At the Edge, On the Verge

* Note: This was written as a contribution to the Himagsik at Protesta Exhibit, 40th year Martial Law Comemoration, at the UP Diliman Library.

At the edge, On the verge

His characters on reel are people you can see and experience in real life. They still walk the streets to this day. They live under bridges of highways. Anywhere you look, you see the same children begging in the streets. You see his images in mothers with babies in their arms, going from one car to the next, eyes staring into yours, hoping you feel their pain as they ask for food, money, anything that will help them feed their children, their family. After spending a day at that mall that has managed to single-handedly cause the death of many trees and small businesses in your neighborhood, you head out and get into your comfortable air-conditioned car, you drive by houses packed so close they can hear each other snore at night. There is nothing beautiful about squalor. The word itself speaks volumes– squalor. It is real, to this day, the Dictator has gone, it is still so real. Lino Brocka’s storytelling had you on the edge, clutching your seat, holding your breath and getting you involved by reminding you of what you do not know. You do not know how hard life is for the magtataho that comes by your door every morning, you do not know the story of the mamang fishball you buy from every Sunday. His movies told us the stories of the people that we do not want to make eye contact with. It’s just too scary to look into their eyes and see that we have not done much to care. It reminds us that what we do in our life does not yet amount to much until our results reach out and make someone’s life better, someone outside of our selves. The images in his movies haunt you because there is something at the core of each character that speaks to you. While it is true that there a lot of people who do not know much of poverty either because they choose to blind themselves or they are just out of touch, those characters had the same hopes and dreams as you or I. Hopes that someday every parent will be able to put food on the table, the dream that poverty will end and their children will have the chance to have a better, fairer and kinder future.

Everywhere in the world, stories have a way of reaching out to people, touching their hearts, telling them that they are not alone. We tell the same stories, we tell human stories. There are bits and pieces of our stories that might change, names and places but we all tell the same stories. Stories about family, about joy and pain, love and loss, suffering, defeat. There are stories about courage, bravery and heroism. There are stories about the triumph of the human spirit. Lino Brocka’s heart for storytelling shook us awake, until our spirits recognized that there were parts of our stories that were the same as the characters in the stories and then the veil lifted and we could see what was wrong and we clenched our fists up in the air because of it, we could also see what was right, we could see what needed to be done. We saw then what we see until now that things have to change, Life can be made better, but that it is up to us.

His storytelling reached out to me, held me, and made me weep for my country, weep for my fellow women and men. His storytelling left me with this constant lump behind my throat and this thud in my gut that only served to feed my resolve. I will do what I can, write what I can, speak when I can until we are all truly, truly free. That way maybe my tears and the tears of all other mothers and sisters will not be in vain.

Build Up

Rainbow World (Published in Sunstar Baguio)

Raye V. Baquirin

Build Up

I was walking along Gov. Pack Road, on my way to COMELEC to register. I bumped into my brother who came from work. Bloodshot eyes and all (working in a call center does that), I dragged him to COMELEC so that he too could register. He stopped in his tracks as soon as I said that. ‘I don’t want to vote’ he says as he continues to walk. When I asked him why he just said ‘what for, nothing happens anyway.’ It was my turn to stop in my tracks because nothing much has changed. There are a thousand reasons why this could be so. One of the reasons is there is very little faith in the whole electoral process. There have been too many cases of fraud and cheating. Too many elected officials have abused their power. In other places outside of Baguio there have been massacres that was election related, still unsolved to this day. People have all but lost hope in the very people that took an oath to serve the interests of the people.

On the other hand, there are people who allow their votes to be bought. Nothing about buying and selling votes is right, at least in my book. For the one who sells his vote, it is like he says to himself that my vote does not count anyway, my voice is not important, it is okay to sell it. For the ones who buy votes the message that they send out is ‘your voice is not important if it does not serve my interests’. To try to change these kinds of politicians would be futile. They have been doing this for far too long. They are set in their ways where they benefit so much at the expense of the people. They no longer think in terms of what will help their constituents to have a better life. For every pot-holed road, for every unusable bridge and for every public school that do not have enough chairs, are politicians who in their inaction, are saying they only care about how much they are going to make out of these deals. Never mind if Baguio loses its trees, heritage sites and its landmarks, as long as their pockets are fat and bank accounts big. Never mind if the people lose faith in them, never mind if people forget that they are the reason why Baguio is beautiful.

