Saturday, October 14, 2023
9:00 AM |
Mila D. Aguilar, 1946-2023
Mila Deysolong Aguilar was a poet, teacher, revolutionary, political activist, and documentarian. She was born in Iloilo in 31 March 1946, and studied English and Humanities in the University of the Philippines in the 1960s during the gestation of the militant mass movement. Immediately after graduation, she taught at the Department of English and Comparative Literature of the University of the Philippines-Diliman while also writing for the Philippines Graphic from 1969 to 1971. She was assigned to cover the youth and student movement, which took her to various pickets and demonstrations.
In 1971, disagreeing with the policies of the Philippine government, she went underground, right before Marcos declared Martial Law, and was in the National Democratic movement for thirteen years. She turned to poetry and the essay to chronicle her journey in the mass movement, first as an ordinary member, and later as head of the Regional United Front Commission of Mindanao, and finally as head of the National United Front Commission of the Communist Party of the Philippines, from which she resigned in 1983 when she got an unfavorable response from the Central Committee for a leaflet she wrote expressing sympathy for Ninoy Aquino, who was then assassinated.
In August 1984, she was arrested without warrant, and charged with “subversion and conspiracy to commit rebellion” against the Marcos regime, a crime that carries the death penalty. Linda Averill of the Freedom Socialist Party wrote about this arrest in 1985: "Aguilar’s 'crime' [was] that she [had] spoken out against the Marcos regime. Her imprisonment exemplifie[d] the ongoing attempts by the U.S.-backed dictator to stifle dissident teachers and writers and to squelch the Filipino liberation movement. Aguilar [was] one of 70,000 who [had] been arrested in the Philippines for political reasons since 1972... Arrested along with a co-worker and a high school student, [she] was placed in solitary confinement and interrogated for three days without access to legal counsel. On August 13, a civil court dropped the subversion and conspiracy charges for lack of evidence. The court ordered Aguilar’s release on bail for a minor charge, 'possession of subversive documents,' which carrie[d] a maximum penalty of six months. Bail was posted that same day, but Aguilar was not released. Abandoning all pretense of justice, the Marcos regime detained Aguilar under the Preventive Detention Act. This [was] a catch-all law that [allowed] the military to circumvent civilian courts and hold anyone suspected of 'subversion' for as long as the government [wanted]."
She was finally released from prison in 1986, and went back to teaching, this time at St. Joseph's College. She also went back to teaching at the UP in 2000-2006. In November 1984, Kitchen Table Women of Color Press published her book of poetry,
A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling, which reflected her work against the Marcos government. As a poet, she wrote in English, Filipino, and Hiligaynon, and her book
Journey: An Autobiography in Verse (1964-1995) was published by the University of the Philippines Press in 1996. The poems in this collection were culled from previous books printed in Manila, San Francisco, and New York City between the years 1974 and 1987 [including
A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling], as well as from her writings in subsequent years up to 1995. Her other books of poetry include
Why Cage Pigeons? [Free Mila D. Aguilar Committee, 2007] and
Chronicle of a Life Foretold: 101 Poems (1995-2005) [Popular Bookstore, 2012]. She leaves behind two more unpublished collections, including
Poetry as Prophecy (2005-2013). She was also anthologized in
This Bridge Called My Back [1981, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa] and was published in
Azalea, Big Mama Rag, and
Off Our Backs. She wrote an autobiography,
The Nine Deaths of M., which was published through Kindle in 2013. She also produced, wrote, and directed about fifty video documentaries on subjects ranging from community organizations to regional cultures to good manners for government employees.
She died on 13 October 2023.
[Sources: Averill, Linda. (1985.)
Mila Aguilar: Filipina Poet Imprisoned.
Freedom Socialist Party. / Concepcion, Mary Grace R. (2017.) "Framing the Revolution: Mila Aguilar’s
Poetry of Transformation in Journey: An Autobiography in Verse (1964-1995)."
Diliman Review, 61(2).]
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