How are we to provide a safe haven to our 13-million documents dated from Spanish times which are now very much prone to decay and corruption since the rooms are so humid, the facilities of our National Archives of the Philippines for maintenance are so poor? What we have there, are parchments that shape our national identity.
How are we to take interest in providing a safer location and structure for these documents in our National Archives of the Philippines if we cannot even understand what is written on them because they are written in Spanish? How can we, when we are not even interested in our national identity — the critical factor that makes us protective of our brother filipinos?
The decay of our documented national developmental code is endangering our yet to be recovered national identity.
It’s funny and curious how, in modern times, Filipinos still believe in local monsters known as the aswáng (or asuáng in old orthography). Despite being Christianized for hundreds of years, this vestige from our pre-Filipino past still remain.
In Philippine folklore, the aswáng is a mythical vampire-like creature which is much terrifying compared to its European counterpart. If European vampires suck only blood, the aswáng devours human flesh.
The aswáng is known by many names and/or regional variations: tik-tik, wak-wak, mánanangal, etc. The most popular of them all is the mánanangal (erroneously spelled with a double “g”). It lives among townsfolk by day as a normal human being. But at night, her transformation begins: the cuspids of her teeth become fangs, and the upper half of her body grows bat-like wings and separates from the lower half of her body which enables her to fly and hunt for unknowing victims who are either in deep slumber or are dead drunk in lonely streets. The mánanangal –and the aswáng as a whole– has been the subject of many a popular horror flick in local cinema. Peque Gallaga’s epic three-episode film, Shake, Rattle & Roll (1984) popularized this monster into the mainstream in the said movie’s third episode, Manananggal. The film created a cult following and even spawned several installments (traditionally shown during the Metro Manila Film Festival; the most recent was Shake, Rattle & Roll XI just last December). Irma Alegre effectively played the role of this mythical creature and gave nightmares to an entire generation of kids during that decade.
Stories of mánanangal usually pervade in the countryside. It prowls on top of flimsy roofs, looking for sleeping victims for easy prey. An incident early this morning suddenly reminded me of this fictitious being.
At past 2:00 AM, as I was doing my nightshift, my wife texted me that she heard “strange noises” on top of our roof, as if somebody –or something– was stealthily scratching the surface of our galvanized iron roof. I immediately dismissed the idea of robbers because it’s virtually stupid of them to do that: there is no possible way for them to enter our place via our roof. Besides, we live in a gated apartment complex, and our unit is on the second floor. The only way that robbers could come in is that they would have to forcibly break through our door. My suspicion is that perhaps those strange noises my wife heard were made by a nimble cat. Then suddenly, memories from stories I heard from childhood reminded me of the mánanangal.
When I got home this morning, my wife told me and our maids the whole story about what had happened (and with matching reenactment — she is that “expressive” to details, LOL!!!). She suspected that somebody was spying on us. Instead of chastising her about the absurdity of a robber on top of our roof, I suggested that perhaps it was an aswáng. Despite being a highly educated damsel, my wife’s provinciana deportment prevailed in her. And more so because my rather serious remark was seconded by our rather ignorant maids from the Visayas, where the belief in the existence of the aswáng and other mythical beings is more popular and even regarded as part of culture and tradition. The province of Cápiz (a place that is regarded by many Manileños with dread because of the belief that a large population of mythical beings live there), for example, even had an Aswáng Festival. It was inaugurated last 2004. But it invited controversy and condemnation from both the Catholic hierarchy and some local officials; the festivities ceased to exist three years later.
And that’s how I terrified my household today, LMAO!!! I wonder why so many Filipinos love to scare themselves, whether it’s Undás season or not. Sharing ghost stories and retelling encounters with the unknown (including the aswáng) are still popular even in this age of information technology and the Internet. Such fantasies still excite the Filipino mind.
But let’s face it: the aswáng and similar creatures are nothing but pure fiction and fantasy. And in reality, it’s the police and the military who are twice as terrifying (and far more dangerous) compared to the mythicalaswáng.
