Baguio City (Scent of Pine Trees)

Poem and Photographs by Chester B. Cabalza with my wife Ann Oliva and our kids
Copyright © 2011 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.




Up hill. Upland.
The fog. The mist.
Luminous mountains.
At night.
The slope. The lights.
Like a yuletide season.
In the city - at night.


Dark cloud. Droplets of rains.
The morning dew.
Migraine.
Pine Trees. Fine spree.
Day and night.
Coffee shops. Cabs.
Session road.

The sky kisses the mountains.
Like a razor.

City life. Night life.
The pubs. The inns.
Lighted pine trees.
In the streets.
Spaces. Arts. Crafts.
Nourished. Creative.
Mansions. Retreat houses.

City life. Day life.
Market places. Parks.
Masses. Cathedrals.
Zigzag road. The deck.
Windows to heaven.
Sunny side. Summer.
Haven for lovers with L.Q.


Up hill. Upland.
Kingdom of flowers.
Kingdom of pine trees.
Kingdom of strawberries.
Kingdom who seek peace
of mind...

Virtual Ethnography 101: Giving Importance to the Last Supper of Christ

This summer I asked my college students in Anthropology 1, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom - to explore places, experience cultural happenings, and then apply their learning through writing ethnographic accounts using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

By Lianne Kristel Belamide

A Trip to Laguna

This year’s holy week wasn’t any different from the previous holy weeks in the past years of my life. Having been raised in a non-Catholic church I didn’t grow up observing the Lenten Season. Nevertheless, living in a Christian country like ours, people’s activities during this season is ubiquitous.

I spent the ‘Holy Week’ In Manila because of the summer classes. As soon as the holiday started, together with my closest friends, we hit the road and went to Laguna. The traffic was horrendous but after an almost two and a half hours of traveling we got to Pansol where different resorts are adjacent to one another. It took us another half an hour to look for a resort because most of them are already crowded. We decided to go a little farther and were glad enough to discover this resort right at the foot of a mountain.

The place was wonderful. There were three swimming pools. Blooming colorful bougainvilleas were everywhere and the air was simply and undoubtedly fresh. The view was breathtaking.

After settling in, we decided to explore the place. Groups of families where everywhere in the cabanas and benches. There were lots of kids running around. The smell of inihaw na isda was lingering in the area. This somehow brought me back to my usual itinerary every summer.

When I was young it has been a tradition for my family to visit my grandparents every summer. It always happens that it was during the holy week. Whenever I visit my grandparents I somehow became aware of the activities that they practice during this ‘special’ season.

It’s wonderful how my family doesn’t really argue and talk about how different our religions are. My grandparents didn’t ask us to join them whenever they go to masses. I was aware that the holy week starts with Palm Sunday which honors the beginning of Christ’s suffering. In the Filipino Catholic tradition people make palm branches and wave them as they sing songs of praises. My grandparents would also go to Triduum Masses all week long. During twilight of every day, my grandmother, together with a group of people, would chant the Christ’s passion until Black Saturday. It is amazing how they do all of these religiously.

For the whole week, I have seen people lashed their backs with rods and let it bleed as they walk under the scorching heat of the sun. Others are busy making floats for the procession of their Saints for Good Friday. There are also SENAKULO being played in the town plaza where my grandparents would watch on Holy Wednesday and Holy Thursday. One of the most spectacular events during the holy week is the crucifixion of those people who think they have committed so many sins that they believe they need to be crucified just like Jesus.

We only spent two days at the resort and hurriedly went back home to Manila before Good Friday because we thought there would be no buses anymore. After that, my weekend was silent.

Reflection

As a believer of the Church of Christ, I don’t practice the traditional Holy Week. However, in our church, we believe that in the bible Jesus asked us to remember Him and how He saved us from our sins through the Holy Supper (Banal na Hapunan). We celebrate this only once a year. We prepare ourselves before taking part in the Holy Supper by means of repenting our sins and renewing ourselves from our sinful life.

The Holy Week is a tradition which became a part of people’s lives and the lives before them for thousands of years. This simply tells us how powerful influencing tool religion is. If we go back in history, was the holy week the same as it is now? I stumbled upon an internet article from Zenit, an international news agency which covers issues from the Catholic Church, where a posted script of the Interview with Father Juan Flores Arcas on The History of Holy Week was posted. When asked when Holy Week has been observed as such since the beginning of Christianity, he stated the following:

“The most ancient original core of Holy Week is the Easter Vigil, of which there were traces already in the second century of the Christian era. It was always a night of vigil, in remembrance and expectation of Jesus Christ's resurrection.

