MANILA, Philippines – Almost a week after Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo commuted to his Malacañang office, a scooter driver took on the same challenge on Wednesday, October 16, to highlight poor road conditions in the metro.

Panelo dominated headlines on October 11 when he accepted the challenge posed by progressive groups to try commuting to experience the daily hardships faced by many Filipinos.

The Presidential spokesperson had especially been criticized after he denied there was a mass transport crisis in the Philippines amid disruptions in LRT2 operations and hellish traffic jams experienced daily in Metro Manila. He also suggested for commuters to wake up early in order to arrive at their destination on time.

Eager to prove a different point, 29-year-old Jaime Limpo rode an electric kick scooter (EKS) on the 16th, the day of his birthday, following the route from Panelo's home in Concepcion, Marikina, to the Malacañang office. (READ: Manila moves: Cycling through the metro’s traffic)

Limpo said he thought of doing the challenge on his birthday to show the benefits of riding an EKS and highlight the lack of road infrastructure for bikers and scooters in Metro Manila. (READ: [OPINION] Metro Manila can be bike-friendly)

"Instead of receiving gifts or greetings, I wanted to give back to the community and show them the benefits of riding an EKS. I've read a lot of posts ranting about unproductive hours wasted in traffic and I hope that those people see what I've done and consider EKS as their means of getting around the city," he said.

Logging an average of 650 km per month on his EKS, Limpo said that he's been riding it to work, to errands, and even out-of-town trips since March 2018. He admitted that he's fallen off his EKS a couple of times due to poor road conditions.

"Most common ones are deep potholes out of nowhere and asphalt roads with deep manholes. For bikers and EKS riders, these are actually life-threatening," he added.

The journey

Panelo did not commute from his home in Marikina City, but from New Manila. He had slept at his child's home the night before. From the main road between Gilmore and Balete Drive, he started his commute to Cubao at 5:15 am, then to Concepcion in Marikina, then back to Cubao, before heading to Sta Mesa.

It took Panelo nearly 4 hours to reach his Malacañang office after he arrived at 8:46 am or 46 minutes past 8 am, when government offices open.

Limpo planned to follow Panelo's route, starting his journey at Concepcion, Marikina, at 6:52 am, where he saw commuters on the sidewalk waiting for jeepneys.

"What was frustrating about it is that most of the jeeps that would pass by are already full. There would be 1 in 10 that would be empty, and once that one stops, everyone will run towards it and race to get a seat. If this is the case, how can our PWDs (persons with disabilities) and senior citizens ride those jeeps? How can they race with able-bodied people?" he asked.

"The worst part of the whole situation is, once the commuters are aboard the jeep, their next enemy is the standstill traffic."

Throughout his ride, Limpo noticed that while some cities had bike lanes, these weren't protected. This means that some motorcycles and cars could swerve in and out of these lanes, which could threaten the lives of cyclists and riders like Limpo. (READ: What happens when you build protected bike lanes in cities?)

Since Limpo is an experienced EKS driver, he can already anticipate public utility vehicles swerving to the right to pick up passengers, and motorcycles cutting in and out of lanes

Limpo arrived at the Malacañang office in one hour, at 7:53 am. He later shared his journey on Facebook groups "How's your biyahe, bes" and "Electric Kick Scooter Philippines."

Though the ride was easy for an experienced EKS driver like Limpo, he shared that he hopes the government would see the importance of implementing a lane exclusively for bikes and scooters, with enforcers ensuring that motorcycles or cars don't use it. (READ: Philippines gets first protected bike lane along national highway)

"I also hope that the government will maintain our roads properly. Make sure they are even and paved properly," he said.

Limpo added that proper sidewalks for pedestrians will also help people who prefer walking.

"In most cases, since road widening is being prioritized, sidewalks are too small that only one person can pass. This is simply inhumane and unacceptable," he said.

Limpo plans to do the route again while wearing a GoPro to further highlight the road conditions of the metro. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The arts have always served as a tool for forwarding political expression. From canvas to paper, reel to the stage, artists make use of their craft in depicting social realities that give a sense of the political climate during the time of its production, either through a personal narrative or a direct social commentary.

Every October, we commemorate the Filipino peasants⁠ – unsung heroes who relentlessly feed the nation despite their own plights. We witness the undeniable effects of the Rice Tariffication Law on their livelihood, with several peasants still lacking ownership of the lands they till. Furthermore, a great number of local peasants, primarily from indigenous communities, are forced to pay the price of struggle with their own lives. (READ: What you can do to help Filipino rice farmers)

According to the latest Peasant Death Toll released by Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA), 231 farmers were killed in relation to land disputes under the Duterte administration. (READ: Death comes unprovoked upon Negros Island)

In response to the worsening condition of local peasants, artist collectives and human rights advocates are taking action through art and discourse, with the intention of documenting peasants’ experiences and educating the public of their plights. (READ: Amid challenges, artists with special needs shine)

Gantala Press, an independent Filipina feminist publishing collective, is at the forefront of utilizing literature in doing so. According to co-founder Rae Rival, Gantala Press stands for the belief that “the feminist struggle marches along the people’s struggle.”

What began as a women’s collective later found a stronger purpose in specifically platforming women outside of their class. Gantala Press is best known for publishing works by women from marginalized communities, whose works are not prioritized nor amplified by the more mainstream publishing companies. Filipina peasant women remain as one of the sectors showcased by the press.

“In our effort to historicize women’s experiences and create spaces for women’s writings, we deem it necessary to begin with our agricultural workers who comprise 75% of our population,” Rival shared. 

On top of the everyday struggle of local peasants, women from these communities are also made to endure gender-based oppression, which renders their voices all the more necessary.

Rival noted the importance of having them write their own stories and author their history. To date, Gantala Press has published 3  books that highlight the struggle of Filipina peasants, with two of these written solely by peasant women and workers. 

“Books are often written from the perspective of historians, writers and academics but we believe we can learn so much more from the people who protect and nourish our agricultural lands. These women are most critical, scientific, creative, organized; and are experts in their field,” she added.

In December 2018, Gantala Press conducted a writing workshop with members of a labor union representing plantation workers of Sumitomo Fruit Corporation, a Japanese-owned fruit company in Compostela Valley, who were still fighting for regularization and benefits. Outputs from this workshop were collated to create a zine entitled Mamumuo, which translates to “worker.” 

“More people should recognize and realize how our fellow Filipinos in Mindanao suffer human rights violations on a daily basis,” Rival noted. (READ: Castro: I’m proof of martial law abuses in Mindanao)

Published in July, Lupang Ramos anthologizes the firsthand experience of Lupang Ramos farmers in the 3-decade dispute over agricultural land in Dasmariñas, Cavite. The book was completed after the press members’ several visits to the protest camps in the area, where they met union members who penned the featured essays.

Both books are aimed at amplifying the calls of peasant women and workers, providing physical documentation of their struggles amid the dismissal of local government and local media.

“If more collectives do this simultaneously, then the public will hear their demand,” said Rival.

Gantala Press’ most recent publication, Talinghaga ng Lupa, produced in collaboration with the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, is a crowdsourced poetry collection that serves as a situationer reflecting peasant women’s present conditions and struggles. Launched earlier this month, the zine features works written by farmers and rural women advocates, among other contributors.

When asked why creative writing was deemed as the more effective medium to use for the cited projects given the subject matter, Rival quoted arts-based research advocate Patricia Leavy that “the literary mind is the fundamental mind.” 

Simply put, Gantala Press aims to democratize literature, particularly poetry, and remind the marginalized that the form is also theirs to take and own. 

“We want to promote poems and essays as instruments of research, inquiry, and documentation. We do not want these forms to be exclusive to award-winning writers, academics, and artists who went through ‘prestigious’ national workshops,” said Rival.

“Poetry and other forms of art have always been part of the peasant struggle,” Rival added, noting how peasants and advocates would pen lyrical poems and songs, among other art styles, about their experiences as a form of creative protest. (READ: Philippine 'jeepney' artists stalked by extinction) – Rappler.com

As I write this, I just finished another day of school and decided to try your family’s Coffee Project café for the first time. All I thought as I entered the place was, “This one’s gonna give Starbucks a run for its money.” The wooden walls, faux flowers, and incandescent lights give off the ambiance of a countryside café, far from the hustle and bustle of the city. 

But as I settled down with my Café Americano, I suddenly remembered your remarks against corn research. “Parang lahat ng inyong budget puro research? Baliw na baliw kayo sa research. Aanhin niyo ba yung research?” you said. (Why does it seem like your whole budget went to research? You're going gaga over research. What will you do with this research?) 

Sen. Cynthia Villar, the rich grand dame of the Senate, we need to talk.  

Agricultural research is essential to support a growing young population. With more yuppies entering the workforce, we need to provide affordable and nutritious food to fuel our economic growth (which I am very sure your family’s empire is poised to benefit from). With such a small country, how do we come up with ways to supply more food? Arguably, you do not want to import more as it will widen our already distressing trade deficit and weakening peso. (READ: [OPINION] With rice tariffication, what happens with food security?)

