SINAG Year 48 Issue 1 Online Edition

Year 48, Issue 1 The official monthly student publication of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines, Diliman

Duterte is scarier than Marcos And many Filipinos like it.

BY RYAN NICOLAS Many pundits have likened President Duterte to the late dictator Marcos and their arguments are not baseless. Seemingly, Duterte has followed a lot of things from the playbook of dictators including that of Marcos. Should Duterte really emulate Marcos and his rule, his dictatorship would be a whole lot stronger than his idol’s.

Better scapegoat Marcos and Duterte both used fear to justify their quest for expanded powers. For Marcos, it was fear from the communists. For Duterte, it is fear from drug pushers and users. This selection of scapegoat is important. Being a communist is not really ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ in itself. It is a valid political ideology. Being communist has stopped being illegal since 1992. But we know that everywhere, drugs and addiction are ‘bad.’

It is a whole lot harder to sympathize with drug pushers and users. For one, everyone can agree that it is bad, and in a conservative society where legality is confused with morality, it is pretty clear: drugs are evil. And if you seem sympathetic to these evil people, then you must be evil yourself. “Adik ka no?”

The Silence of the Reds Since our independence, left-wing activists particularly those from the “Makabayan bloc” have been the staunchest critics of the government. They find flaw in almost everything about the government and most of the time, they are actually right. But now that they have stopped criticizing the government despite all the things that are happening, the silence is just deafening.

Ever since, the communists remain undefeated and so, Duterte took a different approach. If you cannot beat them, why don’t you let them join you? And he did. Three of his cabinet members were nominated by the Communist Party (CPP).

Now, Duterte is the only president to not have an effigy burned by the left in recent history.

Continued on page 10.

Illustration by Mark Pamintuan

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2 | NEWS Students walk out against attacks on education, peace, and human rights UP Vanguard, CSSP hold earthquake drills

BY ENRIQUE NAVERA

Despite the heavy rain, hundreds of students from different universities and schools all over the country joined the Youth Action Day for Education, Peace, and Human Rights on September 21 to oppose neoliberal attacks on education and commemorate the 44th year of the declaration of Martial Law.

Students from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), University of the Philippines Manila (UPM), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), National Teachers College (NTC), University of Sto. Tomas (UST), Batasan National High School, and Araullo High School walked out from their classes for the protest action. Students from Baguio City, Cebu, Laguna, Naga City, Pampanga, and Tacloban also joined.

“Sa hindi natin paglimot sa pagtapak sa karapatang pantao sampu ng lahat nang nag-alay ng kanilang buhay para sa ating kalayaan, tayo din ngayong araw ay nananawagan ng hustisya sa lahat ng biktima ng Batas Militar,” Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago said to the participants.

Together with the youth sector were organizations including the Advancement of People’s Rights (KARAPATAN), GABRIELA National Alliance of Women (GABRIELA), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Loida Magpatoc, KARAPATAN’s NDFP con-

sultant, shared her struggle as a member of the New People’s Army during the Marcos dictatorship.

“Noon sa kanayunan namin, edad lang po ang aming hinihintay para sumali sa bagong hukbong bayan at maging aktibo at kasapi ng armadong pakikipaglaban sa diktadurya,” said Magpatoc. She was just 19 when she joined the armed movement.

Others who spoke and shared their experiences were the recently freed NDFP consultant Concha Araneta, Satur Ocampo, and others who were imprisoned and tortured during the dictatorship.

Calls echoing was to oppose the Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani amidst the fact that according to the estimate of Amnesty In-

Photo by Herby Esmeralda

ternational, 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 tortured, 3,240 were killed, and hundreds disappeared in the course of Martial law implementation.

Though the Martial rule ended more than three decades now, Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (STAND UP) Chairperson Josiah Hiponia and Anakbayan Chairperson Vencer Crisostomo urged the youth and the wider masses to continously fight for the people’s struggle for human rights amidst the daunting persistence of farmers landlessness, privatization and deregulation of education and other basic social services, Continued on page 4.

NOT YET - PROFESSORS on proposed federalism T. Atienza of the Department of Political Science Professor argued that the government should defer its plans of shifting the country from unitary to federal.

Former Pres.

Abueva shared in the forum his concerns on the proposed implementation of NOT YET. Former UP President Abueva and Political Science Professor Atienza explains to the audifederalism in our ence at the Gonzalez Hall Lobby why the government should defer the proposed shift to federalcountry, saying ism. Photo by Herby Esmeralda that it was “too drastic” and that the administration should “slow

BY DANIEL BRAZA down...and focus on local autonomy.”

In a forum on the prospects of federalism in the Philippines, Professor Emeritus and former UP President Jose V. Abueva of the National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP NCPAG) and Professor Maria Ela

He also cited the weakness of our political parties and the existence of political dynasties as problems that we need to solve first before shifting to federalism.

Prof. Atienza explained the different key concepts on federalism, and how it should work in the country. She also discussed about the issue of “probable inequality among states” in the case that the current administration pursues federalism for the country.

She stressed that we need first to achieve a certain level of development before making such shift.

Prof. Atienza also proposed other options for the government to address the problems of autonomy in Muslim Mindanao that the government aims to solve in advocating for federalism such as asymmetrical federalism and the setup of the government of the United Kingdom.

FedPH: A Forum on the Prospect of Federalism in the Philippines was organized by the University of the Philippines Association of Political Science Majors (UP APSM) last September 16 at the Gonzales Hall Lobby.

BY DANIEL BRAZA University of the Philippines (UP) Vanguard, along with the UP Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and UP Department of Military Science and Tactics, held a series of earthquake and fire drills with the faculty, students and staff housed in Lagmay and Silangang Palma Halls on August 31 and in the 75-year-old Palma Hall on September 22.

In both drills, select faculty, staff, and ROTC cadets were assigned as Route and Assembly Marshals and Sweepers were briefed by project head, Atty. Spocky Farolan.

These drills were a component of UP Vanguard’s “Be UP and Ready” program, a series of Disaster Risk Reduction Management initiatives, which started with its theoretical component, the MetroShake seminars, last year.

“UP is hungry for DRRM trainings,” Farolan said in an interview, “We are the best and the brightest, why aren’t we doing something then?”

The original project, according to him, was almost scrapped when the Administration refused to approve it and did not fund it.

“However, we must not allow lack of funds to hinder our safety. Buhay mo ba ang itataya mo dahil lang walang funds?” he said.

The start of the drill was signaled by an ambulance siren, which signaled the participants to do the “Duck, Cover and Hold” procedures, after which they were evacuated to an evacuation assembly area in a parking lot at the front of Palma Hall. After a head count by Assembly marshals, the Drill Commander declared the drill over.

“UP must be resilient,” Farolan said. “We must learn how to respond to situations like this.”

The College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) will be participating in more drills the dates of which are yet to be confirmed. There will be a drill involving a general evacuation of all the people in CSSP. This series of drills was, according to Kraft, the first drill the college has participated in in its entire history.

NEWS | 3

Duterte still ‘neoliberal’ – IBON

BY RYAN NICOLAS

Long-term vision

Militant think-tank IBON Foundation representative Xandra Casambre slammed President Duterte’s promise of continuing the macroeconomic policies of the Aquino administration which, according to militants and academics, mainly resembles neoliberalism.

To concretize Duterte’s 10-point economic agenda, NEDA came up with a long-term economic strategy for the country. It was conceptualized as the AMBISYON NATIN 2040: The Life We Want and is accompanied by five-year Philippine Development Plans (PDP), the first of which that will be drafted by the Duterte administration will take effect on 2017.

