Wednesday, July 31, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 198.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Saturday, July 27, 2024
4:17 PM |
July's Most Hated
If you’re keeping count and are chronically online, socialite Cat Arambulo-Antonio’s merry excursion through the floods that has recently engulfed Manila is probably the third incident that has caused much Internet pile-up this July. This is not including the usual disdain we regularly dish out for our elected officials—including the Vice President’s ill-advised and quick-as-lightning departure for Germany in the throes of Typhoon Carina, which begged the question: was the trip for a “medical emergency,” or a Taylor Swift concert? All the while, the capital drowns in another devastating flood that has not seen any reprieve in the hundred years or so we’ve been a modern republic.
And in the immediate aftermath of that flood, we get a now-deleted TikTok video where Ms. Arambulo-Antonio films herself and her family, safe in the warmth and safety of their car as the vehicle wades through the murk. They look around and witness the flood, and she makes light of it by indulging her children’s imagination of the whole thing as a kind of thrill park ride, discusses making a “floaty,” and wondering aloud: “Safe kaya mag-floaty dyan, yaya?”—in a register so tone-deaf, it enraged almost everyone who saw that TikTok.
On the one hand, you cannot fault the socialite for what is perhaps her genuine thrill and wonderment at comprehending such a flood with her children, and indulging their imaginative takes. On the other hand, what transpired is a perfect example of how the privileged can be so tone-deaf to the devastations facing a country, marking once more the inevitable truth of our vast social divides. The truism is that the elites of this country simply live in a different world compared to the rest of us—which is why they cannot be bothered to see for real the depths of the problems that face us. Many online commenters were quick to draw a parallel to the Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite, specifically noting the scene where the rich wife rides at the back of her chauffeured car and talking to a friend on the phone about how wonderfully blue the sky was because of the heavy rain that happened the night before. Unbeknownst to her, her chauffeur, who is listening in with a tired face, had just gone through hell with his family, the rain having flooded out their basement home. In that immediate parallel, Parasite was savage in its messaging about how the rich and the poor truly live worlds apart—even if they share the same patch of earth. Ms. Arambulo-Antonio’s excursion through the flood was the real life version of that Parasite scene—and the Internet bit back. But this wasn’t Ms. Arambulo-Antonio’s first time at this rodeo: right at the very start of the pandemic, in March 2020, she was roundly castigated online for calling quarantine violators “motherfuckers,” and wondering aloud why they couldn’t just stay at home. She filmed herself saying this while enjoying her lavish garden at home—and the online world hit back by saying those “quarantine violators” did not have her privilege and luxury of surviving the lockdown, and they had to go out simply because they had to find ways to live. She subsequently apologized, and vanished from our consciousness—only to be vilified once more for this new flood video.
I cannot help but wonder: maybe she should just stop filming herself?
What is this TikTok mentality that has become a disease for many of us? I know academically the answers of course—but the actual demonstration of this need to document ourselves in our panopticon of a world girded with social media is really something else. We are so inured to this predisposition to film or post everything we do online that we have lost the ability to distinguish what is right or wrong. We have become blind. Everything has been flattened to “content,” to engender likes and views, that we often post things without realizing they will show us in the most unflattering light.
Do you remember that person who posted on Facebook about wanting to buy bread at a certain store, and then upon finding that it was unmanned [the staff had to take a CR break], proceeded to take what she wanted, and posted on Facebook a promise to pay the vendor? Her intention for her post was to call out the vendor for leaving the store unmanned, and probably felt the public would recognize that and sympathize with her. But the Internet clapped back by telling her that what she did was actually theft.
Do you remember that theatregoer who wanted to demonize Lea Salonga for not being gracious in her reception of their visit to her dressing room, and posted about it online—only to be widely castigated for invading her much-needed privacy, and for dropping names to gain unwarranted access to backstage?
This is what I mean by blindness to what is right or wrong—as long as we are able to post about it online. Right around the beginning of July, in the aftermath of San Juan City’s Wattah Wattah Festival of June 24, a video of a certain Boy Dila—real name Lexter Castro—surfaced. He had filmed himself pranking passersby by dousing them heavily with water, all in the name of local tradition. The prankster in the video was clearly delighted in his misdeeds—the mischief in his eyes sparkled, the devil-may-care sneer taunted. He was showing off for content—and even when all of the Internet came after him, he was defiant, absolutely glowing in his newfound notoriety. Days later, taken into police custody, he would sport a different face, of course: broken, reprimanded, lost.
