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Can Communists Laugh?: Recalling Vanishing Leftist

Ditties of the Marcos Era

Article  in  Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints · January 2015

DOI: 10.1353/phs.2015.0003

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Research Note
P at r i c i o N . A b i n a l e s

Can Communists
Laugh?
Recalling Vanishing
Leftist Ditties of
the Marcos Era

This research note puts into record ditties sung by communist cadres in
the 1970s and 1980s that were never part of the melodies approved by the
Communist Party of the Philippines. The songs range from those chanted
during marches and demonstrations to ballads about love and sexual
opportunism inside the movement. Their popularity among those who
heard them was a source of pride for their composers and lyricists. They
suggested that party life was not all that “grim-and-determined” and that,
to slightly alter the famous statement of Mao Zedong, a revolution was no
dinner party, but some cadres were able to picnic along the way.

Keywords: Communist Party of the Philippines • revolutionary songs •

heretical ditties • Marcos era

Philippine Studies  Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints 63, no. 1 (2015) 131–52
© Ateneo de Manila University
R
evolutionary songs have always permeated movements, and years have staunchly celebrated cadre courage and commitment. A few
those of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) were chroniclers only recently have written more candidly about missteps of the
no different. Teresita Gimenez-Maceda (1966) mentioned revolution (Caouette 2004; Quimpo and Quimpo 2012; Maglipon 2012;
such songs in her book on its predecessor, the Partido Llanes 2012). To date none have mentioned the songs that snickered, and
Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), while Thomas McKenna thus challenged not only the repressive reality under martial law but the
(1998, 170–96) discovered similar tunes in Campo Muslim, a section of party’s strictures as well.
Cotabato City under the influence of the Moro National Liberation Front. While silly and often impious, these “cultural expressions” articulated
But the melodies Maceda and McKenna recorded were generally serious anger with the dictatorship of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. But they also voiced
in tone and motivational in message, written to bolster commitment to the frustrations with the party’s ideological and moral prescriptions, presaging
cause. Similarly, the CPP’s official catalog of songs sought to reinforce heroic the internal dissent against the grim-and-determined CCP operations of
themes. the 1990s. Such criticisms were intermittent, “small-scale” operations that
Yet, conversing with cadres from the revolution of thirty years or so were highly localized in their impact. Still we can find in them youthful
ago, I have discovered songs that bucked the politically correct themes. resistance—as well as the fun party members pursued against the odds. The
Distinguished by their irony and irreverence—and for being outright struggle was no dinner party, but people found ways to picnic along the
hilarious—these ditties did not gain approval from the guardians of party way.
culture and so often had a limited reach. Some did not even reach beyond
the party cells to which their composers belonged. But the impact on even The Paean of Impish Militancy
the smallest of audiences was exactly what their authors intended: everyone The first three months of 1970 began with demonstrations and student–police
laughed. confrontations, and that period has since then been inscribed in historical
I have made these songs the subject of research for two reasons. First, I narrative as the First Quarter Storm (FQS). The FQS was seen by many
want to put into print what thus far have been preserved orally only, lest they as the cathartic explosion of a simmering youthful alienation toward the
fade from memory and be lost forever. In life, even events that have been conservatism and pro-American sentiments of their elders, the reluctance
emblazoned upon public awareness fade, eventually becoming only broadly of the same elders to reform the system from within. It was also the Filipino
memorialized for their most dramatic or heroic aspects. All else vanishes; youth’s “contribution” to a global protest against “American imperialism’s”
and, often, ordinary but telling details are lost to obscurity. My apprehension brutality in Vietnam and the servility (“puppetry”) of many Asian states,
over the ravages of time was confirmed of late in a conversation with one of including the Philippines, to American interests. Most important of all, the
the composers. He admitted that he had put his old melodies out of mind FQS was the turning point in student protest, as a once-marginal group of
after being reassigned to the countryside. There “among the basic masses” radical organizations affiliated with the new (“reestablished”) CPP seized the
he had discarded many of his petit-bourgeois proclivities, including the jokes center stage from its moderate rivals and began to propagate the “national
and song composition of his earlier life. Later, discouraged by the 1992 split democratic revolution of a new type.”
of the CPP, he shifted to NGO work. His university days of penning impious Inspired by the progress of the National Liberation Front in Vietnam
songs had been pushed into the distant warehouses of his memory until I and the reinvigoration of socialist politics by Mao Zedong and his Red
showed up to shake off the cobwebs. Guards via the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, members of the
The second reason for putting these tunes to print is to record their Kabataang Makabayan (KM) and the Samahang Demokratikong Kabataan
youthful idealism and rebellion. The CPP did not take kindly to those (SDK) took the lead in the street battles that began on 30 January 1970, soon
who questioned its insistence that the revolution was “not a dinner party.” after the reelected President Marcos made his speech to the nation in the
Indeed, the swell of memoirs by those who waged battles during the Marcos halls of Congress. The KM and SDK cadres had worked ceaselessly and with

