ALMOST a month ago, an issue broke out that an online course to be taught by Filipino traditional tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od was a scam.
The said online course was supposedly to be produced by Nas Academy, a platform founded by vlogger Nusier Yassin, also known as Nas Daily.
Whang-Od is a Filipino tattoo artist or mambabatok from Kalinga. She is a member of the Butbut people of the larger Kalinga ethnic group. She is currently 104 years old and has kept the traditional art by tattooing tourists. She uses thorns and charcoal and hand-tap it into the skin.
Nuseir Yassin is an Arab-Israeli video blogger known for creating 1,000 daily one-minute-long videos on Facebook with page name Nas Daily.
The vlogger opened Nas Academy which features virtual courses and one of these is supposedly the Whang-Od Academy. In this course, the latter will share her journey, methods and concepts in traditional tattooing.
It is alleged that Whang-Od never agreed to teach an online class and that she did not sign any contract with Nas Daily.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples – Cordillera Administrative Region (NCIP – CAR) conducted an investigation on this matter and found out that the contract between the online company and the traditional artist was a “onerous” contract.
One has to understand the elements of a valid contract. When is a contract valid?
A contract is an agreement between two or more persons wherein one binds himself to render services or give something. It must be free from undue influence, coercion, misrepresentation, and fraud.
Article 1261 of the Civil Code provides that “there is no contract unless the following requisites exist: 1.) the consent of the contracting parties; 2.) a definite object which is the subject matter of the contract; and 3.) consideration for the obligation established.”
One of the parties must have an offer and the other must accept the said offer. The subject matter refers to the object of the contract. It must not be contrary to law, good customs, morals and public order.
The cause of the contract is based on the type of contracts.
Article 1274 of the same Code provides that “in onerous contracts the consideration as to each of the parties is the delivery or performance or the promise of delivery or performance of a thing or service by the other party; in remuneratory contracts the consideration is the service or benefit for which the remuneration is given, and in contracts of pure beneficence the consideration is the liberality of the benefactors.”
In the recent issue, the contract was called “onerous” because based on the contract terms, the online class would belong to Nas Academy, “inclusive of the right to alteration and the right to assign and transfer the same without content.”
The NCIP – CAR questioned the validity of the thumbmark affixed onto the contract. The issue is not only Wang-Od’s consent but goes beyond the fact that the art of tattooing is part of the cultural traditions and consent must be secured from the entire tribe.
Everything has been denied by Nas Daily. It is best that we hear the other side of the story before concluding because as of this writing the online platform criticized the investigation process of the NCIP for not giving them the chance to explain./PN
