-ORTEGA

       The diversity and richness of Philippine literature evolved side by side with the
country’s history. This can best be appreciated in the context of the country’s pre-
colonial cultural traditions and the socio-political histories of its colonial and
contemporary traditions.        

       The average Filipino’s unfamiliarity with his indigenous literature was largely due to
what has been impressed upon him: that his country was “discovered” and, hence,
Philippine “history” started only in 1521.

       So successful were the efforts of colonialists to blot out the memory of the country’s
largely oral past that present-day Filipino writers, artists and journalists are trying to
correct this inequity by recognizing the country’s wealth of ethnic traditions and
disseminating them in schools and in the mass media.

       The rousings of nationalistic pride in the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring about
this change of attitude among a new breed of Filipinos concerned about the “Filipino
identity.”

Pre-Colonial Times

       Owing to the works of our own archaeologists, ethnologists and anthropologists, we

are able to know more and better judge information about our pre-colonial times set
against a bulk of material about early Filipinos as recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic
and other chroniclers of the past.

       Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through their folk
speeches, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances that
affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors.

       The most seminal of these folk speeches is the riddle which is tigmo in
Cebuano, bugtong in Tagalog,paktakonin Ilongo and patototdon in Bicol. Central to the
riddle is the talinghaga or metaphor because it “reveals subtle resemblances between
two unlike objects” and one’s power of observation and wit are put to the test. While
some riddles are ingenious, others verge on the obscene or are sex-related:

Gaddang:

        Gongonan nu usin y amam If you pull your daddy’s penis

        Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your mommy’s vagina, too,

                   (Campana) screams. (Bell)

       The proverbs or aphorisms express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs
or they instill values by offering nuggets of wisdom in short, rhyming verse.

       The extended form, tanaga, a mono-riming heptasyllabic quatrain expressing

insights and lessons on life is “more emotionally charged than the terse proverb and
thus has affinities with the folk lyric.” Some examples are thebasahanon or extended
didactic sayings from Bukidnon and the daraida and daragilon from Panay.

       The folk song, a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the
people’s lifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous,
didactic and naive as in the children’s songs or Ida-ida(Maguindanao), tulang
pambata (Tagalog) or cansiones para abbing (Ibanag).

       A few examples are the lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilongo); love songs like
the panawagon and balitao (Ilongo);harana or serenade (Cebuano);
the bayok (Maranao); the seven-syllable per line poem, ambahan of the Mangyans that
are about human relationships, social entertainment and also serve as a tool for
teaching the young; work songs that depict the livelihood of the people often sung to go
with the movement of workers such as the kalusan (Ivatan),soliranin (Tagalog rowing
song) or the mambayu, a Kalinga rice-pounding song; the verbal jousts/games like
theduplo popular during wakes.

       Other folk songs are the drinking songs sung during carousals like the tagay
(Cebuano and Waray); dirges and lamentations extolling the deeds of the dead like
the kanogon (Cebuano) or the Annako (Bontoc).

       A type of narrative song or kissa among the Tausug of Mindanao, the parang sabil,
uses for its subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes. It tells of a
Muslim hero who seeks death at the hands of non-Muslims.

       The folk narratives, i.e. epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical. They
explain how the world was created, how certain animals possess certain characteristics,
why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains, flora or fauna and, in the case
of legends, an explanation of the origins of things. Fables are about animals and these
teach moral lessons.

       Our country’s epics are considered ethno-epics because unlike, say, Germany’s
Niebelunginlied, our epics are not national for they are “histories” of varied groups that
consider themselves “nations.”

       The epics come in various

names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (Maranao); Hudhud (Ifugao);
andUlahingan(Manobo). These epics revolve around supernatural events or heroic
deeds and they embody or validate the beliefs and customs and ideals of a community.
These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of indigenous musical instruments
and dancing performed during harvests, weddings or funerals by chanters. The
chanters who were taught by their ancestors are considered “treasures” and/or
repositories of wisdom in their communities.

       Examples of these epics are the Lam-

ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman (Palawan);Darangen(Maranao); Ulahingan (
Livunganen-Arumanen Manobo); Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of the
Buhong Sky from Tuwaang–Manobo); Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon);
and Tudbulol (T’boli).

The Spanish Colonial Tradition

       While it is true that Spain subjugated the Philippines for more mundane reasons,
this former European power contributed much in the shaping and recording of our
literature.   Religion and institutions that represented European civilization enriched the
languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we would come to know
as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama. Spain also brought
to the country, though at a much later time, liberal  ideas and an internationalism that
influenced our own Filipino intellectuals and writers for them to understand the
meanings of “liberty and freedom.”

       Literature in this period may be classified as religious prose and poetry and secular
prose and poetry.

       Religious lyrics written by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and
Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish
language. Fernando Bagonbanta’s “Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin
sempiternas” (Unending thanks) is a fine example that is found in the Memorial de la
vida cristiana en lengua tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life in the Tagalog
language) published in 1605.

       Another form of religious lyrics are the meditative verses like the dalit appended
to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rime scheme although a number
are written in octosyllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject
matter.

       But among the religious poetry of the day, it is the pasyon in octosyllabic quintillas
that became entrenched in the Filipino’s commemoration of Christ’s agony and
resurrection at Calvary. Gaspar Aquino de Belen’s “Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu
Christong Panginoon natin na tola” (Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put
out in 1704 is the country’s earliest known pasyon.

       Other known pasyons chanted during the Lenten season are in Ilocano,

Pangasinan, Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol, Ilongo and Waray.

       Aside from religious poetry, there were various kinds of prose narratives written to
prescribe proper decorum. Like the pasyon, these prose narratives were also used for
proselitization. Some forms are: dialogo(dialogue),Manual de Urbanidad (conduct
book); ejemplo (exemplum) and tratado (tratado). The most well-known are Modesto de
Castro’s “Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza”
(Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza) in 1864 and Joaquin
Tuason’s “Ang Bagong Robinson” (The New Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of Daniel
Defoe’s novel.

       Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the

emergence of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European
education. This Filipino elite could now read printed works that used to be the exclusive
domain of the missionaries.

       The most notable of the secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic
tradition: the languishing but loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival.
The leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw) and Francisco
Balagtas. Some secular poets who wrote in this same tradition were Leona Florentino,
Jacinto Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco.

       Another popular secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in

Tagalog. The awit is set in dodecasyllabic quatrains while the korido is in octosyllabic
quatrains. These are colorful tales of chivalry from European sources made for singing
and chanting such as Gonzalo de Cordoba (Gonzalo of Cordoba) and Ibong
Adarna (Adarna Bird). There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo,
Pampango, Ilocano and in Pangasinan. The awit as a popular poetic genre reached
new heights in Balagtas’ “Florante at Laura” (ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the
country’s metrical romances.

       Again, the winds of change began to blow in 19th century Philippines. Filipino
intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside of
colonization. This, coupled with the simmering calls for reforms by the masses gathered
a formidable force of writers like Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Emilio
Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio.

       This led to the formation of the Propaganda Movement where prose works such as
the political essays and Rizal’s two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El
filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the
Spanish regime, and, at the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness
among Filipinos.

       But if Rizal’s novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is largely
cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel. Although Paterno’s Ninay gave
impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad to continue writing in
Spanish, this did not flourish.

       Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La
Vanguardia, El Debate,Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more notable
essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los
Reyes, Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas
or Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose.

       But the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines hastened

the demise of Spanish so that by the 1930s, English writing had overtaken Spanish
writing. During the language’s death throes, however, writing in the romantic tradition,
from the awit and korido, would continue in the novels of Magdalena Jalandoni. But
patriotic writing continued under the new colonialists. These appeared in the vernacular
poems and modern adaptations of works during the Spanish period and which further
maintained the Spanish tradition.

The American Colonial Period

       A new set of colonizers brought about new changes in Philippine literature. New
literary forms such as free verse [in poetry], the modern short story and the critical
essay were introduced. American influence was deeply entrenched with the firm
establishment of English as the medium of instruction in all schools and with literary
modernism that highlighted the writer’s individuality and cultivated consciousness of
craft, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness.

       The poet, and later, National Artist for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used free verse
and espoused the dictum, “Art for art’s sake” to the chagrin of other writers more
concerned with the utilitarian aspect of literature. Another maverick in poetry who used
free verse and talked about illicit love in her poetry was Angela Manalang Gloria, a
woman poet described as ahead of her time. Despite the threat of censorship by the
new dispensation, more writers turned up “seditious works” and popular writing in the
native languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya.

