"Poems from the Trenches"

"Poems from the Trenches"

"In pursuit of future: Memories of Barrio Ugong"

Each day I see the silos

Remembering an Idealistic past

With the scent of wheat

Recalls the productive fervour

Each time I see the laborers

The machinery, the concrete edifice

That once towering over Pasig river

A legacy of an almost abandoned splendour

All because of a failed order

They hated to be competed

By those whose ideal is worth remembered

Whose concern is rooted in truth

A fertile land yet a poor mass

Prosperity allegedly "trickled down" 

Yet benefited the corrupted

Imagine all the edifices of glass and steel

Of malls thriving with the well paid

All these made by the ones in the shanties

All coming from the mismanaged estates

Of unfair wages and widespread maltreatments

Of strikes end up in bloodsheds and disappearances

Is this the prosperity proclaimed by the papers?

What a bullshit those articles then

All contrary to the truth 

How poor the supposed prosperous country is

How backward the supposed progressive nation is

Or perhaps a continuing "was"

All because of its continuing past

Again all thanks to a failed order

And its rulers thereof

And in it no wonder why strikes happen

Be it in the street or in the countryside

Be it with a burning effigy or a bloody ambuscade.

"My Father's house"

Inspired by Gabriel Aresti's poem of the same name

I will defend the house of my father.

I will defend it against wolves,

Thieves,

Usurers,

And various forms of Injustices;

I will defend the house of my father.

Thinking that they're all coming to exploit

Yet still I trying to resist

Time to time,

day after day

I will defend his house as much I can stay

I may lose all the cattle,

Orchards,

The produce I tilled and sown;

I may lose all my remains,

The goods,

Possessions,

But I will still defend his house.

They will take off my gun

But with my hand I will still defend it;

They will cut off my hand

Yet with my arm I will still defend it;

They will leave me without arm nor shoulder,

Even the soul that makes me defend

The house of my father.

In spite of pain enduring,

I will still die fighting,

But even without me still,

His house-my house, will remain standing.

And one will soon take over mine

Out of what I am struggling.

"Change is Coming"

Change is indeed coming said by the papers, and

Hope is bringing says by the reports

Amidst the existing inconvenient truths

Not one admitted by the apologists as they proclaimed:

"Gone is the corrupted and the oppressive, for

Everything will be given justice!"

"Impossible!" says the skeptic, knowing that the reality is contrary

Such as widespread hunger, poverty, murder, a series of idiosyncrasy

Coming from a corrupted order

Outsmarting the struggling commoner

Making hell to a country

Its people, even its history, until

Nothing, for they made it all

Gone.

"Nighttime offensive"

I swore to the blood red banner

And to the graves of my comrades

And take the gun to me given

As I take the road less taken

Tonight the offensives been set

As the campfires been set off

Tonight will traverse the forests

As the foes sleeping in their encampments

The bells of struggle continues to chime

In spite of numerous deaths

If not survivors end captured

Tortured, imprisoned, or disappeared

For their "heavens" be shaken with fear

As the action begins in the waxing moon

With the barrage of bullets

Surprising the sleeping attack dogs

One screams in pain

Another felt its untimely fear

As the partisans vent their wrath

On a plantation that blocks the path

Of peasant folks desired for land

Of farmworkers desired for decent wage

Of people sick and tired of hell

Brought upon by a state sponsored brigandage?

As storms continue, seeing blood and death

Comrade and foe alike felt the pain

Bright red blood will water all the trees

Staining the flags whose word is liberty

And end cleared all the noises

And comrades taken all the enemy guns

Foes end becoming captives

Criminals waiting their untimely fates.

Enough to be part of an epic

"The people's war" as what they proclaim.

"Still, taking time struggling for decent housing"

"Still, taking time struggling for decent housing"

(Or all after revoking the eviction order against the urban poor

Over the disputed Pandi housing project)

Amidst criticism pointing against the urban poor "occupying" an abandoned yet still disputed housing project at Bulacan, it seems that the government had no choice but to question the program that involves one of the basic calls of these neglected masses: housing.

As Cabinet Secretary and Housing Czar Leoncio Evasco revoked Malacañang’s forced eviction order against Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) members who have occupied thousands of idle government housing units in Bulacan.

Evasco, through an interview over DZMM last saturday, announced that Malacañang will not forcibly evict occupants of idle government housing projects in Bulacan, but instead promised to provide housing projects to KADAMAY members.

Sounds promising isn't it? Thinking that as the administration initially calling the occupiers as anarchists if not provoking chaos, of apologists describing them as not undergoing due processes, rather end admitting that there is a problem regarding housing: that no one lives in a housing project that is, costly if not unlikely to be habitable.

But as for KADAMAY and its supporters, the said occupation is just enough, thinking that these houses are long unoccupied, with foliage almost overgrown its walls. 

Is it really for the Police, Military,
Or for the evictee?

According to Katrina Stuart Santiago in her Manila Times article, The long abandoned project was started last 2011 when former President Noynoy Aquino signed Administrative Order No. 9, which directed the National Housing Authority (NHA) to implement and manage a housing program for military and police personnel.

The project, which was called the AFP/PNP Housing Program,nreceived an allotment of P4.2 billion, and its goal was 21,800 housing units to be distributed in 2011 alone, across 12 different locations (Interaksyon, July 14, 2011).

But no press release mentions Pandi. Only last 2016 when a press release from the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council then under Vice President Leni Robredo, lists down the said town as part of 65 sites where houses for the military and police have been built.

However, according to the Housing Board of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, “many soldiers were not satisfied with the design of the houses” while Philippine National Police Senior Superintendent Wilfredo Cayat said that “there was a mismatch in the location of the housing sites and the needs of the police.” The same 2016 press release from HUDCC also states that the “AFP, PNP and NHA” had concerns about the size of the units.

