MANILA, Philippines - Growing up in Samar and then in Las Piñas, Metro Manila, Joemar Obejas was an abused child, frequently being beaten up by his mother. Until one day he took some money and goods from the family sari-sari store, ran away from home and took refuge in an imbornal (sewer).
The sewage system stretched from Las Piñas to Parañaque, and Joemar chose the cleaner, less smelly portions and lived there, unclad most of the time, avoiding the running water, eating and drinking and doing his necessities, his urine and feces washed away by the water.
When he felt mischievous, the teenager would scare passers-by by shouting from beneath the openings.
He emerged two weeks later, like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man or Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean, but he was not inclined to go home and face his tyrannical mother. For 11 months, he lived on the streets, enduring the cold at night, interacting with the street kids, and experimenting with drugs.
When he returned home, he was welcomed back by his mother, who during his absence had realized she was in the wrong and henceforth became a better parent.
As you may have noted by now, Joemar is an unusual young man (he is now 28). He is a martial artist specializing in arnis, a performer (actor, dancer and flutist), shaman and an epic walker, among other attributes and skills.
The shamanic tradition was present among the elders in his family, although it stopped with him. Back in Samar, his grandfather would wake him and his brother Jeffrey up to instruct them on arnis, first with sticks then with itak (machete) and finally balisong, the deadly Batangueño knife.
The traditional view, says Joemar, is that arnis is for combat. Only later did he adhere to the modern view, namely, that it is also a sport. (Later they would give arnis exhibitions at the Luneta.)
Joemar is both spiritual and a physical person, his body toughened by arnis and long-distance walking. His grandfather, father and one uncle were shamans and healers who practised a kind of “witchcraft,” with anting-anting (amulets).
So at an early age, Joemar could sense or see spirits (his spirit guide was a woman called Caressa, a German psychologist in Singapore informed him); could hear voices (once he was frightened by a cat sending him messages); and read people’s aura.
“I can see by your aura that you misplace things, like me,” he informed me. “And as a writer you are open to new things.”
Like Joan of Arc going to battle, it was the voices which led him to walking. In Parañaque, a voice kept telling him: “Maglakad ka.” Was he going mad, he told himself. Frightened, he went to Baclaran church and prayed to Him for guidance: “Give me a sign.” As he left the church, he saw a man in blue shirt with the exhortation: You’ll never walk alone.
And that started him on his walking, “buong Luzon at Palawan.” He does this every September, with only a travel bag and a budget of P2,000 to see him through. This year, it will be Cebu. He can cover 2,000 kms. in one journey.
“Yung paglalakad pala is a process of learning, of connecting with the tribes, with the community, with people from all walks of life,” the intrepid adventurer says. “I can connect with the rich, I can connect with the poor. Nabuksan ang kamulatan ko, ang consciousness ko sa ibat-ibang salamin ng buhay.”
Film and the arts are another important component in Joemar’s multifaceted life, a virtual rainbow coalition. He plays the flute and performs rituals, including an “inner, intuitive dance” which is hard to describe. You have to experience it, he says.
It involves a graceful, circular movement of the hands, “the masculine side is our intention and the feminine side is the movement.”
He has played goons and warriors in plays and indie films for UFO Productions and choreographed fight scenes.
He is a member of the Actors’ Playground, a group formed by Soliman Cruz; and they meet regularly at Tomato Bomb, a resto-bar in Xavierville Village, Quezon City, where they like to improvise their act.
Percolating in Joemar’s mind is an idea — which he calls Kart — a plan, an objective to help in the personal development of the youth, aged seven to 18, especially those living in depressed areas who take a hopeless view of life.
“I resonate with the youth,” he declares. “Gusto kong tulungan sila.”