It was a gloomy Monday morning, July 2012. President Benigno Aquino was about to deliver his second State of the Nation Address. I woke up early to catch the latest news and prepare my speech for our own the State of the People’s Address. (READ: Youth activism: More than just organized action)

At 10 in the morning, different mass organizations, church people, human rights workers, activists, and students started to gather at the Iloilo Capitol grounds and march along the streets of Iznart and JM Basa. By 2 in the afternoon, there were about 5,000 people chanting, marching, and making a fuss in downtown Iloilo. At 5 pm, I delivered the closing remarks, meant to inspire Ilonggos to continue the struggle for National Democracy. By 8 in the evening, I found myself at the airport bound for Manila.

Nobody knew I was leaving; nobody knew I wouldn't return. 

I left Iloilo because I wanted to secure a future that could save my frail romantic relationship. I found myself queuing up at a job fair in Ortigas, and with no previous experience and a somewhat average academic record, I wound up in the call center industry. Luckily, almost all the companies wanted me, so I chose what I thought had the best offer then. 

But despite all that, my relationship with the person I thought would be my forever ended. It was 2016 and I was at a crossroads again. 

Now that my relationship was over, I had every chance to go back and resume my advocacies. But the temptation of economic stability had always figured, so the choice to stay was obvious.

Eight years after I left Iloilo, I am now in corporate management, working on how to optimize productivity and performance of operations, process improvement, and making the business grow. 

To some extent, I realized that activism was what made me who I am today. An activist is someone who is willing to challenge the status quo. Similarly, it is in trying to revolutionize the corporate setting that we get to see a different perspective and challenge the process and the system; this way there is an opportunity to improve the business. (READ: [OPINION] Activism is not a waste of time)

Today, I am facing the same crossroads again. 

My decade-long involvement in activism, spanning high school to college, had cemented in me the basic principles of compassion and service to the people. And thanks to my corporate job, I have now seen the other side of the fence: how labor rights are being compromised, economic differences and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the public's need for social services and welfare. All these are no longer theoretical to me. I have witnessed how an employee can be terminated without due process, how companies can become greedy in the guise of business needs and company prerogatives. 

I realized being an activist never really dies even when you leave the movement. It stays in you, albeit in a different manner or form. Being critical about everything is a tool we can use to ground ourselves, our friends and family, and our country. (READ: CHR reminds government: Activism is a right)

This realization has convinced me that I should be on the streets again.

I end this piece with the question that made me become an activist in the first place: mayaman ang Pilipinas, pero bakit naghihirap ang mga Pilipino? – Rappler.com

Ian Porquia is former spokesperson of BAYAN Panay and regional chairperson of the League of Filipino Students. He is now an operations manager for a BPO company in BGC. 

If we take care of others and fight for their rights, who takes care of us?

This is what my colleagues and friends from the civil society/non-profit sector jokingly ask among us. During drinking sessions and break times in meetings, this question seems like a fleeting thought. But when we reflect upon it, it makes actual sense to ask for it. How do we take care of activists and development workers?

In the current administration, marginalized sectors are continuously under threat, and human rights are under attack. Fortunately, human rights workers and activists are always ready to mobilize and fight for the rights of these sectors. (READ: [OPINION] Activism, from someone you wouldn't expect)

Development work is a very fulfilling job. Despite being less glamorous compared to corporate jobs, development work makes up for this by exposing you to almost all ways of life, featuring different kinds of people and set in different places. Development work offers a diversity of experience that corporate work cannot provide. It only promises a decent amount of compensation, but the experience of helping marginalized groups fight for their rights is worth more than any amount of money.

Working with marginalized sectors is never easy. Various reports on development workers, activists, and community organizers being subject to harassment, intimidation, and even illegal arrests and violence show the dangers attached with development work. We live in a time when helping others improve their lives could cost you and your loved ones' personal safety.

Simultaneously, development workers and activists face not only external challenges but also hardships within themselves and their organization. It’s a physically straining job – working with erratic schedules sometimes lasting until the wee hours of the night,and traveling from one province to another for field work.

There is also a lot of anxiety when it comes to funding for projects, learning that members of the communities we work with are being harassed by armed forces, or finding out that someone in the movement has died. Development work takes a great mental and emotional toll. (READ: [OPINION] Confessions of a former rah-rah activist)

But no matter how physically, mentally, or emotionally draining work can be, we cannot just abandon it. The love and dedication we put into our work and advocacy doesn’t simply fade away – they create a special space in our hearts, which we will carry with us forever.

So how can we better care for our activists?

Just like any other human being, we also get our hearts broken by the hardships we face at work. At the end of the day, we also want to feel and receive the same love we give to our work. No matter how selfless people think of us and our profession, we still need love to compensate for the love that we give to the people we serve. We find comfort in the idea that we are also loved and appreciated. We want to be reassured that our physical, emotional, and mental well-being also matters. Even for just a brief moment, we want to be selfish after a long day of offering our hearts and souls to others. (READ: [OPINION] The truth in placards: Why activists are not a nuisance)

So the next time you see a friend engaged in development work and activism, ask them how they’re feeling; they need friends that respect and love them and the work they do. Be with them and make them feel that their well-being is just as important as the communities and sectors they serve. When you reunite with your fellow activists and development workers in meetings or mobilizations, make them feel that you are one with them. No matter how feisty we seem, we still need the love and solidarity of our comrades. 

Collective action has been historically proven to be effective in overthrowing oppressive systems, and I believe it is with this same sense of collectivism, not just in activism but also in loving our fellow activists and human rights workers, that we can continue triumphing over current oppressors and all others that will try to follow. – Rappler.com

Lean Miguel Novero is a queer activist and feminist from Bulacan. He works closely with farmers and indigenous peoples as a development worker and volunteer for PUP Kasarianlan, a LGBTQ+ student organization in his alma mater the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

On March 2, we witnessed a 9-hour hostage situation at Greenhills Shopping Center. The hostage taker was a security guard from Safeguard Armor Security Corporation who had been removed from his post and was about to be "transferred" by his bosses. Later on, the security guard would say that "transferring" was just a way to forcefully fire him.

Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt among the roughly 30 hostages. Eventually, the disgruntled security guard let them go and talked to the media to explain his situation. He explained how he wanted to make a statement about his plight and how he didn't want to keep quiet about his issue, even refusing 1 million pesos in hush money from the agency. (READ: Alchie Paray: What turned a Greenhills guard into a hostage taker) 

After a 20-minute press conference, the police tackled the already calm security guard to the ground. He is currently in police custody and will probably be sentenced to years in prison for his act. 

The security guard somehow reninded me of Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo's opus Les Miserables. Out of desperation, Valjean stole a loaf of bread to feed his hungry nephews. He was caught and sentenced to 19 years in Toulon prison. 

Sure, the circumstances may be different, but you could see a commonality in their situation: both were in desperate situations and were pushed to take desperate measures.

I'm not trying to say the act was justified, but it was understandable, especially if you look at the bigger picture.  

If you're pushed to the brink of desperation, it's basic human instinct to do everything in order to survive. If you lose your only job and you have mouths to feed, especially in this economy, you will be pushed to the extreme.

According to independent research thinktank IBON Foundation, there are 4.7 million Filipinos who are currently unemployed under the Duterte government, which is considered a historic high. Around 7.5 million Filipinos are also underemployed – those who have jobs but not enough income. (READ: [ANALYSIS] The economic lies in ‘Duterte Legacy’)

The real value of wages has lowered significantly due to incessant price hikes brought about by the TRAIN Law and other inflationary policies. (READ: [ANALYSIS] How the TRAIN law worsened poverty, inequality)

In terms of job security, we are witnessing ever-worsening cases of contractualization even after Duterte's promise of abolishing "endo." (READ: [ANALYSIS] The paper tiger that was the anti-endo bill)

One particular tactic of business owners is to rely on manpower agencies to hire staff for them. That way, they get rid of employee-employer relationships and can avoid providing benefits, all while reducing the workers' capacity to bargain – hitting two birds with one stone.

Millions of workers are desperate and destitute under this government's neoliberal policies, ensuring super-profits for foreign capitalists, compradors, and landlords. You want to work? Then accept this libing wage. Not enough for you? Then get the hell out; there are millions more who are as desperate as you.  

If you really think about it, aren't we all hostages in this scenario?  

Another interesting thing to look at is how people reacted to the incident. On troll-ridden social media, I expected the security guard to be crucified. But instead, I saw comments not only sympathetic, but even empathetic, to the man. They understood how desperate and unheard he was, and how exploitative the situation of the security guards, and workers in general, are.  

For me, it only indicates how fed up people are with this system. They could relate to the plight of the security guard because at some point in their lives, they were the ones taken out of jobs and forced to make hard choices in order to live.

