Filipino Librarian: November 2006

Talumpati: Andres Bonifacio

See also the category "Talumpati."

November 30 is Bonifacio Day.

A tula (poem) is not exactly the same as a talumpati (speech), but if a student were to recite the poem by Andres Bonifacio below for a class in Filipino, I don't think any teacher would object.

The Tagalog text is from Katapusang Hibik ng Filipinas at Iba Pang Tula (pdf, via Pantas), while the translation by Teodoro Agoncillo is from The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio (via Bonifacio Papers). Words enclosed in brackets in the English translation—but not the original—are mine.

This poem has also been turned into a song. Chords are available via PRWC, while an mp3 file may be downloaded at MP3Pilipinas.com. However, because I have heard neither song, it's possible that these are two different songs.

Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa
Andres Bonifacio

Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya
Sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
Gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinub’ang lupa?
Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala...

Walang mahalagang hindi inihandog
Ng may pusong mahal sa Bayang kumupkop;
Dugo, yaman, dunong, katiisa’t pagod,
Buhay ma’y abuting magkalagot-lagot...

Sa kaniya’y utang ang unang pagtanggap
Ng simoy ng hanging nagbigay-lunas
Sa inis na puso na sisinghap-singhap
Sa balong malalim ng siphayo’t hirap...

Ang nangakarang panahon ng aliw
Ang inaasahang araw na darating
Ng pagkatimawa ng mga alipin,
Liban pa sa bayan saan tatanghalin?...

Kung ang bayang ito’y nasasapanganib
At siya ay dapat ipagtangkilik
Ang anak, asawa, magulang, kapatid
Isang tawag niya’y tatalikdang pilit...

Nasaan ang dangal ng mga Tagalog?
Nasaan ang dugong dapat na ibuhos?
Baya’y inaapi, bakit di kumilos
At natitilihang ito’y mapanood?...

Kayong mga dukhang walang tanging [palad]
Kundi ang mabuhay sa dalita’t hirap
Ampunin ang Bayan kung nasa ay lunas
Pagkat ang ginhawa niya ay sa lahat.

Ipaghandog-handog ang buong pag-ibig,
Hangang sa may dugo’y ubusing itigis,
Kung sa pagtatanggol buhay ay [mapatid]
Ito’y kapalaran at tunay na langit.

Love of Country
Andres Bonifacio

What love can be
purer and greater
than love of country?
What love? No other love, none...

Nothing dear to a person with a pure heart
is denied to the country that gave him birth:
blood, wealth, knowledge, sacrifices,
E'en if life itself ends...

To her one owes the first kiss
of the wind that is the balm
of the oppressed heart drowning
in the deep well of misfortune and suffering...

The bygone days of joy,
the future that is hoped
will free the slaves,
where can this be found but in one's native land?...

If this country is in danger
and she needs defending,
Forsaken are the [child, wife, parent, sibling]
at the country's beck and call...

Where is the honor of the Filipino?
where is the blood that should be shed?
The country is being oppressed, why not make a move,
you are shocked witnessing this...

You who are poor without [recourse]
except to live in poverty and suffering,
protect the country if your desire is to end
your sufferings, for her progress is for all.

Dedicate with all your love—
as long [as] there is blood—shed every drop of it,
If for the defense of the country life is [lost]
this is fate and true glory.

Categories: Talumpati

LISZEN and Filipino Blograrians

Wanting to find out what other librarians are saying about Library 2.0? Or perhaps you can’t remember who talked about “Fighting the Stereotypes!” a few weeks ago. Welcome to the search engine for librarians!

The search engine is called LISZEN, and the quote above is from the creator's post announcing its launch last month. LISZEN searches library and librarian blogs, is powered by Google Co-op, and was put up by a "future librarian." (Note: It's optimized for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. Download now!)

How can Filipino librarians take advantage of LISZEN? Well, instead of conducting a search using Google or other search engines to find out what librarians have written about online catalogs recently, you're better off searching LISZEN using "OPAC" as a keyword. And just to highlight the difference in results, try "OPAC" on Google and Yahoo. Huge difference.

