M E M O R I E S: Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal,
his Glimpses on History & The poople’s Struggle for Freedom
Chapter 17 –Enrolled at Lyceum of the Philippines, Manila in
June 1965
In May, 1965 I went down from Baguio City to Manila. It was
raining slightly in Baguio City when I took the bus about 7:00 A.M. On the way
down Cannon Road, I felt the winds were getting stronger. Along the way, I saw
some fallen trees along Pangasinan and Tarlac highway. A strong typhoon was hitting northern
Luzon.
When I arrived in Manila, it was about 4:00
P.M. Manila was flooded. I proceeded to
San Andres Bukid in Malate, where some friends, where waiting for me. They have
returned home from Baguio City, where we worked together as photograaphers
until two weeks ago. They were living together in a big room. It was a comfortable room the
have rented in an old house on the side
or the river. The area was heavily populated with several thousands of
squatters home inside. There was a small passage where residents passed, made of 4 pieces of bamboos that were stretched and tied
together about half kilometer long. It was a slum in San Andres Bukid, near
Singalong in Malate.
I made plans to enrol
that June. To earn my daily needs, I joined my friends to work as itinerant photographer. There were 3 areas where we found good business. One was Santo Domingo Church in
Quezon City. Here every Sunday, thousand of Catholics go to mass. And there
were some 6 masses from morning until late afternoon. On Saturday mornings, we were at Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas), where many families come
to bath their children. During that time, Dewey Boulevard has still clean seasshores. And many children
stroll on the seashore half days.
On Sunday afternoons, I’m at Luneta Park. Here photography business were
brisk. Lcal tourists from all over Metro Manila comes. They stroll on the wide Luneta Parks, visit
Rizal’s Monument, sat on the loans all
over the park and listened, while gallivanting
around to music of the 50’ , 60’s and 70’s from singers of the time – Elvis Presley,
Patti Page, Karen Carpenter, Connie Frances, Perry Como and other singers.
Often in the evenings,
there were concerts every Sundays, with
musical talents from Metro Manila. The
beautification of Luneta Parks was made possible thru a dynamic leadership of
Teodoro Valencia, Manila Times columnists, who was made incharge of Luneta Parks
committee on beautification.
Working two days weekly, and delivering the pictures
during weekdays. I earned some amounts for my daily needs – food, lodging,
transportation money to school and other needs. I was processing my scholarship as a son of a
Filipino veteran, given by the Philippine Veteans Administration.
Sunday mornings, we were at Lyceum Quadrangle or at Camp Crame, where we have ROTC trainings. I took
my subjects most in the mornings. In the afternoons, after a few hours in the
library, I go and deliver pictures to my customers around Metro Manila. Often, on Saturday evenings, I joined a friend, also a
photographer of Reyes Studio in
Manila, covering birthdays, weddings,
college students dances and other special occasions in different big restaurants in the city. Photography was a delicate, fast, light works that needs lots
of imagination before pressing the camera’s shutter. Taking
pictures was an art. I enjoyed the work. But there were times, when I have no money, specially during rainy days.
One Saturday morning at Dewey Boulevard, I met two young girls in white, with two children,
strolling at the boulevard. They were trying
to breath fresh airs from the sea. I went to them and invited them to take their pictures. I showed my
sample pictures. They looked at my pictures. It was six pictures of beautiful young girls I took pictures in
Baguio City. These were my sample
pictures. The girls agreed. I took about
12 shots. I asked for their address and telephone numbers. They wrote this on
my Address Book.
I do not take down
payments for my pictures. I requested they pay it on delivery. That was one way
to establish trust. The girls were living at Forbes Park in Makati. This
was an exclusive village. Only the richest families lived
at Forbes Park. It’s
the billionaires village of Metro Manila.
Few days later, I took a bus to Forbes Park. The athmosphere around the
billionares village can be seen and felt.
The surrounding block fences.
The gate of the village. The uniformed Security Guards. It seem to tell, it was a different place. It’s the village of the richest, most influential and powerful people of the
country. I learned later, President Diosdado Macapagal and other men of wealth
and power lived, also at Forbes Park.
