Photos from the "Revolution: Andres Bonifacio's 150th Anniversary" exhibit at UP Vargas Museum, May 31-June 18, 2013

"SO BE IT" - The 2012 Kristo Manila Exhibit, with 100 artists participating. March 23-April 8, SM Art Center, 4th Level, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

"Halina," Raul Agner, Acrylic on canvas, 20" x 16", 2012

HANG-AW 2

Group Show of the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban

November 9 – December 10, 2011

Adamson University Art Gallery

The Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban reprises its show last year, this time through small works done in a variety of art media that bear images, scenes and issues in their culture and community or broadly explore themes that inspire pure creative expression. “Hang-aw” in Waray means to peer from a window, the equivalent of the Tagalog “dungaw.” The exhibit is thus a way of giving the Manila audience a sampling of artworks coming from the province, in this case Leyte. Often overlooked in comparison to their Manila counterparts, province-based artists are nevertheless productive and committed to art and artmaking. They in fact offer something that can be described as more community-specific or local-inspired in contrast to urban artists who generally deal with themes that are more national or universal in scope, outlook and style.

But to make “hang-aw” is a two-way process. While you are the one being viewed, you also view in return, which makes it possible to learn or be influenced in one way or another by what you see.

The exhibiting artists thus hope to enrich their artmaking by selecting the most valuable of what they get from their foray into our country’s most urban environment, Metropolitan Manila.

The participating artists, all members of the KasiKasi Art Association of Tacloban, are:

Rico Palacio Dante Enage Archie Prisno

Crispin Asensi Raul Agner Bebot Flandez

Billy Pomida Ernie Ybañez Jasmine Diaz

The group regularly exhibits in Tacloban and is considered the most active art group in that part of the Visayas. Individually and as a group, the artists have also joined shows in Calbayog, Ormoc, Cebu, Boracay, Iloilo, Bohol, Malaysia, and Japan. -rda

“HULAG”

“HULAG” Group Show of the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban

4-18 November 2011

PhilamLife Building Lobby, U.N. Ave., Ermita, Manila

Artists from the provinces remain largely unheard of even if they are just as productive, hardworking and talented as their Manila counterparts. “Hulag,” a Waray word that describes a fish’s splashing movement up to the water surface to take in air, is a modest attempt by a group of Tacloban/Leyte-based artists to make its artmaking efforts felt in the big city. In this show, the artists present works in different media that bear images, scenes and issues in their culture and community or broadly explore themes that inspire pure creative expression.

Surely this exhibit may not produce a big splash in the urban art landscape but it may succeed in issuing a firm statement that art is alive and vibrant even in places far removed from the glare of publicity and big sponsors usually concentrated in urban centers. In those localities – in this particular case Leyte - artists continue to toil, as this show demonstrates, despite the daunting challenges that come with their chosen passion. More than anything else, the pursuit of art has become its own reward. The occasional foray to the big city – their second – is both a chance to share what they have made and a moment to inhale fresh ideas and inspirations from a different environment and heartening encouragement from a metropolitan audience.

The participating artists, all members of the KasiKasi Art Association of Tacloban, are:

Rico Palacio

Dante Enage

Archie Prisno

Crispin Asensi

Raul Agner

Bebot Flandez

Billy Pomida

Ernie Ybañez

Jasmine Diaz

The group regularly exhibits in Tacloban and is considered the most active art group in that part of the Visayas. Individually and as a group, the artists have also joined shows in Calbayog, Ormoc, Cebu, Boracay, Iloilo, Bohol, Malaysia, and Japan. -rda

