"Poems after a cup of Coffee: When Love is tempered with Fire"

"Poems after a cup of Coffee: 
When Love is tempered with Fire"

"After a cup of coffee"

Alone sitting, waiting for the iced brew
Looking at things minimal surrounding through
And smell the aroma of beans roasted breweth
Done by the barista after paidth the due

Recalling Escolta, if not Love and Light
Whose coffee provieth redemption from a tiring night
If not a respite from all the miserable times
Trying to inspire by someone a delight

Speaking of delight I remember you
Whose beauty matched with tenderness inspired me anew
Can't explain further actually but your grace bid thee love
Enough to please a lonesome heart a gift from above

Strange those times as I taketh the first sip
Remembering the memories of you and your sweetness
It melts my heart tho as your warmth felt me o'er
That warmth and sweetness, like the coffee, waketh me from slumber

Pardon for the analogy of comparing coffee and yours
For perhaps should be Chocolate or Milk but those rainy days compellth me
To sip a cup of coffee, laced with milk and sweetened with sugar
Bittersweet as the love I cherished you most this time more than ever

With all those times thus missing you in the long distance and yearned for your love
As I sip my coffee reminiscing the times of you and your charm
But the kindness you brought is the one cannot forget
Especially in this time of rage, of seeing disquiet

"Where are you my beloved?"

(inspired from the song Kde Domov Muj)

Where are you my beloved?

Whose beauty as quite enchanting

Whose charm is undoubtedly unforgetting

Quite recalling as I see

The nostalgia that made me glee

That forever etched in a memory

For it's you my beloved

My Cherished, my beloved.

Where are you my beloved?

She's the rose that never wilting

Whose love is ever worth remembering

With her warmth made me redeemed

So angelic as it seems

As if prayers, pleas hath been answered

For it's you my beloved

My cherished, my beloved.

Where are you my beloved?

Gentle be yet she's dauntless

In a world that is full of madness

Ever cheerful, hopeful, strong

Bravely thwarting any wrong

Whose heart, mind, and soul lies the beauty

For it's you my beloved

My cherished, my beloved.

"We'll meet in the trenches"
(To my dearest beloved)
(Inspired by Alei Barikadot)

To my dearest beloved
Despite the times that our lives are apart
I hope that we'll meet
From the day all as redeemed
Don't cry, and be strong
For the struggle our lives hope be prolong
Like your embrace take the sten
Meet me back once again

From every field and trenches, we will meet, we will meet
From every barricade we will endure the pain and heat
Let our love be grow in the struggle
For freedom be watered with fire
From every field and trenches,
from every barricade, we will meet

If foes take my life
This my offering to freedom we long held by
I hope do not cry
Let pain be strength to live in
Let tears wipe away
For tomorrow you'll lead and sieze the day
Like your love take the sten
For freedom fight again

Alei barikadot nypagesh, nypagesh
Alei barikadot herut nysha badam vaesh
Rovebh al rovebh qaneh aytsdya
Kadur al kadur yariya
Alei barikadot, alei barikadot, nypagesh

"When the awakened outweighs the order and its elected allies"

"When the awakened outweighs the order and its elected allies"

(Notes after the recent proclamation of elected senators 

and the ever growing concerned willing to counter the order)

As expected by many, president Duterte has more than two-thirds majority in the Senate and is in a position to push his agenda through charter change and its federalism, and even to declare nationwide martial rule at his whim. 

With overweening arrogance, his "victory" would say that he can able to push his agenda, and supported by his propaganda machine and hordes of apologists would say that his agenda will try its "best" to appear pleasing, be it his connivance with interests seekers to those of his bloodied ventures that rather invoked fear to its subjects, while at the same time benefiting interest seekers especially those connected to the regime.

But despite the heartbreaking election results and the still continuing propaganda barrage against the opposition, the ever growing concerned populace has started to seek truth from facts as election rigging, particularly those of vote shaving and mishaps in voting machines has made the regime culprits trying to maintain their version of order, what more that its apologists would continue praising the regime uncritically as in the past- what more that they themselves are seemingly willing to favour dictatorship in its bluntiest sense than pretending that democracy under Duterte's orderism as "continuing". 

