Reframing Capiz Heritage: Ang Pagpuod Virgilio Solidum Clavel, MPM Delivered during the Tuklas Kalikasan 2014: Iririmaw sa Pagtukib Sta. Barbara, Iloilo City May 20, 2014 Mada-ayad ayad nga adlaw sa tanan. The task assigned to me is to briefly present Capiz’s cultural and/or historical significance to Panay Island, as well as its unique contribution to the country’s national heritage. Today’s discourse is limited to two entwined conceptual threads, particularly heritage conservation and historical awareness in Capiz. Let me qualify these two terms. Cultural heritage includes “any artifacts, natural sites or intangible culture that contains significance and value”… It “carries an intrinsic message (or meaning, annotation supplied) from its time to the future generations…” and is influenced by the content, interpretation and representation of shared culture resources, often hauled out from people’s collective memory in the purview of present-day demands. (P)reservation relates more to the “safeguarding of cultural resources.” Historical awareness, as understood here, requires ‘consciousness’ or “presence of a narrative’ to enable readers or information users of the past to acquire “historical literacy”… “based on experience” in which truth can be explored from the “divergent versions of the event (s).” It “contributes to a sense of perspective,” through which the patterns of cultural relationships can be figured out, their social practices explain –and to some extent recreate- the people’s worldview, identity and aspiration. The uniqueness of Capisnon heritage is embedded in discourses that organize knowledge claim to or that articulate folk expression of, their cultural property, living heritage and natural history. Reframing Capiz as a puod or community in postmodern lens considers interpellation of four important contexts: the Hinilawod narratives, Tapaz-version; the binukot tradition; 3) batik concept of Capisnon Pintados; 4) and the strategic natural environment of Capiz which can ensure the survival or acceptance of a certain discourse. Language and visual folk symbols influence the measures taken in, and the process of protecting , the transmission of heritage resources. However, the competing interests sphere of private heritage developers and of the State’s mandate in compelling concerned parties to repair impaired culture heritage, especially intangible cultural materials , is widened in the absence of local policies to support the National Action Plan (NAP) formulated pursuant to Sec. 21 of Republic Act 10086. The poor skills on historical studies and culture research of practitioners, managers and staff assigned to different museums, educational libraries and government information centers retard advancement in the collection, recording, protection and educational mainstreaming of heritage resources in the countryside. So far, there seems to be no reliable or valid cultural maps, as well as inventories of significant sites and structures in Capiz. For example, the heritage objects or subjects cited in the four contexts above are either not available or are not yet determined as forming part of Capisnon “Human Treasures.” To prove this assertion, check it out with the Capiz Museo. Inquire from historical agencies, public or private, in the province, Without the appropriate historic-cultural heritage inventory, there is less chance that what historians and cultural workers are done rightly, so deserving respect based on international protocols and national conventions. At the bottom of all these infirmities in the implementation and evaluation of cultural heritage conservation and historical awareness projects, budget allocation remains to be one of the biggest problems. Adverting to the discursive contexts in this paper, the Hinilawod, an epic poem from Tagabukid of Tacayan, Tapaz is a rich source of Capisnons’ traditional knowledge expressions, particularly on their folk wisdom, sacred beliefs as well as on their high regard for family honor, personal courage and dungog (honor or dignity). Its reference to the (great) “flood” engenders a discursive anchor similar to a legendary episode in the Pagkalunod kag Pag-anaw sang Isla sang Panay (The drowning and resurfacing of Panay island). This Pag-anaw sutures the strings of precolonial stories, starting from the narratives enunciated in the Mythical Fight of Asuwang and Agurang. Hinilawod –the version chanted by Lola Elena Gardoce – confirmed the heritage ‘presence’ of the Capisnons’ sugidanon, “a narrative poem or story that is laborious to narrate,” which De Mentrida (1637/1894a) described as “cierto modo de glosa.” The language of Hinilawod is called ligbok ”, believed to be the mother dialect of Karay-a, Aklanon and Hiligaynon. Since 1957, almost five decades had passed, culture bearers of Panay Bukidnons were in the personhood of the binukot , a term cited by Fr. Francisco Alcina, SJ as early as 17th century. The binukot of Panay Bukidnon later caught the attention of Prof. W. Henry Scott and led him to collate scattered materials or references about it during the last twenty years. However, Scott had not yet made a final anthropological finding on this binukot who inhabited the mountains of Tapaz, Jamindan, Calinog and Lambunao. As culture bearers, the binukot of the tumandok of Tapaz is assigned the duty of learning the tribe’s dances, songs, epics and other folk knowledge expressions to ensure the transmission of their community’s traditional arts and culture to the next generation. Some folk oral materials that had been handed down by the binukot were, to name a few, the dilot (love songs), talda (repartee) , the ulawhay (chanted narrative), including the practice of ambahan, and of course the sabi or sugidanons other than the Hinilawod in ligbok dialect. “The batik, tattoo in its literal meaning, is one intangible culture material shared by Capisnons with other Bisayans. In his doctoral dissertation, Prof. Vicente Villan, stressed that aside from its aesthetic import or value, batik expresses the