Some of the authors of essays in SERVE: Seated, from left, Sol Juvida, Judy Taguiwalo, Jo-Ann Maglipon, Angie Castillo; Standing, from left, Diwa Gunigundo, Sonny Coloma, Rey Vea, Manolet Dayrit, Elso Cabangon, Butch Dalisay, Ed Gonzalez, Jaime Flor Cruz, Alex Aquino, Senen Glorioso (Photo by Rick Rocamora)
(We are running the Prologue by the author in the book SERVE, now out at Fully Booked major branches. Published by Bughaw, an imprint of the Ateneo de Manila University Press and edited by Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon, it is collection of essays written by college editors (1969-1972) on Martial Law that changed their lives. They are Alejandro Aquino, Elso U. Cabangon, Jones T. Campos, Sonny Coloma, Bob Corrales, Mercy M. Corrales, Butch Dalisay, Manuel M. Dayrit, Jaime A. Florcruz, Senen D. Glorioso, Eduardo T. Gonzalez, Diwa C. Guinigundo, Sol Juvida, Derly Magcalen, Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon, Thelma Sioson, Chito Sta. Romana, Judy M. Taguiwalo, Angie Tocong, Rey Vea.)
Writing this introduction on the eve of the Marcoses’ return to Malacañang Palace should fill me with a sense of dread, or even horror, at the absurd injustice of having to face specters we had confronted half a century ago all over again. Instead I inscribe these words with sadness edging on sorrow. I find it hard to tell another generation of young Filipinos that the patrimony of peace, freedom, justice, and prosperity they thought they would inherit from us has been lost, and that they will have to fight to recover it for themselves, as we did in our time.
Martial law was our defining hour. In our late teens and early twenties, flush with idealism and energy, we acted to bring radical change to Philippine society, which we believed was being ravaged by a combination of foreign and local forces intent on plundering our economy and establishing a dictatorship. President Ferdinand Marcos responded by imposing martial law—arresting and imprisoning his enemies, shutting down the free press, and arrogating unto himself extraordinary powers that he would abuse to consolidate his rule and amass wealth.
By the time Marcos and his family fled to exile in Hawaii in February 1986, he had been in power for over 20 years, leaving behind a trail of debt and death—$26 billion and 3,257 extrajudicial killings (on top of 35,000 documented cases of torture and 70,000 incarcerations), according to various sources. These figures are now being disputed by Marcos propagandists and will likely be amended if not effaced by the Marcos Jr. media, but many of us live on as first-hand witnesses to that dark period in our history. Martial law was a “golden era” only for Ferdinand Marcos and his family and cronies; when their two C-141 cargo planes landed in Hawaii, US Customs imported “millions of dollars’ worth of US and Philippine currency, gold, jewels, stocks, and bonds,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Our memories of martial law may not be those of most Filipinos who lived through it, especially those who only saw its external sparkle—the clean streets, new roads, beauty pageants, and Potemkin palaces that the regime provided. These Filipinos did not know that even if they kept quiet or supported the Marcoses, they were being stolen from, for a total of up to $10 billion by some estimates. By 2o21, the Philippine government had recovered P174 billion in ill-gotten wealth, with P125 billion more still to be collected.
Those of us who suffered under martial law count our losses not only in terms of pesos, but of precious lives lost, injuries both physical and mental sustained, opportunities forgone, and careers destroyed or interrupted. To record these events and circumstances, 13 former student journalists came out with Not on Our Watch: Martial Law Really Happened, We Were There (LEADS-CEGP 6972) in 2012. This is the sequel to that book.
With most of the writers here now in their seventies or inching close to it, we could have been chronicling the joys of grandparenting, journeys to far-off places, exotic menus, succulents and bromeliads, and homeopathic remedies for the aches of aging. Not that we don’t; having retired from the formal workplace, we thought we had settled into a privileged and imperturbable kind of peace, earned over decades of political, economic, and spiritual struggle. We celebrated our seniorhood as the ultimate victory, for a generation that did not expect to live beyond thirty, and not because of some acquired disease but because of the throbbing cancer at the core of our society that claimed many of our peers in the prime of their youth.
We may have thought for a while that we had defeated and expunged that cancer, only to realize that it had never left, was always there, lying cruelly in wait for a chance to ravage us again—and not only us this time, but our children and grandchildren as well.
