The Malunggay Conflict
Encyclopedia
The Malunggay Conflict is an adventure story arc
of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy
, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
. This particular story arc lasts 30 strips long. In 1992, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy 4, the fourth book compilation of the comic strip series.
The story arc has many parallelisms to the First Gulf War.
, specifically to Gabu
and Bangui
. There they meet Ka Kwate (his name is a spoof of Kuwait
and may also be a play on kakawate, the Filipino word for madre de cacao), a farmer with a green thumb and a friend of Ka Noli. The gang samples the rural lifestyle of the residents of Bangui, planting vegetables and trying Basi (wine made from sugar cane) and ginataang palaka (frog legs
cooked in coconut milk
).
One day Ka Kwate discovers that a malunggay tree he owns has been annexed into his neighbor Ka Damuseyn's (a spoof of Saddam Hussein
) territory. Ka Kwate complains to the UN (United Neighbors of Bangui) and the council approves the use of force against Ka Damuseyn. Ka Noli enlists the help of his Tiyuhing Samuel (Uncle Sam
, modeled on George H. W. Bush
), famed witch doctor
of Bangui, and his assistant, Swarskop (a spoof of H. Norman Schwarzkopf). Samuel uses a "mystical jar" to summon winged insects that eat plants to devastate Ka Damuseyn's vegetable garden; an airstrike
of sorts. Ka Damuseyn retaliates by using his own "mystical jar", which he calls the "Mother of all Bottles"; summoning insects to attack Ka Kwate's own garden. Samuel, however, calls upon ducks and geese to intercept Ka Damuseyn's insect forces, and deploys snails in a land assault. The damage to his gardens is more that Ka Damuseyn could take; he surrenders and the malunggay tree was returned to the ownership of Ka Kwate.
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy
Pugad Baboy
Pugad Baboy is a comic strip created by Filipino cartoonist Apolonio "Pol" Medina, Jr. The strip is about a Manila community of mostly obese people - "fat as pigs", so to speak ....
, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
Philippine Daily Inquirer
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is the most widely read broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines, with a daily circulation of 260,000 copies. It is one of the Philippines' newspapers of record...
. This particular story arc lasts 30 strips long. In 1992, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy 4, the fourth book compilation of the comic strip series.
The story arc has many parallelisms to the First Gulf War.
Synopsis
Ka Noli takes the Pugad Baboy gang to his native Ilocos RegionIlocos Region
The Ilocos region or Region I is a Region of the Philippines and is located in the northwest of Luzon. It borders to the east the regions of the Cordillera Administrative Region and Cagayan Valley and to the south the region of Central Luzon...
, specifically to Gabu
Gabu
Gabu may refer to:* Gabú, a city in Guinea-Bissau* Gat Andrés Bonifacio University, a university in the Philippines...
and Bangui
Bangui
-Law and government:Bangui is an autonomous commune of the Central African Republic. With an area of 67 km², it is by far the smallest high-level administrative division of the CAR in area but the highest in population...
. There they meet Ka Kwate (his name is a spoof of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
and may also be a play on kakawate, the Filipino word for madre de cacao), a farmer with a green thumb and a friend of Ka Noli. The gang samples the rural lifestyle of the residents of Bangui, planting vegetables and trying Basi (wine made from sugar cane) and ginataang palaka (frog legs
Frog legs
Frogs' legs are one of the better-known delicacies of French and Cantonese cuisine. They are also eaten in other regions, such as Thailand, Vietnam, the region of Alentejo in Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, northwest Greece, and the Piemonte region in Italy, as well as the Southern regions of the...
cooked in coconut milk
Coconut milk
Coconut milk is the water that comes from the grated meat of a coconut. The colour and rich taste of the milk can be attributed to the high oil content. In many parts of the world, the term coconut milk is also used to refer to coconut water, the naturally occurring liquid found inside the hollow...
).
One day Ka Kwate discovers that a malunggay tree he owns has been annexed into his neighbor Ka Damuseyn's (a spoof of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
) territory. Ka Kwate complains to the UN (United Neighbors of Bangui) and the council approves the use of force against Ka Damuseyn. Ka Noli enlists the help of his Tiyuhing Samuel (Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...