The comment was a response to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Assistant Director for National Policy and Planning Staff Bien Ganapin’s discussion of President Duterte’s economic agenda in a forum held on September 13 at the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG).

The president earlier declared that he is a socialist and would focus on expanding the middle class and the basic social services of the government.

AMBISYON NATIN is a 25-year long term plan tackling fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies. It was formulated through a series of focused group discussions held across the country involving thousands of respondents from many sectors.

NEDA is optimistic that the country’s economic growth will remain robust for a long time. One of the reasons Ganapin cited is the ‘demographic dividend.’

TEN-POINT ECONOMIC AGENDA OF THE DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION • Continue and maintain current macroeconomic policies, including fiscal, monetary, and trade policies.

• Institute progressive tax reform and more effective tax collection, indexing taxes to inflation. A tax reform package will be submitted to Congress by September 2016.

• Increase competitiveness and the ease of doing business. This effort will draw upon successful models used to attract business to local cities (e.g., Davao) and pursue the relaxation of the Constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership, except as regards land ownership, in order to attract foreign direct investment; • Accelerate annual infrastructure spending to account for 5% of GDP, with Public-Private Partnerships playing a key role.

• Promote rural and value chain development toward increasing agricultural and rural enterprise productivity and rural tourism.

• Ensure security of land tenure to encourage investments, and address bottlenecks in land management and titling agencies.

• Invest in human capital development, including health and education systems, and match skills and training to meet the demand of businesses and the private sector.

“Around 20172022, the number of fertile women will peak. There will be a bulge in our population growth. If we prepare that population to be productive, it will serve as a dividend,” Ganapin explained.

The PDPs also aim to be more holistic.

Ganapin further claimed that “The development plan involves two prongs: balancing growth and enhancing the social fabric.”

According to the NEDA plan, balancing growth and development opportunities will entail expanding and increasing economic opportunities, re-

Prof. Agpaoa is new UPD Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs On October 3, the University of the Philippines Diliman administration announced that CSSP Office for Student Affairs Coordinator Prof. Agpaoa will replace Vice Chancellor Neil Santillan as the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs of UP Diliman.

Prof. Agpaoa served as CSSP OSA Coordinator for three years from September 2013 to September 2016. He was also Assistant College Secretary from 2011 to 2013.

He joined the Department of Philosophy as instructor in 2008 and became an Assistant Professor in 2012.

Prof. Jairus Espiritu from the Department of Philosophy replaced him as the new CSSP Office for Student Affairs Coordinator.

Prof. Jerwin Agpaoa leads the CSSP Student Council in their oath of office. As OSA Coordinator, he was also the ex-officio adviser of the CSSPSC. Photo by Ryan Nicolas

ducing the vulnerability of the poor, and accelerating human capital development. Enhancing the social fabric, on the other hand, will entail building trust in public institutions, promoting peace, public order and security, and promoting and valuing cultural diversity.

OFF TO A GOOD START. Asst. Director Ganapin explains that the Duterte Administration is off to a good start with strong economic fundamentals left by the previous He said the administrations. Photo by Herby Esmeralda PDPs will be Despite these criticisms, she acknowledged fleshed out further as it is rolled out. NEDA the many good things that President Duterte aims to come up with a plan as instructed by has pronounced such as ending contractualthe president by the end of the year. ization, providing free healthcare, education The socialist is neoliberal According to Casambre, the problem with the president’s 10-point agenda is neoliberalism.

“We from the IBON foundation beg to disagree that neoliberalism should be the overarching framework,” she said. According to her, the Duterte economic plan places trust in the free market, that is as long as the businesses profit, development will trickle down to the people.

As of last year, the World Bank has already rejected trickle-down economics in favor of inclusive growth.

“Neoliberalism stunts our own national growth,” she added. “One of its main thrusts is to invite foreign businesses. What if these businesses only aim to earn more profit instead of first and foremost provide what the people need?”

She also lamented the administration’s disregard for the state of the country’s agriculture and national industrialization as the government aims only for food security and not self-sufficiency.

and irrigation, the 2,000-peso SSS hike, the release of coco levy fund to farmers, implementing FOI in the executive branch, and the appointing of progressive people in his cabinet.

The strong president vs. market forces Ganapin acknowledged that the impression that the president projects to the international community may ultimately affect our economy.

“If the president always gives statements that send wrong signals or are subject to interpretation, that causes uncertainty. And if that uncertainty reaches foreign and local businessmen, they get the ‘wait and see’ attitude.

Because of that, they delay their investment plans, expansion plans et cetera,” Ganapin said.

On September 21, Standard and Poor’s maintained the country’s BBB investment-grade credit rating but warned of a possible downgrade due to “rising uncertainties surrounding the stability, predictability, and accountability of its new government.”

Duterte lashed out at S&P’s for their comment that the rise in extrajudicial killings could undermine the country’s credit ratings, saying “Do not keep on complaining about my mouth, because my mouth is not the problem. It cannot bring down the country, but it can erase a generation of right-thinking Filipinos.”

The forum DuterTEN was organized by the UP Circle of Administrators (UP CIRCA).

4 | NEWS

OSU releases official list of UP President nominees; Chancellor Tan disqualified

BY ROBBY DE GUZMAN The Office of the Secretary of the University (OSU) has published the official list of the 10 nominees- including former and current UP administrators, government agency officials, a retired professor, and a former senator- vying the be the 21st President of University of the Philippines (UP).

ademic experience at the tertiary level,” the ability to serve the full term of six years before turning 70, and the absence of conviction for administrative and criminal offenses.

However, the memorandum included a list of qualifications the next UP President is expected to possess, grouped under Values and Perspective, Academic and Leadership and Management Capability Clusters.

Last Sept. 28, the OSU posted on its website the names of the nominees for the UP Presidency together with each candidates’ curriculum vitae and Vision Statement. The list includes Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan, Caesar Saloma, UP College of Law Dean Danilo Concepcion and Diliman Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Benito Pacheco, Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela Concepcion, UPD College of Arts and Letters professor Consolacion Alaras, former Senator Orlando Mercado, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Commissioner J. Prospero de Vera and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara.

Age does matter

At its 1319th BOR meeting last July 28, the Board of Regents has constituted itself as the Search Committee for the next UP President.

The Office of the Secretary of the University (OSU) has been tasked by the BOR to accept nominations and release the official list of nominees for the next UP President.

Rumors are circulating that the age requirement was imposed to disqualify him specifically so someone favored by the current university administration would have better chances of becoming the next UP president.

Minimum requirements for each nominee include a Master’s degree, “substantial ac-

Students walk... contractualization and repressive labor policies, state fascism towards critics and the minority, and other social injustices.

To wit, since the succeeding post-Martial Law administrations to the present, human rights violations continue in the portrait of Hacienda Luisita and Mendiola Massacres, enforced disappearances of hundreds of individuals including Jonas Burgos and UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, Lumad and IP killings and displacements, the war on drugs that emerges to be disadvatanging the poor, among many others.

“Itulak pa natin ang pakikibaka laban sa imperyalismo, burukrata kapitalismo at pyudalismo. Tuluyan natin ibagsak ang bulok na sistema na iilan lamang ang naghahari at pinagsasamantalahan ang nakakarami,” Crisostomo stressed.

Meanwhile, Hon. Raoul Manuel, UP Student Regent, in an earlier local action at the Palma Hall lobby, called for wider support and for students to stand against neoliberal attacks on education particularly the Socialized Tuition System, Other School Fees (OSF), and the Electronic UP Project (e-UP) which looms to be im-

On October 3, Chancellor Tan announced through the Facebook page of UP Diliman that he was disqualified due to the age limit.

