STS Baguio: Teaching Poetry + Mines View + Ayuyang + Videoke

Abril 17-18, 2010: Pagtuturo namin ng tula sa mga guro ng Baguio City. Bago nito ay ang liwaliw sa Session Road, Mines View Park, Good Shepherd Convent, at Ayuyang Bar. Sponsored ng St. Louis University ang aming accommodations at pagkain (salamat po ma'am Jane!).

Ang STS Baguio ang 2nd leg ng Sining ng Tugma at Sukat 2010 project ng LIRA & NCCA na ginagabayan ko bilang Direktor. Nauna dito ang STS San Fabian.

In lieu of the full album, heto muna ang ilang patikim piks mula sa aming trip:

Videoke sa Kamuning. Punuan kasi sa Victory Liner kaya 3 oras pa ang inantay namin para sa trip.

A sight that never fails to ease the exhaustion of a sleepless six-hour-long bus ride.

Lakas ng trip ng gumawa nito. Jerry the mouse rides the tail of a dragon.

Debbie, Jere, sir Egay, ako, Ynna, Carla sa Mines View Park. (Pic taken by Mel.)

Debbie, Jere, Ynna, me, sir Egay, Mel with two gracious ladies of the Cordilleras. (Pic taken by Carla.)

Ako at isang St. Bernard. (Ang laki niya ikumpara kay Janggeum!)

Ynna, Debbie, Carla, Jere, sir Egay, Mel sa Good Shepherd Convent.

Kami sa Ayuyang Bar kinagabihan.

Prof. Edgar Samar, our lecturer for STS Baguio.

National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario ("Rio Alma") and Edgar Samar.

Mel helps a teacher write her own poem in the traditional form tanaga during the workshop.

Me, SLU School of Teacher Education Dean Maria Corazon O. Bomogao, Prof. Edgar Samar, National Artist Virgilio S. Almario, SLU Filipino Department Chair Jane K. Lartec.

Me being interviewed by some teachers who are students in sir Rio's SLU summer class.

Ms. Beng, Carla, Ynna, sir Egay, Mel waiting for our bus ride to Manila at the Victory Liner terminal.

* * * * *

Heto naman ang press release namin:

National Series of Poetry Seminar-Workshops Visits Baguio

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the celebrated Filipino poetry group Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) held the second leg of the nationwide “Sining ng Tugma at Sukat (STS; Art of Rhyme and Meter) 2010” in Baguio City last April 18, 2010 in the Gonzaga Campus of the St. Louis University.

SLU’s School of Teacher Education through Dean Maria Corazon O. Bomogao and Filipino Department Chair Jane K. Lartec served as the event host. One hundred thirty (130) teachers from different public and private schools from all over Benguet and the Cordilleras attended the day-long seminar-workshop presided over by renowned poet-novelist Professor Edgar Calabia Samar of LIRA and Ateneo de Manila University.

In the morning, Prof. Samar, along with the young LIRA poets who facilitated the event, taught the basics of rhyme and meter and the traditional forms of Filipino poetry. Along the way, the delegates were informed of the misconceptions being promulgated by errant textbooks.

National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario (a.k.a. Rio Alma) also gave several mini-lectures throughout the day. The afternoon saw the delegates crafting short poems of their own in the traditional tanaga and awit forms.

After the workshop, Almario, Bomogao, Lartec, and LIRA President Phillip Kimpo Jr. awarded the certificates to the delegates.

The STS is a series of free seminar-workshops on poetry in Filipino to be held in nine towns across nine provinces of Luzon from March to December 2010. It is on its second year, with the first edition being held in 2008 when LIRA and the NCCA taught poetry to around 430 delegates in ten towns across Luzon.

For 2010, the inaugural leg was held in April at San Fabian, Pangasinan. The STS is also scheduled to make the rounds of Sagada, Mountain Province; Vigan City, Ilocos Sur; Lucban, Quezon; Bataan province; Naga City, Camarines Sur; San Antonio, Zambales; and Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

The STS 2010 is one of the fifteen projects for LIRA’s year-long 25th anniversary celebrations. Founded in 1985 by the National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario (alias Rio Alma), LIRA is the premier institute of poets in Filipino.

The programme.

Launch of My Co-Authored Book on Freedom Fighters

April 6, 2010, AFP Theater, Camp Aguinaldo: launching of "The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story," the product of my first 9 months as part-time historical writer-researcher for the PVAO.

The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story
By Cesar P. Pobre with Phillip Kimpo Jr.
Published by the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Department of National Defense
Copyright 2010, 171 pages, hardbound (glossy cover)

Tungkol sa mga Filipinong gerilya noong WWII ang libro. Historical nonfiction bale. Mula sa Facebook page nito:

"We shall liberate ourselves."