And so—albeit no longer lean and shaggy-haired, perhaps benignly forgetful of car keys and personal anniversaries—we gather again at the barricades we put up against a fascist dictatorship fifty years ago, of which our memories remain surprisingly and painfully sharp. They say that the old remember distant things more clearly than what happened yesterday, and we offer proof of that. The experience of martial law coded itself into our DNA, and even the few among us who surrendered their souls to Mephistopheles cannot shake away that indelible past—one we bear with pride, and they with guilt and shame.
This time our barricades consist not of desks and chairs but of memory itself and, more formidably, of hope, courage, and a continuing faith in the good. Beyond memoirs, more than recollections of our youthful selves, we now present the stories of the lives we built and the paths we took after martial law, along with our reflections on how time and experience have reshaped us, clarified our values, and strengthened our resolve to serve our people in multifarious ways. We wish to prove that even the worst of times and the worst of leaders are not only survivable but can be changed, so that whatever lies ahead, the better Filipinos in us will prevail.
Every contributor here has a story to tell of survival, adaptation, and growth into responsible citizenship while keeping the flame of truth, justice, and freedom alive
The pieces in this book cover a wide range of themes and treatments, even as they all emanate from the shared experience of resistance to dictatorship in our role then as editors and writers for the campus press. Many of us were imprisoned, putting our lives on hold; many also remained in the resistance, in new or different capacities. Our view of politics inevitably evolved over time as the world itself changed over the past five decades. But our commitment to service to the people never left us, and when we realized that there was life outside of and after martial law, we sought to practice what we had learned as young activists to our professions. Every contributor here has a story to tell of survival, adaptation, and growth into responsible citizenship while keeping the flame of truth, justice, and freedom alive.
The brief backgrounds of the writers below should give a sense of the variety of our chosen pathways but also of their ultimate convergence back in our basic values and ideals.
Alexander “Alex” Aquino studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he was president of the Student Council in 1971. After a period of detention from 1973 to 1974, Alex went to the University of the Philippines School of Economics and worked with NGOs before moving to Europe to become a businessman, settling down in London with his wife Edna Ong-Aquino. He is board chairman of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development-Overseas Filipino Workers Hong Kong Foundation and a board member of the Responsible Investment for Social Enterprise. He has worked in various executive positions in the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Hong Kong, mainly in financial services. He and Edna are active promoters of financial literacy among Filipino migrant workers, whom they assist in acquiring skills for a self-reliant life.
Elso Cabangon honed his writing skills as editorial writer and columnist for The Dawn, the University of the East weekly student newspaper. This skill was put to real service during the first two years of Ferdinand Marcos’s martial rule when Elso became part of the underground propaganda effort in the Southern Luzon area. In 1974, he was shot and arrested, and detained for more than two years. After writing editorials for the Manila Chronicle in 1988, he worked in various managerial capacities in Saudi Arabia, and became an advocate for OFW concerns. Elso was one of the organizers of LEADS-CEGP 6972, which produced Not On Our Watch: Martial Law Really Happened, We Were There. His faith has figured strongly in Elso’s life, and he has continued to profess it proudly.
Jones T. Campos graduated in Journalism from the University of Sto. Tomas, followed by an MBA at the Ateneo de Manila Graduate School of Business. Now the chairman and CEO of JonesPR/J.T. Campos Corporation, he was formerly AVP for PR & Advertising of Eastern Telecoms (1988-1993) and Head, PR of Globe Telecom (1993-2009). A highly regarded PR practitioner and professional, Jones served as president of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP), chairman of the Annual National PR Congress and the prestigious Anvil Awards, among other industry distinctions. In 2015, he helped organize and manage iPlant, a tree planting project of the Diocese of Alaminos. He was one of the founders and servant leaders of the Reaching Out for the Lord (ROL) Marriage Encounter (ME) Community. Jones passed away on January 29, 2023.
Angelina “Angie” Castillo was editor-in-chief of Ang Malaya, the campus newspaper of the Philippine College of Commerce, in 1971-1972. Simultaneously, she was president of PCC’s Honor Society and graduated magna cum laude amidst the political turmoil of the period. Her writing career ended upon graduation. From a simple hometown girl, Angie metamorphosed to become a risk taker and zealous advocate of causes she believed in. She was once president of a group helping women and disadvantaged children, especially those with hearing difficulties. Supporting children’s education is a continuing commitment close to her heart. She is now at the helm of her family corporation in the food industry.
Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. is currently executive vice president of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. He served as Head of the Presidential Management Staff under President Corazon Aquino, among many other senior positions, as DOTC Undersecretary under President Joseph Estrada, and as Communications Secretary under President Benigno S. Aquino III. From 1988 to 2016, he was the Don Jose Cojuangco Professor of Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management where he also served as the dean for executive education. He was president of the University of Makati from 1996 to 1999. He holds a PhD from the Southeast Asian Inter-Disciplinary Development Institute’s School of Organization Development.
Maria Mercedes “Mercy” Corrales was editor in chief of the Avant Garde, the Mapua Institute of Technology’s weekly newspaper, in 1969-70, and vice-president of the Central Student Council in 1971-72. She finished her BA Management at Mapua University and her MBA at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, North Carolina. She joined the corporate world in 1974, and rose from the ranks to become the president of Levi Strauss (Japan), CEO and COO of Starbucks Coffee Japan, SVP of Starbucks Corporation, and regional president of Starbucks Asia Pacific. She also held multi-country General Management positions in Asia and Latin America while at Levi Strauss & Co. She is one of the first Asian women to join global corporate boards as an independent, non-executive director. She advises private equity firms, coaches C-suite executives, and, with her husband Bob Corrales, tends to her organic farm and food forest.
Roberto “Bob” Corrales was the news editor in 1969-70 of the student paper Avant Garde and later the president of the Central Student Council of the Mapua Institute of Technology, where he finished a BS in Mechanical Engineering. After working in sales for some years, he formed Consystems, an equipment trading and industrial construction company. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP), a Catholic lay organization where he is actively involved in organizing nationwide formation and Bible studies for members and for selected parishes, as well as BCBP chapters as far as Singapore.
Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr. has published over 40 books of fiction and nonfiction, and is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of the Philippines, from where he retired as Vice President for Public Affairs and Professor of English in 2019. He holds an AB in Imaginative Writing (cum laude) from UP, a Master of Fine Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of Michigan and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has won numerous awards for his writing, including the TOYM and Palanca Hall of Fame, and was nominated for the National Artist Award in 2021. He writes Op-Ed and Lifestyle columns for the Philippine Star. He has lectured on Philippine culture and politics in the US, UK, Australia, Italy, Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia, among others.
Manuel “Manolet” M. Dayrit graduated with a BA from the Ateneo de Manila University before going on to earn an MD from UP in 1976. After immersing himself in community based health in Mindanao, he taught as a lecturer at the Davao Medical School until he secured a scholarship for an MS in Community Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He joined the Department of Health in 1984, and was recognized as an Outstanding Young Scientist by the National Academy of Science and Technology in 1990 for his work on AIDS, cholera, and red tide. He left the government in 1997 to work for the private sector, but returned to the DOH in 2001 when he was appointed its secretary by newly installed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. From 2005 to 2012, he served as director of the Department of Human Resources for Health at the World Health Organization in Geneva. He then served as dean of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, where he continues to be an adjunct professor.
Ederlinda “Derly” Magcalen Fernandez was national secretary of the CEGP in 1969-70.
She taught at Claret School before joining the Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga City, where she became dean of its Colle of Public Administration and VP for Planning, Administration, and Finance, retiring in 2015. She holds a doctorate in Educational Administration from WMSU. She became President of the Association of Schools in Public Administration in the Philippines (ASPAP), the Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines (WSAP) and the Philippine Society of Public Administrators (PSPA). A pioneer in women’s studies, Derly has conducted numerous researches, mainly on women’s issues and undocumented migration which have been published and presented in various conferences abroad.
Jaime “Jimi” FlorCruz was born in the Philippines but has lived in China for almost 50 years, first as an “accidental tourist,” a student, and then as a journalist. Before martial law, Jimi was editor in chief of the Philippine College of Commerce’s Ang Malaya, and joined a group of students visiting China. The suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus during that visit put him on a blacklist, stranding him and a few others for what turned out to be a five-decade stay. With a BA in History from Peking University, he worked as a foreign correspondent in China for over 30 years, as TIME Magazine correspondent (1982-2000) and as CNN Beijing bureau chief (2001-2015). FlorCruz taught as an adjunct professor at Peking University and as professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines. In 2022, he was appointed Philippine ambassador to China.