Even militarymen turned lawmakers expressed critcism over that project, for last October 2015, Magdalo party-list lawmaker Gary Alejano talked about how less than 10 percent of government housing for military and police (such as the one in Pandi) were occupied, because these “were poorly designed, built with substandard materials, and lacked utilities and basic services” (Inquirer.net, October 2, 2015).
In March 2016, he would also say: “The reason for the very low occupancy rate … is because the units are not livable. It is hellish to live there. The government would only make their lives miserable and our soldiers and policemen would not be able to carry out their jobs if they would worry about the families they leave behind. There is no drainage, no water, no power, not even a playground for children” (The Standard, March 27, 2016).

But in spite of the dissatisfaction coming from the supposed recipients, the previous administration pushed through with the million-peso project.

On the other hand, Pandi used to appear in government press releases last 2013, in relation to the relocation of informal settlers that live in danger zones in Metro Manila. Then HUDCC Chair Vice President Jejomar Binay announced the availability of 4,800 housing units in Trece Martires, Cavite, and San Jose del Monte, Bocaue, Norzagaray and Pandi, Bulacan, to which illegal settlers in danger zones would be relocated.
However, last 2015, on Aquino's last year in office, an urban poor protest told that the Pandi housing project was also where victims of demolitions of informal settlements in Metro Manila were relocated. For around April of that year, 700 members of the urban poor from Navotas who were to be displaced by a road-widening project, talked about how the National Housing Authority and the local government were forcing residents to transfer to Pandi.

This was unacceptable because according to Elgar Cornista, president of the Nagkakaisang Lakas ng Navoteno Federation: “There is no livelihood there. In fact, those who have already agreed to be relocated came back, and just erected shanties again here near the fishport. In the relocation site there is no livelihood, no water, no electricity.” (PinoyWeekly, April 19, 2015)

That same month, 378 Bureau of Fire Protection firemen were awarded houses in Pandi (Inquirer.net, April 20, 2015).

It seems that the project is really long stalled yet insisted that the project was for the policeman and the soldier (and for awhile the evictee). However, coming from the statements it showed that the project was overpriced yet the materials used were substandard, of having lack of water nor electricity, as well as far from the needs every supposed resident has to insist.

But knowing that these houses were long stood and enduring its deterioration (thanks to those government officials), and at the same time there are homeless who had enough of unjust "due processes" that requires unjust queues and overpriced amounts to pay, isn't it just to take it over?

After all, according to the constitution,

"The State shall, by law, and for the common good, undertake, in cooperation with the public sector, a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlement areas. It shall also promote adequate employment opportunities to such citizens. In the implementation of such program the State shall respect the rights of small property owners.

Urban or rural poor dwellers shall not be evicted nor their dwellings demolished, except in accordance with law and in a just and humane manner. No resettlement of urban and rural dwellers shall be undertaken without adequate consultation with them and the communities where they are to be relocated."


How a government official
Rather takes the side of the urban poor

In spite of administration wanting to evict the so-called "lawless anarchists", one of them rather took the side of these less fortunate "occupiers". It may sound ironic, but the action taken by that person showed how public service transcends sectors.

As Judy Taguiwalo, secretary of Social Welfare and Development, was questioned by journalists during a press conference last Friday on the issue regarding the agency’s distribution of food packs in Pandi, Bulacan last week and on accusations that the agency is giving special treatment to the “occupiers.”

There were accusations that the Department of Social Welfare and Development, who happened to be an activist, is “tolerating” KADAMAY members who occupied vacant housing units in Bulacan province by providing them assistance like food packs.

However, in spite of accusations, the secretary tried presenting and discussing other DSWD programs as well as stated that all of department's programs are for the poor. She also said that the agency is always ready to give help to those who ask, especially the poor.

Obviously, her actions showed public service as a public trust if not emphasising administration than those of politics her predecessors did. The immediate action such as providing support including those from KADAMAY shows that in the end these people are poor and in need of help, regardless of its politics.


Still, taking time struggling for decent housing

It may sound "Victorious" for KADAMAY in seeing NHA having its withdrawal, however, that withdrawal from that disputed site is not yet final knowing that there are still negotiations ongoing between two groups, especially after reports regarding its supposed recipient's dissatisfaction over the site and the occupier's desire for a decent housing.

And inspite of the just intent of the "Urban Development and Housing Law" there are still loopholes that may use for corruption. There are reports about "providing houses up to ten units to those who are able to pay" only to be rented; there are instances of overpriced housing that somehow contradicts the idea of affordable housing for least paying families.
Strange isn't it? Of what is that law or the agency that abides from it if it end treated as a goddamn enterprise motivated by profit than of service? Not all of these urban poor folks having a high paying job as well as wages or earnings insufficient to meet demands ranging from basic needs to paying rents.

But to call them lumpens or lawless elements seemed to be too much.

Currently, the occupiers continue to reside in those disputed units, struggling to have a decent housing as they're trying to clean every wall from its initial abandonment and making it habitable enough for a home. Supporting groups and individuals continue to provide them any help as possible, and in case of DSWD, it is their duty to serve these folks all according to its law.

And perhaps within these poor folk's eyes they all hope that from the place they have occupied for days means the community they desired according to their aspirations, far from their existence in the shantytowns and in the streets.

NARROWING DOWN THE GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES DILIMAN AS A DISSERVICE TO THE NATION

NARROWING DOWN THE GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES DILIMAN

AS A DISSERVICE TO THE NATION

By Dr. Gerardo Lanuza Ph.D

Sociology Professor, University of the Philippines

I have been teaching general education courses for twenty-two years. And as a young Instructor at UP Diliman in 1995 all the first subjects I handled were under the general education program. I taught Social Science 1 (Foundations of Behavioral Sciences), Social Science 2 (Social, Political and Economic Thought), Social Science 10 (Gender and Society), and Sociology 10 (Being a Filipino: A Sociological Exploration).

