Thursday, December 22, 2011

JC De Los Reyes' Encounter with Then-Fellow Presidentiable Noynoy Aquino



by JC De Los Reyes


'An argument only Jamby could hear'
During the 2010 presidential campaign, there were times I got to sit beside President Aquino as often as 2 times a week since the seating arrangement was in alphabetical order. He could be kind but when he heard something he did not like he exuded intolerance and insensitivity. I am not surprised about his overbearing demeanor. I had a number of spats with him because he thought he could bully me just as he bullied Corona and Guiterrez.

He was quite piqued when my answer to the question, "what will you do with GMA if you are president?," was, we should not focus on GMA alone but all former presidents and their cronies and sycophants who robbed the people (in retrospect, the SC saw a violation of the equal protection clause. This is somewhat similar to the Truth Commission declared unconstitutional in Bangladesh). He rudely interrogated me and demanded to know what his mom did during her term to warrant an answer as what I gave.

I was dumb-founded as Cory was the last person I was alluding to (although she in my mind has tolerated the perpetration of family dynasties for the last 25 years in the persons of the political dynasts Binay, Ampatuan, Abalos, Belmonte, and many more. She was uncommited and haphazard to the Constitution named in her honor, example, land reform, political dynasty prohibition, freedom of information, etc)

Aquino also lambasted me publicly during the Human Rights forum in the Intercon Hotel because of my stand on gun control and the RH bill. He said, "akala niyo kasi kayo lang ang magaling at mabait!," and, "sumusulpot lang kayo tuwing eleksyon!" He also said I am desperado because I criticized both Villar and Aquino for using children during the campaign. More so, "anong klaseng tao yan si Pacheco, nagwalk out sa committee hearing dahil pinipilit niyang ipapasa yung gun control bill niya!"


In my mind, if I could make a political stand against my own blood (the Gordon Family), engaging in a bloody exchange with him would be chicken feed as I dont mind being brutally frank with traditional politicians. But I kept my cool. I thought to myself, he criticized Kapatiran party but these Liberal Party people recruited turn coat senatorial candidates from Kapatiran, Alex Lacson and Martin Bautista who is pro RH bill (good-riddance!).

Aquino is dangerous in the sense that he is stubbornly opinionated! I pray for him. Actually, we are alike as I am also "sugod baboy" when it comes to fighting what I perceive is wrong. The difference, in my opinion is, I value reflection,  I sought to surround myself with men who love God and the Church and that I will never hit anybody already down or someone who can't defend himself there and then.

God help us!

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Jc de los Reyes).

 _________

Source:

de los Reyes, JC. What PNoy wants is a Supreme Court reversing the Hacienda Luisita Ruling. 19 Dec. 2011.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/jc-de-los-reyes/what-pnoy-wants-is-a-supreme-court-reversing-the-hacienda-luisita-ruling/10150519089825990


Photo credits:

Daily Tribune (Aquino photo)

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1508647847586.72901.1576030994&type=3

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.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Lasting Relevance of Gat Andres Bonifacio and His Monument in Caloocan

 by Michael Charleston Chua


AMIDST the concrete jungle in the middle of the city of Caloocan, amongst the smog of pollution, stands the dignified figure of Andres Bonifacio—national hero, Founder of the Katipunan, Father of the Filipino Nation, the great plebeian who spearheaded the Filipino revolution against the Spaniards.  The Bonifacio Monument is mute, but Bonifacio’s eyes made of bronze were shouting, reminding us for a moment to stop from the gray and frenzied hurly-burly of city life, and reflect on the greatness of the “Supremo.”

Photo Art: JB (based on the photo of the Supremo)
Andres Bonifacio (b. 30 November 1863, d. 10 May 1897), was a self-taught orphan who became a theater actor and an employee of two international companies in Manila.  His social consciousness and deep understanding of his culture led to his involvement in Dr. José Rizal’s La Liga Filipina, and in founding the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (The Highest, Most Venerable Association of the Sons of the People), or the Katipunan, in 1892.  The movement’s membership increased when he assumed the leadership as the “Supremo” and in August 1896, started the revolution which will eventually bring down the three centuries of Spanish domination in the Philippines.  In 1897, when politics prevailed among the Katipuneros in Cavite, Bonifacio was replaced by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo as leader of the revolution, in a series of events which led to the Supremo’s execution by men from the organization he himself founded.

Work on the monument started when Doña Aurora Aragon-Quezon placed a cornerstone on the site on the birth anniversary of Bonifacio, 30 November 1929.  A competition was launched and sculptors submitted proposals for the design of the monument using aliases.  The design chosen was that of Guillermo Tolentino, a graduate of classical sculpture in Rome.  The monument, which was inaugurated on 30 November 1933, is regarded as one of the world’s finest monuments.

At the top of the 45 feet high obelisk is a figure very similar to the classical sculpture “Winged Victory.”  The octagonal base represents the first eight provinces that revolted against Spain in 1896.  Around the obelisk, 23 figures in darkened bronze depict the events that led to the Philippine Revolution:  The execution of the three martyr priests Gomez, Burgos at Zamora, and the injustices committed by the Spanish colonizers against the Filipinos.

The dominating figure of course is that of Andres Bonifacio, calm and dignified amidst the turbulent events around him, with bolo on one hand and a revolver in the other.  Behind him is the figure of Emilio Jacinto, brains of the Katipunan, and a standard bearer.  Surrounding the triad are two bolo-wielding Katipuneros symbolizing the spirit of the first cry of the revolution in Balintawak—the call to arms and the people’s response to this call.

The monument was constructed during the time when the issue of Philippine Independence from the Americans was being deliberated upon, and when many of those who participated in the revolution led by Bonifacio were still around—nationalistic feeling around the country was very much intense, and not a few got emotional seeing the monument.  Some say, that although Tolentino sculpted all the other figures in the realistic style (where the pain and suffering of the Filipinos were greatly manifested), the figure of Bonifacio in Barong Tagalog was the only figure done in the classical style (imitating the Graeco-Roman figures that show no emotions).  It was said that this is what the Americans wanted because a defiant Bonifacio might inspire another rebellion.

But according to Tolentino’s student, Napoleon Abueva, the suffering figures and the dignified Bonifacio shows that whatever happens, they will prevail:
 …the hooded head with the ever-tightening garrote about to nip a life, the hapless mothers and forsaken children in Tolentino’s monumental masterpiece, allow us to relive the sufferings and dire consequences of the times… The tragic related events and corresponding feeling of desolation, of hopelessness that Tolentino’s figures evoke, contrasted by the stance of soaring confidence and hope in Bonifacio’s expressive gesture, together with the defiant bolo-wielding compatriots, provide a reassuring promise of eventual success at all costs—reminding us of an old saw which goes this way: Great was the sacrifice and great was their reward.

For Abueva, a look at the monument will give a feeling of pride in the resilient Filipino spirit, “…the legacy of a promising tomorrow gleaned from a cruel and troubled past, the accounts and instances of utterly depressed feeling, buoyed up and transformed to lofty feelings of inherent pride and enrichment of the Filipino soul…”

The monument is a testament to the superiority of Tolentino as a visual historian.  In preparation for the construction of the monument, he interviewed people and went to the extent of using the bone structure of the Supremo’s sister, Espiridiona Bonifacio, in making the head of the Supremo.  Despite the research, the monument was not spared from controversies.  It depicted Bonifacio far from the stereotype of him at that time as a man dressed in camisa de chino with a bolo at one hand and the Katipunan flag on the other, yelling like wild.  Ambeth Ocampo writes:
 When the protests came in, Tolentino countered his critics with his research. The likeness was based not only on a photograph of Bonifacio, but on the bone structure of his sister Espiridiona as well. Interviews of surviving Katipuneros gave an idea of his attire and revealed that, contrary to popular belief, Bonifacio favored in battle his gun over his bolo. One account says that on their way to Caloocan in 1896, many Katipuneros traveled disguised as women to get past the Spanish police and military. To make his baro’t saya more convincing, Bonifacio had to leave his bolo behind and take his gun instead. Tolentino left no stone unturned in his research, and he was prepared to show documentation for such minute details as the position of the holster on Bonifacio’s belt. Over and above all this, Tolentino even consulted espiritistas to discern the true likeness and character of Bonifacio.

