Some might spend Valentine’s eve preparing or planning their dates for the next day, or maybe staying in and spending time alone, but on this particular Valentine’s eve, human rights advocates and people’s organizations organized RAGE: a benefit gig for the Manila 5 and all political prisoners.

The Manila 5 are activists and advocates from Manila, arrested in October and November last year. They are Cora Agovida (Gabriela Metro Manila), Michael Tan Bartolome (Kadamay Metro Manila), Ram Carlo Bautista (Bayan Manila), Reina Nasino (Kadamay Manila) and Alma Moran (Manila Workers Unity). Just like all arrested activists the state wants to silence, they were accused with false charges, some non-bailable.

Several artists and artists’ collective were present, offering their talents and performances for free to help raise funds for the Manila 5–for expenses for legal aid and prison visits, which can be very expensive.

The lineup was an engaging mix of agitating progressive songs from all genres, to popular crowd-pleasers, to spoken word performances. It was a cultural showcase, a mishmash of art made and performed in solidarity for fellow advocates and the Filipino people.

It was a night of love, but not just the romantic kind. It was a celebration of love in what could be its greatest forms—a love for the masses, a love for freedom.

Love was what drove the Manila 5 to dedicate their lives in service to the masses, to serve the oppressed. It was love for the farmer, the worker, the woman, the poor, that led the reactionary state to perceive these five people as threats to its power.

As Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara once said: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.”

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