       The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated
modernism in poetry. Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in
the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.

       While the early Filipino poets grappled with the verities of the new language,
Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in
the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Paz Marquez
Benitez’s “Dead Stars” published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English
written by a Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed
exceptional skills with the short story.

       Alongside this development, writers in the vernaculars continued to write in the

provinces. Others like Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña and Patricio Mariano
were writing minimal narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction
called dali or pasingaw (sketch).
       The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or European influences
in the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who also
penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken’sDavid Copperfield even as the realist
tradition was kept alive in the novels by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar, among
others.

       It should be noted that if there was a dearth of the Filipino novel in English, the
novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines
like Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag.

       The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present.
Some leading essayists were journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura
Santillan Castrence, etc. who wrote formal to humorous to informal essays for the
delectation by Filipinos.

       Among those who wrote criticism developed during the American period were
Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez’s
criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literay Award for the
essay in 1940 with his “Literature and Society.” This essay posited that art must have
substance and that Villa’s adherence to “Art for Art’s Sake” is decadent.

       The last throes of American colonialism saw the flourishing of Philippine literature in
English at the same time, with the introduction of the New Critical aesthetics, made
writers pay close attention to craft and “indirectly engendered a disparaging attitude”
towards vernacular writings — a tension that would recur in the contemporary period.

The Contemporary Period

       The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially

with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence
of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

       Filipino writers continue to write poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and essays
whether these are socially committed, gender/ethnic related or are personal in intention
or not.

       Of course the Filipino writer has become more conscious of his art with the
proliferation of writers workshops here and abroad and the bulk of literature available to
him via the mass media including the internet. The various literary awards such as the
Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines Free Press,
Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards encourage him to compete
with his peers and hope that his creative efforts will be rewarded in the long run.

       With the new requirement by the Commission on Higher Education of teaching of

Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country emphasizing the teaching of the
vernacular literature or literatures of the regions, the audience for Filipino writers is
virtually assured. And, perhaps, a national literature finding its niche among the
literatures of the world will not be far behind.

About the Author:

Christine F. Godinez-Ortega represents Central and Northern Mindanao in the
National Literary Arts Committee of the NCCA. Her poem “Legend of Maria Cristina
Falls” was performed by the Integrated Performing ArtsGuild during the Haguenau
International Festival de Hoblon in France. She teaches at the College of Arts and
Social Sciences of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology and is a
correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for Iligan City.
http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/literary-arts/the-
literary-forms-in-philippine-literature/

DIFFERENT PERIODS OF PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD (--BC to 1564) A. Characteristics 1.Based on oral

traditions 2.Crude on ideology and phraseology B. Literary Forms Oral Literature
a. Riddles (bugtong) – battle of wits among participants Tigmo –Cebu
Paktakon – Ilonggo Patotdon – Bicol b. Proverbs (salawikain) – wise sayings that
contain a metaphor used to teach as a food for thought etc. c. Tanaga - a mono-riming
heptasyllabic quatrain expressing insights and lessonson life is "more emotionally
charged than the terse proverb and thus hasaffinities with the folk lyric." 2.Folk
Songs It is a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the
people'slifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous,
didactic andnaivea. Hele or oyayi – lullaby b. Ambahan (Mangyan) – 7-
syllable per line poem that are about humanrelationships and social entertainment c.
Kalusan (Ivatan) - work songs that depict the livelihood of the peopled. d. Tagay
(Cebuano and Waray) – drinking song. e. Kanogan (Cebuano) – song of lamentation
for the dead Folk Tales Myths – explain how the world was created, how certain
animals possess certain characteristics, why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes,
mountains, flora or fauna. Legends – explain the origin of things Why the Pineapple Has
EyesThe Legend of Maria Makiling c. Fables – used animal characters and
allegoryd.Fantasti stories – deal with underworld characters such as “tiyanak”,“aswang”,
“kapre” and others. Epics These are “narratives of sustained length based on oral
tradition revolving aroundsupernatural events or heroic deeds” (Arsenio Manuel)
Examples: Lam-ang (Ilocano) Hinilawod (Panay) Kudaman (Palawan) Darangen
(Maranao)

II. SPANISH COLONIZATION PERIOD (1565 – 1863) Characteristics 1. It has two

distinct classifications: religious and secular It introduced Spanish as the medium of
communication. B.Literary Forms 1. Religious Literature - Religious lyrics written
by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and Tagalog were included in early
catechism and were used toteach Filipinos the Spanish language. a. Pasyon – long
narrative poem about the passion and death of Christ. The most popular was “Ang
Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Cristong Panignoon Natin” byAguino de Belen
b.Senakulo – dramatization of the pasyon, it shows the passion and death of Christ
Secular (non-religious) Literature a.Awit - colorful tales of chivalry made for singing
and chanting Example: Ibong Adarna b.Korido – metrical tale written in octosyllabic
quatrainsExample: Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar c. Prose Narratives –
written to prescribe proper decorum i. Dialogo iii. Ejemplo ii.Manual de
Urbanidad iv. tratado Examples: Modesto de Castro's "Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang
Binibini na siUrbana at si Feliza" and Joaquin Tuason's "Ang Bagong Robinson" (The
New Robinson) in 1879.

III. NATIONALISTIC / PROPAGANDA AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD(1864 –

1896) Characteristics Planted seeds of nationalism in Filipinos Language shifted
from Spanish to Tagalog3.Addressed the masses instead of the “intelligentsia”
B.Literary Forms 1. Propaganda Literature - Reformatory in objective a. Political
Essays – satires, editorials and news articles were written to attackand expose the evils
of Spanish rule i.Diariong Tagalog – founded by Marcelo del Pilar ii.La Solidaridad –
whose editor-in-chief is Graciano Lopez-Jaena Political Novels i. Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo – Jose Rizal’s masterpiecesthat paved the way to the revolution
2.Revolutionary Literature – more propagandistic than literary as it is moreviolent in
nature and demanded complete independence for the country a.Political Essays –
helped inflame the spirit of revolutioni. Kalayaan – newspaper of the society, edited by
Emilio Jacinto b. Poetry True Decalogue – Apolinario Mabini Katapusang Hibik ng
Pilipinas –Andres Bonifacio Liwanag at Dilim – Emilio Jacinto

IV. AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD (1910 – 1945) Period of Apprenticeship

(1910-1930) 1.Filipino Writers imitated English and American models 2.Poems --
written were amateurish and mushy, which phrasing and diction is awkward and
artificial. a.Short Stories i.Dead Stars – Paz Marquez Benitez ii.The Key – Paz
Latorena iii.Footnote to Youth – Jose Garcia Villa b.Novels i. Childe of Sorrow – first
novel in English, by Zoilo Galang B. Period of Emergence (1920-1930) Highly
influenced by Western literary trends like Romanticism and Realism. a. Short Stories –
most prevalent literary form i. Jose Garcia Villa – earned the international title “Poet of
theCentury”
 V. JAPANESE OCCUPATION (1942 - 1960) War Years (1942-1944) 1. Tagalog
poets broke away from the Balagtas tradition and insteadwrote in simple language and
free verse 2.Fiction prevailed over poetry a.25 Pinakamabuting Maikling Kthang
Pilipino (1943) – compilation of theshort story contest by the military government.
Suyuan sa Tubigan – Macario Pineda Lupang Tinubuan – Narciso Reyes Uhaw ang
Tigang na Lupa – Liwayway ArceoB.Period of Maturity and Originality (1945-1960)
1.Bountiful harvest in poetry, fiction, drama and essay 2.Filipino writers mastered
English and familiarized themselves iwhtdiverse techniques 3.Literary “giants” appeared
a. Palanca Awards for Literature i.Jose Garcia Villa ii.Nick Joaquin iii.NVM Gonzales
iv.Bienvenido Santos v.Gregorio Brillantes vi.Gilda CorderoFernando b.National Artist
Awards i.Jose Garcia Villa ii.Nick Joaquian

CONTEMPORARY/MODERN PERIOD (1960 – PRESENT) A. Characteristics

1.Martial Law repressed and curtailed human rights, including freedom of thepress
2.Writers used symbolisms and allegories to drive home their message, at theface of
heavy censorship Theater was used as a vehicle for protest, such as the PETA
(Phil. Educational Theater Association) and UP Theater. From the eighties onwards,
writers continue to show dynamism and innovation

https://infogr.am/different_periodsofphilippine_literature

DR. LILIA QUINDOZA-SANTIAGO

       The early inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago had a native alphabet or
syllabary which among the Tagalogs was called baybayin, an inscription akin to
Sanskrit. It was through the baybayin that literary forms such as songs, riddles and
proverbs, lyric and short poems as well as parts of epic poems were written. The bulk of
these early literature however was just passed on through oral recitation and incantation
and were transcribed into the Roman alphabet only centuries later by Spanish
chroniclers and other scholars. It is believed that replacement of thebaybayin by the
Roman alphabet must have obliterated a significant aspect of indigenous Philippine
literature.

