To what can our life on earth be likened? To a flock of geese, alighting on the snow. Sometimes leaving a trace of their passage
Su Shi (Su Dongpo) __________________________________
Abraham "Ditto" Pascual Sarmiento Jr. (1950-1977) was a law student and editor-in-chief of the University of the Philippines' school paper, Philippine Collegian, in 1975-76. He fought martial law, not with brute force, but through the power of the pen. He was arrested and told to tone down his criticism of the dictatorship in exchange for his release. He refused. Imprisoned for seven months and seven days, Ditto's frail health deteriorated. He was only released from prison when he became very sick. He died shortly thereafter of a heart attack. He was 27 years old when he died, but his words lived on. "Kung hindi tayo kikibo, sino ang kikibo? Kung hindi tayo kikilos, sino ang kikilos? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?" (If we don't fight back, who will? If we don't do anything, who will? If we don't do it now, when will it happen?) His words eventually became the rallying cry of the nation to fight martial law. It appears to be an original slogan that Ditto coined up.
The editorial that got Ditto imprisoned was a response to the well known poem regarding the danger of political apathy, First They Came, attributed to German Protestant churchman, Martin Niemöller.
His father, Abraham Sarmiento, Sr., survived martial law and went on to become a Justice of the Supreme Court.
UP Law School now holds an essay writing contest in memory of Ditto.
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"Too High a Price": Letter of Abraham "Ditto" Sarmiento Jr., U.P. Philippine Collegian editor-in-chief, from prison February 12, 1976, to his father, then U.P. Board of Regents member :
"I hope you have already been notified of the alleged violations of PD 90 that I have been charged with I certainly am still in the dark about these. Anyway, from what I was able to glean from my conversations with Roly Abadilla, the military feels that for me to be released, I have to at least temper the editorial policy of my paper which would be a blatant infringement on the freedom of expression they so hypocritically proclaim exists under martial law. Since I cannot in good conscience accept these terms, I am still under preventive detention.
"It would be better for me, in terms of my future professional life (and from what Roly Abadilla implied, the fortunes of the law office) if I stayed in preventive detention. At least, I wouldn't be publishing anything which would further embroil me with the present regime.
"Maybe this is why I am so calm about all these. I know that I am committed to whatever policies I have laid down, as well as the course of action I had enumerated in my last editorial. To back off now would be an abandonment of principles I believe in and be a tarnish on my integrity as an individual. I do not believe I could live with myself then. Less than this loss of self-esteem, it would be a loss of face both in Diliman and beyond. These would be too high a price to pay for a release which is only temporary."
______________________________________ First they came. . .
In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;
And then they came for me, But, by that time, there was no one left to speak up for me.
Abraham is really big in UP. He was a hero even in the 70s, as soon as he wrote that editorial, according to my aunts and uncles. And he is still our hero until now.
