TEN MOST OUTSTANDING ILOKANOS IN 2013

     The Laoag City-based The Ilocos Times, the oldest and most read weekly tabloid in Northern Philippines, has selected its Ten Most Outstanding Ilokanos for 2013.
     Herdy La Yumul, chair of the paper's Editorial Board Screening Committee, identified the recipients of the award as: Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Pamela Aragoza, owner of a restaurant specializing in Ilokano food owner and civil leader; Jesson Ramil Cid, gold medalist in decathlon at the recently-concluded Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar; Joven Cuanang, patron of contemporary art and former chief medical officer of St. Luke's Medical Center; Christian Espiritu, dance instructor; Michael Farinas, former Laoag City mayor; Aldrin Garvida, advocate of native culture, particularly of the Tinguians; Jorge "Jopo" Guerrero, local television broadcaster and anchor; Tina Tan, Ilokano culture blogger; Ricardo Tolentino, agriculturist, who parlayed his P50,000 into a multi-million mango business;  and Zacarias Sarian, development journalism practitioner, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
    The award was inaugurated last year, the recipients of which were mostly politicians, in contrast to this year's awardees who came from different fields of endeavors

UMAYKA MANEN, GANGGANNAET/COME AGAIN, STRANGER

     "If a man purposely does me wrong," a Buddhist says, "I shall return him my ungrudging love; the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go to him from me."

     The she-devil with the neck brace has yielded, but wait--she has fled to the sanctum of the plunderers in the inner chamber where dwells the country's biggest criminal syndicate.
   

The Museum of Traditional Arts, the former Tabacalera building, in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines

     Some of the poems to be included in the expanded version of "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," an anthology of Iluko and English poems are the following: Taltalem Ti Itlogda, Sika a Naumbi a Kanta, Dagidi, Denggemto Sadi Langit ti Pannakarasawda, The Facebook Lover, The Slaughter of Journalists and Other Political Perfidies, Where Have all the Flowers of Edsa Gone? Wanderlust, At the Time of the Holocaust. 

The Introduction is by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

     The first edition of the anthology came off the press in 1998.

PANAGUUMMONG 

 Saantayo a pimmanaw: Agsublitayo iti daan nga ili/Iti daan nga urnos/Kadagiti naangep a lagip---/Maysa a bato sadiay, ti akasia /Iti pagserkan, ti karuotan/A nagkikinnamatantayo./Dagiti babassit a panagbettak/Ti rikna kadagiti aringgawis/Dagiti balikas, ti nadayag/Nga arapaap---/Dagidi aldaw, anian!/Naganustayo ken siwawaya/A kas tumatayab iti tay-ak.?SImrektayo iti maysa a panawen/Idi lamolamo dagiti maris/Naayamuom dagiti rosal/Idiay Torres Bugallon.?Ita a rabii, maitanem dagitoy a samiweng, katkatawa/Tapno unorentayo manen ti agsapa/Nga agturong kadagiti kalsada/Iti ikub dagiti tarimbangon/Ti naputolan a lubong.
   
     ITI DAYTOY A PAGILIAM

Ayanmo idi intag-ay ni Kabunian

     ti kanigid nga imana
     ket impaulogna dagiti bendision
     ti daga?

     Adu ti imparaburna
     Adu ti pagarian nga imparangkapna:
     Acupan, John Hay, Dole,
     Del Monte, Procter and Gamble,
     Isetann, Robinson, Hilton
     William Lines, Stanfilco,
     Forbes, Jardin and Davis.

     Paspasdek a nangalikubkob kenka
     Iti mismo a pagilian.

     Ket ti patneng a Judas nagkamang
     Kadagiti adayo a siudad, intarayna
     Dagiti tallopulo a pirak
     Dagiti pannakikamalalana, intarayna
     Dagiti dagiti minas dagiti pultak
     A bantay a ti pagbanaganda
     Kasto ti Ipil-Cunig--
     Rinamesda, binaybay-anda--
     Iti gayadan ti Cordillera.

     Naingel ti arak nga impainomda
     Naingel ti apro nga inlaokda
     Dagiti ganggannaet a didiosen
     Agkatkatawada iti imeng ti kuarto
     Dagiti pagturayanda.

NELSON MANDELA'S QUOTATION FOR WRITERS

     Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader, is a towering figure who can not be compared to any world leader worth his salt. There is an attempt in the Philippines to compare him with the "hero" Benigno Aquino and even the convicted economic plunderer Joseph Estrada Those who advocated this idea are hallucinating, for the great Madiba was unique and the situation for which he struggled came once in a lifetime.
     His article of faith, no doubt his guiding principle
in his crusade, is probably summed up in the following quotation attributed to him. This one is also for writers who should look for and write and speak the truth:
     "Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others--qualities which are within easy reach of every soul--are the foundations of one's spiritual life."     