       Among the early forms, it is the awit or the song that has endured. Most
ethnolinguistic communities remember the native tunes and lyrics of their songs.
Fathers Chirino and Colin noted that among the Tagalogs, there were some 16 song
forms for various occasions. Among these are the uyayi or hele, a lullaby for putting a
child to sleep; the soliranin is a song for travelers while the talindaw is the seafarers
song; the kumintang is a war song; themaluway is a song for collective labor while
the kundiman is a melancholic love song. The dalit, is a song-ritual usually sung to the
rhythm of dance. The panambitan is a courtship song while the pamanhikan is a song-
ritual of the would-be bridegroom to his would-be bride as he asks permission to marry
her. The subli is another dance-ritual song of courtship and marriage.
       In the north, among the Ilocanos, the more popular song forms are the dallot and
the duayya, both love songs, and the dung-aw which is a dirge or a wake song. The
Bontoc of Mountain Province have the bagbagto, a song ritual for harvest, while the
Ivatan up in the Batanes islands have three most popular folk song forms: the laji,
thekanta and the kalusan. The laji is a lyric rendition of a song usually sung after a
day’s work when people gather together in their houses to chat and drink the native
wine, palek and just find time to be merry. Dr. Florentino Hornedo’s research of the
Ivatan laji yielded this following sample :

MAPAW AKO NA KANU NAPNU

DU VAKAG A DINAHURIS
(Sung by informant Juana
Cataluna)
Mapaw ako na kanu napnu nu
vakag
a nidutdut mo a dinahuri a
machipaywayam
du nadpun a kadaisa mo a
minaypanananud
nu mudag a inawa, inawa nu
vatutuk,
paychalugisugitan nu pinatapatan
a vuhung nu tadina, a vuhung nu
tadina;
nia pachiduvangi chu a nanaryo nu
lasa
a inawa ko nu asi nu tugitngi
niladang ko nu mutin, ina nikarusan
ko nu
pinsuan a tavayay duka di chu
dulivan
ya mapaytanung sa huvid du
putuhan
a nauri su madinay duyu
kahenaken
I HAVE BECOME LIGHTER
I have become lighter than a basket
of beaten cotton in the presence
of so many relatives all heavily
adorned
with double necklaces of gold and
precious beads;
heavy earrings of gold hung
like leaves upon their ears;
but I sit in their midst with a
necklace of lasa seeds
interspersed with the humble seed
of the tugitugi
and cheap green beads of glass,
adorned with a cross
made of squash shell because I
know not
how to tie properly a string around
my neck,
which is the proper and decorous
thing for a young
woman

       Tagalog riddles are called bugtong, while the Ilocanos call

these burburtia. Usually, riddles are made to rhyme and utilize the talinghaga, a form
of metaphor whose signification eventually conveys the meaning of the answer to the
riddle. Riddles such as these for instance illustrate the use of the talinghaga:

Hindi hari, hindi pari Neither king nor priest

Ang damit ay sari-sari But has a variety of
(Sagot: sampayan) clothes
May puno, walang bunga (Answer: clothesline)
 May dahon, walang sanga It is a treetrunk but is
          (Sagot: sandok) without fruit
It has leaves but has no
branches
(Answer: ladle)

       Sometimes, the riddles are relayed through familiar indigenous forms of poetry
such as the ambahan,which is a monorhyming heptasyllabic poem attributed to the
Hanunuu-Mangyan ethnic group in Mindoro. Apart from relaying riddles, ambahans are
also used to narrate common folk experiences. Father Antoon Postma has collected a
number of these ambahans, an example of which would be the following:

Ako mana manrigsan I would like to take a bath

sa may panayo pinggan scoop the water with a
sa may tupas balian plate wash the hair with
ako ud nakarigsan lemon juice; but I could
inambing bahayawan not take a bath, because
sinag-uli batangan the river is dammed with a
lot of sturdy trunks

       A poetic form similar to the ambahan is the tanaga. Unlike the ambahan whose

length is indefinite, the tanagais a compact seven-syllable quatrain. Poets test their
skills at rhyme, meter and metaphor through thetanagabecause not only is it rhymed
and measured but also exacts skillful use of words to create a puzzle that demands
some kind of an answer. Notice how this is used in the following

Katitibay ka, tulos You may stand sturdy

Sakaling datnang agos, But when the waters flow
Ako’y mumunting lumot, I, the humble moss
Sa iyo’y pupulupot Can strangle you.
Mataas man ang bundok The mountain may be high
Pantay man sa bakod It may reach the sky
Yamang mapagtaluktok Riches greedily
Sa pantay rin aanod. accumulated
Will eventually be leveled

       Tagalog proverbs are called salawikain or sawikain while they are

termed sarsarita in Iloko. Like most proverbs the world over, Philippine proverbs
contain sayings which prescribes norms, imparts a lesson or simply reflects standard
norms, traditions and beliefs in the community. Professor Damiana Eugenio classifies
Philippine proverbs into six groups according to subject matter. These are (1) proverbs
expressing a general attitude towards life and the laws that govern life; (2) ethical
proverbs recommending certain virtues and condemning certain vices; (3) proverbs
expressing a system of values; (4) proverbs expressing general truths and observations
about life and human nature; (5) humorous proverbs and (6) miscellaneous proverbs.
From her study, Eugenio observes that it is possible to formulate a fairly comprehensive
philosophy of life of the Filipino. The following proverb for instance, which is one of the
most popular, signifies the importance of looking back at one’s roots and origins. In a
way, this proverb also echoes the Filipino value of “utang na loob” or one’s debt of
gratitude to those who have contributed to his or her success.

Ang hindi lumilingon sa A person who does not

pinanggalingan remember where he/she
Hindi makararating sa came fromWill never
paroroonan reach his/her destination

       The most exciting poetic as well as narrative forms of early Philippine literature
however are the Philippine epics or ethno-epics as critics and anthropologists call them.
Almost all the major ethnic groups in the country have an epic that is chanted in a
variety of rituals. Because chanting is the mode by which these epics have been
produced, many of them still remain unwritten. The ASEAN-sponsored study of Filipino
epics asserts that there are about one hundred (100) extant epics in the Philippines that
have been discovered, most of these from the island of Palawan. The ASEAN anthology
features only translations into English and Filipino on Aliguyon (Hudhud) of the Ifugao,
translated by Amador Daguio, and edited by Josefina Mariano, Biag ni Lam-ang of the
Ilocano, composite text by Leopoldo Yabes and translated by Jovita Ventura
Castro, Labaw Donggon, the Sulod epic, the text by Dr. F. Landa Jocano and
translated by Rosella Jean Makasian-Puno; Agyu or Olahing or Ulahingan of the
Manobos, composite text by Patricia Melendres Cruz from transcriptions of E. Arsenio
Manuel, Elena Maquiso, Carmen Ching Unabia, and Corazon Manuel and Sandayo of
the Subanun, text and translation by Virgilio Resma.

       The editor/translators of these epics cite five common characteristics of these
Filipino epics. One, most of these epics are designated by names which means song, or
chant, like the Ifugao hudhud, the Manobo olagingor the Subanon’s guman. Two, the
epics are episodic and proceed through constructions that are en palier. There are
repetitions of scenes at every episode the more familiar among these would be the
chewing of the betel nut, battle chants, getting dressed for marriage, etc. Three, the
epics abound with supernatural characters – the diwatas, anitos, and other benign
spirits who come to the aid of the hero. Four, these epics are also reflective of the
society where they originate . They portray ethnic society before the coming of the
Muslims (1380) and the Christians (1521) and serve as vehicles for the transmission of
ethnic customs and wisdom. Five, there are always several versions of these epics, as
well as a proliferation of episodes, phenomenon that is explained by orality of the genre
and its transmission through the ages to among the generations of the group.

       Aliguyon or the Hudhud of the Ifugaos tells of the exploits of Aliguyon as he
battles his arch enemy, Pambukhayon among rice fields and terraces and instructs his
people to be steadfast and learn the wisdom of warfare and of peacemaking during
harvest seasons.