Research on agriculture allows our scientists to create plant variants that are pest- and flood-resistant. The onslaught of pests like talakitok and dangaw cost our already impoverished farmers billions of pesos every year. And did I already mention the more than 20 typhoons that inundate our farms annually? 

Innovations brought about by research prepare our country for the impacts of climate change. A recent United Nations report puts the Philippines as one of the countries that will be hit worst by the changing climate. Certainly, you do not want tons of food go to down the drain every time a storm hits or serve as fertilizer when they dry up. Our scientists are developing plant variants that require less water and land, plus resistant to the capricious weather and drenching rain. (READ: What you can do to help Filipino rice farmers)

Our farmers are already at the rock bottom of our country. The Philippine Statistics Authority rated their poverty incidence at 34.3% in 2015, which is the highest in the nation. And your Rice Tarrification Law does not help, either. Though the price of rice in our pamilihang bayan (community market) has stabilized, which I appreciate, this is achieved at the cost of our farmers’ livelihood. The price of palay (rice grains) is already pegged at P7 per kilo in some provinces. Where is the help you said is allotted for farmers out of tax revenues from rice imports? Is this another TRAIN Law-like problem where it took a long time before the unconditional cash transfer of P200 was distributed to the 4Ps beneficiaries? (READ: Butterfly effect: How rice tariffication bill affects everyone)

Your law is like adrenaline: it is helpful during emergencies (like the ballooning inflation in 2018) but pernicious in the long run. There is already a delay in the help that you promised farmers out of RA 11203; don’t make it worse by scorning our researchers, which will unequivocally discourage them from developing strong plant variants in the future. 

Regretfully, I find it very ironic, almost hypocritical, for you to utter these despicable words months after you posted a picture of yourself holding a bundle of palay during the campaign trail. 

"We need to invest in research and development [so] we can increase the productivity of agriculture and boost job creation in the industry through science and technology.” That was you in a rice conference back in 2013. What happened? 

Instead, we want you to keep a watchful eye on agricultural research. Make sure that nothing in the budget lands in the pockets of unscrupulous officials, and that only the most promising research receives funding. You are one of the country’s best entrepreneurs; a powerful woman behind the success of one of the richest men in the country. I am confident that you know the significance of research and early innovation in an industry’s success, as smart a woman as you claim to be.  

Certainly, you want to be seen as the vibrant matriarch of the Senate – glorious, graceful, and generous. Not a rapacious businesswoman who is out to starve our farmers until they are forced to sell their lands so you can build your grandiose subdivisions on them. 

As I try to finish my cup of coffee, a question dawned on me: Did the coffee in my cup come from farmers of another country, as ours are too hungry to till the land? – Rappler.com

Rob Julian M. Maghinang is a proud Iskolar ng Bayan from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila. His opinions are his alone and does not represent any of the organizations he is affiliated with.

MANILA, Philippines – Taking their performance to a bigger platform, students from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) in Miagao, Iloilo raised national issues in a cheering competition on Wednesday, October 16. 

The cheer routine was performed by Skimmers, an academic organization composed of students from the Division of Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences.

The group’s performance bested 10 other academic organizations which joined the cheering competition as a kick off to the university’s annual sportsfest. 

Departing from the usual, the cheer tackled national issues. The cheer criticized the Duterte administration and highlighted issues related to the West Philippine Sea and Rice Tariffication law affecting the Filipino workers among others. (READ: Timeline: Philippines-China Relationship Under Duterte) 

The performance also pointed out the Supreme Court's decision upholding as valid the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) memorandum order (CMO) removing Filipino and Panitikan, as well as the Philippine Constitution, from core subjects in college; the government's determination to make the Reserved Officers Training Corps program mandatory for students and the militarization in campuses. 

It also urged the Senate to push for the SOGIE (sexual orientation and gender identity and expression) equality bill and the divorce bill.  

Towards the end of the performance, the cheerers put media oppression, repression and intimidation to the spotlight as journalists were repeteadly being killed, threatened and abused in the country. (READ: Over 100 attacks vs journalists since Duterte assumed office – monitor) 

“As an annual event, we took this opportunity to finally highlight what we – the media and future media practitioners experience in the practice of the profession,” Jude Vincent Parcon, adviser of Skimmers and faculty member of the Division of Humanities in UPV said. 

A clip of the video reposted on Twitter on Friday, October 18 went viral online gaining around 606,000 views as of writing. The clip was taken from the video uploaded on Youtube. – Rappler.com 

MANILA, Philippines – A town mayor in Leyte has been slammed by his residents after overseeing road clearing operations that led to the razing of trees and shrubberies along the side of their roads allegedly without any consultation.

In an open letter sent to Rappler on October 19, a certain Nonna Ponferrada from Barangay San Antonio, Tunga town in Leyte said that their town mayor Catalina Agda had been “blind and hasty” in following the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to clear all roads of obstruction.

“Blind and hasty following of a directive from government agencies without a thorough understanding of the substance of its contents and thought on the resultant impact of the actions on the town, and devoid of proper dialogue with the townsfolks, runs counter to all sound practices of a town leader,” Ponferrada said in a statement.

Ponferrada recounted that on October 16, government employees mowed down thriving plants in their barangay’s sidewalks in the name of the road-clearing directive. She said they were not given prior notice, save for when the workers were about to take their plants and trees down.

The local attached photos showing rows of colorful plants in their sidewalks, and vines crawling up the walls of houses. In photos that showed the streets after the operation, the plants were no longer there—only flattened earth and walls stripped of vines.

“Just as you and your team took pains to see and talk to people during the election campaigns, we would have wanted to see the same effort from you and the LGU officials and municipal staff talk to everyone and explain,” Ponferrada added.

This comes after the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) finished its nationwide evaluation of local government units (LGUs) in their compliance with Duterte’s order. The DILG set the deadline on September 29, or 60 days after Duterte’s order was announced in his 2019 State of the Nation Address.

Tunga town failed, according to records posted by the DILG on its website, which meant that the LGU did not get at least 71% of its main roads cleared within the prescribed time period. This also means that Mayor Agda would be ordered by the DILG to explain why she failed their directive. If she does not reply, she will face administrative complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Tunga LGU’s operations came despite the DILG clarifying earlier on that the road clearing directive was for the removal of obstructions on the road, and not the destruction of structures and plants along sidewalks for road widening projects.

“We wish to emphasize that the purpose of MC 121-2019, in compliance with the directive of the President, is to ‘return to public use, all public roads and sidewalks that have been appropriated for private use.’ In other words, it is for purposes of returning to the public the use of all public roads and it should never be used for road-widening purposes,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement on Thursday, September 19. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines– Various student organizations from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) condemned the red-tagging and attacks against the people behind a viral performance tackling national issues in a cheering competition on Wednesday, October 16.

Skimmers, an academic organization composed of students from the Division of Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences, performed a cheer routine that criticized the Duterte administration and highlighted issues related to the West Philippine Sea and Rice Tariffication law affecting Filipino workers among others.

It bested 10 other academic organizations which joined the cheering competition as a kick-off to the university’s annual sportsfest.

A clip of the performance reposted on Twitter on Friday, October 18, quickly went viral online, as several Facebook pages singled out a satirical line that criticized the Duterte administration’s failure to stand up to China and assert the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.

The line's satirical nature did not sit well with Duterte supporters as they took their threats and harassment to Facebook and launched different attacks against Skimmers and its cheerers.

As the video became viral, the students became targets of attacks and harassment, receiving threats after the personal information and photos of several of its members, especially its governor and adviser, were publicized online.

This was further amplified when controversial pro-Duterte blogger, Mocha Uson, shared a snippet of the cheer routine on her personal blog, criticizing the line and questioning the teachings of UP Visayas.

Student organizations of UP Visayas were quick to defend Skimmers, condemning the “blatant acts of doxxing and harassment” in the wake of the group’s performance.

The UP Visayas-University Student Council asserted in a unity statement that all UPV student councils and organizations won’t stand idly by when faced with harassment or unjust behavior targeting any member of its community.

“With the increased instances of red-tagging by this oppressive state whenever the university raises awareness and action on societal issues, we will not and will never tolerate any kind of harassment or unjust behavior towards our constituents, whether we are facing a single troll or the whole Duterte administration,” it said.

Pagbutlak, the official student publication of UPV’s College of Arts and Sciences, especially criticized the string of online attacks and harassment that followed Skimmers, pointing out how these online trolls muddle critical discourse on social media platforms.

“Such handiwork seriously threatens established freedom of expression and right to speech of citizens under our Constitution,” Pagbutlak added.

UP Scintilla Juris and UP Stella Juris residents emphasized how several of the pages attacking the cheer routine deliberately took a snippet of the video out of context, making it prone to misinterpretation.

“These groups and pages deliberately singled out a satirical line from the performance which misplaced its meaning and removed it from its context, which is to call the government to be accountable for its inactions over the West Philippine Sea, among other issues,” they said.

