Tama ka, kaibigan,
Hindi pwedeng parating seryoso;
Pagka’t walang kwenta
Ang rebolusyong Walang sumasayaw.
Ngunit hayaan mong Ituwid ko ang baluktot;
ang rebolusyo’y hindi napapagod,
Ito’y hindi natutulog, hindi hinahapo
Sapagka’t, kaibigan,
Ang rebolusyo’y mas malaki Sa akin at sa’yo
Ako ma’y mapagod
Ako ma’y pumanaw
May ibang tumutugtog,
May ibang gumagalaw.
Eight years ago, we, the people of the Philippines, walked to EDSA in the millions.
We walked, both in body and in spirit, down that historic avenue to demand something better. We walked because we were fed up with the inept, corrupt, and fascist regime of then President Estrada.
And you walked with us.
You promised to listen, to serve, to be the things that your predecessor wasn’t. We gave you our just demands, that genuine land reform begin, that workers be given just wages, that education and social works be given priority over the military, that the harassment of progressive forces, working for social justice through the exercise of their lawful right to organize, be stopped.
But just as quickly as you turned on your corrupt boss, you have quickly turned against the very people who put their trust in you. You are not what your predecessor was, you were worse.
Under your stewardship poverty has risen in the Philippines. Despite your glowing credentials you were no different from the neoliberal failures that came before you. You kowtowed to every demand and suggestion that the IMF-WB ordered of you. You have turned your back on genuine land reform, you have pushed for the extension of the rotten CARP, you have repeatedly denied a living wage to the long-suffering workers of the cities.
Perhaps most tellingly, you were among the first in the world to throw your full support for the US’ “War on Terror”, the unwieldy beast that the United States government has unleashed upon the world. You have ordered your own military to turn upon the very people they were supposed to be protecting. You have used the blanket of paranoia to throw aside the sovereign right of your people to organize, to fight for their own survival and well-being. You were happier to become a willing accomplice to the slaughter of thousands of your citizens than to be the purveyor of change they have asked you to be.
We have heard your SONA, madame president, and it was lacking. You forgot to talk about your treacherous machinations to perpetuate yourself in power through brazen conspiracies with your lackeys. You forgot to mention that you think bringing an entourage of twenty of those same lackeys to sightsee in the United States was a reasonable way of spending Filipino tax money.
You forgot to mention that your favorite generals have been running amok, under your negligent (or is it enabling?) watch. They have made a mistake in kidnapping and torturing Melissa Roxas, madame president, for in her testimony the world will hear the plight of the hundreds who did not have the weight of American citizenship to protect them from your dogs. The world is watching, Gloria Arroyo, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that they listen.
We resent your smiles on the television, we resent your lies. Hindi n’yo na kami maloloko, madame president. Your imaginary numbers will not feed our people, educate our children. Your hollow attempts at bravado will not stop our movement, nor discourage our ranks. You have proven yourself just another willing cog in the system that have for so long denied us dignity as a people, and like all things that bind us in chains, you too, will soon be discarded.
The Committee on Pilipino Issues (CPI) joins the world in mourning the passing of Corazon “Cory” Aquino.
So aptly named, we remember her beyond the grieving widow, but as the lionhearted heroine that answered the call of her time.
Never having spent a day in public office, she offered herself up to assume the mantle of her slain husband, to take on the task of providing the figurehead on which the Filipino people could pin their hopes on. It was a momentous task, to stay true to the spirit of an uprising that thrust her into power. One that would prove too difficult for a lesser person, a lesser president.
Although we should never forget her horrendous surrender to US interests, her haplessness in the face of her family’s plundering, her deplorable human rights record that suprassed the dictator’s and second only to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s, let us remember that these things happened not because of her, but despite her. Let us not think that it was her only her failures that led to those things. It was a system bigger than herself, a history longer than her lifetime. In the end it will be up to us the people, not our presidents, to end it.
In her passing, the Filipino has lost an advocate, a friend. We have lost an honest person and a sincere politician. We have lost another brave citizen.
Let us remember her then, not by citing her failures, or sanctifying her to a status beyond what she deserves, but instead by living, striving as best we could to collectively assume the mantle of our movement.
Let us stand steadfast in the face of tyranny. And though her “Laban” might have differences from our own, it is still a “Laban” that affirms our dignity, our sovereignty, our potential as a people.
Mabuhay si Corazon Aquino!
Long live Corazon Aquino!
Mabuhay ang labang Pilipino!
Long live the Filipino struggle!
Delivered by Bagwis to Ohio State University Filipino-American students, May 2009
Allow us to speak to you, not as immigrants to American citizens, but instead as Filipinos, speaking to their brothers and sisters.
1. We are the flower of our people
Within us is the future of the Filipino. With the blood of our heroes, both named and not, our freedom was bought. It is not a plastic freedom, it is not a catchphrase. It is not an excuse to exploit or become complacent. It is not the freedom of colonizers to plunder, or the warmongers to kill.
It is instead the freedom of the most beautiful, sublime kind. It is the one that broke our chains from four hundred years of conquest. It is the one that reminds us we are Filipino. And though we can be conquered, we will not be subjugated. Though we can be scattered we will not forget, that our home, las islas Filipinas, ang lupang hinirang, is with us in our blood.
We are the flower of our people, and the memories of Rizal, knowledgeable and intelligent, of Bonifacio, skilled and mighty, of Lapu-lapu, first to stand his ground, we will learn, and never, ever forget.
2. The world is our home
The Filipino is no longer defined by geography. We have stretched, sometimes by choice, often by necessity, to every corner of this planet. We are a people in motion. Poverty, exploitation and desperation drove our parents to wander. True, it is tragic. But it has also given us you. It has given our people branches in lands far from our roots. It has given us the opportunity, the privilege, of planting the seeds of change everywhere we go. We are reminded of the humble Carlos Bulosan, born halfway across the globe, but fought, with every fiber of his being, alongside the trampled in his new home. We are the living dream of dead men everywhere, he said, and so we are now. Our communities are our new homeland, and by serving those of us who are here, we serve those of us who are there.
3. Our future is now
Now is our chance. Speak to your brothers and sisters. Learn their language for it is your own. Learn their history, read their writings, for they are your own. Though we are separated, our struggles are parallel. The farmer who is landless in Ilocos is the discriminated student in Urbana. The immigrant who hides in fear in Los Angeles is the activist that has been shot in Manila. Never feel shame, or pride that you were born here instead of there, that is not the point. The point is that we are all the same, we just have to realize it.
Our future is now. We will build it, block by block. One learned Tagalog word, one snippet of our history, one life of principled service at a time.
Our future is now, and it is in our hands to make it a good one.
