Anti-Estrada songs top Tarlac charts

TARLAC CITY — There’s a current rage of an album that contains some of the biggest underground pop music hits since the unlamented Marcos regime.

Available in cassettes and compact discs, Erapsongs plays regularly in anti-Estrada rallies and public gatherings here in this home province of former President Corazon Aquino.

The much sought-after album is distributed by the Resign Erap! Sigaw ng mga Tarlaqueño (REST), a broad coalition of anti-Estrada forces belonging to militant peasant and labor groups, the business community, out-of-school youth and student sectors, professionals and opposition parties.

Erapsongs, or "Erap: The White Album," may indeed never win a platinum award, but its 12 songs have become instant folk hits.

The tracks were recorded under the label "Pirate Records," whose logo consists of a skull and crossbones.

According to Tarlac historian Prof. Lino Dizon, chairman of the Center for Tarlaqueño Studies of the Tarlac State University, the skull and cross bones symbol was used during the time of the Katipunan and meant "a fight to the death."

Instead of a parental advisory warning, the album says it is "proudly underground and bravely patriotic." And instead of copyright law reminders, the label states: "Copyleft 2000. Copying, reproduction, distribution, hiring and lending highly encouraged."

The songs are reworkings of old rock and roll tunes from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as send-ups of recent pop hits, including one entitled "Contra-Vida Loca," patterned after Ricky Martin’s "Livin’ La Vida Loca."

Another song, "Sumpain si Erap (Curse Erap)," has the beat of "Mambo No. 5."

Other Erapsongs have titles like "Huling-huli," "Jueteng Lord" (George Harrison’s "My Sweet Lord"?) "Evil Ways ni Erap" (after Santana?), "It Won’t Be Long (Good-bye Erap)," "Wonderful Erap" (after Eric Clapton’s "Wonderful Tonight"?), "Ang Baho mo Erap," "Jueteng Minute," and "Bye-bye Erap."

And there’s even a bonus track, "Jinggoy Boy," sung to the tune of "Jingle Bells" and dedicated to the presidential son, San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada.

The distribution here of Erapsongs, whose lyrics range from the witty to the libelous, is so widespread that the album plays in videoke bars, restaurants and even beauty parlors and barber shops.

Several municipal and barangay officials, who have joined REST, have even been playing Erapsongs in barangay discos and public gatherings.

And local radio station dzMC-FM, which has the widest audience share, regularly plays tracks off the bootleg album.

Copies of Erapsongs were first distributed here by the Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA), whose members include former Tarlac Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco and his wife, former Gov. Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco.

These have been reproduced by REST convenors led by Vice Gov. Herminio Aquino, provincial chairman of the opposition Lakas-NUCD, and distributed by militant groups such as Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Tarlac, League of Filipino Students, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, fraternities and the peasant sector.

Sen. Raul Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko has also helped in the reproduction and distribution of Erapsongs.