"PARA": Sentiments of Generation Z

092117 Para sa Ika-45 na Anibersaryo ng ML

It is truly a first for a Filipino president to announce that both classes on schools and work in the government are suspended on a certain day, yet does not directly acknowledged it as a holiday. A National Day of Protest, as the government has called it, was declared in memorial of the 45th Martial Law Anniversary which is undeniably one of the most well-renowned and controversial event in the Philippine history. This year's September 21st was undoubtedly unalike from the past years, for activists were given much liberty with regards to voicing out their stands and messages-not just for the Marcos's regime, but also the present administration's or their personal endeavors.

Last Thursday, various groups from different generations held mass protests, not only in Metro Manila, but rather throughout the entire country in commemoration of the signing of Proclamation 1081 or the declaration of martial law on 1972. Such period has been regarded as the darkest time for the Filipino community who has truly experienced abuse and oppression from some officials from the Philippine military during this era. Albeit I have not really seen such hardships and sufferings of our countrymen then, the stories they would miserably recall and tell us through several mediums are enough to make us realize that their time is slowly becoming ours too somehow.

During these past months, the extrajudicial killings have been widely propagated to the extent that hearing someone was shot dead became nothing but a common news to hear on the radios and televisions. It is justly to say that the society we need to live in every day is distressing and saddening, since it appears that the mallet we once used in order to attain justice became a mere display, for our police officers seem to be our modern-day judges using their guns.

I believe that we, millenials, are not supposed to be merely regarded as a 'Selfie Generation' nowadays, for we are more than the photographs we come to develop; we do not just use these social media platforms to create our own world, but rather we also use these so to become of the world and step up for its injustice. I know that the majority of the older generations would look down us and belittle our 180-character-limited tweets, but frankly speaking, the People Power Revolution they have proudly lead before was nothing but pure propaganda-for me, it is and it has always been.

I am aware that ending the so-called darkest time for our country with a peaceful and non-violent way, wherein a million was gathered on the Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue Avenue with rosaries at hand and prayers, was such a beautiful ending for a story, but we do not need such sugarcoat called 'ignorance' in the recourse of our history. The estimated three million Manileños who assembled along EDSA was only 2% of the population at that time and President Marcos's order became a completely ignored and silenced fact that day-"My order is not to attack." This led us to what the Yellows called as democracy and would even inanely call as a divine intervention which has become the root of the Philippines' sensed poverty.

As a millenial, I did not have the direct experience of what conspired 45 years ago, of course, but from what my parents has inculcated and the point of view I have learned to grew up in, I still considered that even though Marcos may have caused repression to the Filipinos before, he was not entirely the sole and the worst antagonist in our history. The true 'kontrabida' all along was the indifference to the hardships the marginalized of some people due to their privileges. Some have forgotten the fact that not all Filipinos are experiencing the comfort they are in.

I am not affiliating myself with any color in any way, since I have always disliked the idea of having such to represent one's pont of view in politics in the first place. I regard these hues to be the invisible yet indestructible divisions that our political system has which prevents us and our political leaders from being one to make the Philippines excel. I have just figured to consider that every story in the books we read at hand has two sides of it and so, why not our own history?

I stand on this ground that we should not just become a part of a certain hue just because of what we may have read, heard, watched, or even taught of because at the end of the day, the reality we are living in may, ironically, not really be the actual reality. We must not be merely influenced by the majority nor believe on something just because, since, truly, we have the capability to think and ask as rational human beings. We must be blindly loyal to a politician due to the color he associates with, but rather we must be loyal to our fellow Filipinos and to the country it represents. ■

- Therese Fatima
teriseu