“We doff our hat to GUMIL Metro Manila for its determined efforts to preserve the Ilokano literature”
Next week, on Dec. 8, Ilokano writers residing in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, will gather in Quezon City to celebrate the 59th legend of the group, a chapter of the umbrella organization GUMIL Filipinas.
The anniversary will also serve as their Christmas party, during which the members, led by Faye Flores Melegrito of Caoayan, Ilocos Sur, will also discuss preparations when the chapter marks its 60th, arguably among the most harmonious and integrated literary group in the country for more than half a century.
Melegrito, is the second woman to lead the group — whose members have roots in different provinces in northern Philippines, the first being retired elementary teacher Eden Cachola-Bulong of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur – and the 17th president since 1966 when Dr. Hermogenes Belen of La Union was chosen to lead the group who share a common denominator: love for their culture and literature.
We doff our hat to this group for their determined efforts – it has published several anthologies, among others – to preserve their literature which deserves a snappy salute.
That literature, beyond the readable alphabet, serves as a record of a region’s unique history, culture, and identity, and provides a window into past social conditions, and strengthens a sense of community and belonging for current and future generations.
It also acts as a crucial part of the cultural heritage, counteracting the dominance of national or international narratives and fostering a more complete understanding of a country’s diverse background.
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Last time, we were discussing the state of Philippine literature with scholars and linguists in some informal gathering, where one participant suggested there was need for more scholars.
With this given, we can immediately see the need for more scholars and chroniclers as well as quality translators to compile and translate the native tunes and lyrics indigenous to each or to more than one region.
This is where any private effort should be matched at once by the government, which has the logistics and will to let one body, or committee, to work on and for the translation and dissemination of the various regional literatures.
A government, after all, should be the guardian of the culture of a country – in this case, the Philippine government – of the culture of this multi-lingual nation whose sense of pride has been strengthened by the various eras imposed on them by colonial masters and conquerors in separate eras.
Nearly 70 years ago – not exactly a long time by any cultural crawl – high school, and even elementary, students up north were being pounded by Francisco Balagtas’ Florante at Laura by teachers in Pilipino.
The same academic scenario was also being unreeled in the other regions outside of the Tagalog-speaking capital and nearby provinces.
We do not suggest that Florante at Laura had no merits for discussion in classrooms, even if in some cases that situation then is today pathetically repeated in some colleges and universities.
But there are others deserving attention. These include, but not necessarily limited to, the Aliguyon or the Hudhud of the Ifugaos of the Cordilleras which narrates the exploits of Aliguyon as he waves hefty muscles and courage against his arch enemy, Pambukhayon, across the rice fields and terraces.
He excites and encourages his people to be strong and committed to the wisdom of warfare and of crafting peace during the harvest climes.
Then there is the Agyu or Olahing, a three-part epic that rolls on with the pahmara or invocation, then the kepu’unpuun, or the narration of the past, and the sengedurog, or the episode which in itself is complete.
The parts narrate the exploits of the hero as he leads his people who have been unnecessarily driven out of their land to Nalandangan, a land of utopia, where there are no land grabbers nor oppressors.
There is also Biag ni Lam-ang, or Life of Lam-ang, which narrates the adventures of the astonishing epic hero who displays extremely spectacular powers at a very young age.
At nine months, Lam-ang is able to go to war to look for his father’s killers. While looking for his woman of worth, Ines Kannoyan, Lam-ang is swallowed by a big fish although his rooster and his friends return him to life.
Yet another epic is Labaw Donggon, which is about the romantic adventures of the son of a goddess, Alunsina, by a mortal, Datu Pauban.
The polygamous hero goes up against the big monster Manaluntad for the love of Abyang Ginbitinan. Then he fights Sikay Padalogdog, the giant with a hundred arms, to win Abyang Doronoon before he confronts the master of darkness, Saragnayan, to win over Nagmalitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata.
Yet another in the group, and we agreed with him, other epics were worth visiting which needed appreciation.
They include Sandayo; Alim of the Ifugaos; Bantugan of the Maranaos; Darangan, a Muslim epic; Hinilawod of Panay; Ibalon of Bikol; Tuwaang of the Manobo; and Kundaman of Palawan.
The misplaced conviction that Tagalog literature is Philippine literature is pathetically similar to and no less different from the imposition scores back of Tagalog as the basis for the projected national language of this multi-lingual republic, imposition that had not been tempered by the sitting Tagalog-speaking President at the time.
He ordered a committee he created to agree on what language should be the basis of a national language.
Today, that basis for the national language has become the national language, identified by those with blinders as Filipino.
