I Am Buraot

During the term of Richard Gordon as mayor of Olongapo City, there were at least 26 cases of “salvagings” or summary executions that victimized at least 28 people.

The killings were believed to have been made to cleanse the city of undesirable elements and maintain its allure as the center for the R & R of US servicemen.

Olongapo officials dismissed such as “isolated incidents involving hardened criminals whose death were mainly due to gang rivalry”, it is a matter of public record that the victims were mostly teenagers and one was a woman.

According to records from the Olongapo City Fiscal’s Office, the following are among those who were executed during the incumbency of Mayor Richard Gordon: Continue Reading…

When I came to Olongapo, I was very hopeful. I just had a daughter, her mom is a native Olongapena, and I decided to go there to start a new life.

It’s a bustling city yet with a small town feel. The night life is not as good as Manila but having been a fan of live bands, I almost immediately fell in love with it. The city is host to a few rock bands that became famous.

On a regular morning, you’ll be woken up by an easy to remember child-like music coming from a moving vehicle. At first, I thought it was some music coming from a rolling candy store, but really it was coming from the garbage trucks. Continue Reading…

Here they come again. I knew what I’m about to take when I decided to write personal experiences about my life in Olongapo, or at least parts of it. Heat. I’m about to take some unnecessary heat.

Of all the searches online regarding the 2010 presidentiables, presidential wannabe Richard Gordon had the most positive posts online, according to ABS-CBN reports published March 18.

They were right. In fact if you try to do a search, all you see are links to his bio and how great and wonderful the man is. Except to articles made by me here at the barrio, on my site, and by other sites who have picked up the story. Continue Reading…

“Ganito pala sa Olongapo, parang war zone.”

 This was the surprised remark from one of the media personnel from GMA-7 who witnessed what happened that fateful day in November 1996.

All the action were going on inside the SBMA where the APEC forum was being held, so it only makes sense for all the media, local and international, to be there. Fortunately for us, some GMA-7 staff, particularly Luchi Cruz Valdez (from The Probe Team fame) and a cameraman decided to go outside the former US base searching for exclusives.

They have found what they were looking for, the exclusive footages of how we got mobbed. And they were stunned to have witnessed what happened. Continue Reading…

In just a matter of minutes, after that quick anesthesia-less operation and humiliation inside the operating room, I was in a wheelchair being pushed by that UP volunteer all the way to the x-ray room and unto my assigned room, which was the orthopedic ward.

Weird. I don’t think I had any broken bone or whatever that needed me to be confined to that section. Unless some doctor thought a broken skull would be enough to be categorized as orthopedic.

I saw some empty rooms and wards along the way so I asked the guy why I was being put here. He said he got no idea but we both think it would be safer for me since it’s almost full and lots of people would see me, just in case. Continue Reading…

It was November 1996. The APEC Summit was being held in Subic Bay, Philippines.

It was a time for the country to show off its newly established Subic Bay after the former bases were left by the Americans under piles of ashes brought by the Pinatubo eruption. It was also the time for then President Fidel Ramos to showcase his Medium Term Philippine Development Plan. It was Ramos’ Philippines 2000. It was globalization. It was Olongapo.

Like most people in the progressive left, I was against it. I believe that if businesses can be allowed to globalize, we should also allow the workers to globalize. If capital can go around the world looking for cheap labor, then labor itself should also be allowed to find better pay anywhere in the world. What I’m for is simply for fairness.

The stage was set for mass demonstrations against globalization. And so we at the Sanlakas Olongapo were ready. Continue Reading…