From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park As Dramaturgical Protest Space

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From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

Teresita Cruz-del Rosario Asia Research Institute, NUS

Over a period of two decades, the Philippines has ex - Heidelberg where he pursued his studies in medicine perienced a political transformation that can be char - and philosophy. acterised, at best, as an attempt to continuously define Considered as the “most brilliant nationalist intel - and redefine the contours of a liberal democratic order lectual” during the latter part of the colonial period, with social movements and citizen participation as a Rizal wrote the nationalist novel Noli Me Tangere (The core feature of social and political life. One feature Social Cancer) in which he made reference to the has nevertheless endured: the Luneta Park. Set smack problems of Filipinos with the Spanish friars. The in the centre of old Manila, the park remains a public critical tone of the novel resonated throughout the site and a potent political symbol. From the execution colony and his name became widely known. A sec - of Jose Rizal, the national hero and insurgent anti- ond novel, El Filibusterismo (The Subversive) , was colonialist of the late 1900s to the “million man written when Rizal’s family was evicted from their march” in the summer of 2013 demanding the Calamba estate by the Dominican friars. Within the abolition of “pork barrel” in Congress, the reformist movement, Rizal became a cause celebre and Luneta Park constitutes the one urban space accessible his writings galvanised anti-colonial sentiment di - to all Filipinos throughout history. This study estab - rected against the Spanish friars. He was banished to lishes the linkage between a physical site of historical Dapitan in Mindanao on 7 July 1892 and then exe - significance and cyber-activism, a curious melding of cuted on 30 December 1896 at Luneta Park then tradition and technology that results in “e-citizenship” known as Bagumbayan. Rizal’s death effectively ended —- an emerging form of participation that utilises the the reformist phase of the nationalist movement. In internet to promote and deepen democratic gover - its stead, a revolutionary program sought to achieve nance while continuing to rely on urban space. independence from Spain and an end to the colonial era. The Filipino historians Agoncillo and Guerrero Keywords: cultural constructionism, dramaturgy, social (1977) would regard this as a crucial historical mo - drama, pork barrel, Philippines ment, one which redefined the character of the anti- colonial struggle in non-assimilationist, separatist In the twilight years of Spanish colonial occupation terms. of the Philippines, a well-educated member of the It is over a hundred years since the execution of ilustrado class named Jose Rizal would return from Jose Rizal. His novels have become compulsory read - Europe in 1887 to found the reformist movement ing in Philippine classrooms, and numerous films known as La Liga Filipina. i He was a fifth generation have sought to re-interpret his life. But the most Chinese mestizo , was educated in Paris, Madrid and iconic image of the national hero was his early

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morning execution, which, a century later, lives in the tion and uphold standards of good governance. The imagination of most Filipinos. As the Spanish guardia event was also the first social media-led protest in the civil raised their rifles and were given the order to Philippines. shoot, Rizal turns in an attempt to face his execution - In looking at protest in the Philippines, I utilise ers, not wanting to be shot in the back as a traitor. At Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical framework that em - the moment of his death, he is facing the morning anates from a culturalist view of collective action, par - sun —- a singular final act of defiance against the ticularly a view which takes on what sociologists calls Spanish colonialists. “cultural constructionism” —- a theoretical presup - Fast forward to the summer of 2013. Facebook is position premised on the idea that humans are “sym - abuzz with digital activists enraged at the story of bolic making creatures, who spin webs of meaning Janet Napoles Lim who would otherwise remain in - around ourselves . . . that we humans together create visible and nondescript were it not for her daughter everything that we know and experience, or at least Jeanne who hosted a lavish party for her 23 rd birthday the interpretive frameworks through which we filter in Los Angeles, and bathed herself in a tub of cash, all our experience” (Jasper, 1997, p. 10). I argue that then posted it on YouTube. The story went wild on protests are “dramaturgical productions” whether social media. In no time, the Bureau of Internal Rev - these be conducted in cyber or in geographical terri - enue (BIR) dug deeper and discovered tax evasion. tory. As social dramas, uprisings reflect the expres - But as it turns out, this was just the tip of the iceberg. sivism of social life —- a central tenet in the Her mother was purportedly the architect of a PhP dramaturgical perspective that asserts the primacy of 10 billion (approximately USD 225 million) scam human interaction in the endeavour to make meaning that defrauded the government of taxpayers’ money out of social and political life. through an elaborate scheme of funnelling money to I also discuss the scripting and staging processes as fake foundations and bogus non-governmental organ - part of a repertoire of dramatic techniques available isations (NGOs) that were directly linked to several to movement activists (Benford & Hunt, 1992). iv Senators and Congressmen through allotments from These processes involve, among others, the mobilisa - their pork barrel funds ii . Janet’s nephew who worked tion of symbols and images as part of the struggle to as her personal assistant-turned-whistleblower di - gain the dramaturgical upper hand in protest events. vulged all the details of the massive operation during Scripting also includes enrolment of dramatis personae a Senate investigative committee hearing. The public —- the protagonists, the antagonists, and the audi - learned of the pork barrel scam as a mechanism to de - ence including the media. Staging involves the iden - fraud taxpayers through ghost projects of legislators tification of a literal centre stage, a venue on which who pocketed the money and rewarded Janet Napoles the protest is made visible to the wider public. The Lim with a hefty percentage. choice of a centre stage embodies Sewell’s (2001 .) The unfolding of the pork barrel scam remobilised “strategic valence of space”. Luneta Park is an obvious the activists, almost the same ones that came out in choice for historical reasons, but additionally, for its 1986 to bring down the curtain on the dictatorial symbolic value, as well as the geographical layout of regime of Ferdinand Marcos. iii Twenty-seven years the park whose built environment can accommodate later, the activists converged on the Luneta Park, the massive amounts of participants, turning it into a same place where Jose Rizal was executed over one “matrix of power” (p. 58) and able to achieve a hundred years ago. Dubbed the Million People March , Durkheimian sense of “collective efflorescence.” the activists sought to demonstrate through numbers I further argue that alongside these dramatic tech - their continuing participation in Philippine political niques is the formation of a protest “script” itself. As life, this time not to change regimes and political lead - dramaturgical events, protests are not happenstance ers, but to change policies and practices that restore events, rather they embody “actable ideas” (Mead, faith in the political system, deepen citizen participa - 1934) which are fashioned out of collective historical

