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OPINION
M A Y-J U N E 2 02 2 | U P L B P E R S P EC T I V E .O R G
Pula ang unang kulay ng bahaghari N O F U RY SO LO U D NI LJ VERASTIGUE STAFF WRITER Bilang isang lesbiyana, personal kong naranasan ang kaliwa’t kanang diskriminasyon sa ating lipunan. Taliwas sa itinalagang “normal” ang paraan ko ng pagpapakita ng aking sarili. Isa akong babaeng hindi mayumi at walang hinhin, tulad ng ating nakasanayang hulma ng pagiging babae. Hindi man direktang sabihin ay ramdam ko ang bigat sa bawat tingin ng aking makakasalubong sa daan dahil lamang sa aking paraan ng pagkilos at pananamit. Madalas pa ay hindi maikakaila sa kanilang mga titig ang pandidiri sa mga katulad kong hindi sumusunod sa itinalagang pagkakakilanlan ng lipunan. Maraming iginagapos na karapatan ang mga mapanghusgang mga tingin, kagaya na lamang ng kasalukuyang ipinapasang SOGIE bill na hanggang ngayo’y pagulong-gulong lamang sa parehong Kamara at Senado. Ang pagsasantabi sa isang batas na naglalayong protektahan ang
mga kababaihan at LGBTQIA+ community sa gitna ng tumitinding pang-aabuso ay isang dagok sa reyalidad na walang pakialam ang estado sa mga nasasakupan nito. Ang mga mapanghusgang tingin ay naisasalin din sa karahasan. Sa mga nagdaang taon, sandamakmak at patuloy pa rin ang mga kaso ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao ng mga miyembro ng LGBTQIA+ community sa bansa, lalo na sa ilalim ng administrasyong Duterte. Kabilang dito ang walang awang pagpaslang sa transgender woman na si Jennifer Laude. Walang habas na kinitil ang kanyang buhay ng isang dayuhang sundalo na si Joseph Scott Pemberton, ngunit kalaunan ay pinatawan ng absolute pardon ni Duterte. Patunay lamang ito na lantad ang kabulukan ng umiiral na sistemang panlipunan sa ating bansa dahil sa pagiging sunod-sunuran ng papet na administrasyon sa mga imperyalistang bansa tulad ng US. Dagdag pa rito ang kaso ni Heart De Chavez na biktima ng extrajudicial killings ng administrasyong Duterte. Walang awa siyang binaril dahil siya umano’y kabilang sa drug watch list ng kanilang barangay. Si Chad Booc, isang kilalang guro ng mga kabataang Lumad, ay pinatay ng mga elemento
ng militar sa Davao De Oro. Kasabay ng kanyang paglilingkod ang araw-araw na banta sa kanyang buhay dahil sa matinding militarisasyon kasapakat ng mga dambuhalang korporasyon na nais kamkamin ang lupang ninuno ng mga katutubo. Ilan lamang ang mga ito sa marami pang kaso ng inhustisya at kapabayaan ng rehimeng Duterte sa mga kapwa Pilipinong LGBTQIA+. Miski sa itinuturing na “pag-ibig” ng mga LGBTQIA+ ay may kaakibat ding panganib. Si Barbie Ann Riley, dating beauty queen sa mga transgender pageants sa bansa, ay pinatay ng dating nobyong si Tsai Che Yu o alyas Jayson Santos. Natagpuan ang kanyang bangkay na nakasilid sa suitcase sa isang Expressway sa Cavite ika-3 ng Hunyo 2016. Patunay ito na ang mga pang-aabuso ay nangyayari mismo sa loob ng mga tahanan, paaralan, pagawaan, at komunidad sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng ating bansa. Ang mga karanasan nina Laude, Chavez, Booc at Riley ay manipestasyon na hindi lamang ito usapin ng kasarian bagkus ay usapin kung sino ang naghaharing kapangyarihan sa lipunan. Ang mga haring kumakampi sa dayuhan, pinupuntirya ang mahihirap, at kinikitil ang mga progresibong mamamayan. Makikita
na hindi lamang ito laban sa usapin ng kasarian bagkus ay napapaloob ito sa mas malaki pang laban ng kahirapan at kagutuman sa ating lipunan. Ang sistemang nagpapahirap sa mga LGBTQIA+ ay kaparehas ng sistemang lumulumpo sa mga nasa laylayan ng lipunan. Ang pang-aaping nararanasan ng LGBTQIA+ ay nakaugat sa paghihirap ng masang-api. May baklang humuhubog ng kabataan sa loob ng silid-aralan. May lesbyanang nag-aararo ng lupa sa mga bukirin sa kanayunan. May bisekswal na kumakayod para sa pang-araw-araw na pangangailangan. May sangkabaklaang tumatangan ng mga panawagan ng bayan. Pula ang unang kulay ng bahaghari dahil ito ang kulay ng pakikibaka; ng pagbuwag sa isang nabubulok at pahirap na sistema. Ako, kasama ang iba pang mga miyembro at tagasuporta ng LGBTQIA+ community ang buhay na patunay na nakaukit na sa kasaysayan ang kahalagahan ng sama-samang pagkilos upang labanan ang karahasan, pang-aapi at pananamantala. Tiyak na sa gitna ng kadiliman ay marami pa ang bahaghari na sisibol upang tuldukan ang makauri at pangkasariang tunggalian sa ating lipunan.
