Meaning-Making & Mobilizations

Revolution.

When I first entered UP, revolution has always been this empty word for me. Empty in a
sense that it was a merely a floating concept. It was something that I only saw in movies or
books and not this concrete thing that I believed could happen in “real life.” Looking back I
realized that along with the lack of a firm grasp of what revolution really was I also didn’t have
much to say about nationalism.

Truth be told I had a clear vision of myself as a UP student. I thought I’d be an exact
copy of those UP students we usually see on TV being condemned by the nation for being
activists. And during that time, I was part of the vast majority that saw rallying and any kind of
activism as unnecessary. I couldn’t see the point of it all considering the fact that I was raised in
a very sheltered household and had a very privileged life. But back then, these terms didn’t exist
to me. My worries were limited to my immediate environment and the nation’s problems didn’t
bother me at all. Tragic, I know.

But as a freshman “iska,” I didn’t meet my expectations. I didn’t attend rallies. I was
even afraid to join the chanting that everyone participated in during Freshman Night. But one
thing I did notice and was able to appreciate was the kind of education we were getting inside the
university. Gone were the motherly statements about society that I was used to hearing in high
school. Here, we were forced to look at the ugly underbelly of society that people usually chose
to ignore. We were forced to look and then asked if we would still be comfortable doing nothing
about it.

In order to really understand revolution, I learned that we had to hit the books first. It was
then did I realize that those who hit the streets were just fueled by their anger alone. At the time,
it was such a revelation to me to discover that there were actual theories that backed up these
movements. These people weren’t rallying based on emotions alone; they had actual cold, hard
data and statistics to back up their claims.
 Very few people realize that “Education is a vital weapon of a people striving for
economic emancipation, political independence and cultural renaissance.” (Constantino, 1966)
Despite the fact that education has been one of the more successful tools of the Americans’
colonization of our country, it can also be one of the things that will truly liberate us from the
influences of our oppressors. However, this can only happen if our educational institutions fully
acknowledge their duty to produce nationalist students instead of just being after the gains of
commercializing education. With education, there is power. And because of my 3 years within
UP I realize that this power is often withheld from those who truly need it.

For my first two years in UP, I learned more about the true situation of society and what I
was supposed to be obliged to do about it. However, I still had this fear of actually going out of
my way and putting all of my knowledge into practice. One could say that I was like Rizal, a
propagandist, lacking of the courage to actually do something.

But during my third year, something changed. Perhaps it was because of the subjects I
was taking or maybe it was because of the growing discomfort everyone had because of the
events taking place within the country’s government. I felt like with the events happening around
us, my country needed me.

The Mayo Uno mob was the first mobilization I attended in my 19 years of existence.
Truth be told, I never in a million years thought that I would see myself marching under a soft
drizzle, placard in hand, yelling chants about abolishing the contractualization of our country’s
workers. It felt monumental. Even more significant than that time I got a 1.00. To me, it felt like
the biggest milestone I’ve ever achieved as a UP student. But, I didn’t just participate in the
mobilization just because I wanted to. I made the effort to actually attend educational discussions
about contractualization and it was here that I saw how all of society’s problems were all
interconnected. It wasn’t easy because I had to unlearn a lot of things that I’ve believed in for so
long.

In Rizal’s Concept of the Filipino Nation, he made it absolutely clear that in order to
create a better society, Filipinos needed to reorient their thoughts, words, and actions to serve not
themselves but the task of “nation-building.” While I was marching with the mob under not-so
fair weather, I thought to myself that Rizal ​was right, in order to find the will to build a nation
one must see it suffer. I couldn’t have possibly built a bond with the contractual workers I
marched with on that day if I didn’t learn about how they suffered. Rizal was wrong about a lot
of things, but his concept of nationalism as completely handing yourself over to your country,
was spot on.

Attending the Mayo Uno Mobilization was nothing short of life-changing for me because
for the first time I fully understood what the word “revolution” truly meant. I learned that it
wasn’t something you could feel by yourself. Revolution couldn’t be brought about by a single
person or entity, it can only be brought about by the collective action of a masses united by a
cause. On a more personal note, I’ve always been used to the feeling of being alone despite being
with a number of people but as I marched with the workers and fellow students on that day, I felt
so empowered. I was part of something that mattered, and that didn’t make me feel the least bit
lonely.

Studying Rizal has taught me one thing: having a national hero isn’t right because a
single person didn’t carry out the revolution that made us into who we are today. Our history
isn’t governed by a single entity, and the liberation of our country wasn’t achieved the actions of
just one person. In reality, “...history is made by men who confront the problems of social
progress and try to solve them in accordance with the historical conditions of their epoch.”
(Constantino, 1969)

Revolution.

It was now a word that carried quite a heavy weight in my mind, grounded and firmly
rooted. Perhaps, giving meaning to that word came with the price with being in a constant state
of unease. However, it’s definitely a small price to pay for trading my old eyes for brand new
ones that saw everything that’s happening in our country with crystal clarity. Giving meaning to
the word “Revolution” definitely wasn’t an easy task but in the end, when we achieve true
liberation, it will be surely worth it.
References:

Constantino, R. (1970). “The Mis-education of the Filipino”. ​Journal of Contemporary Asia​, 1,

1, 20-37.

Constantino, R. (1970). Veneration without understanding. ​In Dissent and

Counter-Consciousness. ​Quezon City: Malaya Books

Quibuyen, F. (2008). ​A nation aborted: Rizal, American hegemony, and Philippine nationalism.

(2​nd​ Ed.). Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.