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Appendix B Report on a Successful Demonstration It took a considerable amount of daring to mount a public demonstration against Marcos in the United States. During the early years of resistance organizing, the U.S. administrations approved of his martial law regime, and the majority of Filipino immigrants could not have cared less about it. Thus, when an occasion presented itself as a worthwhile event to show off the bad side of martial law, the MFP pounced on it. Witness how one chapter pulled one off. Report on a Successful Demonstration (Minnesota MFP Chapter) Event: Dedication Ceremony of a Goodwill Airplane for the Philippines North Central Airlines Hangar, MPLS Airport, October 26, 1974. Our Purpose: To distribute MFP leaflets to Filipino and American guests and picket theappearanceofPhilippineAmbassadortotheU.S.EduardoRomualdez(brotherin -law of Mrs. Imelda Marcos). Planning: In anticipation that we would not get into the premises, we prepared a dozen large protest signs, with messages such as “MFP,” “Restore Philippine Democracy,” “Greetings from the Outlaws to the In-Laws,” “Marcos Murderer of Democracy,” and “Retire Marcos, Not Freedom.” Literature for mass distribution included “Life under Martial Law,” an editorial by Richard Deats, and locally produced leaflets appealing for letters. The local Cultural Society of Filipino Americans (CSFA) was scheduled to sing and dance at the ceremony, which suited our purposes well in that several members were MFP supporters or sympathizers. We discussed “pulling hard capers”—having a 148 . Appendix B CSFA performer take over a microphone and vehemently protest martial law, or a possible walkout by half of the performers in protest against the dictatorship. But we settled on “soft capers”—the performers would sing “Bayan Ko” while the picketers joined in. One performer would make a short statement. One performer wore an armband of protest. This way we would not alienate the audience, a potential source of sympathetic Americans. And we could woo CSFA members and other Filipinos who were present but not yet with us in spirit. At the end of the ceremony, when the performers had established themselves in the hearts of the audience, some of them could join the picket lines and help us distribute the literature. We alerted local TV and newspapers that the ceremony would be newsworthy. What Happened: All of our MFP people were able to stroll right into the airplane hangar itself! We did not display the posters, but a dozen of us were able to pass out the literature to practically every person who entered. About fifteen minutes before the start of the ceremony, the manager caught on, approached us, and told us to leave. We could not hand out the literature; we could not protest on their privately leased property; we had not cleared things with him first; he would call the police if we did not stop. We handled him superbly. We told him that we were merely passing out educational literature, most of it from the clergy. We said that we were doing this here because it could not be done in the Philippines. We assured him that we were only expressing dissatisfaction with the Marcos government. Meanwhile, half of us continued to pass out the literature. We talked with him for fifteen minutes, and when he threatened to have the police evict us, I quietly but firmly said that we would leave, but we would throw up a loud, agitated picket line outside the gate. He was over a barrel, because kicking us out would have caused a bigger ruckus than letting us stay. Finally, when all the guests had arrived, I agreed with him that we would hand out no more literature, that we would sit down quietly and not disturb the ceremony. He was quite relieved. One CSFA member introduced the performers and gave Romualdez a “message to take to Marcos: that Filipinos in Minnesota are anxiously awaiting a quick end to martial law and a restoration of complete civil liberties at home.” The entire audience and we protesters responded with hearty applause. We had planned to hold up our posters in the back of the room during the singing of “Bayan Ko.” There were two news teams eager to take our pictures. When the manager saw us readying the posters, he stormed over and objected that we had said we would use no posters. One news team already had a microphone under his chin, and when they started to film, he gave up and left us. When the ceremony ended, we spaced ourselves outside...

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