My Heart on the Crying Cop and on Activism

It's my restday today and one photo online stroke a chord in my heart about my home country, The Philippines.

I admit the fact that when I was younger, in my heart poured activism. It was important for me to survive, being one of those kids struggling to get a decent education, to fight for my rights in a place where only the rich have the bigger voice. The Philippines is a very nice place for the rich. For the poor, it is sad.

For me, being an activist blinds you to the happy side. It made me sensitive to the social issues, most often forgetting my personal ones. It was a tough decision, from being an idealistic kid, wanting to be a part for a bigger change of an ailing society for the unfortunate to become someone trying to focus more on himself for brighter tomorrows. I prefer the latter. I always believe that there is a bigger change if you start it from within.

Fighting for a social change is heroic but fighting for a personal change for me is more beyond heroism. For some of my countrymen who have near death experiences because of your activism, for a friend who was killed because of that, you are heroes. I so feel what you feel and I highly respect you for that. As the seeds of activism start to sprout within us, the feeling is so immense. I have been there. Although I recommend activism at so many points in our lives, I don't recommend you to overdo it. We can choose to be happy and exert more effort changing ourselves and we can be an agent of change for our society at large, rather than going into streets most of our lives shouting against the government, hoping for it to change.

The Philippines has generally bad governance and justice system but this does not mean we don't have good politicians. There is too much democracy and often we obliged ourselves to say something and as a consequence, bills for social change take time to become good laws, and often they don't become laws at all. We always yearn for social change, yet we are the only ones who are halting the speedy process and left us all stagnated.

I understand the anger flowing into your veins for the cases of injustice our fellowmen suffer but there is more to life. We can still be a person to others in our little ways. As a great philosopher said, we can not light other's path without brightening our own. To PO1 Sevilla, high salute for you Sir. I just couldn't understand how a government fail to feed its cops or intend them to experience hunger, especially if you are still junior police officers. I have a very high esteem on you Sir. My brother is a police officer back home and I was a witness on what he went through from being a trainee to climbing up the ladder. You go through starvation as a part of the training and honestly, it made me shed tears, a lot for these aspiring young men in uniform. My brother shared the same dream with me for a social change.

For me, we all have social responsibility but let us not forget that we also have a big personal responsibility for ourselves and by saying that, let's take time to take charge of our own personal lives first. We often listen too little but reacts too much and hitherto we fail to realize the more important things. Admittedly, despite the booming tourism in the country, there are still so many people below the marginalized poverty line. We are still in the ashes. We can then start to ponder. From the ash of the hopeless struggle, let's start from deep within ourselves and from there, let's see little by little our beloved Philippines soaring high again like an eagle.

THE STORY BEHIND THE CRYING COP

By Rem Zamora

It all started peacefully.

People were starting to converge along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City early Monday morning, a few hours before the State of the Nation Address.

Street vendors were selling kwek-kwek (quail eggs), bottled water and other drinks while kids were roaming around the car-free Commonwealth Avenue looking for coins dropped by passing vehicles the previous days.

What set the scene apart from an ordinary day along the busy highway: container trucks and barbed wires were in place, signs of of things to come.

On the other side of the fenced area, policemen were lying on the road resting. Some of them had been posted there since two days ago.

Chaos

At around 11:00 a.m., a big group of activists arrived near Ever Gotesco Mall. The protests began.

Activists hurriedly removed the metal fence on the island, allowing them to bypass the police barricade. Anti-riot policemen from the other side of the road ran and tried to block them, but the protesters pushed through.

There was one policeman who flashed a peace sign to the protesters, asking them to remain calm. He urged activists to hold a dialogue instead of resorting to violence.

And then chaos began.

On one side, policemen blocked and pushed protesters away. On the other, the activists told the first line of security that they wanted to go near Batasan Complex.

Rocks were thrown and people were hit with truncheons and shields. Most of the members of the media stayed on top of a dump truck to give them a good vantage view, while some remained in the middle, sandwiched by the clashing protesters and policemen.

Crying Cop

It was a long and tiring dispersal. According to reports, at least 50 were injured in the clashes.

But amid the chaos, my lens caught a scene I thought I would never see during a dispersal.

A foreign protester was berating a policeman asking him why they were hurting the people. “Why are you doing this to us? Why are you hurting us?!”

The officer simply stood his ground. “I am a policeman, I’m just doing my job.”

He said his job was to maintain peace and order. He said they were given orders and they had to follow.

Suddenly, the police officer cried.

The foreigner kept on shouting at this officer. But the policeman couldn't stop crying. He was trying to hold his tears, but he couldn't.

Another round of clashes erupted. The policemen were still trying to push and shove the protesters away. The crying cop simply stood his ground. He was still holding his shield firmly. Still weeping, sobbing.

Later, I approached the policeman and asked him his name. He said he is Joselito. A quick glance at his name tag revealed he is policeman Joselito Sevilla.

He said he is a private, and his uniform patch showed he is from the Marikina police unit.

Asked why he cried, he only said: "Sa gutom at pagod. Walang tulog. Walang pahinga. Dalawang araw na kami naka-deploy dito. Tapos ganito, nagkakagulo."

It was also PO1 Sevilla's first dispersal assignment.

Realization

I finally understood him. No sleep. No food. No rest. And he came face-to-face with protesters whose goal was to break the police line.

Sevilla was physically and emotionally exhausted.

But he was following orders. He was just doing his job not to let protesters get near the Batasan Complex.

He did not hurt the protesters, even if some were already throwing rocks and hitting cops with wooden sticks.

Finally, some protesters noticed him, too: a policeman, whom they expected to retaliate, was in front of them, holding his shield firmly, weeping.

And then they started to console PO1 Sevilla. A man held his shoulder, telling him that everything would be alright. Another woman comforted him, as she tried to give him a handkerchief to wipe his tears.

Amid the chaos, these two protesters hugged PO1 Sevilla and assured him everything would be fine.

Seconds later, other policemen noticed what was happening and they moved PO1 Sevilla away from the front lines, away from the activists.

I was caught in the middle and I couldn't find him anymore. He was gone.

Show of Strength

State forces, especially policemen, are expected to be firm and not show emotions. What PO1 Sevilla did was not what was expected of him.

Did the other anti-riot policemen remove him from the front line?

This incident only shows we are all human beings. It is not bad to show weakness by crying; that we can still do our job, stand our ground, but still be peaceful and not hurt another human being; that two opposing groups can still show compassion as shown by the man and woman who hugged PO1 Sevilla.

Hours after the violent protests, I reviewed my set of photos taken during the day. I smiled when I saw the photo of the policeman flashing the peace sign before the dispersal. It was PO1 Joselito Sevilla.
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