An image burned, a war long-declared
Effigy burned during SONA. (Photo by Jeffrey Ocampo)
Bayan’s effigy this year has been the largest ever done for a SONA mass action. According to Max Santiago of Ugatlahi, an organization of visual artists who administered the production of the effigy, it took them weeks of brainstorming and meticulous collective work to finish the 21-foot effigy.
The tradition of creating effigies in the Philippines began during the Spanish colonial period when the people of Angono, Rizal created enormous caricatures of hacienderos (Spanish landlords) to protest the unjust system in the hacienda (vast parcel of land).
This year’s effigy featured a sinking ship and the president escaping aboard a soaring aircraft. They used the recent Sulpicio Line’s MV Princess of the Stars’ tragedy as an analogy to represent the Filipino people drowning in the economic crisis. Meanwhile, Arroyo aboard the aircraft symbolized her evasion of her responsibility and accountability as the president. The Ugatlahi painted the aircraft with the American flag to symbolize Arroyo’s puppetry to the U.S. government.
At around 3 p.m., leaders of various groups burned the effigy as a sign of the people’s resolve to end the Arroyo administration.
Before the burning, members of indigenous people advocates group TAKDER (Tignayan Dagiti Agtutubo ti Cordillera para iti Demokrasya ken Rang-ay) performed a patong. Patong is a Cordilleran dance ritual, which uses gansa (gong) to announce wedding, death of a family member, truce between tribes and other important events. In this case, they performed the patong to remind the people of the long-declared war against the “corrupt, anti-people Arroyo regime.”
s the fire consumed the effigy, the people chanted “Makibaka, ‘Wag Matakot” and “Pahirap sa Masa, Patalsikin si Gloria” (Dare to Struggle! Oust Gloria, a Burden to the People!).
At the end of the program, the bat effigy of the president was also burned while the People’s Chorale sang “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” (Veneration for the Motherland).
De Ocampo said that art – through the performances, visual components and the whole artistic assemblage of the event’s cultural design – had accomplished its role in the ‘People’s SONA’. She said it was able to expose the ills perpetuating under and the “crimes” of the Arroyo administration. “It had achieved its goal of showing the utter disgust of the people toward the president and her administration,” she concluded.(Bulatlat.com)
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