We Need Another Hero

(“Ang magsasaka ay rebelde. Ang mga pulis at military ay anak din ng mga magsasaka.” - a dialogue delivered by a police character in “Totoy Bato”. Yes, I like Robin Padilla. So arrest me).

Totoy Bato is a reluctant revolutionary. His brain is not filled with revolutionary ideas. He has not read Derrida or Lacan or Foucault. He couldn’t care less about the revolution.

Yet, he showed no mercy to the abusive feudal lord who forcibly grabbed his land and killed his wife. With great misgivings, he agrees to lead the labor union out to stand its ground against a fascist boss played by Rommel Padilla whose attack to his anti-hero streams of Gary Oldman in ‘Leon.” Don’t ask me who’s the better actor.

Totoy Bato mirrors the story of the peasants’ struggle in the country and in other agrarian societies. Peasants do not live for violence but are drawn to it by the injustices of the system. It is not ideas, per se, that convince them to become guerilla fighters, their situation does. Revolutionary propaganda will not make any headway if their situation contradicted.

These peasants may not have heard of the Communist Manifesto like most of us have but they are fighting the revolution for us because lazy people like myself would rather talk or blog about it. What a shame!

I recall a conversation in the distant past with my friend S – how the Philippine Left is bereft of a charismatic leader in the mold of a Che Guevarra or that Zapatista-guy, someone to capture our wild imagination.

Joma Sison, may I not be struck by lightning, is a dead fish. I was too young to experience the Edjop or Lean Alejandro era. I have a crush on Vic Ladlad but nothing is much known of this recluse.

Maybe the closest to an iconic symbol was the late Eman Lacaba, a bohemian-poet who authored “Salvaged Poems.” He is famous for his Zen-incantation of “we are tribeless and all tribes are ours” and his description of the people’s warrior as an acrobat who must climb mountains because “the masses are there.” I have a shirt of his image and if I were present during his eulogy, I would have dedicated Pablo Neruda’s “Brown and Agile Child”:

“My somber heart seeks you always
I love your happy body, your rich, soft voice
Dusky butterfly, sweet and sure
Like the wheatfield, the sun, the poppy, and the water”

Well, maybe not – feeling wifey.

It is clear that the Philippine Left is not personality-oriented but issue-driven which I respect. Totally. But wouldn’t it be more exciting if there is someone who combines an abundance of revolutionary curiosity, a familiarity with the canon and pop culture, and who will animatedly speak of the revolution in a much more vibrant language?

Until that happens, Arturo Magtanggol aka Totoy Bato will just have to fit the bill.