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An animation I made as part of our petition

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WE ARE NOT WHAT WE WEAR: CHANGE LAWS AND DECONSTRUCT INTERNAL MISOGYNY AMONG SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS

SUMMARY

The purpose of the report is to consider a petition from Quezon Science High School for a community governance review to deconstruct internal misogyny among sexual abuse victims, as well as providing protection and security.

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P E T I T I O N

COMES, NOW, THE PETITIONERS, thru their counsel, and unto this honourable court, most respectfully allege the following, to wit:

 1. That the State must pass a law declaring that the State will defend all victims of sexual harassment, may it be physical, mental, or verbal abuse. The State must also recognize the need to protect these victims, specifically the women, and the children from further violence and harm from the perpetrator, that threaten their safety and security.

 2. The crime of victim-blaming against women and children is committed through any of these following acts:

a. When the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially liable for the harm that occurred to them;

b. When the perpetrator is not alleged to the crime.

3. That anyone committing the crime of victim-blaming related to sexual harassment or abuse shall be punished according to the following rules:

a. Acts falling under 2(a) and 2(b) shall be punished by imprisonment.

In addition to imprisonment, the perpetrator shall (a) pay a fine in the amount of not less than One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00); (b) undergo mandatory psychological counseling or psychiatric treatment and shall report compliance to the court.

4. That a protection order must be done to serve the purpose of protecting the victim from further harm, minimizing any disruption in the victim’s daily life.

a. Prohibition of the respondent from threatening to commit or committing, personally or through another, any of the acts mentioned previously;

b. Prohibition of the respondent from harassing, annoying, telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner, directly or indirectly;

c. Removal and exclusion of the respondent from the residence of the petitioner, regardless of ownership of the residence, either temporarily for the purpose of protecting the victim;

d. Directing the respondent to stay away from the victim;

e. Providing the right of the victim to issue a restraining order.

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CHARACTER DESIGN

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Estelle

Race: Magical (Sorcerer)

Age: 17

Magic: 

Father-inherited: Air - Sun          Mother-inherited: Fire - Moon

Strand (Other World): Alchemy

 CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Dealer at a human school.

Used to be an alchemist student from a parallel world but went through a portal.

Her body's artificial with insertion of a soul and magic from both of her parents because her parents are of different species and can’t produce and offspring.

She strong (power-wise in using magic) but her stamina is weak.

PERSONALITY

Arrogant (at first) and sassy but chill.

Gets easily frustrated when she can’t be good at something right away.

Has an inferiority complex because of her situation in the magical world but she slowly learns to accept herself through her time on earth while making business with people and learning about humans and spending her days in “Luna Magica Academy”.

TRINKETS

Heirloom 

holds partial magic. Every magical has this object or something of the like. It's for controlling power. It’s comparable to a wand or staff used by magicians from classic literature and story books. 

It helps manifest the power and change its form. For example if an individual inherited water-based magic, using the heirloom, they can transform it into water healing magic. Skilled users can even transform their element to use a different element (but to an extent).

Basically, if your magical energy stored within the heirloom is the same amount of energy as the magic you want to use, you can transform your magic to an ability outside of your own capabilities with the heirloom. 

Amount and power of magic depends on the wielder's skill, and talent regardless of quality of heirloom (although quality of heirloom is also a big factor in magic making).

Suitcase 

That's where she lives.

A gift from parents because since she’s from the alchemy division, she does frequent research and tends to stays over at school or goes home late. It was given to her so she could stay at school when she needs to. Permission was asked from the headmaster so it’s all good.

Also made it into a storage room so it's a mess.

100sqm x 100 sqm, 2 floors on the inside

Glasses 

Conceals eye color so criminal magicals don’t finds out she's one of them or so that nobody thinks she’s weird.

Dealer jacket 

Contains magical stuff that she sells when someone approaches her for it... sort of like sketchy dealers from games and movies.

OTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

Ellis

Met Estelle by asking her for a potion.

Has pure magical parents but was tossed out by relatives because they thought he had no powers, he's abandoned. He also knows this story because he was already conscious when this happened.

Didn’t know he was a magical until he found out Estelle wanted use him because her body’s too weak to handle very immense magic.

eyes: instead of having a glint is completely empty.

Thought he had no powers but he's made sort of like a shell (i.e. you can insert magic in him) 

Living heirloom (can transform into weapons or magical items)

Gemini

Junior gatekeeper(s) 

disguised as students because they were tasked to pursue Estelle.

not actually twins the sign gemini just needs to manifesters

magic: Air - Sun and Moon

Sansa

Estelle’s best friend from the Other World

magic:  aparition and astral projection

Turns out  they were following Estelle when she was breaking in the sacred rooms and reported everything to the ministry 

actually didn't like Estelle, she was jealous of her and was pushing her to steal the object.

LORE

The magic world has no concept of time so it's hard to control where you jump if you encounter a portal. It could be anywhere at any time and is dangerousif you’re not trained in time magic.

