Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
On Saturday, May 1 1971, police and military forces in the Philippines, who had been deployed on the roof of the Congress building as snipers armed with machine guns, opened fire on four thousand protesting workers and students. They mercilessly strafed the crowd, firing on anyone who moved, (...)
The Philippine Catholic Church’s alleged conservatism throughout history is worth re-examining today as the country began its official commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines on April 4, 2021—Easter Sunday. A study of Philippine Church History (...)
‘The central role of the United States is now deliberately forgotten or minimized in the mythology of EDSA, but its derailment of a rising revolutionary movement had momentous consequences that played out over the last 35 years’
The EDSA Uprising was really the culmination of a US-orchestrated (...)
’A reign of terror is about to be imposed on the university by idiots whose main criterion for red-tagging you is that if you sound subversive or you are critical of the president and the military, then you must be a rotten subversive’
In every society, there is an institution that plays the (...)
Rizal’s death led to the 1896 revolution. But because he died so young, he also opens himself to a lot of contemporary speculation.
It has become a habit of mine to remember Jose Rizal’s execution by rereading Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. This year, however, something odd had become (...)
The title of this column is inspired by John Lennon’s 1974 No. 1 single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” I have learned that he himself picked up this line from a black televangelist, Reverend Ike, who, one evening, was telling his late-night viewers: “Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter, (...)
MANILA, Philippines — Pro-Marcos books, heritage sites and online disinformation are linked with one another, researchers from the University of the Philippines found according to a report by VERA Files.
Researchers Miguel Paolo Reyes and Joel Ariate Jr. found that books written in favor of the (...)
The second week of November was met with a number of student movements in the Philippines. It began when a group of students from the Ateneo de Manila University threatened to hold an academic strike to protest the government’s inadequate preparation and response to the series of typhoons that (...)
The book profiles ten Filipino artists who have been doing work that reflect their critical responses and views on the sociopolitical realities of Philippine society. It focuses on their inner lives and the influences that led them to who they are today and what they do as artists.
Mostly in (...)
Growing up in the small town of Betis in Pampanga, a village of proud artisans and carpenters, I came to know of the nation’s heroes early in my childhood. Dr. Jose Rizal’s name was not just the most important in the list. Indeed, he seemed, for a time, to be the only one deserving of the honor (...)
One of the more important tasks for an historian is bringing the experiences and lessons of history to bear upon contemporary developments. As students in the Philippines are currently organizing strikes demanding, in increasingly political language, an end to government neglect in the face of (...)
High noon of June 30, 1981, the sound of “And he shall reign forever and ever” from Handel’s Messiah soared over the crowd that gathered at the Rizal Park and into the homes of Filipinos all over the country, glued to their TV sets or listening to the radio.
The occasion was the third (...)
This coming week, we recall Marcos’ declaration of martial law 48 years ago, an event that significantly altered the course of Philippine politics. It may seem pointless to warn the younger generation of the virus of authoritarianism—since it is already upon us, albeit without a formal (...)
Reflecting on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Possessed” (1871), the French writer Albert Camus argued that the biggest challenge of our times is increasingly the “inability to believe” in any grand Truth.
Set in mid-19th century Russia, the novel explores the dangers of mindless nihilism and blind (...)
Hugas Kamay is a song by GALO Tepangan, a cultural group based in the Philippines, which underlines the critical role of citizens to stand up for their rights and criticise undemocratic regimes.
GALO Tepangan
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An eruption of protests and violence — molotov cocktails and gunfire — in the streets of Manila, launched the heady, charged days of January to March 1970. The paroxysm that opened the decade came to be known as the First Quarter Storm (FQS), a period which began on January 26 as Marcos delivered (...)
This week marks the 34th year of the historic 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution. It is also the fourth time President Duterte is, according to his spokesperson, staying home — consciously ignoring whatever significance the event may still hold for some Filipinos.
Still, Edsa, by law, is a (...)
The battle lines could not have been clearer for Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso when he addressed Manileños after cultural group Panday Singing engaged in a day of graffiesta. The cultural group has taken their messages of mass solidarity and societal injustices to where it belongs — to (...)
An odd, unpleasant photograph was taken forty-five years ago today. Imelda Marcos, the conjugal head of a two year old military dictatorship, intimately greeted the aged Chairman Mao who openly ogled the straightcut neckline of her terno. The martial law regime of the Marcoses, imposed on the (...)
By emotional disposition, Filipinos tend to harbor a deep suspicion of China. This is confirmed by a succession of public opinion surveys showing the Filipino public’s huge distrust for this Asian hegemon. It is an attitude that far exceeds any negative sentiment we may have against Spain, the (...)
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