East of Here and West of There

Evelio Javier was a Filipino lawyer, civil servant, politician, and an opposition leader during the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.  Javier ran for governor of Antique and won in 1971 by one of the largest margins in history, making him, at the age of 28, the Philippines' youngest governor. Javier was assassinated in the closing days of Ferdinand Marcos's presidency. A staunch supporter of then-presidential candidate Corazon Aquino, he was shot on February 11, 1986 four days after the Snap Elections of 1986 were held but while the counting was continuing. The assassination of Evelio Javier helped lead to Marcos's fall from power during the People Power Revolution.   On the day of the funeral and burial to his final resting place at his hometown of San Jose de Buenavista, Antique, thousands of mourning people in Antique followed his funeral procession to the cemetery wearing yellow shirts and tying yellow bands to their wrists. They played his fav...

On 25 January 2015, three platoons of the elite SAF police squad ventured into the guerrilla enclave of Tukanalipao, Mindanao, Philippines, with the goal of detaining high-ranking, Jemaah Islamiyah-affiliated, improvised-explosive-device experts Zulkifli Abdhir and Basit Usman. The SAF troops were then ambushed by a group of MILF militants, suffering heavy casualties. Running out of ammunition, a dozen of surviving policemen attempted to withdraw. At the same time, rebels belonging to BIFF gathered from nearby villages, immediately engaging the retreating law enforcement agents. The militants overpowered the remaining policemen, later killing the wounded and firing multiple bullets into the corpses of the slain. A total of 44 SAF officers were killed, while rebel casualties amounted to at least 5 killed and 10 wounded. Fiat justitia ruat caelum is a Latin legal phrase, meaning "Let justice be done though the heavens fall." The maxim signif...

Be like bamboo. Bend when the storm comes. Mourn. Console each other. Survive. Spring back when the storm leaves. Rebuild. Restore. Give thanks. Prevail.   Digital illustration; 2013

Digital illustration; 2009 Made for a broadcast promo about a cult in the Philippines. The cult leader was charismatic and challenged the authorities by holding women hostage as sex slaves. He was mortally wounded in a fire fight with the authorities, his skull cracked open by gunfire. Hundreds of his were aghast when he succumbed to the gunshots-- something he claimed he could avoid by naming himself immortal and adorning his body with amulets of protection.

Now that some of the country's top politicians have been charged with graft, plunder and malversion raps, traditional media as well as new media is starting to feel the presence of spin doctors ready to "wag the dog." Will these dogs of spin be successful? Let's see. To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue. The expression comes from the saying that 'a dog is smarter than its tail', but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would 'wag the dog'. Digital illustration; 2013

Digital illustration; 2013 3 Philippine senators charged with plunder. Those charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman Monday afternoon were Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada together with alleged P10 billion pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, 5 former congressmen and 30 others. More here . Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Digital illustration; 2013 “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?” As the drama of the pork scandal unfolds and the veneer of honor and respect is stripped slowly from our "leaders," we are reminded of the fact that each of us has the capacity to do evil. Are they testaments to the belief that achievement, ambition, the striving to reach the highest possible position in life -- the will to power as Friedrich Nietzsche describes it -- will ultimately triumph over innate good and moral conscience? I hope not. 

Digital illustration; 2013 For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men, Julies Caesar by William Shakespeare

At least three senators instructed government agencies to release millions of pesos from their pork barrel funds to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) belonging to the Janet Lim-Napoles group. More here. Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Digital collage; 2013 Janet Napoles, the alleged architect of the controversial P10-billion "pork barrel" scam involving Philippine Senators, surrendered to President Benigno Aquino III at 9:37 pm on August 28, 2013. Earlier in the day, Malacanan issued a PHP 10 million peso bounty on Napoles. Timeline here. http://www.rappler.com/nation/37632-timeline-janet-lim-napoles-from-scandal-to-surrender Photo taken from official PNP mugshot. Copy can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Lim-Napoles_mugshot.jpg

Digital illustration; 2013

Editorial illustration about the capsizing of MV Princess of the Stars with the final death toll (estimated) of passengers and crew is given as 802 lost; Digital

Editorial illustration about the Maguindanao massacre ; Digital Monthly bills. Snarling traffic. Breakneck deadlines. I had thought that these were the only monsters people like myself would have to face in today's modern world. I was wrong. Monsters do live amongst us. The massacre at Maguindanao -- now known as the Ampatuan Massacre -- earlier this week proves it. Men who could perpetrate such atrocities are monsters -- no doubt about it.  What they have done should frighten men such as us. It should shake us to our core. What these monsters have perpetrated -- call it as it is -- a savage and terrifying bloodbath,  sickens me. Their barbarity angers me. As it should every man. I realize now that we must fight such darkness. No ifs. No buts. To cower in fear in face of such atrocities leaves us impotent, to turn away from it in revulsion is escapist and to seek a political compromise is inutile. Justice is owed the victims. Justice must be sought, even fo...