Powers are inherited

You could distinguish magicals from non-magicals with the glint in their eyes (Estelle has bluish gray eyes with a glint of pink)

Gatekeepers - guards time and space since it's very fragile, ancient, and barely touched magic.

Astrology is important because constellations and planet alignment are important to finding the gates that separate the two worlds.

Magic school - kind of like school on earth, from very young to high school students are taught the necessary things and basic magic and construct of the world while higher enchantment (SHS) gives students a choice for specialization. After HS you can go for higher learning or not.

Some jobs don't require magic at all

Current era earth contains very very tiny amounts of magic since criminals are banished here (explanation for sightings of the supernatural.. e.g. aswang and those who carry great “luck” that are the so-called “mediums” and “voodoo witch doctors” on earth)

“Luck“ is the only form of magic within humans. Their luck also coincide with Astrology and the alignment of various heavenly bodies. If it is taken out, they futures might turn haywire. If you have only a small portion of luck, you could still accumulate some through a) practicing good karma b)getting astrologically connected with your sun and moon signs.

In the past united non-magic earth and magic earth used to be one until the Disaster of Divine Separation happened where half of the population lost their magic and the other half didn’t. This caused a divide as the ones who retained magic called themselves the “chosen ones” and those who didn’t got ridiculed. So the now non-magicals threw a rebellion which forced the separation of the normal and supernatural. 

All magic fall under the four elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air) and two categories (Sun and Moon).

STORY

Estelle is a genius at their school although, she's arrogant and prideful because of her talent. You could say she's admired but also disliked. Her parents are also quite powerful and hold high regard of their daughter. Her co-students don't wanna praise her though because they know it'll further inflate her ego. 

Eventually their class went on a trip to the ministry of magic (not Harry Potter lol I just couldn’t think of a name) where all magic records, historical events, and experimentation are kept. The ministry also guards the sacred artifacts which hold the "secrets" of time magic. Only selected people could handle time magic, even if one is very powerful but cannot contain this magic will not be able to handle it. 

Prior to this trip, Estelle had a fight with her Higher enchantment  professor because she was saying she’ll make the ministry make her a gatekeep and was acting all high and mighty. Her professor told her "whatever you become, in that state, you’re not going to be as good as your parents". 

Maybe it was the professor’s choice of words but it didn’t sit right with her. Estelle’s parents were former gatekeepers that now work for the ministry after their contract ended (and also by choice). During the selection period, she didn't get picked. 

Due to desperation and wanting to “show them all” she planned to go to the artifact room and see if she could handle time magic. Her friend Sansa helped her with distracting security and Estelle was already good enough to bypass the guards.

When she reached the room of the sacred artifacts. Because she wasn’t at the right location and time of alignment, and for various other reasons, she failed in trying to use the items and the whole ministry’s magic got drained then she got transported to the earthly world.

Naturally she was very confused but one thing lead to another, she got scammed into enrolling into "Luna Magica Academy" which she thought was a magic school that could help her get back to the Other World, but in all truth it was just a name of a private school with zero magic. She wasn’t fond of reading history books as she thought they weren’t necessary. Here, aside from being frustrated by the whole ordeal, she get's a taste of failure as she doesn't know anything about earth and their studies. 

Here, she notices a lot of problems in the non-magic world that could easily be fixed by magic. From typical things like aching backs and sores to things done by other magical beings banished to the earthly world .

Because of this, she thought of opening up a service where she sells potions and extinguishes problems for a price of a portion of that person's luck. Since they didn’t know what she was talking about and thought they had nothing to lose, they’d agree to this contract. She puts their luck in her heirloom in hopes of trying to return (she still has this the sacred artifact btw).

Business runs smoothly but then she meets a guy asking for her help, a healer’s potion to be exact. Through the emptiness in his eyes, she figures out that he's a powerful living heirloom and makes a contract with him, without him knowing he was an heirloom. From here on out, he became her assistant and according to the contract will help her with whatever problem may be and agree if she asks for “divine” help.  

Long story short, as she interacts with more people and encounters their problems and commit many failures both in school and personal life, she slowly loses her will to do business for the sake of acquiring magic as she doesn't want to take away other people's luck and becomes guilty whenever she lets someone sign her contract. 

As she grows as a person, makes new friends and her abilities in academics improve (since she catches up quick), and feels normal, she felt like she found her place and nearly forgets her desire to go back to earth. She even thought of opening up a magic shop (totally not sketchy at all) after graduation. 

But of course fun times ain’t the end of it all, because someone enrolls in their school - part of the gatekeepers, Gemini. And everything was coming back to her. 

Of course this had to happen, she still had the artifact, naturally someone was going to chase her. Although she didn’t want to leave anyone behind and didn’t want anyone to forget her, she most of all didn't want to get the people she interacted with on earth involved because she knows at that point that she made a mistake. So it was back to plan A - to go back to before she stole the artifact, the day of the ministry field trip and he needed Ellis to get back.

When he found out he was mad, they fought but eventually made up. They talked to the people they helped in school and they all agreed to give her a part of their luck (she returned these people's lucks after meeting Ellis, also everyone at the school knows she’s not ordinary by now) to her.

