Edgardo Gil Mirasol Jopson, more popularly known as Edgar Jopson or Edjop, was a Filipino activist and active member of the Communist Party of the Philippines during the reign of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
33 Facts About Edgar Jopson
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Edgar Jopson was active in politics since his years in college, even becoming the president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines.
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Edgar Jopson later went underground with the CPP when President Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972.
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Edgar Jopson was killed during a military raid in his house in 1982.
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Edgar Jopson was the second eldest among twelve children whose family lived in Sampaloc, Manila.
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Edgar Jopson's father opened the Jopson Supermarket in 1953 while his mother helped in the grocery.
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Edgar Jopson was named the most outstanding pupil of his class in Telly Zulueta Kindergarten in Malate, Manila in 1954.
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Edgar Jopson's parents accommodated him by having a den built especially for him.
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Edgar Jopson had developed certain "airs" which made him more arrogant because of his stay at the Ateneo.
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Edgar Jopson pursued a degree in Management Engineering at the Ateneo de Manila University.
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Edgar Jopson finished the five-year management engineering program in April 1970 in four years.
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Edgar Jopson closely followed the dictum of simple living espoused by the underground movement.
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Edgar Jopson was named after both Teresa Magbanua, a heroine of the Philippine Revolution, and Lorena Barros, a UG martyr who died in a military encounter.
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Edgar Jopson ran for the presidency of the National Union of Students of the Philippines in mid-1969, just as Marcos won his second term, a position which became critical because of the impending constitutional convention slated for 1971.
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Edgar Jopson was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1970 for his "community service through student activism".
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Edgar Jopson 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.
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Things began to get out of hand and, in an attempt to control the crowd and protect the students by ending the program early, Edgar Jopson took to the stage to seize the microphones to prevent one of the radical leaders, Gary Olivar, from delivering his speech.
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The radicals saw this as a hostile attempt of Edgar Jopson claiming authority over the groups and lambasted him for it.
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At this point, Edgar Jopson attempted to disperse the 50,000 students in attendance but the metrocoms began attacking everyone on site.
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At the onset of the Constitutional Convention, NUSP, under Edgar Jopson's presidency, joined the Citizens' National Electoral Assembly, setting up poll-watching teams and participating in forums regarding the convention.
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Edgar Jopson turned down several offers from international groups such as the United Nations.
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Edgar Jopson's application into the party was a complicated one because of his prominence as a leader in the moderate movement.
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On June 13,1979, Edgar Jopson was captured at his house in Las Pinas.
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Edgar Jopson was brought to Camp Crame and tortured together with his comrades who were in the house the night it was raided by the military.
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Edgar Jopson bargained with Rodolfo Aguinaldo, a rebel-hunter for Marcos, to be an informant of the UG and to dismantle the movement from within.
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In Samal, Edgar Jopson hid as Gusting and lived among the farmers.
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In November 1979, Edgar 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.
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Edgar Jopson returned to Luzon in July 1980 to attend the 8th plenum of the Party's Central Committee in Bicol, which lasted three months.
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Edgar 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.
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Edgar Jopson ran to the backdoor with the other cadres - they were to climb a wall at the back of the compound where there was an empty lot on the other side.
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Edgar Jopson was shot as he was on top of the wall.
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Edgar Jopson's name is included among those listed on the memorial wall of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, a museum dedicated to commemorating the Martial Law Martyrs.
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Edgar Jopson's story was featured in Living and Dying: In Memory of 11 Ateneo de Manila Martial Law Activists and Six Young Filipino Martyrs.