They highlighted how the recent incident of harassment and red-tagging of the students and faculty behind the performance only magnified the key issues that Skimmers showed in its performance such as the silencing of the press, the infringement of freedom of expression, and the suppression of truth.

“Our institution has long prided itself in its service for the people, and in its core, the cheering competition does precisely just that. It raises awareness about the pressing issues that plague our nation and demand for action. The student body, especially the Skimmers, do not deserve the defamation for speaking the truth and refusing to be silenced,” they said.

“The recent incidences have proven that the government, its lapdogs, and blind followers can be moved and pressed by the voice of students. The youth is powerful,” they added.

Partido sang Mainuswagon nga Bumulutho, a political and socio-civic organization in UPV, urged for the takedown of false reports and misleading videos on social media to protect students and faculty from cyber-bullying in the form of red-tagging and harassment.

“As the dictatorship of the current administration exists, there are unheard voices and voices being shut down…. These false reports and pieces of information do not help in creating peace and unity in the nation. Instead, it creates division and unsafe environment,” they said.

UPV Literati also joined in the call to take down posts on social media that intentionally mislead viewers by singling out a line in Skimmers’ cheer routine, as they listed posts that people can report to protect the cheerers from further harassment and red-tagging.

The Student Christian Movement-UPV noted that the attacks that followed Skimmers after its performance only show that there are efforts to drown out the voices of critics of the administration.

“The recent online attacks to UPV-Skimmers is a manifestation of utter cowardice of the Duterte regime's tentacles to silent dissenting voices of the youth heralding the banners of truth and justice,” it said.

Beyond the UP Visayas community, #HandsOffSkimmers also trended on Twitter on Saturday, October 19, as netizens stood in solidarity with Skimmers and commended their courage for putting a spotlight on issues the Philippines is currently facing.

For years, the annual UP Visayas cheering competition has served as a creative protest where students can tackle social and political issues from the university administration level all the way to national and global scales.

As of writing, the clip of the video reposted on Twitter has reached around 1.12 million views. The clip was taken from the almost 18-minute video uploaded on Youtube. – Rappler.com

In most cases, cheering or cheerdance competitions involve complicated routines, with dancers tumbling, twisting, and forming human pyramids. But in the quiet little town of Miagao in Iloilo where you can find the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas, annual cheering performances are done differently.

The students, in the grand tradition of activism in UP, call out social injustices through satirical spiels delivered in Hiligaynon, English, Filipino, and sometimes even bekimon (gay lingo).

In UP Visayas, cheering is protest.

The performance

This year, the cheering championship went to Skimmers, an academic organization composed of literature and communication and media studies majors under the humanities division. Their performance centered on the press and its battle against disinformation, exploitation, online harassment, and oppression.

Performers wore vests bearing the word "press" on the back, and reversed them mid-performance to reveal a bloodstained inner vest with the word "oppressed." (WATCH: U.P. Visayas students voice out national issues in cheering competition)

Toward the end of their routine, they chanted in Hiligaynon, "Maano kamo kung mahipos kami (What will you do if we become silent)?"

A clip of their performance which included quips on President Rodrigo Duterte's ties with China went viral on Twitter, as pro-Duterte groups used it to red-tag Skimmers, publicly posting the members' identities and subjecting them to attacks and harassment.

The UP community was quick to defend their own, with #HandsOffSkimmers and #HandsOffUPV shooting up the local trending topics on Twitter.

Skimmers and UP Visayas went from being jubilant victors to relentless fighters, safeguarding their right to hold the Duterte administration to account for its atrocities, and emphasizing the power of art as protest. (READ: From Twitter to theater: When artists get political)

Conviction, creativity

Students ditched pom-poms for a fake microphone, but their voice was as real as their demonstration. (READ: [OPINION] Protests remind us that we can do better)

It was the conviction and creativity of the kids that prompted Duterte supporters and trolls to try to silence them with intimidation. Remarks undermining the youth filled the comments sections, telling them to go back to school and be grateful for state subsidy, enjoining them to be indebted to taxpayers as if morality and nationalism are rooted in blind subservience to government, as if state-subsidized education should be a matter of privilege and not a right.

What these Duterte supporters and trolls fail to acknowledge is how they enjoy the fruits of youth protests. This country's heroes were students once fed up with Spanish oppression. The youth movements formed part of the revolution that toppled the Marcos regime. And it is the youth of Hong Kong who are leading the fight against China. (READ: 'Kapag may isa, maraming sumusunod': Leading a Philippine youth climate strike)

What the trolls also fail to comprehend is that they are now attacking these students for the same thing their beloved President is doing – pronouncing death. The only difference is that Skimmers' pronouncement was satire and will not lead to an actual death, while Duterte's policies have killed and will continue to kill thousands.

Skimmers' experience mirrors the everyday life of media practitioners in this country and in other parts of the world who risk their personal welfare and that of those closest to them, as they serve the public and report the truth. (READ: From Marcos to Duterte: How media was attacked, threatened)

Fight the fight

Eleven organizations participated in the cheering competition. These organizations are now planning to post their videos over the next few days. If Skimmers is Exhibit A, then there are 10 more organizations and hundreds more students who could be attacked. But they will press ahead and they will fight.

The harassment will not intimidate the students of UP Visayas. It will only give them more reason to take center stage again next year and keep fighting the fight. – Rappler.com

Adrian Jimenea graduated from UP Visayas in 2017. He is a former MovePH intern.

Warning: This piece contains sensitive and graphic content that may trigger certain readers, particularly those who have experienced a form of sexual abuse, no matter how small. 

Let me begin with what I remember. 

I was 14. I was a skinny sophomore in high school and I loved reading about wizards and demigods and shadowhunters and vampire slayers. I had a regular childhood, as we defined regular in my tiny part of the world. My father worked abroad. My mother stayed at home, but on Tuesdays would help my grandmother run her business. On Sundays I would sing for the church choir.

I am not going to waste any more words for an element of surprise. When I was 14, when I was a skinny sophomore in high school who loved reading and thought she had a regular childhood, an uncle of mine touched my genitals.

It was a Friday, I’m sure of this memory. That night, I had been wearing the girl scout uniform sophomores had to wear in my high school – green culottes that ran up to my knees and a yellow polo shirt with a girl scout logo embroidered on the left chest. I had been on my laptop and did not have to worry about homework until Sunday. There was a lizard on the ceiling and there were tiny bugs circling the white light above.  

I was sitting at a huge mahogany table, on a matching mahogany chair that had been in that house even before I was born. And on the chair to my left was my uncle, all of 37 years, scrolling through his own laptop with his left hand and fingering me with his right hand. He did not use all of his fingers. I do not remember how long he took, moving his fingers through a patch of my skin where hair had just begun to bloom. I just knew that it was an odd feeling, and that eventually he stopped when my mother called out for dinner. 

I did not tell anyone that night, nor the next day, because I don’t think I remembered it happened at all. That same year, my uncle left for Europe to join his wife who had left months prior to work there as a nurse. He eventually found a job as a chef. They have been there for almost a decade now. 

I did not tell anyone until nearly 6 years later, in 2017, when news of Harvey Weinstein’s abuses broke. I was then living in a cold European city – the coldest city, as they call it in that country – and I was lonely.  

I found the Weinstein story gripping, the hashtag #MeToo affecting. That October and the months that followed, so many stories of assault, not just from women who had crossed paths with Weinstein and similar men, but ordinary women leading ordinary lives, surfaced online. The posts invoked questions of power, sex, culture, and psychology. 

Coincidence must have worked hard, with impeccable timing, to dredge up a memory I had buried, because that same month, my uncle sent me a message asking how I was, saying I could always contact them because they were my nearest relatives, and we were in the same continent. It took that message to stir what had been living inside me for years, what had been whispering me too, me too, me too. 

My body responded during those weeks of reckoning with sleep paralysis – that feeling of being conscious yet unable to move in the middle of the night. Spells of sleep paralysis usually involve terrifying monsters. Mine would always be faceless, leaning onto the door jamb, shoulders crossed and long fingers peaking out. I would also get abdominal pain, the memory making me literally sick to my stomach. 

I chose to deal with it, first, by telling 3 of my friends. I cried each time. I did not want to remember that night at our old house, with the mahogany table and the lizard on the ceiling. It was a memory that never served me. I had no reason to even think about my uncle anymore. Every time they’d come home to the Philippines to visit, I'd never make the effort to see them.  Perhaps it was me implicitly distancing myself, like a survival instinct. 

But somehow I knew it had to be told, and it had to be dealt with. 

On September 2018, nearly a year after Weinstein, a woman by the name of Christine Blasey Ford came forward and said a US Supreme Court nominee had assaulted her decades ago, when they were in high school. Her testament before the US Senate remains, to me, one of the most powerful moments of 2018. I followed that hearing religiously and teared up a couple of times while watching from my small rented condo unit in Manila.  

“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified,” she said. “I have had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world, and have seen my life picked apart by people on television, in the media, and in this body who have never met me or spoken with me.” Her words were powerful. 

