Heroes
Heroes
Updated 02:05am (Mla time) Dec 14, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 14, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
SIX more martyrs/heroes were added to the Wall of Remembrance last Saturday. They were Lean Alejandro, Joe Burgos, Jun Celestial, Paula Malay, Laverne Mercado and Bobbit Sanchez. Raul Roco, whom I saw at the Bantayog, quipped that if Bobbit had been there, he would probably have been amused by the idea that he was being immortalized as a hero. I agreed. I said if Bobbit had been there, he would probably have asked us to just join him for a drink.
That was the light part of things. The more serious, and insightful, part was supplied by Edita Burgos, widow of Joe. She gave a moving speech, saying the outpouring of sympathy and goodwill for her husband convinced her that Joe had only left this world in a physical sense. In all other senses, he was as present as the crowd that gathered to honor him.
I knew all of the six on the list, some more than the others. I met them at various points in my life, and my life has been the richer for it. Lean of course is well known; Gary Granada even wrote a rock musical about him. A dedicated activist and gifted communicator, he was one of the pillars of the protest movement during and after martial law. Ironically, he was felled by an assassin's bullet not during Ferdinand Marcos' time but during Cory Aquino's, in 1987, as he was coming home to Bayan headquarters after a press conference at the National Press Club. He was 27 when he died but his life was short only in the physical sense. It was long by the fullness with which he lived it.
Joe Burgos died last year, at 62, from cancer. He is the best known among the six, internationally as well as nationally. In 2000, to mark the end of the 20th century, the International Press Institute named him one of the 50 press freedom heroes in the world, a signal honor for him and the nation. For sheer courage and integrity, he had, and has, few peers. He it was who published Boni Gillego's expos‚ of Marcos' fake medals at a time when to even breathe a word of criticism against Marcos was to court mayhem. His newspapers, We Forum and Malaya, became a torch blazing in the journalistic darkness. Without them, we would not be enjoying our light today.
Jun Celestial I met only briefly in college. He was a student leader who was expelled for his activism. After martial law, he ran an underground student publication, using a mimeographing machine spirited from the student council of his school. He was "salvaged" by the military in Montalban in 1975. He was 25 when he died, but he lived a short time too only in the physical sense.
Ayi Malay is the other half of the formidable Malay tandem, the other half being her husband Armando. The last time I spoke with her was at the National Press Club. She was fuming over the idea, fomented by some writers, that Andres Bonifacio cringed and begged for his life when he was about to be executed. Nothing could be farther from the truth, Ayi said. Her researches showed the Great Plebeian was great not just in life but in death, showing only contempt for his executioners. That typified Ayi. She could be as passionate about the past as of the present. Toward the end of her days, she was still writing and learning new things.
Laverne Mercado I met only a few times at the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP). He was a tremendous orator, one who could move the walls themselves to tears. He it was who gave the Protestant churches a new face, different from the conservative one they had worn throughout the last century. He led the NCCP in the fight for freedom against martial law, opening the NCCP grounds to forums that exposed its abuses. He was detained in 1974 but was released shortly later in the wake of an international outcry. His shoes will be very hard to fill.
And finally, well, I wrote about Bobbit when he died last year. His son Anthony, who represented him at the Bantayog, is right: Bobbit had a big heart but whose heart gave out in the end. I sorely miss him.
I'm glad that their names have been added to the Wall of Remembrance. It corrects two extremes in our concept of heroes. One is that heroes are people who are so removed from us they exist in such elevated planes and are beyond being reached by us. They are Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio and Apolinario Mabini, who occupy pantheons. Well, they do. But before they did, they were ordinary mortals like you and me, who drove themselves to extraordinary lengths. There is no sheen or aura that radiates from heroes, the sheen or aura comes from what they do. They are not demigods given to the world to do demigod-ic things, they are flesh and blood who know fear and grief, joy and laughter.
The second is the exact opposite, which is that heroes are a dime a dozen. That isn't so only from the looseness with which we use the word, referring among others to sports heroes. That is so as well from the capacity of this country to manufacture heroes by PR. The last two Edsas in particular had too many self-proclaimed heroes, burying in their wake the people who offered their lives to build a new world. True heroes never draw attention to their heroism, which unfortunately is an engraved invitation to scoundrels to propagate their myths. Unsung is the common lot of true heroes simply because they will not sing paeans to themselves. It is left for us to do so.
Serving the people, as all these six used to say, is its own reward. Well, honoring them is our own reward, too.
* * *
Update: So far, we have 13 musicians (and counting) for the Dec. 20 benefit at Conspiracy Café for the victims of the storms. Some visual artists are putting their works up for auction, the proceeds to go to the Prelature of Infanta. My thanks to those who have offered donations. I will keep you posted on developments in the next few days.
