An Mga Ribongribong Sa Bagacay

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 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.

The Grey

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Mystery & Suspense

Sa "The Grey" na binidahan ni Liam Neeson ngonyan na 2012, an walong survivor sa nagbagsak na eroplano haling Alaska— kabali an karakter niyang si John Ottway—nagkagaradan man giraray pagkatapos.

Guardia kan sarong oil drill team sa Alaska si John Ottway. An apod niya sa trabahong ini—“job at the end of the world,” kun sain an kairiba niya mga “fugitives, ex-cons, assholes, men unfit for mankind.” Kadaklan na mga yaraon duman mga pusakal, tibaad mga hinarabuan kan sociedad ta nagdulot sinda nin danyos bako sana sa propriedad kundi pati moralidad.

Patapos na an kontrata ni Ottway, pinapauli na siya. Alagad kan solo-solo siya sarong banggi, nagsurat siya sa agom niya, dangan nagprobar siyang maghugot. Kan babadilon niya na an sadiri nin shotgun sa kadikloman kan niyebe, nag-alulong an mga lobo (wolves). Nakulbaan siya kaini. Dai siya nadagos maghugot.

Pauruli na sinda kan kairiba sa drill team; tapos nag-crash an eroplano. Sa gabos na sakay, walo sana sainda an nagkaburuhay. Sa wreckage, an ibang nagkaburuhay naghaharadit nagngungurulngol ta nagkagaradan sa impact an mga pag-iriba ninda. Si Ottway nakaapon sa harayo. Pero pagkagimata niya, hinaranap niya si iba. Nakabalik siya sa binagsakan.

Dinulok niya si Lewenden, sarong kaibahan na nagtuturawis an dugo sa tulak. Naghaharadit na an ibang mga amigo ninda. Nagngunguruyngoy. Hinapot ni Lewenden si Ottway kun ano an nangyayari. Sabi ni Ottway saiya na magagadan na siya. Pinabagol ni Ottway an luong kan lalaki. Kinaulay niya ni kag pighapot kun siisay an saiyang namomotan. Kinaulay niya pa astang dai nagdugay, nautsan na ni.

Dai naghaloy, pinangenotan ni Ottway an grupo. Hinambal niya sa ilang maggibo sinda nin kalayo, nganing dai sinda magkaragadan sa lipot. Magharanap pagkakan dangan magharali sa crash site.

Pagharanap ninda nin mga nagkataradang kakanon sa wreckage sagkod mga bagay na magagamit, nahiling ni Ottway na ginuguyod kan lobo an sarong pasaherong babae, nag-uungol pa ni kan sagpangon kan layas na ayam. Sinaklolohan kuta ni Ottway alagad gadan na an biktima. Dinulak niya an ayam kaya kinaragat siya kaini. Nagkadarangog kan iba kaya nasaklolohan si Ottway. Kinarne kan lobo an tuhod niya pagkatapos.

Sabi ni Ottway na tibaad kuta nin mga wolves an lugar kun saen nag-crash an saindang eroplano. Piggagadan kan mga hayop na ini an mga tawong nararabay sa saindang balwarte. Hambal pa ni John Ottway sa iba, dai man kinakakan kan mga sapat na ini an mga tawo. Kinakaragat man lang ninda, sagkod ginagadan, sabi niya. Sa layas na kadlagan, tibaad mayo sindang ibang madalaganan.

Minaray logod nindang magharali, magparalarakaw maghanap nin rescue ta harayoon an saindang natubragan. Bago sinda naghali sa crash site ta nganing madulagan an mga wolves na nag-atake sainda, nanganam si Hendrick, sarong doctor. Iyo ni an sabi niya, “I feel like we should say something. I feel like with all these bodies all people have died, it doesn’t seem right for us to walk away. “God bless these men. Some of them are friends we could be lying here with them.” Nagtingag siya dangan naghambal, “Thank you for sparing us; and helping us. O, and keep that up, if you can.” Alagad, sa katapusan kan istorya, mayong naginibo an pangadie kan sarong survivor na doctor. Gabos sinda sa dalan nagkagaradan.

Sobra sa kabanga kan pelikula, nagparararalakaw nagparadurulag nagparatarandayag an mga survivor parayo sa mga lobo; alagad bago man ini natapos, saro saro sindang nagkaurubos. Kan saiya nang toka pagbantay pagka enot na banggi, inatake kan lobo si Hernandez pag-ihi kaini. Siya an enot na nagadan sa grupo. Kaya sabi ni Ottway magharali na sinda duman. Pagparalarakaw kan grupo parayo sa crash site, nawalat man si Flannery sa tahaw kan yelo kawasa dai nakayahan an lipot sagkod an halawig na lakaw. Nawalat-walat siya dangan inatake kan mga lobo.

Pag-camping na ninda sa taas kan kabukidan, nahangog sa halangkaw na altitude an negrong si Burke. Sa saindang pigtuytuyan, magdamlag nagparaduros nin makusogon. Pagkaaga, nakua si Burke kan pag-iribang saro nang yeladong bangkay. Si Talget napilay kan makasabit ni sa kahoy pagrulukso ninda pabalyo sa halangkawon na salog. Kan buminagsak na siya sa daga, hiniribunan tulos siya kan mga ayam dangan ginuruyod. Si Diaz napagal na sana man magparalakaw kaya nagpawalat na sa may gilid kan suba.

Sa kadudulag sa naghahapag na mga lobo, naglumpat si Hendrick sa suba tapos nagpaatong sa sulog, nakairarom siya sa dakulang gapo saka duman nalamos. Si Ottway iyo an nakahampang kan alpha male, an pinakahade kan mga wolves sa mismo kaining kuta. Dai na pinahiling an saindang pagdinulak, kan inatake ni Ottway nin kutsilyo an ido. Sa huring ritrato kan pelikula, nakahandusay si Ottway, sagkod an maisog na hadi kan mga ido.

