(Twenty-fifth of a series) After weeks of debating the best way to (re)introduce Winston Raval, Filipino jazz pianist, arranger, and composer, to 21st-century readers and jazz fans, I settled on this fun bit of history from writer and music critic Eric Caruncho in a piece he wrote for the Inquirer in February 2019. Eric rightly...
Tag: martial law
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‘Tayo ang People Power’: A mural for Edsa@40
The Edsa People Power revolution comprised the historic four days in February 1986 that resulted in the toppling of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ dictatorship and the return of democracy in the Philippines. The people’s long struggle was heightened when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972. The assassination in 1983 of the former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino...
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Reflections on Edsa@40: Young people are reclaiming the spirit of People Power
Forty years after the Edsa People Power revolution that restored democracy in the Philippines, the historic highway was once again filled with similar voices, chants, sentiments and hopes, but largely from a new generation echoing the story that triggered an uprising known to it only through books, testimonies and challenged historical distortions. The simple slogan...
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Unforgettable: More than a million mourners turned up for Ninoy Aquino’s funeral
Editor’s Note: Exactly 42 years after the fact, have Filipinos come closer to finding out who ordered the murder of the former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. at the airport that now bears his name? The ranks of those who should know have thinned considerably, and knowledge of who masterminded the deed is in clear...
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Filipinos urged: Remember the ‘shining moment’ that was Edsa 1986
A coalition of groups dedicated to preserving and promoting the democracy won back by Filipinos along with basic freedoms in 1986 has announced the activities to mark the 39th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution. The Buhay ang People Power Campaign Network (BAPP) held a press conference on Friday at the Bantayog ng mga...
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Martial law 52nd: Little fires in the rain
The latest tropical depression had already exited the Philippine area of responsibility, but the rain persisted. In the morning, the weather bureau put out a thunderstorm advisory for Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon, and sure enough, it poured hard all afternoon before the skies gradually lightened on that evening of Sept. 21, the...
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My island of Marinduque is a bleeding heart
I grew up on an island whose tale begins with love and ends with death. Scientists would scoff and tell a completely different story. How could they believe an island would rise above the tides as a memorial to the forbidden love of a princess and a commoner, who sailed together across unforgiving seas and...
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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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In search of beloved ‘desaparecidos’
How does a family mark the birthday of a loved one missing for 16 years, abducted by unidentified men believed to be military or police agents? By strengthening solidarity with other families in the same sorrowful straits. On April 2, some of these families gathered at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani grounds in Quezon City...
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Project Gunita et al.: ‘The truth will outshine the lies’
The academic organization Project Gunita and dozens of groups and individuals, including victims of rights violations during martial law, are taking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to task for distorting facts about the dictatorial rule of his father and namesake in a March 4 interview with ABC News Australia. “President Marcos has yet again tried to...