To it was soon added the reception of the sacraments of Christian initiation: baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist, so that it became in turn the great sacramental night of the church.”

Arcas (2006) also added that the Easter Vigil was extended in time and transformed into the triduum of the Lord's passion, death and resurrection, which St. Augustine already mentioned as a very generalized celebration. This triduum added to the existing vigil other important moments of the celebration, specifically, the memorial of the Lord's death on Good Friday, and Holy Thursday. The latter involved no fewer than three very different Eucharistic celebrations.

He mentioned in the interview that the importance of Holy Thursday was transferred to the Easter Vigil. In the present-day liturgy, Holy Thursday is when the Easter Triduum starts. It is then followed by the first day of the triddum which is Good the Friday of Passion of the Lord. A day of fasting is then followed for the Holy Saturday where there is no Eucharist on that day. And lastly, the third day of the Easter triduum begins on Sunday which is the Lord’s resurrection day.

Evidently, the celebration of the Holy Week was an evolving holy day. How people manage to keep it makes it apparent that religion really is a powerful tool in shaping a society. It is not only through the lent season that we observe how true this is. In our society, it is apparent that most people are programmed to follow and obey whatever the church says. Whatever the religion is, people comply with its system.

References:

Collins, Ken. Holy Week. Retrieved April 25,2011 from http://www.kencollins.com/holy-05.htm

Origin of Holidays – History of Easter. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://www.information-entertainment.com/Holidays/easter.html

Zenith daily dispatch. (2006, April 6). History of Holy Week. [Interview wih Father Juan Flores Arcas]. Retrieved from http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zholyweek.HTM

Virtual Ethnography 101: The Season of Lent

This summer I asked my college students in Anthropology 1, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom - to explore places, experience cultural happenings, and then apply their learning through writing ethnographic accounts using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

By Jasper Seth Yao

The scorching heat of the midday sun made everything twice as unbearable as I knelt at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consumed ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh. Then, burnt remains of sacred palm were smeared on my forehead accompanied by murmurs of death and decay. With that, my Ash Wednesday was complete and Lent had officially begun.

That was the picture of my annual encounter with the season of Lent as I grew up in a Catholic high school. After school, my mom would laugh at the remnants of the cross on my forehead as it irritated my kin and caused it to swell and turn red. She would tell me that it was the price of being devoted to God and repenting for my sins. After all, that’s what lent is all about, repentance.

The Catholic Church of the Philippines has urged its followers to fast and reflect on their sins. Somewhere along the way, however, thing got out of hand and the Filipinos found a way to somehow follow Christ’s footsteps more literally. Most Filipinos simply went on religious tours, hopping from church to church, praying, and meditating on their sins and sinfulness as they completed the Stations of the Cross. Others, however, chose more physical method of repentance. Along the way to the churches, half-naked men would be found prostrating on the ground, whipping themselves on their backs, carrying crosses, or even actually having themselves crucified.

Once asked, they would say that this is their way of repenting or this was part of their “panata” or a promise they made to God in exchange for a miracle or a favor. As they went around with their bloody backs and their self-flagellation, I wondered what could have possibly caused these people to believe that hurting and torturing themselves was going to do anyone any good.

The Philippine Catholic Church itself made it clear that they do not condone such acts of extreme violence towards oneself. Why, then, do some Filipinos still insist on doing these terrible things to themselves?

As I searched for answers, I stumbled upon a couple of websites that attribute it to Philippines’ history with the Spanish friars. According to one of these sites, such rituals are part of a folk religious culture that has deep roots in a brand of obscurantism that dates back to the Spanish colonial period. Hispanic Filipinos likened the suffering of Christ to their oppression in the hands of their abusive Spanish landlords and friars. Indeed, “Holy Week” encapsulates the Filipino culture of suffering, poverty and illness; it speaks not just of our redemption in the next life, but also the travails of our present life.

On the other side of things, though, there are the less extremely religious Filipinos who take advantage of the non-working holiday to leave the hustle and bustle of Metro Manila in search of themselves in serene beaches, mountaintops, or even lands abroad. Since my family belongs to this particular community, I can attest to their behavior more accurately than those of the religious extremists I have mentioned.

Having been born a Catholic, the early memories of my life were those of an obedient young Filipino Catholic, complete with the trademark focus on damnation and suffering instead of salvation and love for all. Personally, I don’t take this against the Philippine Catholic Church since they have lived with these teachings for almost 400 years at the hands of the Spanish.

Along with the rest of my family, I gave something up every Lent. It would be something typical like junk food, meat. television, or computer games. This wouldn’t last very long since I really loved all those things as a child so I was advised to focus on giving them up on Fridays instead. Given this self-imposed ultimatum, my siblings and I would stay up until the very last minute of Thursday enjoying all these things we were supposed to give up the next day. That way, we spent most of Friday asleep and therefore, guilt-free.

