Buting On My Mind (2)

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Holy Week reflection brought my reading time to a back-issue of my favorite newspaper. The Philippine Daily Inquirer of 11 April 2006 featured in its front page the Senakulo and senakulistas of Buting, a little-known barrio in Pasig. Excerpts from the article read:

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"FOR GENERATIONS, a senakulo (religious play) troupe in Barangay Buting, Pasig City, has preserved its 54-year-old play on the life and passion of Jesus Christ, a libretto that has made room for some narrative "enticements" meant to enhance the Gospel message while keeping the audience from yawning.

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"But there's one deviation from the script which the actors and crew of the Original Samahang Nazareno (Osana) cannot permit, a taboo subject that has alarmed their elders as they go onstage for another weeklong production.

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"...the group has felt no need to update its 54-year-old script: A hardbound book with the Virgin Mary's image on its cover, with 204 typewritten pages now yellow with age.

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"...the libretto's late author, Amando Yson, (was) one of the seven Buting residents who established Osana in 1952."

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I've seen maybe one or two full runs of the Senakulo in Buting. I knew many of the Osana members ("orginals" as labelled), and only few in the faction of "non-Osanas" whose palabas of even a single night's act I have yet to catch. I've read a copy of the hardbound script, and yes, the copy that for a short moment rested on my lap was already yellowing with age -- and that was, er, long ago. I was awed with great admiration when, as a young teen-ager, I had my only chance to casually chat with the libretto's author, the late Ka Amando Yson -- the tall, lanky old man with his signature 1960's hat, whose hoarse high-pitch soft voice betrayed his age.

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I was born in Buting.

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The Senakulo permanently etched itself in my memory as I grew up in Buting believing it was the barrio's pride, on top of the piyesta, the banda, the San Guillermo, and... ah, what else? Credit these jewels of the barrio to the "taal na taga-Buting", Ka Amando being one -- they have stringed together these beads of the barangay that reveal a story of the folks' religiosity, creativity, fraternity, or, even parochiality. Outside of the family and except for new immigrants, a "taga-Buting" treats and accepts another as a "kamag-anak" (distant relative). One could be "Tiya" (aunt) or "Tiyo" (uncle) to an unrelated and mere adjacent neighbor. The Senakulo, therefore, could be claimed by residents as a "family enterprise" given their kamag-anak appreciation of one another.

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Holy weeks spawn village-celebrities out of the senakulistas. The man who played the role of Judas most of his adult life was called "Ka Adong Hudas". Then you'll see Toning Kristo, Ading Demonyo, Delfing Samuel huddled together in a street corner or a sari-sari store making bida of their acting efforts with usizeros and star-struck onlookers the day after a night of palabas -- count six to seven nights of this, residents are treated with a weeklong senakulo and anecdotes a la showbiz chismis.

I must confess, though, that the child-declaimer that I once was, dreamt of playing "Nicodemus" defending Christ in the Sannedhrin. But when I began to look up to Christ as a rebel and as a true revolutionary, the "Nicodemus dream" easily faded away as my penchant for declaiming turned into street protest-chanting and began to lose my passion about the Pasyon.

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Buting's Senakulo is the barrio's Holy Week version of its Pyesta, sans its patron saint San Guillermo though, but with the musikeros of the Banda instead. Ah yes, the Banda... my favorite was the barada (snare drums).

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The Senakulo perenially perks up the business sense of some who'd put up a pondahan, ihawan, or a simple garilyo-juicy hawking. No senakuloed holyweek will pass without a petty brawl or an outright gang rumble in full- or half-mooned nights, reason why more often than not, the Senakulo is punned as "Senagulo." It's also when the young would scour a dimly lit field of faces for a silay of a heartthrob or a trial-and-error application of pick-up lines. Then you'll hear news of teen-age sweethearts in elopement mood during the Holy Week, leading the wise to remark: Nauna pang magbigti kesa kay Hudas.

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Judas' suicide is one highlight of the weeklong play. The suicide scene freezes to a furious music of the Banda, fireworks and smoke, and frantic applause from the audience screaming in appreciation! Same with the Last Supper scene, where Judas would munch on a whole piece of fried chicken, oblivious to its comic effects.

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I've seen the Senakulo staged at the Bukid, a sizeable unoccupied land where as a 13-year old, I first learned how an ear-splitting stinging sensation felt like when my left cheek caught the force of an adult's hand -- that of the senakulo's utility man -- when Berting and I playfully tore to pieces some of the production props.

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I've seen the Passion play mounted in the elementary school ground, where as a 17-year old and fresh from an 8-hour romance with textiles in the factory, feeling high (I mean, really high) and reaching out to the full moon, I panicked, and panicked uncontrollably, because the senakulo's Overture that sounded like the Banda's barada that kept blaring out of the loudspeakers kept chasing me, threatening to run me over. I could still hear Ronnie laughing, mimicking the senakulo's theme music: Dya ran djan djan.... dya ra ra ra rara ra.... 

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It was during the last few years of my Buting residency that showed the first signs of a breed of budding actors raring to pour new blood into the Senakulo . The Balisawsaw tambayan was the breeding ground -- where in many afternoons under the shade of Ka Laloy's mango tree, with some push from beer-gin concocts, senakulista-wannabes, armed with a copy of Ka Amando's script courtesy of oldtime-senakulista Ka Luding, then "patron" of the barkadang balisawsaw, that Nelleng Mata and company honed their tagulaylay and memorized lines. Boy Luming was "Buaneres", Levi was "Nicodemus", Hernan Toloy was "Hudyo". But I and Boy Taba, Ikong Pilay, Bebot Laki -- we were mere mirons. And the gin kept pouring, the glass making the rounds.

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I'm not familiar with the senakulo goings-on and brouhaha of today, but I surmise that most of these guys, barkada of my youth, are themselves the "non-Osana" senakulistas of this generation. Still, the Senakulo, the factions of actors and production groups notwithstanding, can be considered as a "kamag-anak enterprise" as explained earlier.

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Twenty-six years hence, reading an article about the Senakulo (in the Inquirer at that!), makes this taga-Buting blog some passionate recollection of a Passion play that bejeweled that little-known barangay in Pasig.

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But more than celebrating Buting's Senakulo itself, this blog praises the creativity and legacy of one tall, lanky old man with that vintage '60's hat:

Mabuhay si Ka Amando Yson!
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