FORGIVE AND FORGET

     "Unload your baggage--forgive and forget."--Prescy Bermudez, Ilokano writer, citing part of a homily of their parish priest in the Catholic Church of San Manuel, Pangasinan, Philippines.

The young years. Sitting, from left: Severino Pablo,  3 unidentified members of Gumil Laoag, Virginia Alejandro Duldulao and Peter La. Julian. Standing, unidentified writer, Joe Gonzales, the late Pelagio Alcantara, two unidentified writers. 

  We have unloaded many times, have forgiven many times. But the mind is not a blackboard-- you write something on it, erase it and it is no longer there. Can we say, can we say, we outgrow painful incidents, hurtful swords, learn from them and morph into better persons in the image of the unseen Spirit?

LOSING THE CASE AGAINST THE LOOTERS OF PHILIPPINE TAXPAYERS' MONEY?

     A Philippine daily newspaper reported that the case against a popular senator who allegedly pocketed close to P300-million in "kickbacks"may be defective and may be dismissed. That is, if they amended the original complaint against the accused.
     Will Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Jr. get away with the crime because of the apparent gaff of government prosecutors? Fortunately, the court denied their motion.

     *****The blogger's farewell comment:
The separation from an Ilokano writers' organization had something to do with greed, money, subterfuge and sex. How true?  That's the way it was; the blogger is a journalist and knows whereof he speaks.

     There will be more comments.

SUDDENLY, IT IS EVENING

The room is wide
this morning
as wide as your pain 

somewhere in a corner
of remembered remembering. 
Where were you when the sea
was bereft of broken beer bottles
and crumpled tin cans?

Last night the rainbowed jukebox
blared your song
while the smoke-filled bar
echoed with drunker laughter 
and your epilogue of wasted
years.
It should have been this way---
no, no, no, it could have been that way.
The sun lingering on the glass panes
has now climbed the rooftops.
Remembering is a perfect blade
as sharp as the edge of morning.
Time for you is a dry leaf
on a hot windless day
yet ricebirds must cry
as the pulse of life beats
in the shuffle of many feet
on the stage where the drama
was played.
You remember the innocence
of youth in the old hometown
and suddenly, it is evening.*

*included in the expanded edition of the  Ilokano and English poetry anthology, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," with critical introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

IN YOUR COUNTRY

Where were you when Kabunian raised 
     his left hand
     and decreed blessings
     upon the land?

He bestowed a lot of gifts
Many a kingdom he gave away:
Acupan, John Hay, Dole
Isetann, Robinson, Hilton,
William Lines, Stanfilco,
Forbes, Jardin and Davis.

Enclaves that wall you out
Right in the country
Of your birth.

And the native Judas fled
To faraway cities, fleeing
With thirty pieces of silver
Of his harlotry, fleeing
With the fat of the naked 
Mountains whose fate
Is sealed like Ipil-Cunig--
They raped her, abandoned her--
At the foothills of Cordillera.

Heady was the drink they gave you
Bitter is the mixture of bile.
The expatriate gods
Are laughing in the inner sanctum
Of their domain.      

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

DAGITI SANING-I ITI SIERRA

(Para ken ni Grace Padaca)*


Siasino ngamin ti makalagip
Kadagitoy a bambanti? Dakami
Laeng a lingka ti daga,
Dakami a mangyarado ti bagbagimi
Iti agmatuon idinto nga agkatkatawa
Dagiti agturay iti imeng
Dagiti palasioda iti tangatang
Idiay Manila idiay Baguio
Idiay Tagaytay, idiay ballasiw-taaw.
Siasino ti makalagip kadaydi nasipnget a rabii
Idiay Angadanan ken San Isidro
Idi rinumekda dagiti sagrado
A pangngeddengmi?
(Ay, dagiti natadem a  kawwet
Ti basingkawel pinisangpisangda dagiti balota
Iti atiddog a pasilio ti bilegda!)
Kasapulan nga agkantakami
Ngem uray kadagiti bambantay
Saan a mabilang dagiti maligsay
A tarumpingay ket alimbasagenkami
Iti adu a dissuor dagiti barukongmi.
Nalpasen dagiti ublag ken tirtiris
Ta nasarakanmi dagiti timekmi 
Ket sangsangkamaysakami a nangyebkas
Kadagiti rabngis dagiti kalinteganmi.
Ita, mabalinmi a panawan dagiti balaymi,
Dagiti agdan iti sanggir dagiti kawayan  
Dayyengenmi ngarud ti duayya ti namnama
Ken wayawaya
Ket ti balligim isu met ti samiwengmi.