Left alone by their American overlords to fend for themselves in the wake of the imperial Japanese army of invasion, this was the rebounding reaction of Filipino soldiers and civilians. They stood to be counted, choosing to perish fighting for their country than lay down their arms.

For them, there was no retreat and no return—only redoubts behind the enemy lines, redoubts high in the mountains, redoubts deep in the jungles, and redoubts within men’s hearts.

Here is a literary and factual account of how the Filipino warriors of the Ilocos, the Cordilleras, and the Cagayan valley—outnumbered, outgunned, and cut off from the rest of the world—liberated themselves from the clutches of the Japanese in the Second World War, challenging the present misconception that the Americans freed our lands. In their final victory there was likewise the triumph of humility, as shown in the orderly train of the defeated Japanese soldiers so unlike the scenes of the pitiless Death March.

Hitherto untold, this is the rousing and epic story of the Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon.

Di pa ipinagbibili ang unang run ng aklat (1,000 copies) dahil ipapamigay muna sa mga educational institution, library, DND personnel, historian, at iba pang personalidad. Pero may sanlibo ulit na isasalang sa imprenta na siya namang magiging commercially available.

Kami ng boss ko, ang tinitingalang historyador na si Dr. Cesar Pobre (ret. colonel) ang sumulat ng aklat, samantalang ang kapwa ko makata ng LIRA at ka-Dapitdilim na si Jeremiah Faustino ang artist. For more info and the authors & artist profiles, sign naman kayo sa fan page ng libro sa Facebook. Hehe. Salamat.

Anyway, kasama ko si Ynna sa araw ng book launch. Pumunta muna kami sa AFP Library sa OJ5 (sa PVAO ako naka-detail pero sa opisina ni sir Cesar sa Office of Strategic and Special Studies pumapasok) bago dumeretso sa AFP Theater.

Kasabay ng book launch ang ribbon-cutting ceremony ng Bessang Pass diorama sa AFP Museum. The Battle of Bessang Pass is, simply put, the greatest battle fought in the history of Northern Luzon. At sa labanang ito, panalo ang mga Pinoy. That this glory is unknown to most Filipinos is a shame, and that's why our book dedicates one whole chapter to it.

It was quite fulfilling to meet in person the very veterans whose heroism we wrote about in the book. Nakabibilib. Pagkatapos ng launching ay nagkaroon din ng unexpected book signing. Unexpected dahil di ko naman inasahang may magpapapirma sa akin. Siyempre dapat sa *the* Dr. Cesar Pobre, ang bossing ko.

Halos gabi na nang nakaalis kami sa Camp Aguinaldo. Next stop: Mother Ignacia Place near ABS-CBN, kung saan naganap ang painom namin ni Jere sa mga ka-LIRA. Isa lang ang masasabi ko: paksyet ang sarap ng crepe.

P.S. For the record, di ko tinitingnan bilang unang aklat ko ang "Freedom Fighters." Co-author lang ako dito e. Ang magiging unang aklat ko pa rin ay ang "Corsair of Cor-Street"...which is, sadly, still coming soon. (Work and LIRA org stuff give me no breaks!)

My Co-Authored Book on Military History: The Launch

The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story
By Cesar P. Pobre with Phillip Kimpo Jr.
Published by the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Department of National Defense
Copyright 2010, 171 pages, hardbound (glossy cover)

Noong Martes, inilunsad sa AFP Theater sa Camp Aguinaldo ang "The Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon: An Untold Story," ang bunga ng aking unang siyam na buwan bilang historical writer-researcher sa PVAO.

Tungkol sa mga Filipinong gerilya noong WWII ang libro. Historical nonfiction bale. Mula sa Facebook page nito:

"We shall liberate ourselves."

Left alone by their American overlords to fend for themselves in the wake of the imperial Japanese army of invasion, this was the rebounding reaction of Filipino soldiers and civilians. They stood to be counted, choosing to perish fighting for their country than lay down their arms.

For them, there was no retreat and no return—only redoubts behind the enemy lines, redoubts high in the mountains, redoubts deep in the jungles, and redoubts within men’s hearts.

Here is a literary and factual account of how the Filipino warriors of the Ilocos, the Cordilleras, and the Cagayan valley—outnumbered, outgunned, and cut off from the rest of the world—liberated themselves from the clutches of the Japanese in the Second World War, challenging the present misconception that the Americans freed our lands. In their final victory there was likewise the triumph of humility, as shown in the orderly train of the defeated Japanese soldiers so unlike the scenes of the pitiless Death March.

Hitherto untold, this is the rousing and epic story of the Freedom Fighters of Northern Luzon.