DAGITI MABATI KALPASAN TI PANAGALLAALLA*

Daytoy panagbirbirok iti sangamalabi a balitok
Daytoy panagbirbirok iti  madaydayaw nga aglablabonan
Daytoy panagbirbirok kadagiti tawen idiay Darayday
Daytoy panagbirbirok iti sabali a sangladan
Panagbirbirok kadi iti awan kaes-eskan?

Idiay Honolulu, binirokmo kadi ti init iti laud?
Ania't binirbirokmo kadagiti basura iti nailet a kalsada
Ti Waimanalo? 

Nadlawmo kadi ti lalaki a nangitanggaya
Ti imana iri ruangan ti Dimsum kalpasan ti pannangan?
Inwagaywaymo kadi ti imam a kasla addaka idiay
Quiapo tunggal asitgandaka dagiti lingka ti daga?

Ania ti pampanunotem idi ballasiwem ti kalsada tapno
Agluganka iti Honda Civic iti asideg ti poste idiay Keolu?

Ania ti insaom iti babai a kimmablaaw kenka idi agbirbirokka
Iti tarong ken paria iti gumpong ti nateng idiay Dong Phung?
Impagarupna kadi a sika ti kasinsinna a gapgapuna idiay Laos
Wenno Vietnam? Napartak dagiti balikasna a kas iti kapartak

     dagiti agpagunggan a kabalio nga agtartaray iti akaba
a kalsada ti Amarillo
           a dumanon idiay San Francisco.

Hey! Ririawannaka kadi ti babai a nakapantalon iti nakipet
Itay impaturongmo ti kamera iti ngatuen ti kayo a malabsanna?
Wenno nangngegmo ti bukodmo nga ikkis iti baet dagiti taul ti aso
Iti darepdepmo no sumken ti bangungotmo iti parbangon?

Awanen niebe a nayaplag a kas puraw nga ules iti karuotan ti parke
Awanen dagiti nakalamlamiis a bigat ken malem, dagiti makabibineg
Nga angin iti dan-aw a naed ti ginasut a pito ken agtaytayab a ganso:
Anian a kiakkiakda iti maregmeg nga ipurpuruak ti Puraw a baket.

Sumipngeten, napudno a gayyem, tumakderkan ketdin ket magnaka
Iti sikko-sikko a dalan nga agturong iti awang a balay a pagur-urayan
Libro a ginatangmo idiay Wal-Mart: basaem manen ita a rabii bayat
Nga agagawa dagiti kayumanggi, ti kudilda ngumisngisit iti gayebgeb
Ti init iti pagilian a napnuan namnama, arapaap,  adu a pannakapaay.

*Included in the expanded version of the Ilokano-English anthology, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger"

"PH SUFFERING FROM SPIRITUAL POVERTY"--F. Sionil Jose

“PH SUFFERING FROM SPIRITUAL POVERTY”

     Poverty which concerns the stomach stalks the land where food crops could grow abundantly. On the other hand, graft and corruption in which millions, nay billions, of pesos go into greedy pockets of public men is draining the economy. The country is bleeding.

     What exactly is ailing the country?

     It was a Saturday during the reign of the convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada that a P.E.N (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) International Conference was held at the Oasis Country Resort in San Fernando City in La Union. We were one of the panelists that included F. Sionil Jose, Charlson Ong, Star columnist Isagani Cruz,  Alejandro Roces, Juan S.P Hidalgo, Jr. In attendance, too, were University of the Philippines English professor Nieves Espitola; Elmer Odonez, more than 300 Ilocano writers and English and literature teachers in Region 1.

     Hidalgo gave the keynote address of the conference while Jose, the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and the Communication Arts, delivered acidic comments on the country’s political and economic state during the open forum. 

     What he said then is still true today.

     The country is not only suffering from poverty where people get hungry, said Jose, the Ilocano literary icon. It is suffering from spiritual poverty which is worst than poverty of the stomach.

     He said that in the village (Tomana, Rosales, Pangasinan) where he grew up, “the parents are very proud that their daughters are going to Japan when they know fully- well that many of these young women would become prostitutes in that country.”

     He claimed that in Pagsanjan, Laguna, parents pimp for their young boys who sell their young bodies to pedophiles.

