This is why

Tonight, at 6:00PM at the Bulwagang Juan Luna of U.P. Baguio there will be no grand sets, no amazing lighting equipment, no state-of-the-art sound system.

I write this at past midnight, the early hours of Saturday, the day of the premiere of our latest production. Minutes ago, I was talking to my mother and her best friend on the other side of the world – they are both theatre artists too. They asked me about this play we’re opening later today, my mother talked about this play she’s currently working on, and her best friend talked about the last play she did. We talked about our struggles to get our stories on stage.

“Why are we doing this?” don’t we always end up asking ourselves this question? My mother’s best friend asked.

I have been giving myself the same answer for the past couple of decades or so, and yet I do find myself still asking the same question after each curtain call. There’s no money in this, but I just can’t help myself – I always find myself getting ready to tell the next story.

There’s something messianic about being a theatre artist, I cannot deny that. When I was much younger I believed that I was here to help provide an alternative to the inanities being fed to us by popular media. In recent years, I thought that there simply are stories out there that need to be told. Some might scoff at the idea that if I am able to make one man out of all the people in the auditorium start seeing things from a different perspective, open up his mind to new possibilities, provoke him to think, to act, make him cry, or laugh out loud, I would have been successful. Well, I don’t - I myself truly believe in that idea.

I won’t be getting much sleep tonight – the day starts at dawn tomorrow. After weeks of late night rehearsals, we start the day by hauling everything we need to tell this story to the performance space. We don’t have much time - we have to have everything set up by noon for we just couldn’t afford paying for just a little extra time to get ready to tell our story. Then my fellow storytellers will start arriving, start putting on their costumes, they will then get a feel of the three-dimensional space for the first time. They have to get their act ready before sunset, our audience will start arriving by then.

A bare stage, only the actors themselves will up that space, and we’ll do our best to light up that space. I hope our sound equipment will be enough to reach every single person in the theatre.

Tonight, I have nothing much to offer but a good story that I tried with all my heart to tell the best possible way I can. And if you happen to be one of those hiding in the darkness of the theatre when we tell our story, I hope you found it worth your while to listen.

And that is why.

From where we stand (Show us the elephant)

*my column in the Sept. 11 issue of Cordillera Today

Someone once asked me, after doing a couple of plays here in Baguio a couple of years since I moved here, why I haven’t done a play that touches on Igorot culture. I told her I cannot possibly tell that story truthfully then just yet. It’s been 15 years since, and I still won’t dare tell that story, not yet. I don’t know enough about it to tell stories about it.

But, I have told the stories of Jose Rizal, Antonio Luna, one Fernando Bautista, Jesus Christ, an orphan named Timoune, a beggar called Serapio, a place once known as Kafagway and its transformation from being a natural paradise to a concrete and GI sheet jungle, among others. I told these stories for I believed I could, and in most cases, I should.

The same way I felt that I should tell the story I knew of about the wall that ruptured unleashing a torrent of garbage that claimed people’s lives and homes.

We are being told different stories about the tragedy, and there may be some truth to all of those stories. Just like those men who ventured to observe an elephant – the men were all blind and as the Indian legend goes, the one who bumped against the animal’s broad body believed that an elephant is like a wall; while the second man who touched its tusk was convinced that en elephant is shaped like a spear; “it’s like a snake,” cried the third who was clutching its trunk; while the fourth who hugged the animal’s leg knew for sure that an elephant is just like a tree; the fifth blind man who happened to touch its ear assumed it be just like a fan and the sixth thought it was like a rope as he tugged on its tail.

None of the blind men lied, you see, but none of them knew the whole truth.

I acknowledge that perhaps I was like one of those men, knowing only a part of a whole. But really, has anyone come forward to tell the whole truth and nothing but the WHOLE truth about the Irisan dumpsite tragedy? Because that’s what we want, what the people of Baguio deserve and nothing less. So go ahead, tell me I’m only describing just part of the elephant.

I was invited to visit the dumpsite recently, for “you don’t know what you’re talking about,” I was told. But is seeing the dumpsite the same as seeing the whole elephant? Or is Irisan just the tail, perhaps the tusk, of a much bigger animal?

But what I talked about, I do know of. If that’s not enough, then please tell us the rest of the story. Correct me if I’m wrong in saying that the tragedy was the result of a rotten political system, a system that allows powers-that-be to get away with murder. I have said that not much was done from the time we were bound by law in 2001 to do away with the Irisan dumpsite by the year 2006 – is that not true? That the Irisan dumpsite was finally closed only in 2009, which forced the city to pay dearly to haul its refuse to faraway Tarlac – is that not true? That seeing the tons and tons of garbage that rampaged from the dumpsite all the way down to Asin Road somehow tells us, since the city has managed to stop hauling its garbage to Tarlac, where our garbage was being dumped – is that not true too?

If so, then tell us what is, but don’t shut us up just because our truth is not the same truth you want us to believe.

What we say about it, what we know about it, is simply what we see from where we stand.  

