Posted on

Working-class heroes, of the biker kind

Cornelio-Agaid-Padilla-Jr
Tour of Luzon 1966 and 1967 back-to-back champion Cornelio Padilla Jr. Note that competitive bikers back then didn’t wear helmets, just ordinary sun caps. Then as now, however, they still smelled of sweat. Image courtesy of Filipino Star News.

Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan.—Ariel Ureta, popular radio-TV host in the 1970s

Ariel Ureta, forever associated with this motto under martial law, probably meant it as a harmless play or at most a subtle dig on the Marcos propaganda slogan, “Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan.” Rumors flew that Ariel was later called to Camp Crame and given a mild dose of Marcosian discipline by being made to bike around the camp for hours—a mere urban legend, as he himself recently clarified. Continue reading “Working-class heroes, of the biker kind”

Posted on

Good morning, towel!

Since I was a child, I’ve often noticed jeepney drivers, conductors, and mechanics wearing one over their shoulders or keeping one handily tucked into their pants pocket. Even though our street corner was teeming with jeepneys all day long, we didn’t use it at home. So I had always associated it with the hoi polloi, the Great Unwashed of the streets.

Good Morning towel
The famous East Asian "Good Morning" towel

Then I became an activist. Driven by martial law repression, I went full-time into underground activism from 1976 onward, with Metro Manila as our regular AOR, plus some parts of Cavite and a strip of Bulacan as our “rear base,” sort of. There I first met up-close the plebeian Good Morning Towel, aka GMT. Continue reading “Good morning, towel!”

Posted on

Giant among dwarfs

GIANT AMONG DWARFS. That’s what I imagined Joker to be when he joined the Corazon Aquino government, a solid pillar supporting Cory’s load only to be felled as a sacrificial offering when the coup attempts started to besiege her rule.

IRAIA thoughts
IRAIA thoughts

Giant among dwarfs he was again, when he joined the Lower House, and later the Senate. He marched to a different drummer, and I’d like to believe, that drummer was the democratic mass movement–although sometimes he seemed hard of hearing or too stubborn, and so made some missteps. But aside from that, he was a likable guy, a courageous human rights lawyer, fellow street parliamentarian, and fiscalizer in government.

The only thing I didn’t like about him was his hairdo. I think he secretly fancied himself to be either Emperor Trajan or Constantine. But that’s ok. After all, he was a giant among dwarfs.#