In this episode, Professor Rommel Rodriguez of the University of the Philippines shares his work as a writer, unionist, and human rights advocate. He discusses the significant social and economic challenges facing the Philippines, which are intensified by the current Marcos administration's attempts at historical revisionism. Professor Rodriguez explains his unique approach of teaching human rights through literature to foster empathy and historical awareness among students from diverse academic backgrounds. Ultimately, he emphasizes that despite the dangers, there is hope in collective action, student activism, and international solidarity to create a more just future.
Professor Rommel Rodriguez, an academic, writer, and staunch human rights advocate from the University of the Philippines, provides a profound overview of the nation's struggle for social justice. He begins by outlining the deep-seated issues of poverty, neocolonialism, and environmental problems that fuel a culture of protest. He details the nation's robust history of protest, from the 1986 People Power Revolution to contemporary movements addressing systemic issues like poverty and corruption.
A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the dark legacy of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and the current challenges of historical revisionism, particularly under the current government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the former dictator, which seeks to erase the dark parts of the country's past.
To counter this, Rommel details his unique approach of using literature and art as tools for advocacy, sharing insights from his university course that teaches human rights through creative works. He argues this method builds empathy and allows for discussions on sensitive topics like political imprisonment. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of extending activism beyond the classroom, describing the vital role of student movements in supporting grassroots causes.
Despite facing personal risks, including having his book banned, Professor Rodriguez finds hope in collective action. He underscores the power of solidarity among artists, academics, and the Filipino diaspora in creating a potent counter-narrative to official government rhetoric. The episode concludes with his firm belief that educating future generations is the most crucial step toward building a more just and humane Philippine society.
This episode is hosted by Dr. Stella Cheong. Please subscribe to the podcast through Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or Audible. You may also follow @c4cpodcast.bsky.social on Bluesky. We look forward to hearing your feedback. If you would like to explore participating in our podcast and submit your blog post to the C4C, do not hesitate to reach out through the online participation form or email us at conversations4citizenship@gmail.com
If you would like to learn more about the hidden history-- democratization movement and the coup d’état-- in the Philippines, along with insights into the current human rights movement and Prof. Rodriguez’s banned books, please visit the links below.
Here are some of the short documentaries Prof. Rodriguez did about political prisoners in the Philippines
Also here are some documentaries about the social illnesses in the Philippines.
*Note. Just some trigger warning because the video contains violent images:
Stella Micheong Cheong 00:02
Hello everyone, welcome to the Conversations4citizenship podcast. I am your host, Stella Cheong from Yonsei University. Today, we’re exploring the importance of social protests and the fight for worker and human rights in the Philippines. Rooted in democratic principles, community organizing, and social justice, Prof. Rommel Rodriguez is a leading voice on the power and importance of protests to address working conditions in a variety of Filipino industries. His recent work focuses on human rights literature to expose the harshness of the Ferdinand Marcos Administration, the grief and mistrust citizens have over disappeared activists, and the impact this trauma has on education and cultural memory. So, Rommel, it's a pleasure to have you with us today. How are you doing?
Rommel Rodriguez 01:09
I am good, Stella, and thank you for this great opportunity to at least share with you my recent work and of course, my advocacy is regarding human rights and academic freedom.
Stella Micheong Cheong 01:22
Thank you. Yeah, it's my pleasure, and I am really excited to dive into your insights on the importance and necessity for political protests in the quest for human rights in the Philippines. The Philippines has a robust history of citizens taking to the streets to demand change. In recent times, starting with the People’s Power Revolution of 1986 or the Yellow Revolution, which restored democracy within the country, Filipinos have been raising their voices for change. We are keen to learn more about what makes protesting in the Philippines so unique, what has been the legacy of protesting there, and what lessons global citizens can take from Filipino experiences to ensure societal change. Let's get started!
So, Rommel, can you introduce yourself and why you are interested in using writing film to inform Filipino society about the flight of the those who take up protesting in your country.
