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Heroes and days of disquiet revisited

The end of November brings to mind two significant events in the molding of our past and current history. Not by coincidence, these two milestones which span generations, roused the people’s consciousness and propelled them to political action. The dates are indelibly engraved in the people’s collective memory and continue to fuel nationalist fervor today.

On November 30, 1863, Andres Bonifacio was born in Tondo, Manila. He founded the Katipunan and became its Supremo. The working class hero whose revolutionary fervor was fired and inspired by the French revolution led the Katipunan to victory against Spanish colonialism. With his dream of a free motherland, he urged the masses then to take up arms against the oppressive Spanish authorities. Under his leadership, foot soldiers charged to war with their bolos and determination to rid the country of abusive colonialists. Towards the dawn of victory, he was betrayed and assassinated by a faction led by his former comrade, Emilio Aguinaldo. Bonifacio’s fiery spirit however was not vanquished with his death as his Katipunan comrades sustained the struggle against the new imperialist marauders, the American forces. These dauntless insurrectionary fighters were eventually obliterated by superior enemy forces. The heroic resistance of these revolutionaries and others who fought before and after the Katipunan against foreign domination would be enshrined through the declaration of National Heroes’ Day on the Great Plebeian’s natal day.

Ka Andres’ antithesis, but not necessarily his adversary, as far as tactics was concerned was the illustrado Jose Rizal who, through his writings aroused the people but opted for reforms and was later declared by the new foreign masters as the Filipinos’ national hero. To date, the great debate lingers as to who truly deserves the esteemed title. The very debate has been the springboard of discourses on the Filipino’s option for social change: reform or revolution?

Fast forward a century since then. Even after token independence was granted by imperialist America to the Philippines, the country remained an undeveloped, fledgling nation. Years of neocolonial politics and old feudal economic relations controlled by American interests persisted dragging the Filipino people to poverty while the rich wallowed in scandalous wealth. Peasant organizations in many provinces launched uprisings manifesting a deep discontent in the countryside, workers in a limited number of factories were restive and formed themselves into unions. Rebellion was rife and the social landscape was putrid.

In this setting a young man from the academe who had been with old revolutionaries broke away from years of ideological debate and trail blazed, so to speak, a new path to social change. Unlimiting his confines and concern to the state university and the issues spawned by repression within, he went among the faceless many who comprised the larger and lower classes and learned from them. His analysis and critique of Philippine society, honed by direct experiences in organizing peasants, workers and students would inspire Jose Maria Sison, to lead 80 other students in founding the Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) or KM on November 30, 1964, a year after Bonifacio’s centennial. The KM was “the political center for young men and women” and was at the forefront of the student movement, articulating not only their sector’s issues but the plight of the majority of the Filipino people.

We know from history that the KM was a force the dictator Marcos had to contend with. It was a dynamic, potent organization embracing the feisty, nationalist and anti-imperialist youth and students of the dark years under Marcos that it was eventually banned and forced underground with the declaration of martial law in 1972.

The social condition today is as it was decades ago, even grimmer. The KM , as the writings on the wall tell us, is alive and continues to make history.

Heroes are not remembered for nothing. Their effort to live lives and pursue visions not for themselves alone should make us ponder about causes and struggle. Commemorating these significant dates reminds us that as long as there is disquiet and restiveness in our society, people will rise above personal interests and take on their social responsibility to be revolutionaries. #

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