In 1973, the title National Artist for Sculpture was conferred on Tolentino in 1973.

The site of the monument in Caloocan was aptly named “monumento” by the people themselves, and for a long long time it was the landmark for traveller’s from the north that they’re entering Manila through the MacArthur Highway.  That’s why the sight of the monument gives a feeling of journey’s end, until the North Luzon Expressway and Abueva’s The Transfiguration replaced monumento as Manila’s gateway from the north.

Today, because it has become part of the daily lives of the people of Caloocan, it seems that the monument is being neglected and only a few people notice the beauty and ponder on the significance of the monument.  But recently, the monument caught attention once again in 2002, when its transfer to faraway Tala in the same city was proposed by Mayor Rey Malonso to give way for the Light Rail Transit Extension.  This move was prevented by a resolution by the National Historical Institute, signed by its chairman Ambeth Ocampo, which reminds everyone that the Bonifacio Monument is a national shrine and that transferring it would be against the law.

The lasting relevance of the monument is a reflection of the continuing importance to the people of the life and heroism of Manong Andres himself.  Militant groups, in many protests, rally around another statue of his in Manila.  In 1997, a book by the American historian Glenn Anthony May who brought out questions on what we know about the Supremo, sparked a debate among scholars on the Philippines.  With the centennial of the Philippine Revolution and the Proclamation of Philippine Independence in the 1990’s, recent scholarship clarified misconceptions.  Before, the impression was that the educated Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo was superior in terms of leadership and military skills than the impulsive Bonifacio.  But the Supremo was found out to be an excellent organizer with a movement whose members spread out across the archipelago (Ferdinand C. Llanes (ed), Katipunan:  Isang Pambansang Kilusan, 1994); a military tactician informed of pre-colonial war strategies of the Filipinos which used the natural environment to their advantage (Zeus A. Salazar, Ang ‘Real’ ni Bonifacio Bilang Teknikang Militar sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, 1997; Zeus A. Salazar, Agosto 29-30, 1896:  Ang Pagsalakay ni Bonifacio sa Maynila, 1995); the first president of the revolutionary government (and of the country) who had a clear idea of the Filipino nation in Katagalugan, which he defined as all people who were born in the whole archipelago and not just the Tagalogs (Milagros C. Guerrero, et. al., Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution, 1996); and the leader who urged his compatriots to have bait, puri at dangal (rooting itself to the values of our ancestors) just as they were brave (Milagros C. Guerrero, Pagtanaw sa Kasaysayan, Paghahanda sa Himagsikan:  Mga Ideya ng Katipunan, 1892-1897, 1998).  With these and many other new studies, Andres Bonifacio emerges as a leader who wanted not just mere political independence, but kaginhawahan—materially and morally free—just as our ancestors were before the colonizers came.  They remain to be our aspirations for a better country, the same one that Bonifacio and our forebears before us fought for and symbolized by his monument.

Landmarks, such as the Bonifacio Monument, are reminders of our past that made us what we are today.  Landmarks do not feed us physically for sure.  But man doesn’t live by bread alone, for he has a soul that searches for identity and belonging.  The monument is a proud reminder of the greatness of our bloodline we all belong to, and of the victorious revolution we waged in 1896-1898.  To neglect these national treasures is like forgetting our own personal past and genesis—amnesia—and forgetting the heroes of 1896 is like forgetting the sacrifices of our own parents.  If we would lose the landmarks of our past, how would we ever know where we are, and where we are going as a nation?

As we gaze upon the Supremo and the men and women around that obelisk, let us think about the sacrifices of those before us who did not sleep in the dark of night, those who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their children—for us.  They want us to carry on with what they had fought for, not by the bolo in a time of revolution, but simply by being productive and vigilant citizens, just like the Supremo more than a hundred years ago.  As if we can hear him call on us from those bronze figures once again with his words from the Dekalogo ng Katipunan:  “Ang pagsusumikap at pagpipilit na kumita ng ikabubuhay ay nagpapahayag ng tunay na pagmamahal sa sarili, sa asawa, anak, kapatid, at kababayan.” (Diligence in the work that gives sustenance to thee is the true basis of love — love for thine own self, for thine wife and children, for thine brothers and countrymen.)  Personally, I see the monument as a reminder of how a working class hero made a difference, and how we can too.

22 March 2004 / 22 May 2007
University of the Philippines at Diliman


Consulted Works and Sources:

Acero, Francis.  Thoughts on the Bonifacio Monument.  Online, Internet.  Available URL:  http://www.tinig.com/v12/v12francis.html.

Agoncillo, Teodoro A. The Revolt of the Masses:  The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan.  Quezon City, U. of the Philippines P., 1956.

Bonifacio, Andres. “Decalogue” sa The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio (translated by Teodoro A. Agoncillo and S. V. Epistola.  Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963, p. 1.

Churchill, Bernardita Reyes.  Determining The Truth:  The Story of Andres Bonifacio (being critiques of and commentaries on Inventing a hero, the post-humous re-creation of Andres Bonifacio).  Manila : Manila Studies Association, 1997.

Cristobal, Adrian E.  The Tragedy of the Revolution.  Quezon City: U. of the Philippines P., 2005.

De los Reyes, Isabelo.  The Religion of the Katipunan or the Old Beliefs of the Filipinos (translated by Joseph Martin Yap).  Quezon City:  Teresita A. Alcantara, Ph.D., 2002.

Estrada, Eric and John Realubit.  “Bonifacio Monument Stays Put” in Manila Times, 25 January 2003.  Online, Internet.  Available URL:  http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/jan/25/metro/20030125met5.html.

FHL Research Team .  The Bonifacio Monument: Hail to the Chief! Online, Internet.  Available URL:  http://www.librarylink.org.ph/featarticle.asp?articleid=50.

Guerrero, Milagros C.  “Pagtanaw sa Kasaysayan, Paghahanda sa Himagsikan:  Mga Ideya ng Katipunan, 1892-1897,” Kasarinlan:  A Philippine Quarterly of Third World Studies, Vol. 14, Num. 1, 1998, pp. 37-52.

Guerrero, Milagros C., Emmanuel N. Encarnacion and Ramon N. Villegas.  “Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution,” Sulyap Kultura, Second Quarter 1996, pp. 3-12.

Ileto, Reynaldo Clemeña.  Pasyon and Revolution:  Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910.  Quezon City:  Ateneo de Manila U.P., 1979)

Llanes, Ferdinand C. (ed). Katipunan:  Isang Pambansang Kilusan.  Quezon City:  Trinitas Publishing, Inc., 1994.
Maceda, Teresita Gimenez.  “The Katipunan Discourse on Kaginhawaan:  Vision and Configuration of a Just and Free Society,” Kasarinlan:  A Philippine Quarterly of Third World Studies, Vol. 14, Num. 2, 1998, pp. 77-94.