Quite strange as well as concerning isn't it? For knowing that with recent reports and this kind of conclusion would say that with opposites rising the ever growing "woke" take the risk as a challenge no matter the regime had afforded to gain more seats from the congress to the local government councils;
yet come to think that  this matter cannot be limited to this election related fiasco. For remember, in  his desire for consolidation, this "victory" meant adopting and implementing more draconian measures to suppress the opposition as well as to silence potential dissent. As in the past, and as expected now and then, his policies will benefit more within the order, particularly those of his allies and supporters, of having his Federalism benefited warlords, of economic concessions benefiting the few and its foreign partners, so is to desensitise human rights violations in the name of maintaining order and stability. Remember, by first appearing to be socialist, turns out to be a mere populist benefiting the privileged classes; by first promising on site housing for the homeless, it end forcing them to be evicted if not making them occupy abandoned houses; by first promising swift justice for the victims of drugs and numerous crimes, tuned out to be victimising the vulnerable with its war on drugs and various atrocities.

Nevertheless, given the ever growing concerned, of those seeking truth from facts, it is therefore expect the people but to unite and raise its level of awareness and will to resist. For the worsening of socioeconomic and political critis will not just worsen the regime to committ atrocities, but also making people "fight back" all for their desire for peace, land, bread, and justice. 

Therefore, with all these existing actions, along with seeing elected officials sworn to upheld the order, has created conditions favorable for massive actions enough for his eventual ouster.

Poems after a cup of Coffee: Of Tears and Revenge

"Poems after a cup of Coffee: 

Of Tears and Revenge"

As the fools rejoice few wept,
And in their grief I hear devils laugh,
And on the corner as one grieves,
Wolves, Jackals, Crocodiles, devils all in jest.
The few mourned for their country,
Whilst the fools, along with others cheer for their leader,
One of them made mischief on the concerned,
If not driving the aware into suffer.

Such saddening and risk filled times
Has made I, concerned to a conclusion
That from their sorrow breeds will to resist
Willing to draw their weapon as will pleases.

Right is the sage who chose not to concede
For him the struggle is by all means.

It is created out of your love

The honour that your brought

Despite the tumultuous times

Of horrors that you sought

No matter you face the fears

You tend to overcome with hopes

No matter wounds scarred yours

The spirit continues to linger

Your desire for freedom cannot wither

No matter how the order tries to expunge

Be it by slander or torture

By the blade or by the bullet

That tries to put an end to the struggle

A person may gone but two, three may take over

For like the seeds will grow and overtake borders

Be it from the border walls to the sugarcane fields

The flames of hope will rage further

No matter how oppressors try to "control"

This rage will grow overtakes their terror

Let the sorrows pave way to strength

As from the fields of fallen more will come

Whose honours, valours are driven by love

That will overcome the terror from those claiming to be from above.

The lament continues as the people
Heard every report about this present matter
Of seeing same old people
Prevailing after casting lots and collected after
No matter how it is rigged, full of blunder
Brought about by this wretched order
Just to maintain the foothold like before
Trying to be evermore
The meaningless statements been blared throughout
So is the calls from the concerned about
Of halls starting to be marred by scandals sought
Brought about by winners who are rascals trieth not
The failure of the conservatives to maintain order as they see
Matches with the liberals who wishes to liberate, breaking free
The inability of self proclaimed progressives to progress
Is as same of those from the center who can't stay in the middle as if recess
The order continues to be marred by its monsters ridden
Of skeletons from its closets hidden

These and more trying to be countered by its own fantasies
Of realised fictions
Only to be ostracised by the concerned and the awakened others.

There will be more to wake

after these weeks of wake

As cries pave way from anger

No matter the order tends to break

There will be no romance nor ballads

Trying to snare us for chrissakes

Willing to turn upside down

This earth now hell no matter what it takes

We'll all back to the field, others to the forge

Take over the tools and prepare to face the horde

Plow the land, sow the seed, reap for tomorrow

Melt the ore, flow the iron, forge break the sorrow

Set the foundations as one breaks rules

Coming from those from wretched fools

Feel them the wrath as hope bring

As if  after winter comes the spring

Of machine glitches, reelected crooks, and an order that's trying to maintain its foothold

Of machine glitches, reelected crooks, 
and an order that's trying to maintain its foothold

(Notes after the 2019 elections)

As expected, 2019 elections is but a charade. With reelectionists at the top, of returning criminals in their seats, it seems that the regime has the power to rig knowing that with clean and honest elections would have allowed the opposition to win and thus frustrate the oppressive agenda supporters find as benefiting.

