Bonifacio ang nais nilang sundin. Nais nilang lumikha ng estadong nakabatay sa ginamit na estado ng mga Kastila. Sa pagitan ng 22 Marso at 10 Mayo 1897, sa Tejeros, nawala ang estado ni Bonifacio (Haring Bayan/Republika ng Katagalugan). Pagkatapos agawin ang kapangyarihan noong 22 Marso 1897, inutos ni Aguinaldo na hulihin si Bonifacio at ipapatay ito dahil sa nakita niyang magiging balakid si Bonifacio sa kanyang mga plano. Sa Bundok Buntis pinaslang ang Supremo noong Mayo 10, 1897.

Nakipagkasunduan si Aguinaldo sa mga Kastila sa Pakto ng Biak-na-Bato. Kasama sa kasunduang ito ang pagpapatapon kina Aguinaldo sa Hongkong. Sumunod dito ang digmaang Amerikano at Kastila. Sa “pangako” ng konsul na Amerikano na kikilalanin di-umano ang kalayaan ng Pilipinas sa sandaling mapaalis ang mga Kastila, sumama si Aguinaldo sa mga puwersa ni Admiral Dewey sa pagsalakay nito sa Maynila. Inokupa ito ng Amerikano at dahil di tinupad nito ang “pangako,” sumiklab ang Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano at nadakip si Aguinaldo sa kanyang pinagtaguan noong 1901.

XXXX

__________

Pinagkunan:

Salazar, Zeus A. Kasaysayan ng Kapilipinuhan: Bagong Balangkas. Lungsod ng Quezon. 2004 Disyembre. http://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFMQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.bagongkasaysayan.multiply.multiplycontent.com%2Fattachment%2F0%2FRvJZtwoKCsQAABfjrrM1%2FZeus%2520Salazar%2520-%2520Balangkas%2520ng%2520Kasaysayan%25202004.pdf%3Fnmid%3D55581663&ei=nBfwTKeUHIGgvgPo1qiHDg&usg=AFQjCNFY-7Ih-iNxGvjWhtjgIoebyl9cyA&sig2=zVIiGiBQyP0ap9pEjukt9Q
 


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Debunking the Outrageous Glenn May Thesis on Supremo Andres Bonifacio

 by Jesusa Bernardo
(Updated  27 November 2010)


PART of the outrageously mythical thesis of the dubitable historian character, Glenn Anthony May, is that the letters in the possession of scholar and prewar Philippine Library and Museum director Epifanio de los Santos were forgeries made in collusion with the latter. May based this on the supposedly wrong Tagalog language "focus" of the period the letters were written. May's thesis, for those still not in the know, alleges that practically everything known about Gat Andres Bonifacio y de Castro is baseless, with the documents upon which the views about the national hero are based being supposedly forgeries.

May, an American University of Oregon professor, had the gall to think that his working knowledge of Tagalog is good enough to make him understand the intricacies and variants of the dominant Philippine language AND cast aspersion on de los Santos. May's ridiculous allegation is based on how the alleged forger made the mistake of switching active and passive voices, supposedly thinking that pre-1917 correct Tagalog made use of the active voice.

Photo art: JB
According to Malcolm H. Churchill, May summarized his argument for this astonishing allegation by stating that the alleged forger in effect switched active and passive-voice," believing that "the correct voice for pre-1917 Tagalog is the active voice, whereas the Tagalog of the four Bonifacio letters is in the passive voice." Churchill is the author of the handout "Determining the Truth About Forged Documents in Writing the Story of Andres Bonifacio" that is part of the book Determining the Truth: The Story of Andres Bonifacio (Being Critiques of and Commentaries on Inventing a Hero, The Posthumous Re-Creation of Andres Bonifacio), published by the Manila Studies Association, Philippine National Historical Society, National Commission on Culture and the Arts (Philippines), and Committee on Historical Research.

This argument by May is belittled and dismissed by Churchill who believes the letters examined by May were copies of the original. He finds several problems with May's arguments and thesis as a whole. First, Churchill thinks it incredible that de los Santos, who "knew enough to correct the 'focus,'" would have allowed a pre-1917 forger not to do any such forgery right considering that the alleged counterfeiting happened in less than two decades after the death of Bonifacio.

