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My Father and His Beloved

If you’re looking for a true-blue Marawian , You’re looking for my father— Dan . I grew up in his Marawi . The sounds, the colors, the unique and  Unforgettable flavors, the food and the fishes Found only in the majestic Ranaw , His majestic Ranaw . He told stories of running before The truck announcing the showing of a movie, Doubled with another,  And shouting with glee the movie titles and actors Before the actual announcement blew off the loud speaker.  Louder hurrahs and shouting as if they’d outsmarted the man in the truck, With brothers and friends, he swam in the  Majestic Ranaw , massive to his youthful eyes,  Pretending to catch fish, But, really to catch glimpse of a fancied girl Washing clothes and dishes, smiling shyly. He told stories of early evening songs and walks Under the calm night sky and fresh air, Climbing the wall or crawling underneath, When late at night, he sneaked away to play games and make merry. Keeping aw
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MMXX Ramblings

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Hello, everyone! Haha! I’m just pretending that there are still some people reading this blog. I had the chance to check my blog’s archive because I was looking for a certain entry to show to my friend. Looking back on all those months all those years past made me quite sad. I saw how gradually the entries for every month became fewer and fewer until they stopped altogether. I couldn’t quite believe how active I was in blogging back in the day. There was a time when I’d post two entries in a week. Wow! And, now, I can’t even make time to post at least one entry per month. Tsk, tsk. I did say that one of the things I wanted to do for 2020 was to make this blog active again and, well, maybe this is the start. And, it’s a really nice date to start again, too. It’s February 29, 2020! It’s so perfect! Me and my obsession with dates! I guess some things never change, huh? Haha! So, for this entry I’m actually still trying to figure out what I want to write about as I’m typing this.
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A Small Voice from Marawi

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Salamun 'alaykum. I am back again! This is my nth attempt to revive this blog. I hope this time I can stick to my plan and maybe post an entry once a month at the very least. Not very ambitious, but still no promises here. Oh, well.  Anyway, as my comeback entry, I'm posting on this blog the speech I read during the Philippine PEN 2017 Congress -- PEN at 60: Reaffirming the Writer's Commitment to Truth and Freedom , held at the University of Santo Tomas on November 21-22, 2017, where, together with Dr. Maimona Magayoong, Prof. Sorhaila Latip-Yusoph, and Prof. German Gervacio , I sat on the Literary Session named Tales from the War Zone: Voices of Marawi . Here's the full text of my speech: It was an ordinary, sunny MSU afternoon. I was at my office waiting for my students to submit their final requirements as that day was the deadline and, while waiting, I was listening to the songs from the musical, Grease , and I was reading random stuff on Twitter. I came
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Musicals, Musicals, Musicals and Me

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Last weekend, I was in Manila with my good friend/younger brother, Tomas . We went to see the musicals, Fun Home and Wicked . Personally, this is something I have always dreamed of. My Bucket List is full of Broadway and West End musicals I’d love to see before I die. My love for musicals started when I was very young. I wasn’t even in Kindergarten yet when I was introduced to the musicals- Annie , The Sound of Music , and The King and I . They were my favorites when I was small. I knew all the songs from those musicals. While my brothers loved to watch Tom and Jerry and other cartoons, I preferred musicals. Fast forward to a few years later, we were already residing in MSU Campus, I was 9 years old and in 4 th Grade, when my dad rented The Making of Miss Saigon . This was during the era of the Betamax and we used to go down to Iligan to rent films from Po Video. When I saw that documentary, I was instantly drawn to Miss Saigon and I couldn’t watch it enough. I remember that my
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#Throwback: My First Time

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#Throwback has become one of the most, if not the most, popular hashtag in the world of social media. As such, I want to share a throwback story-- a story of one of my most unforgettable experiences. The first time I participated in the Philippine Elections, that is, the first time I ever voted. You see, we just had our National and Local Elections the other day.  And, while we are still waiting for the final and official results from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), I'd like to go back to that singular moment when I thought, for the first time, that I was going to die. (c) PPCRV Website for May 1998 Elections   It was back in 1998. I had just turned 18 and, like any idealistic young adult, I was very excited to finally get to vote. We left our house for our hometown very early in the morning. I don't remember having slept the night before, I was that excited! Plus, I had insomnia. As we headed to our hometown, which was about an hour drive from the city, I kept
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Obsessed with "My Little Family"

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It was my mom's birthday, December 12th, last year when my two very good friends, Bok and Ria , came to MSU to speak at a forum on Career Options for Communication and Media Studies Graduates . It was for the 10th Anniversary celebration of the Department of Communication and Media Studies here in MSU, aptly themed #DYESisIt . It was serendipity that they were planning to come visit by the year's end, just in time for the celebration, and they were both very qualified to speak on the topic. Together with two alumnae of the Department, B and R were able to share and speak about their careers and present endeavors.  And, it was great for the students to have listened to the talk and have a clearer idea as to what path they want to take after graduation. I know for a fact that the very day following one's graduation from college can be one of the scariest days of one's young life because one just has no idea what to do and where to go. As they say, scho
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