PANDEMIC of the Through Ghost Lines

“Hands above your head, you have the right to remain silent,” the highest command from someone unseen and foreign yet familiar. Hearts became wildly pulsating. A few more steps until everyone wakes up in the darkest cell. A baby’s cradle was left swinging by a lonely midday gale. The favored childhood conventions froze in isolating playgrounds; not even a single chuckle warmed the metal slides. “Where are my favorite children?”— smiles skiing downward, Manong Sorbetero felt a slight pinch. Rampant vines climb somewhere in volatile minds left deprived of learning in school. Cars are piteously itching in dusty spaces; cycles barely turning for the next three years. Workers excrete a hundred more bottles of sweat to provide for their drilled stomachs. And child population increased; backed up by oblivion for some hide in adult bodies. There were extreme forces; the world became a serious game of tugging for nourishment just to stay afloat. Drop dead! The infamous virus didn’t just drag a number to ashes; it also dragged them to the desperation of staying active on the precipice

Amidst Boulders

Regie Linao | Isabel Cordero of human existence. And so, beyond humanity, people unconsciously created another cage within themselves, which despite the cost, endured the lines. “The light’s absence is scary, but I had to live with it. Even if it muddles my peace, it is better to express my reality in the shadows where I can’t be seen and conjured in a greater horror,” a victim of the pandemic once lamented. Equity was everywhere! Alongside Corona’s grim reaping, an eye for an eye led people. It’s funny, even, how more voices are encouraged to be loud, the more crowd of mute spawns. Ignorance, too, became the father of little children. Hunger, hoarding, thirst, maltreatment, and inhumane pacifism— even the greatest souls in the form of a mother, father, sister, brother, and friend were wasted away. “Is it possible for the world to heal?”, a query out of bereavement. No matter the repulsion, in the cell created by a foreign foe, everyone was driven by the goal of surviving. Anything to clutch a fragment of the everelusive hope, even in the state of daze and darkness.

Dooming, a shrill whistle cut off a reminiscent soul gawking a glitchy screen. One blink and so it goes back to reverie. The next thing known? “ABS-CBN SHUTDOWN” reached the headlines.

The shutdown of ABS-CBN was a long time coming—though an esoteric truth for some— molded from the years of tension between the network and the government. Accusations of biased reporting and violations of regulations plagued ABS-CBN, and the network’s franchise renewal was repeatedly delayed and eventually denied.

For the workers that served ABSCBN, the impact was immediate and devastating, wherein over 11,000 employees were retrenched. “Piteous”— that’s what they’ve become. But the Filipino people did not just become piteous, they became more; they were rugged off the right to enlightenment. Closing the gates for media to never reverberate its waves of truth is betrayal and deprivation. If democracy runs the country, why are the press vetoed to speak? If there is freedom to know, there should also be a freedom to share, inform, and enlight.

Ignorance is innate in land, and so it should be a right to have access to reliable and accurate information, no matter the circumstances.

Deafening Silence from the Ones we Onced Treasured

Born

of the Earth — the Visayan term “Lumad,” which is the largest group of indigenous people in the Philippines, was derived from this meaning. With a vast variety of traditions, their culture is diversely rich as a treasured box of riches. It is safe to say that they significantly contributed to the Philippines’ tremendous culture, reaching wherever it is today. Yet the countrymen seem to forget about the doubloons Lumad shared with our motherland. Just because of who they are and what they identify as, they are subjected to discrimination, and their rights are constantly at risk. They experience prejudice and are classified as one of the world’s poorest minority groups, thus, they are forced to be silenced.

Waqas Al-awadi, a Lumad currently residing in Alabel, recalled his life in Maguindanao. “The education there can’t even be leveled in other schools, modes of transportation is for rich families only, electricity is not common, no internet connection, healthcare is hard to access as it is far, and food is only accessed through farming.”

“Bilang isang tao, lahat tayo ay may karapatan, paninindigan, at mayroong mga pagmamay-ari. Ang harassment ay nakakasakit sa kapwa natin tao kaya’t ito ay mali sa kahit saang perspektibo ng buhay,” Julian Ellaine Kawari, a Lumad from a small community in Tugal, Cotabato asserted as agony and wrath painted her statements for how people can easily say that they are above everyone, therefore, can trample over their rights.

Enjoying the riches of the Lumad while the people are discriminating against them shows pure hypocrisy. Let us practice our privilege by voicing out their injustices and sharing our voices with them for the Lumad to be heard. Together, we shall make it possible for them to be heard, expanding the richness of our culture, bringing prosperity to our country.