2 From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

experience. The cumulative weight of these ideas traditional media as well. Whatever the current tech - builds up into a script that is imbued with a larger nological context, these processes are central to moral vision among protestors to a distinct social protest. Protesters utilise available technologies to cre - project called modernity. What began as Rizal’s exe - ate and augment dramaturgical effects. This essay il - cution in 1896 at the Luneta Park was the clamour lustrates the use of cyber-technologies as a crucial for a modern Philippine state, free from the clutches resource among activists for mobilisation and facili - of an oppressive colonialism of five centuries, free tates the connection between cyber protest cultures from the stranglehold of the traditional forces of the and public protest space. Catholic Church and its colonial handmaidens, the Spanish friars. v In the twenty-first century, this same moral vision continues, but reworked to suit the re - Protest as Social Drama quirements of a global era. In between these hundred One of the most adventurous ideas to emerge in so - years, two uprisings occurred, one in 1986 to end the ciological theory is the view of social life as “theatre,” dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos, and the sec - as a show to be staged, where characters perform and ond in 2001, after a failed impeachment trial of interpret their roles. This is not to deny the authen - Joseph Estrada on charges of economic plunder and ticity of their performances, but rather, to recognise culpable violation of the Constitution. vi An uninter - that everyday life offers numerous opportunities for rupted historical line of resistance is spurred on by selecting the roles they choose to enact. Protest as per - generations of Filipinos who view the process of formance is no different. building a state and a nation according to the dictates Drawing its inspiration from Erving Goffman’s of modernity. Protestors in 2013 continue to be im - (1959) classic work The Presentation of Self in Everyday bued with the moral vision of modernity and were far Life , the dramaturgical perspective’s foremost concern more mindful of the globalizing ethos that underpins is meaning-making which results from “behavioural the meaning of nationhood. This protest spawned consensus” among human beings through their inter - through social media reflected their aspiration that action with each other and with objects in their envi - the Philippine state conforms to the rigorous de - ronment. Here, meaning is viewed not a “state of mands of a modern nation within a globalizing frame - consciousness or as a set of organised relations existing work. Protest scripts form part of the “universe of or subsisting mentally outside the field of experience discourse” (Mead, 1934) that includes ideas, images, into which they enter. . . .” (Mead, 1934, p. 78) but symbols, and emotions. Protestors utilise these to fa - rather, as a “behaviourally, socially emergent, prob - cilitate their communication with greater ease lematic variable, and in fact (is an) arbitrary, concoc - through cyber-technologies and are crucial ingredients tion of human interaction . . . a completely tentative in their protest repertoire to achieve dramaturgical and contingent phenomenon” (Peribanayagam, protest effects. 1985, p. 26). Finally, I argue the role of emotions in protest, a Conceived as a “series of performances” located in key ingredient in dramaturgical performances, very the region of “public acts” rather than in “people’s central to the “cultural turn” in social movement the - heads” (Brissett & Edgley, 1990, p.36), dramaturgical ory. Following Gamson (1992, p. 32), whose “injus - conceptions of social life counter the excessive formal - tice frames” and “injustice framing” constitute far less ism of structural-functionalist sociology, which has cognitive schemes to understand the rights and long dominated the social sciences. A dramaturgical wrongs of the world, but rather “the righteous anger view rescues human life from what Peter Berger that puts fire in the belly and iron in the soul,” emo - (1963, p. 51) calls the “tyrannical demands” of social tions heighten consciousness and solidarity among structures, providing human beings with a large meas - protestors, and assists in identity formation. ure of ingenuity “capable of circumventing and sub - All these processes occur in cyberspace but utilise verting even the most elaborate control system (and)

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is a refreshing antidote to sociologistic depression.” standing formula that continues to enrapt the audi - Protest as dramaturgical performances require ences, whether these be enacted in the cinema, in the scripting processes (Benford & Hunt, 1992, p.36) as theatre or in protest venues. a key technique for protestors in their efforts to con - A hundred years ago, the protagonist (bida) was struct and communicate power. Due to the differ - fairly clear —- a neatly dressed, soft-spoken scholar, ences in meaning over a specific aspect of reality, well-educated in Europe, spoke four languages, a doc - protestors are aware that they must address these dif - tor who saw patients while in exile, a writer and poet. ferences by shaping perceptions, offering explanations Finally, a man executed for his political beliefs and and alternatives and ensuring that their agenda is ad - thereafter, provoked a revolution that won the Philip - vanced and emphasized. Scripting processes also “de - pines its independence however temporarily and fleet - fine the scene, identify the actors, and outline ingly. The antagonists were the Spanish friars and the expected behavior” (Benford & Hunt, 1992, p.38). guardia civil —- those potent symbols of oppression, They are not rigid texts; rather they function as guide - the root cause of all social ills, the personification of lines that provide behavioural cues, sufficiently broad brutality, cruelty, and bondage. In Rizal’s novels that to allow for improvisation. reflected everyday life during the colonial period, they Scripting oftentimes begins with casting, i.e., the were easy caricatures in the anti-colonial drama. With enrolment of the protagonists and antagonists —- the arrival of film and television, the re-enactment of both sets of actors in the drama which “compete to Jose Rizal’s life continues to hold sway in the Philip - affect audiences’ interpretations of power in a variety pine imagination. The continuous reincarnation of of domains, including those pertaining to religious, the themes of love and sacrifice occasioned by Rizal’s political, economic or lifestyle arrangements” (Ben - life and death through communications technology, ford & Hunt, 1992, p.38). Scripting processes entail whether via film or social media, is fertile ground for the development of dramatis personae and thus, the constructing and re-constructing protest dramas. In subsequent enlistment of appropriate roles. In the the - this sense, Jose Rizal was the “original copy”, the pro - atre of social movement drama, the “demonisation” totype, the first ever Filipino protestor who would of certain characters is apparent very early on, por - provide an image to emulate and approximate for suc - traying them as evil personified, have violated cultural ceeding heroes/victims. norms, abused power, and identified as the cause of In 2013, the protagonist was Benhur Luy Lim, a whatever ails society. Juxtaposed against the antago - young personal assistant and nephew to Janet Napoles nists are the heroes/heroines and/or potential or un - Lim who turned whistleblower when he went missing witting victims who represent purity and innocence, for several months and was rescued by the National and may embody the higher ideals of the social move - Bureau of Investigation when his parents reported his ment. This polarisation results in the construction of disappearance. Hidden in a high-end condominium the dramatic problem according to two distinct posi - in one of Napoles’ many high-valued real estate prop - tions, and provides the audience with a neat catego - erties until his rescue, Benhur Luy Lim emerged as rization of moral and political choices. Without these innocence personified. The deepening investigation two sets of dramatis personnae , there is no social move - and the daily barrage on social media set the stage for ment drama (Benford & Hunt, 1992). Finally, there scripting the protest that was indeed rife with dra - is the audience —- the Greek chorus —- including matic material. Like Jose Rizal, he was young and the media. This is the cast of potential thousands and literate, savvy with the internet, shy and soft-spoken, millions of protestors who join in the drama to deliver but straight-shooting in his replies during the Senate a blockbuster performance. Alongside is the media hearings. He named names —- a rare act of courage who help in creating and strengthening what every that so often elude witnesses who only wish to protect protest drama ultimately is: a version of some “moral - their interests. He exuded an air of simplicity, like ity play” whose good versus evil themes is a long- most of the victimized taxpayers whose money was

