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By Sedfrey A. Ordonez
Mendiola Bridge
and the Bastille
Heavy knife that fell on martyred necks
Left freedom fighters dead
But kindled fire which seared
Mankind that fiercely sparked
Heroic fight for human right -
That to me is la Bastille.
Being dispersed refused to rest -
They were chased and they returned;
Drive for right was more intense
Than human fear of zombied force:
Protest grew as troops drew blood -
That to me is Mendiola bridge.
Awakened minds extolled Bastille
And filled the hearts in Mendiola bridge
Now ringed secure by troops deployed
Behind the wicked wire -
Gas and truncheon replaced the knife
Which youth and nuns and priests defied.
Those who fell and those who rushed the bridge
Did not perceive the flow of blood in France
But the bridge united them where they
Shed tears and raised clenched fists -
They know Mendiola shall forever
Be their country's bridge of liberty.
Subic and Clark
Subic and Clark
Have witnessed war
Both as battleground
And as launching pad
For death missions
In the Pacific
And faraway Vietnam.
It is not the strife
Nor the carnage of war
For which we remember
The deep water port
And the cavalry
That's known as Clark.
We can now banish
The dread of war
As now we speak
Of Subic and Clark
As the finest monuments
Of patriotic price.
First it was Recto
Who charged America
That military bases
In Subic and Clark
Were imperialist eyesores
Which stained and discolored
Nationalist pride.
Pimentel and Tanada
Locked arms with Salonga
And they battered the line
Of solons who could see
Only false tinseled prosperity
And with one mighty shout
Redeemed Subic and Clark.
They accused Uncle Sam
Of storing warheads
And lethal ingredients
For producing fission
And for defoliating earth
But his condescending reply was
"neither confirm nor deny."
Those gallant warriors
For the worthy cause
Have been proven right
As the eager investors
Gave light to Subic and Clark
Which now pulsate
In productive trade.
In the halls of the Senate
Were shifted hot debate
Those for extension asked "how much?"
Those for national integrity
Replied angrily,
Rent is chain - NO - we're sovereign!
Debate about extension
Of the term of the lease
Provoked acerbic debate
On both sides of the ocean,
The lessee with riches tantalizing
The wakened owner firmly refusing.
As diplomats parlayed
Base parasites dramatized:
Hotelier, hospitality girl,
Dancer, musician, and laborer
In fear of livelihood
Shouted and ranted.
In nineteen eighty-nine
T'was with swelling pride
That Secretary of Justice
Got from diplomat Platt
A list of structures immobilized
In Subic and Clark
Immobilized structures
Adhere to the land
And when the bases do revert
Shall pertain to the host
By the law of the situs
Or by the law of nations.
Symbolic obedience
To domestic law
Brought bursting jubilation
To the deprived nation
But proffered rent and military aid
Soon dangled and dazzled.
So now we hail
The solons with vision
Who braved the scorn
Of those without spine -
They have proved once more
That Uncle Sam's eagle
Can be shot down.
In memory of the author, human rights lawyer in the dark days of martial law, who served as secretary of justice, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, and RP ambassador to the United Nations, during the term of President Corazon
Aquino.
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