KNOWING NINOY AQUINO

By Mauro Gia Samonte

Part 2

The Plaza Miranda Bombing

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There is hardly any better illustration of this character of Ninoy than in that photograph taken of him as he walked down the steps of the Manila Hilton, a cocked .45 in hand, eyes menacingly scanning the way ahead, like telling people to get out of the way or he’ll fire away. The shot was taken as he rushed to respond to the bombing of the Liberal Party in Plaza Miranda, August 21, 1971. 

The most shocking event that rocked the nation in 1971 was the Plaza Miranda Massacre. Here are pure facts of the incident. It was the  proclamation rally of the Liberal Party for its senatorial and Manila local candidates in the mid-year elections that year. Present were all the Liberal Party local candidates and the party’s  entire senatorial ticket. Absent was the LP secretary general and star of the show, Ninoy Aquino.

Ninoy’s absence strikes one as quite odd. As Senator Jovito Salonga says about Ninoy, “Siya ang aming star. Dahil pagka siya ay nakita ng tao na nasa stage na, naghihiyawan ang tao ng bomba. Gusto namin ay bomba. (He was our star. Because once the people spot him onstage, the people shout bomba. We want bomba.)”

That August 21, 1971, bomba did explode in Plaza Miranda.

 Two powerful grenades rocked the rally. One missed the stage, blasting people on the spot, killing 8, among them a 10-year-old girl vendor, and seriously injuring 120. The other grenade landed onstage, seriously injuring all senatorial candidates, the most critical being Senator Jovito Salonga and Senator John Osmena.

By this time, the conflict between Marcos and Ninoy had intensified so that their respective positions on the incident became the focus of the people’s attention. Who had the more credible story and who told that story in the more convincing way?

On other occasions before the Plaza Miranda bombing, Ninoy had enthralled as much as thrilled throngs of listeners with theatrics  on the ostentations of Imelda –  her jewelry, her shoes and hand bags and parasols; had enraged audiences with statistics on corruption in the Marcos conduct of government; and had particularly appalled the nation with his expose of the Jabidah Massacre, which killed all but one of 60 Muslim youth allegedly recruited and trained for an invasion of Sabah to regain the territory for the Philippines. These exposes provided the backdrop for Ninoy’s revelations that the Plaza Miranda bombing was a step toward the full-blown implementation of Oplan Saggitarius, the plan Ninoy alleged as the scenario for the institution of military rule in the country.

            Subsequent events appeared to bear Ninoy out in the  propaganda war. A few days after the Plaza Miranda carnage, Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and indeed by virtue of it proceeded immediately to arrest  a number of activists without the customary warrants. And Ninoy had a heyday condemning the writ suspension as a prelude to martial law.

Ninoy and the Communists

            On the other hand, Marcos accused the Communist Party of the Philippines as the perpetrators of the massacre. According to Marcos, the CPP carried  out the bombing in order to advance its design of toppling the government and taking over political control of the country. Since Marcos had on various occasions accused Ninoy of coddling the communists, if not being a communist himself, he, too, had a leg to stand on in his battle with Ninoy for credibility in the eyes of the nation. By equating Ninoy with the communists and then accusing the communists as the perpetrators of the Plaza Miranda bombing, Marcos cleverly impressed upon the nation that it was, in the end, Ninoy who masterminded the dastardly gruesome act.

            In point of logic, Marcos’ slant was quite sound. If it hadn’t been Ninoy who planned it all, why was he safely away when the bombing took place. Normally, as Secretary General of the party conducting the rally and as the perennial star of LP public meetings, Ninoy was expected to be at the Plaza Miranda occasion even much earlier than the others. True, there was this wedding celebration he was attending at the precise time of the bombing, still he could have easily prioritized the Plaza Miranda LP rally, it being expectedly for him the most urgent concern that evening.

            In point of truth, Marcos’ equating Ninoy with the communists did have, too, a substantial measure of it. But not after nearly two decades would proofs surface that such Marcos equation of Ninoy and the communists was substantially valid.