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defrauded by a grand diversion scheme. Unlike Jose providing simultaneity of ideas that interact in the in - Rizal, however, he wasn’t flawless. The antagonists dividual’s mind. They are “multivocal” (Kertzer, 1988 , did their part to demolish him and painted him as an p.11). unreliable drug-user. He did, however, strut into the In the aftermath of Jose Rizal’s execution, the Senate investigative hearings with a retinue of armed Philippine revolution broke out. The very first act of soldiers and he wore a bullet-proof vest. Filipinos who the revolutionaries in declaring the revolution against watched the proceedings on television witnessed this Spain was the tearing up of the cedula (the commu - as electrifying drama, better than any courtroom nity tax certificate) —- a symbolic act that they no scene in a television series, because this was live and longer needed to register in a country they considered this was non-fiction! their own. A torn cedula constituted the first step in The antagonists ( contrabida ) were equally obvious claiming citizenship. So did the establishment of a na - and easy to construct in cyberspace. Daily postings tional insurgent government headed by Andres Boni - on Facebook detailed the amassed wealth of Janet facio, the leader of the secret revolutionary society, the Napoles Lim and her frivolous daughter, along with Katipuan . These symbols permeate throughout three senators who allegedly received the biggest Philippine history. If Filipinos today remember any - amounts of pork barrel funnelled to fake NGOs. As thing at all about their revolution, it is the execution objects of online vilification, they were given nick - of Jose Rizal at Luneta Park and the Cry of Pugad names to facilitate their identities to the public: Sexy, Lawin in which Andres Bonifacio urged all his follow - Tanda and Pogi —- a short-cut to refer to three sen - ers to tear up their certificates. ators who have been demonised in the pork barrel The biggest political symbol of course was the scam. A paper trail going back to at least ten years Luneta Park —- the site of what Hare and Kressel that wound up in several government ministries and (2001: 9) call an “illud tempus”, a place where a sig - agencies revealed a well-orchestrated scheme of fraud, nificant era began. At the park, new political mean - embezzlement and bureaucratic kleptocracy. In sharp ings have been created and these have endured over contrast to her nephew the whistleblower, Janet one hundred years. Luneta is “centre stage” for Philip - Napoles Lim did not divulge any information, in - pine social and political life. It has become the site for stead, relied on her lawyers to manoeuvre the complex hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who flocked to the terrain of Senate hearings with legalese, designed to park as a kind of pilgrimage. But it is also an internal protect herself and possibly her political patrons. journey for those who wish to review their heritage Political action is highly symbolic and expressive. on the same spot where Jose Rizal was executed, and Because communication is central to politics, symbols thereby experience a social and political renewal. are a vital currency in this process. They form an “im - Those who have gone on this journey to the illud tem - portant part of the political heritage and traditions pus view their society through the lens of history, and that define the political culture of a community” the personal meanings unleashed by Rizal’s execution (Elder & Cobb, 1983, p. 9). Kertzer (1988, pp. 5-8) —- that of sacrifice, love of country and the necessity argues for the potency of symbols in the construction for change. of political reality, especially in acquiring and main - Off protest, Filipinos come to Luneta Park as a so - taining power. Further, symbols “instigate social ac - cial venue to meet, to relax, to promenade as in the tion and define the individual’s sense of self” and are colonial days, to court and flirt, to exercise, to while vehicles through which people are able to make sense away the tropical days. It is open to everyone no mat - of the political realities, what Edelman (1964: 5) calls ter one’s station in life. The park is a gathering place the monitoring of the “passing parade of abstract sym - for being reminded of one’s identity, an open site bols.” Protests are highly dependent upon the mobil - which belongs to no one and therefore belongs to isation of symbols. They efficiently condense everyone. On the spot where Jose Rizal was executed meanings, unifying their diversity and richness, thus a century earlier, the Park serves as a historical

