Richard James Mendoza
(Dedicated to all my comrades-in-arms)
I’m a proud member of Anakbayan, a
comprehensive mass organization of the youth. So yes mother, I’m an activist
just like my sister. Those times when I got home late? About more than half of
those instances, I was either attending a meeting or having educational
discussions with my comrades. I’m that noisy and jobless bum that does nothing
but rant on the internet and loiter on the streets. I’m that super duper evil
guy who deceives my fellow youth with what can be said in the vernacular as
“matatamis at mapanlinlang na mga salita,” the same method that’s also being
utilized by those money-making pyramid scams, but I digress. So what led me
into this path? I honestly don’t know. And then came one particular day.
Sometime before the day of the
elections last year, I attended a forum about the state of the upcoming
elections as well as a short discussion of the PCOS machines, which was the
main reason I attended the forum in the first place since it kinda related to
my interest in IT stuff back then. Though I knew about the relationship between
US imperialism and the 2013 elections, it still shocked me back then when one
of the speakers related it to the three problems that pester the country, which
is imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, with the latter being a
new term to me back then. After the forum, some of them invited me to a rally
which took place at the Comelec office in Intramuros, to which I admittedly
hesitated to accept.
It was in that rally that I saw
various progressive groups and alliance express their grievances against an
institution which has often favored the ruling class by its railroading of the
PCOS machines as well as harassing progressive groups such Piston by filing
disqualification cases against them based on flimsy and subjective grounds. It
was there that I saw people take collective action to assert their rights so
that they can be heard. It was also there that I was offered to join Anakbayan,
in which I evaded at first since I had a lot of reservations about joining
progressive organizations (yes, I did have those) and that I didn’t want to
experience what my sister went through inside the household in her first few
years that she became a full time activist. However, the option of joining
Anakbayan never left my mind.
A few months later, I finally attended
an orientation and eventually became a member. This was around a week before
Noynoy Aquino’s SONA. When I was handed the membership form, I hesitated (as
usual) and as I accomplished the form, It thought to myself with something like
“I probably should say to him that I’m not joining Anakbayan” but it soon
changed into “I don’t know what world I’m entering into, but I’m going in
anyway. Let’s see what happens.” I announced this to my sister and to Ka
Mentong and the response was positive, which helped ease my mind about it.
Several months have passed since I
became a member that I’ve begun to appreciate the value and importance of
collective action. Sometimes, I would remember a time when I attended an ERC
hearing sometime around September 2011. Before the hearing, we were telling the
other “kabansa’s” that the hearing would start at 9AM. However, we came to the
venue only to stumble upon an empty room! A few days before, we double-checked
the schedule by visiting ERC’s website as well as calling the ERC just to make
sure. But when we checked the time on the website, it suddenly became 2:30PM!
But as we found out, the bulletin
board outside the hearing room listed the hearing at 9AM! Of course we simply
couldn’t let this pass us up. We decided to obtain a copy of the schedule and
had it marked as a “certified true copy.” Meanwhile, we decided to “campout”
the hearing room and thought of what course of action we should take. At the
advice of some lawyers, we decided to attend the hearing lest we might get
defaulted. The Meralco lawyers finally arrived at 2:30PM. Interesting, isn’t
it? Regardless, we motioned for the hearing to be moved to another date because
of all the shenanigans that just transpired. Our motion was granted
But why did I join Anakbayan anyway? Why
did I become an activist? Did I really have to join this organization just so I
can say that I’m fighting for our rights; “para panindigan ko talaga ito,” as my
mother said? Not really. I didn’t choose to walk this path; I was simply led
into it by “some Will infinitely stronger than my own,” to paraphrase Paul
Laurence Dunbar. In those times where I visited the studio talking about various
things as well as attending those hearings at ERC, there was always a thought
that some things were missing. We may have had an audience, but we weren’t
really reaching out to others, except perhaps to some other “force” (the radio
program had been an occasional victim of signal jamming). Somehow, I felt that
these things were simply not enough.
Back then, I often said and thought
that educating and informing the people would be enough for them to take
action. That is partly correct, but I learned that one should also organize the
people into a group and then mobilize them into action. So why did I join
again? I want… no, I have to serve the people. There are many others who are
suffering from the chicanery and oppression of this God-forsaken land because
of our inaction, hesitation, and sheer indifference. I joined because I realized that the
revolution that we have been longing for so long can only be achieved if we can
collectivize ourselves into an organized force for this the only answer to the
organized exploitation of the ruling classes. There is no room for apathy in
this f’ed-up world.