Second, Churchill finds May's conclusion based on the assertion that the Tagalog original should have been in the active voice as disregarding the complexity and subjectivity of the translation process. Translators, after all, deal with the need to balance literal translation with the meaning of the original in their own differing ways.

Churchill also calls May's Tagalog "deficient," while "considerable for a non-native speaker." This deficient Tagalog is responsible for woeful error of judgment, as when May finds the fourth Bonifacio letters to be 'forged' when it is but natural for a Manila Tagalog speaker to mostly use the passive voice. As explained by Churchill:
The significance of Cavite/Batangas Tagalog usage is that it sometimes, but not always, results in a verb being in the active rather than the passive voice. If a Cavite speaker were to use the form "Nakain ako," "I am eating," for the Manila Tagalog usage "Kumakain ako," the tense remains unchanged, and a non-native speaker of Cavite Tagalog might find it "weird." If, on the other hand, a Batangas writer were to state "Nagsulat ako ng liham," "I wrote a letter," instead of the Manila Tagalog "Sinulat ko ang liham," "The letter was written by me," the "focus" has been shifted to "ako" from "liham" and the sentence in English translation has been transformed from passive to active.

Andres Bonifacio was from Tondo. He spoke Manila Tagalog. He used the passive voice. That the fourth Bonifacio letters that Prof. May examined use the passive voice proves nothing other than that Bonifacio was not from Batangas or Cavite!

In addition, Churchill thinks it is simply so illogical for de los Santos' family to have retained the letters all these decades if they were forgeries. If they were indeed crude forgeries as claimed by May, what the logical thing the de los Santoses could have done was discard them as they could not possibly stand the scrutiny of scholarly examination. Churchill makes another strong point here because, indeed, for the de los Santoses to retain those "forgeries" would only be inviting public humiliation.

Another thing that makes May's thesis highly questionable, if not implausible, is that his Bonifacio-related theses made overtime CONFLICT with each other. In 1991, May published a Pilipinas article arguing that documents about Bonifacio were inadequate to portray the Father of the Philippine Revolution, adding that historian Teodoro A. Agoncillo 'invented' Bonifacio. However, as Churchill points out, May, some four years later, would raise a 'forgery thesis' in which he claims that the forgeries done in collusion with de los Santos were made to "to present a more favorable view of Bonifacio than was justified, for the purpose (as May explicitly asserted) of sustaining the image of Bonifacio as a national hero."

Talk about changing theses. And hopping from an 'inventor' historian to a colluding 'forger' scholar allegation. For someone with a deficient Tagalog knowledge but who had the gall to linguistically scrutinize Philippine documents, doesn't Prof. May sound like an inventor-cum-forger and imperialist crackpot rolled in one?


De los Santos' View of Bonifacio

Perhaps another strong argument that proves the unsoundness of the astounding forgery claim of May is de los Santos' seeming partiality AGAINST Bonifacio, or at least with regards the Supremo's death. Hermenegildo Cruz, author of the book honoring Bonifacio and the KKK, "Kartilyang Makabayan," writes that de los Santos seemingly agrees with Jose Clemente Zulueta's opinion that the execution of Bonifacio was supposedly needed to "win the Revolution" [against Spain].

So why would a scholar who believes that the (power grab against and) killing of the Father of the Philippine Revolution  is justified even forge documents hailing the Supremo? The March-April 1897 letters and appointment paper in de los Santos' collection point out, among others, that Bonifacio was the first president of the revolutionary Katipunan government.

As quoted from historian Milagros Guerrero, these letters had the following titles and designations of Bonifacio:

     Pangulo ng Kataastaasang Kapulungan
    (President of the Supreme Council)

    Ang Kataastaasang Pangulo
    (The Supreme President)

    Pangulo nang Haring Bayang Katagalugan
    (President of the Sovereign Nation of Katagalugan)
    Note: "Bayan" means both "people" and "country"

    Ang Pangulo ng Haring Bayan May tayo nang K.K. Katipunan nang mga Anak ng
    Bayan, Unang nag galaw nang Panghihimagsik
    (The President Sovereign Nation Founder of the Katipunan,
    Initiator of the Revolution)

    Kataastaasang Panguluhan,Pamahalaang Panghihimagsik
    (Office of the Supreme President,Government of the Revolution)


May's Demolish-Bonifacio Intent

Photo art: JB

May's forgery thesis simply does not make sense at all. What seems to make sense, however, is that May seems bent on demolishing the towering stature of Bonifacio. As noted by Churchill himself, "Prof. May has a long-standing interest in Andres Bonifacio. However, this interest has to date manifested itself more in efforts to cast doubt upon existing knowledge than to expand our understanding of this revolutionary hero."

