MANILA – On November 16, artists gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre with works that would disappear within the day.
Participating artists included Antares Bartolome, Buen Abrigo, Frances Abrigo, and Leeroy New. The gathering is part of #HLMX, the year-long commemoration initiated by the Luisita Watch network.
The artists set up their works at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac, turning the site of the massacre into a gallery. “The pieces will highlight the imposing presence of land grab walls recently erected by the Cojuangco-Aquino family to evict farmers from more than a thousand hectares of agricultural land in Luisita,” said Luisita Watch.
For his installation, New attached arms onto the site’s exterior walls. Put up in less than an hour, the gruesome scene showed severed arms and bodies trapped in the concrete.
Just hours later the artworks were removed by the Cojuangco-Aquino’s private security personnel, according to Luisita Watch. “The value in these kinds of works is proportionate to the desire for their destruction,” New said in a Facebook post.
Among the removed artworks were #HLMX photos by Jes Aznar. Taken from Aznar’s reportage on land and land reform in the Philippines, the #HLMX photos are available for download to those who want to paste the images elsewhere.
“Feudalism is still very much a part of our everyday lives, and no matter how we shake it off with all these modern gadgets and Hollywood movies, we wake up every morning without really realizing that our society is still stuck in the middle ages,” Aznar said in his photographer’s statement.
On November 16, 2004, combined military and police forces were sent to disperse a group of striking farmers outside the gates of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, a sugar plantation owned by the Cojuangco-Aquino clan. At the time, President Benigno Aquino III was Representative of the 1st District of Tarlac.
Seven farmworkers were killed, and over 100 injured in the violent dispersal. A decade after the massacre, survivors and kin of the victims continue to fight for justice. Despite Aquino’s promises to champion the victims’ cause, no case related to the massacre has ever made it to court, GMA News Online reported.
