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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Estanislao: Does history repeat itself?
By Jacqueline Estanislao
DEJA vu. The same condition of restlessness and fear in the years of Martial Law grip the hearts of townspeople who had once lived in peace and tranquility.
Five of the 13 Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB) members who were killed by the military were from my hometown of San Simon. They were at the prime of their youth, young sons and fathers who believed that they could effect change through an armed resistance.
The alleged presence of more RHB members in the barrios made us a target of military operations. Truckloads of soldiers from Camp Olivas were dispatched at several points. People are starting to get anxious that they may forever live in fear of an ensuing gun battle and of being caught in the crossfire. The barrio folks who as it is, already find it hard to survive day-to-day existence because of poverty, now find it doubly hard to go past yet another challenge, gripped with anxiety and fear of the uncertain. As is expected in situations like this, civilians suffer the most, even when they choose to stay neutral.
The economic and political situation in the Philippines is seen as the ultimate cause of the birth of several groups in the underground movement. Their strength relies mainly on the support of the masses who view their involvement as an ultimate sacrifice.
I can't help but travel down memory lane, back to the 80s, when I was a student at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. It was the height of student activism, when one cannot afford to be apolitical or apathetic as change was the call of the times. Our people have gone tired of an oppressive regime and representatives from various sectors of our society marched the streets calling for social reforms.
Militant cause-oriented groups, like the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEOP), to mention a few, spearheaded mass actions aimed at educating a citizenry of the ills of society. The military was sent at every demonstration with truncheons and water cannons. Violent dispersals were the dictum of the hour and illegal arrests and detention the order of the day.
Leaders of mass-based organizations were slapped with the Preventive Detention Action (PDA) and the list of desaparecidos or disappearances grew longer and longer.
Bureaucratic capitalism, feudalism and imperialism which to us now are abstract words were then very close to the people's heart as these were explained through real experiences.
The faces of some friends who lost their lives in the struggle for change or who up to now remain in the mountains still fighting for the cause kept haunting me as I sit in my air-conditioned room or while having lunch with business associates in an expensive restaurant. I'm certain that they would understand that these are all part and parcel of being a businesswoman, but I can't help but feel guilty. While I believe that I have not completely abandoned my social orientation, I feel that I have a far lesser contribution in the social transformation which we all aspire for.
Nothing much has changed in our economic scene from the 80s to the present. More than half of our population are still living below the poverty line, the constant rise in prices of oil and petroleum products as well as basic commodities continue to cripple a citizenry so used to social injustice.
Unemployment is still one of our worst problems. We see stories of robberies and hold-ups, kidnappings and carnappings everyday as we read our newspapers. These are all indications of a worsening economic condition that spares not even the more affluent sectors of society.
History had always proven that underground movements thrive because of the people's seeming helplessness in the midst of economic problems. When they no longer see any effort in the rendering of public services by the government, they look for other recourse, for an alternative to augment their economic condition. A lot of them see the solutions posed by these organizations as the only way to survival as their government turns deaf ears to issues that they raise.
They believe that they will have to effect change through their own efforts as a people. They feel that they could be freed from the chains that bind them only if they support the revolutionary call for social changes.
(June 28, 2005 issue)
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