More recently, however, I found this underhanded way of cheating the season rather tiring so I gave up the practice altogether. I picked it up again when I was assigned to observe and participate in the season of Lent once more for school. As I went o Korea with 20 of my relatives, I watched as they tried to abstain on Friday even as we were served nothing but kimchi, some side dishes of vegetables, and meat. It didn’t even last a minute. My cousins, aunts, and uncles were feasting on freshly cooked meat and neglecting those vegetables like they were just saved from a deserted island.

This is true for a lot of my friends as well. I suppose in this day and age, we simply don’t feel as religious and ritualistic about the season of lent as the past generations once were. Maybe it’s just the culture I contribute to in my own sphere of influence. Maybe it’s the mass media from first world countries seeping into our own society. Whatever it is, it has inspired my loved ones and I to become less preoccupied with rules and rites and more focused on what really matters, becoming a better person for society and living a balanced lifestyle.

I have given up being religious long ago. Instead, I have chosen to be spiritual, to take whatever path to God or enlightenment that I find most suitable for myself. My family and friends have done the same. This season of Lent, we have been reminded of how the past has failed in trying to compartmentalize their good will and Christianity into seasons instead of lifetimes. Now, when I ask around, more and more people have been excitedly talking about focusing on being part of the solution instead of spreading hate for the problems. In a few conversations I had with people I knew from Church groups and choirs they generally said that “Giving hope in what we can do is just so constructive, while hating these sins and mistakes we’ve made is just destructive. It only brings people down, you know?”

References:

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/lent.htm.
http://forthephilippines.blogspot.com/2010/04/philippines-lent-2010-from-lens-of.html.
http://www.icanews.com/2011/03/16/clergy-urge-abstinence-modesty-in-lent/
http;//www.filipinoheritage.com/religious/Cuaresma.htm

Virtual Ethnography 101: The Next Big Thing

This summer I asked my college students in Anthropology 1, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom - to explore places, experience cultural happenings, and then apply their learning through writing ethnographic accounts using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

By Llenel de Castro



It’s nice to have a technology savvy church.

This year’s Visita Iglesia took me to six different churches from Bulacan and Pangasinan. I averaged four minutes per station and excluding the six-hour lag between the fourth and fifth station, the whole way of the cross was finished in 43 minutes.

I started my online journey while lying down on my beanbag couch on Saturday afternoon. Still in my pajama and barely finished with my cereal, I loaded the introduction video. In it., Msgr. Pedro C. Quitorio III, CBCP’s Media Office Director talked about why they made the online version. He explained that it was made for those who are unable to do the traditional Visita Iglesia, such as the sick or OFWs, and not for those who are just too lazy to go out or those who claim to be allergic to heat (guilty!).

The first church featured was St. Lawrence Martyr Parish in Balagtas, Bulacan. With just a simple click, the voice recording of the first station, The Last Supper, began. After four minutes, the audio recording of the second station, The Agony in Gethsemani, played. At 1:38 PM, I moved on to another church, the Nuestra Senora dela Asuncion in Bulakan, Bulacan. Here I listened to the audio recording of the third, Jesus Before the Sanhedrin, and fourth, The Scourging and Crowning with Thorns, stations.

I experienced technical difficulties at the fifth station. The audio file for the fifth station simply would not load no matter how many times I tried so at 1:48 PM, I decided to take a long break that involved taking a nap, watching a few episode of Bones, doing other assignments and eating chips, dip and dinner. I resumed at 7:16 PM and listened to the audio recording of the fifth, Jesus Receives the Cross, and sixth, Jesus Falls Under the Weight of the Cross, station while looking at images of the San Ildefonsus, Archbishop of Toledo Parish in Guiguinto, Bulacan.

The seventh, Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross of Jesus, and eight, Jesus Meets the Pious Women of Jerusalem, stations showed pictures or the exterior façade and retablo of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Barasoain Bulacan. The ninth, Jesus is Nailed to the Cross, and tenth, The Repentant Thief, on the other hand, featured photos from Our Lady of Purification Parish in Binmaley, Pangasinan. The last two stations, Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross and Jesus Dies on the Cross, took me to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish in Manaoag, Pangasinan.

