The Body as a Currency: The Case of Political Combatants in the Province of Aklan, Philippines (original) (raw)
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Social Ethics Society Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2024
This essay attempts to provide a critical historiography by giving a flashback and discussing historical narratives often forgotten in Philippine history and national politics, showcasing the critical points and significant events that had escalated further into the next sequence of events and have continually affected Philippine politics up to this very day. I am going to bring the readers' memory back to the Plaza Miranda twin grenade blasts of 1971 which wounded more than a hundred, including nine (9) casualties, out of the four thousand estimated crowd in attendance. Among those severely injured were prominent personalities, including then-incumbent senators Jovito Salonga, Sergio Osmena Jr., Eva Estrada Kalaw, and Sonny Osmena during a kick-off rally or miting de avance of eight (8) Liberal Party (LP) senatorial bets for midterm elections in 1971. The blasts were initially blamed on Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr., then incumbent president of the Republic of the Philippines and standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party, who was known as a staunch rival of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., the star candidate of the Liberal Party and a presidential aspirant. In what follows, I shall carefully lay down the timeline of events, and present the existing narratives and discourses relative to the emerging personalities involved in this gruesome event in Philippine politics in 1971, which is more than 50 years ago. I will attempt to bridge this political occurrence of the 1970s to the political upheavals of the Duterte (FPRRD) and Marcos, Jr. presidencies, and Distorted History, Distorted Democracy… 121 dare to provide an honest-to-goodness insight into the nature of democracy as shown in the unpopular version of Philippine history.
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Journal of ASEAN Studies, 2019
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Southeast Asian Studies, 2017
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Democracy is expected to reduce political violence. However the Philippines experienced periods of intense violence long after the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown. This dissertation begins by asking why Philippine politics remained violent even long after democracy should have consolidated. I argue that the strategic interests of the state and the particularistic interests of political actors in society may create an interest in using violence. Nonetheless, interests alone cannot result in action: political actors located at the center and periphery must have the capacity to act alone, together or against each other. Specific patterns of political violence—why violence is used, when it starts, and why it ends—are contingent upon these central-local dynamics. This dissertation explains political violence related to elections and insurgency as well as wealth and social control in four cases: Northern Luzon, Eastern Visayas, Central Luzon and Southern Mindanao, spanning 2001 to 2016.