At home… in the theater (review of Tanghalang SLU's "Ang Penitensiya ni Tiyo Renato")

*my column in the March 9, 2014 issue of Cordillera Today, photos courtesy of Lester Romulo Sotelo

I spent Friday night right at home... in the theater, that is. Thanks to Tanghalang SLU director, Dan Rommel Riopay, also the director of the night’s performance, the last show of “Ang Penitensiya ni Tiyo Renato,” for accommodating me and my family. I inquired about tickets the night before, but all tickets were sold out. That makes me very happy for that means theater continues to thrive in the City of Pines.

We entered the theater and were greeted by the wonderful set design by Paul Baldoza and Deomar Tiglao – they beautifully captured the look and feel of a typical home in the lowlands. We chose to sit right in the middle, a good distance away from the stage to have a full view of the set but not too far to miss those small nuances that make a great performance: a tiny smirk, eye movements, those subtle glances that actors do.

The script, a Palanca Award winner written by Luciano Valencia, tells the struggle of one Renato for self-preservation. It reminded me a bit of “Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio” by Paul Dumol. In this family squabble many of us are familiar with, Renato, a child-less widower, was falsely accused of child abuse by his own niece who’s in cahoots with an older brother of the protagonist in an effort to extort money from him.

Sure, it all begins with the script, but an art work is not complete unless it’s experienced by an audience, and this is where a director’s vision and the actors’ sincerity come in. I met the director when he was still a freshman at St. Louis University. Eager to enter the world of theater, he has auditioned for a slot in SLU’s Center for Culture and the Arts and while waiting for the result, he joined my production of “Tonyo/Pepe.” We only got to work together for a couple of weeks since he passed the SLU-CCA audition and didn’t have the time anymore to do an outside production.

In my 18 years as a resident and a theater artist in Baguio, I rarely meet someone who tried out theater while in high school or college and stayed that long. But 15 years since meeting him, Dan’s still there, telling stories on stage. I’m proud to have known him and Baguio’s fortunate to have him.

I’ll get to the one thing that didn’t quite sit well with me out of the way – the use of lapel microphones by the actors. I don’t like lapels in straight plays for they get in the way of the suspension of disbelief particularly when you hear a subtle sigh of an actor 20 meters away from you but with the sound coming to you in full volume on the speakers. And when there’s a technical glitch – a mic going off during a couple of lines, then the illusion is totally ruined. They could’ve perhaps used condenser mics just to reinforce the actors’ voices a little. But I don’t blame them too, student audiences are not known to cooperate and help the actors deliver a good performance – they’re usually chatty and noisy, and I’ve stopped several performances myself when the noise have become simply too much and unbearable. But that’s for another column, back to the performance.

Malena, played by Dyan Britanico and Mikel, played by Handiong Kapuno who happens to be the son of two colleagues in the performing arts, Raffy and Jo Kapuno particularly caught my attention. As a director, and indeed as merely a member of the audience, sincerity is what I look for in an actor’s performance. I have never been a fan of theatrics for theatrics sake, I have a term for that that’s not fit to be printed here, but basically, I like performances where the actors are focused on who they are, what their stories are supposed to be, and nothing else. I love it when their stories break through the fourth wall of the theater to reach right inside of you – and that’s what both Britanico and Kapuno did on stage.

Never mind the shrieks that came out of teenaged girls in the audience when he came out in the final scene without a shirt, Kapuno was there not to show off but to tell a story. And I admired the way I felt every word uttered and every sub-text expressed by Britanico with subtlety, much ease and absolute sincerity.

The rest of the cast delivered too, and it made for a wonderful evening for me and my family. The discussion about the experience lasted during and long after our late dinner. And I congratulate the rest of them – Benjan Rusby Natividad, Trixie Anne Sampayan, Kenneth Aglubo, Mesach Casey Camtugan, Nico John Catallo, Ana Isabel Javier, England Castro, Rronyth Joy Sison and Christine Sagun for telling their respective stories well.

