right after the seminar...say "Kropek"

we love this red shirt..

too serious working..i'm with prof.grace..

Ang Pagbabalik
A translation of Timothy Montes’s “The return” by Sally Villasis

Si Jocelyn ay lumaki sa Maynila pero iginugol nya sa Samar ang kanyang kabataan sa miserable at di malilimutang apat na taon.

Sya ay labing-anim na taon pa lamang nang magmahal sya sa isang labingpitong taong gulang na binata mula doon.

Madalas silang nagtatagpo sa may pintuan ng Quiapo Church kung gabi.
Ang nanay ni Jocelyn na nagtitinda ng tabako sa Divisoria ay pinagagalitan sya at sinasabihan na walang magandang mangyayari sa kanyang relasyon sa isang nagtitinda ng sigarilyo.

Kaya nagtanan sila sa bayan ng binata.

Iyon ang kanyang unang paglalakbay sa isang pinabayaang isla.

Naranasan nya sa Samar and sunod-sunod na gawaing bukid, pagluto ng pagkain at paglalakad sa maruming daanan ng baryo na wala man lang palengke. Namuhay sya na ginagawa ang mahirap na gawain sa lugar na walang kuryente habang and kanyang asawa ay naglalaro ng basketball tuwing hapon, umiinom ng tuba kung gabi, at natutulog buong umaga.

Sa loob ng apat na taon, mula labing-anim hanggang dalawampu, ang babaing ito na lumaki sa kahabaan ng Carriedo ay dinanas ang hirap ng buhay sa baryo. At isang araw, nang pinagalitan sya ng kanyang biyenan dahil sa pagkabasag ng isang baso habang sya’y naghuhugas, sya’y nabigla. Wala man lang isang salita, hindi na pinansin ang naiwang hinuhugasan, iniwan nya ang kanyang asawa at ang mahirap na buhay sa isla ng Samar.

Dalawampung taon ang lumipas nang makita ko si Jocelyn sa bangka pabalik doon.

Fruit Stall Summary & Reaction by JB Macogue

FRUIT STALL
By Merlinda Bobis

SUMMARY
I am forty. Divorce. No children. I won a fruit stall in King Cross. And I am Filipina, but this is my secret…Melons have their secret, too.

REACTION
The truth can set us free. Like a woman in the story, her life seems misarable and always struggling in the dark because of her secret. She never felt the freedom to get along with other races in a foreign land due to her insecurities. People like her never prove enough confidence to show up to the world that being a Filipina is something you have to be proud of! It is not something to be ashame of because of the foreign impression that we, Filipina are cheap and easy to get. Let’s not degrade ourselves instead we must prove them wrong and that is a challenge to all of us.

Set an example of a female president like we have in our country, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be one of the evidence that Filipina are powerful. We possessed the characteristic of powerful women who can stand out in the battle of intellect and other aspects of our human life. We never use our courage to fight for what we believe is right. The best thing is that we, Filipinas are faithful servant of our Mother Church. We are the most powerful prayer warriors in times of calamities, difficulties, and struggles we encountered in our lives. We never get tired of fighting the battles of what we so-called LIFE because we knows best how to LOVE.
That’s the Power of a Woman.

THE OTHER SIDE OF C.I.T

(Translated Poems in Different Filipino Languages and Literary Summary and Reaction of the Participants from the College of Industrial Technology)


Ang Guya ni Mirava
(Mirava’s Cheek by Alfred Yuson)
Translated in Ilonggo by: Jolitte A. Villaruz

Samtang hamu-ok ang katulugon,
Naga palanamgo ang akon walo-ka-bulan nga pinalangga nga baye nga puya,
May nag-hapon nga lamok sa iya mapula nga guya.
“Aba! lamok nga-a dira ka?”
Akon gin hinay-hinay hampak nga wala pag duha-duha
“Lamok patay ka!”
Pasalamat ako, ok lang akon pinalangga nga baye nga puya
Pagtulog nia kanami, wala gid pag-kabalaka
O, akon pinalangga, tanan himuon, para ikaw mapasadya
Pero nga-a amo gid to ang akon nga gin-obra?
Tani, indi lang amo ato ka brutal ah!
Ahay, lamok kaluoy ka.



Ang Man-ug sa Megamall
(Python in the Megamall by Marne Kilates)
Translated in Ilonggo by: Aphrile De Angel

Nagalumlum sya sa mabasa
Ag madulom nga higad
Sang aton nga mga balatyagon
Nagakabuhi sa mga pagsinirku
Sang mga dila sang atun
Mga kasimanwa.

