I was one of the few who watched the movie Edjop. Edgar Jopson was a campus hero in Ateneo de Manila. He was classified as a moderate in his activism. His ideology was reformism, which means that he did not advocate systemic change. Indeed, he was extra wary of communist infiltration in the protest rallies that his group organized. On Jan. 26, 1970, in a rally organized by the National Union of Students of the Philippines, a group mostly composed of well-heeled students from Catholic schools, Jopson tried to drown the shouts of the more militant groups by asking the crowd to disperse. An account of this rally can be read in Jose Lacaba’s “Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage.”
Yet, he had the guts to ask then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. to make a formal promise not to run for the highest office after the end of his constitutionally defined term. Irritated no end, Marcos Sr. smugly answered why this “son of a grocer” is making demands on him.
That was part of the first quarter storm. Let us move fast forward: what happened after the declaration of martial law? Jopson was radicalized and became a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Prior to martial law, he was for peaceful reforms. With martial law, he became a gun-bearing revolutionary. He was eventually gunned down in a raid.
But the movie is not just about the life of Jopson. It is also about the reception of his sacrifice, as represented by no less than his own family. For his daughter Joyette, Edjop who died while she was still a child was a mere concept. He may be hailed a hero by many but for the daughter, Edjop abandoned the family for nothing. She was not moved by the sacrifice her father made supposedly for the country. She was busy pursuing her niche as a professional triathlete and was even absent in a program that honored her father. On the other hand, the wife of Edjop is afflicted with early dementia and may soon completely forget his heroism.
There are many who criticize the film as lacking in focus. Some say that the exploits of Joyette have overshadowed the martyrdom of Edjop in the film. They say with undisguised sarcasm that the title should have been Joyjop. Who cares about the athletic accolades of the daughter? For me, these criticisms miss the point. The movie is saying that how Edjop’s own family views his sacrifice may actually be symptomatic of how the majority of Filipinos look at the heroes who fought against Marcos dictatorship: the majority do not care and those who care may soon forget.
The activists protesting during the dark years from the early 70s to mid-80s feel saddened by the forgetfulness of the younger generation. Mind you, I am one of those who feel sad.
It is not just the movie Edjop that is now moving me to write these reflections. I am also thinking of the many stalwarts of the anti-Marcos movements in Cebu who have recently died. Among them are Meinrado Paredes, Paul Rodriguez, and even to some extent, Resil Mojares as a columnist in The Freeman prior to the declaration of martial law.
All these made me ponder more deeply on this seeming forgetfulness. The element of wager is a necessary part of waging a revolution. Why a wager? First of all, there is no way a revolutionary can be certain whether the struggle will be successful or that he or she will die without seeing the dawn. The uncertainty is part of the sacrifice. Secondly, even if the revolution turns out to be victorious, there is no guarantee that the ideals will be continued by those who live after the first batch of revolutionaries. In a way, revolutions (whether it is Edsa 1 or the one led by Bonifacio) will always be unfinished.
This is part of what existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers calls a “limit situation” (grenzsituation). We cannot completely control the present. Much less can we control the future generation.
This is true not only of revolutions but of all the principles we live by. Will the current fight for accountability be successful or not? If successful, is there a clear guarantee that the future generation will not backslide? Nobody knows.
But there are times when a person believes that sacrificing for some principles is what makes life authentic.