132 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 133
patience to win over, penetrate, and compete with the then larger moderate China—from the way fists were clenched, to the grim-and-determined look,
student groups, and on that day—when the police decided to attack the to the direct Filipino translations of Chinese songs and slogans. This popular
demonstrators—their efforts paid off. With state brutality in clear view of marching song perhaps best reflects the temper of the FQS.
everyone, the red flag of armed struggle and a total radical overhaul of the
system was regarded—at least by many a demonstrator—as the only way out Ang masa, ang masa lamang The masses, the masses
of this increasingly polarized politics. alone
Nick Joaquin (1999, 329–34) describes this radicalization of the political ay s’yang tunay na bayani are the real heroes
atmosphere vividly in these terms: Ang masa, ang masa The masses, the masses
ay ang tagapaglikha are the creators
In 1968 . . . we were singing Hey Jude and Can’t Take My Eyes Off Ang masa, ang masa lamang The masses, the masses
of You. We were singing a very different tune when the 1970s began. alone
‘Makibaka!’ [Struggle!] became the cry of January evening in 1970 ay ang tagapaglikha are the creators
when Marcos and Imelda emerged from the Congress opening to
Ang masa, o ang masa The masses, oh the masses
find themselves being booed, rushed and stoned by youth picketers.
alone
The storm of demos had burst that would rage the whole year. . . .
ay ang tagapaglikha are the creators
The demonstrator created a life style too. Early in the year, when the
ng Kasaysayan of History2
nights were cold, he marched in turtleneck. His weapons were stone
and placard. After the initial riots, the use of the Molotov cocktail and
Songs like “Linyang Masa” (The Mass Line) signaled the shift from
the pillbox became more prevalent, provoked by police firepower. The
the morose appeals for reforms and a change in people’s hearts—these
demo itself become [sic] stylized into various varieties: picket, long
coming mainly from youth associations influenced by the Second Vatican
march, living theater, people’s tribunal, parliament of the streets.
Council—to the more militant advocacy of the CPP’s national democratic
The chants of the year were: ‘Down with imperialism, feudalism,
revolution. Even the maudlin tune of the Catholic Church youth group Khi
fascism!’ and ‘Makibaka, huwag matakot!’ [Dare to Struggle!] . . .
Rho demonstrated a shift to greater political awareness:
What Filipinos never thought to see in their lifetime, they saw this
year: street fighting at barricades. Almost no month in Manila when
I thirst for justice, not palliatives
no streets emptied, no stores closed in a hurry, and no pavement
I thirst for justice, not palliatives.
became a battleground between the youth marching with red flags
I thirst, I thirst for real love.
and placard and helmeted troops marching with truncheon and
And real love means social justice.3
wicker shield. The man on the street came to learn what tear gas
smells like.
The CPP however made sure that its messages remained in tune with the
“correct political line.” Born out of an internal struggle with and split from the
Commanded by CPP chairman Jose Ma. Sison to lead the Second
older Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas and believing in the Maoist invocation
Propaganda Movement, these organizations were the most passionate in
that real revolutionaries were those born out of a “two-line struggle” between
advancing “Marxism–Leninism–Mao Tse Tung Thought” (Lacaba 1982).1
what was correct (Mao) and incorrect (the “revisionist renegades” of various
Their slogans, declarations, and presentations hewed closely to Maoist
sorts), the new party was perennially conscious of defending its national
interpretations. Even the format of street demonstrations and musical plays
democratic program and the protracted armed struggle that would bring this
became carbon copies of those emerging from the People’s Republic of
future into fruition. This policing applied not only to cadre development

