This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 6, March 11-17, 2007
CULTURE
Rom Dongeto and the Revival of a
Protest Song
One of the most requested
songs in the country’s most popular radio stations and music-oriented TV
programs right now is “Tatsulok.” Written and composed way back in the late
1980s by Rom Dongeto of the activist folk-rock group Buklod, the song is
presently being performed by rock band Bamboo.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
One of the most requested songs in the country’s
most popular radio stations and music-oriented TV programs right now is “Tatsulok.”
Written and composed way back in the late 1980s, the song is presently being
performed by rock band Bamboo.
“Tatsulok” was originally performed by the
activist folk-rock group Buklod – whose members were Noel Cabangon, Rom Dongeto,
and Rene Boncocan. The language is highly symbolic, but the song is a
clear-enough reference to the armed conflict between the government and the
communist-led revolutionary movement.
The song’s persona counsels a little boy, simply
called Totoy, to evade the bombs and bullets that may be headed in his
direction:
Totoy bilisan mo, bilisan mo ang takbo
Totoy makinig ka, huwag kang magpagabi
“Totoy is a symbol of the ordinary masses,” said
Dongeto, who is now the deputy executive director of the Philippine Legislators’
Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), a non-government organization.
“This conflict is rooted in something, and the song calls on people like Totoy
to think and be critical,” said Dongeto.
“Well, it tells them to take care and avoid
being killed, but it also calls on them to invert the pyramid,” Dongeto added,
“For as long as opportunities and the distribution of resources are not
equitable, and the country’s riches are controlled by only a few, the
fundamental issues will remain and the war will continue. That is what the song
says.”
Hindi pula’t dilaw ang tunay na magkalaban
“The socio-political pyramid has to be inverted.
It is the organized forces who will interpret how you
will do that. But (what is clear is) to do that,
you have to overhaul the decadent system that is subservient to foreign
interests and the ruling elite,” Dongeto added.
Dongeto wrote and composed the song in 1989. It
was a period of escalating struggle between the military and the communist-led
New People’s Army (NPA). It was the height of the Aquino government’s
enforcement of its counter-insurgency policy, the “Total War Policy,” of which
the chief architect and implementer was then Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos.
It was not only combatants who were bearing the brunt of the war, however, as
the guns of state forces were also taking the lives of common folk as well as
leaders of the open mass movement, and there were also many civilians getting
caught in the crossfire.
“There were many people, ordinary people,
getting killed in the countryside,” Dongeto said.
Lumilikas ang hininga ng kayraming mga tao
The song was one of the first pieces Dongeto
wrote and composed upon Buklod’s return to the country from Paris, where an
international celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution had been
held that same year. That same year, it was included in the album Karapatang
Pantao, an anthology of songs by various artists, produced by Ed Formoso by
special arrangement with the human rights group Ecumenical Movement for Justice
and Peace (EMJP) and recording company Dyna Products, Inc. In 1991, “Tatsulok”
became the carrier song of Buklod’s second album.
“Tatsulok” quickly became a hit among activists
and, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, even enjoyed some mainstream following
through Karapatang Pantao. After that the song’s exposure would be mostly
among the cause-oriented groups and its allies, until early this year when it
once more broke through the mainstream, courtesy of rock band Bamboo which made
it the carrier single of its third album, We Stand Alone Together,
produced by EMI Music Philippines.
Bamboo the band is fronted by Bamboo Mañalac,
former lead vocalist of rock band Rivermaya.
Dongeto said the publisher which holds the
rights to his songs, M2K, was approached by EMI Records last year for permission
to include the song in Bamboo’s third album. “I didn’t expect them to make it
the carrier single,” he said. He is entitled to royalties being the song’s
lyricist and composer.
The song as rendered by Bamboo is confirmed to
have reached the top of the charts in at least three of the country’s most
popular radio stations: Love Radio, YES FM, and Barangay LS. Its music video is
also among the top ten hits in the music-oriented TV show Myx.
The audiences reached by “Tatsulok” right now
are, to borrow a term frequently used by the cause-oriented groups, spontaneous
or unorganized sections of the masses. These are the ones who are giving the
song its present status as a chart-topper.
“This says something about the political
situation,” Dongeto said when asked for his observations about the kind of
popularity that “Tatsulok” now enjoys. “Human rights violations are very grave.
People walking in the streets – lawyers, students – are being killed, and only
for expressing their sentiments and airing their demands to the government. I
think this is a national policy at this point to neutralize them.”
Based on data from Karapatan (Alliance for the
Advancement of People’s Rights), there have been more than 850 extra-judicial
killings from 2001 – when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to
power through a popular uprising – to the present. The extra-judicial killings
have been condemned even by the international community, including by the Nobel
Peace Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International and United Nations
(UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Killings Phillip
Alston.
“The song is still very real, and I think the
people can feel it and can relate to what is happening,” Dongeto said.
Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Bulatlat
Ilagan ang mga bombang nakatutok sa ulo mo
Totoy tumalon ka, dumapa kung kailangan
At baka tamaan pa ng mga balang ligaw
Baka pagkamalan pa't humandusay diyan sa tabi
Totoy alam mo ba kung ano ang puno't dulo
Ng di matapos-tapos na kaguluhang ito
Ang kulay at tatak ay di siyang dahilan
Hangga’t mas marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman
Habang may tatsulok
At sila ang nasa tuktok
Hindi matatapos itong gulo
At ang dating lunting bukid ngayo’y sementeryo
Totoy kumilos ka, baligtarin ang tatsulok
At katulad mong mga dukha ang ilagay mo sa tuktok