MANILA — Sining Kadamay, a group composed mainly of urban poor cultural workers, showcased since this morning Apr 25 some of their artworks to express support for Mary Jane Veloso, a Pinay OFW sentenced to die by firing squad in Indonesia due to an illegal drug-related case, which she denies.
The cultural artists sang a song in Filipino dedicated to Mary Jane. Also, a Sining Kadamay artist finished his drawing of Mary Jane’s face. The portrait will be given to MJ’s family. They also created ‘freedom doves’ from paper which they plan to tie to posts lining Kasiyahan Street in an urban poor community in Quezon City.
Sining Kadamay says the urban poor and OFWs are both victims of chronic unemployment in the Philippines where around 13 million Filipinos are looking for jobs. They took the Aquino administration to task for failing to resolve the unemployment problem in the country. They said Aquino only worsened the situation of the unemployed “by preventing the implementation of genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, in accordance to neoliberal dictates.”
[Text by M. SALAMAT, Photo courtesy of TEY LOPEZ]
