Writing Portfolio - Ruben Belmonte Jr.

WRITING PORTFOLIO

a brief portfolio of writing samples

Bachelor’s degree

Ruben Sakay Belmonte, Jr.

Holder in CommunicationsArts

Major in Theater Arts, magna cum laude

University of the Philippines

Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines

PUBLISHED WORKS

Sulo talks literature and special needs education in Magsulat Magmulat

By Ruben S. Belmonte, Jr.

The September 26 installment of Magsulat Magmulat webinar series spearheaded by Sulo, the official gazette of the College of Education students in UP Diliman, highlighted the importance and role of literature to individuals with diverse learning needs especially or as a coping mechanism during these trying times. This was the third among four seminars that were free of charge and is open to all student journalists and school paper advisers across the country.

Anchored on the theme, “Panitikang Pambata Bilang Kaagapay ng mga Batang May Espesyal na Pangangailangan,” the program was facilitated by Teacher Jonellie Reynes-Santos, a special education and literacy specialist, as she impart her personal experiences both as a writer and an instructor catering persons with diverse learning needs.

Teacher Joji, as she is called, is a published author of textbooks and children stories, especially her authorship of a young adult (YA) fiction book entitled, “Inside Daniel’s Head” which tackles misconceptions on the likes of Daniel who seeks special needs.

“For others, they may have that capability to express themselves [and] have that voice but they may not necessarily be heard or understood. The role of children’s literature in the pandemic at ako bilang manunulat kung paano ko ginagamit ang literature ay para maging kaagapay atpara makatulong sa mga indibdiwal na may espesyal na pangangailangan pati na rin sa kanilang pamilya.” Santos said.

Furthermore, the program mentioned as well how the pandemic worsened the struggle on providing interventions to individuals with diverse learning needs.

“It’s a vicious cycle. Many of these families have relied on the interventionist to take care of their children. Butnow even iftheinterventionists arethereonline, [itisstill]difficultespecially with parents who are not necessarily trained to deal with some needs that require pedagogical knowledge like teachers.”

Santos emphasized how the absence of interventionists leave a difficulty to the persons with special needs themselves in being able to understand why they have to not go outside and stay at home, wear masks, and the facts of the pandemic.

“Hindi tayo nabigyan ng abiso para sa mga pagbabagong ito. Kaya mahirap siya, hindi siya madali, kahit kanino. Imagine kung tayo nga na nandito may struggle tayo sa mga pagbabagong nangyayari. Can you imagine the effect on individuals who don’t understand the situation? Who despite repeated explanation may not even comprehend the magnitude of the problem?”

Santos, in response, asserted that literature then plays an essential role on this matter. One of the highlights of the program was the key points that Santos laid out on how literature can help learners thrive through uncertain times.

Literature serves as a tool in understanding disabilities, in raising awareness, in addressing challenges as it becomes; a window for others to discern special needs, a mirror where it becomes a venue for readers to see themselves, and a sliding door to be friends with and to take part in the lives of the individuals with disabilities.

“Literature becomes a way to connect [and to] stay connected. We can also use [literature] to start conversations with other children. It becomes something to talk about at least to start with. That’s how we use literature in addressing the needs of children with different diverse learning needs, whether it’s cognitive, social or mental.”

The program ended with Santos reminding the viewers who are aspiring to be writers and to the special education faculties who want to present stories to their students to continue exploring literature and life per se.

“Magbasa, magmasid, magsulat, magbahagi, maging bukas sa komento at makinig.”

The Magsulat Magmulat webinar series is free of charge and isopen to all student journalists and school paper advisers across the country. Their next installment is scheduled on October 3, 2020 where they will venture on the discussion about alternative methods highlighting the story of everyday life. For more details, visit their official facebook page, @upeduksulo. [P]

DOH gives UPLB testing center a go The university’s own COVID-19 Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory has been finally greenlighted as an independent COVID-19 testing center.

By Ruben S. Belmonte, Jr.

More than 2 months since UPLB created the “Committee for the Establishment of a COVID-19 Testing Center” under its “Task Force LB Kontra COVID-19” initiative, the Department of Health (DOH) finally released on Monday the certifications to operate for the COVID-19 testing laboratory of the university.

UPLB’s COVID-19 Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory (UPLB-CMDL) received its certification as a molecular lab that can perform independent testing for COVID-19 by real time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

DOH greenlighted the labs to operate after its six medical technologists aced the proficiency test for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection on June 26, where they garnered a score of 100% in tests on nucleic acid extraction, reagent preparation, and real time RT-PCR of multiple targets.

Dr. Rex Demafelis, Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension and chair of the UPLB Task Force Laban ng Bayan Kontra COVID-19, announced that the UPLB-CMDLwill begin accepting samples on July 6.

UPLB-CMDL will serve as a subnational testing center for Laguna and neighboring provinces with its license validity dated until the end of 2020. It is located at theAgricultural and Life Sciences Complex in UPLB, and isheaded by Dr. Ma. Genaleen Q. Diaz – UPScientist I and a faculty member of Genetics and Molecular Biology Division of the Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS).

The proficiency test conducted by the Molecular Biology Laboratory of the DOH-RITM is the last and final stage of the assessment process for COVID-19 testing centers that employ RT-PCR. The said method is deemed one of the most accurate ways to detect COVID-19, and the gold standard for detecting and tracking SARS-CoV-2 in humans and studying COVID-19. [P]

You may visit https://uplbperspective.wordpress.com/author/rubenbelmontelove/ for more published works. These are just 2 of the 27 written works that was published online.

CRITIQUE PAPERS / PAPEL-SURI

Dissecting the PrismaticArt of Narrativization:AnAnalysis on Time and Space in Rolin Cadallo Obina’s Mga Bata sa Selda 43

Ruben Belmonte Jr.

“Mga Bata sa Selda 43” is a play written by Rolin Cadallo Obina. It talks about two children who found themselves locked up in a place resembling a room and find ways to know how they ended up there and how they can free themselves from there. The play stars brothers Philip and Ino who are 13 and nine years old, respectively. The play starts with them opening their eyes and finding themselves together in a single room with a bed, a cabinet, and a lightbulb, among others, that is very typical like that of a house room. The plot progresses usually with their thoughts and conspiracy theories about the place, their mom, and the juvenile reasons about how they ended up in the room which included their exchangesonpossiblybeing abducted byaliens orso they thought.Alloftheirpresumptionsshattered when they meet Ed who disclosed being in the Selda 43 for so long. By the end of it, both Philip and Ino were revealed as persons who were dubbed as “Desaparecidos” during the Martial Law era in the Philippines that they are already dead and that “selda 43” is a waiting area for the victims whose body are not yet found.

The playfulness exhibited by the narrative is an interesting facet of the text worthy of analyzing analyzing in the lens that which Sarah Bryant-Bertail in her book entitled, “Space and Time in Epic Theater: The Brechtian Legacy” called the “theatrical spatio-temporality” (Bryant-Bertail, 2000). Dissecting the play from its rendering of the concepts of time and space shall bring the understanding of it closer to what the author intended to express, together with how future play productions will treat the text more cleverly and grounded. This paper will discuss the undertones hiddenly present in the narrative with regards to its time and space.

Time: Refracting reflections

Time within “Mga Bata sa Selda 43” goes beyond, superbly far, from the time in the physical realm. Both Philip and Ino are considered timeless mainly because of being a spirit or ghost already. In “Mga Bata sa Selda 43,” time can be best described as beyond the bounds of possibility. To wait for the time when one becomes free from the “Selda 43” does not guarantee the bringing back of the physical body and/to the physical world.

It is also worth noting the analysis of numerical figures present in the text; the number “43” in “Mga Bata sa Selda 43,” the textbeing situated during theyear 2018 as told by Ino, and a mention about the year 2016 where Ino mentioned as the year when shape-shifting aliens invaded the country: Ang sabi sa akin, dumating daw ang mga alien noong 2016. Sumanib ito sa mga tao. Kaya hindi na natin sila namumukhaan kasi nagkatawang tao na sila.

In addition to this is the long been prisoner in the Selda 43, Ed, who is 20 years old and was a third-year Political Science student at the University of the Philippines. He also exclaimed about finally having a companion in the same cell after being alone for 30 years: Third year college ako noon, Political Science sa UP. Mga ilang taon matapos magdeklara ng martial law si Makoy. Nagmartsa kami sa Mendiola kaso nandoon na ‘yong mga konstabularyo at mga militar. Hinuhuli kami.”

“...Nakakatuwang makalipas ang mahigit tatlumpung taon, may nakakasama na naman ako sa Selda kwarenta y tres.

It is by fact that Martial Law was declared during the year 1972. If by means of Ed telling the reader about being chased years after the declaration of Martial Law, it can be safe to add his year being a junior year college student to the significant variable of the year he was killed (Pulasan kami. Takbo ako hanggang sa makarating ng Krus na Ligas doon sa Quezon City… pero huli na. Pinagsisipa na ako ng limang armadong lalaki.).

Ed is 17 years old during the time of the Martial law declaration and aged 20 when he became a third-year college student. Subtracting the current year, 2018, in the text to the year Martial Law was declared plus three years, it would be equivalent to 43 which is the number of the “selda.” The “selda,” with this line of thought, could be 43 years old. With this analysis on time, the “selda” was created during the time Ed died and aged conjointly with him. These intricacies on the explicit play on numbers carrying implicit symbolisms aids in the establishment of the characters and set’s context in the lens of chronemics alongside the milieu of the life of various elements coinciding in a single point in time.

Aside from the numerical mentions within the text, there are other elements as well that are greatly contributory to how time takes its passage in the narrative. One of which is the sirens being an element symbolic of “time distortion” or the “prolongation of time.” Each alarm signifies the passing of yet another time beyond the time within Philip and Ino. The sirens are contributory as well to the “aesthetic of repetition.” The repetition of sirens is discerned as the presence of police mobiles, either searching and have found a lost body or making another one again. Such aesthetic repetition is considered by Henri Lefebvre as part of his so-called “rhythmanalysis.” In his book, “Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life,” rhythm is something that is deemed “inseparable from understandings of time, in particular repetition.” (Lefebvre, 2013). Lefebvre furthered that such analysis on rhythm, may it be in everyday life or as an application to creative works like theatre, “provides a privileged insight into the question of everyday life.” (Lefebvre, 2013). Taking the sirens as an example, the way it is repeated across the play meant that hearing sirens is more than just a loud prolonged echoing sound that usually comes from vehicles. It, rather, puts everyday life and familiarity into question probably connoting another body being either searched or hidden “starting with full consciousness of the abstract in order to arrive at the concrete.” (Lefebvre, 2013)

“Theatre of Slowness,” where an image seems to store time, is also evident in “Mga Bata sa Selda 43.” Being in a single location where everything happens in a single space and time, slowness comes in the frame for being a mood-setter for the “continuous present” of Philip and Ino’s dead life. The spectators’ viewership is locked in the perspective of Philip and Ino jailed and joined in the hope of being enlightened about the place and the situation, like the two main characters.

Time in “Mga Bata sa Selda 43” is greatly and effectively nuanced. These nuances in the form oftimeplayfulnessgivenothingbutthedepth to thenarrativeofPhilip and Ino atechniquesubverting the traditional and/or conventional mode of storytelling.

Space: Finiteness of the unbounded

Space in “Mga Bata sa Selda 43" is finite and confined. Conveying space through emphasizing the finiteness of the setting directly helps in perceiving a restrained and jail-like understanding of the setting.

A scenic space being “metonymic” can also be applied in the set production of Selda 43. This can be done by positioning several elements in the theatre stage in line with the character’s distinctive nature within the text. Ino, Philip, and Ed are relatively unique in their own despite being all Desaparecidos, as revealed in the end. We have Ino who is a child and whose thinking is still juvenile, Philip who is more mature than Ino and whose coming-of-age have aided him to understand his surroundings, and Ed who is more adult-thinking compared to the two as he has been in the “selda” for so long and who was a college student before he died. Incorporating elements such as prison marks mostly in the scenic space of Ed, a bed that is more perceivable in Ino’s space, and a door in Philip’s may not just be symbolical in function but a visual facet contributory to the reality-construction of theatre space. The symbolical space which represents an imagined world has come to life because of the actor’s exploration in the physical theatre’s fraction that is the case of online production, the actor’s floor.

Within their spaces, Philip, Ino, and Ed have made theirs subjectivized in accordance with their “selves.” The Selda 43 is a “homogenous space” in the sense that it is a “selda” for the Desaparecidos an analogous and unvarying space from the three of them that they share at the same time and because of the same reason. Beyond this “homogenous space,” all three characters have subconsciously created their own spaces subjectivized because of their dialogues and nuances as a character that is different from each other. Their frames being different from each other, yet apparently the same in actuality, have allowed them to express their own. A “scenic montage” where actors, in intervals, display viewing behavior on stage like how a mere audience views stages helps this subjectivized space to be perceived. The gazes alongside this establishment of performances and behaviors by the performers have made them express the heterogeneity of their own frames or spaces.

A “chronemic space”, that is a “place of traces” where visual indications perpetuate all throughout the play, is also evident in Selda 43. One example of them is the display of prison marks. These marks have signified the passing of time inside prison cell 43 and how it has long existed from thepastuntil thepresent. Traces can also beintegrated into the form oflighting and colorgrading within each cell.

Creating such a prism

Displaying “spatio-temporality” artistically in “online” theater productions poses a challenge most of the time. With the advent of technology as a medium in projecting the artistic manifestations of online theatre productions, to be symbolic is exhaustingly intricate, but not impossible, even fulfilling at the end. A lot of software, nowadays, is curated to cater to these artistic integrations within a play production. The eyes of the viewers mediated with a screen in between the actors/productions’end and to their side also participate in the manner of perception and reception.

Selda 43 exemplifies climactic essence with the revelations uncovering as the narrative progresses. It is a one-of-a-kind play that is superbly effective in playing around possible conceptions of time and space. To talk about the concepts of time and space within Selda 43 means to talk about how underlying meanings are eternally present all throughout and how a play production should be able to display these meanings effectively. Analyzing these elements allows the production to be grounded on what the play wishes to express. After all, Selda 43 is to not talk about merely Philip and Ino in the context of their time and space as characters. Rather, to open and create such a prism of discourse on the time and space during the era of Martial Law and its victims who have controversially never been documented and found until the very day.