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repository of collective sentiment —- a time and as regressions in Philippine social life, are measured, place when Filipinos ceased to be colonial subjects, a collective version of what the Filipino sociologist instead became historical agents. Randolf David (2002) terms “utopian politics.” Over a hundred years, this script has endured in the saga of our national life and has kept movement activists fo - The Script of Modernity cused. Beyond the scripting and staging processes of protest Modernity as an outlook is as old as the history of is the script itself (Hare & Blumberg, 1988, p. 58). thought itself. It has a 2,500 year-old ancestry, or so Akin to what Snow and Benford (1992, p. 139) terms Almond et. al. (1960, p. ix) claim, although moder - a “master frame,” a dramatic script is more than an nity, and more pointedly, “progress”, is said to date “interpretative schema” (Goffman, 1974, p. 21). A back to the eighteenth century Enlightenment period script encompasses the full array of “basic sensibilities in which the values of science, rationality, and secu - . . . part affect, part moral vision, part cognitive be - larism finally triumphed over religion and the “divine liefs” (Jaspers, 1997, p. 154), at the same time it con - right” doctrine. Even Marxist thinking that prosely - tains a “universe of discourse” that include the “most tized violent revolution to pave the way for the ulti - complete set of directions for social behaviour . . . mate communist society was not exempt from an where the interaction of each of the actors is specified intellectual strain which celebrated a linear notion of as the play is developed through a series of acts” human progress and projected an optimism in the ca - (Hare: 18). Scripts are “built upon ‘frames’ . . . [and] pacity of science to solve all human problems. encompasses all various framing activities and align - In the context of the developing world, modernity ment strategies, . . . attempt to integrate and coordi - came to be regarded as a process of supplanting tradi - nate movement activity. . . and moves these ideas one tional structures and practices for modern ones. step closer to enactment. ( Ibid ). As interpretative Mostly, it was a process of becoming Western, and schemes, frames tend to remain in the purely cogni - those countries which subscribed to the “modernisa - tive realm, whereas scripts accommodate the more be - tion project” signed up in support of the correspon - havioural and affective components of protest. ding institutions and belief systems and behaviours Scripts, in short, fill in the gap in our understanding that would enlist them in the ranks of the “modern” of the dynamics at work in protest activism, as well nations. Social progress as a universal aspiration in as the discursive foundations upon which those dy - all developing countries has achieved the status of namics rest. what Alfred Meyer (1982, p. 84) calls “a possible Embedded in these processes is a “moral vision” dream and a categorical moral imperative.” which serves to organise and transform Philippine so - In political life, the modernisation project took on cial life, what Benford and Hunt (1992, p. 41) term the form of the state, not in Marxist terms as the in - the “direction for appropriate performances.” I use strument of the ruling class, but as the the term “modernity” to encapsulate a moral vision that would serve as the cornerstone for all activities, consolidation and rationalization of rule . . . a politi - cal organism unprecedented in the amount and qual - values, beliefs, emotions, sentiments, meanings, ideas; ity of human effort it could activate, in its ability to a “map” to provide direction to all cognition, emotion monitor and control a multitude of aspects of social and action; finally, an intellectual, moral and emo - existence of vast populations, in the regularity, conti - nuity, and efficiency of its operations (Poggi, 1982, p. tional reservoir of all discursive and non-discursive el - 348). ements. I submit that this outlook towards the world is the “super-arching” script that instigates and sus - The progressive state, therefore, embodies the tains protest and collective action in the Philippines, highest aspirations of a nation’s political life, and state a barometer against which all advancements, as well officials as the carriers and vessels of these aspirations.

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It would supplant the “arbitrariness, wilfulness, bru - and imputability”. Its political significance, however, tality and partiality” of prior arrangements based lies in the social and historical circumstances within upon “private power of disposition”; in its stead was which the term came to be noticed and used. The no - the exercise of objectivity, impersonality, and ration - tion of responsibility was accompanied by ality on which would be erected the modern state (Ibid. ). …rising standards of accountability in government, It is this rationalist, modernist conception of the triggered by the democratic revolutions in America and state that revved up the engines of the social move - France, or more broadly in response to an escalating sense of human agency, fostered not only by political events, but ments to protest against the pork barrel. The private also by economic development and the accelerating pace capture through a well-oiled scheme of institutional of technological innovation in societies increasingly theft and extortion constituted what James Jasper oriented to the market (Coclanis & Bruchey, 1999, p. 3). (1997) refers to as “moral shock” —- a transgression of the boundaries of civility and decency, a crossing Thus, much like the struggle for Philippine inde - of red lines, an assault to collective notions of right - pendence, the protest against the pork barrel consti - eousness and the corresponding behaviours that are tutes a highly charged political contest for a expected from fellow citizens and their elected leaders. redefinition of political meanings that took on a It likewise reminded Philippine activists that the widened appreciation of citizenship within the con - Philippine state is a continuing “work in progress.” text of an expanded political milieu —- one that en - However imperfect the state had functioned in the compassed the reality of a global polity and the return last one hundred years since the interrupted revolu - to democracy in many countries in the world. tion of 1896, the slow and tedious institutionalisation Democracy was refigured from rights to responsibilities, of public life was indeed occurring, and a measure of more specifically the responsibility of public leaders accountability and transparency in the nation’s to subscribe and adhere to the notion of public ac - democracy could be expected. Further, the Philip - countability, and submit to the practice of transparent pines had joined a global community, many of its governance. members were modern nations. Despite policy and These aspirations for a modern state continue to procedural differences among advocates, activists, and be railroaded by a form of authority that rests on tra - policy-makers, there was a general agreement that the ditional domination where the weight of customary path to modernity through active citizen’s engagement rules and behaviours are in direct contradiction with was the preferred route. For sure, a layer of civil soci - the requirements of a progressive state. Part of these ety organisations consisting of non-government or - rules includes the right to exercise personal discretion ganisations and social movements “thickened” and and an unstated acceptance of prerogatives. Further, expanded. Under a democratic framework, albeit im - officials in authority exercise these prerogatives not perfect and incomplete, this feature of Philippine po - through a formal set of rules but rather through “good litical life had been enshrined and it would take a will.” The administrative apparatus that corresponds massive counterforce to affect their demobilisation . to this type of domination Weber termed as patrimo - Alongside the script of modernity was the notion nialism, a form of domination of rights and responsibility. Though certainly not new within the context of a global political discourse, Co - …based on a ‘system of favorites’ who perform func - tions for rulers out of loyalty or obligation. Individu - clanis and Bruchey (1999, p. 3) consider it of “recent als who occupy official positions are invariably coinage”, the political import of which dates back to personal followers of the master. This form of admin - the 1830s, not coincidentally during the era of liberal istration leads to arbitrary decision making which fol - lows the personal discretion of the master, rather than reformism in Europe. The word’s lineage is aligned to a strict set of administrative rules which apply with that of “free will, accountability, answerability, equally to everyone. (Morrison, 1997, p. 289).

