A Brief History of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Movement in the Philippine Student Sector 1976-1977 Part I

Introduction

In early 1976, CPP protest activities in the youth and student sector (YS) suffered a major blow, albeit temporarily, with the arrests of student leaders in the University of the Philippines (UP) and the ensuing supression of student anti-martial law protests in Diliman.

However, the CPP’s underground assets in UP were largely intact. What is more, by this time, CPP branches and national-democratic (ND) groups had been put up in quite a few universities in the greater Manila area (GMA). They too, had sidestepped the government onslaught.

The CPP Manila-Rizal committee (MR) planned to begin another round of protests using these assets later that year. The protests in the student sector were to complement MR’s grand scheme of starting a general uprising (Sigwa) in the region in a few years , with its fast growing mass base in the labor, urban poor, and church sectors as the main effectives. MR had a nascent disagreement with the CPP central committee over this uprising, but that is another story. 

District Supervision

The CPP branches in the penetrated schools were supervised by the respective MR district committees. For example, the CPP branch in UP and other Quezon City schools were administered by MR’s District 2 (D2), while the CPP branches in Manila schools were managed by MR’s District 3 (D3).

Sometimes, MR transferred seasoned cadres from one district to another to strengthen school organizing in that district. For example, as early as 1975, a number of organizers were dispatched from UP, where organizing was advanced, to the  University of the East (UE) in the Manila University Belt (UB), where organizing was just starting. UE was of critical importance to the CPP. It had a huge student population of about 60,000, and its official student paper, The Dawn, had an enormous circulation.

In Quezon City, the schools where the CPP had strong branches, apart from UP, were Trinity College and St. Joseph’s College. The CPP has a hard time making in-roads in Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and Maryknoll College (MC), because these schools were dominated by the Philippine Social Democratic Party (PDSP).

In UB, the strong schools were University of Santo Tomas (UST), Far Eastern University (FEU), Manuel L. Quezon University (MLQU) and UE. In the South of Pasig area, the CPP functioning units were in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), University of the Philippines College Manila (UPCM), Adamson University (AdU), Philippine Christian University (PCU), St. Scholastica’s College (SSC), and De La Salle University (DLSU).

SGYS

In mid-1977, to unclutter the management of party work in YS,  MR created a special committee called “Standing Group for Youth and Students” (SGYS) from outstanding cadres pulled from UP and UST.  MR then put all the school  branches (including UP’s) under SGYS’ supervision, and away from hands of the district committees. The latter already had their hands full organizing urban poor and workers.

The new committee was called a standing group because of its specialized mandate of badgering the CPP school branches to produce results.  However, because of its strategic importance in forming national public opinion, the CPP branch in UP was oftentimes given direct instructions by MR and even by the CPP central committee. The SGYS did not mind being bypassed though.

SGYS divided its YS activities into the following areas: Quezon City (which includes UP), the University Belt (UB), and the so-called “South of Pasig” area. The latter area covered Intramuros and Taft Avenue. The school party branches were given instructions by SGYS to contribute to the creation of an anti-martial law protest movement in the national-capital region, through their respective mass bases. The main issue the CPP branches were told to harp on was high tuition fees. The mode of political action was the mass boycott of classes. The single most used slogan was: “Oppose the commercialization of education!” These issues were to be ultimately linked to the Marcos dictatorship and sure enough, to “US imperialism.”

The connection between Philippine education and US policies was made by citing the creation by Marcos of the “Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education.” (PCSPE)  CPP propagandists alleged that this was a scheme by Marcos and the US to make Philippine education produce more cheap but skilled Filipino workers for US corporations.

New Orientation: Scaling Down Expectations

At this point of the narrative, we point out that the Philippine student sector was now playing but a supporting role in the CPP’s overall design. This was a big departure from the strategic orientation in the epic anti-CAFA (Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities), anti-Vietnam War, First Quarter Storm (FQS) and Diliman Commune campaigns, where the Philippine student sector was the spearhead and main body combined.

Quietly and smoothly, the CPP was now internally scaling down its long-standing expectation of YS as the main factor in influencing public opinion, as laid down by CPP chairman Amado Guerrero in his book and CPP bible "Philippine Society and Revolution." (PSR) This new thinking did not show in CPP propaganda, but it showed in the priorities of the party's organizing work, and in the kind of people who attended its rallies. 

Given the realities of martial law, the CPP was implicitly admitting  that those who could best survive open defiance of military rule, namely the religious and labor sectors, had assumed this role. Unfortunately the YS sector had borne the brunt of martial law suppression, with Marcos making sure of it. It could not influence public opinion the way it did before martial law, because it had a hard time hitting the streets. As proven in the historic December 6, 1975 Bustillos rally, the religious and laboring sectors could do it. This was because of the church garb for the former, and sheer desperation for the latter. 

That said, while MR had plans for the YS sector in its own domain, the national leadership also saw the need to expand the CPP’s YS organizing work to include every significant urban center outside of GMA where there was a sizable tertiary student population. These areas included Baguio, Dagupan, Angeles, Cabanatuan, Los Baños, San Pablo, Naga, Legazpi, Cebu, Dumaguete, and Davao. The CPP still had enough residual trust in, as Amado Guerrero famously put it in PSR,  the students' "keen political sense" for it to include YS in its national strategy.

NDF-YS

Thus, in early 1976, the CPP leadership, in consultation with MR, began broaching the  idea of forming “NDF-YS,”  which was to begin this long-term work. It envisioned NDF-YS to eventually become the CPP’s “National Youth and Students Bureau” (NYSB) which was so successful and powerful in the immediate years before martial law. NYSB was the CPP organ which ran the big radical student organizations like Kabataang Makabayan (KM), Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK), and Malayang Samahan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Makibaka) which gave Marcos a lot of sleepless nights. 