       Biag ni Lam-ang (Life of Lamang) tells of the adventures of the prodigious epic
hero, Lam-ang who exhibits extraordinary powers at a very early age. At nine months
he is able to go to war to look for his father’s killers. Then while in search of lady love,
Ines Kannoyan, he is swallowed by a big fish, but his rooster and his friends bring him
back to life.

       Labaw Donggon is about the amorous exploits of the son of a goddess Alunsina,
by a mortal, Datu Paubari. The polygamous hero battles the huge monster Manaluntad
for the hand of Abyang Ginbitinan; then he fights Sikay Padalogdog, the giant with a
hundred arms to win Abyang Doronoon and confronts the lord of darkness,
Saragnayan, to win Nagmalitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata.

       The Agyu or Olahing is a three part epic that starts with the pahmara (invocation)
then the kepu’unpuun ( a narration of the past) and the sengedurog (an episode
complete in itself). All three parts narrate the exploits of the hero as he leads his people
who have been driven out of their land to Nalandangan, a land of utopia where there are
no landgrabbers and oppressors.

       Sandayo, tells of the story of the hero with the same name, who is born through
extraordinary circumstances as he fell out of the hair of his mother while she was
combing it on the ninth stroke. Thence he leads his people in the fight against invaders
of their land and waterways.

       Other known epics are Bantugan of the Maranao, the Darangen which is a Muslim

epic, the Kudaman of Palawan which was transcribed by Dr. Nicole McDonald,
the Alim of the Ifugao, the Hinilawod of Panay, the Ibalonof Bikol and Tuwaang of the
Manobo, which was transcribed by anthropologist E. Arsenio Manuel.. The Tagalog
have no known epic but it is generally believed that the story of Bernardo Carpio, the
man who has been detained by the huge mountains of Montalban is their epic. 

       Dr. Resil Mojares, literary scholar, asserts that the generic origins of the Filipino
novel are found in the epic narratives .

       As for shorter narratives, there are stories that tell of the origins of the people, of
the stars, the sky and the seas. A common story of the origin of man and woman is that
of Sicalac (man) and Sicavay (woman) who came out of a bamboo after being pecked
by a bird. This, and other stories of equal birthing of man and woman throughout the
archipelago could actually assert woman’s equality with man among indigenous
settings.

       The eminent scholar and critic, Don Isabelo de los Reyes, had collected a good
number of folk tales, legends and myths which he had exhibited in Madrid in 1887 and
won a distinguished award of merit for it. These are now anthologized in a book El
Folklore Filipino (1996).

About the Author:

Lilia Quindoza-Santiago is the author behind “Kagampanan at Iba Pang Tula” and
“Ang Manggagamot ng Salay-Salay” (a collection of stories). She was named Makata
ng Taon (1989) in the annual Talaang Ginto of the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa for her
work “Sa Ngalan ng Ina, ng Anak, ng Diwata’t Paraluman”. She teaches Philippine
Literature at the University of the Philippines.
http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/literary-arts/early-
philippine-literature/

Philippine Literature during the American Period

Posted on April 14, 2015

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DR. LILIA QUINDOZA-SANTIAGO

       Philippine literary production during the American Period in the Philippines was
spurred by two significant developments in education and culture. One is the
introduction of free public instruction for all children of school age and two, the use of
English as medium of instruction in all levels of education in public schools.

        Free public education made knowledge and information accessible to a greater
number of Filipinos. Those who availed of this education through college were able to
improve their social status and joined a good number of educated masses who became
part of the country’s middle class.

        The use of English as medium of instruction introduced Filipinos to Anglo-

American modes of thought, culture and life ways that would be embedded not only in
the literature produced but also in the psyche of the country’s educated class. It was this
educated class that would be the wellspring of a vibrant Philippine Literature in English.

        Philippine literature in English, as a direct result of American colonization of the

country, could not escape being imitative of American models of writing especially
during its period of apprenticeship. The poetry written by early poets manifested studied
attempts at versification as in the following poem which is proof of the poet’s rather
elementary exercise in the English language:

Vacation days at last are here,

And we have time for fun so dear,
 All boys and girls do gladly cheer,
This welcomed season of the year.
In early June in school we’ll meet;
A harder task shall we complete
And if we fail we must repeat
That self same task without retreat.
We simply rest to come again
To school where boys and girls obtain
The Creator’s gift to men
Whose sanguine hopes in us remain.
Vacation means a time for play
For young and old in night and day
My wish for all is to be gay,
And evil none lead you astray

                        – Juan F. Salazar   

Philippines Free Press, May 9, 1909

        The poem was anthologized in the first collection of poetry in English, Filipino
Poetry, edited by Rodolfo Dato (1909 – 1924). Among the poets featured in this
anthology were Proceso Sebastian Maximo Kalaw, Fernando Maramag, Leopoldo
Uichanco, Jose Ledesma, Vicente Callao, Santiago Sevilla, Bernardo Garcia, Francisco
Africa, Pablo Anzures, Carlos P. Romulo, Francisco Tonogbanua, Juan Pastrana, Maria
Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Luis Dato and many others. Another anthology, The
English German Anthology of Poetsedited by Pablo Laslo was published and
covered poets published from 1924-1934 among whom were Teofilo D. Agcaoili, Aurelio
Alvero, Horacio de la Costa, Amador T. Daguio, Salvador P. Lopez, Angela Manalang
Gloria, Trinidad Tarrosa, Abelardo Subido and Jose Garcia Villa, among others. A third
pre-war collection of poetry was edited by Carlos Bulosan,Chorus for America: Six
Philippine Poets. The six poets in this collection were Jose Garcia Villa, Rafael Zulueta
da Costa, Rodrigo T. Feria, C.B. Rigor, Cecilio Baroga and Carlos Bulosan.

        In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary writing in English is marked by

imitation of the style of storytelling and strict adherence to the craft of the short story as
practiced by popular American fictionists. Early short story writers in English were often
dubbed as the Andersons or Saroyans or the Hemingways of Philippine letters.
Leopoldo Yabes in his study of the Philippine short story in English from 1925 to 1955
points to these models of American fiction exerting profound influence on the early
writings of story writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E. Litiatco, Paz Latorena. .

        When the University of the Philippines was founded in 1908, an elite group of
writers in English began to exert influence among the culturati. The U.P. Writers Club
founded in 1926, had stated that one of its aims was to enhance and propagate the
“language of Shakespeare.” In 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead
Stars”was published and was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in
English. Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories no longer
imitative of American models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano Calalang, A.E. Litiatco,
Arturo Rotor, Lydia Villanueva, Paz Latorena , Manuel Arguilla began publishing stories
manifesting both skilled use of the language and a keen Filipino sensibility.

        This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on Filipino

customs and traditions earmarked the literary output of major Filipino fictionists in
English during the American period. Thus, the major novels of the period, such as
the Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw, and His Native Soil by Juan C. Laya, are
discourses on cultural identity, nationhood and being Filipino done in the English
language. Stories such as “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” by Manuel
Arguilla scanned the scenery as well as the folkways of Ilocandia while N.V. M.
Gonzales’s novels and stories such as “Children of the Ash Covered Loam,” present
the panorama of Mindoro, in all its customs and traditions while configuring its
characters in the human dilemma of nostalgia and poverty. Apart from Arguilla and
Gonzales, noted fictionists during the period included Francisco Arcellana, whom Jose
Garcia Villa lauded as a “genius” storyteller, Consorcio Borje, Aida Rivera, Conrado
Pedroche, Amador Daguio, Sinai Hamada, Hernando Ocampo, Fernando Maria
Guerrero. Jose Garcia Villa himself wrote several short stories but devoted most of his
time to poetry.

        In 1936, when the Philippine Writers League was organized, Filipino writers in
English began discussing the value of literature in society. Initiated and led by Salvador
P. Lopez, whose essays on Literature and Societyprovoked debates, the discussion
centered on proletarian literature, i.e., engaged or committed literature versus the art for
art’s sake literary orientation. But this discussion curiously left out the issue of
colonialism and colonial literature and the whole place of literary writing in English under
a colonial set-up that was the Philippines then.

        With Salvador P. Lopez, the essay in English gained the upper hand in day to day
discourse on politics and governance. Polemicists who used to write in Spanish like
Claro M. Recto, slowly started using English in the discussion of current events even as
newspaper dailies moved away from Spanish reporting into English. Among the
essayists, Federico Mangahas had an easy facility with the language and the essay as
genre. Other noted essayists during the period were Fernando Maramag, Carlos P.
Romulo , Conrado Ramirez.

