Seeing the young out on the streets calling for revolution must be unnerving for anyone who isn’t.
Noynoy resign protests blooming in schools and all around us today hark back to the highlights of the modern student movement - 45 years after the First Quarter Storm, 29 years after the first EDSA and 14 years after the second. Drenched in the same fierce fervor, the young are marching off again in search of new beginnings after refusing to inherit the old.
My own teenage fury I poured out on EDSA to take Erap out of Malacanang in 2001. Erap's isolation from the people was so wide, even my conyo-speaking friends were honking off that catchy tone - beep beep bip bip, E-rap re-sign! - from their daddy's cars.
I was all fired up I volunteered to make the props for our academic org. I was so idealistic and naive, I put silver glitters on our maroon banner. "Erap alis dyan", it proudly proclaimed, punctuated with a sketch of a broom slightly askew. We hung it by the Ortigas bridge where it was dwarfed by "Resign all".
Because the activists hadn't been to our part of the school, I went to EDSA with my nerdy, science friends. We had no clue where to go and what to do, so everyday we just met up, and listened. The atmosphere was steeped in speeches of grand dreams for the future, we slowly radicalized through osmosis. Three of us hardy rally buddies eventually joined activist groups after EDSA 2.
We young people went to EDSA driven by the best of intentions, swept by overwhelming feelings and a strong sense of solidarity for all those who well, just wanted something to change. Honestly, I thought it was more fear of missing out than focus on a plan. The uncertainty, the spontaneity, everything in the relatively carefree present was exhilarating.
We knew the president had to leave. He was grossly incompetent, not fit to govern. Heck, he couldn’t even keep a tight rein on his colorful family. He’s had many people killed in unjust wars, he’s made dangerous policy decisions that severely undermine our national economy. Marcos and Erap had to leave. And now Noynoy has to, because of DAP, because of Oplan Bantay Laya, because of his cacique, unempathetic attitude that’s corroding the Filipino spirit.
A decade hence I find myself back on EDSA, calling on another president to resign. Older, though not much wiser, I’m privileged now to stand with people who have all sorts of grand designs. Bishops, priests, nuns, media men, professors, teachers, health workers, doctors, artists, leftist leaders, civic leaders, and ah, oh yes lawyers, the resign now movement is coming together from all directions. I’ve been to several meetings where the flurry of thoughts can jump from brilliant to dramatic to hard-hitting to introspective. We end on the sincere million-dollar question: what do we do now?
This is a group that has learned from mistakes: unwilling to make the same old, yet willing to risk it all. I can imagine what they in their own youth laid on the line - their dreams, their futures - and what they must have felt when EDSA 1, so-called a people’s uprising, later turned out a fluke. As for myself, the Gloria regime was a catastrophe and almost had me regret EDSA 2, when I was no more than 30 feet away when she took her oath.
When old solutions fail perennial problems, it's time to think out of the box. Only those who cannot bear to see another traditional politician take over as president will have the temerity to challenge system overhaul. Only those who refuse to accept the present scheme of things, one where the elite just plays rigodon, will push for genuine change. This is why the 1896 revolution led by the young Bonifacio called for independence, not Spanish assimilation.
To defeat the mighty few we need an organized many. So the idea instead of constitutional succession of a transition council to replace Noynoy – a fresh, but too-bold proposition for the post-Erap scenario – is slowly gaining traction.
I find myself piqued by scenarios and lured by endless possibilities. Can this large council truly represent the majority, the marginalized? Will one to two years be enough to effect long-lasting changes? How will controversial decisions be made when compromise is the order of the day? What prevails at the end of the day: reason, numbers, or brute force?
But I reel back in and remember myself at EDSA 2. I didn’t have questions, doubts, hesitations about the first order of the day: oust the president. I had earnest resolve to stay on the streets until Erap either left on his own or by force.
Right now, what we need in these precarious times is that child-like, straightforward insistence that Noynoy step down and away from public office. (Bonus points if he takes with him Kris.) We need to be intense and assertive, like the young – like when we were young. In a world full of shriveled up dreams and sunken spirits, let the young remind us of everything that is still possible.
Watch out for the young out on the streets calling for revolution, be they young or young at heart. How potent if we were all!
*With apologies to Prof. Jose Maria Sison, who published an article of the same title in Philippines Free Press, Vol. 60, November 2, 1968.
