On World Press Freedom Day last May 3, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his message celebrating the occasion, stressed the importance of having a “free and responsible press” that “must be protected from all forms of threat and intimidation so that they may fully serve the best interest of the people.” The statement did not sit…
Category: Opinion
On March 8, 2020, the Philippines braced for COVID-19—a then-looming threat—after President Rodrigo Duterte placed the country under a state of a public health emergency, an arguably delayed response to an already fast-spreading virus. In the days that followed, the country buckled in for widespread lockdowns, hoping that the pandemic would perhaps tide over in…
A fascist, a misogynist, and a murderer walks into a bar, and the barkeep says, “Tatay Digong! Would you like your usual drink?” While this classic joke format has seen countless variations throughout the decades, it probably still will not get as old and tired as the circus show our government has been putting on…
Categories
Who speaks for whom
It was the beginning of the year when I woke up to the news of Christine Dacera’s alleged rape-slay case plastered all over my social media. It was early morning, and I immediately felt sick in the gut, which is an instinctive physical reaction I get whenever I hear cases of similar nature. After all,…
Even with government officials’ continued bid to increase police and military presence in colleges and universities, there has seemingly remained a sense of security for those belonging to private institutions. Surely, as long as students are on a private campus, they will be safe from coercion by state forces. Well, as it appears, not anymore.…
Categories
Our rights are not theirs
We were never really safe in our country, not even within the confines of our homes. An environment that is perpetrating a deluged type of freedom will never be ideal—but rather dangerous. Truly, the current political climate in the Philippines highlights how criticisms coming from the youth are often viewed as the basis to categorize…
Categories
The real enemies
The unilateral termination of the 1989 UP-DND Accord is another attempt to clamp down on democracy—it is a move reminiscent of the Marcos regime. Without evidence for his supporting arguments and without consultation from the University of the Philippines (UP), Secretary Delfin Lorenzana nonchalantly declared in a letter to UP President Danilo Concepcion that the…
Categories
The words of a president matter
“It’s insurrection”—two words we never thought we’d hear when it comes to the United States of America. The United States (US) has always glorified itself as the poster child for democracy—the land of the free and a place of opportunity. As a global superpower, the nation had served as a model for countries that sought…
Categories
Encountering eco-anxiety
I could still vividly remember the opening scene in WALL-E where the titular robot was surrounded by mountains of trash. Set in the year 2805, it had been centuries since humankind left Earth aboard the Axiom. The whole premise of our planet becoming so unlivable that, sometime in the distant future, we would eventually leave…
Categories
I am not my ancestors’ wildest dreams
In my grade school social studies subjects, my teachers would often ask us where we are from. The word “Ifugao” would sit at the tip of my tongue, strange and foreign. I was told by my father that we hail from there, a faraway land of mountains and rice paddies. Having grown up in Cavite,…