Remembering Braveheart

“BNARIL C ISAIAS. PATAY NA.” I received this text message from a friend at 10:30 p.m. on April 28 and slumped into numb shock. The airconditioning in the fast food chain that humid night sunk into a sickening chill. Isaias was gone, the dissident exile from Mindoro who tirelessly trekked around in his cap, rubber slippers, and hunched, lean frame. Isaias, who risked sojourns throughout numerous sites of struggle, armed only with a guitar, the strongest of principles, and the humblest of words.

BY LISA CARIÑO ITO  
Bulatlat.com

*Isaias Manano Jr., Secretary-General of Anakpawis-Mindoro Oriental, would have turned 24 last Sunday, May 16. He was shot dead allegedly by soldiers while walking home on the evening of April 28, making him the 74^th member of progressive peoples’ organizations to be murdered in the Southern Tagalog region since Jan. 27, 2001. This is a tribute to a friend, activist, and an iskolar at anak ng bayan, whose principles shall prevail in the conviction and practice of all those bereaved by his loss.

Principled worker

I first met Jun - Isaias Drummond Caraig Manano, Jr.- during a month-long fact-finding mission (FFM) in April 2002, which combed communities along Mindoro Oriental’s interiors to document human rights violations against peasant leaders by military troops.

I returned to Mindoro three years later for his wake and an inquiry into his death. There, recollections of the activist we knew and respected poured in. Graduating from Jose J. Leido Memorial National High School in Calapan in 1997, Isaias took up Computer Engineering for one semester at a state university in Batangas. Returning to Mindoro, he finished a two-year vocational course and worked full-time. Few of his friends and family realized then that their soft-spoken, mild-mannered Jun would later dedicate himself to the fiercest of advocacies.

Many believe that Isaias’ politicization was a logical consequence of his experiences. Working at a photo studio in Cavite, at a foreign pretzels franchise as a crew member, and at SM Manila as baggage attendant, Isaias saw how his co-workers were subjected to unfair labor practices and unfair treatment from the management.

Even then, bias for the oppressed guided his actions. At SM, Isaias figured in a heated argument with his supervisor over the unfair treatment of a co-worker. The latter threatened to fire him if he continued to assert his side. Isaias resigned on the spot, unflinching, in front of his boss’s face.

“Oust Erap” Baby

Back in Mindoro, Isaias joined progressive organizations. From 1998, leaders of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) and the Kalipunan ng Kristiyanong Kabataan sa Pilipinas (KKKP) remember him as one of the local hosts during immersion programs with Mangyan and peasant families. He was also a church youth leader of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).

In 1999, during the Estrada presidency, national unrest escalated after weekly oil price hikes, the Visiting Forces Agreement ratification, low wages, and deregulated educational system. Like others during those days of disquiet, Isaias started to immerse himself in the militancy of the peoples’ movement. He was among those who actively campaigned for Estrada’s ouster in the provinces, way before resistance welled up along EDSA. Isaias was there when militant Mindoreños staged “Peoples’ Camps” against Estrada in front of the provincial capitol in Calapan, during the last quarter of 2000.

Afterward, Isaias’ involvement as an organizer deepened as chairperson of Anakbayan’s Mindoro Oriental chapter. He headed the local cultural group, Kwerdas ng Bayan, as its secretary-general after his friend and its former secretary-general Erwin Bacarra was killed by elements of the 2^nd Scout Ranger on Aug. 1, 2001, in the nearby district of Naujan.

Initial exits

As the political and economic situation of the province worsened, Isaias decided to forgo school and work as a full-time activist. This did not sit well with his parents. Isaias frequently debated with his father, a UCCP pastor and a spiritual adviser to the provincial governor. His mother, Erlinda, a teacher, offered to support his studies to dissuade him.

Isaias refused this offer to continue school through mainstream means, preferring the formal and practical pedagogy of the mass movement. “Mas marami na akong natuturuan at naisasapraktika” (I am able to teach more people and put into practice), he said.

“Unti-unti siyang nagpapaliwanag sa pamilya,” (He was slowly teaching us), his mother describes how Isaias tried to make them understand why he chose this life of struggle. She noted how the brown leather shoes gave way to dust-coated slippers, how his shirts would be obscured in the heap of ukay clothes he requested for the Mangyans he visited, how his eyes began to harbor deep shadows, reflective of the deeper change within. Only the caps he wore since college remained.

Isaias eventually left his family and Mindoro -- a pained separation for one who tried his best to be a supportive son and brother despite the constraints of time and security. As it was out of the question to come home, Isaias’ mother often had to clandestinely visit him wherever he was.

