Letterboxd Review — Mid-year of 2020 during quarantine lockdown, I have spent most of my time exploring East Asian films. From the films of the 4-time Academy award-winning South Korean film director Bong Joon-Ho, the maker of Parasite, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer; Burning of Lee Chang-dong; Shoplifters and Maborosi of Hirokazu Kore-eda; Love…

According to Jackson (2007), our democracy is shaped by examining issues of race, class, political and economic empowerment, violence and nonviolence, constitutional rights, and international human rights, among other matters[1], which according to Lee Strang (2005), when determining these legal texts for judicial construction and interpretation, has to be the…

“Mulat, ang masa ang Mesias” — E. Lacaba — “Anupa’t hanggang umiiral ang inhustisya at pagsasamantala ng naghaharing-uri laban sa nakararaming dayukdok na masa… hindi mahahadlangan ng mga multo at puwersa reaksiyon ang paglaganap at pagsulong ng literatura ng uring anakpawis tungo sa kanilang pambansang katubusan” Ayon kay Marx, simula’t sapol, ang kasaysayan ng anumang umiiral na lipunan ay…

Ang wikang Filipino ay kaugnay sa mga aspektong bumabagtas sa lahat ng katangiang kultural, pulitikal, at ekonomikal ng lipunang Pilipino. Ito ay ang wikang sumasalamin sa ating pambansang kultura, pambansang diskurso, at pambansang pagkakakilanlan. Ito ay wika ng ordinaryong Pilipino — wikang sinasalita ng mga manggagawa at magsasaka, maralitang-lungsod, at…

from “the Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy, and the Urban Poor” by Wataru Kusaka (2017) — Kung ika’y makakapunta sa mga paliparan tulad ng Ninoy Aquino International Airport, sasalubungin ka ng mga dambuhalang karatula tulad ng “Whatever your dream, we can build it. We build Filipino dream” (Ortega, 2016). Dagdag pa ang, “The best homecoming. Homecoming to the best” ng Ayala Land ng pamilya Ayala. Sa…

Pagsusuri sa Sining-Biswal ni Solenn Heussaff — Ang pag-ingay ng diskurso sa social media ngayong pandemiko tungkol sa poverty porn, bilang pagsasalarawan ng kahirapan sa mga likhang-sining ay kakabit ng muling pagsusuri ng pulitikal, kultural, at ekonomikong dimension nito sa kultura ng isang umiiral na lipunan. Dahil ang sining ay pulitikal, ito ay may natatanging uri at…

The current geopolitical order exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely indicative of a global disturbance of what we call neoliberalism. Its expansion brought about by the neoliberal-globalization[1] agenda of imperialism has contributed to the fact that for the past decades, our world has witnessed 4 massive epidemics — Ebola, SARS…

Migrantik, or “The Migrant: The Secret Lives of Filipinos in Australia” is among the five (5) books of Normal Wilwayco that chronicles transgressive commentaries on politics and popular culture in the context of the Duterte administration and the War on Drugs. Migrantik follows the story of Tony, a stoner migrant…