Step Down, GMA.

Reclaim EDSA

February 25, 1986 is no special day. February 25, 1986 is an historical day. I shall never forget a day when hundreds of thousands of my countrymen converged along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (or Highway 54 to the ancient ones) in a rare display of nationalism -- a virtue I have always viewed as lacking in us.

At that historical intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue now stands a figure of religion. And under its wings a platoon of battle-ready soldiers always stands guard. An obvious desecration of hallowed ground, where prayers, tears, and sweat mixed with the heady air of nationalism.

We, as a people, have allowed bastards to step on our hallowed grounds, on the very spot where our race as one country found expression.

We are a masochistic race. We revel on our despair, on our woes. We want progress, but we are cowards, afraid of sacrifice for our own kin, afraid of confronting the bastards who corrupt our society.

What else can be said about a people who allow themselves to be trampled upon, to be spit upon, to be treated like animals?

We pay for the salaries of policemen who regularly violate our rights for peaceful assembly and free speech. We pay for the very bullets of soldier-assassins that maim and kill activists, priests, and journalists. We pay for the the special no. 8 license plates of our so-called honorable representatives, for their bullet-proof cars, for their arrogant security detail and for the luxuries of their wives, mistresses, and spoiled kids.

And of course, the very cash that flows from the bloodied hands of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to her minions comes from our pockets lined with fear and abuse.

All of these, we fight with prayers, we fight with protest rallies, we fight with text brigades.

Let us heed Engr. Jun Lozada's call for truth to overpower all the profanities of the present regime. Truth shall set us free, truth shall power us to resolve this maddening crisis.

GLORIA RESIGN!

Lost in time

Veritably, our government is lost in time. Either the military has resorted to its primitive roots, or Raul Gonzales has really lost his head (which is, in reality, far from impossible). To say that communists are behind attempts to topple the government is to ask innocently that oh my golly, Rizal is dead?

In the first place, why are there peace talks behind the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)? Why are our troops commissioned to do patrols in our sparsely populated countryside? Isn't it because of the decades-old communist insurgency, which has always threatened to encircle the capital region and topple the regime in Manila?

To issue press releases like this is to pre-emptively suppress the constitutional right of citizens to free assembly and freedom of expression. And I thought the military vowed to protect the constitution, as declared in their humongous billboards along the white walls of Camp Aguinaldo along EDSA?

How silly of me to believe anything the military says.

On January 22, farmers will be commemorating the massacre of their kin on Chino Roces Bridge on Mendiola. Our honorable secretary found it convenient to declare that this memorial, this remembering of kin senselessly murdered for crying out loud, is an event that destabilizers will take advantage of.

Of course, mister honorable secretary. I'm no lawyer but I'm no fool. The farmers will be out there, protesting on the streets, risking their lives, their farms and their families, to hurl invectives at the government for always reneging on its promises to improve the agricultural sector.

And the people you call destabilizers, mister honorable secretary, are people who keep on helping and protecting the people you have forgotten -- the farmers, the fisherfolk, the urban poor, the out-of-school youth, the displaced, the women and the children -- compared to your government's mercenary armed forces who pillage the countryside and maul the urban landscape in the guise of protecting the Constitution.

Tatsulok

tangna! ni-revive ng bamboo ang Tatsulok ng Buklod! tangna talaga! wahoooo!!!! tumatalon ang dugo ko, gustong kumaripas patungong utak, at pasabugin ang isip sa kabalintunaang nagaganap sa bayang hinahayaang mabulok.

"habang may tatsulok, at sila ang nasa tuktok, HINDI MATATAPOS ITONG GULO!"

--"Tatsulok" ng Buklod, kinantang muli ng Bamboo

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eto ang kumpletong lyrics. naaalala ko pa nang tinugtog namin ito sa kontra, kumpletos rekados na may tongatong, dyembe, gitara. hanggang ngayon buhay na buhay pa rin ang mensahe nito. akmang-akma sa sitwasyon natin ngayon -- meron tayong pasistang pekeng pangulong pandak.

Totoy, bilisan mo, bilisan mo ang takbo
Ilagan ang mga bombang nakatutok sa ulo mo
Totoy, tumalon ka! Dumapa kung kailangan
at baka tamaan pa ng mga balang ligaw

Totoy, makinig ka: huwag kang magpagabi
Baka mapagkamalan ka't humandusay sa tabi
Totoy, alam mo ba kung ano ang puno't dulo
ng di matapos-tapos na kaguluhang ito?

Hindi pula't dilaw ang tunay na magkalaban
Ang kulay at tatak ang di siyang dahilan
Hangga't marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman

Habang may tatsulok, at sila ang nasa tuktok
Hindi matatapos itong gulo...

Lumilipas ang hininga ng kay raming mga tao
At ang dating lunting bukid ngayo'y sementeryo
Totoy, kumilos ka! Baligtarin ang tatsulok!
At tulad mong dukha ang ilagay mo sa tuktok

Hindi pula't dilaw ang tunay na magkalaban
Ang kulay at tatak ang di siyang dahilan
Hangga't marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman

Habang may tatsulok, at sila ang nasa tuktok
Hindi matatapos itong gulo...