Of Yolanda, the Prior Catastrophes, and My Sweet Typhoon Liam

By Joan Ariete

New York City

 In the evening of November 9, the day after Yolanda, the strongest storm recorded in history battered the Philippines, my three-year-old son Liam was excitedly assembling a house, a Lego tower of yellow, red and orange, and assuring himself, “very good.” He would ecstatically say “wow!” every time his tiny fingers managed to secure another block. 

I was, on the other side of the room, distraught - sitting in front of my computer and letting the horrific images of the super typhoon assault me.  The entire Tacloban City flattened by water; the soaked and muddied leftovers of an apocalyptic episode, clothes and knickknacks laid bare, rusty tin roofs pulled out from under-constructed concrete houses, a doll, its blonde hair now a lonely mermaid’s mane.

 The dead sprawled amongst these mundane objects of what used to be a bustling everyday life in Tacloban where the eye of the storm was. I caught a glimpse of a child’s hand, very much like my own son’s, and I almost blacked out. I wept louder than I did when my grandfather passed away two months before. 

 My son turned to me and asked, “Mommy, are you okay?” - one of the few things he has learned on etiquette from his babysitter. Outside, the autumn breeze hummed and kissed the yellowing leaves, making way for a kaleidoscopic show of colors in New York. Inside our small apartment in Queens, I longed to be with my own people who were by now suffering the most unspeakable of horrors.  

[caption id="attachment_3028" align="alignright" width="300"] The writer with Liam and John.[/caption]

 I have seen these horrific images when I was child. They seem to be realized versions of my childhood nightmares. I come from Pampanga, one of the provinces that suffered most when in June 1991, Mt. Pinatubo, a volcano that had been dormant for 600 years, woke up, excitedly spewing smoke, lava, ash and pebbles.

The ash and pebbles fell like rainfall and transformed my hometown, Lubao, into a winter wonderland of gray snow.   Then came the mud mixed in water, boiling to a temperature of what Hell must feel like. PAGASA called it lahar. It never reached our town, but Bacolor, which was a mere 30-minute drive away, bore its brunt, galloping and relentless. It buried the town alive, erasing it off the map. I vaguely recall a radio news report on how those who survived had to place their dead inside used rice sacks and tie them up to sturdy tree branches so as not to be swept away by the surge. 

I cannot trace the time government officials or neighborhood gossips started warning us about the water. After the eruption, the topography of the land had been transformed into a welcoming hall for any arriving deluge. As a kid, I would always imagine water barging into our home, filling every corner like an aquarium. It would come in the dead of night ferrying logs weighing tons and bashing our front door, as if knocking in jest.  

I would plan our escape, my little brother, my baby sister and I, and rewind it in my head, but would get stuck, realizing we were fenced by intricate metal bars for windows. I would obsess about our house’s ‘inescapable’ architecture- a one-story bungalow built in 1985. The metal bars coiled and bent to assume the shape of a flower or an intricate triangle, stayed glued to the beams. How are we going to escape all this water?  In my imaginings, I would refer to Peter Pan’s escape routes through more sensible English windows.

The flash floods in Ormoc City took place in the same year, five months after the volcano woke up. Until today, I can’t shake off the television image of the bloated body of a man with both his arms raised as if in anticipation of a half-embrace. The sun was kissing his face, which by then had turned into a lamentable blue.

Monday morning at work, I wept once more as concerned coworkers asked me if my family was okay. I started a frantic fundraiser and raised $710, which I split in half and sent to two friends from college who had already launched their own individual relief efforts-- one group went to Dulag, a town outside of Tacloban, which also suffered greatly. I was moved by my coworkers’ generosity; most of them had children to send to school, monthly mortgage, and still donated a good fraction of their paychecks. My bosses were more than gracious as well. When one of my friends received the money, he started crying. It was the least we could do. It was nothing compared to what they, who were physically there, were dealing with. Albeit in a tragedy of this magnitude, cash is always the most potent resource.

 The week that followed was a state of distraction and grief. In mourning and angered by any sign of indifference, I reprimanded my partner for not finishing his leftovers, when so many of my people back home were starving. I debated with my parents, who thought that Anderson Cooper’s reporting was a bit offensive and the government’s slow response understandable considering the country is an archipelago and all its resources Third-World. 

 On Facebook, I told an aunt she was insensitive for telling me that a lot of people who claimed to have not had anything to eat for five days were lying, as they could still line up for relief goods in the heat. They were probably going for seconds, she said. In this half-crazed state, I thought I could easily alienate anyone.

 On November 23, two weeks after the storm, my son and I trekked to Chelsea in Manhattan, where Filipino-American literary writers and journalists organized a fundraiser reading named “Kaya Natin!” (We can do this!), featuring legends in contemporary Filipino literature held at the Asian American Writers Workshop office.

 Via video, Gina Apostol, author of the novel Gun Dealer’s Daughter and a native of Tacloban, read some Waray poems by another Taclobanon, Voltaire Araza. As she translated each line she put emphasis on the verbs, explaining that Araza’s language is fueled by these “ordinary, quotidian verbs.” In the poems, the verbs flow with a solemn eagerness about them, elegant and mighty in their sadness. There’s something enthralling about the Waray language, the way the last syllable of a word is repeated to magnify its meaning. As is the case in any other Filipino language, this type of repetition amplifies the words, bolsters their caliber.

 Lambunao, which literally means ‘water,’ laments on water’s insidious nature:

 Water is a bad guest, especially when it enters the house.

It’s a pest because it occupies everything, touching everything,

Making everything wet: the floor, the chairs…the mat, the blanket…

and the picture of the two of us, my wife and I.

It’s been overstaying for three or four days now.

It keeps living in our house.

I’m not complaining. I’m just annoyed, because these clothes I’ve been drying keep shedding tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TR1vhWQcw8

[caption id="attachment_3029" align="alignleft" width="225"] Jessica Hagedorn[/caption]

 Jessica Hagedorn, author of acclaimed novels Dogeaters and The Gangster of Love, read Gina Apostol’s Op-Ed piece in The New York Times. She shared three moving paragraphs that describe the author’s nostalgic memories about how Taclobanons would usually deal with the typhoons that regularly pass through their city. The grief and anger that followed after the Yolanda leveled her city could be sensed as the article progresses.