May, Glenn Anthony.  Inventing A Hero:  The Posthumous Re-creation of Andres Bonifacio.  Quezon City:  New Day Publishers, 1997.

Medina, Isagani R.  Great Lives:  Andres Bonifacio.  Makati City:  Tahanan Books for Young Readers, 1992.
__________. (ed).  Ilang Talata Tungkol sa Paghihimagsik (Revolucion) Nang 1896-1897 Isinulat ni Carlos Ronquillo y Valdez (Hongkong 1898).  Lungsod Quezon:  U. of the Philippines P., 1996.

Navarro, Arthur M. and Raymund Arthur G. Abejo (eds).  Wika, Panitikan, Sining at Himagsikan.  Lungsod Quezon:  LIKAS, 1998.

Ocampo, Ambeth R.  Bones of Contention:  The Bonifacio Lectures.  Pasig City:  Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2001.
__________.  Bonifacio’s Bolo.  Pasig City:  Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1994.

Salazar, Zeus A.  Agosto 29-30, 1896:  Ang Pagsalakay ni Bonifacio sa Maynila (salin ni Monico M. Atienza).  Quezon City:  Miranda Bookstore, 1995.

__________.“Ang ‘Real’ ni Bonifacio Bilang Teknikang Militar sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas,” Bagong Kasaysayan:  Mga Pag-aaral sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas Lathalain Blg. 1.  Mandaluyong City:  Palimbagang Kalawakan, 1997.

__________.  “Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Kabayanihang Pilipino,” Bagong Kasaysayan:  Mga Pag-aaral sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas Lathalain Blg. 2.  Mandaluyong City:  Palimbagang Kalawakan, 1997.

Sison, Marites.  National Artist Guillermo Tolentino:  Monumental Spirit.  Online, Internet.  Available URL:http://www.filipinasmag.com/Main/Sept2003Tolentino.htm.

Ventura, Sylvia Mendez.  Supremo:  The Story of Andres Bonifacio.  Makati City:  Tahanan Books for Young Readers, 2001.


(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Michael Charlestone Briones Chua)

_________

Source:

Chua, Michael Charleston B. The Lasting Relevance of Andres Bonifacio and His Monument in Caloocan. Shouting in Bronze. 30 Noember 2011. http://philippinehistory.ph/shouting-in-bronze/




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.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

ILPS Condemns Coordinated US Police Attacks, Urges Intensification of Occupy Movement


THE Office of the Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of the International League of Peoples' Struggle endorses the statement below which has been issued by ICC members in the US on November 17, 2011. We call on all ILPS national chapters and member-organizations throughout the world to circulate this statement and undertake further statements and actions to support the Occupy Movement in the US. Thank you.


KEEP IT IN THE STREETS! INTENSIFY THE FIGHT!

Dismantled Occupy Oakland Camp (RT.com photo)



TO OCCUPY IS THE PEOPLE’S RIGHT!

In Oakland and New York City, in Denver and Portland and Chapel Hill, N.C., the 1 percent sent their gun thugs to destroy the Occupy Movement. They want to scare us off the streets and back into the ballot box, beat us back into the good-cop, bad-cop game of the corporate-run Republican and Democratic parties. But behind the façade of electoral politics, the unelected tyrants on Wall Street continue to rule the country. It is they, not the people, who tell the politicians what to do.

The cowardly attacks by Wall Street’s mercenaries in blue were coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That’s the same FBI whose COINTELPRO program murdered dozens of Black, Latino and Native activists in the ‘60s and ‘70s.


WHEN THE ENEMY ATTACKS YOU, YOU’RE DONG SOMETHING RIGHT

Along with their cops, the 1 percent have unleashed their media. “Enough,” say the billionaire-owned papers and TV stations. “You’ve made your point. Now go home and leave things to the politicians. You’re only the people. What do you think this is, a democracy?” But when the enemy attacks you, you know you’re doing the right thing.


HAS CORPORATE AMERICA STOPPED ATTACKING THE WORKING CLASS

Have the 1 percent stopped laying us off and attacking our wages and benefits? Have they stopped evicting us and foreclosing on our homes? Have they stopped firing teachers and bus drivers and hospital workers while they hoard trillions of dollars that we produced? Have they stopped plotting to gut our Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, our Postal Service, our schools and hospitals?

Have they stopped denying 30 million people the right to a decent job? Have they stopped denying millions the right to medical care. Have they stopped the mass incarceration of youth of color whose communities the banks and corporations have destroyed. Have they stopped waging bloody and unjust imperialist wars all over the world?


RT.com video on the first Occupy Wall Street fatality (she later had a miscarriage)



 

IF THERE IS NO STRUGGLE, THERE IS NO PROGRESS

The immortal words of Frederick Douglas are as true today as they were in 1857. Real change has never been made at the ballot box.

Look at the 1930s. How did we win Social Security and Medicare, the 8-hour day, unemployment insurance and the minimum wage, the right to retire and the right to organize, all the things they want to take away from us. Workers won these things by marching and striking, by occupying factories and physically blocking evictions, by shutting entire cities down.

Look at the 1960s. How did Black people win basic civil rights and overthrow the regime of legal segregation. By marches and boycotts, by sit-ins and rebellions in the streets. The right to vote was not won by voting.

These struggles were also victorious because they were part of a worldwide struggle against the power of monopoly capital.


POWER IS THE ONLY LANGUAGE THE 1 PERCENT UNDERSTAND

And we have power, the power to shut this country down! Oakland dockworkers, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, showed the way when they shut the port down the port on Oct. 25 to protest the police assault on Occupy Oakland.


NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

The 1 percent want to take everything we have left. They won’t stop unless we stop them!

Now is not the time to retreat! It is time to intensify the fight! To occupy streets and parks-and factories and schools and shopping malls and banks and stock exchanges! Workers created the wealth of this country! Bankers didn’t! CEOs didn’t! Cops didn’t!


THEY DENY US THE RIGHT TO A SECURE JOB, TO A HOME, TO HEALTH CARE, TO EDUCATION AND TO LIVE IN PEACE AND EQUALITY! WE HAVE A RIGHT TO TAKE WHAT IS OURS!

SAVE THE DATE! BUILDING A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THE GLOBAL 99%! MON 12/5/11 6:30 PM

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER - SOLIDARITY CENTER -55 W. 17 St., Suite 5C -

New York, NY 10011 - Suggested Donation: $5-10


 (Reprinted with permission from Prof. Joma Sison)

____


Source:

ILPS CONDEMNS COORDINATED US POLICE ATTACKS, URGES THE PEOPLE TO INTENSIFY THE FIGHT. Joma Sison;'s wall. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150541180623066



Photo credit:

 http://rt.com/usa/news/occupy-oakland-camp-dismantled-305/


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 13, 2011

WALKING HISTORY: We Did NOT Come from the Ita, Indones, nor Malay!

WE were taught in school that the Filipinos came from the Aetas, Indonesians and Malays who came here in different “waves of migrations” as hypothesized by archaeologist H. Otley Beyer.  The aetas came first from Borneo to Palawan through land bridges that appeared in Southeast Asia during the Ice Age.  Then, through boats, the Indonesians, then the Malays.  When this was first taught to me by my teacher in Grade 1, my beloved Ma’am Luz, I imagined aetas bringing sacks of land and were putting soil on their way as they walked on the sea to form the “land bridges.”  Far out.