Rommel Rodriguez 02:32
Okay, hello, everyone. I'm Rommel Rodriguez. I'm currently a professor at the University of the Philippines. I teach Philippine literature and Creative Writing in the vernacular, meaning the Filipino language. I'm also a unionist. I'm currently the vice president for faculty of all up academic Employees Union, if the University of the Philippines. I am also a writer. Actually, I'm a writer of fiction, Filipino Fiction, and an advocate, definitely, an advocate of human rights and academic freedom. So there's a short introduction. And I took up my undergraduate course at the University of the Philippines. My major was in Philippine studies, and with a minor in anthropology and literature and I also had a PhD in the same university, and right now, I'm so excited to share with you anything I can divulge regarding our history and the importance of my work and the collective effort we do in the Philippines as Part of the human rights advocates in the Philippines.
Stella Micheong Cheong 03:42
Great. So can you describe for our audience some of the issue the Filipino people have been protesting in recent times. What has been the consequence of those protests?
Rommel Rodriguez 03:58
There are a lot of things to protest in the Philippines, actually. So if you in terms of economics, the Philippines is still considered as one of the poorest countries in the world. So we have a like what Adam said during our informal talks, the Philippines is a very beautiful country, we have lots of natural resources, but in the end, remain as one of the poorest countries in the world because of that poverty, because of different social illnesses. So we have problems regarding environment, the lack of jobs, I'm sorry to share with you all these problems, but I think that's the core of why we have to advocate for human rights in the Philippines. And recently, we have a new president, uh. He was elected, I think, two years ago. But then if you're familiar with the current president, he is the son of our former dictator Ferdinand Marcos senior. So we have now the current president is the only son of the former dictator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Junior. So you can see how harsh history is. No are we repeating our own history? But in the end, the challenging thing is, how do we come up with a critic of this current government, which hides the truth regarding the true situation of the Philippines? So we in terms of social issues, there are so many, in terms of environment, education, labor, the experiences of the Overseas Filipino workers, the migration problem, the diaspora and everything, you have so many problems. But in the end, these core problems are the main reason why it is important for us to be critical and sustain the culture of descent regarding the current situation of our country, because in the end, we love our country and we want to protect it.
Stella Micheong Cheong 06:19
Okay. Oh, thank you so much for your informative, your explanation of this complex issue in the Philippines. Yeah, (yeah). But although this complexity, this complex issue, the social issue or economic issue. Can you see the hope? Or can you keep the sense of hope?
Rommel Rodriguez 06:52
Yes, definitely. We know the Philippines has a very long colonial history. We've been colonized by the Spaniards during the 15th, 16th century, and then the Americans came during the 19th century, so that we have a very long colonial history. Then after that, that the Japanese invaded the Philippines during the 1940s so we have a very long history. And actually the main problem in terms of knowledge with the Filipino citizens, most of our his, most of the Filipinos, don't know our own history. So it's like we were uprooted in our own history. So the challenge now for researchers, for advocates of history, for those who want to instill the knowledge of our history, is to, is to, is to divulge all these historical complexities we have experienced so our colonial history. So that's the importance of learning literature, learning history through literature, learning human rights through literature. So in my own discipline, I teach Literature and Creative Writing. I always try to integrate all these, my discipline, my art into, how do we discuss all the complexities we experience in terms of our own history? And I think that's there's some hope there. Yeah, if you try to, if you're trying to make your students be aware that generations, the next generations of Filipinos to be aware of your own history, you will have now the burden, but at the same time, the courage to accept your own history and hopefully Change it Noh and hopefully make the Philippines a better country, a better place for the Filipinos. But in the end, the in terms of social illnesses and problems we still encounter, for example, the neoliberal policies being enacted in the Philippines. So we have the expert labor policy, the tariff, our relationship with the United States, with China. Now China is trying to get our own territories, the West, Philippine Sea. I'm sure you're familiar with that issue. So I think because our country is beautiful, no and lots of other countries are interested in getting our own natural resources, our people, etc. But in the end, what Stella just asked in terms of hope, there's always hope. They say that Filipinos are very resilient. But I think other. Wise, yes, we are resilient, but we should not romanticize the terms of the term resilient, because it's when you romanticize the term resilient Filipinos as resilient, you try to blur the social realities that we should challenge and encounter as Filipinos. So that's my context, as a Unionist, as a faculty member of the University. The hope is through my teaching, teaching human rights, through literature. I know it's not a big deal for a lot of people, but in the end, this is maybe my contribution in terms of knowledge production. So there is hope there. The hope is with the next Filipinos, next generation of Filipinos to come for them to be aware of their own history and how to face all the challenges we experience as Filipinos, I hope it's not that burdening,
Stella Micheong Cheong 11:06
wow. But I love your word. Because while you were talk about teaching resource, I mean the Human Rights literature as a teaching resource, I think it's really powerful and I am really fascinating. And so can you elaborate on how literature and art can uniquely capture communicate the trauma and grief associated with disappeared activists during the period, and how this contributes to culture, memory. Can you elaborate?
