Pagburo at Pag-alsa: Natural Depictions and Illustrated Prophecies (Gelacio, 1910) is a historical fiction set in 1910 Luzon, narrating the 11-month journey of Gelacio and Manta-tio from Malagonlong bridge in Tayabas to Pamitinan cave in Montalban.

The project asserts the inevitability and persistence of collective resistance against oppressive systems, from the early American occupation of the archipelago up to the current neocolonial context . It follows the multiple origins of this resistance, and identifies the ruling class, and their many permutations (imperialist nations, multinational companies, Duterte and his cohorts, the big landlords, the big compradors, the bureaucrat capitalists) as the malignant elements we should eliminate.

 

The illustrated prophecies correspond to the political situation under the Duterte regime, and were divined and uttered by Manta-tio. Gelacio then recorded these prophecies as illustrations.

Gelacio’s journal consists of small drawings and typewritten texts that record some features of living in the early 20th century colonial period. The journal texts contain transcripts of the prophetic utterances of Manta-tio. They also expound on the coordinates and ideas incited by the drawings, providing a more deliberate context for the pieces and the exhibition.

 

But more importantly, Pagburo at Pag-alsa persuades an optimism–the revolution will persist and succeed.

 

The project moves across various colonial periods of the Philippines, utilizing fabrication and history, and local idioms of resistance, to assert the urgency of organized defiance. It configures these resistive gestures to the context and history of the Philippines; therefore local mythologies and folklore occupy a significant space within the project.

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Jo Tanierla