Right photo - MT3 from Callao Cave,  oldest human remain from the Philippines to date  (Courtesy of Dr. Armand Mijares)

Left photo - Xiao Chua looks at skullcap of  the Tabon Cave Woman

Only when I went to the University of the Philippines Diliman and took my first history class under Prof. Carlos Tatel that I learned that as early as the 1970s, the Beyer theory was already challenged and most in the academe does not believe it anymore!  Although the aetas came here using land bridges, that’s the only verifiable thing from the theory. Shock.



The Austronesian-Speaking World (Courtesy of Dr. Peter Bellwood)

According to F. Landa Jocano, there were already people who evolved from here.  According to archaeologists, evidence can be found from stone tools left by the so-called Homo erectus philippinensis in a Cagayan Valley cave (500,000/250,000 BC) and the Homo sapiens in Novaliches (150,000 - 100,000 BC) as well as the human remains of a woman (skullcap and jaw) found in Tabon Cave of a homo sapiens sapiens (28,000 - 7,000/5,000 BC).  Dr. Armand Mijares and his team recently found what is now believed to be the oldest human remains in the country, a third metatarsal bone of a foot found in Callao Cave in Cagayan, that predates the Tabon Man, 67,000 years ago.


Xiao Chua with Wilhelm Solheim & Peter Bellwood

The 18th Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA) Congress, NISMED Auditorium, UP Diliman, March 2006

But the group of ancestors who can culturally explain our race are what social scientists call the Austronesians.  Originally it is a term ascribed for the southern (from the Latin auster, south winds) island (from the Greek nêsos) language family that spread across Southeast Asia.  There are two competing hypothesis on the origin of the group of people that spoke these languages.  Wilhelm Solheim II, the father of Southeast Asian Archaeology believed that these people he called “Nusantao” came from the Sulu-Celebes area.  This is island origin hypothesis that theorizes that the peoples of Southeast Asia spread from the islands through networks of trade, intermarriages and migrations.

This was challenged by a younger archaeologist Peter Bellwood, who found different jade lingling-os or earrings across Southeast Asia with almost the same design, hinting that the Austronesians came “out of Taiwan” some 5,000 to 1,500 BC to the Philippine Islands.  In whatever case, the two theories can agree that the Filipinos were one of the first Austronesians and that, as I was told by Bellwood himself, a sophisticated maritime culture developed in these islands and with the use of outrigger canoes, the spread of people became possible in Southeast Asia, Oceania, New Zealand, Hawaii and as far as Easter Island in South America and Madagascar in Africa!


Caracoa, warship of the Austronesians, was the basis of ship shown in AMAYA.

Therefore, despite the 171 languages and culture in the Philippines, we can have a basis of unity through our base culture of our Austronesian speaking ancestors.

(as written)


(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Michael Charleston Briones Chua)

_____

Source:


Chua, Xiao. WALKING HISTORY: WE DID NOT COME FROM THE ITA, INDONES & MALAY,  
Good Morning Philippines. 9 November 2011




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 12, 2011

In Support of the Egyptians vs. the US-backed Military Regime

by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
11 November 2011

THE International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), with over 300 member- organizations from all regions of the world, conveys most militant greetings of solidarity and support to the Egyptian people on the occasion of the International Day to Defend their struggle for freedom, human rights and social justice on 12 November 2011.

We join the Egyptian people in condemning and fighting the gross and systematic violations of human rights rights by the US-backed military regime that has hijacked the victory of the Egyptian people in overthrowing the corrupt and authoritarian regime of Mohammed Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for 30 years.

We support the people’s movement to stop the killings of activists and protesters, the incarceration of those who dare expose the repression and exploitation of the Egyptian people, the violence committed against Egyptian women, and the climate of fear and terror that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is spreading to snuff out the burning desire of the Egyptian people for fundamental changes.

The continuing stranglehold of the military on the Egyptian political system is directed by US imperialism to suppress the people’s movement that has surged in Egypt since January. The US is hell-bent on maintaining its neocolonial control of Egypt and preventing the uprising of the Egyptian people from turning into an anti-imperialist struggle.

Egypt has long been dominated by the US economically and militarily. It has been under a US puppet regime that plays a crucial role in the US-Zionist offensives against the Arab and Palestinian people. Since 1975, the US has poured in more than US$50 billion in the country to prop up and use the Mubarak regime as a despotic tool of US interests.

In this period when the people of Middle East and North Africa are rising up to assert national independence and democratic rights, the US is frantically trying to retain a new set of puppets in order to perpetuate control over the vast energy resources of the Middle East and Africa. Egypt is a strategically important US neocolonial base in the region.

The SCAF is dependent on US military support that runs at US $ 1.8 billion in the current year. It is directed by the US to conduct a campaign of suppression against the Egyptian people’s resistance. Both US imperialism and the persistent fascist Egyptian military regime are responsible for the bloody crimes against the people.





We are inspired by the courage of the Egyptian people in continuing the struggle for fundamental economic, social and political changes despite the tremendous odds. We urge them to persevere and intensify their struggle. Only through revolutionary struggle do they have a chance to overcome the escalating oppression and exploitation brought about by the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system.

It is necessary for the Egyptian people to link up their resistance with that of other peoples in the Middle East, Africa and the entire world. Through their concerted struggles, the peoples of the world can inflict powerful blows on the imperialist powers and the puppet regimes and aim for the realization of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, development and world peace.

We in the ILPS salute the heroic people of Egypt. We stand with you in your fight against the brutality of the US-directed military regime and for your national and social liberation from the scourge of imperialism and the local reactionary classes. You struggle is our struggle and your revolutionary advance is ours.###


(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Joma Sison)

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Sison, Joma. IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE AGAINST THE US-BACKED MILITARY REGIME. 11 Nov. 2011. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=8913#more-8913


Photo credits: 

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBAo4unwHwW4fR2_SiiAz54AFd5T-LXajp4PhTxQhNS1T7CEtdzv9N5WtEJBEEmzYtXqS7Kh2bE59ikrXLUVbs2w6LGmmTYEVukOe-XrKnnpqDikVh4jnxLTDG4d3VQlZxqCwokCMGYrg/s1600/egjypt_i.jpg

http://gaza.haimbresheeth.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Obama-and-Mubarak.gif

 
Video from RT.com

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Death and (our) Beginnings

by Michael Charlestone Briones Chua


“LANGIT, LUPA, IMPIYERNO, IM-IM-IMPIYERNO" was a popular game that we played as kids.  Years ago, I suddenly wondered why we teach this to kids when it describes violence, “saksak puso, tulo ang dugo!”  Imagine.


But it describes our Christian Worldview and our belief in the afterlife.  Note that although we have indigenous terms for heaven (langit) and earth (lupa), we borrowed the European term “inferno.”  This means that before Catholicism, our ancient Filipinos had no concept of a place of eternal suffering.  As it was explained to me by Dr. Zeus Salazar, “langit” for them is the place of the “bayani,” the rest goes to the underworld which is not really a bad place.

How to get to the afterlife?  Expert interpretations of archaeological artifacts based on oral traditions can help explain this.

Many of our Austronesian ancestors bury their dead in burial jars such as those found in the Tabon Cave Complex, Palawan in 1964.  Archaeologists classify these jars as primary burial jars, where they place the whole corpse, to secondary burial jars, smaller ones where they place bones.


One of the secondary burial jars found there was the Manunggul Jar, dated as far back to the Neolithic Period, about 710 B.C.  Described by Dr. Robert Fox as “the work of an artist and master potter,” its design became part of the reverse side of our soon to be demonetized 1,000.00 bill.  The two figures riding a boat reflect the effect of the Ancient Filipinos’ already sophisticated maritime culture to their worldview as studied by Dr. Bernadette Abrera:  the “kaluluwa,” accompanied by an “abay” (companion) goes to the afterlife passing by the sea.
 
