The Great Conjunction

JEANNIE JAVELOSA  

Tonight and tomorrow dawn will be a perfect time to intensify prayer, meditation, positive intentions to kickstart positive shifts and look up to the sky to see a fantastic rare celestial event called the Great Conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter (in 0.29 degrees of the Aquarius constellation). This degree position can be likened to a seed which holds the potential of the great tree that the seed can grow into.Just google the internet to learn more but this event as everyone is talking about it.

In a nutshell from my astro-evolutionary understanding: this event pushes humanity into intensified changes plus a new trajectory and paradigm of consciousness: the “new norm” that we are all struggling to define now. It is about creating new sustainable structures that benefit the many and not just one; of drawing in spiritual energies into the practicality of our daily lives; of choices that support life aligned to the planet and not just profit; of collaborations for the good and that the way is collective and not alone.

More remarkable in its timing, the great conjunction happens at the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and the annual cycle of “deepest slumber of the soul”. How potent a timing this is as the planetarial alignments trigger a new awakening of humanity’s soul at its galactic connection to God’s multiverse.

Ancient and present day astronomers and astrologers have followed and studied similar events in the past identifying these points as the beginning of a new leap on consciousness on the macro level where new socio-spiritual-cultural movements begin: as it was seen as the Bethlehem star highlighting the Christos Light descending into human form,

Galileo’s study of this that began the intense studies of space and the beginning of the Renaissance period in the west. Some say last this was seen was back 400, 600, 800 years back. With so much info online what we can say is that on a personal level, it will mark intense changes towards a new and different trajectory whether you are ready or not.

As someone who reads the stars, I can only marvel in awe at the perfection of timing of the Divine Intelligence. So let us take the shift with no fear, let the old structures that do not work…go, let healing embrace you and be open to the radically different. (For those who know their birth charts, check the degree and house where Aquarius is in your chart, that’s where you will see the push where the shift of your life will come from.)

iskho lopez (1948-2020)

met him in the late sixties sa A.S. basement, UP diliman.  writer na siya noon, contributing sa Collegian.  i was impressed and inggit.  ran into him again more than a decade later in the very early 80s, in another basement, the Metropolitan Museum’s, where Metromagazine, the weekly multi-channel tv docu, was being produced for the Metro Manila Commission by marita manuel and jorge arago’s gang of visual artists.  he was in the entertainment industry na.  from writing movie reviews and PR stuff, he had branched out to screenplays for award-winners such as Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa, co-written with raffy guerrero (1974) and Pagputi ng Uwak, Pag-itim ng Tagak (1978) with lando jacob and direk celso ad. castillo.

at the time i was writing feature articles, later a tv junkie column, for Parade magazine, and on the side reading birthcharts of everyone who asked, including iskho (sun in aquarius, moon in virgo).  and then i got into the Philippine Sesame Street Project as headwriter, along with noel añonuevo as light action film director, and iskho gave it a try, writing for kids, na kailangan funny and appealing, like a tv commercial, pero no special fx at ang daming bawal.  naloka siya — declared himself for-adults-only.

in ’84 when jorge and most of the gang had moved out of 1818 kansas st. in malate to bliss pasig and landlady evelynne horrilleno was still in the states, iskho and lorrie purisima turned the main house into a coffee house of sorts and called it Kape Talismo.  at the time i had moved on from Sesame and joined jorge in putting  out a journal on alternative futures (junie kalaw’s call for sustainable development), meeting twice thrice a week sa marietta apts., also in malate; invariably we would end the day in kansas, having cold beer and kamote fries with whoever else happened to drop in on iskho.