drawing drawings

mat drawings

AdU Enrolment Campaign Poster

Inspirations

Monuments, statues, portraits, and similar artistic creations are primarily mnemonic tools built lest the community they have been intended for forget the significance of the figure or event they represent. They also give viewers a visual configuration of the person/event. Obviously they add an aesthetic character to any given milieu and eventually, they serve as powerful symbols of the institution they inhabit, resonating profound meanings, core values and convictions among the members of its community.
The man in whose honor the university’s Engineering building was named must be smiling from heaven, happy to know that a bust in his likeness now occupies pride of place at the entrance. Not that he would have wanted it, considering that men of his kind usually go in humility mode all their life. It’s just that the living find him extremely worthy of such an honor. Installed on December 8, 2010, this sculpture of the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP), Blessed Frederic Ozanam, is an icon long overdue. While the building bore his name since its erection in 1979, even just an iota of information about the man was nowhere to be found within the structure.
On the occasion of its 150th anniversary, the SSVP–Philippines came up with this bust project, finally filling the conspicuous vacuum. Mounted on a granite pedestal, it gives everyone an idea of how this charitable Frenchman looked like; the accompanying brief biographical plaque outlines who he was and what he accomplished.
Visual signifiers like Ozanam’s ought to multiply around the campus to honor those who deserve recognition and saturate our vision and memories with images that will articulate our common heritage and identity. The more prominent existing ones to date are St. Vincent’s, George Lucas Adamson’s and Ozanam’s. Surely, there are many more that have made remarkable and historic contributions to the development of the University through their respective fields of expertise. The source of candidates is a vast fertile field: administrators, alumni, former faculty and even former employees. It is only a matter of perspicaciously selecting the most deserving.
The manner of honoring them is not limited to busts alone. Naming hallways, rooms, pathways, gardens and other venues after them is another good option. The most hospitable means, because it can accommodate several names, is an institutional museum. From the most noble to the most unsung, it can provide the appropriate niche for many.
Adamson University is going on 80. About time it morphs into a place where role models and those they are supposed to uplift live and interact in close quotidian association - an environment that gives off a nostalgic, inspiring and artistic vibe.

"Tagay, Sangkay"

Acrylic, 2011

"Hang-aw"

“Hang-aw” Art Exhibit Held at AdU Art Gallery


Composed of painters and sculptors, the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban, Leyte is currently exhibiting its artworks at the Adamson University Art Gallery located along San Marcelino St., Manila. Dubbed “Hang-aw: East Visayan Artistic Expressions and Impressions,” the show opened last June 22 and will run until July 16, 2010. Mrs. Lourdes Supetran, owner of ACS Manufacturing Corp. and Atty. Sol Arboladura, representative of Mayor Alfredo Lim, opened the exhibit together with AdU President Fr. Gregg L. Bañaga, Jr., C.M.
The participating artists are Ernie Ybañez, Billy Pomida, Crispin Asensi, Rico Palacio, Archie Zabala, Archie Prisno, Jun Olimberio, Dante Enage, Jasmine Diaz and Raul Agner. Their artworks range from hyper-realist (Olimberio and Pomida) to stylized figurative (Agner, Prisno, Enage, Zabala, Asensi) and from semi-abstract (Ybañez, Diaz) to pure abstract (Palacio).
“Hang-aw,” which means to peer from a window, was conceptualized as a show that would give the Manila audience a chance to view artworks from the province, art being mainly Manila-centered. On the artists’ part, the visit to Manila would be an opportunity to meet an urban audience and explore the Manila art scene. The exhibit is also a fund-raising event in support of the University President’s “Bridge Program” scholarship assistance.
No theme was set for this exhibit. Instead, each artist was free to choose his own subject or idea to paint or sculpt. Some artworks depict local scenes and people. Others are commentaries and statements about important issues in life and society. Still others dwell on personal experiences and memories that the artists feel emotionally attached to.
This is the Kasikasi Art Association’s first foray into the big city but it intends to make the Manila exhibit an annual event. Kasikasi was started in the year 2000 and continues to be a prime mover in the local (Leyte) art scene. RDA

