ARMIDA LOCATION HUNTING IN ILOCOS

Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Feb. 18, 2003 (By Armida Siguion-Reyna) -- As you read this I will be location-hunting in Ilocos Norte for the rest of the year's episodes of Aawitan Kita. It is a job, I keep on telling myself, and that is why I must go. The truth is, all this talk about war unnerves me; I'd rather be where there is peace and calm and here in Luzon I find it only in the northernmost part of the island where pinakbet is cooked like food for the gods.

I had wanted to take a road trip to Samar and Leyte, but well-meaning (in other words, pakialamero) members of the family cautioned me not to take unfamiliar terrain in these uncertain times. I reasoned that my driver Sammy is Waray and therefore most knowledgeable of the area, but even then, they said, the route to Ilocos you know like the back of your hand, you're safer there.

So it's off to the north for me, where for at least five days I shall content myself with calling home for news, made easily possible by the cellular phone we hardly knew ten years ago and all of a sudden simply cannot do without.

My bags are packed, from my daily clothes down to my unmentionables, my vitamins, and my porta-toilet, a great traveling convenience introduced to me by the late Charito Solis. I will be away from home, but not really, for Ilocos Norte is like home to me. I am an officially adopted daughter of the region I adopted as early as when I did the role of the rebel Gabriela Silang in the 16mm telemovie Dung-Aw, directed by Lino Brocka, in the mid-70's.

To refresh your memory, Gabriela Silang was the widow of Diego Silang (in the telemovie, played by Mario Montenegro), who took over the leadership of the Ilocano revolt after her husband's assassination. After the defeat of the Spanish from the British invasion of 1762, Diego Silang led a revolt that saw the expulsion of the Spanish provincial governor from Vigan. His other victories in minor battles pushed the Spanish authorities to have him assassinated: On May 28, 1763, he was shot in his own house in Vigan by one Miguel Vico, whom he believed to have been his friend.

Gabriela did not merely grieve; she fought courageously to overthrow the Spanish government and avenge her husband's death. She was finally captured in Abra, where she and about 100 followers were executed on September 20, 1763. To say that maganda ang kuwento ni Gabriela Silang is an understatement; I am mightily proud to have played her in my lifetime because no one can be cast in the role just like that. Kailangan talaga, matapang ang karakter ng gaganap and, modesty aside, in my younger days I fit the role to a T.

I remember grabe ang preparasyon ko at that time. I didn't only study the emotional requirements indicated in the script; I went into her physical nature as well. She was said to have been an excellent horse-rider, so although I knew how to stay put on a trotting horse, I wanted to also look credibly good on a galloping horse. I took special horseback-riding lessons and while the effort paid off on screen, sa tutoo lang, nahulog pa rin ako sa kabayo during the shooting.

My love for Ilocos and what is Ilocano doesn't stop at Gabriela Silang. I am also attracted to the story of Leona Florentino of Vigan, acknowledged as the mother of Philippine women's literature. She started to write in Spanish and Ilocano when she was 10. Her poems came out in Europe in 1889, making her the first internationally recognized Filipino poet.

She ran away from home to escape criticism from ilustrado parents who did not approve of her writing. As a married woman, she left her husband and son (Isabelo de los Reyes, father of the Filipino labor movement and, with Gregorio Agliplay, founder of the Philippine Independent Church) who did not like her “erotic” poems.

By today's standards, her writing would hardly be considered erotic, for example: “ANG PAGPAPAALAM (Panagpakada) (salin mula sa Samtoy ni Josie Clausen; isinaayos ni Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo) “O Mutya ng pag-ibig, ako'y dinggin Nasadlak sa hirap at dumaraing; O Puso, maanong amutan ng tingin, Ang kaawa-awa'y iyong pansinin. “Tunay ngang kaawa-awa Itong inulila ng yumao Nguni gumagaang ang pakiramdam Pagkat alaala mo'y laging kaakbay. “At bilang pamamaalam Sa iyong piling ako'y lilisan Pagkat nalasap ko ang tuwa at ligaya Na hindi mawawala sa aking alaala. “Malungkot akong magpapaalam Adyos, Liyag, mabangong asucena; Sa aking masamyong dibdib itatago kita, Nang ang bango mo'y di na maglaho pa. “Ngayo'y lagi nang kalong ng katahimikan At kasa-kasama ng mapait na lumbay Pagkat sa diwa ko'y umiibis ang kalungkutan Nagbibigay-wari ng kahabagan. “Samahan ka ng Diyos, O punong-puno ng sigla Gayundin yaong sa pag-ibig nagnanasa, Samahan ka ng Diyos, ikaw na nagtatago ng pag-irog Ang puri mo't dangal kailanma'y di madudurog.”

These were written when no decent woman ever admitted that sex was pleasurable, so you can just imagine the uproar, the reaction to frank admissions of “…nalasap ko ang tuwa at ligaya / Na hindi mawawala sa aking alaala.”

From all appearances, Leona Florentino did not like being censored. She is a kindred spirit I plan to pay tribute to in Aawitan Kita, and hopefully, with a film. Like Gabriela Silang almost a century before her, she is my kind of Ilocana.

Talking about kindred spirits, I must also say it is perhaps Juan Ponce-Enrile, the first Ilocano in my life, that made loving Ilocos a breeze.

Johnny, or Juanito, as we first called him, had an Ilocano accent so thick one could cut through it. He was so probinsiyano, I never thought I'd live to see the day this new-found brother, still fresh in my mind driving us to school and chopping firewood in our house in Maysilo, Malabon, would someday wear a coat and tie so comfortably, like he'd been born to it.

Meeting him introduced us to the Ilocano described in our schoolbooks. Frugal, for yes, he was that, marunong sa pera, at hindi gastador, to this day happier with a plate of paksiw na bangus than with a steak. Hard-working, for yes, he got into second-year high school at St. James Academy when he was already 19, and despite a sparse educational background in Cagayan, managed to graduate at the top of his class.

I missed his birthday party for this trip, but he knows I was with him, like always, in spirit. Ay-ayatin ka, JPE!