Rommel Rodriguez 11:43
Yeah, sure. Thank you for that, for that question. You know me as a writer, as a faculty of Philippine literature, sometimes we only discuss the elements of fiction. For example, what are the elements of fiction? Of course, there's the character. The call this, the denoma, the setting, etc, all those formals is approaching literature. The thing is, I've been a human rights advocate for so many years now. I've been so many prisons, but not as a jail inmate, but as a researcher. So I tried to do some researches, research on the situation of political prisoners in the Philippines. No, sometimes I will joke around. When someone asks me, why are you going to Ifugao? That's near, that's in banaway, Adam. No, why are you going to Ifugao? So they would tell me, are you going there to see the banana rise terraces? And I would tell them, No, I will go to prison. And then they're all in shock. Why are you going to prison? Because I have to interview a political Priester. He is currently in jail in Ifugao, in kiangangan, Ifugao. So they were like, surprised. Why do you do that? Because nobody does it. So, you know, all this experience I had, I did research about the history of Philippine prisons, going to documenting the situation of political prisoners, and doing some advocacy work with desaparecidos, the families, the families of the victims of these enforced disappearances. We call them desaparecidos. So I would join their activities. I would pay the guitar for them. So, so at the same time, I was teaching literature. So I was like, I should combine my work, my discipline and literature and my advocacy, and I had it. It took me a long time to process that. It's not an instant like, oh, I should do this. I should do that. Note. It was a progress that had to do with my consciousness, my raising of my own awareness and how to look for an intersection with my work as a professional, as a faculty member, as a of literature and a writer so and as an adult advocate of humans, I had to see a common connection. So that's where I developed. The course teaching human rights through literature, and that the course now I've been teaching now. It's a new course that we that I institutionalized in our university. I've been teaching that for three semesters now, the incoming semester, I'll be teaching it for the third time. And I was surprised, because when the first time, we offered the course, I was hoping that, oh, only literature students will be, will be how they call this, interested in enrolling in the course. But I found out when we were we were offering the course student. From psychology, from anthropology, journalism, even economic students enrolled in my class. So it was, it was like, Oh, it was surprising. So I had to readjust. I had to be more flexible in terms how to teach this course about human rights using literature. So what I did is I collected all most of the materials during the martial law regime in the Philippines does, because that's the during that time there was censorship. No, you cannot. Cannot critique the government, but at the same time, there was a censorship in terms of freedom of expression. But at the same time, ironically, what happened is, during martial law, most of the writers wrote inside prison. Most of the students write their own diaries, their letters, their memoir. There were lots of literary production during the time of censorship. So that's the beauty in the context of a very dark part of our history in the Philippines. So I had to organize all these thoughts, my experiences, my advocacies, my discipline, etc. And finally, during my fellowship at the University of York, I developed this course the intersection of Philippine literature and human rights. So, because, personally, during the enactment of the anti-terror law during 2020 I think my book was banned. I don't know if I shared this during our conference. My Book was bad because it was accused of being subversive, being radical, and eliciting rebellion against the government. So it was never, it was published, but it was withdrawn. So it was never read by the public. I haven't seen my book. I only have the PDF copy because I use because they said that my book was subversive and eliciting rebellion against the government, because I only use the word revolution, it was kind of surprising, but in the end, you know, sometimes censorship becomes the muse to create more, and it's a platform to as your take off point to challenge the system. And I learned that from unionism, that the more you work collectively advocate in a certain goal, a common goal, rather you try to challenge the system that is very oppressive and try to change it for a better society, for the Filipinos.
Stella Micheong Cheong 11:43
Oh no, no, no. So, so impressed. So also, thank you so much for your even, it's informative, but even touching moment, because you share your own, your personal story anyway, so sorry to hear that your books banned by government. Hopefully, yeah, so in terms of instructional strategy, because you combine your Filipino literature and film and arts to teach students human rights. But I just wondering, how can you help students engage in this literature or art products fully? I think it's really difficult as you mentioned the diverse students from psychology, anthropology, the journalism, economics, because they have different background, the different knowledge system. So I assume it's quite difficult to help students engage in your class or this Literature, can you share your experience?
