NOSTALGIA PILI-PEG

People Power, Martial Law and Winnipeg

In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law thereby enforcing an end to fundamental freedoms and rights enjoyed by Filipinos at home. For Filipinos in the diaspora, including those in Winnipeg, Marcos’ decree was a cause for worry as much as it was a call for action. The Filipino living outside the Philippines was, although out of reach physically, very much involved intellectually in the movement that would culminate as People Power in 1986. The tie between the Filipino and the Philippines; the Filipino-Canadian and Canada; and eventually Canada and the Philippines under Marcos were conceptualized by one and the same person through his/her multiple migrant identities. Events were organized, messages fowarded, and funds likely raised as a show of support miles away. Kalayaan Philippine News and Views, a community paper published by Ted Alcuitas, agitated rising anti-Marcos sentiment in Winnipeg. The paper later welcomed church official and key People Power proponent, Cardinal Jaime Sin to Winnipeg in a 1988 visit to the city under the Winnipeg Filipino Project. The push for Philippine Democracy from the diaspora appears to have been acknowledged by Cardinal Sin’s visit to Winnipeg. I will reserve the discussions shared in our Oral History interviews on this topic for the actual Manitoba Museum exhibit so do stay tuned!

I can go on forever about Martial Law and its implications to Filipinos living outside of the Philippines as an intro to what multitudes more can be said about People Power and Philippine politics, but I leave that for you to learn and discover. Instead, listen to Mr. Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino, the foremost opponent to Marcos and later celebrated martyr of Philippine democracy, speak as a vocal exile in the diaspora in this American interview on the 700 Club.

Source: (top) Winnipeg Free Press (25 February 1986); (middle) Kalayaan Vol.5, No.1 (January 1988); (bottom)tscacbnasia You Tube channel (uploaded 23 Dec 2008)