“Always, after the rains on Juan Luna Street, there was the great communal cleansing, children, housemaids and busybodies sharing stories; the familiar howl of Bruce Lee, our cowardly dog; the usual flooding of our walkway that doubled as a pigpen, housing a single hygienic pig owned by our neighbor Mano Bading, whose love for his pig we tolerated because we would eat it at fiesta; the examination of debris — clotheslines, buckets, cardboard election posters falling off a corner store, where we got our i.o.u.’s when typhoons hit, racking up our debts in Spam, Hunt’s pork and beans and rice. But this year’s post-typhoon cleansing has become an unimaginable orgy of grief. Friends who have escaped speak of strangled, directionless horror: No one is in charge. We don’t know how to account for our damage, or where to go to repair our fate.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/opinion/surrender-oblivion-survival.html

Ninotchka Rosca, author of award-winning novels, State of War and Twice Blessed, cautioned against calling Filipinos resilient in a commentary for Yahoo! Philippines. Headlined “Calling Filipinos resilient is an insult,” the piece drew a lot of attention from readers. According to Rosca, Yahoo! was delighted because the commentary pushed people to type in comments in complete sentences. 

 An excerpt:

 No, we are not resilient. We break, when the world is just too much, and in the process of breaking, are transformed into something difficult to understand.  Or we take full measure of misfortune, wrestle with it and emerge transformed into something equally terrifying.

 It is what is…and what isn’t

This is in sync with our indigenous worldview, expressed by our riddles, the talinhaga, on which every Filipino child used to be raised:  an understanding of reality, including ourselves, as metamorphic (or, capable of transformation).http://news.yahoo.com/commentary--calling-filipinos-resilient-is-an-insult-011053161.html

[caption id="attachment_3030" align="alignright" width="225"] Ninotchka Rosca[/caption]

I discovered a little piece of home in these readings. The writers’ words brought me back to that time of uncertainty, the memory of a frightened eight-year-old who couldn’t stop thinking about her homeland’s impending doom.

 It wasn’t a shameful anomaly anymore, to have all these memories-- visions of water taking back what we hold dear. It is, sadly, every Filipino’s reality. “What a horror it would be to lose the poets,” Apostol said when she didn’t hear from her literary friends in Tacloban for the first four days since the storm struck. Yes, what a horror it would be to lose the crafters of words that speak of truth and beauty.

 Rosca’s commentary has been empowering. I hold on to the word ‘metamorphic,’ during these trying times. On that fateful night in June 1991, my brother and I jumped up and down in our living room to evade the tremors; in the dark I asked my father if we could escape to Manila and stay with our cousins the following day. He didn’t answer; he was figuring out how to get clean water for my newborn sister. By this time, the potable water pipes had been shut off. After that night, life had never been the same. 

 Internationally known as Haiyan, locally called Yolanda, the typhoon left a magnitude of destruction that is beyond understanding. At press time, there are over 5000 accounted-for deaths. While local and financial aids continue to pour in, numerous barangays and islets in the Visayas are still in need of relief and attention. Scientists say that the escalating strength and sophistication of current typhoons can only be directly caused by climate change.

The 1991 flash floods of Ormoc were attributed to illegal logging. Over 4000 died and 3000 more missing; none of the missing was ever found and they are all presumed dead.

Naderev ‘Yev’ Sano, head of the Philippine delegation to the UN Climate Convention in Warsaw delivered a speech in tears: “We can take drastic action now to ensure that we prevent a future where super typhoons become a way of life. Because we refuse, as a nation, to accept a future where super typhoons like Haiyan become a way of life.”

He challenged those who are still denying climate change, those coming from wealthier nations to “get off their ivory towers,” and see for themselves the extent of the natural calamities that have befallen the more vulnerable countries.

The question now is how will the Philippines deal with climate change? I summon our capacity to metamorphose: hold the powerful and corrupt accountable-- government officials, huge corporations that plunder our natural resources. Unfortunately, the United States is among those countries that have the highest greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn’t have a firm stance on how to deal with the warming planet as of yet. It hasn’t committed itself.  

[caption id="attachment_2601" align="alignright" width="300"] The US has still to commit itself to curb global warming.[/caption]

 More than ever, I vow to recycle more, not waste water, and refrain from consuming too much-- some may accuse me of having too much of that self-righteous complex, but this culture of consumption and waste is just too much for the planet. I refuse to shop. Was never a shopper, anyway. 

 When hell came down and tested my people’s humanity, they rose above the rubble with a level of humanity that left a CNN reporter in awe. We still reel from the pain. We still mourn our dead.  And we will never forget.

 At the writers’ fundraiser, Liam passed out in my arms when the poets started. A man sitting beside asked me if he could take a picture of us. The message, which he typed on his IPhone for me to read to avoid disturbing the reading, was very touching: Taking your son to these events is a very moving gesture. Can I take a picture of you two?

 It wasn’t as much as consciously taking him to such activities as not having enough to pay for a babysitter. But maybe it was a must to take him. After all, through his blood runs the DNA of a race that has, time and time again, redefined the meaning of strength. (Photos at the Asian American Writers Workshop by Kristina Kalaw Joyas)

 

(Joan works full time – as a young mom and a bouncing-back writer in NYC.)

Reinterpreting I Love Tacloban

By Merlie Alunan

Tacloban, the center of the Philippines, where everyone is just passing through, it may be. But there are many of us who understand better what love of a place means, after the storm surge and the wind had levelled the city and left it in ruins. We find the place in our hearts again, and perhaps we now realize more what it means to say, I love Tacloban.


Tacloban City -- Jet Urmeneta, peripatetic and irrepressible native of Tacloban, picked up a young man once, we don't know exactly in what circumstances. It might have been in an airport, at the NAIA perhaps, a case of have-money-to-travel-but-don't know-where-to-go, especially in this strange country, the Philippines. The young man was a Belgian, but he spoke English with a pleasant accent, so Jet told him, "Come with me to Tacloban."

Where's that, the young man says.

"That's the center of the Philippines," said the disarming and irrepressible native.

So the young man went with her without questioning what might become of him in this touted "center of the Philippines." Those were happier times, the young man landed among Jet's family and friends, the Urmenetas and the Delgados of Apitong Country, people who understood fun and good company, food and conviviality, and proved to himself , long before it ever became a touristic byword, that it was indeed More Fun in the Philippines, especially if you're in the "center," as Jet boasted. Thus he proved to himself earlier, long before it became a touristic byword, that it was indeed "more fun in the Philippines," especially if you're in its "center" as Jet had boasted.

Geographically, Jet might be right. The Maharlika Highway passes through Tacloban, the midpoint on the way south to Mindanao, Surigao, Butuan, Davao, and north, Manila and the the rest of Luzon.

[caption id="attachment_3016" align="alignleft" width="300"] The San Juanico Bridge[/caption]

 

One can make many things of this geographic factor. To government authorities, it means that Tacloban has to deal everyday with loads of people in transit, going from here to there and back. It also means an extraordinary influx of informal settlers coming from various parts of the region, finding places for themselves in the warrens of the city slums. They build shelters very quickly, using what materials come to hand. They find jobs with the many business establishments in the city or do small buy-and-sell businesses of their own, or work as domestics, laundrywomen, waiters, construction workers, cargo handlers. A number of them become drivers of jeepneys, motorized tricycles, and pedicabs.

