WATCH | Indignant UPLB students strike up anti-Marcos lightning rally

September 23, 2017 - 9:19 PM
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UPLB lightning indignation rally
Thousands of UPLB students materialize to unleash a lightning indignation rally on Saturday afternoon to denounce the Marcos regime. Photograph from SAKBAYAN

Just before mid-Saturday afternoon at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños campus, leaders of the UPLB chapter of SAKBAYAN [Samahan ng Kabataan para sa Bayan] spread word throughout the campus for students to stage an indignation rally.

Indignation rally denouncing Marcos
UPLB students led their indignant voices in denouncing the abuses of the Marcos administration.

This was to be a lightning rally in response to the act of “deception” by organizers of the One Social Family Credit Cooperative General Assembly, held at the UPLB Lower Grounds, which had turned out to be a gathering to extol the late president Ferdinand Marcos and lure people with subliminal promises of a share of the fabled Marcos wealth.

SAKBAYAN rally UPLB
Lightning rally denouncing the Marcos-era fascism. Photograph from SAKBAYAN

See also:
LOOK | Thousands of Marcos loyalists flock to UP Los Baños

Marcos crowd buses, jeepneys
The “Marcos crowd” came in busloads as well as jeepney caravans. SAKBAYAN

Like the spontaneous unreeling of a flash mob sequence in an almost Occupy UPLB storyboard, thousands of students gathered critical mass in front of the Student Union Office near where the Credit Cooperative General Assembly was held and, rather than risk a tense confrontation with the Marcos crowd, veered in the opposite direction and proceeded to Carabao Park at the main entrance of the campus, to uncork their boisterous lightning indignation rally.

Flash mob gathering at Carabao Park.
SAKBAYAN

SAKBAYAN, the alliance of student organizations, fraternities and sororities throughout the University of the Philippines System with more than 60 member-organizations, spearheaded the rally and, in no time at all, the hashtag #MarcosNotWelcomeInUPLB had gone viral in Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels.

Streamers with anti-Martial Law messaging were displayed in the Student Union building. Placards and banners bristled with anti-Marcos sentiment as thousands of students filled the open space at Carabao Park fronting the College of Development Communication.

Twitter posts UPLB Marcos event
Sampler of Twitter posts as the UPLB drama was unfolding on Saturday afternoon.

SAKBAYAN said it would be calling for a Congressional inquiry to see to it that the UPLB Administration and the general assembly organizers – One Social Family Credit Cooperative – are called to task for “this unacceptable Marcos event in the UPLB Freedom Park.”

Click and watch this video clip posted on Twitter by UPLB Perspective [@uplbperspective] below:

And here is another video clip from UPLB Perspective of students marching to Carabao Park for their lightning rally: