The letter

Jose “Dodong” R. Gullas, the chairman of The Freeman and executive vice president of the University of the Visayas, a firm believer in God’s will and providence, is a grizzled veteran of life. It takes more than just an ordinary human challenge to get him flustered and unsettled.

But flustered and unsettled he got a few days ago, all on account of one letter that, on the surface, looked just like the many others he receives on any given day in his office at the university. But that puts us ahead of the story, so allow me to put things into context first.

Sir Dodong is a great lover of Cebuano culture and music. It is a passion manifested in his Halad Museum, and finds expression in the biennial tribute concerts he organizes and also calls, like the museum, Halad.

Halad is Cebuano for offering, or tribute, and it is no surprise that Sir Dodong would choose it over many other words of similar meaning but are far more catchy. But that is not the way of Sir Dodong. He is straightforward and comes right to the point.

Halad is his way of giving back to the Cebuano, to the community that has been so much a part of his life and which he has served so well. It is a tribute as well to the vast pool of talents whose cultural and musical output gave Sir Dodong many of his great moments of pleasure. 

Sir Dodong started the first Halad concert in 2006 to honor great Cebuano composers whose lives and works he sought to perpetuate by rekindling interest in them. But interest only comes with knowledge, hence his decision to also put up the Halad Museum as home of Cebuano music.

The Halad Museum is perhaps the only one of its kind in being devoted to Cebuano music and should prove very helpful to students who want to reconnect with their musical heritage. In it, for example, is the piano on which Ben Zubiri composed the immortal “Matud Nila.”

The Halad concerts, on the other hand, were started in 2006 as tributes to find Cebuano artistry. Often practically free, they were never for commercial profit. Since then, Sir Dodong had other Halad tribute concerts in 2007, 2008, and 2010. Halad 2012 is this Sunday at Radisson.

The 2010 concert at Waterfront featured Pilita, Dulce, and Raki Vega and was particularly memorable in that it drew one of the biggest crowds ever for Cebuano talents. December 2’s Halad 2012 tribute concert at Radisson Blu Hotel will star the award-winning UV Chorale.

While the UV Chorale is rather contemporary, Sir Dodong wants to pay tribute to it not just because he is personally responsible for its revival or that it has racked up an enviable treasury of international awards.

As said at the outset, Sir Dodong is a deeply religious man. The fact that the UV Chorale was invited to perform at one of the Triduum Masses in Rome for the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod, and to provide dinner entertainment to Church dignitaries greatly humbled Sir Dodong.

Now back to the letter mentioned earlier. Sir Dodong got the letter while he was in the thick of preparations for his free but by invitation only Halad 2012 tribute concert on December 2 at Radisson Blue.

You know what the letter said? For starters, the salutation addressed Sir Dodong not as Sir Dodong, the name by which every Cebuano knows him, nor even as Mr. Gullas. The letter began with “Dear Sir Jose:.”

If Sir Dodong did not get a sinking feeling right then, it would follow soon after. The letter sender informed Sir Dodong that a commercial concert featuring relatively known singers was being organized ostensibly as a tribute to San Pedro Calungsod. The concert name? Halad 2012!

But if you think naming a commercial concert exactly like what you have been offering for free the past several years was what floored Sir Dodong, think again. The letter asked Sir Dodong to assume and take over the concert because organizers incurred a budget shortfall of P360,000!

Not only that, the letter claimed organizers have printed 15,000 tickets for the concert but managed to sell only 100 and so would want Sir Dodong to sell their tickets as well. Wow! Now you can imagine why even a grizzled veteran of life like Sir Dodong can sometimes get very upset.