Agaw-dilim, Agaw-liwanag

by Lualhati Milan Abreu

Genres: Nonfiction

271 pages

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Laurence Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who wants to understand the anti-DPA campaigns within the revolutionary movement should read this book.

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart-rending life-story of the author’s traversing of the less-traveled path in the revolutionary movement in the Philippines through three decades. This autobiography tells her experience of torture and detention along with many others by her own comrades, an event subsequently criticized by the movement as a grave violation of human rights and rectified. Abreu’s account also provides insights on the resurgence of the movement in the 1960s, the underground armed struggle against the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s, as well as the grave consequences of military adventurism within the movement in the 1980s.

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Date: November 19, 2023
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In Continuity and Rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist Terrain, J. Moufawad-Paul cited four categories of failure, before positing that “this way of making sense of revolutionary theory through failure demonstrates Popper’s principle of falsification” (25). What a refreshing take, departing from the typical description (and subtle critique) of the so-called “triumphalist” discourses of revolutionary movements. And if we think of it really: isn’t this close-ended triumphalism more evident in the capitalist status quo? Reactionary discourses—from academic scholarship as in Bells’s “end of ideology” or Fukuyama’s “end of history, to neoliberal governments as in Thatcher’s and Reagan’s “there is no alternative”—teem with the sense that not only capitalism has won the wars on how to think and how to live, but that it is here to stay, not to be replaced, never to be transformed. As we say it Pinoy-style, this capitalist triumphalism seems to say, Uwian na, may nanalo na.

Revolutionary movements side with openness—bukas ang kinabuksan—the future, tied to, and learning from the present and the past, is open for our construction and transformation. Polemical and metaphorical at once, Moufawad-Paul stated in his conclusion that “the past may be ‘like a nightmare’ but we cannot pretend ‘that this weight does not exist’” (223). This reminded me of what Lualhati Milan Abreu wrote in Agaw-Dilim, Agaw-Liwanag—an autobiographical text Castillo tackled in another work, Digmaan ng mga Alaala—instead of “burying” her traumatic experiences during the events later addressed in the CPP’s Second Great Rectification Movement, Abreu mustered the courage to write about those, so that readers can learn from what she shared: “kadre man o masang aktibista, legal man o andergrawnd,.. o maging sinumang mamamayan na interesado sa kilusang rebolusyonaryo.”

[ItsRiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one's definitely a must read.
Every moment reading it was fascinating. It is as if you are reading something not a lot of people knows about(which is really the case).
Whether you are into Philippine politics or not, this book will take you to places and let you experience things you could never imagine.
The author did a great job going back to her roots, her family history, and her own life history. The topic is always controversial but the author exposes everything without any reservation.

[Jan Kashmir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lualhati Abreu's riveting memoir reconstructs and validates the harrowing experience of torture (and, regrettably, murder) that victims---herself included---of the internal purges within the Communist Party of the Philippines have gone through at the hands of their comrades, all the while looking back at the history and development of revolutionary movements in the Philippines, carefully reaffirming the significance of the struggles fought, some won, of these movements in their respective moments and places in history. Abreu also reaffirms the necessity of revolution in transforming Philippine society from its semi-colonial and semi-feudal character to one which espouses national democracy (with a socialist perspective), and the crucial role played by the theory and praxis of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the course of such an historic transformation.

Instead of outright dismissing the validity of armed struggle in the wake of this tragic setback in the revolutionary movement, reestablished in 1968 through the First Rectification Movement, Abreu instead attributes the horrors of these purges on, among others (including the actual penetration of agents from the Marcos military, which to my mind amplified the infiltration scare within the movement), the 'military adventurism & subjectivism' (even before the purges began) of careerist cadres within the movement who wanted to ''rush the revolution'' and focus solely on building military strength to proceed with 'urban insurrection' and disregard the painstaking work of organizing the masses in the respective jurisdictions of branches of the NPA at that time. In doing this, Abreu explains through her work that the events leading to the deadly purges within the movement were not an overnight thing, but a culmination of a series of errors committed by party members and some high-ranking officials of party committees up to the Central Committee, whom Abreu criticized for being actually unfaithful to the revolution. They would later become part of what is known as the Rejectionist bloc during the 2nd rectification movement. In fact, according to Abreu, some cadres who were criminally responsible for the murders of comrades during OPML and Kahos would side with the Rejectionists and condemn the revolutionary movement afterwards.

This memoir is a highly recommended reading for activists and students like me who are confronted by this tragic past in the movement, along with a careful study of the Second Rectification Movement (the RA-RJ split). The lessons of the past should always guide the newer generations of activists and revolutionaries so that the purges which cost the movement so dearly will not happen again. We should also always be reminded that the movement is not perfect, but that in continuous reflection and rectification, the movement will remain relevant---the struggle, necessary---and regain its strength to continue advancing our collective (and international) resistance to imperialism and (the resurgence of) fascism and tyranny across the world.

[Tito Quiling, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was finally able to get a decent copy of this book last September, at the annual Manila International Book Fair. In 2014, I distinctly remember having Ma'am Abreu in our graduate class on Philippine Traditional Arts courtesy of Professor Respicio for one of our meetings. I remember sitting inside aroom at Palma Hall during a humid afternoon in March, listening to her recount some of her ordeals in several provinces in Mindanao as part of the underground movement back in the 1970s. In between, there were stories on her interaction with the indigenous peoples (IPs) and how they became significant in shaping her additional viewpoints as a cultural worker.

Also, in 2015, I remember reading a thesis from a former classmate on this book, which had a solid structure and well-written, albeit admittedly, I had to look up some of the terms used, the movements, and the thinkers presented in the study. The book spans three (3) decades of recollections--starting from her years as an activist student during the 1960s, to her dissident activities at the height of Martial Law in the 1970s, and going through harrowing experiences, most of which happened in the 1980s. For those who are interested historical bits about the NPA, the CPP, and its members, this is a supplementary/introductory book that might help out those who need some significant educating in this academic and sociopolitical sphere, like I do.