Rizal, a building, and photobombing
The appearance of a huge building against the sky behind the Rizal Monument in Luneta has caused quite a stir. Angry reactions are all over. Legal action has been taken. There is even a proposal to have the Torre de Manila of developer DMCI Homes -- all 40 stories of it -- torn down. The building, it is said, disrespects the national hero and spoils the view for selfies.
I do not see how a building against the sky spoiling the view for photographs can disrespect Rizal any more than people who visit the monument, in all sorts of dress -- or undress -- and striking all sorts of poses (shout wacky!) do. The building is just there. It does not have a mouth to say anything derogatory. It has not a finger to lift in mockery. If it is obtrusive to someone's photo shoot, just remember -- the monument is there not to serve as a mere photo backgrounder.
The taking of photos that will prospectively be ruined by the building in the background -- photobombed, as they call it -- have nothing to do with Rizal and vice versa. They are the consequences of personal choices only the visitors to the monument can make for themselves. If they do not want to be photobombed, surely they are not the royal types who would not countenance a little repositioning. Even presidents can be ordered by photographers to move this way and that.
I think the problem is not with the building itself lurking in the background. I think the problem started with a misappreciation of why people visit the Rizal Monument in the first place. If the sole purpose of people in visiting the Rizal Monument is simply to take pictures, then respect has absolutely nothing to do with it and for some people to use respect in the argument is deceitful and mentally dishonest.
On the other hand, if people visit the Rizal Monument out of genuine respect for the national hero, then I do not think the building lurling in the background is enough disincentive for them to do so. If you want to go there to at least dedicate a moment of your own life to that one significant moment in our history many years ago, you probably would lose yourself in the majesty of the moment and become oblivious to the world around you.
True respect for Rizal is deeply personal. It is not a matter of paying lip service alone. What a mockery of Rizal's memory it would be if, in his name, in the name of this country's most honored fighter against tyranny and oppression, we would allow ourselves to tyrannize and oppress others for simply being there. Can you imagine tearing down a 40-story building so it cannot photobomb a selfie?
And who are these people taking selfies? Many of them have not even read seriously about the life of Rizal or fully appreciated what the national hero stood and died for. Many of them are probably among those who make condescending jokes about Rizal and how he has become irrelevant -- "sa posporo lang yan" -- in this day and age. Maybe they are just there for nothing else but a selfie.
And yet it is for these people and their right to take selfies that a building that had all the necessary permits might be torn down. I am not trying to defend the building and its owners. I do not know them and they are certainly rich enough to take wherever the issue will take them to protect their own rights. I just happen to feel that something is not right and fair in the ongoing brouhaha.
The building did not just happen to be there overnight. This is not one of those it-was-not-there-when-last-I-looked things. The building had to creep up to its present humongous height inch by inch over the days and weeks and months. Yet no one among its present oppositors raised a peep in the name of Rizal in all of that time. They had to wait until it was almost done before demanding that it be torn down. Has the handiwork of a spoiled brat all over it if ever there was one.
Often, it is not what you see that defines your perspective but what you feel. Take the case of churches. They burn and they topple. But what you see in the physical sense does not diminish your sense of faith in God as represented by the edifice that is no longer there. You keep on believing because that is what it is all about. You close your eyes and God is still there in the darkness.
That may be a bit too extreme a perspective. Nevertheless, it captures the down-to-earth sense that Rizal, as an object of honor and respect, cannot be diminished by some inconvenience like a ruined line of sight. For would it be more honorable and respectful if, to appease the critics, we level everything within sight around the monument and then visit it for no other reason than to have our photos taken.
For as long as Filipinos scoff at many of the values that Rizal espoused in his life, any claim of honor and respect for a concrete structure representing his memory will always ring hollow and hypocritical, especially if the only compelling argument for invoking such honor and respect is rooted in something as shallow as window dressing. If you truly honor and respect Rizal, then live honorably and be worthy of respect. And never ever advertise it.
Next time you visit the Rizal Monument and must take a picture, by all means do so to capture the moment. For the moment is all that matters. You have to preserve it. With it you can tell your story, that at one moment in your life you were at a place of great national dignity. Never ever take that picture to have some physical evidence to show your friends. The moment you do, that building in the background will photobomb you, and you lose all sense of why you were there at all.
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