Prints and Traces

This day—July 10—is my birth day anniversary. It was impossible for the remarkable events that happened to my life on this day in 1974 and onward to all the years during my detention to escape from my remembrances.

The existence of any entity in this world is inherently invested with a purpose or function—what we call its reason for being. It’s true to natural things as to human creations. That which ensues from the inventive genius or creative passion of humans belongs to that domain we call Art and properly falls under the concerns of the Humanities. But that is not the subject of this essay.

We have said it in no uncertain terms that President Noynoy Aquino could have been drunk with power. We have surmised that the popular vote he got in the last elections was some kind of an intoxicant—an intoxicant so sweet and powerful it could have had a habit-forming effect on his sensibilities as a State official.

Again, President Noynoy manifests his awesome power in disregard of the legitimate guidelines and processes involved in the selection of a National Artist. In a very arbitrary act that smacks of disdain and injustice he snubbed the proclamation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA} and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) for Nora Aunor as National Artist for Movie.

What a heartening experience that despite the constant drum of raindrops on the roofs and the ceaseless pounding of habagat seawaves in our corner of the world, come this host of friends from the neighborhood to enliven my drab evening with interesting discussion on the jailing of Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada.