Concerned Artists of the Philippines

We held a Piece for Peace forum for people's artists last August 28, 2011 at the UP College of Mass Communications Auditorium. Educating us on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio and Economic Reforms is Raffy Baylosis, representative of the NDFP section of the Reciprocal Working Committee of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations.

You can check out the other details here in the Facebook event page.

“We call on CCP to continue to open its gates to artists and cultural workers, especially to those who create to depict the realities of our society and promote people’s interests and welfare in these trying times,” Ortiz said.

Defend our freedom of expression! Fight Censorship!

Here are various artworks rendered by visual artist and Concerned Artists of the Philippines member Federico "Boy" Dominguez about various issues and situations in society.

We call on artists, cultural workers and media practitioners to be vigilant and stand steadfast in defending the Constitutional right to freedom of expression and of the press.

Artists decry censorship, repression as CCP yield to pressure (Bulatlat)

In the commemoration of his 20th death anniversary, CAP challenges all the artists to learn from Director Lino Brocka’s example and embrace his legacy of truly becoming an “Artista ng Bayan” whose works and life served as an inspiration to the great Filipino audience. CAP believes that artists play a crucial role in educating and inspiring the people to action just like what Director Lino Brocka has done and started.

Naglunsad ang Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) ng isang workshop kasama ang iba’t ibang visual artists noong ika-7 ng Mayo, 2011 sa ACT Building, Visayas Avenue. Si Neil Doloricon, Secretary General ng CAP ang naging facilitator ng nasabing workshop. Ang workshop ay bahagi ng kampanyang “Piece for Peace” na layunin ay tipunin at pakilusan ang mga alagad ng sining sa pagsusulong ng tunay na kapayapaang nakabatay sa paglulutas ng mga suliranin ng lipunan. Ang “Piece for Peace” ay sinimulan sa isang peace forum ng mga alagad ng sining sa kasaysayan ng usaping pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas at National Democratic Front of the Philippines noong April 10, 2011 sa College of Arts and Letters sa UP Diliman. Resource person sa talakayan si Atty. Edre Olalia, legal consultant ng NDF section ng Joint Monitoring Committee. Pagkatapos ng talakayan ay nag-pulong ang mga visual artists, songwriters at musikero, mga writers at artista sa teatro para sa kanya-kanyang ambag sa kampanya. Sinimulan ang workshop sa visual arts sa pagbahagi ng mga gawang sining ni Neil Doloricon. Sa ilang dekadang paglikha ng mga gawang sining na progresibo at makabuluhan ay makikita ang lawak ng “body of work” ng dating dekano ng UP College of Fine Arts. Matapos magbigay ng mga halimbawa ng political cartoons ay ibinahagi nya rin ang mga proseso at katangian ng paggawa ng likhang sining na pulitikal. Sa huling bahagi ay nagkaroon ng talakayan sa pagitan ng mga kasali sa workshop tungkol sa mga isyung pumapaloob sa pagbibigay daan sa ganap at prinsipyadong kapayapaan. Natukoy ang iba’t ibang suliraning kumakaharap sa lipunan na maituturing na ugat ng krisis sa kapayapaan sa bansa. Mula sa usaping miltarisasyon, urban land grabbing hanggang sa fare at education fee hikes ay pumili ang mga kasapi sa workshop ng mga isyung tututukan at gagawan ng artwork. Malaking hamon sa mga artists sa panahon ng panunumbalik ng usaping pangkapayapaan na talasan ang nilalaman at mensahe ng kanilang nililikha. Tulad ng paninindigan sa karapatang mamahayag ng malaya ay kaakibat nito ang paninindigang ang tunay na kapayapaan ay hindi matatamo sa pagsuko sa mga prinsipyong pinaglalaban para sa kabuhayan, lupa at batayang karapatang pantao. Lubos na hindi sasapat ang kamapnya ng kasalukuyang administrasyon laban sa kurapsyon bilang solusyon sa kahirapan. Ang daan tungo sa tunay na kapayapaan ay pagtugon sa mga suliraning matagal nang nagpapahirap sa sambayanang Pilipino: landordism, mga pulitikong pinagkakakitanang kanilang puwesto sa kapangyarihan at patuloy na US intervention sa laranganng ekonomya, pulitika at kultura.

