ben singkol: your crooked arm, your straight life

            I am on a self-imposed journey: a journey towards knowing my origins and on how I could find my identity as a Filipino. The first book I have read by Sionil Jose was Ermita. At first, I believed it was something which focused on femininity and the power of women. Until later it came to my realization that it would be better for me to view it as something on Philippine history – with Ermita representing the Filipino people and how she was used or how she used men for her benefit. But enough about Ermita. It has been so long since I read that novel and it will be long before I would reread it. I was actually compelled to write something on Ben Singkol.

            I think I read the novel too hurriedly. Finishing it in a day and a night while depriving myself of continuous sleep. I remember too well that I refused to put the book down. Sleeping was a break from information overload and not as a requirement for the rejuvenation of my brain hormones so that I would be able to handle the next day’s stresses. And now, I think it is my duty to myself to write something about it and reflect what it is that I have learned.

            First, I would like to figure out why of all names and deformity, Jose chose singkol. Why did he not make Isko cross-eyed or pilay? What was it with not being able to stretch your arm straight that made that disfigurement so appealing and extraordinary that Jose would write a novel with it as its core?

Ben Singkol is what I believe a passive character. He never really seemed to have fought for anything. He accepted failure as something very natural. He has never done anything to really change the failures that came his way. In one point, I believe this is a very Filipino character. I saw this in the novel of Rizal, Noli Me Tangere, where people did not want to fight for a change. It seemed like Filipinos are long-enduring people. Revolution only happens in the Philippines when one has been exploited to his limit and for Filipinos, this limit almost does not exist because of their capacity to endure so much injustice and abuse. And so Ben Singkol, instead of telling his uncle to stop hitting him on the side of his head, by his ear, just took the blows naturally, as if his uncle had every right to deprive him of hearing on his left ear. Also, Ben did not do anything to dispute with his aunt on how hard she was pinching his ears. His choice to not fight against this kind of treatment toward him imposed by older people may be taken as a sign of respect. But for me, instead of Ben establishing an image of being respectful, actually showed how cowardly he was.

As for his love for Nena, refusing to marry her when she came to her asking them to elope proved what I have conjured up in my mind. He was a coward. Ben Singkol did not seem to have anything to fight for. Destiny was bringing him to where he came to be, not because he chose to rule his destiny but because he did not care at all where he would get to – except the one moving force which was to never end up like his father.

I believe that he could have made it with Nena as his wife. Nena was smart and talented. They both could have found a life-sustaining job. But he did not want to fight for his love for her. As for Remy, even if he did suggest that they fight for their love, he accepted their fate as if it was the most natural thing to do. And his marriage with Isabel. Again, he accepted that.

Basically, Ben was a drifter. He never really made any major decisions for himself. And when he did, it was not because he really believed in it, but because it was his way of running away. Ben was a coward and a drifter. But this does not mean that he has failed to capture my heart.

He may have been a coward, but he certainly has gone through too much in his life. He was already alive from the time of the Japanese until Marcos was in power, abusing it. Just imagine the turmoil and the devastation that he has witnessed and experienced during these two trying times of his nation. Aside from this, he himself has experienced the loss of his loved ones. Starting from his childhood sweetheart, Nena, his college fling, Remy, to his wife, Isabella. And most especially, his daughter, Josie. Everything that he has loved was taken away from him. He has basically lost everyone that he has known. And those who remained were very few and even quite irrelevant. He has lost all the family that he has known. Opposite to his father’s experience of finding a family when he was left as a child, probably to die, Ben’s life went from having a family to losing all of them due to the war with the Japanese and the war of the Filipino people with the Filipino people.

To me, the novel shows that the Japanese people are our enemy – from the exploitation and torture that we experienced in their hands. But most especially, the novel did not fail to make me realize that certainly, the worst enemies of the Filipino people are Filipinos themselves. It was disgusting how the Japanese abused us but what was more tormenting was the fact that we allowed once in our history to be exploited and maltreated by out own countryman, which we called our President and his cronies. It was evident that the power Marcos had and his dummies were so great – one could even say that they were above God in trying to control our lives. Basically, they just chose to do whatever they willed and they were able to get away with it.

Julio Nalundasan was mentioned in the novel. And a comic realization came upon me: we elected as president someone who at an early age was found guilty by the court to have committed murder. Even if he was acquitted by the Supreme Court from the crime that he has committed, Marcos was blemished by the blood of a man who was his father’s rival in politics. And yet, knowing this, we still trusted our very country – our form of identity to such a man. Yes, certainly, the Filipino people are so easy to deceive.

I wonder how it was that Marcos was able to do what he did: fool the Filipino people by promising them a better future and even being granted that opportunity by being elected by the public. Who is to blame for what we have gone through in the Marcos regime? Certainly not much blame could be pinpointed to Marcos. We always had a choice. If we needed to, we could always have chosen to sacrifice our lives and fight against the oppression that we went through. By we, I meant the whole nation in unity. But we did not. We waited until it was almost too late. We waited until the Philippines was in so much debt with the World Bank and when so many innocent lives have been lost and most importantly, we waited until most of our freedom was taken away from us. Will the Filipino people ever learn? Will they ever come to the realization that we deserve to be free? Or are we always just going to let other people rule over us? The Spanish, the Japanese, our American friends and even the heads of our country. When will we realize that we have the right to change things? When will we realize that we do not always have to suffer against our choice? When will realize that we can make this nation a great nation?

Never! We will never be great until we learn from our mistakes. We will never be great until we identify ourselves as Filipinos. And we will never be great until we know about our history.

Ah! History. What a wonderful thing you are. Yet, you seem to always be taken for granted.