I Am Buraot

I got a call from a former comrade, they are now converging on the streets of the EDSA, waiting for the imminent yet another uprising to unfold.

I was inside the former US base where I currently hold my office. It was another period of turmoil and political uncertainty. Then Philippine President Erap Estrada is facing impeachment charges at the floors of the Senate.

I wanted to go to the capital, and join the ongoing protests. But something I felt at that time was out of line. The dreams of the first EDSA never faded. Simply because it never materialized. So seeing another one in the works made me realize my personal reservations on this ongoing second one. Continue Reading…

Do you see the whole picture, or read between the lines? Can you discern the pattern of words and thoughts formation that leads you to a certain pre-destined conclusion?

Are they just written syllables to fill your wandering mind? Or a well orchestrated move to stab your back and rob you blind?

Storytellers are full of talk, they’re cheap.

You could find them everywhere, but you can’t see them anywhere. Subtly, and ever so charmingly, they can suggest thoughts into our minds, mumble words into our mouths. They can move us and leave us on our tracks. They can, publicly, make us live or die. Continue Reading…

As like the rest of millions of Filipinos outside the country, I was keenly awaiting news updates on the Maguindanao Massacre, on the Presidential Proclamation 1959 declaring Martial Law  in Maguindanao the ongoing debates in the joint session of congress.

They were supposed to revoke it, approve  or extend it.

I was watching the news on ANC when I saw Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin, Jr. and Rep. Dilangalen in a heated argument. I became a bit confused. It seems like Dilangalen was opposing the said proclamation but on the other side of the floor, Teddy Boy, from what I read from his mouth issued a sure “put#%$#mo!” obviously referring to Dilangalen.

I didn’t quite get it. Continue Reading…

Photo Credits here.

There was a time when men were men, bound not by rules but mutual respect. A respect that one need not earn but modestly given by virtue of simply being men. Contracts are not made by voluminous set of recycled trees but by a few pristine words.

In the wars of the old, rivals shake hands before and after battles. Even opposing sides have mutual respect. They are enemies in the battlefield, and being soldiers, comrades outside of it. These days, the gentlemanly conduct of directing a battle, were all gone. Continue Reading…

Conclusion

(Previously… Skirmishes In and Out of Sea)

Yes, I was pissed with his article. But I don’t blame Chip Tsao. He who loves to write satire, though his love of it that does not guarantee that he’s good at it, just wanted to make a point.

The way I understood, as I try to grasp the essence of his piece, is that it is mainly about the disputed Spratlys and not about the Filipina maids. It was more of his country’s bullying smaller nations, and less of the plight of thousands of underpaid but well-educated Flipina domestic helpers.

Like what my journalist friend said when I reacted violently to Chip Tsao’s satirical piece, we Filipinos had our own brand of stereotyping ourselves. And we are not less guilty… Continue Reading…

Third Part of a Series

(Previously… The Crude Awakening)

The group of islands called the Spratlys was first occupied by the colonial French at the time when it ruled Indochina. During the Second World War, the Japanese used it as a submarine base. After the world war, the French had it back but eventually had another with occupied Vietnam. While in 1946 the Chinese communist forces occupied the largest of the islands. Continue Reading…

Second Part of a Series

(Previously… Arrogance and Ignorance on the Spratlys Islands)

At least 6 countries, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, have filed separate sovereign claims on all or part of the Spratlys.

For years, the Philippines and the other small ASEAN member countries claiming the group of small Islands in the South Pacific (or at least parts thereof), have suffered insults from the mighty and powerful Chinese. Continue Reading…