i take it back

when this was written, i thought there would be nothing in it i'd take back. despite the hate e-mail that came with the i-agree-with-you mail from filipinos all over the world, including randy david, buboy garovillo, joey ayala, peque gallaga.

i love that the quote "katas ng hacienda luisita" is remembered at a time when it is most important to see the real victims and the real criminals in the Hacienda Luisita massacre, regardless of who fired the first shot, who has powderburns, and how many of those people were actually hacienda workers.

but i take this back:

"If there is any Aquino who deserves the limelight, who is intelligent and level-headed, who can truly say that he can do something for this country, whom we would like to see and hear more of. If there's one Aquino whom Ninoy can be proud of, it is Noynoy."

dalawang araw matapos ang massacre sa Hacienda Luisita ipinarada ng mga manggagawa ang ilan sa mga namatay sa harap ng isinumpang hacienda. nung gabing yun, lumabas si Noynoy Aquino sa TV, paano raw silang makikipagusap gayong mainit pa ang ulo ng kabilang panig? pinatutunayan raw ito ng pagparada ng mga patay sa harap ng hacienda.

tanong ni Noynoy, ano raw bang magagawa ng pagparada ng patay?

ano nga bang nagawa ng pagparanda ng bangkay ni Ninoy noong 1983, mula Times St. hanggang sa Sto.Domingo Church sa Q.C., at mula sa simbahan hanggang sa Manila Memorial Park? naging aksaya ba ng panahon ang paglalakad ng dalawang milyong Pilipino ng 25 miles, sa loob ng labing-isang oras para kay Ninoy? simpleng patunay ba ito ng init ng ulo, na hindi dapat patulan o bigyang-halaga? na walang kahulugang mas malalim, walang pinanggagalingang tama?

i take back what i said about Noynoy. he is no better than his aunt Tessie, uncle Butz, mother Cory, and sister Kris. they all just have Aquino to their names, and nothing else. and as it turns out, Aquino is just another name, like Marcos, that we Filipinos will apparently have to suffer through for a long time to come.

now, more than ever, Ninoy must be turning in his grave.

where art thou patricia?

so patricia evangelista's story about faye (the young girl who, along with her mom, sold the story that she had won in an international competition that apparently didn't happen) IS FALSE. what can i say, but we should have seen it coming.

patricia had this coming.

not only did she believe a paid ad, she also decided that when people questioned the story, she would find this girl faye and interview her. and when she did interview her, she was had. she believed faye's and her mother's story, hook line and sinker. even pointing a finger at the filipinos who doubted what she saw as a fairy tale story for our poor third world country.

over and over, pete lacaba kept saying in the plaridel e-group -- bad reportage. i say, more than that, patricia is in over her head. the last thing you want to do when you get 10 minutes of fame, is to prove to everyone that it's all there is about you at this point. you don't want to go out there and take on everything that's offered to you: hosting stints and regular columns. the latter proving to be her undoing as it's what she used to say faye is her new cause.

a cause based on a fake story. if i were patricia evangelista, i would at the very least, apologize and then disappear from the public eye. at the very least.

at most, i'd tell her to migrate to america. then, she'd be part of the diaspora she so loves.

kritik ka?

my general rule about poetry is: i need to understand it. and so there are few poets i enjoy reading: issy reyes, conchitina cruz, ricky de ungria, marjorie evasco, fatima lim-wilson, joi barrios, benilda santos. of course i know that if i try a little harder, i will gain more from these poets' works, but just the same when a first reading allows me to understand what a poem says and enjoy the way it sounds.. damnit, that's just a poem i like. so sue me.

and so it is with much hesitation that i write this -- i am no poem critic. but i do read a lot of it, and i do study it as a literary product in this third world country that is the philippines. and it was with much interest that i watched something unfold in the little circle of the pinoy blog-world that i frequent. at about the same time, as secondcup talked about recent and "new" poetry writing in english by filipinos, blogger-tibaks 1 and 2 were talking about poetry writing in filipino and something that's very old -- and given the discussion -- something that's getting stale: ang papel ng tula at makata sa lipunan.

now, i don't have a problem with demanding that poets (ang all writers) be conscious of where they stand in this society and the roles they need to and/or inevitably play. but really now, why are we still stuck in the-poet-as-revolutionary rut? i do not doubt that journals like Ulos and works by Ericson Acosta, Richard Gappi, and Gelacio Guillermo are being read in the countryside by those who are waging war against this gadawful government. and yes, poets,writers who decide to dedicate their lives to a cause, this cause, undoubtedly deserve our respect. but talks at the yenan forum was for china of old, NOT for the china that produces all these pirated DVDs, underground decadent books, designer drugs, and rave parties. given that times have changed, i'd like to think that our views and ideologies -- even communist literary theory -- has evolved.

so we shouldn't really be saying -- the way blogger tibak 1 does -- that anyone who reads knows that poetry is the most powerful of all literary genres, because saying so at this point is just plain unrealistic. unless of course these tibaks now consider april boy's "di ko kayang tanggapin, na mawawala ka na sa akin" as poetry. which they don't.

and so writing in filipino continues to be stuck in the rut that is left-right-center politics, the martial-law-rut as i like to call it, so unyielding and unwilling to compromise when it comes to the kind of literary production that is "not for the masses" -- when in reality the masses are watching TV.

this while, as secondcup observes, our writing -- particularly poetry -- in english has finally(!) started to evolve, veering away from the star that is jimmy abad, with young poets demanding to be read in their difference. i may not understand their poetry offhand, but i will never have anything against poets who write for other poets -- or people who study poetry. there is virtue after all in the craft of writing. and i find, that unlike those who continue to mouth the masses as an excuse for the kind of poetry they write, these poets in english are more conscious of where they stand in this society and are more realistic when it comes to why they write. there is less pretension, more growth.

now, if only writers in filipino could be open to learning that from their english counterparts, we readers would be in a happier place.