Honestly, I found it difficult, as a young University Instructor, to teach GE subjects. It demanded mastery, if not, at least, sufficient grasp of all the disciplines and perspectives from social sciences that are necessary to come up with an integrated view of a certain topic or a theme. That is why senior faculty are better equipped to teach GE. But I survived. And I found myself loving GE subjects more than teaching the major subjects in Sociology. The reason being that GE subjects gather together students from different disciplines, with different backgrounds and year levels, who have to undergo a common and shared knowledge before they specialize.
As the UP GE Task Force (2015) puts it, “The GE program is the embodiment of the UP tradition of liberal education which “aims to provide... students with a broad perspective that would enable them, outside their own field of specialization, to engage with issues and realities of their own times as citizens with sturdy moral and intellectual integrity.”

UP GE program has underwent several revision specially in 2001 when the GE curriculum shifted from all-prescribed courses to “cafeteria-style” approach that allowed students to choose their GE subjects. Then came the hybrid program that was implemented in 2012 because of the failings of the “cafeteria-style” curriculum. Recently, last March 20, the UP Diliman University Council voted to further revise the Hybrid GE program so that each college will have the leeway to choose the number of units from 21 to 45. These shifts are not only internally generated by the UP Diliman system. These changes are mostly shaped by the forces operating outside the University especially neoliberal globalization, the internationalization of education, and the currently implemented K to 12 program. In all these epochal shifts, the University has always maintained its vision to define its general education as preparing students to become good leaders with moral integrity and critical minds.

We have now come full circle. The University has revised the GE program from a tightly prescribed curriculum to a market model (free reign of electives), then to a hybrid system (electives and required core units combined), and finally, the reduction of GE units. And if this is the way the University defines GE program as any other accessory that can be retrofitted as the needs arise, we can expect further reduction, if not, the total elimination of GE from University education in the not so distant future. The reduction of GE units from 21 to 45 means that some colleges can opt for 45, some colleges are also given the leeway to reduce their GE to 21 units. Two major problems arise: will 21 units of GE be enough to provide holistic university education for professionals? Absolutely no! This goes against the global trends in higher learning institutions that are now strengthening their GE program to combat over-specialization. Next, does allowing each college to adopt different number of GE units a healthy sign of an academic community that is supposed to foster a common and shared learning culture for all the students regardless of specialization? Again, no!

The existing 45 units GE, the hybrid system, requires students to take 24 core courses while having freedom to choose subjects to further enrich their University education. Admittedly, we don’t love all our GE subjects. Sometimes it has to do with our teachers and the course itself. But who says that you have to like the subject matter to learn? Most of us hate Math. But without Math our computational and analytical skills will be rudimentary, if not primitive. That is why there can never be complete freedom for choosing GE subjects. Otherwise no one will choose freely a much hated, but necessary subject. Who ever said that there is a royal road to humanistic education?

Definitely the new 21 units of GE is not a good number to fulfill the mandate of the University to produce good citizens who are connected to the collective wisdom of the past (notwithstanding the fact that UP Diliman now has the lowest number of GE units in the country beating UP Manila by 3 units and UP Los Banos by 6!). Some may argue that the skills of GE can also be learnt along the way as students take major subjects. But that would be defeating the very nature of GE which is different from the purpose of the major subjects. It is undeniably true that skills like mathematical and artistic reasoning can be acquired from various major courses. But the substance of these skills can only be honed and deeply explored in GE subjects. Why sacrifice GE subjects for the sake of specialization, when GE program can enhance the learning capacity of students to specialize? Why be so spendthrift to invest in shaping the minds of future generations?

Some argue that the K to12 program that contains subjects that were lowered from the college curriculum should compensate for the reduction of GE units. But with the rudimentary situation of our K to12 program, coupled with the ill-equipped training of the teachers handling these courses, and the logistical problems, the University cannot just close its eyes and hope that all is well with K to 12 program. Even if we improve the K to 12 program, it cannot be a substitute to college GE program. In fact, the University is challenged to come up with better GE program that can enhance further what is learned in K to 12.

It is quite sad for me as faculty who have been teaching GE subjects that my University suddenly decided to reduce GE from 45 to 21. I can afford not to teach GE subjects (who would not want to be liberated from having large classes?). But I cannot imagine our majors undergoing an impoverished GE program. This is beyond quantifying what an emancipated mind is. This is about the quality of minds of future leaders we will be producing as a University. Today we complain about our educated politicians as susceptible to corruption, our legal luminaries as having narrow view of legal system, of top-notch engineers and scientists who are inattentive to indigenous culture, of top-class doctors who treat their patients as milking cows, of excellent graduates who are not even aware of our territorial claims in south China Sea, of students bereft of any knowledge of our colonial past. We cannot solve these problems by further reducing our GE subjects.

University education is more than specialization. It is more than filling up the minds of facts. It is about equipping those young minds with the necessary skills (logical, communicative, aesthetic, etc.) and knowledge that they can use to assess “fake news”, evaluate complex local and global issues, gauge moral dilemmas, and be at home with comparative analysis of issues that cut across knowledge systems. We don’t wait for our students to graduate and work with a team composed of specialists from other disciplines to have a well-rounded education. It is the duty and responsibility of the University to train them to be specialists yet firmly grounded in general knowledge of the world, society, history, and humanity.

March 20 was a sad day for the University. It was the twilight of general education and the narrowing down of our university education to mere specialization and employability. Being employed is not a bad thing. But definitely it is not the end of general education as the proponents claim. Surprisingly, studies have shown that employers do not emphasize the majors of graduates (2013 National Survey of Business and Non Profit Leaders). They are looking for the attitudes and critical skills of the applicants.