Senen “Bebot” Dominguez Glorioso was editor in chief of The Lasallian, De La Salle University’s student publication in 1972, and later national president of the CEGP. Despite his being placed under house arrest from late 1972 up to 1973, he graduated magna cum laude from DLSU, earning two degrees in Liberal Arts-Commerce and Human Behavioral Sciences. Heading his family’s Rural Bank of Pagbilao, Bebot was elected national president of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) in 2004-2005 and sat as chairman and director of the Rural Bankers Research and Development Foundation, Inc. from 2006 up to 2009, concurrently heading the family’s RB Pagbilao, Inc. He has been active in promoting digital financial services and microfinance among rural customers, as well as affordable housing and sustainable farming.
Eduardo “Ed” T. Gonzalez was editor in chief of the Philippine Collegian, the official student newspaper of the University of the Philippines, in 1971, at the time of the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. After receiving his BS in Geodetic Engineering from UP Diliman, he worked at several jobs before entering the government service. From 1998 to 2006, he served as president of the Development Academy of the Philippines, and concurrent member of the Board of Trustees of the Career Executive Service Board and the Foreign Service Institute. He left DAP and moved over to UP in 2006 as full professor, becoming dean of the Asian Center in 2013-2014, and director of the Korea Research Center in 2015-2018.
Diwa C. Guinigundo, former deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, attended the Ateneo de Manila University as a full scholar and, as a freshman, became editor of Ang Pandayan. He later transferred to UP, where he served as editor of the Philippine Collegian. After a period of detention in 1976, he left in 1982 for graduate studies at the London School of Economics as a scholar of the Central Bank of the Philippines. Diwa served the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for 41 years, handling monetary policy, treasury operations, loans and credit, asset management, currency management, regional operations and international operations. While attending the LSE, he became a Christian and is now the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries. Today, he writes weekly columns for the Manila and BusinessWorld.
Sol F. Juvida was both literary editor and news editor of Ang Malaya, the student paper of the Philippine College of Commerce, the forerunner of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). During the first two years of martial law, she was with a group of journalists and writers who wrote stories and published them for an underground newspaper. At the height of the “mosquito” alternative press that openly challenged the Marcos regime, she was one of the editors of Philippine Signs and a columnist of We Forum. She has written and worked for Balita, Tempo, Manila Standard, the Vera Files, and PCIJ, and has taught at the Philippine Science High School and the University of the Philippines. A Palanca awardee, Sol’s essays, special reports, fiction and non-fiction stories have been anthologized. Her first book, Pinay, was published in 1995. Sol is a founding member of Women Writers in Media Now.
Thelma Sioson San Juan, a journalism graduate of St. Theresa’s College, pioneered lifestyle journalism in the country. In the late 1970s, she developed the Family Journal section of the newspaper that was then Times Journal to include fashion, arts and culture, and food, and called the section Modern Living. It was the beginning of a long career that would see her become one of the country’s most important Lifestyle editors. She has been associated with the Manila Chronicle, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Metro Magazine, and other publications, particularly when she was general manager and editorial director of ABS-CBN Publishing. She has edited various coffee-table books on the arts, lifestyle, and travel. After her retirement from the Inquirer in 2020, Thelma founded TheDiarist.ph.
Jose Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana graduated from De La Salle University in 1970 with an AB in Economics and a BS in Commerce, followed by an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts in 1987. In 1971, he headed a Filipino youth delegation to China, but found himself stranded there because of the political situation in the Philippines. He spent this period of exile learning Mandarin and translating books for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He later became bureau chief for ABC News, earning awards and recognition for his coverage of such significant events as the Tiananmen protests and the Beijing Olympics. He was appointed Philippine ambassador to China in 2016, but died on duty in April 2022, and thereafter was hailed for his work in bridging Philippine-Chinese relations at a difficult time.
Judy M. Taguiwalo was features editor of the Philippine Collegian under editor in chief Antonio Tagamolila in 1970-71. During the Marcos dictatorship, she was either underground, as part of the organized resistance to martial law, or in prison, where she spent almost four years in various detention centers until her release in 1986. She holds an MA in Public Administration from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a PhD in Philippine Studies from UP Diliman. She has taught at at the University of the Philippines as a professor of Women’s Studies, was elected Faculty Regent, and became the Director of the University Center for Women’s Studies. She was also the founding president of the UP System’s union of faculty and researchers, the All-UP Academic Employees Union. She had a brief stint as Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in 2016-2017.