But my biggest takeaway from this whole situation is the need for workers to realize the power of their collective will and action. The reason why the security guard went to such extremes was because he felt that he was alone and no one was listening. Desperation coupled with the lack of organization among workers leads to anarchic outbursts. 

If only security guards and workers were organized, either through unions or mass organizations, then they would have a more amplified voice and a more powerful will to assert their rights. Mind you, this is easier said than done. Capitalists are wary of workers getting organized and they will do everything to maintain disunity. 

I think it was Malcolm X who said that, "We [referring to poor working class black people] are not outnumbered, we are out-organized." Once we overcome this, and once we are able to build our unions and unite under the same banner to fight against this exploitative and oppressive system, then we can break free from this hostage situation that we are currently in. – Rappler.com

Orly Putong is a freelance writer and musician. He is also a member of Panday Sining, the cultural arm of Anakbayan that creates and popularizes protest art. 

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MANILA, Philippines – For the longest time, having a baby was part and parcel of being a woman. That was just how it was: a woman finds a man, she gets married, she gets pregnant, she becomes a mother, rinse, repeat.  

These days, though, more and more women are deciding not to have kids. And in a country like the Philippines, you’d be called selfish, or sad.  

In this episode of I’ve Got An Opinion, Rappler’s podcast on ordinary people with extraordinary beliefs, we speak with Rachelle Valera, who is happily married, and happily child-free. 

What led her to be child-free by choice? How does she fend off all the nosy titas looking for a baby bump? Let’s find out! – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines– The Masungi Georeserve is finally free from the clutches of a quarry company after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) removed barbed wire blocking a reforestation site in the area on World Wildlife Day, March 3.

Quarry company Rapid City first started setting up a barbed wire fence around 500 hectares of heavily degraded land in Masungi Georeserve on February 26, hindering reforestation efforts.

Since 2017, DENR has tasked Masungi Georeserve to restore 3,000 hectares of degraded land in the area with the help of the public.

With the quarrying company closing off around a quarter of the site, the georeserve will struggle to continue and realize the vision of its reforestation efforts.

Years of deforestation and land degradation had denuded the area, exacerbating natural disasters such as Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009, which unleashed unprecedented flash floods that devastated parts of Metro Manila, particularly in the Marikina Valley, and killed hundreds of people.

"If we do not restore these forests, we will not only lose water supply, but risk devastating floods and landslides like those we saw in Typhoon Ondoy in 2009 in Marikina, the namesake city of the watershed, and the rest of Metro Manila," the Save Masungi Movement said.

Since it began its work, the foundation has planted more than 47,000 native trees with the help of volunteers and visitors, said Billie Dumaliang, Masungi Georeserve Trustee and Advocacy Officer.

Dumaliang added that the fencing operations encroached on part of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape and the proposed Masungi Strict Nature Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Destructive and extractive activities including mining and quarrying are strictly prohibited in these protected areas. (READ: Despite legal mandate, Masungi Georeserve struggles to defend reforestation project)

This sparked an online petition of the Save Masungi Movement urging President Rodrigo Duterte and Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to stop the fencing operations and evict the company from the area.

Six days after the fencing began in Masungi Georeserve, Cimatu and DENR Undersecretary Benny Antiporda visited the site on Tuesday, March 3, to check reports of a quarry company encroaching on the reforestation site.

This led to the removal and confiscation of the quarry company’s barbed wire around a portion of Masungi Georeserve.

LOOK: The volume of steel fencing wire removed and confiscated by the DENR at the reforestation site inside the Masungi Georeserve in Rizal. #ProtectedAreapic.twitter.com/AFJeVTqcDV

— ＤＥＮＲ (@DENROfficial) March 3, 2020

Cimatu also ordered the immediate closure of the quarry and the cancellation of the multiple Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) issued in the protected area and reforestation site.

According to the Save Masungi Movement, the DENR said there were 3 MPSAs issued to quarry companies inside the protected and conserved areas.

Masungi Georeserve celebrated the closure of the quarry and the removal of the barbed wire fence, calling it the “best World Wildlife Day gift for nature.”

"We look forward to decisive government action against other equally serious challenges in implementing the project, including professional squatters, treasure hunters and land trafficking.... We remain committed to protect Masungi and hope this experience inspires others to continue the fight against the pillage of our precious natural resources," said the Save Masungi Movement.

The Masungi Georeserve is located near the Kaliwa River Basin, which the government planned to turn into a reservoir to serve Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The dam project also faced strong opposition from nature conservationists and indigenous groups over its expected adverse impact on the Sierra Madre ecosystem. – Rappler.com

I once thought that activism was only about protests and rallies in public places. But I was wrong.

I had never considered quiet activism.

I learned about quiet activism when I met a landless farmer in Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. (READ: [OPINION] Activism is not a waste of time)

I had been assigned to do a piece for our campus publication regarding the construction of Manila Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 7, a 23-kilometer railway that would connect San Jose del Monte and North Avenue in Quezon City. In line with the construction was the forceful dismissal of farmers in the area, which meant they could not continue planting their crops in the land affected by the railway.

It took me almost half a day to roam around San Jose del Monte. It was around 4 pm when I reached the mountain of Tungkong Mangga; this was where the landless farmers had been gathered, guarded by the military. I saw tents and guns in my peripheral vision but I refused to give them my attention.  

When I introduced myself to the farmers as an interviewer, they suddenly looked scared. They started to point fingers and turn their backs on me. But this didn't shake my faith in what I was doing.

Finally, a woman in her 60s asked me, “Ano ba iyan?”

When I told them my reason for the interview, the woman who asked me started crying.

She started telling me stories while her back was to me, and even though she refused to show me her face, I could still imagine what it looked like by the way she spoke. 

“Wala naman kaming magagawa. Dayo lang kami rito. Pero sana inisip din nila na kaming magsasaka iyong pinakamaaapektuhan ng riles. Baka hindi ko na lang pag-aralin ang mga anak ko. Lalaki na lang sila na nangongolekta ng basura.”

This ripped my heart in two. I could feel her disappointment, sadness, and anger all at the same time.

The interview lasted almost 30 minutes. And even when we had ended already, I could not take my eyes off her. 

I immediately transcribed the interview once I got home, and again, I could feel her emotions.

That was when I realized that, by speaking up, she was already practicing quiet activism. I realized that activism does not always need to be performed publicly, that some kinds of activism are not obvious. (READ: [OPINION] Activism, from someone you wouldn't expect)

As Elie Wiesel once said, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

We should never judge the silent ones. Because we don't know if these silent ones are also silent battlers. So with that, I stand with the silent but active ones – and never with the ones who remain neutral out loud. – Rappler.com

Kei Ane Manalili is a psychology graduate from Bulacan State University. Currently, she is a writer at Bulacan Business Today and aspires to be a documentary filmmaker. 

When I came out to myself as queer when I was still a little kid, I found discomfort in not knowing how I was different — or similar — from my brother, my sister, and my friends. I had no idea then what gender and sexuality were and the bigger role they played in our lives and relationships as social beings. All I knew was that I was a bit different — yet similar — from most people around me.

In college, I joined UP Babaylan, a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) folks in my university. I found comfort in knowing that we shared a lot of common experiences. We went to different schools and universities in the Philippines, met other queer students, and helped them organize and access information about their rights and freedoms. (READ: [OPINION] Why we fail as queer activists)

But the more I learned about the experiences of other LGBTQ folks like me, the more I recognized that we were still different from each other.

Seeing through my privileges

The experiences of my sister and my mother, whom I am thankful to learn from, helped me to grasp the reality that gender and sexuality affect all of us differently. For one, there was the overlooked and unspoken expectation that they had to do housework and provide emotional support on top of their daily routine. For another, I could enjoy hanging out with my friends until late at night, but my sister usually could not.

Many of my queer women friends confront the same challenges my sister and my mother encounter every day. They contend with barriers and resist norms imposed upon and constructed by a society where boys and men are favored — whether intentionally or unintentionally, implicitly or explicitly. This, despite global recognition from institutions such as the United Nations (UN) that women’s rights are human rights. (READ: 'I know a place': 10 safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people in Metro Manila, from clubs to cafés)

Many of the friends and mentors I look up to are women. But not many of them have the privileges I have as a man from a middle-class family. When I joined the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the Philippines for our HIV and LGBTQ work in the country, I had to remind myself of these privileges and take inspiration from my experiences as a queer Filipino in order to genuinely help in making our program work for women, particularly queer women, and other marginalized sectors.

Making it work for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women

In 2018, UNDP initiated a study focusing on the economic empowerment of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in the Philippines. The research was led by Dr Moizza Binat Sarwar of Overseas Development Institute, a PhD graduate of Social Policy from University of Oxford, and Maroz Ramos of GALANG Philippines, an LGBTQ rights activist working on grassroots organizing of urban poor lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Filipinos.