On reading Karl Marx MUMBLINGS BY GLEN CHRISTIAN TACASA OPINION EDITOR I started reading about Karl Marx, and the ideas of Marxism as early as I was in Senior High School. I bought my copy of the Communist Manifesto when I was in Grade 12. I remember how I tucked it under my mattress so that my parents could not find out what I was reading. By that time, I had not grasped the ideas that the readings wanted to infer. I had yet to understand when Marx & Engels said “the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy”. It was also around the same year that I started to join the expanding picket line of the masses. My first mass mobilization was an indignation rally against the state burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. On that day, I collected pamphlets, leaflets, and other reading materials, and like the Manifesto they were also tucked under my mattress. As I joined several mobs, I learned so much from educational discussions, our discourses with different sectors, and from different pamphlets. The next thing I knew there was a library under my mattress–a revolution hidden away under something comfortable. I never actually have a safe space to read it in the open. Oftentimes I read it at night, when everyone is already asleep. Fast forward to the present day, I still get those uneasy feelings on my stomach whenever I pull out any Marxist reading materials. On any occasion that someone asks me why am I reading Marx, my excuse would always be “ay readings ko po iyan sa school”, which is masked with half truth. As a Sociology student, we have tons of readings on sociological theories, which
often includes Marx’s theory on conflict, class struggle, and political economy among others. Perhaps, my uneasiness–or fear to say the least, was aggravated when the current administration emboldened the armed forces and police to continue their communist witch hunt in the name of “counterinsurgency”. Anyone, who is brave enough to take a stand and be critical of the administration is accused of being a communist or worse, accused of being an armed combatant. The dangers of redtagging lies when someone may be subjected to surveillance, trumped-up charges, and redtagging can be life-threatening. I already cannot count how many times I think twice, revise a draft, or completely delete what I was writing at the moment because of the fear of being tagged as subversive, or “NPA”. I cannot remember how many times I held back to cite Karl Marx, or Amado Guerrero in several critical essays or discussions due to our sociology classes, especially when the topic seeks to criticize and challenge the status quo. It also does not help the fact that most of the challenged provisions from Anti-Terror Law, that might be used to curtail our civil liberties, was upheld by the Supreme Court. In today’s era, what was loosely tagged as ‘seditious’ and ‘subversive’ before, now has a new rhetoric– progressives are unjustly tagged as ‘terrorist’. In October of last year, the government barred our right to critical thinking and academic freedom, libraries from different State Universities and Colleges pulled out progressive and critical literatures deemed by CHED and NTF-Elcac as materials to terrorism. This attack on academic freedom and critical thinking continues, some independent bookshops that sell progressive titles were vandalized and redtagged. To set things straight, reading Karl Marx, or any Marxist and neo-Marxist literatures is not
PHOTOS BY GLEN CHRISTIAN TACASA AND POLA RUBIO | LAYOUT BY MICHAEL IAN BARTIDO
terrorism. Spaces for critical thinking, critical literature, and critical pedagogy and andragogy must be protected and asserted. Our rotting concrete living conditions are a pretext to necessitate Marxist critical analysis–needless to say, we need to be critical. One may be discouraged because reading such materials entail so many risks under our current political climate. However, it should be the opposite, the current political climate demands us to read, analyze, and dissect our society critically. First and foremost, Marxist readings are relevant now more than ever. It helps us to raise awareness of our social realities, and it helps us to be critical of the status quo. Our concrete living conditions today, atop of the systematic exploitation and oppression of the masses, urges us to uphold Marxist traditions. It is true
that “the real fruit of their battles lies not in the immediate result, but in the ever-expanding union of the workers”, that is why we need to organize, unionize, to collectively assert the people’s agenda, and mobilize our collective action against state oppression, feudalism, imperialism, and the bureaucratic capitalist system–until we triumph. After all, we have a world to win. I mentioned earlier that as a Sociology student, we read a lot about Karl Marx, but such rationale on reading Marx only unmasks half of the truth. Besides my degree program, reading Karl Marx is deeply rooted in my political beliefs, my decision to join the mass struggle, and foremost, to equip my practice with theories vis-a-vis. As Marx himself said “practice without theory is blind, and theory without practice is sterile”.
