MANILA, Philippines?The 25th anniversary of Ninoy Aquino?s martyrdom and the state funeral for National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag on the same Aug.21 gave the day a strange cast. That time had really passed became a palpable feeling at the Cultural Center of the Philippines as a necrological service for the much-loved Tita King fell into a hush when Imelda Marcos came onstage for her turn at a eulogy.

That was however followed by silent groaning at her now familiar rambling ? praising Kasilag in one breath, in the next recalling her own starring role in the birth of the CCP. It was too much for National Artist for Literature Frankie Sionil Jose, who walked out and issued this statement.

What did the CCP?s no-nonsense chair Emily Abrera have to say about that? First, that the National Artists present that morning were ushered onstage from backstage neither to dishonor nor keep them away from Mrs. Marcos, but to safeguard senior citizens from tripping on a stage elevated with a ramp for the ongoing run of ?Cinderella.?

As to Mrs. Marcos?s eulogy, this is Abrera?s gist in paraphrase: ?Whether or not you agree with the CCP management?s decision to ask Imelda to speak, however she came across, she was there to honor Tita King. They both played roles in the history of the CCP and the National Artist awards. We felt Imelda had a right to say farewell to an old friend on democratic ground won in EDSA.?

A formal statement will be fleshed out by a CCP board meeting next week, says Abrera, next bemoaning another Imeldific incident at a student leaders? conference in Baguio. She too found it unfortunate that Madame ?was mobbed and treated like a movie star by conference participants and their teachers ? (taking) pictures with mobile phones equipped with digital cameras as she alighted from a van?When her entourage of security vehicles started to exit about two hours later, the students again mobbed her vehicle ? They pleaded with the driver to lower the windows so they could take more photographs of the 79-year-old widow. Marcos obliged.?

Here?s the whole report and here?s a succeeding Inquirer editorial on the subject. Do you agree with its conclusion?

?What kind of future are we creating for the next generation if we substitute fame for substance or, worse, forgiveness??What kind of future will the students inherit when they hear Imelda discourse, yet again, on her philosophy of the true, the good and the beautiful and they are not told of the brutal consequences of that pie-in-the-sky philosophy?
??Not Imelda?s contribution to the arts, but the true costs of that contribution?is what we should be teaching our students. Not Imelda?s ambitious attempts to turn Manila into an arts capital, but how many workers lie buried in the Manila International Film Center.?

But where did the fault lie for that mob behavior in Baguio? If Marcos money did not fuel it, the fault was not in the star but in the fans and conference organizer(s). Given that Madame?s aging process is not helping her ?discourse? any; that books and films have not fallen short of recounting ?the brutal consequences of that pie-in-the-sky philosophy;? that not a day passes without someone excoriating Marcos perfidy in the same breath as Arroyo perfidy, something else peeps from behind those two incidents.

It seems to be a more basic, far more elusive element of Filipino sanity and insanity? the role of memory personal and collective, digested and undigested. With so many vital facts still unfound and unconfirmed, much of our history remains misperceived, misremembered and misunderstood. The Filipino soul has long been ill from undigested history. The question is, are we on the side of the illness or the healing?

No forgiveness? That?s a moral choice. Sweep Imelda?s contributions to the arts under the rug as politically inconvenient truths? That would be selective memory, as much propaganda as her late husband?s ?New Society? under ?constitutional authoritarianism.? Whatever its guise, time and object, selective memory functions as a hammer (or sickle, if you like) against the pursuit of truth, and a chance for it to percolate into nourishment, if not enduring art.

It?s true that sound political judgment and its ideal consort, discernment, are not in their most advanced stage in the Filipino majority. If the CCP chose to acknowledge history, it was trumped by ?entertainment value? in Baguio. Do we pummel it out of the popular psyche? Or do we take the better, if harder part of nourishing self-respect, passion for truth and love of country by starting where the people are?

A Cookbook of Life and History

There?s proof of this in another recent event in Baguio. It too was all about memory, but quieter and more enduring, making this latest Imeldific brouhaha a tiny bubble. Laugh, but I?m actually referring to the launching of a cookbook ? Café by the Ruins by Adelaida ?Laida? Lim and the budding writers Feliz ?Fifi? Perez and Lilliana ?Lia? Llamado.

Memories and Recipes, the rest of its title, says it all for a book born and bred in the pleasures of real food in the midst of fast-food onslaught, no less than a love of nature and culture, country and one another. Captured by adult recipes and childhood memories, period photos, casual doodles and drawings by now famous artists, here a singular spirit clan spells ?nation? and ?world? in the best sense.

Where else in this country would you see a cookbook tracking the seasons in its recipes, recounting memory of the fine and culinary arts in a single arc, and closing in on artists nourishing daily life with both common and uncommon sense?

The tw0 clan children who ingested the food with the ideals and now take their turn at telling its story prove the value of education by absorption and enchantment. Fate had both Fifi and Lia born on Feb.25, 1986, the day their elders claimed a victory in the struggle to win back a country from martial law. Here is a healing of its violations of mind and body ? two young adults coming forward and naming the alternative vision of life that raised them.

Café by the Ruins was seeded as martial law descended in the ?70s, long before Fifi and Lia were born. They were toddlers in the late ?80s when it rose as a restaurant with a vegetable garden that became their playground, attached to a gallery for the Baguio Arts Guild?s superb blending of the ethnic and avant-garde, both a launching and landing pad for its unforgettable arts festivals. For 20 years, with brief interruptions, counter-culture at the Café blended the best of lowland and highland, family and nation, art, life and death in civic virtue.

This counter-culture outlived martial law and is well on the way to outliving its successor aggravations, meanwhile evolving ever-new forms of nourishment for body and mind. All that makes Café by the Ruins, Memories and Recipes an heirloom? call it a cookbook of history defiantly, artfully digested into new life and hope.

Strangers to this story may miss some nuances underneath the humor, ease and sense of family that have captured past, present and possible future between the pages. But many who have known, adhered to, or heard of the food and art, life philosophy and celebrations of this Baguio spirit clan have already voted as its children have.

Having regretfully missed both the Baguio and Manila launches, scrambling for a copy in three outlets, this long-distance member of the tribe discovered the initial print run running out on her. The clan thankfully came to the rescue, but if you too want this heirloom? elegant, useful and selling like hotcakes ?you must now try your luck at acquiring it in Powerbooks or National Bookstore, or order it from www.anvilpublishing.com.

Failing that, you?ll simply have to wait for the next print run of this first-rate nourishment for body and soul that both will long remember.

Respond to: slmayuga@yahoo.com