The report reaffirms the reality that Filipino queer women power through obstacles in many facets of their lives just because of the fact that they are lesbian, bisexual, or transgender women. These hurdles that are found everywhere limit their capabilities in achieving their economic needs and their power to make and take action on economic decisions. (READ: [ANALYSIS] Sodom, Gomorrah, and the fate of gender equality)

Despite legal protections from bullying, Filipino queer women find that their paths to education are marred by bullying, discrimination, lack of access to LGBTQ-related information, and even in some cases, physical or sexual assault. Some research participants also reported that they “normally experienced violence at the hands of family members rather than neighbors or community members.” Government initiatives and services — including those in education, health, and social protection — remain to be unresponsive and inaccessible to many lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women.

The results highlight the need for a holistic approach in achieving economic advancement that focuses not only on independence, choice, and control at the individual level, but also on the more systemic factors — how our society and the environment in which we live affect women socially, economically, and politically as individuals.

From societal to personal

The report also shares some invaluable recommendations that range from societal changes we can advocate for, to actions we can work on at a personal level.

We need to strengthen our national legal framework for women by passing the SOGIE Equality Bill, and by properly implementing existing laws on women’s rights such as the Magna Carta for Women. We also have to actively combat and take personal responsibility for the violence, abuse, harassment, and discrimination faced by queer women in the public and private spheres. And we have to constantly listen to and have a meaningful dialogue with them to fully understand their priorities, their needs, and their means of economic empowerment.

During the launch of the report, Naomi Fontanos, a transgender woman activist, reminded us that institutions like the UN and our government should consciously provide employment opportunities for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women. In achieving economic empowerment, these opportunities will allow them to directly represent themselves and fully participate in our development agenda.

Her remark made me stop and think about the time I started working with UNDP, when I was a little kid who still found discomfort in feeling different. I agree that these kinds of institutions are some of the best avenues for helping out lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women. And I am thankful to all queer women activists who continuously remind us that recognizing our differences – ones that demand different approaches, policies, and actions – is a great expression of solidarity and our shared humanity. – Rappler.com

Xavier Javines Bilon is a licensed engineer who works with the UNDP as their HIV and LGBTI Focal in the Philippines. He is currently taking up MS Statistics at the University of the Philippines Diliman, focusing on social statistics, digital data, human rights, and gender and sexuality.

The full report, "Making It Work: Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women’s economic empowerment in the Philippines," can be accessed through the UNDP Philippines’ website. 

The research was initiated by the United Nations Development Program as part of the Being LGBTI in the Asia Pacific (BLIAP) regional program, which aims to reduce marginalization and exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people. Supplementary funding was generously provided for by the Embassy of Canada, Philippines. 

MANILA, Philippines– I have been taking pictures for 35 years now, professionally for 29 years. 

From the many frames I made from Kodak Tri-X using a Leica Rangefinder camera and from the digital files of my Fuji Cameras, I have shot thousands of photos of women. 

Some were taken on assignment. Others were commissioned work, political work, personal work, and long-form documentaries that ended up in books. Still, few of them leave unforgettable memories that stand out from my graying psyche.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, sharing these photos and their personal memories is my way of honoring these remarkable women on this special occasion.

While traveling with Nicaraguan friends in 1985 during my first sojourn overseas purely as a photographer, and shooting more than 10 rolls of film for the first time, I captured this photo of Nicaraguan dancers preparing for their presentation in the ruins of the Grand Hotel, in Managua, Nicaragua. 

Because of it, I was asked if I could volunteer to document Nicaraguan cultural workers to be used as materials during their solidarity world tours to help promote the Nicaraguan Revolution. Through my association in the Nicaraguan Revolution, I was able to work in Cuba and El Salvador with the right endorsements and assistance.

On February 26, 1986, Filipinos celebrated the EDSA Revolution, as well as the departure and downfall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, at Union Square in San Francisco, California. In the middle of the tumultuous crowd was a woman chanting and waving a small Philippine flag. As I lifted my long lens, I saw tears flowing from her already swollen eyes, and I took several photos.

The woman represented the many souls of silent and vocal opposition to the dictatorship, and celebrated Marcos’ departure with tears of joy. I cried as well while working to capture this pivotal moment in time. Her photo represented the love of country of many in the diaspora to this day.

Professional photographers make family pictures and I am not an exception. We make tons of them and occasionally, it is no longer a pleasure but a total annoyance to our subjects. 

I took this picture of my wife Sharon and son Eugene to test an old, beaten up, vintage Nikkor 85mm F2 lens, which I ended up giving as a gift to a Nicaraguan photojournalist. 

This is my favorite picture of both of them, which shows the love and care of a mother and child. 

I owe Sharon an overwhelming gratitude for her appreciation and support of my passion and work. My deepest respect goes to this woman with so much love and passion for her community and internationalist work. She has my deepest love, respect and admiration. 

We are both happy that our Eugene grew up to be a caring man who’s respectful of women. He is a real mensch.

The plight of Filipino World War II veterans initially did not get much attention from the Filipino-American community. These veterans were considered a badge of shame for some following the exposure of their living conditions and demand for equity for their services during the second world war.

Lou Tancinco, and many others, most of them women, organized the Filipino Veterans Equity Center (VEC) as a reaction to my published stories. Tancinco volunteered to conduct a free legal clinic to assist the veterans with their legal needs in bringing their immediate family to America with them. 

To this day, the VEC is still functioning as an agency helping Filipino veterans and their families, as well as other seniors for their day-to-day needs. 

More than 20 years later, Tancinco continues to provide her personal, financial, and moral support to the Filipino-American community in the Bay Area and beyond. She is one of the many Filipino women whom we must honor for their outstanding work of humanitarian service for our kababayans (countrymen) everywhere.

Xyza Cruz Bacani and Rodallie Mosende will forever be part of my living history as a documentary photographer. 

Bacani was a former domestic helper in Hong Kong, who took photos of the life in the busy city on her time off. She's now an acclaimed documentary photographer whose works have been published in the New York Times and other foreign publications, as she captures the abuses faced by migrant workers. (READ: The art of Xyza Bacani)

Mosende, meanwhile, grew up homeless since birth on Paterno Street, Quiapo, Manila, Philippines. She was a child beggar, and later a street sweeper until sophomore year in college to earn extra money for transportation and food. (READ: Life's arcade: Quiapo)

Being poor and living on the street, she learned to study under candles and streetlights. While in college she stayed late to use the library, its computers and printers to finish her assigned work.

 In 2016, she graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management and a specialization in cruise line operation in hotel services from Lyceum University of the Philippines, Manila Campus at PICC in Manila. It was with the help of an anonymous benefactor who offered to support Rodallie’s college education with a monthly stipend to cover her other expenses after seeing photos of her story.

Their separate lives and stories have evolved to become an inspiration to many young Filipinas looking for opportunities, and working to improve their lives. 

I consider them now as my own daughters, like many of our nation’s daughters finding their meaning and importance in a world still struggling to give them equal status in every aspect of our daily existence.

In my travels, I photographed mothers who are deeply involved in the education and health issues of their children. 

We must honor our mothers, the mothers among us, and mothers across our land, who because of our unfair and age-old culture and tradition, remain in most cases the ones who carry the burden of the family’s day-to-day responsibilities.  

This women’s month, we put a spotlight on women's issues, especially on mothers who suffer in abusive, immoral and unequal relationships because divorce is not yet an option. We honor women and mothers for their resilience, and hope our leaders will be courageous enough to take a stand for them. – Rappler.com

Rick Rocamora is an award-winning photographer and author of 4 photo books. His work is part of the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts. His work “Intifada Marawi” is currently exhibited at Ateneo Art Gallery until March 29, 2020.

Being raised an atheist as a child, as well as being a former Christian made me realize that there is discrimination on both ends. And realizing that somehow made me a better person.

Growing up atheist meant a lot of religions saw me as a blank slate that they could eventually "save." It meant repeatedly answering questions about the afterlife or the origins of the world or my sins, when I was just happy existing in the present.

Madalas iniisip ng mga tao, 'pag wala kang sinusunod na patakaran mula sa Higher Power, wala kang moral compass, o taliwas ito. Or self-serving lahat ng ginagawa mo. Minsan nga evil pa tingin nila sa 'yo, tukso, ginagamit ni Satanas, weak. "Kaya ka [depressed/nahihirapan/namomroblema/etc] kasi wala kang Diyos." (READ: [PODCAST] I've Got An Opinion: I don't believe in god)

Lahat ng support group, aid organization, donors, hospital, at charity na pupuntahan mo ay religiously affiliated in some way. And it feels like nothing done there is ever truly free or out of goodwill. And sometimes even kung mabuti ang intention nila, rinding-rindi ka na sa Gospel, atbp. It's just not the way you see life. Sometimes they preach a love that does not include you.