Ranging from glitches at the machines, of memory card problems, brownouts, to state-supported propaganda, of using the military and police to red tag and intimidate the opposition, selective murders and attempts to split the opposition, what more of martial rule in Mindanao and various election hotspots, these and more showed how the order taketh the opportunity of the election scenario as means to maintain further their order in pursuit of consolidation in face of the growing opposition. 

And with this kind of scenario, the regime and its supporters may push further their agenda of charter change, of shifting to federalism, of removing economic provisions in the name of free market, and other means to accommodate further interests especially those supporting the regime. Furthermore, the regime tries to block attempts to remove from power, which may also meant possible arrest and prosecution before the International Criminal Court for his gross and systematic human rights violations, especially the mass murder of suspects in his bogus war on drugs and attempts to silence the opposition. The recent "matrix" conconcted by the regime, which includes personalities from the opposition, groups, as well as media outlets, is one example of how the regime tries to create an atmosphere of fear, if not seeing them yearning for a state of seige that's enough to consolidate further for their brand of orderism. 

Also to think that with election being dominated by reelected crooks and compradores, landlords trying to maintain foothold in their fiefs, the "democracy" that's presented by the order to the people is not those of a constituent to a fellow constituent; when the order speaks of "democracy" it is but their version of "enlightened despotism" that's interest-driven, it may also mean "financial democracy" that according to Mosley, in which money counts and nothing but money. From this also reminds of how the late Jose Avelino expressed his controversial statement:

"Why did you have to order an investigation Honorable Mr. President? If you cannot permit abuses, you must at least tolerate them. What are we in power for? We are not hypocrites. Why should we pretend to be saints when in reality we are not? We are not angels. When we die we will all go to hell. It is better to be in hell because in that place there are no investigations, no secretary of justice, no secretary of the interior to go after us." 

Thus, with this expectation, Duterte will use this scenario to adopt and implement more draconian measures enough to suppress the growing opposition and impose their brand of orderism, of fijoles and fusiles enough to control the population from its ever growing atmosphere of concern. However, despite these measures, it gives no choice for the people but to unite and raise the level of resistance. The existing repression, coupled by the worsening of socioeconomic an political crisis may further made the regime be aggressive in condicting atrocities against the people, and at the same time making the people themselves, becoming concerned on its surroundings to resist by any means necessary.

It may sound pastlike, but the regime itself did continue what is handed down from the past. For being a representative of the ruling order, the regime's despotism and its policies may intensify people's disgust and the will to resist no matter how apologists tends to diminish or snare, rally people into their soiled agenda supported by interests. And to think that by rigging the elections just to continue this repression, then it is considerable that elections in itself ineffective in pushing an agenda that is for the people, but instead seeing a regime making conditions that's favorable to conduct modes of resistance, thus exposing not just the regime itself but the order is meant to be dismantled.

All fighting back for wage, jobs, land, and justice!

Fighting back for wage, jobs, land, and justice!

(Notes for International Workers Day "May Day")

Despite the oppressive nonsense, the Filipino working masses have the duty to assail, defy, anger, at the current order under the Duterte regime.

For the reactionary order's wanton disregard for worker's rights and welfare, of ever prevailing unjust working conditions, a still-neglected policy towards farmers and the desire for land and justice, what more of an ever-continuing repression on the pretext of maintaining stability, these and more are valid grounds for the intensification of the struggle not just for worker's rights but also for national liberation and social justice. 

It may sound usual as in the past years, but the continuing repression and its popular response has resonated through and through. Contractualisation has been remained a major matter in which workers continue to assail and demand aborgating it, all despite what the Duterte regime promised to put an end to the scheme with its Executive Order 51, even bragging that it will punish companies implementing anti-worker job flexibility schemes. 