I
walked to the gate where several security guards were standing near the guard house. I politely asked for the address and
showed the pictures I will
deliver. The guards looked at me. He touched my waist around and pants down to my feet. He gave me the
directions. Forbes Park was really the billionaire’s village. It was
different place from all other subdivisions I saw in Metro Manila
I
knocked at the door of the home
with the address. A girl opened a small window
of the gate. Recognizing me, she opened the
door. I came in. It was a
very beautiful and expensive place.
It was different from any home I saw in Iloilo. I gave the girls the pictures. They
looked at them. After seeing
themselves in the pictures, they were
really glad. It seems I was able to
capture, what they want in pictures –
their beauty, modes, they way they stood, their smiles.
While they were looking at the
pictures, a very beautiful woman came
out from one of the rooms. I greeted her. I smiled to her. She acknowledged my greetings. Then she
looked at the pictures. She told me that I took good pictures. The girls asked me to take more pictures
of them at home.
The
beautiful woman told the girls to give me snacks. She was a foreigner. Very beautiful and also friendly. She has the bearings of beauty
queens. She told me she was leaving. She
asked me to take pictures of the girls
and her children While
I was having my snack, I asked the girls who their boss was. They told me, she was Armi Kusela Hilario, the former
Miss Universe. I gasped. If I
only knew, I could have shaked her hands.
Or I could have requested her to have a picture with me. Then, I could use our picture as sample pictures while taking pictures of local tourists in Manila. If
ever, I would have took a stool to
stand, for Armi Kusela was a tool woman.
I am glad that I have chance to look at close range and talked
for a few words, a Miss
Universe. I have seen a Miss Universe only in pictures. I learned later, Armi Kusela was the first Miss Universe of the
world. She married Virgilio Hilario, a
Philippine businessman.
I continued my studies at Lyceum of the Philippines. It was my
3rd Year. I took
Political Science. Lyceum was considered one of the nationalists schools in the Philippines. It was founded by the family of Dr. Jose
Laurel. President of the Philippines
during the Japanese occupation. I heard,
Senator Claro M. Recto and Senator Lorenzo Tanada, foremost nationalist
senators were members of the Lyceum Board. When I was at Lyceum, or few years before, Congressman Jose B.Laurel, was
the Speaker of the House of Reprsentatives.
Dr. Sotero Laurel was Lyceum president. He later ran and won as
Congressman in the 4th
District of Manila.
My tuition and fees at Lyceum was paid by the Philippine
Veterans Administration (PVA). I was
given scholarship by the government for my father was a veteran of the US
–Japanese War. I studied for a year under the scholarship. But a year later,
when I was employed by the Philippines Herald, I gave my
scholarship to my sister, Elvira, who was First Year, a working student, taking
education at Central Philippine University.
My sister Elvira was a bright
student. To helped her start her studies in Iloilo City, my mother accompanied her. Mother was a dressmaker and worked in a dress
shop to help my sister’s tuition fees. The PVA scholarship made easier
her studies. She finished Education at CPU and immediately, taught at Filamer Christian College, a
Baptist college in Roxas City.
Then she transferred to
Carles, as principal of Carles High School. She pursued her advanced studies,
under the PVA scholarship, until she finished her Masters Decree. She took her
doctoral studies and got her doctor’s degree. Dr. Elvira Bernal was a national
–awardee as a high school principal in the country.
At Lyceum, I met some top
student who came from different parts of the country. Many students from the
provinces who came to Manila were rich.
Their parents were well employed with top government positions. Some where children of businessmen.. Many
were taking courses - law, business administration, journalism, foreign service, journalism, public
administration and diplomacy.
Except for law, most of
the courses I mentioned, were not offered in Iloilo. But many of my
classmates, took business administration, foreign service, journalism, public admisnitration and became
leaders in government. They joined the
foreign service, some entered politics, some worked with national newspapers or
started and joined newspapers in their provicnes.
In Manila, during my 3rd and 4th year, I met leaders of the
students. peasants and workers movements-- Labor leaders like Ignacio Lacsina.
Professor Jose David Lapuz. I also met and
have conversations with Prof. Pedro Lava, brother of Jesus Lava, the
imprisoned Chairman of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and Jose Lava,
leaders of the Political Bureau of the PKP.
I also met Prof. Jose Ma.
