ILOILO CITY—While the Cry of Pugad Lawin in Luzon often takes center stage in history books as the trigger event of the Filipinos’ open revolutionary struggle to gain independence from the Spanish colonial regime, another pivotal moment took place in the Visayas, specifically Panay Island. The first sparks of rebellion flew in Barangay Jelicuon in...
Category: History
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Footprints on Scarborough Shoal
On May 17, 1997, the first group of journalists embarked on an extraordinary expedition to this triangle-shaped coral reef now part of long-running geopolitical tension between the Philippines and China. It was a place few had heard of, let alone visited, at a time when the world was still grappling with dial-up internet and flip...
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Digital martial law library launched, ‘to ensure that all Filipinos will remember’
With the click of a button, you’ll find a copy of Proclamation 1081; read excerpts of hard-to-find memoirs, including Benigno Aquino Jr.’s “Testament from A Prison Cell”; or view videos of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in the heyday of martial law. The possibilities are endless when you visit the Ateneo Martial Law Library and Museum...
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Never forget
Editor’s Note: To mark the 38th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and brought the Philippines back to the league of democratic nations, human rights activist Ed Garcia remembers three friends whose lives were snuffed out in their youth and who continue to serve as inspiration. ...
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Heed lessons of history, Comelec told on 38th anniversary of historic walkout
Thirty-eight years ago today, Feb. 9, a group of computer technicians of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) walked out of the tabulation center of the presidential “snap election” called by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. They were protesting irregularities in the election results being reported to the public, which they observed as efforts to subvert...
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What it’s like in the WOMB
“It’s a struggle!” When one said that in the ‘70s and ‘80s, they would most certainly have been referring to any of the multifront resistance groups against Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship, martial law, and the assassination of the opposition leader and former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. Today, when spoken by some members of the...
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Ninoy Aquino’s speeches are now available online
“We are called upon to show now responsibility to duty, fidelity to our mandate despite our political diversity. I know that for the majority this may be hard, for what is demanded of us is to place country over party, sanity over the twisted logic of our baser political instincts.” This is an excerpt from...
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When food tourism in US colonial period spurred fight for Filipino cuisine
The adventurous palate of foodies and their #willtravelforfood motto are interesting phenomena. The trend mentioned in a recent lecture intrigued me and moved a university student in the audience to ask Dr. Kristine Michelle L. Santos if Filipinos of yesteryear inherited their fondness for food from the Americans during the colonial era. Santos, an assistant...
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Norma Rae, Sister Stella L, and newspaper union organizing under martial law
They said it couldn’t be done. It was martial law, after all, and among many freedoms suppressed by Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s repressive regime (1965-1986) was the right to organize a legitimate union. Strikes were banned, and only government-friendly unions were recognized. But a hardy group of journalists at the Journal group of publications (Times Journal,...
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Barbie’s story in the Philippines is not all glamour and glitter
The pink, sparkly dress of the Barbie doll has been veiling something much less glamorous—the loss of thousands of jobs when the company that manufactured the toy in the Philippines closed shop. It is now a blurry episode for most Filipinos, but it may still be fresh in the memory of the workers, mostly women,...