BLACK BERET with a star crowning a handsome frowning face, left eyebrow slightly raised, long wavy hair.
That photograph – omnipresent in protest movements from the streets of Paris to the dirt roads of Kampala; plastered on mountain camps from Colombia to Nepal, pasted as amulets on rifle butts; enshrined in student dorms from Sorbonne to Diliman; commercialized in public cafes, tabacaleras and record bars; emblazoned in shirts captioned hasta la victoria siempre or its translations in hundreds of languages around the world – made Che Guevara the most recognizable, if not most revered, icon of revolution.
Thus, by the benchmark of Che shall all revolutionaries be measured. Thus, the ideal glossing over the real.
Oscar S. Rodriguez did not make the dashing revolutionary of pop culture fixity. But his contributions to the struggle were not diminished any.
So I wrote in About Oca: A Story of Struggle, the proto biography of Rodriguez. And went on with narratives of the Ka Jasmin role he played in the anti-Marcos struggle, his incarceration under martial law.
A revolutionary death – so common in those who raged against the “dying of the light” – Rodriguez was spared of. To continue a revolutionary mission, as written in his bio: On hindsight, in revolutionary parlance: Pinagkaitan si Oca ng tadhana na maging martir ng armadong himagsikan upang kaipala’y biyayaan ng kasaysayan ng takdang papel na gagampanan sa patuloy na pakikibaka tungo sa ganap na kalayaan at tunay na demokrasya. (Fate deprived him of martyrdom in the armed revolution, only for history to gift him with a definitive role in the continuing struggle for total liberation and true democracy).
All these thoughts of the Revolutionary Oca in a different arena of battle consumed me as I listened to Dr. Jesus Estanislao of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia speak of a different revolution – “a revolution of good governance” – at the conferment of the institutionalized status on the City of San Fernando in the Performance Governance System (PGS), the first ever in the whole Philippines.
Spoke Estanislao: “While other government agencies and units are just starting their PGS, you are actually now institutionalizing it. This is because of the commendable and exemplary performance of your city officials led by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and the selflessness of your very own Multi-Sectoral Governance Council…
“This is a revolution in governance for development, because all the while, we have been emphasizing democracy, freedom. And that’s fine. That is a battle we have already won. What we are really looking at is, can we use that democratic space for the genuine, integral and total development of our people. And I think you have the best example right here in San Fernando. You can lead the way…
“With citizen participation, public-private partnership, all the projects you are doing like the emphasis on education, the integrated schools in elementary and high school and the city college, I haven’t heard so much of those elsewhere in the country…
“That is why the leadership of Mayor Oca is critical. And these good things are coming right out of San Fernando. With the country’s corruption index going up and up and things going the wrong way all the time, you come to San Fernando and ask: Is this possible? Are really in the Philippines when you begin seeing and talking about all these projects?
“That is why, if you are looking at a real revolution in governance, it is right here in San Fernando.”
Yes, a revolution – not in the mold that Ka Jasmin would have prescribed – did Rodriguez initiate in the City of San Fernando, to the greatest of benefit to the Fernandino. And that revolution continues.
Magsilbi Tamu.
That photograph – omnipresent in protest movements from the streets of Paris to the dirt roads of Kampala; plastered on mountain camps from Colombia to Nepal, pasted as amulets on rifle butts; enshrined in student dorms from Sorbonne to Diliman; commercialized in public cafes, tabacaleras and record bars; emblazoned in shirts captioned hasta la victoria siempre or its translations in hundreds of languages around the world – made Che Guevara the most recognizable, if not most revered, icon of revolution.
Thus, by the benchmark of Che shall all revolutionaries be measured. Thus, the ideal glossing over the real.
Oscar S. Rodriguez did not make the dashing revolutionary of pop culture fixity. But his contributions to the struggle were not diminished any.
So I wrote in About Oca: A Story of Struggle, the proto biography of Rodriguez. And went on with narratives of the Ka Jasmin role he played in the anti-Marcos struggle, his incarceration under martial law.
A revolutionary death – so common in those who raged against the “dying of the light” – Rodriguez was spared of. To continue a revolutionary mission, as written in his bio: On hindsight, in revolutionary parlance: Pinagkaitan si Oca ng tadhana na maging martir ng armadong himagsikan upang kaipala’y biyayaan ng kasaysayan ng takdang papel na gagampanan sa patuloy na pakikibaka tungo sa ganap na kalayaan at tunay na demokrasya. (Fate deprived him of martyrdom in the armed revolution, only for history to gift him with a definitive role in the continuing struggle for total liberation and true democracy).
All these thoughts of the Revolutionary Oca in a different arena of battle consumed me as I listened to Dr. Jesus Estanislao of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia speak of a different revolution – “a revolution of good governance” – at the conferment of the institutionalized status on the City of San Fernando in the Performance Governance System (PGS), the first ever in the whole Philippines.
Spoke Estanislao: “While other government agencies and units are just starting their PGS, you are actually now institutionalizing it. This is because of the commendable and exemplary performance of your city officials led by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and the selflessness of your very own Multi-Sectoral Governance Council…
“This is a revolution in governance for development, because all the while, we have been emphasizing democracy, freedom. And that’s fine. That is a battle we have already won. What we are really looking at is, can we use that democratic space for the genuine, integral and total development of our people. And I think you have the best example right here in San Fernando. You can lead the way…
“With citizen participation, public-private partnership, all the projects you are doing like the emphasis on education, the integrated schools in elementary and high school and the city college, I haven’t heard so much of those elsewhere in the country…
“That is why the leadership of Mayor Oca is critical. And these good things are coming right out of San Fernando. With the country’s corruption index going up and up and things going the wrong way all the time, you come to San Fernando and ask: Is this possible? Are really in the Philippines when you begin seeing and talking about all these projects?
“That is why, if you are looking at a real revolution in governance, it is right here in San Fernando.”
Yes, a revolution – not in the mold that Ka Jasmin would have prescribed – did Rodriguez initiate in the City of San Fernando, to the greatest of benefit to the Fernandino. And that revolution continues.
Magsilbi Tamu.
