Batbat hi Udan (2009) by T.S. Sungkit, Jr.

With all the lack of rootedness in the Filipino precolonial psyche that proliferates in Philippine local primetime viewing, thanks mostly to the fantaserye hype that’s been going on for several years now, it is about time that Filipino novels revisit our epics in order to reawaken our true imaginative gifts as a people. I had never read a novel in Filipino that dealt entirely with the epic world, until T. S. Sungkit, Jr.’s Batbat hi Udan came out early in 2009. A true Higaonon by blood and sentiment, Sungkit wrote an interesting adventure set in a land where places were still called by their olden names, like Kagayhaan for Cagayan de Oro City, Yandang for Bugcaon and Kimambong for Malaybalay City.

~
Naturally, this is a story that involves a central hero, named Udan, who had to undergo his own rights of passage: go through some adventures (which in the epic translates to wars and battles) to save his tribe, fall in love with the most beautiful woman conceivable in their world (here named as Ananaw, but more known as the Hapoy ha Tagkalegdeg, Bolak ha Mahumot, which means “naglalagablab na apoy, mabangong bulaklak”), lose almost all his beloved (his father Datu Maghusay, and later, even Ananaw) in the course of pangayaw, meet his fiercest enemies (from Kalibato to the Tium). In the end, of course, he’d be able to overcome all the challenges, as a true epic hero, and that would signify the beginning of a new era for his ethnic group.

~
Two l’s are at the top of an epic’s concerns: land and lineage (or lupain & lahi). To introduce onself is to invoke one’s roots: Mansugkil, when he introduced himself to Datu Maghusay, would tell the latter that he was the son of Mambulawan, who was the son of Manlagunha, who was in turn Mambinunsad’s son. During battles, Udan would summon the spirits of his ancestors, Buuy Manlunggo and Apu Maliga, to give him strength. But everyone from their land, from their banuwa, is considered a brother. That was why Udan was saddened upon learning that Mansugkil’s troop was salvaged by Kalibato acting as Datu Masagila: “Sapagkat ang mga kasama niya’y kanyang mga kapatid. Sapagkat ang lahat sa Lantapan ay kanyang kapatid. Sapagkat iisang dugo lamang ang nananalaytay sa kanilang mga ugat.”

~
Of all the places mentioned in the story’s geographic map, Lidasan was the most mysterious and dangerous of all, “a crossroad of secret passageways.” In that land once headed by Datu Mansugyang before he was defeated by Datu Maghusay and Datu Manlidasan lived the aligasis, mantianaks, bakesans, busaws, kabug and other creatures that could cause ordinary humans unimaginable harm. Lidasan was now headed by Datu Binigsulan, the chief of the aligasis and father of Kalibato and Ananaw, and assisted by Datu Mangiyab-kiyab, chief of the mantianaks, and Datu Magahiyup, chief of the tagbayang ahas. After a series of deception and cunning and deaths, Lidasan would eventually fall under Udan’s command when he defeated even the Tium hi Gaun, the tagbaya of his own great ancestor. Further revelations on real blood relations were untied in the end.

In Batbat hi Udan, we get a classic narrative rendering of an epic, only in prose and written form. For instance, details are being repeated several times, often successively, only in different ways, clearly a mnemonic device in the epic. In the end, this is a story of beginnings, for, as the real Datu Masagila told Udan, there are stories only because they have roots.