There might be hope if we focused on the people of Baguio. If there was a way to make them realize that it is up to them and that they can make a difference still. Even if those traditional politicos are still there, enriching themselves.

Everyday I ask myself how faith can be restored, how people can somehow shift from hopelessness to a renewed belief that the system can still be trusted. It is so easy to say that the ‘ole boys club’ must go… far away. Far enough so they no longer create more damage. But since the people of Baguio is what makes Baguio what it is, (aside from the climate and whatever is left of the trees, that is), they hold the answer. Build up Baguio’s citizenry so that we are all strong enough to fight against beliefs and habits that have harmed us. There must be a way for Baguio citizenry to at least have faith in their own voices so they stop selling their votes and become more involved. I am aware that I cannot hope to change people in one fell swoop but at least I can start one person at a time. I can make sure that my brother registers himself as a voter. And then he can convince his girlfriend and then his girlfriend can convince her officemate and the officemate can tell her husband, until the community of people who care for Baguio’s welfare will stand together and make sure their voices are heard and their votes counted.

Speech

Raye V. Baquirin/LESBOND

Rainbow World (published in Sunstar Baguio)

Speech

Consider for a moment what would have happened to the world if people like Jose Rizal, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx or even the Beatles, were in any way prevented from writing the words that they wrote because they challenged certain norms so firmly held by their society. It is true that it was because of what Rizal wrote that he died a hero’s death but just think if he had not written the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo. What if Nelson Mandela had not fought with word and deed for equality in South Africa? What if Mahatma Gandhi had not led the historic peaceful resistance in India? What if Charles Darwin had not dared to bring out his theory of evolution? It was Karl Marx’s ideas that started out socialism and the development of the social sciences. Those ideas have changed the world and histories of countries, including ours. Critically acclaimed Beatles, controversial, pioneering music that grew and changed to reflect the changing of the times, what would have happened if they had not pushed the envelope farther than any rock band had dared? If the rights of these great people were suppressed and denied them, they would not occupy the place that they occupy now in the history of man and womankind.

What if in this day and age, there are people in our midst that have great minds, great compassion and great vision for the country, and the mechanism by which they reflect that greatness is using what is available now? The use of available technology, including social network sites, present software makes sense these days. Let us say these young great minds are using what is available now (the internet), to let their minds explore, challenge and question?

Last September 12, 2012, our beloved president signed Republic Act No. 10175, a.k.a. Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. I have asked around my community if they had wind of this as a bill, no one from my circle knew it even existed as a bill. So there we were sleeping so peacefully while the forces of darkness worked to have this law passed. So now this law is here and we all are affected.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act states in Section 4 (4) that "the unlawful and prohibited acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.

Anyone who uses any computer system for "public imputation and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstances tending to cause the dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.” (Definition of Libel according to Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code). Meaning to say that if I say for example, that senators like Tito Sotto should set better examples by being honest about their work, they could easily just seize my computer or laptop as the case may be, search it, get the data and destroy it after they use it. Of course that is a very simplistic way of saying it, if we want people who are not tech-savvy. Atty Ridon (counsel of a progressive youth) said “The law may be treading upon unconstitutional waters on the powers being granted to law enforcement agencies, which includes preservation, disclosure, search and seizure and destruction of computer data.” There are many issues surrounding this law: issues on due process, it is not clear what the role of the courts are here with regards to the orders for preservation, disclosure, search, seizure and destruction of data; violation of the right to privacy; violation of the right to free speech and the right to freedom of expression. If our legislators and politicians are abusing their powers, who will give feedback and air complaints and grievances with this law hanging over our heads? If someone took the courage to stand up to hold a government official accountable for acts done that are violations of our rights, the government official can easily invoke this law and throw this person challenging the politician’s acts in jail. Anyone who is proven to having published libelous remarks online will spend time in jail, jail time that can last for four years and two months. This whole thing feels like a nightmare, to know that when I air my grievances on my Facebook wall for example, I could be sent to jail. Guess who added Libel to this bill? Tito Sotto of course, because he said that he was bullied for shamelessly plagiarizing passages from bloggers and from no less than Robert F. Kennedy. Oh I’m sorry, not plagiarized gayyam, it was just translated.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee said with regards to libel that,  “in any case, the application of the criminal law should only be countenance in the most serious cases and imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty.” Is there no respect for our Constitution  - “no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, and of the press...”? It is quite clear where my convictions lie. I protest. This law must be repealed. This law is a glaring violation of our constitutional rights. Cannot be.