Accents
The political passion of the Personalities (2)
Nothing endures time, nay eons, more than a person's political passion. So it was with Christ, so it was with Chile's Victor Jara (in last week's column), and in the lives of the six Filipinos included in the book, PERSONALITIES From the Philippines, Chile & UK. I would like to pick bits and pieces in the features on our six countrymen — their insight, courage, and straightforwardness that have so influenced the political landscape of our country.
Of her mother Josefina Jainga Ruiz (1914-2005), wrote Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, herself an intelligent, outstanding daughter: " If there was one thing that Josefina would not tolerate, it was exploitation…She spoke up for harassed working students, overworked and underpaid church staff, marginalized classroom teachers and employees. She would not allow anyone to be dehumanized." Hers was a life anchored on "service, sacrifice and strength," and as Sharon Rose concluded on her mother's demise: "[She] closed her eyes peacefully as one who could move on to the Great Divide because she had run the race and fought the good fight."
One other woman featured in the book tells a different story. Maria Luisa Posa Dominado—born in 1955, abducted in April 12, 2007—has a life with no end in sight. No detention records, no death notices, no graveyard, no bones. Nada—as in the case of her fellow "disappeared" Nilo Arado of Anak Pawis (Peasant Movement) and all other victims of enforced disappearances or desaparecidos.
Maria Luisa went through several arrests, suffered torture and humiliations under the Marcos dictatorship as a result of exposing the three evils that continue to hound Philippine society: U.S. imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. "It was during her leadership as spokesperson of the Society of Ex-Detainees for Liberation, Against Detention and for Amnesty (SELDA) together with a partner organization, Mothers and Relatives Against Tyranny and Repression (MARTYR), that a dedicated effort to identify, locate, and document the victims of Marcos' tyrannical regimes and other succeeding repressive regimes in Panay was made."
Of course: "The search and prayer for Maria Luisa Posa Dominado, Nilo Arado and all other militants and critics of government who were abducted and remain missing continue."
"Spiritual Revolution," a lecture of pastor and evangelist Ernesto B. Carbajal (1927-1974) led to changes in the policies of government as when he noted that "We are the victims of the neo-colonial schemes and interests of US imperialism — the imposition of unequal treaties and agreements in the form of the military bases agreement, the military assistance program, the Laurel-Langley Agreement and the Parity Rights Amendments in the Philippine Constitution. These arrangements preserved the country as a source of raw materials and foodstuff for US industries and people and as a rich market for US finished products."
Islamic scholar, preacher, and revolutionary leader Salamat Hashim (1942-2003) had "a clear mission in life captured from the revolutionary idealism and activism of the Moro youth, whose vision he shared…fight for the recovery of the Morolands and their inalienable rights and regain the freedom and self-determination which was usurped from them by the Spanish and American colonial powers and later by the Philippine government." Unfortunately, on the eve of the opening of the peace negotiations in Malaysia between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government, Salamat Hashim died of a natural death.
Francisco Sionil-Jose (born 1924) was the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. In 2001, he received the National Artist Award, and nothing could be worthier than the commendation of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's editorial: "[Because] of his prodigious output and the singeing social and moral vision that animates his best fiction, Jose is deserving of the National Artist Award. No Filipino novelist in English has written as adeptly, movingly, and in a language that is his own sole, freshly created a universe about the Filipino's quest for a just moral order."
Wrote Sionil-Jose of his grandfather, a participant in the 1896 revolution against Spain: "He had carried me on his shoulders, then he had put me down, and with one arm outstretched, he pointed to the land he had claimed from the forest together with his brothers, and spoke of how the land was stolen by the rich illustrados with their new-fangled foreign titles. I remember most of all his crumpled face, the tears streaming down his cheeks, and his admonition: I should study, be literate so I would not be oppressed." Sionil-Jose has pictured the encomienda system, the root cause of feudalism, when illustrados were given vast tracts of land "as far as the eye can see." Sionil-Jose is said to be "most likely Philippine Nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature."
Satur C. Ocampo (born 1939) is introduced as "reformer, newspaperman, former revolutionary leader, parliamentarian." As a journalist, he tried to reconcile his work with nationalism by studying the policies of government, the operation of multinational corporations and by writing about them. "I became aware of the extent to which US imperialism has controlled our lives."
In 1974, he became one of the founding members of the National Democratic Front (NDF), giving "special attention to developing the middle forces, whether directly or indirectly…making the middle forces realize that they are part of the national liberation struggle…" On going underground, Satur said: "I returned to my roots…to the people in the barrios, to the peasantry."
Arrested in 1976, he was in detention for more than nine years. "The first few days of detention were very hard. I was confined to a dirty toilet, then blindfolded, stripped naked and handcuffed to a bed for several days while torturers alternately played on me. They put electrodes in my genitals and nipples, burned my toenails and my body with cigarettes…Some days, I just felt my body turn numb from the series of beatings…"
Not having been found guilty of the charges of murder, kidnapping, and carrying of firearms, Satur was released in 1992 after long imprisonment. The leader of the party-list Bayan Muna, he is today a member of the House of Representatives.
The writer deems "just what precisely Satur Ocampo has done: rebelling against a society which he considers unjust." The feature ends with a relevant quote from an unnamed columnist: "The rebel is the very opposite of the criminal. For the crime is an act of desperation. Rebellion is an act of choice. A crime is an act of self-gain. Rebellion is an act of self-sacrifice. A crime is an act that deprives others in order to give to one's self. Rebellion is an act that deprives one's self in order to give to others."
E-mail: lagoc@hargray.com