Evening news has always been an eyesore to me, especially amidst dinner when all the newsrooms are so eager to show how horrendous of a day it was for the whole country. Dead bodies from north to south, or a robbery here and there, occasionally a “funny” viral video in an attempt to lighten up the mood. I was plain tired of it, perhaps even disgusted that these were shown on the telly at the time of day when the whole family sits down to eat and loosen up. Well, at least, that’s how my younger self would have exactly narrated it to be. At present, I have taken it as a practice to read the news no matter how gut-wrenching and frustrating it is.
Now that we are exposed to information at a tap of a finger, it is almost unbecoming for someone to not take a second and read about current events. Despite this ease of access, I have laid witness to people who are reserved when it comes to their political stands and opinions, saying “Opinyon ko lang naman ‘to”. While others treat it to an extent as a Chika Minute, something to chatter about for some time but not worth diving into. There are even a few who see it as a nuisance in everyday life, who don’t see their critical significance in our ever-so-political society. In retrospect, everyone’s opinion on political issues does matter. Our opinions reflect who we are as a person, they edict our actions and inactions.
Yet there is a huge gap of difference between just reading the news and learning about it—the how’s and the why’s. Every word, action, thoughts, and the lack of it has political implications and everything can be analyzed in a political point of view. The reality that we go to school and others cannot is political, so is our entire educational curriculum. The fact that countries are in the race in creating state of the art machineries is political. Everything is political, including our national anthems.
We, the privileged people have the choice to close our eyes and ears, pretend not to see and hear. We have that option to just shy away our opinions or even have the audacity to have none. Whilst those who were born into oppression and are being marginalized have no other choice but to fight and resist, just as the farmers exhaust themselves in their farms to earn hardly enough to get through the day. Whilst there are people who justify their successes as sipag at tiyaga, who are we to say that farmers are lazy? In reality it is the rotting system we are born into that prevents many of us from having opportunities, the conditions set in front of Filipinos are how many work their day around.
Oppression can only survive through silence, as Carmen de Monteflores said. This is as to why protest actions exist, why we have complaint committees, and why there are people who voice out their concerns when there are irregularities. Seeing the face of the masses amidst mobilization, there awakens a sense of responsibility. The status quo is everything but okay; death tolls are above the roof, human rights are being violated, the peasants are struggling to live and the system spiraling into decay. To continue to deny our essential role in politics, is to support the existing status quo.
This is a call to action to everyone who, just like my former self, would rather change the subject when it suddenly goes political. A challenge to open the curtains and see the society we breathe and live in. Take notice of the grim issues we currently face that are taking a turn for the worse and with tyranny so out in the open, Kailan ka pa magkakaroon ng pake?