Tongues on Fire And still not long afterward, a

By Conrado de Quiros Frenchman and Englishman joined

(Condensed Edition) them, and were also soon drawn to
their conversation. Again, for the
(Editor’s Note: This is the speech benefit of the newcomers, Rizal used
delivered by Inquirer columnist a smattering of French and English
Conrado de Quiros on April 24, 2001 to drive home his point. The
before the French Business Frenchman and Englishman were
Association of the Philippines.) amazed that he at least knew French
and English, even if he didn’t speak
THE STORY is told that Jose Rizal it well. Rizal replied that French was
once boarded a boat bound for the not entirely unlike Spanish though it
south. posed enormous problems in
pronunciation.
Sauntering on the upper deck, where
the more well-off passengers were As to English, he said, he had begun
trying as best they could to survive to study it seriously. He did not say
the ride, he met a Spaniard and that he was doing so because he
after begging leave to sit at his table was seriously trying to win the love
soon struck up a conversation with of an Englishwoman. He might have
him. gotten the advice that the French
language was better for that
The Spaniard was amazed that he purpose. But the Frenchman and
spoke Spanish very well Rizal replied Englishman were impressed.
that he had studied at the university
and indeed lived in Madrid and When they all stood up, Rizal went
Barcelona for some time. The sauntering once more and soon
Spaniard was impressed. found himself in the lower deck. It
smelled of sweat, men, women, and
Not long afterward a German joined children huddled in cramped
them, and was soon in the thick of a quarters along with their frayed
conversation with them. belongings. Wishing to learn more
Occasionally, for the benefit of the about them, Rizal spoke to an elderly
newcomer, Rizal would speak in man in Tagalog, asking him where
German to make a point. The he came from. The man answered
German was amazed that he spoke in Cebuano, saying he could not
German very well. Rizal replied that understand Rizal. Not knowing
he had toured Germany, and had Cebuano, Rizal couldn’t understand
lived in Heidelberg for some time. him either. He turned to a woman
He did not say that he finished beside the elderly man and asked
writing a subversive novel there- her the same question. The woman
there were limits to conviviality. The spoke in Bol-anon, saying she could
German was impressed. not understand Rizal. Not knowing
Bol-anon, Rizal couldn’t understand
her either. Finally, Rizal turned to a English but because of good
young man nearby and asked him knowledge of developmentalese, or
the same question. legalese, or organizationalese, entire
languages unto themselves. NGOs
The man shrugged and spoke in are especially adept at them.
Tausug, saying he could not
understand Rizal. Not knowing And of course the kids of the rich
Tausug, Rizal couldn’t understand and middle class in Metro Manila
him too. know the language of MTV, with its
sub-languages, which are the
Rizal left the lower deck none the language of Eminem and Limp Bizkit.
wiser about the people there. They know the language of “text,”
the kind used in cellular phones the
The story is probably apocryphal. language of icons, the kind used in
But it remains a gem for the insight computer programs, and the
it gives about the situation of the language of “cool.” The last, the
intelligentsia in this country, most of language of “cool,” is an entire
whom are far from being half as language unto itself too. But it is
intelligent, or inquisitive, as Rizal. another story.
That intelligentsia of course consists
of the people who run government, But I don’t know that intelligentsia-
the banks, the courts, the schools, though it is not always easy to
and organized religion. I was about include people who listen to techno
to add organized crime, but one music in that category-knows, or
might think I am putting it on par understands, the other languages
with organized religion, and these that are spoken by the teeming
days that has consequences not masses huddled at the lower deck of
unlike the ones that visited the this ship of state, or ship of fools.
irreverent during Rizal’s time.
I don’t know that they know, or
That intelligentsia is impressive in understand, the language of April
that it speaks the language of the Boy, or Rey Valera, or in an earlier
cosmopolite, or what is known today time, Yoyoy Villame. I don’t know
as the language of globalization. that they know, or understand, the
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in particular language of “Kumparehan” or
was the chief defender of the WTO- godfatherirng-the luminous phrase
GATT when the treaty ratifying it for friends who have a falling out is
was brought before the Senate. In “nagsulian ng kandila,” they gave
conferences abroad, Filipinos are the back their baptismal candle-;the
second most articulate, or language of “barkadahan,” with its
cantankerous, lot-the first are compelling logic of “walang iwanan,”
Indians-among the Asian we’re in this through thick and thin;
representatives. That is so not just the language of hospitality and
because of a good knowledge of reciprocity, of treating a guest to a

