Nais nila na managot ang COMELEC dahil sa kapalpakan nito sa pangangasiwa ng eleksyon. Hinayaan din umano nito na makapamayagpag ang administrasyon at magbuhos ng rekurso ng taumbayan para manalo lalo na sa Senado.
Karapatan: Investigate PNP for distributing black propaganda outside election precincts
“In an effort to pursue their smear campaign against progressive partylists, elements of the police were seen distributing materials which red-tagged groups under the Makabayan bloc on May 13, within the vicinity of election precincts. This is a blatant disregard of the law. We likewise raise the possibility of these materials being published and distributed at the expense of taxpayer’s money. The country’s security forces have shown its skewed priorities, choosing to target partylists which not only have a solid track record, but are truly representative of the marginalized,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
Winners in 2 districts of Davao City proclaimed by Comelec
The Davao City Board of Canvassers on Tuesday proclaimed the winning candidates for representatives in the second and third districts here while waiting for the complete transmittal of voting results from the first district.
A youth’s perspective | The messiah and our road ahead
By VINZ SIMON*
Bulatlat.com
A treachery of the grandest order now unfolds as the election precincts closed yesterday – the Comelec’s transparency server has repeatedly held up and a dubious pattern has emerged from the election results.
These extremely suspect developments stand on the shoulders of the military and police’s red-tagging and black propaganda of progressive candidates, Martial Law in Mindanao, the electoral campaigns of crooks, liars, and murderers, and Smartmatic’s return as a service provider for the election.
Duterte and his administration have made sure that every condition has been achieved for the victory of sycophants and yes-men. The president himself has even announced the importance of vote-buying, an outlook that his preferred candidates have certainly taken to heart.
However, our disappointment and rage, as justified as they are, must be directed to those in power and never at the people who have supposedly handed them power over the country.
As Filipino poet and Marcos-era revolutionary Eman Lacaba once hailed, “Awakened, the masses are messiah”, and if anything, we have learned that progress and justice doesn’t just require a “woke” youth but an awakened and empowered public.
We need a public that knows that we have all been strung and played for fools thinking that the source of our misery is our fellow oppressed, denied, and victimized.
We need a public that is furious that we have been robbed of both our treasury and our democracy.
We need a public that rejects the clowns, crocodiles, and criminals that now have mastery over these islands.
Thus, our task after this disastrous and fraudulent election isn’t to book flights overseas nor to scorn our country as an unlovable mess. No. Our task is simple but arduous: to educate, organize, and mobilize the masses; to awaken more of our messiah.
We must feed, clothe, and employ those whose bellies grumble with hunger. We must teach and empathize with those who refuse to learn and sympathize. We must embolden those who are afraid and represent the unheard.
We must go to the masses and serve them.
We must now undertake a campaign to exact justice from the frauds, and while this campaign will start with demanding transparency and accountability of the elections, our struggles must also carry on the platforms of the opposition: a truly living wage, enough employment, the end of contractualization, free land distribution for farmers, national industrialization, and territorial integrity and sovereignty, among others.
Likewise, we must safeguard our rights, livelihoods, and our very lives against the incoming depredations of Duterte’s Senate. It is guaranteed that the President’s most heinous policies will scoot past the legislative branch: children in conflict with the law will be criminalized, the drug war will be pursued with murderous ado, the death penalty will come, charter change is inevitable, and the sale of our territories and resources to China is inevitable.
It will be an egregious mistake to undermine the precious unities we have built in an effort to find solace in the results of this election. Every effort must be dispatched to enlighten and empower the masses, just as our forebears have successfully done against the tyrannies of Marcos and Estrada.
But we don’t have to look far to a multitude of reasons to hope. Despite the massive fraud, progressive party-lists are ready to assume seats and fight the uphill battle inside Duterte’s congress. Despite the maddening disenfranchisement of voters, the youth have translated their fury for a thirst to learn and mobilize. In fact, thousands of students across the country have already taken to the streets to pledge an oath to fight and prevail against tyranny.
Duterte and his government have denied us honest elections, but our shot at changing our society for the better is yet to fade – it now simply rests on our hands instead of inside the ballot box.
* The author is a member of Anakbayan. He has joined the protest actions today against electoral fraud.
The post A youth’s perspective | The messiah and our road ahead appeared first on Bulatlat.