“….it was quiet on the hippie front off taft,” sabi ni krip yuson, “until Iskho Lopez came up with his Kape Talismo  …  celebrity chefs were featured, but the exclusive clientele couldn’t pay in cash or have plastic cards swiped. They had to exchange their lucre for Kape Talismo dollars, if I recall right.”  i do recall one night with celebrity chef baboo mondoñedo, but kape-talismo-dollars is new to me, maybe because i never asked.  i do remember dropping cash into an urn passed around by santi bose.

martial law pa noon, post-ninoy, and the ferment was real, especially on the “hippie front”.  there was a palpable sense of a center that wouldn’t hold, of things coming to a head, and kape talismo (loved the word play) was a great place to hang around with kindred spirits from left right and center, almost presaging the EDSA to come.  or maybe good vibes lang talaga ang 1818 kansas, at si iskho na rin, who was also writing movies sunudsunod for elwood perez.

after EDSA parang kinareer na ni iskho ang publishing.  in cory times he asked me to write for Bongga, a showbiz tabloid that he was editor of.  binuhay niya ang tv junkie column ko and let me go taglish, which was fun.  bandang 1990 nuong full blast ang anti-US bases campaign, i was asked to put together a proposal for a multi-media multi-genre campaign for the Philippine Information Agency.(PIA).  pinagtulungan namin ni iskho at naibigan naman ni noel garth tolentino ang trabaho namin,  inspired! sabi pa niya.  except that cory suddenly went pro-bases and we were dropped like hot potatoes, as in, ni hindi kami binayaran kahit man lang for expenses incurred.  hayz.  laking tuwa namin sa salonga senate nang mapatalsik anyway ang bases.

early in FVR times he was with Manila Standard as lifestyle/entertainment editor; bitbit uli ang tv junkie.  and then in 1996 there was ISYU, the all-opinion tabloid with nonoy marcelo as art director that was even more fun than Bongga because i got to write not just showbiz stuff but politics and environment too.

panahon din ni FVR when an advertising bigwig who learned that i was putting together a chronology of the four EDSA days made bulong, in case i hadn’t heard, that rosemarie “baby” arenas, rumored ex-mistress of the prez, was one of the first people to come out in support of the two bandidos.  i started asking around, sinong may konek, magpa-interview kaya?  iskho to the rescue.  kilala niya si mila alora, publicist ni ms. arenas,  next thing i knew, we were on our way, katrina, iskho, and i, with gerry gerena who videotaped the interview.  i leave it to katrina to make kuwento what she and iskho were cackling about while wolfing down bowls of pistachio nuts behind the scenes.

in GMA times post-garci, when she banned celebrations of the 20th EDSA anniv at the shrine, and nagtawag si jojo binay sa ayala, makati, who should we run into but iskho, with the chiz contingent, if memory serves.  from showbiz to politics, why not.  the year before had not been great.  we were in bistro remedios with him and jorge, noel and ed pacheco — galing sa private viewing ng A la verde, A la pobre (2005) ni briccio santos — and ed and noel, taking turns, kept breaking into song… “don’t cry for me, argentina”… sabay nguso kay iskho a.k.a. “evicta peron” — di na naman nakakabayad ng rent!  tawang tawa kami ni katrina, i guess dahil rin cool na cool naman si iskho, tipong what else was new nga naman.  which is why the fulltime job sa Manila Times as news desk editor was really good news. and, as it turned out, parang itinadhana.

next stop: malacanang palace, no less. “Uy congrats to kafatid Iskho Lopez,” sey ni salve asis nuong sept 2010:  “Bongga. Na-appoint siyang Editor in Chief of the Presidential News Desk. Yup, sa Malacañang na siya nago-office. … Si Sec. Sonny Coloma ang immediate superior niya.”

nakarating tuloy ako sa casa roces, that very sosyal resto across the palace, where iskho hosted a dinner for me in october 2011 dahil di siya nakarating sa august launch ng Revo Routes.  noon ko nabitbit si jorge for the last time at umapir din sina leah makabenta at nini yarte, at si noel, of course, bitbit si mayee fabregas.  better late than never si direk elwood perez plus 1.