However, that Executive Order 51, touted by the regime as its anti-contractualisation policy, hath allowed third-party agencies to sub-contract labor, hence diminishes its "purpose" if not obviously made hurriedly to silence the ever-growing dissent of Filipino laborers pointing against Duterte and his camarilla; furthermore, the Order as well as other unjust policies continues to curry favour to interests, remaining to be subservient to the neoliberal order propagated by imperialists primarily those of the United States, and newcomers like China. 

And to think that the reactionary Philippine government peddles workers to foreign corporations and  allowing capitalists to exploit further despite existing laws, recent acts has further justified a policy that meant depressing wages, removing benefits and laying off workers to rationalize production and operational costs. apologists would even blame as in the past the Unions and of the concerned whose sympathy for the worker's and other laboring masses' desire for a just wage, benefits, and working conditions be tantamount to against the law- whose decrees obviously benefited the ruling class.

This aggressive setting, as in the past may say that the regime, no matter it tries to present itself as bringer of change, still failed to heed the call of the workers and other laboring masses and its fight for land, bread, and justice. To think that with policies at first appeared to be benefiting the people such as that promise of take home pay, rising inflation rates dimishes their earning's purchasing power; what more that reports from the Philippine Statistics Authority claiming the current wage rate as sufficient, these and more are deemed as unbelievable as the promise of ending contractualisation nor claiming that it regularised workers and addressed problems related to labor practises and conditions, but instead it incited public disgust at the Duterte government’s obvious lack of sympathy for workers.
The chronic job crisis, contractualization, unfair labor practices, and anti-union policies hounding workers reveal the reactionary government’s bias for capitalists, while band-aid solutions offered by two-faced labor officials prove the futility of reforms whose obvious intent is to provide sugar coatings for existing unjust policies.

*** 

Other than the workers, the peasants and the urban poor feel the burnt of repression under the Duterte regime. Both did felt how the purchasing power of their pesos diminished as inflation rates rises what more of the tax reform law that increases prices of goods and services. The peasant still demanded land especially those in the contested estates, so is the urban poor dweller that demanded on site housing and livelihood given their years working for the cities as construction workers, househelps, and in urban transport as drivers and conductors. 

Both peasants and the urban poor, like the workers, also felt the repression of the order with the recent killings whose justifications either involve red scare or illegal drugs, all simply because of their just desire for decent land and housing, if not because of being themselves as becoming concerned, aware regardless of the propaganda peddled over by the order and its apologists; what more that landlords, compradores, and the state been trying to evict the urban poor from their homes or forcing to compromise peasants for starvation wages and unfair sharecropping, coupled by threats of red scare in an attempt to silence their dissent.

But again, like the workers, these folks chose to seek truth from facts as oppression grows under Duterte. Recent actions showed that these folks had enough of forced evictions, unfair sharecropping, starvation wages in plantations, militarisation, and various forms of state-sponsored terrorism. Like the workers, the demand for land, livelihood, and justice been resonated through as they supported the cause of the workers in its struggle for just wage, better working conditions, an end to contractualisation and various forms of injustices in the workingplace.

***

To sum it all, this aggression confronted by the Filipino people is the same one as it has always been – imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism. This may sound repetitive but reality shows that it continues the same way such as a continuing relationship between Trump, Xi Jin Ping, Duterte, Marcos, Arroyo, and landlord-compradores like Lorenzo, Floirendo, and Ayala. In it may sound like an 'axis of evil' but it is in this context and against these forces that the people are leading, for so many months, and despite deaths, these heroic and brave popular efforts been continuing to push through all under the slogan of land to the landless, homes for the homeless, just wage and living conditions, and others that to sum it all, the demand for national and social liberation, and economic justice.

Expect Duterte apologists to babble two and fro about this issue badly ranging from crying "wolf" towards its victims to those of justifying the massacre in Negros or any other atrocity in the country evenly as a necessary action of the state: that made this writer think that their brand of order aggravates than mitigates tensions between the haves and the have nots that's prevailing for centuries past. 

