Some notes on being 'red'

(This personal statement was posted on my personal Facebook account on April 4, 2019 at 11:12pm. What is in Facebook is also what is found here.)

I'll be honest, I didn't want to have to make this post. But I realized that this is my last semester as a student and, after I graduate, I'll be focused on a different sector anyway.

Before I begin, I'd like to say I don't hope to answer all the questions regarding the issue with this personal statement alone. It's likely that whatever questions you have have already been answered by the Tug-ani statement, which can be found here.

This personal statement has felt necessary after the Union of Progressive Students (UPS) publicly questioned the integrity of Tug-ani, the student publication that I am an editor of. I am name-dropped in their statement and, while I am not privy to their private conversations, I can only assume I am name-dropped there as well, even those conversations instigated by their Carolinian friends.

You can check out both our statements if you'd like. However, I'd like to raise this discussion beyond the issue at hand since I feel that this is the underlying concern here.

It's no secret that Tug-ani, along with several other student publications throughout the UP system, has always been tagged as "red-leaning." One of the worst things that have been said about Tug-ani in particular is that we are the "mouthpiece of Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE)."

I have been a member of Tug-ani since 2015, since my first semester as a UP student. At this time, I was still a centrist. I still believed in shit like "Violence will not solve violence." and other related sentiments. I would run away from walkouts, not realizing the importance of such demonstrations. But joining the student publication pushed me out of my comfort zones. The first press conference I covered was about the Kidapawan massacre. Carrying that much knowledge and anger for the perpetrators of the massacre is a weight I carry to this day. The first protest I covered was against the vetoing of the SSS Pension Hike. And since then, I only went up—I covered more protests, more press conferences, more people's issues.

The longer you cover people's issues, the more you understand the need to struggle. The need to fight. The need to take up a stance that seeks peace based on justice.

And for this analysis of issues, they have called us "red." But what does it mean to be "red"? Is it calling to junk STS instead of reforming it because any form of tuition collection is still a manifestation of the lack of free education? Is it going to the communities, learning about the lives of the basic masses? Is it integrating with farmers, living with them for a day, and learning how they do their daily work? Is it going to demolished communities and reporting about their current state because no mainstream media outlet would give the marginalized airtime? Is it organizing educational discussions about sociopolitical issues and organizing protests to show great dissent? Is it covering protests outside of school, knowing it is one of the only ways we can get in touch with what the masses are calling for? Is it calling for an end to contractualization that continually puts the lives of workers at risks? Is it joining in workers' strikes not only for documentation but also for support, because you know that the workers need warm bodies in a time of strike?

What does it really mean to be "red"? Because this is the work that we do in Tug-ani: as alternative media, we chronicle the story of the students and the people. Not only that, by raising the discourse, we join the struggle. As a publication built by the students and for the students, the only bias we can have is towards them, towards their calls and concerns about the basic masses, towards the threads of life that move them.

And as an organizer, this is the work that I do. ANYONE, even those who have questioned my integrity as a student journalist, can attest to the fact that I have been active all-year round. I have invited all of you to the integrations, gatherings, EDs, and protests that I am invited to. Sometimes, I am not given a response. Sometimes, not even a "seen" and yet I continue to drop messages in your inboxes, post invites in our groups, hoping that one day, through ceaseless and tireless persuasion, you'll join the struggle because I know that, in the final analysis, you are not a class enemy and I have no business isolating you.

But if this is what it means to be "red", if being one with the struggle of the masses is what it means to be "red", if finding myself among the workers, peasants, drivers, the urban poor is what it means to be "red", then what does that make you? How and where do you stand? What do you stand for?

When you have an answer, come find me.

All 4 years in this, I have found myself among the people, have tried to bring their stories to the students of UP Cebu and to everyone that our Facebook page may reach. Even you, those who question my integrity, would attest to this. You know where I've been. You know what I've done. And you'll know where I'm going.

Come find me among the workers, peasants, and the basic masses—when you're ready.

"Doon sa mundo ng mga gutom - doon tayo mag-diskusyon."

LINK: On Medium