My online journey officially ended at 7:47 PM. In a total time of 43 minutes, I was able to visit six churches in two provinces, roughly a hundred kilometers apart, by just clicking a simple button. Admittedly, my attention sometimes drifted to other things and I found myself reading up on different topics, such as places to spend Easter morning, while listening. It may seem like a cheat who are physically able to do the real thing but it’s just like the e-burol and e-libing services offered by a popular chapel service, catering to family members who can’t attend. While the online Visita Iglesia can’t replace the experience of traveling for hours moving from one place to another while trying to survive the unbearable heat and hunger, for those homesick Filipinos in different parts of the world, it’s the next best thing.

Virtual Ethnography 101: Holy Week Reflections

This summer I asked my college students in Anthropology 1, aside from learning anthropological concepts and theories inside the classroom - to explore places, experience cultural happenings, and then apply their learning through writing ethnographic accounts using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.


By Dyan Barrion

We are not really able to feel the Lenten season in this year of 2011. I spent the whole Holy Week with my family and other relatives. In that week, we were in my grandmother’s ancestral house in Talisay, Batangas. This is what we usually do during the Holy Week. We will go to the province for a vacation and to meet up with our relatives. But for this year we spent our Lenten season differently. My grandmother passed away on Monday morning and we spent the whole week in the province in lamentation.

Even though there is Holy Week every year, I am not used to the customs that go hand in hand with this season. On Pal Sunday, my father knocked loudly on my door and on my older brother’s door. He wanted us to get up so that we can all go to church. As usual, my brother and I did not want to go. I always tend to sleep so late resulting to me waking up during the afternoon on the next day. My father started to get angry so we had no choice but to follow him.

We are all ready to attend mass at St. Francis Church in Ortigas when we received a call that my grandmother was in critical condition. We decided to check on her first in the hospital. Things were not getting any better. My father told me that I should just go to the church with my older brother so that we could attend mass and have our palaspas (palm) blessed.

I attended the ten o’clock mass with my older brother, for some reason, there is always a very good feeling right after the mass. But after the mass on Palm Sunday, I was happier for some reason. When I started waving our palaspas alongside with the other people inside the church, there was such a fulfillment. It was as if Brother Jesus was really there and we were in Jerusalem welcoming him warmly into the city.

On Good Friday, I slept in so much since I was one of the people assigned to watch over my sleeping grandmother for the night. It was past twelve noon when I was abruptly awakened by my mother. I was not really reluctant to wake up since I was just able to sleep around 7 a.m. that morning. But my mother showed no sign that she will just let me continue sleeping at that time.

“Ma, umaga na po nung natulog ako,” (Mom, it was already morning when I slept), that’s what I told my mother. “Gusto ko pang matulog, please” (Please, I want to sleep further).

“Maliligo ka ba?” (Are you going to take a bath?), my mother asked me. I was puzzled for a moment why she would need to know if I was going to take a bath on that day. It’s not like I’m not taking a bath everyday.

“Syempre naman po,” (of course), I said before getting under the blanket again.

“Aba. Eh kung maliligo ka pala ay maligo ka na ngayon. Hindi lang tayo ang maliligo. Marami pa ang gigabit ng banyo kaya maligo ka nabago mag-alas-tres ng hapon,” (Goodness. If you want to take a bath do it now. It not only you who will do that because others will also use the shower room. Take a bath before three o’clock in the afternoon), she told me.

“Pero gusto ko pa pong matulog. Masamang maligo kapag puyat,” (But I want to sleep more. It’s not advisable to take a bath when you have less sleep), I reasoned out to her.

“Kung gayon eh wag ka na lang maligo,” (if that’s the case then don’t take a bath), she said. I frowned when my sleepiness started to go away at that moment.

“Bakit naman hindi? Pwede pa naman akong maligo mamayang hapon. Kapag pagabi na lang para malamig ang tubig,” (Why isn’t not allowed? I can still take bath late in the afternoon, at dusk so that the water is colder).

“Hindi na pwedeng maligo pagkatapos ng alas-tres ng hapon dahil patay ang Diyos,” (It’s not allowed to take a bath after three o’clock in the afternoon because Christ already died), she told me as she started to sort some of our clothing.

“Bakit naman po?” (Why?) I could not help it but to ask her what is the connection of Brother Jesus being dead from three o’clock onwards to me taking a bath a 3 p.m. in the afternoon.

“Hay naku. Basta maligo ka na lang. Kapag naligo ka pagkatapos ng alas-tres eh ang dugo na ni Hesus ang ipampapaligo mo.” (Goodness. I command you take a bath now. If you do that after three in the afternoon, it’s the blood of Christ that would shower you). My mother told me before leaving me in the room even though I was curious to find out the truth in the superstitious belief. So, I just decided to follow her commands and then take a bath.

