The Rebirth of Freedom (1946- 1970)

Submitted by:

Ferdinand Zamora V-BSAE

Historical Background

The Americans returned in 1945. Filipinos rejoiced and guerillas who fled to the mountain joined the liberating American Army.

On July 4, 1946, the Philippines regained is freedom and the Filipino flag waved joyously alone. The chains were broken.

A. THE STATE OF LITERATURE DURING THIS PERIOD

The early post-liberation period was marked by a kind of “struggle of mind and spirit” posed by the sudden emancipation from the enemy, and the wild desire to see print.

Filipinos had, by this time, learned to express themselves more confidently but post-war problems beyond language and print-like economic stability, the threat of new ideas and mortality – had to be grappled with side by side.

There was a proliferation of newspapers like the FREE PRESS, MORNING SUN, of Sergio Osmeña Sr., DAILY MIRROR of Joaquin Roces, EVENING NEWS of Ramon Lopezes and the BULLETIN of Menzi. This only proved that there were more readers in English than in any ocher vernaculars like Tagalog, Ilocano or Hiligaynon.

Journalists had their day. They indulged in more militant attitude in their reporting w hich bordered on the libelous. Gradually, as normality was restored, the tones and themes of the writings turned to the less pressing problems of economic survival.

Some Filipino writers who had gone abroad and had written during the interims came back to publish their works.

Not all the books published during the period reflected the war year; some were compilations or second editions of what have been written before.

Some of the writers and their works of the periods are:

THE VOICE OF THE VETERAN – a compilation of the best works of some Ex-USAFFE men like Amante Bigornia, Roman de la Cruz, Ramon de Jesus and J.F. Rodriguez.

TWILIGHT IN TOKYO and PASSION and DEATH OF THE USAFFE by Leon Ma. Guerrero

FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY – by S.P. Lopez

BETRAYAL IN THE PHILIPPINES – by Hernando Abaya

SEVEN HILLS AWAY – by NVM Gonzales

POETRY IN ENGLISH DURING THIS PERIOD

For the first twenty years, many books were published…both in Filipino and in English. Among the writers during this time were: Fred Ruiz Castro, Dominador I. Ilio, and C.B. Rigor. Some notable works of the period include the following:

1. HEART OF THE ISLANDS (1947) – a collection of poems by Manuel Viray

2. PHILIPPINES CROSS SECTION (1950) – a collection of prose and poetry by Maximo Ramos and Florentino Valeros

3. PROSE AND POEMS (1952) – by Nick Joaquin

4. PHILIPPINE WRITING (1953) – by T.D. Agcaoili

5. PHILIPPINE HAVEST – by Amador Daguio

6. HORIZONS LEAST (1967) – a collection of works by the professors of UE, mostly in English (short stories, essays, research papers, poem and drama) by Artemio Patacsil and Silverio Baltazar

The themes of most poems dealt with the usual love of nature, and of social and political problems. Toribia Maño’s poems showed deep emotional intensity.

7. WHO SPO KE O F COU RAGE IN HIS SLEEP – by NVM Gonzales

8. SPEAK NOT, SPEAK ALSO – by Conrado V. Pedroche

9. Other poets were Toribia Maño and Edith L. Tiempo Jose Garcia Villa’s HAVE COME, AM HERE won acclaim both here and abroad.

NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH

Longer and longer pieces were being written by writers of the period. Stevan Javellana’s WITHOUT SEEING THE DAWN tells of the gri m experiences of war during the Japanese Occupation.

In 1946, the Barangay Writer’s Project whose aim was to publish works in English by Filipinos was established.

In 1958, the PEN Center of the Philippines (Poets, essayists, novelists) was inaugurated. In the same year, Francisco Arcellana published his PEN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT STORIES.

In 1961, Kerima Polotan’s novel THE HAND O F THE ENEMY won the Stonehi ll Award for the Filipino novel in English.

In 1968, Luis V. Teodoro Jr.’s short story THE ADVERSARY won the Philippines Free Press short story award; in 1969, his story THE TRAIL OF PROFESSOR RIEGO won second prize in the Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and in 1970, his short story THE DISTANT CITY won the GRAPHIC short story award.

THE NEW FILIPINO LITERATURE DURING THIS PERIOD

Philippines literature in Tagalog was revived during this period. Most themes in the writings dealt with Japanese brutalities, of the poverty of life under the Japanese government and the brave guerilla exploits.