He will be turning 70 before the term of the next UP president ends at 2022.

“While I still feel that this age requirement is discriminatory and perhaps even illegal, I will not take further action, and urge my supporters to keep calm. I do not think there was a conspiracy involved here, as rumors go, but there was, certainly, an unfortunate convergence of different interests to impose this age requirement,” he said.

The 21st President will succeed incumbent President Alfredo E. Pascual, whose term will end on February 8, 2017. The BOR will be electing the next UP president on Nov. 15. plemented in the entire UP System before the end of UP Pres. Alfredo Pascual’s term in 2017.

These policies are said to further commercialization of education in UP. “Sa ngayon, itinuturing ang ating edukasyon bilang isang kalakal, bilang isang produkto na kaya na lamang abutin ng iilan…’Yan ay dahil sa mga polisiya sa pagpipribatisa at pagdederigularisa ng presyo ng edukasyon,” Manuel said.

He further emphasized that during the Martial rule human rights violations escalated including the beginning of the implem e n tation of neoliberal policies that put a price tag on education.

COUN. BELEN ACCUSES STAND UP OF USING USC TO ‘MANIPULATE’ AND ‘IMPOSE IDEOLOGY’

BY R. DE GUZMAN AND R. NICOLAS Independent USC councilor RJ Belen called out his colleagues from STAND UP for ‘exploiting’ the University Student Council’s events to forward their political interests and partisan agenda.

In a post on Facebook dated September 16, Belen recounted how he was shocked to see Anakbayan, an alliance of organizations affiliated with STAND UP, conducting a situationer during the USC Dorm Assembly at the Kalayaan Residence Hall. According to him, the council never agreed to have someone from Anakbayan to be a speaker for the said assembly.

He further recounted the other times STAND UP bypassed the council apparently for their interests.

During CSSP’s Freshie Welcome Assembly, the whole USC was invited but the council never heard of the invitation only to find out Councilors Ben Te and Shari Oliquino went to represent the entire body. Non-STAND UP USC members were also unaware of the USC-OSR press conference on the extrajudicial killings.

They also found out that UP ALYANSA’s unity statement on the Marcos Burial was outright rejected without being raised to the body for discussion.

He said that these issues were already raised

by his other colleagues and were amicably settled before the dorm assembly incident.

Towards the end of his post, he slammed STAND UP for always saying that “USC is never about political colors or parties” but never living by it.

“I believe that UP students are wise enough to define their principles and ideologies on their own. You need not treat them as puppets as yours [sic] to manipulate and impose your own ideology,” he added.

STAND UP refused to comment on the issue. According to CSSP Rep. Lakan Umali from STAND UP, they wanted to focus on “uniting and organizing the student body for the upcoming days of protest.”

He also added that USC members from STAND UP believe that “the matter can be amicably settled internally.”

In the USC general assembly last September 30, councilors from STAND UP defended Anakbayan being the speaker for the Dorm Assembly, saying that the project heads have the discretion of choosing the speaker for their event. However, Councilor Sicat raised that Anakbayan intended to recruit members in the same event which Councilors Te and Bernal admitted being aware of. CBA Rep. Geronimo also said that those who attended saw it not as a USC consultation but as an Anakbayan orientation and that some BA students even approached her about it.

Duterte closely resembles Marcos – Diokno

BY RYAN NICOLAS In a forum held at the Main Library Lobby last September 15, Jose Manuel Diokno pointed out the parallelisms between President Duterte and President Marcos shortly after his declaration of Martial Law. “The language of President Duterte’s recent announcement closerely resembles that of Marcos,” the son of Senator Jose Diokno said, referring to the Instruction No. 11 of the late dictator dated September 24, 1972.

It mandated the resignation of all presidential appointees, similar to President Duterte’s memorandum circular that fired all appointees of former president Benigno Aquino III. He also pointed out how Duterte is using the tag ‘drug addicts’ to instill fear the same way Marcos used the term ‘communists.’ “Before, the branding of the deplorables of the society was ‘communist.’ Now, the administration uses ‘drug user’ and ‘drug pusher,’ but the tactics are essentially the same,” he said.

“Sad to say, [our] freedoms are under attack.

The labels have changed but the tactics are the same. And all of the tactics are based on one thing alone: fear,” he added.

He recited a quote from Sen. Jose “Pepe” Diokno, his father, from during the Martial Law era: “Fear should may be of communist. It may be of terrorist, it may be of a militant minority seeking secession or independence, it may be of gangsters or non-conformists, and I may add, it may be of drug pushers and drug users. Whatever its cause, fear, carefully nurtured by the establishment, are vesting on the belief that communists, terrorists, gangsters, dissenters, anarchists, call them what you will, have forfeited their humanity, and so, have forfeited their lives. They’re seen as posing extraordinary dangers, they just defined extraordinary measures, national defense becomes national security, military values infiltrate society, the inevitable result is military rule or some form of dictatorship and in the process, human rights blur and disappear.

Fear is a powerful motive, but an unreliable guide. It can create evils more monstrous than those it seeks to avoid. It can kill freedom while trying to preserve it.”

communist tagging and today’s drug pusher and user labeling.

He was questioned about what he knew about the “revolution,” and every time he said that he did not know anything about it, the military said it was the wrong answer then they hit him. When the military grew tired, a live wire was wrapped around his penis and he was electrocuted. They also injected water into his testicles. The torture went on for days. His head was placed between two high-power lamps for five days until his skin was cracking from being roasted.

ABDUCTED, TORTURED, AND DISAPPEARED. Susan Quimpo shows the picture of her brother John, then UPD Geology freshman who was abducted by the Constabulary while doing a group project at their home.

Photo by Ryan Nicolas.

He said that justifying the recent murders because the victims are monsters anyway is also, in itself, monstrosity and argued that despite the ugly situation in our judiciary, judgment of people’s crimes remains an exclusive job of the courts.

judiciary, increasing judges’ salaries, overturning Maceda v. Vasquez which restricts the Ombudsman from exacting accountability from judges, and insulating it from politics by removing the power to appoint judges from the president.

“Will taking laws into our own hands make things better? If our problem is a weak legal system, isn’t the solution to strengthen it, not circumvent it?”

A tale of a family

Legally corrupted Diokno said one of the most prominent legacies of Marcos that we still experience today is our corrupted legal system. According to him, Marcos destroyed its integrity, removed judicial independence, corrupted the legal profession, and built corrupt networks within the system that still operates today, outlasting the dictatorship.

In the same forum, Susan Quimpo, who hails from a family of victims of the Marcos regime, recounted the tortures her brothers were subjected to. She is the youngest among ten siblings, seven of which actively fought against the dictatorship.

His brother John was abducted by a squad from the narcotics division of the Philippine Constabulary. He was seen with two other fellow UP geology freshmen on their way to their house for a group project. Back then, a gathering of three or more was illegal.

While he acknowledged that the framers of the 1987 constitution tried to remedy this by reestablishing judicial independence, the effort proved to be futile. These people, he said, infiltrated the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), through money and influence, and what enabled them to do so was the fact that they were never prosecuted.

According to her, the reason why the men who captured her brother were from the narcotics division was that each division of the military were competing over having the highest number of arrests of suspected activists. All opposition members were already imprisoned so they went after student activists.

“They did not die, they prospered and continued to multiply,” he said.

“They tortured those they jailed until they gave a name, and then transferred them to another military unit which tortured them again until they gave another name and it continued as long as they wanted,” she recounted.