And last but not the least, and they rarely get mentioned in reviews but being one myself early on in my life in the theater, I congratulate the stage managers for a job well done. As we say back then and I still do now, if you hardly noticed their work in a particular performance, that’s because they, the stage managers, did their job very well. And to see another former student, Rainbow Gutierrez, who once attended our group’s creative expression workshop as a little girl, take her bow as one of the stage managers just completed a wonderful evening at home… the theater.
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Confrontation. Renato (Benjan Rusby Natividad, extreme left) stands up to
his kuya Noni (Kenneth Aglubo, extreme right)

At the fiscal's office. Alex (Nico John Catallo) prepares to refute the testimony
of Donna (Trixie Anne Sampayan)

Mikel (Handiong Kapuno) reaffirms his faith in his tiyo Renato

Fiscal Teves (Rronyth Joy Sison) gives instructions to her secretary,

Charito (Christine Sagun)

Donna's mea culpa.

And the (local) band played on

I chanced upon one of the movers of Panagbenga, Panagbenga co-chair Freddie Alquiroz, just before New Year’s and he was quite straightforward about it: The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. isn’t sure if it can provide a budget for a 4th Baguio Music Festival. In the three flower festivals, we have been staging a gathering of musicians in various open spaces in the city, thanks to the support we get from BFFFI. But sponsorships aren’t easy to come by after the country was hit by Typhoon Yolanda. We understood, and we were in fact already planning on staging this year’s festival later in the year to give us more time to solicit support from the private sector.

But then, just before the festival began, we received a call from our musician-friend slash Baguio City councilor slash Baguio Music Festival chair, the Hon. Richard Carino: albeit with limited funding, and against all odds, the BFFFI was able to set aside some funds for us and that the 4th Baguio Music Festival is on.

We immediately held a meeting and a brainstorming session. And while we were very grateful to the support that the BFFFI has extended, the fact remained: we would have to do a scaled down festival this year. And despite that, we still needed to augment what was generously allotted for us to get the festival onstage.

Even before letters were sent out to potential sponsors, we received a call from InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) after announcing the event on Facebook. How can we be of help? They asked. IHG has always been supportive of our initiatives in the last few years. A number of times, they didn’t even wait for us to ask for their help, they offered it first. After hearing about our effort to gather medicines for victims of Yolanda last year by staging a benefit concert, they offered to host an encore right at the IHG grounds to gather personal-hygiene supplies for the victims. With them on board, we knew there was no stopping the festival now.

Cordillera Today came in next, offering invaluable advertising and column space to spread the word about “The Age of Aquarius,” this year’s theme that advocated the need for a major paradigm shift in Baguio. The Rural Bank of Itogon and the University of Baguio stepped in too to provide additional logistical support, and Alabanza Meat Store, a perennial blockbuster during Session Road in Bloom, offered to feed the artists on its final night.

Sonny Zandueta

The festival opened at Ililikha, the art space along Assumption Road on February 24, special thanks to Kidlat Tahimik, Kidlat De Guia, Kawayan and Kabunyan for lending their space to us. Sonny Zandueta, a prodigal son of Baguio, launched the three-day festival with a performance of his original works.

The following day, The Age of Aquarius moved to the Igorot Garden where, after waiting for an hour for heaven’s blessing of a gentle rain to stop, guest band, Fuseboxx, a prog rock group, opened the evening’s be-in. They were followed by a collaborative performance of some of the city’s foremost musicians.

Abby Clutario of Fuseboxx jams with Coun. Richard Carino

"In perfect harmony" - The Open Space children performed the song,
"I'd like to teach the world to sing"

Atty. Jose "Bubut" Olarte, Jr.

Eunice Caburao, Gemma Gonzalez and Bakulaw

On the third day, we rose again, this time at the Main Stage of Session Road in Bloom for an encore featuring highlights from the previous night’s performance. We were sandwiched between two other musical acts that afternoon: Musar's performance featuring their students and teachers and crowd favorite The Edralins. On the poster, we were simply billed as "local bands." There was no better way to put it, we were indeed a local band - a band of kindred spirits who believed this year's festival's vision, and whose faith in the local artist remain steadfast.

Eric Tubon of Fuseboxx

Lawyer, rocker, environmentalist Chris Donaal

Bong Dailo

And for the fourth straight year, thanks to Councilor Richard Carino’s unwavering faith in local musicians, BFFFI’s generosity and the support of our friends in the community: IHG, Cordillera Today, The Rural Bank of Itogon, The University of Baguio and Alabanza Meat Store, we were able to provide the community with three nights of music that hoped to inspire them into taking a more active role in preserving, protecting and enhancing the natural beauty of Baguio, particularly its remaining parks and open spaces.