There was a bit of nostalgia going on here. Many in the CPP leading organs who received directives from the NYSB as student activists, were whimsically longing for the return of the NYSB to bring back the glory days of student power.NDF-YS was named such because it was under the supervision of the CPP’s Preparatory Commission for the National Democratic Front (Prepcom NDF). Prepcom NDF was a national CPP organ, which acted as its united front commission. Formed in 1973, its job was to gather as many non-communist allies as possible to the CPP fold. The rationale for the NDF-YS being placed under Prepcom NDF was that the personalities and organizations that were going to assist NDF-YS were in the main non-CPP entities who were contacts or sympathizers of Prepcom NDF.

NDF-YS’ top priority was to assist the different CPP regional committees around the Philippines  establish their own YS underground commitees in the schools and communities. In doing this, it used the various chapters of existing nation-wide organizations found in the catholic and protestant churches as legal covers. Needless to say, without these reliable legal covers, the exposed student organizers would have invited suspicion and eventual arrest. 

In the Catholic Church, the organization of choice were the Student Catholc Action of the Philippines (SCAP), and the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA). The CPP also had a hard time going into SCAP, as it was also controlled by the PDSP, or, as it was commonly called, the "Soc-Dems." In the protestant churches, it was the Student Christian Movement (SCM), the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF), and the Division of Youth Ministry (DYM) of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).  MYF was the youth arm of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the Philippines.

Setting Up NDF-YS

By the second quarter of 1976, the cadres for NDF-YS had been picked, with a veteran cadre selected to chair it. This cadre, in his late twenties, was a former KM member, who had participated in the violent rallies in 1966 against the Manila Summit Conference. When he was picked for the job, he headed the CPP’s Civil Research Department (CRD), which was directly under the CPP central committee. The CRD was basically an economic research group.

A UP student leader competent in alliance building was selected as a member, along with a UP law student with a vast experience in underground organizing. Another UP student adept at touching base with the so-called “anti-Marcos reactionaries” joined the committee ocasionally as a political officer (PO). The three-man committee underwent several extended orientation meetings, and began to do the tedious spadework. 

The major areas of CPP activity in the YS sector as of mid-1976 were, therefore, conducted by the following organs:  the enlarged party branch in the University of the Philippines (UP), the new party branches in the newly breached tertiary schools in GMA, and the National Democratic Front- Youth and Students (NDF-YS).

The University of the Philippines Delegation to the First National Congress of Students Under Martial Law December 26-29, 1975

On December 26-29, 1975, at Teachers’ Camp in Baguio City (BTC), the first nation-wide gathering of college students under Philippine martial law was held. The University of the Philippines sent a ten-person delegation. 

However, it was not sponsored by anti-Marcos groups. The event was sponsored by the Department of Education and Culture (DEC). Although it was a government sponsored activity, it was better than nothing. For us in the UP delegation, our messianic obsession was to organize the politically dormant Philippine student sector.

The DEC announced it in a circular as early as April 7, 1975. The meeting was officially called “The First National Congress of College Students in the Philippines.” It was innocuously themed “Nation Building Through Youth Civic Action Programs.” 

This was a historic occasion because prior to this meeting martial law had greatly curtailed student activities in the Philippines. I remember President Marcos had ordered his police to consider any gathering of more than three students as subversive!

At any rate, the congress was a statement from Marcos. He was saying his regime was secure enough to sponsor a congress of the student sector, his erstwhile nemesis. He also wanted to tell the world, especially the United States, that things were normalizing in the Philippines.

The DEC letter of invitation was coursed through President Onofre D. Corpuz who channeled it through Dean Armando Malay of the UP Office of Student Affairs (OSA). Dean Malay then gave it to the UP Student Conference, chaired by Diwa C. Guinigundo. I remember Diwa inviting me to a meeting at  2nd floor Vinzons Hall where the composition of the UP delegation was decided by consensus. UP was to shoulder the travel expenses.

The UP delegation:

1. Diwa C. Guinigundo
2. Fides M. Lim
3. Alexander Magno
4. Raul Pangalangan
5. Roberto E. Reyes
6. Marvie Maramag
7. Susan Fernandez
8. Bey Fernando
9.Maria Serena I. Diokno
10. Vic-vic Adea

Widespread student unrest was one of the reasons for the declaration of martial law in the Philippines. For the Marcos government to risk staging this big student meeting spoke volumes about its confidence. From the point of view of DEC, this was a way to coopt the student sector  into the "New Society."  For pro-democracy student leaders like us, it was a big step forward.

No matter how "reactionary" the agenda was, the congress signified that Filipino student leaders were at last being given breathing space. The congress was a big departure from the early martial law days. In that bleak period, student activists were arrested, student councils and organizations banned, and student publications muzzled. 

For the UP delegation, it mattered little if the congress was sponsored by Marcos’ education department, or if its theme served Marcos’ New Society, or if its officials apologized for martial law excesses. What mattered  was the chance for establishing contacts, forming alliances, and doing even a modicum of anti-Marcos advertising. The UP student leaders would not let this opportunity pass.

At the time of the congress, there were three bodies that were spearheading the anti-martial law effort in the University of the Philippines. These were: The UP Student Conference, the Philippine Collegian, and the Student Committee for Student Rights and Welfare (SCSRW).

The UP Student Conference was an officially sanctioned body representing various UP student organizations. It was only a consultative body, albeit an elected one. Because of its consultative status, it was a poor replacement for the UP Student Council.  The latter would not be restored until far-off 1980.

The Philippine Collegian was the official UP student publication, and its editor-in-chief was Abraham “Ditto” Sarmiento. Unfortunately, Ditto was not included in the delegation. Representing the Collegian instead was Fides M. Lim, its managing editor and workhorse.

