I MET over the weekend in a casual forum organized by Msgr. Felix Pasquin the Bacolodnon labor lawyer of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino Atty. Luke S. Espiritu, and 2022 Senate bet of Partido Lakas ng Masa. He's already an instant "rock star" after the SMNI debate last week when he fearlessly demolished by his famous "It's still my time, Huwag kang Bastos" and "now you are all Halleluya to him" the two staunch BBM defenders and fellow senatorial aspirants suspended lawyer Larry Gadon and Atty. Harry Roque.
The last time I remember Luke was when he was a primary schooler playing around their home every time I met his late father Atty. Rene Espiritu. His father was one the legal counsels of the famous "Negros Nine," a group of catholic priests and laity led by Columban missionaries Fathers Brian Gore and Niall O'Brien accused in the killing of former Kabankalan Mayor Pablo Sola.
Luke was born and raised during the most turbulent times of Negros -- considered one of the most devastated islands during the Marcos fascist dictatorial regime.
Its monocrop sugar-based economy that became one of the rich milking cows of the regime; the great class divide in the island that trigger mass impoverishment and hunger that fueled the rapid growth of the armed revolutionary movement and the open democratic protest movement, and the countless extra judicial killings, arrests, disappearances, tortures, bloody massacres, indiscriminate bombings, hamletting and no man's lands.
Luke's sudden appearance and overnight celebrity is not a surprise to me.
Luke is a product of great political upheavals. His political spars with Gadon and Roque were sharpened by his social environment and his immersion with and support for the working class movement.
His political standpoint and high-tension emotional response that transformed him into overnight "rock star" from anonymity has epitomized the unresolved deep-seated anti-Marcos sentiments of millions of Filipinos who were both witness and victims of the regime.
The reaction of some that we have to move on instead of continuing flaunting anti-Marcos sentiments and demands is alright but there has to be some form of justice and retribution to put a conclusion to the historical trauma.
The choice for a new breed of political leaders with unquestionable integrity, dignity and capacity to lead our nation to new heights with unity, harmony, sovereignty and prosperity is one such major step forward.
Recycling old dogs with new collars to our nation's leadership so to speak is not moving forward but a push to the road to perdition.
Luke, like Neri Colmenares, Alex Lacson, Chel Diokno, should be part of the nation's march forward.