Bakit ako tutol na ilibing sa LNMB si Marcos?

November 18, 2016

Ako si Zhen  Marohombsar isa sa mga myembro ng Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK)  at isa sa mga lumahok sa kilos protesta na ginanap noong Nobyembre 9, 2016 para ekondina ang desisyon sa korte suprema na ilibing si dating pangulong Ferdinand Marcos sa libingan ng mga bayani. Ito ay dahil isa sa mga biktima ang aming pamilya noong kasag-sagan ng Martial Law .

Ayon sa aking pananaliksik ukol sa mga karanasan sa aking pamilya  noong bata pa sila ay sinalakay sila ng mga sundalo doon sa Marawi City, Lanao Del Sur. Sa kasagsagan ng Martial Law  marami  ang pinatay, ginahasa at tinortyur.

Kasama sa mga pinatay ay ang mga kamag-anak  ng aking ina, hinabol sila ng mga sundalo kasama ang kanyang mga kapatid, hanggang tumalon sila sa tulay na pagitan  ng Pantar at Saguiaran para takasan ang mga sundalong humahabol sa kanila.

Nagtago sila sa ilalim ng tulay ng ilang araw. Walang makain, pagod at natatakot na baka makita sila ng mga sundalo. Hanggang ngayon bakas parin sa kanilang mga puso’t  isipan ang mga pangyayari noong panahon ng Martial Law.

Tapos ito ba ang masasabi na tunay na bayani? O baka ito ang makakasira sa dignidad ng mga tao. Sa pagkakaalam ko, ang tunay na bayani ay handang magpakamatay para sa kanyang bayan at hindi ang pumatay ng kababayan. 

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Si Zhen Marohombsar (18 years old) ay isang Meranaw mula sa Marawi City, Lanao del Sur. Ang pahayag na ito ay binasa niya noong November 18, 2016 panahon press conference ng LMK kung saan siya ay isa sa mga tagapagsalita. 

Ang mga kabataang Pilipino ay Mangmang at Walang pakialam

Pahayag ng Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan

November 17, 2016

                  “Bayaran, mangmang, bobo, walang alam sa kasaysayan, yellowtards, at pasaway”. Dagdag na rito ang pahayag ni Communications Secretary Martin Andanar na kami’y mga “temperamental brats” o mga barumbado. Ito ang kabi-kabilang batikos na aming inani noong nagkilos protesta kaming mga miyembro ng Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK) laban sa desisyon ng Korte Suprema na ilibing si Ferdinand Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani noong November 9 sa Iligan at Marawi City.

                  Ito ba ang pangkalahatang pagtingin sa aming mga kabataan ngayon? Kaming mga kabataan ay nandirito upang ipahayag ang aming pagtutol sa pagturing sa amin na mga mangmang at walang pakialam at sa patuloy na pagpapalaganap ng maling kaisipang ito sa aming kapwa kabataan. Kaming bumubuo ng pinakamalaking porsyento ng populasyon ng bansa ay ang syang may pinakamalaki ding papel sa pagpanday ng isang lipunang may mataas na pagpapahalaga sa karapatan at katarungan.

Ang paglahok namin sa nation-wide protest noong November 9 ay sya mismong pagganap namin sa papel na ito: ang patuloy na pag-aralan ang aming lipunan, mamulat sa mga karanasan at manindigan at kumilos kasama ang iba pang mga mamamayan.

Simula pa man noong 2002, ang LMK ay isinusulong na ang makatao at makatarungang pagbabahagi ng pambansang yaman sa mga pangunahing serbisyong sosyal tulad ng edukasyon, pangkalusugan, tubig, kuryente, pabahay at iba pa. Kung kaya’t nananatili kaming tutol sa korapsyon, pandarambong, pandaraya at pag-abuso sa kapangyarihan.

