Statement: CARMMA on Malacañang’s fashion show

[KARAPATAN Public Information]

STATEMENT
16 August 2023

CARMMA on Malacañang’s fashion show

 
The fashion show was held in Malacañang Palace, official residence of the president
of the republic. It is not the Marcoses’ private party place. Any activity they do inside
Malacañang, notwithstanding their default claim that no public funds are spent in
the event, is of public interest. In the first place, how can they say that no
government funds were spent in the fashion show, when it was held in a place of
public interest, maintained by government funds, with a whole complement of staff
being paid by the people’s taxes?
 
According to Malacañang, the aim of the fashion show was to showcase the rich
history and culture of the Philippines. Yet, it turned out to be an extravaganza of the
rich and powerful, gathering all of the Marcoses’ old and new allies and minions.
What brings back to memory is their scandalous lifestyle in the midst of poverty and
want. 

One may argue that the creations of designer Michael Leyva are outstanding, a
showcase of the Filipino imagination and laboriously themed “Isang Pilipinas.”
Really? One Philippines? It begs the question: High fashion at a time when majority
of Filipinos are hard put enduring hunger, high prices, calamities, corruption, and the
brazen trampling of rights?

Welcome back the Imeldific debauchery in Philippine culture, courtesy of the
current First Lady and the Marcos family, in the paradigm of “the true, the good, and
the beautiful” that could only whitewash the emptiness of the promises of cheap
rice, lower prices, higher wages, land reform, and sundry claims of unity, recovery,
peace, and development. #

Reference: Bonifacio Ilagan, CARMMA convenor

CARMMA secretariat, 09189790580

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