I FIRST encountered the name “Emman Lacaba” in my Humanities classes during my freshman year at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Lacaba (December 10, 1948 – March 18, 1976), often referred to as the Philippines’ “poet warrior,” wore many hats: Filipino activist, writer, poet, essayist, playwright, short story writer, scriptwriter, songwriter, magazine illustrator, stage actor, and production hand.
He was perhaps the first nationally known creative writer to join the armed struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. He famously traded city life for immersion in the grassroots labor movement before eventually joining the armed struggle in Mindanao. Even after going deeper into the Philippine underground, his poems and stories continued to circulate and attract a wide readership.
After he was killed by government forces in 1976, posthumous collections of his powerful works, such as Salvaged Poems (1986) and Salvaged Prose (1992), cemented his legacy.
Portions of his “Open Letters to Filipino Artists” read: “We are tribeless and all tribes are ours. We are homeless and all homes are ours. We are nameless and all names are ours. To the fascists we are the faceless enemy Who come like thieves in the night, angels of death: The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the storm. The road less traveled by we’ve taken. And that has made all the difference: The barefoot army of the wilderness We all should be in time. Awakened, the masses are Messiah. Here among workers and peasants our lost Generation has found its true, its only home.”
Lacaba’s works were featured in the play Farewell, Let’s Go to the South at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
The powerful cross-Asian theatrical production explores themes of revolution, sacrifice, and collective memory through the stories of three iconic figures: Lacaba, Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, and South Korean labor activist Jeon Tae-il.
The production was a collaboration among Assignment Theater of Taiwan, Space Theater of Korea, and Tanghalang Pilipino of the Philippines. It combined physical theater, poetic language, and live cello music to create a moving meditation on what it means to stand up for justice.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara (May 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967) was a theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–1959), and a guerrilla leader in South America.
After his death, his body was laid out on a concrete slab—an image the soldiers who killed him apparently thought would serve as powerful government propaganda. Unexpectedly, however, the photograph had the opposite effect when it was published, helping transform perceptions of Guevara around the world.
Following his execution by the Bolivian army, Guevara came to be regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide, while his image became an enduring icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism.
Jeon Tae-il (September 28, 1948 – November 13, 1970) was a South Korean sewing worker and workers’ rights activist who died by self-immolation at the age of 22 to protest the poor working conditions in South Korean factories during the Third Republic era.
His death drew widespread attention to the country’s substandard labor conditions and helped advance the formation of South Korea’s labor union movement.
The play traces the final reflections of the three men as they bid farewell to themselves, their families, and the world. Through vivid movement, striking imagery, and the avant-garde sounds of a live cello, the performance unfolds as a meditation on conviction, memory, and the cost of resistance.
Utilizing Asian bodies, poetic language, and an imagistic performance space, Farewell, Let’s Go to the South seeks to reclaim human qualities increasingly diminished by forces of power and control, particularly the enduring spirit of love and sacrifice.
“The South is a symbol of revolution. The South is a symbol of sacrifice and love. While this play depicts the stories of three revolutionary heroes, its deeper aspiration is to bring memory right before our eyes, in summoning the long-lost essence of love and sacrifice in human nature,” said Taiwanese playwright Chung Chiao of Assignment Theater.
In the play, Jeon Tae-il utters the words, “Don’t let my death be in vain,” hoping that his mother will carry on the flame of his labor movement. Through a moving physical interaction between mother and son, the scene allows the audience to witness the flight of his soul after the self-immolation.
“Remembering them is not an act of nostalgia. It is a question about the kind of world we choose to build today. War has not disappeared. Imperialism returns in different forms. Mass violence and discrimination continue to repeat themselves,” said Korean director Jun Sangbae.
Farewell, Let’s Go to the South is part of Tanghalang Pilipino’s 40th anniversary season, with a lineup of productions celebrating its artistic legacy while looking ahead to the future of Philippine theater.
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“Peyups” is the moniker of the University of the Philippines.
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Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786./PN
