Is She Hoping For Another Massacre?

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Barrio Siete’s OFFICIAL STATEMENT on the Maguindanao Massacre

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Barrio Siete Collective Blog was conceived with a common goal of responsible freedom of expression, radical tracing of one’s provincial roots and the upholding of democracy via the written form of communication despite of various differences and diversity among its members.

One proof of this is the fact that Barrio Siete writers consist of members with different faiths (including Islam), with different financial and legal status, with different political views, with different ideologies, with different citizenship and with different principles in life.

Simply put it, we firmly believe in the spirit of Democracy in diversity armed with responsibility and civility. We consider ourselves as citizen journalist with Imbalanced News and Biased Views, precisely because we are not professional journalists. But despite of this we still try our very best to always present the two faces, if not, multiple faces on an issue. We are writers armed with “passion” to express what we believe in — FREEDOM and TRUTH.

But the recent Massacre in Maguindanao which murdered journalists, innocent civilians and political supporters including women threatened this same Freedom and Truth we are upholding in our blog. We are alarmed and appalled at the same time by the horrific and ghastly expression of usurpation of power and the lawlessness in our society by the very same people in the position who have sworn to protect us.

With this we at Barrio Siete dare to assume, given the circumstances of events, that implies lack of action and haste from our Philippine Government to bring to justice the men behind the attack, that Killing of innocent Lives for the sake of Staying in Power is utterly wrong, shameful and intrinsically evil.

We, the unified and solid bloggers and writers of Barrio Siete publicly condemn this gruesome ungodly act against freedom of speech and democracy in the strongest possible term.

Thus, with disgust and indignation and in support to all journalists around the world, we call on the Philippine Government under the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to:

1. STOP negotiating with the alleged suspects under the guise of Sec. Dureza and arrest those who are responsible under the burden of proof found on the scene of the crime, circumstantial evidence or otherwise, including the testimony of several witnesses. We also ask the immediate preventive relief of the people implicated on the crime, so as not to influence the on-going investigation.

2. STOP issuing statements from the Palace mouthpieces but instead ACT on the case and bring to justice the alleged perpetrators. We ask the immediate placement of the area under Comelec control.

3. STOP and break all political ties on allies in the name of fairness

4. ABOLISH all private armies on all sides of political affinity

5. and lastly, STOP ALL THE STALLING AND PROLONGATION OF THE INVESTIGATION. BRING JUSTICE TO HASTE

The implication of this massacre does not only involve journalists working on the mainstream media, but also on ordinary Filipino citizens, innocent people who are commonly called citizen journalists, and currently maintains 2 million blogs to date.

The lack of action from the Government is sending the wrong signal of tolerance and god forbid, might be repeated in the near future under a different name, different location and a different number of human lives wasted by diabolical inclination to gag freedom with the use of terror.

We ask all Filipino Bloggers, collective or individual otherwise, to make a stand against annihilation of the innocent, and uphold basic human rights to life and freedom of speech.

Barrio Siete stands by its statement.

AS AGREED UPON AND COLLABORATIVELY WRITTEN BY BARRIO SIETE WRITERS

GT: Gifts?

In between posting B7 official statement and composing my thoughts to make my own statement and encourage you all to support it, I am glad I have Girls Talk. I need a breather before I wear my Gabriela Silang suit..

This week's theme is favorite gifts, without much thinking I would say my favorite gift is the hubby.. he provides me endless list of gifts.. but wait! I work hard to get him..

Hmm.. OK let me think of material things that he gave me.. ahh.. my DSLR which he gave me last February.. but nope it's not my favorite gift..although it comes in second. My favorite or my most treasured gift he gave was watercolor pencils. I can't post the photo as he gave it to me 6 years ago. The first time he gave me a Christmas gift. You know by now that my hobby is painting and he made an effort to buy me some materials for that, that is to me the sweetest thing. It assured me that he will support me in everything I will do, specially if it will make me happy.

Now 6 years after that, he never fails to shower me with anything that will make me happy. When I told him I want to have my own DSLR, he bought me one.. and now I am salivating over this telephoto lens.. and nope I won't tell him.. I am just so sure that when I did, he will get it for me. (not the soonest but I know he will).. it's our little secret OK?

Another Great Deal From Olay

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKO!!!

Happy Birthday Marce! When I first met you, I never thought we can be as close as this. You made it possible for us all to be friends. Your sweet attitude and welcoming character is very contagious that through you I have met and opened up with a lot of people in the blogniverse. I am pretty sure that if not for you, there will be no Marce club. You always made us feel that life is easy and that people are nice. I am just lucky to be your friend and kumare (ay putsa naiiyak na ako... tama na nga..) Happy Birthday! Muah! Muah!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FEDHZ!!!

Happy Birthday Marce!!

wala akong masabi.. lagi naman tayo mag ka chat eh.. and hindi bagay sa atin ang mushy.. hihi