One time, big time? We were bigger before

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
9/26-28/2011



Last Monday, September 19, PISTON kicked off its transport strike. Initially, this had been billed as the so called, “One Time, Big Time!” National Transport Strike. That was when it appeared like everybody in the land transport sector would be joining the impending strike. That was before P-Noy called the leaders to a meeting at the Palace two weeks ago.

After that meeting, PISTON was left alone in its determination to push through with the strike on its original date, Monday, the 19th of September. As usual, the strike appeared to have fizzled out. That is, in so far as the National Capital Region, Metro Manila, was concerned.

In the provinces, in the places were PISTON was strong, the strike had its impact. Otherwise, the strike was not felt.

PISTON is identified with BAYAN, KMU, ANAKBAYAN and other so called Leftist Organizations. The perception of the general public is that the Left will always rally or strike no matter what. The idea of one big strike was partly designed to dispel the perception that this was just one of those leftist activities. Except on the occasion of Labor Day and the SONA, the Left cannot by itself and without a broader coalition, organize a rally that will be perceived as big enough.

Militant Transport Groups
In the almost three years between the start of the First Quarter Storm and the imposition of Martial Law on September 21-23/24, the situation of the transport sector was quite different. The militant and strike capable transport organizations were not dominated by the Left. There were three major organizations of Jeepney Drivers and Operators. They were MAPAGSAT (GlicerioGervero), PasangMasda and PCDO. There was a new organization of Taxi Drivers called MASTADA. The organizations of taxi operators were also active. The big operators like My and Yellow Taxi were active. The name of an owner that I can recall is the Zamora family.

I belonged to a Jesuit inspired, moderate youth and student organization called KASAPI. KASAPI stood for “Kapulungan ng mga Sandiganng Pilipinas”. Sandigan stood for “pillars” or “sectors”. That meant that we were organizing by sectors.

We were designed to compete with the Left, so we, together with our non-Leftist allies, called ourselves the Democratic Left. We were known as the Moderates while the Leftists were the Radicals. Later on, we would describe ourselves as either Democratic Socialists or Social Democrats.

We had internal committees or modules that were assigned to work in particular sectors of society and with particular individuals and organizations. This was line organizing work.

We also had staff modules that were supposed to perform particular functions. Among the Democratic Left or Moderates, KASAPI was the closest in structure and style to the Communists and National Democrats. We were also the least anti-com among our ranks of Moderates. The most anti-communist as early as then was the Hasik Kalayaan of Archie and Bert. Our most prominent personality who converted to the Left was Edgar Jopson.

Jesuit-inspired Moderates
Our transport module was headed by Rey Andal of Pinamalayan, Mindoro Oriental, Tess Villapando (later on the faithful secretary of Fr. Jose Blanco), Paps Baskinas of Legaspi, Albay, Bicol and Dante Perez of Batangas, among others. Aside from being the full time working members of the committee, they had organized and were the leaders of SKIT. SKIT means Samahanng Kabataan sa Ikauunlad ng Tsuper. In supporting the jeepney drivers, SKIT was assisted by the mother organization KASAPI and sister line or mass organizations like Kampi (Labor), Masa (College) and SPL (High School-RicManapat, Marissa Camacho and Karen Tanada. They were supported by staff organizations like KKPI (Mon Garcia, Jojo Deles). Future Senator and Governor Joey Lina was the KASAPI spokesman.

KASAPI and SKIT were moderate organizations. We had been inspired by Jesuit Missionary to Indonesia Fr. Jose Blanco, S. J. and Ateneo History Professor Rolando Quintos. We were aligned with former Senator Raul S. Manglapus who organized the Christian Social Movement in 1967 or 68. He had run as a senator in 1957 (Party for Philippine Progress or Progressive Party of the Philippinea), 1959 (Grand Alliance) and 1961 (United Opposition Party, which was a political coalition for the 1961 Presidential Elections composed of the Liberal Party [w 1957-1961 Vice President DiosdadoMacapagal as the common Presidential Candidate] and the PPP and GA [w former Senatorial Candidate Emmanuel Pelaez as the common Vice Presidential Candidate]).

