ELEHIA KEN NI ARTURO M. PADUA*

Arturo M. Padua, whose column, "Malutluto, Maib-ibus", graced Bannawag, the Iluko weekly magazine, was one of the pillars of Saluyot writing. He held various government posts as town mayor (Sison, Pangasinan, where he was cremated and buried) and as provincial board member, and was tourism official assigned to the United States and Taiwan during the Marcos martial law years. A journalist and former FAMAS president, Turing, as fellow writers called him, was first president of Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas, the association of Ilocano writers in the Philippines, where this mannurat also served as elected member of the board. A friend of then tourism secretary Jose "Sunshine Joe" Aspiras, Turing maneuvered us on October 23, 1968 to Malacanang, where Ferdinand Marcos administered our oath of office at the Palace Ceremonial Hall at 4:30 PM. The writer, Manang Pacita Saludes and Ms. Amelia Bautista walked from a boarding house in Sampaloc to Malacanang that afternoon.


ladingitek, ARTURO.

aginana koma ta kararuam, kabsat,
natan-ok a mannurat
mangiruprupir kadagiti babassit,
managpakatawa, di mangtagibassit
awan surok, awan kurangna
dagiti komento ken paliiwna.
natadem iti isip.

ala, itugotmo iti tanemmo
dagidi arapaapmo iti daydi daan
a gunglo.

iserra ti ridaw.

nagpilit a simrek dagiti balikas
a di maikari iti templo
idinto a naglimdoda, isuda a nangpaspasangbay
kadagiti agikurkur-it
iti saem ken namnama iti igid ti baybay.
kasla di mamati dagiti agtutubo
iti babak dagiti adigi? 


iserra ti ridaw.

wen, nagsayukmo ti naindaklan nga asawa,
ti namunganayan naulimek iti sibayna.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
kaduata koma ida a nangitandudo
tarnaw dagiti saan a marubsi
a sursuro a nariingantayo.
anansata, naglemmengda ngata
nupay adda met nagtured a nangbirok
iti sipnget ken kinapudno.
nagwingiwing ti idolo a taga-montalban
idi imbagak ti nasukalan.

ay, aglalaaw pay laeng ti ulimek
 iti nabibineg a panunot!


iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
ti laeng manglagipen ti aramiden:
anian a tebbag ti timek
daydi lakay iti dakkel a balay
iti igid ti karayan
idi sinurnadantayo ti sapata
ti sagrado, natan-ok nga ofisina.
nakaamerikanatayo idi
kada manuel s. diaz, fredelito lazo
PELAGIO ALCANTARA
MAURO GUICO
idinto a nakabarong da
juan s. p. hidalgo, jr., guillermo andaya,
prescilliano n. bermudez,
FERDINAND E. MARCOS
PROF. SANTIAGO ALCANTARA
HERMOGENES BELEN
GREGORIO LACONSAY
ken godofredo s. reyes*
nakakimona da amelia bautista ken pacita c. saludes.
ay, taraki-utek dagiti lallaki!
ay, lapsat-sudi dagiti babbai!

SIKA ti immuna a pangulo.
datayo ti immuna a sirmata ken tangsit
ti patneng a pluma.
dagidi a tawen, ay!

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
nagsardeng idi ti angin 
nagparintumeng dagiti allon
ket iti andingay dagiti darikmat
impeksam dagiti balikas
a kasla ketdin kampilan
nga inasutmo iti kaunggan.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.

agnanayon daydi a buya iti kadaratan
kumitkitaka idi iti surong
(ania't sapsapulem idi dagiti matam iti amianan?)
daydi narsmo adda latta iti dennam--
"isu ni..." inyam-ammonak idi iti dayag.
apagbiit daydi maudi a pinnatang
ngem isu ti kaatiddogan
iti biagta iti lubong ti panagsuratan.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
lagip laeng ti napalabas,
wen, lagip laeng ti napalabas
daydi samiweng a dinto agkupas.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.

saan nga amin a dawat magun-odtayo
dagiti imet, babantot, saem ken dagensen
iwagsaktayo tapno naan-anay ti wayawayatayo.

maturogka ngarud a sitatalinaay, kabsat,
padak a periodista
manakem a mannurat.

iserra ti ridaw.


*Nairaman iti antolohia dagiti dandaniw nga Ilokano ken Ingles"Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger." With introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Those whose names are in capital letters are already dead. 



Naadaw iti kolum a napauluan iti "EYES WIDE OPEN" nga ipabpablaak ti Star, Northern Luzon, aglinawas a pagiwarnac idiay San Fernando City, La Union. Adda dagiti aritubarna.

* saan pay idi a pimmusay ni Apo Godo, namin-13 a presidente ti gunglo, idi masurat daytoy a daniw. an honest documentation on the national association of saluyot writers.
*idolo ( jsph) a nangisurat iti maipapan dagiti panniki iti montalaban
*naindaklan nga ina (dati a presidente ti University of Northern Philippines ken asawa daydi dios-ti- alluadna nga apo godo)
idupag ti daniw: apay a nagtalinaed a patta ti balay koma dagiti mannurat idiay Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur?

ETIOPIA IDIAY NEGROS NGEM SAAN A NEGROS IDIAY ETIOPIA/ETHIOPIA IN NEGROS BUT NOT VICE-VERSA

Natikag a daga idiay Etiopia/Ethiopia is barren country
Umay la ti tudo kalpasan ti siglo/Rains fall once in a century
Sadiay saan nga agtubo dagiti mula/There food crops do not thrive
Dagiti ubbing a masacsakit ken kanayon/The children, diseased and always
A mabisbisinan napucawda ti timecda/Hungry, are stony silent.
Agpacpacaasi dagiti limnec a matada/Their sunken eyes plead for mercy.
Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbing ti Etiopia./Ethiopia is a joyless world for children.

