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 military invasion of the University on February 2 was not without its positive results. Fascism was met with resistance and resistance brought intimations of new life forms, new institutions. The siege produced the elusive rallying point for an academic United Front: anti-militarism.
The jeepney strike by itself fell short of mobilizing the UP community against the oil firms. The original barricade at the University Avenue could have ended like all the rest that militant students have put up before on this campus. But the Marcos people, as usual, goofed everything and opted for a hard line. Invoking its right to protect a national road, the military threatened invasion. The students met the threat with justified defiance; they saw in the dismantling and surrender of the barricades the end of the campus as sanctuary for dissent.
Unable to frighten the students with its firepower and goon complex, the regime was forced to save its face, it imagined itself losing an honor it never had in the first place. It charged with teargas and bullets against defenseless demonstrators to break the roadblocks. The students retreated to the Arts and Sciences sector and proceeded to create a fortress. Everything — chairs, blackboards, desks, furniture — went into the barricades Molotov factories sprouted with everybody pitching to collect bottles and siphon gasoline from friendly cars. Chemistry professors, english teachers, law students, Sigma Rhoans, Upsilonians, Vanguard people virtually worked hand-in-hand with the more combustible KM and SDK activitists. Red flags fluttered proudly atop the buildings.
The assault came at sunset. Earlier, decoy attacks were staged at the Balara side. The main force came from Area 11. A pitch battle ensued, at least two students were hit by gunfire, As the main bulk of the resistance were holed up in Kamia and Sampaguita halls, the troopers bombarded with excessive quantities of mace and teargas. Of the coughing and crying demonstrators, the invaders picked up around 30 and withdrew from the campus. They were anticipating guerilla actions from different bands scattered all over. Darkness and the terrain dictated a hit-and-ran maneuver. The invaders were incapable of consolidating conquest, much less the full liquidation of resistance. Militarily, it was hardly worth all the helicopters, the hundreds of fully-armed troops, the direct participation of colonels and that psywar psycho Crisol, Morally, it was the loudest argument against fascism; rather, the best evidence of its existence.
The fascist display was not without its puppet collar. The Quezon City police represents the elite corps of USAID-trained anti-riot personnel. The commanding officer was one of the biggest bulldogs of them all which answers to the yell of Karingal and is better known as the alter ego of Charlie Albert. The reader can smell the CIA from here.
Late into the night, the survivors met on the lawn of Sampaguita, under the stars, dazed and angered by what SP Lopez was to refer to the next morning as the Great Conversion. The consensus was for resistance. It was not hesitating nor naively pacifist. It correctly realized the need to arm, to organize, to retaliate actively. The bullshit about the police and the army as keepers of peace nobody bought this time. The Punos and Ortegas were, you’re right, home with Manglapus.
Overnight, the campus became a commune. The faculty led by the old-style liberals pledged fealty to the defense of Diliman. Rhetoric was not allowed to lapse into disuse. The puppet troops suddenly materialized across the Beta way, at Melchor Hall. The bugles were blown; battle positions were assumed. Vinzons Hall was taken and retaken as the students charged with pillboxes and molotovs undaunted by the sight of superior firepower. The big kill was set for sundown. February 3. Death was furthest from the thoughts of the defenders, notably the young boys from the adjoining barrios; or if they thought of it, they were undaunted.
And then the “enlightened” segment of the bureaucrat-capitalist and comprador bourgeois classes came. Eva in the midi, Doy the Pinoy Tom Jones, Genius the liberator, Ninoy of the developing coups. At the barricades, they were jeered. The political smiles and I-sympathize-with-yous failed to find their usual marks. Everybody was thinking ahead, thinking of 1971 and 1973. These were Marcos’ enemies. They were not necessarily friends. Perhaps they were attributing the crimes of their class to the corruption of the biggest bastard. Or they were moving in to cash on his coming fall, hopeful that his enemies would troop to their respective banners.
The night of the 3rd was one of false alarms and red alerts. The campus, was bathed in darkness. Some men were sighted crawling near the observatory. The university radio station was liberated and promptly started an all-night broadcast. Contributions and food flooded in. A motorcycle belonging to a security agency was seized after two helmet-wearing, gun-bearing men scampered away in response to the challenge of the first line defense position. This was promptly commissioned for reconaissance and supply duties, Sampaguita and Kamia were crawling with resting guerillas. Well into the night, mobilizations were ordered. The air was rent with New Year’s eve explosions, all of whom were met by glee rather than fear. The morale was very high, so high that the top echelon of MAKIBAKA positioned themselves in the front lines.
The following day opened with renewed threats of invasion. Late in the morning, residents of Narra Hall exchanged fire with PC troopers across the street near the Balara filters, A bus was burned on Katipunan road. Certain Lopez men were egging to clean up the barricades. The faculty march to Congress was called off. The barricades were up again along University Avenue, The UP press was liberated late in the afternoon.
BANDILANG PULA was asking to be born. So be it.