Genuine People Power

I went to bed early. Tomorrow was to be my birthday -- my 14th.

It was almost midnight and I couldn't catch sleep. I could hear voices over the radio below but the door to my room made it unintelligible. I hastened to my feet and went down for a glass of water, I think. My parents were intently listening to the radio. Now I could hear the voice above the static. The reporter told of National Defense Minister Enrile and AFP Vice Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos holed up in the Camps along EDSA. They have apparently announced the severance of their ties to the recently-proclaimed re-elected Ferdinand Marcos. A while later, as I was already seated at the sala joining the still faces around the radio, I heard the voices of Manila Archbishop Jaime Sin and Agapito "Butz" Aquino calling for people to surround the two camps with warm bodies. To my young mind then, this will be over by sunrise tomorrow. It'll be like the others. Marcos was, is, will be, Marcos.

Yet, when the sun rose a few hours later, the main avenue was impassable. Throngs have responded to last night's call. It was unbelievable! We had to "redeem" our black and white TV that was pawned a week ago to see history unfold. I sat before the screen almost the whole day, gaping at the naked courage displayed by nuns, priests, young men and ladies and even the old as they faced tanks with nothing but rosaries in their hands and prayers on their lips. I literally had goosebumps all over. As each hour passed, there were reports of government troops heading towards the growing mass of people, armed with orders to disperse the crowd so that the renegades can be arrested. Not one soul left their place, in fact, even more came. An aerial view of the crowd showed people like ants massing from Ortigas Avenue on one end to Cubao at the other. By the end of the day, it was undeniable that the end was almost near. Troops ordered to storm the crowd, joined the crowd. The scene tugs at the heart.

I remember shedding tears, silent tears, when rebel groups finally took-over Channel 4, the government TV station then housed at the now ABS-CBN compound. One minute, Marcos was addressing the people with the First Family behind him. The next, showed Bong Lapira, Jun Santiago, June Kiethly and Tina Monzon-Palma with Father Efren Datu seated behind a panel prop, wiping their tears, announcing to all that "we have recovered Channel 4." (I'm having goosebumps again as I write..the picture of the scene still vivid in my memory.)

Finally, on the 25th, after a number of false reports, it was made official -- Marcos Flees! (This was the banner headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, or was it Malaya?) There was jubilation all-over. At that moment, there were no strangers. All were Filipinos. Each embraced the person beside him. Joy was overflowing. It was indeed a new beginning. The long wait was over. Democracy has been restored, without bloodshed.

"Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo
Mapayapang paraan ng pagbabago
Katotohanan, Kalayaan, Katarungan
Ay kayang makamit ng walang dahas
Basta't magkaisa tayong lahat."

What have we done since? Fifteen years later, we did a reprise. One that paled in comparison. One that regretfully I was a part of. It lacked the spontaneity of 1986. Yet it netted the same results. We were happy then. We had made history -- a second take though it was.

Again, what have we done since? Nothing.

Are we going to do it again? I hope not. For people power is not just about people in the streets. People power is about people knowing their rights, and more importantly, fulfilling their obligations and performing their responsibilities. We haven't!

Let us revive, give life to genuine People Power!

Thirty Sixth Year

t’s a minute past eleven in the evening. It’s my birthday. Far from the birthdays of yesteryears though. Woke up late, had an average lunch, no specially-cooked dish this time save for the spaghetti, a favorite of mine when I was a kid, spend the whole afternoon working on my data, took a dinner of left-over, chatted for a few minutes with a friend, and slept a while, until now.

There is a general silence all around. A silence that is broken only by muted conversations by and among street-denizens, and the rumblings on the TV set below. Oh, yes, the purring of my electric fan breaks the monotony of the pounding keys of this laptop in my room. It’s a dark room, by circumstance. It has been two weeks since the switch of my overhead fluorescent light busted out. I don’t know when I’ll have it fixed, if ever I will. The light from my desk lamp satisfies my needs anyhow.

I feel the urge to write -- an essay, a short story, a novel or a poem – anything. My mind races to and fro, like a tennis ball between two ace players. It can’t settle on anything worthy to write about. Re-reading my postings in my blog, I find some inspiration. Yet, just as soon as I begin, the idea doesn’t seem too enticing to explore beyond the walls of my imagination, much less to share.

Thirty-six years! Wow! It’s cliché but I can’t help but say it, “How fast time indeed flies?” In four years, I’d be embracing another cliché, “Life begins at forty.” Unbelievable! Yet, there is no guarantee I’d get to live those four years, right. I don’t even know if I will get to appreciate tomorrow’s sunrise. Which makes me regret having missed today’s.

Birthdays are for kids. Yeah, at least those types where you invite friends over and mom cooks a round-table full of buffet meals. There is an overflowing of soda, juice and all types of drinks. At the end of the day, the floor is filled with discarded gift wrappers and boxes. The whole house is practically re-arranged. Chairs that once were limited to the dining table, now find themselves in the front yard. One leans on the wall, missing a leg. The balloons that once adorned each have all been taken home by the guests not after a few squabbling on who-gets-what. Of course, the celebrant is assured of his – the biggest and most strikingly colored. One goes to bed feeling like a king on his coronation day. The rest of the household is preoccupied with restoring order to the house.

The day after is left-over day. Guests who failed to come last night manage to relive the festive atmosphere of the prior day through the stories untiringly told and re-told. At the very least, they share the same food, right. It’s the next best thing to having been there. Better than left-over food, the celebrant receives an after-birthday gift! More often than not, the best gifts come via this route. The best gift is not necessarily the biggest and best wrapped. This was to be the first lesson in “big things come from small packages.” Indeed.