But one problem that I see is that there don't seem to be too many Filipino blogs being searched by LISZEN. A search for "Philippines" turns up 25 results from 15 blogs, only two of which are owned by Filipinos. So here's what I'll do: list all the Filipino blogs owned by librarians that I'm familiar with, and hope that the owners will add their blogs to the LISZEN list and submit their blogs formally. I've decided not to include purely personal blogs but if you'd like to have your blog included in the list below (not necessarily for LISZEN), just leave a comment.

Aczafra.com (Arnold Zafra)
Baratillo@Cubao (Juned Sonido)
Blah! (Clair Ching)
Clair.free.net.ph (Clair Ching)
The Coffee Goddess (Zarah Gagatiga)
Confessions of a reading addict (Marj San Pedro)
Dungeon Rants (Tropee?)
Events in My Life (Melchor Cichon)
Filipina Teacher-Librarian (Peachy Limpin)
Filipino Public School Librarians (Lilian Ventura)
Librarian at the helm (Hermie Salazar)
Mal'akh (Gelo Bautista)
Monkeywrench 2.0 (Igor Cabbab)
PNU Reference, Serials & Library Science Newsleaf (Roderick Ramos)
Public Domain Works (Cymbeline Villamin)
School Librarian in Action (Zarah Gagatiga)

I also hope that the "Institutional and Association Blogs" I listed last month will add their blogs to the LISZEN list. And let's all welcome the PLAI-NCR Council Newsletter to the biblioblogosphere! I hope this means that PLAI won't be far behind.

Check out LibWorm, too. Results for "Philippines" are not as good as LISZEN's, perhaps because LibWorm is RSS-based, and registration (free) is required for more advanced features, but if you're into RSS magic, it will probably be worth it.

Category: Biblioblogosphere

Librarian as News Source

One of my pet peeves when it comes to Filipino newspapers is that when stories about libraries make it into their pages, either the librarian is never mentioned or the librarian is quoted, but the fact that he's a librarian is ignored. Incidentally, Troy Lacsamana was on Probe last month and was identified as an ex-librarian.

Anyway, I'm happy that in "Luscious Lumban" by Deni Rose Afrinidad (Manila Standard Today, 23 November 2006), a librarian is treated as a news source in an article that is not about books, reading or libraries:

Che Che Tablico, a municipal librarian, believes that their town’s embroidery and barong business also demonstrates how art runs in their blood...

Tablico, in addition, supposed that Lumban’s signature pattern is mostly nature-inspired-floral for women and leaves for men...

“Even children can tell the difference between the fabrics,” said Tablico...

“The ternos [Filipino women’s traditional costume] and the barongs here outlive their wearers,” attested Tablico.

This, according to her, is due to the fact that Lumbeños do not only manufacture garments; they also recycle them through changing the outfits’ color. For only P100, barongs and ternos can be dyed in any color the customer wants...

“Many of our townsmen got rich or have built big houses just by supplying barongs to department stores like SM and Rustan’s,” added Tablico.

Category: In the News

Watch Pacquiao Finish Off Morales

Labels: Pacquiao

Round-3

Watch more videos on Pinoy Rickey.

Category: The Philippines

Legally Blogged: Music Videos, News, Etc.

Nope, the video above is not from YouTube. I got the code from brightcove.com, which provides videos from Sony BMG, Reuters, and other content providers for free—and you don't have to worry about whether it is legally safe to put the code on your blog because it's the providers who are giving the code.

Not all videos have code available for copy-and-pasting into blogs. But if all you want to do is watch music videos, Musicbox is the place to go not just for the latest hits as shown above, but also for 80s hits like Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," and even New Kids on the Block's "Please Don't Go Girl."

Registration is required to be a brightcove.com affiliate.

Category: Internet

National Book Week 2006

The 2006 National Book Week celebration will be held from November 24 to 29 with the theme "Bata, Bata Halina't Magbasa" (Children, Come and Read).

Note: It's rather ironic that the schedule of activities is available courtesy of UPLSAA, an alumni association, but not via the National Library of the Philippines, whose website has not been updated since February 2006.

For those interested in the origin of this celebration, see "The History of Children's Book Week," celebrated the week before the American Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on November 23 this year. But that's for the international celebration.

