NEWS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS | A Great Review...and an Official Government Seal of Approval

NEW YORK CITY |  See that "Philippine Transparency Seal?" That's a government seal of approval from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Republic of the Philippines.

It was already very nice of the DFA to publish an article that reviewed my recent performance at the Philippine Consulate General of New York's Kalayaan Hall. But it was a whole other matter to get an Official Seal of Approval from the state.

That means that the article reprinted in its entirety below was thoroughly and completely vetted by every stakeholder inside the DFA before they published it on their official website.

What the article does not mention is that the evening I participated in raised some $40,000 in funds that will go directly to the Philippine Jesuit Foundation in New York, which will hand over the funds to Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines. The evening was a launch of a Build a Shelter program that would allow for actual homes to be built for all those Filipinos in central Visayas who lost their homes.

In the initial aftermath of the typhoon, people around the world gave money. However, those funds were geared for emergency relief. This flash funding will not specifically address the actual re-building efforts that needs to be undertaken long after the world has moved forward and the victims of the super typhoon stop becoming a huge part of the current news agenda. By then, it will become even more necessary to re-build new homes, perhaps even schools and buildings, in central Visayas and other regions severely impacted.

Build a Shelter Program (BASP) is a continuing program. For the time being, companies, organizations and individuals that would like to support the BASP can contact the Philippine Consulate General at email address: phcongen.newyork@gmail.com. They may also send check (with “Build a Shelter Project Fund” written in the memo line) to the Philippine Jesuit Foundation, 39 East 83rd St., New York, NY 10028.

It was a pleasure to be part of this important and necessary evening. How very nice of the DFA to say nice things about my performance and giving it a stamp of approval.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Filipinos in New York Celebrate
150th Birth Anniversary  of Andres Bonifacio 

with Poetry Reading, Film Screening

05 December 2013 – Love for country and hope for a better future was the theme of the Philippine Consulate General’s celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio last November 26 at the Philippine Center in New York City.

A fundraising town hall to launch the Build-A-Shelter Program for typhoon Yolanda victims took place earlier in the evening, where Consul General Mario L. De Leon, Jr. spoke about how ordinary citizens can emerge as a hero during times of crisis, much like Andres Bonifacio during the Spanish era.  The audience were then entertained and educated with a program in commemoration of the man oftentimes called the “Father of Philippine Revolution.”

Theatre actress Debralee Daco, who appeared in the Imelda Marcos bio-musical “Here Lies Love” read excerpts from the Lakambini ng Katipunan, Gregoria De Jesus’ life account that describes her marriage and family life with the Supremo and her participation in the Katipunan.

A poem written by Gat Andres himself, “Pag Ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” was brought to life by a rousing interpretation by Randy Gener.

The highlight of the program was a film showing of “Prologo to the Great Desaparecido,” by Lav Diaz.  The movie depicts Gregoria De Jesus’ desperate search for her husband’s body in the mountains for 30 days.

To relate the celebration to community fundraising efforts, Vice Consul Khrys Corpuz highlighted some messages in the film that resound to the community post-Yolanda: that we must not lose hope and that as a community we will find a cure for our kababayans’ misery.

The evening ended with Debralee and Randy reading Gregoria De Jesus’ 10 Advices to the Philippine Youth. END

TYPHOON RELIEF EFFORT | Lav Diaz Film for Bonifacio Day + FilCom's fundraiser for typhoon victims in Tacloban

BONIFACIO DAY CELEBRATION + FILM SCREENING OF LAV DIAZ FILM + "FRIENDS OF FILCOM: GIVING TOGETHER TO REBUILD LIVES"

NEW YORK |  November 30 is a public holiday in the Philippines. Why? It is the day Andres Bonifacio, the de facto national hero of the Philippines, was born.

The "official" national hero, as was designed by the Americans, is Jose P. Rizal. Bonifacio founded the Katipunan movement which sought armed independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine revolution.

Many advocates consider Bonifacio to be the "real" first President, although he is not recognized as such in the history books. The reasons are too complex for a blog post to unearth. Suffice it to say that the more popular recognition of Rizal as the Philippine national hero has no explicit legal designation in Philippine law. As a consequence of our colonial past, my native country officially celebrates two holidays in memory of two national heroes: Jose Rizal, the more famous patriot, and Andres Bonifacio, the underground hero.

