THE BLOGGER'S DILEMMA

       The association's financial records showed they had more than P500,000, representing the donations of writers both from PH, Hawaii and the US mainland. 
   The blogger returned the Pedro Bucaneg Award in protest, among other reasons, over this kind of corruption and the silence of writers who apparently swallowed hook, line and sinker the financial reports submitted by the officers.
    For the young generation of Ilokano writers, and those who have not read our reasons for returning the award, here's a part of the letter sent to the then president of GUMIL Filipinas, Mrs. Elizabeth Madarang-Raquel:

    " 1. Peter La. Julian, Pedro Bucaneg Award insublina a kas simbolo ti pannakipagrikna ken pannakitaktakunaynayna ken ni Apo Aurelio Solver Agcaoili a nangtunton iti justicia iti pannakarabrabngis iti dayawna.
     "2. Peter La. Julian Pedro Bucaneg Award insublina a kas simbolo iti luksawna iti saan a nalawag a pannakadagup iti naur-or a pondo ken pannakagasto iti kuarta iti pannakabangon iti Balay ti GUMIL idiay Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur. Kanaigna daytoy ti di maawatan nga ulimek dagiti dadduma a mannurat iti isyu agraman ti rikkiar a pinataud ti kangatuan a pammadayaw (PBA)."

     The house was started in 2002 by  then GF president, who submitted financial reports without the accompanying receipts of the purchase of building materials and the plantilla that would reflect the wages of the laborers. (Text message from JB, the architect of the house: "Ammok nga adda ammo ni Rochina ken Eden ta isuda kada p2ng laeng ti makairuar iti banko ti pondo ti GF.")
     

     

LORD OF HOSTS, SEND HER YOUR HEALING SPIRIT

Lord of hosts, hear our prayers: Send her your healing spirit that will burn into ashes the cancerous cells in her body. Amami- a-Mannakabalin-Amin, denggem kad ti kararagmi nga agpaay ken ni Lady Fele Mann even as we send our collective energies to her.

WEAK-WILLED PRESIDENT OF FILIPINOS?

Filipinos as Overseas Contract Workers in Singapore

    The components of meaning of weak-willed include the idea of lacking in intelligence or mental skills or prowess.
   The blogger first heard of a "hint" on the mental capacity of the incumbent President during an interview with Imelda Romualdez Marcos at the Robinson in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte two years ago. She was in effect saying that her son "Bongbong" Marcos was more intelligent than Noynoy.What was her point? Your guess is as good as mine.
   Comes now Noynoy's inability to cut his smoking habit. Why can't he stop smoking? If Imelda were to answer, she would say: "Did I not tell you that he is weak-willed, that he lacks the mental ability to quit his passion?"
   Researches say that if a person inhales the smoke of one stick of cigarette, more than  400 poisonous chemicals enter his or her body. Maybe Noynoy could not get the hint why he is sick now and then. Maybe, he is too mentally "feeble" to recognize the meaning of poisonous chemicals? If he reads research, of course.
   The Filipinos--now they number more than 80 million warm bodies-- do not deserve a weak-willed and unhealthy President, whose breath is bad because of smoking, and who smells bad even if he puts perfume all over his clothes and body.
 

AS THEY SAY, THE STRONGEST PEOPLE ARE THOSE

people who can still handle things with a smile on their lips, even their eyes want to pour out tears. She is our Lady Fele Mann of Darwin, Australia. Still we beseech you, Lord of Hosts, to burn all those cancerous cells in her body, and make her comfortable today and the rest of her life. Hear us, Amami a Mannakabalin-amin.

LORD OF HOSTS, HEAR OUR PRAYERS

Lord of Hosts, hear our prayers for the Smiling Lady From Down Under. We beseech your to heal our sister, Lady Fele Mann, who has served your faithfully, and whose body bears the cancerous cells. Burn, we pray, these cells, turn them to ashes and scatter them in the wind. We also send our energies to her whose unbounded love for us will remain forever and will remember her for the rest of our separate lives.   

