Together, we can turn Arroyo's website into the "
pekeng pangulo" homepage.
We are calling on all bloggers and web administrators to post a link with the keywords: "
pekeng pangulo" to Arroyo's website at
http://www.kgma.org/ .
This will influence the
search engine results to put GMA's website as top result when one searches the keywords: pekeng pangulo.
This has been done by anti-Bush activists during the peak of the anti-Iraq war protests in 2001. When you search Google with the key words: "
miserable failure", then click on "Im Feeling Lucky", it will bring you striaght to the biography page of US President George W. Bush.
Other keywords you can link:
sira ulo (
www.doj.gov.ph),
gobyernong bulok (
www.gov.ph),
bugaw (
http://www.i-site.ph/Databases/Executive/Cabinet/2004-2010/personal/gonzales-personal.html),
sinungaling (
http://www.op.gov.ph/profiles_bunye.asp), etc.
You can read the article on this project
here.
Everyone is encouraged to repost this entry on their weblog/website.
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I got this exact text message around 8pm last night: ANG MGA AQUINO ANG MASTERMIND SA PGPATAY KAY RAMOS KUNG SAAN ANG MGA RHB ANG MGA SNIPER. BINAYARAN NI CORY ANG RHB NG 500K TO KILL RAMOS AND RIVERA OF BAYANMUNA. ACDG (according) TO ISAFP.
Minutes after I received the message, I got a call from the message sender. He asked with a coarse, manly voice if it was indeed me he was talking to, then introduced himself as a certain Major Florencio Legarda of the Philippine Army.
"Si Major Legarda ito...nakikiramay po kami sa pagpatay sa inyong mga kasamahan sa Bayan Muna...kung may information po kayong kailangan, magtext lang kayo sa number na ito..."
Stunned, I asked him again of his full name and asked where his information came from, he said, "...may insider kami sa ISAFP (Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines)."
For a brief moment there I did not know what exactly to say. It was the first time I got a call from someone who introduced himself as AFP personnel, and before his message my 3310 screen read: another one killed by AFP in CL, Ka Pedy De Leon, Anakpawis/Piston Chair. A bit confused, I even remembered thanking him for calling me and relaying to me the information.
It is now common knowledge that the AFP's intelligence agency is not under an investigation/information gathering department, but rather, it is a tool for their propaganda and psy-war operations. Intelligence reports are not meticulously gathered facts and data; they are well (or poorly) crafted lies to justify and to get the people to support their operations.
The military couldn't have had conclusive intelligence reports a few hours after the killings; what they had was a lie to sell. Ka Crispin Beltran may have gotten it right when he said that the "killings may be linked to the government's effort to weaken the alliance between the mass movement." The military and the Arroyo regime wanted the blame to point to the Aquino's.
I told a friend what happened and asked what he thought about it, "pare-pareho lang naman yan sila eh, sila-sila din yan," was what he told me. At first I was a little annoyed by his lack of interest towards the little "conspiracy story" about the killings, but thinking about it, it actually doesn't matter who's story to believe in. The point is that these murderers are now making their own stories out of the lives of peasant and labor leaders they exploited and then killed.
Thinking about it, what hit me the most was the fact that I was part of the picture too. They killed the leaders in Central Luzon, created a story they could sell, and called ME up to tell me their "report." Could it be part of their "military operation"? The story too, is pretty lame, besides, why would they call up a youth activist leader to tell of their "report," even say they were "nakikiramay" and expect their story to be believed?
But contacted by military elements or not, activist leader or not, WE ARE all part of the picture. The killings were intended to terrorize the people, especially the ones standing up for their rights, and to demoralize the ranks of peasants and laborers who are determined to oust the current fascist regime.
Several youth organizations immediately held an indignation protest after receiving the news of the brutal slay of Ka Ric, Francisco, Dr. David, Von John Maniti and Ka Pedy De Leon. There, more than a hundred youth leaders vowed to fight for justice for the victims of the killings and promised to intensify the campaign to oust Arroyo and her fascist government.
They chanted, lit candles, and together proclaimed that the time will come when those who should pay will pay, and no amount of psy-ops, lies and propaganda will save them. ###
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"The history of the oppressed teaches us that the state of emergency we live in is not the exception but the rule."
-Walter Benjamin
Agad kong naalala ang sinabing ito ni Benjamin nung nabanggit sa akin ng isang kaibigan ang nasabi ni Mareng Winnie sa Debate nung nakaraang linggo. Hindi hamak na malayo raw ang Batas Militar noong panahon ni Marcos kung ikukumpara sa CPR at EO 464 at 467 ni Gloria.
Inisa-isa pa ni Monsod sa kanyang pang-Sabadong kolum sa Inquirer ang mga puntos kung bakit hindi na posibleng muling ipasailalim sa diktadura ang bansa. Punong-puno na raw ang Saligang Batas ng 1987 ng mga batas upang pangalagaan ang demokrasya. Dito pa lang sa ubod ng kanyang argumento, mapapasinungalingan na siya ng mga pangyayari noong nakaraang linggo.