During the late afternoon of Good Friday, my older brother told me that he will be going to the bayan. I insisted on coming with him since it was quite boring just to stay in the house for several days. We really had nothing to do if there are no people visiting my deceased grandmother. My older brother was assigned to buy some liquor for our male relatives. I decided to come with him. Excitedly got in our car and waited patiently for my brother to get in the driver’s seat. He was really taking a long while so I got out of the car to look for him. At the moment he saw me, he started scolding me, asking me where in the hell did I go.

"Tara na,” (Let’s go now). He said as we walked to the gate.

“Hindi ba natin gagamitin yun sasakyan? Full tank pa naman ha. Ayaw kong mag-tricycle,” (Aren’t we going to use the car? It’s full tank. I don’t want to ride a tricycle). I whined.

“Hindi natin magagamit ang sasakyan at hindi rin tayo magtra-tricycle,” (We’re not going to use the car nor ride a ride a tricycle,” he told me.

“Ha?! Bakit naman? Huwag mong sabihin na maglalakad tayo?! Ang layo-layu ng bayan!” (What?! Why not? Don’t tell to me we’ll walk?! The town proper is too far!) I said as I tugged on his shirt.

“May prosisyon daw. Sayang lang ang gasolina dahil tiyak trapik pero sabi nila walang trapik dahil walang sasakyan. Sinarado yata ang daan,” (There is a procession. We might just waste gasoline due to traffic although there are only few vehicles plying the street. But I guess they closed the road). He informed me. I pouted but still decided to tag along with him.

I knew we were nowhere halfway towards our destination when we caught with the procession. There were a lot of figures of saints and a number of images of the Virgin Mary. I know there are a number of names given to the Mama Mary but up to now I am still not sure how many names Mother Mary has. I was enchanted by the beautiful Mary’s. They were dressed up in such elegant gowns. We did not really intend to go along with the procession. My older brother wanted to go ahead of it but we find it hard to go passed through the crowd. We had no choice but to march with the very slow procession.

It amazed me how much people can be so devoted. They spend time and effort to go to these processions and offer long prayers to God, Mother Mary, Brother Jesus, and the saints. I am amazed by how much Filipinos keep on showing their faith to God.

On Black Saturday, I was helping out in the kitchen. We were preparing palitaw (rice cake) for the guests when one of my youngest cousins came to bother me. She asked me to play with her. I played with her since her older sister left for a while. However, always full of energy, my younger sister started to sing loudly and dance around. But her mother cam around to scold her.

“Huwag kang maingay dahil patay ang Diyos. Mabuti pa at matulog na lang kayo ng Ate Dyan mo,” (don’t be noisy because Christ is dead. It’s better if you sleep together with sister cousin Dyan). I had no choice but to accompany my younger cousin to bed. I concluded that we should not do any kind of merry-making until Easter Sunday. There was no television in that old ancestral house because it has been so long since it was abandoned. With my younger cousin passed asleep, I proceeded to entertain myself by playing games on my PSP.

The next day, my mother woke me up at six in the morning. She told me that we are going to the church to attend mass. I did not complain this time around. We all went to the church and hear mass.

The church was so packed. It was hot inside but pilgrims kept on coming the whole morning. Even if it seemed to be such a struggle inside the church, after the mass ended, I felt a great fulfillment. At lunchtime, we had another mass to attend to in honor of my deceased grandmother. But the day went by smoothly.

I failed to watch people having their penitensya (penitence) this year. My older brother usually takes me with him to see men hitting their own backs until they bleed. The first time I saw a man crucified, I failed to see him nailed on the cross. I cannot help but to wonder why they should subject themselves in such painful acts in order to honor the death and resurrection of our brother Jesus Christ. But in the end, I cannot also help it but to admire these men to endure pain and sacrifice. Although I think that they were able to help a lot in preserving the tradition of some Filipinos during the Lenten season.

For me the Lenten season is one of the precious times we can spend time with our loved ones. The Holy Week gives each family members and relatives to gather together and strengthen the bonds they have each other. This is a season that does not only honor the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but also to keep families together.

Virtual Ethnography 101: Eat, Pray, Love

As part of the weekly exercises of my graduate students in Anthropology 225: Philippine Society and Culture, I wanted my students to explore places and write ethnography using the method of participation-observation.

I am posting in my blog with the writer's consent selected ethnography penned creatively by my students to contribute to the emerging sub-discipline of anthropology called 'Virtual Ethnography'.

Basically, virtually ethnography is also referred to as Webnography. We cannot deny the fact that with increasing use of technology and the Internet, there is now a demand for online spaces on various ethnographic accounts.