            Beginning July 1989 or thereabouts, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Committee on Justice and Human Rights chaired by Senator Wigberto Tanada conducted a joint hearing aimed at ferreting out the truth in the Plaza Miranda bombing. Invited to the hearings were former stalwarts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Ruben Guevarra, Ariel Almendral and Pablo Araneta.

            As a backgrounder, it must be cited that in 1972 the Communist Party of the Philippines sent a delegation to China to work out a shipment of arms to the  left insurgency in the country. But the arms shipment was botched and much of it fell into the hands of the Philippine military. The MV Karagatan fiasco formed part of the immediate reasons why Marcos declared martial  law in September 1972.

            The bungling of the MV Karagatan operations was traced by the CPP to an alleged mutiny led by one Danny Cordero which prevented many operatives from carrying out their mission of transporting the arms from the vessel to the interior of Isabela jungles.  As a consequence, government forces discovered the operations.

            Eventually Cordero was tried for the alleged offense of mutiny. Guevarra and Almendral  were members of the military tribunal constituted to conduct the trial; Guevarra was the tribunal chairman. Araneta was one of three accused of the munity offense.  Cordero was found guilty and sentenced to die;  the other two co-accused were meted lighter punishment. In a desperate attempt to avoid the death sentence, Cordero declared that he had done a great mission  for the party so that he did not deserve to be executed. When questioned what mission he was talking about, Cordero said he was one of three party operatives who bombed Plaza Miranda.

Senate Hearing on Plaza Miranda Bombing

            Following are excerpts from the minutes of the joint hearings conducted between July and November 1989 by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

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             EXCERPT FROM MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 25 HEARING:

             THE CHAIRMAN: Ngayon, babalik tayo kay Danny Cordero. Kilala mo ba yan, si                                                     Danny Cordero, at kailan mo nakilala ?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Si Danny Cordero po, hindi ko po… una ko po siyang nakita pero      

                                            hindi ko pa nakilala nuong August 21, 1971, ilang araw -- ilang oras

                                           bago iyong pambobomba sa Plaza Miranda. Nuon pong gabing ‘yon, 

                                           nag-usap kami ni Jose Maria Sison sa apartment na inuupahan ng

                                           mag-asawang Magtanggol Roque at si Mila Aguilar.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Saan ‘yang apartment na ‘yan?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Sa BF Homes Paranaque po ito. Nag-usap ho kami siguro mga wala                                                        pang alas 4:30 ng Hapon.                                       

            THE CHAIRMAN: Kayo lang dalawa?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Nuong bago po ---- hindi po, kasi nuong nag-usap kami, tatlo kami,                                                si Jose Maria Sison, ako at iyong isang Ka Erning na kasama namin.                                                      Pero po sa bahay na ‘yon, ang nanduruon mga kasapi ng Komite                                                      Sentral, nanduruon din si Herminigildo Garcia IV at saka si Manuel                                                Collantes. Si Manuel Collantes po ang sumundo sa aking                                                              kinalalagyang UG house nuon, inihatid naman ako doon sa                                                                    kinalalagyan nila Sison at ang sumalubong sa amin sa ibaba sa                                                               apartment ay si Herminigildo Garcia.

                                          Kaya po nuong dumating ako, sinenyasan ako ni Herminigildo Garcia                                           na “hintay ka sandali may kausap si Ka Alex sa itaas.” Ginagamit po                                                   niyang alyas nuon sa amin Alex, ibig sabihin si Amado Guerrero.

                                         So, naghintay  po ako, wala pang ilang sandali sumenyas na si Ka                                                   Erning sa akin, sabi umakyat ka na. Nuong pag-akyat ko po, inabutan                                                  ko si Sison kausap iyong ilang kabataan lalaki nuon.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Kausap sino?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Mayroon pong ilang kabataang lalaki na kausap siya sa loob ng                                                    kuarto at patapos na po nuong dumating ako. Iyon nga po, duon ko                                                        unang nakita ito si – natatandaan ko, nakita ko duon si Danny                                                              Cordero, si Ka Daniel, nakalimujtan ko na ring pangalan, at si                                                     Cecilio Apostol.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Pinakilala ba sayo?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Hindi. Sa Partido po kasi --- sa Partido po kasi, merong                                                                 compartmentalization na policy ang Party na kung hindi -- kung wala                                                     kang direktang kinaalaman sa isang gawain, hindi mo na dapat                                                   malaman ito, kung hindi sinabi sa ‘yo, huwag ka nang magtanong.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Papaano mo nalaman na iyon na ngang mga taong iyon ay si                                                         Danny Cordero, si Ka Daniel at Cecilio Apostol.