Mina showed us

No, they can’t pull out the “politicking” card and cry foul when it comes to the Irisan tragedy. That’s how they got elected themselves, by politicizing the issue during the campaign.

But really, what led to the “garbage slide” that claimed lives and property at the height of Typhoon Mina last week?

In January, 2001, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 was enacted into law which mandated the “State to adopt a systematic, comprehensive and ecological solid waste management program…” The 44-page document signed by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also directed local government units, in our case the City Government of Baguio, to come up with a plan that “shall include an implementation schedule which shows that within five (5) years after the effectivity of this Act; the LGU shall divert at least 25% of all solid waste from waste disposal facilities through re-use, recycling, and composting activities and other resource recovery activities…”

Five years. So between 2001 and 2006, what was done to implement that law?

Since the majority of finger pointers point their fingers at the executive when it comes to this particular issue, the men holding the reins of the local government then were as follows:

The Hon. Bernardo M. Vergara – Baguioi’s mayor from the year the law was enacted to the year that the Irisian open dumpsite should have been converted into a controlled dumpsite for Section 37 of the law, headlined “Prohibition Against the Use of Open Dumps for Solid Waste” states that “No open dumps shall be established and operated, nor any practice or disposal of solid waste by any person, including LGUs, which constitutes the use of open dumps for solid waste, be allowed after the effectivity of this Act: Provided, That within three (3) years after the effectivity of this Act, every LGU shall convert its open dumps into controlled dumps…” the sections ends with, “no controlled dumps shall be allowed five (5) years following effectivity of this Act.”

The Hon. Braulio Yaranon – our mayor until he was suspended in 2006, or the year that the Irisan dumpsite should have been totally closed, and that a Sanitary Landfill should have already been established in its place.

The Hon. Peter Rey Bautista – the chief executive when the whole thing blew up in our faces and right under our noses in 2008, or two years since the deadline set by the law.

That year, Baguio was in the headlines because of the mounting uncollected garbage in its streets – uncollected because we had nowhere to dump our trash because the Irisan dumpsite was finally closed. Why did Bautista close it? Because it would by then already illegal to operate an open dumpsite, which is what the Irisan dumpsite was. At that time, at the height of the crisis, then Mayor Bautista, instead of sweeping things under the rug and making excuses like any old trapo would, bit the bullet and apologized to the people and said that “he alone was responsible for it and was willing to go to jail for the actions he took to solve it” (Vincent Cabreza, Philippine Daily Inquirer 08/07/2008).

With the Irisan dumpsite closed and with no other option but to bring our garbage somewhere else, Bautista had the city’s waste hauled to faraway Tarlac, the nearest garbage facility willing to accept our garbage. It cost a lot of money, obviously, but considering the risks to life and property posed by the continued operation of the Irisan dumpsite then, add to that the health risks brought about by uncollected garbage left rotting in our streets, what other real choice did the city have then?

The dumpsite's operation was limited then to being a staging area before hauling the garbage to Tarlac - effectively turning it into a controlled dumpsite, something that was supposed to have been done three years since the law was enacted, or back in 2004.

The City Government then began focusing its attention on finding a suitable site for a Sanitary Landfill, but that proved to be not a walk in the park despite the availabliity of funds for its acquisition and construction. The law specified that a Sanitary Landfill must satisfy the following criteria:

(a) The site selected must be consistent with the overall land use plan of the LGU;
(b) The site must be accessible from major roadways or thoroughfares;
(c) The site should have an adequate quantity of earth cover material that is easily handled and compacted;
(d) The site must be chosen with regard for the sensitivities of the community's residents;
(e) The site must be located in an area where the landfill's operation will not detrimentally affect environmentally sensitive resources such as aquifer, groundwater reservoir or watershed area;
(f) The site should be large enough to accommodate the community's wastes for a period of five (5) years during which people must internalize the value of environmentally sound and sustainable solid waste disposal;
(g) The site chosen should facilitate developing a landfill that will satisfy budgetary constraints, including site development, operation for many years, closure, post-closure care and possible remediation costs;
(h) Operating plans must include provisions for coordinating with recycling and resource recovery projects; and
(i) Designation of a separate containment area for household hazardous wastes.

The highlighted part above proved to be one of the several major hurdles in the establishment of a Sanitary Landfill. While there were suitable sites that were found to have passed most of the criteria, mostly in neighboring municipalities, residents objected to their town being the recipient of Baguio's garbage.

By the time elections came last year, this was where we stood:

1. Irisan dumpsite closed.
2. We didn't have a proper gabage disposal facility as prescribed by the law.
3. We continued to produce garbage.
4. The nearest facility willing to accept our garbage was in Capas, Tarlac.

To lessen what needed to be hauled to Tarlac, the City Government asked, nay begged, residents to segregate their garbage. When this didn't work, a no-segregation, no-collection policy was enforced. It still didnt' work, to a lot of people, segregating their garbage was such a big hassle, required too much extra effort. So instead of exerting extra efforts to segregate their trash, they started finding ways to dispose of these by dumping these in collection areas when barangay officials aren't looking, burning them (including plastics and other toxic materials) in their backyards, etc. The mountains of uncollected, unsegregated garbage continued to pile up.