By Lyra Athena Duaso

Back in college, we were asked to write a paper comparing the architecture of Quiapo church and to that of Sampaloc’s Sto. Domingo church. My observation was that whereas Sto. Domingo was high and imposing, and reminded people of heaven, Quiapo church was smaller and more grounded, and seemingly more accepting of people.

Quiapo church is located in an old part of Manila where the modern cityscape is interspersed with classical facades, and everywhere are people populating the labyrinthine streets and alleys. In an urban jungle increasingly characterized by walled subdivisions and exclusive villas, Quiapo remains to be a place of mainstream convergence where the swell of humanity is as much a feature of the place as the building themselves.

The smog I inhaled and the pollution I accumulated on the way to the church was enough to make anyone pray. Through the side doors that plainly read “Pasukan” and “Labasan,” I immediately spotted a group of people standing to the side, reading a print advertisement on the evils of abortion. Women and kids sitting on stools were on the rear end of the church, fanning themselves and looked to have been there all day. Off to an annexed hallway was the church’s payments area for church services like baptisms and weddings. One the sides were donation boxes that urged the churchgoers to give to the TV Maria Foundation, a Catholic Filipino TV channel.

It was a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed with people of all shapes, sizes, health conditions, and status quo. Quiapo is famed for the miracles of its holy figure, and for the overwhelming piety of its devotees, both rich and poor. That day, there were young men in uniform who, despite looking tough, were solemnly kneeling. There was a woman with goiter who strode to the front and left a while later. There was a man who looked like Jesus himself who walked up and down the aisle.

The whole are was abuzz with noise. No mass was ongoing at the time so the people had their own sessions by themselves. Amidst all the busy-ness, it was a wonder how the people who had their hands clasped together in supplication somehow managed to have personal bubbles of silence to pray unperturbed.

Most of the people who dropped by for short sessions averaged around five minutes of prayer time before leaving. Some who sat by the pews had their own private conversations with the walls as they just stared off into space. A number were also standing by and seemed to be content to merely gaze at the statues in front. With the church doors open, dozens of people passed by to exit into the cacophony of vendors on the other side, as though the church itself was just any ordinary hallway to cross. Some of these, though, thoughtfully stopped by the aisle to kneel in adoration before moving on. Some went straight to where the Holy Water was and promptly dipped their fingers and made the sign of the cross. Whether as token rituals or sincere gestures, it was unmissable how these practices were already so deeply ingrained in the people’s lives, that they had become a way of life.

Outside, the air was suffused with the fragrant smell of sampaguita. Vendors plied anything from the flowers, candles, rosaries, hand fans, to flying paper insects. Just a few ways off were the fortunetellers. Food establishments were spread out across the area.

I honestly cannot tell which came first, the church or the market that surrounds it. It could be that the church came first and the people attracted by its fame served as the first audience to the vendors that sprouted around it over the years, and who had recognized the demand for piety that could be helped with religious merchandise. It could be that the market was there long before and that the mainstream atmosphere of it prompted the creation of a church that served the needs of the masses perfectly. Either way, the two fed off of each other’s energy, depending on each other for sustenance.

University of the Philippines v. Court of Appeals, et. al.

Chester Cabalza recommends his visitors to please read the original & full text of the case cited. Xie xie!

G.R. No. 97827 February 9, 1993

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner,
vs.
COURT OF APPEALS, HONORABLE RODOLFO A. ORTIZ, Presiding Judge, Regional Trial Court (Branch 89), National Capital Region, Quezon City, Metro Manila, MANUEL ELIZALDE, BALAYEM, MAHAYAG, DUL and LOBO, respondents.

Facts:

The facts which have drawn the University of the Philippines (UP) from the quiet groves of academia to the judicial arena are as follows:

On August 15-17, 1986, the "International Conference on the Tasaday Controversy and Other Urgent Anthropological Issues" was held at the Philippine Social Science Center in Diliman, Quezon City.

Jerome Bailen, Professor of the University of the Philippines, Department of Anthropology, was the designated conference chairman. He presented therein the "Tasaday Folio," a collection of studies on Tasadays done by leading anthropologists who disputed the authenticity of the Tasaday find and suggested that the "discovery" in 1971 by a team led by former Presidential Assistant on National Minorities (PANAMIN) Minister Manuel Elizalde, Jr. was nothing more than a fabrication made possible by inducing Manobo and T'boli tribesmen to pose as primitive, G-stringed, leaf-clad cave dwellers.

In the same conference, UP history professor, Zeus Salazar, traced in a publication the actual genealogy of the Tasadays to T'boli and Manobo ethnic groups. He likewise presented ABC's "20/20" videotaped television documentary showing interviews with natives claiming to have been asked by Elizalde to pose as Tasadays.