In the year before Marcos declared Martial Law, KASAPI was part of a wider progressive political alliance that would be launched as the Kapisanan ng mga Anak pawis ng Pilipinas (KAP). KAP was composed of heavyweights like the CSM (Raul S. Manglapus, Joe Concepcion and Buti Jose), FFF Atty. JeremiasMontemayor, Charlie Avila, Gerry Bulatao, Gerry Esguerra), FFW (Johnny Tan), PAFLU (Cipriano Cid), Philcontu (later on the TUCP=Democrito Mendoza and Ed Nolasco).

Militant Genuine Driver
The then young weights were Buklod Kalayaan (Edgar Jopson), HasikKalayaan (Fr. Archie Intengan, S. J. and Bert Gonzales),KASAPI (Linggoy and Mentong, Joey Lina and Jun Simon), Lakasdiwa (Fr. Ed Garcia, DodieLimcaoco), YCSP (Art Valdez and Ben Maynigo), YCW and others pa rin.

Going back to our starting topic, the “One Time, Big Time!”, we were bigger then. We exercised a bigger and wider influence in the transport sector than the Left. They had a front organization of jeepney drivers and operators. It was not PISTON yet. The jeepney sector was geographical or territorial by route. There were often several competing route level organizations. The big federations competed in recruiting these to affiliate with them.

The newest, most democratic and militant was the MAPAGSAT under Glicerio Gervero. Gervi was a genuine driver unlike the leaders of the Pasang Masda (the brothers Lazaro, one of whom was a lawyer) and the PCDO (Mr.Boni de Luna). We were very closely allied with them and supported them in whatever way we could. However, we understood that we did not have a majority of the players in MAPAGSAT and so we cultivated alliances with them as well as the Left.

The main issue then was the rising price of fuel. This may have been an effect of the Six Day Arab-Israeli War of June 1967. We inspired and supported several bigger than the present strikes. How come we could be bigger then? Simple; in the jeepney sub sector, we got the majority of the federations, route organizations and players together. We got a critical mass of big taxi operators to support the strike with money as well as by keeping their fleets in their garages.

Coerced Bus Sector
The bus sub-sector we simply coerced. With the majority of not only jeepney drivers but also their respective operators on strike, the streets would immediately look different from a regular day. There would be hundreds of striking drivers supported by hundreds of activists at the main intersections and LGU boundaries. If the bus operators insisted on sending their fleets to ply their routes, we would simply burn a couple of them right at the start of the strike.

When the government put armed soldiers aboard the buses, we peppered them with stink bombs made from human shit.

Our smallest “Terrorist” was Dodie Garduce, a member of SPL, our high school student organization. She was deadly with a big screwdriver against the Lawanit Board bus bodies that were popular then. She was the daughter of future Samar Congressman Garduce. She would become the wife of Popoy Lagman. She would die in the field when she and Popoy were cornered by government soldiers in Nueva Ecija. Popoy would survive and later on lead the splitting of the Left into Affirmists and Rejectionists.

Remember in September
In closing, please remember the following who were born or who died in September:

Sept 20 – Edgar Jopson’s (1970 NUSP president and as Marcos said on January 30, 1970, “The son of a grocer, Jopson’s in Sampaloc, Manila.) 40th Death Anniversary;

Sept 21 – Fr. Francisco Zaragoza Araneta, S. J.’s Birthday. He was the President of the Ateneo de Manila University twice, adviser of the CSM and Manglapus and friend and supporter of KASAPI and the Jeepney strikers. We used his Rizal Room office at the Ateneo Padre Faura campus as our HQ;

Sept 29 – Ray Junia’s Birthday. If he did not publish OpinYon, a lot of the history that I know will not get written and published;

Sept 24 – my paternal cousin, Sebastian “Basty’ Alcuaz Munoa’s birthday. He worked for ESSO, the predecessor with Mobil of Petron, but he never took me to task for fighting the oil companies. My brother-in-law, Roberto Lim, worked for Shell;

Sept 27– Our Ateneo High School Honors Class 4 A will hold a reunion in honor of our home room teacher, Fr. Herbert Schnieder (as in Romy),S. J. who celebrated his 75th birthday last March 25. Next year he marks his 50th year either as a Jesuit or in the Philippines.