But there is also another side to this: the relentless online lynch mob that happens to people like Castro, or Arambulo-Antonio. In Castro’s case, the boy and his family received a flood of death threats. The online mob also castigated him with choice punishments—including inundating his address with food orders and packages amounting to thousands of pesos his family clearly could not pay.
This has become so much a part of our contemporary reality that we know have a term for this: “online public shaming” or OPS, which political philosophers Guy Aitchison and Saladin Meckled-Garcia have described as “a form of norm enforcement that involves collectively imposing reputational costs on a person for having a certain kind of moral character.”
Which brings me to a moral quandary: in online public shaming, whose sins are bigger? The original offender, or the lynch mob that calls for their total reputational annihilation? I have no answers.
This brings me to the latest object of online public shaming: the writer and host Jude Bacalso of Cebu City. Everyone by now knows the details of the scandalous story. On July 21 around 6 PM, according to original Facebook poster John Calderon, Bacalso—who identifies as a transgendered woman—had retaliated against a waiter in a restaurant in Ayala Center Cebu, simply because the staff had called Bacalso “sir.” According to Calderon, Bacalso made the waiter stand in front of him for two hours, caused distressed among the rest of the staff, and snidely deflected all efforts by Calderon and his mother to find out what exactly happened. By the time Calderon intervened, the waiter was in tears and Bacalso had left the premises.
The optics were not good. A person of privilege terrorizing a member of the working class. What’s worse: there were photos and videos taken of the standoff, with Bacalso seated firmly while the waiter stood in front of him, the very picture of class dynamics at play. Words are one thing; incriminating images are totally another thing—and the Internet went wild with memes, some funny, some approaching gutter sensibility.
Bacalso soon after released a statement signifying that communication has been established with the restaurant owners and that the matter has been settled. She also pointed out misconceptions in Calderon’s original post, but also voiced out an apology: “I … realized that in the impassioned pursuit of my advocacy, I could have done with a little measure of kindness, sadly quite absent in the ruckus this has all unnecessarily created when it was made public without our knowledge.” She has remained silent since then.
But in the hours and days that followed, the whole of the country, and not just Cebu, became an online lynch mob, even celebrities imparted their own two cents, from Ogie Diaz to MJ Lastimosa to Rosanna Roces, who called Bacalso “ugly.” Some, like KaladKaren, were more measured: “Oftentimes, people don’t mean to offend you,” KaladKaren wrote on Facebook. “Nalilito lang talaga sila. Tinawag kang ma’am or sir because they want to show respect. If you don’t agree with how you are addressed, it is up to you to correct it. If you show them respect, respeto din ang ibabalik sa iyo. Pero syempre, may iba rin naman talagang gustong mambastos at ibang usapan na iyon… Sadly, not everybody is 100% aware of how to use the right pronouns. As members of the community, I believe it is our responsibility to educate others about this. We have to let them understand the importance of using the right pronouns for every SOGIE. But educate properly. People commit mistakes; I do too.”
A dummy account was soon set up, impersonating a ravaged Bacalso calling out everyone spitefully for their attempts at her persecution. An FB events page was also set up to “schedule,” at the very restaurant the incident happened, the canonization of Bacalso as a “saint.” Videos of people singing variations of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” sprang everywhere, the lyrics detailing their condemnation. In Paris, someone visited Disneyland and filmed themselves calling a mascot dressed as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, “Sir Jude.” In fact, “sir” became the byword for the lynch mob. The word repeated ad infinitum became the most popular comment made on Bacalso’s Facebook page and elsewhere.
Bacalso’s reputation, of course, is the foremost target. Suddenly, all that she has worked is at stake. She is a multi-hyphenate: a molecular biologist, a teacher, a radio and TV broadcaster, a stage actress, a writer, and a very popular host. She also runs a restaurant named Executive Restobar in Lahug. Most of these occupations rest on good reputation—thus the question now becomes: will Bacalso survive this? I’ve been the object of online lynch mobs twice in recent years: once in the early years of the Duterte regime, and once in the aftermath of the 2022 elections. All that I did in my life did not matter at all for the lynch mob. So I know what it feels like to be diminished. In the eyes of the mob, everything you have achieved in life does not matter at all.