     “The degeneracy of our people illustrates too well the failure of the established churches,” he said. “If it is true that we are the only Christian country in Asia, then such Christian values of honesty and integrity and belief in God should be imprinted in us.”

     Nothing of the sort happened, he said. He deplored that the country’s priests live like princes. And poor men’s churches like the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai do not have lower class ideology, according to Jose.

     “What do they really believe in?” Jose said. At that time, the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai were supporting Estrada whose ouster from the presidency was being demanded by the Roman Catholic Church, business groups, the academe and various sectors across the nation in the aftermath of the juetengate which triggered the impeachment trial against Erap.

     Jose said he envied the Iranians who ousted the Shah of Iran in the 1970’s. “They, the Iranians, are not Catholics but Muslims. Their God is a fighting God.”

     “If we are interested in building the country, it is very important to look at ethics as solution to our problems, “Jose said in Ilocano.

     “We got the worst from our former colonial masters—the Spaniards, Americans and the Japanese.”

      Jose said that what we inherited was racism, the attitude of superiority and the attitude of people in the Iberian peninsula: that it is not honorable to work with one’s hands.

    From the Japanese, we did not get their high point that enabled them to become the great nation that they are. What we got from them was the sense of brutality and hierarchy, Jose said.

     It was a verdict that should assail as all—the failure to imbibe the work ethics and democratic ethos of the Americans that made their country also great.

     Jose, the most translated Filipino author, then hit the great disparity between the wealthy Filipinos and the poor. "It is obscene for one family to own a whole district of Manila wherein are built mansions and skyscrapers.''

 

 

 

 

A PERSON'S WORST ENEMY

     "A person is his own worst enemy...Ten enemies can't do what a person does to himself."--Isaac Bashevis Singer     

    The old man tried to talk to this person on a Friday afternoon in his house.

     Their driver parked the car in front of the man's bungalow. The wife got off the car, carrying a paper bag containing the dress their patroness gave last May. She was returning the dress and a $20 bill to the expatriate writer through the wife of this man.

     In front of the house were sacks of rice/palay piled on top of one another. The door was closed, so the wife walked farther to the back of the house, where a dirty kitchen is located. When she reached the placed, she disappeared for a while, then she came back still carrying the bag.

     On the way home, the wife told the husband that the man's wife was out on a camping event in a nearby village, according to the two female helpers of the family she talked to at the back of the house. She said she asked if the man was in the house. They said he was inside the house and was sleeping. Did she ask the helpers if it was possible to wake him up? She did not dare, she said.
     The blogger knew in his heart that the man was awake and he was watching the wife walking away from the house, away from their life. It was fifteen minutes to one o'clock on the blogger's Fossil watch. It is a 10-minute ride to the municipal hall where the man works. Maybe the man is tired and decided to call it a day.

      

PEOPLE COME TO OUR LIVES FOR A REASON

     People come to our lives for a reason, says the author of “Eating Fire and Drinking Water,” a P99.00 pocketbook the blogger purchased recently at the SM Baguio National Bookstore.

     Marcelino Gaoiran was a classmate in the grades in Laoag. He would come to my life again 10 years later in Manila, when he was an engineering student at the National University. The blogger was a working student at the state university in Diliman.

     Marcelino’s auntie Julia and her husband Mike Aguilar—probably in his late 60s at that time-- were maintaining a 2-door apartment along Guidote street in Sampaloc. They had student boarders from Laoag, some of whom were factory workers, a public school teacher, also from Laoag, and a male relative (Mike’s) from Isabela.

     It was a chance meeting with Marcelino in one of the streets of Manila. And the blogger became a boarder at their apartment.

     And so I met this fair-skinned plump girl—half Chinese, half Ilokana—who boarded at the apartment. She was a commerce student of Far Eastern University.  It turned out her mother Ittang was a relative of Mike Aguilar who was a retired US navy man.

     Estelita who was younger than the blogger became his wife and bore her eight children—all boys. She is a strong woman, literally and physically. She was a working mother and she raised our kids well practically all by herself, with some help from her mother.

     I said “she raised them practically all by herself ”, in Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela, because I was an absentee father—the blogger was always away as a journalist, a Bible translator, and government information officer. In Baguio, San Fernando City, Abra, Bayombong, Tuguegarao, Ifugao, Pampanga, Ilocos Sur, Cavite, Bicol, Iloilo, Davao.

     The blogger knows not where Marcelino is now. But I would like to express my gratitude to him for coming into my life and meeting my future wife. I would also like to thank his Auntie Julia and Uncle Mike who are now in the bosom of the Almighty God—may they rest in peace. They did not talk much, and the blogger never had any long conversation with them. But they were nice persons.

