ellobofilipino

[ellobofilipino]

The “Rapid” Express

The sleeper train was fully-booked, and so we had to settle for the “rapid” express. We thought, ‘oh, we might get to Chiang Mai faster, why not?’ When we got our tickets though, it said, 1345H to 0405H. Fourteen hours. Not bad.

We boarded the train an hour before it left Hua Lamphong station in Bangkok. It was going to be a sitting upright journey. And already we had a difficulty fitting my backpack on the overhead baggage compartment. From some reason, it wouldn’t fit as easily as Agnes’. I guess I brought too much stuff.

Good thing though, Agnes was quick enough to buy two more tickets, which she hoped would be availed of by the passengers assigned to the two seats infront of us. She intended to swap them with those tickets they may have bought.

A few minutes before we left Bangkok, the passengers who were supposed to sit accross us boarded the train and tried sitting on the seats, but before they could settle in, Agnes offered to swap their tickets with the two extra ones she bought, explaining how we need the extra space for our bags.

The two young women, who look like college students wanting to go to Chiang Mai for the weekend, quickly said yes after asking us to “speak slowly”. They somehow couldn’t catch up with our excited manner of speaking in English, trying to explain the situation to them. They were kind enough to listen to our pleas. And so our predicament was settled. Unlike what could have probably happened if we booked the sleeper train, which leaves Hua Lamphong at dinner time, the afternoon train allowed us to see much of the road on the way out of Bangkok. Read more: https://medium.com/@kimgquilinguing/the-rapid-express-c921a281ee42

[ellobofilipino]

Happy Valentine's Day @agneskristine! Let's hope things would get better soon, so that we can pack our heavy bags again and go to remote places we first saw in photos, which captivated us both. Kanunay kitang gihigugma. With @agneskristine. Sa Pa, Viet Nam. October 2017. #prepandemic #memories #travels https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ9XiQmv-aN/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Happy birthday @abequilinguing! May you continue to be a good father to Matmat, a loving husband to @mttquilinguing, and a dutiful son to Mama Salome and Papa Uriel. Along with the rest of Team Q, @agneskristine and I hope to see all of you when things get better. Amping mo kanunay. 📷 With @anagomez05, @agneskristine @abequilinguing and @mttquilinguing. UP Diliman, Quezon City. October 2017. https://www.instagram.com/p/CY1BiMJPo7F/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Seeing the recent photos of the devastation in the Caraga region, particularly in Siargao Island reminded me of these 2013 photos of the municipality of Del Carmen. Back then I was on assignment with @tmcbn and @maralala.la for a feature story on eco-towns, and Del Carmen was one of the models for the ecological concept. We chanced upon the town fiesta and so we not only filled our minds and notebooks with story ideas and notes, but also our tummies with plenty of food as well. I wonder though how the town looks like now after #OdettePH. I hope the town would receive more aid in the coming days. And I hope the people would be able to rebuild their homes and lives soon. Del Carmen, Surigao Del Norte. July 2013. #delcarmen #siargao #surigaodelnorte #precovid #throwback #odetteph https://www.instagram.com/p/CXtWWlBvGU8/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

"Democracy has become a woman-to-woman, man-to-man defense of our values. We're at a sliding door moment, where we can continue down the path we're on and descend further into fascism, or we can choose to fight for a better world." Congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize @maria_ressa! Always proud to have had you as a boss. Continue inspiring others. Keep fighting. Hold the line. 📷 1. At the Tsek.ph launch. February 2018, UP Diliman, Quezon City; 2. At the Regional Network Group training. May 2005, ABS-CBN Central Visayas, Mandaue City. https://www.instagram.com/p/CXThlVKP1mL/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Something for #throwbackthursday: Missing the feeling of being lost in the crowd, carrying heavy bags, taking in the scenes, and thinking of nothing but being somewhere else. With @agneskristine. Tokyo Station. July 2018. #precovid19 #travels #tbt https://www.instagram.com/p/CW_F0vNPzL0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Today began yesterday, as Leon Ma. Guerrero once said

IN ANCIENT times, we are told, the datus and rajahs either bequeathed their authority to their children, consolidating their rule by means of advantageous marriages and alliances, or upstarts would spring up and challenge rulers. So it was either by inheritance, marriage, or a duel that control of a territory could be gained. In a sense, since the barangay (village) was writ large as the Filipino nation-state, we have continued perceiving leadership as a matter of duels between the chiefs.

Ferdinand Marcos was no different, except much more explicit, in perceiving and portraying himself as a rajah, surrounded by datus, literally served hand and foot by a retinue of maharlika, and everyone else an alipin, slaves to poverty and thus, to their patrons. But where Marcos departed from the previous model was that he tried to make his national leadership hereditary until, as perhaps was the unchronicled case with many a chieftain of old, he succumbed to age and was deprived of what other Asians might call “The Mandate of Heaven.”

Laura Junker, in her book on how our pre-Hispanic societies operated, describes the main preoccupations of those societies as “raiding, trading, and feasting.” The more things change, the more they remain the same! And so, uneasily and jealously the traditional and the modern, the barangay and the nation, have coexisted and contested for control of the public’s imagination —and of those who want to lead that nation.

Andres Bonifacio pined for a kind of Return to Eden, as he imagined pre-Hispanic society to be. And while surely he saw better than most how some of its nobler aspects and virtues had survived colonial rule, demonstrated in the mutual aid and compassion of ordinary people doing their best to survive the impositions of King, Governor-General, friar, gobernadorcillo and cabeza de barangay, still, he did not see how perhaps the truest exponents of what the culture was “hierarchical, parochial, violent” were the very provincial worthies who began as his subordinates and then his more successful rivals for power.

