I was both surprised and gratified to find that a video based on my poem “Nie Wieder” (“Never Again”) was created
and posted on in the Facebook account of Campaign Against the Return of the
Marcoses and Martial Law - CARMMA.
Above video is currently available at this link:
The video is in Filipino. The original poem is in English. See:
https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2016/08/nie-wieder.html
https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2016/08/nie-wieder.html
Photo courtesy of MsSaraKelly
ReplyDeletePhoto link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graffiti_in_Shoreditch,_London_-_Never_Forget_by_616_(9425007354).jpg
Gonzalinho
House Bill 7137 declaring Sept 11 as Marcos holiday is a gross disrespect to all victims of the dictator’s atrocities, including the rape survivors under his regime. This legislature (save for the 9 who voted against) will go down in history as traitors to the Filipino people.
ReplyDelete@jeanenriquez
Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 4, 2020)
AN INSULT TO ILOCANOS
By: Solita Callas-Monsod - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM September 05, 2020
Our Congress is passing a bill declaring Sept. 11 as President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day in Ilocos Norte. And with no debate whatsoever. Words fail me. Do the Germans/Austrians celebrate an Adolf Hitler Day anywhere in Germany, or in Braunau am Inn in Austria? Do the Italians celebrate a Benito Mussolini in Predappio, Italy?
We not only will be the LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE WORLD, [all capitals mine] which held us in the highest respect when we overthrew the dictator peacefully and became a role model for all other similar movements to follow, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we will also have pissed on the face of Ninoy Aquino and all the victims of martial law, as well as on our faces—the victims of Marcos’ plunder—for which we had to suffer for almost 16 years before we could regain our former per capita income.
…Now, about this “he is a hero to Ilocos Norte and to most Ilocanos all over the world”: What is the basis of that statement of Senator Sotto? It actually is an insult to Ilocanos. Are they not Filipinos first? Did they not see the devastation that Marcos brought on the Philippines? Did they not witness how he tried to keep himself in power even after 20 years?
So, the dictator Marcos did a lot for Ilocos while he was president. Does that more than compensate for what evil he wreaked on the Filipino people? The Ilocanos are not dumb. And I am sure they are Filipinos first.
My father was an Ilocano (born in Abra, raised in Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur) who thought the world of Ferdinand Marcos. He was a journalist with the Philippines Free Press and wrote articles defending the young Marcos who was accused of killing his father’s opponent (Julio Nalundasan). He was struck by Marcos’ brilliance and his potential, and was his personal friend. He chose then Senate President Marcos to be a principal sponsor at my wedding (he came, and charmed me, too).
But when President Marcos declared martial law, my father brought me every day to the Supreme Court to hear the martial law case against Marcos. And I remember him sighing, and saying, “if I knew then that he would do this to the Filipino people, I would never have defended him.”
That’s the kind of Ilocano I know. A Filipino first. And someone who would evaluate Marcos not just on the basis of a few, or even many, scraps thrown his way. And I am half-Ilocano. And proud of it. But I am a Filipino first. As I said, Senator Sotto insults the Ilocanos.
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/133322/an-insult-to-ilocanos#ixzz6teyuHYuR
When I was 18, I was tortured and imprisoned by Marcos for 4 years because I criticized him for banning student councils. Many Ilocanos were also imprisoned then. We cannot celebrate the birth of a man who imprisoned and tortured Filipinos. This is adding injustice to our pain.
Neri Colmenares,
@ColmenaresPH
Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 7, 2020)
Gonzalinho