In many oral traditions, the “kaluluwa” goes back to the world to guide the living people and return in nature:  in trees, mountains, rivers, rock and soil formations (the aetas call Mt. Pinatubo Apo Namalyari or the Lord who can make things possible, and the “nuno sa punso”).  That’s why design of the Manunggul Jar shows us not two “kaluluwas” but three:  The dead person, the “abay” and the boat, all of which had faces.  This is the reason why our ancestors had so much respect for the environment not as dead things but creatures with life and soul, the home of their ancestors.

Some believe that these jars are so important people bring them every time they migrate.  When they started settling down, they eventually buried their dead in soil, but as found in a Batanes gravesite, the marker stones formed a boat shape.  In Cordillera, coffins were boat-shaped.  All these make one wonder if the word “bangkay” has something to do with “bangka.”

This All Saints Day, let us remember how we Filipinos treat death with style then and now.  Then, we stay awake all night, “lamay,” because the aswang might come and eat our loved one, and replace the corpse with a puno ng saging.  So although we grieve, we also sing the virtues of the dead (Ilocano dung-aw as studied by Dr. Lars Ubaldo), and we gamble (saklaan fund-raising for those left behind).  Wakes become family reunion as we help each other cope with loss and remember happy memories our loved one left us, then we laugh.  What a happy colorful people we are.


(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Michael Charlestone Briones Chua)


_________


Source:

Chua, Michael, Charlestone Briones. Death and (our) Beginnings. 26 October 2011. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150376419523622


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, November 9, 2011

Ang Pagtingin ng Ama ng Pantayong Pananaw sa tumukoy sa wikang P/Filipino bilang "language of the streets"

Pinagsamang lathain nila Dok Zeus Salazar,  Michael Charleston Briones Chua, at Jesusa Bernardo



Dahil marami ang nagtatanong kung ano ang masasabi ng isa sa pangunahing tagapagtaguyod ng Wikang Filipino sa hindi lang sa akademya kundi para sa bayan upang makabuo ng isang talastasang bayan ukol sa artikulo ni James Soriano sa Manila Bulletin ukol sa Wikang Ingles sa Pilipinas, aking pinapaskil sa facebook ang pakikipagtalastasan sa akin ni Dr. Zeus A. Salazar

Dok Zeus Salazar, historyador, antropologo, guro, at Ama ng Pantayong Pananaw
Photo Art: JB
Ang James bang ito ay yung nagsulat sa Inquirer (sic) tungkol sa kanyang pagiging Inglesero (kung papaano siya naging Inglesero at kung papaano niya napagtanto na mas malalim ang Pilipino, di tulad ng pagkakaalam niya sa simula; ngunit nasisiyan pa rin siya na siya ay Inglesero dahil ito ang karaniwang landas tungo sa tagumpay sa ating lipunan ngayon, sa ngayon)? May katotohanan itong huling bahagi at nakita ito ng kanyang nanay na nagdril sa kanya mula sa pagkabata upang siya ay maging Inglesero [bagamat hindi talaga sapat ang kanyang kaalaman sa wikang Ingles, tulad ng makikita sa napakaraming Inglesero at nagpapaka-Inglesero, laluna yung mga nasa Konggreso; "debater" daw siya kaya malamang na kinagaya niya ang punto ng Kano o baka Ingles pa, na hindi garantiya na gagap niya ang balarila ng Anglo-Amerikano]. Ang nakainis siguro sa iyo ay nilait pa niya ang wikang Tagalog/P/filipino dahil sa kanyang palagay ito ay wikang lansangan lamang at hindi wika ng edukasyon [may katotohan ito sa pangkalahatan hanggang ngayon at ito nga ang ating kinakabaka hanggang ngayon at sa palagay ko tayo ay magtatagumpay, sa simpleng dahil na ang wikang pambansa ay wika nga ng lansangan (ibig sabihin, ng Bayan) kung kaya't hindi na maiiiwasan na maging wika ng buong sistema ng edukasyon, bagay na makikita sa kasalukuyang islogan ng buwan ng wika; ang kailangan lang ay ang patuloy at masinsinang pakikibaka] at hindi rin wikang intelektuwal [ang dahilan nito ay marahil dalawa: ang una, wala siyang alam sa mga nakasulat sa P/filipino at Tagalog, bagay na hindi nakapagtataka dahil sa pangyayaring nakatuon (itinuon ng kanyang nanay dahil sa carrierismo) ang kanyang pansin at punyagi sa Ingles at sa kulturang Anglo-Amerikano (samakatuwid iyon ang pinag-aksayahan ng panahon para magtagumpay sa lipunang Inglesero ng Kasalukuyan); ang pangalawa, hindi siya mismo isang intelektuwal (dahil ang isang tunay na intelektuwall ay interesado sa lahat, sa iba't ibang wika at kultura at sa sarili niyang (mga) wika at kalinangan at kabihasnan). May katiting siyang pagka-intelektuwal dahil sa napuna niya naman ang mga katangian ng sariling wika, hindi man niya ito ginagamit liban sa pakikipag-usap di-umano sa mga katulong, drayber, atbp.; tulad ng dating lakad-patong dating Miss Universe na si Gloria Diaz na pagkatapos ay natutong masinsinang magsalita ng Tagalog dahil naging aktres simula nang naging "Pinakamagandang Hayo[?] sa Balat ng Lupa" ni Vic Vargas. Sa ganito, mas intelehente pa siya sa kanyang sa wari'y katoto na si Sergio Apostol; ang bentahe niya rito ay mas bata pa siya at may pag-asa pang matuto at magbago. Batid na niya ang kadakilaan ng wikang atin; nais niya lang magtagumpay sa kasalukuyang lipunan ng Ingleserong elit.
Tagalog marahil si James; "miseducated" lang sa wari sa sentido ni Constantino (na sa kabila ng lahat ng kanyang anti-amerikanismo ay nagsulat ng halos lahat ng kanyang akda sa Ingles, pinasalin niya lang ang ilan, bagamat Tagalog siyang malapit sa bayang kinagisnan ni Balagtas); tila naman hindi siya katulad ni DUA BALABAL ng SOAS daw at ng City University of London, isang Tagalog din, na ngayon ay nasa Latvia (?) na raw -- ipinagtanggol niya, tulad ng alam ninyo ni Atoy, ang Ingles sa pamamagitan ng internasyunalismo. Hindi rin s katulad si James ng ilang di-Tagalog na ipinagtatanggol ang kanilang pagiging Inglesero sa pamamgitan ng kanilang wikang etniko na kadalasan ay hindi na nila talagang gagap (si Apostol ay ganito). Ipinapahayag ni James ang kanyang "miseducation" (maling pagkapalaki) sa wikang Ingles at tanto at batid niya ang importansya ng wikang pambansa; kailangan lang kasi ng maraming umangat sa buhay na makibagay sa kasalukuyang lipunang Inglesero. Ingat.
--Dok Zeus Salazar
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Pinagkunan:

Chua, Michael Charleston Briones. SI ZEUS SALAZAR UKOL KAY JAMES SORIANO, 30 Agosto 2011. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150298615343622

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Nota ni Jesusa Bernardo:

Ang James Soriano na tinutukoy ay nagsulat ng artikulong nakakabahala at masasabing nagiinsulto sa wikang Filipino bilang "language of the streets." Wika daw ng kalye ang ating wika, samantalang ang wikang Ingles daw ay wika ng kaalaman.

