FIFTY-FIVE YEARS after the First Quarter Storm, the echoes of student dissent are once again thundering through Mendiola, and the police are going after them again.
Recent incidents where students are detained or subpoenaed reveal how the state continues to confront youth activism with coercion instead of dialogue.
ILLEGAL ARREST
On October 22, the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman’s official publication Philippine Collegian reported the arrest of a student after a Peasant Month mobilization protest in Mendiola on grounds of vandalism.
While the publication did not mention the name of the student, DZRH published an article describing the arrest of Georel Albaña after being “caught vandalizing an LRT post” during the same protest.
According to police reports, officers Police Sergeant Jessie James Butawan and Corporal Richard Ron De Guzman spotted Albaña spray-painting on a concrete LRT post.
Cops claimed that Albaña ignored warnings to stop vandalizing, prompting his arrest.
However, Philippine Collegian has a different story — that the suspect was already in a jeepney exiting the protest when they were stalked and taken into custody by the police.
“Overkill ang dami ng mga pulis at hinarangan pa tayo ng isang truck nila sa tabi ng jeep, at kahit na may abogado na sa eksena ay walang awang hinila pababa ng sasakyan ang ating naturang kabataan,” (It was overkill, the number of police officers was excessive, and they even blocked our jeepney with a truck. Even though a lawyer was already present, they mercilessly dragged the person out of the vehicle) said the All UP Academic Employees Union Diliman in a post.
The Union also shared that the suspect is still being held at the Manila Police District Headquarters and was subjected to psychological abuse despite the police’s failure to present documents containing the charges to their lawyer.
WEAPONIZING SUBPOENAS
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been issuing subpoenas in recent months to student activists who participated in the September 21 protests against corruption.
Their most recent recipient is UP Diliman University Student Council Chairperson Joaquin Buenaflor, over alleged violence during the protest.
According to reports, three police officers served the subpoena to Buenaflor’s family on Wednesday, October 22.
In a press conference on Thursday, PNP public information chief Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño cited Republic Act No. 10973, which effectively gave the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) the authority to issue subpoenas — and failure to comply would automatically result in the filing of a case for indirect contempt before a regional trial court.
In another press conference held in UP Diliman the same day, Buenaflor condemned the attacks on student leaders and challenged the PNP to prove their mantra to serve and protect the Filipino people, not the corrupt.
STATE HARASSMENT
Buenaflor is the fourth student activist subpoenaed by the police.
The list includes Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) students Tiffany Brillante and Jacob Baluyot, and De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde student Aldrin Kitsune.
“Malinaw na pamamaraan ito ng PNP upang supilin ang mga lumahok sa isinagawang protesta nang 21. Ito ay bahagi ng brutalidad ng PNP, mula sa arbitraryong pag-aresto at witch-hunting sa mga lider at indibidwal na lumahok sa protesta,” (This is clearly a method by the PNP to suppress those who joined the September 21 protest. It is part of the PNP’s brutality, from arbitrary arrests and witch-hunting of leaders to the persecution of individuals who participated in the protests), said the UP Office of the Student Regent.
Kitsune expressed strong belief that posted videos (on social media) of the September 21 rally are among the reasons behind the issuance of the subpoena.
ISKO MORENO’S DECEPTION
The videos contradict Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla’s claim that the police were not violent during the rally.
In Brillante’s case, police visited her former residential address on October 10, telling neighbors they were looking for supposed leaders of the September 21 protests while showing printed pictures of her from different rallies.
For Baluyot, he received a phone call from his father saying two policemen were outside their home to serve a subpoena.
Baluyot still does not know how the police found his address or the grounds for the subpoena.
In an unrelated incident, The PH Insider previously reported that state agents were caught spying on students during a walkout protest at PUP Sta. Mesa on October 10.
All three students rejected the subpoenas. Kitsune and Baluyot were reportedly scheduled to appear before the CIDG on October 6 and 10, but both refused to show up, according to Inquirer.net.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
It is impossible not to see the parallels between the September 21 protests and the events that followed, and the First Quarter Storm (FQS) of 1970.
For one, both presidents are named Ferdinand Marcos.
The FQS was marked by student-led protests, mostly in Mendiola, against corruption, poverty, and the policies of the Marcos administration, which the dictator responded to with harassment, red-tagging, surveillance, and illegal detention.
And just like his dictator father, the younger Marcos’s administration is drawing historical parallels.