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29Mar/106

For the Holy Week: Liberation Theology

Semana Santa na naman. Madaming Pilipino na naman ang matutuwa dahil may extended na bakasyon kapag Holy Week. Two days of additional vacation is really something to look forward to especially in this kind of situation. Trabaho, bahay, trabaho. Minsan lang ang bakasyon! Lalo naman sa mga estudyante na umpisa pa lang ang bakasyon! Diretso sa beach lahat ngayon! Napaka-init pa naman! Kahit may recession at patuloy ang pagyaman ng mayayaman, okay lang gumastos dahil minsan lang ito sa isang buong taon. Pero I would just like to leave a short note for you Christians to take note of for this Holy Week.

Panahon ito ng paggunita sa pagpapakasakit, kamatayan at pagkabuhay ni Kristo. Sabi nga nila, ito ang panahon ng pinakadakilang sakripisyo--- ang pag-aalay ni Hesus sa kanyang buhay para mailigtas ang lahat ng mga tao mula sa kasalanan. Heroic. At ngayong ginuginita natin ito, bukambibig ng lahat ng mga pari at Kristyano na nawa’y pagnilayan natin ang naging buhay ni Hesus at isabuhay ito. Sundin natin ang kanyang mga aral at sumunod tayo sa kanya.

Behind Wires

From the point of view of Liberation Theology na sa tingin ko ay tama at napakahalagang pagbabago sa relihiyon ay dapat isa-konteksto natin ang mga aral ni Hesus sa pag-liliberate sa mga mahihirap. Tandaan nating ang mga disciples ni Hesus ay hindi mga “educated” cabinet members from the top universities or from the prominent families, they came from the basic sectors of the society. Apat sa kanila ang mangigisda, may mangaggawa at meron rin namang tax collector. They are chosen and called by Jesus to be his apostles. Tumira si Hesus sa bahay ng kanyang mga magulang na hindi rin naman mayayaman. He never lived in a mansion kagaya ng tinitirhan ng Pope o kahit man lang ang mga napakaraming napakalaking simbahan. He lived with the people at nakisama sa kanila. Hindi niya ipinagkakait ang kanyang nalalaman at ibinabahagi ito sa lahat ng mga makakasalubong. We could never blame Jesus for being pro-poor. The kingdom of God is dedicated to them. That’s what the Bible says. At lalong hindi niya hinayaan ang isang sistema ng pang-aapi. He challenged the emperor and even the High Priest. Jesus himself lived like a poor, in real material poverty, not a spiritual one. His criterion of a just life was practical material aid for one's neighbor. Madaming naka-away si Hesus dahil sa kanyang pagtalikod sa mga organized at ritualized religion noong kanyang panahon na hindi naman sumasalamin sa kanyang prinsipyo na love thy neighbor. At hanggang kamatayan ay ipinagtanggol niya ito. He was executed by the order of the Church authority that felt threatened in its organization and power. Sa pag-aaral na rin ng mga Bible Scholars, yung mga tumuligsa at nanawagan sa pagkakapako sa krus niya ay yung mga middle class at mayaman dahil sila ay napahintulutang masali sa paghahatol. Hindi bukas ang palasyo ni Poncio Pilato sa lahat kaya naman ang mayayaman lamang ang nakakapasok rito. Tinuligsa siya ng mga saserdote at ang mga opisyales ng empiryong Romano pero hindi niya tinalukiran ang kanyang dapat gampanan. This is not a social analysis, this is the Bible not taken out of its context.

Red Christ

Para sa linggong ito, hindi sa pagkain ng isda makikita ang pakikiisa natin sa sakripisyo ni Hesus kundi sa pagyakap sa kanyang mga aral at ang pakikipag-isa sa batayang sektor ng lipunan. This is a parallelism between the violet season and the red march. Pagpupugay sa Liberation Theology!

"Authentic socialism is Christianity lived to the full, in basic equality and with a fair distribution of goods."

