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Colleagues, Friends Celebrate ‘Tagaytay 5’ Victory in Poetry, Music Night

Video: Artists Converge at Anti-VFA Cultural Night

Though they were literally in the dark for about half of the program, the audience and participants were determined not to spoil the mood. The activity after all was a celebration for the recent release of the “Tagaytay 5”.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
CULTURE
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 32, September 14-20, 2008

For what seemed like a long time, there was apprehension on whether or not the program would push through. The rain was pouring mercilessly and had caused a power outage along Visayas Avenue and a few other nearby areas in Quezon City.

But the first set of people who entered the Conspiracy Bar and Garden Café to watch the event did not show signs of any intention to leave. And then more and more people started to come in. The storm and the power outage notwithstanding, they were determined to celebrate the victory of the “Tagaytay 5”. The rain and the blackout it caused failed to dampen and darken their spirits.

Poet-musician Joel Malabanan, who performed at the event, perhaps summed up the night’s mood best with a poem he sent through a text message as he was on his way to the venue:

Nangag-uunahang pumatak ang ulan
at ang aspalto ay naging karagatan
kwerdas ng gitara’y agad nabanlawan
ng bantang di tuloy, awit at tulaan
ngunit kalikasan din ang kalayaan
hangga’t ninanasa’y walang kamatayan
sapatos ma’y maging bangka sa tubigan
hala, tuloy pa rin ang ating tugtugan!

The Tagaytay 5 are Axel Pinpin, a consultant of the Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka or Farmers’ Confederation in Cavite) and a poet who was a fellow in the 1999 University of the Philippines (UP) National Writers’ Workshop; Riel Custodio, a Kamagsasaka-Ka member; Aristides Sarmiento, a freelance researcher for various non-government organizations; and Tagaytay City-based cockfighting aficionados Enrico Ybañez and Michael Masayes.

They are facing rebellion charges filed in 2006 for allegedly conspiring with “dissident soldiers” in a supposed plot to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

The five were abducted by a composite team of Philippine Navy and Philippine National Police (PNP) elements on April 28, 2006 in Tagaytay City.

Pinpin, Custodio and Sarmiento had just come from a meeting with coffee farmers in the city and were on their way to Manila for the forthcoming Labor Day rally. They hired Ybañez as their driver while Masayes accompanied Ybañez.

Three days after, they were presented to the media as “communist rebels” who were conspiring with “dissident soldiers” in an alleged plot to “destabilize” the Arroyo administration. They were subsequently charged with rebellion.

Following an investigation, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has recently ruled that their arrest and detention were unlawful.

Last Aug. 28, they were released on the strength of a court order issued by Judge Erwin Larida, Jr. of the Tagaytay City RTC (Regional Trial Court), Branch 18.

The Artists’ Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation (Artists’ ARREST) – an alliance of progressive filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and literary writers – organized Huling Lagapak ng Kandado: A Victory Party for Tagaytay 5! last Sept. 9 at the Conspiracy Bar and Garden Café to celebrate the recent release of Pinpin, Custodio, Sarmiento, Ybañez, and Masayes.

Artists’ ARREST convener King Catoy said the Sept. 12 even was quite unusual in the history of the group’s activities.