A Look at Junglegate in the Philippine Literary Scene

A LOOK AT JUNGLEGATE IN THE PHILIPPINE LITERARY SCENE

Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard

DURING MY LONG FLIGHT back to Cal­i­for­nia, I thought about the Jun­gle­gate scan­dal that erupt­ed in the Philip­pine Lit­er­ary Scene when I was there in Sep­tem­ber. The term “Jun­gle­gate” refers to the scan­dal that fol­lowed the can­celling of Krip Yuson’s nov­el (the title has Jun­gle in it), by Explod­ing Galax­ies fol­low­ing rev­e­la­tions and protests over his alleged sex­u­al mis­con­duct and acknowl­edged pla­gia­rism. These 2 facts were known by old­er writ­ers but not known by the younger ones until now. The younger writ­ers were the ones who clam­ored that his nov­el not be replatformed.

There were oth­er things that occurred; one of which was a Face­book post by Butch Dal­isay, a good friend of Yuson, about how many books would remain in his library if he threw away books writ­ten by “peo­ple who, some­time or oth­er, were accused of moral turpi­tude, polit­i­cal incor­rect­ness, sex­u­al mis­con­duct, poor par­ent­ing, drunk­en­ness, drug use, sloven­li­ness, ani­mal cru­el­ty, greed, arro­gance, gen­er­al insuf­fer­abil­i­ty, or some such debil­i­ty of spir­it and behav­ior..” Dal­isay’s state­ment excacer­bat­ed the con­tro­very and angered the younger writers.

The issue, the young writ­ers insist­ed was not so much Art vs Artist, but that Yuson and his nov­el did not deserve the hon­or of being repub­lished. In fact, I agree that the Art Vs Artist was a distraction.

Soon after, sto­ries about sex­u­al mis­con­duct that occurred in the Philip­pine lit­er­ary scene, many of them in the Sil­i­man Dumaguete work­shops, sur­faced. The names of oth­er writ­ers who report­ed­ly took advan­tage of younger writ­ers, sur­faced or were hint­ed at. Me Too sto­ries by three writ­ers appeared, and here I men­tion them with great respect and admi­ra­tion for their courage: Gian Lao, Irene Sarmien­to, and Mar­guerite Alcazaren De Leon. I have shared their accounts in my FB page.

I had heard of oth­er vic­tims and wit­ness­eses but who were afraid to go pub­lic, even on an anony­mous basis.

I thought about all these and more and felt real­ly sor­ry for the cur­rent state of the Philip­pine lit­er­ary scene, where it’s dog-eat-dog; writ­ers using oth­er writ­ers; writ­ers try­ing to monop­o­lize pow­er, and “shar­ing” only with their pro­teges and friends, and men­tors tak­ing advan­tage of the younger writ­ers. It’s hor­ri­ble real­ly; and the more aware I was of the prob­lem, the more I “saw” man­i­fes­ta­tions of the pow­er-bro­ker­ing in a few hands.

Bien­venido “Ben” San­tos and Cecil­ia Brainard

I expe­ri­enced a more gra­cious time with men­tors like Lina Espina Moore, Ben San­tos, Frankie Jose, as well as with NVM Gon­za­lez and Resil Mojares and oth­er senior writ­ers. Con­tact with them was pro­duc­tive and cor­dial and fun.

I want to be opti­mistic and believe that the estab­lish­ment writ­ers may real­ize that this jun­gle­gate sys­tem needs to change; and if not, I have faith that the younger writ­ers who made this “rev­o­lu­tion” hap­pen, will change things.

So be it.

NVM Gon­za­lez and Cecil­ia Brainard

l‑r: Michael Cul­li­nane, Resil Mojares, Cecil­ia Brainard

Cecil­ia Brainard and Lina Espina Moore

 

Tags: Philip­pine books, Philip­pine lit­er­a­ture, Fil­ipino writ­ers, Fil­ipino books

Read also:

Book Launch­es for How I Became a Writer 2

 Per­spec­tives in the Arts and Humati­ies Asia — Dr. Char­lie Ver­ic Inter­vi­ws Cecil­ia Brainard 

Writ­ing Amid the Babel of Books by Vicente L Rafael — includ­ed in How I Became a Writer 2

I Became a Writer by Mar­ra Pl. Lan­ot — includ­ed in How I Became a Writer 2 

Book Review of How I Became a Writer: Essays by Fil­ipino and Fil­ipino Amer­i­can Writ­ers by Elfren S. Cruz