Remembering Fr. Intengan

When my family and I were in exile in London, the Philippine Social Democrats (PDSP) headed by Fr. Intengan, S.J were in Madrid, Spain. He was the thinker and mentor with Norberto Gonzales as his assistant. Gonzales did the rounds of politicizing youth and workers in Spain. It was inevitable that we would cross paths because we were doing the same work in London.

So we drove all the way, our children in tow in a Citroen station wagon, to Madrid to meet them. At the time, I was puzzled by what I knew of Intengan. He was a medical doctor, a priest and a political activist wrapped up into one person. I expected a dynamo like Che Guevara. But when I did meet him he was so soft-spoken and gentle, you would hardly think of him as a passionate revolutionary.

We told them of our work in London uniting Filipinos to defend themselves against unjust deportation which was on top of the Thatcher agenda when she came to power. My husband, the late Ambassador Alberto Pedrosa was elected to organize and lead the Filipino community which we named Pagkakaisa ng Samahang Filipino. The elections were held at the Filipino Chaplaincy that would later leave the group and set up its own advocacy group with the more ‘educated’ and well-to-do section of the community.  Most of them were businessmen or worked for large corporations in the Philippines. That is itself a long story and will require a book to fully explain.

Organizing Filipinos in Europe was different from organizing Filipinos in the US. Most of the Filipinos in Europe, most of whom were workers were apolitical. They did not want to take sides about the politics in the Philippines. They were in London to work. A way out of the difficulty was to join the British labor unions. As immigrant workers Pagkakaisa ng Samahang Pilipino affiliated with the TGWU.

In Madrid, the PDSP worked similarly and joined the equivalent in the Spanish labor movement – the UGT Union General Trabahadores.

That is what brought us to Madrid to look for Fr. Intengan. What about joining our groups and forming a Confederation of Filipino workers in Europe? With the unions behind us, it would be a force to reckon with.

Father Intengan had a ready script to politicize workers. He like to draw diagrams as he talked. His lectures could be lengthy. It was from the PDSP group that I learned the words, isang bagsak and hit the table to wake us up and make noise. We also came to know their songs. We lived in the Campo de Corso, run by the UGT for seminars for workers. We were new to life in a dormitory with common facilities for showers and toilets. That was how I met Fr. Intengan and other members of the PDSP. It was only later that I would know we were united by Imelda’s dislike for us, I for writing the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos and Intengan as head of the PDSP which she accused among those who planned the bombings in Manila at the height of martial law.

We were separated by the EDSA peaceful revolution. I know that the Socdems as they were known were hurt that their work during the difficult times during martial law was not recognized. With Cory Aquino’s ascendancy and partnership with the Lopezes the oligarchy was back in power and did the same things we were fighting against while in Europe. I met Fr. Intengan again when the National Transformation Council was organized with the do-nothing government of Cory’s son, Noynoy Aquino and the same if not graver graft and corruption graver done by the Marcoses.

At Fr. Intengan’s wake at the Ateneo Chapel I had the opportunity to meet the Socdems again. Bert Gonzales introduced me as I entered the chapel – here comes the Duterte among us.

MISCELLANY: As the author Rene Azurin says himself, the article is long for a column, it was up to me how I would want to handle the sharing of “Elections as an instrument of political control.” The article appeared in a book – Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy  2nd Edition – compiled and edited by University of the Philippines professors Felipe Miranda and Temario Rivera. It was published by the UNDP and the CHR in 2016.] I think it best to write a part of it in Rene’s own words.

“Control of a society – its wealth, its resources, its people – is essentially effected by control of its government. In present days, control of government in so-called “democratic” societies is best achieved through control of the electoral process, that is, the process for choosing and installing a society’s leaders. Those who would rule a society, therefore, have to make sure that the electoral apparatus remains firmly within their ability to manipulate and that it can be readily rigged to place into office the factotums who will do their bidding. In that way, the agenda and actions of government can always be crafted to promote – and to never endanger – the interests of the ruling elite. 

Since democracy has become the de facto standard for organizing – and, indeed, defining – the “modern” state, history has been replete with examples of would-be rulers who have successfully rigged electoral contests and taken control of their societies. In this connection, certain names – like Haiti’s François Duvalier, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Miloševic?, and, of course, the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos – readily come to mind but it would be a mistake to believe that election rigging is limited to such world-famous (infamous?) election cheaters. In truth, the practice of election rigging is widespread throughout the world, varying only in the degree of crudeness or subtlety. 

As regularly revealed in election after election in the approximately hundred years that popular democracy has been in vogue, the standard toolbox of election riggers has remained pretty much the same. These methods consist of: 1) disrupting the campaigns of opposition candidates, 2) arresting or murdering opponents, 3) padding voters’ lists, 4) buying votes through retail or wholesale bribery, 5) using armed thugs to prevent voters from voting in opposition bailiwicks, 6) stealing ballot boxes and stuffing them with fabricated ballots, 7) doctoring tally sheets, 8) exerting control over news media, and 9) making sure that the institutions conducting the elections and tallying the votes are staffed with minions friendly to the election riggers.