DURING THE Spanish colonialism in the Philippines, it's the propaganda and wide scale campaign led by great heroes that ended the Spanish Era; it was the courageous Hukbalahap who finished the Fil-Am war. In the 60's, the student's representation to the Board of Regents and the Sangguniang Kabataan was enacted by the Diliman Commune; People Power 1, ignited by the fighting spirit of the youth in the 80's, ousted a dictator; and our generation joined People Power 2 after fifteen years of suffering from corruption in the government.

These are some of the of the revolutionary movements in our history--movements that have done great changes for the future.

Reading back history, we'd learn that majority of those who started uprisings were the youth like us: the likes of Andred Bonifacio, Lorena Barros, Edgar Jopson, Liliosa, Lean Alejandro and one of them who started as early as when he was only 17 years old, Ka Popoy Lagman. Yes, they are now all gone--they died with principle and dignity, the great minds that moved the people to change the system.

They were once like us--ordinary and simple. They also shopped for stuffs, read books, thought of how they would pass exams and develop their skills. But what took them to take the challenge of changing the rotten system is the great passion of love. It's this great feeling that gave them the courage to change all that are inhuman, immoral and unjust--the same passion to search and research, to think of how to fight for the betterment of the society.

As everybody have said--even in the Bible, love is not selfish, so why be afraid of giving some time for others if what you'll do is something that's not just for yourself but for all of us?

If we all know the feeling of falling in love, then how are we going to start, where will we begin? Look around us and we will see all the ugly things: insufficient budget for education and other social services, undemocratic policies, parasite government, extreme poverty and unemployment. In short, we have a rotten system, a system where we are all members, the same system that has always disregarded us.

We all know that any organization will fail to work if it disregards the majority. People in the government always say that we have a democratic system. But democracy is a vague word: it depends on who rules. So what we should do is to think of an organization of the people where majority rules, where the marginalized are being heard, an organization of the people from the people and by the people. This is the government of the toiling masses.

If history has proven that if we'll all have the courage to change a rotten system then we have nothing to lose. If it's the great feeling of love that will give us the courage then let's not be selfish. Anyway, it's better to die with our dignity and principle than die from a heart-attack.

Let's struggle to fight and to win.

For comments and reactions to this article, please visit Tinig.com Forums.