Trust TURISMO PARA KAY LENI to come up with creative tours!
Participants to the tour were instructed to meet at the CCPs Harbor Square early on a Tuesday morning. While waiting for assembly and registration to be completed, we were treated to a breakfast buffet where introductions and backgrounders to the tour were explained. By the time registration was completed, all the participants had been packed in two vans and the organizers took to their vehicles to form a convoy that will weave its way all over town.
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| Coconut Palace |
I was interested because I lived through Martial Law! I wanted to see if there was anything else I needed to strengthen my personal knowledge of what it was like. These millenials know nothing! NOTHING! That's why I'm sad about our educational system. I mourn for our sloppy curriculum. I cringe at our deteriorating educational standing in the international scale. We were the most highly educated nation a few decades back... what happened to our youth? There are still brilliant students out there, undoubtedly. But now, they are more the exception than the rule.
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| Tour participants at theCoconut Palace |
Since we were already at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, we made a few stops at the Coconut Palace and the Manila Film Center. Bourne out Imelda Marcos' edifice complex, these two buildings are tangible examples of madam's excessive need to be recognized as the real power behind the presidential seal. Anything she wanted got built! The Coconut Palace was to be the jewel of what state of the art construction and design can become when they meet the Pinoy creative spirit. I was nevertheless, turned down by Pope John Paul II. He opted to stay at thePapal Nuncio during his first visit to the Philippines. It was Brooke Shields, George Hamilton and Libyan strongman Muamar Al Ghaddafi who actually stayed in the Coconut Palace as personal guests of the First Lady. Coconut Palace is now managed by the Government Service Insurance System.
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| Manila Film Center |
Meanwhile, The center of cinematic expression in the country fell into controversy while it was under construction. The Manila Film Center was to be the venue for the very first Manila International Film Festival. A few days before opening night, the third level of the building collapsed while the quick drying cement started to set. It entombed workers and some of their families in a blanket of concrete and sludge. Although Imelda tried to hide the fiasco, the international journalists got wind of the disaster and went to press with the story. At least two hundred souls are forever trapped in a massive tomb inspired by the Parthenon.
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| Biyahe'ng 1081 at Manila Film Center |
On my part, it was like re-living my youth. I was tapped to perform for some of these events organized by Madam Marcos. I have been a dance scholar of CCP. My adulting took place in her "Tribute to the Filipino Spirit." Fortunately, my education and indoctrination as both blue eagle and "iskolar ng bayan" prepared me for a whole lot of critical thinking. My personal biases aside, I recall how in rallies during the snap elections when Ballet Philippines would be tapped to take part in the sorties, the dancers would show up in yellow t-shirts. Much to the dismayof Tita King Kasilag.
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| Prof. Xiao at EDSA Shrine |
The party then moved to the EDSA Shrine where Prof. Xiao regaled the youth with stories of the miracle at EDSA where the masses were able to liberate themselves from the twenty year dictatorship. Too bad, Enrile has now become a turn-coat. What a sell-out! Factual commentaries on the Enrile and Ramos tandem that bluffed their way to victory peppered with Xiao's uncanny mimmicry of President Marcos were so easily relatable. The shrine also is a collaborative effort among artists who supported the People Power Movement. We admired and appreciated all the artwork donated to the EDSA shrine until the noon bells in the carillon chimed and it was time to move to the adjacent EDSA Monument at the corner of Camp Crame. There was motley pro-Duterte group hanging out in the area but we paid no mind to them as we were more focused on the Eduardo Castrillo designed monument celebrating the People Power Movement.
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| EDSA Monument |
Lunch was at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani. We were welcomed by Ms Susan Macapuag who shared her experiences with us as an original member of University of the Philippines' First Quarter Storm Movement . This was an eye-opening talk as to how the millenials are duped into supporting Marcos Jr.'s move to run for the presidency. The Marcos family could not let go of their hold on political power and their desireto vindicate the Marcos surname sullied by hundreds of cases filed against them world-wide. Sir Clarence Aytona, one of the organizers would interject with his personal experiences coming from a political dynasty now so disillusioned with their Marcos connections in the past. This makes for an interesting commentary. It's FACTUAL, but since it's also a personal experience, it's so close to home that almost sounds like gossip. The Martial Law museum is a heart-rending curated collection of memorabilia that captures the horrors of detention in military camps, or death by torture and triumph in the midst of hopelessness. That makes the Biyahe'ng 1081 unique.
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| Ms Susan Macapuag of Bantayog ng mga Bayani |
Final stop was Palma Hall at UP Diliman. This was where Xiao explained the student protests in the '80s. Students were just so angry at all the injustice happening around the country that prompted them to be critical of government. Walk-outs, marches, oblation runs, and lantern parades became an expression of protest and disdain for a government that people did not deserve. The student leaders were missing, kidnapped, tortured and killed. indignation rallies were the thing! Military personnel and cops were duped and outsmarted by the Iskos and Iskas as they evaded arrest. But people who were hungry for change had started to give way to aggression and anger leading to an end of two decades of tyranny.
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| Palma Hall |
The day was capped with certificates handed out by Xiao and Turismo Para Kay Leni. Merienda was provided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and the day ended with the van service taking us to Centris so we could all go home with memories re-lived or new knowledge to treasure so we and our youth will never forget!!!
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| Clarence Aytona, Anne Cusi, Jaison Yang, Prof. Xiao Chua, Dondi Ocampo |
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