Art and Remembrance in Escalante

 This story was published in published in Business World, September 23, 2016

By Michele T Logarta

On the eve of the 31st anniversary of the Escalante Massacre, a tribute to the martyrs was held.  People lay torches at the Escalante Massacre monument in the city plaza.(Photo by Laurence Catalan and Iman Soquerata)

On North Avenue in Escalante City, Negros Occidental province, trucks loaded with sugar cane rumble throughout the day and night, as they have always done for decades. Bound for the sugar mills that dot the Negros landscape, the trucks follow each other like a stream of ants, resolute and in single file.

But for several days recently, traffic had been heavier along North Avenue and the sugar cane trucks have had to slow down, not only because of ongoing road repairs near the rotunda where East Avenue meets North.

From Sept. 15-20, Escalante was the hub of activities revolving around the commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the Escalante Massacre. The city also hosted the Community Theater Festival and Cultural Conference with more than 250 cultural workers and members of grassroots and community theater groups from all over the country in attendance. The city was more crowded than usual. Even the priciest inn in the city was full.

Escalante is most famous for being the site of the Escalante Massacre, the bloody climax of a three-day Welgang Bayan (nationwide strike) that left 20 people dead and many wounded.

Thirty-one years ago, on Sept. 20, 1985, 5,000 farmers, fisher folk, students, urban poor, workers, professionals, and the clergy gathered at the center of Escalante, coming together from various towns of Northern Negros. They had come in solidarity with the nationwide call for a Welgang Bayan on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of Martial Law. Marcos was still in power and democracy was seen as a sham. The demonstration was a protest against censorship, extrajudicial killings, and rampant human rights violations that had not abated despite the lifting of Martial Law in 1981.

Police and the paramilitary launched water cannons and tear gas at the protesters who stood their ground. Finally, they rained bullets on them, quelling the protest and silencing the crowd.

After the dead and wounded were carried away, rubber slippers and blood were all that were left to mark the spot on North Avenue corner Magsaysay Street.

Today, at that very same corner, a stone monument stands, three clenched stone fists, in memory of the dead.

William Alegre, Michael Dayanan, Rodney Demigilio, Rovena Franco, Juvelyn Jaravilo, Alex Lobatos, Angelina Lape, Norberto Locanilao, Rodolfo Mahinay, Rogelio Megallen Jr., Claro Monares, Maria Luz Mondejar, Rodolfo Montealto, Aniano Ornopia, Nenita Orot, Edgardo Salili, Ronilo Santa Ana, Juanito Suarez Jr., Manuel Tan, and Cesar Tejones — they are the dead whose names are inscribed there.

Twenty people died at the Escalante Massacre on September 20, 1985.  Their names are inscribed at a stone monument at the Escalante City public plaza. (Photo by Michele T. Logarta)

Every year, the city pays tribute to their sacrifice with a reenactment of the massacre that has come to define the city’s identity. Escam, they call it.  It is a rite and ritual to ensure that Escam will never be forgotten.

“Hangga’t walang hustisya ang Escalante (As long as there is no justice for Escalante), we will keep doing this,” Alejandro Deoma, better known as Bundo, said.

Mr. Deoma, who is the secretary general of Bayan Muna Negros, has been directing the Escam reenactment for the past 31 years. He was one of the organizers of Teatro Obrero, the theater arm of the Federation of Negros Sugar workers that is at the forefront of grassroots theater in the province.

Mr. Deoma spearheaded this year’s program entitled Suktanay: Tatlong ka Dekada Pagkatapos sang Escam. It was really a three-in-one event, as he pointed out, consisting of the Escam reenactment, the theater festival, and the cultural conference. 

Suktanay was organized by the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, the National Federation of Sugar Workers, Teatro Obrero, Concerned Artists of the Philippines, Sinagbayan, and Karatula in partnership with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, the Escalante City government, and the office of Melecio Yap, congressman of the first district of Negros Occidental.

The program was described by the organizers as a coming together of cultural workers, artists, human rights advocates, members of progressive organizations and other individuals to remember the victims of the Escalante Massacre and continue the quest for genuine social justice in the Philippines through images, music, theater performances and other forms of art. 

Suktanay, Mr. Deoma explained, means, “to claim.” Thus, suktanay sang hustisya means to claim justice.

On the eve of the 31st anniversary of the massacre, the ritual of remembrance began with a tribute to the martyrs.