At the very least, it seems unprofessional for Glenn Anthony May, or for any historian for that matter, to be preoccupied with baselessly clouding a historical figure. Viewed from the larger context of continued American imperialist interest in the Philippines, is it possible that May is carrying out the American line of belittling Filipino figures they perceive to represent opposition to their interests or standards?

As Filipino-American author E. San Juan laments, "Witness how the figure of Andres Bonifacio has been attacked by American scholars eager to debunk the prestige of the hero...." May's attack on Bonifacio is nothing new. As early as the American colonial period, Bonifacio had been denigrated in the imperialist design to dispirit the Filipinos and completely subjugate their hearts and minds. As William J. Pomeroy writes:
The textbooks introduced in the new schools portrayed him [Bonifacio] as a terrorist and advocate of force and violence destructive of democracy. The Commission under Governor-General William Howard Taft projected instead, counter-figure Jose Rizal, the moderately nationalist writer and doctor who was a reformist and who had denounced the revolution of 1896 as its beginning.

Whatever it is that drives May's preoccupation with demolishing one of the two greatest, if not the greatest, national heroes of the Philippines, what is clear is the preposterous mediocrity, or stupendousness even, of his arguments. Perhaps, it was so ridiculous that as Lily S. Mendoza points out, "Pantayong Pananaw* scholars found no need to respond at all [as it would only] legitimize [May] as part of the national discourse."


Glenn May's Book a Reject

Not surprisingly, May's book, "Inventing a Hero: The Posthumous Re-Creation of Andres Bonifacio," which encapsulates his outrageous thesis, did not actually pass the stringent scholarly scrutiny of the Ateneo de Manila University Press (ADMU Press). The work was submitted to ADMU Press but was rejected by its reviewers that included noted historians Zeus A. Salazar and Milagros C. Guerrero. In a personal communication, Salazar told this author that for his part, he rejected May's book based on its failure to live up to the following criterion that he, along with his fellow co-members of BAKAS (Bahay Saliksikan ng Kasaysayan -- Bagong Kasaysayan), Inc., adheres to:
It is important that the work employed methodology and truthful/factual knowledge about the Philippines and its language(s) and culture(s) in the scholarship efforts of  foreigners and Filipinos alike.
Salazar also disclosed that after the Ateneo de Manila University Press' rejection of his book, May afterwards informed them that he will just look for another area of specialization. Dr. Salazar adds that, for a time, he and his historian colleagues actually already forgot all about Glenn May until they heard about the publication of the Inventing a Hero work by another publisher.

In fact, even with the publication of May's book, Pantayong Pananaw scholars did not bother to respond at all as they'd did not want to legitimize May as part of the national discourse. It was only when the issue broke out in a local tabloid that the Pantayong Pananaw scholars responded, not with the intent of rebutting the University of Oregon professor as they apparently did not deem his arguments worthy enough, but more to communicate with the Filipino people who were forced to look into the issue.


 Conclusion

That the ADMU Press and a noted group of nationalist Filipino scholars considered the book not worthy at all clearly shows the apparent--the lack of scholarly merit, if not outrageousness of  May's thesis. It should be noted that the ADMU Press is an auxilliary unit of the prestigious educational institution, the Ateneo de Manila,  and which "first made its mark producing high quality scholarly books on the Philippines in the humanities and social sciences and literary works in various Philippine languages."

