Betis artist debuts with Luis Taruc monument

SAN LUIS— Totek Layug, the youngest son of Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug, has staged his artistic debut with a monument in honor of Luis Taruc and other peasant guerillas in San Luis town this coming October.

Taruc, founder of the biggest resistance movement in the Philippines during World War II, will be portrayed in a trio of monuments with living guerrillas Praxedes Clarin and Antonio Sumang as representatives of those who joined the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap).

Layug has finished the clay maquette, a small model or third study of the monuments which will be made into lize-size concrete statues.

The images are a commission from San Luis businessman Abel Manliclic.

This is not Layug’s first monument commission.

The young Layug is the artist behind the 24-foot image of the Risen Christ along the section of Barangay Santa Ursula, West Lateral Dike in Betis District, Guagua town.

Barcelona-educated and budding artist Totek started the project on August 9, 2019, with the vision of sharing his art with the community.

Totek was also the artist who created the image of Saint Joseph in a chapel inside Clark Freeport.

Totek, who has recently come home from his studies in Barcelona, Spain, is dubbed as the "heir” to the Layug legacy in the field of the arts.

The young Layug takes his father for inspiration and credits him for his love of the arts.

Totek’s works will be featured with his father in the Dulog Sa Langit exhibition at the Manila Clock Tower Museum starting August 1.

Photo caption. Totek Layug at work in his studio in Guagua town.