In July 1988, UP allegedly sent Salazar and Bailen to Zagreb, Yugoslavia to attend the 12th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. There, Salazar and Bailen reiterated their claim that the Tasaday find was a hoax. Their allegations were widely publicized in several dailies.

With these acts and utterances of Bailen and Salazar as well as newspaper reports and commentaries on the matter as bases, on October 27, 1988, Elizalde and Tasaday representatives Balayem, Mahayag, Dul and Lobo, filed a complaint for damages and declaratory relief against Salazar and Bailen before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.

On November 24, 1988, UP filed a motion to intervene with supporting memorandum asserting that, having authorized the activities of Bailen and Salazar, it had a duty to protect them as faculty members for acts and utterances made in the exercise of academic freedom. Moreover, it claimed that it was itself entitled to the right of institutional academic freedom.

At the hearing on the motion to intervene on November 28, 1988, the lower court required UP to submit its answer in intervention "to enable the Court to better appreciate the issue of whether or not the motion for leave to intervene . . . should be granted."

On December 5, 1988, Salazar and Bailen filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that: the complaint failed to state a cause of action; the cause of action, if any, had already prescribed; they are protected by the guarantees of free speech and academic freedom; the court had no jurisdiction to grant declaratory relief in a civil action and no justiciable controversy exists.

Said motion to dismiss was denied by the lower court on January 9, 1989. The same court order held that there was no necessity to appoint a guardian ad litem for the Tasaday plaintiffs, granted UP's motion for leave to intervene and admitted UP's answer in intervention dated December 8, 1988.

In the meantime, on February 15, 1989, UP filed a motion to dismiss the complaint but it was stricken off the record in the Order of February 16, 1989. A subsequent motion for reconsideration was likewise denied.

On March 12, 1991, the Court of Appeals rendered a decision dismissing the petition and lifting the temporary restraining order it had earlier issued. It held that the motion to dismiss may not be granted on the ground of insufficiency of cause of action predicated on matters not raised in the complaint. It ruled that the lower court had jurisdiction over the complaint for damages as the action was aimed at recovering relief arising from alleged wrongful acts of the defendants.

Issues:

1)Whether the acts of the defendants are within the protective mantle of academic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution for which they cannot be made liable for damages.

2)Whether the Tasaday ethnic group is a hoax as the defendants had claimed in a public discussion.

3)Whether Bailen and Salazar infringed on plaintiffs' civil and human rights when they maliciously and falsely spoke and intrigued to present plaintiffs Tasaday as fakers and impostors collaborating in a hoax or fraud upon the public with and under the supervision of plaintiff Elizalde.

Held:

Unique Set-up on procedural problem

We are confronted here with a situation wherein an intervenor who made common cause with the defendants moved to dismiss the complaint after filing an answer in intervention and after the original defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint had been denied. What is more striking is the fact that the same intervenor sought the dismissal of a complaint where its interest is not apparent. Moreover, the intervenor founded its motion to dismiss on an extraneous matter which is not even obliquely alluded to in the complaint.

With this unique set-up, we cannot subscribe to private respondents' contention that the resolution of this petition is foreclosed by the principle of res judicata.

While it is true that the instant petition and that in G.R. No. 87248 revolve around the issue of whether or not the lower court correctly denied the motion to dismiss the complaint in Civil Case No. Q-88-1028, there is an aspect of the case which takes it out of the ambit of the principle of res judicata.

The said principle applies when there is, among others, identity of parties and subject matter in two cases. Concededly, the fact that UP is the petitioner herein while Salazar and Bailen were the petitioners in G.R. No. 87248 is not a hindrance to the application of res judicata because the situation is akin to the adding of other parties to a case which had been finally resolved in a previous one. UP was not an original party-defendant in Civil Case No. Q-88-1028, but it intervened and made common cause with Bailen and Salazar in alleging that the case should be dismissed in order to hold inviolate academic freedom, both individual and institutional. There is, therefore, a resultant substantial identity of parties, as both UP, on the one hand, and Bailen and Salazar, on the other hand, represent the same interests in the two petitions.

Following the provisions of Section 5, Rule 16 of the Rules of Court which states that any of the grounds for dismissal provided for in Section I of the same Rule "except improper venue, may be pleaded as an affirmative defense," UP filed a motion for a preliminary hearing on the special defenses, specifically lack of cause of action and lack of jurisdiction over the nature of the action which it pleaded in its answer in intervention. As Section 5 provides, the result would be the same — "as if a motion to dismiss had been filed." It was the lower court's Order of May 15, 1989 ascribing no merit to UP's special defenses, which was first presented to this Court for nullification on the ground of grave abuse of discretion, through the petition for certiorari and prohibition docketed as G.R. No. 88664. The petition having been referred to the Court of Appeals, the propriety of the same Order of May 15, 1989 was resolved against UP by said appellate court on March 12, 1991.