Balangiga
Matatandaang si Neri Colmenares, kasama ni Teddy Casiño, kapwa kinatawan ng BAYAN MUNA Party-list, ang nagpasa ng House Resolution No. 236, noong 2010 para manawagan sa pagbabalik ng tatlong kampana ng Balangiga.
* * *
“You cannot frighten us with your bombs and deaths;
You cannot put us all in your padded jails;
You cannot snatch the dawn of life from us!”
– I Want the Wide American Earth, Carlos Bulosan
* * *
Kasamang ipinanawagan ang pagbabalik ng gobyerno ng Estados Unidos ng iba pang mga ninakaw (‘war booty’) mula sa Samar noong panahon ng Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano noong 1899-1902. Makapangyarihan ang resolusyong ito, dahil mismong Kongreso natin ang naggigiit sa gobyerno ng imperyalistang bansa.
Isang manifesto ang resolusyon na nagbigay ng matalas at malalim na perspektibang pangkasaysayan sa naganap na masaker sa Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Ibinabalik tayo nito sa papel ng mga kampana sa matagumpay na pananambang ng mga rebolusyunaryo sa garison ng mga Amerikano noong Setyembre 28, 1901.
* * *
“Sabado ng gabi, Setyembre 27,
nagtipon-tipon sila sa Canlara.
Mag-aala-una ng umaga, Setyembre 28,
inilikas tungo sa liblib ng bundok
ang mga bata, matatanda, at may sakit.”
– Pintakasi, Richard Gappi
* * *
Anang resolusyon: “[T]he bells of the Balangiga church were rung by the town’s chief of police at 6:30 a.m.to signal the ambush. The night before, rebels disguised as women smuggled weapons, mostly bolos,in small coffins which were carried to the church for an evening service. The attacking force,composed of around 500 men in seven different units, represented virtually all families of Balangiga, whose outlying villages then included the present towns of Lawaan and Giporlos, and of Quinapundan, a town served by the priest in Balangiga.”
Ang insidenteng ito ay tinaguriang “single worst defeat” ng mga tropang Kano noong Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano.
* * *
“as he came in from the sea to find the township empty,
blackened posts of houses lifting skyward like arms in worship,
red puddles on the street, silence weighing the branches
around the empty town square, the belfry bare,
the altar gutted. Everywhere, ashes, ashes.”
– Escrito En Sangre, Merlie Alunan
* * *
Mabuti pa ang manghiram ng mukha sa aso, sabi nga. Matindi ang pagkakapahiya ng mga tropang Kano. Ang kanilang ganti, pagpapatuloy ng resolusyon:
“[T]o avenge the attack, Brig. Gen. Jacob Smith gave orders to US forces to “kill and burn,” to take no prisoners and shoot down any male over the age of 10 capable of bearing arms. The resulting orgy of burning, looting, rape, torture and killing turned the island of Samar in sixmonths into a “howling wilderness.” From around 300,000, the island’s population dropped toaround less than 257,000. In Balangiga alone, about 5,000 people were killed and the village burned to the ground.”
* * *
Ang kalunos-lunos na pagpulbos sa Balangiga, pagtortyur at pagmasaker sa taumbayan, ay hindi binura ng mga Waray sa kanilang alaala. Isinasalin nila ito sa bibig, ipinapasa sa mga musmos, sa pamamagitan ng isang awiting bayan:
Inday, Inday, nakain ka
Han kasunog han munyika?
Pito ka tuig an paglaga,
An aso waray kitaa.
Sa dokumentaryong TWO BELLS/TWO WORLDS na na-post sa YouTube, sa timestamp 47:25, maririnig na inaawit ng isang matandang Waray ang bersyong ito:
Inday, Inday, nakain ka
Han kasunog han Balangiga?
Pito ka tuig nga naglaga,
An aso waray kitaa.
Sa salaysay ng ikalawang bersyon, inuusisa, nasaaan ba si Inday (term of endearment sa babae) habang nasusunog ang Balangiga; pitong taon itong nasusunog, pero hindi makita ang usok.
* * *
Naitala ni Alunan, sa aklat na Sa Atong Dila, ang buong awiting bayan. Samantala, ang aking sipi sa itaas ay ginawang chorus sa kantang ‘Inday, Inday’ ng Juan De La Cruz Band.
* * *
“Ilang salinglahi na ang dumaan
At nanatili ang mga batingaw
Bilang bihag sa ibayong dagat.
Nais sikilin ng imperyalista ang tunog
Subalit laging umuugong ito,
Umaalingawngaw sa sa puso’t diwa
Ng taumbayang patuloy sa pakikibaka
Para sa kanilang kalayaan.”