And to think that despite Duterte did brought some semblance of development as their media outlets babbled about, the reality of ever existing atrocity brought by the order would say that the president, whose oath is to defend and upheld the ruling order, is nothing but a making a continuity like those of his predecessors, and from there revealed further the immense popular anger and resistance against this kind of mess with all its components and accomplices. 

"Not just a contemplation of truth!"

"Not just a contemplation of truth!"

A Message this Good Friday

At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At 3 PM Jesus died as a political criminal, a rebel.

This note, inspired by a writeup brought about by the known Gerardo Lanuza may sound less religious and more political at first, for knowing that the nature of his execution was done by the order as a punishment against its rebellious subjects, Christ's passion and death has aroused people to cling further in their faith, what more of its promise of justice and love leading to a life that's eternal.

And this time, given by the actually existing challenges affecting humanity, the occasion, despite being an opportunity for prayer and reflection, has also the means to strive in upholding what is good and just, for knowing that Christ himself as well as his teachings has guided each and everyone in making a good, meaningful, and peaceful life possible.

But the actually-existing realities has made this note more than just a spiritually-filled message knowing that as people yearned for mercy, the order gave them impunity; that as people yearned for justice, the order gave them fear; and as people desired comfort and consolation, the order responded with pain and repression, these and more has lamented the nation whose "God is the lord" inscribed in the peso bill.

What more that it encourages people to get concerned, seek truth fron facts, and having the will to take sacrifice to serve the people by all means, including their lives in the forefront of struggle- all amidst the challenges in which the church and the community been facing. 

What more of seeing an ever growing militancy by those whose concern and awareness brought themseves to a call for action similar to the Desciples and Crusaders of long ago, for in the end, Jesus did not just died for the sins of the world; but also brought people closer to God especially to the helpless and defeated, of redeeming the sinner and of uplifting the struggled. True that people tried their best to prove how their skill may also change the world they live in the way they're trying to change themeslves as persons, but with faith this may also helped in bringing an ideal closer to its fruition, for as "faith can move mountains" others may say, and the Cross in which Christ died is itself an expression of solidarity such as by an Omnipotent God with all the suffefed and the downtridden, of all the militants and activists who endured repression all in the hands of an unjust order.

And to think that despite Duterte's message seeking unity and reconciliation as christians, people rather looked at it as insincere, citing the fact that the president himself is against the church, what more that he himself ridiculed the Christian faith, calling God "Stupid" and Christ as "unimpressive" because he had allowed himself to be nailed on the cross.

***

Pardon for the thought in case the reader is a supporter of the present order they called "reformer" or "bringinger of change", but to think that most supporters are themselves Christians, and to hear his statements pointing badly towards God and Christ, aren't they supposed to be defending the lord instead of whom they voted for? True that their "Tatay Digong" did numerous feats in pursuit of alleviating the peoples suffering, but the atrocities of his regime outweighs his handed-oe'r projects, that his extrajudicial killings outweighs the roads and bridges, and so is his bloodied threats that also outweighs his promises for a better life for the common man.

Like Herod who taunted Christ, Duterte taunted the people with gutter jokes and insults while his followers, reminiscent of those who chose Barrabas over Jesus, chose to support their idol than to seek truth from facts, even at the expense of their support for their Duterte.

Anyway, as a writer and a Christian, Christ's passion and sacrifice is more than just liberation of humanity from sin, but also from repression, and the desire for an everlasting life and a world that is to come, if not to say that the Crucified Jesus on the Cross this Good Friday is not an explanation why activists are tortured by state armed forces, or why human rights advocates and oppositionists, including those who seek truth from facts are persecuted. Sounds political than the typical spiritual yes, for as time goes by, and no matter how those from the order tend to downplay the setting that brought Jesus the Nazarene to act along with his desciples and supporters, Christ's very own sacrifice speaks for itself: that the his action ranging from his miracles, eucharist, down to his suffering and death from the cross is itself an Activism if not an outright Rebellion- not just a contemplation of truth!