     Yes, people drift in and out of our lives for a reason, several reasons. They teach us lessons, for example, in humility and love.

     They also teach us how to hate. Like the three Ilokano writers the blogger associated with for at least five years. Writers as truth-tellers are supposed to be honest, but there were several situations that showed this was not the case on their part. It was a big letdown.

     The blogger had to walk away from them. Yet I am grateful for the lessons they taught me. For one, I have become more honest, more transparent, more discriminating in my relationship with people. 

Frontage of the blogger's house where he and his wife
 hosted board meetings of the Ilokano writers' organization

     I thank them even if they did not thank me for what I did for them, especially in the Ilokano-English magazine that we and Errol Abrew, the most prolific Ilokano writer, had wanted to evolve into the best publication of its kind in Amianan, if not the whole Philippines.  

The Julian clan during the marriage of Christoffer, the youngest, to Christine Baui
 in a Tuguegarao church

DISASTERS LIKE YOLANDA MAKE OR UNMAKE A LEADER

     Disasters in the scale of Super typhoon Yolanda make or unmake a leader. The natural calamity wrecked havoc in Tacloban and other provinces in Eastern Visayas and Palawan, flattening the areas, killing maybe thousands  (more than 1,700 in Tacloban, Leyte according to the latest count). No one was spared, especially in Tacloban. 
     Six or seven days after the tragedy, the survivors were still fending for themselves, looking for their loved ones, sleeping with their dead kin while foraging for food and water and sleeping in the streets of the devastated city. This was what CNN Anderson Cooper saw and reported: no one provided help, no one taking charge. Where is the leadership? 
     President Aquino went to Tacloban which suffered the most damage in terms of destruction and death. Was it the second day? He walked out of a meeting of local officials, saw the damage and went back to Manila? And then making stupid comments before international media? And then just like that? Days before the tragedy struck he was making statements that the country was ready for the onslaught of the strongest typhoon in recorded history? That his disaster management and rescue team was aiming for zero casualty? 
     President Aquino's behavior in this Philippine Apocalypse was not that of a president of a country.He was unmade, exposed as incompetent and weak-minded. He was no longer a leader. Yolanda blew him away.

SUPREME COURT DECISION ON THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF PDAF

The decision by the Philippines' highest court on the Priority Development Assistance Fund--it was unconstitutional--was a victory for the oppressed Filipino people, a million slaps on greedy lawmakers who have been "feasting" on the Fund year after year after year.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, whose father was convicted of economic plunder, has been seen in Tacloban City, Leyte distributing relief goods to the Yolanda victims.

Jinggoy is merely giving back to them part of the money he and his cohorts siphoned allegedly from the Fund.

Shame on him for rubbing salt to the people's injury. That was part of the money he stole from them. It was merely a drop in the bucket, so to speak.

Incidentally, where are his co-accused--Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla--in the plunder charges filed against them by the Department of Justice?

A NATIONAL DISASTER NEEDS A STRONG AND COMPETENT LEADER

     A national disaster spawned by Typhoon Yolanda that wrecked havoc in the Visayas, especially Tacloban City where the First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos comes from, does not need a leader who makes light of the situation and blames local government units for bungling their jobs in the relief operations. On the sixth day of the tragedy, Aquino is still ensconced in Malacanang issuing press releases that the government is doing something to solve the problems and making stupid statements like, "You did not die, right?"
     What? He is still in the Palace blaming the weather for is inability to visit Tacloban and see for himself the dead and starving people and fending for themselves! 
     We say again, he should be there and lead relief efforts or at least give hope to the victims, even if it is only for photo op.
     And where are the politicians who stole P10-B from the state coffers? 
    God bless the Philippines! God bless the victims--the dead and the survivors who are doing everything to live for a day and helping each other. 
     A million thanks to you, foreign governments and international donors and rescuers! 

JANET NAPOLES' NETWORK OF THIEVES?

   It takes two people to dance the tango, so they say. The Philippine Senate hearing on November eight with Janet Napoles in the limelight gave us a brief outline of the network that the alleged  brains of P10-B scam created in order to siphon off money from the state coffers. Yes, she could not have masterminded the Great Highway Robbery without the connivance of people led by high officials of the land.
     Does this network involve a retired general who was prominent in the martial law regime? Does it include lawyers at the beck and call of the scum queen? 
     The questions are elicited during the interrogation of Cagayan lawyer Levi Baligod, counsel for the whistle-blowers, who allegedly tried to extort money from the Napoles group. The lawyer from Cagayan denied the allegation and in the process mentioned the name of a certain Gen. Diaz. 
     Was he the Tomas Diaz in the martial law regime? Is he part of the Napoles network or netpork? Are there more lawyers and members of the military aristocracy, past and present, in this conspiracy?