Exhibition Notes
Raul Agner

Peering from a window is a metaphor for getting an observantly larger view outside of one’s limited frame of reference. This is what “Hang-aw: East Visayan Artistic Expressions and Impressions” is all about.
“Hang-aw,” the Waray equivalent of the Tagalog “dungaw” is an attempt to afford the big city audience a chance to experience and appreciate art from outside the Manila art scene. Paintings and sculptures by members of the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban, Leyte are featured in this show. Diverse, style-, technique- and thematic choices-wise, the artworks are either deep personal statements or simply an aesthetically stylized mode of treating what is rather mundane or usual.
On the other hand, the visiting artists get to feel the beat of the big city, witness its art scene and interact with an urban audience. All these help them expand their visual vocabulary and absorb healthy influences which can enrich their artmaking once they’re back in their creative comfort zones – their studios. “Hang-aw,” in a sense, is pretty much a two-way passage.
For sure the works in this show support the fact that while art in this country is mainly Manila-centered, there are artists in the regions who continue to toil, creating artworks that are just as skillfully executed and sensibly imagined as their city counterparts. If exhibits such as this can be held more often in more venues presenting as many other province-based artists as possible, art enthusiasts and the general public alike will have an expanded view and a more accurate picture of what Philippine art looks like in its entirety.

A Leadership School for the Poor

Adamson University’s School of Good Governance for Social Development
by Raul Agner 5/6/10

A tricycle driver cannot sit as representative in Congress, or so Commission on Elections Chair Jose Melo thinks. The driver, he reasons out, does not possess the necessary knowledge and skills to function effectively as such.
Adamson University’s School of Good Governance for Social Development believes otherwise. With their experiential learnings and given enough time and proper mentoring, tricycle drivers, or any lowly worker for that matter, can be transformed into effective leaders who can truly represent their own kind, yes, even in Congress.
But this is only among the many goals that AdU-SGGSD’s vision hopes to accomplish for at its core is the ultimate aim of nation-building through poverty alleviation.
Fr. Nonong Fajardo, C.M., the Vincentian priest who came to be known as “Fr. Riles” for helping railway squatters get a fair relocation deal from the government, has come full circle. Now the director of Adamson’s Integrated Community Extension Services (ICES) whose outreach arm is the Vincentian Center for Social Responsibility (VCSR), he has tapped the entire University community in organizing the same evictees into a federation of self-sustaining communities with some assistance from government and business. The former informal settlers, some 100,000 families in all, are now housed in sprawling relocation sites known as Northville and Towerville in Bulacan and Southville in Laguna and Cavite. Since relocation in 2004, they have been receiving all sorts of assistance designed to help them build their communities largely through their own efforts.
The latest project that Fr. Nonong has conceived for them is the School of Good Governance for Social Development.

Northrail/Southrail Project
The saga of Northville and Southville residents began with their gradual eviction from the slums along Metro Manila’s railway tracks. This was to give way to the implementation of the Northrail and Southrail Project that would cut across the metropolis from as far north in Pampanga and south in Laguna. In these mass movements, homegrown leaders whose style, engagement methods and processes developed as they journeyed with their communities emerged. That these leaders led their people from homelessness to a formal community setting with some degree of success proves they have both innate and acquired leadership and community-building capabilities. Today in fact, the relocation communities can boast of livelihood, health care, entrepreneurship, finance, sports and many other programs that are securely in place largely on their account. Unfortunately, no one has tapped the richness of this phenomenon which actually holds concepts, processes and solutions that are potential paradigms for freeing people, and the nation as a whole, from the clutches of poverty.

