Good men, moving

On World Theatre Day, Monday, March 27, at the Emilio Aguinaldo College Auditorium, Cecille Guidote Alvarez presented a preview of a new zarzuela, "Something to Crow About", written by Doctor Alejandro R. Roces, who was our national artist for literature in 2003.

Cecile is the head of our National Commission for Culture and the Arts. She assembled a very strong production team for this zarzuela. The original music was composed by Ferdinand Dimadura, orchestrated by Nonoy Diestro, and performed by the U.S.T. Conservatory of Music and the U.S.T. Orchestra. The choreography was done by Gigi Velarde and Enrico Labayen; the sets and costumes by Len Santos; and the lighting by Katsch Catoy.

All of the cast had beautiful voices, and the dancing was superb. It was reminiscent of "CATS" on Broadway. In CATS the dancers imitated real cats. In "Something to Crow About", the dancers represented real fighting cocks, in action, in a cockpit. The whole show was very Filipino, and filled with magnificent scholarship on the amazing history of cock fighting – right back to the Greeks, the Romans, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. This production will appeal to Filipinos, wherever it goes.

Actually, it will have its formal world premier in May, when 170 nations come here to celebrate theatre as an instrument of culture. It will be in New York from May until September.

Anding Roces has dreams of this musicale hitting Broadway. The story itself has a fascinating history. When Anding Roces graduated from high school at the Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura, his father sent him to Arizona University to study engineering - mining - because the family owned a little mine in Palawan.

Anding went there reluctantly, because – he says – even now he has trouble figuring out fractions. In his first year at Arizona he failed all his subjects, every one! He was notified that he could not continue at the University, and after being dismissed for failing all subjects, no other University would accept him. In misery, he was packing his bag to go home, when he was summoned to the office of the Dean.

There, he was confronted by five dignified, well-dressed men. They asked him: "Where did you learn English?" He said, mystified: "In the Philippines!" . . . . . The examiners asked: "Do they speak English in the Philippines?" He said: "Yes". Then followed a fierce cross-examination. Did he read Hemingway?. . . . . What else did he read? . . . .It went on and on, ending with an oral examination on "Tobacco Road".

Finally, the leader of the five said: "We owe you an apology. . . . You just won the national short story contest. . . . . . We could not understand how a Filipino drop-out, who had failed all his subjects, could win in competition with Americans who were working for their Ph.D.!. . . . . You may stay in the University. . . . Only you must change your course."

That winning story was: "My Brother’s Unusual Chicken", which is the basic plot of "Something To Crow About!" If it could win a national short story contest in the United states, it will probably be a smash on Broadway.

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The Georgetown Club of the Philippines has been meeting regularly for the last ten years. Georgetown is the oldest University in the United States. It was founded with the birth of the nation, in 1776. For years it was famous as the finest Foreign Service School in the world. Recently, it has also been rated very highly in medical research, and in business.

Many Georgetown graduates are living and working in the Philippines. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, President; Bert Romulo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Doctor Francisco Duque III, Secretary of Health and the head of Philhealth; Doctor Jorge Garcia, one of the finest heart surgeons in the world; Doctor Jesus Perez, who was for years Dean of Medicine at Saint Luke’s; Bobby Paterno, president of the Philippine Cancer Society; Doctor Benito Legarda, passionate historian, among many other things; and a host of doctors, lawyers, business men and women, educators and scientists.

Each one is doing good things, where they are. But it does not seem to be enough. Recently the Georgetown Club held a Council of War, and decided to place a number of young people on the Board of Governors, to see if they could promote some strong, unified action that would bring prosperity, unity and peace to this country. In natural resources, the gifts of God, we are one of the richest nations in the world. But in our actual economy, we are at the bottom of the barrel.

So the new Board of Governors is a mixture of new young graduates, and veterans who have borne the heat of the day and the burden: Regis Puno, Judge Vicente Roxas, Andrew Padovano, Doctor Jesus Perez, Amy Pavodano, Jacklyn Asuncion, Aurelio Bartolome, Miguel Silos, John Espiritu, Norma Nierras, Christine Ledesma, George Hodges, Evangelina Arroyo, Doctor Socorro Alejandrino and Daniel Tumangan. They are facing the national problem, and trying to do something about it.

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FELTAF – the Fellows of the Asia Foundation - is an organization of natural leaders who have been given grants by the Asia Foundation to undertake activities which would develop and strengthen the Philippines.

The Asia Foundation has been working in this country for more than fifty years, trying to develop leadership, to alleviate poverty, to restore peace, to bring about unity within this country, and unity of thought and action among the nations of Asia. To do this, they have given more than 2000 grants to competent men and women in the Philippines.

Each of these workers are doing great, wherever they are. But it does not seem to be enough. Too many of our people are living under the poverty line. We have too many squatters, too many children who are uneducated; too much conflict among our politicians, too many good men and women leaving the country.

So Feltaf held a general assembly of its active members, very recently. They presented four problems which they want to face, as a body: poverty, education, justice, and ecology. The presentation on justice was beautifully done by Dean Froilan Bacungan, a gentle, humorous, wise leader, and by Ambassador Sedfrey Ordoñez, whose whole life has been consecrated to the obtainment of justice. They want to make justice accessible principally to workers, to tillers of the soil, to the homeless urban poor, and to the indigenous cultural communities.

The doctrine of "Laissez Faire" has possessed the world for many years. It is the belief that if each one does his best to succeed in his own career, somehow, all the world will get better. But that does not seem to work. Everyone in FELTAF feels the need for united action.

* * *

We do not need a change of government. Even a change of people will not be enough. What we need is a complete change of heart, all of us, all over the country. We must reach out to one another, rich and poor, learned and those who have never been to school, Christian and Muslim and Buddhist. We must care for each other, share with each other, work for each other.

In 1896 we almost did it, fighting the oppression of Spain; during World War II, against the Japanese occupation, we almost did it; in 1986, in Edsa I, we almost did it, fighting the oppression of dictatorship.

Now we must do it – not fighting against anything. Reaching out for each other, a complete national surge, outward to each other, and upward to everything that is beautiful and good. We must break down all the walls between us, build bridges over the things that separate us: water, language, culture, life style, religion, politics. We are all children of the same God.

And it is happening! Gawad Kalinga, building homes together; Pondo ng Pinoy, sharing with each other; Our Lady of Peace Mission, reaching out to all the tribal natives; and a little army of NGOs, operating feeding centers, running medical missions; offering free dental treatment, free treatment of their eyes, including glasses for the destitute poor.

You can feel it! It is a slow, growing, irresistible national surge. Poverty is not a matter of economics. It is a matter of relationships! As soon as we all say of each other: "You are my brother! You are my sister!" and believe it, each one in his heart, we will rise out of the darkness into the light. . . . . .together!