By KIMBERLIE QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Artists from the Dap-ayan ti Kultura ti Kordilyera (DKK), an alliance of cultural workers and organizations, led a live mural painting serving as the backdrop to progressive groups staging their own People’s State of the Nation Address on July 25 at Malcolm Square.

The mural highlighted the issues that the groups wanted President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to address under his administration. These include economic relief, justice for martial law victims, human rights violation, dams and mines, vegetable smuggling, and the freedom of the press and expression.

Julius Daguitan, DKK vice chair for internal affairs, said they support the people’s demand, noting that artists also suffer from low wages, soaring fuel prices, and red-tagging.

The artist urged the new administration to cease the attacks and censorship against those critical of his family’s dark history and his administration’s policies. He also challenged Marcos Jr to address the educational system gaps that allow revisionism and historical distortion to thrive.

“Creative freedom is possible only if he allows decent living conditions for all (cultural workers) and let them access opportunities to nurture (their craft) and reflects present realities of the country and not to be hounded when they take (an) adversarial position to his regime,” he said.

Daguitan added that DKK would continue to use the arts to promote justice, peace, and truth.

Stop red-tagging

Tongtongan ti Umili chair Geraldine Cacho said the new administration should end red-tagging.

Following the lead of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, state security forces and government officials have tagged activists, cause-oriented groups, and other government critics as supporters and members of the Communist Party of the Philippines -New People’s Army.

A victim of red tagging herself, she stressed that criticizing government shortcomings and erring public officials are duties of responsible citizens. She said these show the people’s seriousness to partake in social transformation.

“We just want to speak our minds, express our demands and grievances as part of the check and balances of democracy,” Cacho said.

Economic relief

Cacho added that Marcos Jr. should prioritize measures to control rising fuel prices and inflation rates. She asked for more substantial support for farmers and higher wages for workers considering the impact of the rising fuel prices. She added that apart from the increasing cost of production, vegetable farmers in the Cordillera have long been asking the government to curb smuggling.

Daisy Bagni spokesperson of the Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili ti Syudad, an urban poor organization in Baguio, called for immediate measures to address the rising prices of basic goods and services. She also urged the government to make healthcare services more accessible.

“Lowering prices of basic goods and free health care services would help the people make ends meet, especially for us who do not have a regular income,” she said.

Aside from the economic crunch, the urban poor leader shared the unending threat of losing their homes and sources of livelihood due to impending demolitions. She added that the government’s transport modernization program also endangers the livelihood of jeepney drivers.

According to Bagni, the government should provide alternative sources of livelihood and affordable housing.

Make amends

Progressive Igorots for Social Action spokesperson Maria Funa-ay Claver said Marcos Jr. has to do more considering Cordillera’s “bloody history” during his father’s authoritarian rule.

She recalled how her Kalinga and Mountain Province elders were arrested, tortured, and murdered when they stood against the building of the Chico Dams that would submerge their villages. The construction of four mega dams along the Chico River was a flagship project of the Marcos dictatorship.

According to her, the fight against dam projects detrimental to indigenous villages and the environment continues. She cited the Gened dams in Apayao and the Alimit Hydropower Complex in Ifugao. She added that the Cordillera region remains among the poorest in the country, with interior villages still deprived of essential services from the government.

“We remember our Cordillera heroes, those killed, disappeared, tortured as we demand justice,” Claver said.

“We also demand a stop to killings, environmental destruction, human rights violations, and all forms of injustice,” she said. # nordis.net