batasan6 - a day in the life

Photos and text courtesy of CONTEND-UP


Members of CONTEND-UP visited Rep. Satur Ocampo a day after his birthday and lead in singing a hrithday song. Pix#4 shows him share the secret of remaining young at 67

			Awit ng Kalayaan, final song for the visit
	Note from a CONTEND-UP contributor: Here are pictures taken in our April 7 visit to the Batasan 6. This was the day after Satur Ocampo's birthday, hence the birthday cake and the birthday celebration. After the blowing of the candle and a toast (Manong Raul and Manang Lorna Segovia brought two bottles of fine red wine), we had a potluck lunch and then a discussion with the situation of the five and Ka Bel. Two young faculty members from UP read poems and an instant cultural group composed of faculty, REPS, admin staff and student from UP Diliman, Manila and Los Banos offered a couple of songs. We salute Ka Satur, Liza, Teddy, Paeng, Joel and Bel, mga tunay na makabayan at militanteng mambabatas

Photos and text courtesy of BAYAN MUNA
	Visit the Bayan Muna Website: http://www.bayanmuna.net/


The six progressive partylist Members of Congress reunite at the DOJ office in Manila as they attend the March 23, 2006 preliminary investigation into the trumped-up rebellion complaints against them. From left: Bayan Muna Reps. Teddy Casiño, Joel Virador and Satur Ocampo, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza and Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano. (Photo by Bayan Muna Media Bureau)		Members of Congress join KMP Secretary-General Danilo Ramos in a Solidarity Lunch on March 15 at the garden of the Minority Office, Batasan Pambansa. The lunch was attended by rural peoples and peasant advocates.	Different labor groups and pro-labor Members of Congress hold a forum on the plight of KMU chairman emeritus and Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.
		VISIT FROM THE TEACHERS

Teachers and educators belonging to the QCPSTA, CONTEND, MPSTA and ACT pose with Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano, Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza and Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador at the lobby of the House session hall on March 29.		Anakpawis Secretary-General Cherry Clemente speaks before teachers and educators belonging to the QCPSTA, CONTEND, MPSTA and ACT who visited five of the Batasan6 on March 29.	Rep. Teofisto Guingona III speaks in a dialogue between partylist representatives and teacher-leaders on March 29 at the House minority office.

Bayan Muna Rep. and House Deputy Minority Leader Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza display the enlarged copy of the QCPSTA's resolution backing the Batasan6. The QCPSTA was among the groups who visited the persecuted partylist representatives on March 29.		Bayan Muna Rep. and House Deputy Minority Leader Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza read the enlarged copy of the QCPSTA's resolution backing the Batasan6. The QCPSTA was among the groups who visited the persecuted partylist representatives on March 29.

THE BATASAN 6 AS BLOGGERS

	`Excerpts from Satur Ocampo's reflections on the Lenten season` From the blog of the Batasan 6 http://batasan6.blogspot.com/ On Monday, the Lenten Week began. The TV news since that night reported lengthily on the exodus of people from the metropolis to the provinces. Each person interviewed expressed the wish to return to one’s hometown, there to observe, with family and friends, the annual religious rites about the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. The thought that I would not be able to leave the House during the Lenten Week brought me a deep sense of sadness. Not that I am so religiously-inclined as to profoundly feel being deprived of my right to fulfill my socio-religious obligation, although I was brought up in a large peasant family keen on observing the rites of Lent every passing year and, I must concede, the solemnity of the rites and the utter devotedness of my townfolk to such rites never fail to move me. But that I can afford to miss this year. What saddens me is the thought that I wouldn’t be able to see my mother, all of 95 years now. I will not be able to comfort her with the assurance that I am okay, and that her brood of 12 children, all living, would become whole one more time: within view of her failing sight, her hearing our familiar voices that are music to her, as she gives us her tender loving caresses and blessing. I am, after all these 67 years of my life, a son with a strong impulse to go back to my mother’s bosom that had nursed me as a baby. I yearn to sit by my mother’s side and listen to her again talk of the years gone by in those vast expanse of rice fields where I grew up as a farm boy. She would muse always with an infectious mirthfulness that never fades. At 95, my mother is ever youthful-sounding and youthful-feeling in her reveries. This Lenten week, I’ll miss her the most.


Keanna Reeves, "big winner" of the Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition, pose with the five progressive partylist representatives led by Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza. Reeves visited Batasan Pambansa on April 4, 2006. Pix#6: Keena with the family of Rep. Joel Virador