Showing posts with label social realism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social realism. Show all posts

Saturday, May 01, 2021

Mutiny and the Bounty

Coming to Iloilo City in 2005, something immediately caught my attention.

Passing General Luna Street, I saw streamers and makeshift tents in front of the University of San Agustin. From friends and new acquaintances I would learn that the union employees of the university were protesting unlawful acts committed by the administration against them and their members.

For the succeeding months, I would see [and read] these streamers denouncing the administration for having been unjust to the employees who had served the university for a period of time; the streamers and protests also raised a number of other issues against the administration.

It was the first time I saw a dramatic interplay between two forces going on. I would see the same setup, up to the time the streamers became soiled and muddied that I could not read the words in them anymore, or that I found them annoying—because they would block my view of the university.

But the sight only drew my attention and scrutiny.

Once, I saw a public meeting by a number of people in front of the university gates, rallying aloud for their concerns. From other people I would learn that the strike by the employees was without basis; and that some of them were reinstated in their service to the university; and that others were relieved from service.

It was only later—in the official statement of the university published in the local papers that the facts became clearer.  The court finally denied the legality of the employees’ mobilization against the university.

Even before the court handed down its decision, a friend confided to me once how he pitied the union employees because despite legal assistance, their acts and even the subsequent measures they took were baseless, lacking ground and orientation. 

It does not require anyone to be a lawyer to understand an issue like this. It is easy to articulate how and why these things are made of, only if we were more than observant. 

For one, unrest in the labor sector might stem from people’s discontent. Administration, any status quo, for that matter, naturally defends itself because it normally conducts matters with much discretion and decorum, and utter deference to the people it serves—thus, its confidence in the manner of doing things is simply effortless.

Meanwhile, social realities like labor unrest do not fail to interest artists because they involve the dynamic interplay between elements in the society. 

Scenarios like this must have given inspiration to age-old masterpieces as French naturalist Emile Zola’s Germinal, a turn-of-the-century novel about the miners’ unrest against their employers in a French coalmine. The same reminds me of Mike de Leon’s Sister Stella L., a film which looms large in the social realist genre.

Artists, writers, film directors, and people of similar occupations can consider the subject for a more incisive study, so they can later put forth something from which people can learn and be inspired further.

Such experiences merit a more incisive introspection, a careful study that renders more truth. 

If rendered more truthfully, their act of writing—the work itself created after having been moved, inspired or bothered by these realities—can make persons out of individuals, or turn souls out of institutions.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

King of Pain

I saw Pepeng Kaliwete starring Fernando Poe, Jr. when I was a first-grader.  In those days, Mother was fond of movies that on weekends, she would bring her children to downtown Naga and there we watched all kinds of movies—in Emily, Bichara, Alex or Vic—the movie theaters owned by the Bicharas in Naga City.

Nothing reminds me of the movie except cringing at the sight of Pepe’s hands being twisted by a moving wooden motor—by the goons of the kontrabida led by the proverbial villain Paquito Diaz. Who can ever forget the ngilo just watching that scene? Since then, I have looked forward to watching FPJ’s movies.

Enough said.

Some thirty years later, I feel fine because it is now official. This year, President Benigno Aquino III conferred a posthumous National Artist award to the late Fernando Poe, Jr., King of Philippine Movies.  Aquino’s Proclamation No. 435 only confirmed an earlier declaration of Poe as National Artist in 2006, two years after Poe’s death. But at the time controversy took over.

I recall the award was refused by FPJ’s family from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom they thought, rigged the 2004 elections in which FPJ ran for president. This year, the family has accepted the recognition from the current president.

I suppose the national recognition of this prolific artist is appropriate. For one, a National Artist is one who has helped “build a Filipino sense of nationhood through the content and form of their works.”  Through some 50 years of his career in the movie industry, FPJ had been a household word for his honest portrayals of the plight of the Filipino, particularly the underprivileged and the marginalized.

An average Filipino like me knows an FPJ movie or the role he portrayed simply because he portrayed the life of the ordinary people, who compose the lot of the population. Whether in film biographies—from Pepeng Kaliwete to Eseng ng Tondo or other movies he produced, directed and acted in, it's he who sacrifices for the other person.

Up to his sixties, FPJ’s roles had been consistently that—particularly favoring the underprivileged or defending the marginalized, but all the while lionizing the good. If at all, FPJ’s movies melodramas helped define the generation to which I belong. But because his roles have been mimicked and parodied by other fellow actors, it only goes to show they touched a chord in the Filipino everyman.  

