A CENTURY OF STRUGGLE
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
Sightings
Alice G. Guillermo

It is important to recognize that these combined efforts had the effect of contributing significant changes in artistic production in general. First, there was an expanding of venues beyond the galleries which catered to the middle and upper classes, opening up public spaces hospitable to political art in order to reach the people. Then, too, there was the drive to use indigenous, alternative or nonacademic materials to encourage creativity in accessible and inexpensive materials and not rely on Western materials exclusively. This included the production and use of handmade paper, fabrics, discarded antique wood and other media. More democratic visual media were also used—drawings, illustrations, editorial cartoons, posters and prints, even Xerox art that could reach a larger number of people. This led to a search for other expressive forms and genres, eventually using mixed media, film, installations alone or in combination, all these resulting in the breakdown of traditional categories, such as two- and three-dimensional forms. These experiments and innovations resulted in the renewal of the visual arts as a whole.
       Meanwhile, the intensifying protests gave Marcos the pretext for declaring martial rule in September 1972, following the imperialist line of “saving the country from communism.” He began his dictatorship by widespread arrests and imprisonments of professors, journalists, writers and activists. He closed down all newspapers which were later replaced by crony publications. He ravaged the countryside by launching counterinsurgency operations backed by the United States in training and logistics. Activists conducted clandestine political activities underground or went to the countryside to integrate with the people or pursue guerrilla warfare with a great loss of life. In 1971 and 1972, teams of artists went to the countryside to participate in the formation of a revolutionary people’s culture. On the side of the government, the conjugal dictatorship of Marcos and Imelda was firmed up, with Mrs. Marcos in charge of big-budget cultural issues and the ideological underpinnings of the Marcos regime. They constructed a state nationalism under the slogan “Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa” (One Country, One People) that strongly advocated national sentiment and unity under authoritarian rule. Imelda also had recourse to the lofty ideals of Goodness, Truth and Beauty to give a classical veneer to a Third World society in social conflict. She engaged in high-profile projects, such as the frenzied building of edifices or national festivals that exploited the national minorities for their touristic potential. She also encouraged religious activities such as the Santo Niño cult with its extravagant processions. The image of the Santo Niño of Cebu marked the formal occasion of the Christianization of the Philippines with the conquistador Legaspi bestowing it as a gift to the local rajah.
       The year 1976 saw the formation of the art group Kaisahan, consisting of young, dynamic artists who took charge of the development of social realism in aesthetic theory and practice. On one hand, they painted strong basic messages against feudalism, imperialism and bureaucrat capitalism. They took up issues such as militarization, human-rights violations and media censorship, and expressed solidarity with a broad range of people including workers, farmers and middle-class professionals such as teachers, journalists, doctors, architects, progressive priests and nuns, and the national bourgeoisie. The paintings that were exhibited in hospitable Manila galleries only constituted one level of their production, for they also joined cause-oriented groups to collectively produce portable murals for rallies and worked in popular forms such as illustrations, drawings, posters, comics and editorial cartoons to convey protest and revolutionary messages. The founding members were Pablo Baens Santos, Edgar Fernandez, Papo de Asis, Antipas Delotavo, along with Jose Tence Ruiz, Al Manrique, Neil Doloricon, together with the strong Bacolod group of Nunelucio Alvarado and Charlie Co of Black Artists of Asia. They disseminated a progressive art that was taken up by other and younger artists and continued beyond the Marcos regime.
       After 20 years of dictatorship, poverty and American control of the country’s life, Marcos was finally toppled down in 1986 by a powerful people’s movement that gathered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, or simply Edsa, and marched to Malacañang Palace on Mendiola Street. This large demonstration known as the first People Power, which rebelled against Marcos, had the participation of the military shifting their allegiances, led by Gen. Fidel V. Ramos and Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, along with the clergy, led by Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. The immediate cause was the brazen assassination of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport upon his arrival from the United States. Although this event marked the culmination of the people’s struggle throughout the dictatorship, a crucial impulse came from a faction of the old anti-Marcos elites that were marginalized and excluded from the privileges of Marcos rule. Mrs. Aquino, for instance, belonged to the family that owned the largest sugar plantation and milling plant in Luzon, the Hacienda Luisita, the now bitterly contested property enjoying military protection. The elites saw in Mrs. Aquino the opportunity to regain their preeminent status and the economic privileges they had lost for almost two decades.
       The launching of Mrs. Aquino’s presidency was accompanied by the construction of legitimations for her occupying the highest post, considering that she had long played the role of devoted and pious housewife. The solution was again found in religion, particularly in the biblical section of the Magnificat when Mary unconditionally accepts her role as mother of God: “Behold the handmade of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Will,” implying the will of God in her privileged role. This was followed by the lines in which He is lauded for raising the humble and weak and bringing down the powerful kings of the earth. Artists were commissioned to visualize the Magnificat imagery and so produced paintings of the Pietà, the Annunciation and Mother Mary as healer of the wounded. The Cory Aquino team sought to effect a conflation in the public mind of Cory Aquino and the Virgin Mary.
       When Mrs. Aquino came into power, her government was regarded with great expectations by different classes and sectors in society, Her initial years included the discursive elements of a “rainbow coalition” and the opening of a “democratic space” with the release of several top political prisoners. American ideologists created for her the doctrine of the Third Force which shunned both the military known for its abuses during Marcos rule and the NPA guerrillas in the countryside pushing not just for an anti-Marcos solution but for structural change. But this was an unstable situation, and political observers soon noted an increasing rightward drift in the constitution of her Cabinet. It did not take long before she declared “total war” in the countryside and wholeheartedly supported the right-wing millenarian sects or vigilante groups funded by the CIA in Mindanao, to the point of awarding the most notorious military official with a medal. The Philippine countryside became the ideal ground for “low-intensity conflict,” which was the US-sponsored “dirty war” at the grassroots level. The image that haunted the last years of her presidency was the figure of a vigilante with a sword proudly displaying a severed head.
       Fidel Ramos, a former military general, replaced Cory Aquino at the helm of the government. His presidency was marked by the program of globalization which hurts national economies by openly exposing them to the predatory strategies of the superpowers. A widespread commodification took place in the areas of education, health, the professions such as law and medicine, as well as natural wealth such as mines and forests that fell prey to foreign interests.
       Ramos was succeeded by Joseph Estrada, a former actor who played heroic roles that widely appealed to the masses. But occupying the Office of the President, he arrogated to himself kingly privileges and dispensed favors to his mistresses lavishly, causing much offense. He was accused of corruption, deceit, profligacy and was subsequently impeached for these offenses.
       The presidency fell into the hands of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was then occupying the post of Vice President at the time. As in the case of the much more popular Cory Aquino, religion was again invoked, this time to boost her insecure footing, as she claims that she must hold on to office in order to observe the will of God. Also purportedly to follow divine edict, she has maintained close ties with Bush restoring the privileges of the US military in the country who are allowed to conduct joint military training with local soldiers in the site of their choice. She regards this as her own contribution to the US “war on terror.” In the face of increasing protests, she recently declared a form of martial law that she called “emergency rule,” with the effect of curtailing civil liberties and muzzling the opposition, a throwback to the Marcos dictatorship. It is to the credit of the Supreme Court that it has declared this to be unconstitutional. Meanwhile, many journalists and opposition leaders have been killed, but the President has shown no interest and made no call for investigation. The climate of suppression and fear has crept back, and we chafe under this government, which recognizes only its narrow interests.
       The struggle continues.