COMMENTARY
The
Isabelinos’ Struggle Against Warlordism and Political Dynasty
A
Filipino migrant in the U.S. castigates Philippine media for “forgetting to
mention historical events that led to the fall of Faustino Dy Jr. from power.”
By
Arturo P. Garcia
Bulatlat.com
After
the much-delayed proclamation of the new Isabela governor Ma. Gracia Cielo
“Bombo Grace” Padaca, the Philippine press harped and hyped about another
classic example of “David and Goliath” struggle and the “end of political
dynasties” and the triumph of the good against evil. Again, without bothering
to study and analyze the history of Isabelinos’ struggle for freedom and
democracy.
Padaca,
a 40-year-old polio victim and radio broadcaster, is set to be proclaimed this
week as elected governor of Isabela, a province in northern Philippines. The
incumbent governor, Faustino Dy, Jr., son of Faustino Sr., the patriarch of the
four-decade Dy dynasty, has contested the election claiming that Padaca was
supported by the New People’s Army (NPA).
Historical
antecedents
Media
reports did not mention that when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial
law in 1972, Isabelinos bore the brunt of the military dictatorship. More than
50,000 Isabelinos in the forest region of the province were dislocated when
their farms and homes were declared as “no man’s lands.”
Gov. Faustino Dy Sr. led this onslaught against the people as he
consolidated his position as the premier warlord of Cagayan Valley.
Dy,
a former Liberal Party ward of then Sen. Bengino Aquino Jr., at first cooperated
with the NPA but turned against them even before martial law was declared in
September 1972 in a classical example of opportunism.
Media
did not even mention that in 1979, the tens of thousands of peasants from
Northern and Central Isabela, especially from the two big plantations of
Hacienda Santa Isabel and Hacienda San Antonio, launched mass actions against
the Dy–Cojuanco monopoly that will turn the 14,000-hectare haciendas into an
agri-business empire. Peasants in their tens of thousands finally showed their
disgust against the landlords Dy and Cojuanco in 1981 when they boycotted the
presidential elections and marched in the provincial capitol several times.
As
a result President Marcos “declared the two Haciendas as land reform areas”
the following year to prevent what could have been a peasant revolt that gained
both national and international prominence and had made the Marcos regime looked
bad all over the world.
Nine
years later, the Catholic Church and the environmental movement led by then the
Cagayan Anti-Logging Movement (CALM) and the Save the Sierra Madre Movement (SSMM)
exposed the Dys’ control on logging and their wanton destruction of Cagayan
Valley’s forests and natural resources. Dy Sr. even banned a national
newspaper and several local reporters – even forcing a progressive journalist
to exile in the United States – when the logging exposé gained prominence in
the print media.
Politicians
like Heherson Alvarez and Silvestre Bello III from Isabela tried to chip out
some of Dy’s power but failed miserably. Two years following Dy Sr.’s death
in 1993, Bello ran as governor against Dy
Jr. He never made it.
But
the people’s resistance showed their persistence again when the Isabelinos
rejected the Dy–Albano’s plan to divide Isabela into three provinces in a
referendum in 1995. This time, the Catholic Church led by then Bishop ___
Puruganan and Padaca figured prominently in opposing what many believed were the
dirty tactics of the two Isabela warlord families.
By
playing the solemn “Isabela Hymn” in Bombo Radio every hour, the Isabela
voters were galvanized into rejecting Dy’s plan to turn Isabela into their
political pie.
Continuing the
struggle against warlordism
Exactly
nine years later, the people of Isabela, with the confluence of a feisty lady
advocate, an involved Catholic Church led by a pro-people bishop and laity,
progressive groups led by the political party Bayan Muna (People First), peasant
organizations and an angry middle class all bonded together to deal the
political dynasty a big blow.
It
is self-serving for political analysts to attribute solely to Grace Padaca or
too sulking for Dy Jr. to accuse the NPA – his armed nemesis for the last 32
years – for his loss in the recent elections.
The
people of Isabela have a glorious history of struggle against tyranny. Isabela
was the last province that held the municipal elections during the American
occupation in 1907. This land called “Tiera Virgen” was the refuge of Gen.
Emilio Aguinaldo and Palanan, Isabela was the last capital of the First
Philippine Republic where Aguinaldo was captured in March 1902.
This
should be the lesson that the Dys and all tyrants and warlords must learn.
It
was the people - not only Grace Padaca – who dealt the fatal blow to the
dragon Dy Jr.
To
simply attribute the Isabela people’s victory in the May 2004 gubernatorial
race only to Padaca - although she is a prime factor - is a disservice to the
memories of countless activists and martyrs who fought and are continuing the
struggle against warlordism and political dynasties in the Philippines. Bulatlat.com
*
The writer is the Los Angeles coordinator of the Philippine Peasant Support
Network (Pesante)-USA
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