By emboldening the police officers’ abuse of power, the government makes the people get used to surveillance, illegal arrests, abductions, and killings until tsubmission and callousness become the new normal.
The day Duterte signed the Anti-terrorism Law, 11 activists in Cabuyao, Laguna were manhandled by police and military men as they were packing up after a peaceful protest. They were detained without charges. A few days later, the National Vice-Chairperson of Gabriela and Chairperson of Bicolana is arrested based on a trumped up murder case. Jenelyn Nagrampa is also a barangay councilor in Nabua town, Camarines Sur.
While many activists have been taking it to the streets despite the pandemic, the invisibility of the rest of the angry population might be telling something about how this suffering is being made acceptable, the default, and even the so-called “new normal” by the Duterte regime.
On June 1, President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent the passing of a new anti-terrorism bill that seeks to repeal Republic Act No. 9372 or the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007.
“Hay Salamat!” exclaimed Pinky (not her true name) after hearing the words, “Good morning ma’am? Unsay among ikatabang nimo mam?” from the other side of the line. Pinky was calling the numbers she chanced upon while browsing a social media platform that offers free online consultation.
Farming in the Philippines has been synonymous to landlessness, debt and drought. Government has always placed agriculture at the bottom of the country’s priorities. But the pandemic showed that in order to survive a lockdown, accessing and securing food is essential. It is ironic then, how a country relying on its farmers for survival neglects its food security frontliners.
There could have been no better time to begin this column but now, no other way to begin but like this – a kind of exposé, an assertion, a kind of empowerment at the face of existing and impending terror in all its forms. By identifying and unpacking systemic injustices in different levels and contexts, I intend to incite to envision a kind of society stifled voices deserve. For one, where teachers’ labor is properly compensated and students are treated as thinking individuals who are capable of dissent without fear of being silenced.
The COVID-19 pandemic is every tyrant’s dream, to finally have a justification to implement the most repressive measures against its people, purportedly to contain the new and still incurable virus.
I cannot find the appropriate words to describe how our government is handling the crisis. It is a health issue to begin with. However, the response of the government, noted by its militaristic fashion, appears to be tangential and seemingly unresponsive to the situation.
I thought I was okay until the unlawful arrest of student protesters in Cebu brought back the pain and trauma that was just lying low while on lockdown. Suddenly, I was racked with a deep cry that struggled to surface out as I tried to calm my shaken nerves.
