THE OBLATION IS THE UP ICON. STUDENT ACTIVIST IN UPLB PLACED THIS BANNER TO ENCOURAGE THE STUDENTS TO VOTE AND MAKE IT KNOWN THAT THE COUNCIL IS BEING SUPRESSED. PHOTO TAKEN BY KEVIN R. RIPAS.





Understanding Activism
By Realizing What I should’ve done
As a Freshman Student
A photo essay by Kevin R. Ripas

“Boycott nestle! Protect the people of Sitio Kabute! Surface Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan! Rollback tuition rates!” as of the time I was writing the draft of this essay, these are some of the cries I remember hearing within the UPLB. I’m not a very active student activist. I don’t go to rallies and participate in walk-out protests. But I’m not that inactive, because I also wear red t-shirt when called for by activism and vote when there is an election. In UPLB, a lot of students are activists and they call themselves mga tibak. Just last September this was proven by a 70% voter turn-out in the USC-CSC elections. Still, within any UP system remains a fear of a corroding number of students “passionate” in activism. It is feared, that in UPLB, many of the students are now just adjusting to the landscape instead of going to a mass protest in front of the humanities building.

A year ago, whenever I see activists on TV, (activism was never discussed in any of my classes during high school or even at home for that matter) I would always think that they are just wasting their time making banners, organizing, yariyariyah… then I would switch channels to something more entertaining. In short, I couldn’t care less or give a shit on activism. But when I found out that I qualified for a four-year BS Agribusiness Management program here in UPLB, I began to “feel” for these activists on TV. I told myself,”Aba! Marami sa mga UP student na nakikita ko sa TV nagpoprotesta. Nakapasa ako sa UPCAT, siguro dapat maging ganun din ako para astig!”, some sort of meaningless pride sparked within me and I would always make it known to others that I feel for this country and therefore, I’m an activist. Now I realized that, it has just been my way of telling others that I’m going to study in UP because back then, I don’t even know what activism is and what activism does.





THE STUDENT UNION BUILDING IS THE MAJOR ICON OF UPLB MILITANTISM. IT HOUSES THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT COUNCIL AND THE UPLB PERSPECTIVE, TWO LEADING BODIES IN THE UNIVERSITYTHAT UPHOLDS STUDENT RIGHTS.





So I enrolled in UPLB and had my first sample taste of what activism is during an orientation about a school publication let us just name Publication A. I was a news/feature editor and a cartoonist back in high school so decided to know more about this publication along with other students who are mostly freshman. In the orientation of Publication A, the staff showed us a collection of short films that were banned by the MTRCB, saying that it was because of their serious attacks to the Arroyo government. Indeed, the films are graphic. It showed how brutal a government can be to its citizens. The films gave us a glimpse at how real torturing, kidnapping and killing happens and why. I was spooked by those films and, knowing that Publication A is noted for its militantism, began thinking twice if I would continue with joining them. Yeah I am selfish, selfish indeed but the films had really moved me, from then I realized that activism has a purpose. By those films I saw that justice for those who are murdered, raped, abducted and tortured for the sake of an unclear but narrowed personal interest is being voiced out by activism. I realized that activism by others speaks for those who cannot speak. It amplifies the cries of the sufferer to a decibel that would make them stronger. It has the capacity of moving others.

“Aba! Marami sa mga UP student na nakikita ko sa TV nagpoprotesta. Nakapasa ako sa UPCAT, siguro dapat maging ganun din ako para astig!”

