St. Jude & Malacañang

I studied in St. Jude Catholic School, a school which is probably the most militarized academic institution in the whole Philippines, notwithstanding the fact that with the exception of the mandatory Citizen’s Army Training, not one single subject is devoted to military science.

On the other hand, St. Jude Catholic Church is the most visited church on a Thursday, next to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran on a Wednesady and the Quiapo Church on a Friday. It is named after and host to the novenas of St. Jude Thaddeus, a disciple of Jesus and reputedly the patron saint of hopeless cases. It is also the nearest church to Malacañang Palace.

St. Jude Catholic School or St. Jude was established by the Chinese priests of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) to escape persecution from Communist China. Primarily to cater to children of Chinese descent, it has expanded its reach and is reputedly one of the best secondary schools in the country today. It was here where I learned to understand and speak Mandarin and Hokkien, the dialect of most Tsinoys. The Chinese priests are gone but their progressive Filipino brother-priests continue to maintain the high academic standards.

Over the years, both the St. Jude school and church were silent participants to the power struggle of its neighbor, Malacañang Palace.

During the height of the pre-martial law rallies, St. Jude Catholic Church was an unwilling recipient of molotov cocktails, tear gas and other storm trooper paraphernalia. Its stained glass windows and jalousies were repeatedly destroyed. One thing nice though for an uncaring grade school student like me then was the announcement of no classes.

When martial law was declared, J. P. Laurel St. where both the church and the palace were neighborly situated became a ghost town. The first few days when school normalized, a constant sight to behold in the Malacañang grounds were tanks although I am not sure if there were Armored Personnel Carriers then.

Also, for the first time, jeepneys were no longer allowed to ply all the way to Gate 7 or to J. P. Laurel St. Wooden barricades were set up by President Marcos on several points, J. P. Laurel St. coming from Nagtahan, J. P. Laurel St. coming from Gen. Solana St., another one in San Rafael St. and the last one in Mendiola. To get to school, one either had to alight from these checkpoints if one was taking public transport or one had to secure a vehicle gate pass from the Presidential Security Group. My calf muscles grew strong through all those years of walking from the San Rafael checkpoint to school.

Inside our school, sentries were set up on the 6th floor of our school building. The sight of soldiers walking in two’s with their M-16s was a common sight for us. In fact, they were quite nice and there was never any instance of conduct unbecoming from these soldiers. They were part of the everyday fabric of a student in St. Jude. That is why it was the most militarized school in the country.

For that reason, when I stepped into college, I could not initially comprehend why my classmates were mad at the sight of soldiers until they started narrating all those horror stories of human rights abuses committed by soldiers and the Philippine Constabulary. I never saw one abusive soldier in high school. It was really a rude awakening.

When Cory took over, I was already in law school then but not much changed with respect to the perimeter defenses of Malacañang. Until this month.

My high school classmates informed me that in the Mendiola checkpoint, there are now double layered containers permanently placed. The containers have been previously placed there because of EDSA Tres but they have been doubled after the implementation of the Calibrated Preemptive Response of the present administration. There are more metal barbed wire barricades than the wooden ones I grew up with. More fatigued-uniformed soldiers ring the palace than during the Marcos' heydays.

Whereas before, one can walk the length and breadth of J. P. Laurel and see the inside of the Malacañang compound, flat galvanized sheets have covered up the entire fence within the compound. Barbed wires were likewise placed and the worst of all, pink structures like those in EDSA have likewise invaded J. P. Laurel St. The beauty and grandeur of the Malacañang compound gave way and is now Fortress Malacañang, a fortress of solitude. All the Spanish governor-generals who lived in the Palace and all the previous presidents and their women would have shuddered at the sight of an armory, pretending to be a palace. For a pictorial appreciation of Fortress Malacanang, Jove's blog is illustrative.

Marcos may have been an evil dictator but at the very least, he did not convert the Palace grounds into a dreadful garrison. The entire nation may be operating at a business-as-usual environment but all pretenses to normalcy stop at the steps leading to Malacañang Palace.

And now, they are desecrating a house of worship. They have infiltrated the novena goers to St. Jude Catholic Church on Thursdays making sure that no member of the opposition or civil society can attend the church in silent worship lest they turn a church service into a political assembly. But since St. Jude Thaddeus is the patron saint of hopeless cases, is it not valid to ask for his intercession considering that we live in hopeless times?

Times have really changed. Marcos or the PSG then never defiled St. Jude Catholic Church. Now, GMA, her minions and the PSG demand that SVD priests observe the wall of separation. I hope the SVD order, the recipient of the Peypoch Award, presently known as the Bukas Palad Award, will stand its ground and hold high the dazzling might of the Cross over the dull blade of the Sword.