But as a gay man myself, I was also horrified by the unleashing of such virulent homophobia and transphobia online—some even coming from my own friends, and some even coming from other gay men I know. What Bacalso did felt very much like a variation of the Streisand Effect, which Wikipedia defines as “an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information.” (The effect is named for Barbra Streisand who attempted in 2003 to suppress the publication of a photograph showing her clifftop residence in Malibu, which was taken to document coastal erosion in California, citing privacy issues. But her desire to hide photos of her house instead made these even more popular and widely disseminated.) Here, in Bacalso’s case, we find her trying to educate people she encounters about trans issues (specifically in addressing her with what she considers as the proper gendered terms), but she has instead singlehandedly created a massive anti-trans movement among Filipinos instead. Truth, the bigotry was probably always there for sure, but hidden. But she awakened it.
On a personal level, I’ve had my own encounter with Bacalso. We share a lot of common friends. We were introduced once, and I remember her just looking me at me, down and up, and then pretending I wasn’t there. I took that like water off a duck’s back, because I thought: “You can’t expect everyone to like you”—and her not liking me did not at all affect my life in any significant way. Later on, in the aftermath of July 21, there would be more stories unleashed about how Bacalso have treated a variety of people in the most “hampas lupa” way—and that’s when I decided that what was going on, especially at the very core of it, was beyond gender issue or class issue: it was about being a good human being.
Be kind.
Try to be good.
Be self-aware.
But above all, also remember that being a good human being also entails not being a transphobe or a homophobe. Just because somebody is an asshole doesn’t give you an excuse to be an asshole yourself.
Labels: internet, issues, people, psychology
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Friday, July 26, 2024
1:12 PM |
Cheng Pei Pei, 1946-2024
I did not know this kung fu movie legend passed on a few days ago. I was introduced to Cheng Pei Pei in Ang Lee's
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which became my portal to her Hong Kong movies,
Come Drink With Me (1966) being my favorite. Rest in peace, Queen of Swords.
More
here.
Labels: celebrity, film, obituary
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 197.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
The problem of not having proper street posts in Dumaguete: people absolutely making up street names. I just saw a local business FB calling Aldecoa Drive “Laguna Road.” And where does Hibbard Avenue end and Airport Road begin? [For me, Airport Road begins at the entrance of Silliman Farm until the airport itself.] How comes we have two Katada Streets? [The one near the pier should really be Corta Street.] But I’m happy that people along Don Diego de la Viña Road are finally calling it that instead of San Jose Extension, which used to drive me crazy. We’ve attempted remedying this problem, but...
Labels: dumaguete
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 196.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Sometimes I’m envious of people who cook well. To be able to create menus knowing how each ingredient contributes to the tastiness of the dishes. To know how where they’re sourced also adds to the pleasure of flavors. To concoct things that make people happy. That’s the dream. I will always be in awe of good food, and great cooks.
Labels: cooking, food, life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Monday, July 15, 2024
I’m having professional cleaners come over to clean the apartment. This is the first time I’m letting other people do this thing I always do on my own — partly because I don’t trust other people touching my things, partly because I’ve always treated cleaning as a kind of therapy. But there comes a time in one’s life where you just have to let go of previous preoccupations. Your busy schedule is telling you to let go. Your lower back is telling you to let go. Your ADHD is telling you to let go.
Labels: life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Sunday, July 14, 2024
9:00 AM |
Searching for Outstanding Dumagueteños
Twenty-five years ago, on 23 November 1998, sixteen individuals from all walks of life in Dumaguete City were recognized for their immense contributions to its history, culture, and heritage, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the charter of Dumaguete. This was the first and [until this year] the only time such a recognition was undertaken by the LGU.
The programme for that recognition night at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium noted that “a span of fifty years is an indelible mark in [Dumaguete’s] history… an event we cannot ignore as a city and as a people.” It spoke of those fifty years as a time when Dumagueteños, as a people, “metamorphosed into a community of diverse talents, people desirous to break free from the clutches of economic difficulties, hopeful, patient, prayerful, peaceful, and persistent.”
The sixteen awardees of that Golden Anniversary celebration were divided into two categories: the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awardees, who were living recipients, and the Heritage Awardees, who were posthumous recipients—and all were chosen by the Awards Committee, led by Prof. Carlos Magtolis Jr., based on the criteria of personal qualities and character; demonstrated competence in their field and impact on the community; and professional or community involvement outside of their area of responsibility.