ADMU Press has strove to publish only "significant works, in order to achieve its aim of genuinely contributing to scholarhip, research and education" and May's controversial work is clearly not in this list. Why should it be? Beyond being based on "shifting grounds," as noted by his fellow American professor Malcolm Churchill, May's thesis also involves use of unscholarly mediocre analysis, unapologetically deficient Tagalog, stupendous deception allegation/defamation against respected Filipino scholars, and simply preposterous arguments.

By the way, Glenn Anthony May first came out with an invented-Bonifacio thesis in 1991. He then greatly modified it, coming up with a Bonifacio-made-favorable-as-national-hero thesis five years later, or in 1995. His astonishing book was published the following year, 1996, which was the centennial of the Philippine Revolution led by the Supremo. Doesn't it sound like a most apropos anti-Bonifacio demolition job? Or at least, a mediocre foreign scholar's irresponsible attempt to invent controversies and cash in on the popularity and timeliness of a towering Filipino historical figure?


*Pantayong Pananaw, a particular historical perspective used by certain Philippine historians, is marked by the insistence on writing historiographic or scientific discourse  in the native language and the inclusion of  the use of unconventional sources that are untainted by any foreign biases.

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References:

The Ateneo de Manila University Press. http://www.ateneopress.org/about.asp
Churchill, Malcolm H. "Determining the Truth About Forged Documents in Writing the Story of Andres Bonifacio." In http://bonifaciopapers.blogspot.com/2005/09/churchill-malcolm-h.html

Cruz, Hermenegildo. Kartilyang Makabayan. Lupong Tagaganap" ng ARAW NI BONIFACIO, 1933. Project Gutenberg EBook #148822, January 28, 2005.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14822/14822-h/14822-h.htm

Guerrero, Milagros C., Emmanuel N. Encarnacion, & Ramon N. Villegas. Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution. 16 July 2003. http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?i=5&subcat=13

Mendoza, S. Lily. Between the Homeland and the Diaspora: The Politics of Theorizing Filipino and Filipino American Identities; A Second Look at the Poststructuralism-Indigenization Debates. Nueva York at London: Routledge, 2002, Binagong Edisyon, Maynila: Palimbagan ng Unibersidad ng Sto. Tomas, 2006, pp. 90-109. In  http://bagongkasaysayan.multiply.com/journal/item/15/S._LILY_MENDOZA_Theoretical_Advances_in_the_Discourse_of_Indigenization_A_Summary_of_Pantayong_Pananaw

Pantayong Pananaw. WikiPilipinas. http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Pantayong_pananaw
San Juan, E.  After Postcolonialism. Latham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. In http://philcsc.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/carlos-bulosan-between-imperial-terror-and-worker-peasant-revolution/


Original Photo credit:

Diosdado Capino. http://komiklopedia.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/philippine-literary-series/andresbonifacio1/


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Si Gat Andres Bonifacio sa Pananaw ni Joma Sison at ng KM

I. TALUMPATI SA PAGTATATAG NG KABATAANG MAKABAYAN
x x x Itinuturo ng katwiran ang tayo'y umasa sa ating sarili at huwag antayin sa iba ang ating kabuhayan. Itinuturo ng katwiran ang tayo'y maglakas na maihapag ang naghaharing kasamaan sa ating bayan.

Panahon na ngayon x x x dapat nating ipakilala na tayo'y may sariling pagdaramdam, may puri, may hiya at pagdadamayan. Ngayon ay panahong dapat simulan ang pagsisiwalat ng mga mahal at dakilang aral na magwawasak sa masinsing tabing na bumubulag sa ating kaisipan; panahon na ngayong dapat makilala ng mga Pilipino ang pinagbuhatan ng kanilang mga kahirapan x x x

Kaya, mga kababayan, ating idilat ang bulag na kaisipan at kusang igugol sa kagalingan ang ating lakas sa tunay at lubos na pag-asa na magtagumpay sa nilalayong kaginhawahan ng bayang tinubuan.
-- Andres Bonifacio



WALA nang maaaring piliing ibang araw na mas aangkop kaysa araw na ito para itatag ang Kabataang Makabayan. Ngayon ang ika-101 kaarawan ni Andres Bonifacio, isang dakilang bayani mula sa proletaryado, na noong kasagsagan ng kanyang kabataan ay namuno sa lihim na samahan ng Katipunan at nagmobilisa sa mga makabayang pwersa na nagbunsod ng rebolusyong Pilipino ng 1896 -- ang rebolusyong dumurog sa kolonyalismong Espanyol sa buong kapuluan.