In 1934, Frank Murphy, who was then Governor-General, issued Proclamation 696 to designate June 18-24 as National Book Week in the Philippines, noting that the birthday of national hero Jose Rizal occurred during that week. Two years later, President Manuel Quezon moved the celebration via Proclamation 109 to November 24-30, perhaps to coincide—but not quite—with the international celebration.

More recently, President Corazon Aquino designated November, through Proclamation 837 in 1991, as Library and Information Services Month, which it seems is not being observed this year because I have not seen any evidence online.

Note: It does not follow, of course, that just because no mention is made online that nothing is happening. But since the phrase "librarians in the 21st century" keeps getting repeated in meetings, seminars, etc., is it unreasonable to expect that information about library events will also be announced online?

For the record, the text of all three proclamations is available below. Thanks to Lilia Echiverri for providing the texts.

=====

PROCLAMATION NO. 696

WHEREAS, the Philippine Library Association has notified this office of its purpose to celebrate a National Book Week from June 18th to June 24th of this year; and

WHEREAS, the arousing of a national interest in the reading of good books is a patriotic duty and privilege; and

WHEREAS, the time designated includes the birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal, one of the foremost men of letters of this country;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANK MURPHY, Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, do hereby designate the period from June 18th to June 24th of this year, and all succeeding years as the National Book Week.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the government of the Philippine Islands to be affixed.

Done at the City of Manila, this 6th day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-four.

FRANK MURPHY
Governor-General

=====

PROCLAMATION NO. 109
Designating the period from November 24 to 30 of each year as National Book Week

WHEREAS, the reading of good books or the printed page is one of the most effective methods of bringing enlightenment within the reach of the largest possible number of people, and or promoting the cause of popular culture with its tremendous social benefits; and

WHEREAS, it is desirable that the task of arousing a wider spread interest in the reading of good books be recognized as a highly patriotic duty as well as a privilege;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, do hereby designate the period November 24-30 of each year beginning from nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, a National Book Week.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this nineteenth day of November in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and thirty six and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

By the President

(SGD.) ELPIDIO QUIRINO
Secretary of the Interior

(SGD.) MANUEL L. QUEZON
President of the Philippines

=====

PROCLAMATION NO. 837
DECLARING THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER 1991 AND EVERY YEAR THEREAFTER AS “LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES MONTH”

WHEREAS, there is a need to focus public awareness to the invaluable service that libraries and information centers render, i.e., providing data and materials for life-long knowledge and learning for research and for leisure.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, CORAZON C. AQUINO, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby declare the month of November 1991 and every year thereafter as “Library and Information Services Month,” under the auspices of The National Library and The National Committee on Library Information Services of the Presidential Commission on Culture and Arts.

I call upon all residents, regardless of race or creed, and the public and the private sectors to extend their full support to the observance of “Library and Information Services Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 19th of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-one.

By the President.

(SGD.) CORAZON C. AQUINO
President of the Philippines

(SGD.) FRANKLIN DRILON
Executive Secretary

Category: Events

One Million Dollars for Your Library

Does your library provide "access to information using computers and the Internet free of charge to users"? If so, you may want to apply for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual Access to Learning Award, which gives up to US$1 million per awardee. Previous winners include libraries from Nepal, Bangladesh and Guatemala.

Please note that "libraries in resource-poor countries or those working with disadvantaged communities" are encouraged to apply, that the award is given in recognition for "work accomplished, in progress, or completed" (i.e., it is not a grant) and that the deadline is 31 December 2006.

Offhand, I can't think of too many Philippine libraries that will qualify because there aren't too many that allow "all members of the public, from children to senior citizens, to use its facilities free of charge (without membership or Internet fees)." Public libraries that actually use the computers given by the National Library might be able to get around the "no Internet fee" requirement by saying that they charge "electricity fees," but I don't know whether the awards committee will buy that.

But I do think that the National Library's Library for the Blind (which has been allowing the visually impaired to access the Internet), and the Children's Library (which allows even adults to use its facilities free of charge) have a decent chance of getting the award.

