“Then, one day in 1983, early on, Winnie Monsod called me to attend a meeting of like-minded women at the Cojuangco Building in Makati. There I met the core organizers of AWARE (Alliance of Women for Action towards Reform [at that time, the R was Revolution]). We were actually very few, the most -after three years – were about 30 actively involved women. But the quality was high, and what we lacked in numbers, we had in determination, bravery, stamina, brains and – important in all things Filipino – connections.

We gave the impression of numbering many hundreds! We at AWARE fought Marcos tooth and nail for four years, organizing fora, symposia. AWARE was the secretariat for all the congresses of the political opposition and organizations at the Ateneo. We marched all over the country, we were hosed, tear-gassed, shot at, chased; name it, we took it. We had to, we were always put in the second line of a march after the ‘personalities’, the Nego Panel, and the flags. We were the symbols of the middle class, the ‘burgis’, in revolt. The third line right behind us were the Reds, taciturn dark young men who never smiled. Small wonder, we found out that were assigned there, one per woman, to drag us away whe the shooting started. At least, we were considered valuable assets. It was all very disciplined and organized.

Later, after Marcos had fled, some of the women of AWARE – in one piece thanks to the dour young men – became cabinet secretaries and officials of government, ambassadors, media executives, columnists and writers. Others just carried on with their lives and painted pictures. What stories we could all tell.”