Do you hear the people cry?

My wife and I shed tears of genuine sadness and deep anguish the first time we saw "Les Miserables' on Broadway" in the Imperial Theatre, New York sometime in the eighties. Then we saw it once more in the Sondheim Theatre in London a decade later, and cried profusely again. But today, in the midst of too much abuse against the people, I see no tears. The whole nation does not seem to hear the people cry.

The song, " Do you hear the people sing?" has a unique way of conscientizing even the most impervious soul. It goes this way: "Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with me? Beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see?" Then repeat the lines again.

The story of Jean Valjean who was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread reflects the struggles of an oppressed people under the domination of the strong and the powerful. Valjean's long and painful fight against social and political injustice reflected the poor French peoples' own struggles in the French Revolution under the dictatorial regime of a repressive autocrat. That song "Do you Hear The People Sing" was the politically awakened peoples' mantra for liberation and freedom.

If we look at the history of the Philippines, we have had longer and more painful episodes of exploitation and oppression. For 377 years, the Spaniards occupied our country, confiscated our lands and burned our homes, enslaved our ancestors and ravished our women. We were not allowed to study because those colonizers wanted us to remain ignorant and easy to dominate and suppress. That was why they hated such men like Rizal. who had the guts to go to Madrid and Barcelona in order to obtain higher levels of education. They hated Dr. Jose  Rizal when he exposed the abuses of the friars and the cruelty of the Guardia Civil in his famous Noli and Fili.

Rizal caricatured the oppressors in the characters of Padre Damaso, Padre Salvi, Capitan Tiago and Dona Victorina. He was trying to awaken young Filipinos who heard the songs of Sisa, Crispin and Basilio and the quips of Padre Florentino and Pilosopo Tasyo, the songs of anguish of Maria Clara who was the human symbol of the Philippines as a nation which was abused, suppressed, violated and subjected to all forms atrocities and inhuman transgressions. The musical: "les Miserables" written by Victor Hugo, like Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were read and digested by Andres Bonifacio and the Katipuneros. They heard the people cry and thus rose in a bloody revolution.

Rizal, the pacifist, was like Crisostomo Ibarra who wanted to educate the people first, while Bonifacio was like Elias the warrior and rebel who wanted to take charge in his own liberation by killing the oppressors with a sense of urgency and daring that broidered on reckless confrontation. After we were subjugated by Spain for 377 years, our land was sold by the Spaniards to the Americans for twenty million dollars along with Guam and Puerto Rico. From one oppressor to another, our people were colonized by America from 1901 to 1946. In between the Japanese invaded our country, killed one million Filipinoss, ravished our women and pulverized our economy for four years.

Then, from one corrupt administration to another, we were abused by our own leaders, until Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law and stayed in power from 1966 to 1986. Many Filipinos went missing, many were incarcerated and our freedoms were suppressed in the name of peace and stability. Until the people rose in 1986. At that time, we begin to hear the people cry, like in Les Miserables. We had our own song, "Bayan Ko, binihag ka, nasadlak sa dusa'.  Today, oppression and exploitation take the form of corruption. And still, many of us refuse to hear the people sing.

My wife and I are now in our seventies, and still we cry for our children and grandchildren. What kind of future will the next generations inherit from us, when the evil men today continue to subjugate the millions of good Filipinos who choose to remain silent in the midst of too much corruption and abuse. Our indifference and refusal to express our collective anger are our greatest sins to the generations to come. They will inherit a plundered and oppressed nation. They shall carry the burdens of our silence and indifference. For today, right at these moments, we refuse to hear our people sing.