‘What’s happening to our country, son?’

Fifty to 80 military personnel surrounded the home of the Daluz family in Sun Valley in Banawa shortly after sunrise in 1981.

Former Cebu City councilor Jose Daluz III said soldiers climbed over the concrete fence and broke into the family home to arrest his mother, radio commentator Nenita “Inday Nita” Cortes Daluz.

President Ferdinand Marcos was still in charge despite declaring that martial law was “lifted.”

“Kuyaw kaayo to, oi.  Nakuyawan gyud mi tanan ato kay daghan kaayo sila unya pulos armado (It was frightening. We were terrified because they were so many and all were armed),” said Daluz, who was then 14 years old.

Daluz said he and his elder sister, Marivic, saw  how  soldiers dragged their mother to jail   based on an Arrest Search and Seizure Order (ASSO) issued by the Marcos regime.

Their seaman father, Jose,  was abroad and elder  sister, Maritess, was in Manila.

“My sister and I were unable to do anything. It was so easy to arrest people suspected by the government at the time,” Daluz told Cebu Daily News.

Her said this was one of the “darkest” moments of his life.

Inday Nita was arrested and detained in Camp lapu-Lapu for covering the Freedom March on Sept. 21, 1980.  That started her political activism and she became the most influential voice on the airwaves where she castigated  Marcos administration abuses. She was arrested twice in 1981.

She spent three months in jail along with other Cebuano martial law critics, including  Antonio Cuenco and  Ribomapil Holganza. She was later released and was elected assemblywoman in 1984. She, along with Cuenco and Marcelo Fernan were part of the 56 members of the Batasang Pambansa who filed a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Marcos on August 13, 1985.

Safety

When he was   19 years old, Daluz was mistaken for an anti-Marcos activist at a rally he chanced upon.

Rally participants from the south and north district of the city were to converge in Tupas Street then.

Thinking that Inday Nita would join them, Daluz said he joined the south district group to look for his mother.

While they converged, soldiers on board trucks  arrived and arrested people in the area.

Rally participants scampered for safety but Daluz said he stood his ground.

“My mother told me never to run away because authorities  may get suspicious of you. But I was still arrested,” Daluz said in Cebuano.

Daluz said he was among those who were mauled by the military and sent to detention at  Camp Lapu Lapu for two to three weeks.

“I thought then that I would  be in prison  for a lifetime,” he said.

As  the only surviving son, Daluz said it was his responsibility to accompany his mother in public  events and political gatherings.

He was also exposed to victims of military abuse  who would come to their Banawa residence and seek Inday Nita’s help.

There were  also several instances when he accompanied his mother to visit human rights  victims at the hospital.

Daluz said he was  with his mother on the eve of the first Edsa People Power in February 1986 when the late president Cory Aquino met with some national and Cebu officials in the home of Norberto  Quisumbing in Cebu City.

He said he waited outside at the parking lot. In one instance, the late president Aquino went into the garage for fresh air and stood beside him.

“Ano na ba ang nangyayari sa bansa natin, iho? (What is happening to our country, son)?” Daluz recalled Cory Aquino asking  him . He said he kept silent, not knowing what reply.

Daluz said he could clearly hear the discussion inside, here former  senator Ramon Mitra asked everyone present in the meeting to go into hiding.

Tired of Edsa

He said his mother, Inday Nita, stood up and told the group that she would  not hide.

Instead, she brought her son to her radio station booth and went on air to call Cebuanos to go out of their homes and join anti-Marcos protests.

Reflecting on the Sept. 21 anniversary of Martial Law,  Councilor Daluz said public discontent is seething again with reports of massive corruption through the abuse of the pork barrel system in the House of Representatives and Senate.

But he said it would take more than another Edsa People Power Revolution to resolve this.

“Corruption in the country is getting even worst.  But people are already tired of Edsa.  We already had two Edsas and nothing much has changed. I don’t think there will be another Edsa,” he said.