Switching teams

Choosing to convert to Christianity in high school meant I had to hide from my family if I wanted to read the Bible, because if they saw me, titigil sila sa may pintuan at tititigan ako nang masama. Minsan may kasamang rant pa. Every time magbubukas ng TV at may masamang balita, tatanungin ako "Asan na Diyos mo?"

Matutulog kang may kaba at lungkot kasi namomroblema ka na hindi maliligtas mga mahal mo sa buhay, and you just really want them to be okay – now and in the afterlife. Gusto mong i-share sa kanila ang saya knowing you're forgiven, there is hope, everything happens for a reason, pero 'di mo magawa kasi pagtatawanan ka nila. Masakit 'pag minamasama nila ang bagay na nagbibigay ng ganoong ligaya at pahinga sayo, and you wish they could experience it too, ngunit alam mong hinding-hindi mo sila mapapapunta sa simbahan. Minsan binubuhusan ka ng galit at frustration na parang 'di mo deserve kasi 'di naman ikaw 'yung mga gumawa ng masamang bagay, which some religions are known for. You have sincere faith, and the religion you belong to isn't like that to you.

In limbo

Fast-forward to today, and I identify as agnostic now. I'm no longer concerned with God or the afterlife. I'm at peace with the questions I cannot answer. I see life as something we all get to experience once, and when we're gone, we're gone. The neurons that comprise who we are, the body we live in, the circumstances that make us uniquely us, they fade away. They cease to exist. We are ephemeral beings with a lasting impact on those we leave behind. (READ: [OPINION] Walking away from the golden calf)

We are full of potential, valuable, yet subject to the circumstances we are born into. The compiled actions of everyone existing, a massive butterfly effect, holds our fate. But I don't insist that I am certain. 

But being on both ends of the faith spectrum made me understand and extend just a little more empathy and patience to the person in Freedom Park asking me for 5 minutes of my time, kasi alam ko matutuwa siya 'pag uwi niya sa bahay. It's letting people pray for me and say "God bless," kasi alam ko minsan, 'yun ang kaya nilang gawin at ibigay sa akin. But I do intervene when I hear others telling someone suffering that it's because kulang sila sa pananampalataya or there is a reason why they had to endure so much pain – there is none.  

It's understanding my atheist friends' memes about religion, knowing it comes from being tired of their religious relatives' preaching and the ways of life they don't subscribe to. It's their way of turning the tables. But I do call them out from time to time or apologize on their behalf when things get too condescending or rude. (READ: [OPINYON] Ikinasal ako sa isang atheist)

No matter which side you're on, it's wrong to make people feel unsafe for believing in the things they do, or feel that they are lesser than you for not believing in what you believe. – Rappler.com

Malissa Agnes W. Strauch is a BS Development Communication student at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. She loves eating pasta, buying clothes sa ukay-ukay, and lives to tell stories.

MANILA, Philippines – What would have happened to Joshua if he had not started practicing capoeira? 

As a young boy on the streets of Manila, Joshua (not his real name), was among the most vulnerable, with an unstable family situation and already abusing drugs.

That bleak situation confronts far too many children in the Philippines, where more than one million children are living in the streets, according to United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). 

They face hardships that no child should, including being deprived of an education, social marginalization, malnutrition, and physical and sexual abuse.

Those same problems, however, endanger many other children as well, with data from the Philippines Statistics Authority showing that 31.4% of children were living below the basic needs poverty line nationally as of 2015.

For children in the margins, reintegrating into society can involve almost insurmountable barriers. 

In addition to the discrimination they face, most of them have developed “fear and complicated relationships with adults,” said Jaime Leandro Benedicto, a capoeira instructor and teacher at the Project Bantu Philippines, a non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides programs for disadvantaged children and youth. 

“The sport allows them to gain trust and respect the authority figures to slowly reconnect with the society,” he said. 

The value of capoeira

Sport is a powerful force for building peace and driving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As Traditional Sports and Games registered by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), capoeira contributes to intercultural and intercommunity dialogue, while helping to sustain traditional knowledge and practices.

 “The linkages between youth development and sport are clear,” states the UNESCO publication “Youth Development Through Martial Arts” published in 2019.  

“Sport can be used to teach healthy living, promote well-being and foster intercultural dialogue and peace building. It fosters cognitive development, which has a range of wider benefits in all aspects of learning, socialization and well-being,” it read. 

These qualities led to the founding of Project Bantu in 1998 in Brazil by Edielson da Silva Miranda, who is now known as Mestre Roxinho. 

Roxinho moved to Australia in 2006 where he began to work with vulnerable populations including refugees and Aboriginal Australians, providing psychological and social empowerment through Capoeira Angola. 

An Afro-Brazilian art form integrating martial arts, acrobatics, music and dance, capoeira is a remarkable cultural practice in the tradition of raising up people excluded from the dominant society and fighting for equal treatment. 

As the most traditional form of capoeira, the Capoeira Angola takes roots in the enslaved people of the 16th-century Portuguese colony of Brazil, most of whom had been brutalized and stolen from their homes in present-day Angola. 

The capoeira circle, involving both martial artists and musicians, was inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014.

The theme of empowerment persists in Project Bantu, implemented in the Philippines in 2012 that educates and empowers vulnerable young people who have experienced high levels of trauma facing “enormous social, economic, nutritional, psychological and behavioural hurdles."

This NGO, which now conducts programs for more than 300 children and young people in Manila,  is being managed by its Project Officer Jacqueline Cruz and Benedicto, who has practiced capoeira for nearly 15 years. 

A sport of hope

Many of those young people, including Joshua, have faced cruel circumstances through no fault of their own. Lacking social stability opens the door to potential health problems, violence, drug use, conflict with the law and, for some, death. 

Breaking out of the vicious circle of poverty and discrimination is critical for reintegrating into society – and finding a job, which can be a near-impossible mission for a young person labelled as a menace or potential criminal.

In this very challenging context, Benedicto believes in capoeira as a positive force for change that promotes psychosocial development values. (WATCH: Giving hope for a brighter future to street children)

“Capoeira Angola needs a high level of concentration, control of movement, emotion and respect for the opponent,” he said, adding that engaging street children in school can be difficult, but they were more likely to keep coming back to capoeira classes. 

“You need to hook them,” he said.

To develop leadership and responsibility, Project Bantu offers the more experienced capoeiristas the opportunity of becoming assistant teachers, working in the office and caring for the instruments used in the art form. 

Taking one step at a time, children and the youth gain more self-confidence by successfully accomplishing tasks and earning money on their own, which also helps them to integrate into the broader society.

This is the path that Joshua has followed. As a child, he experienced family and drug problems that threatened to permanently alter the course of his life. Now, at age 18, he is a teaching assistant at Project Bantu and a valuable contributor to the organization. 

“The children know that they can find a real community… a safe place to share knowledge and gain skills,” Benedicto said. 

That ethic of equality pervades all of Project Bantu’s programs, which in addition to street children include girls and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

 With more than 100 girls and young women as students, the organization seeks to encourage them to overcome gender bias and stereotypes by setting goals and overcoming challenges. 

“The girls can be scared at the beginning, but then they overcome their fear,” Benedicto said. 

“When they realize they can do it, they are able to believe in their career and their future.” he said believing that this new mindset carries over into the home and society to build more respect and equality between individuals. 

At present, Benedicto is the only full-time teacher at Project Bantu Philippines. Their office is donated, and volunteers are a crucial support. 

Yet the young people that the organization helps are a concern for everyone. To inculcate values like confidence, self-awareness, integrity and respect – giving children a chance to believe in a brighter future – is building a better society for all. –Rappler.com

Lisa Lahitte is a Public Information and Outreach volunteer at UNESCO Bangkok and former volunteer in Cebu City.

MANILA, Philippines– Strong women uplift other women.

This much is true as three Filipina changemakers shared their inspirational journeys in making it their mission to empower women and provide them with more opportunities in the face of discrimination, violence, and gender inequality. 

At the #Women2020 Summit organized by Spark! Philippines held at the Samsung Hall on Thursday, March 5, Cherrie Atilano, the chief executive officer and founding farmer of Agrea Philippines, highlighted the importance of empowering women on the margins, especially those from rural and farming communities.

“They couldn't really have the confidence to decide what to do with their land, how to farm– it's because the land title is under their husbands' [names],” Atilano said.

It was during her time in Marinduque – one of the country's poorest provinces in the entire archipelago – that she witnessed cases of incest and rape. Atilano recalled that the women were especially vulnerable to rape when they head to the woods to relieve themselves due to lack of toilets.

The lack of family planning also resulted in a high incidence of unintended pregnancies, she added. She had met a mother who has given birth more than 17 times. 