REFERENCE/S:

Bryant-Bertail, S. (2000). Space and Time in Epic Theater: The Brechtian Legacy. Boydell & Brewer. Davenport, Mackenzie (2021, January 12). How Robert Wilson Bends Time. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA67jt8QiKo

Etudes, 2(2). Retrieved September 25, 2021 from http://www.etudesonline.com/uploads/2/9/7/7/29773929/etudesdec2016jacobson.pdf hgiani. (2014, October 22). THE DROWNED MAN - PUNCHDRUNK [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u51Qy6owAo

Jacobson, K. L. (2016). Really Sell It To Me: Immersive Theatre as Ideal Commodity.

Lefebvre, H. (2013). Rhythmanalysis: Space, time and everyday life. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Obina, R. C. (n.d.). Mga Bata sa Selda 43. tomas.ust.edu.ph. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from https://tomas.ust.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/26-Mga-Bata-Sa-Selda-43.pdf.

Price, K. (2009, December 6). KP’s Theatre Class – Composition [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbGOdGUsslQ

Price, K. (2010, February 11). KP’s Theatre Class – Blocking.mov [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL5H86NvCsk

Buhay pa rin sila: Isang Papel-Suri patungkol sa 1988 na pelikula ni John Carpenter na pinamagatang They Live

Ni: Ruben Belmonte Jr.

Ano naman kung nasira ang satellite dish na nagbibigay sa kanila ng maskara para itago ang kanilang tunay na anyo? Buhay pa rin naman sila. Ito ang mga katagang unang pumasok sa aking utak nang matapos kong panoorin ang 1988 na pelikulang isinulat at idinirek ni John Carpenter. Ang They Live ay isang radikal na pelikulang umiikot sa isang homeless na lalaking nagngangalang Nada. Ang salitang nada ay salitang espanyol na sa direktang pagsasalin sa wikang Filipino ay nangangahulugang "wala.” Nagsimula ang palabas kung saan makikita si Nada na naglalakad mag-isa bitbit ang isang malaking bag. Halata sakaniyang pustura at paglilingon-lingon na siya ay bago sa lugar at walang direksyon na patutunguhan.Ang kaniyang pangunahing motibo sa mga naunang eksena ay makahanap ng hanapbuhay. Isang espesyal na antipara ang nagpabago ng kaniyang pangal na buhay nang kaniyang mapag-alamang may kakayahan itong ipakita sa nagsusuot ang tungkol sa isang alien plot–ang pamumunong klase ng mga alien o dayuhang pulitiko, celebrity, at mga naghaharing-uri na sumakop sa lipunang Amerikano kung saan makikitang sinasamantala ang mga “natutulog” na ordinaryong mamamayan para sa isang kultura ng alipin-konsumer. Sa pagkagising ni Nada dulot ng pagkamulat sa tunay na realidad, nilayon niyang ipaalam sa karamihan ang kaniyang nakikita at subuking wakasan ito (AC Media Services, 2017).

Ang papel na ito ay isang pagsusuri sa nabanggit na pelikula. Pabubulaanan ng papel na ito ang esensya ng pelikula, ang mga nakapaloob at nakapailalim na mga kahulugan nito maging ang kaugnayan sa nakikitang kalagayan/pagka-Pilipino ng kasalukuyan. Kultura ng alipin-konsumer: Ang American Dream, namanhid na melankolia at false consciousness

Ginamit ng pelikula ang horror bilang genre para tuklasin ang kasuklam-suklam na katangian ng kahirapan, pagsasamantala, kultura ng pag-konsumo, at kapitalismo sa lipunang Amerika. Ang ordinaryong mgamamamayan nakalakhanngpwersang manggagawaang siyang asintado ngmgaalien na panatilihing tulog sa katotohanan ng kanilang pagiging alipin-konsumer nang magpatuloy ang pagtalon sa yaman at ginhawa ng mga nasa itaas. Kabalintunaang isipin na nagmimistulang parehong tulog at gising ang mga ordinaryong mamamayan sa lipunang ginawa ni Carpenter–tulog sa tunay na nangyayari at gising para sa desire na umangat at/o ng American dream. Isang ilusyon na walang tinutulungan kundiang naghaharing-uri. Dahil rito ay nagkakaroon ng tinatawag na false consciousness ang mga tao Nakararanas ng kawalan ng kakayahan ang mga tao na tukuyin ang opresyon, inhustisya, at pagsasamantala ng mga naghaharing-uri sa isang kapitalistang lipunan dahil sa paglaganap ng mga ideya na nag-normalize at nagbibigay-katwiran sa mga uring panlipunan (Britannica, 2020; Storey, 2018). Pakiwari ba’y isang mahikang nakaulap sa kanilang mga isipan hanggang sa maging manhidmanhiran sa melankoliang tunay na nararanasan ng sarili dahil abala sa parehong pag-iisip patungkol sa survival sa lipunan at desire sa buhay. Ang umaklas sa kultura ng alipin-konsumer ay hindi madaling gawin. Lalo pa sa lipunang simula pa lamang sa pagkabata ng mga tao ay hinubog ang isipan sa konsepto ng “Ang pera ay ang Diyos” at ang pag-konsumo ng produkto, karanasan, at ideyolohiya ay pagkain ng utak at desire na magpapatuloy sa ating humangad ng mas mataas na antas sa lipunan.

Ang ISAs at RSAs: Mga makinarya ng mekanismo

Pinasikat ni LouisAlthusser ang konsepto ng mga ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) at mga repressive state apparatuses (RSAs) (Storey, 2018;Eggert, 2017). Sila ang mga tagapagpalakas ng mga kapitalistang ideolohiya na sinusubo sa mga ordinaryong konsumer upang masiguro ang pagpapanatili nito sa pamamagitan ng iba’t-ibang uri at porma ng panunupil. Ang ISAs tulad ng edukasyon at telebisyon ay isa sa mga epektibong aparato ng estado sa paghulma ng ideyolohiya. “I never grow old, and I never die.” Iyan ang sabi ng isang komersyal ng isang TV celebrity sa palabas. Ang iba ay ang lantarang pagpapakita ng pagpapakalayaw at pagnanasa sa mas mayaman na buhay gamit ang “long nails, new cars” at iba pang tinaguriang divine excess. Makikita rito ang kapangyarihan ng komersyalismo at ang paraan ng pagmamanipula ng mga tao sa pamamagitan ng advertising. Ang mga marahas na kapulisang gumugulpi ng mga progresibo, ang mga kamao ng mapang-aping estado, at mga bala sa pinipihit na baril na hawak ng naghaharing-uri ang pinaka-angkop na halimbawa ng RSA sa

palabas. Ang importante lamang sa kanila ay kailangang mapanatili ang status quo at hindi dapat ito maistorbo kahit na naiipit ang mga tao dahil dito.

Binabalot ng ideyolohiya ang mundo kung saan ang mga aparatong ito ang mga nagsisilbing makinarya sa pagpapaunlad at pagpapanatili ng kanilang mapagsamantalang mekanismo. Sa pelikula, pinakita ng antipara ang totoong mensahe ng mga ideyolohiya at represibong aparato ng estado. Nakikita sa pagsuot nito ang totoong mensahe ng samu’t-saring propaganda at ideyolohiya. Ngunit sa katunayan, ang ideyolohiya ay kumikilos na parang pagsuot ng antipara–ang krtisismo ng ideyolohiya ay dapat ang pagsuot-tanggal ng antipara upang makita ang katotohanan ng mundo sa likod ng mga representasyon nito. Ayon kay Slavoj Zizek sa palabas na The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, ang ideolohiya ay ang dapat na mga salamin na bumabaluktot sa ating pananaw.

Ang midya bilang pinakamatagumpay ay makapangyarihan na ISA sa pelikula ay tatalakayin sa susunod na subseksyon.

Mouthpiece ng Naghaharing-Uri:Ang Midya

Malakas ang paglalarawan ng pelikula para sa midya. Ang midya bilang pagdadaluyan ng impormasyong magpapahubog sa mga utak ng tao upang maitatanim sa kanila ang dapat at hindi dapat sa isang lipunang idinikta ng mga nasa itaas. Mas nakakarumal-dumal pa ay ang midya ang nagmimistulang perpetuator ng mga mapaniil na ideolohiyang ito sa halip na maging tulay ng makatatong impormasyon. Sila ay ang mikropono ng mga naghaharing-uri upang i-amplify para sa nakararami ang kanilang mga mapaniil na kathang-isip. Makikita rin natin ang impluwensya ng midya hindi lamang sa mga taong kumukunsumo nito bagkus sa mga taong nasa midya mismo.Ang gampanin ni Holly sa pelikula bilang ispiya sa underground group ay magandang halimbawa.Ang inaakalang susi sa pagguho ng mapanlinlang na midya ay isa palang kawatan pa rin na kasanib sa pwersa ng mga mapang-api–mulat pero piniling maging bulag. Ang midya sa porma ng panonood ng telebisyon ay makikitang makapangyarihan din. Noong dumating si Nada sa isang komunidad ng Justiceville–isang deprived na lugar sa labas ng isang bayan na binubuo ng malaking bilang ng mga mistulang iskwater–napansin ni Nada ang isang grupo na nagsasabwatan sa isang kalapit na simbahan, nag-uusap tungkol sa pagsisikap namasira ang mga signal sa telebisyon at ipaabot ang kanilang mensahe patungkol sa kultura ng pang-aaliping mayroon ang lugar. Ang mismong pagtingin ng masang-api sa gampanin ng telebisyon at midya bilang angkop na metodo upang ipalabas sa mga tao ang katotohanan ay direktang tumutukoy sa midya bilang malakas na daluyan ng impormasyon na may kapangyarihang humulma ng isip ng tao.Ang paghi-hijack ng mga taong simbahan sa telebisyon ng mga nasa Justiceville ay hindi lamang basta pagpapakita ng mithiing iparating ang kanilang mensahe kundi ang pagpapakita ng telebisyon bilang pinaka-epektibong metodo para ihatid ang mensahe. Isa itong pagtatanto na ang midya bilang kalaban nila ay siya ring kakampi sa pagpapalaganap ng ideyolohiya. Ang naiiba na lamang ay kung ilang gramo ng katotohanan at ng impormasyong tunay na para sa bayan ang lalamanin nito.

Buhay pa rin sila, hindi nabubuhay lang: Pagmutawi ng hindi naman namatay Ang pagkakategorisa ng pelikula bilang science-fiction ay kakuwestiyon-kuwestiyon pa lalo noong pinabulaanan ni Carpenter sa isang interbyu sa Yahoo na ito ay isang documentary higit pa sa pagiging sci-fi (Hyden, 2018). Ito ay tila naging isang mapaglarawang pelikula ng katotohanan…ng realidad, aniya. Maganda ring analisahin ang karakter ni Nada bilang “wala” sa wikang Espanyol. Nakakatawang tingnan na sa pagtatapos ng pelikula ay isang taong nagnga-ngalang “wala” ang nakapag-pahinto at nakapag-sira ng sistemang mapanupil. Pakiwari ba ay piguratibo ngunit literal na sinasabi ng pelikula na “wala” ang nakasira, na “wala” ang nagbigay katapusan sa mga alien at ang kanilang pang-aapi sa mamamayang alipin-konsumer.

Makikita sa katapusan ng palabas na lahat ng tao ay nasa estado ng pagtataka. Hindi alam ang gagawin at/o hindi alam kung paano iintindihin ang nakikita.Ang wakas ay nagsasabi sa atin na maging may alam, dilat, at magpasimulang gumawa ng naaayon na aksyon. Tayo, ang tao, ang may kakayahan upang bumaklas sa mga mapang-aping sistemang ito na binubusog ang ating isip sa pamamagitan ng mapaniil na ideyolohiya.Ang nakakalungkot ay ang desisyon ng iba na balewalain ang totoo kahit ito’y nasa harap na natin–mga pinipiling maging ignorante at hayaang magpaka-sasa pa sa kumunoy ng opresyon. Mga tulad ni Holly. Bilang estudyante sa pamantasang ito, lalo pa’t nakapag-aral ng ganitong kurso sa wika, kulturang popular, politika, at iba pa, kasalanan na ang pumikit. Sa konteksto ng

Pilipinas, marahas na [biktima ng pagka-]alipin ang nakararami, kasama ako at ang aking hanay ng sangka-estudyantehan sa ilalim ng mga naghaharing-uri. Swerte na lamang dahil kami ay nabiyayaang makapag-aral sa isang pamantasang nagsusulong ng pagkasuklam at pagkamuhi sa neoliberal na edukasyon–isang ISAng estado parahulmahinsamaling pormangpagiisip ang kabataan. Ngunitpaano ang mga hindi?

Ang wakas ng pelikula ay hindi deskriptibong pagsasara na ang mga sinasabing elitista, kapitalista, pasista, mapang-api at/o ano pa mang tinuturing na naghaharing-uri sa lipunan ay nabubuhay. Ang wakas ay isang tawag sa pagkilos para hindi lamang gumising ang mga tao mula sa pagkakatulog, bagkus bumangon at tumayo mula sa pagkakahiga at labanan ang higanteng sistemang mapang-api. Tinatawag ang tao na maging malaya dahil kung ang buhay ng isang tao ay magiging tungkol lamang sa pagkukusang-loob na sumunod na lamang, hindi ito tunay na kalayaan. Dahil tulad ng mga unang katagang nabanggit sa papel na ito, buhay pa rin sila.

Mga Sanggunian

AC MediaServices. (2017). They live.TheOfficialJohn Carpenter. Retrieved December16, 2022, from https://theofficialjohncarpenter.com/they-live/ Britannica,T. EditorsofEncyclopaedia(2020,March 4). false consciousness. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from, 16 December 2022 from https://www.britannica.com/topic/falseconsciousness

Eggert, B. (2017, July 4). They Live. Deep Focus Review. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/they-live/ Hyden, S. (2018, October 4). John Carpenter's 'they live' was supposed to be a warning. we didn't heed it. we didn't even understand it. The Ringer. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/10/4/17933020/they-live-john-carpenter-americadonald-trump

IMDb.com. (n.d.). They Live. IMDb. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/plotsummary Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.

