Freedom must be defended in the First Place it is attacked

ix players of the Far Eastern University (FEU) women’s volleyball team, called the FEU Lady Tamaraws, very recently posted a group picture on the internet.

They were all wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with bold letters that read “BBM-Sara 2022.” The picture went viral.

I don’t really know exactly what it means when a Facebook post goes “viral.” But obviously it has something to do with the picture incurring the ire of enough number of certain people with a loud voice on the internet. Reportedly, there’s been this wave of outrage in reaction to that post. But why?

In damage control mode, the school issued a statement of disclaimer, saying that FEU has no political stand, one way or any other. There's talk of sanctions, or at least some form of censure against the girls for "misrepresenting" FEU, or the team, or both.

The daughter of the head coach (not the coach himself) also made a statement that she believes her Papa would not have approved of the post, ostensibly because the image created the impression that the whole volleyball team was for the BBM-Sara Uniteam.

If she were testifying in court, that would instantly raise the objection, “Speculative...Your Honor, the witness is not competent to read her father’s mind.” Any judge would sustain the objection.

First of all, the photo was not posted on the Lady Tamaraws’ Team Facebook page. It was uploaded on the “official fan page” of the team.

Don’t get confused with that word “official”—all it means is that this popular varsity volleyball team has many fans clubs. One of them must be the most intimate with the players, who then agreed to recognize them as the “primus inter pares”—the foremost among equals—of all these fans clubs. They don’t necessarily reflect team sentiment but, hey, you could say it’s pretty darn close.

I don’t know, either, how many players comprise the FEU Lady Tamaraws' full lineup. But the last time I looked, six players are all you need on the half-court in a volleyball game. So, at the very least, these six pro-Uniteam ladies make up one rotation of players on the team. Whether they are first-stringers or reserves, who knows. To me, it suffices that they ARE Lady Tamaraws, and they endorse Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte.

That makes them NOT my new best friends.

But let’s take a brief pause here, and ponder those timeless words of Voltaire, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

You might say it’s a predictable learned reflex. Right upon emancipation from a lifetime of bondage, a slave knows only two positions in life: somebody’s foot on his neck or, in vindication, his foot on somebody’s neck.

I totally agree that life under Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law was a taste of enough oppression to inform anyone’s lifetime. But having shed that yoke, must we yield to the sweet vengeance of putting that same yoke upon another?

Not for me. The only thing I really find intolerable is intolerance itself. Let's leave these girls alone.

Put the shoe on the other foot: when people carried out a political stunt like this against Marcos at the height of martial law, they were never heard from again.

Today, we are NOT under martial law, and the persons (presumably Leni and Kiko) prejudiced by these girls’ adverse messaging are not even in power. And yet, certain of their ardent followers are ready to join the pillorying party against these volleyball players who weren’t even BORN yet when you and I were trudging along the valley of death of the Marcosian 1970s.

Marcos repressed me as a journalist, along with countless others. But these young ladies have done nothing to me. If anything, they are unwittingly setting themselves up to possibly go through what we went through. They simply don’t know any better. But if we bash their skulls with a baseball bat and say, “don’t you do that or you will experience unimaginable violence!” Do you think it will be persuasive?

The 1987 Constitution says, in no uncertain terms, that “The right of the people, including those employed in the public and private sectors, to form unions, associations, or societies for purposes not contrary to law shall not be abridged.” (Art III, Section

That is called the “freedom to associate” clause. It is no respecter of elegance of club purpose. This means it would protect both the William Shakespeare Literary Club as well as the Dolphy Forever Slapstick Comedy Club. So why wouldn’t you cloak that same protection to a volleyball fans club?

Give them equal freedom to ASSOCIATE—that is an active verb meaning to engage in common activity--including wearing uniform white T-shirts and offending the sartorial taste of however many millions of NON-MEMBERS.

If you think this might make me unpopular with my own Leni-Kiko ilk, you could be right. After all, if a simple T-shirt with 3 words ruffled feathers, how could a mealy-mouthed article this long not?

But here’s the rub. The price of freedom and democracy is eternal vigilance. And the symbol of accute vision for justice and fairness is the woolen blind strapped over the eyes of Lady Justice.

You cannot choose for whom, or the time and place to defend freedom.

You must defend freedom in the first place it is attacked.*