Another misdirected initiative from City Hall (Baguio)

When Daniel Burnham saw the wide expanse, the biggest piece of level land in the proposed site for the planned hill station, he reserved this for a public park specifically for the benefit of people of moderate means, according to the book, City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as an American Hill Station. After all, at the time, there was already the planned Baguio Country Club for the elite, Camp John Hay for the armed forces servicemen, the Hotel Pines for the well-to-do tourists, etc. The park would be a haven for nature – the watering hole would be expanded into a man-made lake surrounded by trees and colourful blooms and adjacent to it would be a wide open space where people can stroll around, have picnics, play. Re-create.

From the time the city was chartered to today, among the most treasured memories of those who grew up in Baguio, along with those who simply visited this mountain resort, have been times spent out in the open in what has become the centerpiece of the City of Pines: Burnham Park. And the recurring mayor of the City of Pines has this proposal: to address the worsening traffic situation in the central business district, he is envisioning a parking facility to be built underground at the Melvin Jones Football Grounds, according to a news report.

Daniel Burnham must be turning in his grave – what he envisioned as an amusement center for the less-privileged is now being threatened by a proposed project that would benefit the more affluent. Those who have less in life will now have even less in public infrastructure because the mayor wants to serve the interest of those who have more in life. This comes on the heels of his proposal to put up gates around the park for reasons only he believes make sense.

The concept of ecological balance seems to be beyond our good leader’s grasp. Creating that much disturbance to nature will have a huge, drastic effect on the area’s ecosystem. And if he gets his way and the parking facility is put in place, I wonder if he realizes what the effect would be of having greatly increased vehicular traffic in the area – how much worse would the air quality be in a place that’s supposed to provide people a respite from hustle and bustle of rapid urbanization?

The place has also been experiencing flooding in recent years, pouring that much concrete on that much earth space would also significantly reduce its water absorption capability. The grounds is situated in a valley that acts like a catch basin for water run-off coming from higher areas, where would all that water go if the place is cemented? Nowhere, it will stay there, and for much longer with less earth to absorb it.

They seem to be hell-bent on destroying everything that is beautiful about Baguio. Sign the online petition to oppose this proposal here.

In honor of the true heroes and heroines of Panagbenga

I have heard stories in the past of the sacrifices of the nameless thousands of pupils and students, but it’s only now that our family experienced first-hand how much these youngsters go through to make the annual Baguio Flower Festival a success.

After graduating elementary last year, our daughter applied for and was accepted in the Baguio City National High School Special Program for the Arts for dance and their group form part of the contingent that is currently preparing to take center stage along Session Road in today’s street-dancing parade. Yes, I write this watching the live coverage of ongoing parade on television where I thought I’d have a better chance of catching a glimpse of my daughter in her Kalinga-costume than squeezing in between the throngs of people lining up the city’s main thoroughfare.

Initial preparations started late last year for their group, I believe, and as soon as the first day of class after the holidays, rehearsals went into full gear. Costume and props requirements were given, and the hunt for materials all over town began. It wasn’t easy for our daughter who also belonged to the Baguio Futsal Team to the 2014 CARAA having to work both on her part in the dance and attend training and practice sessions with her futsal team. This actually resulted in an overnight stay at a hospital due to over-fatigue.

As this day drew nearer, the stress level rose dramatically. The main prop, an umbrella covered made to look like a flower using supposedly recycled plastic bags (I’ll write about this in length in next week’s column) soon deteriorated after so many rehearsals and some needed to be repaired while others needed to be replaced altogether. My wife made a slight mistake with the arrangement of the beads attached to the headdress, that too had to be redone.

Three days before the parade date, we received a waiver that we needed to sign: the contingent will have to stay overnight in school the next day so that they can be there to serve as a backdrop for a major network’s early morning news program. I was hesitant to sign it – why have hundreds of young students, after rehearsing all day, at times under the sun, and late into the night, sleep on makeshift beds towards midnight to be roused before 4:00am so this network can rake in extra hundreds of thousands in advertising revenues for the scoop that is having hundreds of students in colourful costumes dancing in the background? After discussing it with our daughter, we decided to let her go.

