Children protesters
IBy N my collegiate days back in 1982 when president of the San Beda College “student council,” an incident prompted my announcing students to boycott their classes. In the early afternoon of what was still the dreaded regime of Martial Rule, Bedans exited the main campus gates, amassing right in Mendiola in an agitated mode. This was real estate sought after as hallowed grounds of university-based marchers. For those unaware, San Beda is located at the inner zone of what is now Don Chino Roces Bridge. The bridge, originally called Mendiola, was the first line of defense as gateway to Malacanang. Fronting the span, was the arena for many red marches, perorations, effigy burnings, and lives taken in clashes with the uniformed guards of previous administrations.
How did the Benedictine monks respond to a crisis situation? A prefect of discipline spoke to me worried for the safety of my fellow-students. A growing crowd with mega-phones blaring within hearing distance of the Presidential Guard’s outpost would get immediate response. School heads would respect the declaration to boycott classes, but in exchange, would the student body hold the program in the college grandstand, in-campus? I eventually relented. Everybody marched back.
I also vaguely recall once a nationwide protest reverberating in Metro Manila. Several nuns were raring to go to lend their support to the mass street protest. In Cebu, there was, however, the polished faith of a Cardinal Ricardo Vidal who herded all the faithful to light candles and pray instead, as a sign of solidarity with those in the capital.
This brings to mind, the varying snippets of the religious in protest. The clergy leading protest action or encouraging placard bearing? Or a nun praying the rosary in street marches? The nuances may be hairline but the substance is striking. Does a man or woman of the cloth teach the impoverished how to fish? Or should they instruct them how “poverty” is violence, and therefore they should organize to be liberated? Was the crucifixion in Calvary salvific for lost souls? Or should the homiletics be of Jesus as the first “subversive,” a radical? Parents, not educational institutions are the primary teachers of their children. Passing values, culture, and traditions, to their sons and daughters is one of the cardinal responsibilities of fathers and mothers. They cannot launder their hands and allow foster minds or institutions take over “parenting” responsibility, even if such colleges or universities are named after saints or are bastions of intellectualism.
A parental consent for 10-yearolds to protest is a fig-leaf for kids as “props”, to sponsor the school’s creed of “dissent” by exhorting impressionable minds. Question is, do these kids have a full understanding of the issues? In its entirety sans editing, before their involvement was enrolled? Or a mere sprinkling of what Wendy Hammer once said, “The cause is in the eye of the beholder.” In this case, the college administrators?