Seven days that shook Malacañang
I am writing this piece a few hours after the illegitimate president has paper-lifted Executive order 1017. It came seven days after she promulgated her so-called state of national emergency. It took her a full week to realize once more how demented her edicts and how moronic her cabal of advisers really are.
I only have admiration to the Filipino people for actively resisting gma’s Marcosian edict. ( From hereon, her acronym would be in low caps—at least in this blog space—dahil sa pagkabansot ng kanyang katauhan physically and everything else about her.) Which part of our long history as a people led her to believe that we would just drop on all fours and accept her unjust orders? Tae nya!
From where my battered sneakers now lie in front of this equally battered computer, it has been a hellish yet exhilarating week.
February 24 was when it started. We knew there was something afoot when we were told as media persons that some members of the military would be joining the rallies in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the first Edsa uprising. I got up early that morning and prepared for a long day. I picked up the Bayan people’s packed lunch from their office and drove to the Edsa shrine in my veteran and beloved Batik. (Unlike gma, my car deserves the capital letter and more.) When I arrived, the first thing I beheld were the police personnel getting ready to snatch Ka Satur Ocampo and other progressive leaders. The rallyists were hosed down by the firefighters and were bludgeoned by the police. The rally had to beat a retreat towards Greenhills.
As the throng was marching towards San Juan, we were monitoring through our handheld radio sets that gma promulgated Proclamation 1017. This is it, I thought. In all my 14 years as an activist, I have been told the about horrors of martial law. On my 34th year, I am being given a taste of it myself. Natakot ako.
Then we received a call from Sonia Capio, the main host of our radio program “Ngayon Na, Bayan!” She was told that our program is suspended from airing “until further notice.” Now, we have been summoned time and again by the management of our radio station about the need to “tone down” our criticisms of the current dispensation in Malacañang. To accommodate them, we tried to be “creative”. But creativity can only take us so far when we have a dictator who is trampling down our hard-earned democratic rights.
I did not have enough time to ponder on the implications of our suspension from broadcast. Just then, we had to video-document the rally as it broke through the many police barriers erected on San Juan, Mandaluyong and Makati. We were running all the way and I have never sweated as much in all my time with Kodao. Eventually, we reached Ayala. We thought we could stay there until late at night. But there was a state of national emegency according to gma and we had to beat a retreat when darkness fell and the police were about to use their truncheons on us once more.
Sunday night, just as some members of the Philippine Marines were having that so-called standoff at Fort Bonifacio, I covered the gathering at the corner of Ayala and Buendia led by Bayan. When it gathered a respectable number, we again marched, this time towards Fort Bonifacio. Upon reaching Mantrade, another police line blocked our path. A few minutes after, we learned from Boy Saycon that Col. Queribin folded up and that the standoff is over.
The next day, we learned that we are still suspended from broadcast. Having no direct outlet for our reports, we took to asking regional radio stations to accept them just so the people in the countryside would know what is really happening in Manila. Meanwhile, our video cameras are rolling like mad capturing on film the people’s defiance against Proclamation 1017.
The cabal in Malacañang has not been idle. They have arrested Representatives Crispin Beltran and Joel Virador. They tried to arrest Rep. Satur Ocampo but failed because Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares blocked the police car with his bulky frame (a fellow Bedan I am so proud of). Good thing that some members of the media were present because an assault rifle was already trained against Ka Satur. ACT national council member and Bayan-Quezon president Napoleon Pornasdoro has been assasinated. The Department of (In)Justice came out with a list of those it accuses of rebellion and, subsequently, a hold departure order against them. (And being a former holder of a Jasig card, the list might include me under general item number 50.) Several members and officers of labor groups were arrested when they tried to express their support to the jailed Ka Bel. The Daily Tribune broadsheet has been raided and Abante tabloid has been harassed. The National Telecommunications Commission issued warnings against critical broadcasts. And lastly, suspicious-looking-therefore police-and-military-personnel have been casing the offices of progressive organizations.
Move-for-move, the militants matched the black propaganda aganst them and managed to show the illegality of the proclamation and the injustices committed by gma. Rep. Virador managed to reach the House of Representatives alive and the four others—Reps. Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, Liza Masa,and Rafael Mariano—escaped illegal arrest by seeking refuge inside the Batasang Pambansa. The lackey of a speaker had no choice but to allow them to stay inside the Batasan premises.
Several groups did their part as well. The La Sallian brothers held a mass, a way of the Cross and a candle-lighting ceremony in its Ortigas school. The Benedictine nuns are hosting a gathering as of this writing. The UP community declared its entire Diliman campus Proclamation 1017-free. It even allowed class walk-outs in protest of the edict. Majority of the senators went to town denouncing the edict. This morning, members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines along with other law groups such as CODAL and the Civil Liberties Union scored a breakthrough when they retook the hallowed Edsa Shrine from the police goons.
I covered the last event. I have been slightly injured when mediapersons had a scuffle with the police when they refused to let us inside their cordon. When the Edsa program ended, Atty. Colmenares announced that gma paper-lifted Proclamation 1017 but with a collatilla that she wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
Guess what, mrs arroyo. Uulitin din namin nang uulitin ang aming mga rali hanggang muling matalo ang iyong mga proklamasyon at hanggang ikaw mismo ay mapatalsik.