Ditto Sarmiento's term as Collegian editor was one of the celebrated paper's finest moments. The Collegian  had just participated in a successful protest movement against a memo-circular by President Corpuz, which was implemented by Executive Vice-president Emanuel V. Soriano. The infamous order prohibited any public discussion of Presidential Decree (PD) 823, which banned workers' strikes. The intense and widely supported campaign forced Corpuz to rescind his order.

Ditto Sarmiento's Collegian was at its fiercest when it put out a special issue  which had the UP Oblation occupying almost the entire front page. Under the Oblation was printed, in bold, red letters,  --- "Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?" (If not now, when?)  Its Christmas 1975 issue featured on the front-page a a motley list of political issues and demands shaped like a Christmas tree!

The SCSRW was an unofficial alliance of about seventy UP student organizations. It was activated by consensus, and on an issue-to-issue basis. Along with the Student Conference and the Collegian, SCSRW also participated in the anti-PD 823 campaign, having provided the required warm bodies.

I remember waking up at 3 am in our home in Bulacan, Bulacan so I could reach by bus the Tutuban Philippine National Railways (PNR) station in Divisoria at 5 am. That was the meeting place for the entire delegation, where we would board the green PNR bus bound for Baguio. The bus left Tutuban at 8 am. We shared it with non-UP delegates and immediately made friends.

The last time I was in Baguio was in 1968, so I was very excited to see the City of Pines again. The trip lasted more than four hours. The bus negotiated treacherous Kennon Road with ease. Kennon was much greener and more picturesque then. In those days as well, Baguio felt cooler than now. And, one could actually smell the inspiring scent of pine as the  bus approached the city outskirts.

When we arrived at BTC, we were guided to our assigned dorm room which delightfully smelled of old wood and fresh linen. It had double-deck beds covered with dark brown woolen blankets, the kind not used in the lowlands. Settled and refreshed, we were ushered to the spacious dining hall where we had a sumptuous late lunch with the delegates. It was my first time to this hallowed Baguio camp. The opening session was still in the early evening, so we all decided it was Session Road to gallivant. Most of us were in our early twenties, with one or two being teenagers.

In late afternoon the next day, the men, inspired by the cool Baguio weather, decided to partake of a large bottle of Ginebra San Miguel in their  dorm. This was against house rules, but that was far from their minds.  Each wanted to impress the others of his drinking adeptness ---- the bottle was emptied straightaway. They reported to the dinner table noisy, inebriated, and stinking of the stuff. The ladies were resentful and would not talk to them. They apologized the next morning.

The Secretary of Education then was President Marcos’ uncle, Juan Manuel, who gave a boring speech, rambling most of the way. The chairman of the congress was Undersecretary of Education Narciso Albarracin whose forgettable welcome address also meandered. Other officials included youthful and promising technocrats Mindanao Razon, Manuel Cobarrubias, Jose Suva, and George “Butch” Albarracin.

The congress was well attended. There must have been about 300+ delegates. I remember very well the opening plenary session. Each delegation proudly stood from their seats as the name of their school was announced.  The different tertiary sectors were there ----- private schools, vocational schools, and state colleges and universities.

I especially made friends with the De La Salle University (DLSU) delegation. One of its female members treated me to a dinner of steak and mashed potatoes in a Session Road bistro called Mario's. Among other things, we talked about student activities in DLSU, and how UP could help. 

The UP delegation made sure that UP was represented in all the workshop committees, so it could reach out to the universities represented. The recurring theme in all the workshops was "nation-building" which was a well-known Marcos catchphrase in those days. 

The congress secretariat created workshop committees based on the the following topics:

1. Nation-building through political action;
2. Nation-building through social action;
3. Nation-building through economic action; and
4. Nation-building through education action

Another objective was to inject as much anti-martial law content into the workshop committee reports and the congress declaration. These were to be read in the plenary session and published in the Marcos media, so it was an excellent propaganda opportunity.

The UP delegation succeeded in this only moderately. The other delegates, except for a few like those from DLSU and St. Scholastica’s College, were still too cowed by martial law to agree to have their views publicly known. They agreed to much of what the workshops daringly discussed about Marcos and martial law. However, they balked when we suggested that all of it be put in writing.

Finally, to satiate our anti-martial law urges, we decided to write a no-holds-barred "position paper" about student rights and welfare, the restoration of student councils in all colleges and universities, and the evils of martial law.  After the group discussed the nuances thoroughly, I remember Diwa Guinigundo  assigning Fides M. Lim to pen the essay.

Somehow, we got hold of a typewriter, some mimeo stencils, and a mimeograph machine. We mimeoed the statement surreptitiously, and even made a plan for its sly distribution. Most of the copies were distributed secretly in the dormitories. When the delegates came to the plenary session, many were carrying copies of the statement.

The congress ended its Baguio segment with the organizers vowing to forward the resolutions to President Marcos. I doubt very much if that happened. They were probably shelved.

The trip back to Manila was uneventful. We were all tired and eager to go home. The UP delegation separated ways in Tutuban, looking forward to the coming New Year's Eve celebration. There was to be another congress session  on December 30, 1975 at the National Library Auditorium along T.M. Kalaw St. in Manila. Its agenda escaped us. We did not attend it anymore.

Little did we know that when classes were to resume that coming January 1976, Marcos would order the arrest en masse of UP student leaders. But that’s another story. 

A Brief History of the CPP Movement in the University of the Philippines in 1975 Part II

The SCSRW Led Campaign

With its forces well placed in the Student Conference, the Philippine Collegian, and in the organizations, the CPP in the summer of 1975 girded for action. At this point, the issues and rallying cries it was championing were limited to student rights and welfare concerns. It was time to test the effectiveness of the SCSRW.

In a general meeting in mid-semester, the SCSRW launched a “mass campaign” to finally force the UP administration to restore the student council. There was an extensive planning session, and the body was divided into committees with clearly delineated tasks. All the organizations represented pledged to mobilize their memberships and resources for the campaign. In the ensuing week, the newly formed alliance tried hard to provoke student passions. It did so with position papers, posters, Collegian press releases, and symposiums.

