Tibay ng Panulat. Tikas ng paninindigan.
Year 39 / Issue 1
Tinig ng Plaridel The Official Student Publication of the UP College of Mass Communication
Thursday / Sept. 21, 2017
fti tinigngplaridel o tinigngplaridel.net
UNFAZED. Photo by Keith Magcaling Runners stopped and snapped some souvenir photos as they passed by the “water cannon” along the course of Lean Run 2017.
Beyond memory: A testament to heroism by AGATHA GREGORIO RAZOR-SHARP HEADLINES PUNCTUATE THE NATIONAL DAIlies.. The newspapers, it seems, are warning us of an oncoming storm, delivering the sign of the times. ‘Malacanang declares holi- of the youth’s awareness of day in Ilocos Norte for Marcos’ the dark years of authoritar100th birthday’ ian rule. When she talks of ‘Marcos buried at Libingan the hashtags that have been ng mga Bayani’ spreading all over the internet ”Masakit talaga na inilib- such as #MarcosNotAHero ing siya sa Libingan ng mga and #NeverAgainToMartialBayani, kasi symbol ‘yun eh, Law, there is a sense of both that this government has rec- gratitude and relief. ognized Marcos as a hero,” People like her have recogsaid Maria Cristina Rodriguez, nized the need for truth to reign a torture victim during former in a censored society, shackled President Ferdinand Marcos’ within the cages of a restrained administration. media. This, a large contrast A beat passed before she from today’s liberty in social continued, “But in exchange, media expression, was the kind ‘yung awakening ng youth, ay of world she had to live in. hindi ko ‘yun ipagpapalit.” Yet, people like her found According to her, monu- ways to voice out their political ments can be shattered and concerns. Most became victim rendered meaningless, but to the Martial Law era’s unnothing surpasses the worth ethical, extrajudicial practices,
with some leading to death. Their stories, however, are more than deserving of the same, if not more attention than the ways in which the late Philippine dictator continues to be commemorated today. They were, and continue to be, the heroes that have sacrificed greatly in the name of our freedom. Mapagpalayang ‘Malaya’ Joe Burgos is known for being the journalist who established “We Forum” and “Malaya”, newspapers which have contributed significantly to the overthrow of the Marcos administration. With print media mainly consisting of state-owned newspapers, or those established by Marcos’ cronies, Burgos had been one to pave the way towards alternative news during a time wherein
press freedom was truly lacking, if not totally non-existent. It had taken some adjustments and personal sacrifices for both him and the family to start “We Forum”. “Nanay ko nagsangla ng mga jewelries para makapagtayo ng dyaryo, dahil kailangan talagang maglabas ng dyaryo na independent; na ipapakita ang human rights violations, corruption, at iba pa,” he said. Joe had originally applied for a permit for the newspaper under the name “We for the Young Filipinos”, making it appear as a campus publication. Due to low budget allocation, campus journalists were recruited for the newspaper. Soon enough, they began publishing articles that opposed martial law in the Philippines. One article, in particular, exposed the dictator’s
medals as fake--and Marcos himself threatened those involved in the writing of the article in a press conference that followed. A month later, the “We Forum” office was raided, resulting in the arrest of Joe Burgos and his lawyer. He was later put under house arrest, and started another independent newspaper, which was “Malaya”, in the hopes of continuing the goal to inform the public of the truth. However, there were also other actions from beyond the media that helped propagate the injustices accompanying the martial law era. Sacrifice and Activism Maria Cristina Rodriguez is the executive director of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, dedicated to the cont. on p4
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Thursday / Sept. 21, 2017
Editorial
False fix-ins: Duterte’s deception in trillions AMONG THE MANY SOCIETAL ILLS highlighted in this year’s Lakbayan is the lack of key community facilities such as schools and clinics. Children are forced to traverse miles for a good education (an oft romanticized scene). Lives are lost in transit, over and over again, due to the lack of accessible health centers. Yet all these are not enough to deserve the national government’s focus, and not for lack of funding. President Rodrigo Duterte’s P8-trillion “Build, build, build” plan will target the transportation and infrastructure sector, with roads, railways and airports among their planned projects. As of writing, the government has at least 64 big-ticket projects that are mostly railways and expressways in key urban areas. Despite temporarily increasing economic activity through spending for construction and the creation of short term jobs, it does not develop domestic and Filipino industries on a nationwide scale as it puts the concept of ‘development’ in the context of an ideal and almost utopian projection. It is, in a nutshell, an 8-trillion-peso band-aid solution. Most of infrastructure projects will be developed in the National Capital Region (NCR), while other parts of the country still have considerable gaps in safe water supply, sanitary toilets, rural electrification, schools and hospitals, especially in rural areas. But statistics have shown, time
and again, that cities with the highest poverty incidence and magnitude are not in NCR. Far-flung areas, including the towns and barrios that serve as a home for national minorities, are deprived of basic social services because of the absence of social infrastructures. 11 out of the top 20 poorest provinces in the country are in Mindanao, and therefore have the most need and yet the government refuses to prioritize social infrastructures in these area that would benefit a lot more people. Ever since the Marcos regime, the government has resorted to the infrastructure heavy approach to maintain any sort of economic credibility especially with the poor socioeconomic conditions a majority of Filipinos live in. Statistically speaking, “build, build, build” seems to be improving the economy. The Philippines achieved a 6.7-percent growth in GDP from 2012-2016, a far cry from the 5.3-percent average annu-
al growth in GDP. But according to IBON, barely 0.1% of over one million urban center establishments accounted for 65% of economic ac-
“What the country needs for the long term is the development of national industries and the distribution of land to the farmers, to name a few.”
