Apo on the wall is a poem written by Bj Patino that talks about the time when the Philippines is under the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. I made this blog in accordance with our activity in 21st Century Literature where I should share my thoughts, opinions, and expressions towards this poem. Inside this reflection, I will share why I like this poem, how it made me feel, the message I got from the poem, and how it affects my appreciation of the past and the present.
The poem talks about the experiences of the people in the time of martial law particularly the point-of-view of the child. I like the poem in a way that it provides a glimpse of what martial law was like back then. You could say that the poem is dark because in every line of it there is a hidden meaning. But still, it is really nice. Just like what the father and Apo's relationship, the persona and his father's relationship is like. You could say that violence is not really the thing that is rampant in that time, there are other values as well. Power, respect, loyalty, and bravery are just some of the values that the poem showed us. I also like the poem because of how the author compared Ferdinand Marcos with Jesus. With this comparison, we could say that Marcos is really powerful but the question is why did the author compare Marcos with Jesus? Why not satan or demon? For me, he compared him to Jesus because even though he is powerful, Ferdinand Marcos has mercy. Yeah, mercy because if it's not mercy then why our economy in the time of Marcos is one of the richest? Marcos declaration may be wrong from others' perspective but what about from Marcos's view? Maybe he sees that the only way to have an ongoing success in the Philippines is to have a Martial Law. (Below watch a video about the untold facts about the martial law). Okay, back to why I like this poem. Lastly, I like the poem because of the way the poem is conveyed which is through the child, of what the child sees, heard, and thoughts. A child's perspective is way different from the adult's. The child's perspective of martial law is that people are disciplined. Another one is that, Martial Law is a scary time because of Marcos himself and the people who are in authority.
| History of Martial Law: The Untold Stories |
The poem made me feel satisfied because the people in that time were disciplined, the people have very high regard with the authorities and shows loyalty and respect to them to the point that they would fear the authorities. These things brought satisfaction to me. Even though the child's perspective is very limited still I'm satisfied. I also felt anger and grief, not with the poem though but with the martial law itself. Because of the way the authorities disciplined the people. Tortures, murders and persecution are the way authorities used toward people and these reasons are what made them scared. From these brutality, I am in sorrow to those people. But here comes my doubt inserts, why? Because I don't think that you won't be punished or murdered by the authorities if you don't have any sin. Another question would be that, how sure are they that the ones who tortured them are the ones under or the subordinates of Marcos? And lastly is that the EDSA people power revolution would not be peaceful, if it's not because of Ferdinand Marcos's order not to attack.
There are many lessons I got from the poem, one is that in everything you do, you should love your work. This could be seen with the persona's father and also to be loyal and responsible to the work when the persona's father did his work snappily even though his boss s not there watching him. I also learned to respect and to follow the rules and responsibility given because in life it is very important factor to succeed. I also learned perspective of a child during the martial law is very limited. As what I have searched the child’s perspective is only restricted to those things which are perceived by a mere, innocent child. A child cannot dig deeper or elaborate further what is REALLY happening in the country. Or in other terms, as stated earlier, what is the play behind the deception of the curtain in front. Second, I learned how powerful Marcos was back then when he was still in power. He is even compared to Jesus. It is a basic truth that Jesus is powerful, very powerful. He rules the world. Marcos is compared to a powerful Jesus in the poem, implying that Marcos was very, very powerful.
This poem has not affected my appreciation of the past and the present because whatever happened in the past I am grateful to it for it is a lesson needed to be learned in order for the next time we will encounter the same situation, we already know what we will do. Even though we don't really know what is the truth in those years, I hope that we don't blame it entirely to our former president, Ferdinand Marcos, because there are many dark scenes in the politics we don't know of.
And with this, I conclude my blog about the poem "Apo on the Wall".
