Author: Julian Alejandro

From the Moral Majority/eLagda egroup:

Designated time and place of flash protest for March 17:
BAYWALK, Roxas Blvd – 6:30 to 7:15 PM

Plan of action:
1) Wear BLACK. BRING ALSO HAT, SHADES, AND IMPROVISED HOOD similar to the hooded witness of DOJ (see attached photo).
2) Assemble at the Aristocrat Restaurant, Roxas Blvd. between 6:15 to 6:30
3) Wait awhile for other groups in black. Take a snack, if you wish, while waiting for others.
4) By 6:30 cross Roxas Blvd. single file towards Baywalk.
5) Put on your “Makapili” hooded outfit and mingle with the regular Friday strollers at Baywalk.
6) When the signal is given, line up single file along the road and face the street.
7) Do the “thumbs down” sign to passing vehicles.
8) On cue, disperse quietly.

Suggested preparations:

1) Invite as many friends, or officemates, as you can
2) If you’re an employer or a manager, invite all your subordinates to join you. Offer to “treat” them after the flash protest, if you can afford it. Hey, it’s Friday after pay day. So you can have your regular “gimmick” after this.
3) If you’re from the same office, arrange for carpooling going to the Aristocrat restaurant.
4) If you’re outside of Metro Manila, and there are enough of you to organize a protest action, just select your own place, but follow the “MAKAPILI” theme.

For feedback on last week’s MRT flash protest, please visit our blog: www.blackfridayprotest.blogspot.com

Continue reading “Baywalk Makapili Friday Protest”

Got this on the mail today:

To Those Who Are Not Out in the Streets
(A response to the email of one S. C. Austero)

Dear S.C. Austero and Others Who Are Not Out in the Streets,

I too, am angry. I am angry that there are people like you who have become so jaded, so cynical that you would rather “lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward,” meaning wherever GMA and her cohorts are taking it.

Let me make it clear. I don’t claim to speak or fight for you or the entire Filipino people. I want GMA out for the sake of MY rights and MY freedoms. I will fight any government that steals MY vote, MY taxes, that lies to ME and tramples on MY human rights and civil liberties. If you don’t want to join me in this fight, then don’t. I’m sure there are many others who believe that government is there to serve the people, not rob them blind.

Posted below is Manuel Buencamino’s answer to an open letter by S. C. Austero to “Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There.”

In the letter that sounded like it was sent out straight from Malacañang’s propaganda bureau, Austero berates Aquino, et al for “sabotaging” the Philippines, declares he chose to forgive Arroyo’s Hello Garci act because it was what the bishops taught us. He also naively believes Mrs. Arroyo and company’s story about the Left-Right conspiracy, and sees nothing wrong with the current regime’s authoritarian tendencies.

Here is Buencamino’s reply:

Dear Schubert Caesar Austero,

I am angry too. Really angry. And depressed. I hope this letter makes at least one of us feel better. It’s honest. It may be too frank at times but we need to take stock of ourselves and the opposition.

Continue reading “Response to Open Letter: Don’t Be Angry, Get Smart”

The chair of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Bulacan was killed the other night. This brought the number of political killings this year to 26, based on Karapatan’s tally.

Santiago “Ka Santi” Teodoro, chair of Bayan’s Bulacan chapter, was driving a car when unidentified assailants shot him. His wife, who was with him at that time, survived the attack. His comrades condemned the attack.

The killing occured even as left-leaning party-list representatives are being accused of participating in a plot to bring down the Arroyo government. Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran remains detained at a police hospital while his four colleagues are under the House of Representatives’ protective custody as the police threatens to arrest them.

According to Karapatan, in Central Luzon alone, 12 activists were killed this year. The number of political killings since 2001 could be as high as 6000, the human rights group said.

(A Press Release from the Concerned Artists of the Philippines)

GMA’s pronouncement that she is God’s plan for the country is an affront to God’s being. He or She should sue for libel.

As many would already know, this technique is not new as it was used by our Spanish colonizers. They grabbed the natives’ lands, made them their slaves, captured, torture and/or killed those who resisted, and claimed that all that was happening was the will of God. They tried to console the turmoil in the grieving souls of our forebears by preaching that there will anyway be a final judgment day –only, it is in the afterlife.

History tells us that not everyone bit that propaganda. The Katipuneros and their supporters knew that a large part of salvation had to come from actions by the people themselves. They resisted and trounced the God-quoting Spanish colonizers. But, only to be betrayed by the Americans, whose cause for aggression was, as claimed by then U.S. Pres. Mckinley, a signal from God (through his dream).

Among the traditional political parties in the Philippines, it is Liberal Party that I admire the most. Its leaders–and many of its members–are less trapo than the other traditional politicians from other parties (especially Lakas).

Mention Liberal Party and these honorable names would come to mind: Ninoy Aquino, Jovito Salonga, Evelio Javier, Bobby Tañada, Franklin Drilon, and Grace Padaca, among others. LP members, along with the national democratic movement, fought the Marcos dictatorship. In 1991, its senators led the successful anti-US bases campain in the Senate.

LP is different from all other traditional parties because its existence does not depend on personalities. Like the progressive party-list groups we now have in Congress, LP has an ideology.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just lifted the State of Emergency that she declared last week.