Friday, June 21, 2024

I'm just a struggling writer

I'M JUST A STRUGGLING WRITER
(a Filipino dalit in English)

I'm just a struggling writer
for urban poor and laborer
also poet in the corner
who is fond of rhyme and meter
sometimes have sweet and bad temper

what I'm writing is what is right
although I'm a Left when I write
what I feel, hear, or what's in sight
some topics are heavy and tight
while others are easy and light

sometimes I look in the mirror
what if I became a juror
writes about tokhang, its horror
and judging with all my valor
that those topics should I abhor

- gregoriovbituinjr.
06.21.2024

* dalit - a native Filipino poem composed of eight syllables per line

Friday, March 1, 2019

An Ode To Liberty

AN ODE TO LIBERTY

Another fight for the future is at stake
Nefarious pogrom in this country feared indeed
One after another, blood was turned into lake
Due to the rise of another Hitlerian breed!
Enduring the actions of this notorious beast
Towards ending these terrible deeds of terror
On the want for freedom, we rise with clenched fist
Liberty against this tragic acts we longed for!
In the midst of darkness and stupidity
Beneath the eyes of struggle and fearfulness
Entering the years of sorrow and tragedy
Revolting is just right to repeal this madness!
To the future and this present generation:
You are the hope for another revolution!
- gregbituinjr.

Monday, August 8, 2016

A nobody

A NOBODY
13 syllables per line

I am a nobody, just one in the working class
a proletarian with no face, only sweat that last
united in struggle for this system to crash
a capitalist society which we should lambast
‘coz under this rotten system workers were harass
we should be united so this system will not last
fighting for a new world against capitalist class

- gregbituinjr.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

In Chess

IN CHESS
a poem by Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.
9 syllable per line

in chess, we must think tactically
knowing every move, strategy
as if being a master should be
what's the move against the enemy

an strategic defense is one
tactical offensive should be done
every move should be in our hand
because in every game we must won

Thursday, November 27, 2014

We are part of the Climate Walk

WE ARE PART OF THE CLIMATE WALK
by Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.
8 syllable per line

We are part of the Climate Walk
Climate Justice is what we look
Journey poems is for the book
Walk many miles is what we took

The Earth is our only lair
The only Earth that we must care
Today that climate change is here
Climate Justice call should be clear
To everybody far and near
And protect this Earth that is dear.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Brotherhood is not violence

BROTHERHOOD IS NOT VIOLENCE
by Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.

The recent death of a neophyte due to hazing is a very alarming one. It make fraternities uncivilized groups. There were so many young men who died because of hazing, young men who have dreams of a better future ahead of them.

The objective of fraternity is brotherhood, and that is also its meaning. Fraternity came from Latin word "frater" which means "brother". According to Wikipedia, "a fraternity is an organized society of men associated together in an environment of companionship and brotherhood; dedicated to the intellectual, physical, moral, religious, and/or social development of its members." Hazing, on the other hand, "is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. Hazing is often prohibited by law and may comprise either physical or psychological abuse."

A fraternity is about fellowship with our brothers, like a Knight with their fellow Knight. I was just an Squire then when I joined a fraternity with my classmates in high school. And I thank that it was not so violent. But we sometimes did a 15 seconds rumble in our classroom with our brothers / classmates with most of us laughing, although we felt pains, after that physical activity.

Although there's some physical violence then, fraternity is not violence. Being in a fraternity is being brothers with our fellow members. A paddle is part of welcoming new members. But wooden paddle was associated with physical violence, and almost became a symbol for hazing. But wooden paddle is not violence, the act of paddling is.

In our country, a list of those who died in hazing grows bigger, with the recent death of Guillo Cesar Servando, a student of La Salle College of St. Benilde.

Our comrade activist, Alex Icasiano, leader of Sanlakas Youth, is one of them. He died of hazing in 1997. There are more. Marc Andre Marcos of San Beda College of Law, neophyte of Lex Leonum Fraternitas (LLF), July 2012; Marvin Reglos, also of San Beda College of Law, February 2012, who died on the Lambda Rho Beta initiation beating; E.J. Karl Intia, University of Makati, Alpha Phi Omega, May 2011. Leonardo “Lenny” Villa, neophyte of Aquila Legis Juris fraternity, in February 1991.