Updated 02:05am (Mla time) Dec 14, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 14, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
SIX more martyrs/heroes were added to the Wall of Remembrance last Saturday. They were Lean Alejandro, Joe Burgos, Jun Celestial, Paula Malay, Laverne Mercado and Bobbit Sanchez. Raul Roco, whom I saw at the Bantayog, quipped that if Bobbit had been there, he would probably have been amused by the idea that he was being immortalized as a hero. I agreed. I said if Bobbit had been there, he would probably have asked us to just join him for a drink.
That was the light part of things. The more serious, and insightful, part was supplied by Edita Burgos, widow of Joe. She gave a moving speech, saying the outpouring of sympathy and goodwill for her husband convinced her that Joe had only left this world in a physical sense. In all other senses, he was as present as the crowd that gathered to honor him.
I knew all of the six on the list, some more than the others. I met them at various points in my life, and my life has been the richer for it. Lean of course is well known; Gary Granada even wrote a rock musical about him. A dedicated activist and gifted communicator, he was one of the pillars of the protest movement during and after martial law. Ironically, he was felled by an assassin's bullet not during Ferdinand Marcos' time but during Cory Aquino's, in 1987, as he was coming home to Bayan headquarters after a press conference at the National Press Club. He was 27 when he died but his life was short only in the physical sense. It was long by the fullness with which he lived it.
Joe Burgos died last year, at 62, from cancer. He is the best known among the six, internationally as well as nationally. In 2000, to mark the end of the 20th century, the International Press Institute named him one of the 50 press freedom heroes in the world, a signal honor for him and the nation. For sheer courage and integrity, he had, and has, few peers. He it was who published Boni Gillego's expos‚ of Marcos' fake medals at a time when to even breathe a word of criticism against Marcos was to court mayhem. His newspapers, We Forum and Malaya, became a torch blazing in the journalistic darkness. Without them, we would not be enjoying our light today.
Jun Celestial I met only briefly in college. He was a student leader who was expelled for his activism. After martial law, he ran an underground student publication, using a mimeographing machine spirited from the student council of his school. He was "salvaged" by the military in Montalban in 1975. He was 25 when he died, but he lived a short time too only in the physical sense.
Ayi Malay is the other half of the formidable Malay tandem, the other half being her husband Armando. The last time I spoke with her was at the National Press Club. She was fuming over the idea, fomented by some writers, that Andres Bonifacio cringed and begged for his life when he was about to be executed. Nothing could be farther from the truth, Ayi said. Her researches showed the Great Plebeian was great not just in life but in death, showing only contempt for his executioners. That typified Ayi. She could be as passionate about the past as of the present. Toward the end of her days, she was still writing and learning new things.
Laverne Mercado I met only a few times at the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP). He was a tremendous orator, one who could move the walls themselves to tears. He it was who gave the Protestant churches a new face, different from the conservative one they had worn throughout the last century. He led the NCCP in the fight for freedom against martial law, opening the NCCP grounds to forums that exposed its abuses. He was detained in 1974 but was released shortly later in the wake of an international outcry. His shoes will be very hard to fill.
And finally, well, I wrote about Bobbit when he died last year. His son Anthony, who represented him at the Bantayog, is right: Bobbit had a big heart but whose heart gave out in the end. I sorely miss him.
I'm glad that their names have been added to the Wall of Remembrance. It corrects two extremes in our concept of heroes. One is that heroes are people who are so removed from us they exist in such elevated planes and are beyond being reached by us. They are Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio and Apolinario Mabini, who occupy pantheons. Well, they do. But before they did, they were ordinary mortals like you and me, who drove themselves to extraordinary lengths. There is no sheen or aura that radiates from heroes, the sheen or aura comes from what they do. They are not demigods given to the world to do demigod-ic things, they are flesh and blood who know fear and grief, joy and laughter.
The second is the exact opposite, which is that heroes are a dime a dozen. That isn't so only from the looseness with which we use the word, referring among others to sports heroes. That is so as well from the capacity of this country to manufacture heroes by PR. The last two Edsas in particular had too many self-proclaimed heroes, burying in their wake the people who offered their lives to build a new world. True heroes never draw attention to their heroism, which unfortunately is an engraved invitation to scoundrels to propagate their myths. Unsung is the common lot of true heroes simply because they will not sing paeans to themselves. It is left for us to do so.
Serving the people, as all these six used to say, is its own reward. Well, honoring them is our own reward, too.
* * *
Update: So far, we have 13 musicians (and counting) for the Dec. 20 benefit at Conspiracy Café for the victims of the storms. Some visual artists are putting their works up for auction, the proceeds to go to the Prelature of Infanta. My thanks to those who have offered donations. I will keep you posted on developments in the next few days.
posted by Dante at 2:05 AM
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