September 19 marks the 38th anniversary of the murder of Lean Alejandro, the young activist who helped bring down the Marcos dictatorship and whose heroic life we should be celebrating rather than merely marking the brutal manner of his passing.

Lean will one day loom large in Philippine history because, like so many who fought for our country and people, he dedicated his life to establish the full possibility of democracy in our nation, without any expectation he would be around to enjoy the fruits of the struggle.

Lean was a selfless youth leader brimming with ideas, his imagination fired by the dreams of his people, a people who have long longed for peace, prosperity, and the space to celebrate life’s simple joys – for working Filipino families to enjoy enough leisure time, to cook for friends and family, to read fiction, philosophy, and poetry, to play ping pong and support other oppressed nations in need of solidarity; to live full lives. Because by ‘full life’ Lean meant fighting for causes bigger than an individual’s personal goals.

The Constantino Foundation continues to elevate the legacy of Lean not only because of what he symbolizes—the eternity of youth inherent in all of us, whatever our age, the enduring capacity to love and to rage against injustice, which some of us can of course choose to ignore by courting consumerist illusions and empty, steady decay.

The Foundation lifts up the name of Lean Alejandro. His life represents the unbroken line of young Filipinos choosing to fight for a better tomorrow by living lives that reflect the future they wish to build today: The youth, who go out of their way to prepare food for the hungry. Young Filipinos fighting for mobility and the rights of commuters, to make visible the invisible class—people with disabilities. Young Filipinos fighting to protect our natural and national heritage—from the propagation of native trees to the preservation of our culture in built structures, food, and ecosystems. Young Filipinos who carve out time to teach children how to read and excel. The youth who fight to advance and defend the rights of the Queer community, and those who seek to end domestic violence, sexual violence, the violence of poverty, and the violence of climate change. Young Filipinos fighting to end impunity and to bring to justice all responsible for the plunder of our national wealth.

The youth: you are legion and they, the marauders, are few.

It is our view that Lean Alejandro sits among the nation’s mightiest heroes, among them the Katipunan revolutionary intellectual Emilio Jacinto, whose 150th birth anniversary this year should be marked daily with great fanfare. Alas, save for the few in government valiantly making an effort to honor the great hero, top officials appear indifferent to the need—the opportunity!—to draw inspiration from the towering example of Jacinto.

Over a century ago, Jacinto gave the Filipino youth today the torch to guide them during dark days of open thievery: “A life that is not spent in the service of a great and noble cause is like a tree without shade, if not a poisonous weed.”

Thus, said Lean Alejandro, “The line of fire is the place of honor” as he fought for social liberation in classrooms and in the streets, animated by the words of Emilio Jacinto who had called on Filipinos to take sides as he wrote over a hundred years ago the one yardstick we must now all live by: “Champion the oppressed and defy the oppressor.”

So, let us roar.

Renato Redentor Constantino

Managing Director, Constantino Foundation