TO
SOME extent, I had known or had crossed paths with Antonio Zumel
during the Marcos years, during peace negotiations with the Aquino
government in 1986-1987 and until he left the Philippines as a political
refugee in The Netherlands two years later. Then I saw him again
in early 2001 when he came to the country for the formal resumption
of peace talks with the Arroyo government.
Zumel was an affable person who can put you at ease. He would
usually crack jokes in-between throwing punches at government and
this made you and your friends more attentive to what he is saying.
He had this knack of whistling with two different but simultaneous
tunes - a skill, I thought then, no other person could match. I
recall some old Frank Sinatra hits he would sing with gusto but
I would learn later, during last week's launching of the book, Radical
Prose: Selected Writings at the Balai Kalinaw in U.P. Diliman, that
he also had other repertoire of favorites.
I became the writer and he the interviewee when, covering for
the Philippine News and Features, I held interviews with the negotiators
from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) during
the first peace talks with government following the fall of the
Marcos dictatorship in 1986. I followed him up in the heart of the
Cordillera near Sagada, Mt. Province when he, along with Luis Jalandoni
and lawyer Romeo Capulong, spoke before the Cordillera People's
Democratic Front early 1987. He was always in his element among
the masses.
Manong (brother) Tony (or TZ, as others would call him) was somewhat
a different person upon coming home three years ago. At that time,
he was weakened by an ailment that, according to some acquaintances,
forced him to stay in and out of hospital in The Netherlands. Despite
his failing health, he could still hold his pen and write political
statements not only as an NDFP senior adviser but also against detractors
of the Front. He died on Aug. 13, 2001 at the age of 69.
Anthology
One gets to know Zumel better by reading Radical Prose, an anthology
of news articles and essays he wrote as a journalist from the 1960s
to the time he became news editor of Manila Bulletin and two-time
president of the National Press Club; as an editor of Ang Bayan
and Liberation - two major underground publications among many that
lit the fire of the anti-Marcos dictatorship struggle; and as a
leader of the NDFP.
The book's post-script has Zumel's own article, "Our People's
Interests Come First," which was first published in the June
1986 issue of Liberation. Here, Zumel essentially writes about his
transformation from being born to a not-so humble beginning in Laoag,
Ilocos Norte far north of Manila to working as a casual laborer
at a war surplus dump near UP Diliman, to being a copy boy, a reporter
and a union leader. He was a friend and a buddy to almost every
reporter in Manila and was a regular at the NPC in Intramuros, Manila.
All this time, however, he proved himself to be a man for the downtrodden
and a man who kept his integrity intact. Upon the outbreak of the
FQS - the spark that fired the national democratic struggle in the
Philippines - he was ready. He went underground when martial law
was declared in 1972. From that time on, he would tell later in
his life, "there was no turning back."
The post-script is just a fitting recap to the whole breadth of
the book, from Chapters 1 to 3, which compile Zumel's writings from
1960s until the twilight of his years. The articles of his younger
reportorial days include accounts of his coverage of the presidency
and some special reports such as his observations during a tour
of China before martial law. Even before his exposure to radical
politics of the early 1970s, Zumel already takes his pen to the
heart of the matter: a dig into the profligacy of the rich and injustice
to the poor, exposes' about graft and corruption, the politics of
the U.S. Peace Corps volunteer program and critique of government's
anti-China policy. One senses the quantum leap of Zumel's political
consolidation in his articles from the underground.
Write for the people
Zumel epitomizes the writer who chose to bring journalism to the
people, nay, who chose to write for the people. But he also believed
that sometimes one has to turn the pen into a sword in order to
fight tyranny and class rule.
Having gone through the thick and thin of the revolution, Zumel
had the conviction to say a few months before he died: "Those
of us who are getting on in years can only look with satisfaction
and pride on the swelling ranks of the revolutionary movement that
now fights for our people's national and democratic rights, and
in the future, for socialism."
Radical Prose is published by the Antonio Zumel Foundation and
the First Quarter Storm Movement (FQSM) and was launched last Aug.
11.
