Cultural work

Clockwise: Frank Cimatu, Mae Paner, the blogger, Edna Aquino, Kervin Calabias and Kelly Ramos

Yesterday marked my first official meeting for 2019. Meaning, this was no longer socializing and meeting holiday obligations. This was defining a project, setting realistic goals, assigning duties, sourcing possible funds.

It helped that convening the meeting were cultural activists Mae P. Paner, a.k.a. Juana Change, and Edna Aquino. After initial sips of coffee or tea, we buckled down to work at a long table at Hill Station. The January afternoon weather was kind, not bitterly cold, so it was conducive to agreements and agreements to disagree. With us were fellow writers Frank Cimatu, Kelly Ramos and Kervin Calabias.

The project is the mounting of, hope I can announce it now, guys, "Tao Po," described as a a monologue for four characters on extra-judicial killings by Ms. Paner on Feb. 8 at the University of the Cordilleras (time and specific venue at UC to be finalized).

The next day, Feb. 9, Ms. Paner will conduct a theater workshop for Baguio youth to raise their awareness of human rights. The all-day workshop will culminate in a showcase of the participants' output. Venue is still the UC.

The organizers of these twin events, which are part of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)-led "Artists for Human Rights / Luzon Project," are Let's Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI), Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera (DKK), the UC, HUDYAT (Artists for Human Dignity) and the Baguio Writers Group led by newly elected president Kelly Ramos.

Expect that in the next couple of weeks, we will be making some social media noise about "Tao Po" and the theater workshop--two avenues for promoting, at the risk of repeating myself, human rights. Mabuhay!

To Oscar, happy trails

"There is protection accorded by the bill of rights not just to freedom of the press, but to freedom of expression in general." - Harry Roque

I'm always on the lookout for a boost that'll put me on the right track for the rest of the day. Or even for just this new morning. Attorney Roque's latest commentary in Vera Files has just given me the boost I need that caffeine no longer can give because I am slowly lessening its intake until my system fully rejects it. Aging requires some changing.

Because the day is new and ripe with possibilities, I am reminded, too, that it is right to put a song in one's heart when one wakens. Puwede bang bumati o magpaalam man lang kay Ginoong Oscar Dipasupil?

Oskie, bro and friend to Ester, skipped this life on the 24th of January and has become a heavenly intercessor to his two surviving sisters (the other is Dipsy who's from Oz) and other beloveds. Today is his cremation and inurnment day.

I have good memories of that chap, among them how he carefully read the lines, especially those in the newspaper his sister continues to work for. He was doing the Reader Advocate's duties unofficially. To Oskie, now that you're beyond the bluest sky, thanks for the times I hitched a ride in your car, those times you pointed this and that out in my article in your quiet, measured tones while I sat in Ester's garden or your living room while I waited for her to waken.

More than anything, thank you for being that old reliable steadfast pillar in Ester's life. She'll be all right in time and back to doing the work she loves in the hallowed Dipasupil tradition of being press guardians and fighters.

Some trees my Dad and another old family reliable, Mang Cabiz, planted. Blogger sends thoughts upward to mingle with The Saints and Intercessors. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

The kind of loving Sumi Jo does

From the concert organizers of "Sumi Jo in Manila":

Sumi Jo, the celebrated Korean opera singer, sings in a one-night concert for causes close to her heart on Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. at the new Samsung Hall of SM Aura Premier, Bonifacio City of Taguig. Her Manila debut is her first stop during her 2014 Asian tour that will take her to Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore for more performances. Her collaborating artist is Najib Ismail.

For her Manila concert, she is donating her honorarium to a home for disabled children and a local animal shelter. The proceeds after production expenses are also going to Tanging Yaman Foundation's rebuilding projects in post-Yolanda Samar and to workshops by international teachers for talented voice students in classical music.

She sang the aria in Eat Pray Love in the scene where Julia Roberts was shown eating spaghetti in Italy. She also sang for an HBO drama starring Kate Winslet.

She says, "I do all this because it is a way to have my voice heard by this bigger audience. I feel very, very flexible to not just use my voice the classical way. I am also challenging what I can do with my voice."

Jo hopes that other singers will also similarly expand their musical careers, saying, "Classical singers live a bit of an isolated life because we are the divas and the prima donnas--you have to think about protecting your throat. But if you open your thoughts and mind and look around you, you can do more with your music to give to society. That is a message that I would like to send to other musicians--make not just beautiful music but use our talents to make the world a better place."

She supports human rights causes, women's rights movements and pushes for greater protection of animals. She once said, "Women are often so underpaid and there are so many working mothers and they are having a difficult time. But at the same time we need to think about animals-we need to defend them because they cannot defend themselves."

For tickets to "Sumi Jo in Manila," call 782-7164 or 750-0768, cell phone numbers 09183470053 or 09209540053.

Letter to sister, brother, every warrior in movement vs. state militarism

Today's inbox yielded this message from Cristina Palabay, spokesperson of Tanggol Bayi (Defend Women)-Philippines and Karapatan, and focal person, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

Warmest greetings from Geneva, Switzerland!