Unless the exultant voices of those who succeeded in narrowing down our GE can come up with a better vision and perennial philosophy for general education, I will mourn the twilight of GE in UP. And for the coming days, I will join other faculty, students, alumni and concerned sectors with the future of the University to do something to this plummeting down of our University general education to mere narrow specialization and employability. If there is something I learned from my GE subjects it is that I should be able to question a consensus reached by a majority that has no scientific basis or any probative value to an academic community.

***

Originally posted in his Facebook page, Prof. Lanuza criticises the downsising of the general education program and its subsequent vocationalisation in tertiary educarion as neoliberal in orientation. One of its followers also stated that the downsising of the program as an attempt to disbar people's right to question unjust policies, particularly those of labor, economic or even social policies affecting the community.

Admittingly speaking, this person favours the Professor's statement as part of a struggle, not just to upheld the original 45-unit General Education program of tue university, but also to assert the need for a patriotic, scientific, and mass oriented education as an alternative to the present education system that caters to the dilapidated, unjust social order.

Of rigorous "Humanisation" over mere "Vocationalisation": In support of General Education

Of rigorous "Humanisation" over mere "Vocationalisation": 
in support of General Education

(Or all after reducing units in "General Education" to 21 from 45
 in the University of the Philippines,
And the clamour to oppose its "change")

Well, at first, this person thinks it is "safe" to say that Philippine education nowadays is nothing but a mere preparation for the youth to became trainable for cheap labour.

With policies tailored to the demands of international job market, it seems that education has becoming a mere quality control that requires students to meet certain requirements not according to the youth's idealistic desires but those the demands of vested interests. In it these youths are becoming less human and more of a machine whose lives meant to obey and work for the order.

And with the issue on removing or decreasing units in General education all in the name of K12 and its subsequent vocationalisation is not limited in a premier national university like the University  of the Philippines. It is nationwide in scale that affects both state and in private tertiary level education, thanks to these compradore educators and "technocrats" whose view leaned towards globalisation, Atlanticism, and its intensification of Occidentosis against students and people in general.
It may sound unusual at first, given that most people think that the premier national university is known for its 45 unit program, gaining to have a reputation as one of the qualities every UP student carries with; however, with a present situation such as reducing to 21 units, affects not just education in general but the molding of a student in itself.

For as according to Gerardo Lanuza, he said:

"What defeated UP General Education are not the sound philosophical arguments nor pedagogical concerns! What killed UP Diliman GE is the sheer overwhelming number of those who want to scale it down so they can be specialists! Max Weber laments these “last humans” in this long civilizational development" that the scaling down of GE will produce: "narrow specialists without mind, pleasure-seekers without heart..."

And like similar situations like calendar shifts, deregulation, commercialisation, and tying education to the labour market as dictated by neoliberal and Atlanticist interests, reducing or even removing "General Education" makes education itself far from creating a future wherein character is developed with intellect.
But instead reduces them into cogwheels the system benefits from it. For sure would notice that in a student who supposed to reason in the name of academic freedom and progressive instruction are rather end spoon fed and contented to a cycle wherein they are reciting from their textbooks and not expressing out of their thoughts during a discourse or a debate. And one would also even notice that some if not few have the thoughts to make research "as if telling a story" what more of putting practise especially in courses that requires good foundations as such.

However, in spite of its benefits such as acquiring a student a broader view of  its environment and social relationships, having an order whose policies tailored according to globalisation and Atlanticism sees a curriculum that humanises as unnecessary for a college student but instead invoke an utilitarian idea such as vocationalisation or opting those at an early age to take school or simply stop schooling and "take a trade", content in low wages and month long contracts. Sorry to say so but in living in a semifeudal-semicolonial order, isn't it that true enough? To become cogwheels in a dilapidated "machine" manned by corrupted technocrats and officials alike?

After all, its apologists favouring that goddamn change agree that having "General Education" in college level is irrelevant be it because of K12 or because students has to focus on its "major subjects"; and 302 professors voted in favour of reucing its units as those of 43 who chose to uphold the original 45-unit GE. The latter knows that besides providing a humanistic foundation, having a 45-unit "General Education" means a rigorous molding of a student to someone who, in spite of having a science course, is also able to understand fully the society and its people, to be human at first and its profession second.

Also to think that in spite all the bullshit that has affected Philippine education (not just UP but the enture commercialised, colonialised education in general), may all be reminded that education is not just a product to be graded based on its exportability as supervisors looking for the quality product within the quality control room. The question in this post is not on being able to graduate and work immediately but on the quality everyone get from what they pay to the institution to become better citizens in the future.

But at the end of the day, one would think or ask that everyone had their youthful years spent just to be taught on "how to work" without having better foundations and be graduated as spineless citizens? Say "yes" when needed even when what you meant is "no", or remain silent and ask another question out of escaping from that inconvenient "it"; but work and work alone does not really gain understanding on what one is working for, for not all work, no matter how it is "highly paid" does not translate to fun. For sure everyone knows that they are not puppets in a play if not characters who has roles to partake and lines to say. And although true that subjects like Humanities, History, Filipino, even Logic and Reasoning extends years in school, General Education is an important in the educational system for it gives a better understanding of the structure of the society as a whole and not just the technicalities of it. It is important for it gives soul to education.

And education in every sense without soul is like a boat in a dry land.

Anyway, most does not care about it, they just "move on"; only to realise that they are less of a human and more of a beast of burden. Soon it will be more neoliberal "reforms" affecting Philippine education. If all countries follow the trimestral model the Philippines may follow suit. If all countries does paying students with loans with high interest rates the Philippines will also follow suit.