Not long after, in October, news of sexual assault rocked a prominent university in Manila. I was deeply affected by the news. An anonymous post about a predatory professor set off a social media storm, which involved students and alumni – most of them women – taking to Twitter and Facebook to share their stories of sexual harassment at the hands of revered faculty members. There were also whispers about who actively protected the predators and those who stayed silent as harassers continued to do their deeds.

It marked another time of reckoning for me, but this time, I asked myself, what happens to a harasser who is not a moneyed movie producer nor a legendary professor nor a nominee to the Supreme Court? What happens if he’s just a regular, unremarkable man, with a daughter the same age as you? What if he is a good brother who has sacrificed a lot for his younger siblings? What if he is one of your grandmother’s favorite nephews? 

I eventually dealt with it through writing. I had written poetry before, and I thought maybe my experience could afford me to experiment in non-fiction. An earlier version of this blog, this confession of sorts, was published in a literarypublication. It was a circuitous piece in which I finally own my trauma, but the ownership comes with a lingering “others have it much worse than you.” But trauma is trauma is trauma, no matter how "small."

The theme for that issue of the publication was fear, and for me, trauma breeds a lot of fear, whether this fear be a fear to speak out, a fear to confront the trauma, or a fear that once your trauma is out it can no longer be yours and yours only. 

Months later, I have learned to share that trauma I have for so long guarded, consciously and unconsciously. I have received messages from people who have read my essay, and their words, often filled with appreciation for my coming forward, have come to mean a lot. Those messages are partly why I have written this blog, to tell you your trauma matters, no matter how insignificant you think it is. 

But part of it is also because, while I've come to reckon with my own experience, many others still live in unsafe spaces. Just this week, another university student from Manila came forward with his own story of sexual harassment at the hands of a faculty member. Again, the flurry of social media confessions came. Many victims – most of them women – still feel vulnerable. 

We need to reckon with even more questions still, chief among them these: Why do victims choose to remain silent? Why do they take to social media? Why don't all victims want to go through formal processes? These are questions that should disturb us. May they keep us up at night until every single person who has ever felt vulnerable be comfortable in his or her own skin. – Rappler.com

Ella Burgos is not the author’s real name. Her family does not know about any of this. She’s not ready for them to know of it yet. The 22-year-old thanks you for reading this, and hopes her words serve you in some way.

MANILA, Philippines — Peasant organizations, allied groups, and musicians highlighted Filipino farmers’ plight in a fair trade and free concert "BAGSAKAN: Stand With Farmers" at the Quezon Memorial Circle on Sunday, October 20. 

“Local bands and performers are showing their solidarity with the farmers who are suffering from low palay prices brought about by rice importation and continued attacks on the agricultural sectors,” Bagsakan coordinator Angelo Suarez said.

Farmgate prices of unhusked rice or palay have plummeted in recent months, going much lower than their production cost. Farmers have said the rice tariffication law has facilitated the flow of more imported grains to the detriment of local produce.

The event coincided with the first anniversary of the Sagay massacre, where 9 farmers were killed by some 40 armed men in Sagay City, Negros Occidental. (READ: 9 farmers killed at Negros Occidental hacienda)

Bringing along local organic crops and indigenous products, the farmers sold their produce to park visitors and Bagsakan concert attendees.

“In doing this, they are able to sell their products in a fair market price directly to the consumers. At the same time, buyers can hear the stories of the farmers about their hardships in producing food for the country,” Suarez shared.

Some of the performers at the concert include Bullet Dumas, The General Strike, Pink Cow, WUDS, Ang Bandang Shirley, We are Imaginary, The Geeks, Plagpul, The Jerks, Rusty Machine, Lady 1, Identikit, and BLKD X CALIX.

“Nandito po ako ngayon para sa mga magsasaka nating mga bayani (I am here now for our farmers, our heroes),” said singer-songwriter BP Valenzuela before performing a set of electronic pop songs.

“Iyang mga gulay, saging at suha, organiko po iyan, galing sa aming pinaglalabang lupa na binubungkal po,” said 41-year-old farmer Jovy Torres at the fair trade adjacent to the concert stage. (These vegetables, bananas and pomelo are organic, from the land we’re fighting for.)

According to Torres, who comes from Norzagaray and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, they constantly face harassment and attempts of land grabbing from commercial entities.

“Humihingi po kami ng tulong at suporta sa lahat, lalong lalo na po sa gobyerno: 'yung subsidyo para sa mga magsasaka upang sa ganun hindi na po tayo mag-iimport ng ating mga pagkain (We ask for help and support from everyone, especially from the government: subsidy for farmers so that we don’t have to import our food anymore),” Torres said. – Rappler.com

Jaia Yap is a Rappler intern with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He tweets at @jaiayap.

MANILA, Philippines – Inspired by the protest that came in the wake of another case of sexual harassment surfacing online, various members of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) community formed a coalition advocating for an end to sexual violence on campus.

The coalition dubbed “Time’s Up Ateneo” is comprised of ADMU students, faculty, and alumni eager to consolidate efforts against sexual violence and impunity in the university, meet and negotiate reforms with the administration, and urge for the implementation of long overdue structural changes.

The coalition was founded two days after disgruntled students and a handful of faculty members protested outside ADMU’s humanities building on October 15, expressing indignation over how the school investigates cases of sexual harassment.

The protest came on the heels of another case of sexual harassment involving faculty that surfaced on Facebook. This is not the first time a sexual harassment case became viral within the Ateneo community. In 2018, the ADMU student council filed a case with the university against a longtime male professor after a post in Facebook group “ADMU Freedom Wall” drew attention to the professor’s alleged sexual harassment.

Protest to action

Moving forward from protest to action, Time’s Up Ateneo gathered common demands from the October 15 protest and the ensuing statements of support and solidarity from different groups to conceptualize concrete actions that can be raised to the administration.

With the help of the university student council Sanggunian ng mga Paaralang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila, Time’s Up Ateneo and other student groups including Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK), Kabataan Partylist Katipunan, One Big Fight for Human Rights and Democracy (OBFHRD), and Kabataang Kakampi ng Manggagawang Pilipino (KAKAMPI) initially came up with 5 demands focused on the following: 

• Improving survivors’ welfare through effective mechanisms and processes;
• Seeking action on filed sexual harassment cases;
• Pushing for transparency of the committee handling the investigations and their findings so far;
• Ensuring students’ safety;
• Enforcing a policy with strong anti-sexual misconduct provisions.

These were later reworked into two immediately enforceable actions and presented in a meeting with Time’s Up Ateneo, student representatives, the university administration, and the Ateneo Loyola Schools Faculty Association (ALSFA) on Friday, October 18.

In a statement on Monday, October 21, Time’s Up Ateneo shared that among the demands they raised during the meeting were possible structural changes for reform, and the immediate implementation of no contact hours between students and a longtime professor who’s been alleged to be a sexual predator.

The Sanggunian further acted on this demand, officially filing a petition with Vice President for the Loyola Schools Dr. Maria Luz Vilchez after the October 18 meeting.

“We are still waiting for the official announcement on the administration’s issuance of [the No Contact] order, but we expect the administration to issue this,” it said.

It was after this meeting that Ateneo President Fr Jett Villarin SJ apologized and vowed actions on sexual harassment.

Time’s Up Ateneo assured that other key demands will be tackled in further discussions. It shared that it will work closely with the Sanggunian on the issue of sexual violence and impunity, as they push for the Committee on Decorum and Investigation to be made public and reconstituted in such a way that nominees will have representatives from other sectors in the university, among others.

Time’s Up Ateneo said the multi-sectoral coalition is the first of its kind in ADMU.

“While Time’s Up Ateneo is still working on its organizational structure, we already extend invitation to all student groups and individual students, alumni, faculty and staff, and parents to join our multi-sectoral coalition as we continue the fight for a university that is free from sexual violence and impunity,” it said. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government joined forces with an Australian government-led consortium of child rights advocates to form SaferKidsPH, a 6-year awareness campaign on the extent and impact of the online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) in the Philippines.

The official launch was held on Tuesday, October 22, at Makati City.

SaferKidsPH dubs itself as the pioneering consortium created to reduce OSEC. It pledges to work and foster cooperation among the governments, educational institutions, and communities involved.

Along the 6-year plan, SaferKidsPH aims to:

• Increase public awareness of risks of OSEC, and involve children, parents, schools, the private sector, civil society, and the media to promote online safety to prevent and respond to OSEC;
• Strengthen investigation and prosecution of OSEC cases; and
• Improve service delivery for OSEC prevention and protection of vulnerable children in commonly targeted areas.

Involved agencies from the Philippine government include the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

From the private sector, telecommunications companies such as Globe, Google and YouTube, PLDT, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are pitching in.

Youth volunteers associated with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) have pledged involvement as well.

The launch capped off with a ceremonial "blocking" of online predators on a SaferKidsPH microsite.

Prevalence

Cybertips of sexual images of Filipino children obtained by the DOJ Office of Cybercrime ballooned to 600,000 in 2018 from 45,645 in 2017. This is more than a 1000% increase.