        On the other hand, the flowering of a vibrant literary tradition due to historical
events did not altogether hamper literary production in the native or indigenous
languages. In fact, the early period of the 20th century was remarkable for the
significant literary output of all major languages in the various literary genre.

        It was during the early American period that seditious plays, using the form of the
zarsuwela, were mounted. Zarsuwelistas Juan Abad, Aurelio Tolentino ,Juan Matapang
Cruz. Juan Crisostomo Sotto mounted the classics likeTanikalang Ginto, Kahapon,
Ngayon at Bukas and Hindi Ako Patay, all directed against the American imperialists.
Patricio Mariano’s Anak ng Dagat and Severino Reyes’s Walang Sugat are equally
remarkable zarsuwelas staged during the period.

        On the eve of World War II, Wilfredo Maria Guerrero would gain dominance in
theatre through his one-act plays which he toured through his “mobile theatre”.
Thus, Wanted a Chaperone and The Forsaken Housebecame very popular in
campuses throughout the archipelago.

        The novel in Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon and Sugbuanon also developed during the
period aided largely by the steady publication of weekly magazines like
the Liwayway, Bannawag and Bisaya which serialized the novels.

        Among the early Tagalog novelists of the 20th century were Ishmael Amado,
Valeriano Hernandez Peña, Faustino Aguilar, Lope K. Santos and Lazaro Francisco.

        Ishmael Amado’s Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was one of the

earliest novels that dealt with the theme of American imperialism in the Philippines. The
novel, however, was not released from the printing press until 1916, at which time, the
author, by his own admission and after having been sent as a pensionado to the U.S.,
had other ideas apart from those he wrote in the novel.

        Valeriano Hernandez Peña’s Nena at Neneng narrates the story of two women

who happened to be best of friends as they cope with their relationships with the men in
their lives. Nena succeeds in her married life while Neneng suffers from a stormy
marriage because of her jealous husband.

        Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan, a love triangle set in the early years of
the century when the worker’s movement was being formed. The novel’s hero, Luis
Gatbuhay, is a worker in a printery who isimprisoned for a false accusation and loses
his love, Danding, to his rival Rojalde, son of a wealthy capitalist. Lope K.
Santos,Banaag at Sikat has almost the same theme and motif as the hero of the novel,
Delfin, also falls in love with a rich woman, daughter of a wealthy landlord. The love
story of course is set also within the background of development of the worker’s trade
union movement and throughout the novel, Santos engages the readers in lengthy
treatises and discourses on socialism and capitalism. Many other Tagalog novelists
wrote on variations of the same theme, i.e., the interplay of fate, love and social justice.
Among these writers are Inigo Ed Regalado, Roman Reyes, Fausto J. Galauran,
Susana de Guzman, Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, Lazaro Francisco, Hilaria Labog,
Rosalia Aguinaldo, Amado V. Hernandez. Many of these writers were able to produce
three or more novels as Soledad Reyes would bear out in her book which is the result of
her dissertation, Ang Nobelang Tagalog (1979).

        Among the Iloko writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, who was also the
region’s poet laureate then, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena Pecson Crisologo
whose Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa is considered to be the Iloko version of a Noli
me Tangere.
        In the Visayas, Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones would lead most
writers in writing the novels that dwelt on the themes of love, courtship, life in the
farmlands, and other social upheavals of the period. Marcel Navarra wrote stories and
novels in Sugbuhanon.

        Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of the country during the
American period. The Tagalogs, hailing Francisco F. Balagtas as the nation’s foremost
poet invented the balagtasan in his honor. Thebalagtasan is a debate in verse, a
poetical joust done almost spontaneously between protagonists who debate over the
pros and cons of an issue.

        The first balagtasan was held in March 1924 at the Instituto de Mujeres, with Jose
Corazon de Jesus and Florentino Collantes as rivals, bubuyog (bee) and paru-paro
(butterfly) aiming for the love of kampupot (jasmine). It was during this balagtasan that
Jose Corazon de Jesus, known as Huseng Batute, emerged triumphant to become the
first king of the Balagtasan. Jose Corazon de Jesus was the finest master of the genre.
He was later followed bybalagtasistas, Emilio Mar Antonio and Crescenciano Marquez,
who also became King of the Balagtasan in their own time.

        As Huseng Batute, de Jesus also produced the finest poems and lyrics during the
period. His debates with Amado V. Hernandez on the political issue of independence
from America and nationhood were mostly done in verse and are testament to the
vitality of Tagalog poetry during the era. Lope K. Santos, epic poem, Ang
Panggingera is also proof of how poets of the period have come to master the
language to be able to translate it into effective poetry.

        The balagtasan would be echoed as a poetical fiesta and would be duplicated in

the Ilocos as thebukanegan, in honor of Pedro Bukaneg, the supposed transcriber of
the epic, Biag ni Lam-ang; and theCrissottan, in Pampanga, in honor of the esteemed
poet of the Pampango, Juan Crisostomo Sotto.

        In 1932, Alejandro G. Abadilla , armed with new criticism and an orientation on
modernist poetry would taunt traditional Tagalog poetics with the publication of his
poem, “Ako ang Daigdig.” Abadilla’s poetry began the era of modernism in Tagalog
poetry, a departure from the traditional rhymed, measured and orally recited poems.
Modernist poetry which utilized free or blank verses was intended more for silent
reading than oral delivery.

        Noted poets in Tagalog during the American period were Julian Cruz Balmaceda,
Florentino Collantes, Pedro Gatmaitan, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Benigno Ramos, Inigo
Ed. Regalado, Ildefonso Santos, Lope K. Santos, Aniceto Silvestre, Emilio Mar.
Antonio , Alejandro Abadilla and Teodoro Agoncillo.

        Like the writers in English who formed themselves into organizations, Tagalog
writers also formed the Ilaw at Panitik, and held discussions and workshops on the
value of literature in society. Benigno Ramos, was one of the most politicized poets of
the period as he aligned himself with the peasants of the Sakdal Movement.

        Fiction in Tagalog as well as in the other languages of the regions developed
alongside the novel. Most fictionists are also novelists. Brigido Batungbakal , Macario
Pineda and other writers chose to dwell on the vicissitudes of life in a changing rural
landscape. Deogracias Del Rosario on the other hand, chose the city and the emerging
social elite as subjects of his stories. He is considered the father of the modern short
story in Tagalog

        Among the more popular fictionists who emerged during the period are two women
writers, Liwayway Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute, considered forerunners in the
use of “light” fiction, a kind of story telling that uses language through poignant rendition.
Genoveva Edroza Matute’s “Ako’y Isang Tinig” and Liwayway Arceo’s“Uhaw
ang Tigang na Lupa” have been used as models of fine writing in Filipino by teachers
of composition throughout the school system.

        Teodoro Agoncillo’s anthology 25 Pinakamahusay na Maiikling Kuwento

(1945) included the foremost writers of fiction in the pre-war era.

        The separate, yet parallel developments of Philippine literature in English and
those in Tagalog and other languages of the archipelago during the American period
only prove that literature and writing in whatever language and in whatever climate are
able to survive mainly through the active imagination of writers. Apparently, what was
lacking during the period was for the writers in the various languages to come together,
share experiences and come to a conclusion on the elements that constitute good
writing in the Philippines.

Philippine Literature in the Post-War and Contemporary Period

Posted on April 14, 2015

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FRANCIS C. MACANSANTOS
PRISCILLA S. MACANSANTOS

       Published in 1946, Ginto Sa Makiling – a novel by Macario Pineda, is the first work
of note that appeared after the second world war. In plot, it hews close to the mode of
romantic fantasy traceable to the awits, koridos andkomedyas of the Balagtas tradition.
But it is a symbolical narrative of social, moral and political import. In this, it resembles
not only Balagtas but also Rizal, but in style and plot it is closer to Balagtas in not
allowing the realistic mode to restrict the element of fantasy.
       Two novels by writers in English dealt with the war experience: (Medina, p. 194)
Stevan Javellana’s Without Seeing the Dawn (1947), and Edilberto Tiempo’s Watch in
the Night. Both novels hew closely to the realist tradition. Lazaro Francisco, the eminent
Tagalog novelist of the pre-war years, was to continue to produce significant work. He
revised his Bayaning Nagpatiwakal (1932), refashioning its plot and in sum honing his
work as a weapon against the policies that tended to perpetuate American economic
dominance over the Philippines. The updated novel was titled Ilaw Sa Hilaga (1948)
(Lumbera, p. 67). He was to produce three more novels.Sugat Sa Alaala (1950) reflects
the horrors of the war experience as well as the human capacity for nobility, endurance
and love under the most extreme circumstances. Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig (1956)
deals with the agrarian issue, and Daluyong (1962) deals with the corruption bred by the
American-style and American-educated pseudo-reformers. Lazaro Francisco is a realist
with social and moral ideals. The Rizal influence on his work is profound.

