In the gem of the film "Heneral
Luna", there’s a poignant scene in which the bodies of General Antonio
Luna and his military aide were shown being dragged like fallen gladiators by
their killers, the men of Emilio Aguinaldo. It is a symbolic snapshot of the
"Spoliarium", the most famous painting of the general’s brother Juan
Luna which is in perpetual exhibit at the National Museum.
But before that, most touching was the segue to
Jose Rizal’s execution at Bagumbayan from a scene depicting another
painting of Juan Luna, the "Parisian Life", showing a trio of
Filipino patriots led by Rizal admiring the beauty of a woman (some say a
prostitute) probably waiting for her date in a café in France.
That many Filipinos are now familiar with
"Parisian Life" has everything to do with the brouhaha that
accompanied its “rescue” and “repatriation” from foreign hands by the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) under the previous administration.
The GSIS got a lot of flak at the time for purportedly wasting its members’
money in buying "Parisian Life".
Now, the decision of the director of
"Heneral Luna" to include the "Parisian Life" scene in his
movie masterpiece is a testament and tribute to how valuable the painting is to
us Filipinos insofar as revisiting and learning from our history is concerned.
Setting aside the defense of the GSIS that paintings are valuable investments,
was "Parisian Life" really worth the money used to bring it home to
the Philippines?
As an answer, I’m not even touching the
argument that the price paid by the GSIS for "Parisian Life" was
paltry compared to the billions of pesos that have been squandered and will be
squandered by inept and corrupt and government officials. Suffice to say that
our heritage as a people is priceless and worth preserving so the future
generations of Filipinos, including those whose parents have already migrated
to other countries, would know who we are – warts and all.
We may not be perfect and, hell yeah, even
dysfunctional, but we nonetheless are beautiful.
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