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De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
can of sardines gotten on credit from violence and wretchedness aren’t
a neighborhood store in hopes of just “out there,” they re “in here,”
befriending a future patron. I don’t right where we stand. They are not
know that they know, or understand, just a higher, or lower, order of
the language of one Joseph Estrada, things, as those euphemisms,
ex-president and, barring a civil war “underprivileged,” undernourished,”
as his ardent followers prognosticate more exposed to crime, suggest. Or
in the event of his arrest, future con. indeed as statistics showing them to
live below the poverty line suggest.
In the 1970s, I used to say that you They are another city entirely, the
strayed one kilometer away from sense that Charles Dickens used the
Metro Manila, and you would not just phrase in “A Tale of Two Cities.”
step into another ground, you would
slip into another world. You would This is a world where a dozen people
not just step into another setting, are able to squeeze like circus
you would crash into another performers into breathable space
dimension. You would not just step separated from the next one by
into the countryside, you would cardboards, tin cans, and the
plunge into the twilight zone. The aluminum posters and streamers of
poverty and violence and candidates-the last finally have their
wretchedness there were not just a uses!-and still manage to have a love
higher, or lower, order of things, life, which is why they are 12 in the
they were another universe entirely. first place. This is a world where
They were often too absurd to be garbage has turned into a mountain
believed, the stuff that made for blocking out sun and air and hope,
black comedy. It was a world where burying people where they stand, or
rubber-slippered and Armalite-toting sleep, when it falls in a fit of rage,
Cafgus mounted checkpoints and mocking them with a parody of what
asked for donations to the local the activists like to say, which is that
dance, where sugar barons built some deaths are as light as a feather
private roads near the sea in the and some deaths weigh like
heart of sakada country to race their mountains.
Porsches and Mercedes Benzes on,
where scientific-minded NPAs tried This is a world where taxi drivers are
to explain scientifically to the wife knifed to death in the dark of night
and children of a man why they were for a thousand bucks, the murderers
executing him for being an informer. sobbing at the police station later on
when they are caught that they
I used to say that in the 1970s. needed the money to buy medicine
Today, I say that you just stray one for a child that was sick and dying.
street away from your house, and
you would not just step into another But all this notwithstanding, it wasn’t
neighborhood, you would slip into until much later that I caught a
another world. The poverty and glimpse of what being poor really

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De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
meant or conversely, what being rich At one point, someone even said she
really meant. It happened quite by would talk to Cory about the project
accident, the product of the to get her endorsement for it.
juxtaposition of two seemingly
disparate events. Shortly after leaving this meeting, I
read about how a man committed
The first was a meeting among suicide and brought his family to
friends from “civil society” – at that share the same fate. If I recall right,
time I thought “civil society” was just the man had been jobless for some
another name for “polite society” – time, a fact that had led to his wife
which I somehow got invited to. and brood of six children going
This was way back during Cory’s hungry.
time. The people at the meeting
were NGO representatives, scholars, Despite his willingness to take odd
a couple of bankers helping out jobs and take odder recompense, he
NGOs, experts in this or that field. could not find enough of them to
The discussion had to do with keep his family afloat. Not one of
putting up a foundation that would the children was old enough to help
espouse decentralization or local put food on the table, and it was all
autonomy or strong local his wife could do to cook and wash
governments, or all of the above, clothes and take care of the kids.
and an academic institution that Which left the burden of keeping the
would back this up. Everyone was family’s body and soul together
enthusiastic about the idea, and was solely on him. A reasonably
soon making all sorts of suggestions considerate and neighborly fellow
on how to go about it. when he first arrived from the
province, he became morose and
No obstacle seemed insurmountable. taciturn over the years, and was
A bureaucratic problem came up, often seen talking to himself in a
and it was forthwith solved by corner.
someone saying he would take it up
with the Secretary of Local On the fateful day, he came home in
Governments, who was Aquilino high spirits. Their problems, he told
“Nene” Pimentel at the time. A his family, were over. He did not say
financial problem came up, and it how, his eyes merely gleamed with a
was forthwith solved by someone maniacal light. That night, he mixed
saying he would talk to his bank for insecticide in the gruel they had for
a loan, and to a senator and a supper. And before long, they were
couple of congressman for help with groveling and retching all over the
the project. A legal problem came floor.
up, and it was forthwith solved by
someone saying he would talk to a The kids went first, turning blue in
Supreme court justice about it, if not the face and choking to death. The
indeed to the Chief Justice himself. wife went last, scrambling frantically

