So many people probably want me to urge everyone to engage in People Power at this time. I think we should not be too rush to engage in that activity now.
People power in the eighties
When we launched PP in the eighties, we were not even aware it was such. We were just too immersed in that vision of seeing Malacanang freed of the images and shadows of the first family then. We wanted their immediate departure. It took us a long time to realize that vision, though. I remember that in the early 80's we were in indoor rallies because it would have been a bloody hell confronting the goons of the administration then. When Benigno Aquino was slain at the tarmac, then we became more courageous in going out, in pasting our posters, in writing continuously why we need the return of democracy. So from 1982, after my arrival from Europe where I learned a lot in terms of alternative politics, alternative to the one being bandied about by the left which includes armed struggle, up to 1986, is 4 years. In between those years, I was presenting the idea of women's liberation -- politically, economically, socially and culturally.
I remember sitting by one high profile activist then at a conference at the UP Faculty Center. The speaker said that the women's movement is a disgrace to the left movement. So I stood up and asked the guy how long he had been a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines. And he answered ten years. I retorted, after all these years you have not yet learned what the women's movement is all about? He must have grown very red and angry. It was a kind of shock treatment that I delivered.
But you see when he said that word, "disgrace" my seatmate to the right, nodded in assent and said, "Naku mga burn the bra movement lang yan." So there and then, I had to stand up and assert the need for women's liberation. Well, that was not the only time I stood up to talk about WM, but in many gatherings where I always wore violet and all shades of it, as well as those creolla earrings, I had been known then to be someone with that fire and feistiness to confront anything, any statement that was anti-women.
Of course, I earned the ire, not only of the men but also of women, especially the married ones who must have probably thought that by my statements, I was urging them to separate from their husbands.
But the most joyous celebration of March 8, which was International Women's Day that I experienced was when I directed a drama starring the women of Tondo who delivered their lines spontaneously with just an outline of what the life of women from various sectors were experiencing. Inday Pineda and Rosario Dos Santos were there to boost our artistic endeavors presented at the SOLAIR auditorium. A German guy, bless his soul, Heinz Kotte photographed the proceedings for posterity. He always had a sense of history in him. Incidentally, the woman who proposed the observance of March 8 as Women's Day was Clara Zetkin, a German national and whose picture appears below. She proposed it at that time when the workers' movement was in great sorrow over the burning to death of 170 women workers locked up in a New York City factory by the owner for fear of loss of property.
March 8
So how about now? Today, I spent the night attending a ceremony with Indian musicians, a male singer, Punu, a drummer CJ and a female singer, Ritu. They are a lovely trio singing Indian spiritual songs with sincerity. You could feel that they were singing from the heart, so different from some other performers, who sing from notes.
I had wanted to play the flute but the organizer said I should not. And I was so angry because that was curtailing my freedom of expression to use my talent for showing my admiration of the international figure whom they were putting up as someone worthy of being adored as a goddess, a UN awardee for non-violence and who has helped millions of people in India through hugging, through conduct of free vocational courses so that the women would have a livelihood, building homes for those who were victims of tsunamis, and so many more. How could Amma ever preach that the flute, which was called a "western instrument" by the complainant, should be banned from the satsang? I wonder who that guy or girl who complained.
So I told one of the organizers who asked me to email her about my ideas, "No need to email you because (what you had done) is against the preachings in the satsang. You see Folks, she is a very simple woman, a dark-skinned woman in long flowing white gown is so loved by her people for her sincerity and sensitivity to their plight. She is not bureaucratic at all, I presume.
I hope that this is read by the organizers so that they would realize that artistic expression is an important part of being spiritual.
It is International Women's Day and it looks like we have not gone very far in terms of women achieving positive prominence in Philippine life. Miriam Defensor has earned the ire of the nation when she used ad hominem to castigate the prosecution panel that is charging the CJ of betrayal of public trust, among others. GMA is incarcerated, holed up in the Veterans Memorial Hospital with a charge of electoral sabotage hanging on her head. Sandra Cam, the whistle blower, has been divested of her radio program wherein she used to deliver incisive analyses of political issues. Cristy Ramos, a sportswoman had been sexually harassed by the football players, Azkals. Worst of all, women and girls are being seduced to wear short shorts to make them palatable to rapists and all. Why, we should have statistics on the kinds of crimes that have been committed against women since the administration of Pnoy started. Have the crimes abated or have they turned worse? I read recently that two students of UP Los Banos were killed already after having been raped.
You see Folks, I have a feeling that these crimes could be externally induced also to give that bleak picture that this administration is inept in terms of stopping crimes.
On a positive note, let me cite that in the field of culture, Liza Macuja shines as the artist par excellence in her field as ballet dancer. Susan Roces is still desirable as a movie and TV star because of her ability to render a sensitive role, despite the loss of her husband FPJ to illness,
which I think was externally induced by some underground group especially as he had a pending case then questioning the validity of the votes for GMA. (I still wonder why she would not want her husband's remains exhumed to have it analyzed for foul play.)
Hence despite all the dire circumstances that we are experiencing -- including the skyrocketing of the prices of oil products, among others -- I still believe that the institutions for creating and starting changes in our society are now existing and we can use all of them to bring about a new life for all of us.
But how come, we are still so tired of waiting for changes which makes us then wish for PP to occur? Well, we see, read and hear that the officials of the government are having the time of their life. They have vehicles for moving about with gasoline and diesel paid for out of the pockets of every Juan and Juana. When they hold meetings at five or three-star hotels, they get free lauriat meals still courtesy of J and J. When they go abroad to attend conferences, they get to stay at nice hotels and even receive per diems. Thus, we have discontent lurking around.
In other words, they have a lifestyle which every J and J want to have too, but then that is what is called "suntok sa buwan." They could never have that lifestyle unless they join the government, or they win the lotto prizes.
In other words, what I am saying is that our politicians should be aware that the people know they have a different lifestyle from the rest of us and that the solution to that is for them to bring down the costs of living in the country. And how is that done? Simple, remove the E-vat and all other taxes on oil products.
I won't be able to wish everyone Happy International Women's Day because it does not look it at all today. Maybe next year or the next next year?
Give us a breather please.