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Thus, the modernity script stands as a direct In geographies of resistance, protest momentum is challenge to the traditional one, and protest examines crucial to achieve visibility through force of numbers, and expands these contending scripts. Given the ex - to achieve ‘collective efflorescence’ (Durkheim, 1995), pressivism of Philippine political life, these contesta - and to demonstrate a show of strength to the counter- tions over worldviews are achieved with dramaturgical resistance forces. effects, and the processes of scripting and staging en - The choice of the Luneta Park is not accidental. ables scholars to understand the dynamics of move - Protesters deliberately chose it as a site for reconfig - ment participation, particularly, “the social uring social spaces imbued with political meanings construction and communication of meaning, includ - that transcend time. Like Jose Rizal over one hundred ing formulating roles and characterizations, managing years ago, whose clamour for independence from performance regions, controlling information, sus - Spain urged on a revolution shortly after his death, taining dramatic tensions, and orchestrating emo - the pork barrel scam likewise urges the Filipinos to tions” (Benford & Hunt, 1992, p. 37). continue the unfinished revolution of 1896. Luneta Park is the “center stage” for the enactment of nation- building, a site for “spatial agency” (Sewell, 2001, p. Place, Cyberspace and Emotions 55) that becomes a locus for creatively addressing the Most protest literature provides descriptive accounts tension between structure and agency. The tradition of places where protest occurs, treating spaces as back - of Luneta Park as a site of parades, promenades, pro - drops to the main event (Sewell, 2001, p. 51). A few cessions and executions during the Spanish colonial studies, however, are emerging on ‘geographies of era continues to the present day (minus the execu - struggle’ (Staeheli, 1994), defined as ”associated spa - tions). Yet, it also has been augmented into a “dra - tial practices necessary for oppositional movements to maturgical protest space,” a resource for protesters to thwart the forces, strategies and plans that are im - utilise space for political and social struggles that posed on marginalized people and places.” Reiff thereby produce new meanings, new uses and new re - (2000, p. 12) considers space as flexible boundaries, lations. thus ‘can be conceptualized again and again.’ Each In more recent history, the Luneta Park was also reconceptualisation occurs with corresponding shifts the site for Corazon Aquino’s ascension to power via in social relations, often through social contests that a popular uprising in 1986. On 16 February 1986, a foreground race and class relations. day after the snap election, Corazon Aquino held a Control of protest space provides an interesting rally at the Luneta Park, drawing an estimated crowd perspective on the historical evolution of space. Pro - of one million people, a turn-out that could only sig - testors naturally tend to appropriate sites linked to nal the curtains were about to drop on the regime of specific struggles. Boundaries, physical and symbolic, then President Ferdinand Marcos. In August 2009, are tightly drawn around them, lending these an aura when Corazon Aquino passed away, some twenty-five of untouchability. Memorials erected in honour of years after the 1986 uprising, the Luneta Park was martyrs and heroes stamp these spaces, and they ac - once again the site of the funeral cortege where mil - quire history. They become repositories of collective lions of Filipinos stood for several hours to pay their memory and assume significant symbolic status that respects to the woman whom they called the “icon of tends toward permanence. The Luneta Park is one democracy.” such physical arena that has been imbued, over a hun - “It’s like that time all over again,” said one of the dred years, of this specific aura. mourners who, twenty-five years ago, stood at Luneta Protest space additionally requires attention to ‘co - Park to witness Corazon Aquino claim her electoral presence’ (Giddens, 1984 as cited in Sewell, 2001, p. victory and hence her impending presidency. vii 57). This includes the bodily force of numbers, time- But the park is more than just a vessel that con - distance conditions, and response time management. tains the historical memories of a nation in protest.

8 From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

In the words of David Cole (1975, p. 7), the shrine is tious and vulgar lifestyle were financed by Filipino cit - the embodiment of an “illud tempus”, izens who were conscientiously paying taxes. It was also a disbelief in the propagated myth that the Philip - …a time of origins, the period of Creation and just after, when gods walked the earth, men visited the pines was a “poor” country. As trillions of pesos were sky, and the great archetypal events of myth —- war siphoned off through pork barrel allocations, it be - in heaven, battles with monsters, the Quest, the came apparent that the country was suffering less Flood, the Fall —- took place. from capital shortage than it was from financial mis - management. Online activists began posting policy For Filipinos, EDSA means a gathering place for questions as to the rationale for continued borrowing the expression of a collective sentiment. It is more im - from international financial institutions in a situation portantly, an era when it all began, a symbol of a “po - where tax collection seemed rather sufficient to fi - litical cosmology” in which Filipino society was said nance the operations of the economy. Online activists to have truly emerged, not out of the artificial demar - moved into quick gear to fill in the gaps in under - cations that were the outcome of manoeuvrings standing the workings of the economy: the reason for among competing colonial powers of the past, but the continued underdevelopment of the country was from the action of millions of anonymous citizens less due to its inherent nature of poverty than it was who took the first tentative steps at crafting their own to the plundering behaviour of politicians who nation. For a country whose five-hundred year his - showed no qualms in looting the economy through tory was a series of colonial misadventures, political layers of bureaucratic manoeuvrings. This process of let-downs and bungled attempts at nationhood, the “injustice framing” (Gamson, 1992, p. 32) took on execution of Rizal at Luneta Park marked a grandiose both elements: the mobilisation of outrage and the departure from an overburdened colonial past. For cognitive dimension of policy analysis. once in five centuries, Filipinos experienced the na - Emotions, according to the anthropologist tion a tangible possibility, an “imagined community” Michelle Rosaldo (quoted in McAdam, 1999, p. 6), (Anderson, 1991) with which to display to the world are “embodied thoughts, thoughts seeped with the ap - the results of their own handiwork. prehension that ‘I am involved.’” Further, Rosaldo In the 21 st century, this imagining continues in cy - (1980, p. 35) elaborates on strong emotions such as berspace. Digital activists continue to build a nation anger and outrage as “a sign of social import because through the technologies of social media. In cyber - cultural practice generates such affects as will guaran - space, the mobilisation of symbols, images and emo - tee the constraining force of social norms upon the tions to create a dramaturgical protest is far easier, self.” Crucial to the study of collective action is thanks to the nature of communications technology Lyman’s earlier contention that emotions, particularly itself that can easily compress messages and deliver anger, serve a political purpose when these are viewed them with speed. As the pork barrel scam unfolded, not merely as expressions, but as “meanings.” Treated online activists found vast territories for playfulness phenomenologically, emotions become vehicles for with the term itself, and the accompanying images “self-understanding and understanding of the world were delightful, emotionally-charged and politically- . . . . as a dialectic of self and world” (Rosaldo, 1980, loaded. p.61). Among the emotions that were quickly elicited in Emotions, likewise, assist in forming protest con - cyber-space was anger and disbelief toward Jeanne sciousness, which refers to “the mesh between cogni - Napoles, the daughter of Janet Napoles Lim. Images tion and culture – between individual beliefs about of her with Justin Bieber, a pose in a limousine, a lav - the social world and cultural belief systems and ide - ish party, and a lifestyle of expensive shopping quickly ologies” (Gamson, 1992, p. 65). These cognitions in - mobilised cyber-outrage, particularly in light of un - volve the articulation of ideas, ideologies and frames. folding information that this unbelievably ostenta - Protestors have to state explicit goals and make