Vision and Mission
The School of Good Governance for Social Development is an attempt to mine this lode of community-centered leadership practices and experiences with the assistance of other stakeholders.
During the past few months, the ICES and VCSR together with the key leaders of the relocation sites had formulated the vision-mission of the School. They came up with this vision: “A school of community-based leaders who facilitate knowledge formation among themselves and their communities in order to deepen and develop with them new directions towards nation-building.” The statement seeks the institutionalization of the skills and learnings of seasoned leaders. Using a systemic approach and marrying institutional leadership approaches with community-tested ways, the end-goal is to solve poverty and bring back the off-tangent democratic venues and processes to their original path where stakeholders participate through informed decision making. The organizational and leadership skills of born leaders will be enhanced and harnessed so that these same resources can be passed on to others who will continue to lead their people towards a more dignified life. The learning process will be horizontal, engaged and community-led, and the leaders themselves will serve as faculty. The Adamson community, as well as other experts in their field of competence, will be there as a support group.
A six-pronged mission statement accompanies the vision: to provide a venue where seasoned community-leaders can share and formulate theories out of their experiences and learnings; to discover new directions and emerging cultural and national patterns out of the experiences of the leaders and other stakeholders; to implement their processed knowledge together with their communities into new paths towards nation-building; to organize all these initiatives and peoples’ movements into a nerve center so that it can be replicated to the other sectors of society; to strategize and pull together all their social and intellectual capital towards higher political engagements; to provide intellectual, managerial and technical skills to our leaders.

Training

AdU-SGGSD started with a one-week trainors’ training-seminar after Easter. Since then, monthly sessions have been conducted to monitor and plan out an improved partnership with their constituents and other stakeholders in the relocation sites like those who are in charge of health, religious life, education, peace and order, the youth, the elderly, the environment, waste management, etc. These sectoral leaders will have monthly sessions for planning, implementation and evaluation. The School, whose physical center is at Adamson University, acts as nerve center for all the activities of the leaders and the communities.
Fr. Nonong says that “SGGSD is one of Adamson’s many concrete responses to poverty alleviation and nation-building. This is leading with a social conscience. This is re-engineering Philippine social structures through democratic processes available for all and with all stakeholders of development.” Adamson University itself has been deeply involved in the relocation communities. It has been sharing its academic, technical and human resources since the VCSR was established in 2007. Volunteer faculty, employees, administrators and students have been conducting seminar-workshops and various activities regularly for the benefit of the residents.

Curriculum
The initial program of the SGGSD is a one year training that leads to a Certificate in Good Governance for Social Development.
The first three months is devoted to Personal Engagement and Values Formation. This broad area takes up Human Rights (Self-Knowledge, Human Rights and Obligations, International Bill of Rights, Philippines Constitution Bill of Rights, Spirituality of Social Development, St. Vincent de Paul) and Capability Building (Facilitating Meetings, Parliamentary Procedures, Resolution Making, Basic Accounting, Basic Computer, Public Speaking. Basic English).
Following this are five months spent for Community Engagement which tackles Issues of Relocation Sites (Education, Youth, Livelihood, Women, Peace and Order, Political Engagement, Health, Waste Management, Elderly, Religious Groups, Urban Development).
Finally, two months are allotted for National and International Engagement which covers two areas: Venues for Peoples’ Participation (Barangay, Local Government Unit, Planning and Budget, Provincial Government, International Commission on Housing and Development, World Urban Forum) and Organizing Political Rights (People’s Organizations, Homeowners Association, Local Housing Board, Provincial level Engagement, National Coalitions and Federations, Party List).

Future Possibility
Note that the last item is Party List. This brings us back to Melo’s dilemma of the tricycle driver in Congress. With AdU-SGGSD’s vision and goals coming in crystal clear, it is not really impossible to send a leader from society’s less privileged sector to government institutions like Congress. Not that AdU-SGGSD’s agenda is to eventually engage in politics; but even at this incipient stage, the School is already confirming beyond reasonable doubt that what people like Chairman Melo think cannot be done are doable and possible.
If someday a leader from an impoverished community who was honed in the humble halls of the School of Good Governance for Social Development crosses paths with fellow representatives who trained at University of the Philippines or Asian Institute of Management in the hallowed halls of the Batasang Pambansa, Fr. Atilano “Nonong” Fajardo, C.M. would be the least surprised.

(Individuals and organizations that wish to volunteer, partner with or extend financial support to ICES-VCSR may contact the office at tel.:400-0919 and 524-2011 loc 259).

