By Rosario Brenda Gonzalez
She turns 81 today
With difficulty in walking and sitting for long
Battling breast cancer
And set to be present in court two days from now
To face trumped-up charges that led to her incarceration for more than three years
She’s now out on bail
Reunited with friends, but relatives can’t make it to travel far from their home province
Still, she is all smiles today
Saying “Thank you” to those who greeted her
The twinkle in her eyes remain,
The silence in her lips prevail
But when she speaks,
The years spent with loved ones and communities where she worked as a peasant organizer
Can still be recalled with clarity and pride
Especially when familiar names are mentioned
How she wishes she is deprived of the physical pain she sometimes carries,
To reminisce once more of the good times
To always be steadfast in her belief
That the past of her watching sunrise and sunset
Tilling the land, with the masses she so loves
Who she left with their organizations and cooperatives
As she opted to address the illnesses of advancing age
Aggravated by an unjust imprisonment
If this is what 81 means,
She smiles, she smiles
She was 23 when it all started
From teaching to community organizing
Without looking back and a trust and fervor for the brightest of futures
She dreams, she dreams
Ever hopeful for the next more years.
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Once the oldest political prisoner, Rosita Taboy celebrates her 81st birthday today. She was arbitrarily arrested along with her late husband Antonio Legaspi by elements of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation Detection Group in a rented house in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan on May 26, 2023. Legaspi died of a heart attack while in detention. Taboy was released on bail last December. Her case is still under trial.
