Brazen Truth
By Alessandra J. Modesto

Being heard doesn’t give us the privileged of being understood. Sometimes we’re just heard not listened to.
The moment we’re out of our mother’s womb we “cried”, one of the most basic indications that we are alive and from that distinctive sound we already practiced our right to speech. It was our foremost grounds of expression, we cried even before we learned to smile.

The most generic way of expressing yourself is by voicing it out it can be as formal as a speech or debate, it can be as brave as staging a rally, voicing out can be individually done as well as in group and lately I have witnessed a lot of voicing out inside the University.

Triggered by the claim of Department of Communication professor and president of the faculty union Prof. Geofferson Ting that he was harassed by the two weeks old then in-service security guards urged a number of groups in the University to stage rally and silent protest by wearing black and red ribbons.

The groups were protesting to defy martial law in the University and there were signature campaigns and open letters stating their grievances and objections to the administration. For a week Far Eastern University (FEU) was under the so called “Batas Militar”.
It is not only because of the alleged harassment why martial law was claimed inside the campus. The strict implementation of rules by the new set of security guards, scrutiny inspections of bags when entering and exiting the campus, prohibiting students to stay in vacant classroom and eat at corridors, guards confiscating IDs for violations were considered grounds to a junta.

To a point of uncertainty, with the big population of FEU community not everyone is aware or even felt this military management.
Their cries were heard but they where not understood.

Fortunately, I had never encountered problems with the new security personnel. Simply because I follow the rules or if not I don’t let them catch me not abiding it because once caught there’ll be no support for a protest.

I had an informal chat to one of the security guards who does rounds at Education Building where FEU Advocate office was located. I asked him how is his work lately at the University and he said to me “Okei naman nakakapagod kasi pati aircon kami nagpapatay tapos ‘yung mga students na sinusuway nagagalit samin”. I joked the guard that they are too strict and students sometimes find it unwarranted and he said “Bawal naman kasi talaga, ‘di naman kami maninita kung pwede ‘di ba?” And I just said that chances are students are not used to these new rules and are not really aware.

Laws are to be followed but most of the time we break them because we set our own rules but ours do not apply all the time.
Defining rules― these are authoritative principles set forth to guide behaviors and action. Rules that were contrived to be of help in molding an individual and at the same time to promote a place where there is absence of crime.

There were rules for us even before our mother’s conceived us, we were not part of the mass who penned the country’s constitution but we were considered when they did that.

We can express freedom of speech but our points may not be considered always that’s when the phrase “majority wins” applies.

There is one simply rule I learned from my clinical instructor, she said “If you cannot respect the rules of the Institute of Nursing, you are free to leave”.

Rule yourself at ajmodesto@gmail.com