Thus, to hold that res judicata applies to herein facts would be stretching to its limits the requirement of identity of subject matter. Moreover, the fact that the resolution of Civil Case No. Q-88-1028 would inevitably create an impact, not only on the academic community but also on the cultural minorities, we need to scrutinize more closely the validity of the Order denying the motion to dismiss. It bears stressing that res judicata may not be held applicable where justice may have to be sacrificed for the rigid rules of technicality.

Academic freedom vs legal procedures

As its first ground for the allowance of the petition, UP contends that the allegations in the complaint regarding the acts and statements of Bailen and Salazar are "protected by the mantle of the institutional academic freedom of UP and are therefore privileged communications which cannot give rise to any cause of action for damages under Article 26 of the Civil Code in favor of the herein private respondents."

Actually, this ground is a restatement of the two affirmative defenses cited by the petitioner in its answer in intervention. The lower court and the Court of Appeals correctly interpreted these defenses as falling within the purview of Section 1(g), Rule 16 of the Rules of Court which considers as a ground for a motion to dismiss failure of the complaint to state a cause of action.

On the other hand, a cause of action against Bailen and Salazar can be made out from the complaint: their acts and utterances allegedly besmirched the reputation of the plaintiffs as they were shown therein to have staged a fraud. The fact that the "hoax" was played up in the media allegedly aggravated the situation.

This is not to say, however, that UP's intervention was improper. In fact, it eventually proned to be necessary. Coming to the defense of its faculty members, it had to prove that the alleged damaging acts and utterances of Bailen and Salazar were circumscribed by the constitutionally-protected principle of academic freedom. However, it should have championed the cause of Bailen and Salazar in the course of the trial of the case.

This procedural lapse, notwithstanding, no irremediable injury has been inflicted on the petitioner as, during the trial, it may still invoke and prove the special defense of institutional academic freedom as defined in Tangonan v. Paño and in Garcia v. The Faculty Admission Committee, Loyola School of Theology.

Since Bailen and Salazar had defaulted and thereby forfeited their right to notice of subsequent proceedings and to participate in the trial, petitioner's answer in intervention shall be the gauge in determining whether issues have been joined. The fact that the defenses raised in said answer were denied grounds for a motion to dismiss does not affect their value as affirmative defenses in an answer to a complaint within the purview of Section 5(b), Rule 6 of the Rules of Court. The Order of May 15, 1989 merely "denied" petitioner's affirmative defenses as grounds for a motion to dismiss. Moreover, under Section 4, Rule 18 of the Rules of Court, the failure of some defendants to answer cannot prevent the court from trying the case noon the answer filed and thereafter rendering judgment on the basis of the evidence presented.

Scientific breakthrough vs legal procedures

With respect to the prayer of the complaint for "judgment declaring plaintiff Tasadays to be a distinct ethnic community within the territory defined under Presidential Proclamation No. 995" the lower court is cautioned that the same is akin to a prayer for a judicial declaration of Philippine citizenship which may not be granted in a petition for declaratory relief. 26 As private respondents themselves declare in their comment, "(t)he complaint was filed mainly to vindicate plaintiffs' dignity and honor, and to protect them from further vexation.

More explicitly in their comment in CA-G.R. SP No. 18074 before the Court of Appeals, they declared:

Plaintiffs below do not ask the court to rule on so-called scientific or anthropological issues, nor to interpret scientific or anthropological findings pertaining to the Tasaday. They merely ask the court to find from the evidence to be presented below — Whether or not Bailen and Salazar infringed on plaintiffs' civil and human rights when they maliciously and falsely spoke and intrigued to present plaintiffs Tasaday as fakers and impostors collaborating in a hoax or fraud upon the public with and under the supervision of plaintiff Elizalde.

Indeed, it is not the province of the court to make pronouncements on matters beyond its ken and expertise. To be sure, in resolving the complaint for damages, the court may find congruence in what is justiciable and what falls within the field of the sciences. Still, it is best to keep in mind that its proper role and function is the determination of legal issues.

WHEREFORE, the questioned Order of the lower court and the Decision of the Court of Appeals are hereby AFFIRMED. The lower court is directed to PROCEED with the hearing of the case with DISPATCH even as it observes caution in the resolution of Civil Case No. Q-88-1028. No-costs.

SO ORDERED.

Case Digest by cbcabalza 4/13/11