Since 2017, only 32 convictions of cybertrafficking have been meted out by the Philippines’ Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking. (READ: Stolen: Pretty Girls)

In many known cases, the victims' own family members are crime facilitators. According to a 2016 study, only 3 out of 10 children availed of local child protection services in their communities.

Australian Embassador Steven Robinson said that OSEC is a crime that transcends territorial jurisdiction, and acknowledges that even nationals from his own country partake in child pornography consumption.

As the internet evolves in complexity and ways to evade crime, Robinson said that the campaign will adapt with the dynamic nature of the child porn industry.

'Everyone is responsible'

Beyond the awareness campaign, stakeholders explained how their organizations and agencies would roll out their respective responsibilities in the cause.

The DOJ reported that they created task forces to specifically handle trafficking cases.

Meanwhile, the DSWD said they would work towards making internet service providers who do not monitor child pornography activity accountable. (READ: Internet service providers fail to report sites transmitting child porn)

The Asia Foundation, an international development organization and a chief implementer of the project, pledged to support the justice elements that would lead to deeper societal change.

"What we're doing now is just a catalyst. We want SaferKidsPH to be owned by everyone and not just early members of the consortion or a single government. All of us have different roles and can really contribute," said Save the Children Philippines Chief Executive Officer Alberto Muyot. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – A few weeks ago, you would only see a plain, white wall when you pass by Symphony Drive in Circuit Makati. Now, these walls are bursting with color through the efforts of Climb Against Cancer (CAC) volunteers and several Makati citizens.

CAC founder Nini Sacro led dozens to work on the vibrant mural paintings on Sunday, October 20. The project began on September 24 at the Makati Parking Authority Wall near the Makati Medical Center as commissioned by Makati Commercial Estate Association (MACEA).

The activity sparked the curiosity of nearby residents, family members of patients, and street children. Sacro encouraged them to take a brush and join her. Since then, she  has been working with CAC volunteers and the Makati community every weekend to give life and color to an empty wall. (READ: 'Artwork by the sidewalk': Ilonggo painter's life changes after going viral)

This project is for the benefit of several remote mountain communities and Lumad schools in Bukidnon and for the medical treatment of indigent cancer patients in Silungan ng Pag-asa and Bahay Aruga in Manila.

A community activity

MACEA originally commissioned Nini Sacro alone for the project, as an added effort to beautify Makati. An artist above all other things, Sacro had been commissioned to paint murals on walls of various establishments around Metro Manila. However, right from the beginning, she knew that this was an experience she did not want to keep to herself. (READ: Legal graffiti wall transforms city and art)

“Yung una talaga is trabaho, 'di siya for a cause. So during the presentation, sinabi ko sa MACEA na if it's okay, gusto kong magpinta kasama ang CAC volunteers, kasama ang community. I want them to own the artwork,” Sacro explained.

(It was really just work in the beginning, not for a cause. So during the presentation, I told MACEA, if it’s okay, I want to paint with CAC volunteers, with the community. I want them to own the artwork.)

Other companies decided to commission more murals in areas along the Makati Central Business District. The commission money from MACEA, Circuit Makati, Ayala, and Nuvali will support CAC's advocacies: helping those with cancer, and those with the social cancer of poverty.

‘Paint it forward’

CAC volunteers are no strangers to painting murals. While mostly known for praying over cancer patients on top of the country’s numerous mountains, the organization frequently conducts outreach activities in remote communities, giving goods and school supplies. The outreach programs include painting murals with the community: ArtReach, a combination of “art” and “outreach.” (READ: Volunteerism: Changing the world one child at a time)

In contrast to the outreach motto with “pay it forward,” the motto for ArtReaches is “paint it forward.”

Sacro mentioned that both mottos complement each other: through "paying it forward," you give without asking for anything in reward, and through "painting it forward" you gain the resources to be able to give.

The success of ArtReaches in these communities gave Sacro the confidence to apply the same principles when painting in Makati. 

“I know na kahit maliit na bata, madaling maturuan ng painting (I know that it's easy to each even small children how to paint),” Sacro said.

“Hindi siya dapat exclusive na trabaho; it's not even trabaho. Dapat passion mo that you get to share with 'di lang 'yung volunteers, but the community; ma-identify ng community ang selves nila in the artwork. It's their wall. 'Di lang 'akin," she added.

(It’s not meant to be exclusive work; it’s not even work. It’s supposed to be your passion that you get to share not only the volunteers but with the entire community. The community can see themselves in the artwork. It’s their wall. Not just mine.)

Sacro and her team of volunteers will return to Circuit Makati to finish the murals and are happy to accept more help. Painting the mural is free and open to all.

Although volunteers are invited to come paint at 8 am to 5 pm every weekend, Sacro stays until 10 pm to draw the outlines that the volunteers will color in.

They are also accepting donations of school supplies for the benefit of children in poor communities. People who are interested in donating may contact Nini Sacro at 09163162879.

Sacro says that the Circuit Makati project is projected to end around Christmas this year while the MACEA project will end in 2020.

Updates on where the team will be painting next are regularly posted on the Climb Against Cancer Facebook page. They conduct mural painting sessions once a week.

To future volunteers, Sacro says: “Let's step out of our comfort zone and do something for humanity.” – Rappler.com

Dorothy Andrada is a Mover from Roxas City, Capiz. She is currently based in Quezon City as a college freshman at the Ateneo de Manila University. 

MANILA, Philippines – University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM) assistant professor Gene Nisperos shared that he received death threats against himself and his family on Tuesday, October 22.

Nisperos, who has been vocal against “repressive and anti-people” government policies online and in mobilizations, received two text messages from an unidentified number on Monday night and Tuesday morning threatening him and his family. 

“Alam ko ang condo mo. (I know your condo.) We will get your family one by one. You are dead by... Including your children and wife,” said one text message.

“You and your wife Dr julie was [sic] very arrogant to challenge us to line up in gov’t hospital. Both of you will line up with cotton in your nostrills [sic] in due time,” said another message from the same number.

Nisperos received the text messages after he joined a rally at the lobby of the Philippine General Hospital on Monday, demanding a P10-billion budget for the public hospital.

UP Manila statement

Nisperos said he was worried for his family.

“I am deeply concerned that this is happening to me, mainly because they are threatening my family, even though my children has nothing to do with whatever irked the sender of the death threat, who is obviously a supporter of the current regime and a rabid anti-communist,” said Nisperos.

His wife Julie Caguiat, who is also a medical doctor, was part of the health workers’ group that challenged government officials on October 18 to admit themselves in public hospitals “to experience the situation of Filipino patients.”

UP Manila issued a statement on Tuesday, condemning the death threats and vowing to never tolerate this “viciousness” against a member of their community.

pic.twitter.com/XlgRiZGWyH

— Iris Thiele Isip Tan MD, MSc (@endocrine_witch) October 22, 2019

The All UP Academic Employees Union (AUAEU) in UP Manila also denounced the threats and called for an end to all forms of “state-led” harassment and violence.

“If this is an attempt to sow fear among teachers and unionists who assert their rights and fight gor a higher state subsidy for social services such as education and health, our Union will not tremble in the face of vicious repressive measures and increasingly fascist attacks by this administration,” said AUAEU-Manila. 

‘Culture of violence, impunity’

“Hindi na nakakagulat na sa ganitong panahon, pati doktor gustong patayin. Mula magsasaka at manggagawa hanggang lawyers at human rights defenders... wala naman pinipili ang mga mamamatay-tao ngayon,” said Nisperos.

(It is no longer surprising how today even doctors are threatened with death. From farmers and workers to lawyers and human rights defenders... killers commit murder indiscriminately.)

“At lalo silang naging lantaran at mapangahas dahil mismo sa pananalita ng pangulo ng bansa,” added Nisperos. (And they have become more brazen and daring due to the President’s aggressive language.)

The doctor said the threats result from the prevailing culture of intolerance for critical thinking and dissent.

Over the weekend, a viral cheerdance performance from UP Visayas struck a nerve with President Rodrigo Duterte supporters, which led to online threats and harassment against the student-performers.(READ: #HandsOffSkimmers: UP community slams attacks vs students, faculty behind viral cheer routine)

“Kailan pa naging mali na maningil sa pamunuan ng bansa? (When has it ever been wrong to seek accountability from the leaders of the land),” asked Nisperos. – Rappler.com

ILOILO CITY, Philippines– Taking their protest to a bigger platform, University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) students used their cheering routine to amplify national issues in a performance that quickly went viral on social media, gaining the vitriol of administration supporters for its inflammatory content.

No stranger to gaining traction online, the annual cheering competition may seem puzzling or intriguing to those outside the UPV community. However it’s become a part of this UP campus’ culture and yearly festivities – a platform for the razor-sharp wit of Ilonggo Iskolars ng Bayan since at least the 1970s, as recounted by a faculty member of the state university.

Satirical spectacle

UPV’s brand of cheering relies less on pompoms, stunts, and human pyramids. Its routines typically focus more on satirical commentary instead.

