Pride, aside from love of the country, has a place in our roots. We take pride in all things Filipino, as the locals call it ‘Pinoy Pride.’ We own the credits of everyone’s success and as the saying goes, “Juan for all, all for Juan.” Our pride takes place in our blood as Filipinos in all aspects, traditionally coming from our own families taking credits for all things we do; the identity and grabbing the opportunity in the story of success makes this pride much stronger. Filipinos, ever so creative and thriving in different fields of the arts; world-class quality of paintings, embroideries, pottery, sculptures, music, performing arts and film making. The works of Filipinos are given special celebrations to honor not just the works but the industry itself. It is already an instinct for a prideful person to brag and spread news of a proud moment – a creative bunch of Filipinos means an environment reflecting that the Filipino people are creative.
The most talked about in one’s identity is their talent, their substance and what they can offer. Identity is familiarity, a way to be recognized; and to be recognized is gaining power and without modesty, identity will be abused all for ambition. Golden Age, depicted with pride – Martial Law in the Philippines. Given so much appreciation for the arts, architecture and needless to say, ‘pinoy pride.’ As the Philippines under the Marcos Regime, ruled with power, ambition, and pride. But pride, as positive as it may seems, lies on a thin line next to arrogance. Pioneering with infrastructures and development, that is how it looks like in the lens of the proud. Pinoy pride, seems to have given the people hope and success but pride alone without an anchored humility is a gateway to greed.
The former First Lady, Imelda Marcos, the wife of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has nothing but ‘good’ intentions for the country. As she said in the documentary, The Kingmaker, “My dream for my country is to regain paradise for all.” An ambitious and ‘passionate politician’ as described in the documentary, she has always wanted to promote the country’s potential in all fields, most especially the arts and the culture. As an ambitious person, simply promoting and cultivating within is not enough; recognition is a must. Imelda Marcos saw the potential of the country and its strategic location to open our doors to the west and neighboring countries, a good opportunity to market films. With her newly built cultural complex, the dream is to rival with France and its Cannes Film Festival paving way to the thought of Manila Film Center. The idea of having our own Film Festival will give spotlight to the country from the West and to gain popularity in the East – entering a platform of identity and international acknowledgement.
The Manila International Film Festival is to be held at the anticipated Manila Film Center. To fit the complex, it reflects the modern brutalist architecture that sports the buildings within the compound. According to Nicai De Guzman’s article, the Film Center was inspired by the building Parthenon which serves the Goddess Athena. With a whopping $25 million budget supposedly for the Philippine General Hospital, the construction of the Film Center was approved instead and was set to be done before the festival’s celebration date, January of 1982, less than three months left.
The Manila Film Center, rushed and powered with so much pride and ambition that humility jumped out. With greed and power as the foundation of the project, workers were treated with no respect and consideration. The timeframe for the construction is still pushed through and the people are expected to work nonstop. The grand lobby of the building was done within 72 hours by a thousand workers, which was ideally should be done in 6 weeks. Then, on November 17 of 1981, the glamorous dream turned into a breathing nightmare. At nearly 3 o’clock in the morning, a scaffolding crumbled down from the fourth floor of the construction which resulted to several workers trapped in a quick-drying cement. By the lack of compassion and severed ambition with selfishness, a tragic event rose from the elegant dreams.
Imelda Marcos, as the one accountable, was called upon and was told that getting the bodies out will take much more time. And as the saying goes, “the show must go on,” Imelda chose to continue the construction at the expense of the men being buried, alive or not, they were not recovered and dealt with immoral decisions. The film center, envisioned to deliver such international acknowledgement became a tomb of sacrifice. Too much time passed by already when the media got allowed to cover what happened. According to Lino Brocka, one of the Philippine National Artists for film and was famous for his documentary film, ‘Signed, Lino Brocka,’ there was a media blackout and press were not allowed immediately even ambulances, rescuers, and news crews. Workers were buried without any remorse from those responsible of their lives’ ending, just the thought that helping recover bodies will just take too much of the construction’s time, nonetheless, postponing it is not an option.
And as we all know, the festival pushed through. Dazzled with famous western celebrities, lavish celebration, topped off with food, furniture, art and unknowingly standing on a mass grave of sacrifice. Finishing off a celebration of honor and pride with ignorance and arrogance. As Arash Emamzadeh wrote in his article, ‘What Is the Difference Between Pride and Arrogance?’ – “Pride arises out of taking responsibility for a specific action that is considered positive and socially valued, but arrogance arises from pride not in one’s actions but in one’s “global self”.” Taking off the buildings, bridges and wealth comes the unseen – the people who died to realize their ambitious dreams.
Ang mamatay nang dahil sa’yo.
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