Joma Sison Yearns for Mangoes, Sings `Mao’s Way’
The author interviews
Jose Maria Sison to see if there is something human about a so-called
“terrorist” who is considered legendary or notorious, depending on one’s
beliefs.
BY RUDY D. LIPORADA
Contributed to Bulatlat
The author with Prof. Jose Maria
Sison in The Netherlands |
In 2005, I went to Europe for a month-long vacation with my family.
Hopping through Iceland, England, France, Germany and The Netherlands, I
made it a point to see Jose Maria Sison in Utrecht. You can say that the
latter is seemingly a tourist destination now in The Netherlands because a
so-called “terrorist” lives there. I was hoping to check for myself if
there is anything human about this person.
I found out, however, that an afternoon chat with the revolutionary would
not be enough to capture in words his human side. He is, after all, either
legendary or notorious (depending on how one views him).
For those who believe
that the Communist Party of the Philippines which he reestablished in
December 1968 and the New People’s Army which he founded in March 1969 are
“terrorist” groups, it is easy to picture Joma as nothing but a communist
blubbering machine.
|
Nonetheless, beyond
the Marxist polemic, “Arroyo is a lame duck,” and “those were the good old
revolutionary days” chat we had in August 2005, Joma expressed his
yearning for mangoes. “The carabao ones,” he emphasizes. In spite of his
claim as being at home with the world as an internationalist, this
yearning is a crack through which one could glimpse a Filipino human who
longs for the embrace of the motherland after being away for a long time.
Abroad, Joma had
joined the legions of Filipinos who had been uprooted from the
Philippines. While most overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), however, could
go home on vacations to fulfill their yearnings, Joma cannot. He has
sought political asylum in The Netherlands since former President Corazon
Aquino cancelled his Philippine passport in 1988.
Mangoes are actually
described in Joma’s 1994 poem “Sometimes, the Heart Yearns for Mangoes.”
Here he expresses that while there is a notion that life for Filipinos is
better abroad, “sometimes we yearn for mangoes where there are apples.” He
also laments being separated from his relatives, not even able to visit
his sick mother because he has been robbed “of home, kith, and kin.” The
poem is the core expression of his longing for the country where he was
born in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, on February 8, 1939.
And like most
Filipinos abroad, Joma would always look for opportunities that can him a
semblance of Filipino life. Like any Filipino community abroad, Filipinos
in The Netherlands love to party and provide him those stringent jolly
times.
On such occasions,
Joma simply blends. “I did not really care who he was when we were
introduced,” says Nico Javier who is a post-Philippine Martial Law baby
who grew up in the U.S. and was a music student in The Hague. Now back in
Michigan, U.S., Nico says, “I just noticed that he was neatly dressed and
almost everyone wanted to talk to him.” He adds, “With what is happening
in the Philippines and the world, I am now interested in Joma’s
perspectives. I regret that while in The Netherlands, I have not huddled
with those people who crowded to speak with the man.”
True to his being
Ilocano, Joma would readily dive into a dish of pinakbet (vegetable
dish in the Ilocos region). Whenever there is a karaoke, he loves singing
“Mao’s Way,” lifted from a Frank Sinatra song “My Way.” And when there is
dancing, he would do so normally to 1950s and 1960s music. “I love to
cha-cha,” says Joma. “That is not Charter Change,” he quips. “And Julie (Joma’s
wife) could do the boogie, cha-cha, and the tango.”
Joma and Julie met
when he was an English professor and she was a library cataloguer at the
University of the Philippines in the early 1960s. In spite of having four
children, they were together in organizing the movement, in detention
(where Joma was manacled and held incommunicado for 18 months), and now in
The Netherlands. When Joma was labeled a “terrorist” shortly after 9/11,
their measly $1,000.00 bank account was frozen. Unable to seek employment
because of his tag, Joma and Julie depend on the latter’s subsistence
allowance as a legal resident of Netherlands.
For their austere
amenities, his detractors project Joma as leading the revolution by
“remote control,” unmindful of the suffering revolutionaries go through
especially in the mountains as he lives a good life abroad.
“This is, of course,
designed to discredit us and dissuade people from the movement,” says Joma.
“But the comrades know that we are not having a luxurious time here. There
is nothing more than I wish today but to be in the mainstream of the
struggle in the Philippines but the comrades themselves advise against it.
I could surely be easily assassinated. Not that I am not in danger here
that is why I never go out alone. I cannot even venture out of the borders
of The Netherlands. But the comrades know that we are working hard for the
peace negotiations and information campaign about the Philippines.”
When not politically
working 12 to 14 hours a day where he writes position papers and messages
of solidarity to Philippine and foreign mass organizations, Joma and Julie
simply have strolls in the parks of Utrecht. He writes and reads poetry
and has recorded his own songs on CD. He regrets having stopped playing
basketball since 1992 with those far younger than him.
Given that he started
experiencing shortness of breath in 1998, he had been prompted to stop
smoking in 2001. “To stop smoking, I wrote a pledge to myself and had
friends witness my signing. I suffered nausea and all those withdrawal
symptoms initially. I am standing firm on my resolve.”
This seems to be a
simple sacrifice for a man who has gone through a lot and wants to prolong
his life so that, maybe one day, he may gratify his yearning for mangoes –
mangoes that come from a sturdy tree which, like Joma’s movement, takes
years to grow from a simple seed, that must be nourished and smoked,
before it could yield clusters of those sumptuous fruits, green or gold.
Bulatlat
Editor’s Note: The
author is editor of the publication
Kapitbahay (Neighbor) in San Diego,
California.
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