Part of the campus’ yearly Sportsfest – intramurals to most other collegiate athletes – the cheering competition pits UPV’s 11 academic organizations against each other as they trade barbs and roasts while also espousing jokes that often take on a political slant.

“It’s not the usual cheers and yells, or series of stunts and tumblings,” explained Raoul Danniel Manuel, a UPV alumnus and former UP student regent, now National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) spokesperson. 

Manuel had participated in the annual cheering competition a few times before graduating as UP Visayas’ first summa cum laude in 2015. He was even a cheerleader in his senior year with the Elektrons, the academic organization of the Division of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences.

UPV professor and filmmaker Kevin Piamonte echoed Manuel’s statement, emphasizing how the cheering competition has become a platform to tackle issues within and beyond the campus.

“UPV cheering is totally different, it’s always been creative,” said Piamonte. “Teams always poke fun at each other by way of funny and witty insults. Issues in the campus, as well as in the society, are also [usually] included.”

“It’s a platform for students to express grievances related to campus, youth and national issues,” added Manuel.

The annual cheering competition is also a rite of passage of sorts for UPV freshmen. Manuel and Piamonte explained that the competition is usually participated by first year students of each of the academic organizations.

Piamonte said he remembers joining the cheering competition as early as 1979 at the University of the Philippines High School in Iloilo.

“I don’t remember when [the contest] first started but I recall joining the cheering competition since my high school years.  Since that time, until now, it’s always been an avenue also for students to air out their sentiments,” he said.

In the spotlight

This is not the first time a routine from UPV’s cheering competition has gone viral due to its progressive and political message.

In 2018, the Fisheries academic organization – from UPV’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences – gained traction online for their cheer routine that touched on the plea of endo or end-of-contract scheme workers employed by a popular Filipino fast food chain. 

The performance featured cheerers of the group donning the recognizable uniforms of Jollibee service crews – their look completed by hairnets and nametags that read “Hi! I am contractual,” alongside the logo of the bee brand with an upturned smile.

“The cheering competition always had an element of protest. Students can bash school policies right in front of the members of the university administration. But I believe that the share of socially relevant themes in the content of the cheers has noticeably increased in recent years, especially in light of the harsh times we face under the Duterte government,” expressed Manuel.

Aside from the Skimmers, another organization that participated in this year’s cheering competition in UPV also went viral online.

RuPaul’s Drag Race star and Drag Race All Stars season 3 crowned winner Trixie Mattel shared a photo from the cheering performance of the SoTech academic organization from the UPV School of Technology to her over 1 million Instagram followers on Tuesday, October 22.

"I was told this was a team of cheerleaders in the Philippines," the newly-minted Trixie Cosmetics mogul captioned her post.

Entitled "SoTech Drag Ball Eleganza Extravaganza," the performance took inspiration from drag culture and had their cheerers don Trixie Mattel's now iconic signature "mug," or makeup.

View this post on Instagram

I was told this was a team of Cheerleaders in the Philippines?!

A post shared by Trixie Mattel (@trixiemattel) on Oct 21, 2019 at 2:51pm PDT

The Skimmers are a perennial champion of the cheering competition, claiming the top spot in the contest consecutively from 2008 to 2011 for a momentous 4-peat, and usually never leaving the Top 3 in the yearly rivalry.

This year's daring routine made Manuel proud of his alma mater. He shared how taking a stand doesn't mean the people behind the performance deserve the attacks and harassment.

“I expected the backlash from diehard supporters of the Duterte administration. But I cannot bear the attacks on the students to the point of them being harassed,” he said.

Does he think the annual cheering competition will remain a relevant platform for free expression, even protest?

“Yes,” Manuel concluded. “As long as issues in and out of the campus remain unresolved, and as long as students devote their time and creativity to a good cause, the cheering competition will remain relevant.” – Rappler.com

Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay is a Rappler Mover based in Iloilo. He reports mostly on the local cultural community and art scene.

Since 2014, many calls have been made to return Philippine History to high school. This was brought about by Department of Education (DepEd) Order 20, 2014 that effectively removed Philippine History as a dedicated course in high school.

Unfortunately, no changes were made with the Araling Panlipunan (AP) curriculum. Organizations such as the Teacher’s Dignity Coalition (TDC), Suspend K-12 Alliance, and Tanggol Kasaysayan made objections about the decision early on. Partisan and progressive groups all came along to call for the return of Philippine History in high school. These calls were made alongside their overarching advocacy of condemning K-12 altogether. (READ: Aquino signs K-12 bill into law)

Tactless government representatives responded by saying that Philippine History is already integrated in other Araling Panlipunan (AP) subjects such as Asian History. There was no need to make it redundant since it is already taught in elementary. This was made painfully clear when, in 2017, current DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones expressed the following in a Philippine Daily Inquirer article entitled, “Not 'Kuri-kulam’ but ‘Cure-iculum’” 

“While Philippine history, as a subject, is no longer part of the junior high school curriculum, discussions of events in Philippine history, especially on martial law, are ‘naturally integrated’ in several subjects, among them Southeast Asian political landscape in the fourth quarter of Grade 7," Briones said in the article.

From my educational perspective, integration does not work given that AP is only 3 hours or 3 contact sessions a week in junior high school. Compared to other subjects like English, Math, and Science that has 4 (or in some schools, 5) contact hours a week, AP is at a disadvantage. Logistically, it is nearly impossible to integrate Philippine History in Asian History or any other non-AP subjects given the constraints. 

Effectively, there are 6 whole years (4 years in junior high school and two years in senior high school) where a student does not learn Philippine History as a dedicated subject at all. A Grade 6 student might learn it in elementary, but the next time he or she will learn it will be in college, under the Readings in Philippine History course. The huge 6-year gap can pose a problem. (READ: Basagan ng Trip with Leloy Claudio: 5 movies about Philippine history)

Those teenage years in high school are said to be most formative according to principles of developmental psychology, such as those espoused by Erik Erikson. This is an age bracket where they are most socially, developmentally, and politically malleable. With no room for a mature conduit for discussion, they tend to be susceptible to distortions in history and the worsening of historical amnesia. 

That is why it is no surprise to me if more students tend to believe that Rizal is actually "Jack the Ripper" or more students’ wonder why Epi Quizon’s character (Apolinario Mabini) is always sitting in the film Heneral Luna. This is further worsened by the explosion of manipulative and distorted historical content found on social media. If teenagers started to genuinely believe this misleading content in high school due to a lack of pedagogical guidance, then they will most likely bring that misguided belief until their adulthood. (READ: The unsung heroes who fought for Philippine independence)

If things were bad before, things have gotten worse because of the effective removal of Philippine History in high school. 

A call to personal action

Fast forward to 2018, and I was still quietly aching due to the removal of Philippine History in high school. I still yearn for the inquisitive discourse on national identity and the genuine love for country through high school Philippine History classes. I started to realize that I must do something.  

And yet, I couldn't bring myself to join already established organizations calling for the return of Philippine History in high school. While I respect these groups and their convictions, such groups are known for their political baggage or their hyperpartisan inclinations.

I am a professional teacher, not an activist. I have no other agenda other than the return of Philippine History in high school. I am not against K-12 per se; I only desire for reforms in the system. 

So, in August of 2018, I started a petition in Change.org to return Philippine History in high school. It calls on the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to prod DepEd to return Philippine History to high school. It also asks the DepEd to review the AP curriculum in the hopes of returning Philippine history to junior high school and perhaps even senior high school. It likewise urges Congress to enact legislation to make it mandatory to have Philippine History in all tranches of education, especially in high school. Ultimately, our petition hopes to have Philippine History in Grade 10 synthesized with Contemporary Issues while adding an advance subject on Philippine History in senior high school.

Along with like-minded teachers, students, and professionals, we started an informal, non-partisan, and pro-Philippines group named Ibalik ang Philippine History sa High School Movement. Through our Facebook page, we disseminate information about the removal of Philippine History in high school through various infographics and memes while broadcasting our petition through shares and posts. 

True enough, there were many Filipinos who were not even aware of the removal of Philippine History in high school. Upon knowing this, many patriots immediately signed the petition. (READ: FAST FACTS: What makes a Filipino historical figure a national hero?)

That is why it is a big boost for our movement when the Philippine Historical Association (PHA), the professional group of historians and academicians in the country, endorsed our petition last September. The report was even published last October 3 in the Manila Times. We are grateful for their support. 

Revitalized hope

It is unfortunate that despite the heart-wrenching disservice made by the removal of Philippine History in secondary education, it did not get powerful media millage similar to the protests made against the removal of mandatory Filipino language courses in college. Perhaps it is indicative of the state of appreciation for history in this country.  

It is already 2019. Since 2014, I have worked in two different private schools. Whenever I ask young Grade 7 students about national heroes or historical events, I mostly get blank stares as a response. From my level, I can see the slow death of Philippine History at the secondary level becoming ever more inevitable. With the lack of appreciation for our nation’s past at this age bracket, I worry for our nation’s future. 