And no wonder why protests happen no matter how "justifiable" or even "beneficial" a goddamned policy is.

"A Social Monarchy, with a King for the People"

"A Social Monarchy, with a King for the People"

Fragments of the message of Don Carlos Hugo de Borbón

 at Montejurra, 1959

Background:

At first, it seems that there was a claimant who happened to take a radical path as a means of restoring order and at the same time creating a radical change, and his name was Don Carlos Hugo de Borbón.

Known for his claim as King of Spain, Carlos Hugo represented the Carlist line, known for its conservative, or even reactionary line of thought that caters to "God, Country, and King" with all its feudal trappings redescribed as "traditions".

However, Carlos Hugo took a different path far from his predecessors, as he turned the movement into something radical in the eyes of the masses, that even resulted to a break between left and right Carlists with Carlos Hugo taken the former as its lead.

One of the significant ideas that made "Carlosocialism" known is its idea of autogestion or "worker's seld management." As Spanish conservatism was and is, known for leaning to the landed classes, Carlos Hugo, who happened to be representing the movement that caters to the laboring masses desired an economic society that follows under syndicalist lines, with communes and worker's-owned cooperatives taking place of the economy and perhaps even social life, all united and guided by a King who guides as well as represents his people.

Sounds idealistic though, knowing that during his lifetime and his desire to claim the throne against then-rival Don Juan Carlos of the Alfonsine line, as well as the dictator Francisco Franco, his view swung to the "left" that also brought Some followers with him; trying to replace anything that was reactionary with something that was revolutionary and at the same time clinging to its hertage as the a movement fighting for "God, Country, and King", but supported with secondary goals like "Freedom, Democracy, and Socialism."
And because of that appeal, the movement did suffered especially after attacks by right wingers, particularly those of the massacre that happened at Montejurra in Euskalherria, that also marked the final break between left and right wing factions of the Carlist movement, of both revolutionary and reactionary factions trying to insist its legitimacy as the sole representative of the movement and the Spanish crown itself.

In this writeup, this person features a note, which was originally translated from Spanish, that was coming from the late Carlist pretender himself, who, as he tries to distinguish between himself and the other claimant, as well as Franco's dictatorship, offers a program that seemed to be interesting, one of which was his idea of a "Social Monarchy" that combines two different thoughts like those of Socialism and those of the Monarchy.

Sounds like a crowned republic isn't it?

Anyway, here it goes:

"(...) Justice was and is, always the first mission of the King. Not only to secure the individual or the country within the international order, but, above all, to establish social peace.

However, it is not a matter of establishing a paternalistic state, for the paternalistic state is the last stage of liberalism. In it, the ruler gives welfare mainly to avoid discontent and to stop every revolution. The Social Monarchy, on the contrary, guarantees that the national wealth is oriented according to what justice corresponds to each one, and not according to the monopolies of the pressure groups.

To create this (Social) Monarchy requires proper social and representative structuring. Within this structure, one of the most urgent is the union. Unions constitute one of the pillars of social sovereignty. In order to truly exercise this sovereignty, they must, above all, be authentic. Because its mission is to represent the individual framed in its profession.

Another of the pillars of the Social Monarchy are the local corporations. To mediate them in the name of better administration is to nullify them as social power. Efficiency and agility in administration is not enough. Acting like this would indicate not having passed the cycle of the liberal state.

Without a system of Municipal and Regional Liberties, Social Monarchy is just a name. The Social Monarchy will only be authentic when it is a syndicalist kind of monarchy. And Spain will only be a democracy when it is a Federative Monarchy.

Over and over, the old monarchies, broken by the liberal trials that replaced them, reappear once again in the West with the need for a solid political institution, which guarantees Europe cohesion and strength, without which freedom can not reign.

In the name of democracy and freedom, parliamentary regimes, in addition to sterilizing their people, delivered more than a hundred million men to oppression. These are the ones that demand that we rescue them, reforming ourselves radically, to be true democracy and true freedom.

But both free peoples and slaves, who crave this radical reform and feel themselves cornered, reject the overcoming of liberalism by totalitarian paths ; And they look forward to the people who set out for the political configuration of tomorrow.

They are not slightly reformed monarchical restorations what today's societies need. What is imposed in the present is all the impetus of a creation with traditional roots; It demands the same reality.

The reality of today is the people themselves, with their needs and problems; A people who want a responsible power, protector of justice and capable of arousing interest and enthusiasm.

In front of him, throughout the world, there is an absorbing, impersonal and irresponsible state, which constitutes itself in order.

We (as Charles VII said) know that it is not the People for the King, but the King for the People. In history, only the princes who knew how to assemble the forces to initiate the movement and to rescue the freedom for the towns, have been able to reconquer with their service the royalty (...) An establishment that lacked these popular roots would be exhausted soon after being born. Because "the monarchy by itself is worthless if it has no roots in the people.""

"Years after seeing a mall replaced the track"

"Years after seeing a mall replaced the track"

(or Notes after remembering the San Lazaro Hippodrome in Manila)

It seems to be too nostalgic for yours truly as he sought pictures of the old San Lazaro Hippodrome.

Now currently replaced by a shopping mall and some high rise buildings inside the once known racing park, San Lazaro Hippodrome has been remembered by many as the place where horseracing enthusiasts as well as bettors went, watch, and bet for horses racing fast from start to the finish line.

And like the earlier article about Makati's own "Santa Ana Park", this person somewhat recalls seeing those buildings that, prior to its demolition, boasted of its classy architecture that also supports its purpose as a racing park. And even making a district synonymous to it.