       The poet Amado Hernandez, who was also union leader and social activist, also
wrote novels advocating social change. Luha ng Buwaya (1963) (Lumbera) deals with
the struggle between the oppressed peasantry and the class of politically powerful
landlords. Mga Ibong Mandaragit (1969) deals with the domination of Filipinos by
American industry (Lumbera, p. 69).

       Unfortunately, the Rizalian path taken by Lazaro Francisco and Amado Hernandez
with its social-realist world-view had the effect of alienating them from the mode of the
highly magical oral-epic tradition. Imported social realism (and, in the case of Amado
Hernandez, a brand of socialist empiricism), was not entirely in touch with the folk
sentiment and folk belief, which is why the Tagalog romances (e.g., Ginto Sa Makiling,
serialized in the comics), were far more popular than their work.

       It was Philippine Literature in English which tapped the folk element in the
Philippine unconscious to impressive, spectacular effect. Nick Joaquin, through his neo-
romantic, poetic and histrionic style, is reminiscent of the dramas of Balagtas and de la
Cruz. His dizzying flashbacks (from an idealized romantic Spanish past to a squalid
Americanized materialistic present) are cinematic in effect, ironically quite Hollywood-
ish, serving always to beguile and astonish.

       Francisco Arcellana, his younger contemporary, was a master of minimalist fiction
that is as native as anything that could be written in English, possessing the potent
luminosity of a sorcerer’s rune.

       Wilfrido Nolledo, fictionist-playwright growing up in the aura of such masters, was
the disciple who, without conscious effort, created a school of his own. His experiments
in plot and plotlessness, his creation of magical scenes, made splendorous by a highly
expressive language, easily became the rage among young writers who quickly joined
(each in his/her own highly original style) the Nolledo trend. Among these poetic
fictionists of the 1960’s were Wilfredo Pasqua Sanchez, Erwin Castillo, Cesar Ruiz
Aquino, Resil Mojares, Leopoldo Cacnio and Ninotchka Rosca. Of them all, only the last
two did not publish verse. Their non-realistic (even anti-realistic) style made them
perhaps the most original group of writers to emerge in the post-war period. But such a
movement that slavishly used the American colonists’ language (according to the
Nationalist, Socialist Tagalog writers who were following A.V. Hernandez) were called
decadent (in the manner of Lukacsian social realism).

       Post-war poetry and fiction was dominated by the writers in English educated and
trained in writers’ workshops in the United States or England. Among these were the
novelists Edilberto and Edith Tiempo (who is also a poet), short-fictionist Francisco
Arcellana, poet-critic Ricaredo Demetillo, poet-fictionist Amador Daguio, poet Carlos
Angeles, fictionists N.V.M. Gonzales and Bienvenido N. Santos. Most of these writers
returned to the Philippines to teach. With their credentials and solid reputations, they
influenced the form and direction of the next generation mainly in accordance with the
dominant tenets of the formalist New Critics of America and England.

       Even literature in the Tagalog-based national language (now known as Filipino)
could not avoid being influenced or even (in the critical sense) assimilated. College-bred
writers in Filipino like Rogelio Sikat and Edgardo Reyes saw the need to hone their
artistry according to the dominant school of literature in America of that period, despite
the fact that the neo-Aristotelian formalist school went against the grain of their socialist
orientation. Poet-critic Virgilio Almario (1944- ), a.k.a. Rio Alma, in a break-away move
reminiscent of Alejandro Abadilla, and in the formalist (New Critical) mode then
fashionable, bravely opined that Florante at Laura, Balagtas’ acknowledged
masterpiece, was an artistic failure (Reyes, p. 71-72). It was only in the early 1980’s
(Reyes, p. 73) that Almario (after exposure to the anti-ethnocentrism of structuralism
and Deconstruction) revised his views.

       The protest tradition of Rizal, Bonifacio and Amado Hernandez found expression in
the works of Tagalog poets from the late 1960’s to the 1980’s, as they confronted
Martial Law and repression. Among these liberationist writers were Jose Lacaba,
Epifanio San Juan, Rogelio Mangahas, Lamberto Antonio, Lilia Quindoza, and later,
Jesus Manuel Santiago. The group Galian sa Arte at Tula nurtured mainly Manila
writers and writing (both in their craft and social vision) during some of the darkest
periods of Martial Law.

       Meanwhile, behind the scenes on the printed page, oral literature flourished in the
outlying communities. Forms of oral poetry like the Cebuano Balak, the
Ilokano Bukanegan, the Tagalog Balagtasan, and the SamalTinis-Tinis, continued to be
declaimed by the rural-based bards, albeit to dwindling audiences. In the late 1960’s,
Ricaredo Demetillo had, using English (and English metrics) pioneered a linkage with
the oral tradition. The result was the award-winning Barter in Panay, an epic based on
the Ilonggo epic Maragtas. Inspired by the example, other younger poets wrote epics or
long poems, and they were duly acclaimed by the major award-giving bodies. Among
these poets were writers in English like Cirilo Bautista (The Archipelago, 1968), Artemio
Tadena (Northward into Noon, 1970) and Domingo de Guzman (Moses, 1977).
       However, except for Demetillo’s modern epic, these attempts fall short of
establishing a linkage with the basic folk tradition. Indeed, most are more like long
meditative poems, like Eliot’s or Neruda’s long pieces. Interest in the epic waned as the
1980’s approached. The 1980’s became a decade of personalistic free verse
characteristic of American confessional poetry. The epic “big picture” disappeared from
the scene, to be replaced by a new breed of writers nourished by global literary sources,
and critical sources in the developed world. The literary sources were third world (often
nativistic) poetry such as that of Neruda, Vallejo and Octavio Paz. In fiction, the magic-
realism of Borges, Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie, among others, influenced the
fiction of Cesar Aquino, Alfred Yuson, and poet-fictionist Mario Gamalinda.

       On the other hand, the poets trained in American workshops continue to write in the
lyrical-realist mode characteristic of American writing, spawned by imagism and neo-
Aristotelianism. Among these writers (whose influence remains considerable) are the
poet-critics Edith L. Tiempo, Gemino Abad, Ophelia A. Dimalanta and Emmanuel
Torres. Their influence can be felt in the short lyric and the medium-length meditative
poem that are still the Filipino poet’s preferred medium. Some contemporary poets in
English such as Marjorie Evasco and Merlie Alunan, derive their best effects from their
reverence for the ineluctable image. Ricardo de Ungria’s and Luisa Aguilar Cariño’s
poems, on the other hand, are a rich confluence of imagism, surrealism and
confessionalism.

       The Philippine novel, whether written in English or any of the native languages, has
remained social-realist. Edgardo Reyes’ Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1966), for instance,
is a critique of urban blight, and Edilberto K. Tiempo’s To Be Free is a historical probe of
the western idea of freedom in the context of indigenous Philippine culture. Kerima
Polotan Tuvera’s novel The Hand of the Enemy (1972), a penetratingly lucid critique of
ruling-class psychology, is entirely realistic, if Rizalian in its moments of high satire,
although unlike the Rizalian model, it falls short of a moral vision.

       Only a few novelists like Gamalinda, Yuson and Antonio Enriquez, can claim a
measure of success in tapping creative power from folk sources in their venture to join
the third world magic-realist mainstream.

       But the poets of oral-folk charisma, such as Jose Corazon de Jesus, are waiting in
the wings for a comeback as astonishing as Lam-ang’s legendary resurrection.
Modernist and post-modernist criticism, which champions the literature of the
disempowered cultures, has lately attained sufficient clout to shift the focus of academic
pursuits towards native vernacular literatures (oral and written) and on the revaluation of
texts previously ignored, such as those by women writers. Sa Ngalan Ng Ina (1997), by
prize-winning poet-critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago, is, to date, the most comprehensive
compilation of feminist writing in the Philippines.

About the Authors:

Francis C. Macansantos is a Palanca Literary Award veteran winning first prize for
poetry in 1989 with UP Press publishing his book “The Words and Other Poems” in
1997.
Priscilla S. Macansantos has won in the 1998 Palanca Literary Awards for her poetry
“Departures” and is now an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines.

