Call to Defiance

Published on November 15, 2008

Review of Rights v. 2, a collection of public service announcements on human rights
Initiated by Southern Tagalog Exposure
Featuring various artists

Rights v. 2 begins and ends on a defiant note – as if telling the viewer that what is needed amid escalating attacks on human rights is not despair, but defiance.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
CULTURE
Bulatlat

The series of short videos/public service announcements begin with a scene in which detainees portrayed by Joel Torre and Chin-Chin Gutierrez are on their knees, surrounded by soldiers.

The marks on their faces and their disheveled appearance bespeak the torture they had gone through. The soldiers had decided to end their lives, but instead of begging for mercy, they are defiant even while on their knees. They are each shot in the head, but not before singing parts of the revolutionary song “Awit ng Pag-asa” (Song of Hope):

Kahit kayhaba ng lalakbayin
Daang tag-araw man ang humagupit
Kahit ilang libong tag-ulan ang sumapit
Hinding-hindi tayo titigil

Dahil mithiin natin palayain
Bawat isa sa mga alipin
Sa gitna man ng gutom, kahirapa’t pasakit
Hinding-hindi tayo susuko

Kahit na may bagyo
Kahit na may unos
Kahit may libu-libong kaaway
Kahit na magapi at iisa ang matira
Sa ating dakilang hanay
Tayong manggagawa at magsasaka
Sambayanan ay muling babangon
Ipagtatagumpay ang bawat labanan
Sa buong daigdig

Kahit hadlangan ng libong armas
Ang ating hukbo ay hindi aatras
Lakas ng masa ang ating sandigan
Saan mang laranga’t digmaan

Kahit na may bagyo
Kahit na may unos
Kahit may libu-libong kaaway
Kahit na magapi at isa ang matira
Sa ating dakilang hanay
Tayong manggagawa at magsasaka
Sambayanan ay muling babangon
Ipagtatagumpay ang bawat labanan
Sa buong daigdig

This short video, titled “Awit” (Song), is the first in the collection Rights v. 2 which features one-minute public service announcements on human rights by various filmmakers. It is partly based on the experience of Aristides Sarmiento, one of the so-called “Tagaytay 5”, during their interrogation. Sarmiento, in an audacious display of defiance, sang “Awit ng Pag-asa” at the top of his voice as he and his companions were being interrogated.

The main difference, of course, between what happened in “Awit” and what happened in real life is that Sarmiento and the other “Tagaytay 5” people are all still alive and have all been recently freed, and their torture was “more mental than physical” as Sarmiento himself puts it.

Still, what takes place in “Awit” is very real, in that such incidents have happened before and continue to happen in military and police camps where political activists are held in custody.

“Awit”, by the Artists’ Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation (Artists’ ARREST), is one of some 13 public service announcements in Rights v.2.

The project is initiated by Southern Tagalog Exposure and is described as “an open and continuing call to filmmakers to freely and creatively participate in the growing movement to defend human rights in the Philippines.” It is a sequel to Rights, which was initiated last year at the height of the search for Jonas Burgos, peasant leader and son of press freedom icon Jose “Joe” Burgos, Jr.

The younger Burgos was abducted by armed men in a restaurant in Quezon City on April 28, 2007 and has not been found since. The plate number of the van used in his abduction was traced to another vehicle, which was impounded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and placed in the custody of the headquarters of the Philippine Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion, which is based in Bulacan.

Other individual filmmakers and filmmakers’ groups whose works are featured in Rights v. 2 are JP Carpio, Keith Sicat, J Pacena, Kodao Productions, Bon Labora, Emil Mercado, Ging Flores, Ron Papag, Ted Ferreras, Zig Dulay, Recci Bacolor, and Sine Patriyotiko.

“Awit” and the closing piece, “Tula”, both by Artists’ ARREST, deal with the “Tagaytay 5”. Southern Tagalog Exposure has a piece on another political prisoner, Eduardo Serrano.

“Desaparecidos” (Disappeared) and “Tagu-taguan” (Hide and Seek) both deal with victims of enforced disappearances.

In particular, “Tagu-taguan” begins with the “it” in what at first looks like an ordinary hide and seek game counting to ten before looking for his supposed playmates. We then find out after a few minutes that the “playmates” he is looking for are “Kuya Jonas” (referring to the younger Burgos) and other victims of enforced disappearances. The juxtaposition of the child’s innocence with the darkness of the story’s subject is poignant.

“Bakwet” (Evacuee) and “Warrant” both deal with militarization in the countryside. “Quenching Fire”, meanwhile, deals with police brutality in the dispersal of legal and legitimate protest actions.

Rights v. 2 ends with “Tula”, which is partly based on what transpired during the first interrogation night of Axel Pinpin, one of the “Tagaytay 5”. The character based on Pinpin is played by award-winning playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, himself a former political prisoner.

Ilagan’s character turns the tables on his tormentors and is shown reciting part of Pinpin’s poem “Unang Gabi ng Intergasyon” (First Interrogation Night):

… Sino ba kayong mga dumukot at nagdala sa akin dito?
Sino ba sa atin ang biktima at sino ang tagapagligtas?
Kayo ba ang kapwa ko biktimang bumibiktima
Sa mga tagapagligtas ng biktima? Sino? Sino kayo?
Bakit di tayo kapwa ipahamak ng purok ng inyong baril
At ng talas ng katotohanan ng tugmaan kong matatabil?

At kung tayo nga ay ipahamak, saka kapwa magpatawad.
Subali’t di kailangang agad makalimot kahit nagpatawad,
Dahil mag-iiwan ng pangit na marka ang posas sa `king braso,
Dahil mag-iiwan ng ngitngit ang dulo ng baril sa `king sentido,
Dahil mag-iiwan ng dilim ang duwag na piring sa `king mata,
Dahil paghihigantihan ang tagapagligtas ng kanyang biktima!

Ah, kung gayo’y kayo nga ang matwid na tagapagligtas!
At kayo rin ang magiging biktima ng aming Kapatawaran!
Ay, kamatayan! O, kamatayang walang kasing tamis!
Ihimlay mo na ako kapiling ng tula ng mga gahis,
Sa ritmo at awit ng putok ng baril ng mga salarin,
At sa ngalit ng pagganti ng tugmaan kong matatabil!

Rights v. 2 begins and ends on a defiant note – as if telling the viewer that what is needed amid escalating attacks on human rights is not despair, but defiance.