Skydiving onto something indeterminate: A Critique Paper on Resil B. Mojares’ Theater in Society, Society in Theater

Documenting a current phenomenon makes itan important relic and history in the future. Much more in a time where recording a significant event is handicapped by the technology that the 21st century has. "Theater in Society, Society in Theater" is a book authored by Resil B. Mojares (1985). It spotlights the barrio of Valladolid in Carcar, southern Cebu through a thorough and imaginative retelling ofitshistory as aPhilippinecommunity during thepre-and Spanish colonialtimes. Thehistory spans from the 1500s to 1940, but the late nineteenth century, a period of growing peasantization, and the first 40 years of the 21st century are placed emphasis in the book (1985). As Mojares traces the village's history, he has exposed himself to examining changes in the village's moral order, structure, organization, and community affairs as they are seen in the external and internal alterations of their theater tradition called linambay. This is Mojares’ primary driving force for the creation of his book–to document the Valladolid village through the linambay.

The book was published on January 1, 1985. The book’s content can be discerned having the years 1840 to 1940 as its milieu. It consists of three straightforward-titled chapters. These are (1) The Barrio of Valladolid, (2) The Linambay Tradition, and (3) Theater in Society, Society in Theater. The first chapter revolves around the discussion on the barrio of Valladolid. It covered the “then” and “now” of the community, its geographical nature, its beginnings and developments, and its people. The chapter comprehensively delved into its agrarian nature and/or being a peasant village as well with mentions of its economic structure, the early Visayan class system, ceremonial activities being part of thevillage’slifeand resourcesystem, socialrelationsand conditions, and ritualactivities, amongothers. Further in the chapter are narratives on the more political aspect of Valladolid. Some of them are about the arrival of Spanish colonizers bringing with them their mission of influencing the native Filipino people, paganism, and peasantization paralleled with how these affected the community, in general. The second chapter, meanwhile, zoomed in on a specific tradition that is special and at the heart of the Valladolid community–the linambay tradition. It elaborated on how the linambay tradition is normally a part of the community’s annual fiesta, which is a celebration of the town’s patron saint (of Sta. Catalina and of San Roque). It fleshed out the fundamental aspects of the tradition as a theater play ranging from how it usually takes nine nights of traditional prayer, the community’s church complex and the public plaza as some of its usual venues, the people who typically prepare for it, the texts it uses, the themes that are incorporated, their rehearsals and performances, stage design, costume and attire, music, audience, and the entire actual play itself. It also recorded the tradition’s paradoxical natures such as being historical but injecting folk romance, literary but also oral, modern yettraditional, and foreign but native. More than these, the chapter expounded on the essence of the linambay tradition to the community–how it reflected the people and their agrarian life, the ideological superstructure embedded in the community, and the power of art as a medium for artistry and expression. Finally, the third chapter is more of a worldview perspective amplifying the concept of “Theater in Society, Society in Theater.”Weaving both thenatureofValladolid asa community and theessenceof linambay as the community’s tradition, the third chapter is presented through the perspective of the community’s greater external environment that caused its birth, development, and erosion in the end. Since the first two chapters are more technical in nature as it spotlights the geographic nature of the community and the mechanical/practical theater elements that make the linambay tradition as a whole, the last or third chapter will be elaborated more in this paper. This paper shall make a critique of the mentioned text, specifically the chapter, of Resil B. Mojares’ book “Theater in Society, Society in Theater.”

The Third Chapter: Sanctification of rich culture and inequality

The third chapter is introduced as having the same title as the book. It is revealed in this chapter that the book used the linambay theater tradition as a “control” in analyzing the social history of the rural community in Cebu. Due to that, there is this underlying notion in the author where society was the study’s primary subject of investigation while the linambay becomes only Mojares’ kind of lens or bridge to it. From a bird’s eye view, the chapter contextualized itself on the socioeconomic changes in the Cebu countryside during the 19th century which created a need (and challenges) for the integrative functionofthe linambay.Meaningtheexternalenvironmenthadvalueon thedevelopmentofthetheater

tradition, and unfortunately to its death as well due to a lot more external socio-political factors. In line with this, it is noteworthy that the eventual emergence of a relatively prosperous peasant world occasioned the consolidation, and later on the conclusion, of the tradition (1985).

A timeline of the peasant village sets the narrative moving in this chapter. It focused on the last decades of the 19th century and the first four decades of the 20th century which was considered the period during which the linambay flourished. It was also the period in which adequate data existed that was enough for the author to study it. These timelines were not just a direct development timeline of the community and its tradition, but a more extensive and all-inclusive one as it includes the sociopolitical milieu of some significant years in the centuries where the community was under. The chapter’s main point is the effect of the deepening crisis and growing urbanization that confronted the village, challenging its economic structure, moral order, and even sadder, its existence. It was in this chapter that it revealed the role of the community’s elite in such a deteriorating phase in the community. The Regises and the Gantuangcos are self-proclaimed lords of the community because of their high land ownership percentages in the place. They are responsible for the greater funding of Valladolid’s celebration of linambay. When growing urbanization shocked the village, the elites, who principally have the strings of the community’s mobilization, left the agriculture economy in circus and switched to commercial affairs. They were no longer exclusively dependent on land but were actively engaged in trading,specifically, thecontracting,buying, andselling oftuba(1985).Adversely, agrowingerosion of patron-client relations happened like adomino. Thebonds that bind patrons and clients together have become less reciprocal and morally weaker. All of these during the Pacific War and the country’s new administration which enormously altered the country’s peaceful agriculture system into a problematic one. Haciendas were reinforced, became mechanized, highly commercialized, capitalized, and exploited. Due to that, rural exploitation increased for workers as well which was directly experienced by Valladolid primarily because it was a peasant village. During such economic struggles, a growing skepticism concerning the value of lavish religious ceremonialism began to come into people’s minds.

At the end of the community people, their participation as a peasant in the tradition carried a component of false consciousness. Peasants adopt the elite view of the world held by the linambay, which mystifies the worsening social exploitation. When the elite controlled the means of cultural production and so "manipulated" the symbols that the peasants experienced, they believed that there wasabalanceof services and productsin thesocialenvironmentwhen itisnotthereal case. AsMaurice Bloch said (quoted in the book), “The rituals became the system by which they hid the world.” On that cue, the tradition then declined and disintegrated.

As shared in Mojares accounts, two factors are necessary to fully understand the linambay: (1) a conflict-filled environment that serves as the conscious or unconscious justification for ritual, and (2) the presence of the instruments, institutions, or conditions that enable the ritualistic domestication of such conflict. But when these circumstances change, a tense atmosphere is produced. The village then experiences economic inequities, natural disasters become more noticeable, there is the horrifying politics of revolution and conflict, and the insecurities of the market develop. According to the book, the symbols that keep the linambay alive no longer derive their significance and strength from external reality during its erosion. As a result of the context collapsing, the ground beneath its feet is now unstable, hazardous, and uncertain. The system's own ability to direct and shape the community's moral behavior was gone. As barrio corporatism was undermined, poverty became a more urgent reality, and the moral life of the community declined (or lost) the coherence and depth that it had previously had. Because of the ever-changing milieu and commercialization surrounding it, things became tragic. Not justto thevillagebuttothecommunity–thesanctification ofrich culturebutofinequality asitcelebrates and perpetuates the existence of an “elite vision of the world.”

Beseeching Filipinos: Uncovering future relics

The book was comprehensive yet easily digestible which makes it a strong text for understanding a particular community theater. It used language that is easy to understand and relatable even to casual/non-theater readers. More than that, it delivered its message well to the readers. That, Mojares implored, “Forms like the linambay ritualize a moral world.” They not only become part of society but also participate in it. They are blueprints for the shaping of emotional and moral states, rather than just passive mirrors reflecting a society. This, precisely, is what Mojares (and the concept of community theater) through his book tries to deliver. It’s a theater that was not just produced

independently or out of a vacuum. It’s a theater from, by and for the community, so it is always imperative to give importance to the community and the culture where it came from.

Above these, it has also implicitly suggested that future research is greatly needed in the field. Valladolid, as a community, and the linambay, as a phenomenon, are just two of the many community theaters in the Philippines that are fortunate to have been documented and researched well. Imagine the linambay dying a silent death with no corpse left for future theater enthusiasts to dig upon. It would be saddening. Going back to reality, the greater saddening fact is the actual reality of most possibly a number of theater traditions in the Philippines that were deprived of formal documentation. Even if it is just an assumption, the probability is high. And people would not even realize it existed because it already ceased to exist even right before they see it.

Mojares’ work is indeed a relic–a sacred literature of historical and sentimental significance that has survived the ages and continues to be. Compiled as a book, the research work and findings about Valladolid is an important facet of the history of community theater, at large, in the Philippines. Without it, people would not be aware of such a rich occasion that existed during the 19th century. It continuously becomes like a gold artifact in being able to document a now-inexistent formerly-riched phenomenon in aprovinceinthePhilippines.NottomentionValladolid asoneoftheconsidered earliest known settlements on the island of Cebu and the country, Mojares did a great feat of chronicling such a noble event despite surely skydiving to an indeterminate subject as a central point of investigation for research work.

More than being an informative textbook about a previously-living community and theater tradition, the book is a call to action. It is beyond being a documentation of a theater community as it beseeches Filipinos in starting [and continuously] to uncover some surely rich histories and roots of theater and community theater in the country. References Mojares,

SAMPLE PAPER ON ART WORKANALYSIS

A Story of a Rural Peasant Society: An Icon Analysis of a Philippine Icon Ruben Belmonte Jr.

unknown title (2023)

Libmanan, Camarines SurArtist

Photo taken: 07 Mar 2023 at the Iriga City Plaza Complex

As I was strolling across the streets in my hometown to find images around me, I came across these paintings that are lined up on the ground just beside the highway. We were tasked to engage in a creative way with the images around us and whatever type or category, the images should be chosen carefully as they must be relevant and meaningful to oneself. It was surprising to see this with that purpose of mine like it was meant for me to go outside.

The Philippine icon that I chose is [the act of] farming which is expressed through traditional painting. Although farming and/or agriculture in the Philippines is common knowledge for art viewers, especially Filipinos, some symbols and themes displayed in the chosen artwork take on greater significance. As an image in the traditional arts, it was not difficult to read the image of farming and/or agriculture as an example of a Philippine icon. Most of the symbols and figures used are outwardly drawn from the natural world and/which then reflect the close relationship between human beings and nature (Guillermo, 2001). Symbols illustrated like the palay, the salakot, the birds, and the men possess parallelism and social values like in reality. When they were combined and arranged into one canvas, a slice of life in the field of agriculture is expressed transforming the art into a more meaningful one. This paper shall present a critique of the chosen artwork. The painting will be treated as a text containing a complex of symbols and meanings and will be read through the four planes of analysis enumerated in Alice Guillermo’s (2001) reading material: the basic semiotic plane, the iconic, the contextual, and the axiological or evaluative plane.

Basic Semiotic Plane

Every physical or material mark and trace inside a visual piece is an embodiment of signs with the capacity to transmit meaning. The farmers as a semantic in the chosen artwork is signified with the illustration of a salakot, sweat pants, a rolled sleeve, and tanned skins. Each component of the human figure in the artwork adds to the idea of illustrating a farmer. As a result, since lines, colors, shapes, and compositions, among others, confirm the semantics of each piece, it assisted in bringing the concept of the farmer to life. This goes the same with the following: the palay and how it is colored as darker than the background color; and the birds which most possibly be pertaining to egrets as a bird specie that helps eliminate pests in rice fields. With such strokes manifested in the palays and how the arms of the humanfiguresextend indiagonallinesfrom them to thericemud field, theartwork also suggestsmotion and/or movement. The farmers become non-static and seem to be real-time demonstrating the planting of palays in the rice mud field. The artwork’s texture resulting from the technique of strokes it used is greatly contributory as well to its semantics. Particularly the stroke of vertical lines displayed in the palays along with the horizontal strokes of darker color in random places below the palays becomes significant to the tactile sensations it provides to the viewers. It signifies the presence of water despite the use of a dark color, instead of the typical blue-colored water. With regards to this, colors grow to be vital in reading the image as well. It becomes a conveyor of meaning. The use of recurrent color,

dominant hues, and real-life “chromatic codes” contributes to the totality of symbolic meaning that the concept of farming and/or agriculture is being portrayed. A background color in gradient shading of green, yellow, and white are seen as the dominating color in the entirety of the work. This does not also exclude how the white shadings are cast on the farmers’ backs and some of the salakots to signify the presence of the sun. Other shadings as well were carried out in the artwork to portray depth and texture. This is more seen in the farmers’ clothes. Such color shading proves the human experience of day and night, which brings us back to how shared values and experiences factor into how we read a work of art.

The medium used in the artwork is more conventional and traditional. It used painting as its primary material. Materials used and techniques displayed in the artwork as an artistic process are also examined considering that it is also believed to be conveyors of meaning. Traditional materials and techniques were used in the artwork if one may see. Paints and a cloth canvas as seen in most paintings are observed. It is therefore safe to claim that these applications led to an endeavor by the artwork to suggest a “natural and familiar environment” an effort to prevent alienation from common spectators (Guillermo, 2001).

With all these, meanings are then produced. The interplay of each signifier and signified in the work suggests a collage of significations. Despite the fact that we have a tendency to view elements independently, their highly interrelated and dynamic character immediately reveals their semantics.

Iconic Plane

Since that semiotics is still founded on the study of signs, the iconic plane continues to be a component of the semiotic approach to analyzing an image. The implications of the features and qualities of the image will, however, be more heavily stressed in this level of reading. Nuances in the image as an “iconic sign” is observed.

