FilAm Women Remember Rebelyn

Immediate Release

March 21, 2009

FilAm Women Remember Rebelyn

On Rebelyn Pitao's 21st birthday, GABRIELA-USA remembers the life of the slain daughter of a New People's Army commander, Leoncio Pita known popularly as Commander Parago. The abduction and murder of Rebelyn by armed men is characteristic of past executions linked to the Philippine government and the military.

With so much of Philippine politics swirling around the maltreatment and downright abuse of Filipino women and their rights (namely the controversial Nicole case and the Visiting Forces Agreement), FilAm women are moved to look to Rebelyn's life as a teacher, daughter, woman and friend to claim her life as evidence of a guilty and corrupt administration only looking to silence its people.

"Rebelyn, among so many other Filipino women, was unnecessarily taken by a fear mongering government in the name of insecurity," Melanie Dulfo the poet who wrote the below poems in Tagalog and English on behalf of GABRIELA-USA, "In the endlessly rotten administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, it's the ordinary people that get hurt. But we will not forget their lives and remember them in our art and work even across the oceans."

*trapo= a dirty rag; in colloquial use, a traditional politician,

KAY REBELYN

Rebelde.

Rebelyn.

Baka nagkamali sila.

Inisip na, komo,

Sintinig ang pangalan mo

Ng kinatatakutang uri

Sa lipunan nating lubog

Sa dumi at basura

(Ni ‘di malinis ng mga

Sandaan trapong nagkalat)

Eh, dapat ka nang paslangin.

Rebelyn,

Rebelyn,

Nabulag kaya sila?

Inakalang banta ka

Sa buhay nila,

Ikaw na babae,

Ikaw na guro,

Ikaw na biente anyos pa lamang?

Kaya ka ba nila pinaslang, Rebelyn?

Kaya ka ba nila pinahirap

Kasi akalang armas ang lapis mo?

Rebelde ka,

Rebelyn?

Anong klase,

Kung ganun?

Ikaw ba ang

Rebeldeng

Ibinuhos ang dugo

At buhay

Para patalsikin

Ang mga Kastila,

Ang mga Amerikano,

Ang mga Hapon,

Si Marcos, at

Si Erap?

Ikaw ba ang rebeldeng

Napagod lang

Sa kalokohang ipinamumukha

Sa sambayanan?

Iyung tipo na

Hindi tatahimik,

Na hihiyaw,

Sa pagnanakaw ng mga

Panginoong maylupa,

Ng mga korporasyong

Nagmula sa ibayong dagat?

Ikaw ba ang rebeldeng

Nagsabi na,

“May ibang paraan

Para mabuhay.

May ibang klaseng buhay.

Hindi lamang ang paghihirap

At pagdurusa

Ng tumataas na tuition,

Tumataas na bilihin,

Tumataas na pamasahe,

Ngunit walang taas

Ng sahod. .

Pag-iibang bansa,

Kawalan ng trabaho,

At kawalan ng sariling lupa” ?

Kung gayon,

Kung gayon.

Dapat silang matakot. .

Ang mga hindi tatahimik,

Ang mga ordinaryong tao

Na siyang itinataas

Ang kanilang kamao

Sa galit,

Ang nagpapakita sa lahat

Ng katotohonan:

Na tayo’y nasa gitna

Ng isang kotradiksyon,

Sa araw-araw

Na inaapakan

Ang simpleng dignidad

Ng naghahanapbuhay,

Ng mga magsasaka,

Ng mga manggagawa.

Ng kabataan,

Ng kababaihan.

Sila ang pinaka-makapangyarihang

Rebelde, Rebelyn.

Ang mga ordinaryong tao

Na ito,

Ang siyang tinatawag mong

Bayan. .

Ikaw ang pinaka-makapangyarihang

Rebelde, Rebelyn.

Ang siyang walang ginawa

Kundi ang panindigan

Ang kanyang pagkatao,

Nagsisilbing ilaw

Sa iyong ama.

FOR REBELYN

Rebel.

Rebelyn.

Maybe, they made a mistake.

Thinking that

Your name marked you

As one of those feared

In our society that’s been steeped

In dirt

(Something even

The trapos could not freshen up),

They should kill you.

Rebelyn,

Rebelyn,

Did they go blind?

Assumed you were a threat

To their lives---

A woman,

A teacher,

Someone who was 20 years old?

Is that why they killed you?

Is that why they tortured you?

Because they thought your pen was a sword?

You’re a rebel,

Rebelyn?

What kind

Would you say?

Are you

The rebel

Who gave up

Her life

To drive out

The Spaniards,

The Americans,

The Japanese,

Marcos, and

Erap?

Are you the rebel

Who was just tired

From the lies

Offered to the people?

The type who

Would never be silenced,

Who would scream,

At the depredations

Of the landed elite,

Of the multi-national

Corporations?

Are you the rebel

Who said,

“There is another way

To live.

There is a different kind of life

From the one we lead now,

With no choice

But to accept the tuition hike,

The rice crisis,

The energy crisis,

Without a rise

In wages for ten years.

No choice but to migrate.

Because there are no jobs,

And there is no land”?

Then,

Then,

They should quake and tremble.

For, those who will not stay silent,

Those ordinary people

Who raise

Their fists

In anger,

Prove

That

We are stuck

In a contradiction

As every day,

Simple human dignity

Is crushed under a heel.

The dignity of those who just want to live,

Farmers,

Workers,

Youth,

Women.

They are the strongest

Rebels, Rebelyn.

These ordinary

Folk,

Whom you call

The people.

You are the strongest

Rebel, Rebelyn,

The one whose only crime

Was to affirm

Her humanity,

By living as a light

To your father.