Gifts and Dispossessions, Assistance and Exploitation.

(The Cultural Center of the Philippines,  source: Philippine Star)

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        Arts is a powerful tool in today’s modern world. An artist can change and improve his/her way of living if he/she was able to share to the world what skills he/she have. But at what cost can an artist be recognized and be famous? There are lots of talented artists in the Philippines that should be recognized and acknowledged for the skills and talents they have. Unfortunately, and just like what is happening to our ordinary countrymen, they aren’t given opportunities to live a more comfortable life. They are often exploited and manipulated by the “collecting class”.

        The so-called “philanthropism” or the donation of artworks in the Ateneo Art Gallery is a boldly dirty move for the elite. For people that are not that critical, the donations made is one that is commendable. Of course, giving their artworks to the art gallery for free, with no single cent taken from the gallery, this seemingly is an act of a generous person or organization. However, when you actually think about it, there is a bad intention behind these smiling and giving faces. With the power that they have, they can manipulate and enable dispossession that could lead them to more wealth, fame, and power - with no respect for the rights of the masses, benefitting from the middle and lower classes.

        The 176 Gifts/176 Dispossessions title struck us as we thought the article couldn’t have been titled better. The 176 gifts are all dispossessions - dispossessions that were only a small fraction of what actually have been taken from the Filipinos. For this blog’s entry, we decided to focus on one family name - the Marcoses.

(The Kingmaker film poster, source: IMDb)

        In the documentary film “The Kingmaker”, the then first lady Imelda Marcos was portrayed as an art and culture enthusiast. It was shown that she even had paintings of many infamous painters in the world which cost a fortune - a fortune that was the result of decades’ worth of exploitation of the Filipinos.

        The late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his inauguration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), as per Imelda’s demands, is intended to be an addition for the improvement of arts in the Philippines, at least at a surface level. The reason why Imelda pushed her husband to build the CCP was her ambition to host the Miss Universe Pageant and many big events in the country. If we are to further tackle what actually took place during those times (we all should know the infamous accident by now, don’t we?), we can absolutely infer that CCP, as we know it today, is not a valid tradeoff for the lives lost during the construction of it. No one dared to talk about the incident; it’s as if not a single life was taken.

(The Coconut Palace, source: Esquire Philippines)

        To this date, many filipinos are still honoring Imelda for having the Cultural Center of the Philippines built, not knowing the terrible story behind the infrastructure. This incident reminds us that when you have power and wealth, you can do anything and you can get anything.The Coconut Palace in the CCP Complex, which is considered as an exquisite project by Francisco Mañosa and the official working place and residence of the Vice President of the Philippines, has its fair share of dark background. Instead of addressing the issue of poverty in the late 70s, Imelda thought that it was a good idea to build a palace made out of coconut. It’s as if rubbing in the Filipinos’ faces, especially those with houses made of coconut, how they are taken advantage of in broad daylight. The worst part is that these same people are made to pay this project with their taxes. That said, we can say that the Marcoses’ actions are only a few of the many things they did to try and overshadow the atrocities done to the Filipinos.

        Land dispossession is not uncommon in the country, as it is an act committed by the Spaniards during the 1500’s. The Agrarian Reform Program (promulgated as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law in 1987) under the Marcos regime instigated the blatant land-grabbing by the elites. The program, which had an objective to distribute land ownership to the land tillers, looked good on paper, but presented a rather exploitative loophole. Private institutions and large estates took advantage of this, making it hard for small farmers and peasants to claim ownership of the land. One example of this is the situation of coconut farmers in Davao Oriental. While they were promised ownership of the land they till under CARP, the farmers were under a loop of debt, which ultimately led to the elites obtaining said land. Land distribution, without proper government assistance and much needed legal advice led to this dispossession.

        Though things are looking up now, but still far from good, we cannot deny the fact that many Filipinos were unfairly robbed of their possessions and not given the chance to claim what’s rightfully theirs. Sadly, dispossessions still happen today as evident in the article 176 Gifts/176 Dispossessions. Misinformation, lack of education, and blind following seems like an endless vortex Filipinos can never escape from.