TSONA
(True State of the Nation Address)
of the LGBT Sector
Other than traditional political rhetorics, recycled innuendos, repetitive scapegoating and diversionary diplomacies, the Filipino lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) expect nothing new in this year’s SONA of Benigno Simeon Aquino. His expected defense of his administration’s public private partnership (PPP), the fakery of his mother’s CARP and his predecessors’ CARPER, bullying of the Judiciary, double standard on PDAP vis-à-vis DAP being far from the real state of the Filipino nation, there is nothing surer for the LGBT sector than Noynoy’s evident modus to launch through his rotten speech a fresh set of stratagem to sustain his blood-drenched regime of fooling the LGBTs and the entire Filipino people, systemic deceit and big-time banditry and plunder.
Clinging on the “yellow ribbon” magic
For Noynoy Aquino and his cohorts in the cabinet, the discovery and resultant expose of the DAP was at the wrong time, at the moment when the PDAP scandal was taking its toll on the political foes of his blood-stained yellow regime. To the surprise of the entire nation, the DAP dwarfed PDAP in multifarious magnitudes. In the midst of snowballing criticism on Noynoy’s vehement participation in his cabinet’s syndicated schema, we at Kapederasyon cannot help but trace the roots of his deep faith in the “yellow ribbon” mystique being what he suppose as the most potent amulet in his holDAPper regime’s cunning in its style of plundering the country of its financial resources.
And we conclude that it all started on Noynoy’s mother Cory who capitalized on her husband’s yellow ribbon trademark to snap two decades of Marcos dictatorship and be catapulted to US-backed political power. It is clear that by 1984, a year after Cory’s husband, Noynoy’s father and Marcos’ political rival Benigno “Ninoy” was murdered, influential parts of the US government's foreign policy establishment recognized that the growing people's movement ranged against the US-backed dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, threatened not only Marcos, but the entire edifice of elite democracy. The U.S. consequently sought to divide this popular movement by providing selective support to the more conservative leaders of the uprising, particularly future president Corazon C. Aquino -- which eventually enabled her (and them) to control the state apparatus, while effectively dissipating the power of the people. Yet despite her popularity, Aquino, who was from one of the richest and most powerful families in the country, was far from an adequate representative of the Filipino people, especially those intent on undermining elite domination.
Once grabbing the presidency, Cory signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), but the law had to be extended for more than two decades without being completed. The mill and farm workers of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita had to fight for the land they have tilled for generations for two decades, paying for it with their blood before being able to gain it. She also refused to renegotiate even the onerous foreign debts of the Marcos dictatorship, passing the Automatic Appropriation Law instead and likewise implemented the same militarist solution to the armed conflict by “unsheathing the sword of war,” displacing more than a million people in rural areas.
The “yellow ribbon” myth in the post-Cory regime and beyond
After Cory Aquino, power was bequeathed to her favorite general Fidel Ramos who at once embarked on an ambitious development plan dubbed "Philippines 2000". Under the plan, several industries critical to economic development were privatized, such as electricity, telecommunications, banking, domestic shipping, and oil. The taxation system was reformed and the economy took a sharp downturn during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Its fiscal deficit in 1998 reached P49.981 billion from a surplus of P1.564 billion in 1997. The peso depreciated (fell in value) to P40.89 per U.S. dollar from its previous rate of P29.47 to a dollar.
The regimes that followed after Ramos were as scandalous and smeared as the yellow ribbon and the “People Power” myths with thievery and bloodshed, simply sustaining the US-designed development from Marcos to Cory to Ramos to Estrada to Arroyo and now to Noynoy, at the expense of the LGBT and the entire Filipino people.
TSONA (True State of the Nation Address) of the LGBT Sector
Noynoy’s SONA’ political rhetorics, recycled innuendos, repetitive scapegoating and diversionary diplomacies notwithstanding, the state of the Filipino LGBTs never, ever improved four years after of his regime. On the contrary, like the rest of the suffering Filipino people, the LGBT sector is still discriminated against and hurled day-to-day with systemic homophobia, highlighted by the following realities:
No law is in place that shall ensure equal rights for the LGBT and other marginalized sectors.
- No economic or political structure that are suited to the needs and qualities of the LGBTs.
- Lingering heterosexist standards in employment and job promotions.
- Feudal and heterosexist ideals and traditions in sexual relationships, marriage and building of families.
- Absence of institutions that serve persons with disability (PWDs) and senior citizens among the ranks of the Filipino LGBTs.
- Considering Filipino LGBTs as merely reserved labor forces
- Utter neglect of LGBT victims of hate crimes.
- Absence of LGBT representation in the Legislature.
- Downright discrimination and disrespect by government agencies in LGBT initiatives of participation in national elections.
- Absence of formal or non-formal government initiatives for the discussion, promotion and information dissemination on the essence of LGBT and diverse genders that it encompasses.
Untie (ANTI) the yellow ribbon
While Noynoy Aquino and his minions in government busy themselves in their fakery cum thievery, we Filipino LGBTs must smash the myth people power by untying the yellow ribbon and winning our own social, political and economic victories.
Let us participate actively in fighting for opportunity and security in employment and economic occupation, land ownership, moral living standard, national industrialization to improve our lives and the lives of the Filipino people.
The struggle of the LGBT is not distinct and separate from the struggle of the oppressed Filipino people so the LGBT sector can never be victorious over the social problems that it faces if done separately from the fight of the people towards the realization of democratic victories. It is therefore the prerogative of the Filipino LGBTs to organize its ranks as a sector, including our family members, friends and the entire Filipino people.
The LGBTs play a significant role in the Filipino family and society so it is decisive to break the feudal psyche that virtually chain us in the convention that we are weak, separate and without a space in the creation of a free and democratic society. Therefore, we must collectively change the decadent ideas and beliefs about the LGBTs and achieve with the struggling Filipino people a society of intelligent, healthy and free people.
Filipino LGBTs unite! We have the power to decide our future; to realize our cause of decisively ending years of marginalization and discrimination based on our sexual orientation and gender identity.
Expose and oppose DAP and fight to end all forms of corruption in government.
Lahat ng sangkot, DAPat managot!
IMPEACH NOYNOY AQUINO!
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