We can't let April go by just like that. Let's talk about #PatayNaBa, the continuing saga of the West Philippine Sea, the bright spot that is the community pantries mushrooming all over the country, and the 500 years of the Battle of Mactan commemoration hijacked by political interests through wild historical claims. To help us unpack a month bursting at the seams, we are joined by queer politics scholar and HKU Ph.D. student Andoy Evangelista.

We will be launching a new season very soon! For now, visit www.podkas.org for resources and content on Philippine history, politics, and society.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, neoliberalism facilitated the expansion of an economy that made the rich richer and worsened inequality, resulting to the masses suffering unemployment and lack of job security, privatization of social services, and abject poverty. Against this backdrop rose Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada, a movie-star turned leader that was loved by the people but was removed through a people power revolution. But before the scandal and controversy, what did Erap represent? How did he differ from his predecessors in the EDSA republic? We will answer these questions by looking at Erap's inaugural address in this final episode of Primary Sources & U.

We will be back very soon with a new season! While waiting for that, visit www.podkas.org for more resources on Philippine history, politics, and society.

After the historic and momentous event that was EDSA People Power Revolution, the Philippines was on everyone's lips, especially Western democracies that saw the peaceful revolution as an opportunity to highlight the triumph of democracy over authoritarianism. President Corazon Aquino was invited to deliver a speech at a joint session of the United States Congress. The post-martial law government, or the EDSA Republic, could be understood better through said speech, the focus of this season's penultimate episode. Did things change after martial law? And was this change for the better? Let's find out.

For more resources on Philippine history, politics, and society, head over to our website, www.podkas.org.

Before Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, he had already identified what reasons he would use to rationalize such declaration. He detailed these reasons in Proclamation No. 1081, or the Declaration of Martial Law, a document that reveals, among other things, the many issues, most Marcos created himself, that necessitated authoritarian rule. We discuss all these and more in this episode.

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March flew past us by yet felt unnecessarily long. For our Women's Month episode, we tackled the biggest issues of the month, and boy, was that jampacked: Anti-Asian hate in the United States, Bloody Sunday the continuing anti-communist campaign in the Philippines, Evergiven and the Suez Canal obstruction, the growing tensions in the West Philippine Sea, and the continuing COVID-19 saga in the country in light of another ECQ. This is a lot for the Podkas team so we enlisted the help of our friend, Ash Presto. 

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The Philippine postwar years are often overlooked in history classrooms, but understanding this period is crucial to contextualize how we do politics today. In this episode, we discuss one of the most prominent Philippine presidents of this period: Ramon Magsaysay, and the increasingly complex dynamics of US-Philippine relations with the Cold War as a backdrop. Whose guy really is Magsaysay? Let's find out.

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In 1943, almost two years after Japan launched a surprise attack, the Philippines was "granted" independence under Japan. A new republic was inaugurated, the Second Philippine Republic, led by President Jose P. Laurel. How did this republic come to be, and how were politics under the auspices of Japan? Filipinos have indeed longed for independence, but is this the envisioned independence? We'll answer these and more as we look at Philippine independence sponsored by the Japanese Empire during World War II through a speech by Jose P. Laurel, President of the Second Philippine Republic. 

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In this episode, we explore the dynamics of US hegemony in the Philippines as they occupied the country at the turn of the twentieth century by reading the Commission on Independence's petition letter, Filipino grievances against Governor Wood. Of particular interest in this period are the quest for independence through political negotiations and the clash between the Filipino political elite and one very stern American governor-general, Leonard Wood, the petition letter's subject. What were these grievances that Filipinos complained about, enough to call for Wood's removal? Were there different sides to this political scuffle in the 1920s? How did this impact the clamor for independence? And independence, for whom? That's a lot of questions, but trust that we'll unpack all that and more.

What does it mean to be free? In this episode, we demystify some of the issues surrounding Philippine independence—its symbolisms, silences, and misconceptions—by reading the Declaration of Philippine Independence, authored by Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista.

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For the February edition of our monthly WRAP UP, we talk about five news breakers: Myanmar coup, the lumad school raids, the continuing vaccine politics in the Philippines, the MGCQ recommendation in NCR, and the PDEA-PNP misencounter. We explore these news with our special guest, Prof. Jio Guiang of #ThrowbackKasaysayan.

Want more? Visit our website, www.podkas.org for more episodes, resources, and other good stuff.