TAG-ANI PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY ASIAN FEDERATION AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES present BONIFACIO ILAGAN’s Directed by JOEL LAMANGAN onceived in 1997 during the from Enforced Disappearance CHALLENGED CInternational Week of the ratified by 58 states and signed by PAGSAMBANG BAYAN (LITURGY OF THE MASSES) Disappeared, the Asian Federation 97; by Khurram Parvez, Chairperson, AFAD BUT GRATEFUL Against Involuntary Disappearances • Playing a supportive role in the (AFAD) was born on 4 June 2018 long process of lobbying for by Mary Aileen D. Bacalso – two decades ago today. From the eventual enactment of the or the people living their lives under authoritarian transformed and subsequently leads the people’s Secretary-General, AFAD a core of three organizations, Anti Enforced or Involuntary Fregimes or in conflict regions, the oppression is uprising against the dictatorship. This is important i.e. the Families of Victims of Disappearance Act of 2012; normalised by the regimes. Using fear and censor, even today in not just the Philippines but across the Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) • Facilitating psychosocial the public memory is threatened to not remember world. The religious and moral leadership in many in the Philippines, the Association accompaniment for victims of the violence of the regime. In this kind of situation, countries is silent on the persecution suffered by the of Parents of Disappeared Persons disappearances especially in the memory of the oppressed can become the most crucial people who otherwise are supposed to be morally (APDP) in Kashmir and the now first stages of the reunification of instrument to build the consciousness of the masses led by the religious leadership in times of darkness defunct Organization of Parents stolen children in Timor-Leste with in order to evolve and sustain the resistance against and tribulations. The silence of moral leadership is and Family Members of the their biological parents; the oppression. Pagsambang Bayan, a musical show, their complicity; therefore this play invokes the moral Disappeared (OPFMD), the seed that • Coordinating the International which is originally a creative and subtle protest set leaders to not remain silent in these times. was implanted in 1997 has grown Coalition Against Enforced against the context of the then dictatorship of Marcos into a federation of 14 member- Disappearances in campaigning in the Philippines, in its present version also highlights Pagsambang Bayan reignites the hope, which the organizations from 10 countries. for the universal ratification and the challenges faced by people in the Philippines authoritarian regimes want to kill. Pagsambang Bayan implementation of the international under the Duterte regime. The play is a very moving is resistance and an awakening call in Much remains to be done in order to treaty against enforced representation of the extrajudicial executions, enforced a very subtle and artistic manner to reach out to more victims in the vast disappearances. disappearances and other forms of human rights remind the moral leaders and those Asian continent. abuses and it surely makes an emphatic impression on whose conscience is alive that silence As it completes its second decade the minds of the audiences. is criminal and the collective struggle In two decades, AFAD prides itself in : of struggle for a world free of people can only end from enforced disappearances, In a way, the play is not limited only to the situation of the injustices • Painstakingly transcending AFAD presents the musical play, the Philippines. In today’s world, many Asian countries and darkness; diversity for the sake of solidarity; “Pagsambang Bayan” or “People’s still continue to have even democratically elected therefore we • Breaking the myth among states Worship.” Depicting the horrifying authoritarian regimes, which have imposed the worst must stand that enforced disappearance era of Philippine history and the kind of violence against people. In the name of fighting up and speak is solely a Latin American people’s resistance, the play asserts drugs, terrorism, social evils, majoritarianism, religious truth to the phenomenon and exposing the compelling imperative for laying and ethnic chauvinism, many governments around the power in the the magnitude of enforced the groundwork for guarantees of world are involved in persecuting people. This play times when disappearance in Asia; non-repetition of the dark past even therefore is very inspirational for people from other standing up • Insisting in the value of an as the Duterte administration already countries as well. alone may ASIAN FEDERATION international treaty against manifests a repeat of history. be the most AGAINST enforced disappearance, which is One of the most appealing things in the Pagsambang courageous INVOLUNTARY now the International Convention Rendering AFAD irrelevant is still a Bayan musical play is the idea of how the priest is act. DISAPPEARANCES for the Protection of All Persons dream unfulfilled… affected by the sufferings of common people and gets THE ORIGINAL