134 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 135
and guerrilla training but also to the way the revolution projected its identity Together with the slogan “Marcos, Hitler, Diktador, Tuta” (Marcos,
and ethos. The CPP cultural cadre officers were therefore perennially on Hitler, Dictator, Puppet”), this song resonated with the crowd as Marcos’s
alert lest the political line got diluted with “revisionism” and “reformism.” fidelity to American national security concerns and his propensity to employ
But ideological policing could not be maintained 24/7, and “cultural violence to expand his power were becoming increasingly apparent.
weapons,” especially songs, became tainted. Curiously many of these Another popular song, adapted from the American protest standard “We
deviant melodies were not Maoist copies but reworkings of beloved Western Shall Not Be Moved” by folk singer Pete Seeger, likened Marcos to feces.5
pop songs—the exact opposite of the prescribed anti-American sentiment
that must come with every revolutionary ballad. When passions ran high Si Marcos ay inyo, Marcos, you can keep him,
during rallies, for example, politically incorrect tunes would compete with inyong-inyo na yes, you can
the approved standards, like this one that taunted the anti-riot squads of the Si Marcos ay inyo, Marcos, you can keep him,
Manila Metropolitan Command (Metrocom).4 The American song “Yellow inyong-inyo na yes, you can
Bird,” popularized by crooner Harry Belafonte, provided the melody: Katulad ng tae He is like the shit you see
sa ilalim ng poste beneath the lampposts
Metrocom, may helmet The Metrocom with their Inyong-inyo na. [Yes] he is all yours.
helmets
at may truncheon and truncheons Activists then switched “Marcos” for “Imelda” and then to other
Metrocom, may tear gas The Metrocom, with their tear political personalities, and the song’s last variation would have as its target
gas the much-hated “imperyalistang Amerikano!”6 Again, some cultural activists
at may Thompson and Thompson [sub- scorned the song’s popularity among the ranks—associating the president
machineguns] with human excrement was not exactly the way to project a Maoist moral
Palo sa ulo, They hit you on the head high ground. But they could do very little once thousands on the march
palo sa paa. They hit you on the legs belted it out in rousing unison.
Palo sa likod, They hit you on the back Cadres also rewrote melodies to praise CPP leaders. The original 1929
palo sa harap. They hit you on your front song “Tayo na sa Antipolo” enjoined Christian devotees to visit the statue of
Palo nang palo, They hit and hit you the Virgin of Antipolo (brought by the Spanish from Mexico in 1626 as part
mga putang ina nyo Your mothers are whores!! of the town’s annual religious pilgrimage).7 In the radical version the new
Mamamatay din kayo! You will be killed someday! shrine was found on the mountain ranges of Isabela province, where the
CPP chairman and first commander of the party’s New People’s Army (NPA),
Very often when sung, “Metrocom” would presage a bloody clash where Bernabe Buscayno (a.k.a. Kumander [Commander] Dante), were planning
tear gas and truncheons were met by pillboxes and stones. to replicate Mao’s Yenan stronghold and from there deploy revolutionary
It was President Marcos, of course, who became the favorite target of waves that would swarm the cities.
such songs. Activists produced another rousing marching song by changing
the lyrics of the Christian hymn “Glory, Glory Hallelujah”: Tayo na sa Isabela Let’s all march to [the
mountains of] Isabela
Marcos, Marcos Marcos, Marcos is a thief at doon makipagkita and there [we] get to see
magnanakaw (3x) Kay Dante at ang dakilang [Kumander] Dante and the
Magnanakaw si Marcos! Marcos is a thief! great

136 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 137
 si A-A-Amado Guerrero . . . [Chairman] A-A-Amado “Magellan” delighted activists for its celebration of (putative) Filipinos’
Guerrero!! 8 victory over the hated colonizers and because it was written by someone who,
with his urban poor background and heavily accented provincial English,
As the NPA overcame initial setbacks and began expanding throughout epitomized the organic wit of the masses. An inspired Visayan cadre and
the country—the first time ever for a local revolutionary organization— poet, who shared class origins and Cebuano background with Villame, soon
activists and cadres sang praises for their comrades in the New People’s Army, produced a “Magellan” radical equivalent:
now employing local tunes. The comical Cebuano ballad “Magellan,” for
example, written in the early 1970s by folk singer Yoyoy Villame, originally On March 29, 1969, when the New People’s Army was organized.
lampooned the “discovery” of the Philippines by Spanish conquistadores, The people were happy to have a new army,
which ended with the death of Ferdinand Magellan at the hands of Lapu- under the leadership of the CPP . . .
Lapu, Mactan island’s chieftain. The song went: It all began in the mountains of Central Luzon
when Red commanders under Kasamang [Comrade] Dante
On March 16, 1521, when the Philippines was discovered by decided to follow, the road to armed struggle
Magellan. to liberate the whole Filipino people
They were sailing day and night, across the big ocean, But Marcos proclaimed 1081,
until they found the small Limasawa island. to prolong the misery of everyone
Magellan landed in Limasawa at noon. An era of darkness had begun,
The people met him happily on the shore all across our native land
They could not understand, the speaking they had done But the people got so mad because martial law was very bad
because Kastila gid ay waray-waray man. The people’s war intensified and Mr. Marcos cried and cried,
Magellan landed in Cebu City. “Oh my Imelda I am sick, go call Uncle Sam very quick!
Rajah Humabon met them, they were very happy. “Oh Uncle, Uncle, shall I die?
All people were baptized, under the Church of Christ. “Oh no my tuta, do not cry.”10
And that was the beginning of our Catholic life
When Magellan landed in Mactan to Christianize them everyone. Equally hilarious was a song that emerged from the KM chapter in
But Lapu-Lapu met him on the shore and told Magellan to go back Malabon that appropriated the tune of the popular 1906 US Army “Caisson
home. Song” for this rendition.11
And Magellan got so mad, ordered his men to camouflage.
But Mactan island, they could not grab, because Lapu-Lapu is very ‘Sandaang machine gun A hundred machineguns
hard. hawak ng makabayan are in the hands of the
Then the battle began at dawn. Bolos and spears versus guns and nationalists
cannons. Lulusubin ang Malakanyang Who are ready to assault
And when Magellan was hit on his neck, he stumbled and cried and Malacañang
cried. bundok, sa gubat From the mountains and the
“Oh Mother, Mother, I am sick, go call the doctor very quick. forests
Oh doctor, doctor, shall I die? Oh no Magellan do not cry.” 9 kami ay walang gulat fearlessly we come

