pp. 95-96.
F.D. TECSON: WRITER, POLITICIAN AND LABOR LEADER
[Naga, Talisay, Carcar]
On March 16, 1906 was born in a mountain barrio of NAGA a son and grandson of a manananggot or tubagatherer, who became vice-mayor of Cebu city:Florentino D. Tecson. While attending Cebu High School, F.D. (as hewas known to Cebuanos) started as compositor then asreporter for the Bag-ong Kusog. At the age of 17, hewas already its editor. Indeed, journalism was a paththat led to politics for many of F.D.’scontemporaries. In the beginning, newspapermen were from theilustrado class who published and edited their ownpapers (like Vicente Sotto, Sergio Osmeña and VicenteRama) and who also ran for public office. Later, moreand more writers were recruited from the middle classwho became aware of their influence on the readingpublic (much like today’s movie and TV personalitiesin office). Thus, in 1928 alone, nine members of theBK staff ran for various offices in Cebu city (RamonAbellanosa, Gervasio Lavilles, Avelino Morales,Paulino Sanchez), Talisay (Panfilo Lastimosa, VicenteGarces), Carcar (Epifanio Alfafara, VicenteSarmiento), and San Fernando (the editor F.D. Tecson). From an elected councilor of San Fernando inNAGA and of Cebu city, Tecson became vice-mayor ofCebu in 1954. Four years earlier, he had passed thebar. From the BK he moved to the editorship of AngTigmantala (The Publisher) and Nasud (Nation) andfinally the proprietorship and editorship of AngMamumuo (The Laborer), titles whose order parallelsthe movement of his calling. His involvement withlabor started when he was assigned to cover themaritime strike of 1934. Within a year, F.D. becameauditor of the Federacion Obrera de Filipinas chapterin Cebu, its vice-president, and its president. Hethen organized a separate labor union called thePhilippine Labor Federation. F.D. was also a poet, a fictionist and an
orator, “the proverbial fellow with the goldentongue,” (according to the [p. 96 starts here]Republic Daily of 17 September 1955) whose gracefulCebuano prose read like poetry. A youngercontemporary writer, Martin Abellana, once wrote ofhis “meaty and thought-provoking” stories. Pseudonymsbeing in fashion then, he wrote under such pennames asFlorentino D’Ville, Tinoy-od (“in straight-fashion”),Victor Kutsero, F. Lorentino and Victor Florentin. Hewas most adept at handling stories of rural life. His only book of fiction, Lingawon Ko Ikaw (LetMe Entertain You), published by his own press in 1957with 5,000 copies, is a remarkable collection of 17stories. His realism is seen, for example, in detailslike panghinguto (licepicking) as an excuse forgossiping and a woman’s picking of her teeth before aprospective lover’s visit. He writes with gentlehumor, even while hitting at then popular targets likethe abusive landlord, the absent spouse, and theerring politician. Expectedly, he sides with “thedown and trodden,” but without being anti-capitalist. Contemporary readers, however, will probablynot respond to these stories in the same way that theearlier Cebuanos did. The story, for example, thatwon first prize in the 1930 Bisaya story contest, “MgaKasingkasing Dagku” (Magnificent Hearts), they willsay is too melodramatic. It is about a youngschoolteacher’s sacrificing her sweetheart in favor ofher older sister who herself had sacrificed herpersonal life to be able to send the younger one toschool. Even as the more practical generation that weare will see that the Cebuano story only records anideal of behavior, there is a necessary distancebetween what we consider a good story now andyesterday’s. When F.D. left the world of his parents in
search of a better life in the city, he would havecarried with him the rural folks’ attitudes thatshowed in his writings, like resignation in thatstory. In the poem “Ang Manananggot” (1927) hewrites: “Mabati ta lamang unya nga, sa sanggotan,Gitaghoy ang balitaw: maoy iyang balus sa kaniyanagpaantus. . .” (We can hear then, among thecoconuts, the whistling of a balitaw: his answer tothose who let him suffer…) Here the Cebuano songbecomes a defense or self-consolation. A popular folkform until the 60s, the balitaw is all but gone now.Certainly, F.D. and other writers of his time musthave learned from its lively exchanges something ofgrace in argument, even as they were leaving thebarrio.
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