February 1971 UP Dilman Commune

February 1971

In Jan. 1971, hundreds of students formed a barricade on University Avenue on the University of the Philippines Diliman campus to protest an oil price increase of 3 centavos per liter. On Feb. 1, Prof. Inocente Campos, said to be a supporter of then President Ferdinand Marcos, insisted on entering the campus. When the students refused, he fired at them and hit Pastor Mesina Jr., a freshman who was a member of the SDK, died three days later.

Police also tried to break up the barricade by arresting students, turning the rally into a mass action against the violation of academic freedom and police brutality. The protest, which would last until Feb. 9, eventually became known as the Diliman Commune.

SP Lopez with Bal Pinguel - UP AS Building Steps 1971

A Commune Like Any Other
by Manuel L. Quezon III

Older columnists like Herman Tiu-Laurel and Butch Dalisay have been reminiscing about the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune. I would like to reproduce the text of a resolution passed by the University of the Philippines Student Council on February 13, 1971. It contains the names of people who should not be forgotten.

"WHEREAS, the UP Student Council has expressed solidarity with the Filipino people in their valiant struggle against the American imperialist oil cartel and its local bureaucrat-capitalist allies; WHEREAS ,The UPSC has endorsed the barricade as a form of protest against such evils;

WHEREAS, the UPSC vehemently condemns the the fascist-puppet State and its campus agents for employing brutally sadistic methods in suppressing legitimate dissent;

WHEREAS, the UPSC salutes the militant resistance put up by the broad United Front of progressive students, faculty members, non-academic workers, and campus residents who resolutely struggled to defend and liberate the University;

BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the UPSC commend the revolutionary courage of the heroic defenders of the Diliman Commune against the fascist State and its campus collaborators:

-Freshman scholar Pastor R. Mesina, Jr. (posthumously) for unflinchingly raising high the people's defiant barricade against exploitation and oppression;
-Danito Delfin, Glenn Garcia, Reynldo Bello and the scores of others who were wounded as they fearlessly clashed with the State's fascist brutes;
-The revolutionary fighters of Narra, Molave, Yakal, and Ipil for their persevering vigilance in manning the barricades;


-The liberated women of Kamia, Sampaguita, Ilang-Ilang, Makibaka, and SKUP for their frontline resitance and their diligent performance of auxiliary tasks;

-The dauntless campus residents, notably those from Balara and Krus na Ligas, who organized commando strike forces against assorted infiltrators;
-The audacious fratmen for their remarkable display of fraternal concern and unity with the struggling Filipino masses;

Eric Baculinao UP Diliman Commune 1971

Eric Baculinao with Julius Fortuna (MDP Chair from Lyceum), and unknown guy with a cap

-The progressive faculty members, especially those with the Samahan ng mga Guro sa Pamantasan ng Pilipinas (SAGUPA) and the Samahan ng Makabayang Siyentipiko (SMS) for their selfless contribution of intellectual and technical skills which proved invaluable in the political, military, and cultural aspects of the struggle;
-The committed student journalists from IMC and thir comrades from PSIA for handling the controls of DZUP as the Free Radio of the Democratic Commune of Diliman;
-The militant writers who published Bandilang Pula and other publications for projecting the democratic aspirations of the Diliman Commune;


-The Medicine, Nursing, Hygeine, and SAMP students who demonstrated their partisanship with the Filipino masses by rendering first-aid and medical assistance to the beleaguered communards;
-Links with the studentry and the peasantry in valiantly aiding the defense of the Diliman Commune;
-The mass of heretofore unorganized but politicized and disciplined students who formed the AS Rooftop Junta and manned other strategic outposts;




-The Samahan ng mga Makabayang Mag-aaral ng Batas (SMMB) and other progressive lawyers for their valuable legal aid, and
-All others who actively participated in the establishment of the Diliman Commune as a symbol of the Filipino people's unrelenting struggle against U.S. imperialism, domestic feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism, ans well as their firm determination to build a National Democratic Society on the debris of the past.

Approved unanimously...

(sgd.) Ericson M. Baculinao, Chairman;

(sgd.) June C. Pagaduan, Secretary;

sponsor: Herminio B. Caloma, Jr., Councilor, Arts and Sciences."

The latter-day UPean, seated on the AS steps, beneath the roof on which was perched the "AS Rooftop Junta," clad in his designer clothes (for haven't many old UPeans bewailed the fact that UP has become the bastion of the burgis ?), may wonder, what has happened to all of these brave people? Do they struggle still, marching on in solidarity with the masses?

Quite a few of them still do, while yet some more cling furiously to the path of violent revolution. Many more lie in graves, killed by the government they stopped recognizing a long time ago and in too many instances, killed by their comrades over differences in revolutionary dogma. And the rest? They now occupy positions in Big Business or in academic institutions (many of which have become centers of conservatism). Did they sell out, or did they just mellow with age? Ask them.

The same UPean, reading the resolution passed by his predecessors a generation ago, will probably find the language rather quaint. Old-fashioned. Even obsolete. It is the rhetoric of a movement, a way of thinking, an attitude that reflected its conviction that it formed the vanguard of a revolution, and a socialist society in the making.

The rhetoric of people sure of themselves. Until a day came when they stood still, at the moment one of their supreme asipirations would be met. Then they were overtaken by events, left behind by the middle class, who flocked to an avenue at the behest of a Catholic prelate, and the brother of a slain.