Most of them are escapees from the poverty that beleaguers the rural places of their origin, only to find their lot not much improved, even worsened by poverty in the urban jungle. Most of them are low-skilled or have no skills at all, which explains why they cannot find regular jobs, or why the jobs they get into are usually poorly paid. This is a fluid population, people coming in and leaving as they please, but there are always more coming in, squeezing themselves everywhere they can.

Businessmen, as usual, are the first to see the opportunities offered by the Pan Philippine Highway. Tacloban City is primarily a trading center for all of Region VIII, and also a regional center. All the national offices have their sub-agencies in Tacloban City. The ease of transport made possible by the Pan Philippine Highway exacerbates the city's consumerist propensities. It is now easier to bring in goods. Most of what Tacloban eat come from the outside--meat, vegetables, fruits, even fish--they come from food producing provinces such as Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Cebu, Bicol and further north. Business control the supply chain, hence it is vital to the well-being of Tacloban. In Tacloban as well as anywhere else in the country, the bulk of these are in the hands of the Chinese community. This is a very stable community, albeit somewhat set apart and focused largely on its own concerns.

The one biggest employer in Tacloban City is the government, City Hall, the Province, and the various agencies of the National Government.

[caption id="attachment_3023" align="alignleft" width="300"] The city hall, nestled in serene seas. (Photo by Gerry Ruiz)[/caption]

Tacloban has no industries of any significant size, unless one looks at the schools as such. Tacloban is a university town, dominated by two big SUCs, the Leyte Normal University and the Eastern Visayas State University and several private schools, offering mainly elementary and high school education. There is a very small unit of the University of the Philippines. The city's professionals find employment in government, in schools, in the hospitals that service the city, three government, and four private. The city hosts thousands of students from the entire region most of the year, another fluid population who stay only for the length of time required for the completion of their academic courses. Most of them leave soon after, for Manila or Cebu, in search of jobs.

[caption id="attachment_3019" align="alignleft" width="300"] A legacy of the American education, the UP Tacloban is leveled to the ground, except for the Oblation.[/caption]

In the aftermath of Yolanda, there was a massive diaspora of Taclobanons to different parts of the country. We are among those driven to seek shelter outside the city. Within ten days after the deadly storm, however, we also saw the frantic efforts of many Taclobanons to go home, understandably to find out what happened to family and friends caught in the calamity. Suddenly we hear laments about losing the city, losing home. After Yolanda gutted the city and reduced it to piles of rubble and debris, we listen to people mourning for the city they had lost.

Dulce Cuna, painter and performance artist, one of Tacloban's most well-known personalities and devoted denizen, has written in Facebook:

" 2013 has brought me the most PAIN in my Life, the PAIN of Loss. I lost dear friends and relatives, and I am losing MEMORIES... I know I am blessed because GOD kept my family intact, but I bleed for my relatives and friends who went with the storm. I also mourn for Tacloban and the place it once had been, the Joy it had given me as I lived there. It is my Birthplace, my Habitat, my Roots, my Identity. In Church, yesterday, I felt so alienated, everything strange. The opulent Church of St. Peter here in Commonwealth was packed with people for it was the feast of Christ the King. I felt so little, so humbled, like a kitten stepped on in a stampede, like a five-year old crying in a pew. I miss my Santo Niño Church, but God is there and everywhere. After Mass, deciding to buy vegetables to augment our sustenance of canned goods, I thought of Rotunda San Jose where many Taclobanons could buy fresh-caught fish, Andok's where I could buy a fast lunch, my suki fruit vendor and the pedicab driver who was among the lined-up corpse in the rotunda on the day I joined the exodus. I remembered the malls, the cafes where I used to hang out, downtown Tacloban Chinatown where my Chinoy friends would give me discounts for goods I bought at their stores, the University of the Philippines Tacloban College where I have so passionately taught for many years..."

The artist could readily talk about place and his connectedness to it. Perhaps, Dulce Cuna articulates for most of us what home means. These are thoughts we seldom have in better times. Now that the city has been turned into rubble and we are forced to flee for our lives, we begin thinking about what it means to us.

[caption id="attachment_3018" align="alignleft" width="300"] Imelda Marcos's house of opulence is in Tacloban. The Sto. Nino Shrine, when it wasn't yet decaying, showcases the former First Lady's expansive, royal bedroom where it has kept the most amazing everlasting mirror.[/caption]

In better times, City Hall garnished the city with signs: "I love Tacloban." City Hall proudly announced the HUC status of Tacloban and proceeded to impress upon one and all the pride and power of these new circumstances. Most of us cared little for the wranglings that took place in the name of the HUC. For most of us, Tacloban was just an address, we could be moving out pretty soon. It is the place where we work, where we have our business, where we make money.

It takes an artist to remember these: This is where the bones of my father and mother lie, as Daryll Delgado has said. It is where generations of my family have always lived. Where I had planted a garden and a tree. It is where I had fallen in love, where I had my first heartache, where I got drunk and fed the chickens for the first time in the town plaza. Where I feel safest, where I feel fully myself. I may go anywhere in the world, but this is where I want my bones to lie, beside the bones of all my ancestors, and if that is not going to happen, my soul will cross the valleys and oceans of the world to find its shores.

Tacloban, the center of the Philippines, where everyone is just passing through, it may be. But there are many of us who understand better what love of a place means, after the storm surge and the wind had levelled the city and left it in ruins. We find the place in our hearts again, and perhaps we now realize more what it means to say, I love Tacloban. HUC or not, its grounds have harbored our feet and we have breathed its sacred air. Away from it, we would not know who we are. (Photos by GMA, Fox, USA.com)

(Merlie Alunan is a denizen of Tacloban who survived the wrath of supertyphoon Yolanda, along with her children and grandchildren. She is a retired professor in English Literature at the University of the Philippines and in Silliman University. She is a poet at heart. With a new lease on life, she and her family are temporarily staying in Dumaguete City in the island province of Negros Oriental.)

GRANNY GORGEOUS

In the wake of Yolanda, A Prayer

By Sylvia Hubilla
Round Rock, Texas


When everything is lost,
you find...
God is The Only One
you need.

When everyone you love
is gone, you fear...
God is here, there,
everywhere.

He is the arm, stretching
out to hold you.
From all across the globe, reaching
out to comfort you.
He is all colors of the rainbow, rushing
to your side.

He is the One, bloodied,
drenched to the bone, shivering.
He is the one, lost and alone
with fearful eyes, searching.
He is The One, holding your hands, saying,
Thank You,

for “I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink.
I was hungry, and you gave me to eat.”