According to its history, the Manila Jockey Club, owner of San Lazaro Hippodrome, was formed in the summer of 1867 by a group of racing aficionados led by the Spanish Governor-General Jose de la Gandara, and supported by affluent personages sharing the love for horse racing and hence, willing to create a racing park that is, the first in South East Asia.

However, its original site was on Sta. Mesa, wherein an street is named "Hippodromo" after the first race track situated in that district. But years later, it moved to San Lazaro, wherein it lasted for decades until its relocation to a much bigger complex at Carmona, Cavite, and is now called The San Lazaro Leisure Park.
What now stands on its place right on Tayuman and Felix Huertas Streets is SM City San Lazaro Mall. And behind it are two housing development projects — Celedron Park (townhouses) and Avida Towers (high-rise condominium apartments).

Obviously, only few could remember how that building stood by from the commonwealth era down to the early years of the millennium. Very few pics are being shown in various sites as yours truly was searching about the old complex with its art deco exterior prominently featured as well as the field. During this person's childhood days he sought that building as the jeepney passes through San Lazaro district and saw the words "San Lazaro Hippodrome" and "Manila Jockey Club Inc." in its edifice. 

However, with developers, such as Ayala and Henry Sy's SM took over the entire lot, that remarkable art deco edifice, in spite of being considered as an architectural masterpiece was end demolished from top to bottom, and like any other commercial establishments rose nothing but plain simple "modern architecture" that smacks of entirely of commercialism than those of heritage. 

That somehow made heritage groups and nostalgics alike surprised and initially opposed the idea of demolishing the known building. And like themse concered, one would think that the old edifice that had built during the American period and stayed for decades must be preserved for posterity while the rest be developed as any other lot, while others would wanted to see a sports complex to take over so as to meet the demands of Manilans needing a place to engage in sports activities like track and field to football; but, since commercialism dominated much of contemporary Filipino life has resulted to seeing malls taking place of parks as center of activity. 

And at its worst, it requires demolishing it thinking ot has no use or even insisting it as old, ugly, or even irrelevant and unfit to be included in the entire complex's development. SM San Lazaro and Avida towers took place of the known hippodrome, while Circuit Makati took place of Santa Ana Park; both had good, decades-old architectural features meant to be preserved, but since commercialism triumphed, these rather end as pictures if not memories of those who sought, entered, worked, and enjoyed in and out of the building.

But all despite these the commoner thinks that life goes on as time passes by, creating numerous changes and sacrificing one for another. The case of old edifices like San Lazaro, Santa Ana, or even Jai Alai shows that no matter how remarkable the edifice is, it will end under the wrecking ball so long as commercialism and consumerism exists.

"Storm" over a so-called quiet town

"Storm" over a so-called quiet town

(Notes on the recent occupation of mass housing projects in Bulacan)

At first, people describe the action taken days ago as chaos provoking, anarchistic in a sense that these urban poor dwellers took their matters in their hands instead of pursuing long talks with the government, as they all start occupying, or rather say expropriating a government-built village project that is still left unhinhabited in the towns of Pandi and San Jose Del Monte in the Province of Bulacan.

These poor folks, or most people described as squatters or even lumpens, are all came from Metro Manila in search of a decent housing, livelihood, and a fair share of welfare as any other working class folks alike; only to have them require papers with authorities trying to sort who deserves and who deserves not the house such as those situated in those sites,

But still, in spite of that, it is undeniable that many Filipinos are rather forced to live in the streets if not forced to remain in their stanties all due to the great imbalance of their income-payables ratio, of their earnings and of low purchase to buy essential goods ranging from noodles to soap; and in this line of thought, people cannot afford to let those housing projects rot for years or even decades, as many of these people are rather sleeping on the sidewalks or in the plaza, while the money being used to construct these housing projects by the state are came from what they call "informal settler fund."

Come to think of this, as these housing units particularly situated in Pandi, Bulacan are rather covered with vines and foliage, that obviously shows it was being abandoned, that somehow made poor folks occupy knowing that they aren't even settled not even one family before them. However, the National Housing Authority insist that these houses, no matter how it is shown as abandoned and full of vines and foliage are already allocated and they are just waiting for the occupants to come in and stay in the units.

But who? Besides the soldiers and policemen whom the authorities afforded to say earlier just to justify that there are claimants in that almost forested village?

Anyway, perhaps one would say that some people, especially those from the government  and in the private sector are so used to seeing the poor unorganized and just doing what they are told to do, noticing them come during electoral period, and comfortably (and sometimes not) seeing them as indigents, mendicants, savage fools mooching around crying for help if not liable for crimes ranging from thievery, prostitution, to those of drug abuse. 

But in seeing them this time organised and assertive seems to be as if making their world upsidedown as they took over an abandoned site such as a housing project. Critics would cry illegality simply because they occupy the entire area illegaly if not disturbing the peace in a so-called quiet town by those coming from Metro Manila! Or worse, the usual red scares, red baits, seeing red on these poor yet organised folks clamouring for peace, land, bread, homes, justice!

Few years ago, the pope once said that everyone should not get used to seeing poverty, of learning to weep as possible, and few decades ago the late dictator Marcos quoted for the sake of impressing masses of what kind of democracy the Philippines has if it is not for the poor? And contrary to most statements babbled much by the authorities, having a house will not salvage these poor folks from poverty no matter how finely built yet deprived of livelihood; maybe ending contractualization, providing free education, health, social welfare, and providing the people sustainable sources of livelihood will. But in this current seting? Not even enough especially if the reason to "provide social justice" is merely to stop people from revolting further.