My statement in yesterday’s blogpost–We go against bigoted and twisted versions of Philippine History, originating particularly from hispanophobic UP professors and instructors (including US-centric walking tour guides who are trying to distort the way you look at Manila — one step at a time)— was not taken too lightly. As expected (but not so soon).
Why did I take a swipe at that self-styled tour guide? To grab attention because he’s popular and I’m not? Goodness gracious, no. It’s because I just can’t stay silent while listening to all the lies that he’s spreading about our history. Just take a look at the video below:
In Celdrán’s Facebook Wall:
Mark Bryan Ocampo: I don’t think that you’re US-centric at all.
Carlos Celdrán: Oo nga. I’ve been called anti American more than once. For sure, cono! (sic)
Now, dear readers, tell me: don’t you think what he said in the video is too much US-centrism?
Let us review his short lecture:
“…after only thirty years of American rule, look at Santa Cruz Church in the distance (showing his audience an old photograph of the church)… and then take a look at Santa Cruz Church again (he then shows a new photograph). Wow! In onleee, thirteee, years!”
Both photos aren’t visible in the video, but it is obvious that he was trying to emphasize some “positive change” which happened to the church when the Americans took over this country. Judging by the bulk of the portfolio he’s holding, this tourist guide obviously showed other photographs (comparing the achievements of the US in the Philippines while demeaning those of Spain) that were no longer recorded in the video. One might say that the rest of the photographs he was holding was enough evidence of Spanish mismanagement. But that portfolio wouldn’t be able to hold three hundred and thirty three years. And going back to the Santa Cruz pictures, whatever change or improvement that the Americans did to that church alone (if it were really the Americans who did it, which I strongly doubt) doesn’t –and should not– account for the whole country. That’s too much generalization, to say the least.
Too bad photography was introduced only in 1840, fifty eight years before the coming of the North American invaders. Spain could have shown more of its charm (actually, there is no more need for any photographic evidence of her contributions –they are still extant and very useful in our daily lives).
“Incredible, unprecedented growth,” he remarked with admiration, further stating with surprising pride that Manila took only three decades (of American rule) to encompass or surpass what three hundred years of social development under Spain did.
But nothing like that is apparent in today’s Americanized society. If he’s already awed by the renovations done to the Santa Cruz Church during the American period, that doesn’t necessarily prove an “incredible, unprecedented growth” (what do you call the front of a building or church? a façade, right?). If he had only researched on those three hundred years of Spanish rule with much depth, then that “incredible, unprecedented growth” remark of his would have been directed to another epoch where the concept of a Filipino first sprang.
“With the Americans we proved that miracles could happen overnight…”
I should’ve agreed with him, only if he changed the word “miracles” into “nightmares”. If this tourist guide wasn’t lying in the video, then perhaps he didn’t know the genocide, the atrocities, the mass murder which the Americans did to the Filipino people. All in the name of “benevolent assimilation”. Roughly one sixth of the total population were wiped out from 1899 to 1901. In onleee, threee, years!
“… because with them we wiped out cholera, we wiped out typhoid, we wiped out tooth decay (with much glee)!And we wiped out illiteracy.”
It is an undeniable fact that the Yankees brought sanitation to a high level upon their arrival, thanks in particular to Dr. Victor Heiser and his team. But this is not to say that Spain didn’t do anything at all to counter epidemics and other diseases, as grossly implied by this tour guide who relies more on theatrics than facts. Didn’t he know that when smallpox was spreading in the Philippines in the early 1800’s, the King of Spain himself, Carlos IV, started a campaign to wipe out the dreaded disease? Smallpox vaccination was introduced, saving countless lives (for smallpox was then a deadly killer).
Going to the issue of illiteracy, his claim is yet another fallacy. He gives credit to his beloved Thomasites for our country’s 96% literacy rate. Little did he know that the Filipinos were already literate, having a refined culture that they have developed throughout three centuries of Spanish rule. The Filipinos had their own alphabet (the 32-letter abecedario) for many years already, not to mention an educational institution much older than the US’ own Harvard University.
