In the article “Artists Against Assassination” published by the think tank Foreign Policy in Focus, writer Carmela Cruz delves into how Filipino artists articulate their protest against socio-political issues such as landlessness, political killings, and human rights violations.

Creative protest is no stranger to the Pinoy psyche. Among the earliest instances of such articulation were Jose Rizal’s two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which “established a pattern in the Philippines of art and politics going hand in hand,” writes Cruz.

During the years leading to the ouster of former president Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino films centered on militancy in urban factores and Manila’s moral decay, while paintings focused on the plight of Negros sugarcane farmers.

Of last year, “ww111″ by rock musician Dong Abay combines actual footage of street demonstrations and news clippings with staged performances and artwork.

In [the video], Abay joins peasants marching in the streets of Metro Manila protesting the killings. Tight shots of the pallid faces of mock victims segue into actual peasants’ demonstrations. These are then contextualized with clippings of local news headlines about the killings superimposed on a video of Arroyo’s meeting with visiting President George W. Bush. Rolling tanks and bombs falling in the war in Iraq convey how the global war on terror has influenced the lives of peoples. Also included are cartoon drawings made by the Abay’s four-year-old son.

“It’s about war, the different faces of war,” says Abay. “It could be in the form of physical slaughter or war in one’s consciousness. It could be war inside us or in the outside world.” The musician is known for fusing social commentary and music, a genre that has roots in the 1970s when Filipino musicians popularized socially and politically conscious songs that touched on conflict-ravaged Mindanao, society’s moral decay, and the destruction of the environment.

Read the full-length article at the FPIF Website.
Watch the video of Dong Abay’s ww111 on Youtube.