Di pa ipinagbibili ang unang run ng aklat (1,000 copies) dahil ipapamigay muna sa mga educational institution, library, DND personnel, historian, at iba pang personalidad. Pero may sanlibo ulit na isasalang sa imprenta na siya namang magiging commercially available.

Kami ng boss ko, ang tinitingalang historyador na si Dr. Cesar Pobre (ret. colonel) ang sumulat ng aklat, samantalang ang kapwa ko makata ng LIRA at ka-Dapitdilim na si Jeremiah Faustino ang artist. For more info and the authors & artist profiles, sign naman kayo sa fan page ng libro sa Facebook. Hehe. Salamat.

Heto naman ang ilang piling retrato mula sa book launch (full album coming soon):

Si Ynna sa AFP Library, habang nag-aantay kami ng launch. Pinalipas na lang niya ang gutom sa pamamagitan ng pagbabasa ng aklat.

Pre, hindi ganyan ang wastong paggamit ng kanyon. (Sa AFP Museum.)

Author's profile ko sa likod ng aklat. Walang magawa habang inaantay ang simula ng programa.

Dr. Pobre presents the first copy to the representative of the Secretary of Defense. Guerrilla veterans, the same ones we wrote about in the book, look on.

Me (center) and Jere (leftmost) with members of the Philippine Historical Association: PHA PRO Jonathan Balsamo, former UP Likas president Ayshia Kunting, PHA VP Michael Chua.

With sir Mundo (the first person to personally congratulate me that day -- salamat po!), Dr. Pobre, and Mrs. Pobre.

Book signing. Hindi ako handa kaya na-mental block ako. Ayoko kasi ng di pinag-iisipang dediks.

With the warriors whose legacy is the freedom we enjoy today.

Sa opisina namin sa OSS. Bumalik kami nina Ynna at Jere para kumuha ng compli copies namin. (Stacks of books in the background.)

Simulan na ang inuman. (With my fellow LIRA poets -- miss Beng, Ynna, Carla, Debbie -- at Mother Ignacia Place near ABS-CBN.)

Nang medyo nakainom na. (Impromptu photoshoot namin nina Jere at Ynna.) At para magamit naman ang jacket na di sinuot sa launch dahil mainit, among other reasons.

National Artists Lead Good Friday Rally-Penitence

April 2, 2010: Writers and artists led by LIRA and UMPIL gathered at the Plaza Francisco Balagtas in Pandacan, Manila on Good Friday, mounting a symbolic "clean-up" for Philippine arts and culture exactly on the 222nd birth anniversary of the country’s premier poet.

Galing 'yan sa press release ng okasyong 'to na kami ang nag-organisa. Pakibasa na lang para sa dagdag impormasyon.

Actually, apat ang naging okasyon sa araw na yun: Mahal na Araw, Kaarawan ni Balagtas, ang aming "Penitensiya," at siyempre ang Kaarawan ng mahal kong si Ynna. Nagbalikan tuloy siya mula at papuntang Dagupan para lang hindi maging absent sa event.

Ang "Penitensiya" ang isa sa mga main projects/events ng LIRA para sa 25th anniv nito ngayong 2010, at sina Ynna, Mel, at Carla ang nagsilbing mga event coordinators. Isa 'to sa mga naging pinakamahirap i-stage na proyekto ng LIRA. Kinabahan talaga kami na walang pupunta sa okasyon, pero sa kabutihang palad, naging matagumpay at masaya ang pagtitipon.

Kanya-kanya kaming sakripisyo at tunay na naging penitensiya para sa amin ang paghahanda para sa okasyon: paglalakad ng permit, pagsirko-sirko sa city hall at police station, paggawa ng plakard, at iba pa. Di ko rin tuloy natupad ang tradisyon naming mag-ama na Visita Iglesia. (Inalay ko na lang sa Diyos ang stress ko sa event hehe.)

Nagkita-kita ang mga kabataang makata ng LIRA sa Burger King Welcome Rotonda ng 7:30 AM. Sakay sa van ni Gian, dumeretso kami sa Dangwa para bumili ng bulaklak na iaalay kay Balagtas. Kami ang naging buena mano ng flower market sa umagang 'yon.

Pagkatapos ay tumulak na kaming Pandacan. Set-up dito at set-up doon ng mga streamer at banner. Nang kumapal ang tao, nagsimula na ang programa ng mga 8:30 AM.

Nagkaroon ng poetry readings, 15 minuto na cleanup, pagbasa ng cultural agenda, at prusisyon at pag-aalay ng bulaklak para kay Balagtas. Mga 10 AM na kami natapos.

Natuwa kami sa turn-out: lagpas 50 katao. Nanguna sa amin ang mga National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario at Bienvenido Lumbera, senatoriable Sonia Roco, at dating Dept. of Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta. Nasa mga retrato ang iba pang personalidad ng sining at kultura ng Filipinas.

