22/02/2018
Walkout tomorrow!
On this very day, 32 years ago, the people marched from the comforts of their home towards the streets to emphatically call for the upheaval of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This collective action by the people unseated Marcos and is immortalized as the People Power Revolution, a symbol of the Filipino’s struggle for democracy and freedom.
Today, we come to face-to-face with another burgeoning dictatorship, one that even in its mask of legitimacy has waged significant attack on our democratic institutions. Through pronouncements and policy, President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has crippled the people.
This can be seen in the outright violation of human rights and due process, exemplified by the killing of more than 13,000 people due to Oplan Tokhang. Not only has Duterte not condemned this brutality, but he condones it, enabling police and civilians alike to take violent means as a supposed solution to the drug issue.
Duterte has also overhauled his administration with the appointment of cronies in government offices, and the use of political capital to hold the Congress and the Supreme Court hostage in forwarding his own agenda, as seen with the railroading of the Constitutional Assembly to forward Federalism, a measure that will only serve to strengthen the political dynasties and client-patron relations already inherent in our current system.
Under this administration the implementation of policies like Jeepney Modernization and TRAIN have imposed unnecessary hardships on the masses. The haphazard and forceful way the modernization is being implemented threatens to take the livelihoods of our jeepney drivers and render public transport more inaccessible. The TRAIN law, meant to ease the burden on poor taxpayers by lessening income tax and taxing the wealth more through consumption tax, has been diluted and reangled after going through the political process, continually being twisted by powerful private lobbies and the ruling interest.
Amidst the dissent and the criticism thrown at him, the Duterte administration has answered with impunity, closing down news firms like Rappler that provide critiques of the administration. More recently, Duterte has belittled activism and the student movement, even to the point where blatantly admits that dictatorship is the only way.
One perhaps only need to squint his eyes a little bit more to see that the nightmare of the Martial Law era is knocking at our very doorstep. False proclamations and fake news cannot conceal the fact that our freedoms are being placed under siege like never before in recent time.
In the midst of such a crisis, we must take heed from our colourful history of activism in the country. The beauty of the People Power Revolution was that it was a movement not credited to any political group, or sector; it was a victory of the people. Though the decades that would follow would place the victory of People Power in question, it cannot deny the transcendent power of a united people.
The country calls upon us to do this again. To go out of our comfort zones, whether it is our homes, our computer screens, our classrooms or our friends and family, and to go out and actively assert for social change in all possible dimensions.
We stand with the youth, the poor, the farmers, the national minorities, the LGBT community, the drivers and laborers: the people.
We call for an end to human rights violations and killings.
We call for the resumption of the talks for peace.
We call for an end to the toxic client-patron government that enables this tyranny.
We call for the overhaul and the changing of anti-people policies.
We call for press freedom and the upholding of our right to expression.
We call for an end to a culture of misogyny, hate and discrimination.
We fight against tyranny as we oust a dictator.
Our freedom is once again being challenged by an almost familiar foe. We stare it in the eye, as a people, as we collectively scream: NEVER AGAIN.
JOIN US AS WE MAKE KNOWN OUR RAGE! WEAR BLACK!
February 23, 2018
11 AM AS STEPS
12 PM CARAVAN TO UST
3 PM MARCH TO MENDIOLA