Sison, then Chairman of the Kabataang Makabayan
(KM). Few years later, he went
underground and helped re-organized the
Communist Party of the Philippines. It was believed, he wrote ” Philippine Society and Revolution” the
bible of Philippine revolutionaries, under the
pen name, Amado Guerero.
By the middle of 1966, the students movement, together with the Kabataang Makabayan (KM), which was founded
in 1965, started to become strongest
student movement in Manila, mobilizing
rallies in Congress, the US Embassy and Malacanan demanding ends to feudalism, US imperialism
and beaureucratic capitalism, the three evils of Philippine society. The shout of the
demonstrators, “Down with US Imperialism” reverberates in the corridors Manila.
It was during this time
that the opposition to US war in Vietnam reached a high crescendo in the later part of President Deoscado
Macapagal’s rule in 1965. It reached far with President Ferdinand Marcos
presidency starting November 1965 with hard implications in the life of
Filipinos and the Philippines in the coming years.
I saw at a distance Nur Misuari, who later went abroad and became the Chairman of the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF). I did not met Nur Misuari. But I saw him as a
potential Muslim leader for our people. Other student activists that I met were Carlos
del Rosario, a militant classmate who went missing during our student days.
Alberto Espinas was one of the leaders of the rally at Lyceum, when most of the
glass windows of Lyceum were broken with
stones hurled by the students. This demonstrations and breaking of university
glass windows reached most of the colleges in the University belt .
Alberto Espinas went to Iloilo and Panay and helped organized Kabataang Macabayan (KM). He also helped
organized “Masang Prop” an organization of professionals in the struggle for
social transformation. Alberto Espinas, who was, I think, the adviser of the KM in Iloilo. But he was killed in early 1973 by the military together
with student activists who were branded by the military as subversives and rebels. He was
part of the activists movements that organized and helped shaped the political horizons of the
revolutionary movements Panay and Negros
Occidental..
In Iloilo City, one afternoon, a thousand students from
different school and colleges joined hands and
march from the Provincial Hall,
in a peaceful mass action. Then
suddenly at Iznart Street, a
student picked- up a stone and hurled at the glass windows of the department
stores. Then other students picked up stones and throw at windows of buildings
down to J.M. Basa. In less than an
hour, many of the glass windows of buildings from Znart Street to J.M. Basa
were broken down.
It seem that the throwing
of this stones on commercial building were
not part of the plans of the students. It was an
un-organized students actions. As
a result,, the students organized themselves to have concrete directions. The
student leadership, organized FIST for a
more collective directions of the student movements in Iloilo City.
It was during this time in Manila, that the opposition to US war in Vietnam become
stronger in the later part of President
Diosdado Macapagal’s rule in 1965. Students during a rally in Malacanan, asked
President Macapagal not to send Filipino soldiers to Vietnam. But President
Macapagal lost in the election.
When President Marcos won
the presidency in November 1965, one of the first decisions he made was to send the PHILCAG to Vietnam. It
was part of the efforts for the United States to defeat communism in Vietnam.
But the US failed. The United States, using all their skills and powerful war
equipments, lost the war to the
Vietnamese. The US and the allied forces lost to rag tag army of Ho Chi Minh, the hero of the Vietnamese proletarian revolution.
It was also an opportunity and privilege that I was enrolled as
a student of former President Diosdado Macapagal. Some months after his defeat
by President Marcos, President Macapagal was persuaded to teach at Lyceum of the
Philippines. I took two subjects under him that semester -- Philippine
Foreign Relations and Far Eastern Relations and Problems. My background at CPU, has taught me to stand,
even my knees were trembling and
speak on issues that needs to be discussed.
I developed my mind to formulate questions that I asked my professors. One professor told me, I have an
analytical mind. I have some question raised on President
Macapagal’s lectures. He liked to be asked any question under the sun. I
enrolled in two subjects under President Macapagal, for I want to see at close
range how the mind of a former President of the Philippines
thinks and works.
Lyceum students came from different parts of the country – from
Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. They ventured in Manila for greater opportunities.
Many of my classmates and school mates later went to politics, journalisms,
mass media, diplomacy, law and foreign service. Some joined the Communist Party and the New
People’s Army, went underground. They said, to help lay the ground works for building a just
society under a national democratic country thru a people’s revolution.
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