I watched the cultural show Hugpungan (“encounter”) mounted by the national minorities — Moro and indigenous peoples — together with UP students at the Diliman Theater last week and was at one point moved to tears. A powerful choreography performed by youngsters, lumad from different tribes in Mindanao, depicted their pride in their culture, forces…
It was painful to watch the video footage of a police van mowing down protesting indigenous and Moro people in front of the US embassy last Wednesday. The zeal and brutality with which the police inflicted injury on anyone they could lay their hands on and arrest as many as they could (including those already…
The second round of peace talks in Oslo, Norway between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) ended on a noticeably less upbeat tone compared to the resumption in August. The weather seemed to forebode such an outcome with the sunny days at the…
It is the third day of the second round of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations here in Oslo, Norway. Since three weeks ago, autumn has been officially declared (defined as five days with an average daily temperature below 10 degrees centigrade). The weather is definitely colder than when the talks resumed in August but still pleasant…
To any objective, impartial observer, there is no denying that mass poverty, chronic joblessness and socioeconomic inequality constitute stark realities in the country today. Even the past Aquino government, while making extravagant claims about the “robust” state of the Philippine economy, has acknowledged the lack of “inclusive growth.” Plainly speaking, this only means the rich…
After more than half a decade of impasse, the resumption of formal peace talks between the Philippine government (GRP) and the revolutionary National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) last Aug. 22-26 in Oslo, Norway is without a doubt a major, major breakthrough. This historically significant development has taken place in the first 60 days…
And so it has come to this. After stoking such high expectations about the resumption of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and what the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) considers the top “security threat” in the country today — the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National…
I had a dream several weeks ago. It wasn’t surreal; in fact it felt quite real. In my dream I was writing my column and the words, sentences, and paragraphs flowed logically, clearly and easily. When I woke up, I still remembered what I had “written” and its title “Finding Duterte.” My husband urged me…
The significance of peace talks resumption between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the revolutionary umbrella organization that includes the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), is not as easy to appreciate and be enthused about as one would think. The subject matter is complex and its prolonged…
In a manner of speaking, incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, like the famous durian fruit of Mindanao, is an acquired taste. Many Filipinos, like most Davaoeños, take to him despite his foul mouth, crumpled shirt, and old-fashioned machismo. They swear by the man and rise to his defense on every occasion having known him as their…
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. is leading in the latest surveys on who voters are inclined to choose as vice-president come May 9. The news is troubling as well as perplexing. The very real prospect that the political heirs of the Dictator Marcos will be returning to Malacañang marks a major advance in the full blown…