Category: Libraries

Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao vs
Erik "El Terrible" Morales 3

Labels: Pacquiao

UPDATE: Watch Pacquiao finish off Morales!

The video above is the HBO teaser for the latest Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales fight—dubbed "The Grand Finale"—on Sunday, 19 November 2006, starting at 10 am on ABS-CBN and Solar Sports (pdf). (Note: Due to time zone differences, the fight takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, 18 November 2006, 10 pm.)

I've said it before about the Pacquiao-Morales and Pacquiao-Larios fights, and I'll say it again:

Filipinos in the Philippines—not to mention all over the world—will be watching. Traffic in the country will stop, the crime rate will go down to zero for a few hours, and even those who don't like boxing will know that the fight is going on.

If you're a Filipino or just interested in the fight, check out the following sites:

HBO

Watch a slideshow of Morales-Pacquiao 2, check out the bios of Pacquiao and Morales, and read Bert Sugar's pre-fight analysis, which in my biased opinion favors Pacquiao. If you have HBO, you can also check out the schedule of "Countdown to Pacquio-Morales III."

ToTsuite on YouTube

You can probably search YouTube using "pacquiao morales" as keywords, but why bother when you can subscribe to videos uploaded by ToTsuite, who seems to be uploading everything he can find related to the upcoming fight. Don't miss HBO's "Countdown to Pacquio-Morales III" (1 2 3).

ABS-CBN

This TV station will be showing a primer the day before the show, and pre- and post-fight programs on the "most awaited sports event of the year." Uniquely Filipino features: "live reports from General Santos City, to Metro Manila, to Las Vegas... Europe, Middle East and Australia... featuring Pinoys eagerly waiting for the final battle." And of course, it wouldn't really be Filipino without the "text raffle promo." =)

15rounds.com

In case you're a die-hard Pacquiao fan willing to shell-out big bucks to watch live coverage, interviews, etc., on your computer; an autographed boxing glove; and a chance to win tickets to watch the fight in Las Vegas, then this site is for you.

Erik "El Terrible" Morales Fan Site

I think it's very revealing that this site has not been updated since Morales lost to Pacquiao last year. Have Morales's fans deserted him already?

Pacland

This website devoted to Pacquiao has the latest news from different sources, plus information about all previous fights and a forum for his fans.

News and Blogs

If you really can't watch the fight on TV or online, news updates will be available on Google News, Yahoo! News, and Topix.net. Or you can check out what bloggers are saying on Technorati and Google Blog Search.

Category: The Philippines

Vintage Filipiniana Photos

When I first wrote about the "Ortigas Foundation Library," it did not yet have a website. Well, now it does: Ortigas Foundation, Inc. It's very encouraging that its first focus area (out of five) is "Filipiniana - History, Culture and Arts," and that if you click on the link, you get "Our Library." The library seems to be at the heart of the Foundation. I hope they keep it going.

And that's not all. It looks like it's going to be organizing a lot of events related to Filipiniana. In fact, they're even looking for a "Cultural Specialist," who it seems will be an events manager and librarian.

The latest exhibit will feature vintage photos (like the one above) from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at Tiendesitas from November 14 to December 3, and at the Greenhills Shopping Center from December 4 to 23.

The invitation to the exhibit opening and the full press release follows:

Vintage Photo Show from the Ortigas Foundation Library

As part of its cultural outreach program, the Ortigas Foundation Library will be launching a mobile exhibition of vintage Filipiniana photographs.

These reproductions, made from original prints from the collection of Rafael Ortigas Jr., give the viewer a glimpse into the world of vintage photography. The last decade of the Nineteenth Century and the early years of the Twentieth Century were golden years for both artistic and documentary black and white photography in the Philippines. These prints show beautiful churches, elegant architecture, ingenious modes of transportation and scenes from daily life at the end of the Spanish colonial period and during the first years of the American occupation.

The original photographs were taken with wooden box, “view cameras,” using individually exposed black and white glass-plate negatives. We have made digital enlargements from our vintage prints and developed them sepia-toned and on black and white paper similar to what was originally used.

Vintage photographs have become an invaluable part of our national heritage as more and more classic buildings and traditional artifacts and costumes disappear with changing times. We hope this exhibition will help stimulate a lively interest in our unique national heritage and in the preservation of all that was finest and of value in Philippine culture.