Having started farming at 12, Atilano believed that melding agriculture with social enterprise could help empower Marinduque's women, and ultimately their families and communities. This was how Agrea- a portmanteau of "agriculture" and "Gaea", the Greek goddess of the earth- was born. (WATCH: Making agriculture a viable career for millennials)

Agrea, which is based in Marinduque, advocates organic farming that not only provides sustainable livelihood to families but also helps mitigate the effects of climate change and addresses food security issues. Agrea is a government-recognized farm school. Last year, it opened a branch in Siargao, Surigao del Norte.

Through the initiative, women have become agriculture entrepreneurs.

“If you invest in women in farming communities, it's an investment in the entire community,” she said. 

Atilano said that by teaching women to farm and sell their goods, they get to help their families whose income might sometimes get wasted on cock fighting or alcohol by the men.

She highlighted that economic empowerment, coupled with education, can greatly help women, especially in fighting poverty. From learning how to farm, some Agrea farmers are now looking into farm tourism and getting access to basic needs such as toilets.

“When women are empowered in terms of money and education, they have a say [in] decision-making, they feel confident, and they build wonderful homes,” Atilano said, adding that women empowerment translates to sustainable households and "building nourished homes."

More importantly, she said, economic development becomes inclusive and sustainable.

Aside from training, Agrea also provides programs and spaces where women can speak up such as the Leaders and Entrepreneurs in Agriculture Forum (LEAF).

“It's inspiring to see how women are actually being empowered in farming communities and those communities are really thriving. We say farming is cool, smart, sexy but at the end of the day, farming is really humane. It must be humane not only to the men but it must be more humane to women in the farming communities,” Atilano added.

Fight to protect

Jiu-jitsu world champion Meggie Ochoa doesn’t just fight people on the mat: she also fights for children who experienced sexual abuse and exploitation.

Ochoa’s advocacy started when she read a CNN article about a Mexican woman who said she was raped 43,200 times. The woman narrated she was sexually abused by around 30 men every day in a span of 4 years.

Disturbed by the story, Ochoa couldn’t sleep for several nights. This led her to do some research where she found out that child sexual abuse and exploitation were also rampant in the Philippines. The country was tagged as one of the global source of child pornography, according to a Unicef report in 2017.

“We have been tagged as a global hotspot...I couldn't stand that fact but what could I do, right? I'm an athlete, what's the connection of all of this?” she asked.

In December 2016, Ochoa stumbled upon Safe Haven, a home for children who have experienced severe trauma, neglect, abandonment, and abuse. Hoping to help the kids deal with their trauma, Ochoa and her team at Jiu-Jitsu Manila began teaching them the sport.

Since it was a close contact sport, the kids were tentative brought by the trauma they had experienced. (READ: This champ uses jiu-jitsu to help victims of child sex abuse)

Ochoa consulted with experts to come up with a specific curriculum that would introduce them to the contact, embrace an intimate awareness of their own body, and regain their confidence.

Soon enough, the kids fell in love with the sport and later joined jiu-jitsu competitions, winning medals for their stellar moves. Ochoa shared that it was through jiu-jitsu that girls at Safe Haven learned to fight for themselves again.

Ochoa recalled a time when she accompanied the girls to court hearings where they had to face their perpetrators. Scared of seeing them again, the girls would run away and cry. 

Using what they learned from jiu-jitsu, Ochoa simulated the court trial session and treated it like a competition where they’ll do a pep talk and give honey as a pre-workout treat. This later helped girls speak for themselves in court.

“That kind of victory is worth more than what any medal can give,” Ochoa said.

The Fight to Protect project – a movement Ochoa founded in 2018 to shed light on child sexual abuse and exploitation – continues to teach children jiu-jitsu as a way to deal with their trauma. In fact, several of the kids from Safe Haven have become instructors themselves, teaching the sport to younger children who could also pass it on to the next generation.

After becoming the first Filipino Jiu-Jitsu International Federation world champ, Ochoa hopes to promote her advocacy to a larger audience.

“An issue like child sexual violence or not even just this but any issue that we face, is always complex and cannot be resolved by any one person or any one organization or any one gender. Men and women together, we have to unite and work together,” she said.

‘If the sea level is rising, so should women’

Aside from abuse and violence, women are especially vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. But Youth for Climate Hope’s Coleen Awit knows that women also play an integral role in solving it.

“In the climate discourse, women should not be an afterthought...If the sea level is rising, so should women. Because despite our vulnerability, women can also be the solution,” Awit said.

She acknowledges that women still face economic, political, and social barriers that are further exacerbated by gender inequalities, making it hard for them to meet their needs before, during, and after climate-induced disasters.

Awit added that while rural women and other marginalized sectors face much greater threats, considering their dependence on natural resources for their survival, this can be used as an opportunity for them to take part in the climate crisis discourse.

“Being [in] the frontline of its effects makes women more knowledgeable about the equitable and sustainable solutions both to mitigating and adapting to the rapidly changing climate,” she said.

Youth for Climate Hope, a coalition pushing for climate justice and environmental protection, are the young Filipinos behind coal-free Negros.

It was through a monumental protest that gathered nearly 2,000 students outside the provincial capitol that prompted then Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr to declare Negros Occidental coal-free on March 6, 2019.

Youth for Climate Hope’s fight against coal is a continuation of that led by veteran anti-coal activist Dr. Romana de los Reyes, along with other Negrosanon mothers and women. De los Reyes has been pushing for a coal-free Negros for 22 years now. 

This time, young women of Negros continue to fight to secure a livable future through Youth For Climate Hope’s consciousness-raising campaigns in schools, protests, and policy lobbying.

“It is very crucial for women to be open to more opportunities, to more spaces, and to more resources for them to be able to participate in the climate discourse. It's very important that we invest in educating more women and young girls for this could help unleash their capabilities in tackling this issue,” Awit said.

“We want every woman to be able to decide which Earth will be home to her and to the future generations,” she said. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines– When students experience sexual harassment on campus, what happens next?

For some, these instances go unreported due to a lack of avenues for victims to forward their concerns.

Hoping to fix this, several school administrators and student leaders on Monday, March 9, called for the establishment of “safe space desks” on campuses all over the Philippines, where victims could report their experiences for immediate and appropriate action.

In a press conference, the group urged schools to comply with the Safe Spaces Act, which seeks to protect everyone from sexual harassment both in physical and online spaces. (READ: FAST FACTS: How does the Safe Spaces Act protect you?)

Enacted in April 2019, the law states among its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) the provision of avenues for redress in case of sexual harassment on campus.

It also says that academic and training institutions must “adopt and publish grievance procedures to facilitate the filing of complaints by students, staff, and faculty members” within 150 days since the rules’ implementation in October 2019. That means the period is slated to end late March 2020.

Acting on sexual harassment on campus

Hoping to inspire others to do the same, several school officials and student leaders coming from Isabela State University, Silliman State University, Western Mindanao State University, and Ateneo de Manila University recalled their own experiences of setting up avenues to fight against sexual harassment.

“Before this current school year, there have been no tangible ways for students to come forward when they've been harassed by students, teachers, or members of the Silliman community...This means it takes a lot of courage for you to speak up and call out people who have violated you,” shared Ben Bensali of the Silliman University Student Government.

Through its students’ rights and welfare committee, the Silliman University Student Government released an online website in late 2019 named the Grievance Toolkit, where students can report different cases of harassment from faculty, administration, and fellow students.

“Before, there have been literally no cases that have been processed in the university. By this year, we have processed 9 cases. While this might seem like a small number, we think this is a step in the right direction for Silliman University,” said Bensali.

A need for stronger procedures

Moirah Isabelo of Sanggunian ng mga Paaralang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) also said that a weak system of procedures or the lack thereof usually prevented people from reporting their experiences of sexual harassment.

“It wasn't common to speak up about it because it was so stigmatized; that's why there are no systems in place,” Isabelo said.

In late 2019, a student came forward with allegations that a respected instructor from Ateneo de Manila University touched him inappropriately and threatened to fail him after. The allegations, documented in a Facebook post, quickly made rounds online, sparking an uproar from the Ateneo community.

It wasn’t the first time a sexual harassment case became viral within the 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.

Despite the allegations, the ADMU administration said in an October 2019 memo that it has not received formal complaints against the two professors.

“This was often described as an open secret. This is exactly what makes sexual harassment so pervasive. It's so commonplace, so normalized, that it's hard to tell whether an act of harassment was indeed wrong,” said Senator Risa Hontiveros.

“Several students have said that social media has become their last resort, especially when the university that is meant to protect them does not act on their complaints right away, or worse, doesn't take their complaints seriously,” said Hontiveros.

The Loyola Schools Gender Hub, made accessible to students starting last year, hopes to provide checks and balances within the university towards a “gender-safe Ateneo.”

Students need safe spaces 

However, not all schools have a gender hub or an avenue to file their complaints despite the implementation of the Safe Spaces Act.

“Our students need safe spaces. They need people who will walk them through the processes that will help them get due justice. They need people who are assigned to this work, and not just anyone but people who have undergone training for it,” stressed Isabelo.