in 2013 when my book designer for EDSA Uno requested a copy of gen. fabian ver’s blackboard map of the EDSA camps that had been preserved and was reported to be on display in the  Presidential Museum and Library, walang kahiya-hiyang binulabog ni katrina si tito iskho sa palasyo.  as always, iskho was the gracious host: made sure she and partner vito were on the guest list for the day and even met them at the gate (tight ang security, they had to leave laptops and camera behind).  he had also earlier scoped the museum (na ang gulo pa raw) and so knew where exactly the blackboard was.  siyempre katrina stole some shots on her cellphone.  pagkatapos ay nagpameryenda pa si manash sa casa roces, hindi nagmadaling bumalik sa trabaho, must have welcomed the break from palace politics.

huli ko siyang nakadaupang-palad in feb 22 2014.  nasa casa roces kami ni katrina to join honey de peralta’s book club Flips Flipping Pages in a discussion of EDSA Uno (2013) on the 18th anniv.  jumoin din si iskho, at pagkatapos ay we hied off to BGC to meet up with noel for a long dinner and chat, mostly about ishma, whose anti bio was next on my list.  nakabaston na si iskho noon but he denied really needing it, napulot lang daw niya sa taxi, lolz.

tuloytuloy pa for a while ang tawagan namin sa telepono at messaging sa facebook.  tuwing may iskandalong nababalita, siya pa rin ang aking touchstone.  totoo ba?  kung minsan he’d shrug it off, nagpapapansin lang; pag totoo naman, tiyak na may dadag siyang tsismis na delicious.  he had quite a network, and he seemed to know everyone worth knowing.  once he phoned just to tell me: hoy, si ano, nagsusumbong, tinag-team daw niyo siyang mag-ina!  tatawatawa.  ahahaha.

nuong ginagawa ko na ang Pro Bernal Anti Bio (2017), may pangalang nabanggit si ishma sa isang interbyu by aruna vasudev na hindi ko ma-place.

ISHMA  “We were influenced by three big festivals in the mid-60s that were initiated by the glitterati, principally headed by Rejii Moreno.  His film society, for example, showed Kurosawa films like Rashomon, plus the great Satyajit Ray flms – The Apu Trilogy, … Charulata. We even got to see classics like The Cranes are Flying from the Soviet Republic.”

i first asked ed cabagnot who had just shared some vignettes on a couple of bernal films for the book.  sino si rejii moreno?  sagot niya: “Naku, try Iskho Lopez… He might know.”

ISKHO:  Hahaha! Talaga? “Rejii Moreno”??? Sino siya? “HE” pa ang gender, ha! …  Virgie Moreno had the Salaguinto Film Society in the mid to late 60s –siguro 1965 or 66 to coincide with Los Indios Bravos.

again, iskho to the rescue!  he knew his stuff.  and i could go on and on with these memories, ang dami ko pang kuwentong iskho.  ngayon ko lang naarok that he was such a part of my writing life, from showbiz to politics.  and i’m so kilig for him that jullie yap daza’s nov. 28 column “Passing through” says goodbye to him in the same breath (so to speak) that she says goodbye to altasociedads ado escudero and louie cruz (also gone in late november), noting their “glory days”.

I assume Iskho Lopez knew Ado and Louie, even if it’s not likely that the two moved in Iskho’s circle. Iskho’s last job ended in 2016 with the Benigno Aquino III regime, for which he was chief editor of Malacañang’s news desk. Eternally a free-lance entertainment writer-editor, he surprised his colleagues when he bagged that position, miles away from the stars but close enough to rub elbows with the high and mighty.