Matthew 25:35

The Entrepreneurs of Asia in New York

By Marivir R. Montebon

In New York, the number of women-owned startups rose to 58% between 1997 and 2010, compared to 50% national figures. The empire state ranks among the Top 10 states for women entrepreneurs. Asian women entrepreneurs, in particular, have shown vigor in the field of business. 

OSM! features three of these highly motivated business women. Hui-Man "Chow" Mok of upper west side's Zen Medica, Eileen  Formanes of Bibingka-esk in Bayside, and Manhattan's Imogene Raypon, make-up artist for healthy beauty - the Green Option for Glam.

HUI-MAN "CHOW" MOK - Believer of Holistic Health at Zen Medica

Chow is a young entrepreneur, in her early 30s, and relentless in setting up her Zen Medica which offers a wide array of natural health and beauty supplements. Business has been brisk since she opened her shop on 72nd Street on the upper west side of Manhattan. 

 

[caption id="attachment_2995" align="alignleft" width="300"] People will increasingly opt for healthy products - Chow of Zen Medica[/caption]

"Getting into holistic health is a new consciousness. The traditional chemical-based pharmaceuticals is not providing a  long-term solution to health. I understand people will eventually shift to more healthy options," she said optimistically.

Chow's parents come from Hongkong and have since settled in the US when she was a young child. She finished Nutrition and Dietetics and  had since worked along the line of her academic course. Two year ago, she decided to set up her own business and there was no stopping her since then, whether it was high competition or rigorous business regulations.

Towards the end of summer, Zen Medica spearheaded a holistic health fair at the Jewish Community Center on Amsterdam to promote organic health supplements to the community. That was a huge success, accounting for more walk-ins into the shop and online shopping. Zen Medica also conducts health seminars regularly.

Chow may be always tired at the end of the day, but she always ends it with a smile, looking at her daily achievements.

EILEEN FORMANES - Baking Bibingka for the World to Sample

At an international day celebration of the company she formerly works for, Eileen was prodded by her friends who tasted  her bibingka (a uniquely Filipino milk and rice cake) to begin selling the incredibly tasty pastry. The demand inspired her to open business in March this year, with the brand name Bibingka-esk. 

[caption id="attachment_2996" align="alignleft" width="168"] Bibingka-esk was born by surprise.[/caption]

  

Eileen's original bibingka now comes in different flavors: S'mores, Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chip, Chocolate  Strawberry, Cinnamon Sugar, Strawberry Swirl, Blueberry, Apple Pie, and Banana.

One can sample on the Bibingka-esk at the LIC Holiday Market on Long Island City for the entire month of December.

 

IMOGENE RAYPON - Healthy Glam for You

Imogene is a make-up artist by profession who uses healthy make-up products to ensure the lasting, healthful beauty of her  clients. 

[caption id="attachment_2997" align="alignright" width="160"] Imogene: Giving glam a healthy sense[/caption]

She finished her make-up course at the Chistine Valmy International School and has worked in various high end retail  outlets in the city, particularly Saks 5th Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale's and Henri Bendel. 

Now as an independent consultant, Imogene has chartered her own business by choosing products that are truly healthy and helpful to clients.

On December 7, she will hold a make-up seminar titled "The Green Option to Glam and Fab" at the Payag Cellar through the Pinoy Pride sa America from 10am to noon. A $45 fee includes kit, make up products, and breakfast.

 

Gota de Leche: A Drop of Milk is Life

By Marivir R. Montebon

It took my grandmother's generation 30 years to see a suffrage law passed, but after the first election of women, the Japanese came.  We had to pick up the pieces and begin again.  Taking the lesson from triathletes, you go the whole length, and then again, until you are done. - Anna Leah Sarabia

Since 1906,  a drop of milk has made a difference in the lives of women and children in the Philippines, albeit silently.  Gota de Leche Manila was a project of the Asociacion Feminista Filipina, and became the banner program when the La Proteccion de la Infancia was incorporated in 1907.  Gota de leche was the name everyone remembers, and has seen the unfolding of one crisis after another in the Philippines, taking an active part in the survival and triumph of Filipino women and children through the ages.

[caption id="attachment_2973" align="alignleft" width="292"] Gota de Leche Foundation in Manila[/caption]

Here we look back to the leadership of Natividad Almeda Lopez, who joined La Proteccion at age 15, and served as its president even as she was the first Filipino woman judge and justice.

The women leaders of Gota de Leche have actively participated in the suffrage movement in the Philippines, aside from responding to concerns of life and death in the midst of war, starvation, and disease.

In these trying times of the Philippines, Gota de Leche has continued to take up the responsibility to help mothers and children in the Yolanda devastated areas in Central Philippines.

[caption id="attachment_2981" align="alignright" width="110"] Sarabia[/caption]

Anna Leah Sarabia, following the footsteps of her mother Lourdes Almeda Lopez and grandmother Justice Natividad Lopez, takes such responsibility personally and squeezed her time for this OSM! interview. Excerpts:

1. Which areas are you sending relief to?

We have sent to places that were not being prioritized by the big agencies in the first days:  Northern Iloilo and Capiz (Panay), Biliran and Coron.  The Canadians recently arrived in Panay, and the people of Palawan have rallied for Coron and nearby parts.  Biliran has very few volunteers still.  But we continue sending to Panay and Biliran as we gather materials and donations.

[caption id="attachment_2974" align="alignleft" width="300"] A woman flees from the rubble of the earthquake in Bohol. (Inquirer photo)[/caption]

 

2. What is the core program of the institution? Why?

After the Philippines lost the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 20th century, one of the biggest problems was famine in many parts of the country.  Carabaos and cows were decimated by war and disease, and people were not able to plant -- making healthy brown rice scarce.  Americans then imported polished white rice, and made the population vulnerable to beri-beri then raging.  Mothers stricken with the disease who gave birth and nursed their babies passed it on -- until the infant mortality rate reached 80%.

The feministas were the only organized group at that time, and some doctors appealed to them to save the population -- and the women quickly organized gota de leche, including the first dairy in the country, and the first milk collection, distribution and feeding program.

The core program has not changed since 1906: providing nutrition support to malnourished children (with milk and supplements), and food support to breastfeeding mothers.  Malnutrion among children remains a problem to this day, 100+ years later.

[caption id="attachment_2986" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Gota children in 1957[/caption]

3.  On a personal note, what inspires you to do this kind of work?

In the beginning, I could not understand the dedication of my grandmother, Natividad Almeda Lopez, who joined La Proteccion at age 15, and served as president even as she was the first woman judge and justice in our country, and of my mother for the institution. She worked for the restoration of the Gota building which later earned a UNESCO heritage award.