Si Andres Bonifacio ang disiplinadong aktibistang rebolusyonaryo na naghanap at nakatuklas sa rebolusyon bilang tanging proseso na makakapagbigay ng ganap na ekspresyon sa mga adhikaing pambansa't panlipunan ng ating bayan na matagal nang sinupil ng isang dayuhang kapangyarihan na pinaganda ng malambot at paiwas na mga termino ng mga repormistang liberal.

Si Andres Bonifacio ang matatag na lider na hindi lamang nabigyang inspirasyon ng mga pag-iisip at pormulasyon ng Kilusang Propaganda kundi handa ring kumilos kasama ng sambayanan sa armadong pakikibaka laban sa tiranya sa sandaling bumangga sa puting pader ng kawalang pag-asa.

Sa gayon, si Andres Bonifacio sa ngayon ang modelo ng rebolusyonaryong militansya ng mga kabataang Pilipino at ng mga tagapagtaguyod ng pambansang demokrasya. Ang kanyang rebolusyonaryong katapangan ang ating sulo. Kung magtatagumpay ang Kabataang Makabayan sa makabayang misyon nito, ang isang importanteng rekisitong kailangang matutugunan nito ay ang pagtataglay ng rebolusyonaryong katapangan ni Andres Bonifacio, ang katapangang nagbibigay buhay at lakas sa mga prinsipyong atin ngayong itinataguyod sa kapanahunang ito.

Ginugunita natin si Andres Bonifacio hindi lamang dahil nagkataong nagkita tayo sa araw na ito, kundi higit pa dahil naiintindihan natin ang patuloy na makasaysayang kabuluhan niya sa ating kasalukuyang kalagayan. Nakikita natin ang namumunong papel ng kanyang uri sa panahong ito na ang ating pambansang pagsisikap sa saligang industriyalisasyon at pagbabagsak sa pyudalismo ay laging binibigo ng imperyalismong US at kasabwat nitong lokal na mga reaksyunaryo.

Kung matatandaan natin, matapos mamatay si Andres Bonifacio, ang rebolusyonaryong inisyatiba ng mga magsasaka at manggagawa sa Katipunan at ang pakikibakang anti-kolonyal sa pangkalahatan ay pinaghina at sinira ng mga pakikipagkasundong liberal ng lideratong ilustrado. Sunud-sunod ang mga pakikipagkasundo: ang Kasunduang Biak-na-Bato, ang pagtitiwala ni Aguinaldo sa mga kumpidanteng Amerikano sa Hongkong, ang burges-panginoong maylupang kumontrol sa Kongreso sa Malolos, at ang ultimong pagsuko ng mga ilustrado at pakikipagkolaboreyt sa imperyalistang rehimeng US.

x x x Ang obhetibong kalagayan sa bansa at daigdig ay pumapabor sa pambansa-demokratikong kilusan ng kabataang Pilipino. Napapanahon nang iwagaygay at itaguyod ng kabataang Pilipino ang pulang bandila ni Andres Bonifacio at ng Katipunan, na may bagong sagisag ng alyansa ng manggagawa-magsasaka.

_______


Photo credit:

Jose Maria Sison (original photo of painting of him)

Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Ang Abaniko ni Gat Andres Bonifacio

ni Jesusa Bernardo


MAY apat na kapatid si Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, ang "Ama ng Himagsikan" at Supremo ng  Kagalanggalangang Katipunan  nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (ang lihim na samahang itinatag upang palayain ang Pilipinas/Taga-Ilog mula sa Espana). Ito ay sina Ciriaco, Procopio, Petrona* at Troadio. Nang sila ay naulilang lubos sa mga magulang, si Gat Andres ang panungahing umako ng tungkuling buhayin ang pamilya.

Ayon kay G. Hermenegildo Cruz, may akda ng "Kartilyang Makabayan," kumilos nang husto ang batang si Andres para sa kanyang pamilya.


