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Reflection

This document discusses the concept of heroes and how individuals come to be seen as heroes. It profiles three individuals - filmmaker Lino Brocka, activist Gaston Ortigas, and student Nanette Vytiaco - who opposed the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines and are now considered heroes. Although they opposed the regime in different ways, they are celebrated for embodying ideals of fighting injustice. The document argues that people are not born as heroes but are made into heroes when a society chooses to honor them for advancing principles they believed in.

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Ysabela Angela Flores
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70 views

Reflection

This document discusses the concept of heroes and how individuals come to be seen as heroes. It profiles three individuals - filmmaker Lino Brocka, activist Gaston Ortigas, and student Nanette Vytiaco - who opposed the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines and are now considered heroes. Although they opposed the regime in different ways, they are celebrated for embodying ideals of fighting injustice. The document argues that people are not born as heroes but are made into heroes when a society chooses to honor them for advancing principles they believed in.

Uploaded by

Ysabela Angela Flores
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Flores, Ysabela Angela V.

Kas 1 THR5
2014 55604
The Making of a Hero
What makes a hero? Is it the manner in which he or she died which the people remember?
Do people salute how he or she stayed loyal to and fought for a certain group or community? How
is one hailed to the pedestal of heroism?
In a metaphorical rags to riches ado, Lino Brocka emerged from a poor family and an
irrelevant stature in the local movie industry to become one of the most prominent and influential
filmmakers of his generation. Though met with various struggles such as his challenging
chronicles in the University of the Philippines Diliman and his arduous stay in the United States,
his career flourished when he joined the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA)
where he eventually assumed leadership. Spurred by his continuous success, he gained
confidence in creating films with social-realist themes, highly critical of the society under the
Martial Law. He became even more daring in politics, participating in street movements and leftist
organizations. Even after the fall of Marcos in 1986, he remained active in politics and continued
to produce films forwarding his personal ideologies until his unfortunate death in a vehicular
accident in 1990.
An industrial specialist and faculty of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Gaston
Ortigas would serve as the electoral campaign manager of Raul Manglapus, presidential bet of
the Christian Social Movement against the would-be dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Following
Manglapus loss and the declaration of Martial Law, he involved himself with organizations who
greatly disapprove of the Marcos rule. He even joined a small-scale urban guerilla group but
eventually fled from the country in 1980 as most of the members of this band were captured by
authorities. In the United States, he continued his work for the organizations he left behind. Being
able to return to the Philippines only after the Martial Law, Ortigas went back to AIM and became
an advocate of agrarian reform and peace negotiations with underground anti-dictatorship
movements. He died from a grave illness in 1990.
Antonia Teresa Vytiaco, also known as Nanette, was a young student of the University of
the Philippines Diliman when the Marcos dictatorship broke out. Coming from a seemingly well-
to-do family in Sorsogon, she supported left-leaning advocacies despite her fathers grave
disapproval. The declaration of Martial Law led her to abandon her studies and formed a
resistance group in her hometown together with Nicanor Vergara, a fellow activist whom she
married. In spite of her familys continuous pleas for her to surrender peacefully, she remained
steadfast until she met her demise in the hands of the military while she was pregnant for the third
time.
These three individuals are among the hundreds of names in the list of heroes being
revered for their contribution in the dark period of Philippine history that is the Martial Law. Finding
commonalities that would unify these three would be quite difficult. Obviously, unlike Vytiaco,
Ortigas and Brocka died years after the rule of Marcos, blocking out the notion that heroism is
synonymous to martyrdom. Ortigas would even leave the country amidst chaos to escape being
seized by merciless authorities, contrastingly different from the unfaltering stance of Vytiaco.
Nevertheless, Ortigas still made it to the list. They each have different manners of expressing
their opposition, from crafting controversially critical films to taking it to the streets with
movements. What, then, is the deciding factor which qualifies them as heroes?
Ultimately, the deciding factor is the people who put them in that highly respected podium.
They are heroes because they embody a certain ideology which a particular society upholds. As
these so-called heroes were in the course of being heroes, they themselves are unaware that
their lives were producing a heroic ripple. Instead, it was the people knowing of their act who
glorified them as such. No one was born to be a hero. It is the society who turns a mere speck of
dust into a shining star in the skies.
The concept of heroes plays a vital role in shaping a nation. It is a powerful tool, a double-
edged bolo, which should be handled with utmost care. Learning about heroes under the
elementary education system, children imbibe a nations ideals at a very young age. Early on, the
notion of what is right and just is inculcated deep into our roots. In labeling individuals as heroes,
we gave them the capability to advance the principles they had been fighting for even after their
passing.
In a time where popular opinion exercise dominion over the general public, heroes find
themselves in a more pressing positive than ever. Nowadays, they just pop out from almost
nowhere, and social media is bombarded with heroes who surface up in a matter of a thousand
shares. Its easy to fall into the trap of embracing these heroes and their beliefs, so caution must
be practiced at all times. Lastly, when we do find ourselves faced with an enemy that may be
much bigger than we are, may we be reminded that no one was born into being a hero and that
anyone could be the hero he or she imagines oneself to be.

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