Kung si Ka Tony Donato, isang komersyal na alagad ng sining at dating mananaliksik ng National Historical Commission ang tatanungin, siguradong sasabihin niyang si James Soriano ay isang "pusang tumatahol." Lol. Ako naman iba ang sasabihin ko diyan dahil malamang ay isang mestizo si James Soriano kaya masasabing isa siyang hybrid ng pusa (Filipino) at aso (Westerner) na mas gustong tumahol kaysa ngumiyaw.

Sabagay, umamin naman itong si James Soriano na "split-level Filipino" siya, na "disconnected" siya sa pagiging Pilipino, sa identidad bilang mamamayan ng, at lahing mula sa, ating bansang Pilipinas. Sa huli, sinabi niyang ang wikang P/Filipino ay maaring maging wika ng kaalaman nguni't hindi ng mga nakapagaral. Ang basa ko dito ay nakikita niya ang katotohanan na sa kasalukuyan, ang ating sariling wika ay ginagamit ng wasto o lubos sa ating sistemang pang-edukasyon. Sabi nga ni Dok Zeus Salazar ay kailangan pa ng maiging pakikibago para makamit ito. 


Ang tanong ko dito ay bakit ba kailangang ipinaglalaban pa ang ating wika upang mangibabaw ito? Bakit ang ating sariling wika ang dehado samantalang tayo ay nandito sa ating sariling lupa at hindi sa lupain ng imperyalistang Kalbong Agila o ng puting bakang Espana? Hindi ba dapat na ang ating sariling wika ang nananaig? Matagal na tayong malaya sa mga puting mananakop, hindi ba?

Ang mga katulad ni James Soriano ay nakikita, nararamdaman, at naiintindihan ang katotohanan na ang wikang Ingles, imbes na ang wikang P/Filipino, ang wika ng may kapangyarihan o impluwensya sa bayang ito. Maraming nagalit sa pang-insulto niya sa ating wika nguni't ano ba ang puno't dulo nito?  Hindi si James Soriano kundi ang sistemang pinaiiral ng mga 'tumatahol, hindi ngumingiyaw' na mga elit ang ugat nito. Iyan ang ating puntiryahin, ang ating bigyang lunas.


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Ang  sipi ng Agosto 24, 2011 na artikulo nitong si James Soriano ay tinanggal na daw* sa Manila Bulletin dahil sa hindi magandang tugon ng mga mambabasa kabilang sa internet ay matatagpuan dito: 
http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/james-soriano-column-filipino-language/

Language, learning, identity, privilege

By JAMES SORIANO
 August 24, 2011, 4:06am

MANILA, Philippines — English is the language of learning. I’ve known this since before I could go to school. As a toddler, my first study materials were a set of flash cards that my mother used to teach me the English alphabet.

My mother made home conducive to learning English: all my storybooks and coloring books were in English, and so were the cartoons I watched and the music I listened to. She required me to speak English at home. She even hired tutors to help me learn to read and write in English.

In school I learned to think in English. We used English to learn about numbers, equations and variables. With it we learned about observation and inference, the moon and the stars, monsoons and photosynthesis. With it we learned about shapes and colors, about meter and rhythm. I learned about God in English, and I prayed to Him in English.

Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics, except that it was graded the same way as Science, Math, Religion, and English. My classmates and I used to complain about Filipino all the time. Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes.

We used to think learning Filipino was important because it was practical: Filipino was the language of the world outside the classroom. It was the language of the streets: it was how you spoke to the tindera when you went to the tindahan, what you used to tell your katulong that you had an utos, and how you texted manong when you needed “sundo na.”

These skills were required to survive in the outside world, because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino.

That being said though, I was proud of my proficiency with the language. Filipino was the language I used to speak with my cousins and uncles and grandparents in the province, so I never had much trouble reciting.

It was the reading and writing that was tedious and difficult. I spoke Filipino, but only when I was in a different world like the streets or the province; it did not come naturally to me. English was more natural; I read, wrote and thought in English. And so, in much of the same way that I learned German later on, I learned Filipino in terms of English. In this way I survived Filipino in high school, albeit with too many sentences that had the preposition ‘ay.’

It was really only in university that I began to grasp Filipino in terms of language and not just dialect. Filipino was not merely a peculiar variety of language, derived and continuously borrowing from the English and Spanish alphabets; it was its own system, with its own grammar, semantics, sounds, even symbols.

But more significantly, it was its own way of reading, writing, and thinking. There are ideas and concepts unique to Filipino that can never be translated into another. Try translating bayanihan, tagay, kilig or diskarte.

Only recently have I begun to grasp Filipino as the language of identity: the language of emotion, experience, and even of learning. And with this comes the realization that I do, in fact, smell worse than a malansang isda. My own language is foreign to me: I speak, think, read and write primarily in English. To borrow the terminology of Fr. Bulatao, I am a split-level Filipino.

But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege. I may be disconnected from my being Filipino, but with a tongue of privilege I will always have my connections.

So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language.


*Subali't mukhang naibalik, dito sa MB.com na URL na ito: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/331851/language-learning-identity-privilege





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 6, 2011

Condemning the Bald Eagle's TPPA scheme to further control Trans-Pacific Trade

by Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
30 October 2011



THE International League of Peoples’ Struggle resolutely condemns the drive of the US government and its monopoly capitalists to realize the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as a scheme to impose their power over trade and investment flows. This would aggravate the exploitation of the working people and the environment as a way of raising superprofits and seeking to cope with the grave economic, social and economic crisis.

The TPPA was initiated by the Bush regime. Since March 2010, negotiations have been proceeded, with the objective of creating a legally-binding free trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific region. Right now, the TPPA talks involve nine countries – the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Peru, Chile, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Singapore. Japan is poised to join. The USA has free trade agreements (FTAs) with four of the nine countries.

The TPPA is conceived of as an economic dimension of the growing US confrontation with China. This is a confrontation which is a growing danger to world peace. Peoples’ organizations in the nine countries covered by the TPPA have therefore agreed to expose and oppose the callous and unjust demands of the US corporations and the US Trade Representative regarding the TPPA.

At first, the talks on the TPPA advanced when the US delegation put forward specific text, revealing that the entire TPPA process is US-driven. Delays arose when the US Trade Representative waited for the FTAs of the US with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to be ratified by the US Congress.


What are the objectives of the US corporations in the TPPA?

These are: 1) to subordinate the health and medicines policies of all other countries to the demands of giant US pharmaceutical companies, including the extension of patent rights to allow the charging of higher prices for a longer period, and restrictions on the right of governments to control prices for medicines; 2)to require that all government procurement be open to US corporations – no local content or local training polices; 3) to require that all media policies that support local cultural content be abolished, allowing complete domination by US media corporations; 4) to impose US copyright law on all other countries – greatly extended copyright and royalty payments which greatly favour US corporations; 5) to make internet service providers criminally liable for any copyright piracy on their networks; and 6) to demand tariff-free access for US exports into all markets, while limiting corresponding access to US markets.


What would be the result?

This neo-liberal over-reach by the giant US corporations would deliver a disastrous blow on jobs, health, and freedom of communications and information in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The just response to these outrageous dictates of US monopoly capitalism is for the people to mobilize themselves and and protest! And the people’s protests have taken place in Auckland New Zealand, Chicago and Peru, three of the sites of negotiating rounds.

The people’s campaign has been effective. The initial objective was for the TPPA deal to be signed by November 2011, and unveiled at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader Summit in Honolulu as the blueprint for all member economies, including most of the ASEAN nations, Russia and China. But now that won’t happen.