138 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 139
 Lulusubin ang Malakanyang To be ready to assault and sung enthusiastically in many rallies.12 The Filipino version kept close
Malacañang to the tenor and passion that made the song one of the most remembered in
Ang aming chairman Our chairman international socialist and communist histories.13
si Amado Guerrero is Amado Guerrero
Victor Corpuz ang Kumander Victor Corpuz is [our] Tamad na burgis The lazy bourgeoisie
commander na ayaw gumawa who do not work
Ang sigaw namin Our slogan is Sa pawis ng iba and live and enjoy
ibagsak ang pasismo “Down with fascism, Nagpapasasa off the sweat of others
piyudalismo, imperyalismo feudalism, and imperialism!” Pinapalamon They are fed
Ang suot namin Our attire is ng manggagawa by workers
pajama ng Vietcong the Vietcong’s pajama Hindi marunong mahiya These [fellows] are shameless
Pati jacket ni Mao Tse Tung and Mao Tse Tung’s jacket Walanghiya! So shameless!
Ang sigaw namin Our slogan is Bandilang pula iwagayway Let us wave the red flag (3x)
ibagsak ang pasismo, “Down with fascism, (3x)
piyudalismo, imperyalismo!! feudalism, and imperialism!!” Ang anakpawis ay Long live the working class!
mabuhay!
When I first heard “Isang Daang Machine-gun” in a gathering of old
activists in the 1980s, one of them was not amused and complained, “Hindi But the translation did not stop there. As radicals began setting up
tama yan, ah!” (That’s not right!). I was pleasantly surprised at his irritation KM and SDK chapters in private schools after successfully appropriating
since the critic, by then, had long resigned from the party. In fact, he had the campaign for “school democratic reforms” from their reformist rivals,
become one of its most potent ideological critics. Yet, hearing a song that was the composition of the new recruits began to reflect this attempt to reach
never part of the standard array of tunes brought out the old political officer out to a section of the students that was hitherto ignored by radicals.14 A
in him (at one time, he was regional secretary of the CPP’s Manila–Rizal “Maryknoll version” (named after one of the women’s colleges in Metro
region) as he worried about its failure to conform to the “political line” and Manila, Maryknoll College, renamed Miriam College in 1989) was
manifest the seriousness of the revolution. littered with “colegiala accent,” the argot associated with these schools of
Like many from this critic’s generation radicalized by the First Quarter the elite and upper middle classes that mixed Filipino and English and was
Storm and Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the pronounced with a distinctively upper-class twang. When put alongside the
themes and rituals of these two episodes had been strongly embedded into above translation, the Taglish (for Tagalog and English) version’s shift from
their psyche. So strong has Maoism penetrated their souls that songs like the serious to playful is quite apparent.
the KM-Malabon’s composition can never be accepted as politically correct,
even after they had left “the movement.” Unfortunately for the former cadre, Tamad na bourgeoisie
his censure was ignored; many of the jaded veterans in that reunion preferred na ayaw mag-work
the laughter to the lecture. Sa sweat ng others
Finally, communist crooners were equally adept in transforming Nag-eenjoy-enjoy
revolutionary songs that were not necessarily just Chinese in origin. Pinapa-eat, eat ng mga workers
“Bandiera Rossa” (Red Flag), an Italian communist classic, was translated Hindi marunong, ma-ashame

140 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 141
 No ashame!! Almost immediately some imp from the audience whispered a line that
Bandilang red . . . i-wave, wave, wave (3x) others picked up later on, to wit:
Ang sons of sweat ay long, long live!15
ang mga pasakit pilit na to confront the suffering that
Was this early version of Taglish a criticism of the new recruits for kinakalas befell them
their class origins? Perhaps, but it was also a recognition of how difficult mapagsamantala’y aalisan ng and soon after cut off the
the transition of the petit-bourgeois was because that cultural transformation bayag balls [of the oppressors]
also involved shedding of a particular kind of English identified with the
upper classes. It poked fun at the pretty bourgeoisie (as colegiala recruits These lines had echoes of associating Marcos to human excrement,
were later referred to), while respectfully recognizing the difficult cultural albeit this time it was accompanied by the desire to emasculate him by
and political transition they were undergoing.16 cutting off his genitals.
When Marcos declared martial law, a period that saw the detaining and The irreverence did not stop there. There were other lyrics that were
killing of activists and cadres and sent many to the underground and the revised for the sake of radical laughter. I only recovered one such song
countryside, the singing stopped. It took the CPP a couple of years before from that period, and it was likewise an adaptation from the noel “Winter
it could set up a well-oiled urban underground network among students, Wonderland.” Written by the scholar and civil society activist Francisco
workers, and the urban poor. By 1976 this network had begun to test the “Pancho” Lara, it went like this:
political waters; small groups of activists staged “lightning strikes” that
gradually expanded into open “multisectoral democratic” protests. New Gone away, the demonyo
songs were written for these occasions, although unlike their pre–martial law Here to stay, rebolusyonaryo
counterparts these were not as upfront about supporting the CPP and the We’ll sing our war song as we go along
NPA because of martial law. For example, excerpts from the most militant Walking down the path of people’s war
presentation of that period, Pagsambang Bayan, performed by the University From the valley we’ll surround the cities
of the Philippines Repertory Company, closed with a song that hinted at Then pretend that we are NPA
revolution but stopped short of mentioning the vanguard party and its army. From the bushes we will build our base [pronounced: baaa-siii]
One of its most memorable lines went: And that is where we’ll bury the enemy
Long-a-live the revolution
Luha’y pawiin na, Inang Wipe your tears, Mother Down with all kinds of reaction
Pilipinas Philippines Let’s sing our war song as we go along
Pagkat sa bukirin ngayo’y For from the mountains a Walking down the path of people’s war
namamalas movement grows Let’s sing our war song as we go along
Mamamayang pilit ginupo ng of people who were once Walking down the path of people’s war
dahas repressed
pawang nakatindig have stood up The inspiration here was neither Christian nor Christmas, but Latin
at may hawak na armas with arms in hand American. As the 1970s began to close, stories of Vietnamese triumphs were
ang mga pasakit pilit na to confront the suffering that being muddled up by sporadic tales of Khmer Rouge brutality and of the
kinakalas befell them Democratic Republic of Vietnam expelling Chinese Vietnamese, leaving
mapagsamantala’y alisan ng and forcibly end it.17 them to survive the ordeals of sea travel with rickety boats that often fell prey
lakas.

