Tokenism in Charter Day

By Noel Galon de Leon

Jalandoni and Kabayao deserve more. On August 25, during Iloilo City’s 88th Charter Day, the local government conferred posthumous achievement awards to two towering figures in Philippine arts and culture, writer Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni, whose literary voice chronicled the spirit of her era, and Gilopez Kabayao, the violin virtuoso who democratized access to classical music. The gesture, though laudable on the surface, invites uncomfortable questions: Why only now? And after the plaques and the applause, what comes next? It is always easier to praise the dead. To place their names on a stage, to hand a token of recognition, to deliver a short speech of gratitude, these are ceremonial acts that flatter the living more than they sustain the legacies of the honored. If the recognition ends there, then it is empty ritual, a polite “thank you” that abandons them once again to the shadows of cultural amnesia.

Take Jalandoni, for instance. Much of her oeuvre remains unpublished and largely inaccessible, collecting dust in archives or mentioned only in academic footnotes. What concrete plans does Iloilo City have for these manuscripts? Without a program to publish, translate, and popularize her work, this so-called recognition risks becoming meaningless.

A genuine cultural policy would mean digitization projects, public reading sessions, and curricular integration so that students encounter her not as a historical name but as a living voice within Philippine literature.

The case of Kabayao is no less urgent. In an era dominated by TikTok snippets and digital pop trends, how does one reintroduce a violin virtuoso to a generation of young Ilonggos who have never heard his name? Recognition should translate into cultural programming: free school concerts, workshops introducing classical instruments, and broader dissemination of his recordings through radio and online platforms. To confine him to a ceremonial award is to fossilize his genius, when in fact his artistry has the power to inspire if given real access points.

The city government must realize that symbolic recognition, if unaccompanied by structural initiatives, is performative at best. What is required is not just “acknowledgment” but sustained cultural transmission. If they take pride in honoring Jalandoni and Kabayao, this pride should be visible in educational curricula, in community arts festivals, in active preservation and dissemination projects. To recognize them without ensuring continuity is to betray the very legacies one pretends to celebrate.

And herein lies the sting: the award flatters the present administration more than it honors the dead. For Jalandoni and Kabayao, real homage is not in plaques but in practice. Their works must not remain as portraits on city hall walls or as ceremonial names invoked once a year. They must be read, heard, taught, and lived. Anything less than this is not tribute but neglect in disguise.

***

Noel Galon de Leon is a writer and educator at University of the Philippines Visayas, where he teaches in both the Division of Professional Education and U.P. High School in Iloilo. He serves as an Executive Council Member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-National Committee on Literary Arts.