tivity in the country in 2014. Safe to say, the economic growth
seen in GDP because of build, build, build, is anything but inclusive. Not only does it do nothing to address poverty and socioeconomic conditions of most Filipinos, it also serves to further the interest of businessmen and entrepreneurs. What the country needs for the long term is the development of national industries and the distribution of land to the farmers, to name a few. Social infrastructure development like health care centers and schools have long been called for. None of these are new, their necessity only becoming greater as the state continues to forego all these to focus on projects that benefit the elite. Duterte’s change has been revealed to be what it really is: a promise gone bad. Change brought by a messianic figure is passé. We’ve never left the rotten roads they’ve built for us, one elite leader after another. It may be high time we build it ourselves.
Tinig ng Plaridel
Editor-in-Chief Beatriz Zamora | Associate Editor for Print Merryll Phae Red Carao | Associate Editor for Broadcast Danielle Eunice Tolentino | Managing Editor Reynald Denver Del Rosario | News Editor Franchesca IJ Persia | Features Editor Andrea Jobelle Adan | Sports Editor Maria Luisa Morales | Writers Jeuel Barroso, Agatha Gregorio, Raneza Beatrice Pinlac | Chief Photographer Keith Jasper Magcaling | Illustrator Ciara Marie Saunar | Layout and Art Editor Gabrielle Anne Endona
Year 39 / Issue 1 Sept. 21 2017
Contact tinigngplaridel @gmail.com fti tinigngplaridel o tinigngplaridel.net TNP is a member of UP Solidaridad and College Editors Guild of the Philippines
2017-2018
Year 39 / Issue 1
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News / Sports
National minorities cap off Lakbayan 2017
PAGSUSUMAMO. Idinaan ng mga pambansang minorya sa mga tradisyonal na sayaw at awit ang pagpapahayag ng kanilang pagkakaisa sa kabila ng pagkakaiba sa Hugpongan 2017. Photo by Keith Magcaling
by JEUEL BARROSO CULMINATING THE LAKBAYAN CAMpaign, national minority groups from North Luzon to Mindanao held their last cultural night of performances yesterday, thanking the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman for accommodating them. “Actually itong huling cultural night… pasasalamat ito sa mainit na pagtanggap ng UP, ng other sectors, ng maraming mga bisita na dumalo dito sa kampuhan,” SANDUGO Cultural
Committee member Ray Paolin said. SANDUGO is the alliance of Moro and indigenous peoples in the Philippines for self-determination and national liberation. The finale program done at Sitio Sandugo along C.P. Garcia road featured different performances such as a skit from the Bangsamoro, songs from the Dumagat and dances from the Aetas showing different versions of their plight in their homelands. These performances reiterated their calls for Lakbayan: the end of militarization in their ancestral lands, the end of
martial law in Mindanao, and their right to self-determination, among others. According to Paolin, their team insisted that all of the national minority groups in Lakbayan will be able to perform their own local talents as their cultural nights are done for the relationship of the “Lakbayanis,” as they are called, with the students and visitors. “Ang message ay malaking pasasalamat (na) tinatangkilik ‘yung ganitong mga activities dito sa kampuhan… malaki ang crowd.” the national
minority advocate said. The Lakbayan 2017 is the third time the national minorities went to UP Diliman for a temporary settlement as they forwarded their demands to the government. The first batch of this year’s Lakbayanis have been staying in the university since July to attend President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address while the rest of the contingent arrived on the 31st of August. Together, they comprised the estimated 3,000 national minority and Bangsamoro members who travelled from the Cordilleras of North Luzon and mountains of Mindanao to hold their campaign here in the city. Today is the last day of the Lakbayanis in UP Diliman. For SANDUGO Co-Chairperson Jerome Succor Aba, a Bangsamoro, going back home means they will have to face martial rule in Mindanao again. “Mas determinado kaming labanan ‘yung pasismong ini-implementa ng rehimeng US-Duterte,” he said, “hindi matatapos sa Lakbayan ng aming mga aktibidad, mga pagkilos, mga edukasyon na gagawin.” The national minorities of Lakbayan will join in the multi-sector rally in Luneta Park later for the National Day of Protest. “Kaya sa kabila ng pananakot ni Duterte, ang tanging lakas natin upang labanan ang kanyang pasistang rehimen ay ang ating malawak na pagkakaisa at sama-samang pagkilos ng sambayanan.”