There was no tabula rasa when the Americans came here. In fact, the Filipinos were already reading widely circulated Spanish dailies such as Hojas Volantes (1799), Del Superior Gobierno (1811), La Esperanza (1846), La Estrella (1847), Diario de Manila (1848), El Católico Filipino (1862), El Porvenir Filipino (1865), Diario de Filipinas (1880), La Opinión (1887), and La Solidaridad (1899, published in Spain then smuggled to the Philippines) to name just a few. And the Spanish period produced an incredible cast of writers namely Manuel Zumalde, José Javier de Torres, Luis Rodríguez Varela, José Vergara, Juan Atayde, Anselmo de Jesús, Fernando Canón, P. José Burgos, Marcelo H. del Pilar, the irrationals’ rational hero, Dr. José Protacio Rizal, and a host of other literary greats. Filipino literature, which was then in Spanish, continued to thrive even when the American flag was already unjustly hoisted over our islands. Writers such as Cecilio Apóstol, Manuel Bernabé, Claro M. Recto, Jesús Balmori, Rosa Sevilla Alvero, etc., used nationalist themes in their Spanish prose and poetry.
Also, to bury the myth behind the claim that the Americans brought the public school system into our turf, may I inform this flamboyant tourist guide who’s earning a lot from his “entertaining” tours by spreading lies and inaccuracies that it was Spain who first introduced the public school system into our country and not his beloved US. From now on, may we please hear from his histrionics that in 1863, a Spanish decree introduced education to young Filipinos? It was even compulsory. There were separate schools for boys and girls in every pueblo. The same decree also established the Escuela Normal which trained future educators.
After sharing his reverence and awe for the Thomasites, he went on to declare “that is how Manila earned the name the Pearl of the Orient”, again implying American involvement. This is classic anachronism. The Philippines has been called La Perla del Mar de Oriente a long, long time ago. This tour guide’s rational idol even included our country’s famous nickname in the opening lines of his valedictory poem (and that was written two years before the American invasion):
Adiós, Patria adorada, región del sol querida, Perla del mar de oriente, nuestro perdido Edén!
This is the problem of the Filipino historian today. How can he teach our nation’s history with fairness and clarity when he himself couldn’t come to terms with the past? There is so much blind hatred going on toward our Spanish past without even knowing the reason behind such rage. We’re already in the 21st century. And the funny thing is the Spaniards are no longer here.
And lastly, don’t he dare say that tooth decay was wiped out by the Americans; up to this very moment, Colgate, Close-Up, and Hapee are still having a hard time fighting it.
Admittedly, it’s going to be a tough ride to achieve such a feat. We’re virtual unknowns, we neither have the political machinery (i.e., funds) nor enough number of supporters, and we’re beholden to wage slavery which eats up our time. And worse, I even fear that there could only be three of us (with SeñorGuillermo Gómez Rivera) who share the same line of thinking; we’re not very much sure with José Miguel García yet because, although we’re readers of his PATRIA, we really haven’t talked to him nor seen him in person. We still have to consolidate our thoughts. And we think that Traveler On Foot (who recently pledged support to our advocacy via email) still needs to be “lectured” more on what Filipino identity is all about (this popular blogger’s got full potential).
This lonely war that we’re waging is not merely confined to the struggle for the Spanish language cause in the Philippines. That is just the tip of the iceberg. We consider ourselves as iconoclasts. We go against bigoted and twisted versions of Philippine History, originating particularly from hispanophobic UP professors and instructors (including US-centric walking tour guides who are trying to distort the way you look at Manila — one step at a time), from what Arnaldo calls the “Agoncillo standard” (taken from Teodoro Agoncillo’s myopic and infantile viewpoints on Philippine history). And I even go a step further to declare that –despite Fernando Ziálcita’s objection to it– Christianity and the study of Philippine History should go together, that they are inseparable, that the other one could not go against the other.
In the long run, we would end up going against those who attack our faith no matter how hard we try to distance ourselves from it. As written in my Spanish blog…
…Filipinas es, en realidad, una creación española… una gran creación española. Y me atrevo a decir que la reunión entre España y Filipinas es una fuerza mayor increíble. Una obra milagrosa de Dios…
He may be our national hero (and I have the highest respect for my tocayo), but his views weren't always rational. And he himself admitted to that.
