Euphoria, Pakikibaka, at Bahala Na: Kontekstuwalisasyon ng Piling Awiting Post-EDSA
Article
The EDSA People Power I that ousted the Marcos dictatorship led to the production of a number of songs giving various perspectives on the so-called “peaceful revolution.” Utilizing Howard Zinn’s and Teresita Maceda’s concepts about people’s history, this paper scrutinized the world phenomenon of songs that reflect people’s history so as to contextualize class contradictions in three post-EDSA songs (“Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo”/“The Filipinos’ Offering to the World”, “Sayaw sa Bubog”/“Dance on Shards” and “Kumusta Na”/“How Are You?”). This paper also compared the various perspectives of distinct social classes on the “victory” and failure of EDSA I, so as to contribute to the unmasking of the emptiness of the historical revisionism which loyalists of the Marcos dictatorship peddle. In general, the paper is aimed at making the significance, meaning and context of these three post-EDSA songs accessible and intelligible to the post-EDSA I generations.
Ang EDSA People Power I na nagpatalsik sa diktadurang Marcos ay nagluwal ng maraming awiting nagbibigay ng iba’t ibang perspektiba hinggil sa tinatawag na “mapayapang rebolusyon.” Sa gabay ng mga konsepto hinggil sa kasaysayang-bayan (people’s history) nina Howard Zinn at Teresita Maceda, sinipat ng papel na ito ang pandaigdigang penomenon ng mga awiting sumasalamin sa kasaysayang-bayan upang mailagay sa wastong konteksto ang paglalantad ng mga tunggalian ng mga makauring interes (class contradictions) na masisipat sa tatlong awiting post-EDSA (“Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo,” “Sayaw sa Bubog” at “Kumusta Na”). Pinaghambing din ng papel na ito ang magkakaibang pananaw ng iba’t ibang uring panlipunan sa “tagumpay” at “kabiguan” ng EDSA I upang makapag-ambag sa paglalantad sa kahungkagan ng rebisyonismong historikal ng mga loyalista ng diktadurang Marcos. Sa pangkalahatan, layunin ng papel na ito na gawing aksesibol at madaling unawain para sa henerasyong post-EDSA I ang kabuluhan, kahulugan, at kontekstong pangkasaysayan ng tatlong awiting post-EDSA.
Revisiting the ‘Aquino Magic’: Extending Neoliberal Interests and Foreshadowing Communicative Capitalism in the Philippines
Article
The media hype over former president Corazon Aquino’s burial, specifically the cinematic coverage of big network stations and the outpouring of voices on print and new media about “Cory Magic,” are conscious and purposive articulations of a historical event. This paper contends that in this event and its attendant images, participated in and co-created by the population, lies an implicit strategy that intensifies the neoliberal project.
The constant reference to and revival of the “Cory Magic/Aquino Magic” can be rationalized as a phenomenon wielded by the media and the state to do a makeover of its political institutions constantly racked by crisis and instability under a neoliberal setup. This is made possible through the operation of communicative capitalism as evidenced by how the media orchestrated the coverage of Cory Aquino’s burial, accentuating necropolitics in the name of democracy while effacing the symbolic efficacy of people’s power.
Camera EDSA Obscura
Article
Twenty years after the EDSA uprising, 20 independent filmmakers created 20 films showing different images of the country. Ending the project with the film Mistulang Kamera Obskura, the omnibus film project self-crtically staged its representation of the social and the political. The camera obscura has a long and fraught history as a metaphor of ideology, most prominently broached by Marx in his discussion of being, consciousness, and ideology. This paper discusses the relation of the camera obscura to discourses of visuality, knowledge, and ideology. Reading the moving images as concretizations of ideas, it seeks to limit those ideas as constitutive of the various ideologies of the EDSA uprising which the filmmakers represent in the process of “depicting truthful images of the nation.”
