Chapter 33- Ruther Batuigas & the Socio-Political Situation of the Time

These year from 1965 to 1970 were trying days. The students unrest were going strong. They saw more people suffering from poverty and injustice. They saw the affluence of the rich with their powerful living and luxury lives in their palatial homes.

The students especially members of Kabataang Makabayan (KM) and other militant organizations like the SDK saw the situations after they submerge and integrated with poor residents of slums. They learned the evils of society under the control of the elites and oligarchs. The students started to think. They learned truth, the social, economic and political realities. They condemned the abuses of the rich and powerful.

The students with Kabataang Makabayan (KM), together with SDK as the core, organized and mobilized themselves and begun to expose and condemned the evil of US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism. The students began their works for social, economic and political change.

Three months after I started as a Cub reporter with the Philippines Herald, Ruther Batuigas came. He told me my application to work with Philippines Herald was accepted. I will work first as proof reader. Then, slowly, as I learn the trade of newspapering, he will help me become a reporter. He said: “Rudy, you have learned skills on crime and news gathering and reporting. But you need to learn more. The possibilities are always open"

“Now, by reading news reports daily from reporters of Police, Congress, the Senate, Malacanang, Labor, Health, Diplomats, Army, Navy, Constabulary, Air Force and events happening around, just reading news reports on galleys 8 hours a day, will help hone and sharpen your skills on news writing.” Then, Ruther introduced me to Bote Bautista, a Pampangeno and Chief of the proofreading office of the Philippines Herald.

I started working at the proofreading desk. We were seven proofreaders daily. We worked 8 hours a day. Four starts working 11:00 a.m. until we closed the Provincial Edition at 8:00 p.m. Three of us start works at 3:00 p.m. until the City Edition is closed at 2:00 a.m. It was great working, just reading, reading and reading galley proofs, 8 hours a da. Then, then read newspaper as it comes out of the press at 3:00 p.m. for the City edition.

The next 2 years, I saw in Manila the start and growth of the student movements, demonstrations and people’s rallies. I have seen the steady growth of students unrest. How it started at Lyceum and the University of the Philippines and moved fast in different colleges and universities in the University belt.

It’s expansions to different colleges and universities in Metro Manila. The strength and forces of the students movements now gathering force and galvanized for change and social transformation. They call the movement ”First Quarter Storms of the Philippine Revolution (FQS).”

That afternoon students' anger and violence erupted fast and sudden at the rally at Lyceum. The speakers were Lyceans, The heat of the atmosphere could be felt as speaker after speaker hit the social, economic and political evils in Philippines society. The student’s anger were seen on their faces.

That afternoon revealed students anger. Violence erupted. It came fast and sudden. I saw a student getting a rock and hurled it at the glass windows on the first and second floors of Lyceum of the Philippines. Then another student followed. More students followed, hurling stones and rocks in the glass windows of the college. In just an hour, the glass windows of Lyceum were mostly shattered and broken.

The following day student demonstrators entered nearby Feati University. Then it moved on fast and strong to most colleges and universities in Manila. In those days, most glass windows of colleges and universities along the roads were broken.

A day after, the once beautiful glass windows of colleges and universities were covered with plywood. The anger of the students continued that day and the following days. It was the students’ anger and strength revealed for the first time in Metro Manila seen and heard all over the Philippines.

I think catholic schools were not touched by the movement. The schools for the rich, San Juan de Letran, Ateneo de Manila and San Bida College were not touched by student’s upheaval. The same with girls colleges of St. Paul’s College, Sta. Scholastica College and Assumption College. They were not touched by student's rallies. These exclusive schools for the rich and powerful have never experienced the life of the poor. They never needed a change in their economic lives.

Students of exclusive schools had not seen and were not touched by realities of grave poverty in the country. They enjoyed privilege and security all their lives. When the First Vatican Council meeting came in Rome a little change came in the exclusive schools. It started with some movements in the catholic churches. Some students of exclusive schools were sent for an hour to visit slums in Manila. For the first time, the students of exclusive schools saw the extreme poverty of the poor and the deprived lives of millions ofFilipinos in Manila. They also learned from the lectures of some priests that only 4 per cent of the population owns and controls the lands and vast resources of the country. That’s the reason for the grave poverty of majority Filipinos.

One day, in 2nd semester of 1965 I joined the students' rally in Malacanang. The Vietnam-US war that started in 1961 had greatly intensified. Vietcong forces had attacked South Vietnamese and American forces in several places. The United States was asking countries in Southeast Asia for volunteers to helped fight the communists who were fighting in South Vietnam.

A few thousand students joined the rally, a month before the 1965 November elections. It was a peaceful rally held at Malacanan but it has a strong demand. President Diosdado Macapagal asked the student leaders to go up to the Palace for a dialogue. That afternoon the student leaders asked President Macapagal not to send Filipino troops to South Vietnam. The students do not see the wisdom of US involvement in the Vietnam war. They do not see why Filipino troops will fight fellow Asians in South Vietnam. They foresaw millions of Vietnamese and thousands American troops dying in the Vietnam War.

After peace was reached between the United States and Vietnam in 1986, about 2 million South Vietnamese were dead. Some 1.1 million North Vietnamese were also dead. And 58, 209 Americans, mostly soldiers died in Vietnam War.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos who was running for President, in a statement the following day, said if he is elected president, he will not send Filipino forces to South Vietnam. Some students believed him. But after he was elected President on November 9, 1965, Marcos forgot his campaign promise. The first action he made was to send Filipino soldiers, the PHILCAG (Philippine Civic Action Group) to South Vietnam under the command of Colonel Fidel Ramos.

President Marcos first year in Malacanan showed the growing strength of the students, workers and peasants’ movement that continued exposing the evils of US imperialism, the atrocities of feudalism and the greed of bureaucratic capitalism

During those years, Ruther Batuigas continued to serve the people with his pictures and newspaper reports. He touched some powerful leaders in Manila. Some got angry with him. Some friends advised him to go slow. But he continued in his work, exposing evils in the bureaucracy and even among his peers in the news and information business.

One day, I was shocked. Ruther Batuigas was ambushed in Malate, Manila. He was brought to the hospital between life and death. I learned he got some 30 bullets passing through his body. When I visited him in the hospital, he was unconscious. A lady relative was watching him. I prayed for Ruther. I asked the Lord to save him and bring him back to his family and work.

I also left some money for medicine. I have to go back to Iloilo City. I know many will pray for Ruther. Later, his body stabilized. Little by little he gained strength and recovered. He went back to work as a photojournalist. He continued serving the people by exposing anomalies in government as a newspaperman and photographer.

He continued his journey of service through his camera, pictures and written words. He became a newspaper columnist. He continued for years in the calling. Then, he was called to be publisher of TEMPO Magazine, a newspaper he organized with his friends and partners. It was a beautiful journey for my friend, Ruther Batuigas who ventured to Manila from Mambusao, Capiz, years ago with his camera.

With determination, creativeness, enterprise, courage, dedication and faith he reached far and touched people’s lives with his camera and his pen. He shared his stories and pictures. He helped bring change in people’s minds, their lives and lives of communities.

On December 6, 20l8, former Tempo Newspaper columnist and publisher, Ruther D. Batuigas passed away peacefully Wednesday, at the age of 80. Ruther, was a veteran print and broadcast media personality. He succumbed to illness at Las Piñas Doctors Hospital, Las Piñas City.