The Vintage Photo Exhibit will open at Tiendesitas on November 14, Tuesday, 6pm. The exhibit will run until December 3 before it transfers to the new V-Mall at the Greenhills Shopping Center from December 4 to 23.

Category: Events

Light a Candle to Stop
Online Child Pornography

via Sassy Lawyer

Watch the video. Light a candle.

They don't need money. You just need to light a candle.

No Filipino child speaks in the video, but Unicef's Child Pornography in the Philippines (2005) has one whole chapter devoted to "Child Pornography, Technology, and the Internet" (pdf).

Light a candle.

Category: Internet

LLE 2006: Library Organization and Management

Labels: Licensed Librarians

The Librarians' Licensure Examination is fast approaching. If you or someone you know will be taking the exam—or even if you're enrolled in a library management class now—you may want to take a look at the following:

"A Brief History of Management"
by Jason Tanz (Fortune Small Business, 1 October 2003)

This irreverent overview traces the development of management thought, and provides brief comments on the benefits, drawbacks and cultural responses to management theories.

Onepine's Timeline

It's not the best-designed or most organized website, but the historical timeline features the usual suspects, and the links lead to even more helpful links.

Management History Division Links

If you can't find a link for a person or movement through Onepine, try the links listed by this division of the Academy of Management.

FIS 1230 Management of Information Organizations

This site makes the connection between management theory and library management. Why? Because it's for a class in library management =) There are also quizzes on the history of management, and planning, goals and objectives.

Library and Information Center Management (6th ed.)

This is the support site for the book by Robert Stueart and Barbara Moran. In case you don't have access to the book, the examples, exercises and case studies may prove useful.

How Do You Manage (Library Journal)

The board exam will probably not cover case studies at all, but if you'd like to read some real library management problems that are probably already happening in the Philippines, take a look at "Borrowing Privileges," "Ratting Out the Boss" and "Hostile Takeover?"

For more about the laws governing Filipino librarians, see "Licensed Librarians" and "Who Can Take the Librarians' Licensure Exam?"

Category: Licensed Librarians

Pinoy Top Blogs: October 2006

Labels: Blogging

Three newcomers to the Top 50 Pinoy Top Blogs (PTB) are very interesting. DZRH Blog (aka "Public News Affair," whatever that means) joined PTB last July and came out of nowhere last October to take the 11th spot, even though it hasn't had a new post since September.

Cellphone9 by problogger Jayvee Fernandez, meanwhile, joined PTB last June and, according to him, entered the Top 50 and claimed the 22nd spot because of "The joys of international traffic." Coconuter has had the PTB badge since December 2005, but after its owner was featured on "Nagmamahal Kapamilya" the blog went up to the 26th spot in a few days, not to mention attracting 189 comments on just one post.

Lessons learned? It helps if you have a radio network behind your blog, international traffic (e.g., Rickey, Bryanboy), and get featured on a TV show seen worldwide. Now how do we do that for our blogs? Pray? =)

Well, it helps if you know who's already reading your blog and take it from there. It took me a while to figure it out, but most of the traffic for this blog comes from Filipino students who use Google to look for talumpati. Proof? Traffic has gone down significantly since students went on semestral break. If I'm right, traffic should go back to normal once classes begin again.

Other observations:

PTB's hit-counter was down at the end of last September, so Unique Hits (UH) and This Month's Hits (TMH) for October will be compared with those from August.
UH is down a whopping 31 percent, and TMH 36 percent. Have the number of Pinoy blogosphere readers gone down? Probably not. PTB's hit-counter was down for a few days toward the end of October, and so hits were probably not counted on those days.
In terms of the TMH/UH Ratio, Coconuter (5.05 percent) beat Philippines For Men (4.57 percent), which seemed ironically appropriate, given that coconuts are supposedly... never mind =)

By the way, there's a new way of ranking Pinoy blogs. Check out Basang panaginip's "Pinoy Blog Ranking: Blog Juice & Page Rank."

