- Wilhelmina S. Orozco
In 1984, I went to Brussels where I showed my independent films at the Super 8mm Film Festival ran by Robert Malengreau showcasing Philippine content and works also of other indie filmmakers like Red, and Cynthia Estrada,among others. From there, Robert gave me free plane tickets and accommodations after which I took the plane back to the country; unfortunately it passed by Paris. I suffered under great fear of having to search for a room, and eat at very expensive restos there while waiting for a connecting plane. So I really argued my way with the French officers to give me a seat in the next departing plane.
As I entered the PAL plane in Paris, en route back to the Philippines, I heaved a sigh of relief and cried. Why? PAL to me then was the symbol of our country in the foreign land. It was a vehicle to reach our soils again. Actually, even just by seeing a poster of PAL in London, or elsewhere, I would feel homesick.
This is not an ad for PAL. I just want to talk of symbols. We are always overtaken by symbols that stand for things that we hold dear. For example, when we see an abaca chinelas, we know that it is from the Philippines. A carabao would indicate a farmland in the country. Laces of sampaguita flowers, as we buy them from young girls remind us of Jose Rizal and the song, Sampaguita as well as the Spanish era he lived in.
Hence, symbols give us a connection to something that we revere, we hold dear, we value eternally. They are things that show our relationships with other people, with certain events, with certain values, with historical periods. They make us remember, keep us tied to those things that make up those moments of our existence on earth.
In the same way, when we talk of Malacanang, we recall the different dignified individuals who had lived there, who wielded power while there. Our memories may be happy or painful depending on who is on our mind -- whether the leader had left a great legacy or had led a disgraceful administration. At the same time now, our feelings may be "duh" at the moment as the present occupant is hardly creating a dent in our need to have a noble consciousness and existence.
I think that from now on, we need to be sensitive to how we build, create and handle symbols -- whether of power, or of those that we have mentioned. Symbols are everywhere and they make up what we are as a people. If we have racketeers, fixers, and other corrupt individuals occupying the Executive, Legislative and/or Judiciary Buildings, our feet could feel the heat when we step inside them. We would feel as if our feet are burning, instead of cool to the idea of stepping in and being regaled with good public service.
In other words, symbols should not be used by those who would soil their meanings or give a different interpretation of them. For example, we always celebrated certain holidays as they occurred. Now they are being moved here and there, from one day to another, to give way to holiday economics. Such moves demean the import of the days, of the events that we are trying to celebrate, or that we regard as celebratory.
Another example, when Rizal Park was invaded by the statue of LapuLapu, the thoughts of our national hero, Jose Rizal were defanged: he was for a peaceful transition to an independent state for the Philippines, while LapuLapu used his sword to kill the colonizer, Magellan. Here our nationalistic consciousness is being challenged -- are we for peace or for war against those who would try to conquer us? There is nothing wrong with what LapuLapu had done but his space should be somewhere else, not in that reserved for Jose Rizal.
Now let us go back to Malacanang. Supposing the military junta which is incarcerating Aung Suu Kyi, the democratic candidate of Myanmar, would come and visit Malacanang. Should we still feel proud knowing that they are human rights violators? In the same way, the White House was put up by the people who fought the British, established the US as an independent nation; yet, Bush, the guy who ordered the invasion of Iraq, and which had caused the deaths now of over 4000 Americans, also lived there. Now, should the administration accept leaders from Third World countries with bad human rights records and let them in just to be able to say this is a "democratic" world?
Should not the new administration conduct a kind of exorcism there to purge the place of negativities that could produce anti-people policies?
I think this is what the next president of the Philippines should also do when we have a change of guards next year.
I think that the residential homes of the heads of state should symbolize policies that do not deviate from the universal values and beliefs that we revere like human rights. They should be peopled, visited and inhabited by those who know that to be human is to be a breathing individual, with a heart, mind, and spirit, which unfortunately are slowly or speedily being degraded every day now.
--Salvador Dali, "Soft Watch At the Moment of First Explosion."
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