#rememberML@40

Never again to martial law!


Human Rights groups in the Philippines launched an online awareness campaign through social networking site Facebook about Martial Law six months before its 40th Anniversary. Tagged as #rememberML@40, the group aims to inform and inspire today’s youth about the dark days of tyranny.

Ano bang alam mo tungkol sa Martial Law? by Susan F. Quimpo

19 September 2012 at http://www.rappler.com

Last April, my brother Ryan, friend Unica and I created a short amateur video entitled, “Ano bang alam mo tungkol sa Martial Law?” [“What do I know about Martial Law?”] In it we randomly asked high school students about Ferdinand Marcos and martial law. Their answers ranged from serious to hilarious.

Tibak Rising: Activism in the days of Martial Law

Book Review by Dee Dicen Hunt


TIBAK RISING was conceived in 2004 and by October 7th that year, the T’bak group announced its commitment to bring the T’bak Book Project into being and called for submissions from its network by April 1, 2005. Seven years later the book was launched on July 21, 2012 in the University of the Philippines, Diliman — timed to complement the events commemorating the generation of anti-martial law activists who offered their lives in the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.

The “Political Economy” of Prison Pendants

by Edicio G. dela Torre

IN THE BEGINNING, there was a soup bone, bleached by rain and sun, near the wall of the prison grounds in Camp Olivas, Pampanga. I don’t recall who the first prisoner was who picked up the soup bone or why he thought of rubbing it repeatedly against the rough cement wall; it could simply have been his way of releasing extra tension. Anyway, the rough cement eventually ground the bone into a flat oval shape. Then he pried a nail from a discarded plank and used it to bore a hole through the bone.

Remembering Martial Law by Joanna K. Cariño

23 September 2012
Northern Dispatch (NORDIS) Weekly

The semi-colonial and semi-feudal system breeds revolutionary families. There are eight of us in the family and even before martial law, five of us were already activists. The three younger ones also became activists when they grew older during the martial law era.

Philippines: New ‘Cybercrime’ Law Will Harm Free Speech
Supreme Court to Rule on Act That Worsens Criminal Defamation

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
September 28, 2012

A new Philippine “cybercrime” law drastically increases punishments for criminal libel and gives authorities excessive and unchecked powers to shut down websites and monitor online information, Human Rights Watch said today. President Benigno Aquino III signed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 into law on September 12, 2012.

Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years

Book Review by: Emere Distor

THIS YEAR MARKS the 40th anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law in the Philippines. As a fitting remembrance to the lives lost during the struggle against the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos and the equally oppressive hierarchy of the Communist Party, a family memoir came to the fore.

‘Subversive Lives’ is a collection of personal stories written by surviving members of one of the well-known intellectual families in the Philippines that became heavily embroiled in the ‘underground’ organisation and hierarchy of the Communist Party and the National Democratic Front. Spearheaded by two of the ten Quimpo siblings, Susan and Nathan compiled this detailed and moving memoir bringing back recollections from the time when they were growing up in a house not too far from the Presidential Palace.

The Ghosts of Martial Law

by Nathan Gilbert Quimpo
20 September 2012

On September 21, forty years ago, President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law. For almost 13-and-a-half years afterwards, the country suffered terribly from a brutal and corrupt dictatorship. Among the victims of the grave violations of human rights under martial law were the following: 3,257 “salvaged” (summarily executed), 35,000 tortured, and 70,000 incarcerated, as documented by historian Alfred McCoy.

Universal Health Care Coverage for All is Possible and Necessary

Paper delivered at the Third People's Health Assembly, 8 July 2012, Capetown, South Africa by Dr Sylvia Estrada Claudio, MD, PhD

At the outset, I wish to note that I and some others here, are from another movement. We are from the women's movement, particularly the sexual and reproductive health and rights movement. I therefore thank the leaders of the People's Health Movement (PHM) for inviting me here. I am convinced that only a broad movement of peoples will end the discourse of profit-making that is our common enemy. I am sincere in my desire to be with the PHM as an individual activist and as someone who has led and continues to lead organizations at the grassroots and international levels.

Family Violence Provisions in Australian Migration Law

by Raquel Aldunate


This article is a summary of a presentation delivered at the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Research’s seminar: Domestic violence related laws - Then and Now, held in Brisbane on 3 August 2012.

5th World Social Forum on Migration

26-30 November 2012 Manila

PHILIPPINES - Hundreds of international delegates are expected to come to the country in November and participate in the World Social Forum on Migration. For the first time, the WSFM will take place in an Asian country. Previous WSFMs were held in Europe and Latin America. The theme of this 5th WSFM is “Mobility, Rights and Global Models: Looking for Alternatives.”

Thy Womb

Australian premiere & Director’s talk — Brisbane Film Festival 2012

Set on a floating water village in the southern most province of the Philippines, this simple fertility tale received two awards and a four-minute standing ovation at its recent premiere at the Venice Film Festival.