Date: September 24, 2010, Friday, 14:00-17:00
Place: Middle-Sized Room, Inamori Foundation Hall Kyoto University
Program:
14:00-14:10 Welcome remarks by Prof. Hiromu Shimizu, Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
14:10-14:50 Presentation #1 Prof. Nicanor G. Tiongson, Visiting Researcher
14:50-15:30 Presentation #2 Prof. Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem, Visiting Research Fellow
15:30-15:40 Break
15:40-16:20 Presentation #3 Prof. Eduardo Climaco Tadem, Visiting Researcher
16:20-17:00 Open Forum
ABSTRACTS: PUSONG AND REVOLUTION: SUBVERSIVE LAUGHTER IN THE LATE 19thCENTURY TAGALOG TRICKSTER TALES
NICANOR G. TIONGSON, VISITING RESEARCHER
In trickster tales current at the end of the 19th century, the Tagalog pusong (Juan, Suan, Gusting Vivas) gleefully flouts socially-accepted rules of urbanity, decency and morality, satirizes classroom "education" and common "logic", plays on the greed of his Spanish and mestizo superiors (and thereby outwits them), runs circles around the gobernadorcillo, guardia civil and other overbearing petty officials, and lampoons the Catholic rituals of attending mass, saying kilometric prayers and going to confession.
In a Tagalog society long silenced by government and religious censorship, the pusong succeeded a) in exposing the exploitative intent and impositions of the Spanish colonial system, b) in voicing out the common people's feelings about the hierarchy regnant in their society, and c) in inspiring the Tagalog folk to believe in the possibility of a society more humane than the one they lived in. As more and more Tagalogs saw their society from the pusong's eyes, it became that much easier for them to objectify and eventually reject their colonial overlords.
NICANOR G. TIONGSON, Ph.D., is affiliated with CSEAS as a Japan Foundation fellow from March 25 to October 31, 2010. He is a professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute. He served as dean of the U.P. College of Mass Communication (2003-2006) and as vice-president and artistic director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (1986-1994). As a teacher, he has handled courses on Philippine theater, film and the other arts at the University of the Philippines and, as a visiting professor, at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. As a creative artist, he has written full-length plays (like *Pilipinas Circa 1907* and *Noli at Fili
Dekada 2000*), librettos for contemporary dance (like *Realizing Rama*and *Siete Dolores*) and scripts for videos on Philippine arts and culture (like *Dulaan* I-III). As a scholar, he has published pioneering works on Philippine theater (like *Sinakulo*, *Komedya* and *Salvador F. Bernal: Designing the Stage*) and Philippine film (*The Cinema of Manuel Conde* and the *Urian Anthology 1970-79* and *1980-1989*). He also wrote the historical work, *The Women of Malolos.* He was editor-in-chief of the
10-volume *CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art *and the 28-part *Tuklas Sining* videos and monographs on the Philippine Arts. During his term as CSEAS fellow in 2009, he completed *The Urian Anthology* *(1990-1999),* which will be launched this September in the University of the Philippines.
PRIME MINISTER VIRATA: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF A TECHNOCRATIC REVOLUTION
TERESA S. ENCARNACION TADEM, VISITING RESEARCH FELLOW
My paper discusses the factors which led to the emergence of Cesar E.A. Virata as Prime Minister, the highest position which a technocrat has ever attained in the Philippines, as well as to the factors which led to his downfall. The first part will examine how Virata's family and academic backgrounds laid the foundation for his technical expertise which was sought by the business community. This paved the way for his recruitment into the Marcos administration in 1965. The second part will examine the factors which facilitated Virata's ability to deal with the powerful politico-economic elites in the Philippine Congress. The declaration of martial law in 1972 brought about new challenges to Virata foremost of which came from the First Lady Imelda Marcos and the leadership's cronies. This will be examined in the third part. A common theme which cuts across these different phases in the shaping of Virata's economic and political power as a technocrat was the crucial role he played in serving the interests of President Ferdinand E. Marcos and the U.S. in particular, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The last part of my paper will discuss the factors which contributed to their withdrawal of support for Virata.
Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Political Science (2000-2003) and former Director of the Third World Studies Center (May 2004-May 2010), University of the Philippines, Diliman. She has published journal articles and book chapters on Philippine civil society and WTO negotiations, the Philippine technocracy, the anti-Asian Development Bank campaigns in Thailand, and anti-globalization movements in Southeast Asia. She is editor of *Localizing and Transnationalizing Contentious Politics: Global Civil Society Movements in the Philippines*(Lexington Press 2009).
MARXISM, THE PEASANTRY AND AGRARIAN REVOLUTION IN THE PHILIPPINES
EDUARDO CLIMACO TADEM, VISITING RESEARCHER
This study is concerned primarily with the tradition of peasant resistance that is rooted in various Marxist analyses of revolutionary agrarian social movements. It looks at the questions that have informed Marxist studies on peasant revolutions and how writers from this school of inquiry have attempted to answer them. To see how Marxists have in practice related to peasant societies, the paper then examines an actual peasant community consisting of three villages in the provinces of Tarlac and Pampanga in Central Luzon, Philippines which have been the targets of organizing activities by armed Marxist guerrilla movements.
This paper argues that Marxist theories on peasant revolutions seem far removed from reality and that practitioners often find themselves pragmatically adjusting and revising the former to conform to the situation in the field. For peasant communities, on the other hand, the findings from the field show that different motivations (including personal considerations) in joining the armed struggle are at work and that
participation in revolutionary struggles is only one of the options that individual peasants consider in responding to their abject conditions and improving their lives.
Eduardo Climaco Tadem is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman where he teaches courses on theories in area studies, Southeast Asian socio-economic development, alternative development strategies in Asia, and the Asian peasantry and rural development. He has a
> Ph.D in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore. Currently, he is Visiting Reseacher at the Kyoto University Center for Southeast Asian Studies. He has published extensively and conducted numerous social science research studies on varied topics such as agrarian reform and rural development, official development assistance, the peasantry and agrarian unrest, Mindanao political economy, social movements, Philippine-Japan relations, conflicts over natural resources, industry studies, regional development, international labor migration, foreign investments, and contemporary politics. He has participated in many international conferences in various Asian, European, North American and Latin American countries and served as chairperson or board member of civil society organizations (CSOs) engaged in social development and critical research work. His recent publications include: "Development and Distress in Mindanao: A Political Economy Overview," 2010. *UP Forum*, Vol 11 (1); "The Filipino Peasant in the Modern World: Tradition, Change and Resilience," 2009. *Philippine Political Science Journal.* Vol 30 No 53; "Peasant Lives in the Margin: The Life and Times of Vicente and Marcelina Narciso," 2008, *Singsing*: Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies. Vol 6. No 1.