In some 250 movies where he probably punched all the thugs and gave back the stolen candy bars to their rightful owners, his character was not only our muscle but also our soul, a Robin Hood of sorts in our part of the world who delivered justice for the poor because it was denied them by the privileged and the greedy. His manner of delivering justice the Christian way did not only save us from boredom or tedium, but also “redeemed” us.  And for this, FPJ can hardly be replicated.

We confer on him the award because we seek to immortalize a paragon of the good—whose pains and struggles can inspire us to always seek what is just. We choose to do this because we humans need a(nother) Christ-like figure whom we can emulate.  We take to placing one FPJ as such only because we need to remind ourselves that in everything we do, or despite our perennial struggles, we can always choose to do the good.



Friday, May 25, 2012

20 Minutes before Takeoff

Reading Leoncio Deriada’s “Airport on Mactan Island”


In Leoncio Deriada’s “Airport on Mactan Island,” a family who has lived near the Mactan airport for a decade, is presented with a number of dilemmas.

One day, the mother, unable to stand the noise of the “steel monsters” or airplanes, frets and desperately wants to leave their house. The father’s dilemma is caused only by the dilemma of the wife. His wife pressures him to consider moving out despite the lot’s sentimental value to him. He is torn between leaving the land—which he inherited—and helping his wife ease her troubles. Their son, meanwhile, is caught up with his own problem. He is exploring the possibility of getting a job in the factory and at the same time is helping his father sell guitars. He is more inclined, though, to get the job rather than help his father.

After I asked my juniors class to stage it in the classroom, three students turned in noteworthy insights, clarifying a number of realities raised by the literary work.

dianaaguilart.hostoi.com
In a piece titled “Just the Way It Is,” Irene Grace Lim begins, “In a usual family setup, the man’s decision is final. At times, his decision is unchangeable. We see the same in Deriada’s “Airport on Mactan Island.”

“The husband’s decision was still the final decision for their family. And although the wife was already starting to lose her mind, out of desperation she wanted to get out of that place, the husband still stood with his unshakeable decision to stay. For him, there’s nowhere to go and there’s no one interested in their land. The man said they could get used to the noise of the airport just like the way he did.

“Though his wife was already desperate, driven to leave the house and even the man she married, the man stood by his decision, which shows that essence that while woman wavers, man maneuvers, then prevails.”

Lissa Angela Suyo, meanwhile, focused on the wife’s character, labeling the piece as a matter of “Faith vs. Fate.” She writes, “Like most Filipino Christians in Cebu, the mother’s faith in the Divine Being is on the Sto. Niño. She prays fervently to the statue so that their condition will improve and so that her son’s job away from their place could somehow change their fate. Unfortunately, faith alone did not help her get what she hoped for. With her husband not cooperating, her son getting rejected, with their home daily bombarded daily, she broke down. She lost faith even in her own self that she could maintain her sanity. She was disgusted with her fate. She hoped that by being a wife, her life would change. She wanted to change their fate, but she did not take action to do that. All she did was to complain.

“The wife was so desperate for a new life that she fell apart when she found out that her son, their last chance, didn’t get the job. She believed that to live in poverty was their fate. She thought that by having faith in the Sto. Niño, her fate will change. In the end, she broke apart...she has lost faith in the Sto. Niño, which strengthened her belief that this was, indeed, her fate.”

Then, in a more sweeping effort to read the piece, Casten Guanzon writes, “Leoncio Deriada opens our eyes to some of the more overlooked aspects of the marginalized poverty, what goes on in the home. The play does not focus on poverty or exploitation but rather the domestic scene in a family whose lives have been twisted by progress. The play starts building momentum when the wife and the husband are left alone in the house and it is here that we see two things in contrast: desperation and action.”

For Guanzon, “Desperation is displayed by the wife who nags the husband to leave the place, eventually hating him as much as the airport and its demonic noise. Her husband, almost her exact opposite, is always controlled and calm in his replies except for some emotional peaks on his part. In the end, she breaks down when the Sto. Niño fails to help her son get the job ultimately failing to deliver her from her own hell. She is distraught and unstable, eventually driven to attempt desecrating the statue as her final act to stop the noise.

“But what of action? After all, is it not the wife who starts making plans and suggesting other places? Yes it is; but it is the husband who has done something and, having failed, focuses on adapting to the airport and improvising for anything in their life it has changed. The husband is the one portraying action here. He is practical. Having tried and failed to sell the land, he focuses instead on maintaining their status of life. The wife, on the other hand, is prepared to make blind leaps in her eagerness to escape that hundredth circle of hell filled with its unholy abominations of steel. She is blind to her husband's reasoning because she, in her state, does not or chooses not to see its sense.”