9 Teresita Cruz-del Rosario

proposals. They need to craft programs and provide Million People March. Out of this solidarity was a alternatives. But beyond cognition is the force or collective identity fashioned online. A Facebook emotions that are necessary for recruitment into the group called Anonymous Incorporated served as an movement, to spur people to action, to sustain inter - open platform for anyone who wished to participate est. Protestors follow a “gut feel” about what they in online discussion, and also keep themselves posted. consider to be bad or wrong. But they likewise need But beyond these identity- and solidarity-building to fill a “cognitive vacuum” simultaneously, to give functions were proposed alternatives: declare the Pri - flesh to their actions, to help them construct the ority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also meaning behind their feelings and translate these into known as pork barrel, as unconstitutional and remove a language that they share and understand with oth - it altogether from the government budget. The in - ers. Consciousness-raising, thus, involves the articu - ternet campaign moved to the Supreme Court for a lation of cognitive beliefs as much as it involves a sense decision on its unconstitutionality. As online activism of outrage over injustice. flourished and anti-pork advocates stepped up the Further, emotions help construct identity (Gam - pressure, the Supreme Court voted the unconstitu - son, 1992, p. 14). Collective identity is central to all tionality of the PDAF on 19 November 2013. This social movements, in large part because of the nego - was a temporary victory for cyber- and on-the-ground tiated process of constructing a sense of “we-ness” that activists alike. permeates the entire movement, without which, the amassing of large numbers of people would merely constitute a crowd or a mob. Melucci (1989) argues Conclusion: The Perils and the Promise of Dramaturgy that a collective identity provides both strategic and personal goals. A collective identity makes possible In this essay, I discussed the dramatic techniques of the organisation of “mass energy” which would oth - scripting and staging for protest. Both processes are erwise remain unharnessed without it. At the same analytical tools that help scholars understand the in - time, it provides a sense of personal loyalty, commit - ternal dynamics of social movements. They are, like - ment, and even pleasure, all of which help sustain a wise, useful strategies in the arsenal of activists to high level of participation even in times of, and espe - create and sustain protest as social dramas. I argued cially during, moments of inactivity and demobilisa - that protest, as social dramas, derive from a broader tion. intellectual tradition called “cultural construction - Finally, emotions create solidarity especially ism”, at the core of which is the notion of meaning- among unorganised individuals who joined the making among human beings. protest even without social movement affiliations. By relying on Goffman’s dramaturgical approach The intensity of solidarity created among networks as to social life, I argued that protests are dramatic per - well as among individuals is a “glue” that holds the formances that are scripted and staged through the protestors together. The role of emotions in the cre - enlistment of dramatis personnae , particularly the cre - ation and sustenance of “prefigurative politics” is a ation of protagonists and antagonists that set up neat crucial element in understanding the longevity and categorizations of political and moral choices —- a staying-power of these protestors even after a genera - personification of themes and images to establish dif - tion has passed since the uprising of 1986. ferences in perceptions of reality and to communicate These processes constitute part of the “emotional power. infrastructure” of protest. Anti-pork barrel activists, These, however, are enacted on a stage. In this outraged over the scam, created solidarity among tax - essay, Luneta Park is the centre stage for protest, a site payers quickly. Non-social movement protestors un - that dates to at least a hundred years old when the derstood the scam quickly and easily. There was no first execution against Jose Rizal, the national hero, need for extensive policy discussions to mobilise the became an enduring symbol of struggle against

10 From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

oppression and exploitation. The symbolic quality of gical interpretations, however, do not go far enough the park remains to this day, and Filipinos revere the to constitute itself into “a device through which the park as a receptacle for collective sentiment, a contin - social relations of the dramaturgical society are main - uing reminder of what the park has represented for tained or can be altered (Young & Massey, 1977, p. over a century —- the unfinished revolution of 1896. 78). As a hermeneutic interpretation of social life, I also discussed the formation of “actable ideas” for dramaturgy can provide the tools with which to con - protest. I elaborated on the script of “modernity” as a struct social scripts, including their symbols and im - “worldview.” While images, symbols and emotions ages, that are culturally resonant and receptive to an serve to mobilise collective action, it is the script that audience. But the danger of dramaturgy lies in its gives the most elaborate set of directions for the en - amoral use, i.e., in the equal availability of the dra - actment of protest. At the same time, the modernity maturgical repertoire to activists and con artists alike, script was constituted by the protestors’ moral vision, to protestors as well as publicists, to challengers as well aspirations, sentiments, intuitions, feelings and ideas, as communication specialists. Duncan (1965, p. xxii) all of which would sustain them. Without this, the terms the latter as “tribal magicians” who, as the power of the images and the themes would saturate anointed high priests of public relations, are able to the performance and the action would have fizzled control the social construction process, including out, very similar to movie productions that bombard those repressive and fraudulent versions that abound the audience with images and themes, but provide lit - in urban life (Young & Massey, 1977, p. 78). Beyond tle or no redemptive value in the larger messages they the celebration of the theatricality of human life is an propagate or the moral visions that they might sug - admonition to transcend the “image-mongering” gest. The social and political project embedded in the (Brissett & Edgley, 1990. p. 348) tendencies within modernity script was a straightforward commitment dramaturgy, to engage the perspective according to to an ongoing process of social transformation for the Habermasian dictum of an “emancipatory interest Philippine society. These ideas have their historical of science.” Welsh (1985, p. 399) calls for converting roots that date back to the opening of the Philippines dramaturgy into an “immanent critique”, to expose in the mid-18 th century and continue to dominate the “mystifications of (the) social relations based on public discourse. class and power,” to utilise dramatic techniques in the Finally, I connect cyber-activism to public space. service of “making visible the flaws of life”, on which Cyber-activists, likewise, utilise the dramatic tech - the process of social construction and reconstruction niques suggested by Benford and Hunt (1992), as must be based. A critical dramaturgy moves beyond they would with the available technologies. The cam - episodic performances, what Young and Massey paign for the Million People March at the Luneta Park (1977) refer to as the “short-take society.” In societies happened online as much as it did rely on traditional where media plays a central role in the shaping of po - modes of communication. Yet the images and sym - litical meanings, these episodes are frequently reduced bols that were mobilised to support the protest were to “sound bites” and televised quips. The result is a the same, and the utilisation of social media facilitated dramaturgical society in which politics becomes the their swift transfer. Those other cyber-activists who province of those who can master the terrain of show - could not be present at the Luneta Park mounted biz culture, and can transform public debates into a their own cyber-protest. As far as Saudi Arabia, over - series of sound bites. The latter become the basis for seas Filipinos posted their protest on Facebook and judging political ability and commitment rather than Twitter subscribers followed the event at Luneta Park. the propagation of a coherent political and moral vi - Dramaturgy is a theoretical perspective that up - sion that encompasses the widest intersubjective holds the creativity of the human process and the cen - consensus. In the “short-take society”, Cole’s “imag - trality of the human subject as a conscious, inative truth” (1975) has disappeared. In its place are meaning-making actor in a social context. Dramatur - rampant image-mongering and the competition for

