In my previous column where I tackled the 18 March lumad and peasant barricade in front of the EastMinCom of the AFP in Panacan, Davao City, I said that in addition to sympathy and charity, what the protesting farmers and lumad also needed was that the public understand the political roots and implications of their mass action.
Much has already been said about the lumad and peasant barricade last 18 March in front of the Eastern Mindanao Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Panacan here in Davao City.
What is unwritten is that these changes are being done because of externally-sourced policies, namely, the K to 12, new CHED policies, and ASEAN integration.
I gave this speech just last Saturday (March 5, 2016) at the UP Diliman Film Institute during the world premiere of the music video “Salupongan”, directed by the renowned Carlos Siguion-Reyna.
And in situations when the odds are already clearly against us (such as against a tsunami of popularity), we should do what any real human being of the universe would do, and that is to speak truth to power (or, in this case, to beauty).