Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 1, Feb. 4-10, 2007

Dr. Aloysius Baes: Scientist, Composer and Revolutionary Par Excellence

Heroes are known not by how they died, but by how they lived in the service of the people to the very end. Dr. Aloysius "Ochie" Baes, 58, former Rapu-Rapu Fact-Finding Commissioner and environmentalist, consistently embodied this principle until he died.

By Lisa C. Ito
Bulatlat

His passing away at the National Kidney Institute last Dec. 21 merited an obituary in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, but there was definitely more to Ochie, as friends and colleagues called him, than what could be immediately said in a few concise lines.

A scientist by profession and an activist by choice, Ochie exemplified the best of what the iskolar ng bayan (people’s scholar) could offer to the country and to the world. At the tributes held last Dec. 23 and Jan. 29 at the Baes residence in Laguna and the Aldaba Hall in the University of the Philippines, Quezon City , respectively, Ochie's family, friends, colleagues and comrades were all brought together by narratives of his short but multi-faceted life: As a son and brother, student activist and revolutionary, Martial Law survivor, chemist and professor, commissioner, consultant, writer, poet, composer, musician, environmental advocate and scientist for the people.

Famous warrior

Dr. Aloysius Baes used to kid friends about the origins of his first name, claiming in jest that he was named after a mighty Greek god and - if still incredulous - a Nobel Prize winner who discovered a new chemical element.

The truth was that “Aloysius” is a variation of the name “Louis” which means “famous warrior.” Later, this name would exemplify much of what Ochie would become as a student leader and as a scientist.

Ochie was the eldest in a brood of four boys and one girl, a Boy Scout and proverbial “Mama's boy” born into a traditional, middle-class family. His parents had a piano at home and shared their love of music with the parish and with their children. Little did they then realize that this gift of the arts fostered upon their children would much later on reverberate in the hearts of countless activists.

Jopie Baes, Ochie's younger brother, has fond memories of his kuya (elder brother) ordering him to sneak out and buy cigarettes after their father's nightly "roll-call" and using him as a human dummy when Ochie started to study acupuncture. But Ochie was a kuya in more ways than one: He later on recruited his three younger brothers and their uncles into the activist movement.

Ochie's leadership potential was marked even during his high school days. During their senior year, he led other classmates to boycott a class in protest against their teacher's oppressive impositions. The school principal punished them with three days of hard labor.

'Crush ng Bayan' and campus leader

As a student at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Ochie's activism started with the UPLB Chemistry Society, where he actively participated in and led teach-ins and group discussions on Philippine social realities.

Ochie was among the original founding members of the Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK). Witnessing the height of the global anti-Vietnam war protests from 1967 to 1968, he and the other members would travel all the way to Luneta in Manila to participate in the mass actions, catching the bus back to Los Baños just in time after police dispersed the rallies. Every Friday, they would sponsor book reviews and discussions of works by Renato Constantino and Mao Tse Tung, drawing more students to join the organization.

Ochie was responsible for recruiting a huge number of contemporaries into the national democratic movement, such as Vic Ladlad. "Siya ang ilaw na nag-attract ng marami sa amin sa aktibismo," fellow SDK member Agnes Rio recalls. (He was the light that attracted many of us to activism).

"He was an organizational person and a slave driver," Rio recalls. But, he exercised a democratic style of leadership where decisions were collectively discussed and always emphasized the principle of serving the people.

"Isa siya sa mga pinakamahusay magpaliwanag ng problema. Kapag may tinanong ka, hindi siya agad sasagot kundi magsasaliksik sa kanyang utak kung papaano ito sasagutin" (He was among the best in dissecting problems. He would always pause and think first before answering questions.), she added.

His being a crush ng bayan (campus heartthrob) among UPLB coeds also came in handy during those times when the SDK was fast growing in numbers, his colleagues recall with amusement. “Para siyang si Lito Lapid,” Rio says in jest. (He was like Lito Lapid-a local action star)

"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.

While trying to organize a parangal (tribute) for another comrade who was killed by the military in Tarlac, Ochie led fellow inmates in the Camp Crame Stockade to form a cultural collective, recalls Arthur Castillo, a fellow political detainee and a member of the Kabataang Makabayan's cultural arm NPAA. For the tribute, Ochie and his 'bandmates' appropriated a church song, rewriting portions of it to add revolutionary content to the song's existing lyrics.