[caption id="attachment_2985" align="alignleft" width="202"] Justice Natividad Almeda Lopez with the children of Gota. 1945. (Photos courtesy of Anna Leah Sarabia)[/caption]

It was only in the mid-1990s, when I began seeing references connecting Gota de Leche to the suffrage movement and to women's early campaign for education and empowerment that I understood what it meant to them, and to other early women advocates.

Besides attending to indigent malnourished children and to poor breastfeeding moms, we have established links with the schools around Ubelt to strengthen a sense of community service in the students.  The problem of safe spaces for women in evacuation sites of typhoon Yolanda has given us the opportunity to open our simple facilities and services to them.   I hope that the government will make use of this offer of ours to typhoon victims.

4. Our country is undergoing tremendous, untold challenges this very moment. This moment now will define us and determine our future. environmentally, economically, politically, holistically. What is your call/ought to be done that we will emerge victorious as a people, as women?

I wonder if it is facetious (or even futile) of me now to imagine that things might have been different and better if the culture of untrammeled capitalism and machismo had not dominated our society in the last 60 years.  It is a mentality that has promoted material greed,  plunder of earth's resources and of women's bodies.

This has proven to be not only unsustainable.  It is also socially unjust, and must be changed.  But how does one change such a system? Important  laws that protect women and girls take years, even decades, to pass and then to be implemented.  The men who promise reform and revolution end up reinstating male dominance.  The media in our country is owned either by big business, the church or government, and the people in power take so long to recognize the need for change.

But we have to find ways, we have to influence and enlighten people using creative means. Maybe mother nature is not as patient.  Who knows what really created the force which devastated so much in our country?  Who knows what changes it will bring?  The important thing is that we should never give up.

[caption id="attachment_2983" align="alignleft" width="111"] We have to influence people using creative means.[/caption]

It took my grandmother's generation 30 years to see a suffrage law passed, but after the first election of women, the Japanese came.  We had to pick up the pieces and begin again.  Taking the lesson from triathletes, you go the whole length, and then again, until you are done.  It's the lesson for advocates of the Reproductive Health Law, and for gender and social justice activists.

Awesome Health Tips

DRINK YOUR WATER
By June Pascal

Water is the elixir of life,
Water is your friend.
Drink up, Drink up.
Water oh so pure, so pleasurable.



Make drinking water a conscious habit. Here's how.

Step 1  Save three of your emptied wine bottles, rinse and dry.
Step 2  Fill it up with New York tap water filtered  through Brita-like system. It is just as good as  bottled water, if not better because it is free.
Step 3  Drink all the water throughout the day, lots of it during the first three hours in the morning and before bedtime.

Congratulations. You have now fulfilled your required eight to ten glasses of water a day. You have now heeded what your body needs. Your body needs that water - pure, plain, simple water at room temperature, no ice, the warmer the better only because if the water is pure, it can go ahead and do its many functions without the body having to deal with all the additives in the liquid like alcohol, caffeine, sugar, coloring, etc.

Pure water, drank copiously, acts as a flush in our entire system (just like the streets in Madrid are cleaned with strong water hoses every night), cleaning our entire digestive system, carrying out toxins and waste products.

According  to a study on the effects of dehydration, here is a partial list of illnesses highly preventable by the simple act of drinking water: heartburn, arthritis, back pain, angina, migraine, colitis, asthma, early adult diabetes, cholesterol, depression, muscular dystrophy, and multiple schlerosis.

When you start producing mucus especially in the morning, it means you are dehydrated in a cellular level. How so? The body's prompt response to thirst is to flood the lung sacs with mucus to prevent the thin membrane of the lung sacs from drying and tearing, an irreparable and painful condition.

Pay attention to these first signs of runny noses to prevent further complications of having an overload of mucus in your system like colds, cough, broncho-pneumonia, flu.

When feeling constipated, drink plenty of water. End of story.

Make it a habit to take a water bottle with you each time you leave the house. Fill it up at home. It will be free, costs you nothing, you save your dollar and it is better for the environment.

When you eat salty food,  you become thirsty. Salt is dehydrating as in salted dried fish.  Drink extra amount of water when snacking on salty foods.

Hydro-therapy for high blood pressure goes like this.  On the first three hours you are up in the morning, take no solids, only four glasses of water. Do this for a month to lower your high blood pressure.

Use water to change your mood from dark to light instantly, by doing some of these tricks:
1. Splash your face and neck with hot water, then with very cold water. Do it again and again until you get bored, you'll be a new person when you dry yourself up.
2. Do the same with your feet as well. Some people put ice in the cold bucket just for the fun of it.
3. Have a hot soak, as hot as possible. If feeling achy and heavy, pour a box of Epsom salt.
4. Use ice cubes to wash your face, guaranteed picker-upper.
5, Steamed hot towels, anyone? Great before and after meals and flight.
6. Hold a bowl or a large cup of hot water, tea or soup. Cup your hands around it. The heat you feel in your ten finger tips will travel directly to your heart and as we know, heat expands, cold contracts causing your heart to be warmed over, causing you to relax.

If you must have flavoring in your water, lemon, ginger, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar have been known to have beneficial effects.

Close your eyes as you slowly drink water. Concentrate on the sensation of the flow of water starting from the mouth, to throat , to esophagus all the way to the stomach. Zen at its best.With your eyes closed thank the universe that you have water to drink because many more people in the world do not have it.

 

[caption id="attachment_2961" align="alignleft" width="237"] Healthy, fair products from Fair Trade Cebu[/caption]

http://thefairtradeshop.com.ph/category/cebu/

Kit's Kitchen

PEAR CRISP
By Ruth Ezra
Chicago, Illinois

Kit's Kitchen is back! Thank you to a dear friend who asked me over a dinner date why she hasn't seen postings of my baking. My dear Cindy, this one is for you and to our OSM! global readers, enjoy this simple recipe. Since I was not counting calories, I tried it ala-mode. 'Twas the best.



*Three anjou pears, peeled, cored, and sliced in cubes
*1/4 cup warm water
*2 cuties, juiced
*1 cup all purpose flour
*1 cup brown sugar
*1 cup rolled oats
*1 T ground cinnamon
*1 1/2 stick salted butter

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F

Combine pears, cuties juice, warm water, and pour in a pie baking dish.

Combine in a bowl oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Pour melted butter and stir to make crumbly mixture. Spread evenly on top of the fruit.

Bake 45 to 60 minutes until the topping is crisp and brown.

 

|*|*|*|

Ruth D. Ezra is a culinary queen in her own right through experience and training. She works at the AllState Roadside Services in Northbrook, IL.  Her greatest delight is serving good and healthy food to her husband Heman and only daughter, Isabelle. Kit would love to receive feedback on her recipes, and exchange them with yours at ezraruth@comcast.net.

Let Us Join This Journey!

Sylvia Hubilla
Austin Texas

“The Journey of a Brown Girl”
That is the title of an upcoming stage production. The title raised my eyebrows and peaked my interest. The use of the color of the skin, stirs some emotion and concern about being politically correct whenever the topic is about race.

