Kinutil
It was a wonderfully enjoyable circus. And it was even more enjoyable at the fringes, in the streets, where the candidates supporters gathered trying to outdo each other with their numbers and the amount of noise they could produce. The noise was enough to dumbfound the brain. It was pandemonium. It was the edge of chaos.
But no riots ensued after everything: Kudos then to the inherent peacefulness of the Sugbuanong Bisaya. We all did well. Hopefully, it is good omen for how the elections will transpire come May.
Kinutil, his daughter, Linya, his student Kriss Milan, did performance art to support the movement of environmental groups here to put the environment into the platforms of the presidential candidates and their parties. They were a big, colorful, non-partisan, group whose presence in the streets seemed happily surprising.
Their performances were simple enough. The plan from the beginning was for kinutil to play his saxophone, his torotot; Kriss Milan and Linya would work their performances around the sound he made. Milan painted a message on his T-shirt with green paint. The words: “See green, see me.”
Linya thought long and hard what she should do. At first, she wanted to distribute little drawings of flowers to the audience. Another thought was to recycle plastic into little flowers. In the end, she decided to bring a garbage bag and collect whatever items of garbage she could find in the vicinity of the performance ground.
Kinutil played a version a Graham Nash’ “To the last whale,” translated to Binisaya, “Pahinungod sa katapusang balyena,” for which version he should apologize for to the third member of the rock group, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He improvised, of course. But before that, a funny conversation in Handuraw where he fed his team a round of pizza. Note here that his son, Elias, was also there to take pictures and carry gear though he did not bring his violin and perform with them. But they asked themselves: How do you translate “improvise” into Binisaya? They decided: ipanindot. Although they saw how that answer might be irony in the hands of their saxophone player.
But everything turned out okay. They had fun. The people who invited them had fun. It could have been better perhaps. But their group felt a sense of fulfillment after everything. They looked forward to the next opportunity to perform. Did they bring the issue of the environment to the awareness of the presidential candidates? They helped.
Watching the debates, it seems the environment is not yet high in the candidates’ priorities. This is not surprising since the discourses coming out of the elections now seem repetitive. Nothing seems new. Binay maintained his innocence of corruption. His protestations seem as unbelievable as ever. One imagines how he might have hoped to win the elections by releasing into the economy as much money as he had in a last ditch stand for his personal and political survival. But his assets are frozen as a result of the ongoing investigation of allegations of corruption filed against him. Without money, Binay’s campaign is dead in the water. As if to prove this, the Garcias’ One Cebu party parted ways with him within day of the debate.
Duterte continued his fist-in-your-face rhetoric as if it means anything meaningful. He underscored once again his willingness to make light of murder, asserting how a leader cannot be a good leader unless he is willing to kill. It is rhetoric which quite surprisingly attracts quite a number of adherents here. One wonders if they even realize what he is saying. It is only willful blindness. And one might as well wonder: Who taught these kids these things?
Poe was as pretty as ever. But who knows who she really is? What does she stand for? Who is funding her campaign? If it is Danding Cojuangco, then we should not vote for her.
Roxas is not perfect but he represents stability more than the other candidates. Notwithstanding what some claim, stability is what we most need now. Things have not been perfect but we are improving and developing very quickly. The numbers prove it. The last thing we need now are leaders who are crooks. Worse when they are crooks with powder keg brains. Murder is a crime just as stealing is a crime. They are both forms of corruption. A leader who condones either or both is not a good leader and never will be.
Performance art is always a way of involvement. Involvement is always a way of radicalization. And since radicalization means to think things through to the very roots of their logic, Kinutil decided after all these that his candidates are Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo, with a bit of an accent on Leni. The well-being of environmental issues stand the best chance with them. They have the greater inclination to listen to us, especially when we protest, as we often must. Some others might shoot us where we stand.
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