BACK in 1982 when president of the San Beda College “student council”, an incident prompted my announcing all students to boycott their classes. If memory serves, in the early afternoon of what was still the era of ‘Martial Rule’. Fellow Bedans, begun exiting the main campus gates and started amassing right in Mendiola in protest mode. The real estate most sought as hallowed grounds of university based marchers. For those unaware, San Beda is located at the inner zone of what is now Don Chino Roces Bridge. Said bridge, originally called Mendiola, the first line of defense for Malacañang. The periphery, where several lives have been claimed under various Administrations. So how did the Benedictine Priest administrators handle the situation? They spoke to me – for the safety of my fellow-students, they would respect the declaration to boycott classes, but could we hold the program in the Grandstand, in-campus. I eventually relented.
I also recall there was once a nationwide protest reverberating in Metro Manila. Several Nuns were also raring to go to lend their support to the mass street protest. In Cebu, there was however the polished faith of a Cardinal Ricardo Vidal who instead urged all the faithful to light candles and pray as a sign of solidarity with those in the capital.
A religious carrying a placard? Or bearing a rosary or flowers in a street march? The nuances may be hairline but the substance is striking. Does a man or woman of the cloth teach the impoverished how to fish? Or should they teach them how “poverty” is violence? Was the crucifixion salvific for lost souls? Or should the interpretation be that Jesus was the first “subversive”, a radical? Parents, not educational institutions are the primary teachers of their children. They cannot wash their hands and let other individuals or institutions take over “parenting”
responsibility, even if such colleges are named after saints. A parental consent for 10-year-olds to protest is a fig-leaf for “props”, to sponsor the schools “dissent” creed. What of the parents? (Erik Espina)