WE CONDEMN how the Philippine National Police confiscated our mural earlier this morning (Dec. 19, 2019) in front of Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, during the start of the promulgation vigil over the Ampatuan Massacre verdict.
We condemn this act of harassment and display of impunity by the police. It is an act which curtails freedom of expression and assembly.
Media groups who first went to Camp Bagong Diwa just arrived and were starting to set up the mural as the backdrop of the public vigil when the police suddenly confiscated the work and brought it inside the camp.
Like the placards and tarpaulins brought by the families and colleagues of the victims, the mural is meant to publicly express and convey our outrage over the the lives lost and a reminder that we must fight for justice to attain it. The artwork is among the many forms of expression to be displayed during the public vigil; it should be in the streets now and not in the PNP’s custory.
The mural is still in the PNP and AFP’s custody inside the camp as of 11:30 a.m. We demand that the police immediately return the artwork that they confiscated now.
The mural was made by the visual artists of CAP and commissioned by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
Launched on Nov. 19 and publicly displayed during two protests led by media groups, the mural is a collective effort of the artists together with media workers and other sectors as a symbol of solidarity in the fight against impunity and the call for justice for the 58 victims of the Ampatuan massacre. It depicts the media workers together, protesting against symbols of impunity such as the backhoe that seeks to bury justice for the victims as well as the ideals of press freedom and freedom of expression. Written across the work are calls of the masses and the people that seek to end injustice overdue for 10 years.
The Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) is an organization of writers, artists and cultural workers committed to the principles of freedom, justice and democracy. It was founded in 1983 to unite Filipino artists against the Marcos dictatorship and its repressive laws which curtailed freedom of expression. – LISA ITO, secretary-general, Concerned Artists of the Philippines <concernedartistsph@gmail.com>
