Accents
"Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!"
South Carolina, USA, March 11--The words emanating from downstairs were unmistakable Tagalog, but the tone has the characteristic American twang. The voice could only come from one to the US-born. The repetition was staccato: "Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!" Uttered without the rousing, forceful, passion we used to hear in the parliament of the streets of the Marcos era or how fervently we ourselves would yell to high heavens if only to preserve the heavenly freedom we were enjoying on earth.
My daughter Randy Raissa was teaching six-year old Danika the mantra of the Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan: Makibaka! Huwag Matakot! As she repeated the catchphrase to her child, Randy's own fervor for the meaning behind the words was not lost in translation. Stand firm. Stand strong. Resist with all the fiber of your being the encroachment on your basic rights. Yes, Makibaka! Huwag matakot! Like a bull. Welcome, the independent, unfettered movement of the new Filipina. Goodbye, Maria Clara.
The jargon of defiance surfaced from the recesses of the mind--memories of years past when the shroud of doom that was Martial Law smothered the homeland. The call to resist and desist all forms of repression took on a new life--even if only in the mind of us here on the other side of the globe--with news of the "creeping Martial Law" now obtaining in Bayan Ko. We are kept abreast of the blight brought about by a toxic body politic and a flawed governance that sap, corrode, and eat away whatever is left of the Pinoy idealism. At the click of a mouse, we have the Philippine dailies in our monitors in this house where there's a computer in every room.
Randy was no stranger to protest actions. As a councilor of the UPV Student Council (SAMASA Party) during her student days, she held the placard high against repressive measures. Really a chip off the old block when you come to think that her father was a stockade veteran of the Marcos dictatorship. (Rudy then was counsel to student demonstrators, acting within the ambit of the law--but, as many then would hopelessly ask, how could you reason out to the functionaries of the dictator? So much for that other story.)
Memories flooded in, bringing me back three decades ago when, as a college instructor in the University of Iloilo, I marched with my students chanting, "Marcos! Hitler! Dictador! Tuta!" Randy wonders when these epithets will apply to one Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, i.e., if they don't apply to her by NOW??
Arroyo is swollen with pride that under her regime the peso has strengthened. Strong economy, she and her minions keep bragging. Has the benefit of the strong peso trickled down to the masses? Has it increased the purchasing power of the average consumer? Ask Maria, Juana, and Ana if their shopping bags have gotten any heavier. Who is laughing their way to the bank but the corporate capitalists. To quote David Granger, editor of the prestigious Esquire magazine, himself quoting an unnamed songster, "The rich keep getting richer and the rest of us just keep getting old."
What to do? In the face of so much inequality and poverty, hold high the placard! Push for the workingman. Take up the cudgels for the common tao. Or venture for greener pastures abroad whenever and wherever one can. Like Randy did. Anyway, the way of all flesh called OFW who prop up the economy with their remittances of $12 billion (already?) annually.
As I've said, Randy is a chip off the old block. Like mother, like daughter, and most probably, like granddaughter. (He-he!) It's ironic that one who used to hold the placard "Magsilbi sa bayan, huwag sa dayuhan!" is now serving Stateside folks. Could one say that in medicine, it is service to humanity all the same regardless of race, creed, nationality, etc.? Oh, well, one can go on medical missions to the depleted pastures in the homeland.
A bit of mother's boast before I go back to the mantra of the bagong kababaihan. When she was taking up postgraduate studies at the New York Medical Center at Queens, Randy copped the Best Intern Award topping her batch mates. Just want to say--you bet with a mother's pride--Kaya sang Pinoy!
From this far, what can I say to my fellow journalists? Let us summon the famous quote from the legendary Edward R. Murrow who toppled McCarthyism and exorcised the climate of fear then engulfing the United States: "We will not walk in fear..." Write on, right now.
Creeping Martial Law? Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)