While trying to organize a parangal (tribute) for another comrade who was killed by the military in Tarlac, Ochie led fellow inmates in the Camp Crame Stockade to form a cultural collective, recalls Arthur Castillo, a fellow political detainee and a member of the Kabataang Makabayan’s cultural arm NPAA. For the tribute, Ochie and his ‘bandmates’ appropriated a church song, rewriting portions of it to add revolutionary content to the song’s existing lyrics.

Ochie composed some of the “top hits of Martial Law” while detained at the Camp Crame Stockade 4 and the IPIL Rehabilitation Center in Fort Bonifacio. One of his better-known works is the prison song Mutya, an adaptation of Kundiman ni Abdon (an anti-colonialist song dating back to around 1900). The song speaks of the longing to be free and of the love for his real muse, the Motherland.

Kay taas ng pader sa aking paligid
Munting pisngi ng langit
Ang tanging pasisilip.
Mutya kong tinatangi laging naiisip
Pagkat pagtangis ng mutya’y
Lubusan kong batid…

…Huwag kang malungkot sinta
Sa aking pagkawalay
Anuman ang sapitin gunita mo ay taglay,
Ang lahat ng aking lakas,
Nalalabi pang buhay
Sa iyong kapakanan aking iaalay.

Another song that Ochie composed on June 12, 1975 at the Stockade 4 of Camp Crame, may well have been singing of the dark times now:

May kalayaan ba kung ang bayan
Ay dumadaing sa hirap?
Kung kayamanan ay hawak ng dayuhan
At masa ay salat?
Kung manggagawa ay dusta
At magsasaka ay inaapi?
Huwad, sadyang huwad ang kalayaan
Kung ang bayan ay ganyan.

May kalayaan ba kung bayan
Ay may gapos sa kamay?
Kung ang katotohanan
At katarunga’y nilulupig?
Laksang nagtatanggol
Ay pinarurusahan at inuusig
Huwad, sadyang huwad ang kalayaan
Kung ang bayan ay ganyan.

The escapades behind Ochie’s songs can shame even McGyver himself. Despite the tight security enforced by his captors, Ochie managed to smuggle his songs out of prison through the most unlikely, creative and clandestine means.

Jopie recalls that Ochie was able to sneak out a copy of Mutya by having a visiting nun hide it inside her habit. Diwang Walang Takot was similarly smuggled out of Camp Crame with the help of a friendly priest with a hearing aid.

“Pinatanggal niya ang baterya ng hearing aid ng pari at doon isinaksak ang kopya,” Jopie recalls (He had the battery of the priest’s hearing aid removed and plugged the copy of the song in.)

During one visit, Ochie saw a huge blood clot forming under Jopie’s nail. He instructed his brother to clean up the space filled with the clot and pushed another copy of his prison songs under the nail bed.

Ochie’s compositions served as a salve to his spirit and as a source of strength for other activists during the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship. “Their songs inspired the political detainees and the people outside the walls. To this day, the people still sing their songs,” Sison writes in a statement.

During the two tributes held for Ochie, even veteran and middle-aged activists were surprised to discover that Ochie was the lyricist behind these songs that defined the periods of activism they themselves went through.

Sterling academic and migrant organizer

Upon his exit from prison in 1975, Ochie was compelled to pursue his academic inclinations abroad due to implicit discrimination against political detainees.

Migrating to the United States after his release, Ochie became involved in international solidarity work for the national democratic movement and organizing work among Filipino migrants while taking up higher studies in his field.

Ochie’s curriculum vitae during this period stretched to more than a dozen pages, attesting to his sterling academic record and numerous pursuits as a scientist. He earned a Master of Science degree in Soil Chemistry and a Doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry and Geochemistry from the University of Minnesota. Later on, he also finished Post Doctoral studies on the Synthesis of Organometallic Catalysts from the University of Sydney, Australia.

As an environmental chemist, Ochie specialized in Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management Monitoring and Treatment in Water/Terrestrial Systems, Pollution Control Technologies, and Environmental Management Systems.

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