As other military officers trained in US military schools, Retired Navy Captain Danilo Vizmanos could have been promoted easily and reached the peak of his military career, enjoying the benefits of power ranking military officials relished in during Martial Law. But he chose a path not usually taken by “American boys” like him: that of a political activist and eventually a revolutionary.
BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 14, May 11-17, 2008
Retired Navy Captain Danilo Vizmanos’ apostasy or the total desertion of his old principles did not happen overnight. He was an American boy, he admitted, but his readings and experiences turned him into a militant activist, then a revolutionary.
The tribute organized by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA or Organization of Ex-Detainees Against Political Detention and for Amnesty) and Kodao Productions last May 5 at the University of Makati presented the unusual journey of a people’s soldier. After years of battling a dictatorship and those who deprive the Filipino people of genuine freedom and democracy, Ka Dan is now fighting prostate cancer and heart ailments.
Enlightenment
Ka Dan described himself as an American boy. “I thought Gen. McArthur was comparable to Christ.” He studied at a US military academy.
In Kodao’s video titled Apostasy, Ka Dan recounted how his pro-American view began to shatter. As inspector general, he visited Vietnam at the height of the US-Vietnam war. “I went to one of the hospitals. Many of the patients were children, their skin burned. I asked myself, ‘What have these children done against Lyndon Johnson, against US imperialism?’ There, I learned what genocide means… Bombings never stop.”
While taking advance studies at the National Defense College in 1970-1971, he wrote a thesis on the emergence of China as a world power. He recommended that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) develop diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China and that all military agreements with the US be abrogated. From then on, he earned the ire of the Marcos dictatorship.
When Marcos declared martial law, Ka Dan retired from military service citing ‘incompatibility with an armed forces that was converted into a huge private army and oppressive instrument of the Marcos dictatorship.’
In the same video, Ka Dan related that his trips to different parts of the country awakened him. “While the rich few enjoy so much wealth, the majority are grappling against poverty.” He said that upon reading the book Mao Zedong: An Anthology, he said to himself that that is the solution to the Philippine’s social phenomena.
Detention
His incarceration led to deeper enlightenment. Ka Dan was detained in several military camps for two years, from 1974-1976, without charges. In the video Apostasy, he recalled the physical and mental torture he was subjected to. His captors treated him with truth serum, an intoxicating drug used by the military and police to obtain information from an unwilling subject during interrogation. He said, “I did not confess anything. If they are capable of doing this to me, how much more can they do to ordinary citizens?” The use of truth serum is classified as a form of torture according to international law.
Karapatan Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez, one of Ka Dan’s “classmates” in Fort Bonifacio and Bicutan detention cells, described Ka Dan as a true gentleman and an officer. “He never asked for special treatment. He did his share in the tasks without complaining.”
It was during detention that he developed friendships with Satur Ocampo, Antonio Zumel, Bonifacio Ilagan, among others.
Ilagan, a First Quarter Storm activist, said that while the people’s enemy intended to break Ka Dan’s spirit through detention, it turned out to be the other way around. The late Tony Zumel called it apostasy. Ka Dan said, “When Tony said that, I looked for the meaning of the word. Indeed, it was apostasy.”
In his speech, Ocampo, now Bayan Muna representative, said it was mutual enlightenment. He described Ka Dan as someone with an open mind to radical ideas, who never fails to impart to others his beliefs and who has no pretense in dealing with others. “Danilo Vizmanos is his own man. He is an upright man…a rare gem.”
In a taped message, Jose Maria Sison, chief consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said, “Ka Dan is brilliant and valiant in advancing the rights and interests of the Filipino people against imperialism and local reaction.”
Lessons
Carol Araullo, Bayan chairperson, encouraged every one, especially the youth and disgruntled soldiers to read what she described as Ka Dan’s most important legacy, his three books: Through the Eye of the Storm, Martial Law Diary, and A Matter of Conviction. “We assure you that these books are easy reading yet full of lessons, history and deep analyses of issues.”
For Ret. Col. Danilo Advincula, Ka Dan’s brother-in-law and himself a retired soldier, “Ka Dan must be emulated by younger soldiers. But the path he took was not at all easy…These days, if you are an upright soldier, it is either you have resigned from service or you are detained.”
Araullo said, “When Ka Dan decided to take the side of the people, he has remained firm.” She said Ka Dan weathered extreme pressure from the higher-ups in the armed forces, torture, detention, persecution under Marcos dictatorship and even the grave errors of the movement after the fall of Marcos.
Ka Dan held many positions in several organizations. He was president of Bayan from 1994 to 1998, current SELDA chair, consultant of the Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition, board member of IBON Foundation and convenor of various formations against US military presence.
At the end of the two-hour program, Ka Dan delivered his speech from a recliner. “I don’t easily cry. When I was in prison, the guards never saw me shed a single drop of tear…but I cannot control my tears now…I never felt this honored.”
He told everyone to continue fighting. “Beyond Gloria, we must break free from the chains of colonial rule.”
Indeed, the former American boy is a valuable gem to the people’s movement for genuine freedom and democracy. (Bulatlat.com)