The subject is meaningful in terms of socio-cultural context as it reflects the values and ideologies arising from the place and time it was created. Regardless of the viewer's position, prestige, or line of work in life, the subject is a human figure who speaks directly to the viewer. Due to the absence of facial features, the subject’s body language and costumenarrate the laborious act of farming. The positioning of the figure is in the side profile but presented with the whole body. It is bending to their knees rather than standing straight or sitting. Significations from these indicate labor work and the conveying of emotional attitudes such as pain and tiredness. Additionally, due to repetitions of the subject, they were then not only the ones doing such laborious work. It can be safely assumed that there are more farmers at the back after the red-clothed human figure in the end. This is where cropping of the last subject in the frame [when viewed from left to right]indicates meaning as well aboutcontinuity. This can also be interpreted as an implication of the figure extending into the viewers’ space. This also applies to the repetitive strokes of palays. It indicated continuity but was only bordered by the limitations of the canvas size. Cropping is also seen in the subject’s feet in a manner that is portrayed asbeing submerged in thewaterorthemud field. With suchobservations, Afocused and centralsubject is not present in the artwork, rather it is decentered in a way that the human figures [which are supposed to be the center of attention] are asymmetrical. Due to this, the relationship of each human figure to one another, being massed instead of isolated, creates the meaning of a community rather than of a single person.

Lastly, in theiconicplane, thestyleoffiguration isalso examined.Asfortheartwork, itexhibits both the realist figuration and the impressionist figuration. As a truth of representation, the artwork portrayed true figures parallel to the real world. Poverty and exploitation may not be immediately perceived in the artwork to subscribe to its realist figuration, but the fact of actual farming seen in our daily lives makes one so. The artwork also possessed impressionist figuration as, according to Guillermo, it catches the subjects unaware like they were in a candid camera.

We may demonstrate that art is value-laden and that these values are formed from material facts. Yet, these values then alter depending on the audience, particularly in light of their context and the value systems to which they belong.

Contextual Plane

In reading theimagethroughthecontextualplane, thesocialandhistoricalcontextisconsidered in interpreting/reading the work. Repositioning the work in its context, according to Alice Guillermo,

will reveal the real significance of the work in terms of its implications for people and society (Guillermo, 2001).

The artist comes from a province where rice planting, and agriculture in general, is customary

Camarines Sur. Camarines Sur, like other provinces in the Bicol Region, is known for having vast rice fields. I wasn’t able to ask for the name of the artist and the title of the artwork because he mentioned immediately that the artwork costs 3500 pesos. I replied with a question about where was he from assuming that he just resides there in Iriga City. He responded that he was from Libmanan, a municipality in the same province. He also shared that he just came from Naga City to display his artwork as well and he then came to Iriga in pursuit of more buyers. For the year, the artwork indicates 2023 in the lower left corner of the canvas.

As Guillermo pointed out, one must also look at the artwork's creation conditions in addition to appreciating and reading the image through a formalist lens or based on technical talent. It is worthy of examining as well if the work of art was birthed from the thoughts of an attempt to preserve identity in the context of a certain community’s struggle, worse exploitation by dominant groups. More crucially, it is to go deeper into the possibility of a specific relationship between the artist and society, onethatischaracterized by asimilarity ofshared idealsand experiencesthatwerevitalin theproduction of the artwork. Understanding art involves viewing the visual piece as a text expressing a complex of notions, as was once again highlighted in the reading (Guillermo, 2001). Looking at the artwork's surroundings reveals the two main sources of meaning-conveying potential that visual arts draw upon. Our psychological processes and conditions have an impact on our psychophysical experiences as humans. Despite the scope of meaning that artworks hold, a general understanding of the meaning of the artwork can be subtly observed with such common information and experiences. It is unavoidable to identify symbolic systems that are intuitively easy to recognize in an artwork owing to shared understanding when social conventions increase in our culture.

The painting displays an image of an article of everyday life, that is farming and/or agriculture. At first glance, one can see the apparent elements that convey the concept of farming. With such, the work ofartcontainsdirectreferences to theconceptoffarming which isthe centralpartofhow meaning in the work is conveyed–reflecting the larger reality of the work surrounding it. The use of colors particularly for the farmers embodies cultural symbols associated with the everyday life of a farmers’ reality which then bears rich and distinct emotional associations in a particular group, like Bikolanos. Asan imagein thetraditionalarts, thepaintingtransformsinto amedium thatcontainscommunaldesign and function–attempting to “preserve the values and belief system of the community in the context of everyday life” (Guillermo, 2001). However, in the contextual plane, the work is stretched out to posit subthemes. Some of them are the struggles of farmers in terms of land ownership and democratization, rice exportation and importation, rice liberalization, and the sad reality of undermined labor efforts of farmers due to the government’s lack of benefits, support, and security for them, among others. This is especially true when the work is situated in a particular society and time (Guillermo, 2001). In the current times, the Philippines is becoming one of the countries whose percentage of rice importation becomes higher than exportation compared to the previousyears when the country was one ofthe major exporters of such farm produce (Statista Research Department, 2022). With the fact that the painting was created in 2023 and was conceived in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, the work can then become an allusion to the current and growing saddening events with regard to rice agriculture in the Philippines. The artwork becomes a subscriber of the “symbolic of the underlying harmony and order in the universe” (Guillermo, 2001). More so, the artwork then becomes a repository of artistic, social, and/or political values that, in one way or another, is an act of immortalizing the importance of farming and agriculture in the area. With the contextual plane on the current lens, numerous complex meanings are uncovered.

Axiological or Evaluative Plane

Finally, the work of art is interpreted in the axiological or evaluative plane. In this plane, the values of the work are further analyzed, in terms of form, content, and meaning-conveying potential, among others, on a deeper level.

The first is with respect to the form of the work. When looking at the totality of the artwork based on its techniques, a higher degree of skill is seen in how the human figures were painted. It displayed more texture than the palays and the birds, it exhibits more details than other elements in the

painting, and is given more highlights as the dominating figure in the entire space. Traditional techniques are seen as not totally rejected in the artwork as they used painting on canvas which made interrogations for new creative and expressive methods not carried through as conventional processes and norms have been directly narrated by the artwork. However, it should be reminded that each visual art form has its own technical standards of excellence. One may say that Fernando Amorsolo’s 1951 painting entitled, “RicePlanting”maybeseenashaving agreaterstandard ofexcellencethan thechosen artwork, however, such standards differ across artists and viewers.

Next, the principles of organization are identified as well in the artwork as part of the axiological plane. In terms of space and proportion used, the artwork employs artistic expression more on one-half of the canvas because the other half was generously filled with hues of green color as a background. It also used the gravitational aspect of reality as seen with how the sky, the birds, the humans, and the land are organized hierarchically. Rhythm is also observed with the repetitions of the bird figures, human figures, and palays. These, however, should not be instilled as the sole evaluation of the artwork as these traditional principles were laid down by the West (Guillermo, 2001). Beyond the aestheticism of these technical values, socio-political values are also manifested as “in the nature of things.” The axiological content of the artwork was fully articulated on the contextual plane to extract the true meaning and value of the artwork beyond its formalist elements.

The final and most crucial element is the artist's and the audience's assessment of these values as expressed in the dialogic interaction between it and reality. This is mostly caused by the existence of a wide range of attitudes that may be naturally antagonistic among people. As part of this paper’s critique, the artwork holds dearer to a viewer who is a Bikolano himself as well. Contemplating and reading the artwork, in the most grounded way I know, the artwork tells a story of Filipinos' hard work in rice planting. It tells the real story of genuine labor, of suffering backpains and body pains, and the long process of waiting to harvest just to have rice served on everyone’s plates at home. It tells a story of a rural peasant society.

With the axiological plane, art criticism becomes highly conscious of the means, their effects, and what they [truly] signify (Guillermo, 2001). The art then transcends from what was earlier mentioned as a wall decoration catering to elites or a pure commodity for embellishment into a figure for emancipation, self-awareness, and of communal significance. Differences in contextual and axiological analysis are inevitable and expected. Critics reading an artwork, in these planes, are laden with values, that are different from one another due to the differences in value systems one is exposed to. Theartthen isseen projecting with thehorizon ofmeaningsrelativeto both theartist and theviewer

making it a “humanly enriching dialogic experience of art” (Guillermo, 2001).

The presented critique honored the two interrelated aspects in studying art–it has its specificity and that [, at the same time,] it is socio-historical and influenced by outside societal forces it is belonged to and exists at. Having a nuanced meaning, a visual work transcends beyond formalist elements. For it is more dialogic in nature and has social import–bringing in the breadth of both depths.

Reference/s

Guillermo, Alice. Introduction: Reading the Image. Image to meaning: Essays on Philippine Art. By Guillermo. Quezon City: Ateneo De Manila University Press, 2001, 1-16. Available online at http://asymptotik.net/artweb/ Statista Research Department. (2022, October 19). Total volume of rice imported from the Philippines from 2016 to 2021. Statista; Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1268966/philippinesrice-importvolume/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20total%20volume,around%2056.17%20billion% 20Philippine%20pesos.

CULTURE PAPERS / PAPEL-KULTURA

In Anywhere it May Originate: Looking atAsian and Western Theater side-by-side Ruben

Belmonte Jr.

It has been more than a year already since my first theater class at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and every new learning still makes me left in amazement about how vast, interesting, and historical the field of theatre study is. THEA 101, with the subject description, “History ofTheater”wasmy first-ever theatre classasan undergraduatestudent.Therewewerethought about the history of theatre mostly in the west. I could still remember how the history of theatre can be traced back as ancient as the Greek period, to the early Roman period, to the middle ages, to the renaissance period, the Elizabethan era, the Spanish and French Neoclassical theater, until the modern and contemporary theater. Now that I am diving more into the world of theater as a theater major now, oneofourclassesisAsian theater. It isno doubtrefreshing how weare spotlighting thenon-west theatre this time. No more Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet, gladiator fights and chariot races, Commedia dell'arte, nor any broadway musicals this time. In this paper, I will enumerate some of the differences and/or similarities that I see between Asian theatre and Western theater in terms of their performance and elements.

Asian theater is vastly different from the theater periods that I have learned during my class in THEA 101. To begin with, Asian theater, widely in terms of performances and elements, is more inclined with the country’s culture and traditions as to how most of theAsian countries take high value and appreciation of. One famous example is the Peking Opera in China.The Peking Opera can be traced back to as early as China’s Qing Dynasty which accounts for its history and important succeeding cultural periods reflecting the people’s core values and rich sagas. To talk about being secular or nonsecular as a comparison point between Asian theater and Western theater is also a take worth considering. During the early topics in our THEA101 class, most of the theater epochs cultivated plays in a non-secular way. This attachment to religion started as early as the Greek period when primitive communal rituals are deemed as a form of religion, not until the Medieval and Renaissance era where detachment to religious beliefs became one of the periods of generation enlightenment. However, until again the rise of the Spanish Neoclassicism era when the essence of religion and its importance to the community was revived. Asian theater performances and elements, on the other hand, have originated and interestingly preserved their inclination to religiosity since the beginning. Again from China, the shamanistic performances found in the country’s ancient years were historically recorded as one of the origins of Asian theatrical traditions. Concepts of “holiness” and “pure spirituality” from Hinduism and/or Buddhism (two of the most influential and wide religions inAsia, next to and from Christianity) are prevalent in the region, and doing worships to praise spirits and gods is a way to achieve them. These worship come in various forms, which includes performances like temple dances, offerings, choral prayers, and spiritual meditation–a clear aspect of howAsian theater are embedded with religion. (The Origins ofAsian Theatrical Traditions). A perfect example I recall during my THEA101 class, in comparing Asian and Western theater, is the existence of liturgical dramas during the medieval period. When theatre entertainment died during this era, people attended church and dived into Christian rituals as it was considered fancier, more organized, and more formal compared to the theater before in that time. Liturgical dramas highlighted the teachings of Jesus Christ and the old testament, along with the lives of the saints through full-blown religious narratives. The three “Ms” in the period–mystery, miracle, and morality–were a highlight. Like Asian theater performances and elements, this period became the spot where they bear similarities–the existence of a time where religious belief is of high importance.

Upon browsing more Asian theatre plays, my take on them about their valuing of rich history becamefirmerand established. Sanctity and reverenceto ancient cultureand traditionsweigh morethan spectacleslikein Western theaters. WhileAsian theaterperformancesand elementsareconsidered more exotic than the Western ones, spectacles in Western theaters were more showy-off, pompous, and creatively extravagant. It’s like fireworks of spectacle whenever a Western theater play is seen, valuing more on the side of theater as a form of entertainment (the Italian Commedia dell’arte as a popular form of improvised comedy, the lavish royalism in Elizabethan theater, and the bourgeois broadway theater intertwined with sublime music, among others). Meanwhile, in Asian theater performances, it is seen that entertainment is a purpose left on the side of the stage. Their form of entertaining is more on a serious note–nobler, more sacred, and more deep-rooted. Every step, gesture, movement, and stage

presencehasmeaning, and it’snotalwayson thesurfacelevel. Everything issymbolicand thusdeserves respect. They are not just grounded but also rooted. This, among other things mentioned above, is what makes Asian theater performances and elements different from Western [mainstream] theater performances.

Despite the differences and similarities we now know between the two, one thing’s for sure is that both are forms of art that are sacred and respected in their ways and histories–theatrical works of art shaped and wrought to tell us something brought by its purposeful narrative and its value in our lives.

Theatre is noble, respected, may it be in any form it displays or in anywhere it may originate.

REFERENCE/S:

Augustyn, Adam, et al. “Commedia Dell'arte.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Nov. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/commedia-dellarte.

“Beijing Opera Stories.” Beijing Opera Stories - Beijing Opera - My Beijing China, Mybeijingchina, 2022, https://www.mybeijingchina.com/travel-guide/beijing-opera/opera-stories.htm.

Cartwright, Mark. “AncientGreekTheatre.” World History Encyclopedia,World HistoryEncyclopedia, 3 Mar. 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Theatre/. Cartwright,Mark.“ElizabethanTheatre.” World History Encyclopedia,WorldHistoryEncyclopedia,3 Mar. 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/Elizabethan_Theatre/#:~:text=Elizabethan%20theatre%2C%20s ometimes%20called%20English,continued%20under%20her%20Stuart%20successors.

