On The Black, The Blue and The Green

In the UAAP Men’s Basketball match of the “archrivals” last October 2, members of the Ateneo and the La Salle communities were encouraged to wear black as a form of expression, opposing the possible Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and concerning the extrajudicial killings in the country.

Unfortunately, this call for solidarity received a lot of criticisms from the netizens. Most critics questioned why both Universities "smeared politics with sports.” Sports commentator Ronnie Nathanielsz even tweeted: "Ateneo & La Salle hierachy asked fans to wear black in protest against some of perceived wrongs. Don't mix politics & sports you idiots!"

But of course, the athletic landscape of the Philippines has a shade of any political agenda, hasn’t it?

When politicians attend Pacquiao's boxing matches, there is no smear of politics included. When we cheer for the University of the Philippines' (UP) thematic dance routine for the annual UAAP Cheerdance Competition, we just sit back, enjoy the show, and unmindfully overlook the message they want to get across.

Or when the late Ferdinand Marcos hosted a one-night match in 1975, between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali most commonly known as 'Thrilla in Manila' pushing the Marcos regime to pay for excessive fight purses, there was no politics behind it. It was not even a way to distract the Filipino people from the image of a nation suffering from poverty and corruption. No, sir.

And yet, remember all the times we've greased politics over things we consider inessential: when Honor Thy Father was disqualified from the Best Picture Category in last year's Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF); when the Church fought against the Reproductive Health (RH) Law; or when film director Carlo J. Caparas, fashion designer Jose Moreno, theater artist Cecile Guidote-Alvarez and architect Francisco Mañosa were conferred National Artist by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009 without being part nominated in the first place.

Look at how fast we dissociate politics from the mundane when it is not convenient for us, when it makes us lay our eyes on colors that are unusual to us, when it makes us question the position we are in. Look at how selective we are with what we fight for. Look at how trivial we see different layers of humanity.

People cannot understand that this is not an issue of whether we can associate everything with politics. Humans are political by nature — by trying to detach ourselves to these issues, you also detach ourselves from the core of civilization.

Let us recognize that before one is an athlete, he is a student. And so comes the need to take part in nation-building. He who has the privilege of higher education should sow what he reaps from the character formation he gains in an academic institution — as it is of no purpose if he fails to use it outside its four walls.

And before one is a student? He is a citizen of his country. As a Filipino, you have a responsibility unspoken, a duty to take a stand for the betterment of the country. And if that means smearing every single thing there is with politics, then so be it.

Because we lose more from being silent than we do from making a statement.