Pagkatapos, nagtungo ang ilan sa mga makatang LIRA sa UP Technohub para mananghalian at ipagdiwang ang successful event...at siempre ang bertdey ni Ynna. Nagpainom si sir Rio (at dapat lang!). Lagpas 2 PM na kami naghiwahiwalay; nakisabay kami ni Ynna sa kotse ni ser Jim Libiran hanggang Cubao, kung saan sumakay ng bus si Ynna pauwi ng Dagupan.

Unless otherwise stated, all pics are from my Nikon D80 (although pinagpasapasahan namin sa LIRA ang photographer duties). Humiram ako ng ilang retrato mula kina Butch Guerrero, Eilene Narvaez, Sarah Raymundo. at Judy Taguiwalo. Maraming salamat po.

National Artists Almario, Lumbera Lead Good Friday Rally for Arts and Culture

PR of the most recent event we organized. Maraming salamat sa lahat ng pumunta, at congrats sa LIRA!

MANILA, Philippines—Writers and artists led by the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) gathered at the Plaza Francisco Balagtas in the Pandacan district of Manila on Good Friday, mounting a symbolic “clean-up” for Philippine arts and culture exactly on the 222nd birth anniversary of the country’s premier poet.

Dubbed “Mag-alis ng Dungis ng Bayan: Penitensiya para sa Dangal ng Bayan” (Clean the Dirt of the Nation: Penitence for National Dignity), the program included some poetry performances not only remembering the King of Tagalog Poets and author of the canonical work “Florante at Laura,” but also calling for renewed state support for the arts.  

Armed with brooms, dust pans, and rags, the group convened by National Artist for Literature and former University of the Philippines Diliman College of Arts and Letters Dean Virgilio S. Almario, also known as the poet Rio Alma, also bared a cultural agenda which includes, among others, measures to improve the state of cultural industries and the creation of a separate Department of Culture.

“It is necessary to formulate a national policy that fully recognizes and gives due importance to culture as the core and foundation of government political and economic policy, said Almario, in a statement he read on stage with Manila Historical and Heritage Committee Vice Chair Gemma Cruz Araneta.

The seven-point agenda prepared for people running for office in the coming May 10 polls proposes, among others: (1) “The formation of a separate and full-fledged Department of Culture to oversee and manage the present cultural agencies of the government”; (2) “The establishment of a National Institute for the Creative Industries at the University of the Philippines to undertake cultural research, train cultural workers, and design a national plan for genuine cultural education”;

(3) “Support for the potential of culture and creative work in economic production”; (4) “Promotion and empowerment of Filipino as the National Language”; (5) “Financing undertakings for the protection and upkeep of the nation’s natural and cultural heritage”; (6) “Designation of an official Cultural Coordinator in every municipality, city, and province”; and (7) the training of teachers, “for them to become active representatives of effective cultural education.”

“Everything must emanate from culture,” Almario explained in an earlier interview. “It must be the center of all things. This is not only my belief, but this idea is being implemented in Japan, Korea and China. That is why these countries never go wrong in their policies all because culture is where their policies are anchored. Why? Because culture means country.”

Joining Almario and Araneta as lead signatories of the cultural agenda were Bienvenido Lumbera and Benedicto Cabrera, National Artists for Literature and Visual Arts, respectively; critic Isagani R. Cruz, representing Wika ng Kultura at Agham (WIKA), University of the Philippines Diliman Deans Zosimo Lee (Social Science and Philosophy), Danilo Silvestre (Architecture), and Rolando Tolentino (Mass Communication); poet Romulo Baquiran Jr., chair of the Filipinas Institute of Translation; poet Victor Emmanuel Carmelo Nadera Jr., UMPIL chair; poet Phillip Kimpo Jr., LIRA president; and singer and songwriter Gary Granada.           

After the clean-up, Lumbera and Liberal Party Senatorial Candidate Sonia Roco led the offering of flowers at the Balagtas monument, while the participants sang the nationalistic classic “Bayan Ko.” The attendees carried placards and streamers that echoed the cultural agenda, as well as commentary on the recent Presidential “midnight appointments” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and last year’s National Artist Awards controversy.

The event organizer, LIRA is the premier organization of poets in Filipino celebrating its 25th anniversary this 2010, while UMPIL is the largest organization of writers in the country.

Photos by Phillip Kimpo Jr.:

Writers and artists in front of the Balagtas monument.

National Artist Virgilio S. Almario and Gemma Cruz Araneta reading the proposed cultural agenda.

LP senatorial bet Sonia Roco and National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera offering flowers to Balagtas.

An artist cleans the bust of Balagtas as part of the symbolic clean-up.

Some of the writers and artists with their placards.