142 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 143
to pirates. The fall of the Gang of Four in China and the resurrection of the against partners (perpetrators were often executed for these violations), to—
“revisionist renegade” Deng Xiaoping signaled that not all of those stories of and this was the most popular—sex before marriage.
socialist rejuvenation spurred by the Great Helmsman’s Great Proletarian Until very recently the CPP had demanded that its single women cadres
Cultural Revolution were true. CPP intellectuals continued to defend Pol be chaste, and that they lose their virginity only on the night after their
Pot and argued that Jiang Qing and her cohorts needed to be praised for their revolutionary wedding. Cadres had been repeatedly reminded to avoid all
enduring commitment to Mao.18 conditions that would lead to premarital sex, and those caught were either
But clearly Maoism had been in the wane even in the Philippines by suspended or expelled from the party, depending on the frequency of their
the time the Gang of Four were ousted and Deng took the first steps to bring dalliances (the second punishment usually reserved for instances in which
China out of the destruction caused by the Cultural Revolution to the road of the end result was a pregnant cadre). The sternness with which political
recovery. The new beacon of the socialist future was shining from way across officers oversaw “On the Relation of Sexes” (ORS; CPP Women’s Bureau
the Pacific, as the Sandinistas overthrew the dictator Anastacio Somoza and 2004) and the severity of penalties against those who violated the rules
showed remarkable tenacity in resisting American counterrevolutionary inexorably led to complaints from cadres and activists, which, in turn, led to
onslaught.19 The attraction to Latin American radicalism peaked with the irreverent melodies, especially among the “youth and student sector.”
rise of new cultural groups, prominent of which was the ensemble Patatag. In this ballad Lara employed the lyrics of the popular song by the popular
The activists who belonged to the group were younger, became radicalized pop group Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, more popularly known as APO
under martial law, and had very little connection with their pre–martial law Hiking Society—“Mahirap Talaga Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba” (It’s Really
elders. They prided themselves as the “martial law babies,” i.e., radicals who Difficult to Love Someone Else’s Girlfriend)—to voice their discontent with
had their baptism of fire in the most repressive of conditions. Their musical the ORS. The song goes:
inspiration then was to be found elsewhere: in the Nueva Canción of the
Chilean communists Victor Jara, Qiulapaún, and Sergio Ortega as well as Mahirap talagang magmahal How difficult it is to love
the Uruguayan folk singer Daniel Viglietti. ng isang kasama a comrade
As expected, their seniors criticized their music and lyrics for being “too Hindi mo mabisita You can’t visit her
complicated to be listened to and played by the masses” (Ramillo 2013) but ‘pagkat may pulong siya because she has all these
the censure possessed no sting anymore: the Great Proletarian Cultural meetings
Revolution was already widely discredited, and these martial law babies could Mahirap, oh, mahirap talaga Oh how difficult, so difficult
no longer identify with the Maoist China.20 When Lara penned his hysterical indeed!
rewrite of “Winter Wonderland” to describe the NPA as a merry band of Maghanap na lang Perhaps I should just look
rebels then, he was quite aware of this distinctiveness of his generation. kaya ng sympa for a sympathizer
Ngunit kapag nakita ko But every time I looked
The Pains of Sexual Opportunism
ang kanyang mga mata into her eyes
Yet there is nothing quite like taboo to energize and shock, as several of the Nawawala ang My political commitment
songs I have collected demonstrate, filled as they are with deliciously racy aking pulitika goes out the window
elements and the subject of sex.21 One of the challenges for an underground Sige lang, sugod lang So I shall just plunge into
movement like the CPP was the policing of sex. “Sexual opportunism” this
ranked high among the major sins that a communist could commit, standing
oh, bahala na and face the consequences
alongside even “revisionism” and “reformism.” Acts covered under this
Bahala na kung Even if it ends up
transgression ranged from abuse of women including rape and violence