Sa pagdulag kan mga survivor, ginuyod ninda an pamimilosopiya kan kagsurat kan istorya. Linangkaba kan pelikula an konseptong naturalismo na pinadaba kan Pranses na manugsulat na si Emile Zola, sarong pagtubod na an tawo oripon kan saiyang sadiring natura. Mayo nin magigibo an inaapod kan ibang free will, o fighting spirit. Para ki Zola, sagkod sa mga nagsurunod saiya, mayong ibang minapaitok sa buhay kan tawo kundi an saiyang Kalibutan, an gabos-gabos na mga bagay-bagay sa saiyang kinaban. Garo man sana sinabi kaini na mayo nin kapas an kalag na magpapangyari para an tawo maparahay o mabanhaw an saiyang kaugalingon sa katibaadan.

Linangkaba man kan pelikula an vulgarized na konsepto kan survival of the fittest. Sa naturalistang kinaban, an hadi kan kadlagan iyo an layas na ayam. Garo daing kapas an tawong lampas an an isog kan mga hinayupak na mga ayam. Dawa gurano kaisog kan tawong hampangon an saiyang kaiwal niyang ini sa kadlagan, magagadan siya ta magagadan.

Sa climax kan sugilanon, nagprobar si Ottway na tampadan an bagsik kag an isog kan mga lobo. Nagtrayumpo man kuta siya alagad, kawasa an tawo sagkod hayop parehong nagadan, lininaw sa pelikula na nungka madudulagan kan tawo an ungis kan kadlagan, an layas na kabihasnan, kun sain tibaad an hayop, bakong an tawo—an hadi kan kagabsan.


Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon
nakulbaan, nakilaghanan
kag, sagkod
sa ilang, saindang
naghambal, nagsabi
naglumpat, luminukso
manugsulat, parasurat
mabanhaw, masalbar
kaugalingon, sadiri
sugilanon, istorya

Ehersísyo

Buot silingon an pisikal na pag-ehersisyo, nalangkaba na man na marhay kan iba. Siring kan ibang tawo, an mga inaapod na atleta o mga parakawat, nagkakagaradan man—bako man talagang mas haralawig an buhay ninda. Pwede nganing mas amay sindang magadan kawasa kan ehersisyo. Dangan kalabanan, bako man sindang orog na mabaskog ukon mas maogma kaysa sa iba. Matuod nga mas marhay gayod an pamatyag ninda—mas marhay an pagturog sagkod normal an timbang ninda.

Alagad mas orog na may kwenta an maayo nga pamatyag sang kalag. Marhay-rahay na mag-unat kita kan kalamias ta, alagad orog na igwang saysay an mag-unat kita kan satong panumduman, o paayuhon an salud kan satong kalag. Orog na igwang balor an magin baskog an satong kalag sa atubang nin Dios asin tawo.

Pansegunda sana digdi an gabos na ehersisyo kan lawas. Igwang merito sa baskog na lawas, alagad mas igwang biyaya sa mabaskog nga kalag. Kadakul sa makukusog na tawo mga berdugo; darakula mga kalamias ninda alagad an ugali daingdata.

Sa pag-ataman kan lawas, bastante na gayod na sa araaldaw, nakakapamus-on ka; kag nagpapalas ka kan kuko mo kun an mga ini haralaba na.

 

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

buot silingon, gustong sabihon

kalabanan, kadaklan na beses

ukon, o

matuod, tama

nga, na

maayo, marhay

pamatyag, pagmati

sang, kan

paayuhon, pakarhayon

baskog, marahay an salud

baskog, makusog

nakakapamus-on, nakakaudo

Susog sa “Exercise” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes A. Gaertner. New York: Viking Penguin, 1990, 100.

Paghâdit

Úkon muya mo sang mas námî nga terminolohiya—angst—(hambál sa Aleman), saro sana ining normal na ugali kan tawo. Sa katunayan, susog ki Martin Heidegger, sarong pilosopong Aleman, kaipuhan ta man nanggad an maghâdit sa satong buhay. Siempre an sobrang paghâdit—dawâ ano man na bagay na sobra o labaw, bakong marhay. An marhay kaiyan, susog sa sako nang inagihan, kun kita naghahâdit, maghâdit lugod kitang sagad. Kumbaga, sa modernong paghambal, career-on ta an paghâdit. Sabihon ta sa sadiri ta na naghahâdit ako ngonyan, dangan paurogon ko gid nga mayád an paghâdit na ini. Nin huli ta nag-aaram kitang marhay na naghahâdit kita, tulostulos ini malalampasan ta. Nagiging kabudláyan an paghâdit kun madangog kita sa ibán nga nagasilíng indî kita magparápanumdóm. An matúod sinâ, maghâdit ka kun gusto mo, alagad magparahâdit kang mayád sagkod na mag-abot an tiempong dai ka na naghahâdit.

Elmer Borlongan, “Grass Fire” 

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

úkon, o

sang, nin

námî, marháy

nga, na

hambál, apód

gid, nanggád

mayád, marháy

kabudláyan, sákit

ibán, ibá

nagasilíng, nagsasábing

indî, daí

magparápanumdóm, magparahâdit

matúod, totoó

sinâ, sa árog kaiyán

Susog sa “Worry” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes A. Gaertner. New York: Viking Penguin, 1990, 38.

Airport on Mactan Island

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Leoncio Deriada

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.

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.

