I want to share my thoughts on the latest vandalism incident at Lagusnilad, Manila, where Mayor Isko Moreno challenged the members of progressive artist group Panday Sining to lick their graffiti.
Mayor Isko showed to the media how difficult it is to scrub off the graffiti on an electric box right in front of the Manila City Hall. Members of Panday Sining said it was freedom of expression as art. For purposes of discussion, what IF we all go to their respective houses and spray-paint their fences, walls or vehicles? They also quoted a UP professor saying that it is legal and valid and should not be taken as a form of vandalism, but protest art. Will it be acceptable if people spray-paint the walls in UP? Will it be the right thing?
I understand where Mayor Isko is coming from when he said that those who vandalized the walls in Manila should lick their graffiti, because it costs a lot of money to clean and repaint those areas. In fact, that money could have been used for other purposes such as for indigent patients in the Philippine General Hospital, or relief efforts for quake-hit areas in Mindanao.
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