Armi U. Budomo*

“What keeps us going? Tradition.” - by Topol in “Fiddler on the Roof”

Background

In this age of IT, internet and other interactive forms of information, communication and entertainment, is there room for the traditional comedia? There still is, as proven by the Anda experience in Western Pangasinan. The local government unit (LGU) of Anda, in cooperation with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Region 1 Office, and the local populace, is reviving comedia, an old community folk media, as a vehicle for coastal resource management (CRM) advocacy.

Anda is an island municipality northwest of the Hundred Islands off the coast of Alaminos City in Lingayen Gulf. Thus its monicker as the mother island of the Hundred Islands. The municipality is surrounded by the town of Bani and Alaminos City across Tambac Bay to the southeast and by the town of Bolinao to the northwest across the Caquipotan Channel. Surrounded by water. Anda was thus accessible only to the mainland by boat during the Spanish times. During modern times, a ferry service with a lone barge operated by the Philippine Navy linked the municipality to the mainland through Brgy. Tara in Bolinao via the Caquipotan Channel. Finally, during the second term of President Fidel Ramos, he ordered part of the old Carmen bridge transported to the island town of Anda to link it to the mainland.

Comedia as entertainment form

Since the Spanish times, until the installation of the bridge, there was no electricity in Anda. Thus, the main form of entertainment for the islanders then was the comedia, Elizabeth Tomas of the LGU said. Romulo Cielo, or Mang Mulong, a fisher-farmer in his early 50s from Brgy. Roxas, recalled his youth when practically the whole town would converge at the town plaza, walking several kilometers of dirt roads, braving the sun and rain to watch the comedia which normally lasted four hours. Thus, many families had forebears who acted or sang in the comedia. Some were members of the local band that accompanied the comedia, according to Licerio Carretero, 69 years old, fondly called Mang Cerio by the town’s “oldtimers”. Mang Cerio is now the only living comedia writer in Anda, according to Tomas.

Anda is also known as the last vestige of comedia in Western Pangasinan. So well known was the island town for this tradition that for a long time it was exporting its comedia to the rest of Western Pangasinan specially during town and barangay fiestas, Mang Cerio recalled with nostalgia. He practically grew up with the tradition, being the son of a comedia writer, producer and director himself. With all his siblings acting in the comedia, he too found himself acting at age 12.

Comedia as a social commentary

Comedia is a play, a mix of dialogues in sing-song manner, repetitious movements that involved a lot of feet stomping to the music provided by a live band. Comedia is characterized by its colorful spectacle with the actors and actresses wearing colorful and elaborate costumes and headdresses. Aside from the traditional religious conflict between Muslims and Christians (or the Moro-moro), the comedia of Anda then revolved around the pervading social issues of the time. such issues included local laws versus traditions, love and courtship, as well as conflict between parents and children, Mang Cerio said. The comedia in Anda was staged in the Bolinao dialect. This is because Anda was originally a barrio of the municipality of Bolinao.

IT unseats comedia

Writing librettos and directing plays was Mang Cerio’s bread and butter until the late 80s when the comedia started to lose its following. The reign of the comedia in Anda reportedly ended with the town’s electrification. Soon television, Betamax, VHS tapes and CDs, found their way into the lives of the townsfolk. Karaoke and videoke then followed suit. While this modern accoutrements of civilization flooded Anda, the comedia receded into the background, as did the need for the live band. Soon after, the comedia talents started to die one by one until only Mang Cerio and a few others were left behind. And so he went into farming to feed his growing family.

Facing the threats of modernization

With the influx of IT and mass media, more and more of the younger citizens also learned to speak Tagalog, Ilocano, and English. All these developments relegated the Bolinao dialect to the background and with it, the comedia. According to Mario Buccat, municipal agriculture officer, only 15 percent of the population now speak Bolinao, and most of them are senior citizens.

Additionally, the accessibility of transportation, more refrigeration and post-harvest facilities, as well as new technology in fish culture ushered in outside capitalists. Soon, fish cages started crowding the coastal waters of Anda, to a point they were choking navigational lines at Caquipotan Channel and Tambac Bay. Poultry houses and piggeries began sprouting near rivers due to absence of a municipal zoning policy. Their effluents, discharged directly into the river, started polluting the once pristine waterways and coastal areas of the island. Worse, buli-bulis and other commercial fishing vessels have crept into the territorial waters of Anda, Mang Ruming, a resident of Brgy. Roxas reported. Many large fish cage operators from nearby towns would locate near the waters of Anda. At night they have been observed to tow their cages into Anda’s territorial waters then tow them back away again at daylight. Small illegal fishers would join the fray with active fishing gears that scoured the town’s seabed, blasting its seagrass beds and corals reefs, destroying the breeding and feeding grounds for fishes and other marine species. Indiscriminate catching of both the young and breeders alike was also rampant. A deputized fish warden, Mang Mulong, and his team apprehended some of them. Many illegal fishing boats, nets and active fishing gears now lie impounded at the Brgy. Roxas Bantay Dagat outpost.