Reynaldo B. Vea is the president and CEO of Mapua University and its subsidiaries. The valedictorian of the first batch of graduates (1969) of the Philippine Science High School, Rey joined the student activist movement n UP as a member of the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK). Incarcerated for 20 months during the martial law years, he went back to UP upon his release and eventually finished his Mechanical Engineering degree, magna cum laude, in October 1977. He became dean of the UP College of Engineering in 1993. In 2000, he became president of Mapua University, which he led to the global and digital age. He received a PhD in Marine Transportation Systems, Naval Architecture, and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology.
As that overview shows, some of us—like Jimi FlorCruz, Sol Juvida, and Thelma Sioson San Juan—remained journalists all their working lives, stationed in very different places and capacities but bound by a commonality of interest in the truth. Others like Sonny Coloma, Manolet Dayrit, Ed Gonzalez, Diwa Guinigundo, the late Chito Sta. Romana, and Judy Taguiwalo took the path of government service, finding themselves in a position to effect real change, although sometimes under very difficult if not adversarial circumstances. Yet others including Angie Castillo, Jones Campos, Mercy Corrales, and Senen Glorioso found fulfillment in entrepreneurial and corporate work, applying their progressive values to management. For Elso Cabangon, Bob Corrales, and Diwa Guinigundo, their circuitous journey led to a re-encounter with their spirituality, and to embracing their faith as their personal advocacy. Like many veterans of the First Quarter Storm, Alex and Edna Aquino were able to build new and productive lives overseas, without yielding their investment in Philippine concerns. Quite a few of us—Derly Fernandez, Ed Gonzalez, Judy Taguiwalo, Rey Vea, and myself—chose to pursue our activism in academia, if only to ensure the transmission of critical inquiry to another generation.
The authors were under no compulsion to conform to an ideological standard, except to extol the spirit of service to the people, the overarching theme of their youth and now their continuing commitment, indeed their legacy. There’s pathos in these accounts, but also humor and, inevitably, irony, perhaps the defining tone of our postmodern age: Thelma Sioson San Juan finds herself seated across Deng Xiaoping’s granddaughter at a Ferragamo show in Beijing’s Forbidden City; Manolet Dayrit learns of his appointment as Secretary of Health on a visit to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang; Ed Gonzalez becomes president of the Development Academy of the Philippines under President Joseph Estrada, but then joins EDSA 2; Sonny Coloma looks out the window of his Malacañang office to where students like him had demonstrated against Marcos.
….guess what: we never left, either. We, too, have survived
It will not be said of our generation that we did not try to practice what we preached, or that our youthful activism was but a passing fancy or a sentimental memory with little bearing on the present and the future. These essays and stories demonstrate how “serve the people” has grown and evolved with its advocates, taking multifarious forms from working in civil society and practicing good governance to promoting artistic expression, academic freedom, and insightful journalism. Many writers here rose to the top of their professions, a testament not only to their individual talents and excellences but also to the focus, the rigor, and the discipline to which their cohort had become accustomed early on in their struggle for a better society.
Back cover of SERVE
These essays and stories have just acquired more urgency and relevance with the latest turn in our political saga. Indeed it may be a misnomer to call the Marcoses’ electoral victory a “return” to power; what we have just realized is that, in truth, they never left. Even during their brief exile, they maintained and cultivated a following that stoked and amplified their myth, and laid the ground for May 9, 2022.
But, well, guess what: we never left, either. We, too, have survived. This book is a record of that survival—and beyond survival, of our growth and maturation as lifelong servants of the people, and of the learnings that we can share with our juniors. In his book on artists and aging, my writing professor Nicholas Delbanco called this aspiration “lastingness” (yes, the word does exist)—the quality of not only enduring, but of continuing to matter beyond one’s prime.
And while our most productive years may be in decline, our critical faculties remain intact, tempered and honed by decades of engagement with a half-century of challenges we never faced in our youth: the Internet, globalization, 9/11, the resurgence of despotism, disinformation, and the pandemic. The fight for truth, freedom, and justice will now be led by our children and grandchildren, and while we may fear for their safety and well-being, as our parents did for ours, we can only feel honored and fulfilled to see them rise to the summons of their time.
This is how we responded to ours, to that clarion from the barricades that even the hard of hearing among us can perceive again above the present clamor of confusion and despair. Listen, young friends, listen hard. It is the pure, everlasting call of hope, of service to the people that you can render at any hour, in any weather, at any age.