If it was intentional, it worked. The title catches one's attention. So I clicked on the link, sent to me by my pretty, talented young niece, Leslie Hubilla, who is the choreographer for the production.

The link opened up and drew me in. It's the beautiful story about the journey of a new generation of young Pinays, born and raised in America, seeking their identities by touching base with their culture and their roots.

    It's wonderful to see the younger generation of Pinays, taking up and continuing the seemingly endless journey of the Filipino womyn to break the shackles of the image of Maria Clara, subservient and silent. It is hopeful to see the younger Pinays proudly rediscover our heritage of the warrior Gabriela Silang, and even deeper in our stories of strong womyn leaders, priestesses, and healers in the community.

These global Pinays undertake this journey of empowerment, not only for Pinays, but for all women and girls, in all circumstances. After all, there is a common thread that connects us all.  For aren't all issues, womyn's issues?

Using the powerful medium of Theater, this group of  Pinay artists, passionate about their craft, come together, with shared experiences woven in a powerful narrative expressed in multidimensional art.

As of this writing, they have announced a casting call for Pinay talents, at CAP 21, 18W 18th St., NYC.

“Fully designed, produced and performed by Pinay, this piece seeks to empower our community and create connections of empowerment and celebration of all womyn.”

Director & Creative Producer – Jana Lynn Umipig
Assistant Director           - Renee Floresca
Costume                      - Inez Galvez
Choreographer                - Leslie Hubilla
Lighting Director            - Tina Cocadiz
Set Designer                 - Vanessa Ramalho
Marketing Designer           - Karoleen Decastro

“We see "The Journey of a Brown Girl" as more than a production, but a movement. And our team seeks to submit the production to Independent Theatre Festivals and performance spaces for further production. And eventually publish the play and curriculum for further connection of the Pinay experience and celebration of all sisters and beyond.“

Note on use of “womyn”
Wom*n: The use of wom*n with a "*" is primarily used to remove the patriarchal constructs around language and be intentionally inclusive of all women and women identified persons in a way that does not limit them to representing an extension or creation of man. The "*" is also used as a wildcard to substitue one letter to search for alternate spellings.

Please help and support our project.  Thank you!

The Journey of a Brown Girl is continuing in our effort to encourage for the support of our community and loved ones in 3 ways:
1) GIVE- Please give to the project through our Indiegogo: bitly.com/14HMYud
We have amazing gifts for our monetary donors that reflect our culture, our intention to empower our community and the remarkable artistry of our collective and sisterhood circle! Check them out and contribute what you can!
2) SHARE- Link as many of your networks and family/ friends/ colleagues/ networks to the project! Let your social media support this movement, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, whatever you choose! Connection is key!
3)JOIN- Join the movement of the Journey of a Brown Girl, follow the progress of the artistic talents of our team as they grow this  project with deepened messages! Ask questions, give input, be a part of the process! thejourneyofabrowngirl.com, and we're on facebook and tumblr!

Women Shifting to the Center

[caption id="attachment_2872" align="alignleft" width="168"] Take the lead, woman.[/caption]

By Marivir R. Montebon

Women must free themselves from the bondage of patriarchy in all fronts: gender, economy, culture, politics, and race. - Simone de Beauvoir

Pretty soon, herstory and herstoric moments will become a household word. My optimism is grounded on the fact that the feminist assertion is taking center stage these days. It is the age of Aquarius, the age of reflection and action, and therefore, positive changes. It is the age of the woman, and of Mother Earth, who is obviously ailing and angry at the way we human beings are conducting our affairs.

I, and the growing feminist movement, will not be trivialized and relegated as a peripheral issue, just like women are taken a matter of factly as second class citizens. If the world has to get better, women, men, gays and lesbians must begin to acknowledge everyone's relevance and role.

In the quarters of the America, there is a growing section of feminism that is blossoming to offer a different world view...transnational feminism, or that feminism which crosses borders and boundaries determined by migration, race, class, culture, territory and religion.

The Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-Feudalization, and Marginalization (AF3IRM) is a three-year-old organization of feminists which has boldly organized women and redefine women and their roles in societies and the world.

[caption id="attachment_2873" align="alignleft" width="300"] No piggy-backing. Do your responsibility, claim your success. At the AF3IRM Centershift Conference in Manhattan.[/caption]

Enriched by its 21 years of organizing experience, AF3IRM has mapped out the world into only six continents (Asia, America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, and Europe) instead of the seven as we were taught. It has also reexamined the prevailing feminist school of thought of gender equality.

At whose context are we looking at equality? If it is equality with patriarchy and competition with male dominance, it is problematic. "We are not in competition with men in the context of patriarchy. Otherwise, we will not be solving the problems on injustice and not responding to fairness," the feminists say.

AF3IRM positively asserts the position of women in liberation movements in its poster: "A woman's place is at the head of the struggle for the liberation of humanity."

Feisty but gracious AF3IRM chairperson Jolene Levid emphasizes during their recently concluded Centershift conference in Manhattan: "We are not just relevant, we are definitive. We have the right to develop our theory."

AF3IRM is cooking up a new mindset, a shift to the center of things for women. It echoes the works of celebrated writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir who asserts that women must free themselves from the bondage of patriarchy in all fronts: gender, economy, culture, politics, and race.

Beauvoir was affront in her assertion that the Marxism did not free women from exploitation and control, citing the experiences in the communist movements in Europe.

Fact is, the political movements all over the world remained male-dominated and piggy-backed on women activists who were doing much work but in silence and without responding to the gutteral issues of respect and fairness within the political organizations.

AF3IRM founder Ninotchka Rosca, international writer and novelist and a key political activist at the time of Pres. Marcos in the Philippines, is in the forefront in the center shift mindset, having personally experienced political upheavals in the Philippines and abroad.

Quite candidly, in fact, she maintains that the core of the movement for global change is gender fairness. Everything is of equal importance, she says, economy, race, religion, culture, and gender and the struggle for such must be simultaneous.

"Within the mass movements worldwide, it is sad that the progressive men continue to reign dominion, hence, we are not talking of sincere change here," she said.

AF3IRM is relentless in writing its own experiences and drawing lessons from these, their woman's development theory remains a work in progress. It is quite a dynamic group, ran by young and fully inspired women who bind themselves with reverence to the spirit of the goddesses and babaylans (spiritual healers of the community before the Spanish conquest) as inspiration.

With faith, fastidiousness, and finesse, these women are moving towards the center for social change at a remarkable pace. "We have a herstory to write and tell," said Olivia Trinlas, AF3IRM's gentle but indomitable chairperson for New York.

Who Will Prosecute My Trafficker?

