Reaching the top of the high-altitude Kalsangi Point, a small village of expatriates working for the multinational company, Dole Philippines, that was one of my unforgettable travel in the late 90s. Kalsangi Point is an exclusive village with their own golf course, swimming pool, and overlooking the town of Polomolok, South Cotabato. Polomolok is the home of the biggest pineapple plantation and cannery in southern Philippines. That hour of stay at the place was like visiting a foreign land, it makes one forget that you are still in the Philippines.
Mount Matutum’ s peak was just a mile above Kalsangi Point, at the background, a dormant volcano which provided rich soil for a vast pineapple plantation. One policy to note upon entering Kalsangi Point was: “No Taking of Photos Inside”. It’s an eyebrow raising warning for us Filipinos to set a foot on our own soil and to be told by foreigners to back off from their self-proclaimed “sovereignty”. I wonder if our Filipino countrymen in the US could also do such drastic pronouncement on American places without the risk of being deported immediately.
On September 16, 1991 the Philippine Senate voted NO to the ratification of the Treaty for the lease extension of US Military Bases in the Philippine soil. That unpopular decision had costs the presidential ambition of then Senate President Jovito Salonga in the 1992 national presidential election. Senator Salonga, a no nonsense nationalist was unfortunately depicted as a villain during those days. It was the Senator's vote that finally put the fierce debate of whether the American military bases should remain or it must leave.
It was a historic 12-11 votes, with the 12th crucial vote came from Senate President Jovito Salonga, outrightly rejecting the Treaty. American forces had been in the Philippines since the latter's liberation from Spain's domination. It was the United States of America which redeemed the Philippines from Spain's enslavement for the huge sum of Twenty Million Dollars.
In the university, members of League of Filipino Students had published a famous break-up letter from fictitious lovers Philip and Amy, a satire written by a former student activist, and member of the League, the late Othello Cudal of MSU Marawi Campus. That letter was written in a 2 feet by 3 feet Manila papers and posted on many dormitories and halls in the campus.
A parody of farewell note by a boy named Philip to his former girlfriend Amy. Student activism was no longer as intense as compared to the Martial law years of Ferdinand Marcos, many veteran street parliamentarians had confessed that most of them student activists of the 70’s have mellowed down, others became members of the Ramos cabinet. They had shifted paradigms and became fervent defenders of their once-hated government.