Gasgas na nga kung tutuusin ang paggamit sa Saligang Batas bilang pansalag sa pasismo ng estado. Makailang beses na ring binabaluktot ang konstitusyon upang makalusot at umayon ang interpretasyon ng batas sa sinumang may monopolyo ng mismong interpretasyon ng batas. Kakatwang sa isang bansang makadalawang (tatlo?) beses na nagtungong EDSA, ano't BP 880 ni Marcos ang ipinapatupad sa mga lansangan sa tuwinang may kilos-protesta.
Taktikal din kung tutuusin ang pagkakalagay ng numero unong disipulo ng Malakanyang sa Department of Justice. Kay Raul Gonzales pa lang, niluluto na ang mga batas (at paglabag sa batas kung ipupukol sa kaaway ng administrasyon) na maaring gamiting pananggalang ni Arroyo mula sa batikos at sa katotohanan. Nang mapasama si Miriam Santiago sa slate ng K4 noong nakaraang eleksyon, hindi alyado ang binili ni Arroyo kung di abogado.
Unang naging bukambibig ng mga bulaan sa Malakanyang ang katagang "rule of law" nang nanganib sa kamay ng sambayanan ang pananatili ni Arroyo sa puwesto. Sa panahon nga ng postmodernismo at globalisasyon, singkong-duling na lang ang katapat ng interpretasyon ng batas at ng ibanabandilang "rule of law."
Simple lang, kung paanong sinuspinde ni Marcos ang pagpapatupad ng 1935 Constitution nang ideklara niya ang Martial Law, ganoon din isinantabi ng revolutionary government ni Aquino ang 1971 Constitution pabor sa Freedom Constitution. Dahil sa huliÕt huli, walang ibang naglelehitimisa sa mga batas kundi ang pagsunod dito ng taumbayan. Kung gayon, ang mamamayan pa rin ang mapagpasyang nagsusulong ng karapatan nilang higit sa lahat ay makapangyarihan. At hindi kailanman maaaring pagbanggain ang kapakanan ng bayan sa karapatan ng mamamayan.
Sa lipunang binubuhay ng pagsasamantala, ang bayan ay nasa palagiang "state of emergency." Lagi't laging nasa bingit ng paghihingalo. 'Yun bang naghihintay parati na masalinan ng dugo. Sa bayang ito, ganito ang nasasaad sa batas: Kung wala na't maubusan ng blood donor, hindi mangingimi ang hari o reyna na maglabas ng pangil.
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Bruised from this afternoon's violent dispersal in Mendiola. Haven't been water-cannoned in years and, quite understandably, have forgotten how water, taken for granted as a mere daily necessity, could leave one feeling battered and beaten all over.
And quite honestly, have also forgotten how angry and agitated I used to feel. Not that there are no reasons to feel rage and righteous indignation nowadays. At some point, one somehow develops the tendency to "get used" to or just anticipate some things. Like water taken for granted. Or terror/terrorism, for that matter.
The day started out smoothly. After all, the youth sector has for the past few weeks successfully launched LRs (lightning rallies) such as the one planned out a while ago. What we didn't quite expect and anticipate was how the police seemed resolved to NOT initiate any sort of attack against us. But as the rally progressed, their tactic was obvious not only to us but also to the media and curious bystanders -- a sudden shift back to what seemed like "maximum tolerance" after a weeklong display of sheer brute force by the police. Earlier, the police unsuccessfully tried to turn the tables on protesters by placing policewomen in the frontlines. Their plan, however, backfired and failed to shift dissenting public opinion. A few policewomen, in full battle gear to boot, could not just easily erase past footages of protesters, old and young and irregardless of gender, being slapped, kicked and bloodied by riot police in the public's mind.
Back to my water-terror analogy. Like water, terror/terrorism is something which we experience everyday. We take it for granted because the government, for one, creates extreme "terror scenarios" to justify unleashing state terror as something short of a "normal" occurrence in our daily lives. Or it is something so anticipated that we somehow just get used to it. We even develop all sorts of counter-measures, but these do not make us less enraged.
Because terror does not necessarily have to be anarchy in the streets, or bomb attacks in public places (though these events, one brought about by growing public dissent, the other by mysterious sources not unlike the pre-Martial Law scenario during Marcos' reign, are not impossible). Terror, as we know it and as should be exposed, lies in every repressive and repressed policeman/woman who has found an outlet for years of frustration over meager wages. Terror is the armed force's subservience to a Commander-in-Chief so cold-blooded that even its traditional mercenary orientation is being put to test.
Today, state terror/terrorism is undeclared. De facto. Creeping. Called by any other name, but the point is, it's there.
It is being flaunted in our faces, and from time to time, leaves us black and blue as in this afternoon's dispersal. Some are imprisoned or made to disappear. Some are left dead.
Some experience a "rebirth" of sorts. A reaffirmation to a cause, not really taken for granted, prepared for but not really anticipated, and in dire need of "refreshment" -- by batuta, by truncheons, by water.
We say, "Never again to Martial Law!" and they say we harp on gossip and lies. But we feel it in the government's CPR, EOs and an overbroad anti-terror bill. We feel it because it's there. Our rebirth is brought about by the unveiling of yet another face of something that has been faceless since actual Martial Law was implemented years ago.
No amount of water can make us "swallow" another martial rule. We have been "refreshed" and our dissent cannot simply be watered down. ###
October 13, 2005
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