Philippine E-Journals

Writers and Birds Should Not be Put in Cages

Simeon Dumdum Jr.

Discipline: Literature, Languages

 

Abstract:

Keynote Speech at the 2010 Philippine PEN Congress on the Theme, “Solidarity in Literature without Borders,” Montebello Villa Hotel, Cebu City, December 4-5, 2010.

 

I had planned to write the keynote speech last week and for the purpose made sure to clear my table of business. But when I was about to begin writing, the clerk reminded me of a decision to be promulgated in a day or two—a murder case inherited from another judge. This meant going over the transcript of stenographic notes and piecing the story together from the narration of witnesses. The trouble was, there were missing transcripts and the stenographer who made them was equally missing.