Monday, February 06, 2006
May Liwanag sa Dulo ng Tarangkahan ng Kamatayan
Nalulungkot ako talaga sa wowowee.
Dahil tumambad sa bayan ang kahirapan ng sambayanan.
Hubad na katotohanang hindi nila na matatakasan. Hindi na nila kayang ipinid ang kanilang mga mata. O takpang pilit ang kanilang pandinig sa pagsasamantala at pang-aapi sa maralitang katulad nila. Sapagkat sa harapan nila isa-isang nadurog ang mga pangarap ng masang sila rin ang lumikha.
O sila nga bang talaga?
"Hindi sasagutin ng gobyerno ang nangyari, ang papel lang namin ay sa imbestigasyon. Abs-cbn ang sasagot doon."
Sa dulo ng lahat sila ang tunay na mananagot.
Silang lumilikha ng sistemang bumubuhay sa kahirapan at pagsasamantala. Silang nagpapanatili ng hindi pagkakapantay ng natatamasa ng bawat isa.Subalit hindi na kayang bulagin ng masa ang kanyang sarili. Kahirapan ang nagtutulak sa kanyang itulak ang tarangkahan, hindi ang pagkaganid sa salapi at yaman tulad ng sinasabi ng iilan.
Hindi rin dahil idol niya si Willie o type niyang makita si Echo. Hindi dahil sa artistang sikat. Extra na lang iyon. Higit na mahalaga sa kanyang mapanalunan ang taxing may prangkisa o traysikel o dyip. Para hindi na niya kailangang mamalimos mamaya sa ilalim ng tulay ng C5 patungong Pasig Palengke. Puwede rin namang yung bahay at lupa sana. Napapagod na rin kasi siyang palipat-lipat nang bahay sa bawat panahong dinidemolish ang bahay nila sa Tramo at Leveriza.
Tinulak niya ang kapwa niya masa sa tarangkahan ng Ultra at pareho nilang tinulak palayo ang pangarap at sa huli, nadurog pa, katulad nila. Subalit nakita rin ng masa sa araw na iyon ang kahungkagan ng kanilang ginagawa, ang kanilang araw-araw na pagtakas sa tunggalian ng lipunan na siyang nagpapahirap sa kanila, ang bawat araw na pagtakas sa katotohanan ng kanilang kahirapan.
Subalit kilala na rin nila kung sino ang tunay na may sala. Hindi sila.
Kundi and estado. Ang estadong dapat na tumutugon sa kanilang batayang pangangailangan, pangangailangang isang kakatwang palabas na lamang ang kayang makapagbigay at kayang makapagpadama ng kahulugang mabuhay. Ang estadong dapat nagpapaaral sa kanyang mga anak. Ang estadong lumilikha sana ng trabaho at kabuhayan para sa mamamayan.
Kung natutugunan sana ng estado ang batayang pangangailangan ng sambayanan, hindi na kailangan ni Nanay Fe, Ofelia, Esperanza at iba pang mga nanay, bata at matandang pumila pa sa tarangkahan, makipagsiksikan, makipagtulakan at mangamatay kasama ng iba pang kinitlan ng buhay at pangarap.
Sa ganitong kalakaran ng mga bagay, tiyak na mayroong mamatay pa. Hindi man sa tulakan at takbuhan, kundi sa mabagal na kamatayang bunsod ng gutom at pagod at hirap.
Baguio
The city is markedly an American mountain town. Session Road is not of Filipino design but more of the main road of a sleepy American mining town.
Which Baguio, in its history really is. Why else would the Americans carve out a city so far out of the civilized comforts of its lowland territories? For what else but for the mines in the Cordillera and Baguio was its center of trade and commerce. Baguio served as the entry point towards the mines in Itogon and Mankayan, among others where one of the biggest Philippine gold mines are located. It is the center of development aggression and internal displacement of the national minorities of the Cordillera. It is the center of Christian chauvinism against the proud tribes of the mountains who stood their ground against colonialism, though they succumbed to imperialism as the guns of the White Man was just too great.
On my way to the public market I road a cab and wondered about the parked we passed by. My companion said it was called the People's Park. But the cab driver entered the conversation and told us it was more aptly called the Igorot Park. I then noticed that he looked like someone from the tribes - an Igorot perhaps. He was a burly dark man with long hair but had slightly chinky eyes, resembling the features of American Indians or indigenous people's in Latin America. Of course this is not to stereotype the minorities but what he said next struck me as a tourist and as an activist. The national minorities up to now dream of their ancestral lands forcefully taken from them by people whose interests are not for their welfare but to exploit the resources they have kept protected for the last hundreds of years.
And Baguio is one of those lands, as more than half of the entire land area is part of the claims of the Ibaloi tribe as belonging to their sacred ancestral domain. Yet despite laws such as the IPRA of 1997 safeguarding ancestral lands and domains of IPs, their hopes of these will forever remain pipedreams for their people.
Which Baguio, in its history really is. Why else would the Americans carve out a city so far out of the civilized comforts of its lowland territories? For what else but for the mines in the Cordillera and Baguio was its center of trade and commerce. Baguio served as the entry point towards the mines in Itogon and Mankayan, among others where one of the biggest Philippine gold mines are located. It is the center of development aggression and internal displacement of the national minorities of the Cordillera. It is the center of Christian chauvinism against the proud tribes of the mountains who stood their ground against colonialism, though they succumbed to imperialism as the guns of the White Man was just too great.
On my way to the public market I road a cab and wondered about the parked we passed by. My companion said it was called the People's Park. But the cab driver entered the conversation and told us it was more aptly called the Igorot Park. I then noticed that he looked like someone from the tribes - an Igorot perhaps. He was a burly dark man with long hair but had slightly chinky eyes, resembling the features of American Indians or indigenous people's in Latin America. Of course this is not to stereotype the minorities but what he said next struck me as a tourist and as an activist. The national minorities up to now dream of their ancestral lands forcefully taken from them by people whose interests are not for their welfare but to exploit the resources they have kept protected for the last hundreds of years.
And Baguio is one of those lands, as more than half of the entire land area is part of the claims of the Ibaloi tribe as belonging to their sacred ancestral domain. Yet despite laws such as the IPRA of 1997 safeguarding ancestral lands and domains of IPs, their hopes of these will forever remain pipedreams for their people.
