PCN to have moment of silence, not U.S. anthem

By Shane M. Nelson
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]

When Samahang Pilipino board members decided to omit singing the
American national anthem from this Sunday’s 25th annual
Pilipino Culture Night without first seeking input from its 300
members, some students began an online petition.

Board members have since met with 30 students and arrived at a
decision to observe a moment of silence at the beginning of PCN
instead of singing only the Pilipino national anthem.

“We are not upset about the decision as much as we are
about the process that created it,” chorale member Amalia
Miller, a second-year cognitive science and music history student,
said of the board’s original decision.

A majority of the 46-member Samahang chorale group, who for the
past two quarters thought they would be singing the national anthem
at PCN, were upset that they weren’t included in the original
decision, said chorale member Mark Lagrimas.

The chorale only found out in practice last week about the
decision, he said.

There are 1,500 Pilipino students at UCLA, according to the
admissions office. Three hundred belong to Samahang Pilipino, said
Samahang Pilipino Vice President and former Daily Bruin Viewpoint
editor Jonah Lalas.

With only nine of the 15 board members present at the May 6
meeting, three voted for not singing the anthem, one voted against
it and five abstained, Lalas said.

Though he was not in attendance, Lalas, a fourth-year political
science and international development studies student, said he
would have voted not to sing the anthem.

Other board members could not be reached for comment.

The Samahang Pilipino board uses Robert’s Rules of Order
to make decisions, Lalas said. Votes are counted only for present
members, with absentee votes going to the majority, so in essence
the vote was eight to one, he added.

Students had mixed reactions to the news. Some were angry they
weren’t given the option to express their opinions; others
were shocked, said Lagrimas, who comes from a U.S. military
family.

“If I were on board, I would have brought it to a general
membership vote,” he said.

Instead, the board met Monday to discuss both sides of the issue
with 30 general members. After two hours of discussion, the board
voted to observe a moment of silence at PCN, Lagrimas said.

The moment of silence has a dual purpose, Lalas said. On one
level, it commemorates innocent victims of war and terrorism in the
world, including victims of Pilipino martial law, the World Trade
Center bombing and the U.S.-led “war on terrorism.”

On another level, it protests U.S. and Pilipino foreign policy,
which, in the wake of Sept. 11, has escalated military presence in
the Philippines, he continued.

“The U.S. national anthem is generally interpreted as a
symbol of freedom, liberty and democracy. However, given
Bush’s war on terrorism, it is now used as a battle
cry,” Lalas said.

The board chose not to grant students their request to bring the
issue to general membership for a vote because it felt that would
set a precedent that would delay the board’s ability to make
future decisions in a timely manner, Lalas said.

“To be efficient, we have to be consistent,” he
said.

With the exception of last year, Samahang has sung both American
and Pilipino national anthems at PCN in the past to celebrate
students’ dual heritage, Lalas said.

However, since the decision was already made May 6 by the board,
Monday’s meeting was expressly for the purpose of resolving
internal tension and to arrive at a new solution, Lagrimas
said.

Nothing about the board’s decision was illegal under
Samahang’s constitution, and measures are being taken to
introduce more student input next year, Lagrimas said. Since PCN
was in only two weeks, there was not ample time to bring the
decision to a general vote, he added.

When Samahang decided not to sing both national anthems last
year, no one complained because the board followed the process of
informing general members first, Lagrimas said.

They sang “Bayan Ko,” a song against Ferdinand E.
Marcos’ 1972 declaration of martial law in the Philippines,
Lalas said. During that time, the United States was a big financial
supporter providing economic aid to the Philippines.

Under the Marcos regime, countless human rights abuses were
imposed. Opposition figures like journalists, students and labor
activists were arbitrarily arrested, and newspapers were shut down,
according to the U.S. government.

Increased U.S. military presence in the Philippines ““
currently protested by Samahang’s decision not to sing the
U.S. national anthem”“ is the result of the Visiting Forces
Agreement signed in 1998, which allows the United States
unrestricted access to ports and airstrips around the country.

Additionally, since U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
declared the Philippines the second target in the war on terrorism,
military efforts have stepped up in the country. U.S. Senate
sources have identified Abu Sayyef, a 60-member organization
located on a small southern island, as a terrorist
organization.

According to Walden Bello, a visiting professor of South East
Asian social and cultural issues from the University of the
Philippines, there is no link between Abu Sayyef and the al-Qaeda
network.

Abu Sayyef presents an internal issue, and U.S. military
presence violates national sovereignty, he said, adding that the
United States is using the war on terrorism as an excuse to gain a
more economic and militaristic foothold in the country.