I shared this poem which is written in popular verse and entitled Cry of Mindanao on the occasion of a Solidarity Forum attended by Fil-Ams who have come to Mindanao as delegates of a Solidarity Miossion to find out the situation in communities affected by calamities in recent months.
This and the over-all manifestation of anti-people policies of the government headed by President Noynoy Aquino would inevitably stimulate the creative insight of artists—poets and graphic artists alike—to structure into esthetic shapes their responses to what have unfolded on the ground. And so, this poem
Puppetry and Poverty are 2Ps that insure the futility and failure of President Noynoy’s program of 4Ps. How can he proclaim moral rectitude and vouch for matuwid na daan and emancipate the people from poverty with his nauseous puppetry to American imperialism? Puppetry begets graft and corruption. Poverty begets criminality. Graft and corruption forge partnership with criminality for the flourish of bureaucrat capitalism.
He has reneged on his pledges and his acts have all floundered in utter failure. One would ask Why?
Digging up on old issues of Gimbao (newsletter publication of the defunct DEMS or Development Education Media Services Inc.) I came upon this article by Davao scholar and historian Macario D. Tiu, written 19 years ago. The essay entitled “Culture of Defeat”. strikes me as still throbbing with bloody reality and still very relevant to the present-day crisis in Philippine society. And so I decided to have it reprinted in full here -