Throughout his sojourns, however, Isaias never wavered in his love for family and friends, for his girlfriend Ida, for his comrades and the masses. In a letter dated June July 9, 2002, he writes to his parents and siblings:

“Tandaan niyo na mahal na mahal ko kayo. Walang araw na hindi ko kayo naaalala, kung kamusta na ang kalagayan ninyo. Nakikita ko ang mga kaklase ko noon dito; ang iba ay nakatapos na ng kurso nila. Naisip ko, iba-ibang paraan ang pagtulong sa pamilya, iba nga lang ang aking paraan na tinahak: pagtulong sa bayan. Wala akong ibang maipagmamalaki sa katayuan ko kundi ang pamilya natin, pamilyang mulat sa kalagayan ng lipunan. Huwag kayong mag-alala, hindi ko nakakalimutan si Kristo...Ang buong buhay ko ay alay sa inyo, sa Bayan at sa Diyos.”

(Remember how much I love you. No day passes without me wondering how you are faring. I see my classmates here; some of them have finished college. I realized there are different ways of helping your family and the means I chose is different – by helping the people. I am proud of my family, a family that is aware and responsive to what’s happening in society. Do not worry about me, I have not forgotten Christ… My whole life is dedicated to you, the people, and God.)

Eventually, his mother learned to accept, understand, and support Isaias’ chosen path. “Doon siya maligaya at kailangan. Pinili niya iyon at nagpapasalamat ako na nagpaalam siya ng mahusay” (That is where he was happy and needed He chose that path and I am grateful that he bid us farewell properly), she said.

Cultural worker

It was at this point in his life as an activist when I first met him in 2002. Not only was he a patient listener and counselor. As a cultural worker, left-handed Isaias could sing, play the guitar, compose songs, and draw. Whenever the FFM conducted psychosocial therapy sessions for children in distant barrios, Isaias was ready with a smile and an arsenal of songs. Between area visits, he and others would break into jamming sessions, singing about the people’s struggle and cracking jokes.

I recall Isaias’ fondness for progressive films, even mainstream productions one could utilize to interpret Philippine social realities.  “Napanood nyo na ba ang ‘Braveheart’? (Have you seen Braveheart), he once asked. Not having watched this 1995 Mel Gibson film (which some say inspired  Chechnyan freedom fighters, too), he narrated William Wallace’s life, the commoner-revolutionary who sought to overthrow the prevailing feudal system in Europe. Wallace’s execution in 1305 inspired his people to rise up victoriously against their oppressors. Much to my amusement then, Isaias reenacted the sequence of Wallace’s death, where executioners exhorted him to retract and beg for mercy to save his life. Isaias had his own “version” of how Wallace resisted and died, valiantly shouting the word “Freeeeedooooom!”. It was a film he would repeatedly and admiringly talk about, not because of its technical merits, but because it was reflective of the struggle he and many others waged.

Dissident exile

On May 28, 2002, barely a month after that FFM, Bayan Muna coordinator Choy Napoles was killed in broad daylight by paramilitary elements under the Army’s 204^th Brigade in Calapan City. By June, Isaias and many other Mindoro-based activists were forced to flee the island for security purposes, becoming internal refugees like the ones they have helped since 2001. 

Exile did not deter Isaias. He attended press conferences and assisted other internal refugees at the reservation where they temporarily stayed in. He continued his cultural work by organizing the group APLAYA, or Artistang Pangkultura ng Mamamalakaya sa Timog Katagalugan.

Isaias knew that the politics governing mainstream media would not allow enough democratic space to fully expose the grim realities they witnessed, and resisted against this by his own testimonies. He went around the UP Diliman campus with other internal refugees and members of the student council, conducting room-to-room discussions on Mindoro’s military-instigated human rights violations at the buildings of the Art and Sciences, Math, and College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD). They dropped by the Collegian office whenever they held pickets in front of the nearby Department of Agriculture. At the CSWCD, Isaias was an educator of social realities, whether as a guide during community immersions, or as a lecturer during classes and educational discussions.

But far beyond Diliman, Isaias engaged in grassroots community organizing in provinces where he was needed most.  Like his parents, Isaias proved to be a competent educator and advocate in his chosen field. Attending to peasants, urban poor, fisherfolk and national minorities throughout Mindoro Oriental, Romblon, and Batangas, Isaias soon became a teacher to countless people.

I did not see Isaias often then, usually only during funerals at that. On April 21, 2003, human rights leader Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy were abducted and killed by suspected military agents in Naujan. Again, we saw Isaias at the UP Chapel where they lay in state, in a wake filled with hundreds of mourners.

I last saw Isaias before the nationwide Oct. 18 protest against Bush’s state visit. Rallyists from the Southern Tagalog region arrived and set up camp in the lot behind Vinzon's Hall. The Vinzon's building administrator previously banned the rallyists from using its facilities, even its comfort rooms.

Ironic, how almost 500 people slept on damp newspapers or plastic that night, while beside, the newly-renovated College of Business Administration stood empty, its spaces devoid of occupants. Vinzon's Hall, usually open to marginalized groups, had heavily-armed police personnel standing sentinel at the lobby, as if guarding against a grand heist. Isaias was scrounging for beddings for the older protesters, now shivering from the damp earth and the rain.