SEMANA DAGITI AR-ARIA

 

Glass painting on a wall at the Church inside the
campus of La Salette University in Santiago City, Philippines

     On All Souls' Day, the blogger sees in his mind her sister Inocencia preparing rice cakes and putting them on a low table in the sala of the ancestral home, now a 3-storey structure along what used to be Jose Palma Street in Laoag City. 
     The cakes like linapet and patupat and niniogan made of diket or glutinous rice, are atang or offering for the souls of our departed: our parents, Dionisio and Rafaela, my brother Ciriaco, Manang Immang,  sister Helen, a teacher, who died and was buried in Padada, Davao del Sur; and five other siblings who either died when they were still kids or in their infancy, and whose names escape me now.
    Neighbors will come for the long prayer imploring the Almighty God to keep their souls (our departed) forever resting in His bosom. After the prayer, the guests will eat maybe pancit with cola and other soft drinks. The prayer group may take some of the rice cakes and bring them to their respective homes. 
     It's Fiesta dagiti Natay or undas, when the souls of the dead pay a visit to their ancestral home, linger for a while, then leave the house to go back to their kind of Lethe.

ATANG TI KARARUA

ILOKANO OFFERING FOR THE SOUL (DEAD)

     Do dead Ilokanos (their kararua or souls) come back nine days after leaving the world of the living and making their way to their kind of Lethe? Ilokanos believe in this concept and so they prepare food for  them as gesture for their brief return to the ancestral home. The food is in the form of linapet, patupat( rice cakes), baduya, and pop corn (busi) shaped like a small ball with the traditional molasses and thin fried slices of rice cake called pelais. The cakes are arranged on a table covered with white crocheted cloth and or white cloth embroidered  with sun and moon figures. After everything is ready and done, there is the long prayer for salvation and emancipation of the Ilokano souls.

     Of course, the cakes are eaten and distributed to participants and guests of the prayer vigil.

     Nota Bene: They say that the spirit (soul) is energy, deathless and indestructible. If the spirit did not immediately leave the body, a close friend of the dead man or woman can feel his or her presence; he could even hear his voice, calling him that he was going away from the world of the living. There are other worlds near us or about us. That spirit will go there until it eventually leaves for this world or lodges itself in the body of a woman or man.

A girl's watery grave: the story somewhere in Abel blog

NO YOUNG WRITER IN THE HORIZON?

 
      The organization was formed to develop writers in the language in the manner that the forerunner of the group,   carried its task and succeeded in the undertaking. Years earlier, when they were younger, the present bangolan, at least some of them, worked hard to earn the title as mannurat and succeeded without those literary seminar-workshops.
     Fast forward to the present, after five years or so, did the organization,  succeed in its mission?
     The blogger can not see a young Ilokano writer raised in the vineyard of creative writing. There maybe two or three who are emerging and holding a kind of tool of the profession. But except two, a professor of the University of the Philippines Baguio, and a teacher from the city of pines,  they are not being developed to become responsible and intelligent writers. Why? Because they are writing hate, dishonest literature, they are being dictated by unscrupulous individuals who give them money for their loyalty.
    (Of course, Junley Lazaga Lorenzana is a writer waiting to be discovered. He developed on his own. He was our first winner of the poetry contest. The other young writer, a teacher of Baguio City--that's what we assessed her from her poems--is also in the same situation. )

Laoag Roman Catholic Sinking Tower

The Gilbert Bridge over the Padsan River in Laoag City, Philippines

THE 'LOOKING GLASS' THEORY AND WHY LAWMAKERS ROB THE PEOPLE

The blogger and his apoko Juan- Juan in a Singapore mall

Dining out with our son's family at Lucky Plaza, where Filipinos converge
especially on Sundays, in Singapore

       A blast from the past.
     It was ironic that the reasons the convicted plunderer was ousted were the same reasons the critics were then presenting for the ouster of gloria in excelsis deo.
     Let us go into the "looking glass" theory as proposed by Charles S. Cooley so we can understand why men in power or any ordinary person behaves and thinks the way he or she does.
     The fundamental concept is this: A person will perceive himself as others see him or her. For these rascals, it is the other way around--they perceive themselves according to themselves. Here lie the roots of conflict. But they will not understand given their moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
     The "looking glass" theory is one aspect of socialization, a never ending process, which starts at birth until our dying day.
     It's here that the concept of right and wrong is learned, not inherited from our parents. Our physical, mental and social skills are acquired here even as human interaction continues as we move from one structure (or agent of socialization) to another.
     By age 25, it is assumed that through this process, we shall have permanently developed values and principles that would guide us through the labyrinths of life.
     Recommended reading for pseudo Ilokano writers who have been maligning the blogger.