But seeing the number of signatories for our petition growing to over 37,000, with many of the signatories being my former students in Malayan High School of Science (my first employer), perhaps we can stop this impending death and resuscitate the appreciation for our heroes’ sacrifices for their country.  The very same boys and girls I taught before 2014 are now professionals. Many of them signed because, as one former student told me: “We need Philippine History in high school to inflame love for country in these dark times. We need history to stop it from repeating itself.” 

These curious boys and girls have finally become patriotic men and women. 

Perhaps Jose Rizal’s proverbial words, cliché as they may be, do ring true in this situation: Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan (The youth is our nation's hope).  – Rappler.com 

Jamaico D. Ignacio is the convener of Ibalik ang Philippine History sa High School Movement. He used to teach AP at the Malayan High School of Science and is currently working as an AP teacher at the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School.

Case A: I have a friend in HUMSS or Humanities and Social Sciences, who always whines about her projects in creative writing. The requirements from the course make her both inadequate and worn out.

Responding to her complaints, I occasionally pretend to be a heartless clown by saying creative writing at her age – like spelling – is supposed to be fun and to be enjoyed and to be sunk within her pores. Writing’s written rules and "rhythm," like alliterative cheap tricks are valid, but they’re like fossils – essential things in the past that we must respect but are better looked at from a distance than being imitated over and over.

I would always tell her all she needs to master are metaphor, allusion, wit, and her own voice.

Case B: I happen to talk to students (studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math or STEM, but are now freshmen) who have a thick set of photocopied slideshows they are memorizing by heart, or brain, minutes before their Filipino examination.

I ask them, “What’s the point of all of these?” pointing to their handouts, and they can’t give me a single answer.

I talked to them for minutes, stealing their time for enhancing their rote memory. They obliged since I was their former teacher, but I knew that during that vacant period they wanted my jokes out of earshot because they needed to ace their written test.

I wished them luck, and I told them to come to my office if they had found the answer to my question.

Case C: My little cousin (STEM, Grade 12) is too excited to be a doctor and an advocate for disability rights and universal healthcare. She had a terrible aneurysm in 2015 which nearly claimed her life. She tweeted that she realized her class had only run for 3 months, but she and her classmates were already tired as hell. Poor little cousin; she’s too young to philosophize whether time is a physical fact or a social construct.

I replied, “Who is/are your teacher/s? Because ‘iskool’ must be cool, Cassie.” (READ: Classroom shortages greet teachers, students in opening of classes)

Case D: Whenever students (first year college) follow me on Twitter during office hours, I would message them jokingly: “Why are you on Twitter? Do you even study your lessons?” Do they text in front of their teacher? That’s my pet peeve.

The thing about the hell weeks thousands of K-12 students are describing online or offline is that they may be imagined or real.

Assuming it’s imagined, then thousands of K-12 students must be delusional or fans of quixotic hyperboles.

Assuming it’s real, then thousands of K-12 students must really need systemic hell weeks or decades of preparation for them to become neoliberal slaves who value hard work over mental health. Worse future situation: thousands of K-12 students will pass this system on to generations AA and AB.

My heart goes out not only to the students but also to the teachers who do not mean to bring harm to their students' sanity. They’re paid to observe the prescribed curriculum guides by the Department of Education as if the system has become their religion. Beyond their teaching loads, they’re also bombarded with several clerical jobs (e.g., forms and reports) and a salary not commensurate with their sacrifices and passion. (READ: 'More than just a job': Teachers, students voice out important role of educators)

I lament the fact that in this country, there is a low valuation of teachers. I realize why some teachers become terrible persons, and some teachers grow old with loans. I now see why some students hate terror teachers, and some kind teachers hate sassy students. I can now trace the origin of the most horrible quotation known to teachers: “Those who can, do; those who can’t do, teach.” Woody Allen had even added fuel to the fire: “Those who can’t teach, teach gym.”

Consider a literature curriculum in senior high school: term papers, interviews with authors, reporting activities, sophisticated projects using multimedia software, etc etc etc, (not including the required concepts teachers should teach, but the months cannot allow). All these are, in fact, snatching the students’ time from meditating upon one to 3 written works for them to really appreciate reading. They are meant to learn that reading – not forced reading – would take them places, and would promote the value of empathy, since K-12 students are supposed to be professionals the world needs, not neoliberal slaves corporations need. (READ: [OPINION] Why senior high school needs urgent fixing) 

As a teacher for more than 5 years and a student for life, I am not a summa cum laude, but I am observant enough to conclude that the system has been failing to reach students’ potentials. I also did not major in educational management, but it’s commonsensical to infer that there is a need for radical change in the system and the curriculum, to allow students to see educational institutions not as hell, but as a safe space for them to discover themselves and society at large.

Case E: Someone (not a senior high school student) tells the proverb: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Note that Jack could be any boring, grumpy, dull K-12 student because he has no time away from “acads.”

Case F: Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson in the movie The Shining) types "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" repeatedly on hundreds of papers, because all the work for his writing project may have wrecked his mental stability.

Case G: Wendy Torrance (played by Shelley Duvall) discovers the papers in and beside the typewriter. She is shaking when she reads, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” When Jack asks, “How do you like it?” a few meters behind Wendy, she screams, terrified, and grips her baseball bat.

I am not saying that Jack is a senior high school student and Wendy is Mother Earth, and that the scenario is much of an analogy, but you know what I mean. – Rappler.com

Kloyde A. Caday, 25, is a publication officer at Notre Dame of Marbel University. He earned his Master of Arts in English at Ateneo de Davao University. Obviously, he also teaches. Email: kloydecaday@gmail.com; Twitter: @kloydecaday 

It’s no secret that our farmers are currently facing a crisis – the farmgate price of palay hit an all-time low (official reports peg it at P15.94/kilo, but farmers say it’s actually P8 or P9/kilo), while farming expenditures have risen to over P50,000 per hectare. Basic economics dictate that our farmers are farming at a loss, and are reaping debt instead of produce. (READ: Hacienda Luisita: The struggle continues) 

The Department of Agriculture (DA), as part of its mandate, is currently trying to solve this. But the roundabout way Sec Piñol is going about it ultimately doesn’t work in the farmers’ favor – the solution, the DA says, is increasing farm output yield.

It sounds like a reasonable solution at first. The government isn’t keen on setting a floor price for palay sales, so their solution is to have farmers sell more of their product. Current average yield stands at anywhere from 3 to 4 metric tons per hectare (3 to 4 thousand kilograms of palay). Increasing the yield to 6 metric tons means an increase in gross sales from P24,000 to P48,000 (or P47,820 to P95,640, if you follow the PSA data).

The DA is tackling this problem by providing multiple solutions: mechanization programs, free seeds and irrigation, and training seminars for farmers. All of which are undoubtedly good ideas. But it’s when you look deeper that you realize that this plan isn’t exactly as flawless as you might hope.

In a semi-feudal society like the Philippines, land is not equally distributed among the more than 75 million Filipinos who work in agriculture. An overwhelming majority of people who work the land do not own it; oftentimes they’re not even tenant farmers, but farm workers who get paid a wage. (READ: The landless and the landlords of Bondoc Peninsula)

In such a system, any efforts to modernize agriculture, although welcome, will fall short of a long-term solution. Tenant farmers spend thousands in labor, transport, water, pesticide, fertilizer, and other costs not because the techniques are outdated, but because the economic system pushes them to do so. Mechanization programs will only result in tenant farmers renting out more tractors and less carabaos. Free irrigation does nothing when access to water is still held by a few private corporations. (READ: 4 things to know about the Mendiola Massacre) 

Farm workers, who rely on seasonal work to get a sliver of pay, don’t benefit from these initiatives because at the end of the day, they are still paid in fixed wages for their work. Farm workers have nothing outside the planting and the harvest seasons. No amount of training in modern farming technique will change this fact.

At the end of the day, the DA’s efforts, though well-intentioned, fail to attack the root of peasant poverty: landlessness. And while that particular problem falls under the scope of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and not the DA, that doesn’t mean the DA shouldn’t focus on solutions that work within the semi-feudal context that farmers live in. (READ: [OPINION] Is agrarian reform a dying issue?)

Should Sec. Piñol decide to listen to the farmers, they will readily tell him what they need. Not mechanization or training, though those are certainly useful, and not interest-free loans. 

What they need are economic protections for their products, subsidies for farming, and a price floor to ensure palay is a livable crop to farm. Most importantly, farmers are asking for genuine agrarian reform that will break the concentration of land ownership and put it in the hands of the vast majority of Filipinos who actually need it.

Until these needs are met, the farmer’s crisis will continue. One way or the other, though, all crises must end.– Rappler.com

Justin Umali is a writer and an activist from Laguna. He is a regular contributor for Esquire Philippines, and currently President of Kabataan Partylist Laguna.

Panahon na naman ng pag-aani. Natapos na ang 3, 4 na buwan ng paghihintay para sa mga gintong butil ng palay na magiging pagkain para sa madla at kita sana ng mga magsasaka. Natapos na ang sandamakmak na gastos sa binhi, sa pataba, sa patubig, at sa mga taong kumilos sa bukid. Ngayon naman ay oras na ng pagtutuos – pagtutuos ng kikitain, pagtutuos sa mga utang na babayaran, pagtutuos sa kung magkano pa ang matitira, at pagtutuos ng halagang itatabi muli para sa susunod na panahon ng pagsasaka.