Now, on the topic of legality, legal processes, and "putting matters in an orderly manner" by those so-called "legalists",  for sure it is easier to say and done the idea of punishing these poor folks simply because of occupying a disputed lot, babbling words like "Dura Lex Sed Lex" most of the time as the basis of a so-called "legal means" and of harassing them "in the name of the law. The current head of state who once declared that "there will be no demolition without proper relocation" this time cried "anarchy" and calling for police action against these poor folks as if they did an unjust crime like murder or drug abuse. Truly, madly, and deeply ingrained in their minds indeed if the state frankly call them "lumpens" and just impose punishments out of their poverty.

But come to think of this, since the law is harsh but it is the law, isn’t that laws are also made to benefit the public, being the highest form of law (as the quote goes "Salus Populi Suprema Lex"), and not those who want to make profit from state projects? Remember, if the present administration tries to curb down corruption and put trust in the bureaucracy, then now is the time for the state to prove that they are on the people’s side particularly those of the poor;

and to think that this post may likely to be described as advocating senseless aggression, if not violence against the state as they piss off those from the NHA and other institutions concerning housing, sorry to say but these poor folks are there simply because they are poor and they need a house to stay, preferably free, if not a house that is affordable enough, in which they can pay with their meager wages.

Anyway, in spite all the bullshits, that issue is a socio-economic dilemma with people, driven by their clamour for housing are rather making it straightforward by occupying idle housing projects. Obviously, it is just a symptom of a more dismal social illness, as if a volcano that waiting to be erupted.

Or truly it is, a social volcano waiting to be erupted! Change is truly coming!

"Least they have their houses." (And a struggle to keep against odds)

"Least they have their houses."
(And a struggle to keep against odds)

Critics may still describe that action as unlawful, subversive, or even terroristic and seditious as thousands of organised urban poor dwellers occupied a housing project all in the name of "decent housing."

Led by the Urban Poor group KADAMAY, these once shanty dwellers, mostly coming from depressed communities in and around Metro Manila, occupied idle units in housing projects in the Municipality of Pandi and San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan province, saying they have nowhere to go.

Prior to the occupation, the Bulacan-based units, built 5-10 years ago, were supposed to be for lower-income policemen and soldiers also being recepients from the National Housing Authority (NHA). However, most of the houses were still left unfinished as plants eventually occupied some of the lots, showing how the project was being neglected, or even abandoned by the authorities during the past administration.

Many of the occupiers expressed relief as well as concern in occupying the lots. One occupier said that there are houses that are still neglected with outgrowths occupying even the interior, as well as problems involving processes that costs thousands of pesos in order to gain decent housing.

So is another occupier, who wanted to have a decent house to live than living in the streets, especially amidst killings that mostly victimising the poor.

There are more statements coming from those concerned occupiers, but for Elizabeth Aguirre, Kadamay president, said that these people occupied the houses because NHA personnel refused to provide them “decent homes.”

“In so many occasions, we held dialogs with them. We wanted homes for our families. We were willing to pay [for government housing which] we could afford, yet, we were always told that there were no vacant houses. But based on our inspection, all these houses were unoccupied,” she said.

However, contrary to the statements of the occupiers and its supporting groups, authorities, although expressed concern about these once-shantydwellers, insist their action as improper and unlawful, knowing that they are occupying an area intended for those who are listed as beneficiaries of that abandoned housing project.

As according to Felicismo Lazarte of the National Housing Authority, that those who occupied the houses were not listed as beneficiaries of the NHA housing projects.

He also said that the beneficiaries were informal settlers who were removed from creeks in Metro Manila.

Elizabeth Joseph, Bulacan-based project manager of the NHA, also expressed the same concern as Lazarte's, as she said that many of the families who also occupied the houses also came from Taguig, Navotas and Malabon cities, that are also not included in the list of beneficiaries within those projects.

Besides from these authorities, there are also those who ridicule, as well as putting these poor masses in bad light all because of their action. One individual said that Pandi was a quiet agricultural town before these people from Metro Manila came and occupy the said lot, as well as ridiculing KADAMAY for making press releases in English, and sarcastically thinking how these urban poor masses afford to go to Bulacan and occupy instead of undergoing processes with the NHA?

Anyway, the statement coming from the NHA is somehow replied by KADAMAY that these masses are willing to have a dialouge and even pay with them over that contested area, while the latter statement, ridiculing as well as describing the action as those of a mad mob rather boils down to a simple idea that is to have a plain but stupid red scare, pointing against these poor masses, its supporting groups, and individuals who sympathise with them.

All because of their direct action.

True indeed to think that these people are supported by groups like KADAMAY in bringing them to a "once quiet town" and occupied a still empty lot grown with foliage, for these people knows that they had enough of homelessness and overdues coming from an entity who supposed to put an end to one of the country's major problems only to impose expensive dues over them.

And in spite of criticism coming from authorities and heckling from its apologists, the said occupation, or rather say "expropriation" is not a mere unruly kind of act, but unveils a still humanitarian crisis thst needs immediate response from the government. Occupiers knows that on the first place, the houses being occupied were unfinished, not being occupied by its supposed tenants 5-10 years ago, or even overpriced and offered to those who have little earning and hence unlikely to pay such expensive houses supposed to be affordable.

But since it comes from the coffers of the people, then why not let the occupiers take over? For sure the people knows that on second thought, these houses paid by the taxes of both haves and have nots were meant to be settled before and not to be left as white elephants collecting foliage and grime! 

And to think that it also shows the sad reality of being neglected by the state amidst its promises to ensure their well being, then what more of treating social service as a profit venture by those corrupt bureaucrats that compels the poor to take matters "in their own hands" just to get a modicum of government attention. True that there are groups who supported the needs of these poor masses like Meloto's Gawad Kalinga or Jimmy Carter's Habitat for Humanity, but in spite of these groups willing to help in resolving the crisis, everyone, who is a taxpayer on the first place knows first that the government's duty is to ensure the welfare of the people including those on the need for decent housing  livelihood, and political participation.

