Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 23 July 14 - 20, 2002 Quezon City, Philippines |
The World of Chairman Mong Film
enthusiast. Student leader. Quiet.
Impatient. This is Raymond “Mong’ Palatino, incumbent chair of the militant
National Union of Student of the Philippines (NUSP).
Bulatlat.com profiles one of the most interesting student leaders
today in this feel-good but "politically correct" interview. By
GERRY ALBERT-CORPUZ Superstar
Nora Aunor and Bembol Roco are Mong’s favorite local actors, while his
Hollywood favorites include veterans Marlon Brando and Al Pacino and Northern
America's rising action hero Jet Li. Only
23 years old, the former chairman of the University of the Philippines (UP)
student council and incumbent national president of the National Union of
Students of the Philippines (NUSP) is a film enthusiast. He watched
multi-awarded local films shown at the UP Film Center during his spare time, as
well as the foreign movies shown during film festivals. It
was Mong's enthusiasm for film and film criticism that actually introduced him
to the world of student activism. It was the late 90's and “Orapronobis (Fight
for Us),” Lino Brocka's anti-militarization drama, was instrumental to his
political awakening. Mong
considers “Himala” (Miracle), the 1982 Nora Aunor classic, the best Filipino
movie to date. Produced
by then Experimental Cinema of the Philippines (ECP), “Himala,” said Mong ,
is a powerful social critic of the society and class rule which uses religion to
control people. But while he is all praises for the late Ishmael Bernal's
stirring drama,, Brocka's Orapronobis made a larger impact on the young student.
"This
film affected my views about the Philippine social system. It was an eye
opener," Mong told Bulatlat.com. Mong
also regards art films like “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kaya Ngayon?” by Eddie
Romero and Marilou Diaz-Abaya's “Moral” for their critique on history and
culture. Mong
said the latest foreign film he watched was "The Road Home,” a Chinese
film exploring life and culture in the countryside in the 1950s.
"It is a love story about a barrio lass who fell in love with a
village school teacher. She broke the tradition by courting the teacher,"
Palatino explained. The
Chairman Mong
entered campus politics in 1998 when he represented the College of Education in
the university student council (USC). A year later, he was elected student
chairperson of the college. He was able to build a wide mass base, enjoying the
support of both his peers and teachers for two consecutive terms. In
1999, Mong became a member of NUSP and elected as its vice-president for Luzon.
In the 2000 USC elections, he was handpicked by the Students Alliance for
Nationalism and Democracy-UP (STAND UP) as its standard-bearer in the USC
election. During
the campaign trail, Mong’s supporters coined the moniker Chairman Mong.
Alluding to China's revolutionary leader Mao Tse Tung, the name was a big hit
among students. Chairman
Mong won by more than 2,000 votes over his closest rival Marissa Umali, a former
mass communication student and now a news reporter of the TV giant GMA-7. Mong
said STAND UP’s unrelenting campaign against the proposed P166 million UP
budget cut and other issues affecting the entire UP system and community won for
him the chairmanship. He
also recognized the wide support his party got from the UP teachers’
UP-Contend , the All-UP Workers Union and UP community members like the jeepney
drivers, vendors and urban poor residents. Historic
campaign "One
of the brilliant and successful campaigns the UP-USC undertook during our term
was the campaign for the ouster of ex-President Joseph Estrada," said Mong
when asked about the student council's accomplishments. Mong
recalled how the UP-USC mobilized thousands of students, professors and other
members of the UP community for the second popular uprising that ousted the
criminal and corrupt Estrada regime. "The
UP students were there, from the time the Oust Erap campaign kicked off in the
first quarter of 2000 until Estrada was ousted.
It was one of the biggest achievements of the UP-USC," he said. The
USC, said Mong, also scored significant victories in the campaign against the UP
budget slash and intermittent increases in tuition fee and prices of petroleum
products. Likewise, under Mong’s term, local community issues and concerns
were addressed. Good
impression Chairman
Mong impressed even the congressmen he debated against concerning education and
other issues. A source at the House
of Representatives told Bulatlat.com that the NUSP chairman earned the
admiration of solons and their staff during a House hearing on tuition hikes.
Representative Edward Nachura could not hide his admiration and said he does not
believe the country has a low quality of education because of Mong whom he found
to be very articulate. The congressman said he was a living proof that the
country can still produce outstanding students. Administration
senator Manny Villar whom he met during the Senate hearing on the millennium
curriculum and tuition increase, also praised the former UP-USC chair. To
his credit, Mong remains cool and humble. He in fact thanks the party-list group
Bayan Muna which he said was instrumental in giving him a wider view of life and
struggle. "My short stint in
Bayan Muna exposed me to many people's issues. The campaign sorties last year
taught me the importance of advocacy and the significance of involvement (in the
people’s struggle)," he said. Mong
sought to correct the misimpression that he is “suplado (snobbish).” He also said he is usually quiet, sometimes impatient. Life
or something like it Palatino
gamely responded even to personal questions. "She's
articulate and she's braver than me. We have clashes, but we manage to settle
the problem before the day ends," he said about his girlfriend and their
relationship. He said they are both interested in the arts. Mong's
parents and younger brother are now based in the United States. A sister works
in Dubai. They communicate regularly through email, which Mong dubs as a
“long-distance family affair.” Living alone, he cooks and cleans the house. Mong
described life as being governed by class interest and class struggle.
He sees himself in the company of workers and peasants in the future.
Before that, he hopes to accomplish more things as a student leader.
His
most memorable appearance in TV was in Channel 2’s “Today With Kris Aquino,”
right on the first day of the Estrada impeachment trial.
He said there was another interview by a Canadian channel asking him
about the role of information technology like the use of cellphones and texting
in ousting an undesirable leader like deposed president Estrada. "The Canadian TV could have wittingly or unwittingly endorsed the use of information technology using the interview as a medium, nevertheless, we grabbed the opportunity to say one important thing in the ouster of ex-President Estrada,” he said. “That People Power can make things change" Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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