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My best friend is a martyr for our people. He was an avid environmentalist, a visionary, a writer, organizer, human rights worker and beloved of the poor. One night we has riddled with bullets because he spoke out against corporate interests and structural evils. Its his birthday today. I would like to share with you a dedication written by his wife. Remembering …a birthday… “…birth is one stage to another in the endless cycle of life…” August 29, 1968. Forty years ago, the fishes and turtles, the frogs and crabs sang, danced and had a feast… as you swam out of Nanang Teodora’s womb. The sea waves lapped the shore and washed away the birth pains as your cry pierced the stillness. You were the tenth among eleven siblings. And so you were christened Jose Riveral Manegdeg III according to your Tatang Juan’s lineage. A humble beginning from the peasantry and fisherfolks of Pagudpud, along the Ilocos coast of Northern Philippines. Then you were known by your folkname Pepe and by another name John. The memories you shared of your boyhood… of swimming with the sea turtles and your friends. ..bringing home a sack full of squash, a pail full of fish and shrimps with Tata Juan…harvesting rice in neighboring villages and bringing home a fair share for your labor, serving as altar boy in the Roman Catholic church…courting some of the girls…also your accidental fall while playing basketball and your frightful temper in a fight with your brother…your eagerness to learn how to cook from your grandfather and aunts…and your habit of reading newspapers at age 12 your teacher adds…how your father would command you to stand straight hands on your sides as you received disciplinary whacks on the butt when you went against his virtuous standards…I have not met him. I was honored to smell your beautiful rose garden watered by your mother fetching from a deep well. When you were eigthteen, your father’s life was stolen by murderous goons just around the corner away from where you last both stood together. You carried a guilt that was not meant…of regret that you did not walk all the way home with him in that dark night. You made a vow and kept the anger deep inside. In your vindictive compulsion you have wished to throw a bomb into the home of those you believed masterminded your father’s death. Then you withdrew into the space of silence, reading and writing. Denouncing the oppressiveness and tyranny that caused you to be fatherless in such tragedy. For in your heart, your father was a good and upright man. Standing against landgrabbing, upholding good governance. Working for the upliftment of the townsfolk as a duly elected local government official and challenging tyranny that stunted the growth of your town. We crossed path when you were turning 24 yrs old, at the Sedakah Mission House. I gave you a woven bookmark and a paper dove with short inscriptions for peace as a birthday present … without a thought it hooked into your soul. You said you fell in love with my poetry, crooked smile and crazy angst while you were brokenhearted then. What an entertainment I must have been…Did I believe you? You offered such irresistible proposal…of comprehensive friendship. And so we did become partners for 13 well lived years…married, worked together and built our family. You became a father that gave you a sense of completion from that night you lost a piece of yourself when someone stole your father’s breath. And we started cherishing the day each of us was born…given flesh to live fully human on this earth through rivers, seas, valleys and hills… Until… you too were assassinated along similar cause and vision as your father when you reached the age of 37 yrs. The sun set. Life was never the same again. The crickets and trees wept and so did all of the universe that witnessed such a bloody trail to go back to Mother Earth’s womb…bullets from a merciless assassin who believed you were guilty…of a crime…the crime of compassion in humanity… the crime of passion to meet me the next day… Happy Birthday my beloved comprehensive friend…we shall meet again…behind the curtains…beyond the borders…as I live the rest of my earthly life with our daughters and our dreams in a song, in a dance…happy birthday to you and to Kasiyana Peace and Healing Initiatives…as the sun shines…forever… Layad , Dom-an J

Tags: Martyrdom

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