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| "Even Birds that freely roam the Sky, Loudly weep when not allowed to fly, How more deeply will a Land most fair, Yearn to break the chains of sad Despair?" |
-I-
All things false and frightful
All rackets great and small
All things fierce and spiteful
This “New Republic” has them all.
Perjuries and puppetry
Beclouding what the people know—
Ninoy was slain for but one reason
He was Marcos’ foremost foe.
An impotent judiciary
Unmasking all pretensions
To supremacy of law;
Confirming apprehensions—
Under this “New Constitution,”
A legal ruse, for foreign news;
There’s neither writ nor legislation
Against the Monarch’s views.
There’s no such thing as honor
There’s no such thing as truth
The bigger lie the better
‘Tis the strong who rule the Earth.
-II-
The price manipulations
From sugar, steel, to stones
The Swiss Accounts, the missing millions
From diverted foreign loans.
The businesses and condominiums
In East and West Coast, USA
But the ice-berg tip of billions
In dollars salted away.
The tax incentives granted aliens;
Exclusive contracts, “finder’s fee”
From nuclear plant to tourist towers
Cornered by the oligarchy.
Transnationals and cronies
Plundering hand in hand
While disease and destitution
And death stalk the land.
Wasn’t Marcos’ solemn promise
“To reform society?”
Behold the new corruption
To shameless satiety!
-III-
Our present and our future
Willed and charted by one man
Like Jews of old, the subjects
Of Pharaoh at Malacañang
Who claims he’s indispensable
He has a covenant; that’s why
He can’t resign and, most of all,
Does not intend to die.
Many dream that the solution,
So’s not to be another Vietnam,
Is aid and pressure for reforms
From friend and guardian Uncle Sam
It matters not, we keep our labor
Cheap and docile; devaluate
Remain consumers; keep the bases;
In fine, remain a vassal state.
As dehumanizing tortures
For “state security,”
Hamlettings and “salvagings”
Continue with impunity.
-IV-
Woe to those among our people,
Our leaders and our priests
Who still confine our piety
To giving alms and religious feasts.
Asking “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
To be deprived and persecuted
By love of self and comfort,
Blinded, Deafened. Muted.
Insensible to injustice
“What’s in it for me and mine?”
We spurn God-given birthrights
As pearls upon the swine!
Verily, we must remember
God’s continuing creation
Must be human handiwork.
‘Tis we, but we, must save our nation!
By asserting rights and freedoms;
Seeking self-determination.
With justice, the foundation
Of national reconciliation.
-V-
Shall we be slaves forever?
Bereft of heart and will
To end this long oppression
And our deliverance, fulfill?
Kailan pa, O bayang magiting
Ang mang-aapi, itatakwil?
KAILAN PA? NA SA MANLULUPIG
‘DI NA PASISIIL?
*Naga Times, 28 July 1985;
Ichthys, Aug. 9 ‘85
License: (license)
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