Green, John, et al. “Broadway Book Musicals: Crash Course Theater #50.” YouTube, Crash Course, 1 Mar. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kxzD4ASioI.

Green, John, et al. “The Death and Resurrection ofTheaterAs...liturgical Drama: Crash CourseTheater #8.” YouTube, Crash Course, 6Apr. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX0jHv05FYM.

Green, John, et al. “The Spanish Golden Age: Crash Course Theater #19.” YouTube, Crash Course, 29 June2018,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDFiY81TLIM.

“Introduction.” Asian Traditional Theatre & Dance, Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, 19 Oct. 2021, https://disco.teak.fi/asia/introduction/.

Mackerras, Colin. "Chinese Shadow Theatre, History, Popular Religion, and Women Warriors." China Review International 15.2 (2008): 209-212.

Rea, Kenneth Grahame, et al. “Ancient Rome.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-theatre/Ancient-Rome.

“The Origins ofAsian Theatrical Traditions.” Asian Traditional Theatre and Dance, Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, 19 Oct. 2021, https://disco.teak.fi/asia/the-origins-ofasian-theatrical-traditions/.

“‘Theatre of the Capital’or the Peking Opera.” Asian Traditional Theatre & Dance, Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, 19 Oct. 2021, https://disco.teak.fi/asia/theatre-of-thecapital-or-the-peking-opera/.

Unboxing the Paradox: Art Spaces in the Philippines

Various local art spaces, in the form of exhibits, installations, and public recreations, have served and continuously serve Filipino eyes since then. A lot of art enthusiasts and pseudo-enthusiasts are constantly growing in population as contemporary works of art proliferates the media and the nonmedia world where they are exposed. Artworks, meanwhile, continues to be impressively flexible as it incessantly caters encompassing peoples’ tastes and preferences constantly adapting with the changing domain of trends in humanity. Blanketing the widest scope it carpets, art have evolved over time and art spaces themselves have progressed.

Art spaces have become paradoxically oppressive and liberating. It is by default to suppose that art spaces serve as avenues to and for the sovereignty of thoughts, messages, and intentions through its different forms produced. It is liberating in the sense that art spaces are purposely built for the emancipation of an artist’s masterpiece. It enables artists to showcase their works of art alongside the audiences or viewers to be part of the discourses regarding arts. However, it should be by default, as well, to disclose that art spaces are ironically and simultaneously oppressive. This is in account to the art, the artist, and the viewers, themselves. Long since the beginning of art appreciation, art spaces have become tyrannical, even bureaucratic, in the selection of what can be considered and be deemed as art. Albeit people’s minds nowadays have transcend on the confabs regarding what is art, art spaces continuously underscores the marginalization of different works of art in the subconscious level. This is evident on how elites have the direct access to enabling their artworks to be in high sales; and that is just one reason, among others. The discussions on Manny Montelibano’s Kaning Tutong, the auction of Bonifacio’s flag, and Jocson’s macho dancing can be considered manifestations in seeing how art spaces, being institutionalized, have so become paradoxically oppressive and liberating.

Dukot Survival

Dukot Survival is an installation work by social realist and media artist Mariano “Manny” Montelibano III (“BIOGRAPHY/MANNY MONTELIBANO.”). It is composed on preserved burnt ricewith smallplastichuman figuresinserted between thegrainsand fivemulti-colored vitrinesencased in a glass (Chua). What makes this kaning tutong-inspired installation art more special is that it won in the Art Fair Philippines 2020 and was priced at around 90 000 pesos.

The Negros Occidental-based artist named his work as inspired by his native language in the province he lived in. Dukot is a Hiligaynon word (a language often used in Visayas) which refers to overcooked rice taking the form of the pot where it has been overcooked. In the EsquireMag.ph article written by Paolo Chua, Montelibano seeks to showcase a representation of the “forthcoming old society” as humanity strives toward progressions (Chua). Montelibano seems to underscore the antiquing of the present society its current state of civilization with its cultural values, customs, and traditions in fear of it being lost along the world’s developments and advances. Dukot Survival, just like other and several artworks’ purpose, is a relic-in-the-making – a proof of the upcoming past civilization.

With the winning of Montelibano’s Dukot Survival, art institutions, as premier as the Art Fair Philippines, have then concretized itself of being institutionalized. The notions of appropriation and value-assignment then became complicated as they themselves attempt to modify these notions, freely and unhesitatingly. By attempting to challenge the existing dominant genres of art prevalent in a certain moment of time made it exposed, only unnoticeable, that art institutions have the ironic freedom of power imposition. Who would have known that amidst the prevalence of elitist artworks, we have Montelibano’s “eccentric-but-fresh-in-the-eyes-to-art-enthusiasts” work of art spotlighted and placed in the pedestal? The art institutions’ act of complicating the prosaic views and judgment on art is concreted by the fact that they make it win in the said premier art exhibition – weaving more strings in its tangled web as it administers greater [price] value on it.

Althoughcan beseen assomethinggreat since thewinningofsuchpiecedestroysthetraditional [elitist] selection of what can be deemed as great art, it is also worth noting that what contributes more in the process of complicating these notions of appropriation with the winning of Dukot Survival is its free lodging to resiliency porn. More so to the work itself, art spaces have tolerated the romanticization of the poor by the mere recognition of placing the work in a position of adulation. It enabled the act of romanticizing a convention and something that is of high value and of exceptional quality or act. Wherein it employs the putting of Philippine culture in circulation but possesses only very minimal sense of action or urgency to directly tap the matter or issue significantly. Perhaps, “poor” should be inserted between the “our” and the “past” in the expression, “relic of our past.” Even the claiming of the installation art as the antiquing of the present society makes it so exhibit an implication of the documentation of how poor the country is, has been, and will be – an evidence people in the future will, in no doubt, secondhandedly romanticize as well.

Art spaces and institutions is an avenue of freethinking thoughts and representations regarding arts, hence liberating. However, what makes it so paradoxically oppressive is its very capacity to complicate notions of appropriation and value assignment its immaterial and often imperceptible ray of authority and control masked by its façade to serve for the liberation of artworks as in providing exposure, faux awareness and advertisement further its cost-worth.

The 9 million peso-worth Bonifacio Flag

PhilippineInquirercolumnistLito Zuluetawroteanewsarticleabouttheauctioning ofthe1896 Bonifacio Flag which was sold off to roughly 9.3 million pesos said to be nine times its starting bid price. The personal Katipunan Flag by Andres Bonifacio was passed down from generation to generation and was last held by leading Malolos designer and heritage conservationist Dez Bautista before the auctioning event. Although seen by a lot of people as a triumph to the Philippine history, the auction event was rather controversial. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) had a last-minute appeal to the Leon Gallery to stop the “sale of historical documents” (Zulueta).

Leon Gallery director Jaime Ponce de Leon said in defense that the institution has an obligation to the consignors and that the documents and that, besides, relics were privately owned. De Leon even furthered this by confidently stating that auctions and especially the prices it achieved have encouraged collectors to bring out numerous historical surprises in the future and that makes historians find themselves amazed to realize the artifacts’ existence. The angering notions on commodification of historical relics by art institutions have become apparent here. The historicization of price value in regards with the nostalgia it offers to the people is saddening. Historical relics are deemed valuable only because it is unavoidably marketed according to how older it is.

The very mindset of commodifying relics for the sake of increase societal awareness is nothing but exasperatingly absurd. The establishing of prices on historical relics is elitist capitalism in some way. De Leon’s claim of the government move to stop the auctioning as “counterproductive” and that auctions pricing relics with a significant amount of monetary value paves the way for the coming out of more historical artifacts in the future is a clear manifestation of “everything-is-money” kind of society. Future artifacts become dead even before exposure since these are only seen as nothing but gold – a capitalized item. Double-dead, even, for once it already died with the oldening of time.

Aside from the commodification, art institutions take part as well to the narrativization of nation-building primarily because of these avenues being an ideological state apparatus – licensed in creating counter-texts to the master narratives on the myths of a nation. With the exposure of a materialized element in the history, traditional and long built narratives regarding it became, if not a missing puzzle piece of history, entangled. The auctioning of the Bonifacio flag (and many more historical relics) became a solid indication of how art institutions and their act of institutionalizing [art object to sustain the narratives of the nation] is ideological. It served as a catalyst to elevate Philippine historical roots and culture and eventually sustaining, some altering, the narratives of the nation – a sort of ironically reinforcement and rewriting of tales and chronicles with historians even claiming these relics as evidences of the past.

Aside and even worse to that, Ponce De Leon did not disclose the name of the winning bidder with people in fear of where and what could be done to such a historical relic. Alternative online publisher, Coconuts Manila released a news article as well, on the same day the Inquirer wrote its story, quoting Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman statement on the matter. Lagman said that heritage memorabilia and other historical articles must be obtained by the NHCP instead of auctioning it off to private collectors (Coconuts Manila). With the fact that De Leon did not disclose the name of the winning bidder, it then somehow became a second-level privatization with only a hint of publicity for just a couple of minutes. De Leon euphemized the controversy by encouraging the open public to better their historical awareness as the auction event will spark discussions and educational debates regarding the country’s history.

Meanwhile on the side of the family who held the flag before the auction event, would the flag be priced more than 9.3 million if it were publicized to the auctioning institutions more later than 2018? A hundred and one percent, yes.

The pole dancer turned macho dancer

Art spaces has always been deemed liberating, however in the case of Eisa Jocson and her macho dancing, it has exposed how these spaces can be paradoxically oppressive even in the secondary level aside from being a platform for fresh spectacles.

Filipina Eisa Jocson before she started her study regarding macho dancing was originally a pole dancer. Once during 2010 together with her friends checking out a bar in Manila, Jocson began to be intrigued on the physical vocabulary of macho dancers being verbalized through its moves alongside the Filipino culture it inhibits. Macho dancing is common in the Philippines, where hunk and usually young men stages a stimulating and evocative dance performances at several gay bar scenes or night clubs in the country. Not that different with conventional macho stripping acts, macho dancing is when men attempt to construct an appearance and effect of being a strong, dominating, and sexually stimulating male through elaborate and, usually erotogenic, slow [reverberated] dances. Jocson’s taking of risk on her turnaround from being a pole dancer to a macho dancer seeks to challenge the society’s predominant perceptions on sexuality, gender biases, politics of seduction alongside body representations, power relations, machismo and heterosexual masculinity, and objectification. To the extent, as well, of even questioning what constitutes the Filipino identity.

When watching macho dancing performances for the first time, people’s minds often see these staging as purely erotic and mainly for sexual pleasures. It has always been overlooked how these acts are influenced by the dancers’ economic status and social mobility, body being a site of capital, and the feminization of labor. The dominating mindset of macho dancing is often settled only to the former

an artwork of real-time eroticism that is fully materialized from the imagined desires of the viewers brought by pornographic mediums and sexual fantasies. However, in fact, macho dancing, and the dancers, is the oppressed rather the oppressor or the dominator. To talk about the history of macho dancing in the Philippines in relation to the country’s economy as a pursuit of bettering one’s life condition would take a separate paper, for macho dancing as a victim of oppression is to simply be explained by the concept of surrendering. Contrary to popular opinion where macho dancers are domineering, macho dancing is actually an act of being submissive that which macho dancers submit themselves to the eyes and pleasures of the audience as an entity objectified for the viewers’ sexual fantasies rather the entity objectifying other bodies. It is on the side of the dancer instead of the viewer, where this surrendering (being literally and figuratively bared and naked) is directly seen and felt – that is why, perhaps, Jocson herself allotted her time on hands-on studying the performance and personally doing the application.

Jocson, in her macho dancing, have effectively complicated these notions of mimesis in reference to the history and original context of macho dancing. Who would even expect for a female to perform a male-dominated culture performance? Jocson made it possible that the traditional notion of macho dancing and its fine line on gender and sexuality can be erased and be challenged.

However, this makes Jocson a mimesis herself.

Jocson [have become and] was nothing but a simulation. This is manifested from Jocson learning the fundamental movements of macho dancing and to frequenting in the gym to tone and build her muscles in correspondence to the definition of being a “macho.” Even worse, she is a “copy of a copy,” wherein the male macho dancing was a simulation as well from the denotative meaning of what it means and what it should look to be “macho.” Female macho dancing, in the case of Jocson, became a sort of liberation from the dominant culture of masculinity but trades the loss of Self in the side of the females as a sort of compromise. Just what Jocson said in an interview of ArtAsiaPacific, it is indeed unusual for a young woman to do macho dancing and even more strange to ask for macho dancing lessons (Sahakian). In defense of exposing gender and sexuality issues, Jocson have made a huge risk of her identity, perhaps at the very least. And it is beyond saddening how females have to experience the extent of opting to imitate and incorporate themselves in the realm of masculinity just to provide the existing traditional minds ofpeople a foodfor contemplative thought and realizations on and against it.

Art spaces, in Jocson’s case are evidently seen as free and liberating as it somehow facilitated Jocson’sfemalemacho dancing. Itenabled Jocson to exhibitan unusualform ofartdevoid ofprejudices or with default acceptance especially that it even aimed to debunk problematic notions on gender and sexuality. Even so, Jocson’s initiative in staging and publicizing the existing gender biases and other issues regarding sexuality have exposed how art spaces is alongside paradoxically oppressive. Albeit a progressive act from Jocson via unboxing issues on the matter, art spaces have made her, nonetheless, a victim as well of how these avenues are in its entirety, grievous and oppressing. The militant move by Jocson inhibited and sort of reinforced the conflicts it exposed rather fully tearing it down – a fact Jocson herself even admit.

Art spaces are paradoxically liberating and oppressive. It is value-assigning but value-indicating, history-reinforcing but commodifying, and facilitating but victimizing. With the forms of arts and cases discussed above, it should be noted that these avenues do not live with pure sovereignty for the imperceptible and hauntingly accurate nuances of oppression is masked by the satisfaction and pleasure these artworks offers to our wondering and wandering eyes. This is not to disregard that creating art spaces should be stopped and art spaces per se should be demolished. The discourse on the narratives and influences these art spaces forwards to people should be perpetuated and deemed essential in the long run.