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De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
to the side of the kid who were Not all the poor reach such depths of
writhing in pain when her husband’s madness. I say all this because this
diabolical plot finally dawned on her is a strange country too in that you
poison-misted brain before she make a movie about people
herself blacked out. She was becoming sex performers out of
brought to the hospital but they desperation, and even those who
could not bring her back. She claim to be artists crucify you for
probably did not want to come back. advocating performing sex as a way
out of poverty.
The neighborhood was shocked and
wondered what had made him snap. But the two events above put side by
To this day, I do not know what side, despite being extremes, or
makes people do. I did hear when I probably because of it, drove home
was in Bangladesh some years ago to me the true divide between rich
about a man who also did the same and poor. To be rich is to be replete
thing to his family after his wife with possibility. To be rich is not just
decided to pawn her nose ring. To to have money in your pockets, as
him, nothing could come lower, the idiom goes, though that is a
nothing could show more the utter marvelous thing enough in itself.
pits they had reached, nothing could Heaven knows having a pocket full
speak more of his utter unworthiness of holes, which is the other idiom to
to be a husband and father. The describe being broke, is often a
Filipino himself who murdered his literal thing in itself. But you may
wife and kids had been heard to say not have money in your pockets and
he could no longer sleep, the sobs still be rich. Most rich do not. Only
and whimpers of his kids while they the nouveau riche do. In these days
wasted away before his eyes bore of miracle and wonder, to use Paul
through his brain like mosquitoes Simon’s phrase, to have money in
buzzing crazily in the ears. He had your pockets is no longer to be rich it
become nothing, he had become less is to be cheap.
than nothing.
To be rich is to know that nothing is
Of course not all the poor commit impossible. To be rich is to know
suicide in the face of seeming that you can go around any obstacle,
hopelessness, any more than they go under or over any obstacle, go
become sex performers as a result of through any obstacle. It is to know
it. that when you want money, you can
lay your hands on it. It is to know
Not all the poor, or poor husbands in that when you need people, you can
particular, find in their personal get in touch with them. It is to know
unworthiness a reason to include that when you want something
their loved ones in a monstrously done, you can get it done.
self-destructive attempt at
penitence, or search for oblivion.

5
De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
To be poor on the other hand, is to emanations from a parched earth at
be assailed by impossibility. It is to the first platter of rain. Society’s
be thwarted at every turn by the answer to that problem in fact has
improvident hand of man or God-or been to make the people in the
fate. It is to have obstacle after lower deck disappear completely. It
obstacle put in your path until you has been to make them invisible.
no longer see the goal, until you no “Invisible Man” is the name of Ralph
longer know there is a goal, until you Ellison’s novel about a black man
learn only to toil to get past the living in the southern United States
obstacle you wake up to each day at in the first half of the 20 th century.
crack of dawn. It is quite literally to That was the condition of blacks
have no one to turn to. generally then: People who were
there but were not there. People
But what if the poor have lost their who served but were not observed,
voice altogether? What if the sheer people who spoke but were not
disuse of their vocal chords has heard, people who existed but were
deprived them of the power of not seen.
speech altogether? What if the
knifing of taxi drivers for a thousand Invisible mean are what Filipinos are
bucks, the keening of hungry in the heart of this country in the
children like dogs at the scent of first year of the third millennium
death, or the pitiless or pitiful after Christ. Or invisible women, as
decision to embrace the comfort of the women’s groups are bound to
oblivion to the discomfort of sensate insist, women living even more
life for oneself and for one’s love phantasmagoric lives than men in
ones are the signs of a cavernous this country. They are the shadowy
muteness? figures that surround us but which
we cannot see. They are the strands
Most Filipinos live that way today. of insubstantial matter that float
In the lower deck of this ship of around us, but which we cannot
state, or ship of fools. catch.

