Dulangan Song for the Dead?

If you search "Dulangan Manobo" on Youtube, one of the top results would be a video that claims to feature a song for the dead of the Dulangan Manobo. The video shows two women in tribal garb, their backs on the camera, facing a coffin and singing in a tongue that would have been mellifluous had the circumstances been different. I had goosebumps while watching the video. Also, one question kept bothering me: Are the singing women really Dulangan Manobo, or is the video erroneously labeled?



I know a very few Dulangan words and I've heard some Dulangan speak among themselves using their own tongues, but my knowledge and experience is not enough for me to determine if the language in the video is indeed Dulangan. The setting itself is suspect. The wake is that of a non-Manobo man—a Christian, to use the word loosely—who had probably endeared himself to the tribal people while he was alive, so the scene is not a traditional lumad funeral. The deceased, a former communist leader and later government official, might have engaged with a lumad community for some time, but the tribe was probably B'laan, not Dulangan Manobo, as one short biography of his states. Lastly, the clothes the women in the video are wearing, though tribal, do not seem Dulangan to me. The long-sleeved blouse of one woman is bright gold, and Dulangan women rarely wear such a color. The patterns of the skirts are also a little too fancy. They must be malong from Indonesia or Marikina.

At the end of the video, one of the women explained to the other mourners the meaning of the song. The audio is not very good, but I can figure out enough words to judge that she's speaking in Hiligaynon with a thick tribal accent, and she is speaking the same way the Dulangan of Kulaman do when they use Hiligaynon! The singers for the dead might indeed be Dulangan. I'm confused.

14th Iyas National Writers Workshop

I got in to the 14th Iyas National Writers Workshop in Bacolod City. Below are excerpts from the email I received. If you want to know how to apply to the workshop, visit the De La Salle University website.

Congratulations! Out of 74 applicants (5 more were not considered due to late submission), the Screening Committee has selected you as one of the 15 fellows of the 14th IYAS National Writers' Workshop to be held at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City on April 20 to 26, 2014.

We will have a welcome dinner on Sunday, April 20, 2013 at 6:30 pm at the residence of Dr. Elsie Coscolluela, together with the fellows and panelists of the Kritika Workshop for Arts Criticism, which will run parallel to IYAS.

The workshop proper will start at exactly 8:00 am on Monday, April 21. In addition to our regular plenaries and small group interaction with panelists of your choice, we will have interface activities with the Kritika group, and other literary readings/events, which will be in the final program.

I submitted two short stories to the workshop. Strictly, none of them are set at the heart of Kulaman Plateau. One story is set in Palimbang, a neighboring town, although the name of the town is not explicitly stated in the story. The story has something to do with Moro separatist rebels who are still in their teens. The other story is set "somewhere in North Cotabato" in 1970s. It is about a band of Ilaga, a large but loosely organized Christian paramilitary group that fought against Muslims.

The two stories, though, resonate with the people of Kulaman. Moro rebels and Ilaga, at some points, have had some activities at the plateau. Here are more details about the Bacolod workshop, taken from Negros Daily Bulletin:

The fellows for fiction (in English) are Gian Carla Agbisit, Rolly Jude Ortega and Rodolfo Eduardo Santiago; (in Filipino) Marvin Einstein Mejaro; (in Cebuano) Vitaliano Aton, Jr.; (in Hiligaynon) Meryl Panuncio, and (in Kinaray-a) Mark Joseph Torrechilla.

Fellow for drama in Filipino is Christa De la Cruz.

The fellows for poetry (in English) are Christian Jil Benitez, Allen Faw Samsuya, and Michael Villas; (in Filipino) Allan Lenard Ocampo and Paolo Miguel Tiausas; and (in Cebuano) Jessrel Gilbuena and Jeffrey Javier.

IYAS will interface with the Kritika National Workshop on Art and Cultural Criticism sponsored by the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center and the NCCA, which will also be held on the same dates at the University of St. La Salle.

The interface activities include an introduction to Negrense culture through trips around Bacolod, and to nearby Talisay, Silay, and Victorias cities to see cultural and environmental landmarks like the "Earth Chapel."

The IYAS Workshop Director is Dr. Marjorie Evasco and the panelists for this year are Dr. Rebecca Añonuevo, Dr. Genevieve Asenjo, Ms. Grace Monte de Ramos, Mr. Danilo M. Reyes, and Mr. John Iremil Teodoro. IYAS Founder and Project Director Dr. Elsie Coscolluela also sits in the panel.