While Lim and Suyo recognized the distraught character in the wife and the composure of the husband, Guanzon saw the play’s binary opposites—the husband’s action and the wife’s desperation.

All of them agreed on how the dilemma of the wife, which embodies the tragedy designed by the author, is not resolved at all.

Jerome Mendoza Hipolito

Sarong Pagbasa kan “Ki Agom” ni Niño Manaog
Facebook Post by Jerome Mendoza Hipolito on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 11:19pm

Saro na garo sa mga nakakauyam na pwedeng mangyari sa sarong tawo kun minahali sa harong iyo, na maabutan nin uran sa dalan. Mabasol na sana ini kun nata dai niyan na pigsuksok sa bag an saiyang payong, mala ta nagduwa-duwa kun dadarahon ini o dai, magayon kaya an oras kan paghali niya sa harong.

Kaya kan biglang pigbulos kan langit an saiyang kulog boot, kan daing patabi ining nag-ula kan saiyang laog, Dai siyang naginibo kundi an magpandong kisera kan saiyang panyong gurusot mantang babagtason an dalan pauli, duman kun sain naghahalat an saiyang namumutan.

Alagad kun tutuoson, tano kaibuhan, sabaton an uran kan su babaying agom, nata dai na sana siya magpahuraw kun baga ngaya sa sarong waiting shed o maghapit ngaya baga sa sarong haraning tindahan asin magbakal baratuhon na payong. Ano an nagpugol saiya na magpundo muna, maghalat, mag-isip nganing dai mabasa, dai magkasipon o magkakalintura?

Sa enot na pagbasa kan rawitdawit, romantiko an agom na lalaki, pigtuyaw tulos kaini an kamuntakan kan su babayi na basa-basa kan tubig uran mata ta naunambitan niyang nagtutururo an su'ot [niyang] palda. Kun siring makusugon na marhay an uran. Asin masasabing dawa gurano kakusog kan su uran, pigmarhay kan babayi na pumuli, tano daw? bako daw nagpirit ining magpuli dawa mangkusog kan bulos kan uran dara kan takot kaini, kiisay? Taslot sa agom na lalaki.

Kun Kaya sa ika limang linya nagtarakig an saiyang ngabil dara kan parehong takot asin bako kan lipot sa luwas? Makaduda an maburak na tataramon kan lalaki lalo na an, mari digdi nagparasain ka, Ne? Dawa pwedeng sabihon na rhetorical question,pwede man ining sarong hapot kan tawong daing pagtubod sa agom. An mapakusog kaini iyo an nasabi kan lalaki, nagparapauran ka na naman pauli? An boot sabihon sana, bako ini an enot na napanyaring pinirit kan agom na babayi na pumuli dawa maraot an panahon.

Sa hurihan kan rawitdawit, Dai diriktang pigsambit kun ano an dai masisigbo, sa romantikong paghiling-pagkamoot garo, alagad sa ibang anggulo, takot kan agom na babayi sa agom na lalaki an maurog, an dai nanggad masisigbo, maski magparapauran [pa siya]. 



Reference
Chancoco, Jose Jason, ed. (2005) Salugsog sa Sulog. Tomo Uno, Naga: OragonRepublic.com. p. 32.



Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Biernes Santo

Nagpoon na an drama kan mga Hudyo sa radyo, nagdadangog an aki. Sa bintana nata’naw niya paturuyatoy na an mga taga-barangay sa tuytuyan na linagan nin telon sa natad sa may bisita. Makikidalan sinda mapalabas an kapitan kan Ten Commandments. Bago naghali an Tatay kan aki para mag-Disipulo sa kapilya, tinugon siya. Mayo nin malaog ngonyan sa tinapayan. Mayo siyang pinalutong tinapay kansubanggi. Sa agang hapon na pinapabaralik an tumatawo sa bakery. Nag-abot si ilusyon kan katabang nindang si Jonalyn. Hali pang detachment sa Maysalay. Sabi kan daraga sa aki duman niya daa padagoson an bisita sa panaderya. Dai naggirong an aki. Sige na an drama kan mga Hudyo sa radyo. Nagdadangog an aki. Daing sabi-sabi an mag-ilusyon nagsarado sa panaderya. Pagkalaog ninda sa tindahan pigpaparahadukan kan Cafgu an daraga. Dai nakakasayuma an babaye sa purusog na pamugol kan bisita. Dai nagdugay, an irarom kan estante nagpaparayugyog, an mga hurmahan kan katitinapayan saro-sarong nagkakahurulog.