Sa katunayan, malakas naming tinutulan ang dayaan sa 2007 election sa Iligan City. Nang magkaroon ng pambansang krisis sa bigas noong 2008, kasama kami sa nanawagan ng madaliang pamamahagi ng National Food Authority ng bigas sa mga nagugutom. Nang nanalasa ang mga bagyong Sendong, Agaton at Yolanda, kasama kami sa nanguna sa pagsiguro na ang karapatan at dignidad ng mga survivors ay napangalagaan mula sa relief distribution hanggang sa rehabilitation. Nanguna din kami sa pagtutol sa privatization ng Iligan Diesel Power Plant noong 2012. Kami din ang nag-organisa ng 92-Kilometrong martsa protesta mula Lala, Lanao del Norte hanggang Kiwalan, Iligan upang ipanawagan ang paghinto sa pagpapatayo ng coal-fired power plant sa Iligan at Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte dahil sa pangamba na ito ay magdudulot ng matinding kasiraan sa ating kalikasan at kalusugan.

Kung kaya’t mananatili kaming tutol sa paglibing sa diktador na Marcos sa libingan ng mga bayani sapagkat ito ay pagkait ng hustisya sa mahigit 70,000 na nakulong, 34,000 na natortyur at 3,240 na pinatay sa panahon ng martial law. Ito ay hindi lamang isyung politikal. Ito rin ay usaping personal sapagkat karamihan sa mga kabataang nagprotesta ay mga anak, apo at mga kamag-anak ng mga biktima ng martial law.  Ang pagkait ng hustisya sa kanila ay pagkait ng makatarungang lipunan para sa mga makabagong kabataan.

Hangga’t walang hustisya, kami ay mananatiling lumalaban, naninindigan at kumikilos.

Rayyan Gonzales, Chairperson of LMK Iligan 

Mobile Number: 09168632410 Email: lmkabataan@gmail.com    

Indignant youth die-in to protest SC ruling on Marcos

Wearing white masks, the members of the Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK) die-in in the middle of the street in Iligan City to protest the Supreme Court decision favoring the burial of the late president Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The white masks represent the faceless victims of tortures, extrajudicial killings and other forms of human rights violation who disappeared during the Martial Law. They also symbolize the voices of those faceless victims who have not received justice until now and who were not heard by the Supreme Court and by the President in all the process.

“Kinahanglan nato nga maipadumdom kung giunsa ni Marcos pagpangyatak ang tawhanung katungod panahon sa Martial Law labaw na ky ang mga nabiktima ani kay ang mga kabos.”

(We need to remind the society how Marcos violates the Human Rights during the Martial Law especially most of his victims were poor.)  Rayyan Gonzales, chairperson of LMK-Iligan, said.

The LMK members will gather again 5pm today in front of the Post Office in collaboration with the other multi-sectoral organizations to continue the indignation protest against the burial of Marcos.

Contact person:

Rayyan Gonzales (09168632410)

Chairperson

Liga ng Makabagong Kaabataan (LMK)-Iligan

lmkabatan@yahoo.com

LMK-Iligan to launch Youth Assembly

Youth leaders form different LMK Chapters around Iligan City plan out the upcoming LMK-Iligan General Assembly. 

Iligan City- About 130 youth participants will gather at Lim Beach in Barangay Santa Felomina this coming November 5-6, 2016 for an annual LMK-Iligan General Assembly. The participants will come from 17 barangays and 2 schools representing 22 LMK chapters in the city.

There will also be at least 8 youth observers coming from different youth organizations from the City and LMK formations from Zamboanga Peninsula, Lanao del Norte, Marawi City and Davao City who will join the event.

During the general assembly, there will be discussion on the global crisis, national and youth situation, the issues confronting the basic sectors in Iligan City, and the history of youth movement in the Philippines and the challenges in the 21st Century.

The General Assembly aims at strengthening the city-wide structure of LMK in Iligan by charting the direction of the organization based in the present context of the area, electing new leaders who will steer the organization for the next coming year, building solidarity among the different area of struggles of tri-people youth, and bringing back the vibrant and active movement of the youth in the city. 

It also aims at boosting the potential of the youth by channeling their creativity, energy, and daring spirit into proper venue to affect positive change in the society. 

FREE Baba Jan! A Call from the Youth of Mindanao

Equating activism to terrorism is a bigoted notion among the neo-fascist and authoritarian regimes in different points of the world to justify the use state powers especially the military and police force against the protesters just like what happened to Baba Jan and his 11 companions who have been imprisoned by the authority for being a political activist in Pakistan. 

