EPPC NEW Komunidad August 22, 2013 Goodbye Direk Behn Cervantes By Arturo P. Garcia The last time is saw Behn was he appeared as a panelist at the University of the Philippines to the showing of classic films before I went to the United States in 1997. That same occasion, the “Great Profile”, Leopoldo Salcedo was given award by Senator Raul Roco. As usual Ka. Behn spewed fire and asked why it is only now we are showing our classic films and called activism on the cultural front in the Philippines. Finally Behn was honored with a “pulong parangal” for an activist at the same chapel where his fellow directors Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal were honored before him Now the great three directors are gone but I know they are all happy if they were alive because they died in a moment where a great storm is brewing over the pork barrel or the PDAF scandal. What a way to go, not with a whimper but with a bang! ** Mang Behn always said he was given the best director awards, the ABCB award—the Aguinaldo, Bicutan, Crame and Bonifacio award. All named after military camps where he was detained as a prisoner of conscience during the 14 years of theUS-Marcos Dictatorship. He always mention this with pride. He directed, wrote and acted in plays in ABCB camps and most of all helped his fellow “kasamas” ( comrades) to escape. ** The first were six of them at the early years of martial law. Actually, six of them in 1974. Big names like Lorie Barros, Judy Taguiwalo, Ludivina Ferry and Carlos Clarin . That was afeather in his cap. Now it can be told, he helped the former NPA Commander Rolly Kintanar escape from Camp Crame in 1988. When everything was hard, he helped to get the former comrade escape by doing a shooting inside the camp that the PNP accommodated. Kintanar escaped by jumping into his Mercedes Benz car when it was time to get out of prison after the shooting. And VOILA! The great escape was made. ** The military floated around that a known director’s car was use in the escape but they were so timid to pinpoint Ka.Behn. They lacked evidence and just depended on the UG’s gravevine. That’s how they know yet they cannot act on “tsimis’ That’s how intrepid and bold was Behn. ** One time, in 1984 when Behn and Lino supported the Welgang Bayan against Marcos were arrested by the police in Cubao, they were hauled to Quezon City Jail together with PISTON members from the jeepney drivers group. When the media and fellow artist visited them they said; “Kami ang tunay na “Bulaklak ng City Jail” hindi si Nora” to the delight of his visitors, their jailors and the public alike. Later they were release by the order of a fellow crazy and more than an artist for her antics-Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago who later became a Senator. ** Direk Behn was always a pioneer. He was the first to add the word H to his name, distinguishing and separating himself from others. Thus Behn Cervantes was the name. While in the States, he stayed in Hawaii and New York. He loved this places and as always as a lover of theater, directed plays about Filipino farm workers and the “ manongs” he truly loved. He always tell of stories about how the Filipinos other Asian workers in Hawaii and how they fought the police. I still can picture him laughing at how the Americans were surprised on the courage of Filipinos who fought the cabs in the police in Hawaii in that “Great Strike” that they even evened up the number of dead and wounded on each side. They fought the police and cabs, tooth and nail! That’s how the Filipinos workers made their mark in the American Union Movement. ** Behn was our director during the First Quarter Storm when we acted for the Movement For a Democratic Philippines (MDP) theater group that did fundraising in the 1970’s. And that was my first acting job as an emerging artist and alter, as a writer and one in a while part-time director for while. So let me depart from my usual column and let this be my column for Direk Behn and a tribute to him who wrote thirty at these most dangerous times of storms, floods and march-rallies. It’s like 1972 all over again, don’t you think? Well, the naysayers might say, these are different times. But no matter. I pay tribute to one exceptional artist. “Tunay na Director ng Bayan, “ ladies and gentlemen- the one and only- Direk Behn! APPLAUSE! ***
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:04:19 +0000
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