The IYAS National Writers’ Workshop is co-sponsored by the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center of De La Salle University and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and will be held on April 20 - 26, 2014 at the Balay Kalinungan Complex of the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City.

53rd Silliman University National Writers Workshop

The accepted fellows to the 53rd Silliman University National Writers Workshop have been announced, and what's this piece of news got to do with this blog? Well, I'm one of the lucky applicants, and the works I submitted are all Manobo-themed! I wrote them while I was bumming around Kulaman Plateau more than a year ago.

Since I was just around, I received my acceptance letter a few hours after the deliberation.

I really wanted to submit new works, but since I came back to Visayas to work again, I haven't had much time to write new pieces. And speaking of time, I don't have much to spare right now to give you more details about the workshop and how I applied. So please bear with the official announcement, taken from the Silliman University website:

The 53rd edition of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop is slated to start on 5 May 2014 at the Rose Lamb Sobrepeña Writers Village in Camp Look-out, Valencia, Negros Oriental.

Twelve writers from all over the Philippines have been accepted as workshop fellows. They are Jose Jason Chancoco (Ateneo de Naga), Daniel Hao Chua Olivan Jr. (Ateneo de Manila), Maria Camille Rivera (UP Diliman), and Roberto Klemente Timonera (Silliman University) for poetry; Jovy Almero (UP Diliman), Prescilla Dorado (UP Mindanao), Jose Renato Evangelista (DLSU Manila), Rolly Jude Ortega (Silliman University), and Erlinda Mae Young (UP Diliman) for fiction; and Johanna Michelle Barot Lim (University of San Carlos), Jan Kevin Rivera (UP Diliman), and Gracielle Deanne Tubera (Ateneo de Davao) for creative nonfiction.

The panel of writers/critics for this year includes Director-in-Residence Susan S. Lara; Dumaguete-based writer César Ruìz Aquino; and guest panelists Gémino H. Abad, Dean Francis Alfar, Merlie Alunan, Ricardo de Ungria, Marjorie Evasco, Grace Monte de Ramos, Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, DM Reyes, John Jack Wigley, Alfred Yuson. They will be joined by two foreign panelists whose names will be announced later.

The workshop, which traditionally lasts for three weeks, is the oldest creative writing workshop of its kind in Asia. It was founded in 1962 by S.E.A. Write Awardee Edilberto K. Tiempo and National Artist Edith L. Tiempo, and was recently given the Tanging Parangal in the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This year, the workshop is co-sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.

If you are interested to join, check out the call for submissions. The rules are almost the same every year, and it's never too early to prepare:

The Silliman University National Writers Workshop is now accepting applications for the 53rd National Writers Workshop to be held 5—23 May 2014 at the Silliman University Rose Lamb Sobrepeña Writers Village.

This Writers Workshop is offering twelve fellowships to promising writers in the Philippines who want to have a chance to hone their craft and refine their style. Fellows will be provided housing, a modest stipend, and a subsidy to partially defray costs of their transportation.

To be considered, applicants should submit manuscripts in English on or before 15 January 2014. All manuscripts should comply with the instructions stated below. (Failure to do so will automatically eliminate their entries). Applicants for Fiction and Creative Nonfiction fellowships should submit three to four (3-4) entries. Applicants for Poetry fellowships should submit a suite of seven to ten (7-10) poems. Applicants for Drama fellowships should submit at least one (1) One-Act Play.

Each fiction, creative nonfiction, or drama manuscript should not be more than 30 pages, double spaced. We encourage you to stay well below the 30 pages.

Manuscripts should be submitted in five (5) hard copies. They should be computerized in MS Word, double-spaced, on 8.5 x 11 inches bond paper, with approximately one-inch margin on all sides. The page number must be typed consecutively (e.g., 1 of 30, 2 of 30, and so on) at the center of the bottom margin of each page. The font should be Book Antiqua or Palatino, and the font size should be 13.

The applicant’s real name and address must appear only in the official application form and the certification of originality of works, and must not appear on the manuscripts.

Manuscripts should be accompanied by the official application form, a notarized certification of originality of works, and at least one letter of recommendation from a literature professor or an established writer. All requirements must be complete at the time of submission.

Send all applications or requests for information to Department of English and Literature, attention Prof. Ian Rosales Casocot, Workshop Coordinator, 1/F Katipunan Hall, Silliman University, 6200 Dumaguete City. For inquiries, email us at silliman.cwc@gmail.com or call 035-422-6002 loc. 350.