Ado, Louie, Iskho: Passion was their calling card.

bongga ka talaga, iskho!  talbog kaming lahat!  #NotBadAtAll 

 

59th U.P National Writers’ Workshop on ZOOM

i didn’t catch all of Likhaan: the 59th UP National Writers Workshop but what i did catch (some 6 or 7 of 12 sessions) i thoroughly enjoyed.  how great that it was open to the facebook public, requiring no registration or hassle of any kind   i’ve never been part of a writers workshop kasi, i’m not sure why, haha, but i’ve heard stories, of course.  and after the first sessions that i caught, i found myself remembering Sesame, a seven-month gig where i learned to face and deal with criticism without batting an eyelash, parang workshop na rin.  the ability to face criticism is good, worth cultivating, if one is to grow as a writer in whatever genre.  but wait, on second thought, there’s a huge difference between my gig-as-workshop and Likhaan.  other than CTW producer tippy fortune who sat me down in several one-on-one sessions through the different stages of rewrite, my regular critics were mostly the production team — executive producer, director, head researcher, art director — who were just as nangangapa as i was.  in contrast, Likhaan’s panelist critics are seasoned writers, most of whom i’ve read at one time or another but never really seen / heard perform other than on the printed page.  and so it was a blast watching / hearing them strut their stuff, so to speak.  jimmy abad, butch dalisay, neil garcia, charlson ong, bomen guillermo, cristina pantoja hidalgo, roland tolentino, and luna sicat cleto, in particular.  comments were focused and forceful, drawn from personal and professional wisdom, affirming and encouraging, questioning and challenging, pointing out the “infinite possibilities of the imagination” from “marvelous realism” to “science vs, magic”, even of an “alternative value system”, why not indeed, along with questions like, to what end?  saan papunta?  sustainable ba?  “sana matamis hanggang dulo, parang tubó” — ang ganda, ang dulas, ng tagalog ni luna sicat cleto, puwede talaga (i should stop with the taglish, LOL)!  but the top take-away for this fag hag, i mean, LGBTQIA+ ally, was all that juicy stuff (from such credible sources!) about kabaklaan being bawal in the communist movement in the ’70s through the ’90s and yet someone very close to joma was gay?!?  (da who!?!)  i sure could have used some of that for the ishmael bernal anti-bio!

Historical revisionism and fake news

Amelia H. C. Ylagan

History is always the most revered authority, and the ultimate teacher. It is empirical proof of expected results from conditions and contexts as naturally presented by science or as conjured and executed by minds. What has happened, has happened, and there is always a lesson learned.

But the life that History gives to concepts and principles can be limited not only by the durability of physical archives but the fickleness of minds — who may carelessly forget lessons learned, or, worse, actively tamper with facts and data to suit biases and whitewash personal culpability in the deconstruction and revision of what may be a notorious Past.

An example of negative historical revisionism is David Irving’s controversial book, Hitler’s War (1977), where the dictator Adolf Hitler is shown as innocent of the Holocaust and that only Heinrich Himmler and his cohorts masterminded and executed the genocide of six million Jews in Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945.

Are Filipinos about to accede to a revision of history over the 14 year-dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos — editing out as well the glorious EDSA People Power Revolution that ended the most notorious period that killed about 3,240, imprisoned 70,000, and tortured 34,000 people from 1972 to 1981, according to data of Amnesty International?

On the 48th anniversary of Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law, an online conference on historical revisionism titled “Balik Ka/Saysay” was held from Sept. 21-25 by the Ateneo University-based Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) and Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation, in partnership with Tanggol Kasaysayan and Bulatlat. The conference focused on disinformation and the machinations of politics, on the inadequacy of education, and extensively described the exacerbating influence of social media and fake news on perception and the formation of new mores and values.

Keynote speaker at the ACFJ webinar was novelist Lualhati Bautista (Dekada ’70 and Gapo) who went underground during the Marcos martial law, and despite the strict censorship imposed by the government, wrote about the anxieties and fears of ordinary Filipinos in those tremulous times. “Never forget; never again!” was her heart-wrenching message. But for those listening to her recounting of the hounding and torture of those who defied Marcos then, her horrible reminiscences might have fallen differently on unreceptive ears of those who did not directly experience martial law. How devastating to hear a young reactor at the conference, a self-proclaimed “fan” of Ms. Bautista for her art, dismissing the pathos of a dark history by concluding a long-winded to-and-fro on doubting what may be “exaggerations” in the telling of the martial law situation then. “It is not my context,” she might have said in so many words, as she quite directly insinuated to this aghast listener who has seen Lualhati Bautista’s horrible scenarios in the context of 48 years ago.