PAGSAMBANG BAYAN THE ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL/MANAGEMENT POOL It was 1977. As President Ferdinand Marcos JOEL C. LAMANGAN BONIFACIO P. ILAGAN was exhausting every means to entrench his director playwright-librettist; conjugal dictatorship, a play that dealt squarely with the unimaginable human rights violations JOED BALSAMO and unmitigated greed of the powers-that-be was musical director, composer, & supervising arranger JOMELLE ERA mounted by the UP Repertory Co. at the University of contributing choreographer the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. LUCIEN LETABA contributing composer LEEROY NEW O V E R V I E W The play was Pagsambang Bayan, directed by the late set designer Behn Cervantes and written by Bonifacio P. Ilagan, TJ RAMOS who had just been released from detention in Camp contributing arranger & sound designer JOEY NOMBRES Crame. It was the first full-length play that dared lights designer challenge the dictatorship. Curiously, it came in the CHINO DAVID form of the docile Christian Mass. contributing arranger agsambang Bayan The Musical is a revival of an A winner in the 1977 Palihang Aurelio V. Tolentino, iconic antimartial law play that was first staged P the liturgical drama was actually first directed by in 1977, the fifth year of the Marcos dictatorship. the late Leo Rimando and performed in English in THE CAST Originally only employing liturgical and nationalist a religious conference in Hongkong in 1976. It was ERIC “CABRING” CABRERA LYKA YVETTE BERNAL AHMED JOEM M. MAULANA songs, it is now set to music, movement, and digital commissioned by the National Council of Churches in Pastor/Priest Professional 1 Farmer 3 & Bandit 3 images. Not only does it take us back to the days of the Philippines. martial rule, it also enjoins us, 45 years after, to reflect CONRADO “DONDI MIGUEL BONGATO DENISE NAYVE on the present times as it dramatizes the burning Considered as the oldest of all traditional dramas, the CALNEA ONG III Indigenous Folk 1 Indigenous Folk 2 Mass was given a new meaning in the play. Against issues of the day. Pastor/Priest & Good Samaritan the backdrop of a brutal regime, Pagsambang Bayan In the midst of what is obtaining in the country today, RONACIN MAY NICANOR reinterpreted Christ’s sacrifice, the parable of the and on the occasion of the 41th year of Pagsambang MA. CRISTINA T. ADIGUE Chorus 3 New Testament, and the priesthood itself in the Bayan, as well as the 46th anniversary of the Youth 1 MIKE ADRIAN DE ROBLES context of the plight of the peasants, workers, and declaration of martial law, Pagsambang Bayan The Chorus 2 & Bandits’ Victim GIO POTES the rest of the impoverished masses in Philippine Musical bids us all to ponder three points: one, martial BRIAN ARDA Chorus 5 & Clergy society. law and its impact on the present; two, the root causes Farmer 1 NEL GUMALOG of the sociopolitical conflict in the country, and; three, Pagsambang Bayan is cited in the Encyclopedia of Youth 2 JOCELYN SALVANIA comprehensive human rights as the bedrock of any Philippine Art, published by the Cultural Center of BENEDICT BALAGOT Worker 2 movement for social change. the Philippines, as a major work and an example of Professional 1 & Bandit 1 SHERYL UY LEYNES theater made relevant by the crisis of society. Chorus 1 WILLIAM SERRANO Pagsambang Bayan The Musical boasts of an award- In the years of martial rule and after, various theater GENE BARSAGA Worker 1 & Levite winning creative team, a powerhouse cast, and a top- groups throughout the country did their own Urban Poor 2 TESS LIONGSON rate artistic and technical/management pool. production of the play, making Pagsambang Bayan Urban Poor 1 Running time is 1 hour 45 minutes, plus a 10-minute one of the most adapted, translated, and performed KRISTINE BAUTISTA intermission. protest plays against the Marcos dictatorship. Farmer 2 ABOUT THE TAG-ANI PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY Tag-ani means harvest season: organization of professionals and distinguished for its artistry and is Every performance is a harvesting students. It has chalked up more sharply alert to the times. THE TECHNICAL AND OUR of the arts that inspire, animate, than 200 projects, performances, MANAGEMENT POOL OBJECTIVE and uplift artist and audience. and training workshops with Tag-ani is dedicated to a various people’s organizations, nationalist and people-oriented art GRUNDY D. AHMED MAULANA Objective 1. Show Founded in 2003 by the late schools, local and international and argues that only such an art CONSTANTINO Stage Manager for Pagsambang Bayan Marili Fernandez-Ilagan, the artists’ organizations, international will bring the best in the Filipino Production Manager & Costumes The Musical to as wide Tag-ani Performing Arts Society development agencies, the artist and worker in the field of Tour Co-Manager an audience as could is a theater National Commission for Culture culture. Indeed, Filipino arts can JULIANNE MARIE A. be reached to keep and film and the Arts, and the Cultural only be world class if they first ISMAEL CRISOSTOMO BODOMO alive the discourse on Center of the Philippines.