Krissy Conti is assistant secretary general for campaigns and advocacy of the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
Noynoy resign protests blooming in schools and all around us today hark back to the highlights of the modern student movement - 45 years after the First Quarter Storm, 29 years after the first EDSA and 14 years after the second. Drenched in the same fierce fervor, the young are marching off again in search of new beginnings after refusing to inherit the old.
My own teenage fury I poured out on EDSA to take Erap out of Malacanang in 2001. Erap's isolation from the people was so wide, even my conyo-speaking friends were honking off that catchy tone - beep beep bip bip, E-rap re-sign! - from their daddy's cars.
I was all fired up I volunteered to make the props for our academic org. I was so idealistic and naive, I put silver glitters on our maroon banner. "Erap alis dyan", it proudly proclaimed, punctuated with a sketch of a broom slightly askew. We hung it by the Ortigas bridge where it was dwarfed by "Resign all".
Because the activists hadn't been to our part of the school, I went to EDSA with my nerdy, science friends. We had no clue where to go and what to do, so everyday we just met up, and listened. The atmosphere was steeped in speeches of grand dreams for the future, we slowly radicalized through osmosis. Three of us hardy rally buddies eventually joined activist groups after EDSA 2.
We young people went to EDSA driven by the best of intentions, swept by overwhelming feelings and a strong sense of solidarity for all those who well, just wanted something to change. Honestly, I thought it was more fear of missing out than focus on a plan. The uncertainty, the spontaneity, everything in the relatively carefree present was exhilarating.
We knew the president had to leave. He was grossly incompetent, not fit to govern. Heck, he couldn’t even keep a tight rein on his colorful family. He’s had many people killed in unjust wars, he’s made dangerous policy decisions that severely undermine our national economy. Marcos and Erap had to leave. And now Noynoy has to, because of DAP, because of Oplan Bantay Laya, because of his cacique, unempathetic attitude that’s corroding the Filipino spirit.
A decade hence I find myself back on EDSA, calling on another president to resign. Older, though not much wiser, I’m privileged now to stand with people who have all sorts of grand designs. Bishops, priests, nuns, media men, professors, teachers, health workers, doctors, artists, leftist leaders, civic leaders, and ah, oh yes lawyers, the resign now movement is coming together from all directions. I’ve been to several meetings where the flurry of thoughts can jump from brilliant to dramatic to hard-hitting to introspective. We end on the sincere million-dollar question: what do we do now?
This is a group that has learned from mistakes: unwilling to make the same old, yet willing to risk it all. I can imagine what they in their own youth laid on the line - their dreams, their futures - and what they must have felt when EDSA 1, so-called a people’s uprising, later turned out a fluke. As for myself, the Gloria regime was a catastrophe and almost had me regret EDSA 2, when I was no more than 30 feet away when she took her oath.
When old solutions fail perennial problems, it's time to think out of the box. Only those who cannot bear to see another traditional politician take over as president will have the temerity to challenge system overhaul. Only those who refuse to accept the present scheme of things, one where the elite just plays rigodon, will push for genuine change. This is why the 1896 revolution led by the young Bonifacio called for independence, not Spanish assimilation.
To defeat the mighty few we need an organized many. So the idea instead of constitutional succession of a transition council to replace Noynoy – a fresh, but too-bold proposition for the post-Erap scenario – is slowly gaining traction.
I find myself piqued by scenarios and lured by endless possibilities. Can this large council truly represent the majority, the marginalized? Will one to two years be enough to effect long-lasting changes? How will controversial decisions be made when compromise is the order of the day? What prevails at the end of the day: reason, numbers, or brute force?
But I reel back in and remember myself at EDSA 2. I didn’t have questions, doubts, hesitations about the first order of the day: oust the president. I had earnest resolve to stay on the streets until Erap either left on his own or by force.
Right now, what we need in these precarious times is that child-like, straightforward insistence that Noynoy step down and away from public office. (Bonus points if he takes with him Kris.) We need to be intense and assertive, like the young – like when we were young. In a world full of shriveled up dreams and sunken spirits, let the young remind us of everything that is still possible.
Watch out for the young out on the streets calling for revolution, be they young or young at heart. How potent if we were all!
*With apologies to Prof. Jose Maria Sison, who published an article of the same title in Philippines Free Press, Vol. 60, November 2, 1968.
Krissy Conti is assistant secretary general for campaigns and advocacy of the National Union of People’s Lawyers.