In 2009, the year before the elections, politicians capitalized on the garbage issue to perpetuate their respective candidacies. Every one of them had a “permanent solution” to the crisis. In a report by Artemio Dumlao for the The Philippine Star (November 08, 2009), he quoted then Congressman and now Mayor Domogan as saying that “(there) seems no action to implement the permanent solution,” apparently referring to Bautista’s administration.



Photo of Irisan Dumpsite before (at left) and after Bautista closed it and began its rehabilitation in 2010 (at right).


He won the mayoral seat last year, together with The Hon. Bernardo M. Vergara who won as congressman and who promised to spend much of his pork barrel on solving the city’s garbage woes.

Then just three months ago, in May of this year, according to a report, Mayor Domogan announced that the city’s garbage problem has been solved (“Mayor solves Baguio garbage woes” by Dexter See, May 16, 2011 www.mb.com.ph). The government has purchased Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines which should take care of the city’s biodegradable waste, and the rest of our garbage (residual, non-biodegradable waste) will be taken care of by the suppliers of those machines, Protech Machinery Corporation.

Which makes one wonder – if the ERS machines only took care of biodegradable waste, where were they taking the rest of the city’s garbage?

Last August 27, 2011, Typhoon Mina showed us where. See, Typhoon Mina did not just trigger a tragic catastrophe that claimed lives and property, it uncovered a rotten political system, a system that kills.

During last year’s elections, flyers were anonymously printed and distributed ridiculing then Mayor Bautista which had an illustration of a mountain of rotting garbage with the caption, “Basura, basura, matutumba!” How ironic.

But at the end of the day, forget about politics, the ball is in our, the citizens’, hands. The city government has provided for the handling of our bio-degradable waste. That’s good. Now as for the rest of our garbage - reduce, reuse, recycle. A lot of the trash that made it to Irisan dumpsite, and unfortunately down towards Asin Road, can instead be recycled, if only we would exert a little extra effort – and SEGREGATE!

We can point fingers all we want, rant on Facebook all we want, but really, what have we done to help solve the problem?

See-Top Baguio

*my column in the August 28, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

Ang buwan ng Agosto ay buwan ng wika, dahil diyan susubukin kong isulat ang sanaysay na ito sa ating kinikilalang pambansang wika – Filipino, nang hindi masyadong umaasa sa diksyunaryo o, paumanhin po, sa... GOOGLE TRANSLATE. At sa bawat tatlong tuldok na magkakasunod na makikita niyo, hindi ito paggamit ng ...ELLIPSIS... kundi katumbas ng pagtigil sandali upang isipin kung ano ang susunod na sasabihin. At ang mga salita naman sa malalaking titik ay mga salitang wala talaga akong ma-isip na katumbas sa Tagalog. At nawa’y hindi masyadong guluhin ng MICROSOFT WORD AUTO-CORRECT FEATURE ang sanaysay na ‘to.

Tagalog ang unang wikang natutunan ko, lumaki ako sa... PROJECT 6... dun sa may bahagi ng... ROAD 7... na kung tawagin ng mga galing sa ibang parte ng aming baranggay ay... SQUATTERS’ AREA. Kabilang ako sa henerasyon ng mga Pilipinong naaalibadbaran kapag nakakarinig ng mga kapwa Pilipinong nag-uusap sa wikang Ingles, puro man o ‘yung tinatawag nating TAGLISH, o pinag-halong Tagalog at Ingles. Napapangiwi din ako ‘pag nakakrinig ng “LET’S EAT na lang AT THE turo-turo,” o di kaya’y “HERE BABY, mag-EAT ka na, tapos mag-TAKE A BATH KA, OK?” Dahil sa Maynila noon, ang pananaw ng mga tao ay ‘pag nag-i-Ingles ka, siguro edukado ka, o ‘di kaya’y mayaman –sosyal, o pa-sosyal.

‘Yun ay hanggang mapadpad ako sa mundo ng teatro, kung saan kadalasan ay Ingles ang usapan ng mga tao. Kahit nasa wikang Tagalog ang dula, maririnig mo ang direktor na magsasabing “sa linyang ‘yan YOU CROSS TO DOWN STAGE RIGHT, PAUSE FOR FIVE BEATS, THEN SIT.” Bilang artista at... STAGE MANAGER... noon sa Tanghalang Pilipino ng Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas, takot akong makipagsabayan sa balitaktakan sa Ingles dahil nga baka maubusan ako ng salita. Pero pagkaraan ng ilang taon sa Teatro, at maiksing panahon sa industriya ng... ADVERTISING... (pananalastas? Pwede.), ay unti-unti rin akong natutong mangusap sa Ingles.

