"In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing about the dark times." - Brecht

i n s t i s

Aklat ng Bayan

Arkibong Bayan

Sinewaya

Pinoy Weekly

After The Storm

Legazpi City -- Christmas season is almost almost over. I arrived home on the 24th and the electricity had yet to return to most parts of the city. It is 30th, and still, a significant part of Legazpi is in darkness. Most of it is still in shambles.

My sister says to me that during the first few days after the storm, some residents actually welcomed the darkness of brownouts; that way they did not have to look at night at all the devastation, all the depressed faces walking the city like ghosts who did not know what had, and what will, become of them.

It has been almost a month since the Typhoon Reming ravaged the province of Albay, leaving more than a thousand dead, tens of thousands homeless, and hundreds of thousands families and individuals devastated. People are a bit edgy every time it rains here, and it often does.

A month ago, in the morning of November 30, Reming snuck into Albay unnoticed. It brought with it torrential rains and a powerful storm. Within a couple of hours, the city -- which was situated below sea level to begin with -- was deep in flood, from knee-deep in most areas to over head in some.

The winds was unlike anything Albayanos, who were used to such storms, had seen, instantly blowing away houses and roofs. The rains unleashed the gravel deposited by Mayon Volcano's eruption months ago and, as predicted by Pag-asa, run roughshod over several barangays, chiefly Busay and Culliat in Daraga, and Padang and Rawis in Legazpi. Several hundreds, mostly entire families were buried in lahar. Aquinas University, where I studied high school, was not spared. Nor were the students who residing in nearby dormitories. Entire buildings collapsed, killing people in it.

I am overwhelmed by the stories I hear everyday here. Stories of death, but also of survival.

"I know of some students in a dormitory who were in the top floor of the dormitory building, waving for people for help as the flood became higher. Residents from nearby houses sought refuge in those buildings, thinking that those with higher floors provide better chance for them to survive. They did not expect the lahar. I saw them from my house. They were pleading for help as the lahar came, collapsing the building. I could not do anything..."

"A family with a three-storey house in Busay was trapped in the third-floor together with their neighbors. All thirteen of them were buried with the onrush of lahar..."

"I saw a father standing in the roof of his house, trying to bring his wife and daughter there. A sudden rush of water overwhelmed the wife and daughter trying to climb the roof. Overcome with grief, the father jumps into the water, joining his wife and daughter who were already drowned..."

And in the recovery missions:

"It was horrible. All those bodies displayed in Daraga Park, most unidentified. Its too much me. I cried to my sleep for weeks..."

On Christmas day, I went to Barangay Culliat to interview residents, ask them how they spent their Christmas. There I met Aling Editha Demecillo, 56. It took them two weeks to get most of the mud out of the house, just in time for Christmas. Outside the house was a clutter of garbage and personnal effects, mountains of papers, a lifetimes worth of documents and old photographs. Aling Editha says they were quite happy this Christmas, for the family was spared from tragedy. During the storm, they had to climb to the kisame, all 13 of family members, to avoid being buried alive by the lahar. For six hours they stayed there, praying, not knowing they were to live or die.

The others were not so lucky. Or may be luck had nothing to do with it. A great majority who died were farmers, who lived and tended their farms located in these perilous areas. They had -- have -- nowhere else to go. I interviewed barangay officials, and they scratched their heads when asked if the government had already provided a permanent, liveable relocation site them.

I am overwhelmed by these stories.

***

There were queues everywhere: in drugstores, sari-sari stores, water refilling stations, gas stations. Two days after the storm in Legazpi, it is said, a man in a car was impatiently waiting in a long, long line in a gas station when he thought of a nasty but effective way of getting ahead in line. Without hesitation, he walked out of his car and told the people in line about a rumor that a tsunami is headed for Legazpi.

This was how, it is said among people in the place, the tsismis of tsunami began.

And the tsismis caught on. It was quickly passed on by people vulnerable, frightened and still in shock just two days after Reming destroyed their homes. Within hours people were hastily fleeing Legazpi, some bringing nothing but their clothes on. Some where even in tapis.

"It was unbelievably surreal," my sister said. "It was like in the movies, like in that film Dante's Peak. People panicked, and ran for their lives. They brought nothing else. We saw some people running bringing their grandmothers and grandfathers in their backs, running away from wherever it is they thought the tsunami will come. It was total chaos."

Those who had cars wanted to drive to higher grounds, thus creating a heavy traffic in the streets.

The chaos lasted for hours, resulting in a few people being ran over by vehicles, including a kid who lost his mother while trying to flee Legazpi.