Noting that our legal system is already weak, he further added that “every time an extrajudicial killing happens, our legal system itself is being destroyed. If we do not watch out, our entire legal system will collapse and the only thing that will be left will be violence.”

Already, the widespread killings have claimed numerous innocent lives, including Gloria Capitan, a local activist fighting against the building of a coal power plant in her community.

To remedy the weak legal system Diokno recommended increasing the budget of the

She also recounted the military’s reasoning for arresting her brother without warrant and bringing him to Camp Crame. “He was wearing glasses, therefore he might have been smart. The military men checked his ID and found that he was from UP, and so he might have been an activist. He was also chinito, therefore he might be Chinese. The Chinese are from the People’s Republic of China, therefore, he was a communist.” She referred to Diokno’s earlier parallelism of Marcos’

He was released, came home, refrained from activism, and excelled in his studies. He disappeared on the day he was supposed to apply for graduation in October 1977. His friends said they saw him at times in carinderias and buses going to UP but when they talked to him, he would say “Hindi kita kilala, lumayo ka, lumayo ka, lumayo ka, ‘wag mo akong kausapin.”

The military made him a tracer, and anyone who talked to him would be deemed connected to the revolution and would also be abducted and tortured.

His brother Jun who studied BS Math volunteered with the members UP Student Catholic Action in teaching youth from urban poor communities so they could carol to raise money. The government suddenly demolished their homes and Jun joined them in fighting off the demolition team. Out of the 200 protestors they captured, only Jun was held because had a UP ID which also revealed he was a Quimpo. At the time, already four of her siblings were incarcerated. She recounted that a military commented “Uy Quimpo, para kayong factory ng mga aktibista.” He was tortured for 10 days for having a UP ID and being a Quimpo.

Out of outrage, he joined the New People’s Army after being released. He was killed in 1981 in a raid of an NPA camp in Nueva Ecija. Jun was found with seven bullet holes, two of which were fired from a short distance on his forehead. There were residues of suman on his mouth and a rifle on his broken arm.

Notably, there was no gun powder burns on his hands.

“They were trying to make it appear as if there was a fire fight and that lumaban siya.

Sounds familiar?“ she said, alluding to the recent reports of the police planting evidence to justify killings of suspects under their custody.

Reports from Marcos-controlled newspapers said he was killed in a firefight during a raid because he was an NPA chieftain plotting to kill a local mayor.

Her sister Lilian was arrested and sexually molested. She was transferred from three groups from Cabanatuan to Camp Crame to Camp Tulipas. In each torture point, they were trying to extract names from her. She disappeared for two months.

His brother Norman was a math professor at

NEWS | 5

Ateneo. He was also incarcerated.

His brother Nathan was a valedictorian in both grade school and high school at San Beda Manila. He was imprisoned and tortured and eventually, he joined the underground movement.

His brother Ryan, at the age of just 19, became a fugitive because he was a president of a student organization. At the time, all student leaders, regardless of the nature of their organization, were being targeted because they were considered potential activists.

Their names and faces were posted in all the gates of schools to be reported when spotted.

He was forced to seek asylum abroad.

According to an Amnesty International report, 70,000 were incarcerated for being enemies of the state, 34,000 were tortured, 3,240 were victims of extrajudicial killings, and 398 were victims of enforced disappearances.

These were data from 1971 and according to Quimpo, did not yet include the cases of her five siblings who were incarcerated so these figures are conservative.

As of May 2015, 75,730 claimants have applied for compensation as victims of martial law. This belies Bongbong Marcos’ claim that there were very few victims of Martial law, that there were just some who “fell in the cracks.”

She said the figure is also very conservative as victims from far-flung communities are discouraged by having to travel multiple times to Manila to file their claims.

For Quimpo, the education system is to be blamed for the amnesia the nation seems to be experiencing. Some teachers she interviewed said they stop teaching Philippine history at the end of the Second World War because they “cannot verify” what really happened during the Martial Law years. They cited the presence of contradicting materials on the internet that claim that those years were the “golden age” of the country and those that claim otherwise.

Since the end of the Marcos regime, there had already been attempts to rewrite history.

Among them are the Pinoy Monkey Pride videos on YouTube which, according to Quimpo, were made by the best PR (public relations) people in the world hired by the Marcoses through a competition.

She also blamed the lack of mementos for the country’s worst upheaval in its independent history. According to her, there are only four monuments commemorating that period. We do not have real museums commemorating our authoritarian past unlike in Latin American and Eastern European countries.

The forum Life After Death: A Forum on the Effects of Martial Law was organized by UP POLITICA in collaboration with the Bantayog ng mga Bayani.

6 | NEWS

Being a troll pays well, like 5 million pesos a month well.

In the Philippines, paid trolls, fallacious reasoning, leaps in logic, poisoning the well are only some of the propaganda techniques that have helped shift public opinion on key.

Propaganda war: weaponizing the internet Rappler http://www.rappler.com/nation/148007-propaganda-war-weaponizing-internet The police entered UP Diliman campus in the name of the war on drugs.

Two suspected drug pushers were killed by the police in a buy-bust operation in the UP Arboretum Forest on September 25. The Quezon City Police District did not notify the UP Diliman Police. The Soto-Enrile Accord prohibits military and police forces except the UPDP within the university.

Two men linked to drugs shot dead in UP Arboretum Philippine Collegian http://www.philippinecollegian.org/two-men-linked-drugs-shot-deadarboretum/ Donald Trump is ignorant. And...

He is also confident and feels superior, and it is putting the world in danger. He could just be the most dangerous kind of idiot today.

Idiocracy now: Donald Trump and the Dunning-Kruger effect – when stupid people don’t know they are

stupid Salon http://www.salon.com/2016/09/30/idiocracy-now-donald-trump-andthe-dunning-kruger-effect-when-stupid-people-dont-know-they-arestupid/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

House Speaker Alvarez wants same-sex marriage legalized.

He cited the increasing population of LGBTs and the need to protect them as the reasons that prompted him to file the measure. He also joked that it is a natural way to control the ballooning population of

the country.

Alvarez bats for big hike in RH budget, same-sex union Philippine Daily Inquirer http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/820977/alvarez-bats-for-big-hike-in-rhbudget-same-sex-union.

Our UN Ambassador thinks we are not giving due credit to the Nazis.

This comes just after President Duterte’s likening of himself to the fascist dictator. He said that they fixed broken Germany and that they knew something more than killing Jews. He also suggested that the US try concentration camps against blacks.

The New Philippine Ambassador to the U.N. Teddy Locsin Jr. Appears to Be Invoking Nazis on Twitter TIME http://time.com/4516275/teddy-locsin-philippines-un-ambassador-nazi-twitter-drug-war-duterte/ The Colombians rejected a peace deal with communist rebels.

In a referendum on the peace deal, 50.2 percent of those who voted rejected the deal. Sen. Uribe, the main proponent of the “no” campaign, said that the deal offered the FARC rebels who had committed serious crimes “impunity.” The conflict has been running for 52 years and has killed 260,000 people.

Deep Scars and Complacency Defeated Colombia’s Peace Deal The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/world/americas/colombia-reb-

BEYOND CSSP

A curation of news and other articles that we handpicked for our community of social scientists and philosophers An unnamed policeman claims that police teams are behind the killings that has so far left 3,600 dead.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, an unnamed senior officer in the Philippine National Police said that they act as “angels like St. Michael and St. Gabriel,” sending the souls of criminals to heaven to

cleanse them.

Philippines secret death squads: officer claims police teams behind wave of killings The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/philippines-secret-death-squads-police-officer-teams-behind-killings

An EJK victim lives.