The results were moderate at best. The students attended the symposiums, shouted the prompted slogans, and read the SCSRW propaganda ---- but that was all. For example, an energized SCSRW symposium in a jam-packed University Theater, which was attended by a pestered EVP Soriano, fell short of expectations.

The indoor rally did not erupt into spontaneous protest march outside the theater as the CPP had hoped. The intended march would have gone around the academic oval in a dramatic show of force. The party branch later speculated that student welfare issues were too shallow for such an idealistic lot like the UP student body. In a “summing-up” paper, it concluded that the students would not be moved to action just because they had no council, much less because the laboratories were ill equipped, or the toilets were clogged and filthy.

Soriano would later comment that he did not recognize the SCSRW students, because he expected to confront the leaders of the Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian, with whom he was familiar. “I do not know these people from Adam,” Soriano lamented. He warned that there was something suspicious and sinister about the SCSRW, implying that it was a CPP front organization.

The October 31, 1975 Via Crucis Procession

On October 31, 1975, the CPP had a golden chance to mobilize UP students against martial law, albeit in a religious setting, and outside the UP campus. On this date, the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) sponsored a “Via Crucis” (Way of the Cross) rally and procession in front of the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila.

This was, of course, an anti-martial law rally in disguise. It was taking advantage of the legal cover provided by the activist church elements, who were in fact, CPP elements themselves. Moreover, it was not as expressly anti-martial law as the UP activists wanted it to be, but they had to make do with it for the time being.

The Philippine Collegian, Student Conference, and SCSRW all called on the UP students to attend this rally. The assembly point was at the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) steps, the assembly time being around 1:00 pm. Around three hundred students assembled. There were some tense moments as the group lingered on the CAS steps for some 30 minutes to wait for more participants. They were expecting a police response. Finally, the marshalls gave the green light. Under the afternoon sun, the protestors discreetly marched to Vinzons Hall to board buses for Intramuros.

Like Old Times

Upon arrival in Intramuros less than an hour later, they joined a rally crowd of around two thousand, composed of priests, seminarians, nuns, students, and laborers. As was typical of the Left, representatives from each sector took turns speaking, lambasting the martial law regime in a veiled (no pun intended) manner. The emcee was the goateed Fr. Toti Olaguer S.J., who wore leather sandals and stood on an improvised stage.

After the tempered speeches, the crowd held a “procession” around the Manila Cathedral, through historic Calle Real. It passed in front of the cream colored Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) building, many members of which were still uncommitted regarding martial rule. The students, many not coming from UP, carried candles. The nuns thumbed rosaries, while the laborers, seminarians, and priests clung on to streamers.  

Yet, all avoided shouting raucous slogans, or carrying placards. The participants were being careful not to stretch their luck. Metrocom vans were waiting to accommodate them. There were truncheon wielding formations of police and “Barangay Tanods” in one corner, ready to pounce. Solitary, and burly looking men took pictures of the event.

Most of the UP students who attended this procession had become organized activists after the declaration of martial law. They were rightly called “martial law babies.” Quite a few, however, were veterans of the First Quarter Storm (FQS) of 1970 and the Diliman Commune of 1971. For them, it was almost like old times.

The Campaign Against PD 823 and the Corpuz Memo-Circular

On November 3, 1975, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 823, which prohibited strikes and lockouts. A few days later, a big indoor rally protesting the decree was held at the Vinzons Hall 4^th floor auditorium. It was sponsored by the Church -Labor Center (CLC), a committee under the AMRSP. The CLC had apparently made arrangements with the Student Conference or the Philippine Collegian. Many UP students attended the indoor rally, but making up the bulk were laborers and church people.

The main speakers were Fr. Luis Hechanova C.Ss.R. , who was the Executive Director of the National Secretariat of Social Action (NASSA) of the CBCP, Bishop Julio Labayen, a left-leaning bishop of the Prelature of Infanta, Mr. Elsie Estares of the Gelmart garments factory labor union, the shadowy Ka Berong from the leftist Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), and Fr. Lope Castillo of the CLC, chairman of the AMRSP.

The URC sensed that the issue was a potential game changer. At any rate, it was instructed by the CPP Manila-Rizal Committee to pursue the issue in the campus. Accordingly, the party branch immediately instructed its campus machinery to mount an intensive campaign against PD 823. In the days that followed, well attended forums occurred in the different colleges, opposing the decree, and supporting the right to strike. The Student Conference, Philippine Collegian, and SCSRW put their usual information campaigns on higher gear. Even the faculty began to get involved, pitching the issue in the classrooms.

These results attested to the UP community's receptivity to the issue. They also showed the increasing sophistication of the CPP apparatus in the UP campus. 

Onofre Corpuz Bans PD 823 Discussion

UP president Corpuz responded to this ferment by issuing a memorandum circular prohibiting the discussion of PD 823 in the university. In doing so, Corpuz was unknowingly accommodating the CPP. This was the ideal situation the CPP was looking for. PD 823 was an issue that appealed to the UP students' idealism, and forbidding its discussion in the campus hit a sensitive nerve. It was like creating the perfect storm.

In an instant, by limiting free speech in the campus, Corpuz converted PD 823 from a solidarity issue, into a grudge match. Many students and faculty, including non-activists, resented the memo-circular, and vented their ire particularly at his feisty EVP. They felt that the UP "admin" was terminating a right they had increasingly exercised that year, after cowering in relative silence in 1973 and 1974.

By the 2^nd week of November 1975, a reoriented information campaign was launched by the CPP machinery, demanding the rescinding of the controversial memo. This time around, the forums were more impassioned, the position papers more combustible, and the crowds bigger.