Primerong Lugar sa Kategoryang Rawitdawit
Enot na Gawad Obrang Literaturang Bikolnon
17 Abril 2012, Ciudad nin Naga





Sunday, March 25, 2012

My Brother’s Keeper


Pirang banggi ko nang napapangiturugan
si Manoy. Kadto, ginaupod niya pa ko
sa lawod, nagpapangke kami magpoon
alas tres nin hapon asta nang magdiklom.
Sa ponongan, nagdadakop kaming kasili,
mga halas sa tubig, ta ngani daang
dai maubos an lukon na maaani. Pagkaretira
ko sarong hapon, dai ko na siya naabtan
sa harong. Hambal ni Iloy, nagpakadto kuno
siya sa sarong misyon. Dai man lamang sako
nagpasabong na mapanaw siya gilayon.
Hambal ni Amay, dai na dapat siya halaton
kay indi na siya mabwelta sa amon. An tugon
sa ginikanan, hulaton kuno an panahon
na kaming tanan nga pamilya paapodon
kan masunod na pamayo kan nasyon.


Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon
ginaupod, iniiba
ponongan, fish pond
lukon, sugpo, o darakulang pasayan
hambal, sabi
Iloy, Nanay
nagpakadto, nagduman
kuno, daa
mapanaw, mahali
Amay, Tatay
kay, ta
indi, dai
sa amon, samuya
ginikanan, magurang
hulaton, halaton
tanan, gabos

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sarong Bánggi



Kan sarong bánggi, pinunasan akó
ni Tátay tapos sinabihan, dai daa
‘ko magparabatad o mágparakáwat
maski sain.Piglabaran niya man
si Dódoy; tapos pinainóm kami
kan gina’ga niyang lákad-búlan.

Itong sunod na bánggi, 
matanga na nag-abot si Nánay.
Nagimata kami kan nagriribok; 
nag-iiriwal sinda ni Tátay.
Dai kaya dáa pigmamarángno 
an mgá áki nindá. Kayá dáa 
kamí kinákaralintúra na saná.

Baad mayong gibohon si Nanay 
para kami marahay. Sa aga, 
baad matanga na naman siya 
mag-uli hali sa madyongan. 

Baad apudon na naman ako 
ni Tatay sa papag, tapos kuguson, 
tapos hadukan, tapos babawan. 
Kun maghibi ako, baad kásturan 
naman ako ni Tátay. Baad sa aga, 
garó na naman ako may hílang.





Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Democracy: Philippine Style

When subjected to social criticism, Philippine democracy seems to be more ideal than real because of the economic gap between the few who are rich and the many who are poor. When viewed from the social, economic and historical perspectives, it is apparently less than acceptable.

We Filipinos believe that our government must have a positive impact on our lives. For example, the poor believe that one of the roles of a democratic government is to alleviate their living conditions, but if ever change is presently taking place, it is going on at a snail’s pace, hence its impact cannot be felt, if at all.

Today, we have politicians who are self-motivated, but who are also private interest-motivated; they serve their own interest at the expense of others, most often the exploited poor in the rural areas. This is where the need for change is truly felt. The search for the honest committed public servant is on, but is he around in Philippine politics?

Sitio Baybay, Barangay Santiago,
Barotac Viejo, Iloilo
April 2006
Today more than ever, we need a government that shall uphold a true and Filipino-oriented democracy. To some extent, the Philippine conditions depicted in the mass media do not portray the real picture. This might be so because the pictures created are products of perceptions rather than scientific investigations and research. In these forms of mass media, the pulse of the masses is not felt. The disparity between perception and reality is reflected in the alienation of the few who go by opinion as contrasted with the many who go by experience. Why not go down to the level of the majority—the rural and deprived areas where disenchantment and discontent about many things are strongest?

Despite the many shortcomings of Philippine politics, we are still a nation, united and strong against inequity and injustice.

The masses have no need for politics but what they need is an answer to their grievances and frustrations. Does the Philippine democracy we have now give freedom to every citizen? Or is it rather what they call political culture? One that gives central and crucial role to the politician.

While it is fashionable to call politics as a disease in our national life, we must face the fact a majority of the people depend on the government for their well-being. The political culture, therefore, must permit and encourage the use of political figures for a decent purpose. For one, accessibility is the measure of political success. Politicians must perceive accurately the welfare of their constituents and try to serve them well.

But in most cases, politicians regard the idea of democracy as personalized and individualistic instead of populist. Right now, it is the minority who are concentrated in the middle class who favor the political culture. Politics has been institutionalized to promote their personal and economic interest  rather than the welfare of the majority. Unless a change takes place, politics will remain the world of the few who are able to manipulate everything in their favor.


