We are Back!By JO MARTINEZ–CLEMENTE, Editor
Unless I insist that all Filipinos came from the “royal oats” sown by the Bornean Datus when they first came into the country, I take no roots nor bearing in Western Visayas. And so I insist – but with due respect to the people of the region.
I first came to Iloilo City in the early 80s as a delegate to the national congress of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. It was a very fleeting visit, the place hardly remembered as we were more embroiled in the issues confronting student writers then than doing the rounds of the province.
I shunned another opportunity to frequent the area when I was with the public relations department of one of the top corporations in the country. For one reason or another, I wasn’t able to visit Iloilo or any part of the region (except Bacolod City) the eight years I was there even as I move about every nook and cranny of the Philippines. When I left the company, I had in my desk quite a number of unused plane tickets all bound for Iloilo.
Until recently, Western Visayas for me was synonymous only to big political names that come from the region: Drilon, Defensor, even Jose Pidal. It is also home to two provinces lodge among the country’s bottom 20, Antique and Guimaras. But a destination area for tourist as it is also host to Bacolod’s Masskara Festival and Aklan’s Ai-Atihan and yes, for better or for worst, the world renowned, Boracay.
Call it serendipity, but soon after, my succeeding engagements as consultant of the Philippine Office of an international development organization brought me to the inner depths of the region. My encounter with ordinary folks in Guimaras and Northern Iloilo brought back a sense of what I lost along the way. These are in areas where there is more water than land and how people cope with day to day concerns. I joined fisherfolks in the island barangay of Bangongon in Conception, Iloilo as they laid out artificial reefs in the sea. Together with the community at the Jordan Marine Reserve in Guimaras, we let out to its natural habitat a pawikan. The interest spawned by these discoveries led no more.
Skeptic to the hilt, I found fresh hopes in some of the local government officials I met from the region and believed once again that there is still hope for the country.
And then I remembered. As an aspiring writer, I looked up to Graciano Lopez Jaena, one of Jaro’s most illustrious sons. In the days of our student activism, we took our hats off to one Antonio Tagamollila, an Ilonggo. And now I know that Guimaras and Antique are no longer in the list of the country’s poorest but are two of the most promising areas in the country.
In sum, Western Visayas for me has ceased to be a simple spot on the map. Whatever reasons fate has for shutting me out of the area in the past is probably the same reason why the area was superimposed before my very countenance now.
Be that as it may, I take liberty in saying all this to lend a bit of transparency as to who I am and why am I here and in doing so, be allowed to just move about without having to insist that I too, came from the barren soil sown and enriched by Datu Sumakwel and his peers.
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We are back!By the Stoplight
Jo Martinez-Clemente
Finally, after hundreds, nay, even thousands of years, we ponder at the crossroads laid before us. Which corner should we take? Must we walk through or cross when the red light flashes? And so, by stoplight we pause.
In Iloilo City, this stoplight could be any which one that hang in its mid-streets. But not so. In this community, there is only “the stoplight” and this is the one that beams over four street corners with four different names: Infante, Gen. Luna, M.H. del Pilar and Diversion.
What makes this stoplight pretty interesting is that it has become more of a landmark than the structures that surround it. And what makes it special is the fact that when someone refers to a stoplight, this is the one that sticks out like a sore thumb in the minds, even in the hearts of the residents.
Whatever made that is similar to whatever made the legend of the Bornean Datus rest in the heart of Panay and in the consciousness of its people.
The historical anecdote, true or not, sits at the very core of the region as this is the one that makes Western Visayas distinct from the rest of the regions in the country. It is this unique story told and retold through the centuries that gives credence to Panay’s claim that it is the cradle of Philippine’s civilization.
Yet, even as we grow and mature as a community, the stoplight never cease to flash its red light. So that now, we say “lugar lang,” and we pause and ponder anew.
We stop looking at what hangs and beams above us and at the crossroads lain before us.
Instead, we look back, more intently this time, because we want to move ahead with more defined steps. But still, we are thankful for out stoplight and the legend we grew up with because it is these common experiences that gave us a more defining sense of self.
Today, we are taking charge, ready to rewrite our own history as we know ourselves to be.
Yes folks, we are back online inspit of the global financial crises. The WV Magazine now in blog format willcontinue to feature stories about the Western Visayas Region.
The long hiatus gave us opportunity to explore places, meet new friends and gather interesting materials. These include frequent trips to the different provinces of Western Visayas and my half year journey in China and Azerbaijan. Yes folks, there are also Bisaya (Ilongo and Cebuano) in these places. You would be amazed on what they do to survive and be able to send home their hard earned dollars. You can see the result in Antique, Ilo-ilo and Negroes Occidental, the OFW houses.
Stories about the people, society and environment of Western Visayas remain the main feature of this on-line magazine blog. Jo Martinez-Clemente, Associate Publisher and Editor of WV Magazine will give you vignette on the lives, dreams and aspiration, their concerns as they navigate the matrix of reality or unreality we are all embedded.
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