"When Blood again spilled the Sugarcane Fields"

"When Blood again spilled the Sugarcane Fields"

(Notes on the recent murder at Negros Oriental)

As Filipinos been glued to the gutter jokes and delusion of their president in every social media sites, last March 30 2019, 14 farmers were killed by the police and the military, Eight were massacred in Canlaon, four murdered in Manjuyod, and two more in Sta. Catalina in a coordinated state-sanctioned killing sprees.

Just like the actions that targeted most of the poor masses, this murderous act brought by the order was the second massacre of farmers during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte after the Sagay Massacre wherein nine sugarcane workers were killed in Negros Occidental in October 2018.

But for the order and its apologists, this murderous act, like the past actions, as nothing but a police action, thinking that those been killed as nonetheless rebels, and this clearly shows the ruthless “policy of killing” that the Duterte regime utilizes in solving poverty and hunger among hundreds of thousands of poor farmers in Negros Island. Without an official program for land reform under his helm, President Duterte have no qualms in eradicating rural poverty by putting to death hundreds of poor peasants.


Aggravating the existing tension through blood and slander

Firstly, the action brought about by the order shows the intensifying struggle between the landlords trying to upheld their interests and the peasants whom demanding land and justice. With 14 farmers killed and some arrested on the basis of subversion, this murderous act hath again fuelled anger from peasants as well as concerned groups and individuals alike, thinking that the regime whom supposed to be for the common man rather chose to continue its oppressive legacy as its predecessors. This may sound usual at first since Philippines remains backward and predominatly agrarian benefiting vested interests, but to think that with a regime trying to assume itself as developmentalist as its predecessors, rather tends to continue a bloodied legacy- silencing those who actively demanding for land, peace, and justice; what more of branding them as subversives and rebels by its apologists.

With this, the Duterte regime, who behind its populism hath betrayed the people with gutter-level statements and bloodied acts, and this time outrightly taketh the action against the concerned masses through various acts be it unjust arrests to those of this bloodied action that costs the lives of these peasants.

Secondly, the Duterte regime's bloodied action, like all others, is one of the ways to tighten the interests of the landlords, compradores, and its imperialist overlords whose foothold remains through its unjust agreements. No matter how the regime appears as "for the people", of invoking "change", or even opposing imperialist interests like in the case of Duterte's comments against Americans and making pseudo-banter against the Chinese, the Duterte regime would like nothing better than to maintain order on the ruling class's behalf, and that includes the use of both police and military power alongside token "reforms" meant to appease if not to silence the working class.
What more that its apologists in social media sites would start churning two and fro justifications meant to show that these thugs in uniform were doing an operation, no matter how "unarmed" these "rebels" were at that time; if not maligning those who vent their grievances in an organised way as "subversives" and therefore face the system's impunity. In fact, on top of the killings, 16 more have been illegally arrested, all on fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

And while Provincial police director, Sr. Supt. Raul Tacaca described these slain peasants as suspected communist rebels, and even linked to foiled assassination plots against state forces, fabricating such charges is a common enough exercise by the police when accosting organized peasants and activists, all designed to curb their participation in the growing struggle for land and justice in which the state has been suppressing for decades, if not centuries.


Will justice prevail for the peasants and the masses?

With this massacre somehow a cocnerned see why should oppose the regime's bloodied exploits; also to think that ironically, the tragedy itself was two days shy of the third anniversary of the Kidapawan Massacre. How coincidental then, but to think that whether using the insurgency or drugs for a reason, the killing of innocent peasants is motivated by the same reason as the past: to upheld the feudal order by invoking fear amongst them;

And like the dictatorial regime of Rios Montt in Honduras decades ago- this "frijoles y fusiles" variant of the present Duterte administration, either by providing them "something beneficial" in exchange for coercing them to surrender as rebels, or simply by the bullet and be justified, misinterpreted, cannot stop the concerned from seeking truth from facts if not to oppose them all throughout.

All in all, the bloodied actions brought by the order doesn't create an atmosphere of "stability" as apologists may say, for bluntly speaking, the war on drugs is nothing but a war on poor, the counterinsurgency operations is also nothing but a war against the looming opposition, and that massacre, like all others, has made the concerned saw how unjust the administration's way of resolving the peasant problem if not an "impositon of justice", making chances of their "perception of peace based on social justice" as impossible.