More and more, EVP Soriano assumed a high profile in facing the angry gatherings. About two weeks into the campaign, Corpuz and Soriano sat side-by-side on the stage in one unforgettable symposium at Abelardo Hall. They were trying with might and main to defend the memo during an open forum. 

In fairness, Corpuz and Soriano were holding their own. However, when the students couldn't handle Corpuz and Soriano's argumentative skills, the seasoned faculty, like Joel Rocamora of the Philippine Center for Advanced Studies (PCAS) came to their rescue. Otherwise, the duo's rebuttals were drowned out with shouts of disapproval and militant chanting.

Corpuz Rescinds the Memo

President Corpuz rescinded the memo circular the day after. The eminent Tarlaqueño couldn't take the heat anymore. Even during the fateful forum, I saw the pressure on his face. Yet, I thought he mustered enough decency and rationality to withdraw such an imprudent order. I wondered to myself: what could he have told Marcos to justify the historic revocation? 

In all, the three-week campaign in November 1975 that made Corpuz eat humble pie was the most assertive display of student power I had seen in UP after three years of martial law. Yet, its historical significance goes beyond its vigor. It was a vigorous campaign that was successful. It called for the rescinding of an unloved university order, and achieved its objective.

The Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian both issued euphoric declarations of victory. Even the underground publications like the Rebel Collegian joined in. The CPP, meanwhile, was able to harvest scores of recruits out of the energizing campaign. It significantly increased its clandestine presence in the university.

This renewed strength, in turn, showed in the big UP delegation to the first ever unequivocally anti-dictatorship rally held in Bustillos, Manila, in the early evening of December 6, 1975. This rally, which snaked through the narrow streets of Sampaloc and Quiapo, was attended by more than 5,000 people. PD 823 was still the issue, but this time with a pronounced anti-martial law streak. The CPP smartly timed it to coincide with the state visit of President Gerald R. Ford, during which time the regime was expected to be at its “friendliest” best.

The First Student Congress Under Martial law

After the Bustillos rally, the UP activists, Marxists as they were, looked forward to the beloved Christmas break. It was customary for them to spend this three-week hiatus to unwind. Vacation meant laid back “summing-up” meetings usually in an out of town venue, like Baguio City, or a resort in Laguna province. The meetings usually started the day after Christmas which, propitiously, was the CPP founding anniversary.

The Student Conference leadership used the break to attend the first gathering of college students under martial law. It was held at Baguio Teachers Camp on December 26-29, 1975. It was sponsored by the Department of Education and Culture (DECS) and was officially called “The First National Congress of College Students in the Philippines.” Its theme was “Nation Building Through Youth Civic Action Programs.”

For the nine-person UP delegation, it did not matter if the congress was sponsored by the dictatorial government or if the agenda served Marcos’ purposes. What mattered to them was that the gathering was a venue for making contacts, establishing a network, and discreetly conducting anti-Marcos propaganda. They felt they had the obligation to spread the protest spirit to other schools. They would not let this opportunity go away.

The congress was well attended. The different tertiary sectors were represented ----- private schools, vocational schools, and state colleges and universities. The UP delegation did groundwork to ensure UP was represented in all the workshop committees.

The January 1976 Arrests and Failed Protest Rally

Nineteen-seventy-five ended with the UP activists giddy with success. For them, November 1975 was like a democratic spring, and their participation in the December 6 Bustillos rally was their coming of age. They were looking forward to a groundswell in 1976.

But that was not to be. When classes resumed in the second week of January 1976, President Marcos ordered the arrest of the chairman and vice-chairman of the Student Conference, and the editor and managing-editor of the Philippine Collegian. Many rank and file student activists whom the military had tagged as CPP cadres and leaders were also arrested. Those apprehended were either picked up in their homes, or in the campus. On the day of the arrests, Vinzons Hall was visited several times by Metrocom arresting parties.

On the first day of the arrests, the party branch managed to assemble a small indignation rally of around a thousand in front of the College of Arts and Sciences. (CAS). In the absence of the legal leaders who would have coordinated and policed the rally, high ranking UP CPP leaders who were not arrested came out of the woodwork and did the job. 

In doing so, they were exposing themselves to intelligence agents who were also called “spotters.” Being members of the URC-KT, they were jeopardizing the safety of the entire UP CPP organization. Under their command, the rally was able to march about a hundred meters in the direction of the main library.

The authorities were ready for this demonstration. As the rally was nearing Gonzales Hall, it was accosted by a phalanx of riot police. The students stood their ground and shouted slogans demanding freedom for their leaders. But the police would not budge. There was a brief standoff. 

Upon prodding from the secretary of the CPP MR committee who was monitoring the action, the UP CPP leaders briefly toyed with the idea of forcibly occupying the main library and hostaging the hapless but revered university librarian, Prof. Marina G. Dayrit. The only demand would have been the release of the student leaders. In the heat of the confrontation, they rejected the plan as too reckless.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes, the cops received orders to violently disperse the crowd. They did so with truncheons, with the protesters fleeing in different directions. The indignation rally was over, and with it, the fleeting period of freedom in the Philippines' premier campus. 

A Brief History of the CPP Movement in the University of the Philippines in 1975 Part I

Time to Test the Waters

In the history of the Left movement in the University of the Philippines (UP), 1975 was the year the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) accepted that an explicit anti-martial law protest movement in the Diliman campus was feasible. Going for it were the underground and above ground assets it had painstakingly developed in 1973 and especially in 1974. Besides, party leaders opined, the initial shock of the declaration had vanished.

It tried to incite protests in 1973, but these were quickly squelched by the police. In an astute move, the CPP settled down to secretly penetrate innocent looking organizations, undertake subtle anti-dictatorship activities through these groups, recruit members, and develop a mass base.

