kultura

Torre de Manila: a review

Because our short memory as nation is becoming legendary, and these days the manufactured noise is enough to distract us from what happened just yesterday, it seems important to review Torre de Manila, now that DMCI is going to get away with continuing its construction, as the Supreme Court has found that “The court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter; the petitioners (Knights of Rizal) have no standing to sue; and they (petitioners) stand to suffer no injury. Furthermore, the court also found that there is no law that prohibits the construction of the challenged Torre de Manila.”

Congrats DMCI! (more…)

komentaryo

TIME 100 and Duterte’s communications

For a government – and a President – that has had a tendency to blame media, local and international, for covering only the drug war and not much else about what else is happening in the Philippines, it surprises that government even engaged at all with the Time 100 poll and the President’s inclusion in that list.

Because Time Magazine – as expected – has been at the forefront of putting the drug war in international news, and has been very very critical of it, too. Their articles on the drug crisis, and ultimately on President Duterte, both online and in print, have been far from flattering.

This is the frame against which the President is being measured by an international media outfit, and it should’ve been clear from the beginning that if and when he is included in that final list, it will only shine a harsher light on the drug war and its victims, and the summary executions on our streets. (more…)

komentaryo

Duterte chauvinism: Sino bang walang babae?

A direct translation wouldn’t capture how offensive this rhetorical question is, coming from the mouth of any man or woman, as it normalizes and rationalizes the practice of infidelity and polygamy, because look, all men are doing it! And as long as these men can take care of the children they sire, from one, two, three women they keep in their beds, then they are doing the decent thing, they are doing what is right.

Wrong. Especially when these words come from the President’s mouth, and these statements that condone and justify men’s alleged precondition to treat women as objects to be collected – because women are their kaligayahan (happiness), because there are so many women so little time – are spoken publicly, to the laughter of a necessarily captive enamored audience. (more…)

komentaryo

Portrait of a UP teacher as mining lobbyist

On Wednesday, March 29, GMA News Online ran a story about a UP teacher claiming two things: that Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) employees were ordered by an undersecretary to “find fault” in mining operations, and that students will not find good jobs in the mining industry after graduation.

These are University of the Philippines students, ones this same professor has taught, ones that taxpayers’ money has put through university education, and they are being told they will have no options outside of the current mining status quo.

The thoughtless statements, the baseless nameless accusations, this doomsday scenario, is unexpected coming from a teacher of the State University. But then again, we have heard this same professor at the Commission on Appointments (CA) caucus standing against the confirmation of environmentalist Gina Lopez as DENR Secretary, as we have heard him countless times defending the mining industry, while always falling silent on irresponsible mining projects and how these have wreaked havoc on communities and the environment.

I guess these statements shouldn’t have been such a surprise. (more…)

kultura

London Biennale Manila Pollination: The Revolution Loses Steam

The idea of an art biennial in Manila is reason enough to get excited about the London Biennale’s Manila Pollination. The dominant mainstream market-oriented gallery system and the annual celebratory art fairs in Manila have generally meant a lack in critical rigour and artistic vision – two elements that art goers hope a biennale can make up for.

Founder (in 1998) and co-curator of the London Biennale Filipino artist David Medalla says in the curatorial note that this biennale is about ‘challenging and transforming the notion of the art world “biennale” as a large state or corporate-sponsored event… by throwing open borders and encouraging a more intimate and community-based dialogue between the artists and audiences’. Originally only based in London, this alternative biennale has evolved to include various communities in other countries through what are called “pollinations” in places like Rio de Jainero, Berlin, Belgium, and Rome. This is the first Manila Pollination of this scale, as opposed to an obscure exhibit or two in the past. (more…)