Silakbo

In 1959, Janine Pluma Vergel and Nicolas Liham Acuzar were two student journalists under University of the Philippines' school publication Silakbo. Before their final academic year, they discovered an injustice that sparked them to use the publication as the voice of the oppressed, resulting in the hunger of society for answers, resulting in the government to grasp on their power, laying the root for the Manila Uprising. Pluma and Liham took leadership among students in joining the protests. As they sought for justice, human rights began to wither, democracy slowly crumbled under the weight of a rising dictatorship. And when they believed they could finally bring their voices closer to the deafened walls of the government, they met their unjust demise, buried in silence. No one learned about the truth of their patriotism. For sixty-six years.

But then two AB History students from the same university in 2025, Dani Imogen Villaluna and Jace Nicholai Consuelo, were paired to uncover a buried past in the country's history. At first it was just a final academic task, until Imogen began receiving old, almost timeworn letters.

Letters sent by Liham.

Letters addressed to Pluma.

And so began the digging of a buried history out from its chained grave.

"Sa harapan ng oblation statue, doon binaril 'yung magkasintahang biktima sa Manila Uprising. Hindi pa sila nakakakuha ng hustisya. Hindi ko alam kung kailan nila makakamit ang hustisya."