Rommel Rodriguez 15:32
Yeah, the beauty with literature is that it's universal. The themes are universal. Themes about love, death, about the challenges of life. It's universal. So even though, if you're not a literature major in the university, you come to have a, what they call this, you try to sympathize, so empathize with the character. For example, in a story, there's a story about a farmer and his land was being land grabbed by this landlord. Chetra Or a worker, a worker being oppressed in a very capitalist system. So when we read the story, we do not dwell on the formalistic elements of fiction, for example, but we try to create an atmosphere of sympathy and or empathy, rather, for the students. But while I was teaching the course, the hardest part is not to burden the students. They will be burned out if we talk about all these problems, etc, after that, maybe after the semester, they will be more stressed out or being burdened because of the problems we discuss inside our classroom, but in the end, we try to debrief after each story. And I think that's the beauty of art. You can see all these social illnesses, these problems not being encountered by the Filipinos, etc, by the peasant the working class, the Filipino overseas workers. But the beauty there is, how do you try to call this to create a more holistic approach in terms of understanding all this oppression. So you try to get the sympathy of the students in terms of this oppressed character, but in the end, he should only the students should always be aware of his own limitation. Now, what he can do is just to understand the story, and then that's the theory inside classroom. But in the end, how do you practice this new knowledge you gain inside the classroom? That's the practical side. So when we discuss human rights, we when we discuss oppression, we try to get the try to get the objective of the challenge now is for you to promote and protect human rights of the Filipinos, especially those who are oppressed. It's not that simple. But in the end, you try to at least challenge their own perspective in terms of human rights. And I think that's the beauty. The challenge does not end after the semester, but the challenge is lifelong learning, and I think that's the challenge of the university right now. How do you as an institution? How do you make human rights as your university as human rights-based education? And it's very challenging, because most of the educational system or institutions in the Philippines and maybe around the world is not that interested in terms of human rights? No, they have their own goals. You have to produce businessmen, etc, but not human rights. So I was very lucky to attend the conference and see all these human rights advocates who are university based. And I think that is that's the importance of we are having a collective effort in terms of promoting and protecting human rights, not only in your country, but also around the globe, and using our own, our own institutions to promote our advocacies.
Stella Micheong Cheong 23:40
Yeah, yeah, I do agree. But what about university student’s role? So what role do your university students play the today's protest movement?
Rommel Rodriguez 23:54
Yeah. Our university has a strong tradition of being militant and progressive or being actually being accused of being a communist University, or very progressive University, all students are activists, but that's not true. Activism in the university is alive, but because the situation is there that you should be active, you should have the culture of descent in terms of oppression, in terms of all these systemic problems we have in the country. So the student’s movement, for example, is very alive and very active in terms of promoting their own rights in the university. I was a product of student movement in the in our university, when I was an undergraduate student, I was a member of a cultural organization, a very progressive cultural organization. What we do? Is that we perform inside the university. We discuss issues of commercialization within the university, militarization and all these undemocratic processes that happens in the university. But and I'm proud of this part of my experience, we are not only contented in in doing rallies and mobilization in us inside the university, we go outside of the university. It's a larger society. So we perform in factories. When there's a picket line or a picket line or a strike of workers, what we do is we go to the workers. We perform and support their cause. For example, when they have a problem in terms of their collective bargaining agreement and they have a picket line, I remember this story. This what we did when I was part of the student movement. We performed in a factory during a strike of workers. And it's a dialogical thing, you know, yes, we go out of our comfort zone in the classroom, we go to the factory, and actually we learn more outside of the classroom and now you try to transform the classroom into a real setting, and you learn a lot from the workers themselves, their situation, what's happening to them, the importance of having a union, etc. So you learn from that situation. And when you go back to your university, you're you gain knowledge in a very informal way, but very effective way. And that part of, maybe that part of my experience as a as a activist, student activist, student activist, and now I'm a member of a union and a writer’s movement in the Philippines is very progressive and militant in terms of promoting human rights. I try to, again, to integrate all these experiences in teaching. So now in terms of the students, the student power is always there, because our university has a very militant tradition in terms of protecting rights within and outside of the university.