So there, they finished rehearsals close to midnight. Some of them had to stay up to repair their props while the rest tried to get some rest. Before 4:00am, they were up, putting on their costumes, make-up before making their way to Burnham Park on foot. They were scheduled to finish by 9:00am, but just as I was getting ready to pick her up, she called and said that when they get back to the campus, they will be rehearsing one more time before calling it a day. By this time, she’s had only a couple of hours’ sleep in the last 30 hours.

I pick her up at 10:30am and as soon as we got home, she laid down on the couch and was asleep in an instant. I tried to wake her up for lunch, but she was just too tired.

Day of the parade, call was at 4:00am, and here I am today, waiting for her group to come on TV, and there she is, somewhere along South Drive waiting for their turn as my wife waits for her somewhere along Upper Session Road.

Much print space and radio and TV airtime were spent on the issues surrounding the staging of the annual festival, including the apparent rift between the City Government and the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI), allow me to take advantage of this column to honor the thousands of pupils and students who make great sacrifices to make Panagbenga the success that it is today. Mabuhay kayong lahat! Ignore the conflict between the powers-that-be that revolves mainly around money, you are the true heroes and heroines of this festival.

The Age of Aquarius - The 4th Baguio Music Festival

For the fourth straight year, the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, in cooperation with the Office of the Hon. Richard Cariño, Councilor, Baguio City, and this year's major sponsors InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Cordillera Today will be presenting“Open Spaces – The 4th Baguio Music Festival.” First staged during the month-long Panagbenga celebration in 2011, this musical collaboration between home-grown and visiting artists advocates the protection, preservation and enhancement of Baguio’s remaining open spaces.

The theme for this year is “The Age of Aquarius,” and will highlight the music of the revolutionary era that is the 60’s. The festival will be launched with a gathering of the participating artists and a performance by Sonny Zandueta and his band on February 24, 2014 at 4:00pm at Ili Likha, Kidlat Tahimik’s newest art space at 32 Assumption Road.

The following day, February 25 at 4:00pm, the festival moves to the Igorot Garden with an open-air concert featuring guest prog rock band Fuseboxx and a collaborative effort of local musicians performing covers of classic rock pieces by The Beatles, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, as well as excerpts from the musicales Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. Among the featured musicians in this performance hosted by veteran radio jock Señor Blues and led by festival musical director Ethan Andrew Ventura are Bubut Olarte, Sumitra Gutierrez, Ric Maniquis, Chris Donaal, Bakulaw, Bong Dailo, Ian Paolo Acosta, Luis Asejo, Jeff Coronado, Lloyd Celzo, Jerky Afaga, Josef Ventura, Eunice Caburao, Ryle Danganan, Emerald Ventura and Gemma Gonzalez.

The festival closes with an encore of highlights of the performances at the Main Stage of Session Road in Bloom on February 26, 6:00-9:00pm. The final night closes with a performance by The Baguio Boys.

As in all the previous staging of this event, all performances are free and open to the public.  

Also sponsored by the University of Baguio, the Rural Bank of Itogon and Alabanza Meat Store, this year’s Baguio Music Festival, according to Executive Director Karlo Marko Altomonte, forwards the need for a major paradigm shift towards a more environment and human-friendly city as Baguio progresses on in the 21st century. 

Festival organizers, Open Space, a Baguio-based artist collective, pose with members of the prog rock band, Fuseboxx and festival chair, The Hon. Richard Carino (top row, 2nd from left), Councilor-Baguio City. 

That woman in uniform

The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) issued a statement condemning the appointment of one Lina Sarmiento as head of the martial law claims board. According to the statement forwarded by former Congressman Teddy Casiño via Tweeter.com, the NUPL asks, ‘But does she “have a deep and thorough understanding and knowledge of human rights and involvement in efforts against human rights violations” committed during the Marcos regime as mandated by the law? No such evidence on record.’ Casiño‘s post on Tweeter read: “PNoy appointment of 2-star general to Human Rights Claims Board is a mockery and a bad prank.”

The statement also asked, “Why put a woman in uniform who represents an institution that has historically played its indispensable role in violating human rights at the helm of a body on human rights? What sort of macabre message is this?”