In 1975, the CPP determined that after all the spadework, it had enough warm bodies and a range of tactics to openly challenge martial law without inviting suppression and arrest. The party sensed that the Marcos regime was relaxing, albeit temporarily. The Left was willing to test the waters.

Hopes were high in the party ranks that the intended protest movement would approximate the intense rallies before martial law. However, quite a few CPP operatives in Diliman recognized the stifling effect of martial law on student activities. They were secretly lowering their expectations. Not a few, however, were convinced that the students could still be mobilized to demonstrate in droves, like they did before Proclamation 1081.

The CPP Organization in UP Diliman

By 1975, the CPP had already laid out a decent network in UP, made up of more than 80 cadres and members, and about thrice this number “national-democratic” (ND) activists. The party branch was bombastically called “University Revolutionary Council,” or URC. Its Executive Committee was called Komiteng Tagapagpaganap or verbally, KT. The URC fell under the administrative supervision of the CPP's District 2, or “D2” which covered Quezon City and Marikina. 

D2, in turn, was under the guidance of the party's Manila-Rizal (MR) Committee. MR's leadership was then newly taken over by Filemon Lagman, who was known in underground circles as "Ka Popoy." A tactical genius, Lagman this early was already hankering for a general uprising in Manila-Rizal, which he termed as a "Sigwa" (storm). 

Lagman's influence on the party branch in UP was immense. Even his agitated speaking style and gesticulating body mannerisms were copied by the top cadres. Lagman contributed in no small measure to the UP party branch's intense desire for an uprising in the university. 

The URC’s organizational department (OD) was tasked with overall organizational maintenance and political guidance of the numerous party groups and national-democratic (ND) core groups. These were embedded in the various student organizations, in the newly-elected Student Conference, and in the Philippine Collegian.

Organizational maintenance basically meant keeping the groups together and consolidating them. Giving political guidance meant ensuring that the groups followed the policies and guidelines of the URC, which was also called “higher organ” or informally, “HO.”

It was the job of the OD to transmit the memos that emanated from the URC, and for these to be thoroughly discussed in the party and ND groups. The memos were usually typewritten on onion-skin paper and several pages long. Sometimes reading the memos was difficult, because the URC production committee made too many copies in a single typing. Carrying the documents was extremely dangerous. Persons found by the military carrying them were adjudged CPP elements and were invariably arrested, tortured, or even “salvaged” (summarily executed).

The memos contained the national and campus political situation, the issues of the day, the tasks for a given period, and the political calls. The latter came in the form of stirring slogans, like “Struggle for an autonomous, democratic, and representative Student Council!” The memos were especially important when the URC was calling for a “mass campaign” revolving around an urgent or burning issue. In its memos, the URC referred to UP by the code name La Union, which in informal leftist conversation later evolved into “LU,” with the party being simply referred to with the letter "Q."

Corps of Cadres and Underground Seminars

The memos were transmitted by a small corps of talented and dedicated cadres that individually headed the various party and ND core groups. A party or ND group leader had the authoritative and glamorous title of “sec” which was short for secretary. Being a “sec” gave an activist enormous admiration and respectability even in the purportedly egalitarian UP activist community. Sometimes, if the sec was not capable enough, the OD dispatched a “political officer” or “PO” to assist him/her, especially in explaining and defending complex policies.

Helping the OD in consolidating the underground groups was the URC’s education department (ED) which was a pool of CPP instructors who were adept in conducting Marxist and ND discussion groups. These leftist seminars were casually called “EDs.” They systematically followed a prescribed curriculum. They were held in private houses belonging to the UP students themselves, especially those whose parents were middle class or upper middle class.  

For the ND activists, the course was called “Basic Mass Course,” or “Batayang Kursong Pangmasa.” A must reading for this course was CPP chairman Amado Guerrero's “Philippine Society and Revolution,” or PSR. For the party elements, the course was called “Basic Party Course,” whose readings were contained in a pocket handbook titled “Guide for Cadres and Members of the Communist Party of the Philippines,” or “Patnubay Para sa mga Kadre at Kasapi ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas,” or verbally, “Patnubay.” An added reading for party elements was Amado Guerrero's just published article “Specific Characteristics of Our People's War.”

Both party and ND courses were preceded by a lengthy getting-to-know-you or “kilanlanan” portion, where each participant introduced him/herself by relating a short autobiography or “talambuhay.” The talambuhays ended on what led the activist into the movement, and how he/she came to embrace its programme and ideology.

The URC also had a "Propaganda Commission" or "Propcom." It was the Propcom's job to distribute underground publications in the campus, like Ang Bayan, the CPP official publication, Liberation, which was the official paper of the National Democratic Front (NDF), and Taliba ng Bayan, a publication of the MR committee. Propcom published a paper of its own, called Rebel Collegian or RC. Propcom also gave direct tactical guidance to the party and ND core groups operating within the Philippine Collegian.

Building Alliances

After satiating itself with low key activities conducted by individual organizations in 1974, the CPP decided that in 1975, it was going to go for the dramatic. It decided to tackle bigger issues and for these to be bannered by groups or “alliances” of organizations. As well, belligerent indoor and outdoor rallies, abandoned in '73 and '74, were back on the planning table.

The first step in this bold direction was for the organizations to form alliances according to type or orientation e.g. academic, fraternity/sorority, varsitarian, civic, religious, and cultural. Examples of alliances that were formed were the “UP Fraternity Alliance,” the “UP Alliance of Social Science Organizations,” and the “UP Alliance of Natural Science Organizations.”

The alliances were usually formed in a meeting of representatives convened by a leading organization. An alliance was formalized through a written joint statement or declaration of principles which was signed by the organization heads. The CPP cadres saw to it that the declarations contained a commitment to “student rights and welfare,” and to “national freedom and democracy.”