CHINA'S NEIGHBORS ARE ITS STRENGHT

Ilokano fishers boats on the Currimao beach, which is nearer to China than the Scarborough Shoal which is coveted by China. Below, fishermen drying their nets after casting them in the sea.

China's rise to power, economically and militarily, is unprecedented for an Asian country. It is now flexing its might and its neighbors, particularly the Southeast Asian nations as an association, are understandably disturbed. The Philippine President has been very vocal against China's incursions into the Scarborough Shoal near Zambales province. Anyway, the puny ASEAN could give China a run for its money, by what else but a boycott of the giant's economic products. You can not ignore a market of 600 million warm bodies--the combined populations of the emerging nations.

SENDING ENERGIES AND PRAYERS

     Sending prayers to heavens for the Lady from Down Under,who is sick, and sending our collective energies to her. Lord of Hosts, keep her under the shadow of your protection.

     Some stray thoughts in Winchester 
     This is what life should be: No hate, no recriminations, the ability to bounce back from a great loss, caring for one who needs it, to go on no matter what, and squeeze every waking moments for the joy for oneself and the others.

     It's 2:01AM in the ancestral home in Laoag, at the third floor. A celebration in the neighborhood woke me up and could not get back to sleep. Earlier in the night, there were emergency calls to Hawaii and Munoz, Nueva Ecija. Cocoy who was transferred to the Batac Medical Center from the Ablan hospital in Laoag had chills and needed a CT scan, costing P10,000. His tricycle father could not produce the amount. Dr. Boyet promised to give the money, or some money. The blogger will also be giving for the financial needs of the two kids of Marcial, who are attending high school.

     Is it fair, Lord of Hosts, that those who have less in life, need a lot of money to save a sick member and could not raise it at the moment of need?

KADA MANANG PACING, JSPH, JR. KDPY.


Apay ngamin aya daytoy patinayon a suknal?
Awan imeng ti kapanagan ket nadagaang ti parbangon
A saep-saepen saysayengseng ti lamok?

Kas iti estatua ti santo a binigat nga agpadpadaaan
Awan paksuy dagiti mata uray no kurkuridemdemen.

Adu dagiti saludsod a tawataw ti sungbatna.

Iti lugan nga agawid, awan ti arimekmek
A kasla ketdin sangsangalen dagiti sarita iti adu
A saem, bariw-as iti panabirok iti imnas

A maibinsabinsa dagiti nagunegna iti agpatnag
A sallin ti panggep iti sumaruno a panagkikita.

A WRITER OF CONSCIENCE

     It is conscience that guarantees freedom to write about situations in the social milieu. The writer of conscience is, therefore, like the apolitical leader, privy even to the smallest details in the scheme of things. After all, he or she creates the reality and model of what society should be.

      Lord of Hosts, remove from us this political curse that has scattered us in a million islands of hopelessness and despair. Give justice to the journalists and men and women of conscience who perished at the hands of Mindanao beasts and barbarians.

SENDING ENERGIES TO THE SMILING LADY

Sending the Julian collective energies to the Smiling Lady From Down Under. 

Let the cancer cells dissipate forever like summer rains in a crevice.

A  Modern Haiku

Frail woman, laughing in a yellowed
     photograph crisscrosses the mind:
the silence of summer sunflowers
on a barren lot in Winchester. CA

DEATH TO THE SPIRIT

     "Subservience of any kind is death to the spirit." 
     This is not from the blogger applying it to some Ilokano writers who write in a weekly Ilokano magazine, but from Alice Walker, a black American writer, in her anthology of essays, "In Search of our Mothers' Gardens." 

     The blogger and the late Godofredo S. Reyes, 13-time president of the Ilokano mannurat organization. In extreme right is  the unfinished writers' house in Suso.   Most of the money  came from Ilokano writers' groups in Hawaii and the US mainland. "Sayang dagidi in-contributemi a kuarta, Peter," Manang Pacing told the blogger three days ago in a long distance telephone call from Honolulu.