            MR. GUEVARRA: Nuong nasa Isabela na po sila. Kasi po, kaagad silang ipinadala sa                                               amin sa Isabela

           

            MR. CHAIRMAN: So, nakita mo lang itong mga taong ito kausap ni Jose Maria Sison                                                 nuong kahaponan na ‘yon?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Opo, kasi po, nuong araw na ‘yon, bago nangyari po iyong                                                            pambobom… paghahagis ng granada nuon, may pinag-usapan kami                                              ni Sison na ano ba ang dapat gawin talaga sa mga hinihiling ng mga                                             pulitiko. Nabanggit ko nga po sa kanya nuon “ano kaya, kung may                                             humiling kaya sa amin na likidahin namin o tambangan namin ‘yong                                                    kalaban ni ganitong partido, ano kaya magagawa kaya natin.

                                           Ang natatandaan ko pong sabi ni Sison sa akin nuon, “Hindi naman                                               tayo mga ano, eh, mga bayaran eh. Hindi naman tayo nagpapaupa                                                        para pumatay. Sa katotohanan…”sabi n’ya, “may --- magsasagawa                                                       tayo ng pambobomba ngayong gabi sa isang meeting. Hindi sa                                                  dahilang humingi tayo ng kabayaran, kundi dahil gusto nating umiral                                                   and gusto nating mangyari.”

            THE CHAIRMAN: Sinabi sa iyo ‘yan mismo ni Jose Maria Sison?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Magkaharap ko kami sinabi n’ya.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Kailan sinabi sa iyo ‘yan?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Nuon pong gabi na – na nakita ko sina Danny Codero sa bahay na                                              ‘yon.

            THE CHAIRMAN: At sinong kaharap nuong sinabi sa iyo ‘yan?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Tatlo po kaming magkakaharap, iyong isang Ka Erning. Pagkatapos                                                        po….

            THE CHAIRMAN: Ka Erning.

            MR. GUEVARRA: Opo.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Hindi mo alam ang kanyang tunay na pangalan?

            MR. GUEVARRA: Kilala ko po ‘yong kanyang tunay na pangalan pero hindi ko po                                                     masasabi kung anong legal n’yang pangalan.            Tapos po, nuong                                                     matapos masabi ni Jose Maria Sison ‘yon, sabi niya .                                                                                 “alis na ako”. Nagmamadali po siyang umalis.

                                           Ngayon ang sabi n’ya kay Ka Erning, “ipaliwanag mo sa kanya ang                                               isang mahalagang bagay”.

                                           Di, umalis na po si Sison, kami naman ni Ka Erning naiwan sa                                                        kuwarto.  Dito ko po nalaman iyong tiyak na plano.

                                           Ang sabi ni Ka Erning, “Bobombahin natin ngayon ang miting nga                                                 (sic) Liberal party. Pinababatid ko sa ‘yo ang bagay na ito, dahilan                                                        ang mga taong magsasagawa nito o iyong mga kasamang                                                           magsasakatuparan ng misyon ay ipadadala sa Isabelo (sic). Kung                                                    matutuloy ang misyon…” sabi n’ya “sa loob ng ilang araw o sa loob                                             ng isang linggo ay ipadadala sa Isabela itong mga taong ito at dapat                                              na ito’y kaagad na maipasok sa loob ng forest region, huwag nang                                                  magtatagal sa mga bahay-bagsakan, at subaybayan ninyong mabuti                                                sa ideologia at pulitika”.

