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Content and trigger warning: This text discusses physical, mental, and sexual abuse, discrimination, and murder committed against queer people.

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Umaapaw na raw ang kulungan. [The jails are overflowing.] Nearly 30,000 people were reportedly arrested under the quarantine in the Philippines, with more than 4,000 of these arrested detained, based on a report dated April 18, 2020.[1] Doubtless, more have since been arrested and detained since then. The police even went on record saying there will no longer be any more warnings to the alleged “quarantine violators” and will arrest people as they see fit,[2] likely straining the capacities of the already overstretched jails and prisons.

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There is an issue that is being neglected, a homeless issue. It is an issue that has long been present before this pandemic. While the current situation is to stay at home, many of the homeless people living in the city do not have the privilege to “stay at home.” Whether it be the cold gray pavement or a metallic bus bench to sleep or rest, it cannot be denied that they are the unfortunate victims of this COVID-19 pandemic.

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We at Bandilang Itim stand in support with the student organizations from the De La Salle University,[1] and the University of the Philippines.[2] In these trying times, university institutions must adapt to the so-called “new normal” in a way that accommodates their students. This means accounting for the students’ varying conditions. Some students may be under financial or emotional stress due to the Extended Community Quarantine (ECQ). Others lack access to reliable internet connectivity to continue with online classes and securing one may become yet another financial burden.

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You see, I’ve set my stuff always against various forms of liberalism because those are dominant. But it could just as well — in fact easier for me — be set against Marxism. What these jokers — all of them — don’t realize is that way down deep and systematically, I’m a goddamned anarchist.

— C. Wright Mills (2000:217–218)

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Humans have not progressed as much as they believe since the feudal ages. Even today, we worship Lords and Kings as if they were god. The titles may have changed – we call them CEOs and Presidents and Ministers now – but their offices and functions are pretty much the same. And therefore, the injustices and inequalities, the oppressions and cruelties perpetrated, are pretty much the same. Humans believe they have the right to rule over us, simply because they said so.

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In March 2020, the people of the archipelago known as the Philippines were alarmed at the rate of local transmission of the disease known as COVID-19. On March 12, police and military forces were mobilized to enforce a community quarantine for the whole of Metro Manila scheduled to start on the midnight of March 15. This quarantine was later generalized for the whole island of Luzon, a population of some 53 million souls. That the mobilization of the state’s apparatus of violence was more noticeable than the mobilization of medical and social resources is telling of the administration’s priorities.

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It has been 2–3 months since the COVID-19 virus had spread across the world infecting hundreds of thousands and killing tens of thousands, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic. Within that span of time, places of work and schools here and abroad have shut down, effectively leaving people at risk of losing their jobs and becoming evicted from their homes.

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There is a necessity for a liberatory politics in the Archipelago known as the Philippines and as anarchists we think Anarchism has the framework to fill this need. The dominant forms of politics we have now are insufficient for developing a liberatory politics in the archipelago. This liberatory politics becomes a necessity because politics in the Philippines is currently an alienating affair—a politics done to people rather than people doing politics. We are also dominated by domineering structures and institutions like the market, capitalism, and the state. Against these we forward the liberatory politics of anarchism for a world beyond domination.

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Tiyak na nabago ang buhay mo sa pagdating ng virus. Bumuti o lalong naging masama ang lagay mo? KUNG SUMAMA ANG BUHAY MO, isa ka sa napakaraming mahihirap na dumaranas ngayon ng stress dulot ng pagkabahala sa impeksyon ng virus. Napa-praning dahil baka walang kainin ang pamilya at hindi makakilos upang makamit ang pangangailangan sa inyong bahay.

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