Portions adapted from Eleuterio G. Bernardo’s “Democracy: Philippine Style,” Panay State Polytechnic College Faculty Forum 1 (2): 4, 10. Mambusao, Capiz: Panay State Polytechnic College, 1989.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Realism and magic realism

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan surely catches our attention because Natalie Portman’s Nina Sayers grows feathers after she kills Mila Kunis’s Lily backstage to perform the Black Swan role in the final act. You cannot just forget the film because of that.

This psychological thriller—featuring Natalie Portman’s Nina Sayers, a ballerina haunted by some schizophrenic ambition—brims with magic realism, an aesthetic style in which “magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality.” The effects particularly in the final ballet scene where Nina grows more feathers than the previous times it appeared would surely remind us of the film.

Because of the device used, we are made to believe that “magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner” allowing the “real” (Nina Sayers dream to be the Swan Queen) and the “fantastic” (she really becomes a Swan) to be accepted in the same stream of thought.

The obsession to become the Swan Queen later brings into the character graphic hallucinations that eventually cost Nina Sayers’ life.

Natalie’s facial features being transformed into a swan—rouged eyes, aquiline nose and elongated neck—all compliment to a dramatic flourish—where at the end of the performance, even we the audience could be convinced that she very well looks as the best Swan Queen for Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

While Nina Sayers’ obsession for the Swan Queen role is enough persuasion, the horrific undertones notwithstanding, we the audience get the eerie feeling in Aronofsky’s close-up shots of the lead character who dances her way to death as the ambition-obsessed ballerina who lived and was haunted by realities she herself created.

Anyone or anything from Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan will win an Oscar. Choreography, effects, actress. Let’s see.

Meanwhile.

The first time I watched Christian Bale’s Dicky Eklund in The Fighter, I already rooted for him to win a Best Supporting Actor citation.

A drama about boxer “Irish” Micky Ward’s unlikely road to the world light welterweight title, The Fighter features Ward’s Rocky-like rise as he is shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being knocked out by drugs and crime.

A far cry from Batman and his previous roles, Christian Bale’s Dicky Eklund exudes with stark realism, a has-been boxer backed up by his mother who hoped for a could have been contender, reminiscent of Marlon Brando’s Terry Malloy in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954).

Not another boxing movie at the Oscars you might say. But there is more to this boxing movie which rather “depicts subjects as they appear in everyday life.”

In The Fighter, we see Dicky Eklund’s mere claim to fame is his 1978 boxing match with Sugar Ray Leonard, where Eklund knocked down Leonard, who eventually won the match.

Now a crack addict, Eklund is in front of HBO cameras making a documentary about him. Dicky has also acted as one of the two trainers for half-brother Micky Ward, a decade younger than him, first known as a brawler and used by other boxers as a stepping stone to better boxers.

Both boxers are managed by their overbearing mother Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) who believes it better to keep it all in the family. Now unreliable owing to his crack addiction, Dicky’s move with Alice at one of Micky’s bouts dawns on the latter that his boxing career is being stalled and even undermined by them, who are only looking out for themselves.

The situation allows Bale’s character to deliver an un-contrived performance that highlights a family drama and gives sibling rivalry a kind of high never before seen onscreen before.

Meanwhile, Amy Adams’ Charlene Fleming—Micky’s new girlfriend, a college dropout and now local bartender who inspires him—pulls out the fulcrum to the other side, opposite Micky’s family, when she salvages him from this predicament.

Much to Alice and Dick’s anger, Micky comes to choose between them and Charlene. The story’s rising action renders each character emotionally charged—each one wanting to claim what is good for the fighter, and each one being allowed to shine individually onscreen. Awesome story.

Bale’s character greatly evolved from the Batman lead role and other virile roles to one that exudes with so much life. Like Tom Hanks’ Andrew Beckett in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia (1993), Bale must have shed weight to fit the role of a has-been boxer who makes business out of his brother just like his mother.

Earning three Oscar nominations for Bale, Adams and Leo, The Fighter drives some of the best punches among other films I have seen in the past year.

The first time I watched it last year, I immediately thought it was essentially noteworthy of recognition. Christian Bale’s crack[ed] character is so real you will find him in your neighborhood.

With the larger-than-life performance of an underdog who wants to bounce back, Bale’s character transforms the movie about his brother to a movie about himself. If at all, he is the Fighter being referred to in the film.

