Mong Palatino is a blogger, activist, and former legislator. He can be reached via his email, mongpalatino@gmail.com.
Mong Palatino is a blogger, activist, and former legislator. He can be reached via his email, mongpalatino@gmail.com.
1. Open Secrets, Alice Munro. I think there is a Munro Effect: A reader is initially lulled into thinking that a storyline is dull but it is only when the short story is about to end that he finally begins to see how he is completely immersed in the Munronian...
The enduring legacy of the sixty-eighters is hope.
The spirit of resistance is alive in Mindanao.
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com The untold first mission of many activists does not involve the smashing of the bourgeois state or the 'bombarding of the headquarters' of the repressive government; their first instinct is to go home and confess their...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com There are competing conceptions of the good life, but mainstream institutions bombard us with the dangerous ideology that the only way to achieve happiness and success is to acquire material possessions or gain fame in...
QUESTION EVERYTHING By Mong Palatino Like the sun that sustains life on this planet, it is Maoism that inspired the rise and spread of the National Democratic movement in the Philippines. That political slogans such as ‘Serve the People’ and ‘Learn from the Masses’...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com CARHRIHL, JASIG and The Hague Declaration – these are important peace documents signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front. If the peace talks will resume next month, the next agenda should...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com 1. A civil war has been raging in the countryside since 1969. Landlessness, feudal exploitation, state brutality against the poor and marginalized – these are some of the issues that led to the formation of the New...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com In the hierarchy of political evils, single issue activism does not figure, and rightfully so. There’s less barbarism in the world because of the heroic work of individuals who never gave up fighting for their chosen...
Coopted already by the reactionary state, the yellow Left has already forgotten how a people’s movement can thrive by relying on the sincere affections and collective struggle of the masses. It mimicked the oppressors’ cynical view of resistance movements and grassroots organizing.
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Excuse the dramatic appeal of the headline but I feel it’s necessary to emphasize the life-changing impact of the decision to become an activist. It’s also to quickly refute what activism is not: a deviant behavior...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Respect for diverse beliefs is one of the prescriptions of political correctness so therefore your decision to become an activist should no longer provoke scandalous reactions. But the menacing tentacles of Red Scare...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Philosopher Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest minds in history, taught geography yet his knowledge of the physical world was probably based only on intuition and printed materials since he didn’t travel outside his...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com There is a regular gathering of anti-Marcos activists which briefly unites various shades of the Left. This was impossible to organize in the mid-1990s during the ‘great split’ within the Philippine Left, but today it...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com News about the 47th anniversary of the Communist Party highlighted the group’s statement about the growing strength of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao on one hand and Malacanang’s dismissal of the claim on the...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com 1. In Defence of Politics, Bernard Crick. I disagree with the author’s conservative views and his rejection of communist societies as totalitarian regimes but his treatise on politics, elections, and behavior of...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino The selfie is both derided and hailed as a popular form of self-expression; but politically-speaking, what does it really signify? The ‘butterfly effect’ reminds us that a flap of a butterfly’s wings can cause a hurricane on the...
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino *Talumpating binigkas sa Mindanao Human Rights Summit na ginanap sa Philippine Normal University, Taft, Manila noong Nobyembre 12, 2015 Sa susunod na linggo, ipapalabas na ang inaabangang huling installment ng pelikulang Hunger...
Free Wi-Fi is cool, but it is no game changer. We can help poor families survive by making sure they have food on the table, rather than simply giving them Wi-Fi access.
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino *Mensaheng binigkas sa pambansang kumbensiyon ng Kabataan Partylist noong Setyembre 28, 2015 Natutuwa po ako at mukhang maraming bagong mukha sa araw na ito; ibig sabihin, bukod sa tumanda at gumradweyt na ang aming batch, ay...
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.