Hanggang makilala ko ang aking kabiyak na tubong Baguio kung saan bihasa sa wikang Ingles ang mga tao. Dahil siguro dati itong isang HILL STATION na bakasyunan ng mga Amerikanong sundalo at mga opsiyal ng gobyerno nung unang bahagi ng 20TH CENTURY. Noon, dito sa Baguio, kung hindi Ilokano, Ingles ang salita ng mga tao. Kabaligtaran ng sa Maynila – sa Baguio noon, ‘pag nag-Tagalog ka, pa-sosyal ka. Natuto akong bumili ng SOY imbis na toyo. At kung minsan, maski Ingles na yung salita, ini-Ingles pang lalo, tulad ng sigarilyong CAMEL, na kung bigkasin ng karamihang sa mga tindera ay key-mel.

Ngayon, lumaki ang mga anak ko na ang unang lengwahe ay Ingles, dahil yun ang kulturang inabutan nila sa lugar na kinalakihan nila. Kung dati’y hiyang-hiya akong mag-Ingles dahil hindi ako masyadong bihasa dito, sila nama’y nahihiyang mag-Tagalog. Ito ang kanilang binubuno ngayon – ang matutong mag-Tagalog.

At kapag natuto na sila, hindi na nga ba sila maaaring ituring na higit pa ang amoy sa malansang isda, tulad ng sinabi ni Jose Rizal ukol sa mga taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika?

Pero teka, paano nga naman natin mas maisasapuso ang wikang Filipino e mula sa paglabas mo ng GATE, hanggang sa pagsakay sa JEEP, ang lahat ay tila nangungusap sa’yo sa wikang Ingles – “FARE: 8.50 REGULAR, 7.50 FOR STUDENTS AND SENIOR CITIZENS,” “NO I.D. NO DISCOUNT,” GOD KNOWS JUDAS NOT PAY.” Sa lansangan naman, “NO PARKING,” “LOADING/UNLOADING ONLY,” “APARTMENT FOR RENT/TRANSIENTS,” at sa PARKING LOT ng SM CITY BAGUIO: “GOVERNMENT VEHICLE, FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” Saan tayo mamamasyal, sa BURNHAM PARK, ATHLETIC BOWL o sa BOTANICAL GARDENS?

Ilan nga ba sa atin ngayon ang tunay na marunong, o kahit na komportable man lang na mag-Filipino?

NATIONAL LANGUAGE o Pambansang Wika natin ang Filipino, e bakit hindi natin ginagamit? Alam ng kahit sinong tagpag-turo ng mga wika na ang pinaka-mainam na paraan upang maging bihasa sa isang lengwahe, at itaguyod at pagyamanin ito, ay ang paggamit nito – hindi lang isang buwan sa isang taon.

Handa nga ba tayong pumunta sa Daang Session o Abenida o Kahabaan ng Magsaysay, o kumuha ng cedula sa Bulwagang Panlunsod, tumakbong mabagal paikot sa Mangkok na Pampalakasan?

Oo nga pala, SEE-TOP BAGUIO? ‘Yan ang tawag ng ating mga HONORABLES sa Siyudad ng Baguio.

This I can do

*my column in the August 21, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

I received a message from an online acquaintance on Facebook.com last week – some guy was looking for a documentary filmmaker for a project. I sent that guy a message online and I got a reply. Later that evening, I received a call from one Illiac Diaz.

Diaz was, not sure if he still is, an actor turned... and this I got from “Googling’ him – social entrepreneur, environmental hero, designer, inventor, etc., etc. I knew him first as that guy who designed those odd- looking dome-shaped tsunami-proof houses made out of recycled materials. I thought then, well, that’s cool. He’s being talked about lately for his latest brilliant brainstorm – using plastic bottles to make “solar light bulbs” that can brighten up a room with light equivalent to that emitted by a conventional 55-watt light bulb.

So last week, I was on the phone with him to talk about that particular latest project. But what made a bigger impression on me was the idea behind the idea. We have been reading a lot about how we can all do our share in protecting the environment and live an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle. We have been told that we can convert gasoline-fuelled cars to LPG, to lessen harmful emissions in the air. Or, for the more financially-able, there are hybrid cars now that can switch from gasoline to electric power with the push of a button. We know about those fluorescent light bulbs that while four to five times more pricy than regular incandescent bulbs, consume much less electricity and last longer. How many of you out there are using solar panels to heat water? Or closer to home, have you bought yourself one of those trendy, eco-friendly shopping bags from the shopping giant up the hill to lessen the use of plastic bags?

But see, most of us don’t even have cars to convert to be more eco-friendly to begin with. Maybe in the long run we can save some money from using fluorescent light bulbs, but right now, today, we can only afford that P30.00 incandescent bulb, and not that P200.00 eco-friendly one. Most solar panels I looked up can cost you around P140.00 per watt. That means having solar panels that would run a 300-watt refrigerator would cost you... you do the math. The point is, most eco-friendly efforts out there are just unrealistic for most of us. There are things we mere mortals can do. Sure, reducing, reusing, recycling non-environment-friendly materials is doable for most of us. Segregating our garbage, assuming that the city we live in has a proper waste management system, can go a long way in protecting the environment. But what can the majority of Filipinos do to help protect the environment?

That’s where Illiac Diaz is coming from – he brings the concept of sustainability closer to the masses. And his ideas and efforts can realistically have a positive impact on the environment simply because most of us can actually do it, and not just a few privileged households in exclusive subdivisions. 

