Tuesday in the Tropics 167

7th June 2022

Dear friends and colleagues

Why?

Once again, we ask why did the lower classes vote for a Marcos rather than for a candidate who would have improved their lot by attacking corruption and making government more responsive to their needs.

Why, as more than one correspondent wrote me, “did the turkeys vote for Christmas”?

“The masses are ignorant, amazingly credulous with a childish grasp of actual facts, great cunning, unbounded suspicion, primitive passions uncontrollable when aroused, and an unreasonable sense of honour – excellent material for able and unscrupulous leaders.”[1]

Not someone writing today but more than a century ago: Jacob Gould Schurman, principal of Cornell University who had been sent by US President McKinkley as head of a commission in 1899 to assess how the Filipino population could come to accept American rule.

Was that true then? Is that still true?

Certainly, corruption apparently played its part in the election. There are many anomalies in the results from the voting machines. There was vote buying: an envelope containing 700 pesos (about 11 British pounds) and a bag of rice as in incentive to vote a certain way.

Several people have talked of a failure of education. The actual history of the Philippines, especially of Marcos, Martial law and subsequent corruption, had never been taught in schools.

At a post-election meeting of people who had campaigned for Leni Robredo one now retired businessman, one very involved in election campaigning, told me that the basic problem is that the Philippines is still organised on a master/servant structure. Many firms report that all the upper management were staunch Leni supporters, but down on the shop floor the vast majority was for BBM. The election was their opportunity, not to make a rational choice about how they were governed for the next six years, but to raise their middle fingers to the managers and middle classes.

Then there is the strong leader syndrome. Actors who play action heroes frequently get elected to congress or the Senate. Given that the Filipinos are amongst the most welcoming and friendly of people, this longing for the tough guy leaders may see surprising, this adoration of violent action paradoxical

Can we see a deeper pathology?

Do we see a lack of civic pride? It may seem surprising as Filipinos in their own house are fastidious but in public spaces many Filipinos have no qualms in chucking their litter willy-nilly.

Does the widespread cruelty of animals show a lack of empathy? Cockfighting may have been banned in UK two centuries ago but it is the most popular sport here – if we can call it a sport. If I walk round any barangay I will see many dogs – but most of them are tied up all day on short leashes, or even worse, are stuck in cages.

Can we see a deep lack of seriousness? Is any other nation so obsessed with entertainment? Talent shows, beauty contests, karaoke, fiestas.

Still from Heneral Luna

In the excellent 2015 film about General Luna a hero of the war against the Americans, (Heneral Luna directed by Jerolo Taros) the general plans a surprise attack by requisitioning a train but just before he is about to set off, he is informed there is a problem: there is no room for he soldiers on the train the officers have filled the train with their wives and children.

“There is no room for the troops to board”

“They [the officers] invited their families on the train for sightseeing.”

Luna boards the train shouting “Idiots! We are not going sightseeing!” and drives the wives and mothers out with his stick.

Afterwards he muses

“That was a big headache.”

“That’s just Filipinos being Filipinos. Family comes first,” his colleague suggests.

“And that’s our biggest fault,” Luna responds, “We risk our lives for our families or neighbours… but for the idea of nationhood?”

But is it just the Philippines?

that can fall prey to such a mendacious campaign of disinformation and lies? Yes, it is a nation especially obsessed with social media – supposedly the average Filipino spends four hours on social media a day, twice most equivalent countries – but is it that much different from other countries or societies? Is this not just reinforcement of the realisation from Brexit, Trump, etc. that right wing populism meshes all too easily with social media. That social media has given able and unscrupulous leaders unparalleled opportunities to corrupt, traduce and manipulate? Ultimately the Filipinos are not that much different from other nations. What happened to them – what they et happen to them – may happen to you.

On 13th May I was in Lucban to help install a work by Geraldine in a mixed exhibition at Project Space Filipinas. It was a prototype for a much bigger ceiling installation at her one person show in Singapore later this year. Embroideries of birds on translucent fabric. But as installed it was very different from what I expected: not trompe l’oeil but sculptural. Complex and beautiful.

Finally installed
Lesley Anne Cao installing her work 

Also in the show was Lesley Anne Cao who was doing much the same: testing out a new work. In a tank of water was placed a book. Invisibly the pages unfurled and turned, pushed by jets of water. It worked well. A subtle and engaging work

As I was more an observer than true technician, I wandered off several times during the day: looking at the election posters, banners and flags. None had been taken down. Those who had supported Leni seemed determined to persist – that the cause was not lost even if the election was.

A collaborative mural initiated by Leslie de Chavez

As always one is surprised by the number of young women applying for posts as mayors or councillors.

All around the town people were preparing for the fiesta of Saint Isidore, weaving with banana leaves or coconut fibre. It is a famous local tradition but each year Leslie tells me there are less people doing it. Like other folk traditions it is fading. Indisputably if the younger generation spend four hours a day on social media they can’t find time for such labour intensive activities.

On 18th May I was in Manila and saw a very interesting collaboration between Nice Buenaventura and Costantino Zocarelli at Art Informal Gallery. Rather wistful small paintings by Nice embedded in wooden panels drawn or burnt into by Cos. As always technically assured, trying to find a balance between the conceptual and the experiential. The images have stayed in my head. I would like to go back and look at them again.

7th June, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila. A reception for all the artists who worked on the mural at Leni’s rally, or who had given works for fund raising auctions. Leni came and thanked them. She came wearing a pink top, because pink was the colour of her campaign. There were speeches and food and, of course, group photographs, some with all the artists who made the mural, some with all the helpers as well. This is Asia: things haven’t really happened if there is no photograph to prove and celebrate it.

She talked of how they must not be despondent, how the enthusiasm shown for her campaign proves there is a genuine popular movement there to be encouraged and maintained. Quite how she had not yet determined.

Meanwhile everyone is buying books on martial law and the crimes of the Marcoses. Will the new Marcos/Duterte regime ban those books?

Also, in Ateneo was a very interesting exhibition by Pio Abad. I will write specifically about that next Tuesday.

Speak then

Tony

PS. As I said many people keep dogs here but keep them in cages, often small cages. They are not bad people: it is just the norm here. Nor are they necessarilly BBM supporters. But it upsets me. Seeing a fully grown Golden Retriever in a cage just big enough for it to turn around upset me especially.

What can one do?

Well I have got myself a golden Retriever puppy and, as you can see he is not in a cage but is allowed to run around the garden and even sit on Geraldine’s flowerbeds.

PPS. He is called Ragnar – as in Icelandic performance artists.

  1. From a telegram to the president quoted in Robert W, Merry, President McKinley, Simon & Schuster, 2017, p.368-9. I have adjusted the grammar slightly to make it clearer and sound more contemporary.