Dati ay may hatid na saya ang ganitong panahon, pero tila nag-iba na ang ihip ng hangin para sa mga magsasaka at sa kanilang mga pamilya. Dati rati, malinaw pa sa aking alaala, pinakahihintay ng mga magsasaka ang panahong ito. Bakit? Dahil dati, may kaakibat na saya ang panahong ito. Sa panahon kasing ito, nakabibili kami ng mga bagong kagamitan sa bahay, nakapamamasyal sa siyudad, nakapanonood ng sine, at kung ano-ano pang hindi namin nagagawa sa mga panahong nasa puno pa ang mga uhay ng palay. Ngunit ngayon, nag-iba na ang lahat. Ano'ng nangyari? (READ: What if our farmers give up on us?)

Naalala ko pa, sa ganitong anihan, ang mga tao ay nagkakandaugaga na sa pamamalengke. Sigurado na kasi sila na may maipambabayad sa mga utang. Puno ang mga pamilihan, maraming mga sasakyan sa bayan. Ngayon, halos walang tao. Maluwag ang palengke. Nagkausap pa kami ng lola ko nung minsang nasabi ko na halos walang namimili sa bayan. Hindi man lahad ay narinig ko ang daing at sakit sa sagot niya: “Walang maipambili ang mga tao. Ang mura kasi ng palay, halos wala nang natitira kapag naibenta nila 'yung ani nila.” (READ: [OPINION] Cynthia Villar: Champion of the 'personal interest first' policy) 

Natigilan ako. Napipi. Magsasaka? Anihan? Palay? Walang pera? Parang mali yata. Hindi ko alam kung ano ang una kong mararamdaman: lungkot ba dahil alam kong parehas kami ng dadanasin kapag lumipas na ang panahon ng anihan at kami naman ang nagbenta ng palay, o kung galit ba dahil parang pinaglalaruan kaming mga nasa sektor ng agrikultura na isa sa mga pangunahing pinagkakakitaan sa bansa? Hanggang sa naramdaman ko ang pagkadismaya, ang pagkalugmok. Nakalulungkot, pero tunay ngang naghihingalo na ang sektor ng agrikultura, kasama ang mga magsasaka na dito ay umaasa. 

Sa mga nakaraang taon, mapalad na kaming mga nagsasaka kung maibenta ang mga palay sa halagang 18 piso kada kilo ng tuyong ani. Pero ngayon, 8? 9? 10?12 pesos? Saan kami pupulutin niyan? Habang kami ay nagluluksa dahil sa sobrang mura na presyo ng palay ay makaririnig ka pa ng mga salitang, “Sapat na yung 5 piso na tubo nila kada kilo ng palay.” Hirap ka na nga sa pagsasaka, hanggang sa panahon ng pagbebenta ay hirap ka pa rin dahil sa baba ng presyo ng palay.

At dahil dito, pagkalugi ang kinakaharap ng karamihan ngayon. Parang isang malaking biro ng tadhana at ng gobyerno na ang mga taong nagbibigay ng maihahain ng masa sa hapag nila ay silang walang maihain dahil sa pagkalugi. (READ: [ANALYSIS] Plummeting rice prices: How will our rice farmers cope?)

Sabi pa, kaya daw kami mahihirap ay dahil hindi kami marunong magnegosyo. Kung wala kang karanasan sa pagsasaka at wala kang nararamdamang krisis ngayon sa agrikultura, wala kang karapatang magbitiw ng mga pahayag na lalo lang magpapalugmok sa mga magsasaka. Kung hindi ninyo alam ang hirap na dinaranas namin sa tuwing may bagyo, sa tuwing may unos na tatama sa mga palayan, wala kang karapatang maliitin ang mga naghihirap na magsasaka. Pagod, pawis, at buhay ang naging puhunan namin sa pagtatanim ng palay – sana doon pa lang ay marunong na kayong makiramdam. (READ: What you can do to help Filipino rice farmers)

Habang tinatapos ang piyesang ito ay parang dinudurog din ako. Dahil damang-dama ko ang sakit, ang hirap, ang hinagpis ng mga magsasaka na dumaranas ngayon ng krisis. Damang-dama ko ang pighati ng mga magsasaka na sa agrikultura na namulat at sa agrikultura pa rin umaaasa para sa ikabubuhay nila. Kaya bago ka sana magsulat, magsalita, o gumawa ng hakbang na hindi naman talaga ikauunlad ng mga magsasaka, hinahamon kita na damhin ang aming damdamin at masdang mabuti ang aming kalagayan, na wari bang ikaw ay tumitingin mula sa mga mata ng anak ng isang magsasaka. – Rappler.com

Raymark Paul Trojillo Rigor, 22, is from Tarlac. He finished his bachelor's degree in biology at the Central Luzon State University in Nueva Ecija. He is a youth leader, advocating for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals, environmental and wildlife conservation, youth empowerment, and community building.

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MANILA, Philippines – The magnitude 6.6 earthquake which hit Cotabato on Tuesday, October 29, left 6 people dead, affected 1,681 families or 8,402 people, and caused damage to infrastructure in various areas in Mindanao.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in its 6 am report on Wednesday, October 30, that most of the families affected come from Kidapawan, Mlang, and Tulunan in Cotabato – the epicenter of the earthquake. 

It added 3,505 of those affected are in evacuation center. The rest are being served outside evacuation sites. 

Lending a helping hand to those affected, priests also opened the doors of Kidapawan cathedral as an evacuation center for victims on the same day of the earthquake.

The earthquake struck nearly two weeks after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the same area and affected other parts of Mindanao. The October 16 earthquake left 6 dead and nearly a hundred people hurt.

With the threat of additional aftershocks and their homes partially or totally damaged, Mindanaoans called for help and support. Mindanao residents are in urgent need of food, medicine, tents, clothes, and blankets. 

Various groups have also organized donation drives and relief operations for the victims. 

Globe, for instance, has set up free call and charging stations to help affected families with their communication needs. These stations are located at 2 towns near the epicenter of the earthquake: 

• Kidapawan City Hall starting October 29 from 9 am to 6 pm
• Tulunan Municipal Hall starting October 30 from 10:30 am to 6 pm

Globe said it will open more free call and charging stations as the need arises. 

Here is a list of relief operations for the communities affected by the earthquake: 

Citizens’ DIsaster Response Center 

Community-based disaster group Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation Inc. calls for donations of food, water, medicines, hygiene kits, shelter kits and cash for the affected communities in Mindanao. These items may be donated to: 

• 72-A Times St. West Triangle Homes, Quezon City 

Cash donations may also be made via bank deposit with the following details:

Citizens' Disaster Response Center 

Peso Account

• Metrobank - Examiner Branch, Quezon City
• 636-3-63600741-3 

Dollar Account 

• Metrobank - Examiner Branch, Quezon City
• 636-2-63600158-3 
• Swift code: MBTCPHMM 

Paypal Account: info@cdrc-phil.com 

For more details or inquiries, you may contact +63 2 9299820 or +63 2 9299822. 

Caritas Manila Inc. 

Caritas Manila called for donations which will be used for the relief and rehabilitation needs of the affected communities in Cotabato and nearby areas in Mindanao. The immediate needs of those affected include clean water, food, clothes, and hygiene items.

Caritas Damayan, the group's disaster risk reduction and management program, provides disaster response, relief operation and crisis intervention nationwide.

Those interested in dropping off donations may head to Caritas Manila's office: 2002 Jesus St. Pandacan, Manila.

You may also send your donations via bank deposit:

Peso Accounts 

• Banco De Oro - Savings Account No.: 5600-45905
• Bank of the Philippine Islands - Savings Account No.: 3063-5357-01
• Metrobank - Savings Account No.: 175-3-17506954-3

Dollar Accounts 

• Bank of the Philippine Islands - Savings Account No. 3064-0033-55 
• Philippine National Bank - Savings Account No. 10-856-660002-5

Adventist Development and Relief Agency Foundation (ADRA) Inc. 

ADRA, together with the Adventist Community Services of the Southern Mindanao Mission, continues to call for donations for the affected people in Mindanao.  

The group distributed 300 shelter kits to the victims of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that hit in Makilala, Cotabato the previous week. 

Interested donors may send through direct deposit:

Adventist Development and Relief Agency

• Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI): 8501-0028-37
• Philippine National Bank (PNB): 243-8700024-57

 Adventist Development and Relief Agency Foundation (ADRA) Inc

• Banco de Oro (BDO): 01-16480013-62

Alliance World Fellowship 

The Alliance World Fellowship also called for donations to help those affected by the Mindanao earthquakes. They also pointed how several Christian & Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines were destroyed from the quake that hit last October 16. 

Those who are willing to help may visit this page and click "Mindanao Earthquake."  

– Rappler.com