Edgar Jopson

His story was featured in Living and Dying: In Memory of 11 Ateneo de Manila Martial Law Activists (2007) and Six Young Filipino Martyrs (1997). In 1989, a full-length biography of Edjop was written by Benjamin Pimentel Jr. titled Edjop: The Unusual Journey of Edgar Jopson. It includes details about Edjop's personal life, background, and journey through activism. It was published internationally in 1991 as Rebolusyon!: A Generation of Struggle in the Philippines. It was updated by Pimentel in 2006, retitled U.G.: An Underground Tale: The Journey of Edgar Jopson and the First Quarter Storm Generation, and again in 2019 with a new subtitle The Life and Struggle of Edgar Jopson.

Jopson closely followed the dictum of simple living espoused by the underground movement ("UG"). Following his arrest in 1979, he and Joy left their children at the care of his parents. Joy gave birth to their third child, Teresa Lorena, on April 12, 1982. She was named after both Teresa Magbanua, a heroine of the Philippine Revolution, and Lorena Barros, a UG martyr who died in a military encounter.

Jopson returned to Manila in June 1981, but decided to come back soon after by November because of a raid in Mindanao that killed Magtanggol Roque and led to the capture of Benjamin de Vera, two top party leaders. Ed decided to extend his stay in Mindanao a few weeks past his arranged departure (in December) to aid a cadre with personal problems she was facing.

Jopson returned to Luzon in July 1980 to attend the 8th plenum of the Party’s Central Committee in Bicol, which lasted three months. They discussed the plans of the UG now that they have gotten stronger across the country eight years after the proclamation of Martial Law. Afterwards Jopson returned to Mindanao together with his cadres. This time, he lived with the guerrillas and participated in their training. The arrangements underscored Jopson’s distinct placement in the Mindanao Party leadership as he was the only one with no military background.

In January 1979, the party convened in Nueva Ecija to discuss issues on party leadership, specifically of the Manila contingent as Lagman and allies still contested Ed’s appointment. The meetings lasted over a month until February when it was decided that Lagman would be reassigned to a countryside unit.

On June 13, 1979, Jopson was captured at his house in Las Pinas. He was brought to Camp Crame and tortured together with his comrades who were in the house the night it was raided by the military. Throughout his arrest, he would ask money from his father, who would visit often, to bribe several agents so as to get their favor.

On November 1979, Jopson left for Mindanao where he was assigned to study life on the island so as to better understand how the UG can operate more efficiently on the island after failing to do so years prior. What came out of it was a 200-page document that chronicled every possible facet of life in Mindanao from its terrain to its history, even including companies and kingpins that dominated the island.

The capture of Joma Sison in 1977 led to the disbursement of responsibility over the party to the second-tier leaders, one of which was Ed. His status in the party had been elevated to that of member of the Central Committee which was in charge of the party’s contingent in Manila and Rizal. Over an infraction of the Manila and Rizal UG organization of the orders from the national party leadership, Filemon Lagman was relieved of his position as the head of Manila, and his position was passed on to Ed. Though Ed assumed the position, members were unwilling to cooperate with him as he was on Lagman’s side in not following the orders of the national leadership, yet did not take his side when he was relieved from office.

In his sophomore year in college, Jopson met Gloria Maria “Joy” Asuncion, with whom he had a relationship with. They got married on January 26, 1974 in a church in Navotas. It was the fourth anniversary of the start of the First Quarter Storm. It was originally intended to be a small event with minimal guests, however 300 people attended. Jopson and Joy bore their first child, Liberato Labrador Celnan on February 16, 1975.

On December 31, 1973, the military raided the Buklod Kalayaan headquarters, capturing several of his colleagues in the groups. This led to him going underground.

On September 21, 1972, several months after his visit to China, Marcos declared Martial Law. On the evening of September 22, his sisters climbed up their roof to serve as lookouts for any possibility of military raids though they knew he was not on the government’s list at the time.

In 1971, the convention became mired in controversy due to the implications of certain provisions which would allow Marcos a third term, and fraud and violence which laced the campaign. Jopson and the other members of NUSP formed Buklod Kalayaan, Freedom Organization so as to serve as the youth arm of the reformist political movement. Buklod, starting as a youth arm, was to transition into a political party in the future.

By 1971, NUSP had begun to align more with radical groups, and started echoing, more, the sentiments of National Democratic groups. This was further reinforced by a goodwill tour to China which Jopson and other delegates from NUSP had in 1972. The socialist movement in China fascinated Jopson, furthermore because the delegation was unable to see the brutal upheaval occurring during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Upon his return from China, he had begun to veer away from reformism and hope from the Constitution Convention, going so far as to say to his fellows in NUSP that perhaps they were wrong in upholding a moderate stance.

Jopson pursued a degree in Management Engineering at the Ateneo de Manila University. During his stay, he was noted for garnering high grades in subjects such as History and Theology, whereas he was less impressive in Mathematics and the Natural Sciences. He finished the five-year management engineering program in April 1970 in four years. Because of his performance in high school, and having graduated as valedictorian, he became a likely candidate for the class presidency which he won in 1969. Aside from the student council, he was also active in different organizations and started others, such as the Ateneo History Club and AIESEC-Ateneo.

