THE WINGS OF BAGWIS

Armed with borrowed Nikon F2, “Bagwis” spread his wings in the school of life and taught himself the art of photography. He further enriched his skills in photography by reading borrowed books from friends and relatives and asking professional photographers for their tips in shooting pictures and covering events.
Born on July 1957 in Quezon Province, Leo Esclanda earned his pseudo name “Bagwis” when his colleagues who happened to see him inside the police station and was being questioned by Manila police, exclaimed one by one, as they passed by: “Uy si Bagwis un” (Hey, its Bagwis). He was a lone photojournalist of BAGWIS, a weekly newspaper during the dark days of Martial Law. BAGWIS was an underground newspaper which tackled government corruption, human rights violations and stories of people’s movement. Bagwis is also associated with the national democratic mass movement. His name is synonymous to pictures of New People’s Army, Communist Party of the Philippines and its allied underground revolutionary organizations in their quest for justice. From then on, everybody who worked closely to Leo be it in line with photojournalism or an activist he met in the streets or during rally, fondly called him Bagwis.
Self-taught Esclanda was not hindered by scarcity of books in the libraries. He rummaged also the collections of his relatives and friends. He later honed his dogmatic book learnings by joining Philippine Collegian, school organ of the University of the Philippines. He challenged his skill and perfected it by covering different beats and found rallies and demonstration not just a test of skill but a stint of his political conscience. For Bagwis, street is his school and his experience is his teacher. Schools of photography during their time were few and only the rich can afford it. Unlike today, basic photography and photojournalism are included in school curriculum.
Indeed, as a saying goes, experience is the best teacher. Bagwis deepened his understanding in photography when he became involved in labor union in 1980s, when the country is still under the control of the Marcoses and its cronies. His pictures of the various workers’ rallies, strikes and boycotts made him realized that photography can be a vehicle of change; his camera, a tool to expose the evils of Marcos regime and oppose its inhumane governance. His camera became his weapon to fight social evils and the people's issues his driving force.
Bagwis also learned not just to point and shoot, but he also learned patience in the dark room. Photographers in the 80’s were obliged to go back to their office to process their negatives. Or they would asked their friends from government agencies to used their dark rooms to save time. Processing negatives were meticulous and tedious, Esclanda quipped, but with digital cameras today, in a matter of seconds, photographers can easily evaluate his photos and wire it to the net automatically. Photographers today are now save from the risk of miscalculating time in processing their negatives. They can easily change their pictures without worrying that it might be “under” or “over” developed pictures.
After the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, journalism flourished as a sign of free and democratic country. Businessmen published different newspapers and magazines. Bagwis then became a stringer for Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) now Reuter in which he befriended the late Willy Vicoy and Mr. Alex Baluyot who worked also for AP. He sought also their expertise and skills so as to enhance his own abilities. He also became photo correspondent of the defunct Midweek magazine which gave him more challenging events to cover.
When asked about the difference between the old timer photojournalists and the new timers, Bagwis said that there is not much difference between the two. The style and the content of the photos are more of the same during those days and today. The difference is only in form. However, he warned that new breed photojournalists are easy prey for corruption in the industry. Many young photographers wanted more money and involved less in social cause. Some are even lazy and not even a risk-taker.
Furthermore, Esclanda believes that photojournalism will continue to live and flourish in our country and in the world. Photography is still a viable field of journalism. Photos are unspoken words. They have the power to move people. The great thing that is happening with Philippine photojournalism is that it is shifting its gear- evolving in a new form, new style and new dynamics. It continuously moving and evolving medium of communication and it has weathered and seasoned that it withstood its existence. As we can see, photos are now posted in the internet.
Esclanda is now the photo-editor for Pinoy Weekly, a weekly alternative newspaper. And true to its name, Bagwis is still spreading his wings and soaring high.