Let’s see how some real practitioners of the craft consider these performances, which other people might call art.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

An Nagdalhog

 Susog sa “The Passenger” ni Bienvenido Santos

Pagkadalhog kan lalaki sa terminal
Hinapot nya an aking may baligyang balot
Sitsaron, kag mani, igwang sukbit
na bote nin sukang agku sili—“Noy
sain digdi an dalan paduman sa baha?
Dai aram kan aki; waay et may aram.
Rinimpos sana ini kan pasahero kag
Saboot niya manunumpungan niya sana.
Huminalat siya, naglalaom na harani na,
Mantang nadadangog niya an daw tubig na
nagdadaguso, garo nagsusu’pay sa daga.


Baligya, Hiligaynon. Tinda, pinapabakal
Agku, Rinconada Bikol. Igwa, may
Waay Hiligaynon. Uda, mayo
Et, Capiznon. Ning, ng
Kag, Hiligaynon. Sagkod, buda, saka, et
Daw, Hiligaynon. Garo, baga na


Versions & Revisions
 July 1994/ December 1998/ February 2011



Monday, August 31, 2009

Naming of Farts

Malou Jacob’s “Anatomiya ng Korupsyon” offers many ways to interpret the social realities in our lives, here rendered as rather bureaucratic and monotonous existence.

Brimming with outstanding acting and internalization, “Anatomiya” is both cynical and realistic. While it looks at the negative aspects of human attitudes and tendencies, it also draws the challenge to the human soul when the corrupt system presents false options for him to act either for the common good or his good alone.

Aptly titled “anatomy”—the play is a naming of farts—as it delineates the stubborn and shady structure—Family Court, a public attorney’s office filled with characters portraying the so many faces of dishonesty, duplicity, and dilemma.

First there is Cely, an idealistic young lawyer who joins Family Court full of hopes and aspirations so she could promulgate the law in the strictest sense, but who later finds herself in a dilemma that will later question her integrity. When we see her hopes are dimmed by the outright corruption involving her officemates, we realize that she is the odd man out, the outsider who stands her ground, who sticks to her principles, even as she juggles work—personal achievement—and her personal life—her ailing mother.

There is also Atty. Ricarte, the head attorney who represents the unscrupulous leadership in the office, a personality which he must have imbibed while working in the corrupt system. When we see him taking part in the pusoy session, we realize that the status quo is indeed dilapidated, a hopeless structure that needs facelift, perhaps much like Virgie’s noselift in her desperate act of vanity.

Interestingly, there’s the clerk Bok who is in charge of publication and every possible obfuscation the word entails. He exemplifies the ideal fixer; as if a matchmaker of other people’s destiny, Bok arranges people’s transactions so that it caters to his kickbacks that can aid his whims and vices. His character is so apparent in real life; and some people really thrive on such setup—he is not much different from T.S. Eliot’s “hollow man,” whose subsistence is all too uncertain since it is hinged on fly-by-night arrangements. His crass loudmouth badmouthing on anything only validates his promiscuity and lack of good breeding.

Aside from the office newcomer Atty. Cely Martinez, we can also consider Charing—the employee who jots down the employees’ DTR—as another catalyst. The rather romanticized malunggay scene between her and Cely provides the anticlimactic effect, especially when she approaches Cely in the forlorn Christmas party, after everyone else has left to prepare for the celebration.

In the end, we can see Charing not at all too calloused just like the others, as she can sympathize with the isolated attorney herself. She illustrates the contrast to the enormous apathetic void that even encroaches on the main character.

The late female employee, for one, also highlights the typical bureaucrat whose existence is hinged on personal interest—it thus proves public service is plain rhetoric. Some greater things like ideals and other abstractions are simply a joke. Everything is reduced to a laughing matter.

In its full regalia of vices and stark lack of virtues, the Family Court office takes pride in its dishonesty; its duplicity in the grandest forms. The so many people who visit the office—with their individual and dismal issues awaiting delayed resolutions—ironically tell us that the office cannot, if at all, resolve them, to no avail, to no avail.

Anatomiya adds to our sense of cynicism when it portrays the Filipino family in the most correct or realistic way. The “Family Court” spells the bigger irony when the clients—mostly couples are not resolved to get back together. The court office, in all its efforts to settle the individual cases, only witnesses how families disintegrate, as in the case of the separation of conjugal property between the vendor couple, or as it was not able to settle the conflict between the Japanese national and the Pinay prostitute.

The whole set of sensibilities presented in Anatomiya throws into the audience the kind of reality that we rather choose to ignore because it’s undesirable and uncomfortable.

Most important, the controversial file involving the adoption case, which was used by Bok to perpetuate his dishonesty at the expense of Cely and the office itself, blows the top of Cely, especially further when she realizes the judge’s identical double-life in the end.

