Manila Today
In anticipation of International Human Rights Day and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, UGATLahi Artists Collective and Sining ang Bala ng Kabataan (SABAK) collaborated to produce an effigy they dubbed “High na High sa Pagpatay; High na High sa Paglustay.”
The groups said the effigy illustrated how killings and other human rights violations persist and worsen under the current administration, while also siphoning funds to allotments like the confidential and intelligence funds and counterinsurgency programs abet infringement of people’s rights.
The groups asserted that the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration “heightened fascistic and militaristic counter-insurgency measures, leading to political repression, record inflation, and increased poverty among the Filipino people.”
The “High na High” effigy is a two-part installation. The first part featured a papier-mache representation of Marcos Jr. holding a rifle gun and a sack of money, symbolizing the confidential and intelligence funds, Maharlika funds and numerous foreign trips.
The second part depicted a warplane that Marcos Jr. is riding as a symbol of his sanctioning of militarization in urban and rural areas and expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement allowing the United States (US) military to use and operate in the Philippines’ military bases in response to internal and external threats. The effigy also showed the flags of the US and Israel to draw a parallel between the Philippine struggle and the Palestinian resistance against the aggression of Israel as supported by the US.
“The situation with yet another Marcos in Malacañang is really no different from past administrations. The Filipino people suffer from hunger, poverty, and the chilling effects of red-tagging, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and killings,” former political prisoner and UGATLahi spokesperson Alma Moran said.
Moran was arrested along with Reina Mae Nasino and Ram Carlo Bautista in 2019, based on illegal firearms and explosives possession charges. They were among those arrested through police raids on the strength of search warrants issued by Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert from 2019 to 2020. They were released in December 2022, when they were released on bail after more than three years in jail. On July 17 this year, then-Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 47 Presiding Judge Paulino Gallegos acquitted the three of the charges against them.
A few days ago, Moran and Nasino learned that the Office of the Solicitor General filed a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court to reverse the trial court’s decision in their case on October 10, way beyond the 60-day deadline after the Tondo 3’s acquittal, September 16.
UGATLahi and SABAK emphasized their call for the abolition of NTF-ELCAC and the repeal of the Anti-Terror Act. They further called to redirect the Confidential Intelligence Funds (CIF) to basic social services such as livelihood, health, and education.
“It is only just and necessary that the resumption of peace talks should continue and this should be discussed with many people. With the current situation of the country, collective action is a formidable force of dissent. We will march into the streets with art as our powerful weapon to counter the regime’s lies,” Moran said.
