F. Sionil Jose tells it as it is

MANILA, Philippines - Why are Kris Aquino and Willie Revillame lionized? Why is the Filipino sinking into the morass of poverty and corruption? Is there hope for the Filipino? Who is at fault? These were questions asked recently in the lecture forum “How relevant and responsible are today’s writers?”

Who says that a lecture, such as the one presented by the Philippine STAR and National Book Store, should be boring? Certainly not if the main lecturer is the revered Francisco Sionil Jose — Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, National Artist, Pablo Neruda Centennial honoree, and multiple Palanca Memorial Awards achiever. He has also attained the greatest accolade a Filipino writer in English could possibly attain, that of having been translated and read in 28 languages including Tagalog, Ilokano, Korean, Indonesian, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch by publishers he didn’t look for but who sought him out.

Mainly a novelist, Sionil Jose has also written plays, short stories, a children’s book, essays, and the column “Hindsight” in STAR’s Lifestyle section. Although a lot of which was tackled in the forum can be found in his STAR columns, it is an invigorating exercise to listen to the humorist in F. Sionil Jose tell his tales, defend his opinions, repeat his advocacies with passion, and tell it as it is.

For Sionil Jose, there are no sacred cows as the audience at the Rockwell Power Plant witnessed. Even his master of ceremonies, STAR Lifestyle editor Millet Mananquil, and his panel of STAR editors Isaac Belmonte and Ana Marie Pamintuan, PCGG head Andy Bautista, ABS-CBN broadcaster Korina Sanchez, and former Pamantasan president, lawyer, and STAR columnist Adel Tamano were often put in positions of utter surprise.

However, the forum started everyone, audience included, let their hair down that the forum overshot its time limitation. Sionil Jose set the tone of the discussion by stating that he cannot understand why Kris Aquino has such a big following when she is not particularly talented and cannot act (although we need to point out that she is a voracious reader, which counts high in Sionil Jose’s book). And why Willie Revillame, who was responsible for the deaths at the Ultra stampede, continues to be popular when he should have been stopped right after the stampede. Willie exploits the poor who go to his shows, says Sionil Jose.

So why are they popular, someone asks.

Because, explains Sionil Jose, “The Pinoy is shallow, mababaw ang kaligayahan. Their idols reflect this shallowness. And Manny Pacquiao is another one of those with bloated egos who is not using his brains.”

He went on to beef about all those stupid talk shows on television along with gays on TV flaunting their mediocrity, El Shaddai followers being exploited, charlatans pretending to be saviors, Gloria Arroyo with blood on her hands for supporting the Ampatuans.

“I am 86 and this country is sinking into the abyss and who is at fault?” With fingers pointing at himself, he continues, “I am at fault for not being the writer I want to be. I have not been critical enough.

Who then should we blame?

“We should blame ourselves and media,” continues Sionil Jose, including the owners of media for the state of affairs. “It all starts with the leaders.”

It was Adel Tamano’s turn to share his views. The son of the late Senator Mamintal Tamano ran in the last elections and ended up in slot 23 in the race for 12 vacancies in the Senate. His personal statements regarding corruption in media include those in radio, television and print asking for bribes before any stories can be run about his candidacy.

Despite his loss, Adel with his intelligence, his passion to end the 20-year drought of Muslim representation in Congress, his obvious fan base judging from the whistles and applause from the gallery, Adel is doing what all good politicians worth their salt would do. He seems intent on changing the current situation.

Korina Sanchez shares her views with understandably guarded responses. “This is a very sad time for journalism in the Philippines,” Sanchez says. “Without going into details, corruption on radio, television, and print has reached levels unfathomable.” What is the solution, she is asked. She answers, “To say it as it is; to say that the emperor has no clothes if he has no clothes.”

Why have we sunk to these depths? F. Sionil Jose’s answer is one he has repeated over and over in his writings. We have no sense of nationhood like our Asian neighbors, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Indians and the Thais have.

In one of his STAR columns he wrote, “How then is this sense of nation created? Media must know how to nurture it and help it grow. The world abounds with examples of how poor, feudal countries modernized, became democratic states because they had this sense of nation and were able to resolve their internal contradictions and weld their diverse peoples to become strong citizens.”

Jessica Zafra asks, “How do we achieve a sense of nation? To which Sionil Jose answers, “By decolonizing your mind.” As Ian Buruma from The New York Review of Books says of Jose, “The foremost Filipino novelist in English... his novels deserve a much wider readership than the Philippines can offer. His major work, the Rosales saga, can be read as an allegory for the Filipino in search of an identity.”

Finally, this we understand. We are not a nation because we hang on to the vestiges of Spanish and American ways of life, and do not seek our own roots. And until this happens, we shall sink deeper and deeper into ignominy until it will be each one for himself; bribery and corruption will be rampant; and we shall have forgotten that once it was said that the Filipino was worth dying for.

* * *

E-mail the author at bibsycarballo@yahoo.com.