Ochie composed some of the "top hits of Martial Law" while detained at the Camp Crame Stockade 4 and the IPIL Rehabilitation Center in Fort Bonifacio. One of his better-known works is the prison song Mutya, an adaptation of Kundiman ni Abdon (an anti-colonialist song dating back to around 1900). The song speaks of the longing to be free and of the love for his real muse, the Motherland.

Kay taas ng pader sa aking paligid

Munting pisngi ng langit

Ang tanging pasisilip.

Mutya kong tinatangi laging naiisip

Pagkat pagtangis ng mutya'y

Lubusan kong batid...

...Huwag kang malungkot sinta

Sa aking pagkawalay

Anuman ang sapitin gunita mo ay taglay,

Ang lahat ng aking lakas,

Nalalabi pang buhay

Sa iyong kapakanan aking iaalay.

Another song that Ochie composed on June 12, 1975 at the Stockade 4 of Camp Crame, may well have been singing of the dark times now:

May kalayaan ba kung ang bayan

Ay dumadaing sa hirap?

Kung kayamanan ay hawak ng dayuhan

At masa ay salat?

Kung manggagawa ay dusta

At magsasaka ay inaapi?

Huwad, sadyang huwad ang kalayaan

Kung ang bayan ay ganyan.

May kalayaan ba kung bayan

Ay may gapos sa kamay?

Kung ang katotohanan

At katarunga'y nilulupig?

Laksang nagtatanggol

Ay pinarurusahan at inuusig

Huwad, sadyang huwad ang kalayaan

Kung ang bayan ay ganyan.

The escapades behind Ochie's songs can shame even McGyver himself. Despite the tight security enforced by his captors, Ochie managed to smuggle his songs out of prison through the most unlikely, creative and clandestine means.

Jopie recalls that Ochie was able to sneak out a copy of Mutya by having a visiting nun hide it inside her habit. Diwang Walang Takot was similarly smuggled out of Camp Crame with the help of a friendly priest with a hearing aid.

"Pinatanggal niya ang baterya ng hearing aid ng pari at doon isinaksak ang kopya," Jopie recalls (He had the battery of the priest's hearing aid removed and plugged the copy of the song in.)

During one visit, Ochie saw a huge blood clot forming under Jopie's nail. He instructed his brother to clean up the space filled with the clot and pushed another copy of his prison songs under the nail bed.

Ochie's compositions served as a salve to his spirit and as a source of strength for other activists during the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship. "Their songs inspired the political detainees and the people outside the walls. To this day, the people still sing their songs," Sison writes in a statement.

During the two tributes held for Ochie, even veteran and middle-aged activists were surprised to discover that Ochie was the lyricist behind these songs that defined the periods of activism they themselves went through.

Sterling academic and migrant organizer

Upon his exit from prison in 1975, Ochie was compelled to pursue his academic inclinations abroad due to implicit discrimination against political detainees.

Migrating to the United States after his release, Ochie became involved in international solidarity work for the national democratic movement and organizing work among Filipino migrants while taking up higher studies in his field.

Ochie's curriculum vitae during this period stretched to more than a dozen pages, attesting to his sterling academic record and numerous pursuits as a scientist. He earned a Master of Science degree in Soil Chemistry and a Doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry and Geochemistry from the University of Minnesota. Later on, he also finished Post Doctoral studies on the Synthesis of Organometallic Catalysts from the University of Sydney, Australia.

As an environmental chemist, Ochie specialized in Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management Monitoring and Treatment in Water/Terrestrial Systems, Pollution Control Technologies, and Environmental Management Systems.

An academic powerhouse through and through, Ochie became involved in international associations related to environmental work. He served as a consultant in Hiroshima to its Zero Waste projects, and Removal of Oil Pollutants in Seawater and Alternative Water Treatment Technologies. He also became a member of professional societies such as the International Association on Water Quality, the International Humic Substances Society, the Japan Society on Water Environment, the National Research Council of the Philippines and the Chemical Society of the Philippines.

In 1993, Ochie left his teaching job in UPLB to continue his academic pursuits in Japan, staying there for around five years.