144 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 145
 magka-punahan pa in many a criticism session antiquated feudal order in which sexuality and freedom were systematically
Refrain: I-dial mo ang You dial her number being suppressed by clerics and kings. And since the document was party law,
number sa telefono in your telephone and hence must be adhered to under the principle of democratic centralism,
Huwag mong ibigay You do not give her one of the few ways of expressing dissent and also getting away with it was
ang tunay na pangalan mo your real name through a funny song.
Pag nakausap mo siya, When you talk to her
But it was not always the case. The coercive powers of the ORS was
such that one also had to be constantly reminded of the stigma that one who
sasabihin sa iyo she’ll tell you
violates it would have to carry throughout the rest of his or her career in the
Tumawag ka mamaya “Call me later,
revolution, and even beyond. Lara (re)wrote a popular religious song revived
nanditong P.O. ko my political officer is here!”
in 1970s by the tawdry balladeer Rico J. Puno from one talking about God
Mahirap, oh, mahirap talaga Oh how difficult, so difficult
and life’s mysteries to the enigmatic world of the sexual opportunist:
indeed
Oh sakit ng ulo What a headache,
Mahiwaga ang buhay ng S.O. The sexual opportunist’s life
maniwala ka, I tell you
is a mystery
Ngunit kahit anong But whatever they say
Kung sino ay di natin piho For whoever he dates we will
sasabihin nila about me
never know
Hindi pa rin ako magbabago I can never change (for love)
At manalig lagi sana tayo But rest assured my
(Repeat last line three times)
comrades
Tuwing linggo may kasama He changes partners every
Here Lara complains of party regulations that make it difficult for cadres
syang bago week
in a relationship to spend some intimate time together because of the endless
Pag-ibig wala sa bokabularyo Love is not in his vocabulary
meetings that their political officers demand they attend (and Lara muses that
At pang-pasakit lang daw ito This only gives him
he might be better off with just a sympathizer who will not be bound by these
ng ulo headaches
strictures). What he also hates the most is how much living a double life can
Yan ang buhay at ligaya This is the kind of life and
affect romance. One has to be constantly ready with aliases and alibis, fibs,
pleasure
and falsehoods because of the perennial threat of arrest and torture. But what
ng isang S.O. of a sexual opportunist
is most scary is that every time he or she looks at his/her partner’s eyes, he or
she would be ready to throw radical politics on the side.
Compared to their pre–martial law predecessors, the reach of these
For urban cadres the ORS definitely was a drawback, “cramping their
songs was limited. Martial law created cramped public spaces where
styles,” as it were, when it came to entering into relations with cadres in
political expression was muted or suppressed. There was no chance to sing
a setting where it was “normal” to hold hands, be intimate and horny in
them with the same consistency as in the past and with a large sideline
public, and even engage in premarital sex. There were grumblings over
public listening sympathetically to the activists. With most of its personnel
party bosses’ imposing of regulations that seemed to fit more the peasantry,
operating underground and in the countryside, passing irreverent melodies
where communists and guerrillas had to tread carefully so as not to offend the
from one party cell to another was difficult, all the more because of the very
inherent conservatism of the CPP’s “main force.” There were also questions
nature of these songs. The above tune, for example, would never go as far
over why this superior worldview of the proletariat—the supposedly “most
as the cadre and his close comrades, especially after lower-level cadres and
advanced” class in the era of global capitalism—sounded more like the
activists realized that those who wrote and implemented the directive were

146 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 147
also the first to violate it.22 Besides, why talk about what happens behind the Revolutions are thus not simply the product of a politically sophisticated
bedroom door or underneath the blanket, especially if these involved some and organizationally adept vanguard that simplifies complex ideological
of your top leaders? theories to propagate “Marxism-for-Dummies” for the people. They may
By the 1980s, however, history began to move at a faster pace, sweeping also be the result of subversive ideas deployed through “improper” tabloids,
everyone—dogmatics, heretics, and resigned cadres—into the whirlwind of romantic novellas, and songs, which empower otherwise powerless people in
a protest movement unlike the ones of the past. The assassination of former expressing their dissatisfaction. This deployment of subversive ideas brings to
senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was the catalyst, as it brought out hitherto mind the historian Robert S. Darnton (1995), who in his brilliant and funny
apolitical professional and middle classes, segments of the anti-Marcos elites, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France suggests that, while
and social forces from the underprivileged that were unreached by the CPP. the philosophes Voltaire, Rosseau, and Diderot certainly galvanized the
New organizations of various ideological orientations began to compete with overthrow of Louis the XVI and ushered in the “Age of Reason,” the French
the party in the propaganda war, and they too had their marching songs and public was as much inspired by salacious eighteenth-century tales, which
funny comedies. The CPP held its own against these groups, but its urban- were equally critical but more accessible than the philosophers’ tracts.
based “cultural groups” now had to share the limelight with others. Many a Filipino communist would surely be amused to find that they
In 1987 the CPP’s organizational coherence began to unravel as internal were not alone in making the revolution also a comical dinner party.
debates began to factionalize the movement. The debates inevitably led to
a split and an inside coup, with Sison and his allies regaining control of the
leadership and in 1992 declaring the start of a “second great rectification Notes
campaign” to “reaffirm” the party’s Maoist foundations. Among those who These songs were first presented in an 8 August 2007 forum sponsored by the Ateneo de Manila
University’s Kritika Kultura. It lay dormant for a while until a revised version was presented in
were removed from their posts, or who resigned after the coup, were some
the panel “Laughing Across Asia” at the Association for Asian Studies Meeting, 28 March 2014.
of the composers of the songs I remembered. Freed from the Leninist The author is grateful to the Philippine Studies editorial staff, especially Filomeno Aguilar and
constraints restricting them, these composers looked back to recall the tunes Angelli F. Tugado for helping improve the text. He also thanks Robin Tatu for her comments and
and lyrics of the irreverent melodies they wrote and sang; and poignantly criticisms on the second version.