The 1st St. Vincent de Paul National Awards

"Mambobola," pen and ink on paper, 21"x29", 2009

Green is the new Adamson Blue

Adamson News/NOV 09 issue/Editorial

In environmental advocacy, there are myriad ways to express one’s statements and convictions. Some bare their flesh to get their eye-popping message across while others invade the streets armed with screaming placards and vocal chords. Still others prefer the quiet but potent tentacles of the www to engage a cyber audience, or lobby in congress hoping that its so-called Honorables will forego their own narrow interests and support what is good for the majority.
Like the poet Carl Sandburg’s fog that “comes on little cat feet,” the formal launch of Adamson University’s latest environment-friendly endeavor resorted to no hype save for a solemn blessing. On a rainy November 5 afternoon, the university’s top and mid-level administrators witnessed the inauguration of the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), said to be the second of only two existing among the schools in the country today.
This Php10 million watershed initiative adds a new badge of honor to the University but for now, the movers and shakers behind this project are content to relish the completion of one that challenged the university’s resources and demanded their resourcefulness and determination to see it finished. Sharing its technological, environmental, economic and even educational benefits with other schools is a future move.
Simply put, the STP collects 250 cubic meters of dirty liquid per day from various septic tanks in the first few chambers of the plant which is located in the narrow strip between the estero and the back of OZ building. As the collected water flows from one chamber to another, it becomes cleaner and clearer until it reaches the final stage wherein it is ready to be sent back to the toilets for reuse in flush tanks or for watering plants. The plant in effect returns 200 cubic meters per day of reusable water - which is the same amount of clean water that will be saved by the university once the STP operates in full. Engr. Merlinda Palencia, chair of the Chemical Engineering department and coordinator of the project, said that the structure is good for some 20 years while the equipment in the adjacent control room will last five years.
There are several messages that this new facility conveys.
First, it shows how resolute the university is in its attempts to come up with a clean campus environment. Late last year, it introduced and encouraged the practice of the 5S program, the Japanese-inspired systematic cleaning up of the workplace and surroundings. To that basic effort, Adamson has now added a higher level of environmentally sound practice that comes close to the kind that some big industries have. It is therefore in solidarity with the bigger national and global push to clean up and preserve the environment.
Second, by virtue of its being built with an all-Adamsonian cast of engineers, consultants and administrators, the project attests to the competency of Adamson alumni engineers and the excellent quality of the school’s engineering education that these alumni went through in their college days. Homegrown technical professionals doing a big project for their Alma Mater, nothing could be more inspiring.
Lastly, although the University is the primary beneficiary of the STP, the outside community will also be able to share in a cognate effect: the minimization of the pollution of the Estero de Balete and of the Pasig River that the former is a tributary of. Wastewater disposal to the estero will be considerably lessened.
As Adamson steps up its green cause, not because it is the hip thing to do these days but because the dangers that can come from a damaged environment are real, imminent and as fearsome as the “2012” flick, it is important that every member of the Adamson community throw in his share. No matter how minimal, the contribution of each will count and gather weight when put together.
As a school, our official colors are blue and white to symbolize our search for excellence but these do not prevent us from going green.

SV Building
Adamson University
Typhoon "Ondoy," 26-27 September 2009









Mired

On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ondoy poured its fury on Metro Manila in the form of the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Philippine weather history. In a matter of hours, large areas of the metropolis and outlying provinces were inundated with murky water rising up as high as 20 feet in some places. Damage to property was extensive and not a few lost their lives as the floodwaters raged on.
It was a different sight altogether when the waters receded. Anywhere TV news cameras panned, it was the same thick brown mud that viewers could see deposited on streets and inside houses mixed up with debris that were previously tossed about by strong currents.
Ondoy brought untold suffering to many and it will surely take some time before the survivors can fully rebuild their lives. In true Pinoy fashion, though, many responded immediately by extending assistance in whatever form and by whatever means to those who were affected. In spite of being badly hit itself, Adamson University quickly mobilized its community so that help could be given to its adopted marginalized communities that were just as unlucky. As of this moment, the relief efforts are still ongoing.
By way of salvaging some positive residue, lessons from this tragedy abound for the taking: preparedness when disaster strikes, treating nature and the environment with more respect, throwing trash where they should properly be, valuing relationships and spiritual treasures more than material things - which can be wiped out in a flash, faith in God in spite of the seeming hopelessness of the moment, rising up again by overcoming adversity instead of wallowing in despair, and so on.
If applied, a future difficult situation similar to what Ondoy brought about might be more manageable.
But even in perfect weather there is perfect mud, the kind that has mired the nation for some time now, effectively hindering progress and advancement: it is the culture of corruption, dishonesty and rabid self-interest that thrives in our government institutions. The problem may be enormous but not entirely irremediable. Again, Adamson University, as an educational institution, can contribute a lot to the clearing up of this bane. By raising and molding students with the right values, outlook and critical vision, the University can produce socially responsible, God-fearing, and productive citizens who will eventually pluck this country out of the quagmire we all wish to be freed from.