With the richness and diversity of our culture, our artists, directors and producers will surely not run out of concepts and ideas to put on the table. With the brilliance and ingenuity of the Filipino artists, we believe there are great ideas just waiting to be unleashed. Well, it is about time to abandon the old formula of entertainment that shouts nothing but the decadent, colonial and feudal character of this industry. It is about time to strengthen the progressive, pro-people and nationalist culture that we are all capable of pushing forward. This is the time to truly showcase what Filipino artists are ultimately capable of doing and that is using art and culture to serve the best interests of the Filipinos.

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), an organization co-founded by activist filmmaker Lino Brocka in 1983, recently opened "Artista ng Bayan" at the Sining Kamalig gallery of Gateway Mall, Cubao, Quezon City. The exhibit opening also coincides with the launch of the 2011-2012 "Artista ng Bayan" calendar. Evening cultural performances served as tribute to the numerous artists who dedicate their lives in pursuit of basic social change.

On July 26, 2010, the recently proclaimed president of the Philippines, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) before the people of the Republic of the Philippines. Meanwhile, outside the gates of the Sandiganbayan, a mass of cultural workers, political organizations, artists, and concerned masses rallied together to conduct their own SONA ng Bayan (SONA of the People) to appeal to the democratic conscience of the new administration and challenge the incumbent president to address the prevalent yet long-ignored issues of the marginalized and the oppressed. Particularly the artists were frontliners in the call and challenge to the new president for an extensive and vigorous social reform. The SONA ng Bayan was replete with artistic flourishes: the theme of a carnival to symbolize the current state of Philippine politics, the moving effigy of the incumbent president, the music and poetry of artists and cultural workers who lend their voices to the call for widespread social reformation and systemic change. After nine years of corruption and repression, the Arroyo Regime had finally come to a close, leaving in its wake a wash of blood and an emaciated state of culture and arts. With its deceptive, undemocratic liberalization and globalization policies, the state had marginalized local artists and cultural workers through its support and importation of foreign merchandise and products. Reduced to contractual work without enough benefits and brought under constant threat of censorship, Filipino artists suffered no paltry abandonment from the state. Through the National Artist Awards fiasco, the Arroyo Regime had also managed to get away with the degradation of the cultural sector by doling out the prestigious awards as political favors to her cronies Cecile Guidote Alvarez, Carlo J. Caparas, and Pitoy Moreno, in spite of national dissent. The task of artists in the formation and molding of a new, progressive nation, of a people who are critical and knowledgeable of themselves, cannot be underestimated. As vanguards of the people’s right to freedom of expression and proponents of fundamental social criticism and interrogation, artists are vital to the preservation and protection of democracy. Under the office of the new president, artists must continue to be vigilant in their scrutiny of state policies and decisions. Already, President Noynoy Aquino has shown lapses and indiscretion in the appointment of Butch Abad and his son as the Department of Budget and Management Secretary and Chief Presidential Management Staff. The wife, Henedina Abad, is herself ready for Vice-Chairmanship in the Committee on Appropriations in the House of Representatives, The new administration has also refused to speak on the mass dismissal, without due process, of the workers of ABS-CBN, who had called for the management’s recognition of the labor union and the change of their status from contractual to regular workers after as much as 15 years of service. Similarly, no comment was made with regard to the liberalization and globalization policies that had so degraded the state of culture and the arts. Even on the issue of the workers of Hacienda Luisita, a matter of his own family’s production, President Noynoy has chosen not to speak. This silence is ominous and rend with dangerous implications. Indeed, artists, and the entire Filipino nation, in spite of the hope and the promise fostered by the new administration, cannot let their guard down.