Newspapers and magazine publications were reopened like the Bulaklak, Liwayway, Ilang Ilang and Sinag Tala. Tagalog poetry acquired not only rhyme but substance and meaning. Short stories had better characters and events based on facts and realities and themes were more meaningful. Novels became common but were still read by the people for recreation.

The people’s love for listening to poetic jousts increased more than before and people started to flock to places to hear poetic debates.

Many books were published during this time, among which were:

1. Mga Piling Katha (1947-48) by Alejandro Abadilla

2. Ang Maikling Kuwentong Tagalog (1886- 1948) by Teodoro Agoncillo

3. Ako’y Isang Tinig (1952) collection of poems and stories by Genoveva Edroza Matute

4. Mga Piling Sanaysay (1952) by Alejandro Abadilla

5. Maikling Katha ng Dalawampung Pangunahing Autor (1962) by A.G. Abadilla and Ponciano E.P. Pineda

6. Parnasong Tagalog (1964) collection of selected poems by Huseng Sisiw and Balagtas, collected by A.G. Abadilla

7. Sining at Pamamaraan ng Pag-aaral ng Panitikan (1965) by Rufino Alejandro.He prepared this book for teaching in reading and appreciation of poems, dramas, short stories and novels

8. Manlilikha, Mga Piling Tula (1961-1967) by Rogelio G. Mangahas

9. Mga Piling Akda ng Kadipan (Kapisanang Aklat ng Diwa at Panitik) 1965 by Efren Abueg

10. Makata (1967) first cooperative effort to publish the poems of 16 poets in Pilipino

11. Pitong Dula (1968) by Dionisio Salazar

12. Manunulat: Mga Piling Akdang Pilipino (1970) by Efren Abueg. In this book, Abueg proved that it is possible to have a national integration of ethnic culture in our country.

13. Mga Aklat ni Rizal: Many books about Rizal came out during this period. The law ordering the additional study of the life of Rizal helped a lot in activating our writers to write books about Rizal.

PALANCA AWARDS

Another inspiration for writers in Filipino was the launching of the Palanca Memorial Awards for literature headed by Carlos Palanca Sr. in 1950. (Until now, the awards are still being given although the man who founded it has passed away). The awards were given to writers of short stories, plays and poetry.

The first awardees in its first year, 1950-51 in the field of the short story were the following:

First Prize: KUWENTO NI MABUTI by Genoveva Edroza

Second Prize: MABANGIS NA KAMAY…MAAMONG KAMAY by Pedro S. Dandan

Third Prize: PLANETA, BUWAN AT MGA BITUIN by Elpidio P. Kapulong

Mamapasano Clash

President Aquino went to great lengths on Wednesday to give context to the slaughter of 44 members of the National Police’s Special Action Force. Context of course is important, particularly an understanding of a long history and larger objectives, given that there can be no avoiding one fact: This was indeed a slaughter, in the sense of the Republic’s loss in this one mission having been utterly complete, unrestrained, un-mitigated. 

Let us await the findings of a specially constituted “board of inquiry”, our Commander-in-Chief said. In the meantime he proceeded with the history and objectives that led to the airlifting of more than 300 of the PNP’s finest from Luzon to an unfamiliar and, until then, unheard of swamp of a barangay in war-torn Maguindanao. 

First, PNoy reminded, remember that we are committed to a global war on terror. “High-value targets” Marwan and Usman not only had a combined $7-million bounty on their heads, they are mass murderers with the DNA of al-Qaeda and Jema'ah Islamiyah, perhaps in recent months preening for an order from ISIS. The Malaysian Marwan, in particular, had a warrant for his arrest since 2002, for orchestrating the Bali Bombings. 

PNoy asked: What kind of President would stand in the way of the serving of a warrant, especially given that the fugitive has embarrassingly found safe haven in our own territory, if within a recognized enclave of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)? 

As if anybody had argued for that. In truth, with regard to the matter of the

greenlighting of Mamasapano, the most important question put to President Aquino was not “Why?” but “Who?” As in: Who gave the go-ahead for this fatally flawed mission? More pointedly, PNoy was asked: Was it not you? 

The President was glib. He said that permission was never sought and, frankly, was never needed. In any case, he said: “Isn’t the question rhetorical?” Marwan is a terrorist, there is a warrant for his arrest, and such serving of warrants, and such effecting of arrests, is the job of the police. So why should anyone even bother the President with a by-your-leave just to do his job? 

