On weekends, most Filipinos usually spend time resting with their families. But the Sunday of January 26, 2020 was no ordinary Sunday. Hundreds of people gathered at the Bantayog ng Bayani grounds to commemorate a milestone in our nation’s history. It was the 50th anniversary of the First Quarter Storm or FQS.
The year 1970 was a time of crisis and unrest, with a tyrant in the making at the helm of government.
On January 26, 2020, then-president Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. delivered the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) before congress. Marcos had just won his second term as president in what was dubbed ‘the dirtiest election in history’. Prices of basic commodities were skyrocketing. The youth, estimated at 50,000, gathered outside to protest the SONA. A group of youth activists threw a papier-mâché crocodile and black cardboard coffin just as Marcos was passing by. State agents, seeing this as a disrespect to their revered leader, retaliated violently against the unarmed crowd. Shots were fired and truncheons were used, injuring hundreds of students. In the months to follow, the nation’s capital would be rocked by colossal protests unprecedent in scale and intensity.
Today’s generation has no inkling about the First Quarter Storm. This is either a sad or challenging development.
“Wala akong alam tungkol sa FQS. Hindi ito itinuro sa amin sa history class,” said Gerome, a 19-year old sophomore Engineering student at a state college in Metro Manila.
[I do not know anything about FQS. This was not taught to us in history class.]
Another young activist, Rona, was in awe as she browsed through the photos displayed at the Bantayog ng Bayani. A photo exhibition was put up to offer a glimpse of the First Quarter Storm.
Both Rona and Gerome came to the Bantayag ng mga Bayani to draw lessons from senior activists such as progressive playwright and filmmaker Bonifacio Ilagan.
“Ang kilos protesta namin ay may dalawang layunin. Una ay ang linawin sa taumbayan ang mga ugat ng problema ng Pilipinas, ang imperyalismo, burukrata kapitalismo at pyudalismo,” said Ilagan.
[Our protest movement has two objectives. First is to clarify to the people the roots of the Philippines’ problems of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism.]
“Pangalawang layunin ng FQS ay linawin din ang solusyon. At ito ang radikal na transpormasyon ng lipunan kung saan ang taumbayan ang siyang nasa kapangyarihan,” Ilagan explained.
[Second objective of FQS is to explain also the solution. And this is the radical transformation of society where the people are in power.]
The FQS gave birth to many exemplary activists as it ignited the youth’s clamor for change. The streets became a revolutionary school. Educational discussions were held, songs and street plays performed. Murals were painted with revolutionary fervor depicting the need for national liberation. Life would never be the same again for those who participated and bore witness to the FQS.
In the years to follow, Marcos Sr. will unfold into a tyrant and envelope the country in white terror known as Martial Law. Martial law was declared on September 21, 1972. Media outfits were closed down, save for those uncritical to Marcos. Businesses were confiscated or handed to the cronies of the dictator—many of them enjoying these profits and benefits up to the present. Organizations, union, protests, assemblies were declared illegal and a curfew was imposed. Participants of the FQS would continue the struggle in different capacities. Others continued in clandestine organizing work amongst the workers, youth and urban poor. Not a few took to the mountains to continue the armed revolution.
In remembrance of patriotic martyrs
Veterans of the FQS took to the stage to pay tribute to the exemplary young revolutionaries who dedicated their lives for the people.
Labor leader Crispin Beltran, woman guerilla fighter Lorena Barros, youth leader Edgar Jopson, poet Emmanuel Lacaba and thespian Behn Cervantes were amongst those honored in the ceremony.
Candles were lit and flowers were offered to the hundreds of martyrs of Martial Law.
Revolutionary songs were sung by activists across different generations. Clenched fists were raised in the air as they took an oath in continuing the legacy of the First Quarter Storm.
“Para sa akin, nakikita ko ang pangangailangan sa paglaban sa pasistang rehimen at mga imperyalistang bansa,” said Gerome.
[For me, I see the need to fight a fascist regime and the imperialist nations.]
Gerome spoke of repressive and fascist policies today being legislated or orders from the president that puts at risk constitutional rights to expression, press, assembly, association, petition the government for redress to grievances, academic freedom and more—the constitution being a product of the People Power that overthrew Marcos and promised to not go back the same path. Today’s Martial law come in the form combinations of war against the people and now the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict co-opting the bureaucracy in the anti-insurgency campaign. The horrors of yesterday trying to be legalized or normalized by those in power – the same political families, same wealthy people. And this might have only been possible if after every year, the Filipino people forget what many others did and sacrificed in the name of freedom and democracy in the country—with and without guns.
“Pumunta ako sa pagtitipon ng mga beteranong aktibista upang alalahanin ang kanilang ambag sa pakikibaka noong 1970s. Marami pang kailangan baguhin, ipaglaban at pagtagumpayan. Kaming mga kabataaan ngayon ang magpapatuloy sa nasimulan nila,” added Gerome.
[I went to the gathering of veteran activists to remember their contributions to the struggle in the 1970s. Much needed to be changed, fought for and won. We, the youth of today, will continue what they started.]
With the local and global crisis only worsening and exacerbating the suffering of the already disposessed, another storm is always forming on the horizon. To unleash it upon today’s oppressors is the weighty task upon the youth’s shoulders.
