What the Fuck is Wrong With Karapatan?

You are saying sorry to the widow of Crispin Beltran because of the snafu about the Bicol Bishop telling the priests of Bicol not to say mass for him because he is not supposedly a Catholic? Because his body spent a night at the Aglipayan Cathedral? You are saying sorry for the Bicol Bishop who is a hypocrite? Everything that Beltran did is not worth it because he was not a Catholic (even if he was)? Human rights transcend big-time religion. We are disrespecting the memory of Beltran and of his wife by saying sorry to a bishop who kowtows only to God a/o PGMA. Karapatan is now like an oppressive politician who knows he (or she in the case of PGMA) is in the right because he kisses the hand of the bishop. I love Godfather I and II because it reminds me of me and you. What intellectual and spiritual liars we have become.

Filipino Monkey (Via Nash)

Jonas

From Ed M:

O Myanmar!

"And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin"
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
heard the sound of a clown who died in the alley,
And it's hard, and it's hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."
Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Please wear red today in support of the monks of Myanmar

ESPN's Top 100 People to Hate

Only 100 athletes you would say but Jonah Keri had separate categories for quarterbucks, the New York Yankees and the Mets, Cubs, Red Sox and Phillies. I was thinking, hey, they almost forgot the Mariners (Sexson is here) but they saved the best for last.

Pastor Berlin's Statement

What does it take a government to have the nerve to abduct, torture, and terrorize my family on the basis of an old inciting to sedition case and a baseless murder charge? Far more absurd is the accusation that I am the Secretary of the CPP Provincial committee in Cavite. This lie that they tried to extract from me by means of physical, mental and psychological torture and projecting me in public as a "hand-gun and grenade-carrying rebel."

I am a Pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and never participated in any killings, illegal or unlawful activities, or any common crime.

My family and I have just taken a tricycle from the local church which I have served for two consecutive years (June 2006-2007) where we just celebrated and the local church's 59th and 72nd anniversaries respectively.

On May 27, at around 5:30 pm, a white van cut the tricycle's path and military-looking men quickly alighted to grab me; despite my plea that they show me the warrant they said they had. I was man-handled and forcefully shoved inside the van, put a handcuff on my hands behind me, covered my head with a cloth and tape, was beaten, punched and kicked repeatedly.

They brought me to a place I didn't know. Here, still handcuffed, men would take turn interrogating and beating my head with their fists and blunt objects (like a 1,000 ml mineral bottle and other objects). All throughout, layers of plastic bags covered my head. My torturers would tighten the bag until I could no longer breathe. I passed out two times and urinated in my pants.

They made me shake my head for about an hour and beat me whenever I stopped they said they would do these things to my family if I did not cooperate. I was forced to give names and addresses of my whole family, officers of church and conferences, name of my administrator at Union Theological Seminary where I am studying theology, leaders of progressive labour and peasant organizations in Southern Tagalog.

They opened my computer by forcing me to give the password, got my e-mail password. They erased all of my church, school and personal files and replaced these with documents that belong to the so-called underground left.

After about twelve hours, they put me back on the van still handcuffed and blindfolded. They threatened to kill me, burn me or bury me. They continued to beat me and make new names for me. They got my sim card.

They called me Pastor-Impostor, and lectured me on "evils" of communism and how the church, legal people's organizations are "used" to create trouble by criticizing the government.

When the van stopped, it took an hour before they led me down, made me sit down and lie down. After an hour, they removed my blindfold. Here I learned I was in Imus, Cavite specifically at Camp Pantaleon Garcia, Cavite Provincial Police Office (PPO).

Later on in the afternoon, that was the only time I saw the warrants of and to what unit of the PNP I was turned over to by my abductors.