11 Teresita Cruz-del Rosario

saleable symbols and snappy sound bites. In the gard over the triumphant victory of the Philippine words of Welsh (2005), a humanitarian and liberating revolution resulted in the abortion of the first inde - vision requires “the overthrow of fraudulent pendent republic ever to exist in Asia. In the words dramaturgy requires not merely the abolition of cer - of historian Leon Wolff, “it was . . . a gift. Spain ac - tain instruments of mystification but the transforma - cepted it. Quite irrelevantly she handed us the tion of social relations of communications, property Philippines. No question of honour or conquest was and power.” involved. The Filipino people had nothing to say The triumph of the abolition of the pork barrel about it, although their rebellion was thrown in (so fund is a case in point: it illustrates the temporary na - to speak) free of charge.” x ture of this triumph. It likewise demonstrates the Activists have a long struggle ahead of them. His - fragility of the wider political system despite the pro - tory has dealt present and future activists their protest nouncements of the Supreme Court. In the wake of material. It is not only the final dismantling of a po - the declared unconstitutionality of the Priority De - litical system that systemically breeds corruption that velopment Assistance Fund (PDAF), a new fund was lies at the centre of Philippine activism, it is the quest quickly created by the legislators called the Supple - for a moral vision that hails the modern progressive mental Fund intended for the victims of Typhoon nation-state as its crowning aspiration. Haiyan. The names have changed, the intent remains the same. These are funds that are allocated to the legislators without the need for executive oversight. Endnotes In anticipation of the Supreme Court decision, legis - i Translated as The Philippine League. Among its re - lators drafted the Supplemental Fund in advance. viii formist aims were: 1) unification of the archipelago; Also, in the wake of the discovery of Janet Napoles 2) mutual protection; 3) defence against violence and Lim, another female counterpart operating within the injustice; 4) encouragement of instruction, agricul - judicial system has been uncovered and identified. ture and commerce; and 5) study and application of Known simply as “Ma’am Arlene,” she has become reforms. See Teodoro Agoncillo. History of the Fil - known as a “decision-fixer” who works with judges ipino People. and justices to influence their judicial decisions in ii Pork barrel is a term that refers to lump-sum funds favour of her clients as well as the sale of Temporary allocated directly to Philippine legislators that allows Restraining Orders (TROs). ix them to spend without going through the normal The unfinished nature of the Philippine state budgetary process or the Executive Branch. Because couldn’t have been more poignantly illustrated by his - of the lack of oversight and widely discretionary char - tory itself. The 1896 revolutionaries proclaimed their acter, the pork barrel has been a constant irritation in victory from Spain and declared the first Republic all Philippine politics and is often considered as a source throughout Asia, including the framing of a Consti - of abuse and corruption. It is formally known as the tution by a revolutionary congress that would estab - Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). lish Philippine sovereignty. The constitution of the Each member of the House of Representatives is al - new republic was approved on 26 November 1898. located PhP 70 million per year (approximately USD Yet, barely a month later, the Americans signed the 1.5 million) and each member of the Philippine Treaty of Paris that would end hostilities between Senate is given PhP 200 million Spain and America. The ’sale’ of the Philippine Is - (USD 4.5 million). See Pork Barrel. lands was formally signed between the two powers on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel (accessed 10 December 1898. For a paltry sum of 20 million on 13 January 2014). dollars, the United States acquired Puerto Rico, Cuba iii The Philippine uprising of February 1986 deposed and the Philippines. The direct and armed interven - Ferdinand Marcos after 21 years in power and in - tion of the United States and Spain’s complete disre - stalled Corazon Aquino as President. The uprising

