#YouthRESIST tells Duterte: ‘The resistance is here’
by Erikah Cinco and Philip Jamilla
Millennials have been called “vain, selfish, and apathetic” — but in last Tuesday’s #YouthRESIST movement, they were more than eager to prove otherwise.
Waving different cardboard signs and marching to Les Miserables’s “Do You Hear the People Sing”, students of St. Scholastica’s College-Manila, along with different youth groups and student organizations, staged an ‘alternative’ youth State of the Nation Address less than a week before Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s second on July 24.
Taking their voices to Leon Guinto St., they called for an end to the extrajudicial killings and the government’s bloody “war on drugs” which is claimed to have taken an estimated number of 7,000 to 12,000 lives.
“We cannot stay behind the comforts of ranting on social media,” said Grade 9 Scholastican Shibby de Guzman. “It’s no longer just about us, it’s about everyone.”
De Guzman caused an uproar online when she was photographed by The Benildean last November leading her schoolmates in the streets to protest the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Despite being targeted by trolls and online harassment, the 13 year old only became more vocal with her sentiments and has since served as the face of the #YouthRESIST movement.
“Keep fighting. Don’t mind the backlash. Always remember the country,” de Guzman told TomasinoWeb—all while marching once more to the streets.
‘Fight for what you believe in’
Karla Yu from Millennials Against Dictators also faced similar attacks for taking part in numerous protests.
But like De Guzman, she urged the youth to be more vocal about social issues.
“[The #YouthRESIST movement] has proved that we have the numbers who are willing to speak about this,” Yu spoke to TomasinoWeb. “At the end of the day, we fight for what we believe in.”
UP Sociology student Adrienne Onday, who popularized the “cardboard justice” protest last year, said that having other students follow suit is “an effect I never dreamed of having.”
“To see that a lot of people have really picked it up, I think I’m very proud to say I’ve been part of this,” Onday told TomasinoWeb, “na ako yung isa sa mga tao na talagang humikayat sa marami na magsalita, especially sa kabataan.”
Like Yu and De Guzman, Onday has battled with harassment online and offline after she walked around Manila wearing a cardboard that read “lahat tayo posibleng drug pusher.”
Killing the youth
The rising death toll of Duterte’s drug war has left thousands of bereaved families on its wake.
Lea Calano, a widow, narrated how her 5-year-old niece and her brother-in-law were killed.
“Kakaunti nalang sa amin ang may kayang magsalita,” Calano said. “Mapapawi ang takot ng iba kung ang tapang sa ating mga kabataan ay magsisimula.”
She also added that “walang sinuman ang pinangarap maging adik, o mapagbintangan na adik [at] papatayin ng walang hustisya.”
Sen. Risa Hontiveros also expressed her disgust over the unlawful “killing spree” as the government seemingly “honors the corrupt and kills the poor.”
“All these senseless deaths and tragedies are proof that government is not listening to the poor, it’s killing the poor and the youth,” Hontiveros lamented.
Nonetheless, she told the government that “millennials are watching.”
Hontiveros also encouraged the youth to lead the nation and to stand against the government’s “creeping authoritarianism.”
Quoting the popular television series Game of Thrones, she proclaimed “winter is here; the night gathers, so does the resistance — and we are the resistance!”
#YouthRESIST was organized by Akbayan Youth, Millennials Against Dictators and the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, along with various student and community-based organizations.
Similar protests were also held in Cebu City and General Santos City.