CHECK FACTS BEFORE MAKING CONCLUSION

Part of Tribu Paraiso in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. 

The merelion statue is a ten-story structure,
where one can get a view of  Singapore and the surrounding islands. Photos by the blogger

     Subscription to the magazine was then P500.00 per year. The blogger was personally delivering copies of the magazine to Estrella Arellano, a school teacher in San Mateo, Isabela. She was not subscribing then but the blogger kept pestering her and so one day, she said he was taking a one-year subscription. But she did not pay immediately. 
     Each time the magazine was out, the blogger would make the trip from home in Oscariz, some 10 kilometers away by jeep or van. From the highway, I would get off and hire a tricycle to Estrella's school and after a brief chat with her, I would go home if I did not visit my son's family, the house of which is along the road to Bacarrena.
    That was the ritual until Estrella, who promised to write for the magazine when she retires from the service, paid her subscription. It was the same story with her P1,000.00 subscription. She only paid the amount last August. 
     The blogger also dropped by the San Mateo Municipal Library and gave the librarian copies of the magazine, hoping the municipal government would take out a subscription. The female librarian, a Domingcil, said the matter needed the approval of the Sangguniang Bayan. After several unsuccessful follow-ups, the blogger gave up. 
     Writing is truth-telling. If the young writer uses his mind, he could become a great writer. 
     Truth is a million times greater than lies. 

The Highest Teaching

     "The challenge of Zen is to meet each day, each moment with a clear mind and a clear spirit, so that the moment to moment union with existence seems the highest teaching." --from the Little Book of Zen, one of the books given to the writers iti ballasiw when we hosted a meeting in the house in Oscariz.

An article of faith involving life, according to the blogger:

     No hate, no recriminations, the ability to bounce back, to care for one who needs it, to go on squeezing every moment for the joy and pleasure for oneself and that of others.

TRUTH IS A MILLION TIMES STRONGER THAN LIES

The blogger  as a journalist in Singapore

     This writer was a member of a 7-man ecumenical group in the Philippines that translated the Bible into Ilokano. Technically speaking, it was translating the Scriptures  from the original languages of Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament.) The only layman in the group, the blogger was given the imprimatur to sit with the Ilokano "Naimbag a Damag" project committee by Bishop Mario Baltazar of Batanes. The project was under the aegis of the US-based United Bible Societies through the Manila-based Philippine Bible Society.
     I never knew how PBS knew about me as an Ilokano writer and how they located me (it was a woman who came with a letter inviting me to attend a seminar for translators in Baguio in November) in the house along Coromina street in Quiapo. 
     It was in the late 1970s and the other mannurat boarding at the house included Terry Tugade, Prescy Bermudez, Genaro Sumaoang, Benjamin Chua, Jaime Luzano, Lorenzo Tabin and his brother Herman.
     The translators' seminar, held at Westminster Hill along Bokawkan Road, was attended by priests, pastors and deaconesses of different religious denominations in Northern Luzon. We were observed closely for our intellectual and social abilities. The person may be intelligent and "wise" but can he or she work in a committee? 
     Finally, the selection of the Ilokano Bible committe was announced on the third day. They were: Fr. Godofredo Albano of the Roman Catholic Church, Pastor Gervacio Tovera, Jr. (Nazarene Church), Rev. Juan Marigza (United Church of Christ in the Philipines), Mrs. Patrocinia Tayaban (United Methodist Church), Pastor Anacleto G. Guerrero (UMC) and Peter La. Julian, Roman Catholic layman. 
     The recording secretary was Prof.Rosalind Rusgal Camat of St. Louis University, Baguio.
     Coordinator was Dr. Noel Osborn of UBS, and a native of Illinois, USA.
    I stayed in the translation project longer than my colleagues because I had to do the Iluko version of the Apocrypha.
    As a Bible translator, the blogger hobnobbed with archbishops, priests, nuns, pastors, deaconesses and other religious persons including Filipino and American linguistic experts, who trained us in linguistics, the dynamic equivalence kind of translation and gave crash courses in Hebrew and Greek. 
    The Ilokano New Testament was launched at then Baguio Colleges Foundation (now University of the Cordilleras)  in the early 1970s while the whole Biblia was launched at the St. Paul Cathedral in Vigan, Ilocos Sur in early 1980s. 
    It was a job that exposed me to Biblical truths, the world of antiquity, of prophets and kings and the ways of men. It was the most satisfying job in my whole life. 
     As a Bible translator, the blogger believes that truth shall make us free, that truth is stronger than lies. Yes, truth is much, much stronger than lies. 
     And so remain optimistic that the lies concocted against you will strike them back with the force of a million bombs.  