REFERENCE/S:

Afinidad-Bernardo, Deni RoseM.“Bonifacio's First KatipunanFlag,Rizal'sLetterSoldfor Millions at Auction.” Philstar.com, Philstar.com, 11 Sept. 2018, 2:11 PM, www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-andculture/2018/09/11/1850597/bonifacios-first-katipunan-flag-rizals-letter-sold-millions-auction/amp/.

“BIOGRAPHY/MANNY MONTELIBANO.” 1335MABINI, Austrian Development Agency, 2015, www.1335mabini.com/manny-montelibano-biography. Chua,Paolo.“TheP90,000KaningTutongWinsArtFairPhilippines2020.”Esquiremag.ph,EsquirePhilippines,1Jan.1970,www.esquiremag.ph/culture/booksand-art/art-fair-philippines-2020-manny-montelibano-dukot-survival-a00203-20200220.

Coconuts Manila. “Bonifacio's Personal Flag Sold despite Protests from Historical Commission and Lawmaker: Coconuts Manila.” CoconutsManila,Coconuts Manila,10Sept.2018,www.coconuts.co/manila/lifestyle/bonifacios-personal-flag-sold-despite-protests-historical-commission-lawmaker/. “EisaJocson_MaterialPacket (1).Pdf - MACHODANCERWork SpaceBrusselsProductions MACHODANCEREISAJOCSONLast UpdatedOutline Macho DancingIs: Course Hero.” Course Hero,CourseHero,1Feb.2020,www.coursehero.com/file/54218884/EisaJocson-MaterialPacket-1pdf/.

GMA News Online. “Pinay Challenges Euro Art Scene with Hyper-Masculine 'Macho Dancer'.” GMA News Online, GMA News Online, 1 Jan. 1970, www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/323510/pinay-challenges-euro-art-scenewith-hyper-masculine-macho-dancer/story/. Kourlas,Gia.“Transforming Movements.”TheNewYork Times, The NewYork Times, 1Nov. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/arts/dance/room-100-andeisa-jocson-at-queer-new-york-artsfestival.html?pagewanted=print.

Rappler. “Andres Bonifacio's Personal Katipunan Flag Sells for P9.3M in Auction.” Rappler, Rappler, 13 Sept. 2018, www.rappler.com/life-and-style/artsculture/andres-bonifacio-personal-katipunan-flag-fetches-9-million-pesos.

Sahakian, Marlyne. “Macho Macho Woman: Interview with Eisa Jocson.” ArtAsiaPacific, 23 Apr. 2014, artasiapacific.com/Blog/MachoMachoWomanInterviewWithEisaJocson. “On the Spot: Eisa Jocson on Being Macho, a Dancer, and a Woman.” SPOT.PH,4Mar.

2014,www.spot.ph/arts-culture/arts-culture-peopleparties/55797/on-the-spot-eisa-jocson-on-beinga-woman-macho-dancer.

Zulueta, Lito B. “BonifacioFlag Soldfor P9.3M.” Inquirer News, Inquirer News,9 Sept. 2018, www.newsinfo.inquirer.net/1030111/bonifacio-flag-sold-for-p93m/amp.

REACTION PAPER / POST-EVENT NARRATIVES

Art in a completely different light:A Paper on Artistic Exchanges in the Digital Third Space

Ruben Belmonte Jr.

The GE conversation in UPLB serves more than just an alternative space for learning about a particular general education topic but is also, as the opening remarks said, a supplementary to extend the discussions beyond the walls of the classroom.

UPLB Department of Humanities - Visual and Performing Arts Division held this year’s GE conversation in a hybrid set-up for the first time entitled, “Artistic Exchanges in the Digital Third Space.”Therewerefourartists/speakerswhograced theprogram;twoofthemwerepresentin thevenue and gave a face-to-face discussion, while the other two spoke online via ZOOM. By the end of the program, there was a launching of its virtual exhibition that features digital artworks by Filipinos including the invited speakers. The event was realized with the goal of primarily recognizing the significance of the digital third space, or virtual spaces in general, as a refuge for communities, and artists in particular, during the lockdown period of the pandemic–a time when most people were restricted with work, stable profit, and production. The event asks the question: How was the state of [Philippine] art and artists during the pandemic and now that the world is reopening after three years of lockdown?

This paper is an essay on the GE conversation spearheaded by the said division. It shall first discussthespeakerswho shared theirexpertise onthetopic, then aboutthevirtualexhibition,and, lastly, make sense of them all based on my personal experience as a face-to-face attendee of the event.

The Speakers

Artist Emmanuel “Manny” Garibay, the first in-person speaker, talked about theology and power in art. The thought-provoking talk invited all the listeners to critically ponder upon how art is, at some point, an evolution of theology. It is where the idea of God, the sacred, and the most valuable defines our values and is then informed and immortalized by art–successfully implanting these images through iconographies and idols in our consciousness.Additionally, Garibay emphasized that art across generations, when integrated with ideology and passed through time, creates culture. This is backed by the reasoning that when art lingers long enough in the minds of people, it creates culture, like how religion (as the major superpower of ideologies) imposes on us the moral codes and teachings of how to be good and moral. Garibay then flashed a series of paintings like Da Vinci’s Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man, works of El Greco, Baroque Arts, paintings of Romanticism, pieces of Andy Warhol, and works of Marcel Duchamp while discussing how these arts contain theological underpinnings and power. Meanwhile, the second in-person speaker, Artist Leo Gerardo Leonardo, shared his experiences being a sculptor during the pandemic. He shared how it was the most challenging time of his life as an artist but the most exciting as well. The thing that he significantly learned during those times was for artists to assert a space and create them where they can successfully produce what they want to make, because after all the artists have the right and privilege to do so. This was backed up by howthenon-operationallaundryroomattheirhomewastransformed byLeonardointohis[art]working space during the pandemic.

Lastly, the two online speakers, Ms. Ayka Go and Mr. Oddin Sena shared their journey and struggles of being an artist and how it affected their art production during the pandemic. Most of Ayka Go’s artworks during the pandemic were reimaginations of her childhood memories, as catalyzed by being able to have more time inside their house. This includes uncovering unopened boxes left stuck in their home, contemplating on space, and exploring art styles she has not explored much yet. Go had numerous opportunities brought about by the pandemic that she has taken advantage of and she made it an inspiration for her artworks. It was important for her to have a fantasy to hold onto where she can have a source to overwhelm herself, like art-making. It allowed her to prevent thinking a lot of negative things brought about by the pandemic. On the other hand, Mr. Oddin Sena tells a different story. The pandemic has affected Sena adversely to the point that he underwent hiatus in art-making because the necessity of the public is not the art during the pandemic–it was essential goods like food and hygiene kits. Sena then applied as adelivery man during those days and took abreak from art-making. However, the spark of being an artist never left after a couple of years in the pandemic and of being a delivery man. His succeeding artworks drew inspiration from the everyday scenes and moments he experienced in the work.

I learned a lot from the speakers and was able to get oriented with the different perspectives of how one lived during those trying times, specifically, the artists who were, as we all know, affected and restricted adversely. However, I expected of having a more theoretical discussion about the term digital third space. I was innocently seeking to understand how the term, “digital third space” was made possible rooting from its two more familiar terms, “digital space” and “third space.” I was excited by the discussion of the first speaker because it was theoretical. However fruitful and insightful, it did not answer as well my initial expectation of the GE conversation when I asked myself, “What does one mean by a digital third space.” As the speakers went by and finished sharing their experiences, I came to further realize that what we did during the pandemic, whatever it may be, artists or non-artists, was creating a massive digital third space. This “digital third space” created by and for the artists is one particular case of a niche made for an aspect of society that was coerced to stay inside–a niche that became an “other.” And the conversation that happened in the event was the epitome of how we all subconsciously created a digital third space where one can assert their spaces for art, despite society's discouraging of it due to its milieu.

The Virtual Exhibition

The launched virtual exhibit showcased different digital artworks simulated in a museum that can be roamed upon by the users in a first-person point of view. It stars artworks by Filipino artists including the four invited speakers.

The virtual exhibition was a new thing for me. I always knew that visiting museums, art galleries, and/or exhibits will always and forever be prohibited due to the pandemic. However, due to the introduction of a virtual exhibition in my eyes, I get to ponder upon the “possibility” of it–that making the experience of being in a museum or an art gallery can be made closer to people, be made portable and easy, and, above all, digital.Aside from the realization about people creating a digital third space during the talks of the speakers, the launching of the virtual exhibition directly embodied the “digital third space” itself. It is made digital and it is considered a space both separate from and convergence of one’s home and workplace. Because of the socio-political and economic environment in which it was created, the space is ultimately a social product. The virtual museum became a produced space that manifests the agency of people in creating a social space for the arts as a deemed “other” during the trying times. The digital third space, like the virtual museum, serves as evidence of establishing a space born from standing up with the continuity of art space diminished in importance by the challenges of the pandemic. As discussed in one of my classes this semester, Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia backs up the concept of digital third space as being “a counter-site” where it embraced variety, opposition, “otherness,” and being non-traditional as seen in how such a space asserts its right to occupy and exist (Jadhav, 2023).

Coping with and through the Digital Third Space Now

The eventmade me realize and ponder the questions:Where were theArts and the artists during the pandemic? What did they do?And if they shifted online and created a digital third space, did the art mow become more accessible or inaccessible? Did the art now become more for the privileged or the underprivileged?

The state of [Philippine] art during the pandemic was saddening. At the time, art was not regarded as a necessary product, which was understandable given the focus placed on food supplies and hygiene kits. It has been closed to the general [public] eye and shifted as a “self and for-the-self” product. The state of the artists was too as well, like one of the speaker artists sharing that it was a big struggleforhim to find asource ofincomewhen theartsweredepreciated and restricted with platforms.

Now that the world is reopening after three years of lockdown, the art and artists begin to reclaim their worth, space, and time. I have a friend whose degree program is in creative writing at UP Diliman and just when I am writing this paper, I came across his Facebook post where he is softly launching his “digital store” of a collection of poems. This just goes to show how the pandemic has opened ourselves, not just the art and artists, to produce a new variety of spaces where one can express their selves, produce art, and have it consumed by people. Should we then abandon the digital third space now? Like what the first speaker exclaimed, a pandemic or a global disaster occurred during each of the great blooming eras of art first–Dark eras came before the Enlightenment and a plague did so before the Renaissance. This does not mean that the world should wait for global crises to come up with

newer ideas, rather see such scenarios as proof that people find ways to innovate and rise up to the occasion. With such, there is no amiable reason to abruptly abandon the digital third space now that the world is reopening from the pandemic. The art and artists have become more radical and creative in theirareaofwork, especially with theexperiencesthey havenowinhand andthepoolofnewinspiration to be pulled from the pandemic in creating new masterpieces. There was more flexibility in production, more efficiency and convenience in consumption, and more importantly, accessibility.

By successfully creating a digital third space catalyzed by the onslaught, or perhaps by the subconscious coercion of the pandemic, art and artists were able to flourish, continue, and thrive (as it has always been) despite the uncertainties that we knew we were so restricted with. Like what Mr. Manny Garibay said in his talk, “There are so many things we could do that we were told we cannot do before.”

With the GE conversation, we, students, young artists, and/or art producers and consumers, were given a chance to witness how artists outlet their sensations, express suppressed emotions, and produce masterpieces during such trying times. We came to understand that the third space is the “liminalspace,”whereonecan createnew ideas, stirdiscussions, andproduceworksofarttodestabilize established practices in society, like mounting a virtual exhibit that is new and non-traditional. Art is seen in a completely different light coming from a completely different space–a digital third space, that is a heterotopia from being cast out as lesser essential or an “other” during the pandemic but where people are provided an avenue for human interaction and fulfillment like a built environment.

Reference/s

Callado, N. J. (2023, November). Digital Third Space Virtual Exhibition. Artsteps. https://www.artsteps.com/view/636a0b57ec63d831e5adca25.

Jadhav, S. (2023, January 12). Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopia. RTF | Rethinking The Future. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/2023/01/12/a8932-michel-foucaults-theory-ofheterotopia/.

REFLECTIVE PAPERS

Still:An Essay on Self-construction

Ruben Belmonte Jr.

Sometimes, when I look at myself in the mirror, I mull over the question of how this person I am looking at has become today. I stare at my eyes and observe their color, my hair and how it has grown long for months, the face shape that I inherited from my parents juxtaposed to my nose not even similar to both mom and dad until my eyes cascade down to my hip part in which the mirror can only reflect from my point of view. When that happens, I step back two-half feet away to have a wider view of myself. I have passed my teenage year already, but I still question who am I?Worse, in some peculiar days, “who” is replaced by “what.” Mirrors allow us to see ourselves directly beyond the usual spectating point of view that our eyes see. And it always allows us to wander in wonder: How is our own “self” has versioned to the way it is now? Most of the time, I answer unascertained and in limbo despite much pondering.

The self is molded due to a lot of factors. Two of which, generally, are our biological influences and one is because of the environment’s influence. After reading the materials and watching the videos under the finished modules, I realized that, although essentialism may be conservative, both principle alongside social constructionism balances out in our way of probing, exploring, and constructing ourselves. The other would not make total sense without tapping or referencing the other. Back when I was a kid, I always knew that my “self” is a reflection, even a product, of my parents’selves, which is undoubtingly true. Most of their physicality and behaviors are passed down to me and my brothers. I always tell people that I inherited a thing they notice about me either from my mom, my dad, or both. Science had big participation, even a key role, in embedding to me my understanding of genetics and these referencing to my parents thatwhich I am who myparentsare. ThisisnotuntilI enrolled myself in the field of humanities.

