Bandilang Pula
Written by: Anoymous;
Published: Bandilang Pula, Ika-5 ng Pebrero 1971;
Source: Bandilang Pula, Ika-5 ng Pebrero 1971
Markup: Simoun Magsalin.
The walkout by the activists during the “dialogue” of ABS-CBN between the generals and the students put the whole charade in its proper place. In essence, the position they took was, “What is the point of a dialogue? Can it clarify something that is not already alarmingly clear — brute militarism — or is the purpose of this dialogue to make things less clear.”
Yet there remain a few whose mission is to obfuscate, These gentlemen will quibble about the barricades but will feign blindness when faced with a senseless assault on a coed dorm. They will deliver elocutory pieces condemning the defense of a university but will promtply dismiss the daily murders in Central Luzon, the Jabidahs, the use of Special Forces in elections, and the slow, cruel bloodletting of our economy by an oil cartel. A historian well put it that for good or ill, the government sets the best example for the people to follow, and the government’s example to the people is naked force. Viewed in this context, the incidents of student-police confrontattion are inevitable.
A daily columnist also made note of the concern that the government places on a few barricades. He contrasts this with the nonchalance it manifests towards the use of Special Forces and the existence of the oil conspiracies. If we were to believe the government, the private armies don’t even exist. And still, there those who are so cavalier about blaming the victims and ignoring the criminals. These few claim to speak for the side of the majority. But if the majority is silent, what mystical connections allow them to divine its wishes? Or do they only speak for themselves?
In any event, the support of the community for the activists is so overwhelming that it speaks for itself. That is why the armed forces cannot just enter the university, particularly the residential areas. That is how thousands of students on campus are fed, assisted and how they continue to survive. That is why people volunteered overtime to come out with Radio Free Diliman and with this paper while the Punos and the Alilings have to type and deliver their own press releases.
Prof. Campos, Ben Carreon proposes, is the representative of the school of thought that protests against the barricades. Indeed, Puno and Aliling are in illustrious company. But if they want the barricades down, they should first struggle against a dominant economic minority that uses force to suppress and oppress the people, in short, against fascism and imperialism. Yet, asking them to comprehend this simple fact would be outrageously unfair, for no man should be required to understand something far above his capacity to do so.
Ultimately, the question of who is to blame may be directed at Marcos and company, However, a man is supposed to be entitled against self-incrimination. But then again, Marcos is not a man, he is a puppet.