– Mga Batingaw ng Balangiga, Jose Ma. Sison
* * *
Ang tuluyang pagbabalik ng tatlong kampana sa Balangiga nitong nakaraang Disyembre ay tagumpay ng deka-dekadang paggigiit ng taumbayan. Tandaan nating dinala pa ng mga makabayan sa lansangan ang labang ito. Itanim natin sa alaala ang tagumpay at ipagpatuloy ang rebolusyon.
Daya sa dilim ni Duterte
Mayo 13, araw ng halalan, bumoto ang mga Pilipino. Kinagabihan, mababa sa isang porsiyento pa lang daw ng mga boto ang nabilang. Galing daw sa Ilocos Norte, balwarte ng mga Marcos na madikit na alyado ni Pangulong Duterte. Halata sa resulta: angat ang mga manok ni Duterte sa Senado at sa party-list.
Mabilis ang galit na tugon ng marami sa social media. Para sa kanila, kinukumpirma at inilalarawan nito ang buong bilangan sa kakatapos na halalan: nababalot sa kadiliman, nakatago sa tanaw ng mga mamamayan.
Una, ang mga independiyenteng nagbabantay, hinadlangan: ang National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), na matagal nang kilala sa gawaing ito, at ang midya. Ikalawa, ang pinayagang tumanggap ng kopya ng bilangan ay mga partidong malapit kay Duterte: PDP-Laban at Nacionalista Party (para kuno sa oposisyon, kahit kakampi talaga ni Duterte). At ikatlo, kahit ang mismong mekanismo ng Commission on Elections (Comelec) para makapagbantay ang publiko, bumigay: ang transparency server.
Ibig sabihin, ang lahat ng bilang na natatanggap ng publiko, galing sa iisang ahensiya: ang Comelec. Walang nakapagberipika, walang nakapagsabing sakto sa ibinoto ang binilang. Walang kredibilidad ang resulta ng ganyang halalan.
At kung madilim ang paraan, maitim ang resulta. Ang mga progresibong party-list, nakatanggap ng hindi kapani-paniwalang mababang bilang ng boto, ranggo sa bilangan, at puwesto – – napakababa. Si Neri Colmenares at iba pang kritiko ng gobyerno, napakababa ng boto at ranggo kumpara sa dami ng grupo at personalidad na nag-endorso. Sukdulang bumaba pa nga ang boto niya mula 6 milyon noong 2016, naging higit 4 milyon lang ngayon.
Sa senador, maanomalya rin. Paanong nalamangan ni Cynthia Villar, alyado ni Duterte, si Grace Poe, laging numero uno sa karera? Paanong nakapasok ang mga kandidatong maraming tumutuligsa – – Imee Marcos, Bato dela Rosa, Bong Revilla, at Bong Go? At kahit iyung hindi naman kilala tulad ni Francis Tolentino? Nasaan ang mga sumikat sa pagtuligsa sa rehimen?
Matagal nang nagbababala ang mga manunuring pampulitika sa ganitong resulta. Magiging mas madali kay Duterte na ilusot ang maiitim na pakana niya: mas malawak na patayan at panunupil; Charter Change para mas makapasok ang malalaking kapitalistang Amerikano, Chinese at iba pang dayuhan; pederalismo at term extension ng mga pulitiko; Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law at iba pang dagdag-pasanin sa maralita; pambabastos at pang-aatake sa mga kritiko; at iba pa.
At sa 2022, titiyakin nilang galing sa kanilang paksiyon ng naghaharing uri ang magiging presidente: Duterte, Marcos, Macapagal-Arroyo.
Nakatago sa kadiliman ang bilangan at resulta ng halalan. Matagal nang lalong dumidilim ang demokrasya sa bansa. Matagal na ring pinatunayan, ng kasaysayan ng bansa, na sa ganyang kalagayan, gumigising ang maraming Pilipino, at nakakakita lang ng magandang kinabukasan sa sama-samang pagkilos at paglaban.
PNP, AFP fail to stop Bayan Muna from winning
“Despite many reports of fraud, the Rodrigo Duterte regime cannot defeat the people’s will,” BM second nominee Ferdinand Gaite told Kodao.
Red-tagging, a vicious move to discredit Makabayan party-lists
Progressive Makabayan Coalition on Monday cried foul over red-tagging posters sighted near polling centers in some cities in Southern Mindanao.