Servicio

“Ich dien,” iyo ni an panáta kan prinsipe kan Wales—maserbe ako. Sabi ni Jose Ortega y Gasset sa libron Invertebrate Spain, kadtong panahon an pagserbe bako sanang kagalang-gálang sagkod magayon gibohon kundi iyo sana ini an paagi ta nganing an tawo makapadágos, ta nganing an katawohan makaantos. Ngonyan na sana man an servicio bako nang gustong sabihon regalo,  kundi sarong kontrata; ngonyan saro na sana ining obligayon na an katumbas kwárta. Ngonyan na sana man an inaapod na servicio igwa nin presyo—kadaklan na beses halangkáwon pa an singil sa kagamáy na gibo. Alagad an totoong kantidad kan servicio sa tawo bako sanang kwarta, kundi an saiyang kalipayan, an saiyang kaogmáhan. An ginasiling tang servicio nagi na sana ngonyan isa ka produkto—ginapangdalok kun bagaman ipabakal, kaya tinatawad, binabarát—parating linalangkába sa mga karatula sagkod media na dai na man makatutubod.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

kagamay, kadikit

kalipayan, kaogmahan

ginasiling, sinasabi

isa ka, saro na

ginapangdalok, pinapan-imot

Biligaynon [Binikol sagkod Hiniligayon] kan “Service.” Yaon sa Worldy Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes A. Gaertner, Viking Press, 1990.

Beautiful Monsters

Save for one poignant scene in Richard Somes’s Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang, the rest of the movie leaves a number of unresolved settings, let’s call them clutter, that only puzzle the audience.

This scene involves Erich Gonzales’s Corazon fleeing the townsfolk and Derek Ramsey’s Daniel escaping the personal army of the landlord Matias (Mark Gil) in the post-World War II sakadas, most probably in the vast lands of Negros. (Immediately this mention of probability is only one among the many unresolved elements that cloud the essence of the movie. Aside from the landlord-tenant relationship which was prevalent elsewhere in the post-war Philippines, no other elements in the movie can make us infer it happened particularly there.)

In the village of Magdalena, Daniel, the loving farmer husband of the innocently beautiful Corazon, has just murdered the landlord Matias in his own mansion after the couple’s house was burned down by the goons. And the wounded Corazon, after being shot by Matias when she devoured his daughter Melissa in her bed, has also been found (and found out) by one of Daniel’s friends to be the one responsible for the killings of children in the village.

Both Daniel and Corazon are fleeing the enraged townsfolk who want to kill the village murderer. The scene rips your heart because both characters are rather fleeing their own created monsters. Daniel has murdered the landlord in retaliation for having burned their house; while Corazon has just been found out responsible for having devoured the children in the village. What rips your heart more is that the couple only wanted to have a child but the wife’s devotion to San Gerardo failed them—after Corazon delivered a stillborn. So the reality of a dead baby drove the main character Corazon (the could-have been mother) to curse God and throw her faith away to the dark.

The man-on-the-road element in this work of fiction is rendered well in this climactic scene, with the score swelling as the couple flees their pursuers heightening the drama and resolving it to the conclusion—as in the French term denouement (day-no-man)—when the couple vanish in the dark. So there.

Notes on Camp

In the 1960s, American writer Susan Sontag was brought to the world limelight after she pinpointed that camp is the “love of the unnatural, the artifice and exaggeration.” Well, we have seen camp movies proliferate in the horror flicks of the Filipino directors in the 80s—Shake, Rattle and Roll series and tons of other films in the same vein that entertained the generation of that decade. Through time, we have seen tendencies of Filipino movies to make use of camp, which refers to the effects that the film made to scare the audience by propping monsters and supernaturals so they look hideous or horrible only to make them appear outrageously odd or simply outrageous.

In Corazon, these include madwoman Melinda’s (Tetchie Agbayani) over-disheveled wig which rather exaggerates Diana Ross’s afro look. When I saw this, prizewinning fictionist critic Rosario Cruz-Lucero came to mind. In cases like this, Cruz-Lucero hints at the creative sense that an author needs not “overkill” the essence of what he is portraying by overdoing descriptions and attributes that have already been established.

The movie was trapped in the premise that a madwoman must really appear overly unkempt and dirty with her tattered outfit, teeth and all—or totally taong grasa so audience knows she is mad. And mad. And really mad. But there is just no need for Agbayani’s Melinda to appear this ridiculous so she could portray her Sisa character [she’s looking for her daughter who disappeared during the war]. I suppose Agbayani is fairly a good actress that her delivery of lines or a dramatic monologue alone could make us infer without a doubt she is a Sisa who was driven mad because she lost her child to the war.

Furthermore, we cannot see the relevance of Eric Gonzales’s Corazon putting on a baboy-damo mask to cloud her real intentions that she is the village monster preying on the innocent victims. What is Corazon’s reason for doing that? In the first place, where did she get the mask? Even the metallic effect of the face of the mask strikes us like it was stolen from the set of Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld which is too European to be accepted into the Filipino sensibility. Or talk of the masks used by  gladiators in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Employing all these is more than camp, but more appropriately a rushed second-year high school drama production.

The movie also badly suffers from the complicated plot which requires more show time for them to be unraveled and resolved. Questions. Is Melinda the lost mother of Matias’s daughter Melissa? Or is Corazon the lost daughter of Melinda? We do not know. But it seemed as if the movie showed we knew they were. While it could have just dwelt on the legend of the aswang, or how the first human-eating human being came to be—initially called halimaw in the film—the movie touched on other sensibilities and opened territories where the other characters dwelt but which it did not pursue or explore at all.

Both Beautiful and Monstrous

At the time the halimaw devours the village children one by one, Corazon contorts her head like the way it is done in the Asian horror flicks that became the norm made popular by the Japanese original Ring in early 2000s. Sadly, the movie reeks of this hackneyed style which looked fresh only the first time it’s done in those days.

