VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Maita Santiago was sworn in as councilor of Burnaby in British Columbia (BC) last Nov. 2, 29 years after she failed in a similar electoral attempt in Vancouver. Santiago, an immigration consultant and a native of Bulacan in the Philippines, is the first of Filipino heritage to take the post of councilor of...
Category: Culture
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The Marcos restoration (but have they ever left?)
The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) launched its 16th book, “The Marcos Restoration: The CenPEG Papers on Election 2022,” last Oct. 19 at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The book, a compilation of policy analyses over a 17-month period from January 2021 to May 2022, and with Temario C. Rivera and Bobby...
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Comics: a cultural tonic
That the medium is the message when it comes to storytelling emphasizes that the vehicle is more important than its passengers. But how we cultivate people to become empathetic to our cause is significant to social transformation. During the last election campaign, the urgency to reach different publics required creative ways of transmission and communication....
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Books at the fair: reading as resistance
Time has become a privilege one carves out from these days of want and fear: time to muse, to make sense of what’s going on, to read. Reading is crucial: an act of will, of resistance. Slogging through the tremendous crowd on the last day of the Manila Book Fair last September, one gaped at...
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‘Anak Datu’ preserves cultural memory through contradiction
You really wouldn’t be able to tell based solely on its colorful, toy-themed promotional materials, but Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Anak Datu” is a work of proud defiance that speaks to today’s concerns of historical denialism in a direct, patient, and intelligent way. The play, written by Rody Vera, tells several tales about Muslim Mindanao all at once—including that of the original short story by National Artist Abdulmari Imao; anecdotes about real-life tragedies...
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Into the forest, across streams and rivers, and up and down hills
I went back to the remote Barangay Villa Espina in Lopez, Quezon, one Tuesday morning. At 6:30 a.m. after insufficient sleep the night before, I jumped into a decrepit jeepney—only one unit plies the route twice daily if the weather is fine—bound for the barangay (village). It was sunny, unlike the first time I embarked...
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Offspring of veterans of the struggle recall martial law life and lessons
“I distinctly remember the letters our parents gave us, telling us how much they yearned to be with us, and that they look forward to the time that we can be together as a family… My parents did not impose their principles and belief on us, but rather gave us the freedom to discover for...
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Stage actor-turned-businessman comes full circle
Ignacio Gimenez who? It’s been seven years since I first heard that name—a donor for a theater to be constructed on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) grounds. Former CCP vice president and artistic director Chris Millado kept on harping on the edifice before and during the coronavirus pandemic, and continued to push for...
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‘Anak Datu’ untangles web of memory, myth and history
Where does history end and myth begin? How does memory, individual and collective, influence and possibly correct the narration of a people’s history? These questions are doubly important today, in an era when social media and other digital platforms tend to lump the critical verification of facts with unthinking chismis (gossip). Tanghalang Pilipino’s latest production,...
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The exactness of Agnes
The rehearsal hall turns tense and the dancers stand still as Agnes Locsin critiques their execution of the steps. She slowly rises, touching her abdomen as she points to the exact spot where—and how—they must lift in order to deliver the right intensity and angle that the step requires. It’s clear that she has mastered...