        

ANASTACIA, KASAOM TI BULAN*

(Para ken ni Manang Pacing)

Bessag ti basikaw a bulan
Aggargaraw dagiti anniniwan
Iti naulila a kapanagan.

Makaipas dagiti lagip:
Dagiti nalamiis a turod
Idiay Samoki ken Sagada
Ti karayan iti uneg ti daga
Idiay Palawan, dagiti orkidia
Idiay Davao, dagiti agila
Idiay Sierra, ti batonlagip
Idiay Batac: daytoy ti bannawag.

Anastacia, agsaoka
Kasaom ti bulan
Kasaom ti lunod ti bulan
Kasaom ti samiweng
Kasaom ti saem ti samiweng.

Anastacia, agsaoka koma
Diak maitured nga imatangan
Dagiti agarimayang a lua.

Wen, dagiti sagibo, dagiti sagibo!
Pimmanawda iti sidongta
Nagpakadada met, Anastacia.

Ay, nakalawlawa ti salas
A nagay-ayamanda idi, ay!
Naliday dagiti lukat a tawa
Agsasaibbek ti agdan
Agsangsangit ti dap-ayan
Mangngegko dagiti timek
     ken katkatawada
Ngem nairteng ti manto
     ti ulimek kadagiti kuarto

     a nagtaraytarayanda.

(Agsayukmo met nga agsubli
Dagiti balikasko.)

Sapulenta kadi ida
Ket inta kadagiti adayo a daga?
Ngem sadino ti pagbirokanta?
Dita ammo dagiti lugar
     a nakaiwaraswarasanda.

Kasano a pabsublien ida
Ket nakaro ti bisin ken rutayrytay
Ti Santa Maria ken Darayday?

Bessag ti basikaw a bulan
Agsaoka, Anastacia, agsaoka.
Kasaom ti bulan.


*Nairaman iti expanded version ti "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger"

TONIGHT THE BLOGGER FORGIVES

     The hiatus was an accumulation of frustrations and disappointments. But tonight, for the sake of unity and the Smiling Lady, who is sick, all will be forgiven. She will no longer read from the blogger's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY things that may disturb her peace of mind.
      Forgiveness is hard to give but the blogger realizes that he has forgotten the discussions long ago about the proper translation and application of the Greek, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do/Ama, pakawanem ida ta dida ammo ti ar-aramidenda."  
      The blogger was with priests and a deaconess and they had a good time with the Word. There was laughter each morning, from Monday to Friday, in that corner of the world along Bokawkan Road in Baguio City. 
     That world will not come again except in memory. Two of the translators have crossed the Great Divide: Fr. Godofredo A. Albano of Bacarra, Ilocos Norte and Rev. Anacleto G. Guerrero of Moncada, Tarlac. Mrs. Patrocinia Tayaban lives in Itogon, Benguet; Bishop Juan Marigza in Aringay, La Union and Rev. Gervacio Tovera in California. United Bible Societies' Rev. Noel Osborn, the project coordinator, lives somewhere in Ohio, USA, while Mrs. Rosalind, our Baby, Camat, lives in Baguio City, looking after her husband Romy, who has been incapacitated by a heart condition .
    The blogger, a native of Laoag City, was the only writer and layman in that ecumenical group that translated the Bible into Iluko. The only layman in eight major Philippine ethno-linguistic translation groups at that time, he was given the Roman Catholic Church imprimatur (authority) to sit with the Ilokanos by Batanes Bishop Mario Baltazar.

HEALING ENERGIES

     Esteling and I and the eight brothers are sending prayers to heaven for the healing of Lady Fele Mann in Darwin, Australia. Her cancer cells are back after a hiatus of 10 years. Ditto for Maling, wife of my nephew Palma, who is confined at the provincial hospital for her breast cancer. Doctors say she is waiting for her last day on earth. Heal them, O, Lord of Hosts.