August 7-8, 2010 – a group of young artists from the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) went to Hacienda Yulo in Canlubang, Laguna for “basic masses integration” and to hold a music workshop for the youth of the said hacienda. Almost four months ago, the farmer residents of Sitio Buntog, one of the 21 sitios of the 7,100 hectare Hacienda Yulo, lead by the SAMANA-Buntog, put up a “kampuhan” (picket) to protest the Yulos’ continuing land use conversion throughout the hacienda.  For the farmers of the hacienda, converting the use of land, transforming them into golf courses, real estate and malls, from agricultural would mean perishing their source of life. Since the farmers protested the illegal land use conversion scheme of the Yulos, they were met by various forms of harassments by repressive state agents, which led to the violent dispersal of some hundreds of farmers of Sitio Buntog and a number of students from UP Manila who were on an exposure trip, on May 21, 2010. On that day the combined forces of private security guards, Calamba PNP, Regional PNP and SWAT, at the command of Architect Dan Calvo who claims himself as the prophet of the Yulo clan, managed to injure a number of the protesters and arrested eleven farmers (including 4 minors, a 71 year old woman and breastfeeding mother) without any charge. As of today, private security guards are still deployed around the hacienda, a number of police barracks are still standing inside the hacienda, and new policies imposed by the clan, including a blockade on the produce of the farmers so as to stop them from earning extra money, remains to be the condition in Hacienda Yulo. But the farmers continued on with their protest. They remain headstrong in asserting their rights to land, wage, rightful job and rights. Supporters from various organizations in Southern Tagalog and nationwide also supported the local struggle of farmers in Hacienda Yulo. On May 25, 2010, Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK) and SAMANA-Buntog went to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to file a complaint against the PNP for the violent dispersal at Sitio Buntog. They, along with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also staged several protest actions including a mobilization at the Laguna Estate Development Corporation office in Makati, and at the Times Street residence of President Noynoy Aquino. A number of supporters from various groups and sectors keep on flooding the “kampuhan” in Sitio Buntog to support the struggle of the farmers in Hacienda Yulo. As the youth’s song output during CAP’s music workshop said, “sama-sama nating ipaglaban, ating karapatan,” because the struggle continues, and workers, artists, cultural workers are a part of it. Farmers from various organizations lead by KASAMA-TK and KMP are still at the Department of Agrarian Reform for a “kampuhan” to challenge Pres. Noynoy Aquino to prioritize farmers in his “program for change.”

Noong Hulyo 31-Agosto 1, 2010, dumayo sa malamig na lunsod ng Baguio, upang makibahagi sa mga huling araw ng pagdiriwang ng ika-19 taon ng pagkakatatag ng Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera (DKK) ang CAP. Pinangunahan ng mga miyembro ng Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) ang napapanahong diskusyon hinggil sa lagay ng sining at kultura, at hamon ng kultural na sektor sa bagong administrasyong Noynoy Aquino sa isang porum na ginanap sa Ayuyang Bar, Baguio City. Ang DKK ay isang alyansa ng mga nasyunalista at demokratikong organisasyong pangkultura at sining na naka-base sa Kordilyera. Ilan sa mga organisasyong bahagi ng alyansa ay ang Salidummay, Binhim Artista ti Kordilyera para iti Wayawaya (ARKIW), Kulturati, Republic Sayote, Tan-aw Multimedia Collective, Sheng-nget (Anti-Open Pit Mining Kids in Benguet), Tambulian, Children of the Cordillera (CHICO-Kalinga), and Tanghalang Bayan ng Kabataan sa Baguio (TABAK). Sa loob ng halos 20 taon, nagalugad na ng DKK ang kung saan-saang sulok ng bansa upang isulong ang isyu ng mga katutubo, mula sa karapatan sa ancestral lands, pagsugpo sa malalaking minas na sumisira sa mga katutubong komunidad at kalikasan, hanggang sa pagpapalaganap ng katutubong sining at kultura. Sa kanilang ika-19 na taon ng pagkakatatag, muling iminamarka ng DKK ang kanilang masigasig na pakikibaka para sa sahod, trabaho, at karapatan ng mga katutubo at ang pagsusulong ng nasyunalista at demokratikong sining at kultura. Bilang isa sa mga organisasyong pangkulturang nagsusulong ng nasyunalista at demokratikong sining at kultura, ang CAP ay nagtungo sa Norte upang makiisa sa pagdiriwang DKK. Mula sa palitan ng mga palagay hinggil sa kasalukuyang kondisyon ng sining at kultura sa bansa, sa pagtatanim ng mga puno sa mga komunidad na naapektuhan na naapektuhan ng malawakang landslide noong nakaraang tag-ulan, hanggang sa pag-asiste sa “soil painting workshop,” naging makabuluhan ang pagbisita at pakiisa ng CAP sa mga kasama sa DKK dahil muli nitong pinatitibay ang pagbibigkis ng mga artista at manggagawang pangkultura na mayroong iisang tunguhin.

