BREAK CHAINS

Break Chains

The discreet pursuit for justice amidst the celebration of UP Cebu Intramural 2011 is the irony the students from the University of the Philippines Cebu College had to take after three UPians together with 36 farmers, were arrested in the dispersal of a human barricade in Aloguinsan. 

Some people blame the aggressive student activism. They say UP students have gone beyond what they are capacitated to do and the arrest is just a reminder that they should abate rallies and just stay inside the campus. But the claim is unfair.

Although rallying has become the “mark” of UP students as many would say, what the students did in Aloguinsan was not an abuse of their right to assembly nor was it neither inappropriate nor unethical. It was learning through the hard way, learning through reality.

To point, Melanie Montano, Remy Manzon and Januelle Rontos were only there for Basic Masses Integration (BMI), a program which aims students discover and experience firsthand plight of the masses. They were there to know what is really happening outside the school campus—to be aware, and not to cause trouble nor obstruct justice, as the police would claim. And not many of the students of today would dare do it.

The students were not to be blamed. They went there voluntarily because they believe that learning should not end with theories. Books could not offer that kind of knowledge. Only then does learning become complete and authentic when it is applied. And by struggling with the farmers, these students surely had a cup-full of gen.

Charged with resistance to arrest and direct assault to person in authority, Montano, Manzon and Rontos served 3 nights and four days in jail—enough to make a statement on how diseased the law of the state has become and how poor the agrarian sector of the country is.

And as these students attended the Intramurals after they were freed from the hands of the authorities, they know for a fact that the experience was a mirror to show how authorities use power to break voices.

They were arrested not because they had the kind of tone that insulted the authority. They were seized because of the fact that they actually had voice and with that, they know that the battle for justice had just started.

The Crown Last Held

I have heard a lot of second chances stories- those with happy endings, inspiring lessons and the promises of a happy ever after. I had always thought that these stories were just made to remind us that life does not stop when we commit a single mistake. They were products of imaginative minds who want to make life look less miserable. But never in my life did I realize that a second chance story had played a crucial part in my life for the past eighteen years of my life… not until New Year came.

Welcoming the New Year has always been a double celebration for the family. It is not just celebrating another year of a roller coaster ride but it also a day when my Papa grows a year older. He turned 50.

 We prepared a party for him where his close friends and officemates could come together and enjoy. Almost everyone got drunk, including Papa. Unlike some men who get violent and wicked after drinking liquor, my Papa becomes very generous, sweet and talkative. In fact, I like him when he gets drunk because he does not just give me money, but he also talks a lot of funny things, secrets even, which is contrary to his personality. I call him a man of few words when he is sober because he really is not expressive of his thoughts.

 Among the random things he shared that night, one story did catch my attention, which is a story about a man he once knew.

The story was about a city boy who lived a comfortable life. He had almost everything he needed. He lived in a spacious house. He studied in one of the city’s most prominent universities. But among all of the things that he could ask for, one very precious thing seemed out of his reach… he did not have a happy family. His father was not always home and he barely see his parents hugging and kissing each other. He never had a happy memory at home. As he grew up, he learned to smoke, drink, and worse, even took drugs as a sort of escape from reality. He graduated and had a decent job but he could not resist the power of the drugs until he got married and had kids. His life became miserable. His salary was not enough to provide the needs of his growing family and his own addiction. His relationship with his wife was failing and his wife attempted to leave him and go back to her province. He decided to go with his wife and kids and sacrificed his life in the big city. In a small yet peaceful place, the boy who was now a man started a new life with his family. And believe me, they did not start great. Away from the mean streets of the city, they started from scratch… from nothing. Step by step, the man’s addiction to drugs was slowly healed through abstinence and self-control. After years of perseverance and with the help of God, the man was able to create a respectable career and build his own blissful empire where he was the king, and his wife as the queen.

It’s quite amazing how possible it is for a drug addict to become a source of hope and inspiration; for a villain to become a hero; or for a criminal to become an advocate of peace.  The story teaches us one important lesson that I am sure we are all aware of, but we take for granted to believe. People do deserve second chances. People do change, and it is in the process of that “change” that we realize how wonderful they can be.  Making wrong decisions in life is not enough to say that we have to stop from dreaming or think that we are unworthy to be happy or to be successful in whatever endeavor we may have. Sometimes, a step backward helps us to make a full step forward and be able to take on a bigger mark.

The story may just be one of those stories of second chances but it is different when you know that it did actually happen in real life, where the boy, who is now a man, worked his way through for a better life and became victorious in his conquest and was able to survive the biggest wave in his life so far.

I don't know how the story will end, but I know that the man himself is sitting beside me that night.