There I learned that there is more outside the box and that there are more other boxes as well aside from mine and aside from others. Self-construction goes beyond the recognition of one’s apparent physical attributes those attributes that describe and refer to what is physical and are free from any social connections or interactions. I am not merely just a “boy,” but a self that is constructed by the reality to be “labeled as a boy.”The same goes with being not just a studentbecause I study my lectures, but I am a student because I belong in a society (a school) constructed for it. It finally came to light the importance and impact of socialization and the environment on self-construction. Even as early as the time when I decided to enroll in the field of humanities that I learned how my social circle/environment has majorly influenced me to pursue the path. I behaved the way I am, not because of my parents’genes but, because of my parents’ presence. I behaved the way I am, not because of my characteristics but, because of how other people treat me and made me establish that persona. This made me further realize that humans and the “self” are adapted, rather than imposed. It is reflected in the interactions and influences we allow ourselves to experience. It can be changed, be altered, be modified, and even be transformed to a self we decide to be. The imposition of the self may be inevitable in a society authoritative enough to be called, for example, but the “self” is also reflexive and has the agency to take a stand against these enforcements. This makes us go back to how the environment shapes us in how we deal with the self and society, over passively receiving these impositions because it has been the ways it is used to be.

My notion of the self and how I construct it has continued to change as I grow older. From being the conservative one during my childhood, I now appreciate the importance of self-construction as influenced by the environment I am in and how I deal and interact with it. Through constant association with the world around me, I am being shaped into the person I continue to be. To construct my “self” is to both acknowledge my roots that is my familial connections and recognize my social influences.

When I looked again in the mirror, I once again contemplated what I see. I still felt my stilled eyes surveilling my body and into my soul. But I learned to stop worrying about it. For even if I tell myself that this is me, I am not perhaps, not yet. Because our selves are still “becoming” and our construction on it is still in progress.

“Can I honestly consider myself tolerant of other cultures and religions?”:AReflective Essay

Ruben Belmonte Jr.

As a multicultural and multi-ethnic nation brought upon by our past colonial eras alongside our archipelagic nature, the existence of diverse and numerous cultures and religions perpetuates and manifests in our daily lives. Different people live a life full of differences–and fulfill them differently. May it be as simple as color, race, hairstyle, and fashion, to as complex as culture, code of ethics, religion, and systemsofbelief. In every continent, therearethousandsofthem. In each ofthethousands, there may be a hundred of them within. Beyond these, every person subscribes to different cultures and systems of beliefs as well, and these may even overlap. Even if I narrow my parameters to the different cultures and religions in the Philippines, the same will happen. Although wondrous because of the diversity we enjoy by subtly comparing ourselves with each other towards meeting common nationalistic goals and discovering new knowledge, such poses a problem to people when one begins to perceive one’s culture as higher than the others. Some may argue not to be tolerant of other cultures and religions for it may not be in line with the beliefs they are in. However, and possibly contrary to popular opinion, I honestly consider myself tolerant of other cultures and religions. This paper is a reflective take on the question, “Can I honestly consider myself tolerant of other cultures and religions?” My honest answer is yes.

On Multiculturalism: Inclusivity in Diversity

Therearenumerousnationswith varied cultures, and thisdoesnotexcludethe Philippines. This basically means that there is cultural plurality and diversity inside and outside a certain state. The presence and acceptance of numerous distinct minority cultures in addition to the dominant culture in a given area are referred to as multiculturalism, which is also sometimes referred to as ethnic pluralism. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013), when several distinct cultures coexist in one community, it is referred to as multiculturalism. In contrast to a concept that is intended for a course of action, it is frequently used to define a society. Multiculturalism is crucial because it diminishes and eliminates the polarizing effects of ignorance. It emphasizes that culture has a significant role in shaping an individual's sense of self. This is because culture greatly influences how weperceive the world and how we establish moralprinciples–promoting discourse, frequently between very different cultures with very different viewpoints–as mentioned in thereportaboutArtand Religion.With such, and moreimportantly, itpromotesawareness of diverse cultural and ethnic traditions to encourage the creation of a better and more inclusive community that is responsive and culturally aware. It forwards the development of attitudes necessary to function acrossculturalboundaries, to hopefully end racial and otherformsofdiscrimination towards a community.

Living in a multi-ethnic society has numerous benefits since it allows people to experience different ways of life by learning about their language, customs, mannerisms, and, of course, art. People who live in a multicultural environment learn about various cultures. One may even find similarities, likein thePhilippinesbecauseeven though we’redifferentgeographically, wepracticecommon culture. However, it is inevitable to have a split in society as a result of cultural differences in a multiethnic environment. Cultural conflicts may arise at some points where one cultural group feels that their religion and culture are better than the other cultures.

On Identity Politics: United as One or Divided We Fall?

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.), identity politics is the practice of individuals or groups of individuals with common racial, religious, or cultural identities promoting their interests or concerns without taking into account other wider [political] organizations. Philosophy Talk also described identity politics as the “political alliance-building and mobilization of members” with common identities to collectively protect their pact. (Maguire, 2016). Examples of this include the LGBTQI+ liberation movement, and the feminist movement, among many others. This means, in identity politics, a group desires to make its identity flourish without taking into account the diversity of the bigger community it belongs.

Attempting to transcend our identities is not the solution in a world where some societal groups are subjugated by others, more so in a world with different cultures. Identity politics cause even more

racialdivision than therealready is, and it'sharmfulto democracy, especially with thetypeoflegislation that our country has. For example, as mentioned again in the report, the idea that people vote during elections based on their race implies that everyone in that race thinks the same way. It's essentially putting that entire group in a box. It's stereotyping and kind of racist, personally. Many people end up voting for things they are actually against because of identity politics, and worse it becomes incomprehensible to others. We all know what happened during the most recent national elections. It was a manifestation of identity politics wherein we are now reduced to voting for race/identity instead of ideas, platforms, and significance. This sets the stage for widespread identity conflict, and it should be self-explanatory as to why this becomes terrible.

Related to this, the concept ofethnocentrism also arises. It alludes to the practice of considering one ethnic group to be superior to others. Ethnocentrism opens itself to creating assumptions about the actions and characteristics of other groups using one's own standards, ideas, or values as a basis for judgment,Although nationalistic, ethnocentrism also poses problems like the discussed identity politics above, that is fostering social divide and discrimination.

The only -ism that matters

Above all of these, cultural relativism should go over everything. Such a concept is crucial in answering the question of whether one can be honestly tolerant of the existence of other cultures and religions. It means equipping a lens wherein we view other cultures as valid and appropriate on their own. It means understanding another person's views and actions in light of their own cultural context. With such, and to hopefully prevent us from fostering a social divide, cultural relativism should be practiced and observed. With cultural relativism, we are able to put other groups' cultural agendas and activities within their own cultural framework, as it is imperative that the norms and values of one culture shouldn't be judged by the norms and values of another. Stepping in the shoes of people other than us as having a set of culture and religion, they too may be thinking that we are odd or peculiar, and it would not satisfy us. So we should not too.As the golden rule states, it’s just and right that we do not do unto others what we do not want others to do unto us. I may sometimes become shocked at the discovery of cultures that are unusual to my life sphere, but that doesn’t mean that I would express hatred toward them. I am thankful that I learned to always immediately come to a point that it is their culture and to let them be for they have a purpose for that–that it is meaningful for them. I subscribe as well to different cultures and religions and I can always understand if others may find it odd or unusual, because they, too, have their lives and bubbles of their own.

Another reason why I firmly said “yes” to the question was because of unethical and aggressive actions that may arise related to the matter. Being not tolerant of other religions and cultures may cause us to do actions that may harm other people and insult them. That would be unethical and seemingly an act of barging into their community or group without consent. If we would force our own beliefs and opinions on other cultures and groups of people, wouldn't that be meddling and pushing for unsolicited opinions?

Some other cultures and religions can be perceived as counterproductive, especially with being in line to meet national goals and visions. However, personally, I may not be the right person to tell them and correct them for their actions. Should there be someone who will do that, it should be the people within that group for they know better how their system works, how their beliefs manifest, and how their culture is implemented, more than me.

As long as it doesn't harm us, foster negativity, or prevent society from reaching the greater good, we can be positive in tolerating the existence of other views or behaviors, even though we may not ultimately agree with them. The existence of different cultures and religions has its own meaning and purpose to that particular community. We, too, have our own. Our culture, our religions, and other customs are neither right nor wrong; they aremerely different from what other peopledo. Not tolerating them may become offensive, aggressive, and become counterproductive in the end.

Reference/s

Jocano, F. L. (2019). Filipino Catholicism: A Case Study in Religious Change (1967). Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 55 Khan Academy. (2023). Khanacademy.org. Retrieved Apr 19, 2023, from https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/culture/a/culturalrelativism-article.

Macdonald,C.J.(2004).FolkCatholicismandpre-SpanishreligionsinthePhilippines. Philippine Studies, 78-93.

Maguire, L. (2016). Identity Politics. Philosophy Talk. Retrieved Apr 18, 2023, from https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/identity-politics

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Identity politics. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity%20politics.

Multiculturalism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2013). Utm.edu. Retrieved Apr 14, 2023, from https://iep.utm.edu/multicul/#:~:text=a.,Multiculturalism%20as%20a%20Describing%20Concept%20for%20Society,the%20world% 20are%20culturally%20diverse.

CREATIVE OUTPUT (NON-FICTION)

POV: 1st

CNF Genre: Memoir

Working Title: Drama Plaza

Writer: Ruben Belmonte, Jr.

Plaza filled Drama (December 2021)

Ruben Belmonte, Jr.

And then I was there. Standing, slacking, surveilling... struggling. I sat down, slowly but heavily, on a rock capable to resist my weight while my bicycle falls to sleep on the grass. It’s windy. I can feel that the sun is there, but all the clouds block it from reaching the surface. It’s just the right kind of weather I always wish to have been every day. Not many people are in the area, but I have a strong feeling with them glimpsing on me. Why would they mind seeing ahuman sitting on a rock when there’s a bench beside? This is my favorite spot. I don’t know if it is still, but this spot is mine. I even remember vividly that the frog-fish fountain was in this exact place.

The Old Playground

It was a rectangular fountain, half meter elevated from the ground, waters working, and with painted frog and fish sculptures made of cement, aged, and damaged. The sculptures were red, blue, rust, and yellow, then the water green. However, for some reason, when the water comes out from the creature’s mouth, it is clear. I can also see fishes swarming below but my Mommy said not to touch it, even the water. But I did. I even tasted it. In the middle of it, elevated again, is a manong in his kalabaw. With a buri hat on top of his head, he wears a kind of jumpsuit in red with a pocket in its center. The fact that it is shrunk in size does not promise the children’s eyes to level it to them but creepy enough to unnecessarily ask if was there even a manong that is a child? Not forgetting how its missing left arm is always ignored. The children only see the animals below and eyes does not go further beyond. The only thing they see, when the eyes do, is that big face with a chocolate hat behind.

Looking adjacent to the fountains, I see the enormouspumpkin and watermelon-shaped shades. I can smell it just by seeing it. The stink of a pee’s smell, hard yellow in color to aid, slowly scents from the air to one’s nose even centimeters away before approaching it. Indistinguishable even if its human’s oroneofthestray dogsin thisplace. Notto mention bats, perhaps. Insideofitarecement-madebenches glued on its spheric wall both painted with zebras of cream and writings. The strokes and vandals are peeking from the back of my mind. Pentel pens crawling their way to the cement walls, barely stroking inks to sculpture messages promised to last long. “I <3 U [name],” “tExT m0 aq0uH 0977*******,” and “f0rEvER_21,” among others. It was the early 2009 or so, when people are more used to conveying their inner selves through actual letters and words. Many people savored the security these vandals give off to a feeling illusionary to last so sure. But even permanency of the markings to the wall falls quickly just with the snap of a demolition noise years after. The crumbles of cements from the vandalized wall can still be microscopically seen. Although now fragmented, faded, and miniscule, surely a time so special existed to a world beyond the ocean of only judging eyes. Nothing lasts long.

Passing by the monkey bars and see-saws beside and in front of the shades, the iconic slide with an enormous inviting jolly face and chocolate hat is sparkling. It is dark brown with white face and nose red. Still made of cement, this slide is taller than the normal 7/11 store in front. It has two floors which exceeds the normal slides common in any playgrounds. There is an arched entrance by the neck of the face leading to a stair to its second floor. At the top of the ladder, two doorways are offered. One of which directs to the slide itself grey and roughly smooth that seemed floor-waxed by the children’s carefully iron-ed shorts by their parents. Throughout childhood and its existence, I never get to slide backwards or with the superhero pose. I always make sure that my legs won’t touch the crack part at the end of it that has been there ever since I started recognizing the playground. The slide is every playground’s highlight to the children’s eyes. That even how many times I slide down and get back up, I will never get tired of it, especially with a slide that big and tall. The slide becomes a ladder as well whenever the frustration shows when the grilled door at the second floor is locked. In some instance even, when me and my brothers are the only ones owning the slide, weuse the slide and ladder as one

crawling on the way up just to go down again, and again, and again. The other door by the second floor leads to a bridge. A bridge made of cement vines in orange transporting to a suspended waiting shade with a pole in the middle for anyone who wants to quickly go down to the ground. This is seldom used by the children. Whenever they pass by the end of it, they go back to the other door. Not just to this slide extension, but to other rides as well. I always battle against other children in owning the slide despite the obvious fact of countless of them running to the site and clamoring to be sliding down next. The repetitive behavior goes crazy, and I just kept on coming back to it, tiringly happy. The risk that I always take to pierce myself through the war of experiencing the already experienced again, despite the awareness of becoming tired at the end, continued to be my drug making me high in a thing I consciously told myself to stop.

Now the fountains are gone and replaced with air space. The pumpkins and watermelons rot, and the only thing left was the landscape. The enormous slide and pole demolished only to be left with grass carpet. All for the Zumba momshies. But all things gone, only one remained the tower in the middle where a military gun wearing an army hat is speared at the top. Nobody cares knowing about it even to date that the used to be soil with natural grass ground is now white-tiled.