Stella Micheong Cheong 27:40
Alright, thank you so much. And Rommel, considering the history of successful movement like people power revolution or yellow movement, what are the key elements that have made protests in Philippines effective in creating social change.
Rommel Rodriguez 28:02
You know, Stella, the people power revolution during the 1986 is debatable in terms of its effectivity or its relevance in our history. Yes, it's relevant, because that's a time where the dictator was that dictatorship ended, but in the end, after the revolution, the so-called democratic space in the Philippines, the promise of change did not happen. Actually, all the promises were gone, like what Adam shared earlier. There were coup attempts, against the Aquino government, because there were instances that the promise of EDSA Revolution did not happen in the Philippines. The democratic space was not there. It was invisible. It was all imaginary. Nothing significant change in the Philippines after the EDSA Revolution, the Philippines remain poor. The government continue to promote neoliberal policies. The government continued to engage in foreign agreement in terms, for example, the US military bases, and we still have now lots of military bases in the Philippines. But in the end of I think, and the ruling elite in the Philippines remain in power. But the thing is, we should try to in terms of perspective in the history of the people power, it was not by it was not a success because of the ruling elite. It was a success because of the people's movement. Those without names the people's movement were, was, was the one who contribute greatly contributed for the dictatorship to end in the Philippines. And I think that's the important thing. The people's movement in the Philippines remains because the social illnesses, imperialism, bureaucrat, capitalism and feudalism remains in the Philippines. So that's the importance of having a people's movement in the country to at least challenge all these oppressive, systemic problems we are experienced, still experiencing. Now, for example, just to share with you, if we still have time, the Aquino government, the cowancos is one of the haciendas, the landlords in the Philippines. So even though Aquino was the president during that time and promised the comprehensive agrarian reform program, it did not happen, actually, and until now, the Hacienda Luisita, that's the land ownership of the cowancos and the Aquinos still remains. And during that, and actually during the first year of Aquino as president, the Mendiola massacred happened. I don't know if you're familiar with the Mendiola massacre, but it's in the internet. You can know the history about that. It happened during the Aquino government, the Shen, the Lucida. It's a massacre of pseud who were, who were asking, where's your promise of agrarian reform. So and what happened during that rally? They were asking for their rights, for their land, and what the government did, they, in turn, they shoot guns and bullets against these protesting peasants, and also another massacre happened in in Hacienda Luisita. No, I can give you the link of a documentary about the Luisita, so you will be more aware of that. So that happened in the land owned by the former president of the Philippines. So you know our history as Filipinos as the Philippines is so complicated. It's sad, it's very traumatic, but we have to engage with our own history. It's like a ghost in our past, but we have to fully engage with it, understand it, and try to articulate all these things for us to be more aware of where we are we want to go as a nation. So I think that's the most challenging part of being a Filipino, not only as a teacher, uni is writer, human rights advocate, but me as a Filipino, that's very challenging, and it's not easy, and we acknowledge that it's not easy to be part of this country who had a very long history, social long colonial history, social illnesses, etc, we still experience right now. But in the end, that's a challenge. How do you go about this? And I try to articulate it through literature.
Stella Micheong Cheong 33:28
Oh, wow, yeah, thank you. Then, I'm not sure, but I'm wondering about your thought, because, as you mentioned, the Philippines, a dictator, the Marcos son was elected the two years ago, three years ago, then I heard the social media was a play key role in impacting on the young people to hide the history of dictatorship. Is it true or do you think the social media impact the way Filipino, especially the young people, organize and participate in protest?