Ever resourceful and loyal to his alma mater, he got research grants for UPLB's scholars while serving as a University professor in Japan. He also witnessed the hardships of fellow Filipino OFWs who had to contend with jobs that were dirty, dangerous, and were underpaid in comparison, and served as Executive Director for a Filipino migrant support center there.

"If you can show me a Filipino who went to Japan to teach Toyota how to make cars—I would say that would be quite impressive. Well, Ochie did something analogously similar: He conducted classes in water, wastewater, and air quality and monitoring to graduate students of Hiroshima University and Kinki University in Japan...In short, Ochie really did his county proud by being recognized as the expert in Japan on matters that Japan does best—like pollution control after Minamata," contemporary and fellow Rapu-Rapu Commissioner Charles Avila said in his eulogy to Ochie.

Environmental activist and people's scientist

Ochie returned to the Philippines in the mid-1990s, giving back to the country the scientific expertise he acquired abroad. He served as a Board Member of the Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils) and was instrumental in defining what specific issues the NGO should address.

Ochie also served as a consultant for various government and non-government organizations, formulating new projects such as programs for fortified rice and other foodstuffs. In between breaks in his consultancy work, Ochie continued to give educational discussions and lectures on pressing environmental issues.

His contribution to environmental activism is such that and Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment National Coordinator Clemente Bautista acknowledges Ochie as one of the people who defined their basic principles as environmental activists.

Activist scientists from AGHAM also credit to Ochie the vision of defining the “five concerns that a scientist could work on in order to make science and technology serve the people”: the environment, public utilities, food security and self-sufficiency, scientific and mass culture and national industrialization.

Ochie figured in several big environmental tragedies to befall the Philippines in recent history. Colleagues from Kalikasan-PNE, for instance, attest that he was one of the brains behind the national campaigns against the U.S. military toxic wastes left by U.S. troops in Subic and Clark. To scientifically show the culpability of vacating foreign troops, Ochie initiated landmark toxicity pathway researches that would link the rising incidence of cancers among the local community to the toxic contaminants left by the U.S. military, such as fuels and armaments.

In the wake of the Marinduque mine spill tragedy, Ochie initiated field visits and community education seminars among the people living in the mine's direct impact areas. At a time when the local community was reeling from demoralization and hopelessness in the face of flagging government support, Ochie and other peoples organizations strove to revive the struggle for environmental justice in the island, CEC-Phils Executive Director Frances Quimpo said.

A hero to the end

Ochie's last stint as an environmental expert was as former Commissioner to the Rapu-Rapu Fact Finding Commission (RRFC) chaired by Bishop Arturo Bastes. As part of the commission tasked to investigate the two chemical spills incurred by Lafayette Mining Limited in Rapu-Rapu island, Albay, Ochie quickly took the company to task for irresponsible mining practices, easily exposing the Lafayette project as an environmentally-destructive one that should be terminated immediately.

"He was a natural cross-examiner," fellow Commissioner Atty. Ron Gutierrez says of Ochie. "He really put Lafayette to task and was quick to come up with counter-rebuttals to Lafayette's lies," he added.

By that time, Ochie’s health was already turning for the worse. Halfway through Day One of the RRFM's visit to the Lafayette project site, Ochie had to be brought to the clinic because of difficulty in breathing.

But Ochie continued to contribute his services whenever he could. "[All through March to the present], Ochie worked so hard even as his health gave him so much suffering. He would not cease giving of himself for the people's cause that so very badly needed his talent, his dedication, all to a degree that can only be called plain heroic," Avila recalls.

The months that followed after the RRFM released its findings and recommendations were hardly encouraging. The Arroyo government and the DENR ignored the RRFM’s report and recommendations, even granting Lafayette two more test runs.

"Whatever the final decision of the DENR, it is already part of our national historical records and let it be so, that together with his colleagues, Ochie warned the nation and the world about the shortcomings of Lafayette's strategy to prevent and control Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)," Avila said.

"AMD, as everyone by now knows, has been called mining's multi-billion-dollar environmental time bomb that can harm the environment and the people's health for generations to come. Mining areas where AMD has caught on become the equivalent of nuclear waste dumps in the sense that they must be tended to in perpetuity and at such great expense. Thinking of all this could not put Ochie at rest. He was not a scientist in the abstract. He was a scientist of and for the people," Avila continued. Bulatlat

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