M E M O R I E S:
Life and Time of
Pastor Rudy Bernal, his Glimpses
on History
& The
People’s Struggle for Freedom
Chapter 28- The Quarter Storms of Philippine Revolutions, January – March 1970 & The Struggle for National Liberation
The first three months of 1970 - January to
March was commemorated in the country as one of the great events in the history of
the peoples’ revolutionary movements. It was called by students, the First Quarter Storms of Philippine
Revolution.
This event was used also by President Ferdinand Marcos as one of the reasons for his declaration of
Martial Law.
During this three months, from January – March 1970
a series of students demonstrations and peoples’ rallies
against the government and President Marcos leadership rocked
the country. It was political development that was never seen in history of students’ movements
before.
This uprisings, according to some historians was created and nurtured by the students that first grew from the
University of the Philippines, Lyceum of the Philippines, Politechnic University
and other colleges and universities in Metro Manila. It grew and soon become the great force, a kind
of peoples’ power.
This movement, led
to the Snap Elections called by President Marcos,
forced on him by the United States, who have seen Marcos as threat to the US
sponsored democracy, long seen by nationalists leaders, as a bogus democracy in the Philippines. The Snap Election catapulted Cory Aquino to the Presidency.
This was one of the political events of the decade, an upheaval that ousted President Marcos and his family from
Malacanan, their excile
to Hawaii, in the United States and his eventual death.
The First
Quarter Storm (FQS) was a continued
protest and mass actions that started on January 25, 1970, moved on with continuing force and vigour to March
1970. It was a great event, vividly
recorded by a veteran journalists of that time. Pete
Lacaba in his book, “Days of Disquite,
Night of Rage”, a very important readings
for those who would like to know or remember “the turbulent and invigorating days of those times.”
The Quarter Storms of Philippine Revolution, was also written vividly in
series and articles in ”Ang
Bayan”, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Philippines, that “deligently
chronicled the events and described its historical significance in real time.”
In January 26, 1970 President Marcos delivered his State of the Nation
Address at the Old Legislative Building in Manila on the opening of the 7th
Congress. About 50,000 demonstrators –students, farmers,
workers and professionals gathered at
Burgos Drive to demand for reforms as called
for in the Constitution.
As Marcos left Congress and headed toward his limousine parked outside,
demonstrators booed him and threw sticks and placards at him and his entourage.
Anti-riot security forces attacked the demonstrators after Marcos left the
scene.
The riot reportedly caused injuries to more than 300 youth protestors and 72 law
enforcers and made big damages
to vehicles and other properties. Congress demanded an investigation on
the cause of the incident.
The following day, Friday,
January 30, simultaneous demonstrations
were held at the gates of
Congress and Malacanang, again calling
for constitutional reforms and to air grievances against the brutality of police on January 26 riot. Some demonstrations in Congress headed to
Malacanang later on that day.
A fire truck, which earlier trained water hoses on the demonstrators,
was captured by demonstrators. They
drove it and smashed the gates of Malacanan. Police and military forces again attacked the
demonstrators with violence. This demonstrations spread like a wildfire to the
University belts and expanded to some
areas, colleges and universities in Metro Manila.
The official reports that time said
4 students were killed. Some 162
demonstrators were wounded. Some policemen were wounded. Damages to properties reached more than P1 million. This was known as the worst
student rally in Philippine history. But it was also called a historic event.
It was on those days the students’ power was revealed, there capacity
to
mobilize the broad sectors of
society to rectify governments’ errors and
demand change.
Dr. Carol Araullo,
Chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) clearly
and effectively chronicled the students
movements in Manila that was
unprecedented in Philippine history, its
force and power continued to influence
the minds, thinking and directions of
many Filipinos today. I have not asked
permission from Dr. Carol Araullo to quote her, but she
captured and wrote one great
historical events that must be given, learned by the younger generations, the First
Quarter Storms (FQS).
Dr. Carol Araullo, in part said: “While the FQS is generally believed to be an
upsurge in the youth and student movement and was in fact participated in by a broad array of
youth and student organizations, its
impact derives from its breaking out of
the narrow confines of school issues
and concerns, linking these to the
issues and demands of the broader majority of Filipinos, specially the toiling
peasants and workers and spearheading a
series of massive and militant protest actions against the three
pillars of the ruling system:
imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.
“The FQS witnessed the rise of the militant youth and students in the
urban center of Manila and outlying cities and towns, all the way to Southern
Tagalog and Central Luzon, against the Marcos regime, as the concentrated
expression, or shall we say, incarnation, of these 3 basic problems or “isms”
of Philippine society. The first two-term president was denounced as “Marcos,
Hitler, Diktador, Tuta!” in countless mass actions that were replicated in
provincial capitols and cities nationwide.
