51黑料Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities Director Prof. Joyce Arriola, Ph.D., Faculty of Arts and Letters mentors Prof. Robert Monta帽a, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. Rhochie Avelino Matienzo, Ph.D., and Prof. Leovino Garcia, Ph.D., who teach at the Department of Philosophy presented their papers at the National Philosophy Conference organized by the Philippine National Philosophical Research Society (PNPRS) and Saint Louis University. The conference, held at the Fr. Francis Gevers Hall of Saint Louis University, Baguio
City from February 7 to 9, 2019, had for its theme 鈥淪ociety, Heritage and Indigenous Art.鈥�
Arriola, a plenary speaker, shared her expertise on the topic 鈥淧hilippine Indigenous Literatures as Memory Texts, 鈥� while Monta帽a presented his study 鈥淪hould We Treat Culturally-Laden Provisions in Philippine Law as Trojan Horses?鈥� Matienzo discussed 鈥淎ng Krisis-Eksistential sa Jeepney: Isang Pamimenolohiya sa Hari ng Kalsada鈥� and Garcia talked about 鈥淪ome Reflections on Arts, Culture, Heritage and Being Human.鈥�
In her paper, Arriola exemplified the convergence of Philippine indigenous literature with memory studies. The re-transmission of the Philippine indigenous literatures from oral to the written stage eventually become part of a collective memory. Her paper stems from Jonas Greithlein鈥檚 study titled 鈥淔rom 鈥業mperishable Glory鈥� to History: The Iliad and the Trojan War,鈥� which claims that the epic can be seen as a historical account and a source of history. Also, a founding concept that contributed to the claim of the paper is the concept of
鈥淯berrest鈥� wherein collected literary works of the past may be treated as an archaeologic relic, and therefore, can be considered as a heritage text. Therefore, the migration of Philippine indigenous literatures from performance to print is a form of memory text.
鈥淎s memory texts, they will see no death, they will continue to be recirculated because of the primal attraction of our consciousness to the provisionality, spontaneity and performativity of oral literatures. They may be ephemeral but they will continue circulating in our consciousness as texts of our brain, and more importantly, the text of our collective soul,鈥� Arriola concluded.
With the recent trend towards the development of Filipino Philosophy, this conference, representing the fusion of horizons between theoretical thinking and the unique elements of our culture, has garnered significant interest with more than 60 parallel presentations, highlighted by plenary speakers well-respected in their fields. Among the notable ones were Eric de Guia, more popularly known as Kidlat Tahimik, who presented his paper titled 鈥淕etting out of our Colonial Echo Chamber: Bringing out our pre-Colonial Indigenous Voice.鈥�
