Here’s What We Have To Say About That!

FREEDOM? FARCE!
08 November 2007

We support the Neo-Angono Artists Collective and vehemently condemn the defacing of the mural on the history of press freedom in the Philippines.

As cited by the artists themselves, the leadership of the National Press Club committed these transgressions upon their work of art:

The erasure of a big portion of the newspaper held by the central figure, containing the statement of the International Federation of Journalists regarding the perceived effects of the anti-terror law on press freedom, and replaced by a hideous bird-monster in a cage;

The alteration of the headline of the newspaper Jose Rizal is holding from “Press Freedom Fighter’s Son Abducted” to “Press Freedom Fight Is On” and the defacement of Jonas and Edith Burgos’s pictures as well as the erasure of Jonas’s name;

The change of the tattoo on Andres Bonifacio’s left arm from the alibata “K” to a sappy red heart pierced by an arrow;

The erasure of the name of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines from the banners of the rallyists;

The lengthening of the hair and beard of the figure identified as academician-columnist Prof. Randy David beside columnist Conrad de Quiros; and

The addition of beard and mustache and the change of hair color from white to black of the pugo and balut vendor identified as columnist and Martial Law detainee Juan Mercado.

What the leadership of the National Press Club had done is a clear and absolute atrocity against the basic and integral right of anyone – artist or otherwise – to fully express ideas, ideologies, and standpoints.

Furthermore, the censorship explicitly imposed upon the mural is a disgrace to what the NPC had stood for all these years.

We are one with the Neo-Angono Artists Collective in seeking Justice for this most contemptible of offenses against artistry and against humanity.

BULONG
EARTHFISHFISH
THE OUTLAWS
Ayan Tolentino
K Lopez
Mark Forlorn
Zig Mirasol

For more details and photographs about this horrible act, copy and paste this URL onto your address bar: http://www.neo-angono.com/festival/protest.html.