By LISA ITO
Secretary-General
Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP)
(Continued from Aug. 10, 2023)
Attacks on cultural, educational, and media institutions
Before the pandemic in 2018, military officials were already “red-tagging” schools, colleges, and universities such as UP, DLSU, UST, and 15 other institutions in Metro Manila, alleging such institutions to be part of a sinister plot for communist recruitment and ouster of the President.
There was the vicious red-tagging of films and filmmakers since 2018-19, especially works which addressed the reality and memory militarization and/or Martial Law. These instances of red-tagging intensified with the institutionalization of the NTF-ELCAC and its “whole of nation” approach that same year coupled with pro-government outlets such as the SMNI.
Such vicious attacks continued during the pandemic and after the 2022 national elections. In 2021, for instance, the NTF-ELCAC and NICA pressured several state universities in Kalinga, Isabel, and Aklan to ban and turn over allegedly subversive books and literature.
In March 2022, the Popular Bookstore in Quezon City, was vandalized with the words “NPA terorista”.
In August 2022, the SMNI and NTF-ELCAC maliciously red-tagged 17 novels, their authors, and even officials from the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) as “subversive”. The attacks covered books to libraries and bookstores, films to schools.
Attacks against people and communities in the arts and culture sector
Who can forget the red-tagging of celebrities Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray in October 2020, after they voiced out support for women’s rights against gender-based violence? These attacks targeted institutions to individuals — many of us here have personally experienced being trolled and threatened online, for example.
The death threats and killings of those red-tagged continue. We recall some names:
* Choreographer and activist Marlon Maldos of the community-based theater group Bansiwag Bohol on March 17, 2020 was the first EJK during the Enhanced Community Quarantine and lockdown.
* Young editorial cartoonist and anti-disinformation advocate Benharl Khalil was gunned down in Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat in November 2022.
* Awarded poet, peasant advocate, and National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Ericson Acosta and a companion were killed while under arrest and custody by military foces in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on November 30, 2022.
The many instances of cyber-libel and libel, surveillance, and harassment continues in 2023. Starting the year on Jan. 2, playwright and director Bonifacio Ilagan, a Martial Law survivor, received a death threat from an anonymous caller; the first time such a brazen threat against his life was implied and conveyed.
A few days later on Jan. 10, Cebu-based activists Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dahoya, returning from a vacation to Mindanao, were abducted in broad daylight by suspected state agents at the Cebu City pier. They were resurfaced on January 16, after citizen footage of the abduction was made public. Dahoya is a visual artist and a lecturer at UP Cebu.
The rising number of political detainees across different Presidential administrations after Martial Law is deeply disturbing. Among the hundreds of political detainees are artists and cultural workers such as JP and Grace Versoza (Leyte), Alvin Fortaliza (Bohol), Cheryl Catalogo (Negros), Rolly Hernando (Negros), Kenneth Serrondo (Negros), Carlo Apurado (Negros), Amanda Echanis (Cagayan Valley), Lorie Sigua (Butuan), Aldeem Yanez, Adora de Vera, and Ben Quiloy. While others like Daisy Macapanpan have been freed, many continue to endure unjust imprisonment.
The track record of the past Presidential administrations on free speech and free expression can be summed up in one work: palpak (failure).
The whole range of this included the Duterte administration’s enabling and abuse of their position of power to fan speech and expression that perpetuates injustice, misogyny, disinformation to Marcos Jr.’s failure to to speak up — the theme of the banner we are painting today. In his June inauguration speech, Marcos was silent on the recent attacks on press freedom.
In April, he did give a speech at the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day but this unfortunately seemed more concerned with improving reputation and rankings rather than addressing the reality of impunity itself.
Therefore our call to action: listen, speak up and speak now, fight back for freedom of expression!
We call on fellow Filipinos to speak up for press freedom and freedom of expression.
We call on fellow artists and cultural workers. Continue to create collectively an art and culture that tells the truth about the Filipino people’s realities and struggles, that is scientific and progressive in outlook, and that touches the lives of as many people as possible within and beyond the Philippines. Art’s purpose is not to entertain; it is to make us confront contradictions and respond to our milieu.
We call on Irene Khan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since 2020, to respond to the degree of attacks against free expression in the Philippines.
***
Given during the Forum on the State of Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Press in the Philippines, July 17, 2023, Student Union Building, Alcantara Hall, UP Diliman. CAP is an organization of artists and cultural workers founded in 1983 amid the censorship under the regime of Marcos Sr. As an artist collective, CAP continues to organize artists to stand for freedom and justice today. (Bulatlat.com)
