Category: ninoy

ninoy wasn’t perfect but he was one bright star

and he was for real, nothing like the three “brightest stars” kuno … “shining” in the sky … that duterte claims himself, go, and cayetano to be.  hello.  not one of them, not all of them together — kahit isali pa natin si inday sara at ang buong konggreso — can hold a candle to ninoy.

were he still alive, ninoy would be 87, retired na siguro but still nakiki-alam malamang, still holding forth with his ten-centavos worth on every issue under sun and moon, leveling up popular discourse at the very least.  what i’d give for some informed intelligent talk about nation, with wisdom that comes from age and experience, with credibility that comes from integrity and love of country.

one thing his political opponents couldn’t fault ninoy for, ever, was corruption.  and so they hit him hard with the communist card, tagged him a godless enemy of the state, without evidence other than that he was friendly with certain anti-america anti-bases huks and communists, but then so was marcos, friendly with certain other anti-america anti-bases communists but secretly, of course, in the run-up to martial law.  [read joseph paul scalice’s Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1959–1974 (2017)]

which is not to say that ninoy couldn’t have played his cards better.  i can understand, for instance, that he thought it a great idea to facilitate, hasten, a meeting (which would have happened anyway without his help, it is said) between the communist ideologue joma sison and the rogue huk bernabe buscayno, but did it have to happen in / around hacienda luisita?  of course nakarating ang intel kay marcos, and of course marcos exploited it to the hilt.  ninoy laid himself wide open for that.

i like to think that ninoy didn’t have to die just so we could topple marcos.  i like to think that we would have toppled marcos with ninoy himself leading the way.  but i guess that would have been a different kind of battle.  enrile, for one, might not have given way to ninoy the way he did to cory.  and then, again, who knows.

ang nakahihinayang sa lahat, ninoy never, it would seem, considered the possibility, in case he was killed, that cory might take up the struggle in his place.  because if he did he might have prepared cory better, and noynoy too?  or did he try sharing the christian democratic socialist ideology with his family but their eyes glazed over?

maybe they would all have tried harder had they known how much ninoy was loved and admired for standing up to marcos, even in exile, and had ninoy known how eagerly we awaited his return.  but then how was he to know, when marcos controlled all media, and he continued to denounce ninoy as communist, and we had learned to keep our mouths shut, or else.  almost like now.

we had no idea then how many we were (legion! pala) who believed in ninoy and trusted him to lead the way forward, that is, until he was taken from us, murdered on the tarmac, our one great hope.  no wonder the love and the hope spilled over and embraced cory and the children in grief.  the rest is history, ika nga.

nowadays, we have no idea, either, how many we are who desperately desire a better life for the marginalized and impoverished masses and a just and equitable social and political order for all.  but little do we really know what it would take to achieve these goals.

what we need is a ninoy, nay, we need many ninoys, who have the welfare of the masses at heart, and who have the expertise to pick up where ninoy left off, craft a credible and sustainable development program (beyond BuildBuildBuild and PPP) toward systemic change that would be worth uniting behind. 

in an interview with nick joaquin, ninoy said that in 1967, when he ended his gig as manager of hacienda luisita to run for the senate, it took eight men to take over his job. [The Aquinos of Tarlac page 278]

eight is a good number, for starters.  but, yeah, ninoy is a hard act to follow.

*

What if Ninoy arrived safely and led the…?

Gerardo P. Sicat 

…  Philippine history would have been very different. He was always preparing for high office – ultimately, that of the presidency. His meteoric rise from intrepid journalist, to town mayor and then governor of Tarlac Province and then to senator of the Republic was designed to lead one day to that final goal of challenging for the presidency.

He was so unlike his wife, Cory, to whom the presidency became a possibility once he was assassinated. This was also the same phenomenon to Noynoy, whose mother’s untimely death months before the presidential elections of 2010 catapulted him to a candidacy that he did not actively seek. These two accidental presidencies would not have happened, And the nation would have been led by one who was preparing for the job almost all his life.

When capable leaders steer a nation, great things could happen. Singapore and Malaysia were guided by leaders with great vision and enormous capability and preparedness. From 1966 through to 1982, Marcos piloted the nation well and forward. And Fidel Ramos, hampered by a short fixed term, solved major problems of the nation that he faced. Suharto, despite his absolute power, steered Indonesia from a greater abyss of the unknown and consolidated what is today a better nation.

a ninoy aquino book

i’ve been writing a ninoy book for a year now.  working title: The life and the death of Ninoy Aquino / A timeline 1932 -1983.

i only meant to come up with a simpler shorter version of EDSA Uno (2013) upon the request of  high school teachers.  maybe four slim volumes, one per day, that students could pass around.  and a first volume, of course, to quickly introduce the main players—marcos  and imelda, ninoy and cory, enrile and ramos—setting the stage for february 1986 and People Power.

