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. :-)

RAM co-founder Col. Billy Bibit just passed away

Last Sunday, I again saw a procession of hearses in Cavite. I concluded that one of my closest friends probably, and yet again, passed this world into the next. My fears were validated.

Yesterday, I heard the news of the passing of Colonel Billy Bibit. If you google his name, there are some online entries about him. I was looking for his photo and not one showed up. Yet, two decades ago, his photos were all over town.

I remember that I was still a college student at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when the bloodiest coup d'etat against then president Cory Aquino happened. Bibit was then with the group of the charismatic Col. Gregorio Gringo Honasan. The soldiers nearly toppled Aquino where it not for that "fly-by" of American fighter planes.

After that, the soldiers vanished into thin air. After a few months, some of them were captured. Others, like Col. Bibit was captured a few years after.

Bibit remains a legend. I still remember one story about him. When young soldiers led by my friend staged the Manila City jail assault, he was one of them. They managed to extricate Bibit from his cell.

After that tumultuous struggle, Bibit was incarcerated. Under the regime of Ramos, a truce was entered into by government with RAM-SFP-YOU. Bibit went on quietly.

Under Arroyo, Bibit was appointed Customs chief of Subic Bay. He was eventually transferred to Cebu. I heard then that he was sickly.

Bibit is a good man, a patriot extraordinaire and like General Danny Lim, an inspiration to all those who seek change in this country. Like Jake Malajacan and all the rest, they hold still hold that dream, a dream that shall never die.

Sir Billy, you may have passed on, but the struggle and the vision that you have provided will forever remain in the collective consciousness of the Filipino People. Mabuhay! We salute you.

YOU Original Founder Running for President

This is verified information.

If things will not improve, the original founder of the Young Officers' Union (YOU) will run for president in the May 10, 2010 elections.

Superintendent Diosdado Valeroso, class president of Class 1982 of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) intimated his desire to seek the highest post of the land to Patricio Mangubat, secretary general of the Young Organizers' Union before he left for China.

Valeroso, one of the original members of the Reform the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the predecessor of the Rebolusyunaryong Alyansang Makabansa, said that the present circumstances of our country is most depressing and ordinary people should go out of their comfort zones to fight for what is right, just and moral.

Valeroso who led the forces that ousted former dictator and president Ferdinand Marcos said that the situation in the Philippines is reminiscent of the days before Edsa Uno, where people started going out of their homes to look for solutions to the pressing problems of the country. Valeroso said that the only solution to the core problems of the Philippines is for Filipinos to unite behind a candidate who has the will to effect changes in society.