Baba Jan is a central leader of the left-wing Awami Workers Party - Gilgit Baltistan.  After the landslide incident in Attabad, Hunza that displaced more than 1, 000 villagers, Baba Jan organized the displaced people to lobby to the Pakistan Government for compensation and resettlement. He joined a mobilization to demand for the rights of the affected communities however some of the protesters were shoot to death. As they call for justice for the victims, Baba Jan was arrested, repeatedly tortured and accused as terrorist. Recently, he was sentenced by the Anti-terrorism Court to 40 years of imprisonment.

The petition of Awami Workers Party in Pakistan and the some human rights organization in the Pakistan and other international organizations and personalities for his release has been signed by Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, David Graeber and several others. Among the organizations who demand Justice for Baba Jan are International Socialist, Progressive Youth Front Lahore, National Trade Union Federation and others.

The case of Baba Jan and his fellow activists in Pakistan was similarly what happened during the Martial Law period in the Philippines where massive number of political activists were detained, harassed, sexually abused, tortured, and killed by the state.  This state violence has continued in the Philippines even after Martial Law. Doctor Gery Ortiga and Gloria Capitan, Juvy Capion and her sons were among the environmental activists who were killed in the past few years in the Philippines. In the campaign against drugs syndicate under the administration of President Duterte, the spate of extra judicial killings have gone up victimizing small time alleged drug addicts and pushers. What even more striking are the absence of due process in all these cases but also most of the victims are the young people.

Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK) [League of Alternative Youth]- a progressive youth organization based in Mindanao, Philippines- believes that in a civilized world, Human Rights must be valued and upheld by the all States at all times and that Baba Jan is just among the numbers of leaders of the oppressed and marginalized sectors in the society whose voices are suppressed. Instead, they are criminalized and persecuted.

In unison with comrades in Pakistan and around the world, the Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan demands for justice to all victims of human rights violation and for the release of Baba Jan and his 11 fellow activists. 

LIGA NG MAKABAGONG KABATAAN- ZamPen- Statement

The Philippines has newly elected its president [last May 2016]- an icon of justice, patriarchy and CHANGE. Together, Filipinos are brought to new-fangled face of “hope and future”, unlike the previous administrations; a face who well-engaged the common people.

Towards Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25, Monday, the Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan-ZamPen, thru a Fun Run, invokes and yearns to bring the voice of the grassroots community especially the youth sector, on their insights and demands in lined with his proposed 10-point Socioeconomic Agenda.

In connection with this important event, the group of young people in Mindanao also addresses the undying burden of poverty due to various socioeconomic policies that contradicts to their real needs and demands which are unfortunately still embedded in the present administration:

·         Privitazation of education, and other rightful necessities that are deemed to be publicized

·         Contractualization

·         Decent permanent jobs

·         Direct and indirect resource exploitation of the foreign investors

·         Extra-judicial killings

·         Climate justice

·         Minimum wage

·         Youth participation in the decision making;

With the 10 socioeconomic policies proposed by Pres. Duterte, LMK stands that the above mentioned issues are still impossible to be resolved since these policies are yet patterned from Ramos’, Estrada’s, Arroyo’s and Pnoy’s. We run to support the premises we laid down. 

Misleading, somehow, that although the new administration claims to be different from the previous, yet reenforcing the ‘old practices’- say, Private Public Partnership (PPP) which encourages privatization of education, health, and other public maintainances supposedly.; continuing the macroeconomic and trade policies, promoting labor exchanges, etc. These types of policies can be summed up to the term neoliberalism. 

It has already been proved and experienced that neoliberalism, if contextualized to the local community situations,  has not proved anything to help the grassroots, instead neutralizes them (through media) to their passiveness and vulnerability level. The solutions that the leaders always assert are not suitable to our developing communities, it clearly contributes and elevates the interests of the capitalists.

Therefore, the young people of Zamboanga Peninsula, in solidarity of all the unions with the same cause demands, expresses that OUR FUTURE IS NON-NEGOTIABLE!