2.

Nalangto ti daga ti Negros./Negros is green country.
Gagangay ti panagbayakabacna./Rains fall in torrents regularly.
Natalubo sadiay dagiti unas ken taraon a mula/There sugar canes and food crops thrive well.
Adu ti macan ngem masacsakit/Abundant is the food, but sick
ken mabisbisanan dagiti ubbing/And hungry are the children
Masapul a iyaradoda ti bagida/They must toil and work
iti sangapinggan nga innapuy a matgedanda/For a plate of rice.
Limnec dagiti matada nga agsarsarita/Their sunken eyes speak eloquently
Maipapan kadagiti bacnang iti pagilianda./Of the filthy rich in their country.
Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbing ti Negros./Negros is a joyless world for children.


Naipablaak iti "ANI" nga immaldit ti Cultural Center of the Philippines

PH Corruption Bayou

If jueteng is a metaphor for corruption, then we are swimming in it and we could be the winged creature in the Chinese adage:" A swan that swims in a swamp also thinks it stinks."

The illegal numbers game is a multi-billion-peso industry involving a great number of public men, from secretaries to police chiefs and their subordinates to provincial governors, to town mayors and barangay(village) chiefs. Include the bettors, the mostly poor people who gamble and take a chance to hit the once in their lifetime jackpot. But the beneficiaries are mostly the powers-that-be, receiving as much as P100,000, according to sources. There was a time in late 1980s that a regional police director in the Ilocos was receiving P1-million monthly from jueteng lords.

The Facebook Lover, She

When in the old hometown years later
he found her across the pages of quotations,
sayings, biblical passages, what-i-did-today
diaries, trivialities, videos.

quote without mercy, the needle went into
my flesh, into my vein, pounding
pounding my brain like hell unquote.

what to make of her in the 1983 photograph,
she with the long tresses and yellow-green dress?

she is a promise of beauty, a love song
sung by a frail woman, a zsa zsa padilla
look-alike remembering her childhood

pain in a hospital that smelled of bedbugs,
antiseptic, crushed garlic and death.

model: maria margarita denise julian

ELEGY

Sea-gulls had wing-dashed
Over the seam foams
Which were white flowers
In the sun
Had bade goodbye to trysts
In the evening
Light one summertime.

Remember the laughters
In the afternoon
And the castle of sands
Washed by the madness
Of the waves:
There is an obscure pain
Somewhere in a blue corner
Of remembered remembering.

Remember, too, the rains
That came, the race toward
The trees and the sudden fire
On fingertips.
Then we were adams and eves
Colliding with innocence,
Lost in the maelstroms
Of being.

I know not where the years
Took you, what height
You scaled, what song
You sing now.
I only know a face virtuous
And beautiful like the morning
Dew.

And time is a dry leaf
On scattered twig:
It can not touch the memory
Of the sea.

Now in the jewelled sky
I thirst again
I sing of loneliness.


model: stephannie "paning" juan julian, first-year high

Some "theories" on Language Decline

Apo Ariel,

Sacsiac ti kinapudno dagiti paliiw ni Apo Firth McEachearn maipapan iti agdama a sasaaden ti Iluko idiay La Union. Naidestinoak idi iti daydiay a provincia idi panawen ti martial law. Nacarcaro ket ngata no di tagtaginayonen dagiti mestizo-Castila nga Ortegan ti kannawidanda ng Ilokano.

Malagipko man ti reversed assimilation ken ti saan a panagballigi ti multiculturismo idiay Germany. Dagiti imigrante a kaaduanna a Muslim, they keep to themselves and their culture. Never have they assimilated the Germanic life, its perspective, its language.

Kasta met idiay Ilocos. It is us who are assimilating the culture of Tagalog-speaking immigrants from other provinces, instead of them assimilating ours, that culture that includes the ability to talk in the language.

The Iluko decline could have started during the onset of martial law when Ferdinand Marcos regionalized national agencies with the establishment of administrative regions. In the Ilocos, San Fernando became the administrative center where regional offices sprouted and where non-Ilocano regional agency heads flocked along with their chosen employees. Tagalog, of course, became the language agency meetings and communication (along with English)and regional conferences.You know the consequences.

This phenomenon is also true with the establishment in the provinces of branches of fast food chains like McDonald, Jollibee and Chowking and even TV and radio networks. Tagalog-speaking crews and employees. Fuera de los buenos, kadagiti food chain outlets idiay San Fernando, Vigan ken uray idiay Laoag, kasapulan nga agorderka iti makan iti Tagalog.

Iti naminsan, I was covering for PDI an early morning fire idiay Baguio city market. I chanced upon this ABS-CBN TV crew in the burned area. One of the victims,a Mr. Calimlim,was being interviewed and he was talking in fluent Iluko--the supposed lingua franca of the mountain provinces, when the anchor interrupted him, saying, "Agtagalogka."

Nagbeddal la ngarud diay tao. Nagsinsinal-itak lattan, a, iti unegko iti daydiay nga anchor a puro nga Ilocano a taga-Bacnotan.

Then there is this radio program in one of the radio stations of Laoag. One time, a Bacarra female caller was exchanging views with the Tagalog-speaking anchor and she was trying to sound (accent) like him. Very akward and insulting use of Tagalog in the heart of Ilocoslovakia.

Can TMIF and Gumil chapters make resolutions requesting provincial boards and municipal and city councils to pass ordinances obligating Manila food chains and other companies doing business in Amianan to employ all-Ilocano crews in their provincial branches? Or whatever ethnic group that dominate in the area? Or, at least employ, more Saluyot? After all, they earn their revenues here? For TV and radio networks to allocate, say, 60-70 percent of their broadcasts in Iluko out of respect for the culture?


to be completed