Rommel Rodriguez 34:11
I think there's a part of social media right now, technology, TikTok, everything, Facebook, Instagram, etc, but I think it's only part of a bigger project of the current government. They say that the Marcos Junior government, he was elected to presidency because of social media. But in the end, I think that it was a well-planned objective of returning back to power, and when they went back to power. Actually, the historical revisionism started. So we try to erase our dark history during martial law there’s and they use the institutions, for example, the schools, the textbook in the Philippines, uh, so there's a clause there that, for example, there's the Marco state dictatorship during martial law. There was an attempt to erase the name Marcos and just retain dictatorship during martial law, but the name Marcos wants to be erased. And there are, there are so many attempts, including YouTube and all this technology, to revise history to we call that historical revisionism, or historical distortion. You try to distort history with the current generation, for them not to be knowledgeable about what happened during martial law. So the good thing is, there's a culture of vigilance in universities, especially with the student movement. They're very vigilant. And also the faculty members are very vigilant that the attempts to revise Philippine history was we were very critical with that kind of move with us current government, and until now, it is a struggle. It is a challenge for us to be more vigilant. But in the end, because those who are in power, try to weaponize the law against dissidents, against those who are critical and vocal against the government. For example, they use the anti-terror law, which was enacted actually during the Duterte administration in 2020 so they try to weaponize the law to Silent descent in the Philippines. That's why it is important if you are advocating and promoting human rights, especially if you are in a university setup, you try to use also academic freedom, because only through academic freedom you can discuss all of these things freely, and that is the importance of creating a university who protect which protects human rights and academic freedom. And there are moves actually, and I'm very happy with this progress with different individuals, including your group. There are also groups who are very active in promoting academic freedom and human rights. For example, we initiated a group in Southeast Asia. Is a Southeast Coalition for academic freedom, Southeast Asian Coalition for academic freedom, and is what it is supported by the scholars at risk network and, and there's also a move by the by Mahidol University for the university as human rights based education, a human rights based university, you having a meeting, we were very happy to discuss and exchange knowledge in order for us to move collectively for a certain goal of uniting, not only Filipinos and but also countries around Southeast Asia to promote and protect human rights and academic freedom.
Stella Micheong Cheong 38:34
Okay! Oh, Rommel, wow. I'm impressed by your activity as a human rights advocate and scholar and even the human being, I admire you. Thank you so much. And I know Kamille and Adam, they have a lot of questions, so I'm going to pass over Adam. So Adam?
Adam Lang 38:56
Thank you very much, Stella. And just for the listeners, view, I dug out, literally, my journal from 1987 which I caught, wow, summer of Living Dangerously, which I kept whilst I was in the Philippines when there was an attempted Coup. And it was, I've just been reading it in advance of this interview over the last couple of weeks. And it I'm looking at things from a very western perspective in this actually, but it did enlighten me about some matters with about the Philippines, and obviously since then, I've been very interested in your history. And can I just say how well you've explained everything, and so eloquently and so positively as well, about your country, because in that coup, people were shot and killed Filipinos, and there was an incident where a New Zealand photographer was killed as well. So I know how violent a society can be. Do you ever feel compromised. Do you ever feel challenged or threatened a little bit? I mean, what you're talking about is amazing, going and interviewing people in prisons and writing and so on. You talked about your academic freedom. I mean, is there an element of that or not? How do you feel about that?
Rommel Rodriguez 40:18
Of course, I'm afraid it's not easy to be brave here, but in the end, some someone has to do it. Someone has to go to prison and document the situation of the political prisoners. It's hard to enter peace. And you're correct. You're right there. Adam, you had to go all the scrutiny. You have to take, take off your clothes and look at you. And then, and there are the threats of, why are you here? Each other, the toxic masculinity threatening you. Why are you here? What are you doing? What? What's your objective? Etc. But in the end, I use the academic freedom card. No this. I am an academic. I am a researcher, and my university supports me, so I can go to prison freely. But in the end, you need to have the support of people's organization. Noh, you have to know them. You have to get their support. So I go there, not on my own village volition or just by myself. I had to coordinate with human rights group, for example, Karapatan is a human rights group in the Philippines, and they have, it's an alliance of human rights advocates, and I had to connect with them. I had to talk to them and ask them to, oh, this is my work, but at the same time my advocacy. So you try to navigate all this path try to do your work, but at the same time do your advocacy, which you believe in. So, yes, it's very dangerous. I think until now, we have the anti-terror law, which can be weaponized by the current government. As I said earlier, my book is still banned, but I was never allowed to publish my book for it to be read by the public, etcetera, there is fear. But in the end, during that time, actually, the community of writers and advocates of human rights release all their statements in support of me as a writer. We were five, authors who were banned in the Philippines. All of our books were never released. But the good thing is, you try to, they call this. You try to see some beauty in all these traumatic, sad experiences, the beauty that happened during the book banning or the pulling out of our books is that there was a huge support of community, of writers, of publishers, of faculty members in our university. They released all their statements, and it was amazing. It was a very encouraging for us to fight. But in the end, you know what happened? And it's like a roller coaster ride. So we were banned. There was support, but in the end, there were still challenges, because the issue died. No, we did not, we did not sustain the campaign to release our books, because we're fighting a very powerful institution. If it is agency of the government, they all have the power, etc. But even though it's quite frustrating, you can see that there's always a possibility to gain something through collective effort, and that's the beauty of it.
