About

Mga Ibong Mandaragit (1969) is a novel written by Amado V. Hernandez, and is currently (or has eversince been) the bane of third year high school students in the Philippines. We are inspired to get a copy of the novel, and to join the students in their quest to understand Hernandez’ creation.

In the coming weeks, we will post on this site our understanding of each chapter of Mga Ibong Mandaragit, and we invite you to participate in this journey of discovery.

You can choose to comment in English. Kahit Tagalog o Filipino, eh pwede, este, ay maaari rin. Ngunit pakiusap lamang: iwasan po sana natin ang pag-gamit ng sms txt style, sapagkat mahirap basahin ito sa mga screen na higit na malaki pa sa screen ng cell phone.

Maraming salamat po!

Sources of Inspiration

This started when Connie Veneracion wrote The Birds of Prey and Batjay, where she writes about her daughter’s, her husband’s, and her own experience while reading Mga Ibong Mandaragit.

To put it simply, my daughter was having a hard time comprehending Hernandez’s novel on the Japanese occupation. I tried to help but discovered that I was having as much difficulty as she did. We enlisted the help of her father and, trust me, the expletives that followed cannot be reproduced here. And we all speak and write Filipino fluently. In fact, it is our first language.
…
What is so objectionable about the use of simple language in literature? Is literature naturally elitist and meant to be appreciated only by a few? Is it what makes it special? Is that what makes it good?
…
Is literature a form of snobbery or a concept invented to make a few chosen men sound important?

And here are some of the reactions that followed…

• Mga Ibong Mandaragit at prehuwisyo sa panitikang Filipino
  See? I’m learning already. I grew up hearing the word perwisyo, but it is only now that I’m finding out that the word is actually prehuwisyo.
• Preying On Ignorance
  “In a recent column in The Manila Standard Today, Connie Veneracion wrote about her daughter’s struggle with a reading assignment in school (“The Birds of Prey and Batjay,” The Sassy Lawyer, April 29). What got Veneracion upset was that the required text — Mga Ibong Mandaragit (or Birds of Prey) by Amado Hernandez — turned out, when she volunteered to help her daughter, to be just as difficult for her.”
• Sassy: Aiming High, Hitting Low
  “imagine. complaining about the tagalog of amado v. hernandez in mga ibong mandaragit [now required high school reading, thank goodness, being a sequel to rizal’s fili].”
• Dogberry Bites Houseonahill
  “When I read professional blogger and Manila Standard Today* columnist Connie Veneracion’s recent blog post on National Artist Amado Hernandez’s Mga Ibong Mandaragit a few days ago, I felt angry — but I didn’t exactly know then how to articulate why I felt that way. Maybe because I liked the book, and found her put-down uncalled for? Maybe it was the smug way she wrote about it?”
• She Didn’t Get Amado Hernandez
  “A mini-controversy has erupted in the blogosphere. It involves blogger Connie Veneracion who, in a recent column in the Manila Standard Today newspaper, trashed Amado V. Hernadez’s “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” because she, her daughter and her husband didn’t get it.”
• If Language Eludes You, Don’t Act Deluded (The Manila Times, 5/16/2008)
  Libay Linsangan Cantor writes: “If you have different motivations for liking or disliking literary texts, you should be able to substantiate your reasons very well. But if you just pass on your hate lists—especially to ones with impressionable minds, like children—without thoroughly explaining your reasons, then that is a huge problem for Philippine literature.”
• Tyranny of the Insecure (Manila Standard Today, 5/22/2008)
  Connie Veneracion writes: “So, when these people feel that their authority and importance are threatened, they squirm and squeal. They try to assert their importance by insisting that they, and they alone, are correct—not by validating their arguments but by undermining the person that questions them. It’s all very human and it is echoed in every part of society.”
• IbongMandaragit: All this, because of a novel and an opinion. Things may look one-sided, but… Well, we all know what happens when people raise questions, or when people complain, and then do nothing.
• To be continued…