Though typical enough of a Philippine town, with its church, seat of government and market place facing each other at the town park or open area, Boac, Marinduque is more like Vigan. It’s one unique feature, however, apart from the Festival, is the Boac Cathedral, with its separate bell tower, perched atop a hill, very much like the Daraga Church in my hometown. It probably gives the penitent soul more chances of forgiveness in terms of physical atonement. Boac has kept much of its probably centuries-old houses intact, the slow pace and more or less friendly residents who, because of their famous festival, are never xenophobic. Which, on the other hand, makes it easier for Smart, Globe, Jollibee, Chowking and San Miguel Gin and San Miguel Beer to vie for their attentions during Moriones week. Jollibee and Chowking, for instance, sister companies though they maybe, either ferry their portable kitchens or haul in a huge portion of their commissaries. SM, the shopping giant not yet present on the island, banner its sales schedules, wooing people to go to Lucena City, where its malls are. The Holy Week pilgrim or penitent fulfilling a panata (sacred promise) is probably an island native, more or less comfortable with or simply unmindful of strangers—the tourists from Luzon, the Visayas or even far-off Mindanao, or stragners like us who come in with some non-pious, non-penitential agenda. Some of these pictures (the “symbolic” or “representative” kind) will be appearing in a new major poetic work of epic length, featuring Philippine historical places and landmarks, by National Artist Rio Alma, my main sponsor for this trip (together with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts or NCCA). But Moriones, with all its color and pageantry, affects more than the Catholic part of ourselves. The heat of Holy Week, the "penitential frenzy" of the Festival (part of our schizoid culture), the epic travel to Marinduque island, touch part of us that is far more sacred than religion.
poets'picturebook No. 12 posted!
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