To Cely, the judge symbolizing the blindfolded lady holding the scales—the icon of justice—is merely a drawing, a caricature drawn in or out of the human’s pathetic tendencies for self-protection.

In other words, jurisprudence becomes a big joke. The ideals about the law by the main character may cease to be—unless she does something about them.

Fanned by Ricarte’s fiery words to eject her from the office, Cely is then pushed to the limits, to the extent that she is also forced to choose between two lesser evils.

Despite the indeterminate ending, we are still convinced that Cely must have gone out of the corrupt system if she were to sustain her character as the catalyst, the stereotype tragic hero who will effect change in a corrupt status quo.

Anatomiya is indeed the naming of farts, the bad parts, the rotten parts of a disintegrating structure that only thrives because the world so desires the unscrupulous, dishonest, and the fraudulent.

If all these so exist in the Philippine government, as one cast member assumed in the forum, then we are all bound to think and identify ourselves clearly with Cely, the self-proclaimed catalyst, the antisocial in that rotting lot.

It proclaims that we are the ones who prophesy our own salvation and redemption. We are the ones that will save our own souls. And the play seems to continually ask us: Who else? Who else?

In all, Anatomiya challenges us continually to keep pace with the signs of the times, be vigilant about them so that when our own dilemma comes, even their most unexpected dismal forms, we are at least prepared to leave our comfort zones if it were for the sake of truth.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

An Mga Taga Bagacay Kun Semana Santa

Sa mga huring aldaw kan Marso, maimbong na an paros hali sa bukid kan Buyo—minahugpa ‘ni sa mahiwason na natad kan eskuwelahan abot sa may parada, asta magsabat ini kan maaringasang duros hali sa baybayon kan San Miguel Bay sa may parte nang kamposanto.

Sa panahon na ini, duros an makapagsasabi kun ano an mga disposisyon kan mga tawo sa Bagacay—kadaklan sainda mahayahay, an nagkapira trangkilo sagkod maboboot, pero an iba man maiinit an pamayo ta kulang—o minsan sobra—sa karigos.

Kun ika tubong Bagacay, pirming malinaw saimo an mga pangyayari sa palibot kan sadit na barangay na ini—an kasiribotan, an kariribukan, o maski ano pa man—aram-aram mo na an mga likaw kan bituka kan mga ordinaryong ka-barangay.

Mabibisto mo an kakaibang parong kan duros, mamamati mo an aringasa sa tinampo ta bantaak an saldang. Mabibisto mo man an korte kan niisay man maski na ngani nagdadangadang pa sana siya sa tinampo. An amyo kan tunay na buhay mahihiling sagkod maiintidihan mo sa lambang istoryang ini.

An aking daraga sa kataid na harong na nagpasuweldo sa Manila maduang taon na man bago nakauli giraray—mapution na an kublit pag-abot ta an tubig sa Nawasa halangkaw an chlorine content—nom! Dai na lugod nabisto kan kaklaseng nagdalaw sa harong ninda. Sa Martes ang balik ko sa Kuba-o. Mabait naman ang mga amo ko—pinapasine nga ako pag Sabado, kasama ko ang kanilang matuang babae. Sa Let the Love Begin nakita ko si Richard Gutierrez saka baga si Angel Locsin, pangit man pala siya sa personal. Nom! Nagtatagalog na! Pag sinisuwerte [o minamalas] ka man nanggad talaga!

An mag-inang parasimba nakaatindir pa kan pagbasbas kan mga palmas. An mag-irinang hali pa sa Cut 12 [basa: kat dose] mapasiring sa kapilya sa boundary pa kan Iraya para duman mapo’nan an entirong pagpangadie sa mga santo. Linakad kan mag-irina an mainiton na tinampo hali sa harong ninda antos duman sa malipot na baybay harani sa kapilya. Nag-uurunganga pa si mga ibang aking kairiba ta pigguguruyod man na yan kan relihiyosang ina. Bara’go pa man an mga bado ta iyo man an ginaramit kan mga eskwela durante kan closing sa eskwelahan—alagad muru’singon na an mga aki

An mga aki kan mga mayaman na pamilya sa may pantalan nag-uruli man. Tulong awto an dara pero dai pa nanggad kumpleto ta si tugang na abroader dai nakahabol sa biahe haling airport. An dakulang pagtiripon kan pamilya madadagos ta madadagos nanggad maski na ngani hururi an ibang miembros kan pamilya. Hain na daw si mga makuapo na nag-ayon sa mga ralaban sa UNC; o si sarong pinsan niya man nanggana sa arog kaining contest sa Colegio. Haraen yan! Padirigdiha lamang daw ta mag-iristorya kan saindang mga maoogmang nagkagirinibo. Ay, iyo, hay, magayonon an trophy sa UNC. May kwarta man ni, ano? Hahahahaha! Iyo man po. Thanks very much and I love you all and gabos ini po saindo, Lola!