Adam Lang 44:09
Well, thank you. Just one quick reflection and then one quick question. I mean, in our group, we have used work of lots of different people, including Michael Apple's work, and particularly the struggle for democracy and education. And I think your is a very powerful story on that. You said at one point earlier, you said, we don't know our own history, and obviously you're endeavoring to do that with university students, with your course is there? How does that work in schools? And you touched on your unique colonial history. The Philippines colonial history is very different, isn't it? And you explained that too. Is there more going on in schools and universities now, or is it a hard challenge?
Rommel Rodriguez 44:54
Yeah, I think it remains a challenge, because until now, our system of education is very colonial. You know, there's always a college a bias in terms of language. For example, English is the medium of instruction, starting from the elementary High School up to college. And me as an ad, as a faculty of the Filipino language. It's always a challenge. Why do we have to challenge the system? Why do you always need to push with our own language use as a medium of instruction, all these questions and everything, but in the end, it's all in the context of a very neoliberal education, very colonial education. In a new colonial education, there's always a possibility to erase the nation's own history, the country's own history. So that's the important thing of having a very vigilant or aware, conscious effort to push this all knowledge in terms of whose perspectives in history should prevail, should dominate. So up to now we again, I'm saying this because I believe in it that in our own experiences, we still have a very colonial education system and it's a challenge for us.
Adam Lang 46:24
Yeah, sorry. I'm just conscious of time. John, last quick question, if I may the Filipino diaspora or diaspora, or however you pronounce it, it's global, isn't it? I do have many links outside of Philippines and if some of our listeners want to get in touch with you, because they're not just Filipino, but how might they do that?
Rommel Rodriguez 46:48
Oh, recently, when I was, we were attending Stella and I were attending the conference, I had the opportunity to meet Filipino domestic helpers’ organization in London, and there's an organization of Filipinos in London. If you're based there, I can connect you with them. But in the end, I try to because the Filipinos are everywhere. The Filipino diaspora is everywhere, not especially in London and in the West. In European countries, Filipinos are there, and they the need, the challenge there is for them to be organized. So there's an organization for Filipino migrant workers. The organization is MIGRANTE. Migrante means migrant so it's MIGRANTE is the widest organization of Overseas Filipino workers around the globe. They all have their networks, their chapters in different countries. They have one in in in London and in other parts of Europe. They have in America, each other in in Asia. So what I do is I try to connect with them so and if you want me to connect those who are listening, if you want to connect to MIGRANTE, you can always contact me, maybe if you're interested and know more about the diaspora, the experiences of the Diaspora Filipinos around the globe, and we need to be actually, to have a collective effort in understanding the diaspora of Filipinos
Adam Lang 48:31
Well. Thank you very much. I'm now going to pass straight over to Kamille. Thank you.
Kamille Beye 48:36
Thank you so much for Rommel. It's been so interesting and wonderful, and I found so many different threads that resonate with me. I was thinking about the Filipino experience, and it reminded me of the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States. And I feel like there's some touch points there. And then, of course, talk about this idea of the neocolonialism education and the whitewashing of history. And I'm thinking even now about how, in Oklahoma, for instance, they want to teach that the 2020 election was there were discrepancies in it, and then, of course, that slaves gained skills that they could use in other places. So, you know, it's this whole fantasizing and changing of the narrative to ignore the atrocities that people have been put through. And I just it reminded me so much of this, and I keep thinking about what you were saying about how you know your corner of the world is to teach the Filipinos about their history. And so I was curious as to how do you work with other artists to get this message out. So you might write obviously, but in through the arts, like, Is there, like a Filipino Renaissance type thing, to touch people in different ways, to help them understand and appreciate the history they may not have known before?