While the supporting characters of Mon Confiado’s and Epy Quizon’s are comfortable, Maria Isabel Lopez’s Aling Herminia is a revelation. Her portrayal of the relihiyosa in the less-than-two-minuter scene as the partera (quack midwife) is eerie and astonishingly original. The rest is unmemorable.

In some instances, also, both of the main characters deliver their intense scenes well. For one, Erich Gonzales’s childbirth is more convincing than other women who fake their ires and arrays in most films; while Ramsay’s macho tendencies and naturalness are without question.

The mestiza face of Erich Gonzales may be deemed realistic because she was said to be the love child of her mother and an American soldier during the war. But the placing of Derek Ramsay as the farmer Daniel, whose roots we barely know, is farcical. If at all, the movie does not make clear the background of Daniel. He is too sculpted to be just a humble farmer in the barrio—he hunts boars after he works out in the Fil-Am-Jap bodybuilding gym. Funny. Mon Confiado would be the more believable Daniel. Their metropolitan or cosmopolitan twang, could have been reworked to render their rustic characters more realistic. Talk of George VI doing the entire movie reworking his tongue in The King’s Speech. The lead actors are too beautiful to be monstrous because they look too polished for these rustic roles. Ultimately they appear ridiculous. Sadly camp.

“Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang”

Erich Gonzales, Derek Ramsay, Mark Gil, Epi Quizon, Maria Isabel Lopez, Tetchie Agbayani

Directed by Richard Somes

Skylight Films, 2012

Pagtaóng-gálang

Sang naglígad, amo ini an satuyang panukol o palatandaan kan sarong tawong maáyo an pagpadakula. Dai naghaloy, nawara na sana sato an pagtaóng-gálang. Sa katunayan, kadaklan na beses, naoogma pa kita kun mayo ni, na garo logod ini pakaraot o pakitang-tao sana. Dai.

Igwang tiempo kadtong an pag-“tabi-apo” sa mga lugar na sagrado, an pagtaóng-gálang sa mga banal na tawo, an pagdungog sa yaon halangkaw sa puwesto, sa igwang kaálam, sa gurang, sa maboot, sa mabini, sa matali, sa magayon an ugali, nagparahay bako sana sa nasambit nang ta(ma)wo o grupo, kundi mismo sa tawong nagtaóng-gálang. Sa pagtataóng-gálang, an duwa nagakalípay, napapamarhay.

Saro ning pagbisto sa mga nakakalangkaw, nakakamarhay, hapós kag udok sa boot na ginahatag kan tawong pareho man ninda kagalang-galang, pareho man ninda kamarhay.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

sang naglígad, kan nakaagi, kadto

amo, iyo

maáyo, marhay, magayon

kaálam, kaaraman, kabatiran

tamawo, tawong lipod

nagakalípay, naoogma

hapós, pasil, madali

kag, sagkod

ginahatag, tinatao

Susog sa “Respect” yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 74.

Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang

Rating:	★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Horror

Erich Gonzales, Derek Ramsay, Mark Gil, Epi Quizon, Maria Isabel Lopez, Tetchie Agbayani
Directed by Richard Somes
Skylight Films, 2012

Save for one poignant scene in Richard Somes’s Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang, the rest of the movie leaves a number of unresolved scenes, let’s call them clutter, that rather only puzzle the audience.

This scene involves Erich Gonzales’s Corazon fleeing the townsfolk and Derek Ramsey’s Daniel escaping the personal army of the landlord Matias (Mark Gil) in the post-World War II sakadas, most probably in the vast lands of Negros. (Immediately this mention of probability is only one among the many unresolved elements that cloud the essence of the movie. Aside from the landlord-tenant relationship which was prevalent elsewhere in the post-war Philippines, no other elements in the movie can make us infer it happened particularly there.)

In the village of Magdalena, Daniel, the loving farmer husband of the innocently beautiful Corazon, has just murdered the landlord Matias in his own mansion after the couple’s house was burned down by the goons. And the wounded Corazon, after being shot by Matias when she devoured his daughter Melissa in her bed, has also been found (and found out) by one of Daniel’s friends to be the one responsible for the killings of children in the village.

Both Daniel and Corazon are fleeing the enraged townsfolk who want to kill the village murderer. The scene rips your heart because both characters are rather fleeing their own created monsters. Daniel has murdered the landlord in retaliation for having burned down their house; while Corazon has just been found out responsible for having devoured the children in the village.

What rips your heart more is that the couple only wanted to have a child but the wife’s devotion to San Gerardo failed them—after Corazon delivered a stillborn. So the reality of a dead baby drove the main character Corazon (the could-have been mother) to curse God and throw her faith away to the dark.

The man-on-the-road element in this work of fiction is rendered well in this climactic scene, with the score swelling as the couple flees their pursuers heightening the drama and resolving it to the conclusion—as in the French term denouement (day-no-man)—when the couple vanish in the dark. So there.

In the 1960s, American writer Susan Sontag was brought to the world limelight after she pinpointed that camp is the “love of the unnatural, the artifice and exaggeration.”

Well, we have seen camp movies proliferate in the horror flicks of the Filipino directors in the 80s—Shake, Rattle and Roll series and tons of other films in the same vein that entertained the generation of that decade.

Through time, we have seen tendencies of Filipino movies to make use of camp, which refers to the effects that the film made to scare the audience by propping monsters and supernaturals so they look hideous or horrible only to make them appear outrageously odd or simply outrageous.