The Heritage Awardees included Canuto “Cate” V. Villariza, “for [being] the composer of ‘Dumaguete [Do You Hear Me Calling?],’ adopted as the official Dumaguete City Song in a Sangguniang Panglungsod Resolution dated January 1993”; Jose “Tatang” Garcia, “for [being] the doctor who rendered the best service to his country and to his people, with numerous residents of the city [becoming] recipients of his healing touch as he endeavored to uplift the quality of life of the people and the health care in hospitals”; Ma. Concepcion M. Roble, “for [being] the Dean of the [Silliman University] College of Nursing and Hospital Nursing Director, [who] nurtured her students into understanding the more humane aspects of nursing care, leaving behind her a brand of professionalism and commitment to service”; Vicente G. Sinco, “for [being] the founder and first President of Foundation University, [recognized] for his consuming vision and undaunted determination to reach out and provide the widest possible choice of career opportunities for the citizens of Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental”; Dioscoro S. Rabor, “for [being] known as ‘the living museum’ and ‘the bird man of the Philippines,’ and is best remembered in Dumaguete for his pioneering work with birds and mammals, prompting Silliman University to confer on him an honorary doctorate degree in Science”; Martin “Ting” Matiao, “for [opening] trade opportunities through his copra trading, and [for putting] up a transport business which facilitated the mobility of Dumagueteños, thereby easing travel within the island, [thus] because of his dedication to community service, he helped many families' dreams come true, and touched countless lives”; and Ramon Fernandez Ponce de Leon, “for [founding] the Philippine Red Cross Dumaguete City Chapter, where he was chair for more than forty years, performing exemplary service as medical director of the then Mission Hospital during the war, unmindful of the threats on lives posed by the Japanese invaders.”
The Outstanding Dumagueteño Awardees included Mariant Escaño Villegas for her contribution to arts and culture “as founder of MEV Dance Studio, where she provided the standard of excellence in classical ballet, placing Dumaguete in the art and culture map of the country”; Obdulia S. Tangente, for her contribution to civic affairs and “for her deep commitment to uplift the status of the less privileged, [which] prompted her to actively get involved with more meaningful activities of various socio-civic organizations”; Agapito L. Cang, for his contribution to economic development and “for being a truly homegrown Christian businessman, who lived his faith in his dealings with family, customers, employees, and friends”; Caridad Aldecoa-Rodriguez, for her contribution to education and “for pioneering the writing of the history of Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental and [providing] the present and future generations a clearer understanding of our past as a people”; Justice Venancio D. Aldecoa Jr., for his contribution to government service and “for [bringing] pride and joy to the community by being the first Justice of the Appellate Court coming from Dumaguete City, and observing the highest essence of integrity and morality in public service”; Angel C. Alcala, for his contribution to science and technology and “for [bringing] prestige and honor to Dumaguete City by being recognized as an international expert in marine biology, earning him the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, and a seat in the cabinet of the President of the country”; Dionisio “Bob” R. Flores, for his contribution to sports and athletics and “for [making] an indelible contribution in the development of local athletes for them to reach national and international competitions, earning for them and for the city honor and glory for striving to reach the excellence in sports, particularly archery”; and Norma C. Ybañez, for her contribution to women and development and “for [helping] a great deal in stirring the consciousness of this community toward gender sensitivity, and the protection of women and children against domestic violence.”
Senator Lorenzo G. Teves was the recipient of a Special Golden Anniversary Award for “sponsoring the law which converted Dumaguete into a chartered city on 24 November 1948.”
The then living recipients and the families of the posthumous awardees were celebrated by then City Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo.
This year, in time for Dumaguete’s Diamond Jubilee celebration of its city charter, Mayor Remollo once again helms the awards ceremony, slated on 23 November 2024—this time widening the net for consideration, and honoring 75 individuals and institutions—the number taking note of the 75th anniversary—who have, over the years, contributed to the greatness and progress of Dumaguete City.
The Diamond Jubilee Awards Committee is led by Atty. Mikhail Lee L. Maxino, with Vice-Chairs Dr. Earl Jude Paul Cleope [Silliman University], Dr. Noel Marjon E. Yasi [Negros Oriental State University], Dr. Charlotte V. Cariño [Foundation University], Sr. Helen Malubay, SPC [St. Paul University Dumaguete], and Dr. Juditha O. Mapue [Department of Education Dumaguete City Division]. Diamond Jubilee Executive Chair Dr. Dinno T. Depositario and Executive Vice-Chairs Ms. Katherine Therese N. Aguilar and Asst. Prof. Ian Rosales Casocot are ex-officio members of the committee.