                                            Nuong ko lang po natiyak iyong gam…. pero hindi ko po alam na                                                   ‘yong mismong miting na ‘yon ang hahagisan ng Granada. Kaya po,                                               nagpahatid na rin ako sa kila Collantes nuon at kay Magtanggol                                                  Roque, inihatid ako sa isag (sic) UG House naming dito sa Pasay.                                                       Nuong umaga ko na lang po nalaman na nabasa ko --  nadinig ko na                                                     sa radio at nakabasa na ako ng diyaryo na iyon na ang nangyari.

                                            So, naghanda na po akong bumalik ng Isabela nuon, nuong dumating                                             sa akin iyong miyembro ng National Liaisons Commission naming,                                                 dalawa sila ang naghatid sa kinalalagyan ko si Magtanggol Roque,                                                         may iniabot na maliit na sulat uli sa akin, galling kay Ka Erning.

                                            Ang nakasulat po ganito: “Alam mo na ang nangyari kagabi, ilan                                                   lamang ang nakakaalam nito at ito’y hindi na dapat pang malaman                                                         ng ibang pinuno maging ibang kagawad ng Komite Sentral. Ang                                                    sinumang maglabas ng impormasyon na ito, ay may pinakamatapat                                                          … ay may pinakamabigat na kaparusahan.” Ganoon po ang                                                                  nilalaman ng sulat.

            EXCERPT FROM MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 18 HEARING

            MR. ALMENDRAL: ... Kinaumagahan ay isang maghapon na naman iyong pa(g)lilitis                                                  pa  rin.

            THE CHAIRMAN:  Anong oras nag-umpisa nang kinaumagahan?

            MR. ALMENDRAL:  Pagkakain lang ho ng agahan.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Mga anong oras iyon?

            MR. ALMENDRAL: Siguro po mga alas otso, alas nuebe nag-umpisa na ulit.Pagkatapos                                                ay pagdating ng hapon, kalagitnaan ng hapon, ay ubos na ang lahat                                                        ng pali-paliwanag ay hiningian na lang si Ka Cris ng huling salita                                                niya kung ano ang kanyang magiging paliwanag. At nagsalita iyong                                                      tao. Ang sinabi niya, “Kailan man ay hindi ako magtra-traidor sa                                                          partido. Sa katunayan, bilang patunay sa aking katapatan sa                                                                  partido, ay mayroong isang napakaselan na gawain na itinalaga sa                                                 akin ng mga namumunong kasama na hindi ko mababanggit kung                                                   ano iyong gawain na iyon.”

            THE CHAIRMAN:  At pagkatapos niyang masabi iyan,  ano ang naging reaction nuong                                     mga nandoon sa hukuman?

            MR. ALMENDRAL: Noong masabi niya iyan, iyong isang naka-upo doon sa bandang                                                  harapan na may hawak na carbine, si Ka Ambo, ay nagsalita siya.                                                  Ang sabi niyang ganyan, “Niloloko mo yata kami, e. Ano iyong                                                sinasabi mong misyon-misyon, e, hindi mo mapapatunayan iyan”

                                             Ngayon, bilang presiding, si Ka Peters naman binigyan niya ng                                                       instruksyon si Ka Cris na, “Sige, ipaliwanag mo kung ano iyong                                                      misyon na ‘yon.”

                                             Nag-isip ng kaunti si Ka Cris, pagkatapos sinabi niya, “Ako ang                                                      naghagis ng… ako ang isa sa naghagis ng granada sa Plaza                                                                     Miranda.”