Of course, no tsunami came. The radio commentators tried to assure the public that no tsunami is coming. But after Reming, they no longer knew who to believe. No broadcaster, no scientist, no politician warned them of the storm. But it came, and it washed away and buried their loved ones. Frightened and angry, they no longer took chances.

It was a stupid, stupid, cruel rumor.

Posted by: kr.guda at 07:15 | link | comments

In Defense of the 'Juramentados'

I hope somebody posts the UP Law Student Government's statement on the December 15 incident in his or her blog soon, for you to read and for me to link. I hate to have to post it here.

After reading the statement, my initial reaction was to dismiss it and not make much fuss about this "ka-OA-an". Later, however, my dismissiveness turned to concern for the law students who were supposedly hurt, "emotionally traumatized" or were inflicted with "emotional and physical injuries". I do agree with the Law Student Government: injury is injury, no matter the justness of the cause. The right thing to do for the protest leaders was to apologize for the particular students hurt in the commotion. And they did, according to a Student Council officer we chanced upon later that evening.

It is one thing, though, to take responsibility for the particular injuries, and quite another for this Law Student Government to condemn the actions of the activists, call it "mob rule", and even brand the actions "criminal". "[I]t is with a heavy heart that we, the Law Student Government, condemn this chaotic incident initiated by our fellow UP students. We believe that their acts have crossed the borderline of freedom of expression as it tramples on propriety, ethics and any notion of reason," says the statement.

This to me likewise crossed the borderline between simple concern for fellow students and a hysterical response symptomatic of two things: (1) their ignorance of the nature of militant protest actions, and/or their prejudice against such actions and its usual participants, and (2) ignorance or lack of appreciation of the magnitude of the issues being raised by the protesters.

I've been in emotionally-charged protest actions before. Yes, things can indeed get unruly, ugly, even a bit violent. Again, in these situations, protesters ought to apologize to those innocent bystanders adversely affected: stranded commuters, vendors, pedestrians. The protesters should do it if only to show to the bystanders adversely affected that they are not the target of the protests. The student council members claim that they said as much to the law students.

 It is in the nature of protest actions to be emotionally charged and to inconvenience people. Nevermind his homophobia, retired Supreme Court associate justice Isagani Cruz explained as much in his book on Constitutional Law:

"To be really meaningful, (freedom of expression) should permit the articulation of even the unorthodox view, though it be hostile to or derided by others, or "induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.' One of the functions of this freedom is precisely, according to the US Supreme Court, 'to invite dispute.' Unity is too high a price to pay for the loss of liberty."

For the Law Student Government officials to demand that the protesters practice "propriety", and voice out their opinions "in a reasonable manner" (I.e. "No shouting and running in the lobby, and please, watch the door of the theater!") bespeaks of a profound misunderstanding of the nature of protest. Rallies and demonstrations are necessarily disruptive; they are never polite. If only politely saying to UP President Emerlinda Roman to "please, po, do not raise our tuition" would make the admin change its mind, I'm sure Raffy Sanchez and Paolo Alfonso would have already done it. What these brilliant law students have to realize is that protest is always usually at the tailend of a long process of "paliwanagan", lobbying, subtle convincing. Protest is an expression of desperation of a mass of people needed to be heard. It is a sign that the system is not working and is lopsided in favor of a few in power.

Sure, freedom of expression has its limits. And the limits are set, according to a law student's rule of thumb, "when another person's right begins." If that is the case, then, why not ask the activist organizations and student institutions involved in the protest to foot the medical bill of those inadvertently injured, or the cost of psychiatric therapy needed to rehabilitate those "emotionally injured", or require them to reconstruct the theater's doors? I realize what I'm saying implies some legal process ("compensation for moral damages"?), but were the injuries really, really that serious?

Reading such statements as "we condemn riotous and anarchical modes of activism" exposes some prejudice on the part of its writer. It tells us the writer has a notion of what kind of people the protesters were, and in his or her mind, they were "devoid of reason", stupid, too emotional or up to no good.

Based on the testimonies of people present in the "attack" of Malcolm Hall and the ensuing march, as well as my observations in the march, the protest action was far from chaotic, devoid of reason, or "anarchistic".Their charge to Malcolm was a calculated, if a bit desperate, move to stop the Board of Regents from passing a decision that will surely adversely affect all future UP students and make UP education much less accessible to the Filipino youth. Surely, the admin, upon approving the hike WITHOUT the participation in the voting of the student and faculty regents, anticipated some violent reaction among those thousands of students who picketed Quezon Hall amid the scorching sun, marched and surged towards Malcolm Hall, and marched around the Academic Oval.