WRITERS' ETHICAL BOUNDARY

Juan Felipe Bautista Co Julian at a public library in Sengkang, Singapore. Photo by the blogger.

     If you are a writer in a democratic society, it is said that you can write anything under the sun or anything that catches your fancy. 
     This, of course, is conditioned by certain factors. For example, you can not write about people's dark secrets, a polician's girl friend who is not his wife, and other foibles without his or her consent or permission. Even with a cause, you may or you may not state that cause but it must be within the code. 
     Did you say that you have the mighty pen, and, therefore, you have the license to accuse anybody of committing acts that he or she has done without any proof? Think a million times.
     You must have in your possession documents and other irrefutable facts.
     Yes, there are ethical rules, there are

Art representation of the Ilokano dadapilan (sugar cane crusher)
 at Aurora plaza in Laoag City, Philippines 

principles of decency and fair play in the writing profession, especially in journalistic writing. You go beyond this boundary, and you are liable for damages in legal actions.

Quote of the week: "A story is not merely an image of life, but of life in motion- specifically, the presentation of individual characters moving through their particular experiences to some end that we may accept as meaningful." Robert Penn Warren 

RESPECT FOR OTHERS BEGINS WITH SELF

The world's second biggest casino in Singapore. Photo by the blogger

     This is a refrain for writers as truth-tellers: respect for the other person begins with respect for the self . That's a cardinal rule. If you don't respect yourself, how can you respect the other person who, in one case, is a fellow writer?

     If you are telling baseless lies against the other person, what does it make of you? You call yourself a writer?

     

The blogger at MRT Singapore

Bridge to Potia, Ifugao over the Magat River in Aguinaldo, Ramon, Isabela

WRITERS ARE CONSTRUCTIVE FORCES

A typical sala  of an Ilokano home

     Truth-telling and doing what is right should be the hallmarks of writers. If you are a writer as the blogger has been saying again and again, you have created for yourself a pulpit that requires you to look for and speak and write the truth. 
     A writer has a vision of what society should be: a community of equals who give due respect to the other person whatever his station in life may be. As a writer, you are supposed to know more things--social,political, cultural, economics-- about what is going on in the society than anybody else. You know the ways of men, their foibles, their secrets. You may write about them, but on a case to case basis.
     As a lawmaker in the context of his vision of society, he is a model of what is good and what is not ugly. If this is not so, what is his or her credibility as a writer? 
          
     What is honesty and integrity that should govern the behavior of the writer?   

CONTEMPLATING LEGAL ACTION

The great eternal truths and principles of your mind antedate all religions or philosophy.--Joseph Murray

The Provincial Capitol in Laoag City, Philippines

     
     Some people see logs in the eyes of other persons but don't see the stinking shits in their own backyard.

THE PEACE WITH THE ALMIGHTY GOD

     The blogger has made peace with his Almighty God. No outside negative stimuli can move or agitate him. The eternal God will deal with those who swallow hook, line and sinker the latest transgression against the blogger and, therefore, against the God who created him.

   This is written in the ancient oracle:       
   Yes, His wrath is upon the liar; the Jehovah Christ has put a curse on him and his anger shall be upon him until his dying day. The justice of God will run its course; it may be slow but it will come and blow him away and he will never know why.  

THE PRINCE OF PIGDOM

PRINCIPE ITI PAGARIAN DAGITI BABOY

Year in and year out
He signed the completion reports
Of ghost projects funded by his pork 
And he would get his kickbacks
In trolley cars delivered to his door.
Mr.S is worth P186-million,counting more.
How his wealth ballooned never will 
We know while the people in poverty wallow--
It is their money but how would they know? 
Why would he tell them?
Their votes and souls have been bought.
They will stay as slaves and garbage pickers.
And Mr.S laughs and laughs
And his buttocks, fattened by stolen
Doughnut,quiver and blush,quiver and blush
And may they remain so
Year in and year out.

LETTING IT GO

     Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing.--Ernest Hemingway, 1954 Nobel Prize winner   
     

        You can not change the past. You can not change the facts.

