A Great Tale from Halawod River


(Note: Between August 23-27, 2011 this writer was in Dumaguete and the Province of Negros Oriental for a four-day jaunt.  Just a few highlights)
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A top priority in my coming down to Dumaguete was to get a glimpse of stage-play “Hinilawod”. After spending one night with my family in Pamplona, the next day, August 24th, saw me packing up my things and rushing back to the capital of Negros Oriental to catch last rerun of the play in the city for the year at Silliman’s Luce Auditorium.

By the time arrived, the whole city was a buzzed with activities. The occasional rain shower was not enough to dampen the celebratory spirit of the people. It was not the usual relaxed atmosphere that Dumaguete has been known for. This time, everyone was up and about with his own order of the day. There certainly was one good reason for this seemingly hurried pace.  For this small university town in central Philippines, the month of August, being Silliman’s Founder’s month, serves the as kick-off month for a series of festivities would last until end of year.  It is worthy to note that the rerun of Hinilawod at Luce was one of the centerpieces of this year’s Silliman festivities.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, the play is based on the epic tale of the Sulod people of Panay Island. Once, an oral literature handed down from generations to generations of mananalaysay (storyteller), Hinilawod has since been transcribed from its original form by the eminent anthropologist Dr. F. Landa Jocano. Hinilawod, which means “tales from the mouth of the Halawod River,” is a must-see-play not only for its artistic and cultural virtues. Its significance to the notion of a Filipino nation-hood could not be overemphasized. In this time when belief in the Filipino spirit is ebbing low, Hinilawod is one great oasis of hope.

For the longest time in history, we have been made to believe in the dictum that “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” discounting our own self-worth. See what three hundred years or so years of colonization have brought us! But my hopes are high that this tale could help pave the way on how we perceived ourselves as a people.  The cost of nationhood does not come in bargains or in silver platter.  It requires shedding off layers of idiosyncrasies that have been so ingrained in us over periods of time.

The epic in itself is a treasure trove of great stories to tell. It’s one great tale of love, courage, perseverance and dignity. It tells us that heroes are made not born and that we are so much more capable than we think we can.

Watching the show was going back in history and actually living with my kinsmen believing in themselves unchallenged by the vagaries of the world. The play sketches our lives as it was before the coming of the colonizers. Our forebears once had the foundations of a great Malayan civilization right in this archipelago.


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Copyright © 2011 by Leonel Agir

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