DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 June) — FEEL LIKE CELEBRATING PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY TODAY?
Re-imagining how the Katipunan’s cry would echo today… one surely would deal with the DISCOURSE OF TERROR.
What source of terror are we afraid of, which is why those of us holding power in this nation-state want to pass a law making sure we are not terrorized as a people.
But pray tell, who are terrorizing us?
The IMAGINED MONSTERS lurking IN the shadows of the MINDS of the POWERS-THAT-BE who are fearful that a people’s wrath could push them out of power any time soon?
Or should we as PEOPLE of THIS FREE REPUBLIC fear the terror being subjected by the visible ones who are real and not just imagined. They are there in the corridors of the most powerful institutions of this country and they all conspire so that this ANTI-TERROR BILL can be passed even during this emergency crisis situation of the pandemic.
RESIST their continuing attempt to monopolize power that should have been won by the revolution of the 1890s!
Fight so that what Bonifacio and the Katipuneros died for cannot be taken away from us as our right!
We have nothing to FEAR but FEAR ITSELF and those who would use FEAR of the unknown to perpetuate themselves in POWER!
[This piece by Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar, was read on his behalf at the online forum on “Barog: Kalinaw, Katungod, Kagawasan“ on 12 June 2020. Gaspar is a professor at St. Alphonsus Theological and Mission Institute (SATMI) in Davao City and until recently, a professor of Anthropology at the Ateneo de Davao University. Gaspar is author of several books, including “Desperately Seeking God’s Saving Action: Yolanda Survivors’ Hope Beyond Heartbreaking Lamentations,” two books on Davao history, and “Ordinary Lives, Lived Extraordinarily – Mindanawon Profiles” launched in February 2019. He writes two columns for MindaNews, one in English (A Sojourner’s Views) and the other in Binisaya (Panaw-Lantaw).]
