By Leonilo Doloricon
The state has been at war with the people it perceives to be the enemy, unleashing all instruments of violence, like the police and military, in order to hold on and preserve its political power.
As some political scientists would say, the purpose of the state is to supress the class struggle temporarily in order to preserve the status quo. As Friedrich Engels put it: “But in order that these antagonisms, these classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, it became necessary to have a power, seemingly standing above society, that would alleviate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of ‘order’; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and alienating itself more and more from it, is the state.”
The period after World War II, the ruling elite, which had less power while the labor movements were relatively stronger, introduced neoliberalism to re-establish its power over the working class. Eventually, the ruling elite was able to drastically take away the share of income and wealth from labor. There was upsurge in the social movements in the ‘60s and ‘70s—a period of political turmoil that threatened the power of the ruling class.
Martial law under the Marcos dictatorship was a manifestation of restoring the power of the elite because it could no longer rule under the guise of democratic principles. There was clear irreconcilable class interests and one class should dominate over the other. It was a war between the national democratic forces and the Marcos dictatorial regime and military establishment.
Manolo Sicat’s MFA thesis exhibit at the University of the Philippines’ Bulwagan ng Dangal (which ran from March 2 to 23) was about the victims of involuntary disappearance, which was perpetrated by the state in order to sow terror among the people, thus suppressing dissenters and finally silencing them.
There were many victims of involuntary disappearance during martial law under the Marcos dictatorship—and in the regimes that followed. From the low-intensity conflict of the CIA to US-AFP Oplan Bayanihan of the present Duterte regime, these were all designed for counter-insurgency psywar and covert operation to inflict damage on the national democratic movement and other civil society groups opposing the present dispensation.
Sicat made a cold cast of bronze from victims of alleged abduction by the military from the Marcos dictatorship to the time of the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Among those who disappeared were Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, who were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.
The theme of Sicat’s thesis is a tribute to the victims of abductions perpetrated by the state in the name of national security. Many of the victims were young—student activists who were advocates of human rights, anti-imperialism, genuine land reform, free education for all, universal health care, against corruption, social justice, labor rights, and the like.
Their youthful idealism—their dreams and aspirations—was cut short by their sudden involuntary disappearance. The perpetrators’ objective was to inflict harm to the activists. Strategically, the state has been killing the prospect of social change for a just and humane society amid hopelessness and abject poverty under the present dispensation.
From the eight busts done in cold cast bronze resin, Sicat made another eight negative casts made of ice, which was controlled by a freezing machine in transparent glass cube. One can see through the hollow image copy of the busts as the ice slowly melts over them. They call it the “phenomena of absence in the mold reversal sculptural technique.” As in Derrida’s presence-absence concept, the negative mold represents what is physically present while the positive mold represents what is physically absent.
Derrida compared this concept to footprints, an evidence of one’s foot stepping on something and leaving a mark, and the negative mold carries with it the inherent tactile qualities of the cast object. A negative mold is therefore a “trace” of a positive form, Derrida added.
The concept of time is being withheld by freezing the tears and memories of the desaparecidos in ice images. The tears of their loved ones that run dry preserve the metaphorical tears—tears of hope, desperation, tenacity, determination, and the like. For practical reasons, the process of collecting the tears of their loved ones was done by simulating real tears using a chemical compound. Because real tears easily dry up, it’s impossible to gather them and place them in a container.
The dialectics of the presence and absence of an object dramatized the concept of Sicat’s “Resurfacing” MFA thesis exhibit. The absence of a thing resurfaces from the traces left of the thing in a given space. One cannot have a concept of presence of a thing without knowing the absence of it. As in dialectics of a thing, one cannot exist without the other.
Perhaps nature has its own way of retribution for the people who unjustly robbed the dreams of the youth, who as Rizal said were the hope of our future, as himself was robbed of his dream by the Spanish colonizers.
About the author: Leonilo Doloricon is a visual arts professor and former dean of the UP College of Fine Arts.