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Tagged as: activism, alternative, Christ, christian, Christianity, do, holy, Jesus, lent, liberation, red, santa, semana, theology, to, week, what 6 Comments

1Feb/1013

Walden Bello, AKBAYAN and Noynoy Aquino

Happy DSS Week!

As part of the celebration of the UP Manila's Department of Social Sciences (DSS) week, the department invited AKBAYAN Partylist Representative and UP Professor Walden Bello. He delivered a lecture in behalf of the parylist and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). His lecture was about food sovereignty or how can a nation prevent food crisis. He cited several causes of a food crisis. These includes land conversion for commercial or industrial use (IT Parks, Subdivisions, Malls and many others), land conversion for export mono-cropping and the exploitation of transnational and multi-national companies of our agricultural resources. And being a country that is capitalist agriculture, we plant crops and other things based on the demand of the global elite market (export demand) and not based on our domestic needs. This means that the landlords only allow farmers to plant crops based on what is more profitable in the global elite market than what is needed here. Many of our lands are converted to unsustainable mono-cropping. There is no consideration of what we need domestically thus, the food crisis and the import of crops and other agricultural products.

UP Professor and AKBAYAN Representative Walden Bello

I agree with Prof. Bello in this part. I share the same findings. The problem of the food crisis lies within the framework of our government and society. We based all our policies for foreign benefits. Our government officials allows these kind of policies that benefits the imperialist countries and the local elites (them and landlords and big companies). National policies does not include the needs and the demands of the poor, the basic mass, the peasants, the fishermen and other marginalized sector of the society. The supposed to be democratic society becomes a society for the elites and the domination of the elites. A capitalist society to be specific.

But Prof. Bello and AKBAYAN is contradicting itself when it comes to the policies they support in the Congress and this society's problems that they've identified. They supported and even lobbied for the immediate passage of the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP or CARPER). This program exempts farm lands that will be converted to commercial complex (what happened in Hacienda Luisita), to poultry and livestock industry and many other things. This allows landowners to not redistribute their lands to the peasants.. It's a loophole intentionally designed by the people in the Congress. To make it short, landowners will convert their farmlands to be able to maintain its ownership. In this situation, agricultural yields decreases. There's a policy indirectly encouraging landlords to abandon farming and instead use their lands for other purposes. This decrease in agricultural yields will result into a food shortage that can lead into a food crisis. This food crisis will make us dependent on the importing of agricultural products. Thus, losing our food sovereignty.

When?

Lands must be redistributed. We should go back to community-based farming where farmers consider the immediate needs of the community. This answers the problem of food crisis because domestic needs are being prioritized rather than the demands of the elite market. And only the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) allows genuine redistribution of land. This GARB answers the problem of the fake agrarian reform bill CARP or CARPER. AKBAYAN and Prof. Bello failed to recognize that it is the and the only key. But they continue to blind people that CARP or CARPER will actually answer our problems in land distribution and food security. It actually worsens the situation.

During the lecture, i asked him if there are any presidentiables that is prioritizing food security and sovereignty. If there can be one of these people running for presidency that includes a national policy that will prevent a food crisis and dependence on imports. He answered on the negative and recommended that we should bring this issue as a central problem of the Philippines in presidential debates and other key fora.

But AKBAYAN is supporting the candidacy of Noynoy Aquino, right?

AKBAYAN Representative Risa Hontiveros with Liberal Party's Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas

Noynoy Aquino is planning for a more open and more neo-liberalize economy. This means more foreign exploitation and domination of our resources. Once this happens, the agricultural market will disregard the domestic needs or demand. The country will be again producing for the market of the global elites. When this happens, food crisis is likely to happen. Prof. Bello and AKBAYAN again missed the point. Why would they support a Noynoy government if they don't want food crises to happen? Contradicting.

Even though Prof. Bello and AKBAYAN recognizes the problems of this country, they failed to give the right solutions. Is this the change that their party list and their president is talking about? If it is, I don't want any part of it.

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