Philippine Literature in the Spanish Colonial Period

Posted on April 14, 2015

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FRANCIS C. MACANSANTOS
PRISCILLA S. MACANSANTOS

       The existing literature of the Philippine ethnic groups at the time of conquest and
conversion into Christianity was mainly oral, consisting of epics, legends, songs, riddles,
and proverbs. The conquistador, especially its ecclesiastical arm, destroyed whatever
written literature he could find, and hence rendered the system of writing (e.g.,
the Tagalog syllabary) inoperable. Among the only native systems of writing that have
survived are the syllabaries of the Mindoro Mangyans and the Tagbanua of Palawan.

       The Spanish colonial strategy was to undermine the native oral tradition by
substituting for it the story of the Passion of Christ (Lumbera, p. 14). Although Christ
was by no means war-like or sexually attractive as many of the heroes of the oral epic
tradition, the appeal of the Jesus myth inhered in the protagonist’s superior magic: by
promising eternal life for everyone, he democratized the power to rise above death. It is
to be emphasized, however, that the native tradition survived and even flourished in
areas inaccessible to the colonial power. Moreover, the tardiness and the lack of
assiduity of the colonial administration in making a public educational system work
meant the survival of oral tradition, or what was left of it, among the conquered tribes.

       The church authorities adopted a policy of spreading the Church doctrines by
communicating to the native (pejoratively called Indio) in his own language. Doctrina
Christiana (1593), the first book to be printed in the Philippines, was a prayerbook
written in Spanish with an accompanying Tagalog translation. It was, however, for the
exclusive use of the missionaries who invariably read them aloud to the unlettered Indio
catechumens (Medina), who were to rely mainly on their memory. But the task of
translating religious instructional materials obliged the Spanish missionaries to take a
most practical step, that of employing native speakers as translators. Eventually, the
native translator learned to read and write both in Spanish and his native language.

       This development marked the beginning of Indio literacy and thus spurred the
creation of the first written literary native text by the native. These writers,
called ladinos because of their fluency in both Spanish and Tagalog (Medina, pp. 55-
56), published their work, mainly devotional poetry, in the first decade of the 17th
century. Among the earliest writers of note were Francisco de San Jose and Francisco
Bagongbata (Medina). But by far the most gifted of these native poet-translators was
Gaspar Aquino de Belen (Lumbera, p.14). Mahal Na Pasion ni Jesu Christo, a Tagalog
poem based on Christ’s passion, was published in 1704. This long poem, original and
folksy in its rendition of a humanized, indeed, a nativized Jesus, is a milestone in the
history of Philippine letters. Ironically — and perhaps just because of its profound
influence on the popular imagination — as artifact it marks the beginning of the end of
the old mythological culture and a conversion to the new paradigm introduced by the
colonial power.

       Until the 19th century, the printing presses were owned and managed by the
religious orders (Lumbera, p.13). Thus, religious themes dominated the culture of the
Christianized majority. But the native oral literature, whether secular or mythico-religious
continued. Even among the Christianized ethnic groups, the oral tradition persisted in
such forms as legends, sayings, wedding songs such as the balayan and parlor theater
such as theduplo (Medina, p. 32).

       In the 18th century, secular literature from Spain in the form of medieval ballads
inspired the native poetic-drama form called the komedya, later to be called moro-
moro because these often dealt with the theme of Christians triumphing over Moslems
(Lumbera, p. 15).

       Jose de la Cruz (1746 – 1829) was the foremost exponent of the komedya during

his time. A poet of prodigious output and urbane style, de la Cruz marks a turning point
in that his elevated diction distinguishes his work from folk idiom (as for instance, that of
Gaspar Aquino de Belen). Yet his appeal to the non-literate was universal. The
popularity of the dramatic form, of which he was a master, was due to it being
experienced as performance both by the lettered minority and the illiterate but genuinely
appreciative majority.

       Francisco Baltazar (1788 – 1862), popularly called Balagtas, is the acknowledged

master of traditional Tagalog poetry. Of peasant origins, he left his hometown in Bigaa,
Bulacan for Manila, with a strong determination to improve his lot through education. To
support his studies, he worked as a domestic servant in Tondo. He steeped himself in
classical studies in schools of prestige in the capital.

       Great social and political changes in the world worked together to make Balagtas’
career as poet possible. The industrial revolution had caused a great movement of
commerce in the globe, creating wealth and the opportunity for material improvement in
the life of the working classes. With these great material changes, social values were
transformed, allowing greater social mobility. In short, he was a child of the global
bourgeois revolution. Liberal ideas, in time, broke class — and, in the Philippines —
even racial barriers (Medina). The word Filipino, which used to refer to a restricted
group (i.e., Spaniards born in the Philippines) expanded to include not only the
acculturated wealthy Chinese mestizo but also the acculturated Indio (Medina).
Balagtas was one of the first Indios to become a Filipino.

       But the crucial element in Balagtas’ unique genius is that, being caught between
two cultures (the native and the colonial/classical), he could switch codes (or was
perceived by his compatriot audience to be switching codes), provide insight and
information to his oppressed compatriots in the very style and guise of a tradition
provided him by a foreign (and oppressive) culture. His narrative poem Florante at
Laura written in sublime Tagalog, is about tyranny in Albanya, but it is also perceived to
be about tyranny in his Filipino homeland (Lumbera).

       Despite the foreign influence, however, he remained true to his native traditions.
His verse plays were performed to the motley crowd. His poems were sung by the
literate for the benefit of the unlettered. The metrical regularity and rhyme performed
their age-old mnemonic function, despite and because of the introduction of printing.

       Printing overtook tradition. The printed page, by itself, became the mnemonic
device, the stage set for the development of prose. The first Filipino novel was Ninay,
written in Spanish by Pedro Paterno, a Philippine-bornilustrado (Medina p. 93).
Following the sentimental style of his first book Sampaguitas (a collection of poems in
Spanish), the novel endeavored to highlight the endearingly unique qualities of Filipinos.

       National Hero Jose Rizal (1861 – 1896) chose the realistic novel as his medium.
Choosing Spanish over Tagalog meant challenging the oppressors on the latter’s own
turf. By writing in prose, Rizal also cut his ties with the Balagtas tradition of the figurative
indirection which veiled the supposed subversiveness of many writings at that time.

       Rizal’s two novels, the Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo, chronicle
the life and ultimate death of Ibarra, a Filipino educated abroad, who attempts to reform
his country through education. At the conclusion of theNoli, his efforts end in near-death
and exile from his country. In the Filibusterismo, he returns after reinventing himself as
Simoun, the wealthy jeweler, and hastens social decay by further corrupting the social
fabric till the oppressed react violently to overthrow the system. But the insurrection is
foiled and Simoun suffers a violent death.

       In a sense, Rizal’s novels and patriotic poems were the inevitable conclusion to the
campaign for liberal reforms known as the Propaganda Movement, waged by Graciano
Lopez Jaena, and M.H. del Pilar. The two novels so vividly portrayed corruption and
oppression that despite the lack of any clear advocacy, they served to instill the
conviction that there could be no solution to the social ills but a violent one.

       Following closely on the failed reformist movement, and on Rizal’s novels, was the
Philippine revolution headed by Andres Bonifacio (1863 – 1897). His closest aide, the
college-bred Emilio Jacinto (1875 – 1899), was the revolutionary organization’s
ideologue. Both were admirers of Rizal, and like Rizal, both were writers and social
critics profoundly influenced by the liberal ideas of the French enlightenment, about
human dignity. Bonifacio’s most important work are his poems, the most well-known
being Pag-Ibig Sa Tinubuang Lupa. Jacinto wrote political essays expressed in the
language of the folk. Significantly, although either writer could have written in Spanish
(Bonifacio, for instance, wrote a Tagalog translation of Rizal’s Ultimo Adios), both chose
to communicate to their fellowmen in their own native language.

       The figure of Rizal dominates Philippine literature until the present day. Liberalism
led to education of the native and the ascendancy of Spanish. But Spanish was
undermined by the very ideas of liberation that it helped spread, and its decline led to
nativism and a renaissance of literature in the native languages.

       The turn of the century witnessed not only the Philippine revolution but a quieter
though no less significant outbreak. The educated women of the period produced
significant poetry. Gregoria de Jesus, wife of Andres Bonifacio, wrote notable Tagalog
poetry. Meanwhile, in Vigan of the Ilocano North, Leona Florentino, by her poetry,
became the foremost Ilocano writer of her time.

The Literature of Eastern Visayas

Posted on April 14, 2015

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VICTOR N. SUGBO

       Eastern Visayas is composed of the islands of Samar, Leyte, Biliran and the
smaller outlying islands. In terms of political divisions, it is made up of six provinces,
namely Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran, Leyte, and Southern Leyte. As
of Census 1995, the region’s total population stood at 3.5 million with Leyte having the
highest population concentration at 1.5 million, and Biliran, the smallest population at
132 thousand.

