Nanding Josef: 'Artists can transform society'

Manila, Philippines - In the early ’70s, during the dangerous martial law years, actor Nanding Josef (later an educator and cultural administrator) joined PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association), an activist drama group which was under surveillance by the military under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Columnist Teodoro Valencia, a Marcos supporter, would warn director Lino Brocka (who had taken over as head of PETA from its founder, Cecile Guidote, who was in exile in the US) to be careful.

And Brocka, not yet politicized then, would call an emergency meeting and tell the staff to cool it, to cut down on the subversive anti-Marcos material. To balance things, PETA would present classics like Nick Joaquin’s Larawan (A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino) and the hit gay drama, Orlando Nadres’ Hanggang Dito Na Lang At Maraming Salamat.

The latter was even staged in General Santos City, Mindanao, where a rebellion was under way. “Of all plays to present while fighting was going on,” laughed Josef.

Things came to a head in the 1980s when artists joined a jeepney strike in Cubao, Quezon City, directors Brocka and Behn Cervantes were arrested, and the demonstrators violently dispersed. Josef, PETA actress CB Garrucho and others had to run for it and were almost caught. Fortunately, some media members came to their rescue.

The actor’s most memorable role was as Macli-ing Dulag, the martyred tribal leader who opposed the Chico River Dam. This entailed an exposure trip to Kalinga-Apayao, and the experience further opened his eyes and made him see the kind of government we had then.

“PETA actually purified my intentions,” he recalled. “And being an actor has strengthened my belief in God. My background (son of a shoemaker and factory worker in Marikina) helped to mold me into the kind of actor I became. And that was carried into film.” And into TV, too.

He has played an addict in Tatlo Dalawa Isa, a convict in Death Row, a corrupt general in Mano Po I, a shaman in Sapi, a jueteng policeman in Kubrador, and an 80-year-old war veteran on TV. Currently he is cast as Robin Padilla’s father in the teleserye Guns and Roses.

He was Nora Aunor’s rejected suitor in Bona, and had a bed scene with Gina Pareño (“in a hotel,” he chortled) in Tiket Mama Tiket Ale.

“Malalim ang training sa PETA,” Josef observed. “It involved a thorough study of the role, the psychological and social realities of the character. The training helped developed me not only as an actor but also as a person.”

The Method acting made him draw from his experience in expressing joy and sorrow. The acting exercises — and performing — help increase one’s self-esteem, social development and even IQ.

The character actor said this was shown in his Master’s thesis at the University of the Philippines, when honor students from the provinces who failed to pass the admissions test were given a chance to become freshmen, and were then subjected to PETA-like training exercises.

Josef feels the government and society in general do not give actors and other artists due importance, compared to other professionals like doctors and lawyers.

“They should recognize that actors and other artists are partners in nation-building,” he declared. “We are committed to ourselves and to society. We are honest in continuously doing something for our society. They should stop looking at us as glamorous entertainers. Good artists can play a major role in transforming society.”