corrected Mao by saying revolution could be a serious as well as a funny 1 There is now an Internet-based database on the First Quarter Storm containing among other
things, the statements of the various student organizations and analyses by pundits, radical
adventure.
intellectuals, and activists themselves. See The First Quarter Storm Library 2010.

2 Anonymous, “Linyang Masa” (The Mass Line). Bong Wenceslao 2012 presents a poignant
Closing Notes reflection on this and other songs.
Many joined political movements inspired not so much by the deep philosophy 3 I learned this song in 1971 as a member of the high school choir; it was taught to us by a
of texts, such as Mao’s “Five Golden Rays” or Lenin’s What is to Be Done? seminarian from the San Jose Seminary in Quezon City.
More accessible works, like a rousing song stamped out by hundreds on the 4 The lyrics were sung to the tune of “Yellow Bird,” written by Marilyn Keith and Alan Bergman,
march, could also sway passions—particularly when denouncing Marcos as and popularized by crooner Harry Belafonte. I am grateful to Maya Bans Cortino for recalling the

“a piece of shit.” Shouted during marches, sung in snatches, or hummed lyrics and sharing these with me. Authorship of the song remains unknown to this very day.

during lulls between meetings when the political officers were absent, these 5 Seeger’s song is preserved in Seeger and the Song Swappers 2013.

highly localized, subversive songs are now pieces of ephemera, today only 6 I thank the members of the T’bak-Pilipinas Facebook group for helping me recover this song.

vaguely recalled during reunions. But start a bar or two of a favorite and you 7 On the Virgin of Antipolo, cf. Salangsang 2010.

might spark a flame of remembrance in old hearts. Surely it is worthwhile to 8 Amado Guerrero was Sison’s nom de guerre. I was never able to get the full lyrics of this radical
version, alas.
continue to seek to recover and memorialize these songs.
9 See “Yoyoy Villame – Megellan” [sic] in YouTube, complete with lyrics (Villame 2006).

148 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 149
10 Cebuano-Mindanawon writer Dom “Bai” Pagusara wrote this version. I asked Bai whether he ———. 2004. Love, sex and the Filipino communist, or Hinggil sa pagpigil ng panggigigil. Pasig City:
tried to popularize the song, but he answered in the negative. When he began singing it, martial Anvil.
law was already consolidating in the Visayas and Mindanao. He would bring it out for the first Bandiera rossa. N. d. Trans. Clara Statello and Mitchell Abidor. Online, http://www.marxists.org/
time in the early 1980s. subject/art/music/lyrics/it/bandiera-rossa.htm, accessed 11 Feb. 2013.
11 The US colonial army in the Philippines first popularized the original “The Caissons are Rolling Caouette, Dominique. 2004. Persevering revolutionaries: Armed struggle in the 21st century, exploring
Around.” See William E. Studwell 1996, 8–9. the revolution of the Communist Party of the Philippines. PhD diss., Cornell University.
12 For the lyrics see Bandiera rossa n. d. CPP Women’ Bureau. 2004. On the relation of sexes (Internal paper from the Women’s Bureau). In
13 A poignant recollection of the song and its impact on young student radicals can be found in Pio Love, sex and the Filipino communist, or Hinggil sa pagpigil ng panggigigil, Patricio N. Abinales,
Verzola (2012), “The summer radio kid grows up,” in Pathless Travels blog. 131–42. Pasig City: Anvil

14 On the successful arrogation of this reformist campaign by radicals, see Abinales 1988, ch. 6; Darnton, Robert. 1995. The forbidden best-sellers of pre-revolutionary France. New York: W. W.
1985, 41–45. Norton.

15 Prof. Karina David of the University of the Philippines and the other member of the singing duo Feria, Dolores Stephens. 1993. Project Sea Hawk: A barbed-wire journal. Quezon City: Paper Tigers
Inang Laya frequently sang this melody in the 1980s. and Circle Publications.

16 Communists never ceased to eulogize two of such members of the pretty bourgeoisie who rose The First Quarter Storm Library. 2010. A collection of images, articles, art, music, and other
to prominence initially as “national beauty queens” but who, upon discovering the writings of information on the historic events of 1970 in the Philippines. Online, http://fqslibrary.wordpress.
Sison and joining radical associations, abandoned their class and joined the proletariat. To this com/, accessed 19 Jan. 2013.
very day, communists preface their descriptions of the late Maita Gomez and Nelia Sancho with Gimenez-Maceda, Teresita. 1996. Mga tinig mula sa ibaba: Kasaysayan ng Partido Komunista ng
the phrase “beauty queens” before praising their radicalism. See, e.g., Pagaduan-Araullo 2012. Pilipinas at Partido Sosialista ng Pilipinas sa awit, 1930–1955. Quezon City: University of the
17 The complete lyrics can be found in Ilagan 2011. Bonifacio Ilagan penned the entire musicale. Philippines Press.

