ILOILO City – “I am proudest when I say am a freedom fighter.”
This was stressed by Mayor Jerry P. Treñas on the 37th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution on Saturday, Feb. 25. He recalled his own personal experience as a young activist.
The city mayor was in third year high school when Martial Law was proclaimed.
He was a newly-elected president of the St. Clement’s College Student Council then and just assumed office when classes opened in June. One of the council officers was Raphael “Popo” Lotilla who is now the Energy secretary.
Treñas noted that at that time all student organizations were disbanded including theirs.
“There was a time in my senior year when a PC (Philippine Constabulary) captain went to our school and told me to stop my subversive activities. At that time, I was campaigning against the approval of the 1973 Constitution,” he recalled.
Meanwhile, during college at the Ateneo de Manila, Treñas narrated that he befriended Fr. Archie Intengan, SJ, who recruited him into the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas or the Philippine Democratic Socialist Party (PDSP).
It was Intengan who taught him the tenets of social democracy and eventually asked him to run for the student council presidency which he won.
“I was active in the PDSP, organizing, recruiting, encashing check donations from supporters and bringing the cash to our leaders. We even distributed newspapers of the party,” he further recalled.
In 1978, he was also one of those who campaigned for the group of then senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. for the elections of the Interim Batasang Pambansa.
They helped organized the noise barrage.
“After the results of the elections were released and we were cheated, we rallied against the dictatorship. We were arrested, brought to Camp Crame, to Camp Aguinaldo, to Camp Bonifacio for processing, and finally to Camp Bagong Diwa at Bicutan where we were detained for five or six days,” he recounted.
“I always remember Martial Law and I always remember what I went through every Feb. 25. I pray it will never happen again,” Treñas emphasized./PN
