“But despite being macho, isa siyang malumanay na tao at matagal bago magalit,” she added. (He was a gentle person who would not be easily angered)

Ochie’s charisma, intellect and organizational abilities soon helped him sweep the leadership of the UPLB Student Council (SC) from 1968 to 1970. As SC chairperson, Ochie regularly locked horns with his “favorite whipping boy,” the late UPLB Dean Dr. Dioscoro Umali, and led so many boycotts in the UP College of Agriculture that the campus almost went on for a semester without holding classes.

In February 1969, Ochie led a student boycott that was soon supported by both faculty and non-academic personnel. This tri-lateral strike paralyzed the campus for more than two weeks until the Administration was compelled to negotiate publicly with the protestors and sectors in front of the College of Agriculture Library. The debates lasted until night and ended up successfully for the rallyers.

Barely a few months later, “Chairman” Ochie graduated with a degree in Agricultural Chemistry, cum laude and took up a teaching job in UP Diliman. Word is it that he would have graduated magna cum laude had his militancy not earned the ire of the College dean.

From student to revolutionary

Graduating from the student movement would not dampen Ochie’s activism. Instead, it led to his involvement in the larger people’s movement beyond Los Banos’ forested borders.

When the volatile political uprisings dubbed as the “First Quarter Storm” swept the country in 1970, Ochie was there to mobilize the youth into militant action against the Marcos regime.

In response to the issue of spiraling oil price hikes, Ochie led the SDK in rallies that successfully barricaded South-bound road intersections connecting Alaminos, Los Baños, San Pablo, Sta. Cruz and Calamba, later on organizing an SDK chapter among the youths living in the communities in the vicinity of the crossings

When the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, Ochie was among those who led the Lakbayan, a protest march, all the way from Los Baños to Manila. The contingent traveled for days and slept in public schools along the way. By the time the Southern Tagalog protestors reached Manila, many of them were stricken with sore eyes. Ochie’s fellow activists recalled with amusement that many sectors were afraid to position themselves beside the predominantly red-eyed Laguna group during the rally for fear of acquiring the disease.

Ochie was in Los Baños when Martial Law was declared in 1972. He and other student activists quickly dispersed to join the armed revolutionary movement among peasants in the countryside. Ochie and two other comrades narrowly escaped arrest after the Volkswagen (secretly filled with arms and medicines for the guerillas) they were driving was accosted by Philippine Constabulary (PC) elements for “reckless imprudence.” They eventually fled to the Sierra Madre mountain range, where many tasks – ranging from peasant organizing to ideological and educational work – awaited.

“Mula sa pagiging simpleng aktibista, siya ay naging isang masigasig na mandirigma,” Rio says. (From being a simple activist, Ochie became a dedicated warrior).

Angeli Ureta, a younger cousin who was barely in her teens when Martial Law came around, recalled that Ochie was a “legendary figure” to his younger cousins.

“He was a mythical figure. Siya ang taong pinag-uusapan pero hindi nakikita,” she recalled. (He was always talked about but never seen). The Baes family would only talk about Ochie’s whereabouts in clandestine whispers and codes. Whenever he managed to visit his family, it was usually in the dead of night.

Younger brother Jopie’s favorite memory of Ochie during those days was when he once received a letter from his brother instructing him to meet up somewhere at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Upon reaching the place at night, Jopie patiently waited for his brother to show up.

“Bago magbukang-liwayway, nakita ko siya sa may pilapil, hawak ang karit hanggang dumating ang mga manggagapas at sabay-sabay silang umawit,” he said. (Before the break of dawn, I saw him on the ricefield armed with a sickle until farmers came and all sang altogether to greet me.)

The Marcos regime’s military dragnet eventually caught up with Ochie. In a shoot-out along F.B. Harrison St. while on a mission in Manila, he sustained a chest wound. He was captured shortly afterwards in Manila in 1973 and sent to the dictatorship’s jails.

Turning prison into a music factory

Ochie was jailed in at least four detention centers from 1973 to 1975, experiencing interrogations and torture by the military.

Detention did not deter Ochie from pursuing his vision, however. Ever the organizational man, he quickly teamed up with fellow political detainees to turn “prison into a musical factory for the revolution”, Prof. Jose Maria Sison recalls.

“Dito lumabas ang pagiging malikhain niya sa musika,” Jopie Baes says. (It was here where his musical talents fluorished). Ochie turned to cultural work –composing songs, playing the guitar, singing and painting – as another way of serving the people while in prison.

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