Just meters away from the lot where the big face were, we had the time of our lives there. But that is not my favorite spot. The last time I sat there was that very time as well. Here, where the frog-fish fountain was, ismy spot. Iam ableto seefrom hereand imaginedirectly how weweretalking, laughing, eating, taking pictures, and wasting each other’s time. That was a night to remember. We just came from the city peryahan located at the back of a hotel I have never been to. It was seven in the evening I am wearing my go-to faded blue hoodie and my much-loved white cap. It was okay fun. I really do not have much energy to appreciate the yearly city peryahan after I reached my puberty. When I was a child, I incessantly borrow one-peso coins to either my mom ormy dad to play only two of theperyahan games inside the color game and thatonewhere I throw apeso coin and aim it landing inside a border. I always earn three or four times of the money I lent when I spend the most of my time in the color game. A lot of people bet a hundred peso, even a thousand, on two colors, in a single round. I don’t have enough courage to gamble that high money, but I always know that I am earning more than these old people, in terms of percentage from my starting coins. When we entered the peryahan, there’s a big castle-like façade that seemed like a gate to the amusement lot. This is not the peryahan I was used to. Back then, no one acts like a payment portal as everybody can enter freely. Now, it seemed like only those people who have 10 pesos can enjoy the pleasure. They even had stamps they impressed on my arm after I paid to officialize my well-off status buying enjoyment. Everything seemed not the way it used to, and I am worried that my 10 pesos entrance fee would be a waste. But all these fretting wore off knowing that I am with the two people I enjoy being with the most in my life that time.

We just roamed around the location and talked over the night. We only rode three rides inside, but we never played games. Vikings had one of the longest line of people. When it was our time to ride it, I purposely sat in between them so I can see both of their faces and have them squeeze me as the swing goes high. She did, but he did not. Not until the peak of its swing was felt then they were compressing to the middle and squeezing me while both hollering and laughing when the swing goes up and down in turns. It was energizing. We also rode the swing carousel where suspended seats kind of fly as the top starts to rotate speedily, and the Ferris wheel where only she and I was able to ride because the manong only allowed two per seat. The last ride was normal. Like a lot of Ferris wheel stories where people talk about how shocking but amazing it is when one rides with someone on it and the wheel stops at the top, it did also during that time. After that, we left the peryahan.

Now we’re here at the city’s old playground, unsatisfied by the time we spent at the peryahan, and trying to extend the night into day with each other’s company and warmth. We bought chips and drinks at the store in front of us and sat by the new grass carpet of the former Tinagba Plaza. I was sitting next to her and her to him. The night was filled with casual laughter and conversations about topics we never read in books. I don’t see any people around us which seemed like we rented the whole old playground. They didn’t run out of things to say, and I was always eager to listen. The 12 o’clock rang and it is now the day of Independence. We did tell our parents about coming home late, but not this late. The city

never knew curfew, but the stores do. The only lights that shone that night was the 7/11 store in front of us, a post light behind us, and nothing else. All the other is dimmed even before 9 in the evening. It’s the city that doesn’t have night life. I never questioned these things before until I get to always escape our house to see these two. I can’t remember if there were stars during that midnight sky when the dark veils its might for I never looked away from the faces of my two I was sitting beside.

I didn’t need any peryahan at all to be pleased, being with them was enough and contenting. But lately, it feels like I must go to a peryahan thrice a day. They say, “Nothing good happens after 2 AM,” and it was true. It was two in the morning when we left the place after taking a picture of our arms with peryahan stamps. It was the first and the last time that we sat on that space. We never did after that.

The Patio

Just beside this old playground, the entrance to the heavy beige-colored city church which I can catch sight of even from here is seen the aged Saint Anthony of Padua Parish. I never knew that this could give off more beauty than it already did before. Our alma mater was named after the same saint and its new color now mirrors our university’s palette, finally. Contrasted to the bright blue colored La Consolacion College beside it, the city parish is newly painted with earth tones. It is eye-catching and picturesque. There are two columns of fresh green shrubs placed on a half meter tall cement vase in red, honor-guarding every people who opts to walk in the center towards the door of the church.

The so-called tuntunan where little angels are brought down during the Holy Week’s easter was moved to the bottom-left corner of the Patio. The original was at the middle of the patio’s front space. It has an antique-styled turret which anybody can immediately discern that it has aged a lot, without being repainted, refurbished, or cleaned. I cannot even imagine how people get up there and bring children down during easter angels. Nor I can imagine how parents felt secure on their children given that the former tuntunan was a basic tower with a hole in the middle. Despite the antiquity of the tower, a lot of people use it as an umbrella when there is no space inside the church during masses. It was also a commonplace where goto, taho, and salabat is served during Simbang Gabi. The present tuntunan has stairs and a sculpture of the Virgin Mary in the middle wall repainted with cleaner white hue, tiled, and whose shade formed is wider than the former. The hole is secured with fences and is now more easily accessible to people when Easter angels are held. It does not also end with two floors, but two more floors at the top that was never opened to people. What is the use, although, with these floors if no one can use it? Everybody can only use the ground of it like the former tuntunan before. As much as the scenic appeal of how tall the new tuntunan brings sparkles to the eyes of people who can catch sight of it even from afar, my abhorrence on the fact that it can’t be enjoyed by people dominates. We could have given a lot of opportunities to be happier if only we had the chance to feel what was truly there and what the existence was for. It could have been great to see a bird’s eye view of the patio, the old playground by the right of it, and the plaza proper there.

Bothwith theoldoneand thenew one, Ineverhad amomentwiththem togetherunderthetuntunan. It never passed our standards to our list of places we want to visit and waste time at. However surely, I and he were in that place at the same time, only with different people. It was when we were filming a short film for our class output which became our official entry for the renowned annual local film festival in the campus. We were waiting for someone to interrupt each other but we were busy minding ourown with thefactions we created under thetuntunan. Iwas singing my lungsoutto songsof L bands with my friends who fan over them more than anybody else in the class. He was sitting by the end of the stairs with some of his friends as well. We only stole glimpses, but we never said “Hi” to each other. How I wish she was there to bind us and create our own world above the existing ones, but she left us in the class after the second semester. It broke my heart both by the fact that she wasn’t there when I’m faking my enjoyment singing, and when knowing he was there but all he did was to genuinely ignore. When we got tired of singing, we sat, lining the stairs of the tuntunan. I ended up sitting by the end of the pact which closes me to him two rulers away. But we never suppressed the breeze between us swaying on less than an arm of space. Like that new tuntunan where we were at one point of time, we always knew the upper floors were there, butwe settled with what is apparent in the ground not going

further to how it is supposed to be and how it wishes to be. We minded our own business until the night veils the sky and until our feet strolls the patio’s front space to home.

The patio’s front space is a known public space worthy to savor every walk. It is enormously wide that it can accommodate a lot of vehicle parking and was always filled with such every Sunday masses. But that was before. Now, the former rough, cracked, and inconsistent cemented grey surface ground used to be a parking space is now replaced with red patterned bricks. Where children excitingly walk towards to after mass to have Sunday fam-day, no cars and motorcycles can park now within the reach to preserve the red-ness and consistency of the flooring. All the wheels towards home have been outcasted from its usual place, surrendering to the new one.

And there, on the rough, cracked, and inconsistent cemented surface ground, we both savored our walk to homewhereourstoriesbegan chasing ghosts. Thefireworksofnew colors ofblue, green, beige, and white outshines both each other and the history falling behind them. That which, by just a snap, is forgotten without hesitation. The new has just replaced the old.

The Plaza Proper

I cannot see more of the plaza from where I am sitting now, but I can imagine, even feel, the echoes of my footprints during those times I spent with them. The plaza proper is twice bigger than the space lot of the patio. There are a lot of entry points around to get inside the public space there’s one from the patio, one coming from the old playground, one in front of the old city hall located in parallel to the 7/11 store, two from the right side of the plaza, and two more from where most people regarded as the back of it. The only times when this plaza is more alive than usual is when it is the city’s Tinagba Festival and during Christmas. A lot of banchettos or what we call as stalls are placed in every corner of the plaza during these two occasions ranging from typical siomai, barbeque and shawarma tents to jewelry, flora, and vintage wood house appliances stalls. All pathways shrink from being two-way to one-way when these stalls are put up side-by-side of the walks. Roaming, as what plaza proper are for during these times, become visually fruitful and engaging. The feast I see is an explosion of ecstasy and excitement, to thepointofnot knowing where to stay orwhat to buy among thedifferent genres offered. The center of the plaza proper is a hybrid of shapes. A little square space of a statue of Jose Rizal is at the center of the plaza proper floating in on end of a rectangular pool of water. The rectangular pool whose water is green and whose fishes can only be seen when one throws a piece of Iskul Bukol on it, is fenced with yellow cylindrical steels. Then, at the other side of the pool is a wide skating circle where a fountain old, not-working, and never been seen with water is placed. Arts and crafts booths with paintings can be found there during the two occasions. Inside the circle as well, with concert lights but only a pop-up tent as stage, are live bands playing every night soothing the night with music of the almost month-long banchetto in the plaza proper. There were also rides back then. It was only recent when they start putting up peryahan rides there, ridiculously coinciding at times with the peryahan we used to have fun behind that hotel I have never been. But we never rode the rides in the plaza proper together. It felt like we never wanted to have another moment together that will outplace that one we just had before the Independence. We were selfish. And that was not just even on the memories we were archiving but to the feelings we gatekept as the years went by.

The plaza proper has always been lively during these two occasions but as much as people wants to force the night life in this city, even these occasions fail to extend the inherent curfew of the stores. Just like that one instance, when, this time, it was I and she who was stuck in the plaza late at night. I was sitting beside her on one of the cement-made benches struggling on what to feel about the situation lost and worried because it was already past 12 midnight by then and she has no way to go home as not even a single tricycle can be seen on the hi-way or glad and cozy for I am with her in such a situation where the cold night breeze combs the hair in our arms and the night blanketing us with its dark and the stars above. Themes and topics that we exchanged over the night are blurry in my head, but one’s thing for sure was we never slacked each other’s feet. The night slows itself every minute passes. At the end, we were not able to call him to aid her, so she opted on the last and the most unfavorable option for her to go home, that is to commute door-to-door. After which, I walk towards home happily alone.

The plaza proper gives the people different phases, especially during Christmas. This plaza has been blacked out for two Christmas already. The last time I saw this lit was when candy canes and monamis are hanging on the trees two years ago. Typhoons always block in the way of having people enjoy the Christmas lightings and extravaganza like the past. Tisoy visited the region during 2019. Quinta, Rolly, Tonyo, andUlyssesleftmarkslastyear. My hometownhasbeen known foritshospitality for the typhoons. Two years has gone by with people not being able to see and walk over it because of the trapals that have been there for renovation renovations that should have been finished way earlier if not because of the typhoons kept on interrupting the work.

Now, it has been crowded with people like it has never been before. When it reopened, the plaza showed-off bright red bricks flooring as well like that in the patio. The rectangular pool is cemented, and the space becomes unfenced. The skating circle is demolished along with the displacing of the unused fountain. The only thing that was preserved is the statue of Jose Rizal. The center of the current plaza proper is now just an ocean of solid red bricks. Dancing fountains in colors of blue, red, yellow, pink, etc. are showcasing its extravagance every night. Seas of smiles and joyfulness radiating beyond their masks were uncontrollably expressed on their first time seeing an unfamiliar and on finally strolling through an open public space that has been robbed by the two years of typhoons and the pandemic. It has not been months, even, since the reopening of the new city plaza and it is filled every nightlike there is no tomorrow. Thelast time we were there together was when ourfriend rented a space for his barbeque business to be one of the official food stalls, four years ago. We were still wearing our uniforms and enjoying the Christmas lights above us. The next year, we were celebrating separately. I was with one of our classmates during the countdown of the plaza’s Christmas lighting, he was with someone else as well viewing the lights in bird’s eye, and she… I had no idea. Should Inot come across with the classmate I was with during that time, I would have had the countdown solo, looking at the lights in gloomy eyes. But there was no difference even when I was with that classmate. Even worse, I faked. The excitements and wows from the people, couples, families, and children surrounding us was the kind of happiness I desired to had as well. And it was overwhelming and struggling trying to feel what they feel. The lights did not make my heart jump for it only made it heavier. I only stared on the lights, contemplating. I admit, I wished that I had them both during that time, but tomorrow was never promised so I started moving my feet unguided.

It has been two years as well since I left them here and went to college. Even before I packed my things, we already bid farewell to each other in the most miserable ways we could ever think of him ghosting me, and I ending things with her.

Over the years, it is still them that I see when I pass by the new plaza proper now. I built hatred on the park. As a fact, whenever there is an opportunity not to enter the plaza, I will not subconsciously making it a muscle memory of ignoring the plaza’s existence like how I detour myself on going back to those memories. Wondering if there could be a time we can walk and be together again in this plaza and all the spots we left marks and printed past fingerprints seems to be far-fetched, even worse, impossible. Dwelling in the past like how I am revisiting the old park will always be where I can settle. The plaza has changed a lot, like how I have changed throughout the years. A lot of things have been scrapped, renovated, trashed. While some… some stayed the same. It is funny how I can still feel the mixed-feelings and roller coaster of nostalgia despite its new looks. I guess it was only the leaves that grew, fell, and grew new that is seen, but the roots stayed unmoved and gripped. The yesterdays have long been guaranteed.

Everything may be gone physically, but something beyond what was seen by the eyes remains the same. The old playground, church, and plaza became lingers in my memory. It still. I even remember dreaming about this plaza in sepia tone when I was seventeen. But now that I’m turning 21, it’s hard to tell if I already forgot all these things. I miss them like how we took pictures of our arm here at the old playground, likehow we scarcely felt each other’s air under theold tuntunan, and how we never slacked our feet in the middle of the old plaza when things weren’t that much complicated yet, when days were only sunshine, and when children get excited with the rain.

I had a lot of moments here and I bet everyone else in this city has a fair share as well. As much as someone wants to compete with theirs, mine was extra dramatic.

I stood up. I went to my bike and woke it up from dreaming. The sun showed up and it’s beginning to scorch the breeze. I hate this kind of weather. I started walking outside the city’s town plaza as I walk outside my daydream. It’s 8 AM on a Sunday. When was the last time I attended mass? Screw this pandemic. Good thing I woke up early and have successfully forces myself to revive my weekly five kilometers cycling workout. It has been months since then as well.