In 2009, Glacy Monique Dimaranan, 15-year-old girl, believed to be a confraternity neophyte of Scout Royal Brotherhood, was accidentally shot to death during the initiation rites in BiƱan, Laguna. John Daniel L. Samparada, 18, a student of Lyceum of the Philippines in General Trias, Cavite, and said to be a recruit of Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, died due to hazing in Estrella Hospital in Silang, Cavite. Elvis Sinaluan, 21, neophyte of Scout Royal Brotherhood in Alfonso, Cavite, died October 2009. Nor Silongan, 16, criminology student at Notre Dame of Tacurong College, neophyte of Tau Gamma Phi, died Sept. 15, 2011. Noel Borja, 17, an Alternative Learning Systems student, neophyte of Tau Gamma Phi, Parola, Binondo, Manila, died Oct. 27, 2010.

EJ Karl Intia, 19, student of the University of Makati, neophyte of Alpha Phi Omega, his body was retrieved from a ravine in Sta. Maria, Laguna province, August 15, 2010. Menardo Clamucha Jr., 18, criminology student at the University of Iloilo, died from heavy beatings, neophyte of Kapatiran ng mga Kabataang Kriminolohiya in Pototan town in Iloilo province, July 18, 2010.  Chester Paulo Abracias, 18, student at Enverga University in Lucena City, neophyte of Tau Gamma Phi, his body was found wrapped in banana leaves and a blanket in a coconut plantation, August 2008.

But why are there many deaths during initiations? There are many reasons. And I just want to speculate. Some students join a fraternity probably because they want to belong to a group, while others were forced to join because of peer pressure. Sometimes they join fraternity to avoid being bullied, and to have protection. Some feel the need of a fraternity to have connections, probably in politics or business. And some felt prestigious to join a fraternity, most especially if it’s at a law school. Even if there are so many promising students who died because of hazing, others will still join because they need it, like those mentioned above.

The problem is they want protection from their would-be brothers, but what they met is death. They want to belong to a group, but that group was the cause of their death. They want recognition, but how do we recognize them if they were gone?

Hazing is not brotherhood, and brotherhood is not violence. Initiation rites should not be bloody. The wrong culture of brotherhood should ba replaced by a right culture. The culture of blood should be replaced by a culture of brotherly love.

Paddling is violence because it inflict pain in the neophyte. The paddling in an initiation rites must be replaced by a non-violent means, such as an exercise, which is not painful and bloody. Initiation rites must be revised in a fraternity.

Fraternities will not be gone, as long as many people wanted to belong to a group and band together for a common purpose. Because belonging to a group is humane, and no man is an island. But such belonging to a group should be justifiable, non-violent and should respect the rights of those concerned.

R.A. 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law is not enough, as long as initiation rites of every fraternities and secret societies are not revised.

I suggest that the government or respective groups or agencies join hands and band together with fraternities to have a common agreement that fraternities should revise those bloody initiation rites to become a humane ritual of welcoming neophytes.

Data from:
http://services.inquirer.net/mobile/09/11/15/html_output/xmlhtml/20091115-236429-xml.html
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/174668/frat-neophyte-dies-in-cavite-hazing
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/240395/what-went-before-previous-hazing-victims
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/616091/what-went-before-killing-and-dying-for-brotherhood
http://philippineshazing.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Seeds to a new dawn

SEEDS TO A NEW DAWN
by Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.
13 syllables per line

in the struggle for justice, in this battlefield
working class must win this war with our growing guild
to make it happen, workers should be the one to wield
that new, better system we are determined to build

as we are raging by poverty, we felt the need
to make a better world, and now we're sowing the seed
of revolt against the system of envy and greed
a proletarian revolt that the workers should lead

as we try to win this battle wisely but frugal
the enemy class are making our world lethal
destroying our planet for profit, capital
if we don't care, this planet's wound would become fatal

we must do something, although we are fighting alone
against those elites with their richness, power, and throne
but their class should be toppled, like cobwebs to be blown
then, a new beginning we'll make towards a new dawn