How to talk to them? What They are the emaciated forms that
language to communicate to the lie on the sidewalks at night, finding
voiceless, to the mute, to those who temporary refuge in oblivion through
have lost the capacity to dredge up a the deadly fumes of rugby, whom
sound from the pit of their lungs, or we pass by but acknowledge as
souls? there only in the same way that we
acknowledge the pavement to be
It is not easy to want to go down to there. They are the blotches we see
the lower deck of the literal and through the rain, tapping on the
metaphorical boat. The sight and windows of our cars with scrawny
the smell assail you from the very fingers, whom we flip coins to and
top of the stairs, like the gaseous roll the glass rapidly down on not so

6
De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
much to avoid getting wet but to aggregate that has been temporarily
avoid looking at their faces and disadvantaged, dis-empowered, and
impaling them with our eyes into inconvenienced. But not for long.
reality. Growth will eradicate poverty, even
if it has to eradicate the poor.
Everywhere, the institutions of
society conspire to hide them from The media make them invisible even
sight. The Church does so by as they transfix them into very
turning them into a radiant flock, visible corpses that float on the river,
filling up the churches in their or headless bodies that rot in iron
Sunday best, their eyes turned drums. The charitable institutions
heavenward in blissful supplication. make them invisible even as they
transform them into very palpable
Someone makes a movie about the bottomless pits resembling human
poor caught in the clutches of bellies that make food and medicine,
desperation; they copulate without alms for the body and balms for the
shame in front of an audience-no, soul, disappear. Even the poor
more than this, fallen in the lassitude themselves make them invisible even
of despair they laugh without joy at as some of them materialize from
the thought of salvation-and it the fog of invisibility to become very
protests the distortion of the visible maids and nurses and forklift
superimposed image. Imelda used operators in strange lands.
to put up huge billboards of her
nutrition program on the road used We want to pin down the gaseous
by visiting dignitaries to hide the emanations that suffuse us daily,
hovels that lay in the path of their which we breathe like air, or contract
vision. The sensation is not unlike like virus, without knowing, we have
that. to discover the magic wand that
makes their atoms come together
Government makes the poor invisible and integrate them into solid matter.
in a similar way. Except that in lieu We want to talk to them, we have to
of huge billboards that proclaim the discover before the impetuous anger
divine plan, it erects ones that that drives us to stoke their
proclaim the human plan. “On this resentments into a revolutionary
site,” say the billboards that hide the flame-and revolutionaries too make
jagged roofs made from La Perla them invisible even as they forge
Biscuits a fire from the setting sun, them from battle fire into very visible
“will rise the new Philippines.” ideologically correct juvenile or even
Through the magic of infantile veterans of war-the utter
“developmentalese,” the poor are no innocence of a child, the kind that
longer the tangle of arms and legs would allow us to say, “But,
and the mass of consumptive bodies monami, the emperor is stark raving
we must extricate from to get to our naked!”
bunks, they are a statistical

7
De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
There is one other thing we have to strikes at the heart of the matter.
do if we want to talk to the human Voter education campaigns do help
flotsam that occupies the lower deck to show voters how to vote wisely.
of this boat. It is to want to speak They do not help to show the poor
their language. why they should.