We run for a cause! We run for JUSTPEACE!

                Kabataan! Lumaban! Manindigan! Kumilos!

Climate Walk: A Sobriety call for Climate Justice!

Climate change may well be humanity’s greatest challenge.  It is a crisis that must be rapidly addressed if catastrophe is to be averted. Already, the impacts are being felt by millions in the world’s most vulnerable states and marginalized sectors. 

The Philippines has been identified as one of, if not the most, vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. The extent of the destruction caused by 2012 typhoon Pablo (Bopha) and 2011 typhoon Sendong (Washi) are directly and indirectly caused and worsened by logging and mining. The recent manifestation to this is the onslaught of El Niño that led to the human and food security conflict in Kidapawan, Cotabato Province between the local government and the local farmers demanding for food and aid. The farmers and fisher folks in Zamboanga Peninsula and Lanao Del Norte suffered the dry spell of El Nino as crops failed to produce while fish catch reduced dramatically. The decrease of water level in Lanao Lake and Pulangi River also disrupted the regular power generation of Agus-Pulangi Hydro-Power.

Among those aggravated by large-scale mining, logging, and coal-fired power plants include a rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, increased morbidity and mortality incidences, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity, contamination of aquifers and water stress, displacement of communities and development aggression in ancestral domain lands.

In response to perpetrators of the ecological crisis, the Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan- Zamboanga Peninsula organized a Climate Walk: A Sobriety calls for Climate Justice from Begong Tigbao, Limas to Maragang Lake last July 15 and 16. The walk served as a local counterpart of the 92-KM Climate Walk organized by Coal Resistance Movement (CoRE) last July 19 to 25, 2015. 

As part of the Campaign for Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, LMK Zampen celebrates the invaluable involvement and vital role of young people in demanding Climate Justice. The organization also stresses the enormous role of the youth to contest and understand the root causes of climate change. The imperative action needed to avert climate change should be based on grassroots-led solutions for the well-being of local communities. The youth understands that the only way to prevent climate change is to change the neo liberal agenda of the government, a corporate-based economy, which stops us from achieving sustainable development and just society.

“What we are facing now served as a great challenge and inspiration to every youth, the future defender of our country that we need to step up our efforts and exercise the power of a collective action to defy the crooked minds of our government”, said Renz Gahum, Secretary General of Alyansa ng Kabataang Mindanao Para sa Kapayapaan (AKMK), which LMK is a proud member of.

Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan Zampen, along with other organizations in Mindanao seeks for Climate Justice Now!  LMK Zampen Youth calls:  NO TO COAL POWER PLANTS! NO TO MINING! NO TO ILLEGAL LOGGING! Perpetrators of climate crisis must pay! 

Kabataan! Lumaban! Manindigan Kumilos!

118th Anniversary of the Philippine Independence: Pilipinas, Malaya Ba?

One hundred and eighteen (118) years ago, the people’s victory resonated when the Philippines was set free from Spanish control and subjugation. However, the United States of America had taken over the control of the country in collusion with local elites. Despite its declaration of Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946, the Philippines has remained a puppet that continue to serve the US interests.  As such, the Philippines is not truly independent as colonization of the imperialist US has just shifted to another form.

In the commemoration of the 118^th Year of Philippine Independence, the Alyansa ng Kabataang Mindanao para sa Kapayapaan (AKMK) and the Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK) will launch a protest rally in Iligan City to call for the abolition of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States and all other international agreements and treaties that undermine Philippine sovereignty and safety.

The existing military relations between the United States and the Philippines put the Filipinos in the losing end. The case of Jennifer Laude and the people who were killed in the Mamasapano carnage were among the collateral damages of such military relations.

The aggression of China over the West Philippine Sea is gradually intensifying as US strengthens its presence in the Philippines thereby endangering the fisher folks and the entire country’s safety. 