Sylvia Claudio, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Social Work and Community Development, added that schools have a responsibility to keep their campuses safe from harm and violence.

“It is the central and most important role of the university to produce scholars, and sexual harassment stands in the way of that mission,” she said.

As the 150-day period nears, Hontiveros called on academic institutions to set up procedures addressing sexual harassment, as well as avenues on campus where people can safely report their complaints without fear of being judged, discriminated against, or failing their classes.

“That's why I want to call on all education institutions to implement their obligations under the Safe Spaces Act. You're mandated to educate your students about sexual harassment...Our schools are often called our second homes, and so our students, especially our women and girls including LGBTQ+, need to feel it is home, comfortable, secure, and safe,” she said.

“Your institution has the power to set the culture. For so long, we've enabled a culture that allows unequal power relations to be the cause and the consequence of sexual harassment,” Hontiveros added.

Isabelo highlighted that the fight against sexual harassment can start by addressing the problems in our immediate communities.

“It really starts with us. It starts in our campuses. It starts in our immediate communities. Because how can we hope to solve this on a national scale if we don't go to the ground and start with where we are and our immediate influence of peers?” she asked.

For Bensali, these safe spaces aren’t a choice but a necessity.

“We think that these safe spaces are environments that every campus needs. This is a standard that universities should hold themselves to. It's not an added feature that they should have. We think this is necessary for any university to further progress,” he said. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)  has canceled the first quarter nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill (NSED) that was supposed to be held on Thursday, March 12.

The NDRRMC announced this in a memo dated Tuesday, March 10, following a spike in confirmed local cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus.

The virus has infected at least 35 people in the Philippines, and has placed hundreds more under investigation.

The NDRRMC said the cancellation of the quarterly drill was done to “ensure public health safety of the drill participants and to prevent the possible risk of contracting COVID-19.”

It’s also in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a state of public health emergency, which orders all government agencies and local government units to cooperate and mobilize necessary resources to combat the coronavirus.

The NSED is comprised of a series of simulation exercises conducted all over the Philippines to instill a culture of disaster preparedness among Filipinos and promote disaster awareness. (READ: All you need to know about preparing for earthquakes)

The NSED aims to evaluate the effectiveness of local governments' contingency plans and protocols in relation to earthquake scenarios and other similar events. – Rappler.com

The scene opens with a young boy named Paco having a conversation with his father, a farmer in the rice fields of Nueva Ecija. The father reminds Paco to study hard because life as a farmer is difficult, and education will be Paco’s key to a better life.

You feel Paco’s sincerity and desire to make a better life for his tatay, and he goes to school full of energy and drive. Then Paco’s friends join him onstage, telling him that classes are canceled because there is a rally at school. A teacher comes in condemning rallies, saying they do not solve anything. However, one of Paco’s friends begins a passionate speech about how rallies provide an avenue for the masses to air their issues against the government.

Moved by such passion, Paco and his group of friends join the rally, which eventually becomes violent. The next scene shows how Paco’s friend was in fact a member of the NPA, and that he was tasked to do more recruiting. Eventually, Paco and his friends join the NPA movement, get into an encounter with soldiers, get shot, but then seemingly get saved by the same soldiers.

The play ends with Paco realizing that education is important and rallies are bad.

This is the play that welcomed a group of student leaders at one of the Philippine Army's learning camps. After the performance, a soldier came onstage and asked the students what they learned from the activity. The students just told them what they wanted to hear: rallies are bad; stay in school so you can be intelligent; there is nothing wrong with the government so let us not rally. (READ: CHR reminds government: Activism is a right)

It was disturbing how the army made the extreme argument that when you criticize your government, you are against it. They plan to bring this narrative to schools, and it is alarming that they are trying to influence young people not to be critical of the government, and more importantly, not to think. (READ: [OPINION] Activism as the foundation of the university)

As someone working in student development, my knee-jerk reaction was to criticize the performance, to tell those soldiers then and there that they had no business staging a play filled with such disinformation. However, I realized that perhaps these soldiers were also just passionate about their cause, had some talent they wanted to share, and perhaps, maybe, had limitations crafting a performance with a more comprehensive and thorough narrative because of certain limits.

Or perhaps they were just following orders and were in fact a small part of a larger propaganda movement by the powers that be.

Regardless of their intentions, though, there is an apparent trend of men and women in uniform entering schools and providing information campaigns, from discouraging drug use to demonizing criticism of the government. 

So what then should educators and formators do in light of what some would dub as the "militarization" of schools? How then can those in the academe stay true to their mission of forming the critical consciousness of this generation? These are the questions that disturb me every day since witnessing Paco’s story.

While there may be no hard and fast rule as to what the best strategies are to counter these efforts, for now, perhaps, an attempt at collaboration might be worth a try. That way, those with more expertise could also give feedback to our uniformed agencies so that the messaging they share to the young becomes more thorough, more factual, and more sincere. That way they do not rob the young of the opportunity to think and arrive at their own truths, but empower them with tools to think critically – to analyze a set of facts and various perspectives. (READ: [OPINION] Activism is not a waste of time)

At the end of the day, we just might need to collaborate, compromise, and hopefully find common ground, because if there one truth common to all, it’s that we are all Filipinos doing our very best to serve this country we love. – Rappler.com

Gian Bermudo is one of the fellows of DAKILA’s Heroes Hub Youth Fellowship Program. She is an educator who is very interested about learning development practices and innovations, responsible adolescent sexuality and social development. Gian was a Regional Awardee of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 2012. 

This piece is part of a series by youth leaders from #WeTheFuturePH, a nonpartisan movement of Filipino youth standing up for rights, freedom, and democracy.

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – A day after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the coronavirus test kits developed by scientists from University of the Philippines (UP), #SalamatUP trends on Twitter.

Price of a #COVID19 testing kit

Imported: P8,500
UP-made: P1,320#SalamatUP

— Tonyo Cruz (@tonyocruz) March 10, 2020

The FDA said on Tuesday, March 10, it issued a Certificate of Exemption for the SARS CoV-2 PCR Detection Kit of the UP National Institute of Health.

Priced at P1,320, the kit is said to be 6 times cheaper than its foreign counterpart, which costs around P8,500. The kit provides results in two hours. 

The kit, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, will be used for field testing coupled with gene sequencing at the Philippine Genome Center, the FDA said in a statement.

Netizens took to Twitter to show their appreciation for UP for having developed the test kits.

#SalamatUP Please don't allow anyone to make this a business opportunity. These scientists need to be recognized and our government must take care of them. Imagine #COVID19 tests kits for Php 1,320.00, that's only around $26. Mabuhay!

— Grace in Lines (@GraceInLines) March 11, 2020

Science over sentiment. Facts over feelings. Keep doing the good work #SalamatUP for the #COVID19 test kit

— Michael (@piencenaves_jm) March 11, 2020

Deserves being a top university in the world!!! #SalamatUP

— (@jameela_austere) March 11, 2020

The COVID-19 test kit can give results in 2 hrs & only costs Php 1,320

"Ultimately, the development of the nation and the protection of health and wellbeing of its people are the purpose of the University of the Philippines"

Serving with honor & excellence #SalamatUPhttps://t.co/SIxHD1w7BA

— MaroonGirl (@LadyMaroon10) March 11, 2020

Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo, who heads the FDA, said the development of test kits was a response to the "increasing number of reported COVID-19 cases."

The health department had been under fire for underreporting cases in the country, which was attributed to the limited number of test kits – only 2,000 were available. Now, the UP National Institute of Health has committed to conducting 1,000 tests every week, said Domingo.  

Online, Filipinos praised the state university for "rightfully criticizing" the administration while being able to contribute to the prevention of more coronavirus cases.

UP has been a target of hate speech and red-tagging by state forces and administration supporters for championing advocacies and exacting accountability from our government. (Read: Activism as the foundation of the university)

Imagine having the time and the intelligence to rightfully criticize the admin WHILE contributing something meaningful to society #SalamatUP . I'm glad that you're not like some groups that already have massive resources used mainly to produce easily debunkable propaganda.

— intheirbehalf (@intheirbehalf) March 11, 2020

kung hindi lang sana nagmamagaling ang gobyerno natin, at kung marunong lang sana silang makinig sa mga taong bihasa sa science, edi sana matagal na tong naagapan.

oh, asan yung mga nagsasabi na puro rally lang mga taga-UP? #SalamatUP

— bea #OustDuterte (@bealucilleeeee) March 11, 2020

Using the hashtag #SalamatUP, netizens also urged the government to put allocate more funds for education, research, and development.

Here are more tweets:

New Collection - Curated tweets by rapplerdotcom

As of March 11, there are 49 confirmed cases in the Philippines. 

