In 1962, 20 years after Vinzon’s death, the structure formerly known as the Student Union was renamed Vinzons Hall to honor the student leader who went on to become among other things the youngest member of the 1935 Constitutional Convention, a bar topnotcher, a governor and a war hero. In 1964 another youth activist organization, the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) or “Patriotic Youth” was founded, and since then became the youth arm of the National Democratic Front. While the Collegian purports Sison to be the founder, Bulatlat cites that KM-UP was actually established by Bonifacio “Boni” Ilagan in 1965.

By 1968, former student protester Carlos P. Romulo was now president. He declared the schoolyear to be the “Year of Enlightened Activism”, as he considered the university nothing without student activism and faculty dissent. That same year, two demonstrations took place. The first was at the end of the July, opposing the Second Philippine Civil Action Group Bill. The second that took place 16 days later was a massive demonstration against the US and Philippine special relations where UP students from KM and SCAUP were injured. The incident was thought to “might well be the first violent student demonstration in Manila.”

But it was nothing compared to the massive protests in 1970, now known as the First Quarter Storm , which ran from January to March. During those months, hundreds were hurt, students were killed (four in the Battle of Mendiola alone), and 300 were arrested. Ilagan, president of the FQS as well, said it was “the manifestation of the students’ rebellion against the Establishment.”

It was followed by the Diliman Commune a year later, where for nine days in February, a “Republic of Diliman” was declared, stressing issues on human rights, academic freedom and freedom of speech.

Today
After martial law, the UP students have persisted in championing their rights and the rights of the oppressed, from the increase in tuition fees to the eviction of vendors in Philcoa and to the current raging ZTE-NBN scandal. Yet Sison and Ilagan both observe that the student activism isn’t as fervent as it used to be. Ilagan cited several reasons for why the masses in rallies now no longer match the numbers in the 70s. One is the success of US’s anti-communist dogma. Prof. Johnathan Beller of The Pratt Institute names globalization as another cause, the commodity culture “manipulating people into passivity and docility.” “On the campus, the UP students are confronted by the worship of the neoliberal dogma, the depreciation of national liberation and people’s democracy and the drive to commercialize and privatize the UP. On the national scene, they are confronted by the imperialist plunder and the puppetry, corruption, mendacity and cruelty of the US-directed Arroyo regime,” says Sison, summarizing the challenges the UP activists face.

Based on the history, however, there’s proof that the spirit of the maroon scholars to endlessly fight against corruption won’t ever quit.

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