     Smiling Lady From Down Under, Esteling and I and the 8 siblings are sending you our healing energies. Be well, Great Lady Fele. You still have to dance the arikenken with Dr. Agca. Others in the timpuyog have yet do dance with you. Remember the night with Perting (God bless her sweet soul) and you at the St. Mary's University in Bayombong? And Camp Samal in Tumauini and the Convention Hall of the Philippine Ports Authority in San Fernando last May? O, there will be other Mays with you!

JOURNEY TO WHERE THE FLAVOR IS, GOD BLESS THE BLOGGER

Beginning of a journey that would bring the blogger to Laoag, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Baguio. On a mission for the sibling who lost his way but is back in God's territory and graces. Also for a nephew, an emerging Ilokano a nagaget, for a sickness that knocked his young body down--May the good God bless him and cure the disease that afflicted him.

BEFORE THE HIATUS

The Ilokano pagablan and woven cloth at the Museo de Iloco in Laoag

Rushing everything before the hiatus. Before the blogger declares himself  a literary barbarian who must stay away from the polis and become either a god or good-nature beast. Intentional or lapse in judgment? The blogger has been with the country's leading English newspaper for the past 15 years and his English, he dare says, is good. An internationally published poet, he could give a Philippine PhD holder a run for his or her money--in English.  The blogger is the best in their class. For all his efforts, he got nothing in return. But that's what it should be when you do things out of love and sacrifice. 

TRANSLATION COST

The newly-renovated Ilocos Norte Provincial Capitol, where the the Provincial Treasury Office occupies the east wing 

A purely technical two-month translation job is only worth P10,000, according to the Provincial Treasury Office of Ilocos Norte. What was their basis for rating the translators?  It was a two-men work, which means that the translators were paid P2,500  each per month translating into Iluko the New Revised Revenue Code of Ilocos Norte. A pittance. An insult to the training and special skills of the translators, who originally suggested P17,000 for their efforts. To add icing on the insult, the translators were made to wait for at least three weeks for the release of the check. One of the translators made a " follow-up" on the check on a daily basis. Can they complain to Governor Imee Marcos for the insult heaped upon them by the Provincial Treasury Office?

THE SILENT RAINS

The rains are mute and deaf, as silent as dumb cows in the pasture. It is only when they make contact with the air and other elements on the ground like rooftops, ponds and creeks and rivers that they roar and become noisy and dangerous. So is with a man. Leave him alone by himself, sans gadgets, sans television, sans radio and he is meek like a lamb. It is only when he integrates with other men that he is either a gentle and kind " god" or a brutal beast.  Blogger's journal of November 7, 2012 after  an early morning  rain showers in Oscariz and after reading Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" as translated by Thomas Cleary.

THE COUNTRY OF OLD MEN

     The blogger has been a resident for sometime in this country of young people. There are only a few old men here to talk and discuss economics, literature, philosophy and politics, yes politics that bedevil the province. The last oldest man, a politician for sometime, died three months ago. The scion is a village chair who plays mahjong almost everyday. One day, the blogger told him of the garbage along the road to Alfonso Lista. His answer? Mano met laeng aya ti sueldo ti tanod? Recently, Innova riding men broke into a fertilizer store along the highway and carted away expensive abono bags worth at least P300,000 and P100,000 cash. He did not even come to the store and inquired what happened, if only to show his concern. The incident happened in the wee hours. Where were the village policemen or the tanod at that time? That question never crossed his mind.

     Last year, the village government reported a total of one million pesos in operational expenses.

     If only they seek advise from this country of old men consisting of the blogger, a dowager, and an arthritic former ladies' man.

CLIMATE CHANGE, THIEVES AND THE SMALL MAN

     The signs are all over the ring of fire and beyond: stronger typhoons, more heavy rains, more devastating earthquakes, the melting of the glaciers, the extremely cold and frigid Arctic sea slowly and surely becoming like an ordinary sea. 

