Re: 8 March 2009: Women's Day March/Mobilization
(a quick translation of a response to an email)
Hello to everyone,
As for my political line, my minimum is for a more humane (makatao) which means there's also a recognition of equality, more democratic, more inclusive, and non-elitist government and governance and my maximum is to change the entire system of governance and concept of government altogether because I believe it's not serving many Filipinas, Filipinos, and indigenous sisters and brothers in the Philippines—including all the marginalized, oppressed, discriminated and disadvantaged.
This is similar to the need for auditing (illegitimate) debts. (I'm currently a secretariat member of the Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission and for the People Against Illegitimate Debt (P.A.I.D.) initiatives). Most of our external and domestic debts are not only illegitimate but they are also immoral that's why there's a need for auditing.
For governance, it's the same; we also have to audit our morals. It’s actually wrong to say “moderate your greed, exterminate your breed" because 1) greed is greed, and greed is one of the 7 deadly sins in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and 2) the message of extermination is too negative and violent and does not evoke peaceful and humane resolution of the problem of corruption.
For me, it’s also inadequate to simply search for TRuth, Accountability and rePOrm because that only means one thing: TR + A + PO = TRAPO. So, most likely, that’s the same breed they’re looking to replace GMA—trapos (traditional politicians) like Noli, Erap and allies of Cory and FVR etc.
HOWEVER, if show of force or numbers is needed and tactically it’s useful to join forces with "mellow" people, that’s ok with me JUST ENSURE that the progressive forces do not look like accessories or end up getting used as support group of “mellow” forces in a rally. It’s like what happened in a mobilization at Senate grounds when a La Salle group arrived and handed out food to the ones who were already there beforehand and were overwhelmingly thanking them saying, “thank you for coming here.” What was that? Do they mean, they were the stars and the ones who were there earlier carrying slogans "NO to TRAPO" and "SYSTEMS CHANGE" were merely their support group?
I'm not against any faith, in fact I'm a very spiritual person. What I'm against is religion. And sadly, many (mind you, not all) in the religious sector have become part of the system of corruption in the Philippines. Let me be the first to coin these terms if in case no one's done it. For me, CBCP stands for 1) Catholic Bishops Corporation in the Philippines or 2) Catholic Bishops' Corruption in/of the Philippines – And why, are they paying taxes here in the Philippines? And where do they take their hundreds of millions of Sunday collections, isn’t it in Rome? Isn’t it also true that they are the ones who own hectares and hectares of land which are supposed to be part of the "equal distribution of wealth and power" in the Philippines? And if Cardinal Sin unabashedly says it’s ok to accept money from the devil, doesn’t this mean that they are accepting huge sums of money/donations from politicians in return for “moral” support. It’s same money that the politicians stole from the public through padded projects. Of course, there are still members of the Church who are progressiver but we still have to be critical who they are. I think the Church is stalling because they haven't exactly figured the political puzzle--which one to support so they can maintain the flow of cash/"donations". Isn’t this corruption as well?
The March 8, Women’s Day Rally, I will definitely be there (minimum as an individual because I really believe that women need to be free from the patriarchal system in society; maximum, I will be carrying my Freedom from Debt Coalition membership). But, I still think it would be nice if the LGBT community has a presence there at the International Women's Day Mobilizaton. I sat at the meeting, despite not being a woman, because I asked permission and besides, they welcome lesbians, bisexual women and transgender-transsexual women to the mobilization.
I wouldn't be keen to support a proposal that says the lgbt community should have its own rally because I think that mentality is part of the community and the movement's problem. We've been too sheltered, too exclusivist, too elitist in our approach. What we need to do is to recognize that we have a common struggle with the millions of Filipinas, Filipinos and indigenous sisters and brothers. And that is the struggle for (human) dignity, equality, genuine inclusion, and full participation in society. What we need to do is to join the other (marginalized) sectors and their NGOs in calling for a change in the system.
If we can say "LGBT Agenda: Equality", isn’t equality the same call as of the millions of impoverished, hungry, homeless, unemployed, uneducated, dying (because of the lack of health service) and those whose human rights and dignity are trampled upon and not protected by the state? What many, if not all, are saying is to uphold our humanity and defend our dignity. And these are not the calls of the church people especially the elites, the elitists at the trapos.
The way I see it, even though we call for equality, some of us are still elitist in our mindsets. I think we are forgetting that the civil and political rights strategy, though that is important, is not enough for lgbt activism/advocacy in the Philippines. In our economic situation, what is most important is an emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights. We’re a Third World country, aren’t we? We keep forgetting also that not all of us are ready to accept the "LGBT" discourse because they are “tomboy,” “bakla,” “bayot,” “silahis,” or they simply refuse to boxed in a western construct or any construct for that matter. We also forget that with our varied identities in the Philippines, the key to our development (as organizations, as a movement, as individuals) is to accept, uphold and protect our diversity and equality. It's time for us to recognize and protect our cultural-, biological-, economic-, social- and sexual diversity and equality and to reach out to as many discriminated, oppressed, marginalized and disadvantaged people as possible. These people are also the ones who belong to a sexually diverse world.
Still for a free and dignified humanity,
Bruce Portugal Amoroto
TEAM PILIPINAS
team-pilipinas@yahoogroups.com
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