The former congressman wouldn’t want the public to judge him today based on his being a congressman in the past, would he? Should we also ask, what right does Casiño have to question Sarmiento’s appointment when he was once a member of that institution known for rampant graft and corruption, infamous pork-barrel abuses, and had child-rapists, convicted druggies, murderers as members?

I had no idea who Lina Sarmiento was, so I looked her up. She’s a chemistry degree holder who joined the police force as a forensic chemist for the Philippine National Police crime laboratory. From there, through the years, she has held various positions in the Directorate for Operations, the Police Regional Office and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. She later earned her degree in law, her Masters degree in management and became the Director of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office.

I don’t know how Sarmiento would perform as a member of the Human Rights Claims Board, I wish her well, that’s for sure, and I hope that the nation would finally close that chapter of our history, learn from it, punish all perpetrators of injustices and compensate legitimate victims. The NUPL finds her appointment some “sort of a macabre message” from this administration. But from where I’m standing, the message I see is the recognition of a woman’s unprecedented achievements in a male-dominated institution.

The NUPL, through Atty. Edre Olalia, accused her of playing “into the part of the apologist mechanism during the GMA administration killing spree and nightmare of disappearances of scores of civilians,” but the statement offered no further detail as to her actual alleged participation other than the generalized accusation.

I reacted to Casiño’s tweet: “I'm sorry, but I fail to see why a woman who headed the Human Rights Affairs Office, with a law degree and an untarnished record is unqualified.” To which he replied, “not saying she’s unqualified. Only that she’s a very, very bad choice. Read the statement.” You’re right there, former Congressman, you can’t really say she’s unqualified, in fact, she seems to be highly qualified for the job.

And I did read the statement, former Cong. Casiño, and while you see a police personnel who can never do anything right, I prefer to see a woman who, based on her professional experience, is qualified for the position and whom I would not only give the benefit of the doubt, but also the benefit of trust and support and hope that she will continue to prove naysayers wrong as she has done throughout her career and be able to help finally correct the injustices done during martial law.

Stream of consciousness on a beautiful Saturday morning in Baguio

I sit at the kitchen table with my mug of Benguet brew thinking. Thinking of the kind of city that we will be passing on to our children as Baguio continues on its journey on the path it’s on is heart-breaking. 

It’s not that we are lost, we know exactly where we are and where we’re headed.

The city government announced the suspension of the number-coding scheme on certain days for the month of February. The schedule corresponds to the days that Baguio is expecting heavy traffic due to the influx of visitors that will be added to the increased number of resident who would venture out of their homes and into the heart of the city to celebrate Panagbenga, the annual Baguio Flower Festival. Is it really wise to encourage people to bring their cars out on those days?

Public transportation is banned along Gen. Luna Road during the morning rush hour. Does it make sense to disallow vehicles that ferry more people, particularly jeepneys that students of moderate means take to get to school, so that gas-guzzling SUVs bringing a student or two each can fill up the road instead?

While nobody was looking a couple of years ago, the Baguio Water District awarded its own executives and board members hefty raises, claiming the move was well within what’s required by law, which includes, according to a newspaper report (not this paper), “a positive balance in average net income of the utility’s 12-month operation.” In the meantime, water in Baguio continues to be rationed and that’s the way it’s been for as long as anyone can remember. The population of the city continues to grow, and we hear of neighbourhoods that do not get any water at all during the summer months for weeks. Justifiable, perhaps, but was their move just? Moral?

We don’t have enough water, we don’t have a sustainable solid waste management system in place, our streets are congested, in the meantime more and more forest covers are being cleared for concrete structures, structures that would bring in more people to the city, attract more motor vehicles, exact more from the city’s limited resources. Our parks are being fenced in and concrete’s being poured all over its remaining earth spaces. And all the powers-that-be in the city care about is how much money was moved today.

I look out the window of our kitchen, I look past the hanging plants outside, past the bamboo hedge, past the top most branches of the neighborhood’s remaining pine trees… blue skies. It still is a beautiful morning, but I can’t help but dread what Baguio would be like at the end of the day.

Really, it’s time for a paradigm shift. Our children, too, deserve beautiful mornings in Baguio.