In Corazon, these include madwoman Melinda’s (Tetchie Agbayani) over-disheveled wig which rather exaggerates Diana Ross’s afro look. When I saw this, prizewinning fictionist critic Rosario Cruz-Lucero came to mind. In cases like this, Cruz-Lucero hints at the creative sense that an author needs not “overkill” the essence of what he is portraying by overdoing descriptions and attributes that have already been established.

The movie was trapped in the premise that a madwoman must really appear overly unkempt and dirty with her tattered outfit, teeth and all—or totally taong grasa so audience knows she is mad. And mad. And really mad. But there is just no need for Agbayani’s Melinda to appear this ridiculous so she could portray her Sisa character [she’s looking for her daughter who disappeared during the war]. I suppose Agbayani is fairly a good actress that her delivery of lines or a dramatic monologue alone could make us infer without a doubt she is a Sisa who was driven mad because she lost her child to the war.

Furthermore, we cannot see the relevance of Eric Gonzales’s Corazon putting on a baboy-damo mask to cloud her real intentions that she is village monster preying on the innocent victims. What is Corazon’s reason for doing that? In the first place, where did she get the mask? Too implausible. Even the metallic effect of the face of the mask strikes us like it was stolen from the set of Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld which is too European to be accepted into the Filipino sensibility. Employing all these is more than camp, but more appropriately a rushed second-year high school drama production.

The movie also suffers from the complicated plot which requires more show time for them to be unraveled and resolved. Questions. Is Melinda the lost mother of Matias’s daughter Melissa? Or is Corazon the lost daughter of Melinda? We do not know. But it seemed as if the movie showed we knew they were.

While it could have just dwelt on the legend of the aswang, or how the first human-eating human being came to be—initially called halimaw in the film—the movie touched on other sensibilities and opened territories where the other characters dwelt but which it did not pursue or explore at all.

At the time the halimaw devours the village children one by one, Corazon contorts her head like the way it is done in the Asian horror flicks that became the norm made popular by the Japanese original Ring in early 2000s. Sadly, the movie reeks of this hackneyed style which looked fresh only the first time it’s done in those days.

While the supporting characters of Mon Confiado’s and Epy Quizon’s are comfortable, Maria Isabel Lopez’s Aling Herminia is a revelation. Her portrayal of the relihiyosa in the less-than-two-minuter scene as the partera (quack midwife) is eerie and astonishingly original. The rest is unmemorable.

In some instances, also, both of the main characters deliver their intense scenes well. For one, Erich Gonzales’s childbirth is more convincing than other women who fake their
ires and arrays in most films; while Ramsay’s macho tendencies and naturalness are without question.

The mestiza face of Erich Gonzales may be deemed realistic because she was said to be the love child of her mother and an American soldier during the war.

But the placing of Derek Ramsay as the farmer Daniel, whose roots we barely know, is farcical. If at all, the movie does not make clear the background of Daniel. He is too sculpted to be just a humble farmer in the barrio—he hunts boars after he works out in the Fil-Am-Jap bodybuilding gym. Funny. Mon Confiado would be the more believable Daniel.

Further, the lead actors' metropolitan or cosmopolitan twang, could have been reworked to render their rustic characters more realistic. Talk of George VI doing the entire movie reworking his tongue in The King’s Speech. They are too beautiful to be monstrous because they look too polished for these rustic roles. Ultimately they appear ridiculous. Sadly camp.

Pagtábang

Kun an tábang líbreng itinaó (mas marháy kun iyó), dángan man binísto kan nangaípo kainí, masasábi tang sarô ning kláse nin pagkámoot; dángan kun síring, iyó na gayód ni an pinakamarháy na giníbo kan tawo pára sa saíyang kápwa.

An mga darakulang táwo daí man nakakaántos kun sindá nagsosoroló-sólo. Alágad an mga pigádong nagtatarabáng-tábang, dawâ anóng óras nakakásaráng. Pero bakô man gabós na pagtábang marháy. Dai ka man maoogmá kun sa pagtábang mo napipirítan ka saná. Kun minatábang ka man na naghahalát nin balós o karíbay, mababaldê ka sana.

Kalabánan gánî, an pagtábang sa kapwa máyong naitataóng marháy. Kan áki pa daá si Hitler, naherákan siya dángan tinabángan kan nagkápirang mabobóot na Hudyó. Kan siya nagdakúla, naungís siya saindá dángan pinagaradán niya an pagkadakúl-dákul na mga Hudyó.

Sa pagtábang mo sa ibá, hingowáhon mong daí na siya giráray magsárig saimo. Magtábang kang sarô o duwáng beses saná, dai na diyan labí pa. Daí ka man maghalát nin anó man na balós. Kun iká man an natabángan, magpasalámat ka tulos; ma-ogmá ka. Dai man paglingawí an sábi kan mga guráng—kun an búlig itinaó mo sa oras mísmo nin pangangaípo, dóble an tábang na naitaó mo.

 

Sinurublían sa Hiligáynon

nakakaántos, nakakatíos

nakakásaráng, nakakaráos

kalabánan, kadaklán na béses

gánî, ngánî

búlig, tábang

Susog sa “Help” yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 111. 

