by Hazelle Anne Milan
After taking a look at his artworks, the process of relating them to each other is really
interesting. Aesthetically, his art style is unique but over the years, it has become more and
more detailed. The representations of each artwork are different stories. Each artwork is
easily relatable to those who feel and experience the same thing – like a secret code, it’s
meaning is only revealed by the involvements with society and how this country is. Each
symbol makes the images relatable for almost every person in this country.
Through his images, I’ve observed that each year, this artist has noticed more than
the simple things. Traffic has long been a problem here in Cebu, and as depicted in his
works. He uses three characters who are dogs and a rat – basically his main characters in
his comic strips. They are usually featured, talking short lines on societal issues, sometimes,
they’re just there and the image just speaks for itself.
On his take on pollution, he represents people who let their laziness take over them –
only to literally slap them back in the face. This usually happens when there are flash floods
and storms which carry back the trash that most of the people have thrown into the sea.
There are also images where trash is just thrown away on the sidewalk where it is easily
seen by the public – and also a health risk. This is due to the lack of discipline – despite the
social classes and lack of empathy for nature and for fellow citizens. Because of this, rivers
are clogged by garbage as well as water systems that are supposed to mitigate the disasters
caused by flooding.
Along with these problems is traffic – it’s either nothing is moving on these roads.
People have been too preoccupied with living their lives, getting their dream job, and owning
their dream car’, hence, there are way too many vehicles in the city, as well as drivers who
get their licences but aren’t actually tested to see if these people know the traffic rules and
regulations. Hence, accidents happen due to lack of awareness of these important rules –
which only worsens the traffic.
Don’t forget to mention, people are already struggling with living and putting food in
their mouths just to get through their day, they can feed themselves with the food left over in
the trash, just because they don’t have jobs – and those who do have jobs struggle with the
sky-high prices of basic commodities in the city (do refer to the comic strip that have basic
food and commodities in the stars – which makes the artist really commendable on his
metaphors that match with the irony of the situations).
With the notion of religion, he represents this with a person who was literally fed
feces but still believes that whatever the priest said – is really a blessing from God – when in
fact, I think what the author was trying to express is that religion in general feeds their
devotees lots of stuff, but because most of them are bound by the delusion that religion
saves, they’ll consume whatever they’re saying. Along with this misconception that religion
saves, the Philippines is a country full of depravity – where people just go about their ways –
good or bad – without even knowing the consequences of their actions. Most people would
do anything just to satisfy their wants, to increase their likes and reacts, to inflate their egos
– hence would do everything to get noticed instead of getting the job done.
This also explains how politicians who tend to parade themselves just take all the
credit of other people’s hard works and unevenly distributing projects that was meant for the
whole archipelago – infrastructure plans and projects are now just concentrated on one
place – ultimately forgetting that there are other places and people who need the projects
more than ever.
But other than that, where did they get the money for it?
On his main pieces, he shows the Philippine setting as a whole, a place full of
depravity, ‘social bees’ and ‘Dalagang Filipinas’ are unknowingly loaned with money we
cannot pay back from a different nation who’s just waiting to swallow this country whole and
make it part of itself. We are slowly being silenced and justice is almost non-existent when
people are killed. Common sense is also low as people tend to listen to reports that are far
from what the current situation holds – trusting the ones who shouldn’t be depended on.
Each symbol that Cabrera is representing are things that are commonly seen on TV
– things that are actually happening and the reality and circumstances make the comic strips
extremely significant – to those who pay attention.
Art exhibits like Mr. Cabreras play a huge role in a sleeping society. People need to
pay attention and question things before they become the norm.
KOMSAIERS 
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