“Tol, baka may mattress kaming pwedeng hiramin para sa kanila” (Do you have a mattress we can borrow for them), he requested, weariness in his voice. Since the police refused to let him inside Vinzons Hall, we dragged the Kule’s foam mattress four storeys down to them. Isaias tapped us warmly, clutching the faded blue mat as he hurriedly trudged back into the damp, dim lot. That was the last time I would ever see him alive.

The next morning, we woke up late at the Collegian office to see the mattress stacked neatly beside us, quietly returned at the crack of dawn. Four storeys down, Vinzons Hall was surrounded by hundreds of protestors, ready for the long march ahead, red flags waving in the wind.

Ominous events

What happened to Isaias during the last few months of his life blurs after the tragedies occurring with alarming regularity. On Feb. 13, Naujan Vice-Mayor and Bayan Muna member Atty. Juvy Magsino and Leyma Fortu were murdered, reportedly by Army elements in Mindoro Oriental while on their way home.

Isaias was one of those who went back to Mindoro that summer, despite the “occupational hazards” of being an organizer there, despite the certainty of harm trailing him. There, he campaigned for the national elections as the secretary-general of the local chapter of the party-list group Anakpawis (AP), and addressed problems of the agricultural sector as acting secretary-general of the peasant group Kasama-MO.

The events leading to his death are suspect, ominous, pointing to a single perpetrator. After Presidential Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales claimed last April that six progressive parties, including Anakpawis, are “communist fronts,” a renewed slew of killings and harassment in different regions swiftly followed.

After several cases that week, including the murder of AP-MO coordinator Edwin Mascariñas, Isaias and 60 other members of a fact-finding mission set off for Roxas, MO on April 16. There, they were severely harassed and illegally detained by around 20 armed men. Isaias, usually maintaining a low profile, was among those who faced the military to negotiate for their release.

On April 18, the 204^th Brigade again blocked the caravan of Anakpawis-ST chapter in Victoria, where soldiers reportedly took pictures and videos of them. Shortly after, Army troops were looking for Isaias in the nearby Naujan town. The night before his death, a suspicious man, with the same built as his killer, was seen peeping inside his house shortly after midnight.

The day he was killed, Isaias was preparing for a peasant conference aiming to campaign for a PhP15 per kilo increase in palay prices. He and Anakpawis officer Guillermo Coz were in Pachoca, leaving the house of Calapan mayoralty candidate Bodgie Ignacio, when they noticed a man trailing them.

Coz heard a shot and Isaias’ cry out in pain. A bullet hit Isaias in the back and exited through his stomach, causing him to fall on the ground. The still unidentified assailant fired more shots at Coz, who fortunately escaped. He then approached Isaias, who was still shouting in pain, and fired a second shot at his temple.

Peoples’ martyr

It was with immense sadness and rage that family, friends and comrades laid Isais to rest at the local cemetery on May 3. The proximity and intensity of loss hits back hard – again – whenever I write that Mindoro is not just a haven of tourist-infested beaches and guileless seas, whenever we say that it is among the saddest of islands in this archipelago of distress and disturbances.

It is a grave injustice to let his death pass by, serenely. It was painful enough having to look calmly at the police’s photographs of his body at the site, bloodied and lifeless, still wearing the familiar cap. It was excruciating to note how the manner in which Isaias was killed was suspiciously similar to all those who died before. Unjust, how, for all these valiant activists who dared face the enemy straight in the eye, to be killed so treacherously, without a fair fight.

It was infinitely harder to swallow AFP’s Col. Fernando Mesa statements, shrugging off circumstantial evidence of the military’s involvement as merely “judgmental.” The military is innocent? The 204^th IB did not have a hand in this killing? That is an immense, unforgivable lie. As if the four years of systematic bloodshed never happened. As if Isaias Manano, Choy Napoles, Erwin Bacarra, Juvy Magsino, Eden Marcellana, Leyma Fortu, Manuela and Expedito Albarillo, Eddie Gumanoy, Bong Ternida, Nicanor delos Santos, the entire litany of 62 principled people murdered were random “accidents”.  As if the military never had a mercenary history of being used to quell the just dissent of a society in crisis, which all these people dedicated their lives to.

In retrospect, Isaias’s tragic and untimely death can never be truncated from that of the rest. These are the “terrorists” the state unjustly sanctions the killings of, whom groups wishing to remain in power conspire against. Any semblance of justice for our “Jun” necessarily entails the continuity of the struggles all of them stood and died for.

“Nay, dumami ho ang mga anak ninyo” (Mother, your children are multiplying), Isaias used to tell his mother whenever his comrades visited their home, a remark that takes on another significance with his passing. I wager that our friend persists whenever and wherever we who remain resolve to rebel against silence and seek retribution for all the blood shed. Wherever we struggle for an era where people are no longer silenced for their principles, because the truths they speak make puppets tremble, because their hands, like that of brave Isaias, can create the fiercest of signs. Bulatlat.com

Back to top

We want to know what you think of this article.