“Student rights and welfare,” covered issues relating to tuition fees, campus facilities, student loans, and the academic curriculum. “National freedom and democracy” was inclusive of US domination of the economy, civil liberties, human rights, restoration of the student council, and martial law. The inclusion of this catchphrase was notable, in that it was a first after three years of martial rule. It was the CPP's trial balloon on how far student protests and mass actions could go, without inviting suppression.

Steering Committee on Student Rights and Welfare

The next step was for the alliances to form a university wide alliance of alliances. This aggrupation was formed in a large meeting in mid-1975, in the Student Conference room (Alcantara Hall)  on the second floor of Vinzons Hall. The main agenda of the group was the restoration of the student council and the improvement of student facilities. Note: any national political issue was off the table for the time being. 

In this meeting, I represented the newly revived UP Political Science Club (UPPSC). Minutes before the meeting, several members of the UPPSC, whom I suspected were members of the underground, asked me to preside over the meeting and gave me guidelines on the agenda. They also told me that most of the organizational heads in attendance had all been instructed to recognize me as the meeting's presider.

I was all too eager to accept the responsibility. I was a bit concerned about my personal safety, but that became a minor consideration I really wanted to contribute to the anti-martial law effort. After the room was filled with student leaders, I took it upon myself to start the ball rolling. In all confidence, I introduced myself, and gamely told the gathering the reasons for the meeting, and what we hoped to achieve. No one questioned my self-initiative in starting the meeting, and everyone seemed to have a ready input. It was exactly what I was told earlier.

The meeting lasted about 1/12 hours. Before it ended, the alliance heads decided to innocuously call the umbrella group “Steering Committee on Student Rights and Welfare.” (SCSRW). Obviously, we did not want to prematurely invite the eye of the UP and martial law authorities. By consensus, I was chosen its chairman. I gladly accepted. Thereafter, this alliance of alliances was often irreverently called "Screw." That night, at home in Bulacan, Bulacan, I was so proud of my new position.  

Although it already controlled the Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian, the CPP decided that it still needed a campus-wide organization like the SCSRW, which it completely controlled. Complete control meant being able to adapt a group's name and tactics to any issue it wanted to pursue, and to the intensity level it wanted to pursue it.

Such flexibility was not present in the Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian, because after all, they still owed their existence to the UP administration, with the attendant rules of operation. Any rash action by either body could invite suspension or abolition. It would have been foolhardy for the CPP, for example, to let these institutions lead a street uprising, or call for armed struggle. 

The CPP leadership was reserving the SCSRW for this kind of action, even though the latter was addressing student rights and welfare issues in the interim. When the SCSRW assumed an anti-dictatorship stance, the CPP planned to upgrade its harmless name to something combative.

Onofre D. Corpuz and Emanuel V. Soriano

1975 was also the first year of Onofre D. Corpuz as UP president. Before becoming the 13^th UP president, Corpuz was secretary of education in the Marcos cabinet and founding president of the Development Academy of the Philippines. A UP undergraduate alumnus, he held a masters degree in Public Administration and a PhD. in Political Economy & Government from Harvard University.

One of the first acts of Corpuz as UP president was the creation of the position of Executive Vice-president and the appointment of Emanuel “Noel” V. Soriano to the position. Soriano held a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Industrial Management from UP, and a doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard University. He would later succeed Corpuz to become the 14^th UP president.

Noel Soriano was one of the founders of UP Student Catholic Action or UPSCA, a conservative and anti-Marxist campus organization. This gives a hint on his political orientation.  Upon assuming his post, Soriano began sporting the technocratic title of “EVP.” His was the unenviable job of day-to-day administration, which included dealing with bothersome UP student leaders.

EVP Position

In creating the EVP post, Corpuz must have felt his administrative authority must be increasingly delegated to run a growing state university. He needed a point man. At that time, UP had recently been reorganized by his predecessor Salvador Lopez as the “UP System.” As a result, Corpuz concentrated on presiding over policy making and institution building in the Board of Regents ------- UP Visayas was established under his watch. Noel Soriano, meanwhile, tended to UP's nitty-gritty.

Being the first UP president to be appointed under martial law and a perceived Marcos protege, Corpuz was expected by the UP activist community to be more restrictive than Salvador Lopez, and a more cooperative steward of Marcos' agenda. Marcos' long-term plan for UP, as impressed on Corpuz, was to maximize its output of ideas and expertise and minimize its capacity for dissent. The former was easy to achieve, because UP had been doing that for years. The latter was a long shot, precisely for the same reason.

Salvador Lopez acquiesced to this design, but not completely. He revealed a benevolent streak by gradually giving concessions to student demands for more campus democracy until his term ended. Corpuz could have built on Lopez' democratic measures by finally restoring the student council.

However, Corpuz proved to be intractable. He stood pat on the student council ban, obviously in deference to Marcos. He did allow though, an underdone entity like the UP Student Conference to succeed the Concomsa. The new body was elected at large, and enjoyed a fair degree of representation. Yet, Corpuz saw to it that the UP Student Conference would not be as autonomous as the council of old.  

 The Student Conference and Philippine Collegian

CPP control of the Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian in 1975 was essential to the success of its plans. These institutions were pivotal in sparking protest actions. Both were excellent CPP propaganda platforms, as they legally articulated any CPP analysis, call-to-action, and slogan.

They also enjoyed tremendous legitimacy, being administration created and sanctioned. The institutional cover they provided to CPP cadres was formidable. Moreover, they provided solid provisions to the activists, in the form of office space, office supplies, two electric typewriters, and two reliable mimeographing machines.

The party successfully fielded candidates in the Student Conference elections in mid-year, capturing most of the twenty or so seats. Even before the elections, CPP control of the new body was a foregone conclusion, because it controlled practically all the organizations that fielded candidates. Just the same, the party took advantage of the campaign to engage in propaganda and break new ground.

