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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Severino: Student power
By Gil Alfredo Severino
Think Economics
PHILIPPINE History is replete with significant events that happened in August; to name a few, it was in August when the Katipunan as a secret society was discovered. On August 24, 1896 (this date is controversial), under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, the Katipuneros brought out their cedulas, tore them to symbolize an armed resistance to the end.
On August 25, 1896, the very first armed struggle for national emancipation was engaged. Bonifacio issued a manifesto to mount an attack of Manila, August 30, 1896. Instead, Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto, poorly armed found themselves lost to the Spaniards in San Juan del Monte. Having a penchant for defeat, this could be the reason why today, August 30 is declared National Heroes day.
Years later, and again on August 7, 1898, Admiral George Dewey and General Wesley Merrit issued a joint ultimatum to Fermin Jaudenes, Spanish Peninsular Governor General in the Philippines to vacate the walls of Intramuros. Governor Jaudenes pretended adamancy of course, knowing a top secret on the Spanish surrender to the Americans. On August 13, 1898, under heavy downpour, General Francis Greene, head of the American Second Reinforcement noticed a white flag hoisted from southwest portion of Fort Santiago. Manila fell after the grand international premiere of the "Mock Battle of Manila Bay".
There is much to remember about August being a turning point in Philippine History. Let us not forget August 21, 1983, another turning point, being the day when Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino, Sr. was assassinated by, the world knows who except the master planners.
What about this September? The Music in me remembers "When Summer is Gone", other than this, well, it must be September 21, 1972 and the surrounding events. If memory served right, it was a Saturday, I was Third Year High School and intentionally rode a jeepney going downtown. It was 4:00 P.M. and the Central
Market vicinity was empty. I was young but not naïve.
Books and newspapers were already part of my life then. I was quite aware of the political developments; the noise and rumblings in the Senate, Congress and the streets. I was in contact with two cousins from the University of the Philippines not to mention a neighbor who owned a gun and went uphill. That neighbor of mine left me pamphlets, pictures, articles, clippings, Mao's Little Red Book and some books containing treatises of Jose Ma. Sison. Deep in my mind, what I witness in downtown Bacolod was not the "reign of silence".
Instead, as a student of political development, the time has come for the noise dampened after the "western-style" protest rally led by the youthful Wenceslao Vinsons back in the early 30s, to be resuscitated. No Marcos, no Hitler, the likes, can ever silence the "little darlings of Democracy" - the rebirth of the Filipino student power.
Concerned with their studies as propagandized by the Japanese in the 40s and the "special" relationship with the United Sates of America, Filipino students refused to realize the magnitude of national problems confronting the people. Studies and Hollywood craze characterized every young people's preoccupation at about this time. The 40s should be described as "the reign of silence', rather. It was in the 50s when the first stirrings of social awakenings happened among Manila-based studentry; protest movements were staged against domestic corruption, abuses and to certain Americans whose actuations did not stop believing that the Philippines deserved to be free. These student protest movements were clearly directed but the noise was not loud enough to attract national attention.
It was in the 60s when students interconnected throughout the entire archipelago eventually united in their stand to hold mass rallies and demonstrations against political leaders, school management including incompetent teachers, anti-Americanism heightened, even churches were not spared. Students in all walks of the Filipino life aspired and shouted for reforms.
By mid 60s, the "noises" of student power reverberated all over the archipelago. Until 1972, mostly the educational systems and main streets were crowded with shouts and banners, all young people wanting their voices to be heard and be counted in the reconstruction of the Filipino society. This was perhaps the "culture fit" of the Mao charisma and the Red Guard idealism as intellectually articulated by Jose Ma. Sison; the Russian revisionism was not so popular then.
Marcos and cohorts did not silence the frenzy; student power branched into the moneyed ilustrados and years later, Mercedes Benzes and other limousines would park diagonally, length-wise, cross-wise from Ortigas Avenue to Makati Avenue comprising what was the EDSA I. It was student power turned mature. Reflecting this mid September, can the countenance of student power be re-drawn today? How will it be written in September, say 30 years from now? For questions and comments, please email gil_severino@yahoo.com.
(September 20, 2006 issue)
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