SALUPONGAN MUSIC VIDEOFrom the Manobo word “Salu” meaning cooperation and “pongan” meaning unity, together meaning unity, gathering or solidarity. Salupongan the song and video itself was a historic gathering of almost a hundred artists, vocalists and musicians uniting to stand in solidarity with the Lumad, the indigenous people of Mindanao. The music video, directed by Carlitos Siguion Reyna, features over a hundred musicians and actors, including Isay Alvarez, Robert Sena, Bayang Barrios, Mae Paner, Cristopher de Leon, Edgar Mortiz, John Arcilla, and music groups like Baihana, Patatag, UP Cherubim and Seraphim, Coro de Sta. Cecilia, along with a dozen Lumad musicians.Song available upon donation, salupongan.org/shop/salupongan. Your contribution directly supports the Lumad communities in Mindanao.
Posted by Salupongan International on Sunday, March 13, 2016
It is certain that ‘Salupongan’ has summed up the reasons for growing protests against the reactionary state: military presence in schools; ‘development’ by and for the wealthy ruling class; unabated impunity; and continuing negligence in terms of providing adequate health care, quality education, and other social services to the underprivileged.
By IMA ARIATE
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — ‘Salupongan’ music video has successfully achieved its objectives of broadening solidarity with our Lumad sisters and brothers and promoting nationalism based on the interests of one of our society’s most marginalized groups.
It is difficult to watch ‘Salupongan’ without reflecting on your own idea/s of Filipino-ness. It is also challenging to remain stolid as the masterfully produced work presents one powerful image after another while the lyrics and melody meander in your ears and fully engage your consciousness.
The video begins with a magnificent shot of the sunrise, the verdant Mindanaoan mountains, and the Philippine flag waving against the blue sky. These allude to ideals of love for country as well as the equitable and sustainable use of its resources.
Then there are shots of a wooden building followed by clips about school life in Lumad communities – learning how to read and write; tilling land and gathering weeds; attending flag raising assemblies; playing sports such as basketball and running; and practicing traditional tribal dances.
On an indexical level, these scenes enumerate the importance of literacy, value for land and agriculture, nationalism, upholding cultural traditions, and overall, efforts towards the holistic development of Lumad children. Symbolically, education empowers. In the case of the Lumads, this threatens foreign-owned mining companies and their local counterparts who will do anything to gain control of the mineral-rich ancestral lands. Without intending to, this part of ‘Salupongan’ recalls the murders of Emerito Samarca, AlCaDev’s School Director; Datu Bello Sinzo; and Dionel Campos, a local leader, on September 1, 2015. Testimonies from eyewitnesses point to military forces as the perpetrators. This outrageous event not only prompted large-scale evacuations but also sparked a wave of grief and rage all over the country. This also thrusted the Lumads into the center of media attention while decentering popular discourse on their daily lives and long-running resistance.
Footages of mining operations and lands being stripped off of forest cover indicate what the director, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, refers to as the “rape of the land”. Development aggression along with the unwanted intrusion of armed groups, the Philippine Army included, into Lumad communities is gradually introduced through marching boots and soldiers in full battle gear in front of homes.
Siguion-Reyna revealed that it was a conscious decision to present the hostilities against the Lumads in a subtle way. While the mutedness may be interpreted as sort of watering down the harshness, the metonymic associations remain strong. It is in the same vein that Frederic Jameson (1991, p. 292) interprets Marx’s and Engels’ preference for the pictorial tradition: its various camera obscuras suggest “that the ideological dimension is embedded within reality….” Therefore, form-wise and content-wise, the Lumad’s reasons for leaving their land is clear and the bases for their rage is even clearer. Consequently, the imperativeness to be one with them becomes indubitable.
This call for solidarity is urgent as the video discloses the continuing harassment experienced by the Lumad even in evacuation centers and within religious confines.
Portraits of agony, uncertainty, innocence, hope, and heart-wrenching anguish, particularly of a boy screaming “Stop Lumad Killings!” need to be seen by the world. Cultural stereotypes of our nations’ indigenous peoples propagated by the government are almost always illusory and have little or even nothing to do with deeper realities. In cases like this, it is usually high culture that possesses the authority to pass judgment on what is true. These self-images of our Lumad brothers and sisters in ‘Salupongan’ counter imposed generalizations and judgments, making the music video even more valuable.
As the pace of the rhythm picks up, national unity for the Lumads and for social justice is highlighted with footages from the recently concluded Manilakbayan, a girl filled with hope in a classroom, and the closing shot of her artwork of a school.
It is certain that ‘Salupongan’ has summed up the reasons for growing protests against the reactionary state: military presence in schools; ‘development’ by and for the wealthy ruling class; unabated impunity; and continuing negligence in terms of providing adequate health care, quality education, and other social services to the underprivileged.
Further, ‘Salupongan’ not only accentuates the current problems experienced by all but it also uses the present as a trajectory to the past. On a very superficial level, this means that the Lumad who came here last year didn’t just emerge from out of the woodwork. On a more meaningful note, ‘Salupongan’ is an invitation to return to the past and its processes which have produced generations of fighters from among our national minorities. This makes the music video very relevant with the rise of historical revisionism that favors the political ambitions of the scion of the former dictator, Marcos, and the current administration’s furious attempts at erasing its gross human rights record.
Concretely speaking, the Tampakan massacre of 2012 that killed the three children and the pregnant wife of an anti-mining B’laan leader as well as the slaughter of a Manobo Datu and four minors in Pangantucan, Bukidnon in August 2015 aren’t so far from the massacres at Culatingan, Corregidor, Lapiang Malaya, and Capas, Tarlac during the Marcos regime (Guerrero, 2009). All of these abhorrent incidents were allegedly carried out by the government’s armed forces for the economic good of a few. No one has been held accountable. State brutality has existed then and it still does until now.
Mining activities in Mindanao were largely enabled by Marcos. In his “Report to the Nation after One Year of Martial Law” in 1973, he noted how profitable mining activities have become after the government granted “full protection and assistance to mining claims”, most of which are of his cronies. It is safe to say that huge mining companies didn’t just sprout like mushrooms after the rain. In fact, they’ve been coddled and supported locally and nationally through the years.
Outside history, ‘Salupongan’ has so much to teach us. It is about time for the Lumad struggles to find a popular medium for they are and should be part of our collective consciousness as Filipinos. They have been geographically relegated to the peripheries for the longest time and subjected to countless violations for decades. Yet, they remain undaunted and unbowed. We can learn to be like them too, for our sake and for the sake of our children.
In solidarity. In hope.
Salupongan. 
Sources:
Guerrero, Amado. (2009). Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino. Pilipinas: ANAKBAYAN, LFS, SCMP, at KARATULA.
Jameson, Frederic. (1991). Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. USA: Duke University Press.