Here’s one reason: To cover one’s ass. Which is not always a bad nor inappropriate motive. In this case, it is the practical and responsible move. SAF was smart enough to acknowledge that maybe there is a larger picture to consider. This was after all a mission that could potentially derail an ongoing peace process. Negotiations with the MILF had in fact entered a crucial and fragile phase. Congress, under time pressure, is deliberating the passage of a contentious Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the promulgation of which could set Mindanao on a path to sustainable peace and progress – if it doesn’t undermine Philippine sovereignty first. 

Why ask permission to carry out a lawful mandate? It is because in this case, there is shit, and up there is a fan, and should the twain meet… 

The SAF commander who was sacked in the aftermath of the Mamasapano massacre, Director Getulio Napenas, needed to brief the President. More than once, on every occasion prior to the launch of the mission. Nobody, it seems, other than PNoy was consulted – not the DILG secretary, not the acting chief of the Philippine National Police, not anybody in the military (the Armed Forces chief and the relevant units near the area were told when the police commandos were already on the ground, and firing had by then begun), not the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. Napenas has more than owned up. He has owned it all. But clearly, responsibility for the debacle falls on all who knew and chose to keep it between the two of them. 

President Aquino says he told Napenas to coordinate as necessary. (As in:

“O, ikaw na bahala.”) The commander of SAF said: “K.” And that was supposedly that. The Commander-in-Chief presumed that implicit in his reminder was the presumption that the PNP and AFP and DILG would indeed be informed, though it never struck him as strange that none of them were ever in the room, nor ever cc’d in the invitations to the briefings. 

It is the implausible – and insultingly riddled – narrative offered by Malacanang that has the people shaking their heads. 

Never mind the MILF’s own plea that nobody coordinated with them either. The one point that the public is willing to allow government in this tragic mission is that the MILF, too, has a lot to explain, and is in no position to demand anything of anyone. Certified terrorists were coddled in an area under MILF control. Either the MILF was complicit and conniving, or it was ignorant and impotent. Either way, Filipinos ask, how in Allah’s name could the MILF be trusted to run even an autonomous barangay? 

President Aquino tries to frame the people’s resulting dismay and distrust, and their demand for such accountability – from government and from the rebels – as baying for war, and then raises the straw man with its fist in the air, just long enough to call for the sobriety that nobody has actually lost. As upset as Filipinos are, it would be a stretch to say that any significant portion of the population has called for the peace process to be abandoned. 

Said PNoy: “Let us also consider: The members of the SAF perished in the course of pursuing their duty to maintain security. If the peace process does not succeed, if we were to return to the status quo, or if violence were to worsen, wouldn’t this be the very opposite of what they died for?” 

The line would be moving if it weren’t so dishonest. Rich, coming from a government that ordered the SAF into terrain they did not know, with no cover, no backup, and no chance in hell. It was the government that has cast uncertainty as to what comes next. 

Let us now be the ones to remind: SAF was not sent to Mamasapano in the name of peace. They were ordered to arrest a fugitive. By higher-ups who

knew or should have kept in mind the full context and larger objectives in Maguindanao, Mindanao, the BBL, the peace process, but who trumped it all with a mission to satisfy… whom, Mr. President? 

Let us now be the ones to clarify: There are two contexts here, not one, and they are separate. The global war on terror is not necessarily intertwined with the quest for peace in Mindanao. They complicate each other, but not to the point of interdependency. 

President Aquino knew, or should have known, that any bumbling in Maguindanao would have the potential to derail the peace process. For something so important, it is unfathomable – though more and more it seems in the realm of his character or competence – that the President would so easily relinquish responsibility. It is therefore he who insulted the SAF – even before he disrespected their mandate and professionalism when he, the “Father of the Nation,” chose to look at gleaming Mitsubishi cars at their plant in Laguna over bowing before the caskets of our men as they arrived at Villamor Air Base from the killing fields. How dare he use the slaughter into which they were ordered to cover for how their leaders’ decision-making has critically injured the BBL and the peace process. 

Filipinos will grant that mistakes were made. They will even grant good faith. And, for all their anger and the furious questions in their minds, they will await the report of the board of inquiry. But in exchange they demand at least sensitivity, transparency, and accountability. 

So far the President has failed them on all counts.