Pakikiúlay

Iyó gayód ‘ni an kahulugán kan búhay. Kadaklán na béses, kitá nagtatarám o nakikipag-úlay: trangkílo tang kinakaúlay an sadíri ta; kun sa ibáng táwo man, nadadangóg kan ibá.  Kun kitá man minaísip, iniistoryá ta an sadíri ta, alágad bakô na ‘ni an kíha kun igwá kitáng ginigiromdóm o nagahímo nin áwit o komposisyón. Háros tanán na impluwénsya ta sa ibá ukón an gahúm náton na mapahúlag silá kawásâ sa áton nga pag-inistoryá. Sunód sa pagbása, mas dakúl kitáng naaaráman kun kitá nakikipag-úlay, bágay na mas kabaló kunó an mga báyi. Sa matúod lang, kaipúhan ta nga makipag-úlay. Makatakóton an búhay kun máyong istoryahánay. Atíd-atídon ta na saná an istórya kan bartolína, o an daíng pagtirînúhan sa saróng iribáhan, o bisán an daíng tararáman sa laóg kan presohán. An tawo nakikiibá ta ngáning may maistoryá. Kun kís-a, daw matak-án kitá sa mga inistórya, tibáad kayâ bastós an nagtatarám, waáy-pulós an ginahambál, máyong kamanungdánan an yinayamútam. Sa húsay na istoryahánay, an kalág ta nagkakamálay, an ísip ta naliliwanagáy, kitá nalilípay, nagsusûpáy.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

iníistoryá, kinakaúlay

nagahímo, naggigíbo

tanán, gabós

ukón, o

gahúm, kapangyaríhan

náton, niyáto, ta

mapahúlag, mapahirô

silá, sindá

áton, satúya

Nga, na

Pag-inistoryá, pagtarám, pakikiúlay

kabaló, áram

kunó, daá

báyi, babáye

matúod, totoó

istoryahánay, urúlay

bisán, dáwa, maskí

maistoryá, makaúlay

kís-a, kadaklán na béses

daw, garó

matak-án, nasusúyâ, nababangít

inistórya, uruláy-úlay

waáy-pulós, máyong sáysay

ginahambál, tinátaram

húsay, marháy

nalilípay, naoogmá

Susog sa “Talk” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 56.

My Christmas Rack

Songs They Sing for The Son 

“Sing a song of gladness and cheer!/for the time of Christmas is here!” sings Jose Mari Chan, in his all-time favorite anthology “Christmas in Our Hearts” (1990). Very well, these words spell my mood, inspired by listening to these heart warmers in my Christmas collection. 

Through the years of Christmas celebrations, holidays and December vacations, I acquired them. Every year, I have continually appreciated what they offer to the soul. They share grace and joy to whoever can listen to them. How these albums got into my rack or how I got these masterpieces I have yet to recall.

But regardless of their history and motivations, in all their original selections and covers of traditional songs—they offer one and the same message— ceremoniously and soulfully they pay tribute to Baby Jesus, the Lord of All.

Bonding with the Boy

98 Degrees, "This Christmas," MCA Universal, 1998

Boy band, boy bond—whatever term you use, Nick Lachey and his friends give us all the reasons to celebrate Christmas as they render cool covers to most traditional Christmas carols like “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “Little Drummer Boy.” Here, they hardly resemble NKOTB, evading the boy band image by hitting notes that spell sweet things like “mistletoe” and “chestnuts roasting on an open fire.” The solos in some songs display vocalization and rhythmic intonations that remind us of more solemn choirs in churches. Surely, such style does not fail to send shivers from the spine to the soul.

Little Redeemer Boy

Glenn Medeiros, "The Glenn Medeiros Christmas Album: Recorded in Hawaii," Amherst Records, 1993

This 90s Leif Garrett is more than a heartthrob when he croons way, way beyond his pretty-boy image. When he reaches high notes, he is surely pop. He sounds like a lad who has seen the Baby Jesus so he doesn’t need to act silly—he just sings holy. His “Feliz Navidad” and “Ave Maria” are choice cuts, baring innocence and jolliness in varying degrees. He does away with his shrill voice when he allows the instruments to do it for him—he focuses on hitting the emotional rises of the lyrics to render a slightly pop finish. In all, Hawaii-born Medeiros’ almost girlish voice makes recalling the Nativity a simply light moment—just like the playful child Who shall redeem us from our lack, or utter loss of innocence.

Persons are Gifts are Instruments

Ken Navarro, "Christmas Cheer," Galaxy Records, 1996

This virtuoso acoustic guitar player offers an alternative way to remember our salvation. It sets your Christmas mood through an instrumental overload—with some traditional songs like “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Silent Night” as choice pieces. Listening to Navarro’s one-of-a-kind string renditions may tell us that salvation—by the Holy Child—need not be brought about by pain and suffering [like rock or harsh or hard sentiment]. Rather Christmas is all about cheer, strummed away by the heart. With Navarro’s work, Christmas has never been so jazz, light and easy. For sure, you would want to play this bunch before you go to that Christmas party in which you’d render a surprise lousy fox trot number for all of them to see!

Cowboy Christmas

Randy Travis, "An Old Time Christmas," Warner, 1993

You would easily know how an ordinary Christmas carol sounds—but add to it some cowboy or any colloquial twang, then you get Randy Travis. But you do—not just for nothing. Here is one cowboy—whose stereotyped licentious lifestyle may tell you otherwise, whose pieces might ring a bell because they match with those of other CMT favorites—Travis Tritt, Allison Krauss or Garth Brooks. With this album, Travis proves that something more can be done beyond saddles and stall. He lets loose his soul when he chants both holy and hallowed. While his “Winter Wonderland” may perfectly fit the Marlboro ad in Time’s December issue, his reconstructed “Oh What A Silent Night” allows the guitar to sway the thoughts of the soul lulled to slumber. This cowboy’s treatment of traditional songs affords us easy cool and listening that can make us even remark oddly, as “Cowboys have Christmas too!"