“It is not my context” is the obvious indifference of most of the younger generation that did not see the excesses and horrors of martial law played out in reality. Adding cold emotion to whatever near-boiling empathy might be brought by stories told by seniors is the obtrusive social media virtual reality replete with ready fake news that the younger generations might have made its instant real Reality — their “context.”

At the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) theater showing early in the year of Kingmaker, a documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield about former First Lady Imelda Marcos, an open forum was held mainly to wrap up for attending groups of students from various schools, the “Never Again” information campaign of rights groups to educate the younger generation about the perils of autocratic government. Resource person Etta Rosales, tortured and imprisoned in Martial Law, gave inputs and answered questions from the students. It was the same basic concern of the Youth: “What is in it for Me?”

Recalling that open forum, and reviewing the ACPJ conference on historical revisionism, it sends chills through this older person to realize that a better way must be found to protect those who have not personally experienced Martial Law and its excesses from the frightful chimera of History repeating itself. The protective instinct of the Elders must work within the context of the Youth, in their Reality and in their Present — and perhaps resignedly acquiesce to their focus on “What is in it for Me.”

University of the Philippines Professor Francisco A. Guiang in a comment about historical revisionism cites the historian Carl L. Becker who said that “Every generation writes its own history… we build our conceptions of history partly out of our present needs and purposes…” (1955). Hence, while the older generations might be concerned about the immoral revision of their history, the younger generations are focused on writing their own, based on their present needs and purposes, their values and principles, taught to them by their parents by example, or by individual collective experiences and environments.

It must be admitted that in the 14 years of the Martial Law experience, victims and beneficiaries all have been writing history by the acceptance, refusal or compromises made then, and many have effectively rewritten and revised that history in the 34 years after the euphoric EDSA People Power Revolution, directed by changing individual and collective present needs and purposes. Some guilt might lie in admitting that the older generations might not have shown good example and firm guidance to the younger generations as to the values and principles that urged the collective judgment then that martial law the way Marcos did it was wrong and unconscionable.

Why did the Filipino people allow President Rodrigo Duterte to bury the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani? We have revised History. Marcos is now a hero.

The Marcoses plundered the country’s coffers, with various estimates putting the amount at between $5 billion to $10 billion, as reported by ABS-CBN in 2017. The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the body going after the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, is still recovering this money; over the past 30 years, at least P170 billion have been recovered. The Supreme Court dismissed in 2018 a civil suit seeking the recovery of over P50 billion in moral damages and P1 billion in exemplary damages sought by the PCGG over the Marcoses. The Sandiganbayan in 2011 junked the case, saying the PCGG failed to prove that the defendants connived to amass ill-gotten wealth.

In 2008, former First Lady Imelda Marcos was acquitted of an $863-M corruption case involving 32 counts of illegally transferring wealth to Swiss banks abroad during her husband’s 20-year rule. Would you wonder why the documentary Kingmaker did not jar the young viewers at that open forum held after the screening, despite the first-person account of Etta Rosales of her torture during Martial Law? Imelda is guiltless. History has been re-written.

It seems that the onus of responsibility to keep the integrity of history clearly rests on those survivors of Marcos’ Martial Law. Alas, so few of the older generation still have the passion to pursue the noble upholding of the Truth. At least those who still care that History must not repeat itself for the younger generations must devise and design active ways, albeit from physically deteriorated capabilities (but still-solid minds) to inculcate values and principles above present needs and wants of the younger generations.

The best way can only be to always visibly and audibly, strongly oppose corrupt and immoral practices in present-day government and society in general that, in the wisdom of age and experience, can be a useful template for the younger generations. The older generations are still writing their history, and their legacy.

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.