“The armies of the youth were comprised primarily of students and
out-of-school youth, but there were also workers, peasants, and even
professionals. Their numbers grew in leaps and bounds from tens of thousands to
more than a hundred thousand as, week after week, the violent and often brutal
response of the state to their protest actions only further fueled unrest and
fired up resistance.
“Thus the defiant slogans “Makibaka, huwag
matakot!” and “Digmang bayan, sagot sa martial law!” reverberated in
the streets, schools, workplaces, and communities as the youth conducted their
“DGs” or discussion groups, “pulong bayan” or community mass meetings, and
capped these with rallies and demonstrations all over the city with favored
converging points: Malacaňang, the US embassy, Congress, and Plaza Miranda.
“But it was not all marching in the streets and battling it out with
baton-wielding and trigger-happy anti-riot police augmented by the equally
fascist AFP. Both during the FQS and in the succeeding two and a half years
before Marcos declared martial law, the activists of the national democratic or
“ND” movement, who were the most organized of the FQS militants, went to the
basic masses of workers and peasants in factories, urban poor communities and
barrios to “integrate with the people.
“This meant they would live among the “poor,
deprived and oppressed” (as progressive
church
people phrased it); to learn from and be one with them in their struggles for decent wages, against trade union repression, demolition
of their shanty towns, for their right to own the lands they tilled and to
defend themselves against harassments, displacement through land
grabbing, and outright killings of their leaders and members.
“The FQS was the harbinger of the rapid radicalization of the youth and
students of that generation even those from among the more conservative private
sectarian schools. The label “radical” was carried with pride by the “ND”
activists as they explained that in contrast to the "moderates" who
advocated mere cosmetic or superficial reforms in the social and political
system, they were working for fundamental, far-reaching and thoroughgoing changes.
The reactionaries for their part tried to parry this claim with their
vulgarized and denigrated meaning: “radical” meant “extremist” and
“unreasonable.”
“Many in that generation went on to embrace revolutionary philosophies,
committed themselves to revolutionary aspirations and political programs, and
even joined revolutionary organizations such as the Kabataang Makabayan (KM),
the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK), the Malayang Kilusang ng Bagong
Kababaihan (Makibaka) and the Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan (Kaguma) that
were then still legal and aboveground.
“The imposition of martial law sent the activists born of the FQS
whirlwind into the urban underground or else to the countryside to arouse,
organize, and mobilize the people to fight the US-backed Marcos fascist
dictatorship. The option to join the people’s war – to fight
counterrevolutionary violence of the ruling elite with the revolutionary
violence of the people – became a pressing reality for many.
Thus a close look at the names of the martial law martyrs engraved in
the Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani will reveal that many if
not most were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New
People’s Army (NPA) and the scores of “NGUGMOs” or national democratic
underground mass organizations that grew like wild flowers under the searing
heat of the martial law repressive years.
“The First Quarter Storm of 1970 was the key to the accelerated growth
of legal mass organizations and such revolutionary forces as the CPP, NPA and
the main components of what would become the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP). And these revolutionary organizations carried the torch of
armed and unarmed resistance against the US-Marcos dictatorship from September 21,
1972 to February 25, 1986.
“It was their persistence, courage, and heavy sacrifices that sapped the
strength of the US-trained and equipped AFP which then included the notorious
Philippine Constabulary (PC) in the dictatorship’s counterinsurgency campaigns
nationwide. Their cadres and activists undertook painstaking and relentless
organizing among the middle forces of church people, professionals, artists,
businessmen, media practitioners and the like.
“They broke new ground by organizing the many indigenous people’s groups
including the Igorot (Cordillera people) through the Cordillera People’s
Democratic Front (CPDF) and the Moro Revolutionary Organization (Moro). They
founded a strong and militant human rights movement of victims and advocates.
“And they also reached out to the anti-Marcos opposition, from the
nationalists like Lorenzo M. Taňada and Jose W. Diokno, the liberals like Joker
Arroyo, Rene Saguisag and Jovito Salonga and the conservative politicians like
Soc Rodrigo, Eva Estrada Kalaw, Gerry Roxas and Salvador “Doy” Laurel not to
mention the “non-politician” Cory Aquino. They were even able to penetrate the
AFP to draw into their fold such patriotic officers as Lieutenants Crispin
Tagamolila, Victor Corpuz and many others.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the seeds of the national
democratic revolution were thus cast and sown throughout the islands when
thousands of FQS activists fanned out to fearlessly confront the fascist
dictatorship through various forms of resistance and struggle including a
protracted people's war.
“The correctness of the national democratic analysis and program was
proven over the next two decades. Despite all the might and resources thrown
against it by the US-Marcos dictatorship, the revolutionary movement not only
survived but grew deep roots among the people and increased in number, scope
and strength.”
-- Dr. Carol Arraulo, Chairperson, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN).
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