My friend historian Patricio “Jojo” N. Abinales has graciously made a December 5, 2023 facebook post correction of his 2008 journal article’s honest mistake attribution to SDK top cadre Antonio “Tonyhil” M. Hilario as the author of the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK) historic 50-year old tract “Hinggil sa Legal na Pakikibaka” (HLP) dated 4 January 1974 on legal struggle in urban areas during the repressive early years of martial law. Jojo’s essay referred to was “Fragments of History, Silhouettes of Resurgence: Student Radicalism in the Early Years of the Marcos Dictatorship” in Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, September 2008, at p. 181. The true author of HLP was another SDK activist close to me at the time and up to now, Dr. Emmanuel “Noel” S. de Dios, since longtime UP School of Economics Professor and former Dean.

HLP was important in guiding the revival of the revolutionary mass movement in the cities during early martial law when the pre-martial law mass organizations like SDK and Kabataang Makabayan (KM) were outlawed and forced to go underground in September 1972. The urban masses especially in campuses, factories and communities would be better reached, aroused, organized and mobilized through new forms of struggle and organization that were legal, i.e. still allowed to operate openly even under martial law. In this way, the anti-Marcos dictatorship movement and the broader struggle for national democracy was carried forward until the ouster of the dictator Marcos in 1986. Some veterans of that struggle see the continuing relevance of the spirit, if not the letter, of HLP for the current national and international situation.

Jojo’s correction was based on testimonial evidence of this provided by me, with Noel’s consent, to Jojo by way of email (I am not on facebook) on December 3 & 5, 2023. This immediately below was Jojo’s corrective facebook post with attached copies of the first pages of HLP autographed by Noel and of Jojo’s essay, and thanking me for the corrective information:

Jojo Abinales is with Doods Santos.
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Evidentiary corrections from Judge Sol Santos regarding a cadre’s “borador” suggesting how to revive the radical student movement after the declaration of martial law. The author was not Tony Hilario as my essay suggested, it was UP School of Economics Professor Noel De Dios. Thank you for the correction Sol Santos!

The above facebook post by Jojo had tagged my wife Paz Verdades “Doods” M. Santos, retired Literature Professor of Ateneo de Naga University and DLSU, and she email-forwarded this to me. This may seem a small matter to most readers but giving historical credit where it is due, such as for significant writings, is important. As it is, the Abinales journal article’s mistaken attribution of the HLP authorship to Hilario has been repeated in subsequent academic works, most recently and notably in the newly launched Cornell University Press and Ateneo University Press 2023 book The Drama of Dictatorship: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines by Joseph Scalice, at p. 229 and end note 154 in p. 326. History may repeat itself, but not this way, thus making this post more imperative. Thank you for the attention of all concerned. At maraming salamat, Jojo!

by Soliman “Sol” M. Santos, Jr.
Naga City, 4 January 2024