         We gave literary books and magazines to writers during occasions and other literary activities like the event at the Mariano Marcos State University in the so-called Sunshine City last May. We gave out no more than 30 Ilokano books for teachers that may help them in the Mother Language-Based Multi-Lingual Education. We gave a "rare" literary book to the youngest participant (student of Data Center College Laoag, Philippines, a wisp of a girl who wants to write in the language) and a "rare" copy of The New Yorker to the oldest (male) would-be-Ilokano writer.
     
    This is for the record and no other motivation.This is also for the record of the Almighty God who sees everything and knows the heart of men.

Leisurely walking in LA with my wife and cousin Simonie (partly hidden).

    Yet this is our advice to the young writers or those who hope to be responsible mannurat: if you are a writer, you have created for yourself a pulpit that requires you to look for the truth, and once you have it, write it, speak it. In this case, be fair with yourselves and give the blogger a fair chance by asking him his side of the controversy. Check your facts. Balance your piece.
    The Lord of Hosts is watching.
     

LETTING THINGS GO

    People make conclusions and comments without checking their facts.
     We are what we think, we are what we say, we are what we do, even in secret.  

SINKING IN THE QUAGMIRE

     Philippine Sen. Franklin Drilon, one of the lead prosecutors of the successful Chief Justice Renato Corona Impeachment Trial, has earlier denied he knew Janet Napoles, the alleged brains of the P10-billion scam. Now, photos of him with Ms. Napoles have circulated in the cyber world. He was smiling and the blogger could almost see his porky eyes. 

     In a press conference, Sen. Drilon tried to explain his presence in a party hosted by Napoles.

     The blogger, if he were his adviser, would have immediately told the senator: Please, please shut up! Your slip is showing. 

     The more he talks the more the senator sinks in the slimy quagmire of his own making.

                        Descending to the Level of Little Minds

   

     The blogger as journalist can use the tools of his trade to ask damaging questions that would put the adversary in his place. But we  have decided to stick to the real issues of the controversy. 

SHOULD NOT THE WRITER TELL THE TRUTH?

"There will always be conflict in human affairs because of the simple fact that I'm hungry and you're thirsty. I want to sleep when you want to get up, I want to go let when you want to go right. The issue isn't conflict itself, but how to deal with it." --Riane Eister 

     A writer worth his salt is one who has a cause and a purpose--to look for and speak the truth. How do you deal with a writer who has been caught lying so many times the blogger lost count in his lying business?

     Why the deliberate telling of false statements and conclusions? In the blogger's case, was it to impugn our integrity as writer The blogger is exasperated, yet he tries to understand the little minds.

    But is not getting angry at their actuation a sign of weakness? Must the blogger descend to their level and be like foul-mouthed fishwives?

LETTING THINGS GO

     We have deleted the entry here and gave all the facts to the Almighty God.
                                       

LETTING THINGs GO

 
We have deleted the entry in this page to create space in the future for a poem or a short story. Except what is left below, the facts in the deleted write up have been submitted to the God Almighty to judge what we have done in His name. 

     Let us be careful with our language, especially when it pertains to corruption and moral and immoral acts. Remember, the blogger is a journalist and we ask questions.     
     The blogger crossed to his Elba and has been moving on. 

ENTRIES IN ILOKANO LEXICON

    Two new words are now entries in a forthcoming Ilokano dictionary authored by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. 

     These are: napoles, a take-off from the name of the most notorious thief in the history of Philippine corruption, Janet Napoles  ; and jinggoyismo, from Jinggoy Estrada, one of the six senators involved in the P10-B scam in collusion with Philippine mayors, lawmakers and other cohorts.

napoles (1) 1. grand theft 2. grand larceny of people's money  3. grand scale thievery of development funds from the government in cahoots with government officials, but masterminded by a businessperson not employed by the government

jinggoyismo (1) maysa a kita ti nakarabrabaw a panangikalintegan iti di maikanatad nga aramid partikular iti pannakikunsaba iti birkog iti fundo ti gobierno a naisangrat iti panagdur-as dagiti awanan akses kadagiti rekursos ti gobierno.

"OCCUPY LUNETA"

     One million people are expected to attend today's protest rally against the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund at the Rizal Park (Luneta) in Metro Manila. Similar rallies will be held in other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao and in Baguio, Santiago and Laoag City. The P10-billion scam was engineered by business woman Janet Napoles and her "connections" in Congress--representatives and senators.

     The President and Vice-President of the Philippines have been practically using the taxpayers' money for their own welfare.