The Awakening of Maria Teresa Pangilinan

Maria Teresa Pangilinan, a recent graduate of the Cavite State University, hogged the headlines for calling on the ouster of the President while the president was in the middle of her speech. What were the factors that led to her political awakening? What was the impact of her decision to publicly confront the highest official of the land?

BY DENNIS ESPADA

Bulatlat

Dasmariñas, Cavite (36 kms south of Manila) – Unknown to many people, youth leader Maria Teresa Pangilinan or Tere used to skip attending classes just to sleep,a habit she said that she developed ever since high school.

She admitted this is because she never liked the Computer Engineering course that she took in 1999. “Back then, I would be absent for two days every week,” the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) vice chair for Southern Tagalog revealed with a grin.

From being a nameless bubbly youth, she gained national prominence as the Cavite State University (CvSU) graduate who demanded the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and encouraging others to do the same.

After taking a break between tasks that seem to be full of twists and turns, this 23-year-old youth agreed to be interviewed and have her photos taken inside a modest office here unnoticed by most passersby.

Getting up

The rustic town of Indang, Cavite is home to CvSU and Tere, the youngest in a brood of three.

Both parents, she said, sells merchandise goods to earn a living. At times, her father makes and sells cotton candies and balloons in the streets; her mother, candles.

Interests in acting, singing, writing scripts and essays had grown with her. To get rid of her absenteeism, she decided to join a campus-based theater group called Student Artists Society. It was when she met the director that served as an eye-opener to social realities. She slowly began to observe current issues in a deep-seated way.

But due to financial constraints, she had to stop schooling for a while to work as an office staff for a Korean garments factory within the Cavite Economic Processing Zone (CEPZ).

Just outside CEPZ gates, she would bump into pickets and listen with interest to militant workers’ speeches denouncing trade union repression and so-called sweatshops.

Seeing how “cruel” the system turns out to be, she returned to CvSU in 2003 and shifted to Mass Communication. “Dama ko pa rin na parang ang hirap mag-aral dito… komersyalisado na talaga ‘yung edukasyon. Akala ko sa pagbalik ko gan’un pa rin kababa ‘yung tuition fee (I felt that it’s so hard to study here… education is really commercialized. I thought the tuition fees would still be as low as before),” she laments. “Tapos, lumala ‘yung represyon sa kampus kasi parang diyos ‘yung mga dekano, ‘yung mga titser parang diyos (Then, campus repression worsened. The deans and teachers acted as though they were gods).”

Tere was no “Dean’s pet” when she got elected as chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council the following year. She also wrote articles for The Gazette, CvSU’s student newspaper. In 2005, she and her party took over the Central Student Government (CSG) with herself as president.

As student representative in the Board of Regents (BOR), she wrestled on issues like the budget cut for state colleges and universities, the commercialization of school facilities and services and the hiring of contractual teachers. “In the board meetings, the students are always outvoted. The administration thinks that I’m alone in this struggle when in fact, many students (student population is 5,000 more or less) are complaining against these policies.”

“She had a sense of responsibility, was dedicated, sensitive with understanding and principled as a leader,” The Gazette former culture editor Arem Ceasar de los Reyes remarked. “She’s also friendly and talented.”

Graduation Protest

The April 21 protest action aimed at no less than Arroyo, though swift and marred by controversy, made such a lasting impact. Students, columnists and militant organizations applauded it. All the president’s men, from Malacañang to the provincial capitol, condemned it.

Armed with sheer guts and wit, Tere said there was nothing wrong with protesting against Arroyo and that it is their right to exercise free expression anytime, anywhere.

“Since then, political consciousness perked up. Before, the students were stuck to watching telenovelas. Now, they started reading newspapers seriously, although there are some who are still afraid,” Tere points out. “In fact, some people hugged me that day. I also received a lot of text messages not only from students but also parents and relatives expressing their support.”

The positive effects, she explains, justified the action of the protesters; a reiteration that hope for this nation still rests on young Pinoys. “Sinungaling si Arroyo nang sabihin niya na kanya ang kabataan, na magkakaroon sila ng magandang kinabukasan sa ilalim niya” (Arroyo was lying when she said the youth is on her side, that they will have a bright future under her).

“What kind of future can the president promise to fresh graduates in a condition where most workers are reduced to being contractual with meager wages?” she asked in doubt.

Those who belong to the generation that witnessed the First Quarter Storm says Tere’s act is reminiscent of what another NUSP leader – 1970 Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardee Edgar “Edjop” Jopson – had shown.

According to Benjamin Pimentel’s book Edjop: The Unusual Journey of Edgar Jopson, the young Jopson on January 30, 1970 demanded then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos to sign a document pledging that he will not run for a third term. This angered Marcos, ensued by his famed sarcastic remark: “Who are you to tell me what to do! You’re only a son of a grocer!” What followed next was the epic and bloody street demonstrations.

Referring to the likes of Edjop and other martyrs, Tere uttered with eyes glistening, “Lahat ng militante na totoo ‘yung isinusulong ay kahanga-hanga (All militants whose advocacies are true inspire me).”

In the system

Despite charges of public disturbance, threats of being declared persona non grata, being on a watchlist and other “reprisals,” she does not have any regret with what she did. And with credentials needed to apply for a job still on hold for the meantime she said: “Dito muna ako” (I’ll stay here), referring to her organization.

“Nasa sistema ko na itong ginagawa ko” (What I’m doing is already in my system), she said. Bulatlat

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