12 From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

was occasioned by an electoral victory which Corazon x Philippines —- the Malolos Constitution and the Aquino had won in a snap election but was denied Treaty of Paris http://www.mongabay.com/his - by Marcos through a manipulation of the electoral tory/philippines/philippines the_malolos_constitu - results. Defection of top military leaders and the mo - tion_and_the_treaty_of_paris.html#yCMq6omv6g bilization from the Archbishop of the Philippines led 42MjFI.99 to a massive turn-out of people. The Philippine up - (accessed on 14 January 2014). rising is considered as the forerunner of subsequent peaceful non-violent uprisings in other parts of the world, notably South Korea, Myanmar, China, and References Eastern Europe albeit with different outcomes. Agoncillo, T. (1977). History of the Filipino People (6th ed.). Metro Manila: Ateneo de Manila Uni - iv Benford and Hunt identify four processes, namely, versity Press. 1) scripting; 2) staging; 3) performing; and 4) in - Almond, G., & Coleman, J. S. (Eds.). (1960). The terpreting. For purposes of this essay, I discuss the Politics of the Developing Areas . Princeton: first two in support of my central arguments about Princeton University Press. the role of space and the underlying ideas that galva - Aminzade, R. D., Goldstone, J. A., McAdam, D., Perry, E. J., Sewell, W. H., Tarrow, S., & Tilley, nize collective energies for protest. v C. (2001). Silence and Voice in the Study of Con - Note that Philippine colonization was carried out tentious Politics . Cambridge: Cambridge Univer - by the Spanish friars who stayed the longest, rather sity Press. than administrators-cum-merchants who tended to Anderson, B. (1991). Immagined Communities . leave quickly once their fortunes were made. As New York: Verso Books. Ashley, D. (1982). Jurgen Habermas and the Ra - dominant figures in the colonization process, these tionalization of Communicative. Symbolic Inter - priests and curates were considered the architects of action, 5 (1), 79-96. the colonial edifice and the pillars of a theocratic so - Benford, R. D., & Hunt, S. A. (1992). Dramaturgy ciety. See Renato Constantino (1978:31). and Social Movements: The Social Construction vi A full account of three Philippine uprisings and and Communication of Power. Sociological In - , 36-55. their underlying scripts can be found in Teresita quiry, 62 Bentley, E. (1965). The Life of Drama . London: Cruz-del Rosario (2009) Scripted Clashes: A Dra - Methuen. maturgical Approach to Three Philippine Uprisings. Berger, P. (1963). Society as Drama Invitation to So - DM Verlag. ciology: A Humanistic Perspective . New York vii Barbara Mae Dacanay. “Massive Turnout as Cora - Overlook Press. Brissett, D., & Edgeley, C. In D. Brissett & C. zon Aquino’s Cortege Retraces 1986 ‘People Edgeley (Eds.), Life As Theater. A Dramaturgical Power’ Route.” 3 August 2009. Gulfnews.com. Sourcebook (2nd ed.). New York: Aldine de http://m.gulfnews.com/massive-turnout-as-corazon- Gruyter. aquino-s-cortege-retraces-1986-people-power-route- Coclanis, P. A., & Bruchey, S. (Eds.). (1999). Ideas, 1.533983 (accessed on 12 January 2014). Ideologies and Social Movements . South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. viii Joseph Santolan. 21 November 2013. “Philippine Cole, D. (1975). The Theatrical Event . Middletown, Supreme Courts declared pork barrel funds Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. unconstitutional.” World Socialist Web Site. Dacanay, B. M. (3 August 2009). Massive Turnout https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/21/phil- as Corazon Aquino’s Cortege Retraces 1986 n21.html (accessed on 13 January 2014) ‘People Power Route’. Retrieved from Gulfnews.com website: ix Eric Sauler and Nancy C. Carvajal. 13 December http://m.gulfnews.com/massive-turnout-as-cora - 2013. “Alleged ‘fixer’ in Judiciary identified.” zon-aquino-s-cortege-retraces-1986-people- Philippine Daily Inquirer. power-route-1.533983 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/545435/alleged-fixer-in-ju - David, R. (February 2002). Modernity and the Two diciary-identified (accessed on 13 January 2014) EDSAs. The Windhover. The Philippine Jesuit Magazine .

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Durkheim, E. (1995). The Elementary Forms of Reli - the_malolos_constitution_and_the_treaty_of_pa gious Life (K. Fields, Trans.). New York: Free ris.html#yCMq6omv6g42MjFI.99 Press. Poggi, G. (1996). Three Aspects of Modernity in Edelman, M. (1988). Constructing the Political Spec - Simmel’s Philosophie des Geldes. In R. Kilmin - tacle . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ster & I. Varcoe (Eds.), Culture, Modernity and Elder, C. D., & Cobb, R. W. (1983). The Political Revolution. Essays in Honor of Zygmunt Bauman . Uses of Symbols . New York: Longman Press. London and New York: Routledge. Gamson, W. (1992). Talking Politics . Cambridge: Reiff, J. L. (2000). Rethinking Pullman. Urban Cambridge University Press. Space and Working Class Activism. Social Science Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: History, 24 (1), 7-32. Outline of a Theory of Structuration . Berkeley and Rosaldo, M. Z. (1980). Knowledge and Passion. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Ilongot Notions of Self and Social Life . Cam - Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Everyday Life . New York: Doubleday and Co. Sauler, E., & Carvajal, N. C. (13 December 2013). Hare, P., & Kessler, J. (2001). Israel as Center Stage. Alleged ‘fixer’ in Judiciary identified Retrieved A Setting for Social and Religious Enactments . 13 January 2014, from http://newsinfo.in - Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey. quirer.net/545435/alleged-fixer-in-judiciary- Hare, P., & Blumberg, H. H. (1988). Dramaturgical identified Analysis of Social Interaction . New York: Praeger Santolan, J. (21 November 2013). Philippine Publishers. Supreme Courts declared pork barrel funds un - Jaspers, J. M. (1997). The Art of Moral Protest. Cul - constitutional Retrieved 13 January 2014, from ture, Biography and Creativity in Social Move - https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/21/p ments . Chicago and London: The University of hil-n21.html Chicago Press. Sewell, W. H. (2001). Space in Contentious Politics. Kertzer, D. (1988). Ritual, Politics and Power . Con - In R. D. Aminzade, J. A. Goldstone, K. Morri - necticut: Yale University Press. son, E. J. Perry, W. H. Sewell, S. Tarrow & C. Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, Self and Society . Tilley (Eds.), Silence and Voice in the Study of Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Contentious Politics . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge McAdam, D. (1999). Political Process and the Devel - University Press. opment of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 (2nd ed.). Staeheli, L. A. (1994). Empowering Political Strug - Chicago: University of Chicago Press. gle: Spaces and Scales of Resistance. Political Ge - McAdam, D., Tarrow, S., & Tilley, C. (Eds.). ography, 13 (5), 387-391. (2001). Dynamics of Contention . Cambridge: Welsh, J. (2005). Dramaturgy and Political Mystifi - Cambridge University Press. cation: Political Life in the United States. In D. Morrison, K. (1997). Marx, Durkheim, Weber. For - Brissett & C. Edgeley (Eds.), Life as Theater: A mations of Modern Social Thought . Thousand Dramaturgical Sourcebook (2nd ed.). New York: Oaks, California: Sage Publications. Aldine de Gruyter. Peribanayagam, R. S. (1974). The definition of the Wolff, L. (1961). Little Brown Brother: How the situation: An analysis of the ethnomethodologi - United States Purchased and Pacified the Philip - cal and dramaturgical view. Sociological Quar - pine Islands at the Century’s Turn . New York: terly, 15 , 521-541. Doubleday and Co., Inc. Philippines —- the Malolos Constitution and the Young, T. R., & Massey, G. (1977). The Dramatur - Treaty of Paris. Retrieved 14 January 2014, gical Society: A Macro-Analytic Approach to from http://www.mongabay.com/history/philip - Dramaturgical Analysis. Qualitative Sociology, 1 , pines/philippines- 78-98.

14 From Execution to E-Mobilisation: Luneta Park as Dramaturgical Protest Space

Teresita Cruz-del Rosario is a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. She has a background in Sociology, Social Anthropology and Public Policy from Boston College, Harvard University and New York University. She is co-author of a monograph on Political Transitions in Southeast Asia and the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan Spring 2016). Her current research focus is on Arabia-Asia nexus. [email protected]