I understand that Rizal left the boat Why should the poor vote wisely?
he took with that vow in mind. Why should the poor vote at all?
Henceforth, he resolved, he would Why should the insubstantial
learn as well to speak Cebuano, Bol- shadows that flit around us that we
anon, and Tausug. Or so the do not see take elections as though
storytellers say, or so our own myth- they were the air they breathe or the
making minds say. I don’t know that flurry of lovemaking-such as sex on
Rizal ever learned those languages a cramped mat among the sleeping
before he was shot in Luneta, an brood can be called that-they take
attempt by the Spaniards to still his fleeting refuge in? You are a spouse
tongue that made it speak louder or lover, would you easily melt into
than ever, down to the generations. the arms of someone who ignores
But he did try to, according to the you or disappears from your life for
story. He could have been content months on end and suddenly
to know Spanish and German and materializes from out of nowhere
English and French, kept to polite or with a rose in one hand a bottle of
very civil society, and been the envy wine on the other demanding to get
of his race. But he did not. He a lay in the hay? The only
could have insisted that if the difference being that the candidates
huddled masses in the lower deck do not disappear for months from
yearning to breathe free, or just their lives, they disappear for years.
breathe fresh air, wanted to talk to
him, they could always learn Spanish We call the poor dumb for not voting
or German or English or French. But wisely, which is just another way of
he did not. saying for not voting the way we
want them to. Isn’t that a little like
He strove to learn their language. calling the spouse or lover you treat
like dirt, or the thing you push
It’s not as easy too as it seems. I hurriedly away after love-making,
often wonder, in our time, if the ashamed to have surrendered to
elections themselves are not our way your needs and fearing its powerful
of saying that if the poor want to smells might cling to you, a whore
talk to us, or at all, they must speak for preferring the charms of more
our language. I know that in a attentive though, from your end,
column, I applauded the zealous completely undeserving suitors?
efforts of the television networks and
various groups to help voters vote If the poor are what I’ve said they
wisely. But I don’t know that really are, then even elections themselves

8
De Quiros – Tongues on Fire
take on the aspect of giving cake to But that is the reason this country
the hungry. If the poor are what has never been able to understand
I’ve said they are, then pointing out itself for more reasons than that it
to them the differential has as many languages as it has
parliamentary virtues of candidates islands. We want to heal that rift,
takes on the aspect of pointing to we want to bridge that gap, we
those who need bread the have to reconstruct atom by atom,
differential dietary properties of strand by strand, sinew by sinew,
cakes, some of them being less the tenuous mass that has melted in
fattening than others. If the poor the dark below till it becomes
are what I’ve said they are, then distinguishable, living and breathing
even appealing to their parental human forms. We want to mend the
instincts to think about the future of break, we want to glue the tear, we
their children, if not about have to piece together, word by
themselves, takes on the aspect of word, syntax by syntax, meaning by
appealing to the desperate to keep meaning, the indecipherable
the cakes fossilized in the cupboard whispers and loud bellowing issuing
so that their more civilizable children from the pit below till they assemble
will have the chance to appreciate themselves into something
their aesthetic, if not culinary, resembling speech. We want to stop
properties one day. the alienation, we want to shake the
hand of the other part of our
Given all this, the tempting course is schizophrenic self, we have to rip off
just to keep to the upper deck, plank by plank, beam by beam,
where the breezes blow and the ballast by ballast, the thing that
wine flows, where the sun shines on divides this ship of state, or ship of
those who speak English and fools, into upper and lower decks till
Spanish and German and French and we commonly feel the rush of wind
fill them with a glow. The tempting and smell the briny water.
course is just to speak the language
of the cosmopolite, the language of And then maybe, just maybe, one
globalization, the language of power day: We might leave this tub a thing
and domination, and insist that the or two wiser for having been there.
disjointed bodies below somehow
manage to shuffle their feet to their
beat. The tempting course is just to
speak the language of MTV and
cellular text and Eminem and Limp
Bizkit, and hope that the shivering
bodies below somehow get to catch
the feel of cool, which is an entire
rhythm unto itself.

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De Quiros – Tongues on Fire