Ana Guarino was an officer of a labor union that actively participated in protest actions in Mendiola in the 1980s. She survived the 1987 Mendiola Massacre.
Dr. Carol Araullo is the chairperson of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance), global vice chair for internal affairs of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) and co-convenor of the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM), Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL), PlunderWatch, DEFEND Philippines, Justice Not War Coalition, US Troops Out Now! and other broad alliances. (http://cparaullo.blogspot.com/)
Crispin Beltran was a prominent labor leader and was the Partylist Representative of Anakpawis in the House of Representatives. A week after the interview, "Ka Bel," as he is popularly known, passed away.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 8, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Eric used to be a student activist. He survived the 1987 Mendiola Massacre. He agreed to participate in the Mendiola Narratives project on condition of anonymity.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 19, 2008
Place: Laguna
Fidel Nemenzo is professor of mathematics at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. During the last years of the Martial Law, he was shot in the chest in one of the rallies held to protest the violent dispersal of an earlier demonstration in Mendiola.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr. with Zuraida Mae D. Cabilo
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 27, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Jaime Tadeo is a known leader of the peasant movement. He led the march to Mendiola in January 22, 1987 that ended up in what is now known as the Mendiola Massacre.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: June 5, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Joel Castro is a long-time resident in the Mendiola area. He was also a former student activist during his college days and was in the January 22, 1987 demonstration that ended up as the Mendiola Massacre.
Interviewers: Zuraida Mae D. Cabilo with Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: March 27, 2008
Place: Manila
Please click this link for the interview transcript.
Jorge Baviera belongs to the First Quarter Storm generation that eventually went underground as part of the armed Left that fought Ferdinand Marcos's authoritarian regime.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: June 2, 2008
Place: Quezon City Please click this link for the interview transcript.
Jose Ergino is a long-time resident of one of the residential areas that flank Mendiola. He has witnessed the changes that took place in Mendiola since the Japanese occupation.
Interviewers: Zuraida Mae D. Cabilo with Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: March 12, 2008
Place: Manila
Please click this link for the interview transcript.
Liza Maza is a Filipino activist and development worker. She represents the General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action (GABRIELA) Women's Party in the 14th Congress of the Philippines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GABRIELA).
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: August 12, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Luis Liwanag also spoke on almost the same subject in Howie Severino's i-Witness documentary "Litrato." See these links for the video (part 1, part 2, part 3, end part).
Maria Reina Boro Magbanua is an assistant professor of history at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños. She was active in the student movement in the immediate post-Martial Law era.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 19, 2008
Place: Laguna
Miriam Coronel Ferrer is an associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She has extensive ties with progressive social movements.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: August 1, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Neil Daza was a freelance photojournalist during his college days. He witnessed the Mendiola Massacre in 1987. He is now a cinematographer and teaches at the University of the Philippines-Film Institute.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Mary Ann Joy R. Quirapas
Date of Interview: July 10, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Ramon Hormillo also spoke on almost the same subject in Howie Severino's i-Witness documentary "Litrato." See these links for the video (part 1, part 2, part 3, end part).
Randy David is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He used to be a television host of public affairs programs. He writes a regular column, "Public Lives" for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: September 4, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Rene Ofreneo is a professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He was a participant in the First Quarter Storm.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 22, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Rhina Alvero Boncocan is an associate professor of history at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños. In her college days, she was a member of a progressive student movement fighting for student's rights and eventually transcending the fight for national issues during the Marcos regime.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: May 19, 2008
Place: University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Laguna
Ruben Torres was an activist during the Marcos dictatorship. After Martial Law, he became a member of Corazon Aquino's cabinet, serving as undersecretary, then secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment. Under the administration of Fidel Ramos, he served as executive secretary. Later on, he was elected to Congress as representative of the second district of Zambales.
Ruby Mendez was a freshman at the University of the Philippines-Los Banos when she joined a rally demanding agrarian reform in January 22, 1987. She witnessed the Mendiola Massacre.
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: June 5, 2008
Place: Quezon City
Satur Ocampo is the deputy minority leader of the House of Representatives, Republic of the Philippines. He represents in Congress the party-list Bayan Muna (People First).
Interviewer: Joel F. Ariate Jr.
Videographer: Alleson D. Villota
Date of Interview: July 17, 2008
Place: Quezon City
This blog is one of the sites that makes available to the public the collection of interviews conducted by the researchers of the UP Third World Studies Center, led by Joel F. Ariate Jr., for the "Mendiola Narratives" research project (please click here for the other site). The research was funded by the South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development of the International Institute of Social History. In this research, a site biography and a collection of narratives of social movement actors serve as the infrastructure of social memory. The research surfaces and records in audiovisual format the personal narratives of those who were once witnesses and participants to protest actions in Mendiola. Mendiola is the name of the main street that leads directly to the Malacañang Palace, the seat of the Philippine presidency. Since the 1950s, Mendiola has been the foremost site of physical confrontation between social movement actors waging protests and the state. Generations of social movement actors have braved bullets and barricades in the street of Mendiola just to be able to put forward their grievances within shouting distance of the Philippine president. Mendiola then is a palimpsest on which many stories and deeds of activism, of the Filipinos untiring quest for justice, have been inscribed—some of which in blood. It is the task of the research, and of this site, to encourage social movement actors to articulate their stories of Mendiola. This research makes visible their refusal to forget the injustices suffered by the Filipinos at the hand of their own government and the resolute stance that the Filipinos have taken to speak truth to power.