Shared Perspectives

Published this week in www.bulatlat.com

Up in arms over the assassinations of activists and civilians under the Arroyo administration, visual and performance artists have joined hands to organize Tutok Karapatan, an art project aiming to initiate dialogue and intervention among the visual arts community on issues pertaining to political, ecological, social, and human rights.

Tutok Karapatan’s first university-based exhibition, Perspektiba, is currently on view at the University of Santo Tomas Fra Angelico Gallery on España Avenue, Manila until Dec. 2. The show opened last Nov. 21.

Perspektiba is comprised of works that reflect on the overtures of state violence: literal and metaphorical dislocations, disappearances, and demises associated with the rising wave of political repression in the Philippines. It was initially conceptualized as a show which would chronicle the making of martyrs and heroes vis a vis struggles against reigns of terror. However, in the course of the artists’ exposure and interactions with victims or survivors of human rights violations, the show evolved into a general remonstration against the cases of political repression besieging the nation.

In particular, Perspektiba addresses the continuous political assassinations of members of the legal opposition and progressive people’s organizations under the Arroyo administration. From 2001 to date, over 791 activists and civilians all over the country have been murdered inside their homes or in transit to work, usually by masked, motorcycle-riding gunmen. Others have been killed and considered as “collateral damage” in the course of the government's military campaigns in the provinces: strafed or intentionally shot at by soldiers, tortured or summarily executed.

While local and international organizations, non-government entities, parliamentarians and personalities are sounding the alarm over President Gloria Arroyo's refusal to stop the six-year killing spree, artists have added their voices to the growing clamor for truth and justice by producing works addressing the murders.

Plaster casts of bullets

Lyra Garcellano sets up an installation entitled No Letup from ink on paper riddled with plaster casts of bullets, alluding to the shower of steel mercilessly unleashed by the state machinery against hundreds of fallen human targets. White Lies, an installation by the multi-media artist collective UGAT-Lahi, delivers a symbolic indictment against the whitewash perpetuated by the state machinery in response to the killings. Pale dummies are piled on a bed, one covered up by the others, enveloping the gravity of the murders in a blanket of lies.

Anak ng Tinapay, an installation piece by Mark Ramsel Salvatus III, utilizes food art and video documentation to gather public reactions to the killings. Salvatus enjoins the audience to partake of bread shaped into human figures and guns, displayed on a glass cupboard. The artist documents the entire selection and feeding process among gallery visitors in this premeditated “taste test”, delivering a tongue-in-cheek message against the carnage and militarization that the public is forced to consume daily. Neither Left nor Right by Claro Ramirez makes use of counters to parody the propensity to treat the killings as mere statistics, as figures that mechanically rise or ebb with the political tide.

Satiric commentary against the military’s involvement as a perpetrator or accomplice to the killings is reinforced in the work Sir Yes Sir (a common phrase used in military-style drills to signify subservience to one’s superiors) by Jef Carnay. This interactive installation is comprised of a mechanized, hand-made dog (or tuta, a popular symbol for lackeys) which bows at the viewer’s patting and dips its head into a feed bowl filled with miniature human figurines.

While these works were produced by young artists who were perhaps only toddlers at the onset of the dictatorship in 1972, an oil-on-canvas work entitled Daet Massacre by Social Realist painter Gene de Loyola attests to the chilling similarities between incidents during Martial Law and today. De Loyola depicts a scene from a massacre of unarmed protesters in Daet, Camarines Norte in 1981, shortly after the “paper lifting” of Martial Law that same year. Shot at by police forces during the dispersal, the protesters, with the dead and injured in their ranks, are depicted against a blood-red backdrop, with one bearing a placard calling for the boycott of an impending election believed to be fraudulent. Nearly 25 years later, this scene would be reenacted in the bloody dispersals of activists calling for President Arroyo's ouster in Bicol and in the massacre of striking sugar mill and farm workers in Hacienda Luisita on Nov. 16, 2004.

The current assaults on press freedom are also addressed in the work by multi-media artist Ed Manalo. A typewriter – a common symbol for writers and journalists-- is tightly-wrapped in a straitjacket of cellophane sheets, alluding to the muzzling of the press under the Arroyo administration. Acupuncture needles piercing through the cellophane may represent both anguish and healing in response to the iniquities that the muzzling of expressive freedom has brought about.

Not possible to ignore

The ferocity and frequency of such atrocities has reached the point where it is no longer possible to ignore the gravity of the entire situation. Buen Calubayan demonstrates this through a sound installation on an armchair. “Hindi naman talaga kailangan ang mata upang makita ang realidad” (You don’t need eyes to see reality), the artist asserts. One only needs to listen to the cues pointing to an entire epic of injustice.