Matapos ang masalimuot na siyam na taong rehimen ni Gloria, kung saan nakaranas ng sangkatutak na panlipunan at pangkulturang karahasan ang mga mamamayan ay muli na namang humaharap ang Pilipinas sa panibagong hamon, sa isang bagong administrasyon. Nitong ika-19 ng Hulyo 2010, bago ang unang SONA ni P-noy, sa pangunguna ng Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), ay nagsama-sama sa Sining Kamalig Gallery sa Gateway, Cubao, ang ilang mga artista at manggagawang pangkultura, upang pag-usapan ang kasalukuyang kundisyon ng sining at kultura sa bansa at ang responsibilidad ng bawat isa upang mas mapabuti ang kalagayan nito. Nilahukan ito ng ilang mga susing tao at organisasyon sa larangan ng sining at kultura tulad nina Bienvenido Lumbera (Tagapangulo ng CAP at Pambansang Alagad ng Sining), Egai Talusan Fernandez (NCCA), Karatula, Linangan ng Kulturang Pilipino, Alay Sining, Ugnayan ng Nagkakaisang Artista, at iba pa. Sa pag-uusap na ito, bumuo ang nasabing lupon ng iisang panawagan at deklarasyon na napapaloob sa “Declaration and Agenda for Change in the Field of Culture by Filipino Artists and Cultural Workers”. Sa kabuuan, ang mga panawagang ito ay nahahati sa apat na bahagi: 1. Promote patriotic and pro-people culture, 2. Uphold the culture of good governance and good government, 3. Advance the rights and welfare of Filipino cultural workers and artists, 4. Uphold civil liberties fostering cultural expression. Lahat ng ito’y para sa pagnanais na mai-angat, mapahalagahan at maprotektahan ang kabutihan at kapakanan ng mga manlilikhang Pilipino dito man sa loob o sa labas ng bansa. Ang nabuong deklarasyon at mga panawagan na ito ay papaikot sa buong kapuluuan upang maipaabot ng sektor ng mga artista ang kanilang hinaing at upang magsilbing hamon sa bagong administrasyon na pahalagahan ang larangan ng sining at kultura sa kaniyang agenda ng pagbabago. Sa pagbubuo ng deklarasyon, muli na namang pinatunayan ng mga artista at manggagawang pangkultura ang kanilang kakayahan sa pagkakaisang tinig para sa mulat at aktibong paghubog ng bansa.  Isinisigaw nito ang pagtuwid sa pina-igting na baluktot at mapagnipulang sining at kultura ng nakaraang rehimen. Binibigyang boses nito ang lahat ng mga artista’t manlilikha ng bayan upang maging patron ng pagbabago para sa makatao, makabayan at maka-Pilipinong sining at kultura.