Trinidad, Julia Alessandra

AB IDS LangLit

Bloodlust: Philippine Protest Poetry (from Marcos to Duterte)

edited by Alfred A Yuson and Gémino H Abad

Early in 2017, the concept for this new anthology of Philippine protest poetry
emerged. At this point, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the president, whom
the people had elected eight months earlier, had no intention of abandoning his stated
war on drugs. His drug war effort led to a deliberate attack on human rights, even the
lives of Filipinos.

Artists, writers, and poets joined many other progressives in voicing displeasure
over the administration's deadly obstinacy. They protested against the appalling death
toll from extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

The EJKs attracted condemnation from the sensible segment of Philippine

society. They took action to the extent that it appeared to be accepted by everyone else,
for whom the purported aim seemed to justify the impermissible means.

From Martial Law Marcos to the Duterte administration, the anthology

BLOODLUST: Filipino Protest Poetry (From Marcos to Duterte) was co-edited by Alfred
A. Yuson and Gemino H. Abad. The first poem in the folio is "Prometheus Unbound," a
classic poem by José F. Lacaba.

Before presenting the poems, Abad presented his foreword. In his words, the last
part seems to have struck me the most.

"When we speak of Martial Law, we need to know what the limits are to its
exercise by our country’s leaders. Read then our Constitution of 1987 which enshrines
our people’s imagination of an ideal democratic country where the people are the
sovereign and their leaders are their public servants. One with imagination does not
have to be a lawyer to grasp the abstract ideal of a just and humane society.
Trinidad, Julia Alessandra
AB IDS LangLit

Is there much to be desired about our sense of country from our

day-to-day experience among our own people? Here, dear readers, in Bloodlust our
writers speak up and stand their ground! Yes, these are poems, verbal artifacts.
Whatever “poem” is, it is work of language and work of imagination, both. Some,
perhaps, depending on the reader’s taste, are “the achieve of,” a ringing cry of the
moment, and others, “the mastery of the thing,” the very perfection of the writer’s art.

But the point is, it cannot be said that our writers since Balagtas and La
Solidaridad were ever mute. Without the writer, the poor and oppressed among us have
no voice else. Writers — and most certainly, other artists and scholars — read us and
interpret us to ourselves upon our own ground: our culture and our history. They
sharpen our sense of country because they strengthen our power of abstraction and
imagination. In short, our literature wrought from whatever language, in whatever genre,
is our people’s memory. A country is only as strong as her people’s memory!"

Much of the poetry in Bloodlust is immediate, as in all collections; the ensuing

rawness can be potent. But, not every submission is likely to be a classic poem. Also,
Filipinos are the poems' main target audience because they can relate to the difficulties;
for readers from other countries, it can be difficult to feel anything but voyeuristic.

Despite the anthology's justifiable rage, the good message is that our leaders
should pay attention, not turn a blind eye, and be sensitive. Criticism should be
welcomed rather than resented, and there are standards for making a good decision
that assumes moral rectitude and solid judgment.