I was asked recently by a corporate giant to put together a website to trumpet their so-called environmental efforts. The project was simple – they will give me literature about and images of their sustainability efforts and I will publish them on the world wide web. It has been months since and the website is not up yet because I have yet to receive materials relevant enough to be considered real efforts. Sure they have a sewage treatment plant – as if letting toxic liquid waste seep into the ground is acceptable, and having such a plant is a great effort on their part. Sure they use energy-efficient light bulbs, bit is it really to help save Mother Earth or to pay less money for electricity? Sure they turn off some lights during the annual Earth Hour, during which they hold a concert to pat themselves on the back for the effort, knowing fully-well that the ensuing concert consumes a lot of electricity to power those stage lights and sound system.

Too bad our group could not afford to go on a week-long caravan with Illiac Diaz to promote his plastic bottle light bulb idea to do a video documentary on it. I had to take a rain check, a reality check really, since there was no budget for the documentation and our group just couldn’t afford to do it pro bono at the moment,  to skip work for a week at the moment, for skipping work for a week for us means skipping eating for a week. It’s one of those realities that, no matter how much we believe in the idea, how much we love the environment and how much we want to participate in protecting it, we could not ignore right now.

So I thought I would at least write about it, so you’d know about it. That I can do. Now, what else...     

Virgo rising

I can only speak of his story from the time he joined to tell the story of Timoune in the play, Once on this Island in 2006. I did not know him or of him before that. He was coming in with a clean slate and with nothing else but sheer talent and passion for his craft - any theatre director’s delight.

One of the two roles he played in that musical was Agwe, the God of Water, who early in the play takes center stage with a song that sets Timoune on a journey. A veteran of choirs and singing competitions, he was a theatre novice at the time, yet he performed the role with such aplomb, such conviction that one might think that he has been on stage all his life. He is a joy to be with during rehearsals, engaging the staff and fellow performers in playful banter and would occasionally fill up the room with his booming, baritone laughter. But once onstage, he totally shuts out everything else and devotes his whole being to telling the story. Always eager to take in anything that would make him a better artist, he listens to directions attentively and accepts criticisms graciously.

While he is aware that God has gifted him with a wonderful singing voice, he knows that there is always room for improvement, and he works hard to further develop that gift. And he generously and readily shares that gift with anyone who wants it. He would always be seen giving advice to his fellow performers, imparting all that he has learned in years of vocal training, both formal and informal.

He never settles for mediocrity, and for him, and this is one of the reasons I love working with him, there’s no such thing as a minor production, or a small gig. He treats every single performance as a performance of a lifetime. Whether it’s at the ballroom of the Baguio Country Club, or a cafeteria along Session Road, or on a makeshift stage out in the open in some park. And he expects nothing less from the people he works with – he would encourage, push, and motivate everyone around him to always strive for excellence, whether it’s a major production where he’s getting paid a decent professional fee or a pro bono performance, where the only compensation he will get is the audience’s applause.

Since joining Open Space five years ago, he has been seen as Pilate in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Judah in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and as one of the storytellers in “Kafagway: Sa Saliw ng mga Gangsa.” Earlier this year, we did a series of performances at the Art Park of Camp John Hay, which showcased his versatility as a vocalist: one night he would be heard singing classical arias, pop hits in another, and Broadway favourites the next. And it almost never fails - someone would come up to him after each performance, ask about him, where else he performs, if he has a recording. One Russian tourist, in town for a few weeks, perhaps missed visiting much of what Baguio had to offer for after hearing him sing one night, she made it a point to be there every single time this artist went on stage. A senator was driving by the Art Park one afternoon while he was onstage singing, and the senator stopped, got out of her car, and just stood there, with eyes closed listening to his wonderful voice. Weeks later, the senator requested a command performance, an encore just for her and her friends.

One might come to the conclusion, with all of the above, that he may currently be a big name in the industry. That perhaps fans crowd around him wherever he goes. But no. Not yet anyway. In one singing competition here in Baguio, the judges didn’t even think his voice merited a spot in the finals, when perhaps the real reason was that this guy was just too good to be true for them, too good to be in a competition set in the middle of a tiangge in the park. Or maybe it’s because while there right in front of them was world-class talent, a voice that reaches deep inside of you and stirs up emotions you didn’t even know you were capable of feeling, what they were looking for was just another pretty face.

Yet unheralded he may be, but not for long, for Virgo is rising. Lloyd Virgo, baritone, that is. With his recent performance in the qualifiers for Pilipinas Got Talent, where he left the judges in awe with an inspired rendition of “Nessun Dorma,” Lloyd Virgo may finally get the recognition he deserves and reach a much wider audience hungry for real, pure talent.

Lloyd Virgo is rising, and it’s a very good sign, for this Baguio-based talent deserves it. And we are very lucky to have him in our midst. 

The games we play

*my column in the July 31, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

Maybe it’s because the travesty has gone on for a very long time that we long for the revolution to be magically instantaneous. Like the way the first rain of May immediately wipes away all memories of summer

.  

