In a really humane society, people who are unafraid of stepping on toes, bold and intelligent, and selfless about themselves, should be treasured and welcomed, not stuck inside dark cells … (S)top arresting activists, for goodness sake. Activists are part of our country’s treasures. Love the Philippines.
may rodriguez
(This essay is written by Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation’s current Executive Director May Rodriguez. The photos are courtesy of Lito Ocampo.)
In the time of the first Marcos president, I and my brothers were among the so-far uncounted thousands of prisoners of conscience seized from our homes, offices, the market or even from the streets, tortured and kept in secret detention centers indefinitely, sometimes in the worst conditions possible. My parents’ retirement days were spent around tense prison visits. My children starting school with no Nanay to prepare their baon or press their shirts, or attend the PTA. Despite all, we had to take a stand because only by doing so could we struggle against and hopefully prevail over a tyrannical government.
It is now 37 years since the end of that particular terror. But the poison in our society has continued. Recent news has been full of accounts of activists getting arrested, and forced to languish in jail, being killed, disappearing without a trace. No less than a senator has been in prison for the flimsiest of charges. A family is killed in cold-blood in Negros. Victims of the Duterte drug war still have nowhere to go to seek justice.
Love the Philippines
Yesterday at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, families of political prisoners — yes, there are more political prisoners now — came together to start a campaign to raise awareness about those relatives languishing in prison and to push for their immediate release. Most of the names presented were not known to me. But a few are. Rey Claro Casambre who comes from the same high school I went to, UP High School, Amanda Echanis, daughter of my two friends Randall and Linda, and Myles Albasin, daughter of my friend Grace.
I name them because they are not just numbers to me. Claro would be in his 70s and likely with medical conditions that need attention. Amanda has a child growing in prison now in her third year of confinement in a Tuguegarao jail. And Myles, in her fifth year as a political prisoner, is in a district city jail in Dumaguete.
In a really humane society, people who are unafraid of stepping on toes, bold and intelligent, and selfless about themselves, should be treasured and welcomed, not stuck inside dark cells.
But here we are in 2023, still campaigning to free political prisoners as if we were still in the dark ages of dictators and utak-pulbura rulers.
Free Leila de Lima. Free Rey Claro Casambre. Free Amanda Echanis. Free Myles Albasin. Free all political prisoners.
And stop arresting activists, for goodness sake. Activists are part of our country’s treasures. Love the Philippines.
HAPPY MEETING. Your day is made when some friends you’ve not seen in ages won’t simply say hi long time no see how have you been! I stumbled on such a friend and weren’t we giddy happy! I think I twisted my eyeglasses. Thanks for the seizing the moment, Lito Ocampo!