Upang siya'y mabuhay at sampu n~g kanyang m~ga kapatid, binatak ang sariling buto't siya'y nagbili n~g m~ga tungkod (baston) at m~ga pamaypay na papel na ginagawa niya sa loob n~g kanilang bahay....

Narito ang isang tulang sinulat ni Supremo Bonifacio patungkol sa kanyang naging paninda--ang abaniko o pamaypay. Ginawa sa wikang Kastilang, ang maikling tula na ito ay pinamagatang "Mi Abanico" (Ang Aking Abaniko).


      MI ABANICO 
      ni Gat Andres Bonifacio

Del sol nos molesta mucho el resplandor,
Comprar un abanico de quita el sol;
Aqui sortijas traigo de gran valor,
De lo bueno acaba de lo major,
De lo major.

El abanico servi sabeis para que?
Para cubrir el rostro de una mujer,
Y con disimulo podreis mirara,
Por entre las rajillas del abanico
Vereis la mar.


Nota: Ayon kay G. Cruz ang pangalang "Petrona" subali't maraming batis ang nagsasabing ang pangalan ng kapatid niyang babae ay "ESPERIDIONA."




_________


Mga Sanggunian/Pinagkunan:

http://www.oocities.com/valkyrie47no/abanico.htm

Cruz, Hermenegildo. Kartilyang Makabayan. Lupong Tagaganap" ng ARAW NI BONIFACIO, 1933. Project Gutenberg EBook #148822, January 28, 2005.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14822/14822-h/14822-h.htm


Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Friday, November 19, 2010

"Tapunan ng Lingap" ni Gat Andres Bonifacio



(Isa sa mga makabayang tulang nilikha ni Gat Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, ang Supremo ng Kagalanggalangang Katipunan  nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK),  ang lihim na samahang itinatag upang palayain ang Pilipinas/Taga-Ilog mula sa tanikalang pananakop ng mga Kastila)

"TAPUNAN NG LINGAP"
      ni Gat Andres Bonifacio


Sumandaling dinggin itong karaingan
Nagsisipag-inot magbangon ng bayan,
Malaong panahon na nahahandusay
Sa madlang pahirap sa Kastilang lalang.

Nangasaan ngayon, mga ginigiliw,
Ang tapang at dangal na dapat gugulin?
Sa isang matuwid na kilala natin
Ay huwag ang gawang pagtataksil.

At ating lisanin ang dating ugali
Na ikinasira ng taas ng uri,
Ang bayang Tagalog ay may asa dili
Ang puring nilupig ng bakang maputi.

Aanhin ang yama’t mga kapurihang
Tanawin ng tao at wikang mainam
King mananatili ina nating Bayan
Sa Kastilang ganid, Kastilang sungayan?

Kaya nga halina, mga kaibigan,
Kami ay tulungang ibangon sa hukay
Ang inang nabulid sa kapighatian
Nang upang magkamit ng kaligayahan.

Mga kapatid ko’y iwaksi ang sindak
Sa mga balita ng Kastilang uslak;
Ugali ng isang sa tapang ay salat
Na kahit sa bibig tayo’y ginugulat.

At huwag matakot sa pakikibaka
Sa lahing berdugo na lahing Espanya;
Nangaririto na para mangga-gaga,
Ang ating sarili ibig pang makuha.

Sa Diyos manalig at huwag pahimok
Sa kaaway natin na may loob hayop,
Walang ginagawa kundi ang manakot
At viva nang viva’y sila rin ang ubos.

Ay! Ang lingap mo po, nanunungong langit,
Diyos na poon ko’y huwag ipagkait
Sa mga anak mong napatatangkilik
Nang huwag lumbagos sa masamang hilig.
Kupkupin mo nama’t ituro ang landas
Ng katahimikan at magandang palad;
Sa pakikibaka’y tapunan ng lingap,
Kaluluwa naming nang di mapahamak.
________


Pinagkunan:

http://www.oocities.com/valkyrie47no/abanico.htm

http://emilyap08.multiply.com/journal/item/19/Mga_Tula_ni_Gat_Andres_Bonifacio_Poems_

http://tagalog-translator.blogspot.com/2008/05/tapunan-ng-lingap-tagalog-poem-of.html



Licencia de Creative Commons Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

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