an essay by Ninotchka Rosca, aptly titled The Usual Can Be Criminal, on the ways in which our notions of womanhood and the roles we play, allow for us all to be victims.

such an enlightening read, even when we can only truly imagine what our domestic helpers are going through as they sacrifice their own families for a life of discrimination elsewhere. my favorite quotes:

“Household work has been historically women’s slave shackles, rendering her a service unit in the family power structure, stunting her growth and development, erasing her sense of self.”

“<…> having a household servant impacts even the employer who slides into this semi-feudal role of patriarch and patron. I hope others will seriously develop a political economy of housework. A serious one.”

Other than the fashion both inside and outside the halls of Congress (which will be topic for another entry), what’s also exciting about the President’s annual SONA are the discussions that lead up to it, where once a year, media actually sort of asks the right questions (finally!). Then again, with a past SONA to diss, and a new one to compare it to, how can any show go wrong?

And so on the new TV show Harapan with Korina Sanchez and Ted Failon last Monday sat Vencer Crisostomo, secretary-general of the League of Filipino Students, and Department of Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, face-to-face (kasi nga harapan, hindi ba?) to talk about GMA’s presidential promises on education. Suffice it to say that in this harapan, Crisostomo had the upper hand, primarily because he was faced with a Dep Ed undersecretary who, like her boss GMA, had her way with truth. That is, she had a way of lying by not talking about the full picture of our public schools.

So Labrador says with pride in her voice and a sparkle in her eyes that the teacher to pupil ratio has consistently been kept down to 1:35 or 1:36, thanks to GMA’s administration. Barely able to contain his laughter, Crisostomo responds that this is only so because the classrooms have been cut in half — as in literally in half with makeshift walls! — so instead of 1 teacher to 70 pupils, it can truthfully be said that it’s now 1 teacher to 35 students at any given time.

He also points out that it’s the logic of having three shifts - that is, three different classes - for any given day, any teacher, and every halved classroom, that allows for the 1:35 ratio to be true. In fact Dep Ed Order No. 62, s 2004, speaks of these shifts as a way of solving the problem of classroom shortage, which at that point was at 51,947. In the said order, it’s even recommended that for certain public schools, they must have as many as four shifts, not three, and the maximum number of students for every classroom is set at 65. Wait, is that a whole, or a halved classroom?

But Labrador seemed surprised at Crisostomo’s response, if not flabbergasted. How could she respond? Well, with no answer at all. So she starts talking about statistics on the number of graduates in public schools, and how statistically, the numbers have been consistent. To which of course Crisostomo responds by mentioning the now higher drop out rate, which would technically allow for the number of graduates to be consistent, because you’re not counting the growing number of students who leave school because they can’t afford it.

But public schools are suppose to be free, yes? Failon asks. No, according to Crisostomo, as there are fees that students continue to be required to pay, to which Labrador says, report those schools that still have fees and the Dep Ed will take care of it. To which Crisostomo says, “hindi naman maiiwasan ‘yon.” Because really, if a school has to collect money for a bathroom that students can use, or an electric fan to ease the heat of a classroom with 70 students, who would complain?

Meanwhile, Labrador is left with nothing to say, and nothing to be proud of. Someone should’ve warned her that speaking of truths based merely on gov’t statistics, doesn’t hold in the face of someone like Crisostomo who has a real sense of what it is that actually happens on the ground, in the public schools, that half the time seems to only be a theory to the Dep Ed and GMA.

Of course it helped that Crisostomo was not your grim-and-determined scary activist. For most of Harapan, his charm was difficult to miss, informed as it was with knowing that truth was on his side – the kind that sustains organizations like his, because it is the truth that is lived by the majority who aren’t invited to speak in shows like this one.

