Oscar’s column reminds Rene of gutsy Jim’s family of patriots

There is so much in what columnist Oscar Franklin Tan writes that I agree with, such that I am surprised when I find myself in occasional disagreement with him.

In his  column last March 6 (“Will I turn into Jim Paredes?” Opinion), he seems critical of Jim Paredes in the latter’s confrontation with Duterte loyalists last Feb. 25, at the Edsa People Power Monument. I was there in Cory yellow, briefly, as I was under the weather. I did talk with Paulynn, a sister of Jim; they are children of Ester Misa, jailed for years by Marcos for her being a member of the Light-A-Fire Movement. The group might have committed arson in protest while much of the nation slept, but did not hurt, much less kill, anyone.

Flag and Mabini, led by Senators Tanny Tañada, Pepe Diokno and Joker Arroyo, defended the accused before a military commission.

Prudence, restraint and maturity should have cautioned the Dutertistas to confine themselves to the Luneta, where yellow-clad Stephen Salcedo, a Cory fan, was killed by Marcos loyalists on July 27, 1986. The killers were convicted for it (Sison vs People, 250 SCRA 58; 1995).

Would-be agents provocateurs may have asked for it last Feb. 25. Good, no one was hurt. They were only told they were not welcome to disrupt our  unfunded gathering at Edsa. KKK or Kanya-Kanyang Kayod. (Anywhere I could collect my “incentive”?)

On the other hand, the Luneta gathering seemed to have seen some people “incentivized” by government, reminiscent of the time Macoy the dictator marked one September when government employees marched in the rain to mark his 9/11 birth anniversary (could have been Sept. 21— martial law proclamation anniversary, but Sept. 23 to us, non-numerologists).

Too many people have died, as it is. If drug lords have been funding us, why is it that only the “serfs,” “vassals” and “riffraff” are getting killed? Government should go after the lords.

I am a fan of the Paredeses.

The patriarch, Jess, was killed with beloved President Ramon Magsaysay in that 1957 plane crash. Jess was an Ateneo summa, in AB, and in law, landed only behind another Atenean, Dingdong Teehankee, in the bar exams.

Another Paredes daughter, Barbara, attended the intimidating military commission trial of Light-A-Fire. Blood told. The only other woman I saw there was Sr. Christine Tan.

All gutsy patriots, who might have appreciated that military justice is to justice what military music is to music. At some point, we lawyers all withdrew. It was as an observer, not as a lawyer, that I heard the commission sentence Ester, et al., to death, by musketry.

So, gutsy Jim, keep going.

Not wanting to tempt the fates and risking being another Stephen Salcedo, I dared not go to the Luneta last Feb. 25, in Cory yellow. I knew my place. I liked it that prudent President Digong reportedly simply sent a wreath to the People Power Monument, instead of kvetching about going there, as emotions ran high on Feb. 25, in our more-than-ever polarized society.

But, as one family, we should survive our crises, mend the ruptures of our discord, and continue living and functioning as a unit, as it were. Healing, not machism, is what the nation needs.

R.A.V. SAGUISAG, Palanan, Makati City