On Monday, March 9, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency after officials confirmed the increase of cases. Under this status, patients suspected to have the virus could face sanctions if they refuse to undergo quarantine. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – As soon as the Department of Health (DOH) reported a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, many Filipinos found themselves wondering if they should self-quarantine as some of the patients had no history of travel abroad and could not trace any contact with confirmed cases.  

Some also panicked and swarmed supermarkets, buying months worth of food and other grocery items, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose to 49. A 67-year-old Filipino patient died in Manila on Wednesday, March 11. 

Several Philippine officials announced that they have gone into self-quarantine after being exposed to people who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus. (LIST: Philippine government officials under quarantine for coronavirus risks)

When and why should you self-quarantine?  

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said people who are at high risk of getting sick from COVID-19, which include the elderly aged 60 and above, and those with weak immunity or with serious medical conditions should practice social distancing.

The general consensus among medical professionals and experts is to self-quarantine if you:

• came in close contact with someone who tested positive 
• came in close contact with someone who has traveled to China, Italy, South Korea, or Iran
• have a travel history in these areas with widespread cases of COVID-19

Going on self-quarantine or social distancing is important in what experts call “flattening the curve,” which is less about preventing illness but more on slowing down the rate at which people get sick. In simpler terms, measures such as social distancing, quarantine, and isolation can contribute to efforts to contain the pandemic’s spread. 

Our #FlattenTheCurve graphic is now up on @Wikipedia with proper attribution & a CC-BY-SA licence. Please share far & wide and translate it into any language you can! Details in the thread below. #Covid_19#COVID2019#COVID19#coronavirus Thanks to @XTOTL& @TheSpinoffTVpic.twitter.com/BQop7yWu1Q

— Dr Siouxsie Wiles (@SiouxsieW) March 10, 2020

What happens during self-quarantine?

If you meet the general criteria set by experts but don't need immediate medical attention, you are encouraged to self-quarantine. 

This step will not only help slow down the spread of the virus, it will also keep hospitals from getting overburdened and will allow them to channel their resources to those who require immediate attention the most. 

If you are on self-quarantine at home, monitor your symptoms carefully and be prepared to call the Department of Health (DOH)  hotline in case your symptoms worsen. To prevent others from catching the virus, cover your mouth when you cough and your nose when you sneeze, and regularly wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 

If available, it is advised that you designate a room and a separate bathroom in your house for sick people. Practicing good hygiene also requires you to avoid sharing personal items with other people in your household. 

The quarantine period differs from person to person, depending on the severity and stage of the disease. This is why people under quarantine are advised to stock on supplies that could last from two weeks to a month. 

What should you stock up on?

Health and government authorities have advised against panic buying or hoarding food and other grocery items enough to last 3 months, saying this may be unnecessary and would put those with less means at a disadvantage. Sudden high demand for goods also drives prices.

Here are some items that you should stock up during self-quarantine: 

Bath and hygiene

• Hand soap
• 30-day supply of medication
• Laundry detergent
• Hygiene products like shampoo, conditioner, feminine wash, etc
• All-purpose cleaning spray

Health and government authorities have urged the public to stay informed and calm as they work to address the pandemic.  – Rappler.com

The global spread of coronavirus isn’t showing signs of slowing down any time soon. Because of that – sure – it is tempting to be selfish and it is easy to feel powerless. 

In the Philippines, as soon as the cases of confirmed coronavirus rose, lines in grocery stores also marked up. People hoarded canned goods, water, bread, and even tissue – in a country where using tabo, or dipper, is more culturally-accepted. Worse, some Filipinos dared to resell their surplus stocks at jacked-up prices. 

Health experts of course frowned upon the sudden panic buying while government officials rightly vowed to punish those who will try to make gains over this medical emergency.

Currently, scientists and government leaders are working hand-in-hand on the frontlines to contain this pandemic. But anyone can be part of the solution. There are simple, selfless, and rational things that we can all practice and do to contribute to this shared goal. . 

Practice basic good hygiene 

The widely known fact is that washing hands and social-distancing can reduce one’s risk of contracting the coronavirus. That is correct, but there is also a utilitarian reason behind these personal preventive measures.

The worst form of this pandemic will affect everyone differently and some are more at risk than others. Not everyone can work from home or avoid crowds during the daily grind of commuting. If you’re healthy and privileged enough, there’s a big chance that you either won’t contract the disease or just experience a mild case. 

Why then should you bother washing hands regularly?

Researchers argued that the simple act of maintaining the hands clean can significantly “flatten the curve” – as how many experts put it – or throw the coronavirus into a slow motion. 

Specifically in airports, if 60% rather than 20% of the travelers regularly washed their hands, it could slow down the spread of infections by almost 70%. 

The more healthy people practicing these preventive health measures, the less likely old and immunocompromised individuals will be sick. Therefore, the fewer serious cases in hospitals would also mean less pressure in our healthcare system. 

In the long run, these positive ripple effects caused by the implementation of extreme public health preventive measures could ideally help put an end to this pandemic the same way it did to previous global outbreaks. 

Don’t hoard 

It’s not surprising to see people panic-buying during emergencies like this. 

After all, it’s a scenario that forces you to believe that you have no control over the risks and the spread. Therefore, you would end up channeling your energy to things that you can control: your grocery shopping, for example. 

It is not exactly bad to prepare for the worst case scenario that this pandemic could bring. However, our response should be reasonable and measured at the same time. (READ: Self-quarantine guide amid coronavirus pandemic: When to do it, what to stock up on) 

For example, health experts have said time and again that healthy people do not need to wear face masks. Yet, the panic-buying has created a shortage for people who need it the most: doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who are on the frontines of treating people who are sick.

Practice restraint if you have the capacity and luxury to purchase beyond what you need. Again, be mindful of those who are most at risk and who may not afford huge purchases at the same time. 

Share truthful information 

Like in every emergency, reliable and truthful information becomes a form of aid to those in need.

We have seen how misleading information about coronavirus has promoted xenophobia and racist behavior. In Italy, a number of Filipinos have been attacked because they were misidentified as Chinese.

In Iran, disinformation about a supposed cure for COVID-19 has killed more than 40 people and hospitalized several others. Hundreds of Iranian fell for fake reports claiming that a bootleg alcohol can treat the coronavirus. Iran is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, with some 9,000 positive cases and at least 350 deaths as of posting. 

Experts agree that people should be basing their response to the coronavirus on the information coming from official health sources such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While government leaders and health experts carry the heaviest burden, the reality is that solving this pandemic is pretty much a collective responsibility. 

It takes courage to stay compassionate at a time like this. But do it anyway because it’s the most rational and ethical thing to do. – Rappler.com

“News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertising.” – Katharine Graham 

You see, campus journalism through the years is mostly institutional advertising in Philippine universities. That is to say, campus journalism has been about “enrolees are up by 300%!” and rarely about backing student protesters filing a petition for the reconsideration of rejected freshman applicants. Campus journalism has been about an institution’s acquisition of Integrated Management System (IMS) certifications, and rarely about public service announcement for students to report sexual harassment cases. Campus journalism has been about this provincial state university beating top universities as the country’s best-performing school in the criminology board exams, and rarely about how the passing rate of the same school for its science department has been precariously mediocre.

In other words, campus journalism through the years has been misused and wrongly utilized, with campus journalists mismatched as administration-hired public relations practitioners who glorify their schools. In line with this, the administration "compensates" the student publication with a certain budget.

Due to an unirrational fear of censorship and administrative intervention, some student publications are conditioned to publish only positive happenings inside the university, and negative issues are only written about at the bare minimum. Whenever there is some bad publicity, admin officials don’t use the issue to improve their services; instead, they call out the school paper for publishing an article they deem detrimental to the image of the school. In addition to this, progressive student publications are reportedly put under surveillance by the military or its staffers are red-tagged, precisely because of their critical, anti-administration, and militant reportage. (READ: Why campus journalists should go beyond classrooms)

For 3 years now, I have been working for my school’s official student publication. For two consecutive years, moreover, my publication was hailed as the best in Central Luzon because of our progressive kind of campus journalism, which we intend to preserve and uphold for present and future staffers. More to the point, we refused to become reporters of the administration’s accomplishments, and have channeled our energies instead to exposing issues that concern our fellow students and Filipinos at large. (READ: Journalism is a crime in a fake world)

The publication wasn't always this way. Before, it practiced what is often considered "objective" ways of presenting news stories and editorial articles. 

But too much objectivity does not lead to change. 

A change will do you good

Two years ago, little by little, our newspaper underwent a paradigm shift. When before our columnists tackled personal issues, our editorial and opinion pages soon became our podium from which we discussed local and national issues, from women empowerment to human rights, and promoted social justice. 