He was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1970 for his "community service through student activism". Though this may be the case, Salanga noted Jopson's lack of real joy from winning the award as he was recognized as the leader of a group divided. He only accepted the award as a strategic political move so as to reorient the NUSP and regain the popularity it once had, which made the radical groups hate him even more.

During former President Marcos' State of the Nation Address on January 26, 1970, NUSP and other moderate groups organized a demonstration wherein students from different assembly points would converge in front of the Philippine Congress, calling for a non-partisan Constitutional Convention. An hour after the program outside Congress began, radical groups arrived and cut through the group, positioning themselves at the very front of the mass. Things began to get out of hand and, in an attempt to control the crowd and protect the students by ending the program early, Jopson took to the stage to seize the microphones to prevent one of the radical leaders, Gary Olivar, from delivering his speech. The radicals saw this as a hostile attempt of Jopson claiming authority over the groups and lambasted him for it. President Marcos came out of Congress as students were burning an effigy of him; this coincided some students throwing a cardboard coffin and crocodile at him. At this point, Jopson attempted to disperse the 50,000 students in attendance but the metrocoms began attacking everyone on site. The students fought back, throwing bottles and stones at them. Jopson and his peers fled, attempting to aid as many students as they can while going into hiding.

After the events of January 26, Jopson was under fire for implying the violence to not be the fault of NUSP but of the radicals and the police alone, thereby detaching NUSP completely from the radical groups. Ed came to realize this and in an article for the Manila Times on Feb 7, 1970 said that he calls on all youth and student groups to unite as one after the incident which failed to do so.

Jopson joined various political organizations during his stay. One of those groups was the Laymen's Association for Post Vatican II Reforms (LAPVIIR), a religious group which rallied against graft and corruption. He also ran for the presidency of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) in mid-1969, just as Marcos won his second term, a position which became critical because of the impending constitutional convention slated for 1971. In December 1970, he was reelected for a second term.

Jopson's political ascent began in college when he was inspired by an article from the Guidon, Ateneo's campus newspaper, in 1968, entitled "Down from the Hill."

Jopson was named the most outstanding pupil of his class in Telly Zulueta Kindergarten in Malate, Manila in 1954. During the awarding ceremony, he got the chance to deliver a speech. A Jesuit priest who attended the ceremony approached Ed's father to encourage him to enroll at the Ateneo Grade School. The nickname Edjop stuck on him when his geometry teacher failed to pronounce "Jopson" in the Spanish pronunciation, giving it a strong "J" sound instead of "H". In high school, Ed had a rigid studying schedule wherein his routine was fixed every night. His parents accommodated him by having a den built especially for him.

Edgar Jopson was the second eldest among twelve children whose family lived in Sampaloc, Manila. His father opened the Jopson Supermarket in 1953 while his mother helped in the grocery. In 1955, two years after their business was established, the family moved to Philamlife Homes in Quezon City where they were invited to open a branch in the subdivision. In 1958 the family experienced bankruptcy due to business failures and had to move back to Sampaloc where their first branch was still open. At the time, Edjop and Inday, his older sister, helped out in the store while continuing their schooling.

Edgardo Gil Mirasol Jopson, more popularly known as Edgar Jopson or Edjop (September 1, 1948 – September 21, 1982), was a labor rights activist and active member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) during the reign of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Jopson studied in Ateneo de Manila High School, and later proceeded to Ateneo de Manila University where he graduated under the Management Engineering program, garnering Latin Honors. He was active in politics since his years in college, even becoming the president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). He later went underground with the CPP when President Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972. He was killed during a military raid in his house in 1982.

The president agreed to dialogue with the moderate group on January 30. On the date, Jopson was close to leaving when the president arrived almost an hour and a half late. As Ed was voicing out to Marcos the demands of the 26th demonstration along with Portia Ilagan, the then head of the National Student’s League, students began to assemble outside Malacañang. NUSP, NSL, and other moderate groups took their positions in Freedom Park whereas radical groups began mobilizing to Malacañang at around 5 P.M. from a rally they held in front of Congress. Tension grew as rocks were being thrown from the outside, and subsequently, were thrown from the palace to the crowd, leading to the Palace guards attacking those in the rallies. While this was happening, the discussion inside was about to arrive at a resolution for the demand of a non-partisan Constitutional Convention, when Jopson made a last demand wanting assurance that the president will not seek a third term. Marcos replied “I am constitutionally bound to not run for a third term,’ but Ed remained steadfast and demanded the president sign a document pledging to not run for a third term. This irked Marcos to which he answered "Who are you to tell me what to do! You're only a son of a grocer!" Ilagan acted quickly to ease the tension between the two. As the dialogue was to resume, the president was informed of the on-goings outside which abruptly ended the meeting. As the group went out through the front of Malacañang, they saw the ensuing fight and rushed back in the palace to which they were shown the back door to ferry through the river and safely arrive home. The fight continued and got worse, causing much havoc. The fight came to be known as the Battle of Mendiola.