Tag: Benigno Aquino III

Late Night Reflections on Typhoon Yolanda

It’s late and I’m supposed to be sleeping for tomorrow is another work day. It feels as if everything this side of the world is so normal when in fact, a few hundred miles south from here, severely catastrophic towns exist. Towns which I have visited countless times when I was young. Towns which holds fond childhood memories for me. Towns where loved ones whose conditions remain unknown reside.

Typhoon Yolanda brought destruction never before seen in the Philippines. Entire towns and cities washed away. Destruction and death lay at her wake. People hopeless and desperate – not knowing how they can ever rise again. Businesses looted by hungry victims as security forces – the little of who were left – stood by and watched helplessly.

I really don’t know what to say. I remain at a loss for words. I have packed everything I can send to help. I have planned to sell whatever I can to have some cash to donate. I long to still be in the thick of things, helping out in whatever way I can – repacking, distributing, reporting. The devastation is so vast, the task at hand is so big – where do we start? Where do they begin to rebuild their lives?

I am grateful our province was spared. There were some coastal towns who were also badly affected but other than that everything is now back to normal. On the day the storm hit close to our place, I was locked inside my room, unable to sleep soundly. I can hear the howling winds and feel it beat against the walls and roof of our house. There were moments when everything would be silent – then the howling would begin once again. It was a storm of winds and less of rain. The rain was bearable but the winds were not. To this date, when the storm has long passed and our nights are much calmer, I can sometimes hear the winds howling in my mind and the accompanying fear of what it could do in the dead of the night.

But what I experienced was way less than what those who were near the eye of the storm experienced. They felt the brunt of the wind 4-5 times what I felt. Plus, they experienced majority of the rain. But what was worse were the storm surges – a term which until recently held no meaning for me. I have never encountered the term storm surge and like many other people have no idea of the damage it entailed. Had I known storm surge would mean tidal waves that could create floods 10 feet deep, I would have been scared but nonetheless better prepared. I believe the same could be true for the hundreds who drowned, all because they didn’t understand the term and did not seek higher grounds thinking where they evacuated was enough.

It is heartbreaking to see the photos of devastation. It is heart wrenching to hear the pleas of people for food, water and shelter and to see those who lost loved ones moving along like zombies without aim or purpose. Restoration of power they say would take 2 months, and that is being optimistic. Restoration of communication lines is hoped to happen sooner. From there relief goods could be delivered to even the remotest hit area. But debris has yet to be cleaned from roads to unblock them. Houses and establishments have to be rebuilt. Hospitals, schools, government buildings, churches and other public spaces have to be re-constructed to better serve the affected people. Businesses have to re-establish themselves as they re-stock and fix their establishments. Whole towns and cities have to be reconstructed and repaired.

But more than the physical repair that would take 2 – 6 months at most, the people’s faith, hope and lives have to be reconstructed as well. Hope has to be re-instilled in their hearts that things will turn out for the better despite the massive destruction and the immense trial they have been through. Faith has to be strengthened in their minds that they have the capacity to rebuild their lives and that there is still an Almighty that looks after them. Their lives are severely battered. Those who lost families might have lost the will to live. Some have already migrated to other places leaving their destructed town believing that their lives there are over.

More than the cash and in-kind donations we send out to them, prayers would still be a lot of help. For as the cash and in-kind donations would provide them with the basic necessities of food, clothes and shelter, our prayers will help strengthen their resolve and give them hope, faith and their lives back again.

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Cybercrime Law: The New Martial Law?

It has been 40 years since Martial Law was declared. That was 15 years before I was born. Lucky enough for me, by the time I was born, EDSA has happened and I was free to live a life without the fear inflicted by the iron clad rules of that time. My parents might have witnessed Martial Law but they were far removed from it being very young at the time it was declared. If they have stories to tell, it was mostly tame compared to the ones I read in memoirs of people who experienced the real gist of it.

For a time, when I hear the extreme discipline that was imposed to the country during that time, and when I compare it to the seemingly lack of discipline I witness among many fellowmen today, I am led to think that times might have been better had Marcos remained president and Martial Law carried on. But as I grew older and learned more about the events of those times, I am forced to admit that I have been gravely mistaken in wishing Martial Law was still the law of the land.

Reading this article, I am led to think that I am indeed lucky not to have experienced what the previous generation had. I am lucky to have been born in a free land where freedom of expression is encouraged and critique is accepted without repercussions of imprisonment or torture. I am lucky that I can say what’s on my mind when I want it and that I can actually expect for change to happen just because I was brave enough to care.

Yet this freedom that has been granted to me is now being curtailed. Recently, the president signed the Cybercrime Law. Admittedly, I was not aware that there was such a law being passed through the legislation. Being concerned more with the RH Bill, the Freedom of Information Act and the Sin Tax Bill which are all receiving better press time even in their infancy stages, I was caught by surprise that the Cybercrime Law has been already signed.

Relatively, I am glad that such a law has been enacted. After all, with the rampant usage of Internet in our society and with the constant complaints of cyber crimes, it is about time that a law severely punishing the perpetrators of such crime be in effect in our society. But what I am worried about (and in fact afraid of) with this new law is the fact that it punishes what it calls online libel with 6-12 years in prison without parole! Talk about a pretty serious punishment for what I deem a pretty petty crime. In fact, the law punishes online libel more than printed libel which gets only ~4 years max in prison as punishment.

What’s scary is that online libel can be deemed to include everything and anything that is published online via tweets, posts, comments, blogs, etc. that is libelous (or that is offensive) to a particular person. So if I post in my Facebook status (not that I would do so) that I am annoyed with this person because this person is (insert any negative remark here) then that person can sue me for libel. In case I dared blog about my criticism for a certain public figure, that person can hunt me down and sue me for libel. In case I tweet something that is deemed offensive by a particular person, I can be sued for libel.

What’s even scarier than that is based on what I’ve observed here in our country, once suspected (or accused) of a crime, the authorities immediately grab you and place you in prison pending investigation of your crime. With the current pace of our judicial system, one can rot in prison for years before any decent hearing of his case is conducted in court. In essence, one can be imprisoned for merely saying a negative statement about a person online! Talk about freedom of expression!

Last night, I felt anxious when I re-posted this article about a certain senator and commented that certain senator issued another contradicting statement. My anxiety was further aggravated by the live tweets of Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) about the actual events during that fateful day 40 years ago. Although I did not write the original content, I knew that nothing prevented the person in question from viewing it as libelous from my end and since he is powerful, he can order an arrest or an investigation on me.

For a second, I imagined walking down the streets with fear of being abducted suddenly, never to see my family again. For a second, I feared receiving letters ordering me to take down my blog, my tweets, or my posts. For a second, I imagined my voice being silenced; my freedom being taken away from me.

Twenty-six years ago we were liberated from Martial Law which signaled the triumph of freedom in our country and the rebirth of democracy and free speech. Now, forty years after Martial Law has been declared, another more sinister Law, though not necessarily employing military force threatens the very thing our parents fought for in EDSA – the freedom to speak what we want to say; the freedom to express our opinions no matter how contrary to popular belief; the freedom to criticize the people in power and remind them of who they truly serve – not themselves but the people who elected them to office.

Those freedom they fought for, the fear they’ve managed to eliminate, is now, in my opinion, coming back to haunt us in yet another form.

Are you afraid? I am.

 

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