Instead some kind of progress report may be given to APEC and then talks will proceed into 2012. The opposition of trade union, health and media sectors to the US corporations in the US itself and in other countries has delayed this obnoxious scheme. The ILPS is determined to work vigorously in cooperation with other forces in order to expand and intensify the people’s protest movement against the TPPA.###

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Joma Sison)

________


Source:

Sison, Jose Maria. ILPS CONDEMNS TPPA AS US SCHEME TO FURTHER CONTROL TRANS-PACIFIC TRADE. 30 October 2011. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=8858#more-8858


Photo credits:

http://www.nznotforsale.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/WebPix-Teach-in-and-Strategy-Gathering-300x109.png

http://www.nznotforsale.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/As-Pos-No-TPPA.png
http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQCt63Q8MwFGCX4g&url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-PPNVUSKxTNM%2FTm7eFWvXPxI%2FAAAAAAAAABg%2FXUAp5u8NyTM%2Fs320%2Fphoto-tpp%2Bprotest.jpg



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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Pakikiramay kay Manuel "Ka Nonong" Alabado, Unyonista

Ni Jose Maria Sison at Julieta de Lima (Ka Joma at Ka Julie)


Taos puso kaming nakikiramay sa pamilya ni Manuel (Ka Nonong) Alabado sa kanyang pagpanaw. Nagdadalamhati tayo sa pagkawala ng isang minamahal subalit ipinagbubunyi natin ang lahat ng mabuting gawa hindi lamang para sa pamilya kundi para sa sambayanang Pilipino.

Makabuluhan ang buhay ni Ka Nonong dahil sa matapat at puspusang paninilbihan niya sa uring manggawa at sambayanang Pilipino. Wala pag-iimbot na nag-alay at nag-ambag siya sa kilusang paggawa at kilusang pambansa demokratiko sa abot ng kanyang kakayahan.

Nakasama namin si Ka Nong sa pakikibaka. Ipinagmamalaki namin at lahat ng makamabayan at progresibo ang kanyang katapatan, kasigasigan at walang takot na pagkilos. Mahusay na ginampanan niya ang kanyang mga tungkulin kahit na ano ang mga kahirapan, mga panganib at kalupitan ng kaaway, laluna sa panahon ng pasistang diktadura ni Marcos.

Sa dekada ng sesenta, madalas na magpunta sa bahay namin si Ka Nonong para pag-usapan ang gawain sa kilusan at para maghanda ng mga plakard at iba pang kailangan para sa mga rali at aklasan. Malapit siya kay Ka Arthur Garcia na unang nakakilala at nagpaunlad sa kanya bilang kabataang makabayan at unyonista.

Matatag at militante si Ka Nonong sa pagkilos bilang opisyal ng unyon na itinatag ng Kabataang Makabayan sa US Tobacco Corporation. Isa siyang ulirang lider manggagawa sa matinding tunggalian ng uri at mahabang aklasan sa USTC. Gayundin sa pagtulong sa pagbubuo at pagpapaunlad ng mga unyon sa iba pang pabrika tulad ng Manila Cordage at San Miguel Brewery.

Sa ikalawang Kongreso ng Kabataang Makabayan noong 1966, iginawad sa kanya ang pagkilala bilang matatag at militanteng aktibista. Naging kasapi siya ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas dahil sa kanyang mataas na kamalayan at magsigasig na pagkilos bilang isang rebolusyonaryong proletaryo.

Mahalaga ang kanyang ambag sa muling pagtatatag ng Partido sa liwanag ng Marxism-Leninismo-Maoismo at sa pagbubuo ng sangay ng Partido sa pabrika at sa komunidad.

Madalas din siyangg kasama sa pagtatanggol sa pamunuan ng Partido sa mga pagpupulong at mahahalagang pakikipag-ugnayan sa iba pang pwersa.

Ang mga ambag ni Ka Nonong sa demokratikong rebolusyon ng bayan at sa sosyalistang hinaharap ay hindi kailanman maglalaho. Bahagi na ito ng laging lumalaki at lumalakas ng kilusan ng uring manggagawa at sambayanang Pilipino para sa pambansang kalayaan, demokrasya at sosyalismo. Mananatili sa ala-ala ng bayan ang maningning na pamana ni Ka Nonong. ###

(May pagpayag ng pagsipi/paglimbag mula kay Ka Joma Sison)

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Pinagkunan:

Sison, Jose Maria at de Lima, Julieta. PAKIKIRAMAY SA PAMILYA NI MANUEL (KA NONONG) ALABADO. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=8855#more-8855


Hilaw na Larawan mula sa:

 (AP). http://www.daylife.com/photo/0er74bP8rF94A?q=Ferdinand+Marcos



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, October 26, 2011

The Bald Eagle & NATO in wicked glee over Libyan war spoils

Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
23 October 2011


The US and its imperialist allies in the NATO targeted Gaddafi and his regime for complete destruction because he had grievously offended them in the following ways: he called for the nationalization and retraction of so-called neoliberal concessions that he had granted to the Western oil companies, he refused to allow the African Command (Africom) of the US to establish its central base in Libya and he pushed a gold-backed dinar as the currency of Africa.

To set up Gaddafi for the kill, so-called human rights organizations financed by the Central Intelligence and the National Endowment for Democracy fabricated exaggerated reports which were subsequently played up by the US and other Western mass media depicting him as wantonly killing his political opponents. Such reports became the basis of the UN Security Council resolution allowing the imperialist powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and to undertake all necessary measures supposedly to protect civilians.

As soon as the US and its NATO allies got the resolution, they proceeded to attack Libya’s military and civilian structures, using their high tech air power (including jet fighters, cruise missiles, predator drones and helicopter gunships) and all sorts of bombs (including oxygen-sucking white phosphorus bombs) in order to cripple and destroy the Gaddafi regime. The so-called humanitarian intervention to protect civilians was nothing but a deceptive expression for an extremely brutal war of aggression against Libya and the Libyan people.

The aerial bombardments by the Western powers combined with the ground action by the various armed rabble brigades of the US-NATO sponsored National Transitional Council in massacring more than 60,000 civilians and destroying entire housing blocks and social infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, cultural, sports and recreation centers and sections of the great underground water system of Libya. The Western mass media and the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera rarely showed the mangled bodies of the victims and the ruins of civilian structures even as they kept on showing the rebel rabble ever reveling and ever shooting into the air with all kinds of weapons.

The rebel bands served as baits and guides for aerial attacks and for massacring civilians and wrecking buildings on the ground. Sirte became an untenable position of defense for Gaddafi as it was almost totally razed to the ground from aerial and artillery bombardments. Upon the signal of a US predator drone, French jet fighter planes attacked the convoy of Gaddafi as it tried to escape from Sirte. Only subsequently were the armed puppets on the ground able to seek out and capture Gaddafi and finally manhandle and murder him in full public view over global television.

Following the murder and martyrdom of Gaddafi, the U.S. and NATO allies are jubilant over the prospect of collecting the spoils of war. They control the huge amount of Libya’s sovereign wealth deposited in various Western banks. They are poised to collect payment in advance for the overstated costs of the bombardment and destruction of Libyan lives and property. They are set to tighten their control over the oilfields, grab the gold resources and privatize the water system of Libya and cash in on contracts for the reconstruction of what they have destroyed.