The greatest paradox this side of the nationalist cosmos would be to defend our Spanish past while assaulting the Catholic Church (which I erroneously did from 2003 to 2004) at the same time. Now, what is hilariously upsetting is to find people on the internet parading the legacy of our national hero, José Rizal, to simply suit to their pseudo-intellectual braggadocio without even knowing who Rizal really was or what he was fighting for. These individuals proudly appear in dailies and radio shows harping about “rationality” here and “godlessness/agnosticism” there, implying that it is “cool to be a freethinker”, and alleging that the Catholic Church is a “destructive force” that needed to be brought down. They take pride being tagged as the “new Filibusters”, wittingly or unwittingly pretending to be the noble saviors of those who are still “wallowing in ignorance” wrought about by an alleged Catholic despotism. I may cry.
These irrational filibusteros keep on whining about Catholic faults and failures. But Arnaldo wisely observed that they are exactly the fruits of what they claim to be as Catholic errors.
Something’s gotta give. They’re looking for war. We’ll give ’em one.
This we swear: the battle lines will soon be drawn. Just wait and see…
I was also looking for closure about what happened to me there more than three years ago. To be honest, I was even expecting rejection from some of its people. But it turned out that I’m not that “infamous” anymore, LOL! Nobody noticed me, save from the same pigs like SPO3 Danny Medina. Arnaldo and I were apprehended by the police on suspicion of being communist spies. But unlike what happened between police pig Medina and I three years ago, they were a bit cordial. They explained their “paranoia”, as well as the dangers posed by the communist insurgency in my dad’s hometown. “Very dangerous” indeed.
Also, I’m saddened about cases of illegal logging. One of my cousins confessed to me about the rampant logging that’s been going on there. I’ll also write about the worsening water pollution in Unisan.
And last but not the least, I’ll also write about the sad state of the idyllic and nostalgic Antilean houses (bahay na bató) in Unisan.
I regret to say this, but after three years, what I saw in Unisan only reaffirmed my stand. And it’s not just a “very dangerous” place to visit (as implied by the statement of the town’s police chief himself) — Unisan is not worth a tourist’s precious time. =(
At least, there’s Cueva de Bonifacio, but it’s several miles away from the población.
I’m at the office right now. Our shift ends at 7:00 AM. Afterwards, we go to Unisan, Quezon, my father’s hometown.
With me are my son Momay (my father’s favorite grandchild; he took care of him when he was still an infant) and fellow propagandist (and officemate) Arnaldo Arnáiz. Señor Guillermo Gómez Rivera was supposed to be with us, but declined at the last minute because of a very important meeting with some people from the Spanish Embassy. Popular blogger Traveler On Foot also couldn’t make it.
The mission: to take pictures of the town’s remaining bahay na bató before they are all obliterated into oblivion. And in that town, it’s highly possible. A heinous act was made on the Maxino mansion, said to be Unisan’s oldest bahay na bató, a few years ago. Recently, I heard that the Vera Cruz house was demolished as well (I hope it’s not true).
The digital camera I used belonged to my siblings. I left Unisan without being able to have the photos developed. I just told my mom that I’d get them soon. A few weeks later, I heard that she lent the photos to one of my dad’s cousins (an Évora) who brought them to the US. I never heard of the photos since then.
Sayang. Those photos were awesome. I’ve taken pictures of all the remaining bahay na bató, including those that were already abandoned. I hope that I could still see them. But I can never be sure.
That’s why I have to do this again. Take pictures of the town, document it in my blogs, write a brief history about it.
It’s 2010. I also need some closure to what had transpired back in 2006.
Generally, Unisan –called Calilayan a long time ago– is not really a dangerous place to visit.
“…how are we to establish in this country, so long exploited by both foreign and native oppressors, a society of justice and peace, based on cordial cooperation among all social ranks and levels?” –Fr. Horacio de la Costa, S.J.