For more than three centuries we were enslaved by the Spanish colonizers, but just barely a year into Andres Bonifacio’s reign as Supremo of the Katipunan, the Magdalo faction led by Aguinaldo felt that it was already time for a change in government. Corazon Aquino became president of our country after more than a decade of martial law, and the following year, a series of attempts to overthrow her government were launched.

After a decade of rigged elections, unabated unjust killings and disappearances, “un-moderated” greed in government and other dishonourable and despicable acts committed by the very people to whom we entrusted our lives, Noynoy’s pitch, “Daang Matuwid,” struck a chord, and we, the people, decided it’s time we corrected the mistakes of the past decade, and elected him to lead us. And now a lot of us have given President Benigno Aquino III a failing grade. No less than Archbishop Oscar Cruz revealed early this year that there are moves to replace Aquino, then just a little over six months into his 6-year term, because of incompetence. Aquino was elected with the highest percentage of votes in the country’s post-EDSA history, yet the impression that we get today, a year after he took his oath of office, is that there is a clamor for change yet again.

Aquino, a failure? It’s way too early to make that judgement, I believe. I personally did not vote for him, but despite the obvious lapses of his regime, I am prepared to be pragmatic, and recognize that 12 months are not enough to make a 360-turn from the direction Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took this country down to from 2001 until June 30, 2010.

In the same way that while I did not personally vote for the current local leadership in Baguio, and though I have misgivings about some of their self-serving pronouncements that give the impression that a year into their terms and they’re still campaigning, and the direction our local executive and representative seem to be taking the city down to, it is too early to make a judgement. Maybe they’re right. I sure am hoping they’re right. And that soon, the city will be able to breathe, live a good life again, because “we stopped hauling garbage to Capas, Tarlac,” because of the “rehabilitation” of the Rose Garden, because of all the construction going on in the city, because they questioned the legality of the citizen’s initiative that is Panagbenga Park, etc.

In 2004, after a decade of musical chairs up in City Hall and the sudden transformation of Baguio from being a city in harmony with its natural environment to being a poster child for unsustainable development and the site of a hideous concrete tree, we said, “tama na, sobra na, palitan na,” and replaced the local leadership. Yet, a year later, we did nothing as sour-graping politicians and suspicious capitalists silenced our voices and removed our chosen one. Again in 2007, we let our voices be heard as we declared that we are never going back to traditional politics. But when we finally felt the effects of more than a decade of misdirected efforts – including sitting on the Solid Waste Management Act that resulted in a garbage crisis, we wanted all the problems solved in a mere three years. Never mind that we were already headed towards solutions, never mind that most of did not do our share to solve the crisis, we wanted the problem solved for us, immediately. And when the solution didn’t come fast enough, we decided to play Trip to Jerusalem again.

The first half of the game’s not even done yet, too early to tell if a substitution is absolutely necessary. Don’t leave the arena just yet, or better yet, keep on playing the game – remember, we chose the game and who we wanted to play with. Don’t judge P-Noy just yet, and Mayor Mauricio Domogan and Congressman Bernie Vergara too. But keep watching, keep playing. At the end of the day, we must remember that after all, we’re in the same team. Sometimes the captain’s replacement is unnecessary, sometimes we, the other players, just need to step up and play better. Just like the Azkals - when de facto top guys Caligdong and  Younghusband could not deliver, we saw how Schrock stepped up to lift us all up. Of course the Azkals lost in the end in this match, that only tells us that it can’t happen overnight, but their gallant effort gave us hope that one day, we’ll get where we want to be.  

We keep going for instant gratification, and look at us, still in a losing game. But that’s no reason to quit –keep playing, keep cheering, voicing out suggestions from the sidelines too. It’s way too early to give either a failing or a passing grade. Stay in the game – then after the cheerleaders finish entertaining us with their routine during breaks and at half time, then we can decide whether to go ahead with the current game plan, or change tactics, or players. 

Rooftop Football

*my column in the July 10, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

According to Robert R. Reed in his book, The City of Pines, the biggest piece of level land in the area of what was then the proposed townsite of Baguio, was called “Minac,” which Architect and City Planner Daniel Burnham reserved for a huge public park, and everything else needed to realize the Americans’ dream of a hill station in Benguet will be built around it.

Today, we call it Melvin Jones, and through the years, it has served the city in so many ways – as parade grounds, a venue for performances, exhibits, sporting events, particularly football, and at times for miraculous healing as promised by self-proclaimed modern-day prophets and crusaders. But there’s one other purpose it has served that matters the most – a place where the people of Baguio can go to breathe, relax, heave a sigh, protected from the ravages of rapid urbanization by towering trees and colorful blossoms – just as Daniel Bunrham envisioned it to be. That’s what parks are for, a place where we can be under the sun, or the rain, the feel of earth beneath our feet and the scent of green in the air.

Today, most of us would agree that the most common sight there are young men and women, boys and girls, muddied from head to cleats, chasing a ball around the field. Some say it has always served as a football field in the past. And in his speech last weekend at the opening of a football tournament, Ramon Dacawi, respected journalist and known football advocate, couldn’t help but wax romantic about how the grounds have gone back to being a football field, among its original intentions, he said.

But the good feeling was immediately shattered by the pronouncements of the guest of honor who followed Mr. Dacawi at the podium. I hope he wasn’t serious, or that it was just one of those things politicians say for the sake of having something to say and not something that’s really going to happen, or already happening – our honorable congressman promised to “develop” Melvin Jones, and by develop he meant going beyond lighting up the place at night, here’s what we got from what he said:

Melvin Jones will first be dug up to build an underground parking lot, top that with concrete (“tatambakan natin ng semento”), then plant grass and lots of trees over it, the latter said as if its icing to a very suspicious cake. That’s really scary, and sounded like a totally unsound plan. I can’t imagine a football game being played on a “rooftop.” And how much weight will that rooftop have to carry since a lot of earth would need to be dumped on it to be able to support trees and other foliage.  

Well, “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone,” as the song says. Are we really going to allow them to pave paradise to put up a parking lot?

For the nth time, again I ask, why does “development” always have to be about building something and pouring cement on everything? Why can’t it also be about preserving and protecting something that is already serving a noble purpose, such as our parks?  I know the Central Business District has a parking problem right now, but do we really have to desecrate the Melvin Jones grounds to help alleviate that problem? We do need infrastructures, but in a city like Baguio, such projects should be done with utmost care and in harmony with and with minimal or no impact at all on the city’s natural environment.

I beg of our “honourable” government officials, come on, give Baguio a break, give us a break. Leave Minac and the rest of our parks alone for really, they’re the only reminders of how beautiful this city once was. 

Kadiri

*my column in the July 3, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

Local religious and political figures are pushing for the declaration of those involved in the gay wedding ceremony held recently in Baguio as personas non grata. A bishop called it “kaidiri.” The brouhaha was all over TV and online forums.

About that ceremony – unless you were one of the grooms or brides, or among those who officiated, or were in one couple’s entourage, a ninong or ninang, bridesmaid or groomsman, what’s the big deal? It’s their wedding, not yours. And you’re not invited.  You may not agree with the idea of a same sex marriage, but did it ever occur to you that they, in turn, do not agree with the idea of a heterosexual one? You may find it repulsive to have sexual relations with a person of the same sex as you, just as they too find it repulsive to have sexual relations with a person of the opposite sex. They leave us alone, why can’t we do the same? We do not hear of homosexuals going on TV condemning heterosexual marriages.

Local politicians and holier-than-thou personalities denounced the ceremony, pulling the morality card out of their sleeves. Ehem, madams and sirs, if they believed in the same religious principles as you, the ceremony wouldn’t have taken place at all. Heck, they would probably even be spending their whole lives miserably denying their sexuality. The fact that they’re out of the closet, openly living their lives as homosexuals, openly falling in love with a person of the same sex, meant that they do not believe in what you believe in. That makes them different, not wrong.

Gay people don’t “choose” to be gay, they are gay. Period. It’s unnatural, some say. No, what’s unnatural is to deny your sexuality. To have homosexual relations when you’re straight, that  is unnatural. To have heterosexual relations when you’re gay, that is unnatural.    

We know for a fact that some of us humans are gays and lesbians, just as most of us are straight. We know heterosexual men have sex with women, and vice versa, while gay men have sex with fellow men and lesbians have sex with fellow women. So what’s wrong with gay couples wanting to solemnize their relationships, just as we heterosexuals wanting to solemnize ours? I say live and let live.

It’s illegal too, they also say. Nah, the marriages solemnized are not legally binding, true, but I don’t believe they did something illegal. And besides, I don’t believe that that piece of paper called a Marriage Contract is what they were after – they were after something much deeper than that, I think.

By the way, did it ever occur to those condemning the recently held gay wedding in Baguio that their actions actually promote pre-marital sex, sex out of wedlock?  Just a thought.

Kadiri. Immoral. Disgusting. All true about the ignorance and hypocrisy of those grandstanding bigots. And I’m all for declaring certain people personas non grata, but I don’t think we have the same people in mind.

I say it again - live and let live.

Bihag pa rin

I arrived a good four hours before the scheduled performance – it was the day after Jose Rizal’s 150^th birth anniversary and SM City Baguio has put together a tribute that involved the following: An exhibit on the life and works of Rizal, a parade of 150 boys and men dressed as Rizal, a performance of a play on Rizal, and the screening of Gerry de Leon’s film, “Noli Me Tangere.” Our part was the performance of the play by Malou Jacob, “Pepe.”

