A MURAL depicting the number of victims of martial law ended up vandalized several hours after it was completed Friday night, November 25.
Artists group Andres Sugbu and a group of militants decried the vandalism as the handiwork of pro-Marcos supporters.
The artwork, which is displayed along Escario Street, Cebu City, shows the face of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and a word "DIKTADOR" in red beside it. It also contained the statistical data of the number of human rights victims and desaparecidos during the time of martial law.
The mural was painted by Andres Sugbu, a group of Cebu artists that uses art as a tool to show the different issues that the Filipinos are facing and experiencing.
Anakbayan Cebu chairperson Niño Olayvar, who was one of those who joined the artists in coming up with the mural, posted on his Facebook wall saying that the culprits only show "how shallow the apologists view this matter.
"We took the chance of having a big space for statistics of torture and human rights violations ani nga graffiti para mahimong source of information and maka stir ug discourse sa publiko (in this graffiti to make it as a source of information and to stir public discourse)," Olayvar said.
The group created the mural at 4 p.m. Friday, November 25 and finished it around 8 p.m., Olayvar said.
Early morning Saturday, social media went abuzz as photos of the vandalism circulated.
"But unfortunately, people chose to believe hook, line and sinker false information circulated on Facebook," Olayvar added.
Andres Sugbu on its Facebook page expressed their outrage in the destruction of their work.
"We are enraged that until now, we still feel the artistic oppression that the artists of history experienced. This does not benefit anyone. This does not benefit the growing artistry of Cebu City," the message read.
"To condemn other artists and their creations is a blatant manifestation of disrespect and oppression. The mural was tainted with false accusations of how we, a starving organization, are paid to do these things. Some even mentioned that we are mindless. Call us mindless all you want — did you even bother to read the statistics we wrote on the wall?" the group wrote.
Andres Sugbu said that despite the violation of their right to freedom and expression, they will continue with engaging the public in showing the horrors of martial law through their artworks.
"This is just proof that we in ANDRES Sugbu still have a long way to go. Our mural may have been marred but our beliefs stand even stronger. We will use our homegrown weapons to educate the masses and continue the fight. The revolution is still on, and we, as artists of ANDRES Sugbu will reflect the times. The marriage of artistry and the revolution lives." (Lora Manigos of SunStar Cebu/Sunnex)