On the other hand, many nevertheless remain blind and deaf to social iniquities. The Parable of Those Who Refuse to See, an installation piece made out of wood cut-outs and video animation by Don Salubayba, sets up a parade of shadowy figures on the venue’s glass façade as metaphors for repressive societal structures whose influence pervades up to the present: the fraile of the Church, the ubiquitous figure of Uncle Sam, a bloated government functionary, and three blind mice led by the recognizable Mickey Mouse. The ultimate victim here remains the figure of Juan dela Cruz, bent and hobbling in the foreground.

The works in Perspektiba also depict the victims of such rights violations. Pyeta by Emmanuel Garibay utilizes the undertones of Catholic iconography in the Madonna and Child image in his work, where a woman, mouthless and clad in a black mourning shroud, holds up a portrait of a man (her son? Husband? Father?) crowned with thorns. Viewed in the context of the Philippine human rights situation, the absence of a mouth, symbolic of the right to expression, raises questions: Is the woman a metaphor for Inang Bayan (Mother Land), denied of the right to speak or to be heard, with the death of her sons? Or are words insufficient to express the pathos and anguish of losing a loved one? Garibay’s depiction of the victim of persecution as Christ crowned with thorns likewise elevates him/her to the status of a martyr, a hero/ine worthy of honor and emulation.

Fascism

Perspektiba testifies to how the propensity for fascism is systematically embedded not only in policy but also in consciousness. These histories and narratives of rights violations are contextualized in light of ongoing peoples’ struggles for national liberation and self-determination, as seen in the installation work Rebo (Series 2) by Social Realist veteran Antipas “Biboy” Delotavo, Jr. In the work, Delotavo wraps the letters ‘R-E-B-O-L’ in bloodied gauze bandages, military camouflage, and flags of the United States and the Philippines.

The letters, still to be completed, may comprise the word rebo, slang for the word rebolusyon or revolution, or conversely, the word eboluyson, the entire historical process of development implied by the clash of societies and classes. This historical—and repeated—emergence of fascist repression, born out of the material exigencies of imperial expansion and its ideological justifications, is addressed in Jose Tence Ruiz’s Supa series, where figures of Mussolini and a Nazi dominate the picture plane solidly filled with red.

Nevertheless, many continue to believe that another world without exploitation and repression is possible, and work to achieve it. The aspirations behind this driving force is reflected in works such as Boy Dominguez’ Salladan (Ancestral Domain). The artist, himself a member of a national minority, represents the aspirations of Filipino indigenous peoples to a society where development is based on the peoples’ needs and welfare. The work also underscores the interdependence of human, cultural, environmental rights in building a more secure world for the majority of the population.


Taken as a whole, the works in Perspektiba attest to the growing discontent and clamor among the visual arts community against the assaults on human rights under the Arroyo administration. Hopefully, this continuing process of “dialogue, exploration and intervention” that Tutok Karapatan hopes to initiate will also prompt a younger generation of Filipino and Filipina artists to question the roots of political repression. Bulatlat

Hungry and Idle, Pathetically

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

What Donut Are You?

You Are Flan Pocky

Your attitude: modern and offbeat East meets west... sweet meets salty. You're a pro at bringing unusual combos together!

What Flavor Pocky Are You?

What is the 202th IB doing in Pandacan

The text below was forwarded earlier this morning through email, sounding the alarm over the reported presence of military troops in Pandacan, Manila.

The AFP will surely have a lot of explaining to do if the report turns out to be true. What the hell is the 202^th IB—composed of combat-ready soldiers-- doing there? Protecting the oil depot from an imaginary “terrorist” attack? Maybe they just wanted to hold counter-insurgency operations a little closer to Aguinaldo instead of some far-flung barrio, just for the heck of a change? Maybe they were just darn bored with their lives and decided to go on a tour of the city? Maybe the national government is secretly embarking on a cost-cutting program and is using idle AFP troops as extra MMDA personnel?

The answer may be literally nearer to the name Pandacan. No one but the Pandac in the nearby Palace, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will benefit from these military maneuvers in such populated areas. Is GMA's camp so spooked out of President Bush's post-Halloween mid-term electoral fallout that they are using troops to create a net of intimidation against the legal opposition in the cities, before the 2007 elections come around? Is something more vicious being cooked up?

What is reportedly happening in Pandacan, I'm sure, is no different from what has been happening in Mindoro, Tarlac, Pampanga, Batangas, Bulacan, Bicol, Sulu, Samar, and many other places where the killings of activists have multiplied over the past few months. The military in my province have already set up a sona. They called a meeting in the elementary school to be attended by all males above 16 years old. They set up checkpoints at the entry and exit points of the barangay and held base near the highway. They said that they would be staying indefinitely and would be leaving two or three troops per sitio when they finally leave--as if anyone in her right mind was begging for them to remain.

Tanga lang ang magtataka o natutuwa sa paglipana ng militar sa ating mga komunidad. Dapat lamang na managawan ang taumbayan para sa pagpapalayas ng pesteng ahente ng pasismo sa ating mga tahanan. At hindi dapat pumayag ang mga matitinong sundalo na gamitin sila sa ganitong paraan ng gobyerno ni GMA.