The play begins with the Rizal monument in Luneta coming to life in present day Manila – he compares the Manila of his time to what it has become, or what we have allowed it to become, over a century since. He segues to a narration of relevant anecdotes about his life, including his bitter experiences with the guardia civil. The play then takes on a more serious tone as “Pepe” questions present-day ideas about him such as the notion that he was an “American-made” national hero. He asks the audience, “ako ng ba ang Ronald Mcdonald ng 19^th Century?” After pointing out that nothing much has changed in the last one hundred years – “nilulunod tayo sa utang ng mga prayle noon, sa World Bank naman ngayon,” in the end, taking from Padre Florentino’s soliloquy at the end of “El Filibusterismo,” he challenges the audience, and in the case of last Monday’s performance, 150 modern-day Rizal’s, with “nasaan ang mga kabinataan na magtataglay ng lakas ng buhay na tumanan sa aming mga ugat, ng kalinisan ng pagkukuro na nadungisan na sa aming mga isip, at ng lagablab ng sigabo na namatay na sa aming mga puso? Nasaan kayo, kayo’y aming hinihintay?”

Never mind that we didn’t get to do a proper curtain call – we may have performed a play but we were in a mall after all, and the emcee probably wasn’t familiar with the theater s.o.p. of bowing after a performance. It was a wonderful experience and as I’ve said before – while other theater artists might not view performing a play in a mall favorably, for me it’s a unique opportunity to reach audiences that would otherwise not go to a theater to experience a play.

After the performance, a government official approached me to say, and this would have been creepy if I didn’t know the guy, that some of the lines may have been too subversive and that I should be careful when performing that play. Whew! I understand, one of lines in the play go, “Nasaan ang mga makabayang opisyal ng gobyerno, ang mga intelektuwal, ang mga makabayang mangangalakal?”

I have performed this role countless times over the years, and I must say that this particular performance was a very unique experience: I was performing the role of Rizal to an audience full of people dressed as Rizal.

The next day, I caught a local news channel’s feature on the event which labeled it as “pakulo.” A gimmick. Pakana? Pearls to swine.

The play closes with “Ako Rizal, may dugong Indio, may dugong Intsik. Taga-Calamba. Naging repormista. Naging rebolusyonaryo. Ngayo’y bayani, ngunit bihag pa rin. Kayo, bihag pa rin ba?”

Sabay buntong hininga.

On being a Ninong, and being there

*repost of my column in the June 12, 2011 issue of Cordillera Today

That first time, I was seated at the stage left side of the “Presidential Table,” among the other godfathers. Nope, it wasn’t a Mafiosi meeting, rather a wedding reception. I was in my late twenties and my friends, fellow theater artists who were once students who sort of had their on-the-job-training as stage managers under the theater group I founded, thought that despite my relatively young age then, I deserved the honor of being their ninong sa kasal.

While I cherished my honorable seating arrangement, I did envy my wife who was seated among friends and were laughing their heads off perhaps gossiping about this or that bridesmaid, I had no idea, I was busy answering my seatmates’ queries about Viagra and hypertension, which I answered with a polite, “I’m sorry I have no idea.” I really didn’t then – “then” being the operative word here. Though I still have no idea about or need for the blue pill to date, I do have some knowledge about hypertension now.

Since then I, and my wife too, have been regulars in many a wedding invites' billing as godparents. And more often than not, if members, current or former, or even just acquaintances, of our theater group, Open Space, decide to tie the knot, we would be asked to be godparents.

I am extremely honored every time I am asked to be a godfather because I’m just almost always broke, and ninongs, specially in weddings, are expected to outdo one another with the “blessings” they bestow upon the newlyweds: a kitchen showcase (a mere rice cooker are for pansies), the latest model refrigerators (forget about that ref-looking rice dispenser), the biggest LCD TV (non-flat screens are bad for the eyes), or at the very least a fat check. I have attended a reception where an emcee announced how much each ninong and ninang gave the newlyweds, and with each announcement that exposed how a particular ninong gave more than the other, the “outdone” ninong would stand up and write a new check, or pull out wads of cash, to “redeem his honor.” I was a ninong in that reception, and I gifted the bride and groom with stage management services. Nice. In another wedding, I gifted the couple with photography and videography services.

But in more than one wedding, my gift was, well, being there – on that day. And to date.

Because, and this isn’t to simply come up with an excuse for being cheap, or at least not being able to even remotely match my co-godparents’ endowments, I, in all honesty, believe as a godparent, whether to a child at his baptism or to a couple at their wedding, that I’m not expected to be there only on that one day where I get to wear a barong Tagalog and leather shoes. As a godparent I expect to be expected to be there beyond the reception and the toasts. I know of a friend who "fired" one of their son's ninongs for never showing any interest in their son's development as a child. 

I will try to find time to have that serious talk with an inaanak sa binyag who’s taken an interest in being a gangster; to help patch things up with my mga inaanak sa kasal who are going through a rough patch; confront that husband whom the wife suspect of infidelity; and help remind another wife about why she fell in love with that artist in the first place.

I write this as a couple is wed some 300 kilometers away from where I am. I was supposed to be there, but couldn’t. Simply, and quite frankly, I’m broke at the moment and couldn’t afford the trip. I regret not being there on this day. But that’s ok, I have their whole lifetime, for as long as I myself am still around, to be there for them. That’s one of the risk they took when they asked me to be their ninong.

Congratulations, Ro and Mico.   

Comments/reactions are welcome at altomonte.projects@gmail.com