I would like to invite you to the Philippine Consulate General of New York's 150th anniversary of the birth of Andres Bonifacio. The Consulate originally scheduled it for December 2, but then it moved it up to Tuesday November 26 to coincide with a Friends of FilCom fundraiser to benefit the victims of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in central Philippines.

FilCom stands for the Filipino American Communities of the Northeast. The Consulate is hosting a simple reception for this fundraiser, with the Bonifacio Day celebration as the evening's entertainment. The Consulate will update the New York community of the developments of the typhoon, relief efforts, government and international aid. That is the first part of the evening. Donations to the fundraiser, as the flyer above states, will go to the Philippine Jesuit Foundation.

The evening's second part (the entertainment) will consist of a poetry recital, a life account reading by the actor Debralee Daco (HERE LIES LOVE), and a film screening of an austere short film by Lav Diaz, one of the greatest Philippine film auteurs of all time.

I will deliver a performative recital of a poem written by Andres Bonifacio. The wonderful actor Debralee Daco will interpret the role of Gregoria De Jesus, the wife of Bonifacio. Daco will read from De Jesus's autobiography, an account of her life with her husband.

Both the poem and the Daco's reading from De Jesus's autobiography function as contextual material for the evening's film screening: a 30-minute short film, Prologue to the Great Desaparecido. It is Lav Diaz's introduction to his most important upcoming feature film The Great Desaparecido which questions truth and history around Philippine Revolution and Philippine Independence.

Prologue to the Great Desaparecido

In Prologue to the Great Desaparecido, we find Gregoria De Jesus searching for the body of Bonifacio in the mountains for 30 days. She calls for Bonifacio. She calls for the spirits even to help find her husband. It has been 325 years that the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule when the Revolution, led by Bonifacio, exploded on August 21, 1896. On May 9, 1987, Bonifacio was charged with a death sentence by counter revolutionaries led by Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino general who later appointed himself the first President of the Philippines.*

Seen in light of the Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, Gregoria De Jesus's search for her husband's in the mountains strikes me as deeply relevant in light of the search of Haiyan/Yolanda survivors for their own loved ones.

All this said, Debralee and I wish this evening will nevertheless be enlightening, edifying and in aesthetic terms entertaining. We also hope it will serve as a prologue to Lav Diaz's Prologue.

Lav Diaz, you see, is considered "the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema.” He began directing in the Philippine commercial film industry in the 1990's. But he received greater attention for films with clearly independent, socially conscious and artistic intentions such as Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcyon and Hesus Rebolusyonaryo.

After leaving the industry, Diaz sought to create his cinema on his own terms. Like the Danish auteur Lars Von Trier, Diaz's reputation rests on path-finding epic films. Beginning with the five hour Batang Westside in 2001 which won the Best Asian Feature at the 2002 Singapore International Film Festival -- followed by later films (such as the landmark near 11-hour Evolution of a Filipino Family, the nine-hour Heremias Book 1, Death in the Land of the Encantos and the seven-hour Melancholia (2008 Venice International Film Festival New Horizons Best Film) -- Diaz has used his long-form cinema to question the very nature of cinematic time and space.

His films also makes us aware of the inherently commercial nature of film-making. Most importantly, the very un-commercial nature of his body of work raise the notion of cinema as a possible tool for involvement, investigation, mourning, healing, remembrance, meditation, confrontation and action for his fellow Filipinos.

Please RSVP to events@newyorkpcg.org.

Prologue to the Great Desaparecido

*Footnote: Historians have condemned the killing of Bonifacio as unjust. Bonifacio did pose as a threat to the Revolution, because a split in the rebel forces would have resulted in almost certain defeated to a united front against the Spaniards. But historians have noted that the trial of Bonifacio was politically rigged. The Cavite leaders, led by Aguinaldo, wanted to wrest control of the Revolution from Bonifacio who exerted a spiritual reign. In other words, he had to be eliminated. Class played a significant role too. Aguinaldo represented the upper class and Bonifacio the middle and lower classes.