When the police started shooting, Francisco Santiago was hit on his chest and arms. But he did not die, he simply played dead until he knew the media has arrived. In hospital bed, he recounted how the police set him up to be killed that night. He claims he is not a drug pusher and all evidences The Washington Post accessed corroborate his story.

In Duterte’s Philippines, here’s how one man survived when a death squad came after him The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-dutertes-philippines-heres-how-one-man-survived-when-a-death-squad-cameafter-him/2016/10/04/393ca58e-800c-11e6-ad0e-ab0d12c779b1_ story.html A lot is at stake in the US presidential elections, not just for Americans, but for the world.

In this article, the Associated Press discusses the many issues at stake in America’s arguably most contentious election in recent history.

WHY IT MATTERS: Issues at stake in presidential

election Associated Press http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d01e334b9db043c98a5d67bbfd953d4e/ why-it-matters-issues-stake-election

Mother Teresa may not be the kind and loving genuine person we thought her to be.

In this article, the author argues that she took pleasure in the suffering of the poor but did nothing to really help them. Her institutions refused to administer treatment to their patients, saying that pain purifies their souls, but immediately opted to receive advanced medical treatment in the United States when she needed one.

Why Mother Teresa is still no saint to many of her critics The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/25/ why-to-many-critics-mother-teresa-is-still-no-saint/

GALING KAPP! CSSP majors are first Gawad Pangulo Debate champions

BY CLARIZZE GRAVADOR Political science majors Jose Antonio Sison (IV), Nicole Tomas (III) and Leomar Doctolero (V) won the first-ever Gawad Pangulo Debates held last September 4, 2016 at the UP College of Law. Eight teams from various campuses of the UP System competed. UPD A engaged with UPLB at the quarterfinals, UPM at the semifinals, and UPB 1 at the grand finals. The format of the debates was Oregon Oxford and debaters were judged based on evidence, delivery, interpellation, and rebuttal. Among the topics covered were the use of nuclear power to support the Philippines’ economic development, ratification of the Paris Agreement, and mandatory return of service for graduates of state universities. For Sison, the hardest part of the debate was having to scour through the internet for sources and data on the topics. “At the same time, it gave me a greater appreciation for having solid facts to back up my arguments,” he added. The debates were organized by the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the UP College of Law, and the UP Debate Society.

(The three in the middle L-R) Jose Antonio Sison, Leomar Doctolero, Nicole Tomas.

Photo from the UP System Facebook Page.

FEATURES | 7

Happy World Teacher’s Day! Ma’am Joanne Manzano, Ang Filipino ay ang Lingua Franca ng Pilipinas at ang pambansang wika nito. Sa inyo ko po napagtanto na ang wika ay kapangyarihan at nagtataglay ng gahum.

Sana’y mamulat na rin ang mga James Soriano ng mundo :) -Reb

Ma’am Div, ney Dr. Div! Thank you for not giving up on me, even if I don’t deserve it. Please continue being an amazing professor and person that you are. now we’re not yet k I ! m ’a a M i H yet lol), but I close (emphasis on ch other more ea ow n k to et g e hope w close tayo ng Ed g in g a m , a n sa and yo some time sa ta o p in a K . rd Boa fs <3 All ro p g g n li g n o st Magin re the best!!!

Sir Miranda, Thanks po sa chika and wisdom po ninyo!!! <3 <3 <3

Ma’am Jen Cano, Hi Ma’am Jen, I really appreciate the fact that your Soc Sci 1 lectures are so interactive.

Thanks for being so jolly and lively despite our 4pm class! -EJ

Ma’am Barbaza, Kumusta Ma’am? Maraming salamat po sa masaya ninyong klase sa PanPil 12 na kahit wala po akong break mula 7-4PM class ay hindi po nawawala ang pagkasabik ko sa pagpasok sa klase ninyo. Sir Baylon, Pa-pizza ka r! si y a d s’ er -JCo ch a Happy te y haha. Sana po a e ok J r! si n a m a n court mo. Hihi. sa i m a k o p a n madala mo -Ms. Bona

Sir Arugay, You’re such a great teacher. Goodluck with your book. See you next sem.

Sir Panao, Hi Sir! I wasn’t able to say it while I was still under your Polsci 14 class but I am really grateful that I was able to study the class under your tutelage. I might have not been the best student because of a lot of circumstances I cannot disclose.

However I am very grateful for all that I was able to learn, I was able to really love the course because of you. Super thank you po for everything, I hope you’d continue to touch more lives and make even more people realize that they can be better in time and with practice. Love you po Sir! <3 -Eri

i Profe! Hanggang ngayon sobrang feel ko pa rin na ang suwerte namin na naging prof namin kayo at naging classmates namin ang gang haha. Sobrang miss na po namin ang Baler escapade at mga pinaggagagawa natin sa classroom, pagsayaw, pagkain ng churros, at pagkaklase sa sunken garden.

Te echamos de menos!

-Rafael y Regina

8 | CULTURE & ARTS Airdropped filmmakers

BY CARL SANTOS A few years back, I stayed in a neighborhood in Bangkok right across the Surasak Sky Train Station. No snooze could survive the startling vibrations of the first batch of trains getting ready to convey passengers across the bustling metropolis. Through my window I saw the rush of commuter frenzy. Tangled, pancit-like electrical wires which seemed to take a life of its own sifted the light that illuminated my little room. Like the electric and telephone wires of Manila, they hung like vines of a jungle canopy. Every corner of every soi (in Thai, a side-street branching off a major street), there sat middle-aged plumpish ladies peddling street food. Pad Thai, Som Tum, Khao Pad, and Gaeng Keow Wan Kai were sold at a cheap price equivalent to 50 pesos at home. Monks with shiny heads would gently stroll by the grime-marked old streets while I waited for my breakfast. Every alley, nook and cranny smelling of incense and chrysanthemum flowers awaken was a photograph waiting to be taken. Bangkok has swept me off my feet. It was too good to be true – too wonderful I had a feeling that setting foot again in Thailand would be impossible.

Halfway through 2016, I found out that I would be in Thailand again. Yves Patron of the UP Film Institute and I could not believe we were selected out of 200 teams vying for a slot in the Amazing Thailand Film Competition. The Thailand Film Office together with the Thailand Ministry of Tourism has been holding the annual Thailand International Film Destination Festival to market their country as a top destination for filmmakers.

Thirty two pairs from all over the world were to compete. Similar to the Amazing Race format, teams were supposed to make a 5-7 minute film in seven days. The teams were given only 30,000 Baht (45,000 Pesos), a local production assistant, a van, and were ex-

Planning before a shoot at Singha Park, Chiang Rai

pected to produce a short film. Participating filmmakers were like paratroopers dropped in an unfamiliar land and constantly under fire from all directions. We had to make 30,000 Baht enough to pay for the gas, food, talent fees, lodging, props, costume, makeup, rental fees etc. Everything had to be done pre-production from each team’s respective country prior to the production proper in Thailand — from the requisition of permits, casting calls, wardrobe, to the itinerary and logistics.

We were a two-man production company.

We made sure that everything was organized before we flew to Thailand and braced ourselves for the worst.

As soon as the plane tires hit the Suvarnabhumi Airport tarmac, the pressure sank in. The entire workload of an entire film crew were to be carried out by two men in a foreign land. Just when things could not be any more difficult, more problems arise.

One of our actors suddenly backed out and the weather forecasts had predicted a stormy week ahead of us. While buying last-minute purchases in the crowded shopping district, my head was spinning in the middle of the throng of shoppers. Sleep was no longer a luxury but a vice. We were determined to win the competition. A day after the orientation and the acquaintance party, all of the teams left for their respective provinces. Chiang Rai, our filming location was a 14-hour drive from Bangkok.

