Skip to main content

152 NEUTRALITY


152          NEUTRALITY



“Yes! There is nothing like neutrality!” is the comment of Fr. Eliseo Mercado on my post of May 16: “We decide everyday how to live our lives, by doing something, or doing nothing, by hating or loving. The choice is ours.”

I countered, “Neutrality is a position of nothing. It is like the "or" in between choices.”

Farah Decano asked, “What about fusion? That grey area between choices. The happy middle?”

Marcelo Estrada remarked, “The worst is making others do the deciding for oneself.”

Mildred Yamzon maintains neutrality is synonymous to fence sitting, while Marilyn Revote Eleno considers it “the lost zone … or the hub zone because you just want to be nice for everyone. With the fusion...you lost your true stand and becomes nothing.”

On my post yesterday of May 24 captioned “Cowardice hides in curses”, I was asked, “This page should be politically neutral?”

The post is about Indonesian President Joko Widodo who was described by MaxDefense Philippines to have travelled in a rusty 34-year old missile-less Soviet-era corvette and went to Natuna Islands whose Exclusive Economic Zone had been encroached upon by the Chinese coast guards and fishing ships. He asserted Indonesia’s right, and the Navy arrested Chinese fishermen illegally fishing in Natuna's EEZ, and blew their ships to pieces. The article compares the circumstances and the response of Widodo vis-à-vis the positioning of the Philippines on the territories claimed by China, which in President Duterte’s calculation, will lead us to war.

My reply to the “neutral” question was this:

“Thank you for your question, Don GidoFredo DeVera. There are 11 Commissioners at the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission (PHCC). They all have strong opinions and are never neutral. They have their own advocacies. Each Commissioner is given a chance to post in this page, articles that pertain to their specific work and advocacy. Others, like Commissioners Gonzalo Duque and Santiago Villafania prefer to post in their own FB timelines.

My advocacy is to preserve the integrity of our environment and to work for women empowerment. That is the reason why, I sued, together with another woman, Julia Senga, then President Noynoy Aquino and Ramón Paje, then Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the cutting of trees along the Manila North Road (MNR). This time, I cannot be “neutral” about our territorial integrity, which should never be compromised for economic gain. There are diplomatic ways (and more creative ways) to approach our predicament, not necessarily ending in war. Here, I totally disagree with the dire warning and scare tactics of President Rodrigo Duterte, that asserting our right and defending our territories, will inevitably, lead to war with China.

The other issue I am concerned with is his denigration and lack of respect for women. This violates my core as a woman, and I stand with other women in trying to preserve the gains we have so painstakingly worked for over the years. It goes against our cultural fiber and destroys the fabric we have woven to strengthen ourselves.”

No matter how we aim for it, there is no neutrality in real life, because we all respond based on what we know, or think we know, and the values we live by. That, in its core, is a bias.



Go, Go, Sago!

Let's go, sago!
Jetski to Scarborough!

Let them go, sago!
I have somewhere else to go!

Let them, Bratatatatat
China will not let me go!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

168 ESTABLISHING “FACTS”

168           ESTABLISHING “FACTS” In 1997, during his professorial lecture at the City College of Manila, Ambeth Ocampo, former Chairperson of the National Historical Commission (NHCP) said "Personally, I think this controversy like that of the site of the first mass -- Limasawa, Leyte or Masao, Butuan -- belongs in the basura (trash). But then, textbooks and quiz shows require definite answers. People want "facts" not lessons or perspectives."   Vicente Calibo de Jesus, a relentless researcher on the subject of the first “mass” disagrees. He said, “A historian has a moral obligation to Truth, and an ethical responsibility to his readers, domestic and global.” There is also a claim that the first “mass” was actually in Bolinao, Pangasinan celebrated in 1324 by Odoric of Pordenone, OFM, also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi, an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer, predating the  mass ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Armi

Published by  Sunday Punch Dagupan Pangasinan   July 23, 2019 Armi By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo It is not clear to me how I first met Armi Bangsal. I had this impression that she was introduced by Enoch Tan, but I could be wrong. Maybe she was introduced to me by another friend, Josefina (Josie) Lolarga. I have a clearer memory of how I met another friend, Fe Mangahas, from a timeline she remembers, which became the basis of my recall of the occasion. However, the clarity of our memory recedes over time, and with it, modifications of the stories, and so I think there may be an earlier event where we had met, which escaped her memory. Armi and I stayed close friends up to this day, seeing each other occasionally, sometimes only during Christmas and her birthday, and mourning the passing of other friends. I saw her more often during the last few years, because of the meetings scheduled by the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission in Lingayen, where she res...
Post a Comment
Read more

155 INDEPENDENCE DAY

155           INDEPENDENCE DAY I had lunch with an old friend at Chocolate Kiss on Independence Day. We talked about our relationships and how we, considering our advocacy on women empowerment and environmental coexistence, experienced independence, codependence and interdependence.   “Alam mo, nakakapagod din. Buong buhay ko, nag-aalaga akong tao.” (You know, it is also tiring. All my life I have been taking care of people.) “Come to think of it, tama ka. Ganyan din ako.” (you are right. I am like that too.) “Sana sa next life, tayo rin ang alagaan.” (Hoping in the next life, we are the ones being cared for.) “Why in the next life? We can make steps to realize this, in this lifetime. And we can pray to God to make this happen.” “I miss him. It’s been years since I was pampered that way. He knows what I need before I even utter it. Sometimes, even before I think of it.” “In a way, we are lucky. At least ...
Post a Comment
Read more