Older columnists like Herman Tiu-Laurel and Butch Dalisay have been reminiscing about
the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune. I would like to reproduce the text of
a resolution passed by the University of the Philippines Student Council on February
13, 1971. It contains the names of people who should not be forgotten.
"WHEREAS, the UP Student Council has expressed solidarity with the Filipino people in
their valiant struggle against the American imperialist oil cartel and its local
bureaucrat-capitalist allies; WHEREAS ,The UPSC has endorsed the barricade as a form of
protest against such evils;
WHEREAS, the UPSC vehemently condemns the the fascist-puppet State and its campus
agents for employing brutally sadistic methods in suppressing legitimate dissent;
WHEREAS, the UPSC salutes the militant resistance put up by the broad United Front of
progressive students, faculty members, non-academic workers, and campus residents who
resolutely struggled to defend and liberate the University;
BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the UPSC commend the revolutionary
courage of the heroic defenders of the Diliman Commune against the fascist State and
its campus collaborators:
Freshman scholar Pastor R. Mesina, Jr. (posthumously) for
unflinchingly raising high the people's defiant barricade against exploitation and
oppression;
Danito Delfin, Glenn Garcia, Reynldo Bello and the scores of others who were wounded
as they fearlessly clashed with the State's fascist brutes; The revolutionary fighters of Narra, Molave, Yakal, and Ipil for their persevering
vigilance in manning the barricades; The liberated women of Kamia, Sampaguita, Ilang-Ilang, Makibaka,
and SKUP for their frontline resitance and their diligent performance of auxiliary
tasks; The dauntless campus residents, notably those from Balara and
Krus na Ligas, who organized commando strike forces against assorted infiltrators; The audacious fratmen for their remarkable display of fraternal
concern and unity with the struggling Filipino masses; The progressive faculty members, especially those with the Samahan
ng mga Guro sa Pamantasan ng Pilipinas (SAGUPA) and the Samahan ng Makabayang
Siyentipiko (SMS) for their selfless contribution of intellectual and technical skills
which proved invaluable in the political, military, and cultural aspects of the
struggle; The committed student journalists from IMC and thir comrades from
PSIA for handling the controls of DZUP as the Free Radio of the Democratic Commune of
Diliman; The militant writers who published Bandilang Pula and other
publications for projecting the democratic aspirations of the Diliman Commune; The Medicine, Nursing, Hygeine, and SAMP students who
demonstrated their partisanship with the Filipino masses by rendering first-aid and
medical assistance to the beleaguered communards; Links with the studentry and the peasantry in valiantly aiding
the defense of the Diliman Commune; The mass of heretofore unorganized but politicized and disciplined
students who formed the AS Rooftop Junta and manned other strategic outposts; The Samahan ng mga Makabayang Mag-aaral ng Batas (SMMB) and other
progressive lawyers for their valuable legal aid, and All others who actively
participated in the establishment of the Diliman Commune as a symbol of the Filipino
people's unrelenting struggle against U.S. imperialism, domestic feudalism,
bureaucrat-capitalism, ans well as their firm determination to build a National
Democratic Society on the debris of the past.
Approved unanimously...
(sgd.) Ericson M. Baculinao, Chairman;
(sgd.) June C. Pagaduan, Secretary;
sponsor: Herminio B. Caloma, Jr., Councilor, Arts and Sciences."
The latter-day UPean, seated on the AS steps, beneath the roof on which was perched
the "AS Rooftop Junta," clad in his designer clothes (for haven't many old UPeans
bewailed the fact that UP has become the bastion of the burgis ?), may wonder, what
has happened to all of these brave people? Do they struggle still, marching on in
solidarity with the masses?
Quite a few of them still do, while yet some more cling furiously to the path of
violent revolution. Many more lie in graves, killed by the government they stopped
recognizing a long time ago and in too many instances, killed by their comrades over
differences in revolutionary dogma. And the rest? They now occupy positions in Big
Business or in academic institutions (many of which have become centers of
conservatism). Did they sell out, or did they just mellow with age? Ask them.
The same UPean, reading the resolution passed by his predecessors a generation ago,
will probably find the language rather quaint. Old-fashioned. Even obsolete. It is
the rhetoric of a movement, a way of thinking, an attitude that reflected its
conviction that it formed the vanguard of a revolution, and a socialist society in
the making.
The rhetoric of people sure of themselves. Until a day came when they stood still, at
the moment one of their supreme asipirations would be met. Then they were overtaken by
events, left behind by the middle class, who flocked to an avenue at the behest of a
Catholic prelate, and the brother of a slain burgeouis reformist. People who rallied
to the cause of the murdered reformist's widow, herself from the comprador class.
To console themselves, they issued a statement saying they had made a mistake, but
would learn from "self-criticism." But it was too late. Though they proclaimed that
they were still the vanguard, they were not. At that moment their rheotoric became
hollow, reduced to the mantras of a sect trapped in dogmatism.
But those words will continue to echo in the minds of a generation that lived
dangerously, fought courageously, but balked at joining in the final gamble,
and lost everything, including the hearts and minds of the generation that will
succeed them.
But then the legacy of communes has always been tragedy and defeat: Paris, 1870;
Diliman, 1971.
Freshman scholar Pastor R. Mesina, Jr. (posthumously) for
unflinchingly raising high the people's defiant barricade against exploitation and
oppression;
