Montreal, September 19, 2022 – A multi-disciplinary group of artists, supported by Filipino community and human rights organizations, eagerly await the official launch of their art exhibit, titled, Gintong Batas (Golden Rule). The exhibit will feature the stories of Philippine martial law survivors and witnesses and will open its door at 5pm on September 21 in an art gallery on 435 Beaubien street West in Outremont.
“The whole process to create the exhibit is as important as the final production,” explains Deann Nardo, one of the artists and co-organizer of the event. “We have recruited young Filipino artists and activists in our community to do recorded interviews with martial law survivors living in Quebec and other parts of Canada and this will be reflected in their video, visual, musical and performance art pieces.”
“The participants learned a lot from the intergenerational dialog between artists and survivors,” says Cheney De Guzman, spokesperson for Migrante Quebec, a Filipino migrant advocacy group who is sponsoring the exhibit. “We hope to start a discourse about this dark period in our history that is currently being touted as a golden era for the political expediency of the Marcos dynasty.”
Canada is home to nearly one million Filipinos, many of whom fled the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s or experienced the brutality of the regime firsthand. Many of them joined the international protest movement against the Marcos dictatorship, demanding that Canada sever its ties and support. The Marcos family was airlifted out of Malacañang palace by the US military at the last days of a popular uprising called the “Edsa revolution”.
Currently in the Philippines, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son of the late dictator, won the presidential race, using public relations firms to distort his family history and convince many people of the “golden era” narrative of his father’s rule. Meanwhile, international and local election observers have reported massive electoral fraud, manipulation of electronic voting machines, disenfranchisement, intimidation and vote buying in several polling stations across the country.
“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines wholeheartedly supports this exhibit by the Filipino diaspora in Montreal,” says Patricia Lisson, chair of ICHRP Canada. “Peace loving Canadians and Quebecers played an important role in bringing down the dictator in the past, and we will continue to be in solidarity with the Filipino people in their continuing fight for genuine democracy and human rights in the Philippines.”
“We are in shock, and we have been retraumatized,” says Jess Agustin, a martial law survivor living in Montreal. “We are still grieving the death of our daughter Nalie from her battle with cancer, then we learn that Bongbong the son of the dictator is now in power, it’s like we have to grieve twice.”
“Our hope is that these young artists through their creativity can set the truth free and launch an important discussion here.”