More than a thousand farm workers, fishermen, urban poor, and workers from Negros Occidental towns marched on North Avenue carrying torches and banners streaked with words of protest in bold red. “Untaton ang Militarisasyon sa Kaumahan,” “Hustisya,” “Bugas Dili Armas” (“Stop Militarization in the Farms,” “Justice,” “Rice not Arms”) were the rallying cries of the starless night.

The marchers massed at the monument where a program was held, led by a priest who intoned the names of the dead. A survivor of Escam gave witness to her experience; community theater groups sang songs of protest; an officer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno spoke.

The plaza was filled with locals and out of town visitors. The scent of popcorn and deep fried fish balls was in the air. The fountain was illuminated by multicolored lights as it spouted, geyser like, high into the air.

Despite the solemnity of the event, there was excitement and anticipation. Sticking out in the crowd were five young Germans around whom a gaggle of children had formed. They said that they had come to watch the Escam commemoration. A friend had told them it would be interesting to see.

The highlight of the evening’s program was a concert featuring singers Joey Ayala, the Tres Marias (composed of Bayang Barrios, Lolita Carbon and Cookie Chua), and the Bacolod-based dance group Dance Pull. They had been brought here by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), through its Cultural Exchange Department.

Someone noted the irony of it all. The CCP, a creation of Imelda Marcos, had come to Escalante to honor the memory of the victims of Martial Law atrocities.

The CCP, which was founded in 1969, marked its 47th anniversary on Sept. 8. Instead of holding the usual gala concert in Manila to celebrate this milestone, the CCP decided to come and hold a concert for the people of Escalante.

CCP Artistic Director Chris B. Millado, whose idea it was for the the cultural center to come to Escalante, explained that this was a very strong gesture on the part of the CCP to rid itself of the Marcos stigma.

“The CCP has always been associated with Imelda, even up to now,” he said, adding that the CCP’s presence in Escalante where various community and school based theater groups had converged for the conference and community theater festival, was also an acknowledgment of “the contribution of grassroots theaters to arts and culture in the country.”

Mr. Millado said: “The CCP has become the showcase of major and big professional companies as exemplified by the resident companies. We have also accomplished breakthroughs with medium size groups in the regions. But we still need to cater to the fledgling and the grassroots — these are community based arts initiatives who work with development issues, cause oriented and social issues. I wanted to seize the opportunity for the CCP to engage with them. Although, historically, Negros artists have already had an engagement with the CCP in the past because they belong to a whole network of Negros based artists. This is a major collaboration.”

Aside from bringing in Joey Ayala and the Tres Marias from Manila and the dancers from Bacolod, the CCP’s participation in the Escalante commemorative activities also came in the form of a subsidy it gave to Teatro Obrero and the organizers of the community theater festival and cultural conference. The subsidy allowed more theater groups to join the various events there.

From L-R, Cookie Chua, Lolita Carbon, Bayang Barrios, collectively known as the Tres Marias, with Joey Ayala, sing Magkaugnay,  a song by Joey, in the CCP concert finale. (Photo by Lawrence Catalan and Iman Soquerata)

Mr. Millado, who hails from Victorias, Negros Occidental, spoke to the audience that night in his native Ilonggo.

“Ang tuod na Sentrong Pang-kultura ng Pilipinas ay hindi sa Manila. Ang tuod ng sentrong pangkultura ng Pilipinas ay diri, sa plaza, sa dalan, sa bukid.” (The real Cultural Center of the Philippines in not in Manila.  The real Cultural Center of the Philippines is here, in the plaza, on the roads, and in the fields.)

And to this, the audience heartily clapped in agreement. The concert ended with a rousing rendition of the song “Magkaugnay,” a song by Mr. Ayala about how people and nature are all interconnected, sung by himself and the Tres Marias with Dance Pull rendering an interpretative dance. 

CCP Artistic Director Chris B. Millado addresses the people of Escalante  before the CCP concert begins.
(Photo by Michele T. Logarta)

When the stage lights dimmed and the linoleum on stage was rolled up, several in the audience rushed for selfies with the artists. And shortly after, all fell quiet as people called it a night. Everyone looked pleased. Even the lady selling popcorn was delighted. She had sold all her popcorn, except for two or three bags.

Tomorrow would be another day.

The next morning, a concelebrated mass for the martyrs was held at the Mt. Carmel Church. The reenactment of Escam took place later at one o’clock in the afternoon.

This isn’t about remembering the nostalgic past, Suktanayorganizers said.

Rather, they said, it is meant “to inculcate a better awareness of the past among the young as well as the old, especially those unaware or have misconstrued notions of this tumultuous part of our history.”