The Inquirer has a story on Jose Maria Sison crooning for his 40 year old Revolution and Mike Tan reminiscing about 1968. Mark Kurlansk author of the acclaimed fisheries biography “Cod” wrote another tome “1968″ and I picked up a copy at Lousiana State U’s union bookshop in 2007. Most of us Martial Law babies were born on that year 1968. Our UPIS poster boy alum named Chiz was born a year later.
Kurlansk’s book describes the start of this interesting year starting with De Gaulle. The Paris student riots marked a paradigm change on what students can do. The students there were the baby boomers that were born right after World War II. A product of student militancy is the modern environmentalist movement. The baby boomers since then have taken on a zillion ideological positions from far right to far left. Mike Tan gives a quick rundown of that year.
This leads us to Professor Joma Sison being the Revolution Idol on YouTube. At least he is in liberal Utrecht and not in a jail cell (thanks to EDSA I). Singing in jail (or the ”prison bus”) is truer to tradition. As for Joma, the talent he shares with our Fascist Celebrity Idol is something to think about. How come those with revolutionary ambitions take to singing? CPP-NPA labs you! MMDA-BF labs you! Di ba pareho lang ‘yon? If ever either one comes to power, they will be called Chairman still! :-) BTW both the CPP-NPA and MMDA iconography carry the “hammer”!
As usual the PDI is extremely late in realizing the cold truth. We the Martial Law babies that played a huge role in booting out the Marcos regime (Joma and the Party famously boycotted the struggle when it really mattered) have long known that EDSA 1 was a betrayal and Mrs Corazon Aquino tragically missed out on reforms. She threw away her revolutionary powers away. EDSA 2 is a replay of all of these. The beneficiary of EDSA 2 continued the status quo.
Mrs Aquino deserves to be remembered for her role in ousting Marcos but this we agree with Joma Sison. She never escaped the boundaries of her class interests. Cory Aquino is a traditional politician after all.
We have to return to 1968. Today’s crop of students especially those in UP are really not lacking in rage as their parents (the student militants of the 1970s) think they are. They are probably seeking unexplored ways of expressing militancy. Their elders will have to ensure that the renewed militancy results in change where they had once failed.
BTW Mark Meily’s Baler is good but as I had pointed out in my review, there were lapses. Those of you who were products of the Spanish language law and had to endure the 12 units in college would realize what I mean! Also some of the actors need more exposure before embarking on big budgeted historical romance dramas like these.
See the movie and help prevent a La Ultima Pelicula de Filipinas from happening!
And you and I would agree to shout Viva Bravo!
A Happy New Year to blog contributors and our loyal readers!
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” We the Martial Law babies that played a huge role in booting out the Marcos regime (Joma and the Party famously boycotted the struggle when it really mattered) have long known that EDSA 1 was a betrayal and Mrs Corazon Aquino tragically missed out on reforms. ”
EDSA 1 a betrayal by Cory? How? What did she promise that she didn’t accomplish? I can understand that many factions wanted different things, but it is Cory’s betrayal ONLY if she reneged on a promise…
Getting back the stolen wealth! :-) The first of the Cory regime’s failures.
Failure to implement genuine land reform which is why our Society is split between the EDSA Dos and EDSA Tres crowds.
givng marcos’ henchmen and sycophants like maceda, enrile, tatad, erap, escudero, etc., etc., a new lease in life, and opportunity to come back roaring, with vengeance. of course, the political naivete, if not vacuity, of many pinoys was a big contributing factor.
Speaking of CARP, here is my argument with the Supreme Court when DAR and Land Bank appropriated some 30 hectares of riceland from my relatives in Sagnay Camarines Sur in 1972 which up to now remains unpaid and the case has been with the Court (RTC, CA and SC) for more almost 20 years.
“The landowner is a miniscule individual in relation with the institution of government. Where the government undertakes to confiscate his land to be distributed to other people the government believes worthy of the land, the
machineries of the government are stacked against him. He looks for one last consolation: that of being able to get just compensation.
As an exercise of police power, the expropriation of private property under the CARP puts the landowner, and not the government, in a situation where the odds are already stacked against his
favor. He has no recourse but to allow it.
His only consolation is that he can negotiate for the amount of compensation to be paid for the expropriated property. (LBP v. CA, Yap and Santiago, [G.R. No. 118712. July 5, 1996]
But the government is composed of politicians; some are knaves and some are nobles. Some are stingy and some are outright thieves. When the
thieves and the knaves are stacked against him, his last recourse is this Court.
“In some jurisdictions, the states police power and eminent domain are often labeled as petty larceny. (Although Holmes never published the
phrase, “petty larceny of the police power,” the concept continues to influence modern legal thought. It is likely “one of the most famous phrases ever deleted from a draft Supreme Court opinion . . . .” J. Gregory Sidak, The Petty Larceny of the Police Power, 86 Cal. L. Rev. 655, 656 (1998) (reviewing Fred S. McChesney, Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion (1997).
Putting the entire nation on land reform program in 1972 was a grand larceny.
Congress has enacted laws designed to free the farmers from the bondage of feudalism where the lands are controlled by the few that had
enslaved so many. But unshackling them from their chains is not enough. They should become resourceful, self-reliant and dignified. These are the mission statements of the law itself as early as the reign of President Diosdado
Macapagal. Amortizing the land they have acquired from the landowners to Land Bank is a first step towards achieving dignity and self-reliance. But
apparently Land Bank has only succeeded in imparting the culture of mendicancy and dole out mentality to the farmers by failing to pursue an
aggressive policy to collect from the farmer beneficiaries so that the government is not hard-pressed with cash by which to pay the landowners.”
The forty something Filipino leaders who are positioned to be in power have been helped by the election of Barrack Obama, 44 years old, I believe.
These young men and women should emulate President-elect Obama by bringing to the table new visions and fresh ideas in uplifting the Filipino people from poverty and bringing in country’s progress.
Forget Joma Sison who is probably one the few remaining commmunists. Nor should seventyish Ermita, Romulo, etc., however experienced, remain in power. This world need young leaders. Obama, Medvedev, Sarkozy, and the rest are all below, or just reachhed 50 years old.
The flip side of the coin would be in the lyrics of the song In The Living Years,
“EVERY GENERATION BLAMES THE ONE BEFORE.”
40yish Chiz as the Pinoy Obama? We must be prepared to accept that the University of the Philippines High School will produce its third President of the Philippines!