Just a few days ago, we celebrated National Heroes' Day. Often, we think of heroes as someone who valiantly fought a war or stood up against tyranny. For us Titas, Joan of Arc is the default icon that comes to mind as we grew up in schools who took pride in their order stemming from Europe. Inasmuch as there are the Filipina heroines such as Gabriela Silang, nothing comes quite close to the romanticism of being burnt at the stake.
With Joan of Arc as a mental peg, I am drawn to think of our modern day Joans. These were the many women of Negros Island during the Marcos years who took their valiant stand not just against tyranny but against the onslaught of widespread hunger in the political volcano that was Negros.
Flashback to 1985. Negros Island was a boiling cauldron of political unrest. The sugar planters were stuck in the doldrums and reeling from the systematic pillage of the sugar industry by Ferdinand Marcos and his college buddy, Roberto S. Benedicto - RSB as he was unfondly known. Insurgency as brought forth by the communist rebels was alive and well in the countryside and in the hinterlands of Negros. A massacre had just been perpetrated in the northern town of Escalante.
All over, the collateral damage were the children who hardly had anything to eat. Malnutrition was widespread. Many children, numbering over a hundred thousand Negros-wide were in critical or third-degree malnourished state. A third degree state is when a child weighs only 40% of the weight for their normal age.
It was an emergency situation which summoned the attention of various relief and aid organizations the world over. And meanwhile, the party went on in Malacanang. The first family must have been gleefully counting their gold bars. Yes, the same gold bars they brought to Hawaii, borne of the sweat of the sugar workers and more.
If social media were alive back then, people would be putting forth hashtags such as #prayfornegros and #savethenegroschildren. But there was no social media to bring this to the public. The government-controlled media back then could only publish what was beautiful and acceptable in praise of the Marcos regime.
Amidst that grim landscape, a photo leaked out. It was one photo among many by 1987 Pulitzer Prize Winner Kim Komenich. It was the iconic photo of Joel Abong, the son of a fisherman. His malnourished state and dire facial expression triggered the mobilization of a thousand feeding programs and sacrificial lunches. No, not a thousand, make that ten thousand. Leading the charge were the international agencies such as UNICEF and Oxfam. They were our heroes. They were the ones who literally stood on the top of the Ford Fieras and rented jeepneys with megaphone in hand putting order into the feeding sessions conducted.
Parallel to the international agencies' efforts were the numerous feeding programs put together by the housewives of the planters. They did not need any media to alert them of what was happening. They knew there was hunger. It was not just reported, it was felt first hand. Thirty one years on from those days which led up to the snap elections and EDSA revolution of 1986, I wish to take this moment to honor all the women of Negros who silently went out of their way and organized themselves to feed the poorest of the poor.
Beyond the feeding, these women of Negros took it one step further. Cottage industries were set up to somehow provide a means of livelihood for the women in the farms who no longer had any work in the canefields. Out of the hunger in the countryside, a chain reaction was set in motion. Feeding programs, cottage industries, and eventually, the showcase of the industries born out of adversity - what we know today as the Negros Trade Fair - the longest running provincial trade fair in the Philippines.
This happens in a few days time. The second of the three events I mentioned above will take place in the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati. It is a time of jubilation for the triumph over adversity - adversity which was epitomized by the photo of Joel Abong.
The last event I need to mention is that of the imminent burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos' remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Unlike the upcoming Negros Trade Fair, this is no time for jubilation. Words cannot describe how in one quick moment, the burial of FM at the Libingan ng mga Bayani immediately implies that we are all traitors for having ousted him.
There are those who say let us move on and allow him that burial for he is a president after all. I will not waste time and words to argue. Just look at the face of Joel Abong above. And then perhaps you could close your eyes and simultaneously imagine Imelda rocking the night away in her rooftop disco in Malacañang.
(Note : Joel Abong died six days after this photo was taken)
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