Shades of Summer

The News Next Door

The News Next Door

Raul Agner

Pen and ink on acid-free paper

2001

An inconsiderate neighbor can be a pain in the a__. His whole household can disturb your simple luxuries like reading the morning paper. You, an unlucky guy, have no choice but grit your teeth and bear the cacophonic repertoire of conjugal fights, videoke singing, the sizzle of mah-jong tiles at midnight and other “ear-ritants.” That’s the subject of this drawing.

An Old Work

Geronima

Raul Agner
Acrylic on canvas
2001

The “Balangiga Massacre” or “Balangiga Encounter,” as some prefer to call it, happened in the small town of Balangiga in the southern part of Samar Island in September 1901. A company of American soldiers sent there to help clear the island of Filipino insurgents was nearly wiped out by sundang (long knife)-wielding townsfolk who became fed up with the restrictions and abuses of the soldiers. The townspeople, far inferior in arms than the occupying forces, hatched up a plan for a dawn attack on the soldiers. Dressed as women, and pretending to carry coffins of child cholera victims – which in truth contained bladed weapons, the men assembled in the church at midnight purportedly to say prayers for the dead. A brave woman risked her life by carrying several sundang hidden beneath her skirt to the church for the men to use as additional weapons. The attack on the American camp near the church was successfully carried out at dawn, signalled by the frenzied tolling of church bells, while the soldiers were having breakfast - the only time of day when they don’t carry guns. A few Americans survived the attack which the Filipinos considered justified given the superior weapons of the enemy and the unbearable extent of their abuses.
This painting was one of the artworks exhibited in the show "Echoes of Balangiga" in Hiroshima, Japan in 2002.

Chronicles of an Accidental Friendship

by Raul Agner
(photo of Bobi borrowed from philvisualarts blog)

My accidental visit to an art gallery in Manila twenty-five years ago exemplifies the old saw that everything happens for a reason. It started off a friendship with a person that would be enriching especially for me, resulting in art-related pursuits that would be advantageous to others as well. After our first meeting, I gradually learned that he was playing an important, self-defined curatorial role in the incipient stages of post-Imeldific Philippine art.

Accidental Friendship
While attending a Museology symposium at the National Library on October 3, 1984, I spent the lunch break looking around Mabini St. for cheap frames for my small drawings. At U.N. Ave., I chanced upon a shop with a glass storefront whose attraction was hard to resist because the paintings inside looked freshly familiar. I had no clue then that I was at the doorstep of Hiraya Gallery. Before leaving Tacloban the previous day, I had been reading an article in Focus magazine about an upcoming artist named Renato Habulan. Noticing that the paintings visible through the glass were the same as the photos in the article, I got excited and decided to go in. My eyes feasted on everything they could set their sights on, even as I sensed that somebody was watching my visual exploration through a gap between a suspended display panel and the wall.
That guy later introduced himself as Bobi Valenzuela who, as I was about to leave, asked me to sign the guestbook. He also offered me coffee. I didn’t know what to say but any probinsyano would certainly feel important and welcome if extended this friendly gesture especially in a very impersonal place like Manila. With a hesitant yes, I found myself sipping coffee at the mezzanine. Moreover, I met the artist himself who was responsible for the moving works downstairs. Still clear in my memory is the sight of Habulan, a social realist artist, shedding a tear as he lamented the prevailing social conditions. These people, I thought, must be serious about art and life.

