Cha-Cha: Catalyst for Progress or Cause for Concern?
The Constitution stands as the supreme legal document in the Philippines. It is the blueprint of governance, establishing a framework to guarantee every Filipino’s rights and the rule of law. In the course of the currents of time, the 1987 Constitution emerged and...
Cha-Cha: Catalyst for Progress or Cause for Concern?
The Constitution stands as the supreme legal document in the Philippines. It is the blueprint of governance, establishing a framework to guarantee every Filipino’s rights and the rule of law. In the course of the currents of time, the 1987 Constitution emerged and evolved as a symbol of struggles and the collective aspirations of the Filipino people towards true democracy. It embodies the...
Factual Fiction: What We Can Reap from Anti-Disinformation Efforts of Other Nations
It is no secret that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. won the 2022 Presidential elections through weaponizing social media. With the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, they were able to afford thousands of troll farms that continuously distribute lies on social...
Taking Stock, Taking Roots: The Liberal Party Local Chapters
I was the Liberal Party (LP) Deputy Director for Education and Formation from 2016 to 2022. Though the title referred to my principal task of orienting new members and preparing them for party work, it was an all-around task. This meant that I also took on the party’s...
My Conviction Is Outrageous
The decision convicting me to imprisonment for 12 to 20 years in outrageous. It dismisses my torture narrative as “hearsay and self-serving.” It ignores my wife’s testimony on how my family searched for me while I was held incommunicado for 24 days by the Eighth...
‘24 Days in Limbo’ (Memories of a Political Prisoner)
I was apprehended at the Catbalogan, Samar marketplace, about 9 P.M. on March 26, 1982. Invited for a conversation by complete strangers, I politely declined, saying that I had business to attend to. At gunpoint, however, I was made to board a motorcycle between two...
Serving the People, Fighting Martial Law and Suffering for It: One Man’s Journey Shared by Tens of Thousands of Filipinos
The announcement of martial law on September 23, 1973 caught us in the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) by surprise. We had talked about the possibility of President Marcos staging a coup against himself but that was not really our concern. We were more focused on...
My Road to the Liberal Party after Fighting Martial Law
Plaza Miranda Editor John Coronel asked me for an article on my experience during the martial law (ML) regime of Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. I told him I wrote a statement for the Human Rights Victims Compensation Board and said I could share this and add a few items...