INTRODUCTION

PEOPLE
Yano
Romeo Lee
Manny Villar
Nur Misuari
Benjie Paras
Dino Ignacio
Eraserheads
Jerry Barican
Obet Verzola
Jessica Zafra
Zider Lubiano
Myla Algarme
Gary Granada
Raymond Red
Mike Defensor
Jerome Bailen
Eric Altamirano
Amante Jimenez
Miriam Defensor
Malou Mangahas

ISSUES
ID
UAAP
STFAP
US Bases
Collegian
Frat Violence
SAMASA split
SR controversy
Sexual Harassment

In UP, like everywhere else, "yes" or "no" was basically it for those who entered the fray. Which wasn't really a hard thing to do since the issue saturated even the most impermeable places - from FC to Gulod, Kalayaan to Kamia, Eng'g to Econ.

The question was simple enough - you were either for the retention of the US military bases or not. The period was at the turn of the decade. Macoy had been shipped off to Hawaii; Cory didn't look good in Mendiola-red; Lean looked good in red but was deemed better off dead; Gringo wanted guts and glory on a silver platter. And over everything loomed Sam, maleficent with a beard to boot. With a dictatorship shattered and a president turning hopelessly yellow, Clark and Subic became the focal point of the nation's fury.

The "pros" warned about further aggravating the economic crisis, which was magnified when Pinatubo spilled her beans. The pullout of US troops, according to the proponents of the ratification would equate to a loss of about 85,000 jobs plus the assurance of financial and military aid. Besides, was the Philippines, a doting political baby, prepared for such an abrubt change in lifestyle?

Luckily, such sentiments were few and feeble in Diliman. In a May 1988 survey, only 30% voted for retention while 56% wanted them out. The reasons were varied - human rights abuses, national sovereignty, prostitution, politico-military intervention, and nuclear armaments. One thing was finally clear, though. All the while, the US government was making us eat crap. And it left a bad taste in the mouth.

G.I. Go (Home)
As early as 1988, various organizations in UP formed a coalition to initiate a massive campaign against the bases. The UP Students Voices, led by the League of Filipino Students and the USC, launched a number of protest actions during the year, which was sustained until the final months before the Senate deliberations on September 16, 1991. All roads led to the US embassy and the Senate where Diliman protesters would amass from 300 to 400 at a time.

The most successful and highly publicized mass action was the Lakbayan: Martsa ng UP Laban sa Base Militar, which started on March 12, 1990. For four days, some 300 members of the UP community walked a distance of 92 kilometers from campus to Clark Air Base in Pampanga, where they were joined by other sectoral organizations in "closing down" the military base. Prof. Ramon Guillermo recounted how they slept in basketball courts and got blisters. Throughout the arduous trek, encouraging words, watermelons, and buckets of ice were offered by sympathetic bystanders. However, they never got past the hundred or so Philippine Air Force members. The latter violently dispersed the hapless crowd with truncheons, watercannons, and teargas - by then, a familiar experience for these tubao-and-slippers-clad activists.

During the final days before deliberations, the air in Diliman was charged. Slogans like "Ayoko, ayoko, base militar ng Kano dito!", "Base ng Kano, salot, malaking salot, kasalot-salutan!" and "Imperyalismo, Ibagsak!"were staple and concrete fare. A few days before, some 4,000 UP students joined the 40,000-strong contingent that coincided with Aquino's own "hakot" rally at the Luneta. On D-day itself, some 2,000 Iskolar ng Bayan of varied political colors were part of the mobilization that numbered close to 60,000. Sure enough by that time, they already knew. The bases were history.

Feeble Power
A number of factors could have contributed to the immense popularity that the anti-US bases campaign enjoyed. One of which was the fact that Aquino herself had finally donned her stars-and-stripes swimsuit, "Puta ng Kano"as some testosterone-pumped columnist had called her. Uttering the magical words "People Power," she had used her "Laban" sign and pointed it at the Filipinos. There was also the seemingly progressive Senate lineup that made life difficult for Manglapus, Gordon and co. Then there was the sustained campaign of the Left that saw through all the bureacrat politicking.

In the end, it wasn't the bravado of the 12 senators that ultimately mattered. Some of whom as we now sorely discover, have been kiss-ass phonies all along - the Visiting Forces Agreement's in full swing, thanks to Asiong Salonga and his ilk.

Guillermo narrated how the short distance of 700 meters, compared to the 4-day journey, towards the entrance to Clark seemed so far. "Pinahirapan talaga kami ng sarili nating militar," he said.

That's how things were. Are. Like what former USC Chair Amante Jimenez had said, ousting the US military bases was only one step in our task to discard every load of trash the Americans had dumped on our soil. He had clearly proclaimed - it wasn't only the bases that had to go.