Apolinario Mabini, a true modernizer, bitterly denounced the president he served as nothing better, in the end, than the kind of vain, scheming, caricature of the kind of petty native officials Jose Rizal had held in such deep contempt; and again, the refrain borrowed from the French comes up: the more things change, the more they remain the same!

What change there is, has taken place, not in terms of the local but rather, the national; the writ of the pre-modern fails to hold sway, time and again, when confronted by the national. And we have seen this, not in terms of revolutions, but rather, elections. Even when elections were participated in by a tiny minority of Filipinos, it was enough to sweep aside the veterans of the Malolos Congress and replace them with leaders more prepared to (cautiously) accommodate a broader participation among the public; and when they, in turn grown old and cautious, balked at the consequences of extending democracy, they were swept aside in the 1950s. And when that generation, in turn, grew old and unresponsive, a younger, post-war generation was poised to sweep them aside, until Marcos stopped the process dead in its tracks.

All this took place in the first half of the 20th century when elections were a matter of machines, and the machines operated on orders from above and, as much as humanly possible, on the politicians’ part, for the ease and convenience of the politicians and not the alipin. And yet, the changes took place.

Frog in a Well, The China History Group Blog, puts it perfectly, I think: “The literature on democracy development is thin, at least in terms of convincing arguments, but the most likely precursor to actual democracy is faux democracy… the habits of elections and candidates and constitutions and rights that develop under authoritarian populism that can blossom into something like real liberal [in the classical sense] democracy. This is where the example of Taiwan and South Korea is instructive, as well as the transition made by Japan in the mid-20th century. Protests rarely seem to result directly in regime change. though the Romanian and earlier Iranian examples did — but they do express the degree to which the people take their rights seriously.”

Two decades ago, in her speech before the US Congress, Cory Aquino called this “restoring democracy by the ways of democracy.” Her critics have groused that this was merely the restoration of the pre-martial law democracy, which was far from a genuinely democratic regime.

This criticism is beside the point, for it ignores, essentially, what an aberration the Marcos dictatorship was, and how the New Society he established was hardly new, but rather, the fulfillment of the truly Old Society of our stratified ancient past, in contrast to the Hispanized Old Society he condemned with a ferocity only someone who had endured its snobbery and pretensions could muster.

Except that the pretensions of the New Society were such —in no small part due to the veneer of technocracy shellacked onto the rajah regime Marcos established — that in turn, just as he punctured and eliminated the pretensions of the pre-martial law leadership, what he put forward as the virtues of his regime were discredited as well.

[ellobofilipino]

Happy birthday @sorenequilinguing! It would have been your 38th. We miss you terribly. And because of that we continue to remember you, particularly on days like today. Know that you are always loved by us, your family, and by your friends. 📷 Sorene at Pearl Farm. Samal Island. April 2012. https://www.instagram.com/p/CWF_CMJvoBm/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Something for #throwbackthursday: Sunset at Tenjinbashi. Osaka, Japan. July 2018. #pinkskies #osaka #日没 #sunsets #大阪市 https://www.instagram.com/p/CUuYgMSPLjh/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ellobofilipino]

Happy Mother's Day Mama Salome! Thank you for all the love, support and understanding all these years. Those are among my sources of strength and inspiration. May God continue to keep you and Papa Uriel safe and healthy. Amping mo kanunay. Magkita ra gyapon ta tanan puhon. Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental. June 2018. #mothersday #母の日 #family #precovid #puhon https://www.instagram.com/p/COp4rW8jnYZ/?igshid=attdqi8yyjkl

[ellobofilipino]

Happy birthday @agneskristine! The past year has been quite a challenge. But you pulled through it with grace, determination and style. I pray that the Almighty will grant you more opportunities to promote your advocacies and pursue your passions. Nagpabilin akong mahigugmaon kanimo. 📷 Museo Kordilyera. University of the Philippines Baguio. Baguio City. June 2019. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKSWMoAHVjY/?igshid=11cyfplliu840

[ellobofilipino]

Happy birthday @abequilinguing! May the added year in life continue to bless you with opportunities for professional and personal growth, time for family and friends, and happiness in the comfort of those who love you and and those you love. Amping kanunay Doy. Kitakits puhon. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKI9JFfjzJ7/?igshid=11tacgh45l85p

[ellobofilipino]

University of the Philippines Baguio. Baguio City. December 2019. #latepost #precovid19 #upbaguio #cordillera #philippines🇵🇭 https://www.instagram.com/p/CKFz1j1jObL/?igshid=3oam2e00k795

[ellobofilipino]

Ube or strawberry? Baguio City. December 2019. #throwbackthursday #precovid19 #latepost #baguio #taho #silkentofu https://www.instagram.com/p/CKBMl-Ej1Ta/?igshid=83b7ve5fk4uh

[ellobofilipino]

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. Sagada, Mountain Province. December 2019. #latepost #precovid19 #sagada #cordillera #philippines🇵🇭 #churches https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ2W6-ajeNt/?igshid=1oe9guhkjxqhg

[ellobofilipino]

It's been a year Auntie Fe. . We remember you. . And we continue to pray that those who suddenly took you away from us, will one day be held to account, if not by the laws of society, then by the will of Heaven. . 📷 With Auntie Fe and @agneskristine. Makati. October 2019. https://www.instagram.com/p/CI0LNF-H3qR/?igshid=l4dvu19v00gz

[ellobofilipino]

Happy birthday Alexander Matthew! May you continue to be a loving son to your Papa Abe and Mama Theresa, a caring grandson to your Wowo Uriel and Wawa Salome, and a curious nephew always yearning to understand the things around you. Your Tita @agneskristine and I hope to see you and the rest of the family soon. 📷 Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental. December 2019. https://www.instagram.com/p/CIVYzFmH1Io/?igshid=vezl1yaqj0e1