By Marivir Montebon

New York City -- The US may truly be the land of the free. It is also the land of the trafficked persons, a reality which government officials and lawmakers must look into as they cook up an immigration reform law.

[caption id="attachment_2921" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The land of the free is also the land of the trafficked people.[/caption]

They could listen to Marilou, and to thousands of stories of trafficked persons. This is the silent side of immigration.

Tears welled in her eyes before she could speak. And she finally spoke about the family she left in the Philippines who was unaware that she was being tricked to have a job that does not exist, Marilou (not her real name) could not help but wail. Silence ensued in the conference room, packed with an audience of color, Filipinos, Indians, Mexicans, and Tibetans, lobbying for immigration reforms in Congress.

Marilou was quick to apologize for her anguish. And continued to share her testimony as a trafficked person by what seems to be a reliable recruitment agency in the Philippines (it was accredited by the government agency on international recruitment standards).

She had the creepy feeling that her American dream was false the moment she landed at the Dulles Airport in 2008, she said during the International Migrants Rights Day in early October in New York.

Marilou thought that she was going to be a Special Education teacher in Virginia, only to sense that there was something fishy going on when she arrived in the US. She was not picked up at the airport when she already paid $200 to her recruiter for her car service.

She had to frantically find her way to her recruiter’s place at dawn, who to her surprise was angry  at her for making such a long late trip. The following day, the recruiter took her to her employer school, whose principal was surprised by her visit when there was no hiring being undertaken.

Things got clearer for Marilou when she was warned by the recruiter against telling her situation to anybody, or she will report to have her deported by authorities. The recruiter brought her to a preschool where she was to work as teacher/babysitter to survive in America.

She had no other recourse but to take the job in order to pay her debt of $25,000 in the Philippines that covered her  recruitment fees, airfare, and house rental fees. Marilou is a victim of fraud. She worked as a babysitter, continuously paid her recruiter for her placement fees, and managed to send meager amounts of money to her family and debtors in the Philippines.

Her recruiter had threatened to have her deported unless she paid the balance of her recruitment fees. She could not continue to do so, after having been laid off from the preschool.

Distraught and in deep debt, regret, and shame, Marilou often swang from thoughts of suicide to reporting to  authorities about her condition.

One day, no longer able to bear her misery, Marilou sought the help of a friend who referred her a key organizer of  the what is now the women's group Gabriela in Washington, DC.

Over the phone, she sobbed hysterically as she asked for help from paralegal expert and Gabriela organizer Susan Pineda.

[caption id="attachment_2922" align="alignleft" width="168"] Pineda: The issuance of T visas is a boost to justice in the US.[/caption]

The help from Gabriela emboldened her to file charges against her recruiter before the Philippine embassy. It was a long fought struggle and turned out  that the decision wasn't fair for the Philippine government merely charged the recruiter with $1000 in penalty for procedural lapses in recruitment.

Marilou certainly did not feel vindicated with that. But she, along with the other teacher recruits courageously testified  before immigration authorities about their condition, despite the risks that their families in the Philippines may face due to retaliation by these affluent recruiters. Marilou was recently granted a T (Trafficking) visa.

"Unknown to many, there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history," explained Ms. Pineda  who noted that the number of cases she has helped push through for trafficked individuals have boosted her resolve to help these individuals. "It is a silent crime in the US and people are crying for help," she said.

About 100,000 children in the sex trade while between 14,500 and 17,500 people – mostly women and children - are trafficked into the US annually, US statistics show.

Human trafficking comes in second to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in  the world. Different sources estimate profits from human trafficking is as high as $32 billion, increasingly at the hands of organized crime due to the high profits and the fewer risks compared to arms or drug trafficking.

The United Nations underpinned the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and  Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol or UN TIP Protocol) to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Trafficking Protocol was adopted by the UN in Palermo in 2000 and was enforced December 25, 2003, with currently 117 countries and 154 parties ratifying.

In compliance with this Protocol, the US Congress passed into law The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, offering protection for persons in the country illegally who may be victims of human trafficking. The TVPA combats trafficking by promoting a policy of prosecution, protection, and prevention. It is through this law, that most of the victims of human trafficking, acquires legal status in the US.

Under the TVPA law, the US government grants T-visa to victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons. T visas offer the victims a path to freedom, including citizenship, in exchange for their help putting modern day slave runners behind bars.

The T visas are truly a big factor to usher in justice, said Pineda.

The other side of the equation however remains unchecked, sending countries like the Philippines and Mexico, need to rethink its immigration policy which wittingly and unwittingly allow human trafficking to take place, and is fashionably calling it a development tool. Until now, Marilou's question, who will prosecute my trafficker remains unanswered.

MILLY SILVA: Latina Steps Up from the Other Side of Spectrum

By Marivir R. Montebon

Metropark, New Jersey -- "I am just a labor leader stepping forward. It is difficult, but I am stepping forward," Milly Silva said with refreshing note of confidence.

[caption id="attachment_2911" align="alignleft" width="149"] Woman labor leader steps up[/caption]

At 42, she runs half the ticket of the Bouno-Silva of the Democratic Party against the incumbent New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno of the Republican Party.

It is an all-women ticket in New Jersey, a rare political moment as it is only the third time to happen in America's electoral history.

Milly is the executive vice president of 1199 SEIU and her work is mostly on organizing low-income communities in the Bronx where she was born, and in New Jersey's nursing home and health care facilities.

She speaks strongly for women, labor rights and for immigration, having been born to and raised single-handedly by her mom  who hails from Puerto Rico. This easily identifies her with Filipinos living in the state, which is the biggest population (110,650 as of 2010 census) of Filipino-Americans in the east coast.

Milly now lives with her husband and three children in Montclair.

Excerpts of the interview:

1. What made you decide to be Barbara Buono's running mate?

Barbara asked me to run with her. And I admire her to challenge Gov. Christie, so here I am. I bring real life experience  in organizing low income families, safe neighborhood, benefits for nursing care givers and poor workers. Based on experience, I bring together industry and workers together on the table.

2. You come from the minority race and a woman. Is it difficult to get into the electoral arena?

[caption id="attachment_2912" align="alignright" width="173"] We will work for equal pay for women for equal work.[/caption]

It is very difficult. I am the first Latina to ever run for a high public office. But I am stepping up, as a labor leader,  I am just stepping up. I am a woman and I believe that we have to represent women. In the nursing homes where I do my organizing work, I see them as my mother and sisters. I believe more women leaders must step up.

3. What programs do you have in particular for women?

We are pushing for equal pay for equal work. Right now, the Latina women are paid fifty-one cents to the dollar. And for  the entire country, women are paid 77 cents to the dollar. We are also going to fully fund health services. Right now, the planned parenthood budget has been slashed.

