By: ARNEL MARDOQUIO
(2nd Tranche Manifesto)
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I am prompted to write this piece because of funny stories and images in my dreams last night. I was in the main entrance of the CCP where people begin to troop towards the main theatre. I meet Robbie Tan who is dressed in a gown of Imelda Marcos’, Laurice Guillen greets me as if we were close friends in real life and asks me if her hair is properly groomed. She says the make-up artist applied Tancho pomade so that she would look like Ferdie Marcos. Well, I praise the prosthetic artist for it really got her transformed every inch to look like the dictator. Another soft voice calls my name and as I turn, lo! I get surprised for he starts to growl like a monster. It was Nes Jardin in fatigue army uniform. He says he will be playing as Fabian Ver. The three of them offer me complimentary tickets for the front row and they are almost in chorus to remind me that I should not miss the part, especially the end part where they will be turned effigies and the people’s power who are already in whooping rage will start burning them to ashes. Hey, that’s no longer funny, it’s almost a bad dream that I could hardly go back to sleep. So, I begin to ponder on a deep thought and concludes that our dreams are helping us in so many ways. In this case it helped me crystallize my thoughts and feelings. Most importantly it helped me clarify why I started to be enraged again with director Emerson Reyes’ row with the gang of three.
Cinemalaya has entered the bastion of CCP and will literally be if they are to continue. It is very important for us to recall in a not so distant past when the people power in 1986 restored democracy in the country. The CCP was one of the great symbols but we knew for a fact that the ghosts of the tyrants still roam in every corner of that building. We celebrated people’s art. Common people can now have access to what we call arts that would matter most to them. Even though the leadership of the institution changes every six years, aside from its posturing as pro-people, the persons who man the port of this art institution are highly mandated to protect first and foremost the welfare of the artists and not just by providing venues.
Why am I so enraged, why is this sentiment not just equivalent to a glass of water that with much ado we tend to drown ourselves? I come to the fore because our welfare as artists in Cinemalaya is being violated. This is the essence of our cause that started out as a silent rage. When Cinemalaya found its house in CCP, my expectations are not personal but institutional. I will be happy and comfortable since this bastion is mandated by the constitution to protect the welfare of the small artist like me, like Emerson Reyes. Contrary to our expectations, our rights are trampled inside this very institution that is supposed to upgrade and look after us.
The gang-of-three who nestled inside the CCP is into the business of trampling the rights of artists/filmmakers. The gang of three may have participated in the ‘peoples power’ in EDSA and gave their contributions in booting out a dictator (I do not know for Robbie Tan who produces bold films for three decades and suddenly now mentoring filmmakers who are into social advocacies), but most importantly, they themselves have helped in booting out the tyrants in CCP during the Marcos dictatorship. Now they are the so-called powers-that-be as they are now the tyrants propped up by friends and supporters.
When they trampled my right, when they have violated the right of Emerson Reyes, I see the CCP trampling every right of the artists. The CCP is not for our welfare after all.
If Tony boy Cojuanco have contributed hundreds of millions to the poltical campaign of PNoy, and have asserted the right of Cinemalaya to be at CCP, I should ask CCP leaders now, “Nasaan na ba ang daang matuwid?”
Let the ghosts of dictatorship vanish in the premises of CCP. Let Cinemalaya be booted out of CCP and I will rest my case.
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