it was easy enough coming up with quick factual timelines of ferdinand’s and imelda’s lives, the milestones pre-EDSA being well-documented and pretty much public knowledge, never mind the marcos revisionism.  the opposite is true, however, of ninoy’s life.

except for the broad strokes—major milestones marking the road to martyrdom at age 50—much of ninoy’s narrative has yet to be told from beginning to end in one go, particularly where it clarifies his radical relations with the left that had marcos tagging him a communist sympathizer; where it delves into the pain of imprisonment and the military trial that convicted him to death; and where it tells of ninoy’s last three years, what he was up to in America, and why he decided to come home when he did.

Like Marcos, the 50-year-old Aquino was a complex, contradictory figure who was in flesh-and-blood quite different from the devotee of Gandhian non-violence into which some sectors of the Philippine opposition are now converting him for their own political ends. But of one thing there is no dispute: Aquino was a profoundly courageous man. It was this streak of stubborn courage that earned him a death sentence in 1977, after five years of imprisonment had failed to extract from him a pledge of allegiance to Marcos. And it was this courage, wedded to a driving ambition and a deep concern for the strategic interests of his class, that propelled Aquino toward his appointment with history that dog-day afternoon of 21 August. ~ Walden Bello (1984)

going on four decades later, ninoy is being dismissed as just another ambitious politician who came home from exile and died on the tarmac, and so he became a hero, because he died on the tarmac.  and what about daw his non-record as a senator—twice elected and not a single law attributed to him.  and who daw cares about EDSA now, now that the marcoses are back anyway, and the color yellow has lost its glow, no thanks to the color-blind who choose to see red instead.

meanwhile a young academic has played up ninoy’s role in the birthing of the CPP/NPA brand (as though ka dante and joma would not have met but for ninoy); he has also expressed serious doubt in ninoy’s denial that he was ever a communist because daw ninoy did not live to define his terms.

thing is, ninoy did, define his terms, in Testament from a Prison Cell (1984) and it’s surprising that the young scholar seemed to not know of this primary source.  well, maybe it’s cory’s fault.  post-EDSA, ninoy’s political views were never spoken about, much less discussed, or ever referred to for guidance.  i suppose because cory had her hands full fending off rightist pretenders to the throne; better to play it by ear than to invoke ninoy, because then they’d have pounced and screamed “communist!” too.

in fact ninoy was no communist, no anti-imperialist, for sure.  but he admitted to being a keen student of theoretical marxism, following every twist and turn of local communists, reading practically all the published works of local reds, and interviewing communist intellectuals for first-hand information every chance he got.  in fact, he was a christian social democrat who sought to “harmonize political freedom with social and economic equality, taking the best of the primary conflicting systems—communism and capitalism.” [Testament from a Prison Cell 30-31]

and so a book on ninoy muna, for the record.  nothing quick or sketchy, rather more detailed than usual, in a timeline format that is reader-friendly and easy to add to, delete from, or re-arrange for fine-tuning.

it starts with a quick run through grandfather servillano’s and father benigno’s stories, because patterns repeat.  whenever possible, i let ninoy tell his own story while accommodating too the voices of family and friends, critics and enemies, and local and global media through the years.

sources are cited religiously in tracking his climb and claim to national consciousness as well as his politics and worldview as it evolved from magsaysay to marcos times and from imprisonment in fort bonifacio to exile in america, until he decided it was time to go back home, face death in manila, than be run over, accidentally or not, by a boston taxicab.

happy ninoy aquino day!

upsilon upset

read Destroying a myth by domini torrevillas.  i’m not sure what myth is being destroyed.  perhaps the myth that upsilon is still the best?

I’m still savoring the taste and mirth of the recently concluded successful 100th year celebration of Upsilon Sigma Phi which was attended by more than half of the entire membership of the fraternity from all over the world.  But alas, even before the last lights were turned off or before the last hurrah was said,  a dark sinister  move was ensuing.  A private online chat of  two or three of the newly minted student Upsilonians, still not fully socialized to the fraternity ways and traditions, was maliciously hacked and thrown open for everybody to read in cyber space. Admittedly the contents of the chat are horrible, reprehensible and condemnable: misogynistic views, racial slurs, anti Muslim, anti gays and lesbians. Even the resident Upsilonians were shocked and angry that such kind of behavior or thinking exists in the fraternity.  They immediately condemned the abhorrent conversation and asked for disciplinary actions.

