Mercado: Graveside volleys

Saturday, September 17, 2011

WEDNESDAY is the 39th anniversary of martial law imposition. To save the Republic, freedoms must be curtailed, Ferdinand Marcos said. He didn’t bat an eyelash. A 14-year dictatorship followed. After People Power restored freedoms, did nationwide amnesia set in?

An exhaustive analysis is not possible. “Sidebar” is capped at 2,800 characters. Still, true accounts may offer insights, specially for readers too young to remember.

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Story One: Then defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile’s fake Wack-Wack ambush that triggered martial law arrests was days away. Some details of

Proclamation 1081 had leaked.

At Press Foundation of Asia, publisher Joaquin “Chino” Roces asked the Indonesian journalist and Magsaysay Awardee Mochtar Lubis: “Sukarno and Suharto arrested you and padlocked your newspaper, what is your advice for us?”

The conference room fell silent. Lubis’s reply was measured. “First, be friendly with your guards. They’re human. Second, keep busy. Third, don’t let prison embitter you.”

Among the 22 Manila-based journalists arrested in the first sweep were: Chino, of course, plus Free Press’ Teodoro Locsin and Napoleon Rama, Daily Mirror’s Amando Doronila, Evening News’ Max Soliven and Luis Beltran, Manuel Almario of PNS.

All would add to Lubis’s guidelines: “Draw up a power-of-attorney for the wife.” This can ease burdens for her.

Story Two: Near midnight, Col. Generoso Alejo told Camp Crame detainees: “All journalists please follow me. You have a visitor.” Streets were, emptied by the 10-to-4 a.m. curfew.

Our visitor” was our jailor: PC commander general Fidel V. Ramos.

“Nothing personal, gentlemen,” he said. “I was ordered to neutralize you. Please cooperate. We’ll try to make things easy for you.”

Did we cooperate-–by forgetting? Eight out of 10 students today barely recall Benigno Aquino Jr.’s kangaroo trial. Or why he was gunned down. “The Philippines became a gulag of safe houses where citizens were tortured, maimed and salvaged,” Amnesty International reported.

Story Three: At the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) offices in Rome, the Italian information officer pledged: “Sir, when that SOB flees, you need not come down from the 4th floor. I’ll bring up the teletype prints to you.”

This was 1986. Twice a day, Franca Steinmann copied AP, Reuters, AFP and Rau Uno dispatches on the gathering storm at Edsa. We’d share them with anxious Filipino staff members.

When Chinook helicopters lifted Marcoses and cronies from Malacañang, ahead of Edsa crowds, Ms. Steinmann was on leave. But her colleague, Lola Camacho of Spain, was immediately on the phone: “Sir, the
Marcoses tucked tail. I’m coming up with the wires now.”

Philippine Council of Agriculture chair Ramon Valmayor fidgeted in his visitor’s chair. The swift unfolding of People Power caught him in the midst of an official Europe trip. “Relax Mon. You can fly to Madrid this afternoon,” I said. “The Marcoses beat it.”

There are over 2,000 employees of 80 nationalities who work in FAO headquarters, along the Aventino. That day, they swamped Filipino staff members with congratulations.

The tributes were well-merited. People Power was replayed in Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Uprising,” Lebanon’s “Cedar Revolt,” even Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution.

It has been 25 years since Filipinos uprooted a dictatorship without spilling blood. Today? We’re prodded to deny that legacy by allowing graveside volleys over a dictator’s embalmed remains. Onli in da Pilipins.

(juanlmercado@gmail.com)