     When did climate change start? Technically and philosophically speaking, it began when man discovered fire. Why? Make your deduction with respect to the glaciers, the frozen seas and tundras and the North and South poles and other abodes of virgin snows. Anyway, fire is heat, the needed warmth to melt the glaciers and snows. And the body also creates heat and multiply that heat by the number of individuals in the planet and imagine your contribution to the meltdown.
     After the discovery of fire thousands of years later, came industrialization and the massive use of fossil fuel. Industrialization and the advance of civilization had, and will always have, disastrous consequences, one of which is the destruction of the ozone layer. This region in the stratosphere, the earth's protective shield that absorbs the sun's destructive violent ray is being damaged at a fast rate. When you don't bury but burn your garbage, especially plastics and tires, or drive that car, you contribute to the erosion of the ozone layer.
     In this part of the world, we always rant and wail when disasters strike us like thieves. (And the biggest thieves are still around like the Womanizer, the convicted plunderer, who stole our GSIS and SSS money including the Little Woman with fortified neck and his wealth- hiding Mickey Arroyo who had only P50,000 that ballooned to P100-million during the time of his Mama.)
    Remember Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng that wrecked havoc in Metro Manila and killed many people? Where were the flood control systems? None. Where have the funds for the construction of these systems go? Thieves. Small thieves. Medium thieves. Big thieves.
     Of course, Mother Nature was the main culprit but it was paying us back for what we did: the destruction of trees and mountains to make way for expensive subdivisions, the building of structures on waterways and river banks and even creeks. Not to say the indiscriminate disposal of garbage that finds its way in canals, esteros and rivers. Where is the government's Clean and Green program that is conducted year after year?

  to be continued

Where, O, Where Is the Homeland of the Moros?

The Ilocos Coast, part of it in Ilocos Sur

     They were known as sea-faring people. In Spanish times, they were pirates that rode the western Philippine sea and raid Christian towns along the coast. Their depredations reached as far as the Ilocos where there are still relics of watch towers warning Ilocanos and Igorrotes of the arrival of vinta- riding and kris-wielding people from Southern Philippines.  The crumbling radrillo watchtower is still there in Bacnotan, La Union.

    Maybe because of sheer number, Bangsa Moro territory should comprise  Sulu, Basilan  and Tawi-Tawi. But not in the entire island of Mindanao (their area is specified in the MILF-RP Memo of Agreement), where lumads, Cebuanos, Ilocanos, Ilonggos, Samarenos and other Luzon ethno-linguistic groups outnumber them three to one. Inside their "homeland" in Mindanao are also great numbers of Christians and lumads.
     
    Why create a nation-state of Bangsa Moro? Why amend the Constitution to accommodate them? They are already gloating over the government's action of stopping gas, oil, mineral explorations in their imagined area.

     And why are they allowed to keep their guns, these Moros who have been beheading Christians and Christian soldiers since time immemorial?

     Give peace a chance? At the expense of the Filipino people? And the country's territorial integrity?

    President Aquino like her mother Cory before him has betrayed the Filipino people. That memo of agreement, as articulated by a Moro himself--he is actually a Badjao-- the former UP professor Nur Misuari, is a recipe for disaster and further violence in the South.

CHECK FOR PAYMENT OF TRANSLATION OF THE

Locally-grown bonsay at the bonsai section on the Capitol grounds

NEW REVISED TAX CODE OF ILOCOS NORTE HAS been languishing (like Mikey Arroyo's "lazy" bill on security guards) for the past three weeks at the Provincial Treasury Office. This is unjustified delay and we may ask the intercession of Provincial Assessor Atty. Ermie Labayog for the release of the check. Ania't napasamak, Apo Treasurer?  Shall we write Gov. Imee R. Marcos about this bureaucratic inefficiency? The blogger understands that as per rare and short interviews with the young lawyer, the lady governor frowns on lousy jobs and easily gets angry. Incidentally, the Treasury Office has signs all over the walls warning against fixers.  Now we understand why there are fixers to expedite matters at a cost. Shall we ask the lawyer, a nephew, to "fix" those people? The blogger is not dropping names--we are only calling the attention of Mr. Marino Guieb and his fellows at the Ilocos Norte media bureau. The check has feet that unfortunately are disabled and is moving at snail's pace to the next several desks inside the TO?