psychology and social identity of Bisayans in relation to their life goals” to live (mabuhay), to grow or develop (guminhawa), and to become honorable (maging marangal). Villan (2009) continues, “(S)inonimo ng katagang Bisaya ang mga Pintados na unang ginamit upang tukuyin ang mga taong nanirahan sa Isla ng Panay. Sa naging karagdagang paliwanag ni Ching-Ho sa lokasyon ng lugar at pagsasalarawan sa mga ito sinabi niyang “[S]i Wang Ta-you, gobernador ng Ch’uan-Chou, nag-ulat na ang mukha ng mga Pi-she-yeh ay natatuan ng itim”… “(N)agkakaroon lamang ng kabuluhan ang katawan kapagka ito ay nakakayanan pang panatilihing gawing ligtas… ang loob na katawan bilang luklukan ng dungan na nagbibigay-bisa sa tao at taglay na katungkulan—abtikang hangaway (batikan ang panlabas na katawan at batikan ang panloob na katawan kung kaya’t dalubhasa siya sa pakikipaglaban). Kaya nga hindi maaring maging bayani at matatuan ang sinumang taong hindi nagpapakita ng kusog (lakas), isug (tapangan/giting) at kaiusug (kaatapangan/kagitingan) kapagka hindi bibigyang pansin ang mga bagay na iniisa-isa sa itaas”… Ito “ang naging panlipunang sikolohiya ng mga “Pintados”… The word Pintados or batikan indicates hukbong-hangaway (people’s soldiers). The natural environment is another significant context that makes Capiz unique to the history of Philippine nationhood. Sa salaysay ni Emerson “Ang malawak na karagatan ay “naging daan sa kanilang pagkakatulad kung pag-uusapan naman ang kanilang kalinangang maritimo na naghugpong sa mamamayan ng kapuluan sa agos ng panahon”… Ito ay nagsisilbing “pintuan at/o lagusan patungo sa ibang mga pulo para sa paglulunsad ng pangangayaw at pangungubat sa mga kapuluan sa “tabuk” na mahalaga para sa pag-unlad ng sarili nitong bayan at pagkabuo pagkaraka sa pangkalahatan ng kaniyang kalinangang mandirigma” … “ ng tradisyon at kamalayang batikan/pintados.” Gayundin ang kaniyang kalupaan… na nagiging kaaya-aya rin sa paghubog ng nabanggit na batayang pang-identidad na nakasentro sa kalinangang maritimo at mapandigma”…. These four discursive contexts assert the “presence” or consciousness” of puod, take the Capisnons back to precolonial times, and challenge them now to remember the turning points in their history, to appreciate their glorious, simple lifeways. and rediscover their forebears heroic deeds that deserve a page in the nation’s narratives on historical and cultural heritage. A brief remembrance of the turning points and glorious past in Capisnon history may rekindle, if not energize, their aspiration “to live, to grow and to be honorable.” Capisnons as skillful seafarers and batikang hangaways were instrumental in the conquest of Manila under the rule of Rajah Solaiman. How could the 100 Spanish soldiers subdue Rajah Solaiman’s hardened warriors without the aid of the more than 1,500 Capisnon batikang hangaways? Within a span of four months, the spectacular increase in KKK membership from 300 to 30,000 Katipuneros was mainly attributed to the publication of the Kalayaan, the Katipunan propaganda paper. Col. Candido Iban, a Capisnon was one of the two financiers of the Kalayaan publication. After the KKK-led revolution erupted in Luzon in August 1896, Capiz was the first province in Panay Island to rise up in arms against the Spanish regime. In Southeast Asia’s modern history, it was only in Capiz and the Island of Panay that guerilla warfare became successful. Lt. Col. Leopoldo Reluña, a true-blooded hangaway, together with Deocampo (Capt.), Arroyo (Capt.), Magdaleno (Capt.), Arbis (Capt.), Bereber alias “Capt. Blood”, Vilasis (Maj.), Sgt. Vega, Maure Cape, and other key Capisnon freedom-fighters, were responsible for the success of the guerilla movement. They were the gallant hangaways of the 6th Military District, USAFFE during World War II. Finally, let me end my brief presentation on this note. Capiz could retrace its puod concept to the precolonial period. There are narratives that support this assertion, namely the Hinilawod, the Pag-anaw legend, the Mystical Fight between Agurang and Asuwang. The people of Capiz, mostly batikans/Pintados and their community leaders, the village chieftains or datus and the babaylans, shared common identity before the Spaniards and the Americans disconfigured it. In some parts of Capiz’ natural environment, particularly in the mountain ranges of Madia-as and Mt. Baloy, the hukbong hangaways or batikans never yielded to any form of domination, domestic or foreign. In large portion of their territorial or ancestral domain, they were sovereign, and their natural habitat remained unoccupied and least influenced by intruders. Their folk expression of buut (i.e., will shaped by folkloric concepts of gahum and good-vs.-evil moral benchmark were deployed or inscribed in the narrative fibers of Capisnon intangible culture). Buut laid the essential foundation of ancient kinship communities of Capiz; it also legitimized the barangay (or balanghay) governance since first introduced in early 13th century. The stories told by elders, manugbagtas (raconteurs or local historians), binukot (culture bearers) on these four contexts form part of Capisnon cultural heritage. While some features of the natural environment of Puod Capiz went unnoticed or often ignored for many decades, the legacies of Mt. Baloy, Balisong Hill, Mt. Yating; the Panay and Jalaur rivers; the coastal areas of Ivisan, Pontevedra, Sapian, Panay and Pilar; the awesome bell of Panay, including the churches of Sta. Monica, St. Martin de Tour, Immaculate Concepcion --- are rich with inspiring memories or narratives that once made Capiz a splendid puod. Before these heritage resources are defaced or ruined, let us make a stand, be counted and unite for one worthy cause: Conserve Capiz’s cultural and historic heritage! Good day. God bless us all! Note Hindi po makopya ang footnotes sa copy and paste. For those who want ato have a pdf copy i can sent it to you via email, yahoo. gmail and hotmail. My apology.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 10:53:39 +0000