4. What is the future of immigration law in New Jersey?

We support a comprehensive immigration reform law. In the state, we will have tuition fee support for the Dreamers,  because they are in fact, our future leaders. We will invest in their education. The Governor's office will be a place for them to speak out.

5. What is the Buono-Silva economic program?

You know, 95 percent of businesses in New Jersey are categorized as small. We will improve the business climate here by providing tax credits to support small businesses. Gov. Christie has, on the other hand, provided a $2.1 billion in tax exemptions to big businesses. I understand that most immigrant-owned business, like Filipino businesses, need that support.

6. Running against Gov. Christie is quite a challenge, as he leads about 20 points in the recent polls. Will you still be  involved in the issues for New Jersey whether or not you make it in the elections as Lt. Governor?

[caption id="attachment_2913" align="alignleft" width="141"] Whatever happens, this will not be my last.[/caption]

If he wins, I will continue to work on the side of the society where I am most comfortable. Whatever happens,  this will not be my last.

The Perfect Subversion

By Marivir R. Montebon

New York City -- Everything that the petite and feisty Ninotchka Rosca said at the Montclair  State University in New Jersey was subversive. Her lecture titled 'The Colonial Roots of Violence Against Women' was like an ultra violent movie, it had to issue a warning that it was not meant for the faint hearted.

[caption id="attachment_2896" align="alignleft" width="168"] Rosca: international novelist and feminist[/caption]

Rosca, an international novelist and transnational feminist, lectured at the George Segal Gallery, where the Triumph of Philippine Art exhibit is ran until December 15,  2013 and curated by M. Teresa Lapid Rodriguez, the Gallery's director.

She began with the painful reality that Filipino women are the main export of the Philippines. The $30 billion in remittances to the country every year was predominantly courtesy of the Filipino woman, who choses to  leave her family to earn in a much better quantitative manner in a foreign land.

The odds are all against the woman, who could no longer take part in raising her children and providing them emotional  support, while being exposed to the risks of being a faceless entity in a foreign land's labor force.

This reality may well be considered a violence against the well-being of women. But in absolute terms, violence against  women has to be defined as the total deprivation of their economic and political rights, she said.

An award-winning novelist based in New York, Rosca was a political activist at the time of Philippine dictator Pres.  Marcos. She sought political asylum in the US in the early 1980s. Since then, Rosca has devoted her time to writing and organizing women in the US.

Her group, called the AF3IRM, is relentless in its organizing work and developing and popularizing a feminist theory to guide contemporary women's movements.

Rosca's lecture is a substantial element in the reawakening of the theory based on ancient feminist practices.

She divided her lecture into three parts: the era of the babaylan (priestess) which characterized the indigenous society  prior to the Spanish colonialism, the era of dominion and hegemony which describes the Spanish and American colonial rule, and finally, the killing of the Adarna Bird which figuratively calls to end Philippine diaspora.

Veering away from the traditional structure of looking at Philippine history on the periodic manner, Rosca used a lens  that is especially feminine, to tell a story of a people that has yet to come to terms with suppressed realities and truths that have been forcibly erased from their common memory several hundred years ago.

The Era of the Babaylan

In the ancient days, when there was no Philippines to speak of, there were only thousands of tribes scattered in the  archipelago, each having their distinction and commonality as indigenous peoples.

Describing the Bagobo tribes, Rosca pointed out that the ancient societies ascribed to the goddess Mebuya (or Maibuan,  Mebyan, and Mona in other ethnic groups) and their lives were predominantly guided by the babaylan (priestesses).

[caption id="attachment_2897" align="alignleft" width="93"] Mebuyan: the goddess of many breasts (Duddley Diaz sculpture)[/caption]

Mebuya was the goddess of many breasts and a hundred names. She brought forth children, and milk, a symbol of power of  women. In Greek mythology, she was the goddess Artemis.

The babaylan and the women in the ancient times held the knowledge of seeds, plants, and herbs. They led in rituals and  rites exclusively, such as the pounding of rice, while the men had to pound the gongs.

The babaylan was the spiritual leader of the community, the only one entitled to communicate to the spirits. There were  instances when men were spiritual leaders, but they were required to wear women's clothes to communicate to the spirits.

The women were the key individuals in the death and birth of members of their community. They were also responsible for  their oral stories, through poems and songs, said to the children towards the end part of the day.

Rosca said that at the time of babaylan, the societies were less oppressive and more egalitarian.  The crimes noted were offense and insult such as when you offend or insult women.

Virginity was not a requirement and adultery was not a big issue and was paid off with a certain amount to the spouse.

In ancient times, a major rule was to never have debts. It was honorable to never owe anything to anyone.

The era of the babaylan was prevalent in indigenous societies of Asia prior to the conquest of western world.

Dominionism and Hegemony

The absolute subversion of the mindset of the babaylan took place when Spain colonized the islands and named it  Philippines, after its king, Philip II.

The "idea of the perfect" was brought into the islands and it takes the face of a foreigner and its center was religion.

"We were taught of the God, the father, God, the son, and God, the holy ghost. Somebody turned the woman into a ghost,"  said Rosca.

It was impossible for the foreigner to destroy the feminist view, noted Rosca, that they had to convert Juana (native name  unknown), the wife of the tribal chief of Cebu, Humabon, into Christianity.

[caption id="attachment_2898" align="alignright" width="168"] Dominionism encroached into the era of the babaylan.[/caption]

Christianity indoctrinated the natives that life is painful and full of misery and systematically took away the rights of  women.

This was expressed in the change of the clothing of women. "The women were literally imprisoned in their clothes,"  remarked Rosca.

The encomienda system outrightly replaced the leadership of women in the farms. Women were relegated to the homes, to give  birth as much as they can for labor supply.

This perfect subversion of the rights of women led to babaylan revolts all over the archipelago. The babaylan was persecuted and banished.   For more than 300 years, the perfection of the foreign intruder was best expressed in recreating the psyche of a  subservient woman and forgetting the spiritual leadership of the babaylan.

Killing the Adarna Bird

Rosca brings her lecture to full circle using the myth of the Ibong Adarna (ibon means bird). But unlike how the popular  legend, written in poetry by the famous Francisco Baltazar, imparts hope and solution that the bird brings (it has to be captured by the three princes and a feather be brought to cure their ailing father), Rosca pleads her audience to kill the Adarna myth.

The journey of the three princes to foreign lands in search of the Ibong Adarna, is so much like the Filipino diaspora,  she said. Jose Rizal went to study in Europe to bring in fresh ideas to the revolution of the Philippines, Filipinos must seek greener pastures abroad to give bright future to the children. But that is not the answer, postulates Rosca.


"We go around the world, trying to look for solutions to our problems in the country. But the answer is right there, all  the time. We only need to learn the story of our past and revive the feminism of the babaylan."