Chiang Rai, known as the Jewel of the North, shares borders with neighboring countries Burma and Laos. Although overshadowed by its more famous neighboring city Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai’s shining light still enchants the serious traveler. It was the opposite of Bangkok, a different world. For many, the urban helter-skelter is the highlight of Bangkok; in Chiang Rai it is its tranquility. A perfect counterpoint. A rest in a symphony. Instead of the cacophony of vendors

(Left to Right) Carl Adrienne Santos, Ploy Thangprabhaporn, and Yves Patron at the Red Carpet of the Thailand International Film Destination Festival. Photo courtesy of Carl Santos.

competing to get that dollar, hill tribe people would freely give you warm smiles.

Our first filming location was at Wat Ron Khun, a white majestic temple covered with precious stones guarded by gigantic statues.

One of our scenes was shot in the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. There, tourists can enjoy a myriad of street food ranging from the typical Pad Thai to the infamous deep fried water scorpion. It looked like a household cockroach but only five times bigger. Our last location was at the Doi Mae Salong, a mountainous region where some of the Akha Hill people live. On the slopes of its hills, the local women can be seen in their tribal clothing, harvesting tea leaves, slinging wooden baskets on their backs. Our last scene was supposed to be a sunrise shot to be shot taken on the highest point of the mountain — a 20-km drive away from our hotel. While having dinner the night before the climb, our van broke down. The contest’s rule is that we have to be back in Bangkok that night. Without the final scene, our film will have no ending. All hope seemed lost. This meant that all the hard work we’ve done will amount to nothing. Almost in tears, we were unable to touch our dinner. I rarely cry in life. Right before my teardrop fell into my soup our driver told us that he was able to find us a local who owned a 4x4 truck. We were able to shoot our final scene on top of Mae Salong. Atop that mountain I saw the most beautiful sunrise in my entire life. The contest’s committee sent a replacement van. On our way back to Bangkok, we had smiles on our faces.

Perhaps the most stressful part of the contest was the post production day. All worn out, bruised and battered, we did the dirty work. Sifting through footages, double-checking the subtitle translation, syncing the sound and color grading. It was the last stretch. We had so little time we ended up having to export the final cut of the film while we were

on the train to the contest’s office. Once we passed our film entry it was time to relax. All we had to wait for was the awards night.

Later at the hotel lobby, all teams were well dressed ready for the awards night. Upon arriving in the National Film Theatre, we were blinded by a thousand flashing lights from cameras. Dozens of TV cameras were pointed at us. Many Thai celebrities attended the event. The program of the awards night was nothing short of being spectacular. One can easily tell that their production standards excel over most of the countries of Southeast Asia.

We sat there breathless, fingers-crossed, praying we’d win a prize. We hoped that all our hard work and sacrifices would amount to something. We didn’t get any award.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for we knew we gave our very best. We knew in our hearts we have transcended our past selves before the competition. The reward was more precious than any cash prize or prestige. We made new friends, fell in love with Thailand, rubbed elbows with many promising filmmakers from around the world. It was an experience that changed us forever. We learned that filmmaking is not all about theories and techniques but it was also about diskarte. It was not about being able to stand the heat but about beginning and maintaining good work relationships that makes standing the heat something worthwhile. Sometimes, failure is a better teacher than victory. Lastly, it is not always about the camera, but about having the eyes to see the imperceptible and being able to convey a story.

Burnham and the Baguio-Manila Plans of 1910s

BY PATRICK JAMES SERRA Editor’s note: As part of encouraging academic excellence in the field of culture and the arts, this section provides a space for sharing related researches from student of various disciplines. This featured paper of Patrick James Serra served as a requirement for Social History (KAS 117) class of Dr. Ma. Luisa T. Camagay, during the first semester of AY 2015-16.

The paper titled Laying the American Foundations: Daniel Burnham and his plans in the Philippines during 1910s narrates the story of American architect Daniel Burnham and his projects in the country, particularly the Plan of Manila and the Plan of Baguio.

It also discussed the implications which may have affected the architect in formulating the plans for the two cities.

Daniel Hudson Burnham was born in September 4 1846 in Henderson, New York.

His pursuit for arts in general started when he failed the entrance exams of the two of the prestigious universities in the USA (Harvard and Yale). He then pursued a career in architecture. The first architectural firm he worked with was Wellborn Root. Since then, great feats in the field were achieved by Burnham and his colleagues. His prominence led to his appointment by William Howard Taft to make city plans for Manila and Baguio.

CULTURE AND THE ARTS | 9

Burnham, together with his family and his assistant, Pierce Anderson, arrived in the Philippines on December 7 1904 to survey the city of Manila and the virgin lands of Baguio, talk with government officials and at the same time, have a vacation. He left the Philippines on January 16 1905 and made his first drafts of the plans aboard a ship headed to Yokohoma, Japan. He constantly visited the islands to see the process of the plan but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to see most of its implementations as he died in the year 1912 in Heidelberg, Germany.

The plans of Manila and Baguio are evidences of various influences implying Burnham’s intentions. (For the particulars of the plans, see ***) Thus, it could be seen as a political (and a personal) motive that aims to benefit not only the Filipinos but the Americans as well. Three underlying implications have been derived from the research. First is the “City Beautiful Movement” defined as a movement which seeks to improve their city through beautification, which would have a number of effects: first is that social ills would be swept away, as the beauty of the city would inspire civic loyalty and moral rectitude in the impoverished; second is that American cities would be brought to cultural parity with their European competitors through the use of the European Beaux-Arts idiom; and third, a more inviting city center still would not bring the upper classes back to live, but certainly to work and spend money in the urban areas. .

As apparent to Burnham’s plans, decorative elements such as parks, fountains and such

are ubiquitous. The second implication is the American imperialistic endeavours as evident with their cultural and political accomplishments. Cultural, in such a way that they introduced their cultures and traditions which the natives fully accepted. Architectural designs of the hotels and parks as proposed by the planner were consisted of American elements and at some point, syncretized with that of the Filipinos. More so, political because through these plans they would be able to concentrate power in one place as evident with a semi-circular format of government buildings planned in Luneta and a big park in Baguio (now Burnham Park). Finally, the last implication is personal and social influences. Burnham’s personal affinity to water made it as the major element of beautification of the cities. Another reason was the Americans’ intention of building a city that has a cold climate similar to their homeland and thus, their plan to make hilly and mountainous Baguio as their resort place in Daniel Burnham. Photo from Chicago Tribute. the Philippines from the heat of the fields. ***Full paper can be accessed here: https:// At present, although these plans were not fully implemented in both the cities of Baguio and Manila, Burnham’s legacy continues to live on and affect the life of most Filipinos.

www.academia.edu/25678361/Laying_the_ American_Foundations_Daniel_Burnham_ and_his_plans_in_the_Philippine_Islands_ during_1910s

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10 | OPINION

ENDLESS FIGHT. One of the Golden Fortune Construction (GFC) workers, Ka Nico, shares his story about their plight as contractual workers at their picketline in front of one of the condominiums they built. He, along with other 97 workers, were terminated by the company due to their demand of just labor compensation. At present, they continue their struggle to be given back their jobs permanently, whom some of them are workers of GFC for more than 30 years. Morever, they fight for a minimum living wage and the establishment of a labor union inside the company which will protect their rights as workers.

