BY ALEX C. DELOS SANTOS
THE first time Cecile Locsin-Nava, a scholar on cultural studies in Western Visayas, came to Antique around ten years ago was to gather data for a research on the korido, or Philippine narrative poetry that sprung from the Spanish corrido, medieval metrical romances.
Locsin-Nava believed that the korido were the sources of the komedya that became widespread throughout the archipelago as a theatrical form in the country since the 18th century, and she thought she could gather more materials by interviewing komedya practitioners in the province. A persistent scholar that she is, one lead came to another that she decided her next subject for research shall be the history of the komedya in Antique.
The komedya is a play in verse, usually about royal characters from imaginary European kingdoms, utilizing marches, swordfights, magical and fantastical elements as part of the spectacle. Traditionally, the subject of the komedya is the war between Christians and Moslems, or the love affair of princes and princesses. The komedya may also be known as the tibag, bakal-bakal, palo-palo or linambay in other parts of the country.
Literary scholar Nicanor Tiongson believes that the komedya is the national theater of the Philippines. In February 2008, the University of the Philippines, through the leadership of National Artist Virgilio Almario organized the first National Komedya Fiesta, which featured representative komedya troupes from Aurora, Parañaque, Metro Manila, Antique, and Iligan. The province of Antique was represented by Hiraya Theater Company that mounted a komedya written in the 1960s by Exaltacion Combong.
But the province of Antique has pre-empted the national komedya fiesta by two years. In 2006, it held its first Komedya Antiqueña festival as part of the annual Binirayan Festival. Not to be left out, Locsin-Nava began her annual pilgrimage to Antique to witness the komedyas and to interview directors, actors, and audience for her study. She has been to the mountains to gather data, even hired a habal-habal or motorcycle to Pangalcagan or Santiago – remote barangays in Bugasong and Lauaan towns. She now considers herself an honorary Antiqueño, having mastered the art of commuting from the capital town San Jose to the northern towns which are the locale of her study.
Writing about the history of komedya in Antique is also uncovering Antique’s history. Locsin-Nava’s model for her study is Resil Mojares’s “Theater in Society, Society in Theater” (ADMU Press, 1985), which is a study on the rise and decline of the linambay (komedya) tradition in the barrio of Valladolid in Carcar, Cebu. It links the material, ecological and economic infrastructures with the political structures and ideological super-structures to come up with a social history of the village in the 19th to 20th century.
The komedya tradition in West Visayas practically died with the rise of the sarswela in the early 1900’s. The oldest record of a komedya in the region was a review of a komedya during the fiesta in San Jose, Antique, which was published in El Eco de Panay on May 20, 1893, as quoted by another Ilonggo scholar Doreen Fernandez. Today, nowhere else in West Visayas is the komedya performed but in Antique, prompting Locsin-Nava to believe that Antique’s socio-political experience must be something worth writing about if only to understand why the komedya continues to flourish until today.
Locsin-Nava has observed that unlike in Mojares’ study of the komedya in Valladolid, the komedya in Antique was supported not by the economic elite, but by the common people, whose family happens to have a self-appointed culture-bearer having in his or her possession an extant manuscript of a komedya. Religious belief is also a primary factor, as in the case of Barangay Igbalangao, whose residents believe that a komedya must be mounted every fiesta to avoid disasters such as fire and typhoon. In Barangay San Antonio, the komedya is done in honor of the Lady of Salvation, who is believed to have saved the village from a flood. The komedya in these villages were financed by families, with little support from the local government.
In a province where electricity, water supply, modern roads and bridges came rather late and where sakadas or seasonal workers are recruited Locsin-Nava believes that there is among Antiqueños a “mentality of smallness.” She links this politically to how the province sees Governor Evelio B. Javier, who was assassinated in 1986, as a folk hero. Javier’s governance from 1971 to 1980 has been thought of as the triumph of the small men.
By far, Javier is the biggest contribution Antique has to national politics, after Justice Calixto Zaldivar who expressed a dissenting voice when Marcos declared Martial Law. It is not unlikely that the people of Antique see Javier as their hero, not any different from the heroes of the komedya they have witnessed. And after all is said and done, like in the komedya, they will triumph above all their struggles.