Small-time connivers, big-time consequences

The breadth and extent of AFP interference in our communities is bad enough. It also doesn't help that there are absolutely spineless local officials who consent to the militarization of their areas of jurisdiction. Barangay captains, mayors, University officials, congressmen, who have not even dared utter a watery whimper of protest against this back-to-the-1970s state of political repression, irregardless of whether the consequences of their actions may spell out the difference between life or death for targets of military surveillance.

I have no absolutely respect whatsoever for such wimps! Nakakasuklam sila, they only serve as unwitting or intentional accomplices to the state of impunity and political repression that the Arroyo government is forcing down our throats. Their names should be jotted down and barred from holding any public office in the future, not even as a tanod.

Those “public servants” could very well have exercised their responsibilities as supposed “representatives” of their constituents and refused to let the military get away with what they do, with such impunity and brazenness. My brother-in-law recalled that there were other places in their province which the military couldn't infiltrate, precisely because their barangay officials rightly refused to give in to such pressure. Yung isang barangay captain nakipaghamunan ng barilan na lang kung papasok ang AFP sa kanyang teritoryo. Unfortunately, many others do not have the same kind of guts and sense. Others who do, such as Naujan Vice-Mayor Atty. Juvy Magsino or Tarlac city councilor Abel Ladera, are treacherously killed by the same assassins they have protested against.

Walang ipinagkaiba ang mga mga nagbibingi-bingihan at nagbubulag-bulagang opisyales na ito sa walang kwentang Melo Commission at Task Force Usig. Pagkatapos, kapag may pinaslang na naman na miyembro ng ANAKPAWIS o ng BAYAN Muna ng mga armadong naka-motor, kapag may mga dinakip ng mga naka-fatigue, kapag may pinatay na aktibista tulad nina Isaias, Choy, at marami pang iba, iilang lang sila ng ulo at sasabihing wala silang kinalaman sa mga pangyayari, na walang koneksyon ang mga pagpaslang sa paglipana ng militar at ng mga intel sa ating mga komunidad?

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Forwarded through email:

May MARTIAL LAW na ba sa Maynila?

Ano ang dahilan ng pagtigil ng 202th IB ng AFP sa Pandacan?

May apat na araw ng nakatigl ang 2 platoon ng 202th IB ng AFP sa 8 baragay sa Pandacan Manila. Nakafull uniform at nakapangcombat, dala ang mahahaba at matataas na kalibre ng baril ang bitbit ng mga sundalo ng AFP. Ang 8 barangay sa Pandacan na nakadeploy ang mga nasabing sundalo ay sa Brgy 870, 871, 872, 868,866,867 at sa Baranagy Pandacan. Nagmistulang barracks at Headquarters nila ang mga barangay hall? Bakit sila nasa pandacan? Bakit sa pandacan?

Ayon sa mga residente, hindi maipaliwanag ng mga sundalo ang kanilang tungkulin sa pagtigil sa Pandacan. Ayon sa kanila nais daw nilang alamin ang opinion ng mga tao sa pamamalakad ng gobyerno? At tutulong daw sila sa peace and order. Ngunit sa kanilang pagroronda at pagbahay bahay sa umaga at gabi ay itinatanong nila sa mga residente kung meron daw bang mga membro ng Partylist sa nasabing lugar.? Meron day bang mga sumasama sa rally? Meron daw mga aktibista?

Ayon pa sa mga sundalo, Sila daw ay hindi sasangkot sa gulo sa komunidad, dahil police matters daw ito, pero kung kakailanganin ay mapipilitan daw silang makealam? Ano kayang gulo ang sinsabi ng mga sundalo? Sila na ang tanod sa gabi, sila pa ang magpapatupad ng mga serbisyong kinakailangan sa komunidad.

Hinahanap nila ang mga kasapi ng BAYAN MUNA, ANAKPAWIS, GABRIELA at ANAKBAYAN, “ayon sa mga sundalo. Dahil daw ang mga nasabing partylist ay madaling malapitan sa mga problema ng bayan at tumutulong daw sila”. Sa isang ordinaryong tao, madaling maunawaan na ang mga nasabing dahilan {paghahanap sa mga aktibista} ang tunay na pakay ng pagtigil ng mga sundalo sa komunidad.

Pinangunahan ni Major Cabas at Lt. Col Feliciano ang mga sundalo. Sa kanilang mission order sila daw ay mananatili ng dalawang lingo sa komunidad. Matapos daw ay may papalit na sa kanila at maaari daw na manatili hanggang enero ng isang taon? Sadarating na linggo, Nobyembre 12, nagpapatawag sila ng pagpupulong sa mga residente, sa ganap na 8 ng umaga sa bawat nasabing Barangay.

Inaanyayahan namin ang mga kapatid sa MEDIA at mga tagapagtaguyod ng
karapatang pantao na puntahan ang nasabing mga Barangay sa Pandacan anumang oras mula ngayon.