A lot of assignments have darted me a week after that orientation so I never had the chance to take an exam to see whether I deserve to be in Publication A or not. Days passed and another thing caught my interest. The auditions for an annual play that has been going on for more than a quarter of a century let us just call Play B. Me and my roommates in our dorm have been talking about it since it released it’s first teaser. We decided to take the auditions. (I used to act way back in high school too. I have acted as a soldier who is being possessed by seven beings he had killed in a war and as a merman who fell in love with the witch he consulted for a merman-to human potion he intended to use to be with his love on land.) I qualified to join the play but I backed out because the workshops require from us three hours every night but, my roommates went on with the play without me and because of that they started missing classes, dropping courses and failing them. So I told muself, “ Buti na lang hindi ako tumuloy sumali sa play na yun! Papatayon ako ng mommy ko kapag meron akong naibagsak o nai-drop na subject ng dahil dun. Ang mahal kaya ng tuition!”
I’m close with my roommates. But as a result of me not going on with the play, I started to feel out-of-place whenever they would arrive every night from their rehearsals and talk about what happened with them. I got secluded from them. I felt annoyed every time they would ask me to deliver their things down the dorm for the reason that they got locked outside by rehearsing until after the dorm curfew. “@#$%^&*! Sasali-Sali ng play tapos gagawin pa akong kartero!” I told myself. And yet, I found myself subjective to their requests. I don’t know, maybe something inside me voices out that there is something good in what they are doing. For every time they would talk to themselves I would always hear words like “ToFI”, “repression”, “students”, “rights”, “education” etc. Now I see that Play B was actually about UPLB students and the things that currently concern them. This year it was about them coping with the high tuition rates and after seeing the play I realized that, indeed, ToFI is repression to the rights of students to education. Not only that, I realized that activism can have a wide range of forms aside from street marches, rallies and short films. Activism can even be expressed in a play and just as I was writing the draft of this essay I realized that it can even be expressed in –a blog! I call it creative activism. As I stood to leave the auditorium after seeing Play B, I felt a twinge of guilt. May purpose din naman pala ang play na ‘to. Something tells me that I should’ve joined that play and that publication but as I think of the loads of assignment I’m about to tackle, it just turns silent.





POSTERS LIKE THIS WITHIN ARE SCATTRED ALTHROUGHT THE CAMPUS DURING THE ELECTIONS. TENSION BUILT UP DURING THIS TIME ECAUSE AT FOUR HOURS TO GO BEFORE END OF ELECTIONS, VOTER TURN-OUTS ARE AT 30% LOW. PHOTOS TAKEN BY KEVIN R. RIPAS.

“I realized
that activism speaks
for those
who cannot speak.”

The play was shown last September and about a week or two after that will be the USC-CSC elections. As the days went by I found out that the organization behind Play B is linked to a major running party in the USC-CSC elections let us just name Party C. Party C is also linked to the incumbent USC and it’s office is just next to that of Publication A that whenever I see a poster of Party C, I cant help but notice the same font face and paper material seen in issues of Publication A. many questions entered my mind. Is Play B intended for politicking? Did the play really convey the real situation of UP students or is it just to agitate the students in order for them to consider Party C that addresses these situations? Are Publication A and the incumbent USC helping Party C in the elections? After all these questioning, I asked one more serious question: Can activism itself be infiltrated by corruption?

I know I cannot turn these questions into premises and equate them with the truth. In the first place, I never investigated. I didn’t attend the meeting de avance. What if they are just coincidences and I’m just bitter because I still remember those days that I felt secluded by my roommates? Anyways, I made it clear to my roommates that I’m not voting for Party C. although, when I voted, I mixed the two parties at random and voted Party C’s chair.




RALLY WITH FORMER VICE PRESIDENT TEOFISTO GUINGONA. PHOTO TAKEN BY KEVIN R.RIPAS.

After all these questioning, I asked myself one more serious question: Can activism itself be infiltrated by corruption?


PROTEST OF NESTLE WORKERS IN UPLB. THEY WANT JUSTICE FOR DING FORTUNA.



STUDENTS JOINING THE PROTEST LED BY THE FORMER VICE PRESIDENT. SOME OF THM ARE PART OF PLAY B WHILE THE OTHERS ARE LINKED TO THE INCUMBENT USC


After sometime, I realized that activism by itself is good for all of us. It can have a good or bad example because it can be represented by any group of people. It can be dangerous and it can take lives like what happened to Ding Fortuna (president of United Filipino Workers – Nestle workers Union), Jonas Burgos, Karen Empeño, Sherlyn Cadapan. It can have many forms and purposes cause you can be an activist of animal rights, student rights women’s rights etc. plus, being an activist requires a person’s time, effort and passion. What is important is that it has an element of cultural effervescence, that no matter how light the purpose is, be it with a crowd or with a group of few people: the Filipinos are reminded of how it is to be united for a purpose. Activism is a concept we must take seriously. Activism must not be forgotten.

About the Blogger

Hi there! I’m Kevin R. Ripas. This blog is part of my course requirement in Political Science 1 under Professor Beverly Bubbles Asor. But don’t worry about that, although a requirement in fact, I still imposed my heart on doing this. If you have any comments, suggestions or violent reactions please feel free to email me at qx1204@hotmail.com.ph or if you just want to know more about me, you can use the same address to add me in your friendster account. Bye now and take care! [“,]

P.S. I’m going to miss this course!!!!!! ÞPOSC 1