speeches of Sison and Olalia
The speeches of Jose Ma. Sison and Felixberto Olalia (Kabataang Makabayan Founding Speech and Message on the Fifth Day of the Hunger Strike for the Freedom of all Detained Labor Leaders and other Political Prisoners, respectively) are both reflective of the status quo the time the speeches were delivered.
All throughout the speech of Jose Ma. Sison, he was mentioning the downsides and negative aspects of US imperialism. After establishing the perils of inter-relating with the US, Sison then pointed out explicitly that at that time, the Philippines is in fact under a semicolonial and semifeudal society. Thus with that, he illustrated the very reflection of the country that time – that we are not in the truest sense freed from US domination. As Sison said, the imperialism of America is one new type of colonialism that will control the nation by destroying its industries and swinging it back to plantation economy dominated by US agro-corporations.
In Olalia’s speech, on the other hand, the very title suggests the conflict present that time. The title tells of freeing detained labor leaders and political prisoners, and one major indication how tumultuous and chaotic the situation really was since people were resorting into a hunger strike. Moreover, the speech vividly describes the pains and torments caused by abuse of power by the authorities.
In extracting the status of the democracy that time, everything boils down to the discussion of the Marcos regime, and a few years prior to the dictatorship. Sison’s speech was delivered in November 1964, and that was approximately a year before Marcos was elected president (Marcos assumed office December the next year). And prior to his presidency, the Philippines that time was characterized by US intrusion in the country’s political and economic affairs. This is primarily reflected in Sison’s speech as he was pin-pointing the drawbacks of US imperialism. On the other hand, Olalia’s speech was delivered December 1983 – a time when the Philippines was under Martial Law. Democracy then was an elusive concept, and this was reflected in the way Olalia described the sufferings of the political and labor leaders who have been charged without fair trial. Given the context (Martial Law/Marcos dictatorship) and the speaker himself (Olalia being a known labor activist), one could conclude, through the gravity of his arguments, that the country that time was under massive repression.