In the Philippine Collegian meanwhile, party elements managed to snatch important staff positions after the grueling editorial exams. They arduously prepared for it, even holding writing and lay-out workshops and a mock exam. They, however, failed to win the editor-in-chief position. The post was bagged by Abraham “Ditto” Sarmiento Jr., a nerdy and bespectacled law student who belonged to the moderate Alpha Phi Beta fraternity.

Surprisingly, Ditto Sarmiento proved to be very cooperative to the Left. In fact, he mostly let them have their way with the Collegian. With each issue, the Sarmiento Collegian escalated its attacks against the dictatorship. The most memorable issue under his editorship came in late 1975. It not so subtly called for an uprising against martial law. It had an imposing image of the Oblation on the entire front page, with “Kung hindi ngayon kailan pa?” (If not now when?) emblazoned under it in red letters.

Vinzons Hall, UP Women's Home, and The Grill

The radicals also controlled a little known but vital UP institution, the UP Women's Home, a cozy bungalow behind Vinzons Hall which became a veritable activist boarding and half-way house. There was a piano in its living room, and the militants sang revolutionary songs to its accompaniment. The Internationale by Eugène Pottier was one of the most requested songs. For some reason, many members of the UP Kappa Delta Phi sorority frequented the place.

The radicals also held meetings and consultations in its many small rooms, which were noticeably bereft of furniture. The rooms were nonetheless clean, carpeted, and sound-proof. CPP elements who were on the military's wanted list often sneaked into these cubicles, and engaged in endless small talk with their less sought after friends.

The activists also patronized that timeless Vinzons Hall fixture, a cafe called The Grill. The leftist watering hole had more than its share of activist banter, courting, and debate. No doubt about it, the Marxists were attracted by the The Grill''s proletarian prices. This University Food Service (UFS) outlet had an endless supply of cheap coffee, spaghetti, hamburgers, and cinnamon rolls.

With the Student Conference and the Philippine Collegian being likewise based in Vinzons Hall, this building, fronted by a defiant Andres Bonifacio statue, and which dominated a hill overlooking the UP Sunken Garden, became the effective UP Diliman leftist operations center.

First Anti-Martial law Rally in the Philippines, Bustillos December 6, 1975. The Seeds of the EDSA Revolution Were Planted on this Day

On December 6, 1975, at about 6 pm in the cool early evening, more than 5,000 brave students, nuns, priests, and laborers staged an anti-martial law rally in front of the almost conjoined twin churches in Bustillos, Sampaloc, Manila. I took part in this rally, being a member of the big University of the Philippines delegation.

The rally consisted of fiery speeches by leaders from the different "sectors" in attendance. I remember most the incendiary tirade by Elsie Estares, a leftist labor leader from the Novaliches garments factory called Gelmart. I also remember the impassioned speech by UP Student Conference chairman and former Philippine Collegian editor Diwa Guinigundo.

On the eve of the rally, I attended a last-minute meeting of the leaders of the sectors that would attend the rally. Attending were leaders of labor, urban poor, church-people, and students. I was representing the University of the Philippines student body.

The meeting was held at about 7 pm, at St. Joseph's College on E. Rodriguez Ave., Quezon City. Presiding over the meeting was someone who introduced himself as a member of the Church Labor Center (CLC), a leftist labor center. The man looked very familiar. As I looked at him and sized him up, it dawned on me that he was none other than Edgar Jopson, a moderate student leader of the pre-martial law years.

I also met a student leader from Maryknoll College, Dada Saulo. We became friends right there and then.

The rally was protesting Presidential Decree 823, which banned the holding of workers' strikes. This rally  broke the more than 3-year old myth that people can't stage demonstrations under Ferdinand Marcos' martial law. It signaled to the world that the shock of martial law had disappeared. You can defy Marcos and get away with it. The seeds of the EDSA Revolution were planted on this day.

The rally was followed by an unprecedented march to Malacanang Palace, placards and streamers all.  However, due to roadblocks set up by the police, the rally did not make it anywhere near the palace. It did cover a lot of ground though, and got its message of freedom  to thousands of by-standers. 

About six weeks before, on October 24, 1975 in Tondo, Manila, the celebrated La Tondena strike which precipitated this rally took place. The strike  lasted for only three days, but the repercussions were deep. This political expression in the old La Tondena Incorporada liquour factory was unique in Philipppine history in that for the first time, many priests, nuns, and seminarians were participating. In the pre-martial law days, political demonstrations in the Philippines involved mostly students. 

These church people were mostly members of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP). AMRSP was at that time led by Fr. Lope Castillo MSC, Fr. Toti Olaguer SJ, and the indefatigable Sr. Christine Tan, RGS. AMRSP had set up the Church Labor Center, which was assisting the La Tondena strike. If it weren't for the political cover provided by the AMRSP, the Marcos military would have arrested the La Tondena labor leaders, who were affiliated with the leftist federation Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.  

Simultaneously with the Bustillos rally, President Gerald R. Ford of the US, on a state visit,  was meeting with President Ferdinand E. Marcos in Malacanang. As Ford and Marcos exchanged pleasantries, the rally snaked its way through the narrow streets that formed the interstices of the Sampaloc and Quiapo districts.

When we were met by a roadblock of riot police, we smartly found other routes that were clear. The detours made the rally miss its original destination, but we felt that just being able to march some distance was already a huge accomplishment.  The organizers correctly figured out that the METROCOM forces and barangay tanods would be under orders from Marcos not to disperse the rallyists, so he could project an image of normalcy to Ford and his entourage. 

This is the main reason why the shouting rallyists were able to walk largely unopposed for a few precious  kilometers, until orders were given to self-disperse near Plaza Miranda, in Quiapo, about two hours later. After I left the main group, I walked from Quiapo to C.M. Recto Avenue, thinking of what I had just done. I then took a jeepney to Divisoria. There, I took the bus home to Bulacan, Bulacan.