*Published in the Ilokano magazine, Bannawag. One of the poems of the expanded version of the Ilokano-English anthology, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger" with critical introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

THE RULES-BASED ISLAND STATE

PETER LA. JULIAN

 

SINGAPORE--We ride on their MRT underground train network, public buses and cabs and this jaded Filipino could only gush at the efficiency of their transportation system. How clean and good-smelling are these transportation vehicles! (It's time we bury those Manila derelicts, those dirty, foul-smelling jeepneys along with those filthy, disrespectful drivers.)
     The trains are air-conditioned and are always overcrowded, especially on week-ends, but there is no hustle and bustle, no fear of delays or sudden stops, or a stranger picking your pocket. (Such overcrowding could be attributed to the growing population and the spike of foreign workers, a big number of them Filipino professionals and domestic helpers. The local paper, Straits Times, also noted a squeeze at the malls in Takashima City, The Plaza at Orchard Road, Vivo City and Velocity and even at Compass Point.)
     This is also true to their cable cars, some 90 of them running from 6:00 Am to 9:00Pm, criscrossing from Mainland Singapore at Harbour Front to Sentosa. This little island, some portion of which was reclaimed from the sea with earth fillings from Singapore hills, is a tourist paradise that could put to shame our own Boracay. (There is a beach here called Palawan, where natives and expatriates play volleyball on the clean yellow sands.)
     One bright afternoon in Sentosa, arriving here via a cable car overlooking the sea, we (my wife and son Christoffer who works in a multinational company here) climbed a rise of land to the 10-storey statue of the merelion (from the words mermaid and lion). This circular cream-colored structure, Singapore's symbol, is also a fixture at the Singapore River Bank forever spouting water from its lion mouth into the river. There is a shop at the base of the structure where they sell souvenir items and give tokens for tourists who scale the summit via an elevator. We joined a group who gawked and gushed at the sight from the top which is actually the head of the merelion.
     We saw as far as our eyes could see tha narrow Straits of Singapore, which separates the island-state from the Indonesian island of Batam, now emerging as a tourist and commercial area,
     We saw a lot of activities in the sea--boats, ships, barges plying the ancient waters. The Straits is the confluence of shipping lines, which make the port of Singapore the busiest in the world. 

NO COUNTRY FOR LITTERERS, OLD MEN

SINGAPORE--We were  waiting for an underground train at an MRT station in the Serangoon area. Suddenly, my recurring cough irritated my throat, rattling my chest and I was about to expel phlegm. My son who works in a multinational company here restrained me, pointing to the overhead closed circuit TV camera.
     Personnel of Singapore's Manpower services are nearby, ready to pounce on the would-be-phlegm thrower, hail him to court that will impose a fine of  no less than $S500. Of course, after a quick legal process.
     In this rules-based island state, the 6th wealthiest nation in the planet, the law is the law. Remember the Flor Contemplacion case? Death was her penalty for the killing of fellow Filipina Delia Maga. No amount of representation, nay, intervention from the Philippine government stopped the imposition of Singapore's death penalty.
     What I did to my phlegm? Think about it and laugh to your heart's content. Shade of Lal Bahadur, the late former minister of India, who drank his urine on a daily basis. For health purposes, according to some medical journals. I don't see the benefit of phlegm as medicine for an ailment except that it indicates the presence of germs and virus that have invaded the human body.
     Friends have asked me whether life in this expensive country is easy for its citizens and permanent residents (that include a big number of Filipinos).
     I have seen old men--Chinese, Malays, Tamils, Indians, Indonesians--driving cabs and wiping tables and sweeping floors in restaurants.
     I have seen old women--Chinese, Malays, Tamils, Indians, Indonesians--sweeping floors and taking away the plates and serving spoons from the eating tables in food courts. Sometimes, they look at me with their sad, sunken eyes and my heart is broken.
     They have to keep with the rent and the high cost of living in Singapore, says one of of my sons, also working

 

 here, who is married to a Canada-based Ibanag lady.