Pajero
Mas bago, mas malaki, mas mabilis!
COMMENTARY
Sidebar | ‘Done and decided’? Baguio court declines to review constitutionality of Anti-Terrorism Act’s implementation
Sidebar | ‘Done and decided’? Baguio court declines to review constitutionality of Anti-Terrorism Act’s implementation
The constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act can still be questioned with regard to how it is actually implemented. In contrast, however, Judge Belmes refused to rule on the matter at all, despite the clear ruling of the Supreme Court in Calleja allowing the same.
AT GROUND LEVEL
SATUR OCAMPO
Two bits of good news lighten up the start of 2025
Surely, the increasing number of self-declared poor among our people is a cause for national concern. The government’s poverty-reduction program definitely needs serious evaluation, what with the contributory negative causes such as calamities, both natural and man-made, that come aplenty every year. This negative trend notwithstanding, two positive developments at the beginning of the new year provide us reasons to cheer up.
One-fifth of world’s children live amid armed conflicts
More than 473 million young people, nearly one-fifth of all children in the world, suffer from the worst level of violence since World War II (1939-1945). This, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, as lucidly reported by The Guardian.
Hiked use of anti-terror law under Marcos Jr.’s regime
During the first six months of this year, the human rights alliance Karapatan observed, the government has increasingly weaponized the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing and Suppression Act (TFSA) of 2012 against human rights defenders, political activists and other dissenters.
BALIK-TANAW
PROMOTION OF CHURCH PEOPLE’S RESPONSE
Balik-Tanaw | The inconvenient life: Radical solidarity in the era of polycrisis
?In healing and science, the “greater works” are manifested when the human community collaborates to cure diseases, discover ways to food security, and innovate technologies to heal the planet. Jesus’ healing was local; modern “greater works” can be global.
Balik-Tanaw | Nakaliligalig ang paligid
Ang pagtanggap sa panauhin ay sadyang nakakabagabag kundi man nakakaligalig. Subalit pinapapaalala sa atin ng linggong ito ang dalawang bagay sa pakikipag -ugnayan natin kay Hesus. Una, hindi natin siya panauhin para maligalig tayo, ikalawa, siya ang ating pagkaing nagbibigay buhay.
Balik-Tanaw | ‘Who do you think, was a neighbor (kapwa) to the victim?’
Jesus led the scholar not with an expected Scriptural provision. Instead of offering a legal definition, Jesus tells a story. Jesus, who was so immersed with people, must have known so many stories from the ground. So he narrated an anecdote to answer the scholar.
BALIKSAYSAY
FRANCIS GEALOGO
Bagyo, baha at diktadura
Malawakan man ang pananalanta ng bagyo at pagbaha ng 1972, at ginawa man itong pamamaraan para sa konsolidasyon ng diktadura at katiwalian sa pamahalaan, makikita ring malaki ang ambag ng baha ng 1972 sa pagmomobilisa at pagmumulat sa mga mamamayan. Ang malawakang pagbaha ang nagbigay-daan upang mapasangkot ang maraming mga mamamayan sa pagbibigay ayuda dahil napagtanto nilang kulang o walang ginagawa ang pamahalaan upang maibsan ang pagdurusa ng marami.
Target: Obispo Ramento
Ilang mga Alberto Ramento na ang pinaslang ng mga iba't ibang rehimen hanggang kasalukuyan kaugnay ng di matapos na red tagging, panggigipit at karahasan ng mga nasa kapangyarihan. Hanggang sa kasalukuyan, pinagbabantaan pa rin ang mga taong simbahan na kumakalinga sa karapatang pantao, sa nagsusulong ng makatarungang kapayapaan, at pambansang kararinlan sa kapuluan.
Si Gregorio Aglipay, at ang pagtutol sa base militar ng Amerika sa Pilipinas
Sa panahong nasa ilalim pa rin ang bayan sa mga di pantay na kasunduan gaya ng Visiting Forces Agreement, ng Mutual Defense Treaty, at iba pang di pantay na tratado; sa panahong pinalalaya pa rin ang mga Amerikanong militar gaya ni Pemberto na pumatay sa kababayang gaya ni Jennifer Laude, makabuluhan pa ring balikan ang mga tinuran ng mga gaya ni Gregorio Aglipay sa pagpapakahulugan sa tunay na kasarinlan.
BLOODRUSH
SARAH RAYMUNDO
Balikatan: Colonial foundations and the rebranding of U.S. military domination
The Philippines is not merely caught between powers, but incorporated into a hierarchy of production and control in which labor, land, and resources are subordinated to US imperialist interests.
Merely Iran Proxies? Understanding the Axis of Resistance
This article reexamines the so-called “Axis of Resistance” in light of recent escalations, ceasefire breakdowns, and renewed regional strikes, arguing that these movements are not Iranian proxies but historically rooted formations shaped by prolonged war and fragmentation, whose emerging multi-front deterrence reveals new forms of armed sovereignty and exposes the limits of US-led imperial power.
Imperial feminism in a time of war
Without sovereignty, there is no terrain on which struggles for democracy, workers' rights, or women's liberation can occur.