LFS: one point. Dep Ed: zero.

of course this president is torture enough. that grimace that she seems to always have on her face. her capacity at giggling in kilig and laughing at jokes made at the expense of a nation in calamity. and we’re not even talking about her ability to say one thing and do another. and to lie through her teeth.

and then this, a perfect example of how torture is but part and parcel of GMA’s presidency. and how people still suffer for their politics - when it’s the kind that is not one of a heckler’s, or a rightist’s, or that of an America-loving-Pinoy - in the closet and otherwise.

According to the Manila Times editorial today, the NCR director for the Human Rights Commission Dr. Renato Basas has confirmed that various forms of torture have been employed by the GMA administration. And while she has also ratified the U.N. Treaty Against Torture, the editorial also says that obviously

“The unfortunate reality is that absolutely prohibiting the police, the jail managers, the military and others charged with the duty of ensuring that law and order prevail is not among the top priorities of Malacañang.”

A measure as well of GMA’s fear in the military’s power over her, thus the decision to coddle the Palparans of this world and celebrate then as fantastic officers, despite witness upon witness saying otherwise. Proving otherwise.

i caught Storyline’s episode on the desaparecidos of the present. And while sometimes the show’s format doesn’t work (more on this next time), last night, it just did, as it allowed King Catoy to just speak to the camera, with no real sense of an interviewer. Catoy told the story of his 2003 abduction, and spoke of the activists with him who were summarily executed: human rights worker Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy.

what struck too close to home was the fact that he and two others had identified Master Sgt. Donald Caigas as one of their abductors. Caigas would also be the one name that would surface in relation to Karen Empeno’s and Sherlyn Cadapan’s disappearance, and apparent torture and rape. the latter story was witnessed and told by the abducted farmers who would come to be known as the Manalo brothers, Raymund and Reynaldo.

it was Raymund Manalo who claimed that he saw Palparan twice during his three-month detention, before he and his brother escaped to tell their story. in one of those instances, Palparan told him to tell his parents to stop going to protest rallies.

blindfolded, hands tied behind him, and kneeling on the ground, King Catoy was also told the same thing: stop going to rallies, stop whatever it is you’re doing with these activists. stop being yourself.

and everyday, we live through the torture of knowing that many others are disappearing and dying for doing what they do, believing what they will, living a life for justice and democracy that we all should want to live. because people are stolen, are made to disappear, are tortured and raped, and are killed, not simply for their politics. in GMA’s time (as with Marcos’), they are being made to suffer for being themselves.

i did say i was aching to write about Rogue Magazine’s independence day issue, but was overtaken by the NHI’s accusations, Joey Mead’s naked body, and Argee Guevarra’s defense.

suffice it to say that it was as i expected of a high-end P180-peso english “literary lifestyle” magazine, and their notion of the “State of the Nation” — the title of the month’s issue. save for Lourd de Veyra’s literary piece on an imagined exchange between two friends, one in Dubai and another in the Philippines, there is no mention AT ALL of the crises that beset this country.

and while the editor’s piece for the month did talk about the need for heroes, as an introduction to their Honor Roll of Nine Portraits of Philippine Pride, all it talked about was corruption in a general sense, alongside the other “pressing and dangerous problems” that beset the nation: “poverty, health care, human rights, the environment, education, and crime”.

at a time when you have a president like GMA who can wax clean and innocent about corruption and all the other six problems they mention, generalizations are the last things we need. these are also the easiest to wax nationalistic about, the easiest words to use to pretend we are concerned with nation and its state.

when in truth we aren’t.

the Honor Roll is a hodgepodge of middle to upper class ex- and present gov’t officials, academicians and NGO people, some of whom took a stand by saying no to corruption and resigning from gov’t office, others by establishing some NGO or other, and yet others by writing column after column on being Filipino. and while the choices are highly debatable (something that the magazine is open to, given that the editor’s note also asks that readers start sending in their choices for what they imagine will be an annual Honor Roll), what it more importantly reveals is the kind of change and heroism that the magazine asserts as relevant at this point.