No longer a commemoration, but a protest SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN PEOPLE’S LIves are often celebrated. But for the Diliman community, the life and death of student-activist Lean Alejandro is more than worthy of a commemoration. UP Sandigan para sa Mag-aaral at Sambayanan (UP SAMASA) Alumni, along with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA), organized the Great Lean Run in 2014 as a way of remembering the life of Alejandro in the turbulent years of the Marcos regime in the 1970s. With the Duterte administration waging warfare against the people thrice through the war on drugs, Oplan Kapayapaan, and war against the Mo-
ros , constitutional safeguards against Martial Law provide little comfort as the President holds a supermajority in Congress, where forwarding interests can be as easy as lifting a finger. The current political climate demands more from the Great Lean Run this year than those which preceded it. Now on its third year and Alejandro’s 30th death anniversary, it has become a protest. For UP SAMASA Alumni, the run was an effective way to educate people about what really transpired during the dark days of the Marcos regime, despite their tactics of revising history according to their favor. Decades after his death in 1987
during former President Corazon Aquino’s regime, Lean Alejandro is seen as an extraordinary champion of activism. Alejandro was an activist and student leader during the era of martial law, joining and forming organizations in the anti-dictatorship movement, as well as fulfilling the role of University Student Council chairperson in 1983. But for his widow, Lidy, he was just like everybody else. “Si Lean ay maraming siyang magagandang ginawa noong buhay siya bilang bahagi ng student movement laban sa diktadurya pero isaisip [natin] na isang ordinaryong tao, estudyante at kabataan din siya noon,” she said, reminding ev-
by LUISA MORALES
eryone that what made Lean remarkable was the extraordinary circumstances they lived in during the 70s. With the martial law extension in Mindanao and the impending threat of nationwide implementation, it seems as if history is repeating itself. She hopes Lean serves as an inspiration for people today to stand up for their rights at a time where it is most in danger. It is frustrating for activists in the 70s, she says, that it looks like they will inevitably experience martial law again, another dictatorship in their lifetime. But for them, the fight never really stopped when Marcos left Malacanang in 1986.
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Thursday / Sept. 21, 2017
Sports / News
A monument.. from p1
CAMARADERIE. University of the Philippines women’s and men’s football teams, together with Gabriela Youth, hosted a sports clinic for the children and students of Save Our Schools Network, Saturday. Photo by Keith Magcaling
Atleta ng Bayan: Sulong, kabataang Lakbayani
ni RANEZA BEATRICE PINLAC
TUMATAK SA ISIP NG MADLA ANG karaniwang mukha ng isang atleta-tumatagaktak na pawis habang sumasabak sa palarong umaalab sa kanilang mga puso. Subalit para sa mga atleta ng bayan, ang laban ay higit pa sa hangganan ng kani-kanilang mga isport. Layon nilang magamit ito bilang kasangkapan upang magampanan ang kanilang tungkulin para sa bayan. Sa ikatlong taon ng pagsasaganap ng sports clinic para sa mga kabataang Lakbayani noong ika-16 ng Setyembre, nagsilbing sinag ng pag-asa ang UP Men’s at Women’s Football Teams para sa 40 batang namulat sa isang mundong nadungisan ng militarisasyon at kahirapan. Kasangga rin ng mga koponan ang Gabriela Youth – UP Diliman sa kanilang matagumpay na pagkamit sa pakay ng programa. Ilan lamang ang caterpillar drill at pagsasanay sa futbol sa mga aktibidad na inihanda ng mga organizer para sa mga batang lakbayani. IItinuro rin ng mga atleta ng bayan ang mga pangunahing kakayahan na mahalaga sa paglalaro ng kanilang isport tulad ng tamang pagsipa at pagpasa ng bola. Pagkatapos, namigay ang koponan ng mga mumunting regalo at pagkain para sa mga batang nakilahok sa kanilang sports clinic.