Gin ngalanan ta sya
Tunga nga man-ug, tunga nga babaye
Ala-Dyesebel sa teleserye
Pwede man ala-Angel Locsin sa sine.

Pero nga mahika ang may-ara
Nga-a kung kis-a naga kadula-dula
Kung kis-a ara, kung kis-a wala

Siya pila ka beses nakita
Sa likod sang kurtina sang isa ka tinda
Pero wala gid siya nakita-a

Matahum nga mga dalaga
Iya kuno nga gugma
Kung ma-jakpatan ka nya
Nga ikaw lang isa
Sure gid nga indi ka makita-a
Sa pag-abot sang aga

Pero ang ginakabalaka ang gng ginakatingala
Ikaw nag man-ug, tuod ka gid bala?



Ang Pagsaksi ni Padre Faura sa Pagluthang kay Rizal
(Padre Faura Witnesses the Execution of Rizal)
Translated in Aklanon by: Engr. Joel I. Molas

Nagatindog ako sa ibabaw it bubong
It Ateneo Municipal
Ginaeamig,
Ko isaeang kaagahon it Desyembre.

Ko pilang buean ngato
Si Pepe nag-adto kakon
Sa obserbatoryo.

Dumdom ko maga istorya kami
Parte sa bitoon sa kaeangitan
Nga owa ga bueongguan.

Ogaling ginpangutana na ako
Parte sa purgatoryo.

Ag sa adlaw ngara
Madali lang matapos ro dag-on
Nagpaeok rang mga mata.

Nakita ko si Pepe ;
Sa tunga it daywa ka soldado
Ag isaeang ka bitoon.

Sa gihapon ginaeamig,
Bisan sa maeayo
Ro bitoon hay patay eon.



The World of Missing Benches for Angelo Suarez
(A Prose Entitled Benches Missing of Angelo Suarez)
Summary and Reaction by: Patrick Anthony Jamilarin

It is apparently a world of wonders for Angelo Suarez as he treads into knowing the world’s old talk-of-the-town profession- stealing. He begins to acknowledge an event that took place somehow in a place everyone seems not to mind at all- the stolen benches along the promenade at the Roxas Boulevard. The benches become the entry point of Suarez in introducing the events which are closely linked to his theme. He starts from revealing how the benches were lost and how the authorities search for the missing benches until the search spans in revealing how things can vanish in a snap. From the selected stanza of his prose he employs sequences in which stealing in the form of piracy was the primary object. In addition, Suarez preconceives as well that the nation might be lost in just a flick.

In a wrap, Angelo Suarez brings out a universal message which speaks about how things, events and people come and go despite with all the distorted truth, novelties and achievements as spices of life. The writer recognizes the presence of the Almighty one in a dream at the last stanza. He looks at God’s work as a stealer as well of life that anytime from now He may take the life He gave to us.

In our country at present in which the thirst for energy control is the current issue, stealing is always national issue which becomes a stigma in our society. It is an unstoppable cancer that continuously sips in our society for several reasons like the poverty and uneducation among our people. Thus, it becomes a deterrent for us Filipinos to progress. The habit of stealing in the country seems to preclude that there is no hope for the country to change for a better. The country will remain to be the slave of its economic turmoil and moral degradation but for Suarez with a child-like intuition, he always perceives that there is a hope for this country because not all things remain as it is. Things, events, and people change and this change come after when we begin to make choices.

This prose is worth noting to read because it brims with bonanza of insights to reveal as you travel into the depth of Suarez’ thoughts with his lost benches.



An Assessment of the Seminar-Workshop
Written by: Dolores Sucgang

The three-day seminar workshop was an experience that can be considered as something different from the usual seminars that we have attended because of the following reasons:

1. the speakers are experts and authority in their own fields, besides bearing names that glitter in the literary world;
2. the speakers transported us to two different worlds – the world of literature where we learn of the people’s culture and history of our Asian neighbors and the world of technology in which some of us enter a world of an exciting unknown;
3. the first hand information and experiences shared by the speakers are of great value for they have transformed our way of thinking, our values and our attitudes;
4. the organizers did a wonderful and efficient job of providing the participants with their needs – the place, food and materials;
5. and for the BEST part, the seminar is for FREE.

In toto, this workshop is one of the informative activities we have attended. Kudos to the organizers! Thank you so much!