Letters
Back in Leyte, I wrote Bobi to thank him for his hospitality. In two days, he wrote back to say he was glad to have met me, reiterating an invitation that I drop by Hiraya every time I happened to be in Manila. That initial exchange of letters became a groundbreaking step for our regular, almost weekly, communication until the advent of e-mail and cellphones made it obsolete.
In his letters, Bobi shared his ideas about art, his work as art curator, updates on the Manila art scene, the artists who mattered, and even some characters he found hard to deal with. In return, I wrote about my museum job, my attempts at artmaking, the local art scene and artists, and culture in general. He always emphasized that art should go beyond a show of artistic skill; he disliked the done-to-death Madonna and Child. More importantly, it should have something important to say, a sensitivity to realities that affect country or community.

Projects, Events
Our friendship, our letter writing, led to many things that would not have happened had I not decided to step inside Hiraya Gallery that fateful day in October.
In 1991, Bobi and Manny Chaves accepted my invitation to redesign the Divine Word university Museum in Tacloban which I curated then. From a drab repository of artifacts, they transformed it into a more visitor-friendly place that employed the local colourful banig as design motif. We agreed to name the whole permanent exhibit “Sungdu-an: A Confluence of Leyte-Samar Culture,” the Waray word meaning ‘meeting point of two rivers or confluence.’ I believe it was through Bobi’s suggestion that the word was used as title for the group show of visual artists from all over the country initiated by the NCCA-Committee on Visual Arts in the late ‘90s. Incidentally, Archie Zabala, a member of my hometown’s art group, qualified as Eastern Visayas’ representative to the “Sungdu-an 3: Making the Local” exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2004.

More Activities
Through Bobi, upcoming artist Alwin Reamillo came to Palo, Leyte in 1994 to conduct an installation art workshop for the Atitipalo Art Group. It was an important learning experience for the members as it exposed them to the alternative possibilities and purposes of creating art. Ironically, Bobi, a non-Visayan, connected us to the other Visayan artists in Bacolod so that in 1994, the Atitipalo was able to join the 3rd Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference in Dumaguete. From that first attendance, the other artists from Eastern Visayas were able to network with the VIVA EXCON and regularly attend the succeeding gatherings. The high point of this inter-island networking was when the Leyte artists played host to the 6th VIVA EXCON in 2000 in Tacloban, with Bobi serving as exhibition curator.
Another workshop was made available to young artists in our area again through Bobi’s efforts. Noel Cuizon and Emong Borlongan conducted a Basic Drawing and Paper Sculpture Workshop in 1995 accompanied by Bobi and Ditas Samson of the CCP.
The first local group show of the Atitipalo was in 1996 in our hometown, largely through the encouragement of Bobi. In the same year, Bobi invited me to contribute to Ang De Latang Pinoy, a collaborative exhibit at the Hiraya Gallery. In 2002, I held my first show of drawings at the Drawing Room in Makati, a humble achievement and a somewhat late-blooming output of my long letter-writing-based “art education” with Bobi.

Contribution
Bobi chose to work behind the scenes. In one letter, he wrote that his favourite line was “the tragedy of being public like a frog,” from Susan Sontag. What really mattered was that the work was carried out as envisioned. Bobi’s contributions to art in my part of the archipelago may not be known to many but then he was never after quantity. The few who understood his message continue to make art along the path that he delineated.
Bobi became my kumpare, godfather to my second daughter, in 1996. The last time I saw him was on March 20, 2008 when together with my wife and two daughters, I visited him in his BF Paranaque home. In a few months, he would finally leave for the great beyond.
A stack of his letters sits quietly at home in Tacloban, a testament to our friendship that started as a chance meeting but, because it bore so many fruits, makes me believe that it had to happen for that reason.