They will select fifteen individuals and/or institutions to fall under the following categories: LEADERS AND STATESPERSONS [which includes politicians, diplomats, revolutionaries, community leaders, and civic reform leaders]; ARTISTS AND ENTERTAINERS [which includes literary writers, translators, painters and sculptors, designers and illustrators, dancers and choreographers, musicians and composers, actors, directors, filmmakers, singers and other performers, architects, fashion designers, game designers, gallerists, culinary artists, librarians, and culture and heritage workers]; BUILDERS AND TITANS [which includes businessmen, moguls, founders and creators and innovators of industry, labor leaders, and sports leaders]; SCIENTISTS AND THINKERS [which includes pure scientists and researchers, environmentalists, mathematicians, medical technologists, inventors, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, and historians]; and HEROES AND ICONS [which includes war veterans, athletes and sports personalities, clergy and evangelists and missionaries, community reformers, human rights and other social advocates, educators, farmers, and people of singular and unclassifiable achievements and renown]. The categories is for the sake of balance in the fields of specialization or area of responsibility, but the Awards Committee is free to interpret and to designate what category a nominee will fall into.
The nominees for the award must have brought honor and prestige to the City of Dumaguete through outstanding performance in one’s field of specialization or area of responsibility; unquestioned integrity; and exemplary lifestyle and conduct as evidenced by the respect and high regard of family, friends, associates, and the general public. The nominees need not be born in Dumaguete City, but they must have spent a considerable number of years in residence in the city, or have spent a good portion of their professional lives in the city. Post-humous nominations are accepted.
The deadline for nominations is 31 July 2024.
The nomination portfolio can be obtained from the Dumaguete City Tourism Office at the City Hall Compound along Calle Sta. Catalina, or requested via email at visitdumaguetecity@gmail.com. Nomination portfolios may be submitted via email.
The nomination portfolio must also include a consent form to be accomplished by living nominees for their names to be considered for the nomination. [Post-humous nominations require a consent form from the family of the deceased.] If there is no consent, the nomination will be withdrawn. All parts of the nomination portfolio must be completed.
The Awards Committee reserves the right to refuse a nomination based on incomplete forms. It also retains the right to consider individuals not nominated in the public call. Individuals nominated by members of the committee need not have nomination forms, but the Secretariat will endeavor to complete the same requirement in behalf of the committee.
A shortlist of 150 potential awardees will be considered by August 2024. From that shortlist, the Awards Committee will make the final list of 75 awardees before 1 October 2024. The announcement of the 75 Outstanding Dumagueteño Awardees will be posted by LGU Dumaguete on 1 October 2024.
All living awardees must be present on the awarding day, set on 23 November 2024, to be able to receive their award, except for those with compelling reasons not to be present. They will be given a medallion, a plaque, and P10,000, plus other special awards to be determined by LGU Dumaguete. The decision of the Awards Committee will be final, and sent to the Dumaguete City Mayor for approval.
Who will join the sixteen individuals honored in 1998?
Send in your nominations now.
Labels: awards, diamond jubilee, dumaguete, people
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Friday, July 12, 2024
One of the best things the pandemic taught me is to recognize bullshit and to verbalize it as succinctly as I can. I certainly did with mine. “I don't need therapy!” I told my s.o., even as I was unraveling in 2021, and my hair was falling from all the stress, and a panic attack was a daily occurrence. He simply made the appointment with the psychiatrist for me, drove me to the clinic, and accompanied me to the drugstore to get the meds I needed. So, yeah, no more bullshit.
Labels: life, love, mental health
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Thursday, July 11, 2024
I’m currently on the hunt for photos and bios of previous honorees of the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awards, because documentation of their lives is so hard to come by, and I need them for research, and most of them have passed on, and the Internet is not helping. This hunt has led me to their families, however, and part of the fun is listening to their kin talk about them. Heritage work is part detective work, to be honest. Today, I visited the daughter of hotelier Obdulia Tangente, who turned out to be an old family friend from Bayawan! It was a pleasure to talk to Tita Owena and her husband.