Rebels We’ve Heard On High

Various Artists, "Christmas on the Rocks," Viva Records, 1994

This album hit the stands during the grunge and rock era—a time when anxiety and discord were the heyday. It gathered mostly artists and rockers who were perhaps angry at how Christmas was usually celebrated. Featuring covers of songs composed by National Artist Levi Celerio and other traditional Filipino compositions, it portrays and documents the consciousness of a more realistic Christmas, at least as defined by Filipino experience. For one, Sandugo’s “Pasko ng Mahirap, Pasko ng Mayaman” sings away a social realist stance—perhaps a self-talk on the part of the oppressed class who claims it’s also Christmas in their part of the world, despite their poverty and forlorn state [or even state of mind]. 

While DJ Alvaro’s “Gabing Tahimik” is a more soulful rendition of ”Silent Night,” which hit playlists and charts in 1990s, Ang Grupong Pendong’s “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” completes this collection to compose a sort of a Lino Brocka’s counterpart opus—it collectively makes a statement on the dismal social realities brought on to Filipinos at Christmas. You may not necessarily be one of those donning a cheap Che Guevarra T-shirt to appreciate its message; but one’s own salvation, according to the album, is simply working for social justice—and all it entails.

True, my collection is not the one you may have to die for—it is neither hard-to-find, for these artists are not as popular as, say, Ray Conniff and his singers, Chipmunks, Destiny’s Child, Frank Sinatra or even Nat King Cole. Yet, in this season of cheer and giving, their music all the same strikes chords in my heart and mind; when I play them,  I do not fail to realize all of mankind intensely desires to share the innocence, the joy, and the promised redemption by the Holy Child.

Good news from heaven the angels bring,

glad tidings to the earth they sing:

to us this day a child is given,

to crown us with the joy of heaven.

                                                      ~Martin Luther

Eat, drink with or without Mary

Dining out and other cafeteria ethics

Any sensible urban worker who is given no choice but fetch food from sources made accessible in a civilized jungle called a city or a university must acquire some neighborly ethics if he is to properly feed himself and achieve something through the day.

 

Eating in cafeterias or similar types of food sources requires that he learn a number of things on how to feed on properly and hopefully be nourished.

 

Dito Po ang Pila

city-data.comKun habo mong dai ka matunawan, magsunod ka sa linya kan mga nagkaerenot nang nag-oororder. Dawa halabaon na an pila, dawa huri ka na sa appointment, dai ka nanggad magsingit sa iba, o samantalahon na magpa-cute sa kabisto mong crew just to get ahead. Mayong maoogma sa bentahuso kundi si Taning sana. Magsala, sa kagagama-gama mong maenot kang makakua nin kakanon, mataon lugod saimo an tutong na torta, tipo kan sinapna, o tunok kan lapu-lapu.

 

Patience is virtue—gustong sabihon, saro ‘ning timeless na kostumbre o pag-uugali na nakakapamarhay sa siisay man na tawo. Dawa idtong barbarong ninuno ta mga perang oras naghalat bago nagluwas an usa sa ampas saka niya nasilô ‘ni. Ngonyan na mga panahon, sa kadlagan na inaapod tang siyudad o unibersidad, dai ka na masiod nin manok bago makanamit nin tinola. Mahalat ka na sanang ilapiga an paa o mailatag an pecho sa saimong plato kaya dai na kaipuhan magpalakpalak o magputakputak ta ngani sana makapanogok.

 

Just follow the crowd, toe the line, keep your cool, then ask for what you want, and dine.

 

Bawal An Dagdag

one.valeski.orgKun bisto mo an crew, pwede ka gayod magpadagdag. But unless you badly need that extra spare rib or cabbage leaves [which are probably pesticides-grown anyway], do not ask for extra amount of anything from the one that dispenses your food. So you insist, okay, ask if you can order half.

 

But you hard worker certainly do not deserve half serving of anything, unless you give your company or your country half of what it deserves from you. Scrimp and scrape you do. Perhaps save in other things like marked-down CDs or cheaper thrills or retail cellphone loads or bargained 3 for P100 FHMs—but for your food, spare this idea of saving.

 

Better yet, order dishes in full, so the idea of dagdag is out of question. The more you are inclined to haggling, the more it will appear to the crew that you are hungry—and this does not help because the crew will never be concerned with your hunger. They are just there assigned to portion and dispense properly for the business. And nowadays, the crew does not dispense the reasonable amount of food you are charged. But it is okay that the food given to you appears “unreasonable.” Just think you will be dispensed more amounts next time.

 

The cafeteria business, just like fast-food giants, places importance to one marketing aspect that is called portioning. Because the prices of raw materials and ingredients required for preparing food will never be saved from inflation, profits from this business are sensibly drawn from the quantity of food the business prepares and the quantity of food it can save to feed its own staff. Well, you know. But the advantage here is that the cafeteria food can be assured of the presence of freshness and the absence of trans-fats.

 

Dahil kadaklan na beses bawal an dagdag, mag-andam ka na sanang mag-order nin duwa tolong panira, bako sanang saro. Kun habo mo nanggad mabitin.

 

Logically, when you do, you are not just paying for the food, but essentially the service, services? rendered to you—which includes, among others, a clean washed plate [hopefully free of the smell of dishwashing liquid], a properly bussed table, despite its being in a mess hall; ventilation or air-conditioning, whether or not you personally require it; and of course the food itself that has probably undergone some quality control in the kitchen.

 

No need to argue

Talking about quality control, consider the next ethical principle in cafeteria dining. By all means, despite all tensions and stress pressed on by hunger, never ever argue with the service crew. Certainly in no instance should you get disappointed or intimidated by anyone who gives you your food even though you find it unpleasant or disagreeable.

