Inquirer Mindanao
Poetry, politics and political killings
By Germelina Lacorte
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:58:00 05/24/2008
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Two days after a peasant leader was gunned down in front of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) office in Ma-a District in Davao City, a poet’s words read before a small gathering of writers, students and teachers in a university came to life, calling attention to political killings in the country and the farmers’ age-old struggle for land reform.
National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera read his poem “Lupa” (Earth) before the crowd at the Ateneo de Davao University, jolting some who could only relate it to the killing of Celso Pojas, secretary general of the KMP-affiliate Farmers’ Association of Davao City (FADC), on May 15.
“Sa Mendiola noon ang hiningi namin ay lupa/Lupang sarili na mapagkukunan ng ikabubuhay/Ng aming mga anak at ng mga apong ibubunga nila./Subalit nag-utos ang panginoong maylupa/At ang burukratang hawak nila,/At kami ay sinalubong ng teargas at bala.”
The poem was dedicated to farmers killed in the quest for genuine agrarian reform in Mendiola in 1987.
Lumbera was in the midst of discussing it when a professor pointed out to him that the latest peasant victim of extrajudicial killing in the country was in Davao.
Pojas, 45, was killed in Ma-a District at 6 a.m. when he went out of the KMP office to buy a cigarette. He was the first political activist assassinated in the city, the 14th activist killed this year, and the 903rd since President Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office in 2001, according to the human rights group Karapatan.
“A government is never justified to kill its citizens,” Lumbera said as discussions on poetry turned his audience’s attention to politics. “The state does not have the right to use force against its own people clamoring for change.”
“Lupa” was one of four poems included in the book “Poetica, Politica,” which will be released next month. It spoke of the killing of peasant leaders during martial law and even shortly after the fall of dictator and under the administration of Corazon Aquino, in Mendiola.
Lumbera described the poem as a “warning” to those who would turn a blind eye to what was happening in society. A time will come when farmers, now clamoring for genuine agrarian reform, will rise up to bring about real social change, he said.
Lumbera, who was cited for his “literature dedicated in search for nationhood” when he was named National Artist in 2006, said a poet could never isolate his poetry from politics. A poet has the responsibility to point out the ills of society, to call attention to what is happening and awaken the people’s consciousness for genuine social change, he said.
He debunked claims that the words used by a poet were solely the poet’s own. “It is important to point out that the words used by the poet are already used by other people in the community and have acquired meanings that embedded itself into the poem,” he said. “So that the language that the poet used is no longer exclusively his own.”
“Whether he likes it or not, it’s no longer the poet speaking once it leaves the poet,” he said. Very often, people read poetry as if it’s a poet’s expression, he said.
Lumbera noted that amid the political killings, some poets had also been abducted and put to jail, but “it’s not because they are poets.”
“It’s not true that writers are persecuted because they are writers, but because they are involved in activities that threaten the unjust social order,” he said citing the poet Axel Pinpin, one of the five farmers abducted in Tagaytay City on April 28, 2006, now known as the “Tagaytay 5,” and slapped with a rebellion case.
Pinpin “was not imprisoned because he was a poet but because of his activities,” Lumbera said. “But the use of force by the state against its citizens could never be justified.”
A poet’s word is potent only when used by a movement to awaken the consciousness of the people, he said.
During the gathering, Lumbera also read his poems, “Dalangin para sa Batang Grasa,” which took the form of a prayer and called attention to the plight of street children; “Tayo ang Gumuhit,” a song in a libretto reminding people that they created their own destiny and refuting the prevailing culture of dependence upon the powers-that-be; and “Nabosesan,” a satire on the unresolved “Hello, Garci” scandal.
A poem may not have the capability to change society but once it is used by a movement, it can have the power to change the consciousness of the people to support social change, Lumbera said.
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