Igwang bayaw na nag-uli hali sa siyudad—an agom na iyo an tugang kan pinsan may darang ba’gong omboy na primerong pakadalaw sa mga apuon. Napoon pa sana man an duwa sa pagpapamilya kaya padalaw dalaw pa sa mga magurang kan esposa. Cute-on baga si baby, hay? Sain mo ni Manay pinangidam? Cute-on. Bebe, bebe… O Rosalyn, nuarin na an bunyag ki Nonoy? Imbitari man daw nindo kami, puwede man pating magtubong si Dorcas! Saen na ngani si apartment nindo, Glen? Sa Calauag baga, bakong iyo? Itukdo mo ki Lino tanganing aram niya pagduman. Iyo po, Ma.

Igwang mag-ilusyon na dai makatios na dai magkahirilingan ta si urulayan sa Katangyanan dai nagkadaragos ta pinugulan si daraga kan inang may hilang.

Maski an sarong tiyo-on na igwa pang kulog boot sa mga sadiri niyang tawo ta dai sinda dai nagkairintidihan sa kontratang pinag-urulayan, magkakaigwa pa siya nin panahon para tapuson an ika 14ng altar na portrait kan Mesias—na nagpapahiling kan pagdara kan bangkay ni Mesias sa lubungan ni Joseph kan Arimatea. An mga materyales na ginamit para sa abaanang magagayon niyang obra maestra dinonaran pa man hali sa simbahan kun sain siya lektor. An taon-taon niyang panata napapadagos nin huli sa huyo kan saiyang boot, sa pagpangadie niyang daing ontok, nagngangayong dai man lugod pabayaan nin Kagurangnan an saiyang pamilya na ngonyan nagdadakula na ta an saindang maboot na manugang-agom kan mahigos niyang matua—maaki na kan saindang panduwa. Siisay pa man daw an mas masuwerte sa mga tawong ini?

Nagsisiribot an sarong pamilya sa Banat ta iyo an toka ninda sa prusisyon sa Via Crucis, maharanda ta mapa-basa—mapatarakod nin kuryente sa mga harong na igwang mga linya nin Casureco, para dayuhon an pabas[og]. Aaaaaaa, si Eba natentaran kan demonyong halas kaya kinakan niya si prutas kan poon na ipinagbawal ni Bathala. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, kaya an gabos na tawo nagkasa-la-la-la. Daraha na daw digdi mga salabat sa nagbabarasa-kansubago pa iyan! Aaaaaaa….

Sarong gurangan na kantorang taga Iraya, na agom kan sarong mahigos na Cursillista—sinubol si mga aki niyang daraga para magkanta sa Via Crucis magpoon sa kapilya antos sa Calle Maribok dangan pabuwelta—alagad atakado an pamayo ta dai magkakurua kun haraen na an mga daraga. Haraen na sa Imelda? Si Belinda? Pasugui na daw ta si mga aki duman, iwaralat mu’na digdi. Ta diputang agom yan ni Belinda! Nagpaparainum na naman sa may ka–Tampawak? Ta kun ako pa an mapauli diyan sa bayaw mo, titibtiban ko talaga man nanggad yan! Mayo na sana man maginibo pakakatong-its, mainom! Susmaryosep! Noy, paulia na ngani si Manoy mo!

Sarong parasira pagkatapos niyang magpangke—mala ta nakadakul sinda kan bayaw niya kansubanggi—sa may tanga’ sagkod sa rarom sa may parteng Caaluan sagkod Tinambac—nagdesider na mag-pasan kan krus sa Via Crucis. An solterong ini haloy na man nagsisigay-sigay sa aki ni Balisu’su’. Pero korontra baga an sadiri niyang tawo ta diyata gusto man nindang makahanap nin trabaho ini sa Cavite. Dai man ngani nag-anom na bulan baga—nagbuwelta ngani ta garo nagkairiyo na man sagkod an maputi-putting aking daraga ni Balisu’su’. Ano man baya an nahiling mo diyan Polin sa aki ni Tsang Sining? Bados na gayod si Joralyn?


Ciudad Iloilo
Abril 2009

Songs of Ourselves

If music is wine for the soul, I suppose I have had my satisfying share of this liquor of life, one that has sustained me all these years. A...