it is of change that is superficial, the kind that puts a band-aid on what have been the incurable diseases that beset this country. it’s not systemic nor societal change, not even a change in attitude or perception about the kinds of lives we live, in the context of a nation in crisis.

which brings us back to the fact that this issue of Rogue, while it touts itself as the “State of the Nation” issue, is really just proof that what keeps the upper classes comfy in their beds or computer seats, is their notion of nation. reading through this magazine, it doesn’t seem at all like we live in the same nation, nor that there’s a bigger nation that Rogue is part of. more than anything, it sells itself as a global magazine with philippine interests. that is, philippine upper class interests.

truth be told, those images of Smokey Mountain (for the de Veyra piece) seem trivialized in light of the photojournalistic piece on the Aurora Borealis in Alaska, the long article on the elite life that Steve Psinakis lives (which promotes his autobiography), and the feature on revolution according to Pinoy punk - which did not at all interview the punks on the ground, i.e., the mass following of local punk who are understandably enamored by the notion of anarchy in the midst of their hunger.

or maybe this is the nation for the upper classes. and it’s why they - we - can pretend that things are fine, even in the midst of rising prices and every other crisis related to that. maybe this is why there’s been an influx of foreign concert acts, a rise in the number of glossy magazines, the rise of expensive American and European stores in Greenbelt 5.

because in third world Philippines, there is this tiny pocket of the first world that continues to thrive. and to them, the state of the nation remains within the tiny circles they move in, and the even smaller spaces they inhabit. magazines like Rogue included.

i was aching to write about the independence month issue of Rogue Magazine, for reasons farthest from what has made it controversial the past two days. the National Historical Institute’s historians have pointed a finger at the cover and called it “bastos”. and while i’m a flag-loving Pinay - I bought everything that had a philippine flag on it during the centennial celebrations, never mind that it had Ramos’ “Philippines 2000″ as well - i didn’t think anything of that cover. in fact it was the reason why I even picked up the magazine and thought it was worth buying.

which, according to the press release of Rogue’s editors, was precisely their point. They used the flag on their cover so that their “state of the nation” issue would appeal to younger readers. so yes, this cover understandably achieved its goal:

and while i didn’t find anything offensive by the use of the flag on the woman’s body - it actually looked fantastic and was such a great idea, i wouldn’t go so far as saying that it was a statement on corruption - ang OA naman, and what a stretch. that defensive statement came from cover story writer Argee Guevarra, and if you listen to him wax activist about the criticism of NHI, you’d actually believe that his article was about corruption and the current state of the nation.

when in fact, it isn’t. it’s far from it. what Guevarra wrote is a retrospective on Mead’s life, what she’s dreams of doing for the country (including doing one-hour workshops about going green and organic, and about relationships - how nationalistic! anuba!), and the fact that she loves Loren Legarda and ehem ehem Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - aba, anti-corruption nga.

Guevarra also made it a point to highlight the fact that Mead is in fact a del Pilar, as in Marcelo H. del Pilar, which apparently gave him enough reason to imagine Mead playing the role of Gabriela Silang - another stretch, but go figure.

so really, between Guevarra’s defense and the magazine’s admission that this was just a jab at their market’s fancies, if not their amusement with the sensational, i’m wanting to see how far the NHI will take their charge of “kabastusan”. but then again, it would do them well to first clarify what “bastos” is.

because it is the age of “Pilipinas Kong Mahal” stamped on every Philippine flag hanging all over the metro, a violation of the law as well, but which government spent on in this time of crisis. it’s also the time of Bayan ni Juan, an ABS-CBN anniversary enterprise, of selling their notion of “giving back” to the less fortunate, and asserting their social responsibility by using the philippine flag in various renderings as backdrop (for their TV ads and website), and which begs the question: how much of this is a tax shield? and really, a Lopez company such as this talking about helping others, in this age of high Meralco rates?

that has to be kabastusan in itself, hindi ba?