Martin John V.

Recentes
2018-02736
Reflection Paper: Memory Walk

“Never Again. Never Forget.” are the words that have been echoing in the campus of the
university since last week. In junction to these words, we went to places where those sentiments
echoed through time where our hearts will hear them most. I learned that I should appreciate where
I am right now for I am walking daily in a place full of man’s convictions. UP Diliman is a place
where students, professors, townspeople, or more generally “the common Juan” to this day
continuously mobilize together to fight for what they think is right. It is a place where one would
find apparent yet fleetingly ubiquitous that not all the Juans have the same sentiments, but under
certain circumstances understand each other and work together towards a common conviction.

With this in mind, it also became even more apparent how the conviction of man could be
capable of such kindness, yet at the same time cruelty like no other. I often wonder about the
question “How could you?” because it is one of the things most people, including myself have a
hard time understanding. What could have happened that made people such as late president
Ferdinand Marcos that way? How could one become so indifferent to the people he serves and the
country he swore to protect and develop? He probably was a student just like us, standing with
the people, fighting for what he thought was right. The professor who was with us during the trip
even told us that Marcos aimed to correct what his predecessors had done wrong and be the one
that would make the Philippines great, yet he became the very tyrant he abhorred and swore to
defeat. With the newfound conviction that he gained, by his hand, millions suffered, and tens of
thousands died.

What could happen that would make me swallow my convictions? It really terrifies me to
think about it. As I am now, I love my country and its people, and I could never imagine doing
something knowing that it would result in the peril of others. If the day comes that life would make
me decide between staying true to what I believe in and contradicting that belief, I hope that I
would choose the former because the me during that time wouldn’t be able to face himself nor
everything he has been up to that point. And the same goes for everyone else.
 Convictions aren’t supposed to be forgotten so easily, and I believe this is why it’s so hard
for our country to progress. History is already giving clues as to how the blueprint of today was
created. Pre-Hispanic Philippines has already shown how the Filipinos erred in their decisions that
resulted and centuries of colonialism and the hardships of their fellow Filipino. Perhaps the way
the Filipinos think has something to do with how social hierarchies tend to flow centuries ago. The
main objective in one’s life is to become a Datu and rectify himself in the mind of his people.
Spaniards came and the Datus were deluded with a false and fleeting sense of superiority and self-
gratification in exchange for territory, and power. We were taught to be insensitive to the pleas of
our fellow countrymen, and perhaps everything was carried over to this day. Then again, it could
be possible that convictions are as brittle as glass to begin with, and is second nature to the human
being.

In summary, the Diliman Commune and the First Quarter Storm are events in the history
of our nation that truly emboss something very important to the nature of not only the Filipino
people, but the nature of man itself. Experiences sculpt convictions out of a man, and it is also
with experiences that convictions are washed and molded away. With different convictions, man
could be capable of so much kindness, yet at the same time cruelty. As a synthesis to this, I believe
that though convictions could change, we must stay true to what is honest and what is kind so as
to not forget what are we fighting for and what are we fighting against. One does not have to be
right in order to be kind, and it does not mean that one is right means that he is given the right to
subject malignance. That is why we must at all cost try to #Neverforget no matter how trying life
would become and that we must #NeverAgain accept such cruelty as right.