Overfishing and the continued degradation of Anda’s coastal resources led to less catch per unit effort of the subsistence fisherman. Proof of this is the following account of Edith Cielo, Mang Mulong’s wife : “Nuon, isang paglaot mo lang, puno na ang iyong bangka; trak-trak kung magbenta kami ng isda. Ngayon, mabuti kung me limang kilo ka.” (Before, your banca would teem with catch per fishing trip. Now, it is good if you catch five kilos.)

The Pannacalan Island between Brgys. Macaleeng and Sabling is a classic case of this kind of degradation. The island was reportedly larger in area and teeming with coconut trees and tall grasses until the 80s. On its white sandy shores the pawikan, (marine turtles) came to breed and dolphins were frequently sighted playing in its clear surrounding waters. Now, not a single plant nor palm tree stands on the island anymore. And the island has been reduced to just a quarter kilometer of sandbar! How did this happen? Reports say that a big enterprising capitalist backed by a powerful politician gradually and wantonly exploited the island resources. He established a quarrying business and started transporting the island’s white sand to a private beach resort outside the province.

Harnessing comedia for CRM

To awaken the townsfolk to the present state of their coastal resources, and enjoin them in efforts towards unstainable development, the LGU decided to revive the comedia. With financial and technical support from the BFAR-Fisheries Resources Management Project (FRMP), the Anda LGU commissioned Mang Cerio to stage a comedia on CRM. After several consultations with BFAR-Region 1 and the LGU, Mang Cerio, collaborated with a local teacher, Ms. Virginia Collado, for the libretto titled “Ang Pagbabalik ng Nawawalang Paraiso: Isang Alay sa Kalikasan (The Return of the Lost Eden: An Offering to Nature) in time for the play’s debut during the Fish Conservation Month in October 2001. The play revolved on the conflict between Kahariang Tagalupa (Terrestrial Kingdom) and Kahariang Tagadagat (Kingdom of the Sea) and how the first exploited and threatened the second to extinction. The play presents the ill effects of illegal fishing on sea life. It also explains the benefits the sea can offer to mankind.

The play was written in Bolinao to rekindle interst in the dying dialect. Among the actors were scions of comedia players in the years past while some were not. Among them were students and barangay officials. Music was provided by the Anda Bandplayers, actually the remnants of the old band that used to accompany the comedia group of Mang Cerio’s parents since he was a young boy. The play had a three-pronged objective – 1) advocate the concept of CRM to the local populace; 2) revive interest among the new generation of their Bolinao dialect, and 3) revive the comedia as a local tradition.

About a thousand people of all ages and from all walks of life watched the four and a half-hour play at the Anda open gymnasium. The trees surrounding the gym were drooping with schoolchildren who climbed the branches to get a clearer view of the play.

The comedia aroused curiosity among the audience and greater awareness on the state of their coastal resources. Students still in their uniforms trooped to the play in droves. Reportedly, some teachers suspended their classes to allow the students and pupils to watch the show. The students interviewed admitted not having understood every word but understood the play by context. Many among the elderly expressed delight in the revival of the comedia and expressed anticipation for more comedia in the future.

Reviving comedia, saving a cultural heritage

Plans are now afoot to restage the comedia in the different coastal communities during barangay fiestas, Beth Tomas said. Mayor Alice Pulido looks forward to the comedia being revived and doing the local people proud of their cultural heritage. She also expressed optimism over the folk media’s effectiveness for local development program advocacy.

Riding the Bandwagon

Taking a cue, neighboring Alaminos City is now planning to sponsor a similar play, though not necessarily as pompous or grand, in cooperation with the city national high school. The LGU is also considering street theater to convey CRM messages among the youth. According to Milberth Ferrer, Aquaculturist of the City Agriculture Office, the city council has approved and allocated a budget for this purpose which will coincide with the city’s observance of an annual farmer-fisherfolk month in May.