Monuments



LAST Sunday my attention was called to a TV talk show where a "feng shui" expert was recommending some changes in our monuments and landmarks. He suggested that the monument in front of Malacañang be removed or modified because it shows a bird on a skewer. Actually, Napoleon Abueva's concept for Freedom Park is a sculpture of stone and bronze depicting a dove of peace flying around flames of victory, or something to that effect. While Abueva wanted to express something lofty and inspiring, the feng shui expert saw a pigeon barbecue. Perhaps there is a loose connection somewhere. Then there was the suggestion that we modify Rizal Park. Our national hero stands facing Manila Bay, but his view is blocked by the Quirino grandstand. Therefore, the nation's good luck and prosperity are also blocked by the grandstand. He suggested transferring the Rizal monument elsewhere, but then Rizal was shot in that park. If we cannot move the monument, the more drastic solution would be to tear down the grandstand. Watching this made me see red in the eyes of the National Historical Institute and the Heritage Conservation Society.

Speaking of Rizal monuments, the most recent one was inaugurated by Speaker Jose de Venecia and Chinese officials in Xiamen, southern China last Thursday. A simple floral offering was the conclusion to all the efforts of the energetic Manuel Chua who traced Rizal's Chinese ancestry to a town called Sionque in Fujian province. The monument is a replica of the one in Manila and stands on a five-hectare lot that used to be a rice paddy. What the Filipino delegation found intriguing was that the monument had a Rizal with Chinese features. In the same way that the feng shui master misinterpreted Abueva's Freedom Park monument, the Filipinos in China looked at Rizal and wondered why he was angry. Isn't Rizal calm and peaceful, a direct opposite of Bonifacio who is always depicted screaming?

I had to explain that Rizal wasn't mad at us or anyone in Xiamen. Our Rizal was simply given the face of a Red Guard. If you are familiar with Chinese posters showing Chairman Mao leading his people to progress, you will realize that those faces are not expressions of hatred and defiance but an inspiration to youth. We make Rizal in our image and likeness, thus the Chinese artisans who made the monument in Fujian province made Rizal in their image.

While we are on the topic of monuments, we are happy that the controversy over the Andres Bonifacio monument in Caloocan is now over. Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo has heeded the declaration of the monument as a historic landmark by the National Historical Institute and shelved his plans to move it to Tala in north Caloocan. The monument's site has been sanctified by long usage and one cannot imagine telling a taxi driver you are going to "Monumento" if the Bonifacio monument is not there anymore. Perhaps it would be good for us to remember what Guillermo Tolentino wanted to express in this three-dimensional work that he once described as "a patriotic song without words."

Tolentino asserted that a work of art must not only be factual but allegorical as well. One of the country's leading guitarists, Tolentino explained the work in musical terms. His symbolic orchestration begins and ends with: "The principal group with Andres Bonifacio as the central figure. Behind him is Emilio Jacinto which is the action for the allegretto; then you have on one side the mobilization (of the Filipinos) which is the allegro. One side of the monument (showing Katipuneros signing their oath with blood) represents initiation and brotherhood which is the andante. The other figures show torture (which can be seen as the) adagio and finally on the opposite end of the principal group you have the martyred priests (Gomburza) to represent death or largo."

The monument's main feature is a 45-foot granite obelisk in five parts representing the five letters in the Katipunan acronym KKKAnB or Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang na Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (Most High, Most Distinguished Society of the Sons of the Nation) topped by a figure of the "Winged Victory." All these figures rest on an octagonal base that represents the first eight provinces placed under martial law in 1896 at the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution against Spain. This octagon can also allude to the eight rays of the Katipunan and the present Philippine flag. The base rises three steps to signify the three centuries that the Philippines was under Spain.

Reflecting pools on the side of the monument allude to water and the Filipino temper as expressed by Rizal in "El Filibusterismo," "...Water is mild and can be drunk, but it dilutes wine and beer, extinguishes fire; heated, it becomes steam, and ruffled it is the ocean; once it destroyed mankind and made the earth tremble to its foundations." There is much symbolism in the monument that is lost to us today. We also forget that Tolentino got first-hand personal information on the Supremo by interviewing his sister Espiridiona and making studies of her head as a basis for that in the monument. So much effort put into a monument that looks so simple today. Looking at the Bonifacio monument in Caloocan makes us appreciate not only a work of art and genius but reminds us of history as well.