The Diliman head of Upsilon known as Illustrious Fellow, Girard Sirios, was understandably upset.  Considering that this chat was hacked and considering further that this is an era of fake news, he wanted to ferret out the truth himself. Has the conversation been enhanced or made to appear worse than what it was? For him every member is precious and he is not about to throw the student brods to the angry crowd crying for blood. If all were said and correctly quoted, they should be answerable  for their acts. But this would be glorifying the hacker who committed the criminal act and whose aim is to destroy or malign Upsilon, which the Illustrious Fellow vowed to protect.  On another thought,  can anyone be so angry at the whole world or is this a case of mental disorder?

medyo convoluted.  but let me pick it apart.  so.  is illustrious fellow girard sirios investigating it at all?  tatlo nga lang bang mga bagets ang involved?  incorrectly quoted ba sila o correctly, as in, walang labis walang kulang?  i hear the thread started in march and that periodically it would turn evil.  i hear also that some senior brods were part of the thread.  why did they allow it to go on?

Maria Jovita Zárate may part nga sa chat na may sumaling senior brod. “mga brod, kung may kailangan kayo nasa Quezon Hall lang ako…” most incriminating. identified na yata kung sino yun. official family of Pres Concepcion who is an upsilonian.

Stuart Santiago  they are complicit then.

they should all be expelled from the frat, at the very least.  they should all be expelled from UP, at the very best.

Carol P Araullo Simple lang naman. Identify the ones who posted, expel them from UP and if the Upsilon really wants to recover its credibility, expel them from the frat. Upsilon should make a public statement acknowledging the grievous infraction of every principle UP holds dear, (in fact, of everything a decent, sensible, respectful human being should uphold), apologize to the individuals, groups and sectors maligned and threatened, and GROVEL for understanding and forgiveness by their victims and the UP community at large.

yes, *GROVEL*

but but but.  the upsilon thinking, if we are to take it from torrevillas, is that if guilty, the culprits should indeed be “answerable,” EXCEPT THAT, that daw would be “glorifying the hacker who committed the criminal act and whose aim is to destroy or malign Upsilon, which the Illustrious Fellow vowed to protect.”

so: hacking is a crime, and that’s the only wrong that needs righting, the only sin that needs punishing?  but the original sin was that horrible online chat.  for all we know it was exposed, not by a rival frat hacker with intent to take down upsilon, but by a lonsi lurker with intent to rock the boat and rid the frat of these dregs.

besides, mr illustrious fellow, can protecting upsilon, and being complicit in that offensive drivel, be more correct and appropriate and honorable than standing up for the women, muslims, lgbtqs, lumad, and the memory of cory and ninoy that your boys felt free to demean insult malign just because they thought no one was listening except like-minded brods?  that’s the message upsilon is sending, guys, in case hindi niyo alam.

“On another thought,  can anyone be so angry at the whole world or is this a case of mental disorder?”

again i’m not sure.  who’s torrevillas referring to: the bad boys of upsilon or the hacker?  pero gusto ko yung “is this a case of mental disorder?”  umabot talaga tayo sa mental disorder as a defense?  parang puwede mag-plead ng insanity?  mygad.  why not.  yung tipong psychotic na split personality.  which might also explain why their values are a mess.

read men sta. ana’s Upsilon’s progressive legacy (or why Upsilon should not be associated with Marcos)

During the course of its centennial celebration, the fraternity, which takes pride in striving for leadership, has not given any public recognition to Marcos, the only Philippine president it can claim. Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, a fighter for independence, and a true war hero (unlike Marcos who had to burnish his reputation with fake medals), has become Upsilon’s model. The fraternity has likewise honored fellows — the living and the dead — for their significant contributions in different fields and disciplines. But Marcos is excluded. (Other Upsilonian politicians, even the good ones like Ninoy Aquino, have likewise been excluded from receiving recognition during the centennial celebration. Perhaps, this is the tradeoff to prevent Marcos from being recognized.)

imagine.  wenceslao vinzons as model.  ninoy aquino not good enough, guys?  or maybe too recent?  lol.  but seriously, what is so great about a fraternity that won’t can’t stand up for what is right because for the longest time, marcos and government connections came first.  where was brotherhood nang ikulong ni big brod marcos si kid brod ninoy nang mahigit pitong taon.  what does it say about the frat that to this day refuses to acknowledge ninoy aquino as hero.  marcos loyalists still rule?

Maria Jovita Zárate for teachers of the social sciences and cultural studies, that long thread spanning the months of March to November is a fecund material for some intense close reading, a discourse analysis that might just unpack the web of power relations—frat and university community, frat and special sectors of that community, senior brod and junior brod, brods within Quezon hall and outside of Quez Hall. As a teacher I would grab that opportunity as a teachable moment, and probably end with a walk-through in the academic oval where the “illustrious” history of the organization is represented in those kitschy tarps.

“illustrious” my foot.  upsilon has long lost its glow.  about time for a case study: of upsilon’s rise and fall.