Mass demonstrations, social demonstrations are just some of the few fancy words for the more familiar term – rallies. As a photographer, I pride myself on capturing situations that would make people appreciate the event or that would strike their emotions as if they were there.
Appreciation is just one thing, but many photographers do not just take pictures for vanity. Many of us do itto keep people informed of and educated on the happenings and issues that our University, and even issues that our nation faces – hence, my attendance to the different rallies across the metro.
Last Monday, I was one of many photographers who marched to Batasang Pambansa to cover our President’s State of the Nation Address or SONA. I was not really there to cover the SONA; I was there to cover the demonstrations outside. It was a classic rally with all the same things—speakers with megaphones, streamers, flyers and burning of the effigies; the list goes on.
I saw something different though; the demonstration was much more violent than the previous ones I have covered. A policeman’s helmet was smashed along the streets amidst the commotion; shattered glasses from police cars were all over the place, and an effigy was burning sky high.
Then it hit me, what is the point of all of this commotion and danger? What were the activists thinking instigating such a dangerous demonstration? After getting past the police barricade, would the administration listen to their sentiments? After smashing a police car, would their families eat better and would their children receive education? What’s next after shouting your heart out in the middle of the streets? And as the popular Filipino question argues, “Ano na? (What now?)”
It really got me to think, when these demonstrations started. Apparently these kinds of demonstrations date way back into our history, as early as the Spanish era. During that time, the small people would protest against the rich and the ruling or the government.
This is still true today, only demonstrations now cost a much more than they used to, and demonstrators are getting, shall I say it, dumber. Dumber in the sense that if you ask them about their advocacy if you could call it that, they would have blank faces as if they do not even know what they are fighting for. All they know is that they are there, and that they are against the administration.
These rallies are occurring too frequently much like the e-mails that spam your inbox where you receive too many announcements from different sources that you do not know, which to open first, to prioritize and to give immediate action.
Rallies have become like this; we get so used to the concept of rallies spamming our lives that we forget the reason to have one in the first place. These demonstrators need to accept that they are wasting resources and time and if all they want I is air time, in our day and age you can get the same amount of airtime on prime time news as getting a million hits on youtube or burning ten thousand pesos worth of effigy.
The issue here is that rallies have destroyed the issues. They have given people a false pretense of the real situation.
People don’t see what’s behind the news coverage in these rallies. You don’t see the peanuts and bottled water vendors trying to make a living from selling to the demonstrators. You don’t see the jeepneys lining up from heaven knows where to give rides to the demonstrators. You don’t see the kid trying to make a kite out of a plastic bag. What you see from your end is what these demonstrators want you to see through the media.
This is my reason for my interest in taking photos. The videos or photographs you end up liking on Facebook are real people behind it, and the moments captured are the actual events that transpired to that real issues.
But this is just my two cents worth on rallies; I’m just a photographer who’s supposed to be happy as long as I can bring home good pictures, right?