* * *
I was in the doldrums in the early evening. Possibly because my mindscape is reeling from the afermath of a very busy month. Possibly because I’m tired, and I need to clean my apartment. Possibly because I got triggered by somebody's irritating response to a message I sent yesterday. Tried to get a massage. Didn’t help. Tried to eat sashimi. Didn’t help. I finally messaged the s.o.: “I’m depressed,” and in the middle of the evening, he went straight from home to where I was, to be with me, and to feed me ice cream. I feel better.
Labels: life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 195.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Sunday, July 07, 2024
9:00 AM |
Eddie Romero: A Life
Today, July 7, is the 100th birth anniversary of Dumaguete filmmaker and National Artist for Cinema and Broadcast Arts Eddie Romero. In celebration of this milestone, Dumaguete City has geared up for a series of events—including lectures and film screenings, and by the afternoon of Sunday, also an unveiling of his bust at the Old Presidencia grounds and an exhibit of his memorabilia. The commemoration is sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, together with the Dumaguete City Tourism Office, Silliman University Culture and Arts Council, Robert and Metta Silliman University Library, Foundation University, Society of Filipino Archivists for Film, FPJ Archives, ABS-CBN Sagip Pelikula, and the National Museum of the Philippines–Dumaguete.
Edgar Sinco Romero, better known as the filmmaker Eddie Romero, was born on 7 July 1924 in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. He was the only child born to José E. Romero, a congressman, Secretary of Education, and the first Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom, to his first wife Pilar Guzman Sinco, a school teacher, who died in childbirth in 1927. His father would later have seven other children with his second wife Elisa Zuñiga Villanueva.
Romero grew up in a family that valued education, public service, and cultural enrichment, and in a city which provided a rich cultural environment that would deeply influence Romero’s artistic vision. Romero’s early education at the Dumaguete Elementary School and at Silliman University High School proved to be formative. Silliman University, known for fostering intellectual and artistic growth, was where Romero first encountered the diverse cultural influences that would shape his worldview. The vibrant academic and cultural community of Dumaguete, with its emphasis on literature, arts, and progressive ideas, left an indelible mark on the young Romero.
He began writing stories as early as seven or eight years old, and published his first short story at the age of twelve. One of his better-known short stories, “Oh, Johnny, Oh,” published in the 25 May 1940 issue of the Philippines Free Press, when he was only sixteen years old, revealed a young man reveling under the grit and thrill of film noir—and helped garner attention to his storytelling abilities by the film director Gerardo de Leon, who would also become National Artist for Cinema.
In his adult years, Romero’s life experiences instilled in him a profound understanding of conflict, resilience, and the human condition—themes that would later permeate his films, from the golden age of Philippine cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, to the Hollywood B-movie heydays in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the second golden age of Philippine cinema in the 1970s and 1980s.
According to IMDB, he directed 65 titles, wrote 49, and produced 23. His career spanned more than six decades, leaving an indelible mark on the Philippine and international cinema. His first foray into filmmaking was a script he wrote for the film Ang Maestra, directed by Gerardo de Leon in 1941. Anecdotally, he wrote the screenplay in English—considering his upbringing and education at Silliman University in Dumaguete—with the production translating his text to Tagalog.
After World War II, he helmed his first film, Ang Kamay ng Diyos in 1947, and soon emerged as a versatile filmmaker, adept at both commercial and critically acclaimed productions, and was particularly known for directing films starring the popular tandem of Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran, including Always: Kay Ganda Mo and Sa Piling Mo, both released in 1949.
That same year, his father was appointed as the first Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom by President Elpidio Quirino, and the young Eddie took the opportunity to join his family in London, apparently abandoning what was already a fast-rising career as a film director. In his recollections, he would consider these years as his “lost years,” when he grappled existentially with the possibility of pursuing further a career in the movie industry. But he also used these years in London to educate himself in world cinema, making acquaintances with such directors as David Lean, Karel Reisz, and Roberto Rossellini, and becoming familiar with the work of Yasujiro Ozu, whose film techniques he admired.
After he returned to the Philippines in 1951, Romero went on to direct films for Sampaguita and Lebran. He began directing mainstream films once more, including several adaptations of popular komiks such as Barbaro (1952) and El Indio (1953). He helmed two more Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran films, Kasintahan sa Pangarap (1951) and Ang Ating Pag-ibig (1953), and then directed the first Filipino movie to win an award at the Asian Film Festival, Ang Asawa Kong Americana (1953). He also produced and directed Buhay Alamang (1952), which he adapted from a stage play by his mentor Gerardo de Leon.
