FEBRUARY

February's featured poet and poem is Luis Cabalquinto and his "The Dog-Eater" (first published in American Poetry Review). Luis' poem inspired the title to Jessica Hagedorn's first novel, DOGEATERS. Despite being possibly the most anthologized Filipino-American poet and an author of three poetry collections in the Philippines, Luis has never published a poetry collection in the United States. This will be redressed by his forthcoming BRIDGEABLE SHORES: SELECTED POEMS AND NEW (1969-2001) to be released by Kaya Press' imprint, "Galatea Speaks" (editor Eileen Tabios) in Fall 2001.


THE DOG-EATER

It was the piss on the snow
On a sidewalk in New York
That brought up the thought of a moon
In his childhood: in a cloudless sky,
A clean sphere like a huge new lamp
Under which, for the first time, the boy saw the dog-eater.

It was said in the barrio of San Miguel that the man Jose
Ate dog's meat each day of the week
And the village dogs could tell this from his scent,
That eating dog's meat occasionally was all right
But to do it every day makes you smell like a dog yourself.
But they said Jose knew that too and he was a man
Who knew who he was and what he was doing.

On the moon-lit night he saw the dog-eater.
He heard the barking and howling, first from a distance
Softly, then rising in volume like an accompaniment
To something coming that was dangerous to someone --
Though not to the boy who eagerly waited.

He saw him from the window of his house:
A small dark man in a dark shirt who walked
Easily, as if oblivious to the noise and commotion
That followed him, as all the dogs in all the houses
(All houses in the boy's village had dogs
And the boy's house had three) came out
To complain, barking and following the dog-eater
Though they dared not come close enough to do him any harm.

The dog-eater, the light of the moon on his white hair
And on his thin clothes, walked by with his head tilted
To the ground. He never lifted his head
Even when somebody called out his name
And said something the boy did not understand.
He kept his eyes to the gravel road, walking
Until his body disappeared at the bend.

When the dog-eater was gone the boy looked up:
He saw again the bright moon in the cloudless sky.
He stared at its huge and pervasive presence --
Its color like the color that many years later
He would see on a patch of snow
On a sidewalk in New York.

--------------------------

FILIPINO WRITERS JOIN IN CALLING FOR ESTRADA'S OUSTER

On January 20, 2000, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took over as the new president of the Philippines after disgraced incumbent Joseph "Erap" Estrada was ousted amidst mass street protests recalling the 1986 "People Power" revolution that had helped end Ferdinand Marcos' regime. The Philippine Supreme Court stripped Estrada of his office after hundreds of thousands of people protested the collapse of his impeachment trial on charges of corruption. The impeachment trial ceased after the Senate voted 11-10 to reject prosecution evidence that Estrada presumably had amassed $60 million since becoming president in June 1998. Leading Filipino writers from around the world joined in the protests by signing a petition authored by poet Alfred Yuson. Some signatories were uncomfortable with certain sections of the petition, but signed to show their solidarity with the efforts to oust Estrada. The petition (first published in the Philippine Star, Manila) is reprinted below, along with its signatories:

WRITERS' MANIFESTO AGAINST ERAP

However belated, we of the Philippine writing community here and abroad now join our voices to the national condemnation of the rotten Erap regime of criminality, Deceit and plunder.

We extol all the efforts by contemporary heroes and heroines in our midst, from Chavit Singson to Nora Aunor, to expose the venality of a shameless President.

We acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and Pinoy Times for their intrepid journalism that has helped reveal the truth about this awful man.

We thank and laud Emma Lim, Carmen Itchon, Clarissa Ocampo, Ruben Almadro, Perfecto Yasay Jr., Edgardo Espiritu, and all the other decent men and women -- credible witnesses all -- who cooperated with the prosecution panel in unveiling the depth and scope of the unconscionable crimes committed by a duplicitous gangster together with his greedy cronies, kindred and mistresses.

We praise the members of the prosecution team from Congress as well as all of the private prosecutors who gave of their time and skills to lend a noble cast to the pursuit of justice.