, modeled on George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
), famed witch doctor
Witch doctor
A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...
of Bangui, and his assistant, Swarskop (a spoof of H. Norman Schwarzkopf). Samuel uses a "mystical jar" to summon winged insects that eat plants to devastate Ka Damuseyn's vegetable garden; an airstrike
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
of sorts. Ka Damuseyn retaliates by using his own "mystical jar", which he calls the "Mother of all Bottles"; summoning insects to attack Ka Kwate's own garden. Samuel, however, calls upon ducks and geese to intercept Ka Damuseyn's insect forces, and deploys snails in a land assault. The damage to his gardens is more that Ka Damuseyn could take; he surrenders and the malunggay tree was returned to the ownership of Ka Kwate.
Parallelisms with the First Gulf War
Several objects and events in relation the First Gulf War were used by the cartoonist as "material" for this story arc. Aside from the obvious (such as Ka Kwate, Ka Damuseyn, and Tiyuhing Samuel), here are the other parallelisms between the Malunggay Conflict and the First Gulf War:- "Mother of all Bottles": Saddam's "Mother of all battles" quote.
- The scuds (short for scud-laguinto and scud-lagubang, puns of salaguinto and salagubang, which are insects): Scud missiles
- The Patriotik (a portmanteau of pato, duck, and itik, goose): US patriot missiles
- For political reasons, Ka Damuseyn's insects also attack Dick and Padim's farm as revenge because the two brothers, who are Christian and Jew respectively, destroyed Ka Damuseyn's fireworks factory on June 7, 1981. It is also on that date that US-supported Israeli Air ForceIsraeli Air ForceThe Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
pilots destroyed the Osiraq nuclear reactorNuclear reactorA nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
during Operation OperaOperation OperaOperation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
. Dick and Padim are a reference to two local celebrities with similar surnames: Dick Ysrael, a known character actor, and Padim Israel, a basketball player. - Ka Kwate's malunggay tree refers to Kuwait'sKuwaitThe State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
oil resources, and Tiyuhing Samuel is an oblique reference to Uncle SamUncle SamUncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...
(American oil consumers).
Miscellaneous trivia
- One of the several critters invading Ka Damuseyn's farm is a creature called a "rabbat", which is a rabbit with bat wings. The creature was created by a person called "Vannie," probably an acquaintance of the cartoonist.
- A play of words occurred in the waters off Gabu wherein Brosia knows that she and the Pugad Baboy gang are swimming in the South China SeaSouth China SeaThe South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
because its sharks have slit eyes, a notable feature among Chinese peopleChinese peopleThe term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
. - A beerhouse in Gabu has a Beatles lookalike band called D' Uwangs (uwang is "beetle" in Filipino). The band plays mostly Beatles hits, but when Bab requests the band play the BreadBread (band)Bread was a rock band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were a prime example of what later was labeled soft rock....
song "IfIf (Bread song)"If" is a song written by American singer-songwriter David Gates in 1971. Originally popularized by his group Bread, the song charted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 when released as a single in 1971. The song also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart...
," they actually play "Ipagpatawad Mo" by the VST & Co.VST & Co.VST & Company was a Filipino disco group prominent during the late 1970s in the Philippines. Considered to be the pioneer and icon of what is known as the Manila Sound, VST & Co. released disco singles such as Swing It, Baby, Magsayawan, Ipagpatawad Mo, Awitin Mo, Isasayaw Ko and Disco Fever... - This story arc also features the treasure hunter from the earlier story arc RetrainingRetraining (Pugad Baboy story arc)Retraining is an adventure story arc of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This particular story arc lasts 45 strips long. In 1993, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy 4, the fourth book...
. Here, the PCGG-hired treasure hunter is still nowhere near Leyte (where Ferdinand Marcos' riches are said to be located) and his continuous digging shovels out the worms that Ka Damuseyn planted in the roots of the malunggay tree. After he surfaces and is being recognized by Tomas, the treasure hunter is then told that the Filipino athletes beat him in striking gold. This refers to the large gold medal haul amassed by the athletes in the 1991 Southeast Asian Games1991 Southeast Asian GamesThe 16th Southeast Asian Games were held in Manila, the Philippines from 24 November - 3 December 1991. This was the second time that the country hosted the biennial regional sporting event. It was officially opened by President Corazon Aquino at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila through a...
, which the Philippines hosted. - A caricature of Raul ManglapusRaul ManglapusRaúl Sevilla Manglapus was a prominent post-World War II Filipino politician. He co-founded the reformist Progressive Party of the Philippines and the Christian Democratic Socialist Movement in 1968 .He was appointed as the Philippines' youngest-ever foreign minister in 1957,...
also appears in this story arc, saying a quote that is a spoof his remark "if rape is inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it." In this story arc, however, rape is replaced by "ref" (refrigeratorRefrigeratorA refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
).