 

While not all of them arecherylkicksass.blogspot.com likely to be trained to suit your dining ethics, it is important to treat them as if they treat their food like it’s their own. Even if they don’t. Even if you found some foreign matter in your soup, or the dish you were served tasted like Tide or Ariel, deem it important to “suspend disbelief.” In a more familiar term, always give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Do not raise your voice to complain. Simply reach out to them to query in cool and composure. Clarify that the service rendered is not generally acceptable. Ranting and raving about “some soap in the soup” or plastic straws in the pinakbet will not help.  Just suppose you are given imagination to transcend reality. Or remember one Holocaust survivor named Viktor Frankl famously used his imagination to transcend the tragedy he was forced to witness. In his story it can be deduced that perhaps imagination is more powerful than knowledge. But here in your story, ignorance is indeed bliss. Not having known that there’s a fly in your soup makes a whole lot of difference from having known it.

 

Although, sabi nga nila, Kung malayo sa bituka, okay lang yan. Therefore, check your system, whether your food indeed passes through your stomach. If it doesn’t, you are one lucky organism—feeding on using your other organs.

 

But seriously, consider this. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is not about dining until the marlin is cooked by old Santiago [which he does not]—but it’s certainly about survival. There is a part there which says “a man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

 

The crew may poison you but it should not destroy your willingness to seek medication from the nearby doctor in case you get to swallow some plastic served with your pochero.

 

Ask For Receipt

istorya.netKun dai man kaipuhan na bayaran kan opisina mo an kinakakan mo dawa na ngani on official business ka, dai mo na gayod kaipuhan maghagad nin recibo. Dakula an karatula kan BIR na nakapaskil sa cashier na an sabi ASK FOR RECEIPT, alagad dai ka maglaom na tata’wan ka nin recibo pag bayad mo. Mag-andam ka na sanang sabihan kan cashier na hinahalat pa ninda an stub kan recibo hale sa BIR. Dai ka na magngalas dawa maaaraman mo ara-atyan na an kakanan na iyan since 1962 pa nagsisirbi sa mga employees alagad mayo pa nanggad recibo. If at all, you were taught in high school to be considerate. Think of good manners and right conduct. It is never good to intimidate people.

 

So unless it’s a matter of life and death, do not ask for a receipt. Mas orog na gayod kun cooperative an kinakakanan mo—such business involves benefiting a big number of underprivileged families and their sensibilities. Garo man sana naghulog ka na ka’yan nin pirang sensilyo sa lata kan Bantay Bata 163. Sabihan ka pa kaiyan, “an darakulang business ngani mga tax evaders, alagad mas concerned sindang magsingil sa mga small businesses na arog mi.”

 

Ano na sana an pulos kan nanu’dan mo sa social responsibility o sa moral philosophy? Think of social justice. It won’t hurt to give to small people. Dai ka ngani nag-aangal sa VAT kan bago mong Wrangler jeans. What right have you to question the purpose of this representative of the lesser evil? Sige lang, because the food you are about to eat is not evil. No food is evil. Unless it comes from one.

 

Hala ka.

 

Eating Utensils

leec.co.ukA cafeteria is a public place, so don’t expect that the utensils you are using are germs-free. One pair of spoon and fork must have fed all types of mouths or more than you can count. Kaya Bawal an masiri pagkakan sa cafeteria. Wisikon mo na sana an kutsara sagkod tinidor na nakapalbag kairiba kan mga sanggatos na iba pa. Magpasalamat kang dakul kun an la’ganan kan mga utensils nabuhusan nin nagkakalakagang tubig, tapos napaso ka pa kan kapotan mo. Mainit-init pa pagkakan mo. Okun habo mong magkahelang ka, magkakan ka sa cafeteria nin aga pa, mantang an mga kakanon nag-aaralusuos pa. By the time, swerte ka ta pati an mga utensils tibaad maray an pagkakahurugas. Bagong karigos pa sana si naghugas.

 

Alagad dai ka maghadit dawa dai disinfected an kutsara sagkod tinidor mo. Kun may pag-alaman man na mag-abot, an magiging helang mo tibaad helang man kan iba, kaya mas makakaantos kamo—nin huli ta igwa siempre sindang maiimbentong bulong para sa helang kan kadaklan saindo. In principle, in order to sell, pharmaceuticals as business in themselves have ISO-certified R&D arms that know the needs of the common good. Here, think collective. Hindi ka nag-iisa.

 

Alagad. Sabi kan mga gurang, maraot man an grabeng pagkatubis o masirî (squeamish). Garo idtong nabasa mo sa Reader’s Digest kaidto na don’t be too clean; it impoverishes the blood. By being too squeamish and obsessive-compulsive (OC) about not catching dirt or germs, you do not develop immunities to germs. You don’t make your antibodies work. You reduce your own resistance to the world, which is one of dirt. But washing hands properly is enough. Proper is just enough. Over is more than enough.

 

Don’t Just Grab A Bite, Eat Your Food.

fem-fatl.comAny meal is the most important meal of the day—kaya dai paglingawing kakanon an inorder mong kakanon. Yeah, you cram to go somewhere: an appointment, a fieldwork, a meeting—yes, nourish your career, nourish your soul [araatyan masimba ka, makihilingan sa amiga, mayaba-yaba] alagad ngonyan nourish your body first—make your cells tissues organs systems work. Girisa an mahibog, daula an matagas, sapaa an malumhok, halona an saradit. Maaskad an adobo, malagtok an maluto o minsan parareho an namit kan tolo mong panira—kumakan ka sana. Mayo ngani kaiyan an iba. Sa pagkahapay ngani nagagadan an iba. At least ika igwa.

 

Eat, drink, with or without Mary—in other words, eat for the sake of eating, regardless of whether you like it or not. Pagkatapos mong magdighay, rumdumang marhay. Food alone can’t save you. It fills but it hardly nourishes.

 

First finish or get done with your salivation; perhaps only after then can you start & think of your salvation.