                                             Di, dahil ako wala akong kaalaman tungkol doon at buo nga iyong                                                  kaalaman ko, paniwala ko noon na si Marcos ang may kinalaman sa                                   pagbomba ng Plaza Miranda, nagulat ako noon, at palagay ko                                                                ganoon din ang naging epekto sa napakarami doon sa kagrupohan.                                              Walang nagsalita. Kahit si Ka Peters sa pagka-ala-ala ko hindi pa                                                   siya unang kumibo, at sinundan pa ni Ka Cris ‘yong kanyang salita.                                                        Sabi niya: “Sa katunayan”, sabi n’ya “nandito sa kapulungang ito                                                         ang isa pa sa kasama ko doon  sa Plaza Miranda. Hindi ko                                                              babanggitin ang pangalan n’ya, kung gusto niyang tumayo para                                                      patotohanan ang aking sinasabi, bibigyan ko siya ng ilang minuto. “

                                            Di tahimik na tahimik na ganyan, wala ring tumayo. Hindi naglaon,                                                nagsalita na ulit si Ka Peters at sinabi niya na na “ayon sa….” Una,                                                       sinabi n’ya, tawagin na lang nating PMB, Plaza Miranda Bombing”.

            THE CHAIRMAN: Sinong nagsabi n’yan? Sino?”

            MR. ALMENDRAL: Si Ka Peters po. “Tawagin na lang nating PMB”, dahil nga sa laki                                                ng – aywan ko kung anong dahilan nila, pero tinawag nilang PMB                                                  at tinawag na nga naming PMB ‘yon noon, dahil sabi n’ya, “Itong                                                     PMB ay tinukoy ng partido na kagagawan ni Marcos. Kung                                                                   tinutukoy mo na kagagawan ng partido ‘yan ay isang panibagong                                                     usapin iyan”.

                                              Doon sa bagay na ‘yon, hindi na dinagdagan ni Ka Cris ‘yong                                                        kanyang pananalita tungkol sa Plaza Miranda at doon na rin                                                         natapos, humigit kumulang ‘yong usapin ng pagtatanggol n’ya sa                                                    sarili n’ya.  

           

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Condemning the Sison Line

            In the senate hearings, Jose Maria Sison was given the right to shoot questions which were amply accomplished by his counsel, Atty. Romeo Capulong. But the questions needed to be submitted first to the joint committees for asking, consonant to senate rules, by the Chairman himself.

            In the October 25 hearing, Almendral reiterated his stand on the Plaza Miranda Bombing and to a question by Jose Maria Sison he made a stirring response.

            “Okay,” said the Chairman, “The next question. You denounced the CPP/NPA and its leaders particularly Jose Maria Sison in your statement of February 17, 1984. Would it be correct to say, since this date you have declared war against this revolutionary movement and its leaders and vowed to do the best you can to crush this movement. Are you now working or cooperating with the Philippine military, any public official or any other person or group, local or foreign, whose duty, interest or political objective is to crush the Philippine insurgency?”

            Although he betrayed hurt sensitivities and a long-lurking exquisite pain within him that needed to be outed, Almendral nonetheless answered in high-breed fashion, succeeding in boomeranging the intended damage of the question while clearly demonstrating the man’s sincerity and purity of intentions.

            He said, “If somebody from the right wing did Plaza Miranda, and I knew about it, sir, I will speak against it, sir, and I will lay down my life to testify on that question, sir. It so happened that this Joma Sison is affiliated, sir, with the CPP and presents an idea that he is a communist, sir, but it is not as an anti-communist that I stand before this body nor is it as an anti-communist that I present that statement of denouncing Jose Maria Sison and the bombers of Plaza Miranda, sir. It is the act and the crime of Plaza Miranda that is the thing that I’m questioning, sir. And, you know, sir, they had a favorite saying that Marcos was the best recruiter of the NPA, sir. I think in the Philippines, the best agent of the CIA is Joma Sison, sir, because what he has done is, he has created a polarization of Philippine society especially through the Plaza Miranda bombing, and he should be answerable for that crime, sir.”

            During the period of the Plaza Miranda bombing, it would have been completely impossible for us to discern even a semblance of truth in Marcos’ equating Ninoy with the communists and, hence, with the carnage. Activists at the time were steadfast on the side of Ninoy and we just didn’t have any basis to believe otherwise. Only after 16 years would we have the opportunity to talk to Bernabe Buscayno, aka Kumander Dante, and got straight out of his mouth Ninoy’s real connection with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. We had occasion earlier to interview Luis Taruc for a movie contemplated to be made in the eighties by the late Fernando Poe, Jr. in which the intimations by the Huk Supremo regarding the formation of the CPP served to corroborate the disclosures by Kumander Dante in the latter interview.