Madaling naaninag ang maliliwanag na ngiti ng mga batang punong-puno ng taos-pusong saya at pasasalamat sa mga atletang panandalian nilang nakalaro. Para naman sa mga atleta, pagkakataon ito upang ipadama sa mga Lakbayani ang kanilang mainit na pagtanggap sa kanila. Ayon kay Kali Navea-Huff, punong-abala ng sports clinic at miyembro ng UP Women’s Football team, mahalagang nakikiisa ang mga atleta sa mga bata mula sa Save our Schools Network hindi dahil agad nitong mawawaksi ang problemang pasan ng mga bata ngunit upang maiparamdam na ligtas sila sa pansamantalang tahanan sa unibersidad. Naniniwala ang mga atleta ng bayan na bukod sa pagbabahagi nila ng kaalaman tungkol sa futbol, nakapagbahagi rin sila ng pansamantalang pahinga para sa mga pagal na puso ng mga batang maagang sinubok ang hinagpis ng buhay. “Higit sa pagpapahatid ng saya, nababalikan rin nila ang kanilang pagkabata,” pahayag ni Lian Valencia, kinatawan ng Gabriela sa sports clinic. Namulat ang mga Lakbayani sa isang mundong puno ng takot at pangamba na dulot ng militarisasyon. Sila ay nakipagsapalaran tungo sa UP Diliman upa-
ng ibahagi ang kanilang mga karanasan sa ilalim ng karahasan at pang-aabuso ng militar. Minsan nang umabot sa kasukdulan ang karahasang buhat ng militar sa kabataan noong nabalita ang malupit na pagpatay kay Obillo Bay-ao, isang 19-anyos na estudyante. Nagpapasalamat naman si Ian Clarino, miyembro ng UP Maroon Booters, sa mga batang Lakbayani. Ayon sa kanya, napaalala ng kanilang munting mga kalaro na dapat harapin ang buhay nang may pusong puno ng tapang at paniniwala na malalampasan nila ang bawat pagsubok na hahadlang sa kanilang pagabot ng kanilang mga pangarap. Ang pagiging atleta ng bayan ay hindi lamang nasusukat ng kanilang nahahakot na panalo sa mga palarong kanilang sinasalihan dahil isa rin sa mga pangunahing gampanin nila ay ang magbigay serbisyo at tulong sa mga nangangailangan, ani Clarino. Tunay na nakatatak sa isip ng madla ang larawan ng mga atleta na naglalaban-laban sa mga palakasan upang makamit ang kampeonato. Ngunit para sa atleta ng bayan, ang tunay na tagumpay ay natatamo sa pamamagitan ng pagiging katalista ng pasulong na pagbabago para sa kinabukasan ng ating bayan.
commemoration of martial law victims during the Marcos administration. She had been a student activist in college, also having been a torture victim at the time. “Yung mga taga-UP, they’d leave little notes sa toilet. Gagawa sila ng mga stickers, ilalagay nila sa doors ng mga cubicles ng toilets, just to let the other person know that others are still free in their minds. Hindi lahat nabola. Hindi lahat natakot.” Rodriguez shared. Most anti-Marcos activists had to hide out in the provinces and take up arms, despite not being trained to handle them, due to the need for protection. According to her, most of them still died under the hands of the government. Evident in her words were admiration for their bravery and courage, as she recalls all these people had sacrificed themselves to overthrow the dictatorship, or at the very least, recognize the injustices that plague the Philippine government and its people. She said, “Marami diyang mga aktibista, they had promising lives. They could have been lawyers, senators or successful businessmen. But still, they decided, at that time, nung panahon pa ng Marcos dictatorship, some urgent thing had to be done, and they did it.” Testaments to heroism can be clearly seen through the youth’s slow, but steady awakening towards the truth, and to what the Martial Law victims gave up to earn us our freedom and our rights. And perhaps, this is the symbol of who the Filipino people truly recognize as heroes. These people rose to the call that eventually led to a great deal of suffering and sacrifice, without thinking of the possibility of reward or recognition. And perhaps, they are without monuments or statues or accolades written and sculpted in their name. But what is there to hollow monuments without true cause for struggle? Full story on tinigngplaridel.net