A distraught Kemberly Jul Luna thought that she’d find the answer among the cadres waging a protracted people’s war from the mountains.
Although still a communist/socialist at heart, I no longer support the local communist insurgency in this country. Actually, I never did because during my younger years, I was affiliated with the “rejectionists” or those who didn’t reaffirm to Maoist and Stalinist principles and strategies.
But in reaction to my statement above, I find Luna’s fate both appalling and sad:
Hers was a campus life spent mostly at late night parties and drinking sprees, waking up the next day with a nasty hangover. Still, she got good grades.
Kemberly Jul Luna’s binges seemed normal for someone studying at a state university, living alone but often surrounded by friends drawn by her natural charm and intelligence, who fondly called her “Kimay.”
The 21-year-old Kemberly, however, traded her little comforts for the cold and the unknown world in the mountains of Bukidnon. There, her small joys and miseries were easily swallowed up by the people’s wretchedness; it became easy for her to redeem herself from old habits that were slowly causing her decay.
She was doing well with the peasants of Bukidnón, her friends thought, until that fateful day when a bullet pierced her right breast and went through her nape in Sitio Bulacao, Barangay Concepción, City of Valencia. It was 10 days before Christmas.
Gun battle lasted for days
Army Maj. Michelle Anayrón, spokesperson of the 4th Infantry Division, said Kemberly was killed in an encounter with soldiers belonging to the 8th Infantry Battalion.
“The soldiers were on foot patrol when they chanced upon the NPA encampment,” Anayrón said. The gun battle, which started at 10 a.m., lasted for days, he added.
Kemberly died a member of the communist New People’s Army (NPA). She was Adriane, Joshua, or Ma’am Nurse to the people she had worked with in the highlands.
Her body, already rotting, was found dumped, along with seven other guerrillas, deep in the forest of Concepción, days after the Dec. 15 encounter.
Kemberly was an AB English student at Mindanáo State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) before she joined the communist movement in early 2009. Inquirer.net
What drove such a young and pretty lass to give up a life of comfort and beautiful promises to the brutality of the highlands? What right did these communist terrorists have to lure and mislead young lives to their doom? Why are there still disenchanted men and women in today’s supposedly civilized society? Is it a question of what social structure we should have?
If Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’ theory of the inevitability of a popular revolution cannot be stopped, then let the natural turn of social events take its own damn course. There would be no need to wage a protracted (and hurried) “people’s war”, a war that not even a multitude or a majority of urban poor societies and laborers can fully grasp.
Our military and police pigs may be @$$h0le$, but that doesn’t make Sison’s NPA –or any armed revolutionary group– different from them.
Just because Maoism succeeded in China does it imply that the same strategies will easily apply here in our archipelago or elsewhere. For the nth time, our country is no longer a feudal society. It is apparent that, for almost a century, armed struggle is never the answer to Fr. de la Costa’s question. It has only taken thousands of lives (military, civilians, and liquidated comrades due to purging).
Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that a terrifying air of social injustice pervades all throughout the country for decades (just watch and listen to the plight of the urban poor contestants in Wowowee). And this kind of social condition demoralized young intellectuals such as Luna, compelling them to wage war against the authorities, all in the name of justice and, ultimately, lasting peace.
It’s not an enemy bullet that did Luna in — it’s social injustice’s fatal blow which snuffed her life out.
I know that Easter Sunday falls on 4 April this year. But I couldn’t think of anything to write for today. Mind’s exhausted from too much pondering on historico-religious stuff (not to mention the beating it got from eProcurement the whole shift). So here’s a poem I wrote about a year ago…
EASTER SUNDAY CONUNDRUM José Mario Alas
As I watch
The Passion of the Christ
On DVD
I eat vegetables for a change
During the part
Where the Son of Man
Was reduced to a bloody
Piece of mollified meat.
And then I begin to wonder:
How did God the Father above
Feel as He was watching His
Son scourged and beaten and
Crucified
?
“Quid est veritas?”
Asked the consul.
I say:
The truth
Is in
The vegetables
That I eat.
FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES 