History lessons from Jun Pala, post-Edsa

Everyone has heard of Jun Pala nowadays in the news as a broadcaster allegedly killed for criticizing the mayor. But not everyone heard about Jun Pala as the broadcaster who jarred the public in the post-Edsa days with his deep-voiced rants against labor unionists, priests, nuns, activists and warned them they will be “tad-tad” (chop-chop) by anti-communist vigilante Tadtad or Alsa Masa. His rants peppered with insults, such as “tulibag

bag” (errant) or “tambaloslos” (little monsters). That was the Pala I knew and I saw on that video I posted this week on my Facebbok. That was the Pala that spewed terror on the airwaves. That was the Pala my editor-in-chief Stella Estremera and friend labor organizer Omar Bantayan wrote about last week, saying he doesn’t deserved to be a rallying call for freedom as he was a mouthpiece against the freedoms people fought against.

That video by the way is part of a documentary called: “A Rustling of Leaves” by Canadian director Nettie Wild filmed in 1988.

It showed the Philippines post-Edsa, particularly in Davao where cheers of freedom were drowned by bullets and by a broadcaster that struck fear on the public with threats they will be killed by anti-communist vigilantes.

Pala was the highlight of that movie, which captured the climate of fear brought by his daily rants on radio and vigilantes patrolling Agdao and other barrios in Davao. That video was the most chilling part as Pala read a list of names and said they are under surveillance, and told Nettie Wild “it is up to the Tadtad to

tad-tad them.” Then in the next part of the film was a coffin where a union leader Peter Alderite was laid to rest after being hacked to death by the Tadtad.

I searched on YouTube if that video is online and there was none. I thought this video would make people see Pala for who he was and what he did to Davao.

After that video went viral, there were strong reactions about how chilling Davao City was. This is a part of history that many never knew about surviving the mid to late-1980s in the military’s anti-communist crusade. I realized how much history has been buried or forgotten, and worse being revised by politicians from Marcos to Aquino. But videos don’t lie, and now we see the real Pala.

Pala’s “invincibility” eventually faded when Alsa Masa and other groups were dismantled by the army, and after his lost from running as the city’s mayor. His late career would see him as an “extortionist” on air by ranting against businessmen especially Filipino-Chinese ones and public officials whom he asked money later on. Then he picked on Duterte.

Surprisingly, I was able to connect online to the families of Peter Aderite and another union leader interviewed in the video. They were as much surprised to see that video and they shared it online. They said they had moved on in their lives after that horrifying episode. But they do say that justice has been served when Pala was dead in 2003.