            But the swell of indignation manifested in mass protests following the Plaza Miranda bombing indicated that Ninoy was gaining the upper hand in the propaganda war. To us who by then had embraced the ideals of the proletarian aspect of the national democratic movement, this development  was particularly shocking. All of a sudden we realized that we entered not a war for the liberation of the working class but  a personal battle for the advancement of one man’s magnificent obsession.

KAMAO

            We are a modest, self-made writer who after several stints in various second-rate entertainment publications landed the editorships of the Movie Confidential and Entertainment Section of the Weekly Nation, the latter being one of three leading magazines in the country until 1971; the other  two were the Weekly Graphic and the Philippine Free Press. Movie Confidential and Weekly Nation together with the vernacular magazine Tagumpay were publications of the Makabayan Publishing Corporation, owned by Amado Araneta, grandfather of now vice presidential aspirant Mar Roxas. The corporation used to have its offices and plant on the site now occupied by the first-ever SM Mall established, at the Araneta Center.

            The ideals of the First Quarter Storm had presented to us the romance which proved irresistible to any youth at the time: the golden opportunity to participate in the people’s struggle and partake of its promised  everlasting fruits: socialism and communism.

            Summer of 1971, even as we had been elevated to the management committee of the corporation, we could not recoil from the challenge posed to us by the rank-and-file employees to lead them in organizing a workers’ union, something unheard of in the Araneta empire. We sought out our friend Pete Lacaba and asked for an advice on how to go about it, considering that they had successfully done it at the Free Press. Pete advised us to seek Ninoy’s help. Why the advice, we did not bother to ask nor to be concerned with deeply. Our general sense was that organizing a workers’ union was an anti-capitalist undertaking and had no business dealing with somebody whose social status cannot but be pro-capitalist. Our only concern with Pete was to get an insight into the mechanics of organizing a union – which he provided anyway by joining us in our organizational meeting on the banks deep in the recesses of the Montalban River. We had come across a passage in Teodoro Agoncillo’s Revolt of the Masses which narrates how Andres Bonifacio and other Katipunan organizers would take a boat from Manila, paddle through the Wawa Napindan (now called Napindan Channel), then paddle on upstream the Marikina River, and finally settle to discuss on the Montalban riverbanks. How vivifying to tread the path of history.

            Thus was born the Katipunan ng mga Makabayang Obrero (KAMAO) ng Makabayan Publishing Corporation.

            In what had the trappings of a conspiratorial move, we intimated to National Labor Relations Commission Commissioner Gat Amado Inciong the need to register the union in as discreet a manner as possible, and with dispatch as well. And betraying his heavy leanings toward trade unionism, the commissioner acquiesced. And we got our registration  certificate pronto.

            Upon presentation of the union’s labor demands, we got the expected – a termination letter, which again, as expected, immediately led to a union vote to strike.

Strike and Binay Interlude

            The strike began in April, signaling our integration into the mainstream of the so-called national democratic movement. It was very heartening that even as we were met with the stark might (at the time it was conventional to term it “fascism”) of the Araneta security force of 300,  droves upon droves of youthful activists poured in to give us support. KMs (Kabataang Makabayan) and SDKs (Samahang Demokratikong Kabataan),  elements both of the studentry and faculty of the University of the Philippines, workers of other unions and students from other schools, you name it, they were there. But that was precisely the reason why before long, we were no longer just battling  Araneta security  guards but  QC police as well. We were no longer a local union fighting for standard workers’ benefits; we were fighting for something else.

            Jojo Binay, now Makati Mayor and vice presidential candidate, who was one of some three lawyers of the LUMABAN (Lupon ng mga Manananngol ng Bansa) assigned to us by President  Dr. Nemesio Prudente of the Philippine College of Commerce (PCC), now Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP),  would advise us to be wary of the activists, as, he said, they were trained to agitate workers to go on strikes, not to win them.