I have been here since the last week of February as the head of delegation of the Philippine UPR Watch, a network of human rights and faith-based organizations engaging in the Universal Periodic Review process of the UN Human Rights Council, as we lobby in preparation for the UPR of the Philippines this coming May to June 2012. I spent March 8, International Women's Day, with women human rights defenders from all over the world as the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition launched the Global Report on WHRDs in Geneva, simultaneous with the launch in New York, US and in the Philippines. In a week, our delegation will be back in the Philippines.

May I share with you a video-tribute to Filipina human rights defenders and a paper where I culled excerpts of my panel presentation during the said launch. Please see attached copy of the paper and click through this link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ucpEZajZ4&feature=youtu.be.

Likewise, we pay tribute to you as a sister and a fellow traveler in this journey towards a society where genuine equality, freedom and respect exist. Happy international women's day!

--------------------------------


The Struggle for Justice and Rights for
Women Human Rights Defenders in the Philippines

Paper Prepared by Cristina Palabay
Side Event at the 19th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
By the International Service for Human Rights and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition

Today, March 8 2012 - International Women’s Day, we pay tribute to the women human rights defenders all over the world as we commemorate a “herstoric” event in herstory – the struggle for bread and roses, the struggle for rights and freedoms. As a young feminist, I take inspiration from this most relevant call for all of humanity, especially for all women: A woman’s place is in the struggle.

And why will we not struggle?

If we are in the place of Connie Empeno, a mother whose daughter was abducted, tortured, raped and is still missing after six years, won’t we march for justice over the rights violations against a daughter, along with other daughters, sisters and mothers who were similarly violated? This had been the common practice in the Philippines under former woman President Gloria Arroyo whose counter-insurgency blueprint has ravaged rights and lives, with 206 victims of enforced disappearances, 31 of which are women. Connie Empeno’s child, Karen, who is a young activist and sociology student, was abducted in 2006 by Maj. Gen. Jovito “The Butcher” Palparan and his cohorts in the military while she and Sherlyn Cadapan, a student leader and triathlete, were conducting research on the situation of farmers. Since then, they have not been surfaced. Their parents filed cases against the perpetrators resulting to the issuance of warrants of arrest but Palparan remains at-large.

If we are in the place of Evan Hernandez, a mother whose daughter Beng – a human rights worker and journalist – was shot summarily while conducting a fact-finding mission in a militarized indigenous people’s community, won’t you struggle for justice? Beng begged for her life and asked the military who shot her to please take pity, but impunity is that brazen and perpetrators roam freely everyday in the Philippines, from the highest government offices to the courts to the military and police, that they just didn’t care. Beng’s case was brought before the UN Human Rights Committee, where it was investigated that the state security forces are responsible for her killing. But lo and behold, during the same time that the ruling came out, the cases against the perpetrators were dismissed. Beng is among the 1,206 victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the nine-year rule of Arroyo, 153 of them women.

Such climate of impunity prevails to this day, under the one and a half years under Phil. Pres. Benigno Aquino III, with 67 cases of EJKs, four of the victims are women, three of them are WHRDs and one is a seven-year old child Sunshine Jabinez. Oplan Bayanihan, the current counter-insurgency policy, has legitimized the militarization of communities resulting to forced evacuations, threats, harassment, torture, and indiscriminate firing, the rape and sexual abuse among the civilian population, most of them women and children.

While economic and socio-cultural rights are being violated every day, Phil. state security forces continue to quell and silence those who dare lead the defense and struggle for rights of the women and the people. Comprehensive health care, including reproductive healthcare, is being denied by the government; rural women and their families are being dispossessed of lands they have tilled for many decades; women workers choose between being laid off from work or they can lay down and suffer sexual abuse and rape of their employers to keep their jobs; young women are deprived of their right to education because of the increasingly prohibitive and privileged costs of education. All of these are in the context of the immense impacts of the global financial crisis instigated by imperialist greed bringing forth these attacks especially against the poor and marginalized women of the Philippines and of the world.

And so, yes, why will we not struggle.

The Global Report of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition provides the whole picture of violations. I believe that the intent of this document is not only to illustrate the sordid picture of the violations being suffered by WHRDs, but more importantly, it is intended to move us into action, including actions we can undertake while we engage in the UN Human Rights Council. The UNHRC is an important venue for advocacy and intervention for WHRDs, and a platform for complaints, communications and networking, where solidarity can be established and enhanced for the defense and protection of WHRDs.

Tanggol Bayi-Karapatan (Defend Women-Karapatan) Philippines and the Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development, as member of the WHRD-IC, enjoins every sister and brother, every warrior in the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual movement, to help us pressure the Philippine government to exert more efforts in arresting and prosecuting Palparan and other human rights violators, and ultimately end the climate of impunity by scrapping Oplan Bayanihan and genuinely realizing the basic human rights of the women and Filipino people.

I enjoin every sister, every brother, every warrior in the LGBT movement, amid the cold streets of Geneva, Switzerland, to keep the fire of struggle burning as we all contend against state militarism, globalization, fundamentalism, sexism and patriarchy.

Thank you very much.