A Tale of Three FQS Veterans

The past quickly came back for the First Quarter Storm (FQS) veterans as I started to ask how it was back then. I saw many things in their eyes as they told me their stories. Grief was not one of them.

By Zeng Umil
Bulatlat.com

I did not have an idea of what the FQS was all about until I became one of the so-called radicals. And then I learned more about it when I was assigned to do write this article about the FQS generation. Despite my extreme inferiority complex, I went on with the interviews, excited to meet the activists of the old days who fought the Marcos dictatorship.

Tony Liongson

Ka Toni was 19 years old when he joined Kabataang Makabayan (KM), the acknowledged most militant youth organization during the turbulent pre-martial law years. He was studying at the Philippine Maritime Institute (PMI) when the storm of student demonstrations came. Before that, he was already joining rallies against tuition fee increases and for quality education.

Aside from being curious, issues of graft and corruption, the sending of Philippine troops to the Vietnam War and Marcos’ brazen partiality to the United States (U.S.) pushed Ka Tony to get involve. Since then, Ka Tony has devoted himself to serving the people.

Ka Toni recalls how he and his fellow activists quickly responded when a typhoon struck Manila in the early 70s. As part of the Serve the People Brigade, they evacuated residents of Sta. Cruz, a densely populated district of Manila, to the nearby Bonifacio High School and solicited food and clothes for them. Ka Toni said he would never forget the government issued bread called nutriban that were distributed to the evacuees – they were obviously several days old as green molds were already growing on them. Ka Toni said he was enraged and almost cried in his anger. He said, “Wala na ngang magawa ang gobyerno para maiayos ang buhay ng mga urban poor, magpapadala na lang ng pagkain yung hindi pa pakikinabangan ng mga tao.” 

Like many activists of the time, Ka Toni did not escape the ire of the military. In 1977, he was picked up by intelligence agents and tortured while in detention. He thought that he would be dead soon but later he and other political detainees were able to escape.

The experience was not enough to keep Ka Toni away from the movement. He rejoined his comrades and a few months later, was back to attending rallies and teach-ins.

Estelita Dionisio

Ka Etel was in her first year in college at the Philippine College of Commerce (PCC), which was even then already known as a bastion of student activism, when she first got involved in the movement. Ka Etel did not need convincing to attend political discussion groups. As a campus journalist of Ang Malaya, PCC’s student publication, Ka Etel attended the teach-ins held inside the campus. A students’ group called Samahang Molave would also invite her to discussions and forums.

Ka Etel said that it was curiosity that made her join the rallies and other student activities. Like Ka Toni, she also experienced police and military brutality. She was in rallies that were violently attacked by government agents but where young students bravely face the bullets, truncheons and water cannons. Ka Ethel in particular recalls the January 30, 1970 demonstration in Mendiola where four persons were killed.

But Ka Etel also never gave up. She said that “lying low,” the activists’ term for temporarily or permanently ceasing to join mass actions, never entered her mind. She strongly believes that as long as the three problems of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism plague the country, activism continues to be important. When martial law was declared, she was among those who decided to continue the struggle even beyond the campus. 

“Alam kong just na ipaglaban yon kaya hindi ako pinanghinaan ng loob kahit na alam kong risky. Natural lang ang takot, bahagi yun ng pakikibaka, (I knew that what I was fighting for was just and I did not feel fear even though it was risky. It was natural to be scared and being scared was part of the struggle),” she said.

Froi Bagalawis

Ka Froi was a 20-year old student at the PCC when he became an activist.

He was among the student activists who would pick fights with the military agents during the FQS rallies. He was in fact one of the students who carried the mock coffin demonstrators used in the January 26 rally in front of the old Congress building. The coffin symbolized the death of democracy.

Although his family wanted to stop his activism, Ka Froi asserted himself and fought hard for his ideals.

But in 1978, he was forced to attend to financial needs and decided to go to Saudi Arabia as an overseas contract worker.

It did not stop him though from continuing to help his comrades. He gave financial assistance to activists and people’s organizations, in an effort to make up for his absence. When he came back to the Philippines, Ka Froi also immediately went back to the movement, which he never really left at all.

Ka Toni, Etel and Froi were products of their time – the time of open fascist rule and student idealism. But 33 years later, this idealism continues to run in their blood. The FQS slogan, “Pakikibaka tungo sa pambansang demokrasya (Struggle for national democracy),” has not been forgotten as they continue to get involve through various ways.

Their names may not ring bells like that of Rafael Baylosis, Edgar Jopson and Bal Pinguel. But they played roles equally important and are as much a part of the historic period as the leaders.

There are many reasons why the FQS should be remembered. The most important is how it gave birth to the activism of many like Ka Toni, Etel and Froi who, despite their youth, saw the ills of society and were willing to work, even fight, to change them. Bulatlat.com  

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