On this gracious occasion wherein we fifteen Awardees are showered with tribute and praises as Creators of Cebuano Literature, no greater feeling cradles us than this surge of grateful joy overflowing from the core of our interiority. Our hearts sing.
As if the prevailing inflationary conditions are not enough and already saddling the scrimping household, here comes rice tariffication!
We have to continue looking after every single FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT that we have as a citizen of this wretched nation where the majority have become easy prey of the tyrants in government service.
From the wellspring of a select corner of the soul, a subjective disturbance — however unwilled it may be — may flow via the aqueduct of verbal expression into the domain of the tongue.
One of the things that constant militarization, or continuously renewing Martial Law, accomplishes is that it normalizes the sight of fully-armed personnel and their weaponry in public and civilian spaces (like schools). It makes things that you would only normally see in an active conflict zone a part of our everyday. It conditions us to think that our safety depends solely upon their highly-visible presence in our communities and landscape.
Tita Lacambra Ayala is the Star — a veritable Star. Tala, her signature artist name rhymes perfectly with her singular fame. Her radiance is a rare circumstance in the literary horizon of our nation, seeps into the collective consciousness of all lovers of literature and art.
The year is 2019. The year of gender equality.
It was a simple ceremony but Mr. Mario Tipan, Chair of the Laak Multipurpose Cooperative (LAMPCO) felt like it was hope dawning on the farmers in the province of Davao del Norte.
Watching the year-ender of a late-night talk-show reminded me how important alternative media platforms are. As 2018 concludes, reports of DoS (Denial of Service) attacks probably launched by DDS bots against Pinoy Weekly (still down as I write), Bulatlat, and other resources of progressive news and analyses flooded the social media.
A couple of months ago I had a hiatus in writing in this column. The last quarter of 2018 was a terrible part of the year, forgive me I did not have enough courage to write the murders of farmers, farm-workers and a good friend farmer’s lawyer Ben Ramos. Grief and anger consumed me.