        The region is humid, and has no definite wet and dry seasons. It is generally
agricultural and its main crops include coconut, banana, potatoes, cassava, abaca, and
sugarcane. Its other source of income is fishing. Frequent occurrences of typhoons
have perennially disturbed the economy of the region but people seem to have adapted
well enough.

        The City of Tacloban is the major center of trade and commerce and education in
the region.

THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION

        The mountain ranges that traverse the islands of Samar, Leyte, and Biliran have
influenced the development of dialectal varieties of Waray and distinct speech
communities. In Leyte, the Central Cordillera that bisects the island has provided the
condition for the establishment of two distinct speech communities, the Waray and the
Cebuano, and the growth of dialectal varieties of Waray. In Biliran, a similar speech
situation exists. The hilly and mountainous terrain of Samar has contributed to the rise
of Waray dialects, and likewise has nurtured a small number of Cebuano speech
communities.

        The 1995 Census Report reveals that there were more than 2 M speakers of
Waray and 1.2 M speakers of Cebuano in the region. About 80 per cent of the total
population in the region were registered functionally literate – that is, being able to read,
write, and count.

THE LITERATURE

        The literature of Eastern Visayas refers to the literature written in Waray and
Cebuano by writers from the region. Of the two, it is Waray literature that has been
collected, recorded, and documented by scholars and researchers, a movement largely
spurred by the interest of German priests, managing a university in Tacloban City, who
saw the necessity of gathering and preserving the literary heritage of the region. It is in
this light that whenever East Visayan literature is written about, it is usually Waray
literature that is being described.

        Earliest accounts of East Visayan literature date back to 1668 when a Spanish
Jesuit by the name of Fr. Ignatio Francisco Alzina documented the poetic forms such as
the candu, haya, ambahan, canogon, bical, balac, sidayand awit. He also described
the susumaton and posong, early forms of narratives. Theater tradition was very much
in place – in the performance of poetry, rituals, and mimetic dances. Dances mimed the
joys and activities of the ancient Waray.

        With three centuries of Spanish colonization and another period of American
occupation, old rituals, poetic forms and narratives had undergone reinvention. A case
in point is the balac, a poetic love joust between a man and a woman. According to
Cabardo, the balac retained its form even as it took new names and borrowed aspects
of the languages of the colonizers. During the Spanish period, the balac was called
the amoral; during the American occupation, it was renamed ismayling, a term derived
from the English word “smile.” According to a literary investigator, in certain areas of
Samar, the same balac form or ismayling has been reinvented to express anti-
imperialist sentiments where the woman represents the motherland and the man, the
patriot who professes his love of country.

        Modern East Visayan literature, particularly Waray, revolves around poetry and
drama produced between the 1900s and the present. The flourishing economy of the
region and the appearance of local publications starting in 1901 with the publication
of An Kaadlawon, the first Waray newspaper, saw the flourishing of poetry in Waray.
        In Samar, Eco de Samar y Leyte, a long running magazine in the 1900s,
published articles and literary works in Spanish, Waray and English. A noteworthy
feature of this publication was its poetry section, An Tadtaran, which presented a series
of satirical poems that attacked the changing values of the people at the
time. Eco likewise published occasional and religious poems.

        In Leyte, An Lantawan, which has extant copies from 1931 to 1932, printed
religious and occasional poetry. It also published satirical poems of Bagong Katipunero,
Luro, Datoy Anilod, Marpahol, Vatchoo (Vicente I. de Veyra), Julio Carter (Iluminado
Lucente), Ben Tamaka (Eduardo Makabenta), and Kalantas (Casiano Trinchera). Under
these pseudonyms, poets criticized corrupt government officials, made fun of people’s
vices, and attacked local women for adopting modern ways of social behavior..

        With the organization of the Sanghiran San Binisaya in 1909, writers as well as
the illustrados in the community banded together for the purpose of cultivating the
Waray language. Under the leadership of Norberto Romualdez Sr, Sanghiran’s
members had literary luminaries that included Iluminado Lucente, Casiano Trinchera,
Eduardo Makabenta, Francisco Alvarado, Juan Ricacho, Francisco Infectana, Espiridion
Brillo, and statesman Jaime C. de Veyra. For a time, Sanghiran was responsible for the
impetus it gave to new writing in the language.

        The period 1900 to the late fifties witnessed the finest Waray poems of Casiano
Trinchera, Iluminado Lucente, Eduardo Makabenta, and the emergence of the poetry of
Agustin El O’Mora, Pablo Rebadulla, Tomas Gomez Jr., Filomeno Quimbo Singzon,
Pedro Separa, Francisco Aurillo, and Eleuterio Ramoo. Trinchera, Lucente, and
Makabenta were particularly at their best when they wrote satirical poetry.

        The growing acceptance of English as official language in the country

strengthened these writers’ loyalty to the ethnic mother tongue as their medium for their
art. The publication of Leyte News and The Leader in the twenties, the first local
papers in English, brought about the increasing legitimization of English as a medium of
communication, the gradual displacement of Waray and eventual disappearance of its
poetry from the pages of local publications.

        Where local newspapers no longer served as vehicles for written poetry in Waray,
the role was assumed by MBC’s DYVL and local radio stations in the seventies. Up to
the present time, poetry sent to these stations are written mostly by local folk – farmers,
housewives, lawyers, government clerks, teachers, and students. A common quality of
their poetry is that they tend to be occasional, didactic, and traditional in form. The
schooled writers in the region, unlike the local folk poets, do not write in Waray nor
Filipino. Most of them write in English although lately there has been an romantic return
to their ethnic mother tongue as the medium for their poetry.

        Waray drama was once a fixture of town fiestas. Its writing and presentation were
usually commissioned by thehermano mayor as part of festivities to entertain the
constituents of the town. Town fiestas in a way sustained the work of the playwright. In
recent years, this is no longer the case. If ever a play gets staged nowadays, it is
essentially drawn from the pool of plays written earlier in the tradition of the hadi-
hadi and thezarzuela.

        According to Filipinas, an authority on the Waray zarzuela, the earliest zarzuela
production involved that of Norberto Romualdez’ An Pagtabang ni San Miguel, which
was staged in Tolosa, Leyte in 1899. The zarzuela as a dramatic form enthralled
audiences for its musicality and dramatic action. Among the noteworthy playwrights of
this genre were Norberto Romualdez Sr., Alfonso Cinco, Iluminado Lucente, Emilio
Andrada Jr., Francisco Alvarado, Jesus Ignacio, Margarita Nonato, Pedro Acerden,
Pedro Separa, Educardo Hilbano, Moning Fuentes, Virgilio Fuentes, and Agustin El
O’Mora.

        Of these playwrights, Iluminado Lucente stands out in terms of literary

accomplishment. He wrote about thirty plays and most of these dealt with domestic
conflicts and the changing mores of Waray society during his time. Although a number
of his longer works tend to be melodramatic, it was his satirical plays that are
memorable for their irony and humor, the tightness of their plot structure, and the
specious use of language.

        The hadi-hadi antedates the zarzuela in development. It used to be written and

staged in many communities of Leyte as part of town fiesta festivities held in honor of a
Patron Saint. It generally dealt with Christian and Muslim kingdoms at war. Today one
hardly hears about hadi-hadi being staged even in the Cebuano speech communities of
the region.

        Fiction in Waray has not flourished because it lacks a venue for publication.

        Cebuano literature produced in Eastern Visayas is still undocumented terrain. To

the writers from the Cebuano speech communities in the region, Cebu City is their
center. It is thus not surprising if much of the literature from these communities,
particularly fiction and poetry, have found their way into Cebu City’s publications. Known
Cebuano writers of Leyte like Eugenio Viacrusis, Angel Enemecio, Enemecio Fornarina,
and Fernando Buyser first published their fiction and poetry in Cebu publications, and
their works have afterward formed part of the literary anthologies in the Cebuano
language.

About the Author:

Victor N. Sugbo has edited two books: “Tinipigan: An Anthology of Waray Literature”
(1995) and “Illumined Terrain: The Sites and Dimensions of Philippine Literature”
(1998), both published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He also
writes poetry in English and Waray, a number of which have been published in
anthologies, literary journals, and national magazines. He teaches courses in English
and Communication at the UP Visayas and Tacloban College.
http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/literary-arts/the-
literature-of-eastern-visayas/