Ellis also agreed on letting her use him as an heirloom. They guided their way through the constellations while escaping Gemini’s surveillance. She finds the portal entry and uses Ellis to get back.

After the travel, she realizes she transported at the exact time that she left and found out her friend, Sansa snitched on her. Afterwards she got into all sorts of trouble and was banned from entering the Other World until she fixes everything on earth because after she opened the portal of time - the ministry which is also a prison had the criminals escape. 

She's gotta find em, on this journey she’s going to be accompanied by Ellis and Gemini.

 She goes back to earth and apologizes to everyone and thanks ‘em before venturing off through time and space to find these criminals.

to be continued in season 2... 

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MARTIAL LAW

INTERVIEW

SUBJECT: Artemio “Jojo” M. Jose Jr.

age: 2-14

birthday: August 28, 1970

designation: Davao

INTERVIEW: questions

What do you remember about Marcos?

What do you remember about Martial Law?

Do you think Martial Law was a bad or good time in the Philippines?

Why should we study this period of time in the Philippines?

What is the most memorable experience you had during Martial Law?

INTERVIEW: answers

Marcos was president for 16 years in my lifetime.

Since I was from Mindanao, it was a period of unrest and proliferation of NPA.

It was a bad time for the Philippines.

Martial law was abused by many of the Marcos military and cronies. Filipinos should be vigilant to the abuse of power and martial law.

It was around 1980 to ‘82. I was on my 4th grade up to 6th grade, studying in a public school in our province. I can vividly remember that scare and bomb detonation was frequent in our school premises. At least 2 bomb scares per year happened, classes were suspended. I also experienced the People Power revolution on my 3rd year and 4th year of high school. Many Filipinos celebrated the exile of the Marcos family to Hawaii.

REFLECTION

Within a personal biased perspective, the Marcoses fell ruin to the country; leaving innocent blood, shed and billions of dollars of debt as their legacy. That isn’t even a biased opinion as it is fact. 

To be honest, however angle and wherever crevice you look at when looking back at that era of death and insurgency, imposing martial law upon the country did not turn out to be a good idea. 

No matter how much people like to argue how peaceful it was back then or how much the country was flourishing, the bombings, killings, and plunder proved otherwise. 

To begin with, the proclamation of martial law in itself is shady as there were claims of the communist threats and their ambush (which sparked the start of martial law) being staged; and as the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. For all we know, it was just a ploy to get him to stay in his position longer.

I used to envy the past because of the economic boost as I envy the already developed countries of both east and west. With that being said, sure, the Philippines was called “in it’s golden age” during this period but at what cost? The staggering billions we still have to pay after decades past from those buildings that don’t really live up to modern infrastructure anymore. 

Why pose Marcos as a hero for making the Philippines “beautiful” when it’s every president’s (or anyone in position for that matter) job to improve their country anyway?

Furthermore, Duterte is in power because of the Marcoses’ dirty money. And with the country’s current state right now under the Duterte administration, I’m a little scared of what might happen to this country in his remaining term. They have already recovered P170 billion of it.

And lastly (but certainly not the least), let’s not forget all those who died fighting for this country. Who were not only killed but tortured: beaten up; strangled; and electrocuted because they went against the government and spoke of the injustices of the people who were run over because of martial law.

But of course the apologists will deny all of it. 

While listening to some of my classmates who delivered some [apologist] interviewees’ answers, I couldn’t help but scoff. But then I thought to myself, I wasn’t even there, but then again, I knew the statistics that they didn’t; and started to pity more the forsaken because they were indirectly being cast off as insignificant by the privileged middle (and high) class who benefited from everything because they didn’t experience the tragedy and desperateness of these people.

And yet, if they did know, would they even care about the killings? It didn’t directly affect them.

“Sabi nga nila, people begin to protest only when their freedom is contested.”

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LiteratuRevolution

An open book (pun intended *wink*) illustration of the marriage between literature and revolution resulting to their childbaby, the society today 

After centuries of fighting for the Filipino freedom, literature and revolution are without a doubt two peas in a pod.

History has been remembered because of writing, and literature is its cultural preservative. From Magellan’s voyage to the battle of Mactan there were literature that made the Filipino know of the alien foreigners’ culture as there was ours that introduced the archipelago to them. Which later brought on Yoyoy V’s song “Magellan” that gave kids a little gist of the revolution that started centuries of war in the country that lead to our supposed freedom. And these little kids would turn into adults and pass this historical significance down to their children. All of this just shows how interconnected revolution and literature are. 

Centuries of historical significance is embedded in each of the Filipino’s veins, filled with anger for the many wrongdoings the country and its men have suffered. But alas, as time continuous on marching forward, the blood begins to  cool and the people seem to forget as they succumb to acts that should never have been done; things that should have been lessons taught to us by the past - as if these scars don’t even exist anymore.

Even so, a writer’s will still stands and their pen still holds power and a voice to spark a revolution as there are always people still willing to read and fight for the future of everyone.