            By August 1971, the strike had been decimated, that’s as far as the picket line was concerned, which was taken over by the Araneta security guards. How the services of Jojo to us came to an end, we could no longer recall. What we remember as our last session with him was the conciliation meeting in which we proposed a return-to-work by the strikers as a tactical maneuver in the negotiations but which Jojo vehemently objected to, albeit in a hush: “Wag kang banat nang banat. (Will you just shut up!)” The next time we saw Jojo after that was in 1978 when we visited a businessman from Catanduanes, Teofisto Verceles, intending to sell him the idea of film producing. We were surprised to find Jojo and Verceles conferring rather seriously in the latter’s home in Pasig. We had the prudence not to inquire on what business Jojo was there for, what connections Jojo had with Verceles, etc. Rather, after a brief exchange of greetings with Jojo, we had our agenda with Verceles gotten over with quickly, begged leave, and the two went on with their conference. Then a decade after that, we were amazed at two incidents. First was Jojo figuring in the retaking of the ABS-CBN network facilities, brandishing an M-16 at that. Second was the brother of Teofisto Verceles, Leandro, winning in the 1987 congressional polls in Catanduanes and Jojo winning as mayor of Makati. These developments motivated us to do some figuring out. Between Jojo and Leandro Verceles appears the common factor of Cory. But since Jojo’s connection with a Verceles throws back to as far as 1978, the common factor could be Ninoy, who at the time was still in jail. Now, Leandro Verceles was, over a long period, a UN diplomat based in New York. So we tend to draw a vague picture of US hand figuring in whatever scenario these interconnections indicate. To be sure Jojo and Verceles emerged beneficiaries of the Cory rise to power, which we dare ascribe to strong perennial US intervention in the Philippines. .  

            But back to the labor union Jojo served once upon a time gratis et amore. Years after we would eventually win the union legal battle, under the counsel of our lawyer brother, but the Araneta corporation called Makabayan would dissolve even before Marcos could declare martial law, and there was no entity left that could be served the ruling that the corporation was guilty of unfair labor practices.

Proletarian Revolutionary Line

            Now, pursuing the original story, we just found ourselves flowing with the current of the national democratic movement, but always strictly along  proletarian revolutionary line, i.e. line that advances workers’ interest. Within this parameter, we found it revolting to call native capitalists revolutionary class, particularly when viewed in the context of Marx’s declaration in the Communist Manifesto: “Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.”

            But otherwise we were a good soldier in the movement, organizing unions, doing education work, conducting propaganda and cultural presentations, and ever participating in mass actions. All that,  we did   always in a sincere effort to do a share in the “liberation of the working class”. We certainly did not realize that we were always under close observation, checked on  all our moves. In intelligence parlance, being cased.  Until, perchance, sure of the sincerity of our intentions, those responsible for developing cadres in the movement entrusted us with the secretaryship of the nationwide federation of labor unions, the KASAMA (Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng mga Manggawa) under the umbrella of the national democratic movement, while in a parallel aspect began grooming us for the real fight – the armed struggle in the countryside.

            The baptism of fire would come to pass on a rainy afternoon at the junction of T.M. Kalaw and Roxas Boulevard, a hundred meters or so from the US Embassy, the object of the protest rally we were conducting at the time. Under the command of Manila Police  Chief Robert Barbers, the police had blocked our advance at the intersection and our march toward the embassy was at a standstill.

            While the lead agitators were taunting the police and mouthing anti-US Imperialist tirades, Ka Estrel sidled up to us and in a stealthy manner slung on our shoulder a soft, innocent-looking bag made of cloth (backpacks were not yet in vogue at the time), then whispered: “Ganyan ang ginamit sa Plaza Miranda. Pagbunot ng pin, ibato mo agad. Four seconds sasabog yan. (That’s the same kind used in Plaza Miranda. After pulling out the pin, throw it at once. In four seconds it will explode.)” And with that, Ka Estrel made herself scant. Shortly after, those at the front line succeeded in intimidating the policemen and when they started charging, those assigned with pillboxes exploded their weapons at the police onrush.