18 On 28 Sept. 1981, Prof. Alfred W. McCoy shared some of his insights on what was happening in Ilagan, Bonifacio. 2011. Pagsambang bayan. Internet document, http://dramaking077songs.
Vietnam and Cambodia to members of the University of the Philippines Department of Political blogspot.com/2011/10/luhay-pawiin.html, accessed 12 Feb. 2013.
Science. McCoy was in transit back to Australia as part of a delegation that was invited by the Joaquin, Nick. 1999. Manila, my Manila: A history for the young. Manila: Bookmark.
Vietnam Social Science Commission. In his talk, titled “Transition to Socialism in Vietnam,”
Lacaba, Jose F. 1982. Days of disquiet, nights of rage: The first quarter storm and related events.
McCoy pointed out problems that the two socialist states faced and argued that “Cambodia was
Pasig City: Anvil.
reeling from a disastrous attempt at Oriental restoration” while Vietnam’s socialist economy
was “stagnating and in need of integration into the global economy.” CPP sympathizers among Llanes, Ferdinand C., ed. 2012. Tibak rising: Activism in the days of martial law. Pasig City: Anvil.

the UP faculty were quick to accuse McCoy (2013) of naively falling into the trap of “imperialist Maglipon, Jo-Ann, ed. 2012. Not on our watch: Martial law really happened. We were there. Quezon
propaganda,” and insisting that Pol Pot and his Paris-educated Foreign Minister Khieu Samphan City: LEADS-College Editors Guild of the Philippines.
would never countenance repeating what Stalin did in the Soviet Union. McCoy, Alfred W. 2013. Email to the author, 27 Feb.
19 This “Sandinista current” inside the CPP eventually revealed itself in the writings of Nathan McKenna, Thomas M. 1998. Muslim rulers and rebels: Everyday politics and armed separatism in the
Quimpo, who wrote using the nom de plume Marty Villalobos. southern Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press.
20 Bong Ramillo, a former activist, wrote and performed tibak (activist) songs in the 1980s. Pagaduan-Araullo, Carol. 2012. Maita Gomez (1947–2012): Beauty transfigured. Bulatlat.com,
21 I explored this issue in Abinales 2004. 19 July. Online, http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/19/maita-gomez-1947-2012-beauty-

22 On CPP chairman Sison’s dalliance, cf. Feria 1993. transfigured/, accessed 23 Feb. 2013.

Quimpo, Susan and Nathan Gilbert Quimpo. 2013. Subversive lives: A family memoir of the Marcos

References years. Pasig City: Anvil.

Ramillo, Bong. 2013. Interview by the author, via email, 24 Feb.

Abinales, Patricio N. 1985. The Left and the Philippine student movement: Random historical notes
on party politics and sectoral struggle. Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies Salangsang, Venus R. 2010. Educators speak: ‘Tayo na sa Antipolo!’ Manila Bulletin, 8 May: 11, G–24.

1(2): 41–45. Online, http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/256560/tayo-na-sa-antipolo#.UP2jw46UOIk, accessed

19 Jan. 2013.
———. 1988. History of the Philippine student movement: Prelude to the storm. Unpublished ms. in
author’s personal possession. Seeger and the Song Swappers. 2013. We shall not be moved. Smithsonian folkways. Online, http://
www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=7184, accessed 11 Feb. 2013.

150 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015) abinales / leftist ditties in the marcos era 151
 Studwell, William E. 1996. The national and religious song reader: Patriotic, traditional, and sacred
songs from around the world. New York: Haworth Press.

Verzola, Pio. 2010. The summer radio kid grows up. In Pathless travels. Online, http://iraia.net/
blog/2012/10/21/the-summer-radio-kid-grows-up/, accessed 12 Feb. 2013.

Villame, Yoyoy. 2006. Megellan, posted by Roy Ramos. Online, http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=jO5SsP_f7iA, accessed 19 Jan. 2013.

Wenceslao, Bong. 2012. Songs of protest, struggle. Sunstar Cebu, 23 Sept. Online, http://www.
sunstar.com.ph/cebu/opinion/2012/09/23/wenceslao-songs-protest-struggle-244411,
accessed 9 June 2013.

Patricio N. Abinales is professor, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai’i-
Manoa, 1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 315 Honolulu, HI 96822 USA. His books include Making
Mindanao: Cotabato and Davao in the Formation of the Philippine Nation-State (Ateneo de Manila
University Press, 2000); Fellow Traveler: Essays on Filipino Communism (University of the Philippines
Press, 2001); Love, Sex and the Filipino Communist, or Hinggil sa Pagpigil ng Panggigigil  (Anvil,
2004); State and Society in the Philippines (with Donna J. Amoroso; Rowman and Littlefield, 2005);
and  Orthodoxy and History in the Muslim Mindanao Narrative (Ateneo de Manila University Press,
2010). <[email protected]>

152 Pshev  63, no. 1 (2015)

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