LIFE inside the camp was boring, even after my captors began loosening up on me and placed me under what they termed as “rehabilitation.” That was 1988. I spent my time then sweeping the floors and the yard, sleeping or just lying alone in my bunk and, yes, writing. Writing was my refuge in those trying times, the one that kept me sane when my nerves and my resolve tested me, especially when I was placed under solitary confinement for several weeks before I was “rehabilitated.” I sought escape by crafting short fiction and the occasional poems and essays.
When my captors started giving me some errands like buying cigarettes from the store outside the compound, I knew they already trusted me enough. I used that as a chance to do what I promised if I survived after my arrest: to attend Sunday masses. I then borrowed a typewriter to finalize the drafts of what I had written for submission to SunStar Cebu’s weekend magazine, SunStar Weekend, which published short story, poem and essay contributions.
One of the magazine’s columnists at that time was Resil Mojares. He and Simeon Dumdum, who wrote the Sunday essays in SunStar Cebu, caught my attention for their profound and well written articles. I was brushing up on my writing skills and thought I could learn much from them. Every time I read their articles, I dissected their writing styles looking for writing techniques that could improve my own writing ability. As they say, I learned from the masters.
I would meet the two of them at one time or another when I landed a job in the media, first with dyLA and later with The Freeman and SunStar Cebu. I could no longer remember the circumstances of my first meeting with Mojares but I still could play out in my mind some of the important things we talked about, like writing and my colorful past. He was naturally guarded about his own past. His advice: start writing what you can recall of that colorful past because chances are you would forget some of the details.
Mojares has recently been selected as a national artist for literature together with a distinguished batch that includes personalities I look up to nationally in other fields of endeavor, like filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik (Eric de Guia), composer Ryan Cayabyab and cartoonist Lauro “Larry” Alcala.
I am proud for Resil, as his friends simply call him, for having reached a pinnacle only few could ever climb. I say it’s not often that the idol of your younger years would be inducted into the Order of National Artists, the highest recognition given by the government to Filipinos who made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts.
Mojares is described in press releases as a “multi-awarded writer, historian and literary critic.” But it is in his effort to preserve and promote Cebuano culture that I would say Mojares made the deepest mark. His understanding of Cebu history and culture allowed him to give deep insights into the Cebuano psyche and society. His profoundness is what draws me to his writings, making reading him a continuing learning experience.
Congratulations!