Even our literary folio soon eschewed from cheesy and frivolous subjects, soon becoming a platform for art that addressed various social issues. Our 2018 folio entitled “Trese” was named for the 13 years that had passed since the Hacienda Luisita massacre, which remains unaddressed. Our 2019 folio entitled “Mayo Uno,” meanwhile, was a more militant collection that dealt with labor issues and workers’ rights, expressed in no-holds-barred language. Our upcoming folio will tackle yet another sensitive issue – slavery then and now.

To be an activist does not require one to be physically present in rallies and street protests. Activism can mean supporting an advocacy that other activists fight for, but through the formidable power of the written word. (READ: WATCH: Campus journalists on why press freedom matters)

After all, the noblest role of students in nation-building involves opposing injustice, oppression, and bigotry – and campus journalism can be their means of doing so.  

It is not the time to be neutral. Like the slogan of the College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), the country’s largest and longest-running intercollegiate alliance of student publications, says, “to write is already to choose.” And my publication chose to stand with the oppressed, the unheard, and the marginalized. – Rappler.com

Jejomar B. Contawe is a senior communication arts student and is currently the associate editor-in-chief of The Work, the official student publication of Tarlac State University.

MANILA, Philippines – Access to timely, relevant, and correct information is critical during times like this. But when misinformation and disinformation can spread as fast as a virus, what do we do?

For young doctors Marc Gregory Yu and Joseph Paguio, and doctor-in-training Chris Dee, some battles aren't only fought in hospitals.

To combat fake news and make truthful information more accessible and understandable to the public, the 3 came up with a shareable document or primer that contains information on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with useful updates from reliable sources. 

The initiative was created by Dee, a graduate of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University, who is currently a medical student at Harvard University and research fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

He got help from his colleagues, Paguio and Yu, who are both graduates from the UP College of Medicine. Paguio is training at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City while Yu is a research fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. 

In a Facebook post, Dee shared the link to the document, which people can easily open in a single click. The document got around 1,500 views as of early evening Friday, March 13, and received positive feedback from netizens.

Fighting fake with truth 

The 3 started the online document as an initiative to keep their own family and friends informed about the COVID-19 crisis. As days passed, they realized a public need for curated information. 

"The scientific community is racing to find answers, but as of now there are still many unknowns. Critically, the pervasiveness of the unknown drives fear, which can mitigate our ability to think and decide critically," the group said. 

The many questions and answers that are still unknown about the virus make people vulnerable to fake news. To help address this, the Yu, Paguio and Dee decided to make the document public, assuing readers it contained only factual and updated information.

“We find that there is a lot of information going around that is of variable quality. People also get so much of the information that guides their actions online. Combating fake news by sharing peer reviewed and evidence-based information may help a lot of people,” Dee said in an interview with Rappler. 

The document contains a concise and comprehensive summary of the latest findings on coronavirus, as well as relevant information such as the fatality rate, risk factors, symptoms, treatments, and preventive measures.

It also includes related links to other resources that readers can check if they want more the details. 

The 3 doctors would review any updates that each of them would add to make sure that the information is correctly presented. “All the resources that we quote are publicly available, so our goal was just to consolidate everything and perhaps translate it into non jargon and other Filipino languages,” Dee said.

Making information relatable

Dee admits that science can be intimidating to many readers, especially given the many academic journals and scientific researches that are cited as sources.

Through this document, the young doctors aim to distill the information from reputable heath institutions such as the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University of California, and John Hopkins University, among others. 

“I guess the other important thing to note is that many of the science resources seem intimidating at first, especially those written in jargon in scientific journals. Our goal was to distill that further in a way that was useful to a greater number of people,” Dee said. 

Though the work is not easy, Dee highlighted the importance of collective action in responding to a health crisis. And being informed is the first step in doing so. (READ: Staying compassionate in the time of coronavirus)

“With something as widespread as coronavirus, which has been labeled a pandemic, our actions can have great ramifications for ourselves and the people around us. Therefore, the importance of appropriate information among the non-medical public is critical,” he added.

He also asked the public’s help in translating the information to various languages so more people could understand. 

“It is worth spending time thinking critically about what you read, what you believe, and ultimately, what guides your actions. Now more than ever it is important to think critically, and to act deliberately,” he added.

Acknowledging the efforts of medical professionals who are on the frontlines of this pandemic, Dee said that this initiative is their own small way of helping people.

“The true credit goes to the people who are fighting this on the ground level. Trying to keep people informed efficiently and as accurately as possible is a small drop of the bucket in this great effort that requires both cooperation and grit on a global scale. [And] this is the least we can do,” Dee said. 

Those who would like to suggest and contribute to this initiative may contact covid19doccontributions@gmail.com.– Rappler.com  

Back in 1998, I helped conduct a study on "Elite Perceptions of Inequality and Poverty in the Philippines," which included in-depth interviews and semi-structured surveys with nearly 100 of the country’s rich and powerful. 

One thing that disturbed me was the inability of many Filipino elites to see that ending poverty and inequality was in everyone’s best interest. Inequality and poverty hurts the poor the most, but in the end, it affects us all — it stunts economic growth, gives rise to crime and violence, creates unsafe and unhealthy environments, leads to a collective sense of fear and hopelessness, to name a few.  

A simple example that seemed to escape a number of interviewees, was how poverty impacts the environment and affects us all, including those who think they are safely ensconced in their exclusive enclaves with spiky wrought iron gates. While poorer communities who are exposed to it are affected more, at the end of the day we breathe the same air, draw water from the same resource, and so on. 

I was reminded of this with the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Nothing has emphasized our connectedness – locally, nationally and globally – more than COVID-19, which continues to rage around the world. Nothing will also emphasize the link between poverty, income inequality, and health more than the spread of this incredibly infectious disease.  

COVID-19, which originated from China’s Wuhan province, has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). So far, it has traveled to 114 countries, killed more than 4,000 people, and sickened more than 120,000 others. Health experts suspect many more cases are going undetected or underreported for many reasons. Some people who have been infected don’t exhibit any symptoms of the disease and are unknowingly infecting others. Others who are sick continue to work because they can’t afford not to. There are not enough test kits to go around, especially in countries that can’t afford them or don’t have any pandemic preparedness plans in place, or have under-resourced and under-developed healthcare systems. 

Those of us with access to communication platforms have heard health experts discuss what we can do to reduce our risk of getting it. Around the world, the advice is universal: wash your hands often with soap and water for about 20 seconds; carry hand sanitizer when you’re outside. We are told to stay home if we are sick, and contact our doctor if our symptoms become worse. We are told to ensure we have a two-week supply of food, water, and medication in case we get quarantined. 

These are all useful advice, except they forget that we are not all equal. Not everyone has clean, running water and soap. Not everyone can call in sick – part-time workers and the precariously employed don’t get paid when they don’t show up; worse, it could cost them their jobs. Not everyone has access to free healthcare. Even countries with universal healthcare, like Canada, don’t extend this to temporary migrant workers. Not everyone can afford to stock up on food for self-isolation or quarantine; others don’t even have enough food for the day, or a home. 

In other words, coronavirus discussions and responses are forgetting its impact on the poor and the vulnerable, which will be to the detriment of us all. No community will be truly safe and protected from this virus (and other future outbreaks) unless everyone has the same access to healthcare and other basic needs. If the person behind the counter of your local supermarket is infected with the coronavirus, the likelihood of you and many others catching the disease is increased. (READ: Staying compassionate in the time of coronavirus)

On a global scale, experts warn that the virus is likely going undetected and unreported in poor and developing countries, which could quickly be overwhelmed by a local outbreak. This would not only severely affect the health of their populations, their economies could just as easily crumble from its effects. 

The realization that everyone should be protected is only dawning on governments now. Italy, the hardest hit country outside China, is planning some economic measures to alleviate the burden on many. These include providing relief funds for small and medium-sized businesses in affected areas, and possible suspension of utility bills. 

In the US, the Trump administration announced it has met with heads of insurance companies, who have promised to waive all co-pays for COVID-19 testing. But as the British Medical Journal has pointed out, this will only cover around 160 million who are insured. “They did not discuss providing care for the estimated 30 million people who lacked health insurance in the US, the 44 million who had inadequate insurance, or the 11 million undocumented immigrants,” it noted. 

In terms of assistance for developing countries, some international institutions and rich countries have pledged emergency grants and loans to help them deal with the pandemic; some NGOs have contributed funds to the WHO to help raise awareness on how to avoid coravirus and to train rapid response teams and medical personnel there. Much more will be needed. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has underscored that a global effort is needed for this virus that, as he said, “does not respect borders.”

When the dust settles – which one hopes will happen, and soon – citizens must hold their governments accountable for their response or lack of response to the outbreak, including protection for society’s most vulnerable. 

We cannot afford to be complacent – scientists and medical researchers have repeatedly warned that viral outbreaks will now be the new normal as the climate crisis progresses. – Rappler.com

Marites N. Sison is a freelance writer and editor based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @maritesnsison