In recent months, there have been more and more student demonstrations on campuses around the city. Yet most students weren’t activist. The majority of students in Metro Manila went about the business of getting the best education they could, and whether at a private or public school, most of them thought it was still possible to transform Philippine society by peaceful means. But that all changed on January 26th (1970) of this year, when the government of Marcos used brutal force against student demonstrators in front of the Congress building. To achieve their aims, the students exercised their democratic rights by joining an assembly that had gathered to hear the President’s State of the Nation message and used their right of free speech to protest. In the process, they were rowdy, irreverent, and troublesome. Furthermore, they carried placards and burned Marcos in effigy, but it was the violent reaction of the cops and the soldiers that has awakened a frustrated public, a public that has waited in vain for social justice.
To fully describe the events of the first day of THE FIRST QUARTER STORM would take a book, and from the 50,000 people who were there, the writer would discover 50,000 different impressions.
There was no rhyme or reason to how events unfolded. Some colegialas wandered off in boredom before it really got started, and the priests and seminarians stood back from the crowd. Right below the mikes and the podium set up for the President were the restless, clamorous, chanting militants. They were carrying streamers bearing the names of their organizations and waving placards in the air. None of them had guns. They were an amiable bunch. Since a permit gave them the right to demonstrate only up to 6:00 p.m., that was when they declared their demonstration officially over. But passions were high, and just at that moment the President had the bad luck of coming out of the Congress building. The first scuffle was brief, and by the time it was over, the President and the First Lady had made their escape. Then after the first attack by the cops, the demonstrators regrouped, on the Luneta side of Congress. For the next two hours, the battle between the cops and the demonstrators continued, with one group charging and the other retreating, back and forth like that over and over again. There were three directions of retreat- north toward Maharnilad, south toward the Luneta, and west toward the golf course and Intramuros.
When a people’s will is suppressed and they protest and their protest is met by armed aggression, this is a recipe for even more acts of violence, which more than likely will not bring about an improvement. Although the demonstration in front of the Congress building is now over…and the fallout from it has been significant…Marcos’ reign on power has not slackened. That first battle has only led to more battles, most recent of which took place in front of the gates of Malacanang. Hardly a day goes by without some sort of demonstration, or riot over something. Recently, in Manila, a bus was overturned and burned in a riot over a price hike in fares, even though the price change was fair enough given a steep rise in the cost of oil, a jump that seems totally unjustified. There is no telling what the cost has been in terms of work stoppage and the destruction of public and private property. In terms of the human toll, four students died in the battle in front of Malacanang. For many years, the nationalist struggle has been dormant but with the loss of blood during the first day of the First Quarter Storm, there has been a resurgence of nationalistic fervor, and participants have had a variety of political ideologies from which to choose. Communists often have been accused of being the instigators of the “trouble”; however the overreaction of the government on the night of January 26th had more to do with it. There is a common misconception that even when students are aroused as they are now that they will not be capable of sustaining their enthusiasm and that they won’t find the support that they need from within the general population. Some say that is because the masses generally find their own personal struggles too overwhelming. Students, however, are confident that the demonstrations will eventually topple the establish order. There are those like Nick who give Mao’s success as an example of what can be done. Most activists, however, point out that they are inspired by the demonstrations against the war in Vietnam on college campuses across the United States, only here the grievances are much broader. (In Metro Manila, everything from the communist movement to women liberation has gained momentum from the demonstrations, but they all say they’re fighting for one thing: genuine democracy.) Some of the activist will look back on what they did on January 26th and tell their children that’s where the road to revolution began and that it all started on the steps of Congress.
Randy Ford
