"Continue Seeking Truth and Struggle in the face of Living Dangerously"
By Kat Ulrike
Some weeks ago, this note said that the coming Marcos regime adds six years of living dangerously. And it is not surprising for the fact that not just same old policies may continue or same old personages to benefit, but also to see same old mechanisms for intensifying attacks against the people.
By recalling the "Anti-Terrorism Act" of 2020, this gave the order the license to suppress the growing ranks of people in its struggle against oppression. Like the earlier Human Security Act of 1997, or even the Anti-Subversion Law, attacks against the people on the pretext of antiterrorism intensified as concerned folks been redtagged and thus persecuted all because of seeking justice and wanting to improve their lives and their communities.
And such actions would say way far from the messages of "change", "unity", or any other word or phrase meant to snare people away from the truth that's oppression, exploitation, and injustice. Recently, those who struggled for land and justice in Hacienda Tinang in Tarlac were persecuted, imprisoned and placed trumped-up charges against them. Not surprising indeed- for in the eyes of the order mere participation such as in a land cultivating activity means intimidation against authority.
So was the arrest of an environmentalist in Laguna who had been campaigning against the construction of a major hydroelectric power plant on a protected mountain range. Authorities accused Daisy Macapanpan of being an armed rebel because she campaigned against the construction of the Ahunan Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Plant on top of a mountain in Pakil, a town in Laguna. The mountain is part of the Sierra Madre range's watershed whose flora and fauna ought to be preserved as well as the range's important role as protector against typhoons. Macapanpan, whom Kiri Dalena described as a "staunch defender of the land, water, and cultural heritage" in Pakil was dragged, handcuffed, and forced inside a police vehicle despite putting up no resistance, according to witnesses.
Recently, websites that call for radical change or merely criticize the government through their writings have been harassed by having them "shut down" with orders to justify it. They are listed as terrorist fronts or groups without hesitation. The National Security Advisor insisted the National Telecommunications Commission "do its job" in the name of counterinsurgency and antiterrorism, and in the meantime, its apologists have been relentlessly redtagging enough for its attack dogs to harass, arrest, or kill in the name of "order against terrorism." Even western-based websites that deal with human rights are being shut down as those who provide alternative media or simply criticize the regime and demand a radical change are redtagged.
Such bullshitries would say that this may be intensify this coming regime. With existing laws like the Antiterrorism Act and entities like the "National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict" (NTFELCAC) churning hysteria to and fro, then again, this adds another six years of living dangerously the actions brought against the ever-growing concerned folk whose expression of truth and the desire for change is subversion. Be it online or in actual, that seeking truth from facts, of pursuing social justice, of serving the people wholeheartedly in the face of risks, means prison or the grave in the eyes of an oppressive order pretending to be "for freedom and democracy".
And if one of their basis is to "defend freedom" against "communist tyranny" or whatsoever as in the cold war days, then right was the late Lenin: that "Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."