FOUR PLACES (A Cordillera Diary)

     In the late 1980s, the blogger was assigned in Baguio as head of government information in the Cordillera covering the so-called City of the Pines, and the provinces of Benguet and Mt. Province. We had an office at one section of the Baguio City Library at Burnham Park. From here, we planned information programs in cooperation with media and other regional government offices and the military. Our target were the so-called economically-depressed areas, where we would be bringing services--medical and dental and information that includes verbal and written communication (books, posters, pamphlets.) Sometimes we went home late in the night or we spent the night in the mountains with our military escorts. (To be continued)

HOW TO BECOME A MARTYR

   
   

     The sound has its own unstoppable voice and there will be many voices to speak what it says, its truth. We are the many voices. And the stump? It will grow and it will be a tree again in all its glory. Unstoppable. Agree.Disagree.Break this native nightmare and become a martyr, an Antonio Luna or Andres Bonifacio.

AUTHORS OF PERFIDIA

     "Authors of Perfidia" is the title of one of the poems in "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Penablanca Again, Stranger," an anthology of Ilokano and English poems with critical introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    The poem was one of those analyzed by Dr. Agcaoili in his lengthy introduction to the book. It hinted of a house of writers that was started but never finished because of alleged anomaly committed by leaders of the organization.

     In the critical introduction, Dr. Agcaoili spoke of the house dreamed by the founder of the writers' group, who had for 13 years hosted the annual affair of writers and would-be writers. It was his wife who made a comment on the "rottenness" of the organization. She said it to the blogger when the later paid a visit to the husband and wife, both of them now dead, in their house by the sea. "Bulok ti gunglo, Peter," she said then. The writers' house was supposed to have been constructed at the lot donated by the couple.

   In the writers' gathering at the Callao Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan, the then president of the organization submitted copies of financial statement or expenses incurred in the construction of Balay ti Gumil.

    During the last day, the blogger questioned the entries in the financial statement. The answers made by the president of the organization was not satisfactory.

     The following was in response to a text message sent to the blogger by a female member of the organization:

     "I did not question JB out of pique regarding the Balay ti Gumil in Suso, Sta, Maria, Ilocos Sur when I raised the questions before the delegates to the annual national conference at Callao, Penablanca, Cagayan in April 2002. It was only for information on how P700,000 was spent for the construction of a supposedly 2-story house. At that time, three concrete walls of the first floor (ground) had been finished along with the flooring of the second floor.

     Here were the entries of said financial statement, in pesos:

    billboard                                            2,500
    initial materials                                 47,050
    labor                                                40,000
    materials and labor                           100,000
    labor                                                  45,000
    materials/labor                                  90,000  

TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS                P489,000
TOTAL BALANCE                               178,349.50

There was a notation (written by JB in long hand that he returned to the organization a total of P183,849.50.) The date, also in long hand, was 9-7-02

Goodbye for Now, Singapore.

Christian Julian and his Lola Estelita and Lola Leticia not far behind.

The 6th wealthiest country in the world, Singapore is a city of a million trees, where every street corner surprise you with something that is unique, where people go about their business, where you can be left alone and see the beauty, the order- even in traffic, rules are the order of the day, no honking of vehicles.

There is always something here that stuns you, reminds you of your country, what it lacks and what it should have, what's wrong with it.

Be charmed by the high-rise structures, the shopping centers, the underground malls and restaurants of many cuisines--Chinese, Indians, Europeans.

****

The preacher from Galilee discovered a river running through eternity--the river of love and life, where mortal enemies can quench their thirst and rid themselves of mutual hate and anger, lies, deceits and subterfuges.

BRITAIN EXITS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

     The world's fifth largest economy, exited from the European Union as the results of a referendum among British nationals of the United Kingdom came out stunning the member-countries and other nations. The consequences were immediate: the stocks came falling down and the Singapore dollar, for one, loses its value.

     John Donne, one of its greatest poet must be turning in his grave. It was he who said, in one of his poems, "No man is an island." Actually, that was the title of the poem of the 16th century poet. He even said, "If a clod is washed away by the sea/Europe is the less."

     Will Europe be weakened by Britain's cessation or vice-versa?

     Here is the first part of "No Man Is and Island."

     "No man is an island
     Entire of itself
     Every man is a piece of the continent
     A part of the main."

ART IN POETRY AS ART IN JOURNALISM

   

   

     When the blogger was asked during the launching of his anthology of Ilokano and English poems, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," what his book was all about, he told his listeners that it was a presentation of the country's political and social-economic orientation. The statement was made at the Pangil Beach Resort, Currimao, Ilocos Norte,  Philippines, where an international seminar, 11th Nakem  Conference, was held, May 23-25, 2016.

     We shall focus on the country's political situation, where a multiparty system operates and politicians fight for power and control of local and national governments. Journalists are part of the system and the environment and provide information in the shaping of opinions even as they, in their own way, bring out wrongdoings committed by public men. In the process of doing their job, they are threatened, physically and mentally, coerced, and sometimes get killed.

     In a country where there is supposedly unrestrained freedom of the press, journalists are murdered with impunity by hired guns and followers of political warlords. In one such incident in Mindanao, at least 32 journalists were killed in a certain place called Maguindanao in a one-day carnage. Here is the story as recalled in the poem entitled, "The Massacre of Journalists and Other Political Perfidies," which is on page 104 in "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger:"

              "The inner power
               Could not err
               Quote deny not the little woman unquote
               The empress in tandem
               With law cut throats
               Like sunflowers
               And the backhoe was a farmer plowing
               Bloody seeds into the brown earth.
               The newspaper version was a pain
               Thing from Lethe
                    Like the eternal scourge
                    Like the paradoxes of thieves
                    In the summer of their content
                    Like the dream echo
                    Of a surreal world."

So what are the facts in the poem? What are the the 5 Ws, 1H (what, where, when, who, why; how) that guide the journalist in writing a story about, in this case, multi-murders of media persons including civilians? Who is the little woman? What was used in burying the dead?

OTHER VOICES, OTHER DREAMS*

"Agtuloyto ti panagikur-itda/Continue they will write 

Kadagiti pasamak idi kadagiti kalsada/About what happened in the streets
Uray umelto latta dagiti libro/Even if the books remain silent
Iti rikna ken panunotda/On the thoughts and emotions
Idiay Sarrat, Batac, Laoag/In Sarrat, Batac, Laoag
Wenno idiay Pikit ken Victoria.../Or in Pikit and Victoria,,,

....

Ket isuda a nangig-iggem iti rienda/
Agbiagdanto manen uray iti apagkirem
Ta adda met napintas a balikas
A maagsaw kadagiti pinutarda."


"Indeed, this people's domain needs
cleansing cream, new manners, new minds
that, in pursuit of the son, shall burn the
night with liquid fire of gods and high
ambitions: no more ruins to tread this
mid-noon of our separate lives: the swan song
has been sung and the recorder is broken
forever.."

*from the blogger's "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," anthology of Ilokano and English poems, launched at the Pangil Beach Resort, Currimao, Ilocos Norte during the 11th Nakem International Conference on May 23-25, 2016. 

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