Rommel Rodriguez 49:55
Yeah. Thank you, Kamille for that engaging question. It's important to not to work alone. It's important to have to work in solidarity with other artists, not only Filipino artists, but also artists and members of the academe around the globe like what we're doing right now. You we need to, we need to advance our international solidarity and in terms of working with artists, because I was part of the student movement, we I had a I had a cultural group. I was a member of a cultural group of students. I know most of the Filipino writers in our country, and actually I have right now, an ongoing project. It's an anthology of an anthology of human rights. So because I realized that, oh, I've been an editor for many years. I've edited books, fiction, books about different topics. But in the end, now I realized that there, there's no anthology on human rights. So what I did, I made a call for contributions, for writers to write about human rights. So it's like, it's an open call, and it's an ongoing ah, anthology project, and hopefully, and my homework right now is actually to read all the entries and do an intensive review of the literary works there. And actually, not only in solidarity with writers, but also with other artists, like filmmakers, musicians, visual artists. We have a cultural group of progressive, radical artists, militant artists in the Philippines. It's called the concerned artists of the Philippines. So especially now on I put it in my notes, so I won't forget, on July 28 you'll be having the State of the Nation. Address of the president. Is an Annual Report of the President in terms of the politics, the situation of the economy the Philippines, etc. So he will be reporting on July 28 so every eyes are on him right that day. So and I will be attending a mobilization. We will have our own people's State of the Nation Address, which is a narrative actually, what like, what kind is saying, we have to counter the narrative of the state and push with the realities that we are experiencing as a nation. And that's the counter narrative we're trying to do.
Kamille Beye 52:56
I think that's amazing. And I want to ask you a question about the work that you're doing with the political prisoners and their families. I watched your video. I think it's PDL, when you went to the President and talked to the different prisoners, and then you talked to some of the children of the prisoners. And I was just curious one, how does the activism of the parent or the disappeared resonate with those families, and then how do you bring that connection to the larger society so that people who may not necessarily be directly touched by the labor movement, for the drivers, understand and show that empathy towards the families of those who are affected?
Rommel Rodriguez 53:35
Actually, it's a very challenging objective of how you show sympathy without showing the without being without the pity. It's a different context. No. So we try to humanize the political prisoner. We try to create their personality as a father, as a daughter, countering the state identifying them as rebels or murderers, arsonists, etc. So you have to counter. You have to make a counter narrative of the state against the state, and create build their personality as human beings. It has to have a human touch. And that's the difference of the perspective you are, if you are documenting the plight of the political prisoner from a perspective of an artist who believes that no one should be imprisoned because of their ideology and political inclinations, and it tried to create the person countering how he's been defined by the state as a criminal. I think that's the most challenging part. So. Yeah, thank you for watching the videos.
Kamille Beye 55:03
Oh no, my pleasure. So I think that I have more questions, but I understand that we are coming to the end of our time together, and so I'll say my questions for offline, but I wanted to ask you, as we prepare to conclude, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listeners that you're currently working on, or is there something you'd like to mention that we have not discussed so far in our conversations4citizenship podcast?
Rommel Rodriguez 55:30
No, it's like I was defending a dissertation with you guys. But I do for the questions, because it is like articulating my own ideas, and those questions are important, significant to articulate and believe of the ideas and articulate my experiences as a writer, unionist and advocate of human rights. So I would just like to share to our listeners that it's not easy to be an advocate of human rights, especially if you belong to a country like ours, it's very challenging, but in the end, with the support, with the collective support of the Filipinos, it will be more in solidarity, and hopefully this is a dream, but it's have. It will happen soon. I think we'll be having a Philippines that is more humane, and no social injustice and peaceful, loving Filipinos will be there for us to see in the future, especially the upcoming the next generation of Filipinos. That's it.
Kamille Beye 56:51
Thanks for your time. It has been such a pleasure to have you, Professor Rommel. We loved hearing about your research and your personal story, and it's just been really interesting talking about the way you use art to convey the message of the Filipino people. I'm closing this episode. I'm Kamille Bay, thanks for listening to the conversations4citizenship. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to subscribe to conversations4citizenship and look for us on X @c4c_ed and bluesky @c4cpodcast.bsky.social. A transcript for today's conversation with Professor Rommel Rodriguez can be found at www.conversations4citizenship.com. This episode of conversations4citizenship was produced by me, Kamille Bay, Adam Lang and Stella Cheong, recorded and sound mixed by Stella Cheong. Many thanks. Take care. Bye.