Young Roots

By October 15, 2012Archives, Opinion

Spoliarium. Spolarium. Artistry and Reality

By Johanne Margarette R. Macob

“…umiyak ang umaga.

Anong sinulat ni Enteng at Joey diyan

sa pintong salamin

Di ko na mabasa

‘pagkat merong nambura…”

I WAS still not in this world and even out of my parents’ minds when the incident happened. But I’ve always known the song; it’s just that only lately did I learn of the so-called ‘story’ behind that song.

Maybe people, particularly of my age, do not get what I am talking about so I feel the need to at least share a bit of what I’ve gotten from research (thanks online realm).

And oh, just a note before I start the story, the writer of the song, my all-time favorite Mr. Ely Buendia , as far as I know, never confirmed anything – the relation of the words of the song to that of the heinous occurrence. And so the story goes…

It was in 1982. Maybe considered a doomed day, or night rather, in the life of this girl, who I would be calling through out this article as Emmanuelle. She was at the peak of her daring career, if I may say, when three popular jesters whom I would name Mar, Jose, and Rich, allegedly raped her. In an out of court settlement, a guy I would baptize as Vicente, reportedly forced Emmanuelle to sign the affidavit of desistance to prevent the three jesters from suffering the crime’s punishment, which that time was death penalty through electrical chair. Eventually, about three years later, Emanuelle was killed, others said she committed suicide, others said they killed her. Whichever case, her fight for justice ceased.

The character names were impulses my mind had. I’m giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, or give you the chance to research on your own.

Back to the story, the scenes on that particular night were said to be reflected in the lines of the song. Again, I would give you the chance to recall or search for the entire lyrics yourselves.

Further, just to remind you, Spoliarium, commonly misspelled as ‘Spolarium’, is a painting done by the great Filipino artist Juan Luna that depicts tragedy through the shades of color combined and arranged to make the bloody bodies of dead slave gladiators.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

So what’s the relation of Spoliarium the painting to Spolarium the song to the draconian scene excerpted from Emanuelle’s life? Simple I guess, it’s about the dichotomy that has always prevailed in a society where powerful people influence almost everything. It’s artistry showing reality, the best knack ever.

I found these on the internet:

“Rizal was footnoted in his speech that the Spoliarium, ‘embodied the essense [sic] of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and justice…’” (Leon Ma. Guerrero, “The First Filipino” 2007)

In one blog, Gold said, “It (the song lyrics) can mean that the victim wanted her oppressors to stop their manipulations or she was just too tired of everything that’s happening that she wanted the world to just stop.”

The story I shared may be true or it may be fictitious. But the thing is it could actually happen (anew). The issue I believe is more than what RA 9262 covers. It’s more than the violation of women’s rights and destruction of women’s lives. It’s everybody’s concern, or more like, the concerned people’s concern.

Sometimes, or actually most of the time, those in power take so much advantage of their authority, money, and influence to save themselves from anything or anyone that may harm them or their darn ‘reputation’. Those people will always try to shut our mouths in every way they can, they will either kill us or kill our freedom of expression. It’s happening now, I know, we know. It’s a sick system. Sigh. May God bless the Philippines.

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