We hail the courageous stand taken by the ten Senator-judges who tried their best to ferret out the truth, and kept to their high ground of moral and rational ascendance. Hallowed be thy names: Rodolfo Biazon, Renato Cayetano, Franklin Drilon, Juan Flavier, Teofisto Guingona, Loren Legarda Leviste, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Sergio Osmeña III, Aquilino Pimentel and Raul Roco.

We commend the sage mind and person of Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., whose impartial conduct as Presiding Officer gave credibility to the historic impeachment trial. A pity that cohorts in collusion betrayed their irredeemably partisan and pecuniary character in voting against any further unveiling of truth, thus placing the judicial proceedings on apparently permanent hold.

We condemn in no uncertain terms the cupidity, let alone conscious complicity, with which the Dirty Eleven that are the now-infamous Senator-judges have sought to uphold and preserve the unacceptable notion of innocence on the part of Mr. Estrada, aka Jose Velarde, aka Kevin/Kelvin Garcia, aka Public Enemy No. 1.

Tessie Aquino-Oreta, Dominique Coseteng, Juan Ponce Enrile, Gregorio Honasan, Robert Jaworski, Blas Ople, John Osmeña, Ramon Revilla, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Vicente Sotto III and Francisco Tatad now join the annals of decrepitude as bad-asses of the first water. May our literature now include their names as contravidas in support of the supreme heel that is Erap the Corrupt.

We particularly deplore the actuations of Kit Tatad, Blas Ople and Miriam Defensor Santiago, whom we once held in respect as fellow-writers. They have obviously sold their souls and reputations in return for dubious rewards.

To the execrable whiner of a bully that is Juan Ponce Enrile, we accept your challenge to come up with our arms, our sundangs, guloks, itaks, but better yet with our pens, PCs and PowerBooks. We vow to spit at your face should you come within ten paces of our counter-offer of a duel.

To Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara, we say your support of an unsalvageable presidency has been lamentable. To Acting Press Secretary Mike Toledo, we say the denials and fabrications you spin are more piteous than bad fiction. To Ambassador and Spokesperson Ernesto (‘So old and still so corrupt’) Maceda, we say up yours.

It pleases us no end, however, that the lines have been drawn, and that the obvious forces of darkness are ranged against the best and most decent individuals who have helped shape our recent history, led by His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin and former presidents Corazon Cojuangco Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos. They include all the well-meaning members of civil society and all citizens who prize honesty. With you, we now ally ourselves in the imminently triumphant cause that is the redemption of the Filipino.

We join all of our right-minded countrymen in demanding an end to the most corrupt administration that has ever been visited upon our country. We should not stop there, rather pursue the eventual criminal prosecution of Joseph Ejercito Estrada, together with everyone who has helped him amass his ill-gotten wealth and rack up his litany of crimes against the Filipino people.

Down with Erap! To the darkest dungeon with him and his ilk!

SIGNED BY:
Gémino H. Abad, Founding member, Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC) and Creative Writing Foundation, Inc. (CWF); University Professor, University of the Philippines (UP);

Cesar Ruiz Aquino, Professor, Department of Literature, Silliman University;

Juaniyo Arcellana, member, PLAC; deskman-columnist, The Philippine Star;

Merlinda Bobis, lecturer, University of Wollongong, Australia;

Marianne Carandang, Managing Editor, Localvibe.com;

Nick Carbo, Professor, University of Miami, Florida;

Rogelio Cruz, Department of Psychology, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU);

Jose Y. “Butch” Dalisay, Jr., Chair, English Department, UP; President, Mac Society of the Philippines; member, PLAC and CWF; Columnist, The Philippine Star;

Carlomar Daoana, Special Issue Editor, Montage; Immediate Associate Editor, The Varsitarian, University of Santo Tomas (UST);

Ophelia A. Dimalanta, Director, UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies;

Antonio Enriquez, SEAWrite (SouthEast Asian Writers) Awardee for the Philippines, 2000;

Susan Evangelista, retired literature professor, ADMU;

Miren Anna Garamendi, Associate Editor, Localvibe.com;

Reme Grefalda, Editor, OUR OWN VOICE; Artistic Director, QBd Ink; Friends of the Performing Artist, Washington, DC; poet & playwright;

Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Director, UP Creative Writing Center; Founding Member, Likhaan Creative writing Foundation; member, PLAC and CWF;

Alwynn C. Javier, Editor-in-Chief, Heights, ADMU;

Mookie Katigbak, Associate Editor, Heights, ADMU;

Marne Kilates, Board member, UMPIL (Writers Union of the Philippines); member, PLAC;

Susan Lara, President, PLAC; member, CWF;

Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo, Ph.D., Coordinator, Filipino & Philippine Literature Program, Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, University of Hawaii-Manoa; President, Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL);

Isabel Pefianco Martin, Chair, English Department, ADMU;

Grace Monte de Ramos, writer-at-large; Founding member, Women Involved in Creating Cultural Alternatives (WICCA);

Rene J. Navarro, writer-poet, Pennsylvania, USA;

Clovis Nazareno, member, Center for Culture and Arts Development (CCAD), Bohol; Kagawad, Loon, Bohol;

Clinton Palanca, Editor in Chief, Platypus Publishing;

Victor Jose Peñaranda, member, PLAC;

Oscar Peñaranda, Writer-Teacher, San Francisco, CA;

Noel R. del Prado, Filipino Department, ADMU;

Richard Ramos, Associate Editor, Localvibe.com;

Danton Remoto, Associate Professor, Department of English, ADMU; currently on Fulbright grant at Rutgers University, New York;

D.M. Reyes, English Department, ADMU;

Elizaberh V. Reyes, writer & editor (Filipino Style, Tropical Living, Islander);

Ninotchka Rosca, GABRIELA, New York (“While I agree with the sentiment, I find myself unable to call Singson, Aunor, et al, ‘contemporary heroes,’ nor to say I respected as fellow-writers Defensor, Tatad, etc. Is there a way to say I concur with the opinion re Erap? Cheers!);

Benilda S. Santos, Chair, Filipino Department, ADMU;

Nadine L. Sarreal, writer, Singapore;

Tony N. Serran, English Instructor, Ohlone and Mission Colleges, Bay Area of California;

Ramon “RayVi” Sunico, Treasurer, Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY); Board member, Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP); Board member, Book Exporters Association of the Philippines; member, PLAC;

Miguel “Chuck” Syjuco, Editor in Chief, Localvibe.com;


Eileen Tabios, Poet; Editor and Publisher, Meritage Press (San Francisco and St. Helena CA); Advisory Board member, Kaya Press (New York, NY); AdvisoryBoard member, Kelsey St. Press (Berkeley, CA)

Naya S. Valdellon, Associate English Editor, Heights, ADMU;

Alvin B. Yapan, Fililpino Department, ADMU;

Alfred A. Yuson, Founding member, PLAC, CWF and Manila Critics Circle; Vice Chair, UMPIL; Lecturer, ADMU; columnist, The Philippine Star;

Gregorio Brillantes, Literary and Contributing Editor, Philippine Graphic; Founding member, PEN Philippines; Lifetime member, UMPIL;

Carlos Cortes, short story writer and novelist, Cebu;

Erma Cuizon, Editor of SunStar Sunday magazine; member, Women In Literary Arts, Cebu;

Luis Francia, poet and critic; affiliation: the Filipino People;

J. Neil C. Garcia, UP-CWC; member, PLAC;

Francis "Butch" Macansantos, poet; UP Baguio literature professor;

Charlson Ong, UP-CWC; member, PLAC, UMPIL and PEN Philippines -- Carla M. Pacis, UP-CWC;

Ricardo M. de Ungria, Dean, Department of Humanities, UP in Mndanao (Davao City);

Vicente Soria de Veyra, independent author of poetry and fiction e-books; and

Edna Weisser, Germany; columnist for Filworld (Munich), Philippine; Express International (London), and Localvibe (Metro Manila)