The following are the raw data as of 28 October 2006:

SE

1
2
3
5
6
7
8
19
10
13
-
4
9
11
15
12
14
21
16
25
18
-
20
17
23
-
27
26
22
31
32
47
29
30
37
28
35
48
34
44
40
46
-
42
-
-
-
36
-
50

OC

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

NAME OF BLOG

Rickey
Bryanboy: Le Superstar Fabuleux
Motorcycle Philippines
Pinoy Cook
laurganism.com
eRadioportal Blog
Mukamo
SELaplana
Retzwerx - Ang Inyong Pinoy Big Blogger
Starmometer
DZRH Blog
Basang Panaginip
Inside PCIJ: Stories behind our stories
pinoy.rickey.org
Pinoy Tech Blog
Philippines For Men
Kiven
Pinoy BSN
Chikadora
Our Awesome Planet
Blogged
Cellphone9
Quezon.ph
Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments
Photojunkie
Coconuter - Philippine Travelogue by a Nomad
Ellen Tordesillas
Kwentong Tambay
GPCarreon
Macalua.com
Manila's Daily Grind
Now What, Ca t?
EntrePinoy Atbp
The Sunday Punch
Touched by an Angel
Filipino Librarian
Pinoy Travel Blog
ederic@cyberspace
WeddingsAtWork.com News Blog
[m]channel!
Notes from the Peanut Gallery
Ivan About Town
The J Spot
sacha chua :: wiki
Filipina Soul
textmates
Peter Lavina
Skirmisher
The Man Blog
Batangbaler

TOTAL

UH

121,363
62,833
48,549
39,497
34,249
30,560
26,573
26,489
25,651
23,823
23,182
20,513
19,557
17,183
16,734
16,685
16,644
16,224
15,686
15,612
13,956
13,004
12,742
11,014
11,003
10,797
9,129
8,549
8,391
8,194
8,034
7,724
7,585
7,182
7,013
6,964
6,005
5,864
5,483
5,234
4,788
4,780
4,767
4,727
4,680
4,569
4,362
4,228
4,216
4,125

1,266,865

TMH

269,281
130,711
77,611
152,115
76,557
47,799
63,714
66,528
51,972
65,937
28,356
55,134
33,062
38,950
29,796
76,184
55,140
35,435
36,835
41,225
19,790
16,697
27,066
16,173
20,137
54,526
34,362
17,063
15,606
12,957
13,429
15,789
26,839
27,784
13,266
12,054
14,333
13,871
11,027
8,243
5,862
9,767
8,194
8,139
7,956
10,497
5,192
7,526
15,008
8,848

3,037,191

Category: Blogging

FO: Some Letters to the Dead (1914)

Labels: Filipiniana Online

Sinumang ibig magpahatid ng liham sa kaluluwa ng isang taong namatay na ay walang tanging dapat gawin kundi:
Una: Lahat ng liham na ipadadala ay dapat sulatin at lagdaan sa maghapon na ika-31 na Oktubre.
Ikalawa: Bawa't liham ay kailangang isilid sa isang sobre, hiwalay sa iba.
Ikatlo: Sa hatinggabi, ganap na ika-12 oras ng bisperas ng “Todos los Santos”...
[Whoever wishes to send a letter to the soul of a person who has died can do the following:
First: All the letters that will be sent must be written and signed by October 31.
Second: Each letter must be put in an envelope, separate from the others.
Third: At midnight, exactly 12 on the eve of All Saints Day...]

The passage above is from Ilang Sulat sa mga Patay: Lathalang Pang "Todos los Santos" [Some Letters to the Dead: Publication for All Saints Day] by Gerardo Chanco (Manila: Libreria y Papeleria De P. Sayo Vda. De Soriano, 1914).

The executive summary provided by the relatively-new Filipiniana.net (actually, it's still in beta) indicates that the work was not necessarily written to frighten people:

Gerardo Chanco’s attempt to contact departed friends is also an avenue for his social commentaries on the Philippines during the American occupation. It covers such topics as philosophy, religion, human relations, local politics and world events.

If you're looking for something scary, you may want to check out "Halloween, Libraries and the Philippines." Happy Halloween!

Categories: Filipiniana Online, Events