Sounds hardcore isn't it? But that occupation is itself a form of people powerpower as these masses, organised, have the will to insist what is a right against those who failed to provide. 

By any means, in their own hands, just to keep their houses and struggle amidst the odds.

Photos from KADAMAY and Vencer Crisostomo

.

More than a celebration (But also a renewed call for struggle for women)

More than a celebration 
(But also a renewed call for struggle for women)

A message for the International Working Womens Day

At first, this person is ought to say that International Women’s Day, or in its original name International Working Women’s Day is a day of international solidarity, of reviewing the strength, organisation, struggle, and determination of women in today's society.

However, that day is not a mere special day reserved for women alone. As contrary to the system's idea of celebrating the 8th of March as a mere commemoration devoid of its revolutionary beginnings, the International Working Women's Day is also a historic and memorable day for the workers, peasants, masses whose desire for emancipation is strengthened by the role of women in struggle against exploitation and injustice.

Sounds age old but in spite of today's modernity, age old issues prevail like those of exploitation and injustice; and most, if not all women are greatly affected by these example truths. So is the struggle to push for decent jobs, national minimum wage, an end on violence against women, and a desire for a lasting peace that's based on national and social justice.

And as people commemorate the event,  also lies a call to punish those who are behind the society’s mismanagement. That in the past, the ones who swore to defend the order has nothing clear in offering services to its constituents, if not silencing those who truly struggle for land, bread, jobs, justice, and peace.
Worse, they just leave people, especially women in its vulnerable status especially in their workplaces, such as last month's incident in a factory, wherein a survivor recounted how she workers, mostly women, including a pregnant woman jumping out of the window from the 2nd and 3rd floor.

And yet the system chose to remain aloof or express little towards incidents such as that. Obviously, that ruling system, in spite of its statements, does not cater a really serious concern, if not a real profound sense of justice to its constituents including those of women. And in fact, there are more incidents, be it minor or major that the system express little about it, thinking of it as irrelevant.
And groups like Gabriela expressed concern with its partylist representative Arlene Brosas for her part stating that while President Duterte claims to be on track in the war on drugs, it has on the contrary succeeded only in launching a war against small-time drug peddlers and users while intensifying militarism and its fascistic actions that targets activists, critics, even civilians that Duterte himself described as a "crossfire" or "collateral damage":

“The rising fascism that has spawned illegal arrests and killings, large-scale military operations and massive evacuations are attempts to derail efforts by progressive groups to steer this administration away from the dictates of big foreign businesses and oligarchs and serves only to further the implementation of anti-people neo-liberal policies.”

But in spite all these issues, the working women, like the struggling masses, understood that it wasn’t enough to protest if not pressure the legislators for pro-people laws and provisions,  for they understood that such action doesn’t bring down the cost of living nor change the setting into something just under an unjust order. Such age-old, same-old realities makes people have to change the politics of the government.

Admittingly speaking, this person sees that the current administration, in spite of its populist appeal rather end swung to what the ruling order desired for and not of the people. The bullshit people, especially women encounter today makes everyone realise that the change coming from the present order is more of retention than of realisation, that somehow compels everyone, especially women, to engage further in the task of struggle against past, present, even future exploitations and injustices, in pressuring further the current administration for just and meaningful reforms, or perhaps to put forward even further the alternative such as a society rooted on national liberation and social justice.

"When one desires Justice for its own Self and Others"

"When one desires Justice for its own Self and Others"

Notes on "Ash Wednesday" and the start of Lent

"Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us. Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Psalms 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life - may become a “dust of love”."

Perhaps, in relation to this meaningful post, this writer, like others concerned, urges everyone to open hearts, minds, doors for those who would like to spend their Lent in breathing and turning ashes to "dust of humanity" that encompasses every issues particularly those of the repressed. For this Ash Wednesday, let everyone remember what true fasting and penitence means, as according to Isiah 58:6, it says:

"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people".

It is usual to describe Ash Wedensday as a start to reflect and renew as christians being the start of Lent, but, Ash Wednesday is also a recognition of materialism within Christianity itself, for it defies the narcissism of atheism and at the same time recognizes the material existence of body from the bottom of nature (soil). For sure everyone recalls Genesis 3:19 (King James Version) as it says:

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Such truth has made that verse as part of the dialectic of nature that everyone is a subject and be subjected in the process of totality, that everyone are born divine but rather experiencing earthly torment; right is someone who said that mankind are not Gods but rather a shit coming from the anus of God. Sounds realtalk isn't it? After all, Ash Wednesday is an anti-humanist theology at its finest, for in the end, man will go back to nature (Christianity and Hegel), as ashes, dust.

But in this time being as living creatures given reason and will, perhaps it is time to express concern others the way one expresses its own concern as a sinner. In a society wherein repression and injustice as predominant, self-mortification isn't enough as a Christian. Who does not want life and happiness? For sure everyone is afraid of pain and suffering, of loneliness and meaninglessness. But reality has made everyone in the process of seeking happiness end up with more misery; as one may lose its direction, sometimes get hurt and disillusioned in the process. This seems like is a contradiction.

But in these realities one has to make a realisation that life has to be face and act upon than leaving it for nothing. To move on without putting justice makes justice meaningless as any other ideal that is reduced into mere words and scraps of paper, as those who "move on" are motivated by a false quest for eternal happiness, escaping from the reality of suffering and its torments.

And like Christ whose life as consists of service driven by a desire to save souls, a person driven by reality (besides those of faith and morality) has to heed the call of many and its concerns ranging from an end to extrajudicial killings, drug abuse, to those of calls for genuine land reform and a just peace to create an atmosphere of realised hopes, the way Christianity's simplest calls has made everyone to join Christ instead of engaging in rituals as those of Caesars and of the High Priests.