Editor’s Letter: Anong Issue Mo?
Tension and division continue to arise and escalate in the Philippines’ political climate as we walk the difficult path towards next year’s elections. In his first Editor’s Letter, Jancy E. Nicolas introduces Hiraya’s political narrative for October-December 2021.
Covert art by Tien Fernandez (Bulacan, Philippines)
By: Hiraya Media’s Editor-in-Chief, Jancy E. Nicolas (Tondo, Manila)
October 30, 2021
Just a week ago, our Co-Founder Allie asked help from me and our in-house contributor Iyana on Hiraya’s first moving cover image that now opens our latest and final narrative for 2021 - POLITICS. Allie along with our talented Art Director, Tien, came up with this idea of playing with this very familiar imagery among Pinoys that is the roleta; using it as a symbol of the very serious game our entire country is now playing with the hopes that we’ll win the jackpot this May 2022.
So as the editorial team suggested different socio-political and economic issues one after another - most of which have been around since forever while some are rookies that still have a long way to go in the Filipino consciousness - at least in my mind, this moving wheel went from a fun, novel idea for digital art to a hovering image of all the burdens our generation will have to bear for the years to come. As it spins in my imagination, I couldn’t help but be more anxious than excited for the jackpot round, so to speak, because this wheel dictates a fortune with so much magnitude - our fate for the next six years. And how I wish I was just back to associating this wheel to an entertaining game show.
But it’s all fun and games until it’s not.
Yet as I ponder more on each of these issues, I’m led to this buzzword that we keep on reading and hearing on social media right now - character transformation.
Issues are just black and white news items until the characters involved in every issue bring out their complex gray areas. Behind every fact-based story are characters that make it more accessible, human, and significant. We are then reminded that these issues represent human beings in all of our complicated glory. Our kababayans are not just another vote to gain, or another netizen to convert to our side, or another emoji response to an online survey, or an incredulous opinion to oppose. Or I can even go as far as... not just another troll in desperate need of income in a poverty-stricken third-world country.
When we stop looking at these issues as mere problems that take too much of our energy, we start to see and consider the necessary nuances that only these so-called “characters” in need of transformation can bring to the fore. We start to see PEOPLE who are merely victims of a system we’ve been fighting against since the time of our ancestors.
Thus, despite us introducing a political narrative for the last quarter of the year, we want it to be about politics and not about politics at the same time. We want to bring out all these issues in that spinning roleta, but we also hope to open and encourage conversations that transcend them. Because in every story - be it in literature, on-screen, or real-life - a character transformation’s plot is comprised of what is it about and what is it REEEEALLY about. The exploration of the “REEEEALLY about” part is what’s lacking right now. And Hiraya wishes to contribute that part to the overall conversation.
Our what-is-it-abouts are the issues you see in our digital cover, but in the next months or so, our articles will delve into the what-is-it-REEEEALLY-abouts - our fears, our pains, our frustrations.
As we preach about our respective standpoints, we hope that it leads us to ask our fellow Pinoys unexpected questions that you wouldn’t usually ask in a political context:
Saan ka natatakot ngayon?
Anong mahalaga sa’yo?
Anong pangarap mong kinabukasan para sa anak mo?
Saan ka nabigo sa mga nagdaang taon at administrasyon?
Saan ka pinaka nasasaktan sa nangyayari sa bansa natin ngayon?
Saan ka pa humuhugot ng lakas at pag-asa?
When we start asking human questions, political conversations tend to be gentler and less about our egos. When we are not afraid to face our vulnerabilities in order to soften the rigidness of our partisanships, we give our bodies and souls permission to exhale, and hopefully... this relaxes our jaws and our shoulders, unclenches our fists and rests our weary souls only to realize that ultimately, we all want the same thing for our families and for our country. When we look at the pains and fears behind every issue, every standpoint, and every circumstance, we realize that we all stand on common ground despite the differences of our territories, dialects, colors, and points of view.
Yeah, how poetic. And easier said than done, right? But if I were to go back to “character transformation”, no transformation ever occurs without passing through the dark night of the soul. And perhaps there’s consolation in the fact that with the darkness enveloping our country right now, we just might be on the right track.