Again, I do not seek to excuse the protesters from culpability for the supposed injuries. But please, UP tuition to be hiked to P1,000 per unit? Surely those who are ill-afford but deserve to be in UP have every right to make "huramentado".

Posted by: kr.guda at 19:20 | link | comments

Another Activist Murdered in Sorsogon

Bayan-Bikol's Beverly Quintillan sent me this email just moments ago:

"Pamamaslang: Pamaskong Handog sa Mamamayan!

“Walang pagkain sa mesa, walang tirahan at kabuhayan sa araw ng kapaskuhan. Wala na ngang regalo, inaalisan pa ng karapatang mabuhay”.

Kalunos-lunos ang kalagayan ng mamamayang Bikolano matapos ang bagyong Reming. Wala pa ring tirahan at pagkaing pagsasaluhan sa nalalapit na kapaskuhan. Pinalala pa ang ganitong kalagayan sa magkakasunod na kaso ng pagpaslang.

Alas 11:00 ng umaga ngayong araw, pinatay si Francisco ‘Iko” Bantog sa opisina ng turismo sa Donsol Sorsogon. Si Iko ay opisyal ng Bayan Muna sa Sorsogon at tumatayong Municipal Coordinator ng Donsol, Sorsogon.

Matapos ideklara ni GMA ang dalawang taong taning upang diumano’y lipulin ang CPP-NPA-NDF, mga aktibista at mamamayang naghahangad ng pagbabago, katotohanan at katarungan ang naging pangunahing biktima. Umabot na sa 129 ang kabuuang bilang ng pinatay sa Bikol habang 802 sa buong bansa.

Sa talaan ng KARAPATAN-Bikol, si Francisco ay ika-41 sa mga kaso ng pagpaslang sa rehiyon ngayong taong 2006. Sa loob lamang ng dalawang lingo ngayong buwan, naitala ang apat na kaso ng pampulitikang pamamaslang. Si Cris Frivaldo noong Desyembre 11 at sina Atty. Gil Gojol at Danilo France noong Desyembre 12.

Ramdam ng administrasyong Arroyo ang pagbagsak ng kanilang pekeng pangulo dahil sa lumalawak na pag-aalsa bunga na rin na mga isyu ng korupsyon, pandaraya sa nagdaang halalan, at pagkabigo na maiangat ang kabuhayan ng mamamayan. Desperado itong manatili at patahimikin ang sinumang sumuway sa kanyang anti-mamamayang programa at patakaran.

Pagpaslang! Ito ang mensahe ng papet, pasista at pahirap sa masang si Gloria sa lahat ng kanyang mga kaaway. Handa niya itong gawing regalo sa kanyang mga kritiko kahit ngayong kapaskuhan."

Posted by: kr.guda at 06:42 | link | comments

I'm Famous!

In that Billy the Kid movie starring Emilio Estevez (I forgot the title), the Billy character, a media-savvy fellow who sought fame and fortune by robbing banks and killing people, would recite the line "I'll make you famous" before shooting or killing somebody.

I thought about this movie when I saw Manolo Quezon's year-old blog entry greeting bloggers a Merry Christmas. Thanks to google for that. I was included among the "cluster of 'progressive' bloggers", along with that of Ina, Mong, ma'm Sarah, and other two I do not recognize. This blog was again mentioned fairly recently, this time in an entry regarding the egg-pelting incident in UP involving student activists and Esperon.

I actually do not mind being branded "national democrat", and consider being called "anti-establishment" a compliment. Some of the more wary people that Quezon considers belonging to the abovementioned categories, though, would take this branding as threatening, like when Manolo called Ina his "favorite communist writer" or something. Understandably, some concerned friends of Ina compared the branding to a "death threat" in the light of the political killings of those perceived to be communists or communist-supporters.

Thus the allusion to the Billy the Kid film. By way of a blog entry, a link, Manolo, the famous blogger and the eXplainer himself, made me a little more famous as a "national democrat", a category most journalists understandably shun. (In journ schools, they taught us neutrality, to "not side". Some media organizations, meanwhile, even forbid their journalists from joining any organization, much more a political, "progressive" one) But in doing so, he has put me among the ranks of those being openly targetted by government death squads. Journalist na, aktibista pa. Combination of two most dangerous professions in the country today.

I actually like being in those categories.

Posted by: kr.guda at 08:33 | link | comments (1)

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