By MARY LOU MARIGZA
www.nordis.net

At 60, I get to experience my first automated elections. As the hokus-PCOS said: Congratulations! For reasons of work, I have not participated in the last two elections and had to re-register last year so I can vote this year. I did try using the machines last 2010 when they were tested at the market for all first timers who wanted to “practice” with the machines.

It went fast with me. The clustered precinct where I voted had a snaking line when I went at 10 am. I had stayed in the line with the rest for some ten minutes when a security guard told me I can use the senior citizen’s lane. So I got priority! One more time to thank the white hairs on my head! Read the rest of this entry →

By JUDE BAGGO
www.nordis.net

There are things we ignore when we are free. Things change when one is in prison; everything whether it is a living or non living thing is counted, studied and analyzed. As the detainees would say, it is just to kill time and maintain sanity.

In the region, there are seven political detainees, five in Ifugao and two in Kalinga. All of them are maliciously charged with fabricated crimes such as multiple and frustrated murder to illegal possession of ammunitions. Read the rest of this entry →

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” — Alexander Pope

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) already proclaimed the winners in the national as well as local level of the 2nd automated elections despite the many protests and petitions. The temporary job of the campaigners distributing leaflets and other campaign paraphernalia is over for now and will resume after three years. All the promises politicians for decent jobs, justice, upliftment among others who won will again remain as promises while Filipinos continue to hope that even a pinch of them be fulfilled.

On May 20, parents, teachers and even the students and generous out-of-school youths will join forces for the yearly “Brigada Eskuwela”. Read the rest of this entry →

By MARY LOU MARIGZA
www.nordis.net

Families and friends of the Lagawe political detainees staged a picket at the plaza of Lagawe fronting the Justice Hall during the hearing of their case last Tuesday, May 7. The case stemmed from the ambush of soldiers of the 86th IB in Tinoc, Ifugao in April last year. The relatives called for the freedom of all falsely accused political detainees not only in Ifugao but also the whole country.

The accused are not even members of the New People’s Army to be charged with the ambush and murder of soldiers but are legal activists and development workers who are faced with trumped up charges involving military men in a blatant effort to pin the blame on activists. Read the rest of this entry →

By JUDE BAGGO
www.nordis.net

This is one paradox in life that I came to realize. How could it be that feeling insecure is normal? How could it be that working for the advancement of peoples’ rights is wrong? How could it be that providing human rights services to the oppressed and exploited is wrong? How could it be that speaking for human rights victims is wrong?

When is extrajudicial killings met by silence? When is enforced disappearance met by indifference? When is torture accepted as a tool to get information? When does human rights violations become the order of the day? Read the rest of this entry →

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step to ward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the final testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines four days before the much awaited elections, the teachers are the busiest workers of that day. They arrived at the polling center hours before the testing starts. One is overheard telling her co-teachers “saanak pay a nangagsapa” (I did not yet eat breakfast). Their head teacher with the assistance of the technical person provided by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gave instructions and some reminders. Read the rest of this entry →

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“He has stretched out his mighty arm and scattered the proud with all their plans. He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away with empty hands.” — Luke 1:51-53

Mary and Human Liberation

As we celebrate Mother’s Day on May 12, we are reminded of Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord. Sometime in early 1990’s Bishop Tissa Balasuriya of Colombo, Sri Lanka, wrote a very controversial book entitled Mary and Human Liberation that caught the ire of then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later on became Pope Benedict XVI.

In his book, Bishop Balasuriya criticized the traditional Marian doctrines of the church, like the Immaculate Conception, the perpetual virginity, the divine motherhood, and the assumption to heaven. Vatican defrocked his ordination as bishop for refusing to recant what he wrote, but his ordination was restored later due to worldwide protests. Read the rest of this entry →

By MARY LOU MARIGZA
www.nordis.net

Farewell, Pops Manny Loste. You had been father to many activists. You have been mentor, listener of woes and lovelorn youth, writer of songs of hope and singer-weaver of the struggles of our people. We will miss you. We know you are now with the Great Spirits who created wind and fire to burn the rage of the night. We know you too yearned for the day of the dawning of Aquarius.

After all, you are also a child of the flower generation even if at that time you carried the title of a lieutenant. Manny Loste transcended that huge leap from instructor of PMA cadets to instructor in the national democratic movement. He was not only a student of history and social sciences, he was also a student of current events, literature, the mundane and the profound. Read the rest of this entry →

By KATHLEEN T. OKUBO
www.nordis.net

“All men must die, but death can vary in its significance. The ancient Chinese writer Szuma Chien said, ‘Though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather.’ To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather.” (From Mao Zedong’s “Serve the People”, September 8, 1944, Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 228.)

Now we use the above quotation to describe the life of Manuel A. Loste who was also one of our Senseis or mentors in Nordis for a long time. He was a reporter, writer, columnist, editor, the english professor, and adviser. And most of all, he was Pops to all who came this way. Read the rest of this entry →

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Three International Labor Days have passed since President Benigno Aquino III took his oath and announced that he will lead the country traverse what he called the “straight path”, and the Filipino workers did not hear anything from the yellow president but his rejection of any wage increase. He ignored the plea of the people to stop contractual employment and the arrest of heightening labor repression in the country.

The workers with the rest of the Filipinos especially the poor were again angered with the latest statements of Aquino on the eve of this labor day. He arrogantly announced that the country cannot afford any wage increase as this will cause many factories and businesses to close and investors will hesitate to come. He even defended contractual jobs as if telling the unemployed to take it or leave it, they do not have a choice. He also seemed to insult the Filipinos who are hunting for jobs, belittling them by advising they should be grateful if they get employed as contractual workers for at least they have jobs. It looks like he is saying that it is just okay for the workers and their dependents to go hungry between temporary jobs. Read the rest of this entry →

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!’ and it will go. You could do anything.” — Matthew 17:20

The Right Way

The Aquino Administration claims from the very start that the way it is following is the right way. However, the Book of Proverbs warns us though that “there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 16:25).

The forthcoming May 13 local and national elections are going to be a decisive event in our nation’s life. For we have been searching all these years for a kind of leadership that would lead us to the right way. But apparently the way our country is leading to seems to be the way of death instead! Read the rest of this entry →