The national traitors that have collaborated with the US and the other Western powers in taking over Libya have been in disarray and will continue to be so to the full advantage of their imperialist masters. So far, they have been put together under the monarchist flag of convenience by their hatred of the Gaddafi regime and by special advisors and special forces who have been kept invisible by television. The US expects to lord over the local conflicting forces by establishing in Libya a US military base for its AFRICOM.

Serious contradictions exist among the NTC principal leaders who defected from Gaddafi regime over the murder of fellow defector NTC commander-in-chief Abdul Fatah Younis whose Obeidi tribe is aching for revenge. There are potentially violent contradictions between the Qatar-financed Islamists (including veterans of the pro-Al Qaida Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who now head the military councils of Tripoli and Benghazi) and the secularists or otherwise who rely on the Misrata and Zintan brigades. Still, there are other complex contradictions involving a wide range of armed factions, tribes and regions.

The overthrow of the Gaddafi regime will not result in democracy, even if some elections would be staged. Whichever of the many armed factions comes on top will tend to rule with an iron fist and will be corrupt as it will wield absolute power. We have seen on global television the wanton violation of the human rights of the civilians and prisoners by those who have overthrown the Gaddafi regime. We have seen the cynicism and callousness of these imperialist agents of sham democracy in the way that they have flaunted and then waved away the flagrant murder of their own commander-in-chief Younnis and their prisoner Gaddafi.

Certain factors are bound to keep the situation in Libya volatile and rife for the growth of a national liberation movement. Most important of such factors are the puppet, violent and corrupt character of the new ruling clique, the persistence of many conflicting armed factions, the still significant following of Gaddafi and the certain loss of social benefits as a result of the widespread destruction of the social infrastructure and increased profit-taking of the imperialists. The people stand to lose such free social services as education , health care, housing,and electricity, subsidized car purchases and negligible gasoline costs, allowances for newly-weds, subsidy for farming and so on.

No matter how much the fallen Gaddafi is ridiculed by the imperialist forces and puppets who have overthrown and murdered him. His martyrdom and final stand as an anti-imperialist fighter can still be inspiring to the tribes and the black Libyans (one third of the population) whose support Gaddafi developed and to the greater number of people who are bound to be oppressed and exploited by the Western imperialists and their puppets.

The anti-imperialist successors of Gaddafi are still the ones in the best position at the moment to carry out a national liberation struggle. But the conditions are also favorable for the rise of patriotic and progressive forces, including the revolutionary party of the working class, the trade union movement and other democratic mass formations, which have been suppressed since 1973 under Gaddafi’s anti-imperialist but anti-communist rule. ###

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Joma Sison)

__________


Source:

Sison, Jose Maria. US and NATO are jubilant over the spoils of war in Libya. 23 October 2011. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=8826


Photo credits:

RT.com

https://desertlocalnews.com/wp-content/themes/transcript/timthumb.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fdesertlocalnews.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2Fgaddaffi_dead.jpg&q=90&w=340&h=254&zc=1

http://www.setyoufreenews.com/2011/06/11/nato-gaddafi-is-legitimate-target-video/





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, October 15, 2011

In Support of the Ongoing Occupation of Wall Street


Statement in Support of “Occupy Wall Street” Movement
ILPS - US International Coordinating Committee Members, October 13, 2011



IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL

The International League of Peoples Struggle, representing hundreds of organizations in 43 countries, stands with the young workers, students and unemployed occupying Wall Street and city centers around the United States. You are fighting a battle that needs to be fought. You have a right to march and protest without fear of arrest or brutality.


MASS ACTION IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD 

You are right to take to the streets in mass action rather than waiting for change from overpaid Republican and Democratic politicians who are on corporate payrolls. You are right to follow the militant path taken by people from Egypt and Tunisia to Greece and Spain, from Britain to Chile to Wisconsin. From Social Security and the 8-hour day in the 1930s to civil rights laws in the 1960s, mass action is the only way people in this country have won any rights from the corporate ruling class.You are right to take the battle to the doorsteps of that class, the unelected tyrants who own the top 500 banks and corporations. Every day, at electronic speed, they send trillions of dollars around the world in financial transactions while millions cannot find work or afford health care. Their decisions shutter factories, destroy jobs, throw people out of their homes and wreck the economies of communities and entire nations. 

WALL STREET IS THE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY

These bankers and billionaires also rake in super-profits from murderous imperialist wars against people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine and elsewhere. In the U.S., they have created a monstrous police state-prison-industrial complex to lock up mostly youth of color, the children of generations of workers, whom they now deny the right to a job.


 
BLOOMBERG LIES, JOBS DIE 

New York City Mayor Bloomberg, one of the richest men on earth, lies when he says that banks create jobs. His banker pals at JPMorgan Chase and Citibank have destroyed 7 million jobs since 2008. This billionaire parasite is closing schools, bus lines, clinics and libraries while increasing his personal fortune by billions of dollars since he took office.
 


WHERE DID THE BANKERS GET THEIR BILLIONS?

They stole them! And not just the bailout money they were given by both the Bush and Obama administrations. The fortunes of the top 1 percent are the unpaid labor of generations of workers not just in the United States but all over the world. It was created in farms and factories, mills  and building sites, mines and offices from the Nile Delta to the Mississippi Delta, from South Africa to South Korea to South Carolina, from Mindanao to Mexico to Michigan. Many of the biggest fortunes in the U.S were founded on the slave trade. This wealth belongs to all humanity.


IMPERIALISM IS THE SOURCE OF THEIR POWER

It is not a matter of making the rich pay their “fair share.” They have no right to even a penny from anyone else’s labor. We must smash their power over our lives. The source of that power is imperialism, the merger of finance and industrial capital that is plundering the entire world. To fight them we must take a clear stand against imperialism and racism and join hands with people all over the globe who are fighting the same enemy.Both the Republican and Democratic parties represent Wall Street, we have to fight for ourselves. As ILPS Chairperson, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, pointed out in his Keynote Address to the 4th International Assembly this past July, "The Democratic and Republican parties in the US compete as do Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola in flagrantly carrying out the policy dictates of the financial oligarchy and the military industrial complex. Both parties agree on raising the US debt ceiling. And to blunt public protests, they promise to bring down the public deficit, with the Democrats wishing to reduce the tax cuts for the corporations and upper class and the Republicans demanding the further reduction of government social spending."Everyone on this planet has the right to a job, food, health care, education, a home and a peaceful life. The wealth is there! We created it! But to take it back, we must deepen our struggle, strengthen our unity and increase our organization and continue to fight!


A JOB IS A RIGHT! HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT! EDUCATION IS A RIGHT! A HOME IS A RIGHT! WE CAN GET THEM IF WE FIGHT!


DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

The International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) is an anti-imperialist and democratic united front of mass formations at the international, global region and national levels that represents the interests of the workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, youth and students, women, queer and questioning, the homeless, migrants and refugees. It brings together and coordinates the people's organizations according to common multisectoral and sectoral interests and purposes. The ILPS initiates and launches mass campaigns and various types of activities and seeks the cooperation of other anti-imperialist and democratic forces and at the same time, it joins and supports their initiatives. For more information, or link up with us at http://ilps.info/joomsite/

(Reprinted with permission from Prof. Joma Sison)


 ____________

Source:

Joma Sison account, Facebook. Statement in Support of “Occupy Wall Street” Movement.
14 October 2011. https://www.facebook.com/notes/joma-sison/statement-in-support-of-occupy-wall-street-movement/10150483160528066


Photo credits:

http://www.treehugger.com/occupy-wall-street-photo.jpg
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2011/10/10/news/economy/occupy_wall_street_protest/occupy-wall-street-rich-homes.gi.top.jpg

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