As the Philippine economy is tied up to the neo-liberal order propagated by the neo-colonial powers to control their former colonies, a majority of the people are chained in debt, poverty and hunger. In the Philippines, more than 26% of the population is constantly living in poverty while economic growth peaks and even highest in Asia in the recent records. This is because the control of resources continues in the hands of the few; laws on industries, land ownership and exploitation resources favour the interests of the business elites.  Export-oriented and import-dependent economy diminishes the self-sufficiency of the country.

The increasing aggression of liberalization, privatization and deregulation brought about by the same global economic order continue to jeopardize the future of the youth. Military spending increases each year but education has become expensive while job opportunities have become sparse forcing millions of Filipino to leave the country in search of greener pasture.      

As we aspire and participate in building a free, just and independent Philippines, we also demand to:

1.)    Scrap EDCA and all other international agreements, treaties and national policies that undermine Philippine Sovereignty, Safety, and Economic Sufficiency;

2.)    Withdraw the presence of US and other foreign military troops from the Philippine soil;

3.)    Serve justice to all the victims of foreign military aggression; and

4.)    Increase education budget and cut-down military spending.

Rena Marie Gahum                                                                                   Niño Omelio

AKMK Secretary General                                                 LMK Sec Ge  n

Email Address: akmk_peace@yahoo.com                      Email Address: lmkabataan@yahoo.com

Contact No. : 09754585681                                             Contact No.: 09277749028

Website: http://akmkforum.weebly.com/                         Blog: http://lmkportal.blogspot.com/

Trapo, 'wag iboto!

Ngayong darating na ika-9 ng Mayo magaganap ang eleksyon na tutukoy sa paroroonan ng ating bansa sa darating na anim na taon. Bilang kasapi sa sektor ng kabataan, aktibo kaming lumalahok sa pagbabago ng ating bansa lalo na’t ang kabataan ang siyang may pinakamaraming naitalang botante- hindi bababa sa 37% ng botante o 20 milyon ang tinatayang bilang. Dagdag pa dito, bilang mga lider ng mga kabataan sa aming komunidad, kami ay humihimok sa mga kapwa kabataan na huwag magpapaalipin sa mga bumibili ng boto sa halip ay pangunahan ang pagboto ng tama dahil ito ay nagpapakita ng ating malaking partisipasyon para pangunahan ang pagbabago sa ating bansa.

Mula sa hanay ng Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan, magsusumite kami ng aming pahayag para sa darating na halalan. Humihikayat din kami sa mga ibang kabataan, gobyerno at ibang sektor na suportahan ang aming mga hinaing. Bilang isa sa mga botante, iaangat namin ang kakayahan ng mga kabataan na pumili ng wastong pinuno sa pamamagitan ng mga:

1. Ang hindi pagboto sa mga kandidato na hindi inuuna ang kapakanan ng nakakarami.

2. Ang hindi pagboto sa mga kandidato na hindi tumutugon sa panlipunang serbisyo kagaya ng libreng edukasyon, libreng patubig, at renewable na enerhiya.

3. Ang hindi pagboto sa mga kandidatong umaapak sa ating mga karapatan.

4. Ang pagsuporta sa mga kandidatong inuuna sa plataporma ang mga isyu na kailangan ng agarang sulosyon. Kagaya ng renewable energy, libreng edukasyon sa mga mahihirap at dagdag na pundo ang mga SUCs, maglaan ng mga sustinableng trabaho para sa lahat, taasan ang sahod ng mga pribado at pampublikong empleyado, at isakatuparan ang sapat na sahod para sa mga manggagawa.

5. Ang pagsuporta sa mga kandidato na bukas ang pag-iisip para sa mga LGBT at hinihingkayat nito ang mga LGBT na makiisa na tumaguyod sa pag-unlad ng ating lipunan. 

Naniniwala ang Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan na kung susupotahan natin ang mga nakalatid sa itaas ay magkakaroon tayo ng bagong lider na siyang pupunla ng solusyon at tutugon sa mga isyu at problema na kinakaharap ng ating bansa. Naniniwala din ang Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan na kung palalakasin natin ang puwersa ng mga kabataan at iangat ang kanilang partisipasyon sa politika, ay magkakaroon tayo ng pag-asa sa ating bayan.

Kabataan! Lumaban! Manindigan! Kumilos!