By the end of the 1950s, he would enter his second chapter as a filmmaker. He set his eyes on international productions, sensing seismic changes in the local film industry that would see most of its major studios closing shop by the 1960s. He began directing B-movies, mostly action fares and World War II extravaganzas, for Hollywood. This includes Day of the Trumpet (1957), Man on the Run (1958), Terror is a Man (1959), Raiders of Leyte Gulf (1962), Lost Battalion (1961), The Walls of Hell (1964, co-directed with Gerardo de Leon), and Manila: Open City (1968).
Romero would later venture to the more profitable horror genre, starting in 1964 with Moro Witch Doctor, and continued with Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), Beast of Blood (1970), Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), The Twilight People (1972), and Savage Sisters (1974). He produced many of these for his own outfit, Hemisphere Pictures, including the “Blood Island” series, which he would later describe as “the worst things I ever did.” Some of these films were made in collaboration with Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, which was known for its commercially successful run of Hollywood B-movies. Romero’s Black Mama, White Mama (1973), a blaxtaploitation/women-in-chains film starring Pam Grier, has since become a cult classic favorite. He also worked with Jack Nicholson, who starred in the films Flight to Fury and Back Door to Hell, both of which he produced in 1964.
His 1966 film The Passionate Strangers, produced by the American actor Michael Parsons and co-written with fellow Sillimanians Cesar Jalandoni Amigo and Reuben Canoy, was Romero’s first film to use Negros Oriental as a backdrop. The film noir-tinged drama, about murder and labor unrest in a small Filipino town with an American-owned factory at the center of it all, uses Dumaguete and nearby towns as significant settings for the story. This experience would lead him to film the entirety of his pre-colonial epic fantasy Kamakalawa in Negros Oriental in 1981.
Kamakalawa would come after a string of critically-acclaimed films he made starting in the mid-1970s, when he transitioned once more from his focus on international productions to a new focus on Filipino stories, challenged by the cinematic fare that directors such as Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal were bringing to the world stage. He was also increasingly conscious of his legacy as a Filipino filmmaker, and thus made an effort to return to artier fare. He began this pivotal period by writing and directing Ganito Kami Noon...Paano Kayo Ngayon? (1976), following a young man confronted with the idea of being a Filipino, an epic that remains one of his most celebrated works. The film, set against the backdrop of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, showcased Romero’s ability to blend historical context with personal stories and national yearnings, earning him the prestigious FAMAS Award for Best Director.
While he would direct two more films for the B-market in Hollywood, and famously was part of the production of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in 1980, this part in his filmmaking career allowed him to pursue more serious and artistic fares, including such personal films as Sinong Kapiling? Sinong Kasiping? (1977), Banta ng Kahapon (1977), and Hari sa Hari, Lahi sa Lahi (1987). But many critics consider his crowning achievement to be Aguila (1980), an epic that traverses several generations of a Filipino family through several socio-political upheavals in the country, and starring the legendary Fernando Poe Jr. In the later years of his career, Romero turned to television and gave the world the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, a major television series that aired in 1993.
Romero’s immense contributions to Philippine cinema and broadcast arts have been recognized by many award-giving bodies, including the Luna Awards of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), Gawad Urian, the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), among several others.
In 2003, Eddie Romero was conferred the award of the Order of National Artists, the highest national recognition given to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts. This accolade was a fitting tribute to a career marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to storytelling. Romero’s films are characterized by their rich narratives, complex characters, and a profound understanding of the human condition. Throughout his career, Romero remained a visionary, constantly evolving and adapting to the changing cinematic landscape.
He married Carolina Gonzalez of Pangasinan in 1948. He had three children: Jose “Joey" Romero IV, Ancel Edgar, and Leo John. Joey Romero would later follow in his father’s footsteps, becoming a noted filmmaker in his own right.
His passing on 28 May 2013, at the age of 88, marked the end of an era in Philippine cinema, but his legacy continues to inspire. Romero was not just a filmmaker but a storyteller of unparalleled depth, whose life and work remain a testament not only to the entertainment industry but also to the rich cultural heritage of the Philippines. [With contribution from F. Jordan Carnice]
Labels: art and culture, dumaguete, film, people, philippine cinema
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, July 03, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 194.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
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