Alex Lacson---a Patriot who deserves to be in the Senate

I remember the times when Alex Lacson and I spent numerous nights talking about our country. It was 1988 when we first met. We were dorm mates. We lived in the same room, together with two others--Hector Halabaso from La Union and another one whom I forgot the name already.

I was a freshman, he was, I think, third or fourth year. We were both political science students. I was then the elected block president.

I learned a lot from him, how dysfunctional our system is and how to cure it. I was then a very young recruit of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and starting to read Marx. Yep, I admit--I was a very avid reader of anything Marxist (and continues to be).

My colleagues over at LFS, I remember Rommel Banlaoi and Jules Calagui used to tell me to distance myself from Alex, since he belonged to a rival political party (Alex and his friend, Ariel Nepomuceno founded ISA or Independent Student Alliance). We were all SAMASA, the dominant political party at that time. I remember it was then David Celdran who was our Council chairman and being true to my self, I joined Celdran's volunteer group.

Despite our differences in politics, we were friends, Alex and I. We shared food, mostly monggo and rice and tuyo. We sometimes debated over Marxism and the rightist ideology. My curiosity pricked, I started reading non-Marxist tracts and that began my "odyssey" so to speak, on numerous ideologies other than Marxism. I admit though that Socialism remained dominant in my thinking, even now. I enjoyed dialectics so much, that I fused it with my studies on quantum physics.

When the Davide Commission (if my memory serves me right) was formed to investigate on the coups d'etat at that time, Alex was a research staff member. It was then that I was able to read may tracts about what ideology the Young Officers' Union (YOU) and the Revolutionaryong Alyansang Makabayan (RAM) adheres to. Familiar names cropped up--Abe Purungganan, Gringo, Danilo Lim, Ariel Querubin and a young Lieutenant named Diosdado Valeroso. Never in my wildest dreams that I would be able to meet one of these guys in the future and one of them even became my kumpare.

Anyway, I am glad that my "kuya" Alex Lacson is running for the Senate under the Liberal Party. When the Kabataang Liberal was being formed, I was asked to join it. I refused, since I think that I can never work for a traditional political party. Yet, when I met Mar Roxas last year and had supper with him, my thinking changed. And now that "kuya" is running under them, I am thinking of helping them.

Good luck, my friend and make us proud when you're there at the Senate.

By the way, Alex---I am still a Socialist and Revolutionist. :-)