Robert Capa
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough"
Robert Capa, the legendary Hungarian-born photojournalist held his camera only inches from the faces of the grief-stricken and the grievously wounded combatants and civilians. In unique detail, he captured the human drama, the raw and emotional manifestations of hardship and struggle of people caught in the midst of conflict.
Born André Friedmann in Budapest in 1913, Capa entered a world in conflict, between nations and between his parents. At young age, he suffered hunger, discrimination and political persecution for being a Jew and found solace and solidarity among leftist revolutionaries.
He was barely 18 when he moved to Berlin and took up photojournalism. His first big break came in 1932, when he was assigned to photograph Trotsky as he spoke in a Copenhagen stadium on the meaning of the Russian Revolution. Taken within a meter of so of Trotsky, his pictures etched an intense and intimate image of one of the figureheads in Russian revolution, thus it became Capa’s trademarks.
In 1936, he became known across the globe for a photo he took on the Cordoba Front of a Loyalist Militiaman who had just been shot and was in the act of falling to his death. The loyalist soldier was not a ruthless warmonger but an ordinary man or woman who had been forced to defend what he loves. The falling soldier became the iconic war, and anti-war image of the 20^th century. Capa believed that in war you must have a position or you cannot stant what goes on. Thus, the photo of the “falling soldier” represent his political bias and idealism.
As Nazi power grew in Germany, Friedmann moved to Paris, the only city he would ever consider home. In France, he documented the social and industrial strife of the mid-1930s, struggled to earn a living and fell in love with Gerda Taro. Together they invented Robert Capa, a rich, famous, talented American photographer. They moved on to war-torn Spain, determined to fight totalitarianism with cameras. Taro was killed in a road accident and part of Capa died with her. Still, he pursued his calling, traveling to China in 1938 to cover the Sino-Japanese war, back to Spain as the Republican cause was collapsing and then, as World War II raged, on to North Africa, Sicily, the Italian mainland and — most traumatically — to Omaha Beach and the slaughter of the D-Day invasion.
After more than a decade of front-line reporting, in collaboration with David Seymour and Henri Cartier-Bresson, they set up in 1947 the Magnum photo cooperative.
On May 25, the last morning of his life, he set out from the village of Nam Dinh, in Vietnam's Red River delta, and exclaimed: "this is going to be a beautiful story.” Eight hours — and 30 km — later, Capa was dead, killed by a landmine at Thai Binh, as he tried to get just that little bit closer.

IN HONOR OF DR. NEMESIO PRUDENTE

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
4 April 2008

My family and I express sincere condolences to the family of Dr.
Nemesio Prudente. We grieve his passing away. At the same time, we
accept his well-deserved rest. We know that he has gone to a place
of glory where he joins the patriots and heroes of the motherland. We
honor him for his many achievements. We celebrate these as various
speakers recount them.
He was an outstanding educator. He rose to the position of president
of the Philippine College of Commerce and then the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines. But most admirable of him was that he
promoted and practised that type of education and life of action that
is clearly, resolutely and militantly in the service of the Filipino
people in their struggle for national liberation, democracy, social
justice, development and peace.
Before "Doc" Prudente became the president of the PCC in the 1960s,
I had been in touch with PCC student leaders and campus journalists
whom I encouraged to form a study group in connection with the
project of developing the national democratic movement among the
students in the University Belt area and preparing for the
organization of Kabataang Makabayan.
When "Doc" Prudente" became the PCC president, we did not know right
away what would be his policy towards the student movement. Soon
enough, he articulated a progressive nationalist policy and was ever
supportive of the students whenever they joined protest mass actions.
He also appointed to the faculty patriotic and progressive teachers.
Thus, the PCC became one of the most active centers of the
anti-imperialist and democratic student movement in the 1960s, in the
First Quarter Storm of 1970 and up to the imposition of martial law on
the people.
Before I went underground in late 1968, I had become close to "Doc"
Prudente because I had frequent conversations with him and Prof.
Teodosio Lansang over subjects encompassing philosophy, political
economy and social science in connection with current events. "Doc"
Prudente had a revolutionary outlook and was seriously interested in
the revolutionary transformation of Philippine society from a
semicolonial and semifeudal status to an independent and democratic one.
When I was already underground, I continued to communicate with "Doc"
Prudente through Charlie del Rosario who was a PCC faculty member. He
did not waver in supporting the national democratic movement and
student protest mass movement against the US-Marcos regime, even as
the writ of habeas corpus was suspended in 1971 and the fascist
dictatorship was rapidly taking shape.
He also actively supported the Movement for a Democratic Philippines,
the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties and the
formation of a workers' institute. He cooperated with the Preparatory
Commission of the NDFP and subsequently with the NDFP. He was never
cowed by threats of arrest and actual detention. In and out of the
fascist prison, he was a model of firm resistance and a modest
hardworking man among comrades.
I met "Doc" Prudente for the last time when we attended a fund-raising
event for SELDA in the garden of a well-to-do in Dasmarinas Village in
1986. While abroad, I would be saddened and outraged by repeated
attempts on his life in 1987. The enemy could not tolerate his ideas
and deeds in fighting for the rights of workers, in promoting the
united front and in making the PUP an outstanding university of
learning and technical training for patriotic and progressive
students and teachers.
But "Doc" Prudente was a steadfast revolutionary patriot. He upheld
his principles and courageously put his life, limb and liberty on the
line in fighting for the just cause of the Filipino people. In his
years of retirement from academic life, he continued to have excellent
relations with the revolutionary mass movement, especially with the
youth and workers. He was held in the highest esteem by the broad
masses of the people. His memory and example will always inspire the
people.