RE LACAR ILUKO POETRY CONTEST AND MURUKAMI'S MOST FRIGHTENING THING IN THE WORLD

     Dig this if you have read "The Mirror" written by the best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami. *
    

Mr. Severino V. Pablo has appointed himself as the administrator of the Severino and Eufemia Lacar Commemorative Award in Iluko Poetry Writing. This is contrary to the rules specified by the sponsor, the Lacars of Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, through siblings Francisco and Juanita, now Australian residents. Under the  rules and in the section, Selection Committee, the administration of the award or selection of the entries is the responsibility of the TMI Journal senior staffers (Editorial Board) and those with expertise in Ilokano poetry writing. This includes the selection of the board of judges.
     As adviser of the Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, which also oversees and promotes the project, the blogger recommended the following to sit as judges of the contest: Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaolili of the University of Hawaii; Dr. Alegria Tan-Visaya of the Mariano Marcos State University; and Dr. Vicente Bonoan, a former university dean, now with Data Center Laoag.
    Without consulting with the TMI Journal senior staffers, Mr. Pablo appointed Mrs. Elizabeth Madarang Raquel and Dr. Gregorio Amano as members of the board of judges. Lady Fele Mann and the rest of TMIF senior members objected to the inclusion of Mrs. Raquel because of her unresolved problems with Dr. Agcaolili and Mr. Peter La. Julian. In the case of Dr. Amano, an essayist and short story writer, he did not qualify as judge because he does not write poetry and had no "expertise in Ilokano poetry writing."
     In the evening of May 12, the the blogger who was in Laoag for a nephew's burial, went to see Mr. Pablo and told him the impropriety of the appointment Mrs. Raquel  and Dr. Amano as judges in the literary contest. Instead of explaining his unilateral decision, Mr. Pablo got angry and shouted expletives  against the blogger.  He was raving mad and her son and daughter had to restrain him from committing an act which, to the blogger, was mindless violence. We were surprised at the hellish behavior of a "bangolan".  But we stayed calm all throughout the encounter and did not go down to the level of Mr. Pablo.   
    So what's the connection of Mr. Pablo's emotion with "The Mirror"? Did the reader see himself or herself in the supposed responsible and reasonable writer?
     Should we say, to hell with Mr. Pablo? He was already in hell.
     

*One of 24 stories in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman", a Murukami book anthology, that the blogger bought at Vivo City Mall in Singapore in September 2007.