by Telly G. Ocampo
CULTURAL HERITAGE
FOR AUG 27, 2023
August 21, 2023 the Night of Thunderstorms
My plan for the evening of Monday, August 21, 2023,
was to leisurely view television shows entitled “The
Chronicles” and the probe team of Cheche Lazaro, “The
Archives”. But it never happened. It was abhorted
because of the thunderstorms. In the dialect we call
such as lipak uban sa liti ug kilat nga makalilisang.
That was the first lipak I’ve encountered in my 77 years
of existence. It lasted for almost an hour. The memories
of Odette came rushing in.
My four dogs shivered with fear. It was dark all over. All
of us were huddled in a room, with the dogs going left
and right under the bed looking for a place to hide. It
was very scary for me – a septuagenarian.
Why was I so eagerly waiting for the chronicles and the
probe team at TV 5? It was the anniversary of Ninoy’s
assassination, that’s why. That event must not be
erased in the history of our country. It’s just so sad that
the youth of today could not find the meaning if Ninoy’s
death. Some of them don’t even understand why the day
was declared a holiday.
I taught before at the University of the Philippines in
Tacloban. Freedom of speech and freedom of
expression were both curtailed in that part of the world.
There were intelligence agents in the classrooms
without your recognizing them. “Careful, careful, careful’,
were the favorite whispers all around. But most of my
students, then, were aware of the issues: foreign debts,
balance of payments, inflations. Four (4) faculty
members were held hostage with one never ever able to
surface since then. Three of them were soon released
after several days of heavy negotiations. They knew fully
well the new breed of oligarchs.
There was a deafening silence between 1982 and 1986.
Then people power happened in the early morning of
February of 1986.
Chino Roces gathered one (1) million signatures to
make Cory run for president. In the election of
November 1985, Cory Aquino was defeated. She went
around the country campaigning for civil disobedience.
She was in Cebu when Edsa happened. She was
sheltered by the Carmelite sisters until it was safe for
her to fly back to Manila.
All these are still very vivid in my mind, even if they say
that the rest is history. But let us allow history to live in
our hearts and in the hearts of our children. Let’s tell the
story to our children and grandchildren. Let us tell them
about the freedom we had that was shortlived and
wasted – simply because the oppressed became
oppressive at the first taste of freedom.
And on August 22, 2023, I felt sad for the passing away
of Susan Ople, the champion of the migrant workers.
She was true to her mission of serving our Filipino
migrant workers whom we claim to be the present
heroes of the country.
Like the thunderstorms on August 21, 2023, all these –
Odette and her fury; our dogs shivering in fear and
hunger like the Filipinos; the ignorance of the youth on
what transpired before; the curtailment of the freedom of
speech and expression; the secret agents hovering over
us; foreign debts, balance of payments, inflations; the
hostage taking of the “noisy” ones; the rise of the
oligarchs; the bloodless 1985 revolution; and the poverty
of the country – are facts and memories that will remain
scary (like the thunderstorms) in my heart!