            That was supposed to be our cue to explode our own fireworks.

            We thought we passed our test in terms of quick-decision making. At the last minute we decided not to throw the grenade but  kept it in the bag, lugging it  as we rushed along with the retreating rallyists. Realizing that the pursuing policemen were gaining in on us unavoidably, we dived into the foot of the Rizal Monument in which, it turned out, police pursuit was taboo. At the eye-signal from one of the Marines soldiers guarding the monument for us to stay put there,  we crouched even lower behind the concrete railing as the policemen rushed by.

            Col. Barbers and the policemen who got hit only with the non-fatal pillbox shrapnels should  owe us a debt of gratitude for not having been blasted by the explosive we had in our bag. And to the Marines guards, thank you whoever you are and wherever you are for not telling us to the pursuing policemen. Had they done so, we would have exploded the grenade just the same then and there and thereby  gone down in history as the guy who blasted Rizal the second time around. But since we had made it a habit not to carry any identifying papers in the performance of our tasks, nobody would have found any identifying mark among the shattered pieces of our flesh and nobody would  ever have known whodunit.

            Thus did we flunk the baptism of fire.

Reminiscences in Horror

             Now, nearly four decades after that incident, we still feel goose pimples creeping all over our body every time we think of  what would have happened had we thrown that grenade. We would imagine the mangled bodies of those in Plaza Miranda that evening of August 21, 1971 and we would ask ourselves endlessly if we could have lived by the memory of it afterward. And the answer  would be: No, never mind if we failed the test, failed to have risen to that supreme rank of a red fighter to which every activist at the time was aspiring for; serving the people does not mean blind obedience to an order done in a manner no different from the military dictum that we used to see inscribed at the gates of Camp Aguinaldo: “Ours is not to reason why/Ours is just to do or die.” For if this, too, were our doctrine, how distinguish us then from the fascism that we were supposed to fight in Marcos?

            In his book Art of War  Sun Tzu speaks of three ways in which “a sovereign can bring misfortune upon his army.”  One such way is, Sun Tzu says, “By commanding an army to advance or retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey…”

            Martial Law was declared, throwing our unit in disarray, rocked further by an endemic  antagonism in the party structure whereby regional leadership clashed with that of the national workers’ sector, with the former tightly toeing the Jose Maria Sison “mass line” of  establishing a broad alliance with all “progressive” sectors that included capitalists, the bottom line being opposition to the Marcos dictatorship; and the latter closely adhering to the proletarian revolutionary line which it argued to be the correct “party line”. Our individual criticism of the Sison strategy as well as of his Mao Tse Tung copy-cat analysis of Philippine society must have reached all the way to the “sovereign” so that when the directive for the unit to retreat to the countryside was made it was not meant to include us.

            Years later – after we successfully sneaked back into mainstream entertainment writing onward to writing and directing films – we would hear of Ka Estrel getting killed in Cebu in an encounter with government forces. This, along with stories about other elements from our unit meeting with the same fate in Central Luzon, in Bicol and in the Cordilleras, fate that would most likely have befallen us as well had we passed the test Ka Estrel, in all good faith, led us to.

            And now, looking back at how the movement got splintered, with the people’s army reduced to guerilla unit formations in contrast to the exhilarating size of 25,000 regulars in company formations on the eve of EDSA 1, we can’t help raising the question: Have those deaths of comrades been worth it? Have those in fact in the Plaza Miranda Massacre, in the Mendiola Massacre, in the Hacienda Luisita Massacre, and those, oh, God,  who would have met with their own gruesome demise had we, in one moment of insanity, thrown our own assigned grenade?

            For a time, we kept the grenade in a relative’s apartment together with a stockpile of the five volumes of Mao Tse Tung’s writings, which were in our custody as ED (Education Department) head of the national party group in the workers’ trade union sector. After a time, we surrendered it to the HO (higher organ): we wouldn’t be good grenade exploders.

            Only then were we told, as a matter of side talk, that the grenade came from Ninoy.

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