Photo by the Philippine Collegian shot last Friday, used here non-commercially for academic purposes.
At the center of the Oblation Plaza of the University of the Philippines Diliman this Christmas season, wrapped around the Oblation and with miniatures hanging on bamboo-like stilts (see photo and video below) is a multi-dimensional art installation depicting the “budyong”, created by Toym Imao.
The “budyong” is the pre-colonial bugle made of a conch shell used by the original inhabitants of these islands to call out to the entire community.
Here it is:
Budyong: The University calls out …
From the U.P. Diliman website, excerpted: “The centerpiece xxx is the “Budyong” by noted sculptor and painter Toym Imao. Imao earned an architecture degree from UPD and an MA Sculpture from the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts. “xxx (T)he Oblation (is) surrounded by lantern elements that take the shape of a conch shell or a “budyong” that is used as a horn, an instrument that dates back to the pre-colonial era.
“The sound of the “budyong” heralds the approach of visitors, signals the start of festivities, or calls a community to a gathering. In times of imminent danger, the “budyong” sounds the alarm to take cover from calamities or rally the army to engage an enemy on the battlefield.”
(video below shot and uploaded by Local Dispatches Ph)
(music by Edge Uyanguren feat. Roselle Pineda and Karl Ramirez)
all used here non-commercially for academic purposes
Chancellor Michael Tan at the Church of the Risen Lord and on Katipunan Avenue the asphalt road we now call
church of the people rising
U.P Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan walked hallowed ground: At the Church of the Risen Lord on campus last Sunday delivering a message to “keep the faith” — on occasion of the 69th anniversary of the congregation. And last Friday when he walked the talk and walked with the people of Diliman, on Katipunan Avenue with a flock of thousands more of students, faculty members, and staff, on the asphalt road we now call: Church of the People Rising.
The Katipunan protest sparked all of a sudden – impromptu — with no prepared program, agenda, or design; save the unplanned collective outrage over the assault on everything we hold dear since we ousted the dictator thirty years ago – now brought from the grave by the heirs, and being honored by a regime propelled to power by the dictator’s successors, in exchange for the dictator’s burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery…and more.
The Katipunan protest was the most massive in decades, and perhaps of all time — now sparking denials from no less than the President and his men, disavowing that they knew anything of that day and the secrecy that preceded it.
Ancient bells pealed, ageless voices cried, sprightly boots and slippers marched and occupied a road named after the movement that overthrew the Spanish conquistadores one hundred twenty years ago. Skies transfigured from dusty to sweet drizzle when the Chancellor was called upon to address the congregation on the concrete we call the Church of the people awakening — climbing up a van turned into a makeshift stage literally slippery as the figurative slope we have to traverse if we don’t keep the faith — and keep fighting.
(in the coming days: perhaps a flatbed truck, a pickup truck, or a jeepney for a makeshift stage would be possible: with flat hoods that can be used as steps to the roof, with flatter surfaces, more “bars” to hold onto, and less tricky to negotiate — but for people of uprisings past who have had to walk on top of Simba tanks and armed personnel carriers like Chancellor Mike, ain’t no van too slippery to climb to reach out to people. Photo shot by JDC during the Katipunan public assembly and tweeted by the same, liked by a thousand and more, used here non-commercially for academic purposes. On the walk home, Chancellor Mike, “marred” by requests for selfies, reminded the students to study hard for the final exams that are a-coming. We multi-task 🙂 ).