Photo by Iggy Sandrino

Controlled Explosions How to get away with murder: democracy edition

BY JEREMIAH REYES Earlier this month, presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo expressed his interest in giving President Duterte dictatorial powers. He was quoted as saying: “It’s constitutional. You revise the Constitution, give the powers to the President, (the) legislative and executive powers. So in a sense it’s like dictatorship because he has two powers but all of them are constitutional.”

Contextualizing the statement, he said this would be an ideal set-up in order to expedite reforms that the Duterte administration wants to introduce.

I find it both interesting and appalling that such words would come out of the adviser of the President

on legal matters. When the rest of the world regards the word ‘dictatorship’ much like the plague, here we have a senior member of the presidential staff using it like it meant nothing sinister. We just celebrated 30 years of being liberated from such a government and now we are talking about instituting one? There are only few things that are more absurd than this.

I want to lay down several reasons as to why Panelo’s statement irks me to my core. Firstly, he claims that changing the Constitution to allow the President to concurrently hold both executive and legislative powers will legitimize his idea. If your idea was so doable and acceptable to begin with, why do you need to do something as drastic as chang-

ing the Constitution? He himself believes that such a move requires changing the very rules that dictate the existence of the Philippine state. This thought gave me terrible ideas as to what kind of reforms they plan on doing that they need to change the way our government works as a whole. This leads me to my next point.

ing almost any measure the President introduces will surely pass. As for the Senate, I suspect that it will lean towards support for Duterte despite the presence of his staunchest critics in Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes. (The recent ouster of de Lima as committee chair on justice and human rights further proves this point.) Given all of this near-certainty that executive-sponsored reforms will pass through Congress without much friction, why do they still want to remove it and rely on the President to make the laws that will implement his own reforms? They can’t even trust their own supporters in the legislative branch, so why should we trust them?

stitution.

Are we not alarmed that the very principles that our forebears fought and died for are now under serious threat? Panelo’s words, while not policy statements like the President’s, are still words that came from the administration. In a way, it can be used as basis for policy. How ironic would it be if this democratic government would enact policy to turn itself into its complete opposite? Democratic government would use democratic procedures to terminate itself. It would be like Lady Liberty blinding herself with her own torch. It is ridiculous and terrifying.

Thirdly, as I have mentioned before, this year was the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution which toppled the dictator Marcos and installed a new democratic government. The democracy introduced by Cory Aquino may not be perfect, but at least it is still a democracy. There is an active attempt to respect and uphold citizens’ rights. The three powers of government are separated to ensure that abuse of power will not again taint this country. But now, Panelo is toying with the idea of throwing all that away, essentially plunging the country back into the darkness of dictatorship, and ensuring that such motion has basis in the Con-

I have always said that democracy without opposition is nothing but dead. Now we have a senior member of the President’s staff threatening to remove opposition from the democratic equation. He is threatening to murder democracy. Are we, citizens of a democratic state, going to let them push through with this threat? Are we going to let them destroy the principles and values that allow us to live happy and peaceful lives? Are we going to let the people who do not appreciate the value of democracy destroy it for everyone else? Are we not going to protect our country from a socalled ‘constitutional dictatorship?’

Will we let them get away with our democracy’s murder?

Today, our lawmakers have voluntarily shifted their allegiances to the president despite coming from opposing parties during the elections. They made sure that the real opposition did not get the power they legitimately deserved. They have removed De Lima from her chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Justice. They hijacked the lower house minority leadership from Teddy Baguilat who rightfully won by being the second place in the election for House Speaker and put Suarez, an ally of Duterte, in his place.

Today, our lawmakers have voluntarily shifted their allegiances to the president despite coming from opposing parties during the elections. They made sure that the real opposition did not get the power they legitimately deserved. They have removed De Lima from her chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Justice. They hijacked the lower house minority leadership from Teddy Baguilat who rightfully won by being the second place in the election for House Speaker and put Suarez, an ally of Duterte, in his place.

Today, our lawmakers have voluntarily shifted their allegiances to the president despite coming from opposing parties during the elections. They made sure that the real opposition did not get the power they legitimately deserved. They have removed De Lima from her chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Justice. They hijacked the lower house minority leadership from Teddy Baguilat who rightfully won by being the second place in the election for House Speaker and put Suarez, an ally of Duterte, in his place.

The current setup has blurred the

The current setup has blurred the

The current setup has blurred the

Secondly, what is exactly in those reforms that they feel the need to eliminate one entire branch of government? Are these reforms so controversial, so divisive, and so dangerous that they must monopolize power in order to avoid opposition from Congress? It is relevant to note here that they have a so-called ‘supermajority’ in the House of Representatives, mean-

DUTERTE IS SCARIER...

During Benigno Aquino’s term, it only took one death in Olongapo for the reds to fume. Now, 3,300 have died from the drug war and we hear nothing from them. The Disbursement Acceleration Program prompted them to throw coins at Sec. Abad at a forum in UP. Now, they do not raise a single question about the superbly large increase in the President’s discretionary budget.

Always, they protested whenever the US conducted military operations in the country. They cried their hearts out when the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement

(EDCA) was signed because they want us to have an independent foreign policy. China basically built a naval base in our yard and they do not bat an eye.

Rubber-stamp Congress Marcos’ first order of business when he declared Martial Law was to abolish the Congress. He did so because a legitimate and vocal opposition existed there with the likes of Ninoy Aquino, Pepe Diokno, and Jovito Salonga, and it had the power to stop him due to the separation of powers among the three branches of the government.

separation of powers between the executive and legislative. And with the impending constitutional assembly where the solons themselves will draft the changes to the constitution, this is really alarming.

More international big brothers One of Marcos’ more fundamental mistakes is reliance to the United States for international support.

Unlike China and Russia, the US is, by its rhetoric, somewhat tied to its commitments to concepts of liberal democracy such as ‘rule of law,’ ‘civil and political rights’ and ‘human rights.’ When an ally’s government is destabilized by opposition, they will not play an active hand on cracking down dissent.

Then there is Bashar al-Assad.

Syria has been basically obliterated due to its civil war which has been running since the Arab Spring of 2011. It is one of the most violent in history, with the Syrian government alleged to have used chemical weapons against its own citizens.

Despite this, al-Assad continues to rule all thanks to Russia.

Russia, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), can prevent the international community from taking any action to remove a despot like al-Assad. The Al-Assads’ allegiance to Russia dates back to the Cold War. Unlike the US, Russia is not tied with commitments to liberal democracy because it is effectively a dictatorship.

China and Russia are the de facto leaders of the world’s authoritarian bloc. And if President Duterte is being exceptionally friendly with them, it is safe to say that he intends to align our country with this bloc of authoritarian countries. On why exactly he would want to align with them, we could only speculate.

Discredited media Among the first orders of business of Marcos was also to take control of the media throughout the country. All criticisms were silenced and only the contents that praised him were permitted. Censorship became a part of life.

Now Duterte does not have to do that. Through his army of trolls and historical revisionists on social media, credible media, whether local or international, have been discredited. For his supporters, all media that criticize Duterte are “bias.”

Only those that unquestioningly support him can be trusted. By portraying the media that criticize him as forces owned by the “yellows,” he was able to capitalize on people’s cognitive bias so people do the censorship on the information they receive themselves. This is a complex form of censorship. Not only do people censor the information they receive, they also are the ones to automatically punish those who speak against the president through cyberbullying.

Illustration by John Carl Lastierre

OPINION | 11

Historical revisionism Being likened with Marcos used to be akin to being compared to the likes of Mussolini and Hitler. But over the years since the fall of the dictatorship, historical revisionists have been able to reshape the Filipino people’s perception of the Marcos. Now, many remember it as the golden era of the country, making comparisons with Marcos a compliment rather than a criticism.