FIRST PERSON
BULATLAT CONTRIBUTORS
First Person | Ilang alaala tungkol sa kababaihan ngayong Nobyembre 30
Mula pa nang maging aktibista ako noon sa eskwelahan ilang dekada na ang nakaraan, malapit na sa puso ko ang usapin ng kilusang manggagawa at kilusang kababaihan.
First Person | Day 1 of COP30 exposes climate hypocrisy
Delegates were greeted not by climate order, but by construction. Unfinished floors, half-built pavilions, and dangling cables set the tone for a summit struggling to meet its own promises.
First Person | Ka Louie and the alugbati
Ka Louie came into the dining hall with his smile as bright as the rising sun.
KALIBUTAN
KALIKASAN-PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Standard Chartered, stop funding our destruction!
A Filipina climate activist tells a British multinational bank: "Your money kills people, fuels the climate crisis, and destroys our homes."
In defense of the Philippines
Ever since Duterte declared the longest standing COVID-19 lockdown in the world back in March 15, 2020 up to the present, we have monitored at least 555 environmental defenders who have suffered human rights abuses.
Ka Randy and the path to peace and ploughshares
Save as PDF
KONTEKSTO
DANILO ARAO
Maleta
Kung susundan ang ilan pang pahayag ng mataas na opisyal ng NBI, nais nilang paghiwalayin ang mga tunay na peryodista sa mga pekeng peryodista. Iba ang responsable sa iresponsable. Iba ang etikal sa hindi etikal.
19
Huwag hayaang mauwi lang sa numero ang 19 na pinatay noong Abril 19.
Konteksto | Ekonomiks
Sa mga ekonomistang nais magpakadalubhasa, may simpleng pakiusap lang: Huwag sanang kalimutan ang masa.
LAB NOTES
Advocates of Science and Technology for the People
On mangrove earth-balling: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Our oceans are changing due to climate change. Destroying the remaining mangrove forests in Manila Bay will only increase the vulnerability of coastal communities, particularly those of marginalized fisherfolk and urban poor.
Lab Notes | Bakit naninindigan ang mga siyentista na panagutin si Sara Duterte?
Simple lang naman po ang panawagan namin: Transparency. Accountability.
Lab Notes | El Niño 2024: another disaster, another government failure
Since disasters always include human components, there is nothing natural about it. Therefore, there is no such thing as a “natural” disaster; there was a human failure somewhere in how social, economic, and political systems were set up.
OPINION
BULATLAT EDITORS
Left turn
But, in the same breath, there is also a strength in the symbols that our comrades become and live on to be—symbols of inertia but also movement, of loss but also triumph. Symbols of truth and freedom.
Negros after the gunfire: what the blood on our soil is telling us
It is tempting to reduce this to a “security success” or a “counterinsurgency incident.” But such language hides more than it reveals. Armed conflict in Negros did not begin with guns. It began long before, in conditions that have shaped the lives of generations.
Oil shock profiteering? Oil firms, Marcos regime rake in hundreds of millions amid crisis
Even without a war and an oil shock, and even in times when oil prices are relatively low or declining, the Filipino people are still being oppressed and exploited by local pump price profiteering, and global monopoly and speculative pricing due to oil deregulation.
ON THE FRINGES
BULATLAT STAFF
The Mishil Complex
It’s time we stop waiting for saviors in barong or military uniform. The real leaders are not in palaces or halls of Congress. They’re in factories, classrooms, farms, and communities. They are the ones who serve, not rule.
Peace is possible after an intense battle
When I went back to Cagayan de Oro, I recalled our visits to Camps Abubakar and Darapanan. It made me believe that the current situation there showed proof that peace is possible even after an intense battle. It made me also think that a similar success may be possible for a group that has been continuing its armed resistance. I hope the Philippine government will consider the resumption of the peace process with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
#Bulatlat24 | My proudest commitment: choosing ‘journalism for the people’
I chose to be part of Bulatlat, the longest-running online alternative news site in the country and the authority in human rights journalism in the Philippines, primarily because I believe in its principles and brand of journalism, which amplifies the voices of marginalized and oppressed. Bulatlat frames their stories based on the perspective of ordinary Filipinos while adhering to the highest standards of journalism.
QUESTION EVERYTHING
MONG PALATINO
Mga di-pangkaraniwan sa Utrecht, West Philippine Sea, at Cagayan Valley
Mga Pilipinong rebolusyonaryo sa Netherlands. Mga mangingisdang nakikipagtagisan sa iba't ibang pwersa sa West Philippine Sea. At mga aktibistang tinarget ng karahasan ng estado sa Cagayan Valley.
Political Dynasties and their Plutogogues
Denialists, legalists, and apologists are the plutogogues of political dynasties who make a career in legitimizing the irrational and unjust rule of the few even if it contravenes the interests of the majority.
Ang mga tula ng paglaban ni Desiree Jaranilla
Sa zine na kumpilasyon ng ilan sa kanyang mga tula ay masusulyapan ang kanyang katatagan at lubos na pagsandig sa kilusang mapagpalaya.
