I’m pretty sure many are not yet familiar with Hector Tarrazona, but his name rings loud to me. The reason is obvious. Tarrazona and I are both from Cabatuan, Iloilo. I first heard of his name when I was in my senior years in high school, months before a group of military officers under the organization We Belong came out in the open in January 1986 to express their displeasure over how the dictator Ferdinand Marcos ran the country.

Tarrazona was one of the seven military officers who announced the formation of that group, more known later as the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM). RAM was actually organized years earlier as an underground group and Tarrazona was one of its founders, a member of the 11-man Ad Hoc Steering Committee of RAM. His involvement in the anti-Marcos movement within the military was an open secret in our town back then.

Our English teacher, now Cabatuan councilor Victor Maroma, always talked about him and how proud he was that one of his former students had stood for a great cause. Tarrazona was salutatorian of his high school class. I also felt proud being his townmate, especially after seeing him on TV alongside Gringo Honasan leading the revolt against Marcos. One immortal photo after EDSA I shows RAM leaders like Honasan, Tarrazona and Red Kapunan on top of a military tank rejoicing a day after Marcos fled Malacañang.

Years later, I had a chance to meet Tarrazona at the office of then Board Member Perla Zulueta at the old Iloilo Provincial Capitol. He was doing a research for his master’s degree and had chosen Zulueta as one of his respondents. A soft-spoken unassuming gentleman, one would never suspect that he was one of those who lit a candle during the darkest hour of our history. His personal account of the EDSA revolution and his views on the problems of the Filipino society are recorded in the book he wrote, After EDSA.

The other day, I read Tarrazona’s name in the papers again. He is one of the eight candidates for senator of the Church-based Ang Kapatiran Party whose candidacies were approved by the Commission on Election (Comelec). This is the second time that Ang Kapatiran fielded candidates for Senator. In 2007, it had three candidates –Zosimo Jesus Paredes II, Dr. Martin Bautista and lawyer Adrian Sison. None of them won but they garnered votes reaching hundreds of thousands.

Aside from Tarrazona, the other candidates of Ang Kapatiran include Rizalito David, Jo Imbong, Zosimo Paredes, Maria Gracia Piñozo-Plazo, Adrian Sison, Reginald Tamayo, and Manuel Valdehuesa, all not-so-famous personalities. Its candidate for President is John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes, a councilor in Olongapo City.

Rooted in the social teaching of the Church, Ang Kapatiran Party was formed in response to the call of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991, and to the invitation of the CBCP Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics in 1997 for the lay faithful to help the Bishops in “cleaning up what they consider as the dirtiest aspect of our national life – today’s kind of politics.”

For the 2010 elections, Ang Kapatiran launched its campaign for 2,010 positions during the national convention of the Philippines’ Pontifical Council for the Laity here in Iloilo City in October 2008. The 12-point program of Ang Kapatiran is anchored on serving God and country, economic reform, quality education for all, justice, and peace.

I know Tarrazona to be a deeply religious person, reason perhaps why Ang Kapatiran drafted him as a senatorial candidate. Advocating Christianity as an “antidote” to communism, he believes in the peaceful bloodless road to change, rejecting any attempts to take over governments through armed struggle by both the extreme left and the extreme right.

In 1987, Tarrazona was among those ordered arrested for his alleged participation in the failed coup against then President Corazon Aquino after she approved the release of Jose Ma. Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines whose military arm, the New People’s Army, has been engaged in a protracted war with the government since 1969. He, however, denied the charges against him.

“Despite the fact that I hated (the Aquino) government then for unconditionally releasing Jose Maria Sison and all the communists from detention, I did not join my fellow officers in the 1989 coup attempt precisely because I did not believe then, as I do not believe now, that a revolutionary government would solve our problems as a nation,” he would later write.

“The lesson we should learn is, if the revolutionary government of Cory, who was very popular world-wide then, miserably failed, why would another group whose leaders we do not know, would succeed if we had a try for another revolutionary government?,” he added.

Tarrazona is now 65, but this senior citizen still sings in church choir on Sundays. And if his melodious voice can captivate churchgoers, there is no reason why he can’t be our voice in the Senate. Sakdagon naton siya!

Leave a Reply