DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

Collaborative performance VIVA ExCon 2014 - Bacolod
their own experiences and did not reflect the perspective of the
Nha San collective, the oldest-run collective in Northern Vietnam
and Hanoi. When they organized events in a private home, they
didn’t have to ask permission but when they had plays sponsored
by the British Council or the Goethe Institute they had to ask the
permission of the Ministry of Culture. Despite the censorship,
they were able to do their work illegally by just changing location,
although this limited their audience.
In the case of the Aswang Festival of Capiz, the organization started
with Dugo Capiznon, Inc, a private organization composed of
young Capiznons duly registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission whose major goal was to boost social and cultural
activity in Capiz through tourism-oriented activities. Since in reality
people mislabel Capiznons as aswangs or mythical creatures, they
thought they might just as well capitalize on the misconception
and turn it into a tourism activity to educate Capiznons as well as
non-Capiznons. On the level of reality, the festival drew inspiration
from two freedom fighters during the Spanish period from Bailan,
Capiz, named Canitnit and Cauayuay who were demonized by the
Spaniards as mga aswang together with people who suffered from a
disease called “lubag”(X-linked Dystonia Parkinonism Panay).
Although the organizers tried to mollify the church and compromised
on many points, attempts to project a wholesome image of the
festival by opening with a torch parade (Pasundayag); showcasing
the best of Capiz through a trade fair (Bewitching Capiz); holding
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a symposium on folklore, anthropology and history (Pagtukib Sang
Aswang); and featuring a cultural show, etc. failed. Instead, the
church demonized the festival by leading the biggest caravan in the
history of the province against it, earning the group four pastoral
letters that were read in every church on Sundays. While it got the
group media mileage with Brigada Siete and TV Patrol dropping in
on them without being invited, it put an end to the festival. Since
then, its organizers have been haunted by the question: Is it worth
reviving?
No such question haunts the organizers of the Escalante Massacre
re-enactment. Started in 1986, to celebrate, remember, and protest
the loss of over twenty lives of hunger-driven sugar cane workers
who were staging a protest rally on the anniversary of Martial Law.
Its annual re-enactment thirty-four years after continues to be
participated in by residents as well as visitors, some like National
Artist Bienvenido Lumbera coming all the way from Manila. The
re- enactment had become a tourist attraction of sorts seeing that
the family of the dead vowed to sustain its re-enactment for as long
as justice was not served its victims. Committed to its celebration,
the families of the victims prepare three to six months before the
event hoarding food to feed visitors who come not only from all
over the province but all over the country.
Meanwhile, no two papers could be more unlike than that of Dr.
Christine Muyco’s and mine though both dealt with festivals and fell
under the heading: “Unpacking Rituals and Festival Histories: the