Healing Colours, Colours of Renewal (An Art Exhibition Honouring the Memory of the Victims of the LapuLapu Day Tragedy) April 30, 6:30–9:00 pm
by Maria Veronica “Vernie” G. Caparas
[N.B. This is Part III of a 3-part article on Babáng Luksâ. Part III is an invitation to the art exhibition, Healing Colours, Colours of Renewal, that remembers the dead and the victims of the 2025 LapuLapu Day tragedy.]
For Babáng Luksâ, the Philippine Artists Network for Community Integrative Transformation (PANCIT) renews its commitment to justice, healing, and accountability for the victims and their families via the art exhibition, Healing Colours, Colours of Renewal, that opens on April 30 at the Sunset Community Centre. Bert Monterona, PANCIT’s founding chair and lead muralist, laments the victims’ plight in his opening remarks that emphasized continued trauma healing and the need to account for the monies that were meant for the victims.
Participating artists with their respective artworks include:
Mylene Maranoc’s Love from Earth to Heaven
Leonora Angeles’ Afterlives
Montanya Añonuevo’s Cherry Blossom Tree and A Field of Flowers
Montanya Añonuevo’s Find Me in Your Memory
Maria Veronica Caparas’ The Helix of Justice
Alda de Aza’s Courage
Hygie Escasa’s Family
Oms Lavin’s Only the Body is Dead.
Erie Maestro’s Today Stops and Tomorrow Does Not Come, Where Do They Go
Soliman Poonon’s Bagani.
Lory Riego’s Embrace of a New Dawn
Calic Raya Tolentino’s Steps Toward Preventable Tragedies for a Healthier Society
Andrea Vargas’ Dugsu
This exhibition follows the first one, Healing Colours, in 2025.
April 2026 has been a month-long remembrance of beautiful lives lost due to failed systems and institutions of service delivery, a showcase of communities’ support, and an exposé of undelivered promises of support for those who need them. LapuLapu – the celebrated hero who was the first among the inhabitants of the archipelago (now known as the Philippines) in 16th century to resist Spanish colonial forces, retains the symbol of continuing resistance. This time, LapuLapu takes on different countenances against institutional efforts to deflect responsibility for failures in the systems of accountability, care, safety, and security. There must be a LapuLapu-like hero in each of the victims’ families and communities in this 21st century.
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The days after 26 April 2025 found Vernie Caparas praying for justice owed to eleven lives lost and several more wounded. Invited by PANCIT’s founding chair and lead muralist Bert Monterona in May 2025 to join trauma healing through painting workshops, she brought that prayer on canvas and joined fellow artists in his workshops and citywide events in the continuing call for accountability.
