An Inquiry Into the Life and Times of Teridon

The people reached Mendiola today. But not without sacrifice. Not without bloodied heads and broken ribs. The water cannon fired through the air and punched and kicked our faces and bellies. The water from the esteros seemed to pierce through our skins. But we stood our ground. Then came the shields and the truncheons, trying to push us back to the traffic of Legarda. The police flanked our ranks and the cars stood in the way of our retreat. The water soaked our entire bodies, which wa good to an extent, as it washed away the nervousness we felt prior to the violent dispersal of the police. As we were walking away, We were being squeezed little by little until I almost had utmost difficulty breathing. At the onset, it was fine, it was as if the entire group was walking together to a direction in a tight manner. But as soon as we were being pushed against cars and concrete walls, the situation got entirely terrible. A stampede almost erupted as well, I lost my buddy and my group fell to the ground altogether. My entire body got wet with water in the canal when we fell. Legs were bruised, noses were injured with every blow by the security forces, of a particular rabid nature was a big, old and burly policeman who just kept on swinging his truncheon on whoever person he sees. Sadly, my group was trapped among the shops in the sidewalks, so all those attempted to walk past the policeman got their kidneys whacked. His peers tried to calm him down and he did, for a while. But he swung the truncheon once more as he saw more rallyists trapped onthe sidewalks on another side of the street. As I walked past him, I thought that the act of the burly man's peers was a trap and that the moment I walked past them signaled my arrest or my being beaten black and blue. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. As I walked back to regroup with the kasamas, my black leather shoes lost its sole and my polo shirt was bloodied by a kasama whose nose was bleeding profusely.

The state can break all the bones of the people fighting for social change, genuine freedom and democracy, but it can never forsake a people in revolt.