Kabataan
These are pictures of Cris Hugo, the LFS official and journalism student the Macapagal-Arroyo government killed in cold blood last Monday.
It could have been my picture there, or any other member of LFS, or Anakpawis, or Bayan Muna, or Bayan.
Does the Macapagal-Arroyo government pick and choose its targets, or does it cast a wide net and order the killing of the random national democrat? There is a brutal pattern and logic to all these killings, but I don’t really feel up to analyzing it right now. This murdering government might as well slap a bullseye sticker on the forehead of all national democrats and political activists the same way Hitler made German Jews wear the Star of David on their clothes before he had them herded off like doomed cattle to the gas chambers.
In the national democratic movement’s struggle to bring genuine freedom and democracy to the Philippines, many young Filipinos have been martyred. I count two of them as personal friends- Bambi and Mayang. It still hurts when I think of how they were when they were still alive: young women at the peak of their potential, and they chose to give all their time and energy, skills and talent, their very lives to the cause of the poor and working people.
Bambi was a kooky person. She was the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan’s campaign officer a few yearsback before she was killed by the military in Zamboanga. She was creative and smart, and funny and thoughtful. I once went mountain climbing with her, and I keep a picture-perfect memory of us laughing even as we huffed and puff up the Batangas mountainside. I remember her wearing that tie-dyed shirt a mutual friend gave her, and she twirled like a model, feigning poses as she wore it. I remember her laugh — more in the order of a guffaw than anything else; and the way she would speak rapidly when she was happy or excited.
As for Mayang. My friends at the Philippine Collegian had one word for her: diyosa.
Mayang was tall and willowy, and nevermind that she was tomboyish - she still ended up with one of the cutest boys in LFS, Arif. She read voraciously, and she liked graphic novels. She once lent me a copy of her illustrated Silver Bullet book (the werewolf book by Stephen King), and she was generous with her literature (unlike, well, me. I tend to begrudge my books because I have friends WHO DON"T RETURN BOOKS.Am hinting here. You dinks know who you are!).
When I joined Anakpawis from Bayan Muna in January 2004, I had to write about young Filipinos –coordinators of Anakpawis in Mindoro– who were killed by the military. They were aged 20, 23, 22. Three young men whose worthy lives were cut short by monsters who have the gall to call themselves protectors of the peace, defenders of democracy.
Writing each word was like a stab to the heart. My keyboard was wet with tears while I encoded. Describing where the bullets entered, or lodged, or exited; how the knifeblade cut through skin and flesh; how the wounds looked, why they were mortal, and how swiftly or slowly death came.
Ilang beses ko na ring naisulat, pero uulitin ko pa rin: ang bawat isang aktibista na pinatay ay isang kakilala at kaibigan; pamilya at Kasama. May pagtangis para sa bawat isang Kasama na pinaslang ng mga pasista, o ginupo ng sakit. Ang lakas ng Kilusan ay nasa tibay ng paninindigan ng bawat isang kasapi, at singbigat ng Bundok Sierra Madre ang buhay ng bawat isa.
Cliche na ang ulitin ang sinabi ni Rizal na ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan. Pero tutoo pa rin. Mga kabataan ang bagong henerasyon ng mga aktibista — mga pambansa demokrata na magpapatuloy sa simulain ng mga tunay na rebolusyunaryong nanatiling tapat sa simulain at nagmamahal sa sambayanan. Kabataang pumili ng landas ng pakikibaka, at tinalikuran ang mga pansariling ambisyon para yumaman, sumikat, malulong sa luho ng lipunang mabilis na nabubulok.
Sila ring mga Kabataan na pinapatay ngayon ng pamahalaan. Pilit pinapatahimik. Binombomba ng tubig, binabato ng teargas, pinapalo sa katawan at ulo sa rally, kinukulong.
Silang mga Kabataan na dinadakip, sinasaksak ilang beses sa leeg at dibdib, at pagkatapos ay isisilid sa sako, at itatapon na parang basura sa masukal na damuhan.
Silang mga kabataan na habang naglalakad pauwi mula sa eskwela isang gabi, ay babarilin at iiwanang nagkahandusay at nagdudugo sa malamig na semento.
Death and youth should never meet, but in a society like the Philippines, under a government like Macapagal-Arroyo’s, it doesn’t matter how young you are. Everyone is a target — anyone who speaks out against injustice and bravely denounces the government and the inhumane system it represents is a potential victim of military atrocity; a walking could-be-statistic in the long list of civilians murdered by the government. These young Filipinos who seek to change society have the greatest right to inherit it– a new country where the words ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’ actually mean something.
| Kung Mamamatay Tayo Eman Lacaba, martyred at 27 |
| Ang langgam kadalasa’y lalong kapuri-puri kaysa mga tao. Ngunit kung mamamatay tayo, huwag tayong mamatay na parang mga langgam na sa isang tapak lamang ay agad nililisan ng kanilang hininga. Sa halip, mamatay tayong tila mga tangkay ng rosas na bago mabali ng tampalasang kamay ay nagpapadugo muna sa palad nito. |
