Why I skipped the Vancouver fireworks with PH entry

The Philippines’ entry in the Vancouver Celebration of Light

VANOUVER, B.C. – On Saturday (July 29) it was the Philippines’ turn to  perform at the world famous fireworks festival in Vancouver  and Filipinos were understandably excited and came in droves to watch it, some even driving as far as Seattle, Washington.

But why did I turn my back on the Philippines, you might ask?

Because I want to make a statement that as members of the diaspora, we should not enable a government back home that does not support human rights. A country who is now being prosecuted by the UN International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity committed by the former President Rodrigo Duterte who is alleged to have killed without due process 30,000 of our fellow Filipinos suspected of drug use.

You might say that the fireworks  is for entertainment only and there’s no politics involved.

Didn’t Hitler entertain his people while slaughtering millions of Jews? Remember that the arts flourished in Germany during The Holocaust where concerts were performed so that people would not talk about what Hitler was doing to the country while they listened to Bach or Beethoven.

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Many years ago when I first started Silangan my first paper in Winnipeg, I made a stand against apartheid in South Africa. At the instigation of the anti-apartheid movement , I cancelled a lucrative advertising campaign by Scotia Bank because they were doing business in South Africa.

Right-thinking Filipinos must take a stand against the current government of their birthplace now ruled by the son of the rapacious dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.

For if we don’t, who will?

Kung hindi tayo, sino?