And because they like Marcos, they now see things associated with it positively: the killings, the weakening of democratic institutions, the desecration of human rights, and even the idea of Martial Law. Now, we do not have a part of history that we “should have learned from” but rather a history that “we should get back to.”

This phenomenon of people thinking that they “know better” about Marcos and the Martial Law than what “mainstream media” tell them is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It is when stupid people confidently think they are smart simply because they are stupid not to know that they are stupid.

Cult-like support from the masses Marcos only had the military, the police, the constabulary, and other members of the political elites to support him.

Today, Duterte has all of them, plus the millions of people unquestioningly loyal to him.

These are the people who find not a single fault in our president’s pronouncements when the rest of the world has gone mad. When the president likens himself to Hitler as if he were a hero and makes it to international headlines, they have one response: “Dear international media, stop destabilizing the Philippines.” For them, the whole world can be wrong, but not their “Tatay Digong.” And, they are willing to hurt others all for their love of Tatay Digong.

Duterte was able to tap into the psychological vulnerabilities of people to turn them into loyal subjects. Now, they are willing to do anything for him, forgetting about our deeply seated cultural values including religiosity and conservatism. When a child questions God, he gets a beating from his conservative parents. When Duterte questioned God’s existence, his supporters readily understood him.

We have become a country of double-standards all reserved for our dear president.

Unleashing the monsters within Duterte said this himself: “My mouth can erase a generation of right-thinking Filipinos.” And he

is damn right. Never have I seen people in multitudes openly wishing for others to get murdered and raped. Never have I seen thousands of people getting killed and the rest gets happier. Never have I seen so many people wanting kids as young as 12 to get jailed. Never have I thought that people would say that it is okay for thousands of other people to die as long as they see it as to their benefit.

Slowly, we are becoming a country of monsters. Our moral fabric is disappearing. And even if Duterte steps down after his six years, this country will never be the same again. We will probably never see it the same way as we did before.

We lack empathy for for one another. We might as well leave for

a country who will value us simply for being humans than remain in our homeland where even being a Filipino means nothing.

--Not too long ago, Abrahan Sarmiento, Jr. asked on the Philippine Collegian: “Kung hindi tayo kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?”

Not yet even four months into the office, President Duterte has already done a lot of damage to our country. Are we going to wait longer to demand and exact accountability from him?

12 | EDITORIAL Philippine institutions were never strong. And with weak institutions always come impunity.

The Spanish left us little of the corrupted institutions they built. While the Americans tried to impose a carbon copy of their relatively stronger and cleaner system, those institutions were nevertheless compromised by Filipinos accustomed to the extensive corruption from over 300 years of Spanish occupation. For some time, we enjoyed the stability of these institutions until they were ultimately weakened when Marcos bent all laws, shut down the Congress, and illegally replaced the constitution to cement his authoritarian rule. His rule of 20 years made deep, rampant corruption, cronyism, and nepotism a way of life for Filipinos.

The 1986 EDSA Revolution gave us a chance to rebuild our institutions, this time, stronger than ever. But that did not happen. Instead, the very people who destroyed our institutions together with the Dictator were not only pardoned but were also allowed to stay in the government. Impunity was never punished. If we did anything about it, it was to reward it.

These criminals’ hold on power prevented the healing of our institutions. A consequence is that we were not able to put in place safeguards that would prevent us from forgetting the atrocities that occurred. The government did not build enough monuments to remind us every day of what happened. Unlike the South Americans who still remember their authoritarian past, we did not build a single museum to forever preserve the painful memory. We did not ensure that the lessons of Martial Law correctly made it to our textbooks and into our youth’s curriculum to prevent them from allowing the same atrocities to happen again.

And now, the deplorable are back at it again. Slowly, they whitewashed our history, erasing their crimes from the memories of people. And they have been successful in doing it.

At least 14 million voters seem to have already forgotten the horrors of our Republic’s darkest moments. 92% of Filipinos allegedly support President Duterte who has promised to compromise human rights to guarantee our security, the same rhetoric used by Marcos to justify his way of ruling. But the worst of all is that a lot on Facebook are screaming in capital letters: ‘I AM READY FOR MARTIAL LAW.’ There couldn’t have been a better moment for impunity in our country than today. 3000 have been killed by state and non-state agents and not a single investigation has been launched to look into it. The Commission on Human Rights is receiving hate for trying to do something about it. People recently jailed for corruption, for impunity, have been freed and the people who exposed them, who we deemed heroes just a few years ago, are the ones put in jail instead. Today has fundamental differences from the 1970s which makes it better than the age of impunity of before – a lot of people actually want less freedom in exchange for the feeling of security, and the communists, the staunchest critics of the government, have been co-opted into the government. The voice of the few who oppose the human rights violation in the congress are silenced by the supermajority’s overwhelming support for the president. Rules were bent to prevent a genuine opposition from assuming the position of Minority Floor Leader in the House of Representatives. As a result, there is no credible opposition to check the administration that increasingly becomes more authoritarian every day.

Impunity happens partly because people permit it to happen by not being watchful enough, by not demanding strongly enough from their government. While UP prides itself in being a center for progressive student activism, we are not faultless in this aspect. The UP system itself reeks of impunity

Illustration by John Carl Lastierre.

from the purely non-academic use of its idle assets in Diliman to its system-wide projects such as the eUP. These issues are very real, yet disapproval from the student body, at least in Diliman, has generally been lukewarm, whether it be about the misuse of idle assets or the fact that the Duterte administration has taken so many innocent lives. Notably, the USC and local student councils also have not yet clearly and loudly expressed rage despite the fact that this administration’s killed-list has grown longer than that of Marcos.

If we want to stop impunity, we have to attack it in all its forms and magnitude because it always stems in the simple things.

We have to express our opposition in ways that are loud and can be felt by the people who need to hear us. It means not patronizing the very manifestation of these impunities such as the UP Town Center and the Technohub. It means carrying out activities that target the University administration for not being transparent. It means going out to the streets to make it clear that a significant portion of the UP student body are not indifferent to the issue of extrajudicial killings.

Expressing your detestation on Facebook is not enough. It will never match mass action in effectivity. Especially when it is our human rights that is at stake, the actions we mentioned above are quite modest. Sadly, perhaps we will all believe this to be true only when our rights are already gone and all we can think about are the things we could have done to prevent the mess we find ourselves in.

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The UP system itself reeks of impunity from the purely non-academic use of its idle assets in Diliman to its systemwide projects such as the eUP.

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SINAG Editorial Board 2016-2017 Editor-in-Chief Ryan Nicolas Managing Editor Robby De Guzman News Editor Clarizze Gravador Features Editor Renee Co Culture and the Arts Editor EJ Bolata Literary Editor

Simon Malmstrom Graphics Editor John Carl Lastierre Head Photographer Herby Esmeralda Layout Artist Enrique Navera Business Manager Patrick Atabay SINAG was established in 1968 in a time when Philippine democracy was facing its biggest challenge since independence. The students of then College of Arts and Sciences deemed the need for an avenue to speak their critical minds and take a stand through an official student publication. Its name is a portmanteau of SINing and AGham. Also meaning ‘a ray of light’ in Filipino, its name represents the paper as a source of light, especially in the dark times during which it was founded.

While the dictatorship has fallen, the Philippines never left the darkness of social injustice and oppression.

Thus, SINAG continues to strive to provide light that we may one day live in the light of true freedom.

Office: SINAG Office, 1/F Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Telephone: (02) 981 8500 loc. 2476 Member: College Editors Guild of the Philippines, UP SOLIDARIDAD