Those days are now gone. Today, hardly anyone remembered. Outside the immediate family, there were only three people who remembered. They are enough reason to smile and be happy. Only true and dear friends remember. Of course, I have to grant a degree of doubt to others who have remembered but have not an idea of how to get in touch. Mea culpa! I have changed my numbers too often, too soon. As I have said, the three who remembered are more than enough. The first greeting came in at six minutes past midnight. If I could give a trophy I would. For now it would suffice to say that that certainly made the whole day worthwhile.

Yet, birthdays are not for others to remember, but is a reminder for the celebrant. The silent question stares me on the face – “What have I done with the years I had been fortunate enough to live through?” The answer evades me at the moment. Or maybe, I am avoiding it for the stark truthful answer is “practically nothing.”

I am but an image of who I want to be. Yet, far from the image I had when I was a kid. My generation grew up wanting to be doctors, priests, engineers, architects and the most popular of all – a successful businessman. Only a few of my peers actually became so. Most had to settle for a career they never even dreamed of back then – myself included.

I must have been influenced by the nuns and priests at early school that I first thought of becoming a priest. I recall pretending to be one using a white blanket as my priestly garb with my invisible parishioners intently listening to my sermon. Well, it actually amounted to nothing but a reading from whatever page of the bible I opened to. Understanding it then was an entirely different matter.

Yet, when I began to find about the life priests “supposedly” lived, my dreams self-destructed. I couldn’t imagine such a constricted life. Or at least that’s the way I thought it was. So I trained my sights to being a doctor. To my young mind, all doctors made money. No need to find employment. It was a career that kind of drew in the money, rather than searching for them. Everyone gets sick at one time right? All one needs is a clinic outside the home and presto! The cash register sings.

In 1983, Sen. Aquino was assassinated. The public outcry amazed me. I had not known a stronger personality than Ferdinand Marcos until then. How his death galvanized an entire nation to unshackle the chains of fear and unleash their hatred still confounds me today. Yet it was enough to set me on a new path. Finding out the reasons for the murder and the ensuing outcry that eventually led to 1986, served as my motivation to brave a new world erstwhile unknown outside the confines of classroom discussion of current events – filtered though they were. I wanted to become a lawyer. As articulate as Ninoy was, as intelligent as Marcos, yet as compassionate as the Pope….if such combination was ever possible.

Thus at the crossroads of post-secondary school, my mind was set on becoming a lawyer. Yet my parents choices were limited to either architecture (my elder sister enrolled the course at UST) or Medicine. To give both equal chances, I took entrance examinations at both UST and UP. I passed all. I decided to go to UP with a silent vow to concentrate on academics and not be hypnotized by the cadence of marches headed towards the Palace and Mendiola shouting anti-institution slogans. Suffice it to say, or sing, broken vow.

My involvement in politics and political organizing traces back to my sophomore year when I was elected College Student Council Secretary, the youngest on record. The following year, I was elected as Chairperson, by a landslide against a “moneyed” opponent. Unlike national politics however, it was a fair and clean fight. There were a few “dirty” tricks here and there, but it was a friendly race, generally. I remember spending the night in our candidate for Secretary’s house in Dalandanan with the full-slate, preparing hand printed campaign posters and other hand-outs. This was the same year that I joined the volunteer group for the Jovy Salonga presidential campaign. We may have lost the election badly but we all came out victors – rich with experience, a first hand look at what politics was at the ground.

(to be continued on my next birthday)

Untitled

The rain falls on the roof above my head
As I lay awake on my bed
Its cadence providing a rhythm
To my thoughts and imaginations

The darkened street is empty
The dogs barking endlessly
I can see almost nothing
But lights from windows flickering

Everyone seems drifted to dreamland
While my sleep i have yet to find
My head aches, my heart is in pain
An endless cycle, time and again

I lost a love that I had found
I've set it free yet it comes back
I feel it still yet I've let go
For my heart belongs to someone else now

I've given it to someone
Who's not accepted it yet
Doesn't even know its given
How on earth can it be taken?

Yet I feel okay with this arrangement
For love even if unreciprocated
Is the kind that's pure and true
Expressed and shared by and among a few

The Color of Love

They have just entered the narrow alley that led to their humble home when he heard the murmurs, the whispers. It happens every Sunday. Well, it actually happened everyday, except that on Sundays, from Church, the alley is filled with working people on a weekend break adding to the numbers of the those seemingly forever in a break. He should’ve been used to it by now. For seven years, this was his routine. His ears have been practically trained to shut out the din as he passed by the narrow road.

Feeling the tension building up in her husband, Reanna tightened her hold on his arms. Enrico’s face was showing the strain of intolerance. She quickened her pace, almost pulling him forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bare-chested man rise from the group of drunken men gathered in front of Aling Susan’s store. She felt her heart beat twice its normal pace. The alley seemed alive, the noises unintelligible yet growing stronger. There were laughter and teasing that elicited more laughter, yet it wasn’t the kind of cheer you’d want to stay and bask in. Not when you are the object of the collective fun.

It was all over in a flash. It all happened at once. The arm she held on to was now holding on to her, dragging her, falling to the mud-filled road. Her world seemed to be spinning until she could only see the sky moving fast. She saw familiar faces worried faces that urging her to hang on. But her line of sight was blurred. One minute she saw the murky road, the next she saw people upside down. The again she saw the sky -- the blue peaceful sky. Did she actually see a bird? No, she struggled in her mind, it is a rainbow. It had rained earlier and this was God’s sign after the Great Flood. Yes, the sermon at the Church earlier. She closed her eyes hoping her dizzying spell will go away. It did as she felt being lain on a cushion amid the din of the blaring siren. Then everything fell silent.

(to be continued)