Balagtas meets Bekimon & Jologs

As we stood in line to watch PETA’s latest offering of FnL (Florante at Laura), we couldn’t stop wondering what it was they were presenting this time. PETA had always retained the reputation of showing plays, musicals, literary discourses with a twist.

The director came onstage welcoming the audience to a presentation of language as a means of communication between people of varying interests and cultures. “Language defines a culture,” he said. “Language defines the people speaking it. By appreciating the language, we appreciate in return the culture and the people speaking it.” He paused awhile before saying, “Wow! Heavy. How bigat, pre.” And the audience broke out in unmitigated laughter. Anong say ‘nyo mga, pre!

When we were first invited to watch FnL, we asked those inviting us what this was all about. They said that it was a new take on the Florante at Laura legend written by Francisco Balagtas and updated to today’s generation who spoke many languages.

The ever-inventive Pinoy then created his own languages different from those introduced before like Pinoy Slang and Carabao English. Even later, we were presented words like Chipipay for cheap woman, Fez for face, Tesbun for pregnant woman, Umbag for wallop, all of which were categorized as Jologs. As for Bekimon, its beginnings are traceable to the time when Philippine society began to openly acknowledge the existence of the third sex and came out with Korak for correct, Kerengkeng for flirt, Wisna for forget it, and many others.

In FnL, the life of a Fil-Am rapper named Lance is transposed as he wakes up from a strange dream with unusual Filipino words lingering on his tongue. Meanwhile, a call center agent named Flor has had to learn the different accents of her clients’ languages. Their lives take a turn for -the bizarre when both start uncontrollably babbling forgotten Filipino words like linggatong and makatatatap. The two characters cross paths and discover their similarities.

But what have all these data on the evolution of a new language have to do with Noli Me Tangere, we wanted to know.

Balagtas is considered the father of the Tagalog language. But he was not only that. He was also a master in using language to reach his audience, then under the control of Spain. Everything was under censorship by the Spanish friars so Balagtas thought of going around the strict censorship laws by writing a love story between a man named Florante and a girl named Laura. How harmful could that be?

The story Florante at Laura was the only piece the censors approved at that time. It revolved around a Duke (Florante) and a Princess (Laura) in the invented kingdom of Albania, and the usurper Count Adolfo. In this manner, Balagtas was able to show the cruelty of the Spaniards, and Filipinos who read the tale in song understood what it meant. Balagtas had beaten the enemy at their own game.

 When the play FnL ended, members of the audience stood up and clapped their hands in immense approval. If they had been laughing their guts out during the performance, a few had tears in their eyes, knowing well that the war had ended during Florante at Laura’s time, but the battle is just beginning for us now in our country. Korekchina! Keri? More shows at PETA Theater Center from Jan. 30 to Feb 8. For details, call 705-6244 or 0905-3536602.

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