In the evening of Sunday, the 29th of August 2021, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples – Cordillera Administrative Region, an agency of the Philippine Government that is supposed to protect the interests and well-being of indigenous cultural minorities in the Philippines, issued a Press Release which essentially denied that Apo Whang-Od gave her consent to be featured on Nas Academy and shockingly even denied that Apo Whang-Od had affixed her thumbprint upon the Nas Academy contract.

This is despite actual documentary evidence captured on video which shows her willingly affixing her thumbprint upon a contract after a tattooed woman in orange (her trusted niece and designated representative, Ms. Estella Palangdao) is shown speaking to Apo Whang-Od in the local Butbut dialect of the Kalinga language and gesturing as to where on the contract she is to affix her thumbprint.

There is nothing whatsoever in the video that shows that Whang-Od had been pressured or forced into affixing her thumbprint on the contract, and quite obviously, her trusted niece and designated representative Estella Palangdao, herself appears very supportive of Whang-Od placing her thumbprint on the contract as she guided her great-aunt on where exactly on the contract the thumbprint was to be affixed.

Here is the video showing Whang-Od affixing her thumbmark on the Nas Academy contract:

To all who see the video, it therefore comes as a shock to read the contents of the two page Press Release that the NCIP-CAR came up with which is shown below:

 

 

While it is true that this issue does not seem related to the CoRRECT™ Movement’s push for Constitutional Reform, majority of us in our movement believe that fighting for the Truth is related to our struggle for the right reforms. After all, our advocacy for Constitutional Reform has long been hindered by the fact that a huge number of Filipinos have long been brainwashed by oligarch-owned mainstream media to believe that “charter change is all about term extensions”, or that “federalism will make the Philippines worse”, or that “getting rid of the anti-FDI restrictions will mean that the Philippines will be dominated by foreigners and that Filipinos will lose out.”

The recent brouhaha and over-emotional hyperreactivity of hundreds of thousands of Filipino netizens in cancelling and cyberbullying Nuseir Yassin based on premature reactions to what are essentially unfounded accusations reminded us of how “charter change” was initially demonized early on in the 1990s so that Filipinos would go against constitutional reforms that are actually extremely beneficial to the vast majority of Filipinos.

It is our stand that if Filipinos had been much more objective, scientific, and more discerning when it comes to uncovering the Truth in a much more factually-accurate and logically-precise and unemotional way, then the Philippines would not be the problematic and under-developed society that it continues to be.

Let us dissect each and every statement made in that report:

Statement Number 1: “Apo Whang Od did not consent or was made aware to teach the Kalinga Art of tattooing in Nas Academy.”

This is absolute bullshit. There is already a video that shows that Apo Whang-Od affixed her thumbmark on a Nas Academy contract. Nas Academy was able to get into negotiations with Whang Od and her family even before the contracted local production team travelled over to Buscalan to get the contract thumbmarked and get Whang-Od’s consent for the team to film her doing her Kalinga tattooing. Without that consent, the team would not have been able to begin filming her. Nas Academy got footage of Whang Od which became 3 videos in the Whang-Od Academy on-line course.

Now, Whang-Od is 104 years old. She may be forgetful and senile. If you ask her today “Did you give your consent to teach the Kalinga Art of tattooing to Nas Academy?”, she might just say “Nas Academy? Who’s Nas Academy?” particularly because those negotiations happened many months ago.

But that’s precisely why Nas Academy made sure to get video evidence of that thumbmarking, so that in the event that she somehow forgets that she did give consent, that video serves as proof that SHE DID GIVE HER CONSENT ON THAT DAY. If she is senile and forgetful, that does not change he fact that she did place her thumbprint on the contract as proof of consent. The documentary evidence (video) supersedes one’s recollections memory. If A lends B 1 million pesos and has video footage of B agreeing to pay A back, even if B gets amnesia, the video supersedes B’s memory.

NCIP is being lazy and repeatedly violates the Parol Evidence Rule. They are just parroting the baseless accusations made by Gracia Palicas.

Statement number 2: “Apo Whang-Od is not aware of any contract and she did not affix her signature nor thumbmark in any contract for this account.”

Once again, this is bullshit.

Everyone who saw the video has seen Apo Whang-Od place her thumbprint on a stamp pad, and has seen her grand-niece Estella Palangdao (wearing orange) tell her where to put her thumbprint on the contract, and then it was undeniable that Apo Whang-Od affixed her thumbmark on the contract itself. That is irrefutable.

When the NCIP-CAR team led by Mr. Marlon Bosantog wrote a sloppy report that claims that “she did not affix her signature nor thumbmark in any contract for this account”, that was a total lie that goes against the irrefutable evidence. Is Bosantog and his team aware that there is a video that proves that Whang-Od did in fact place her thumbprint on the contract?

Where does the NCIP-CAR team get the audacity to go against irrefutable video evidence?

Imagine if Jonel Nuezca was acquitted for his act of murder against the mother and son he shot at point-blank range, with the verdict claiming that “Jonel Nuezca did not shoot Sonya and Frank Gregorio”, despite the fact that everyone saw the video where Nuezca shot the mother and son.

Statement number 3: “No provision of the contract was explained or discussed to her or to her representative, or what was assured of her is external to the terms of the contract.”

This claim is likely false.

Noting that the NCIP-CAR report already blatantly disregards the video evidence, it becomes easy for NCIP-CAR to make an equally baseless claim that the contract wasn’t explained.

What is very likely is that Bosantog and/or members of his team asked Whang-Od and her family members who represented her in front of Nas Academy to explain various details of the contract, and as that contract was agreed upon a few months ago, they are not likely to be able to provide a clear explanation of the details of that contract, as no normal person can easily remember all of the details of any corporate contract.

If the Nas Academy team was careful enough to document on video even the times when the provisions of the contract were being explained to Whang-Od through her representative Ms. Palangdao, they should show such footage.

This will force the NCIP-CAR team to eat their words.

Statement  number 4: “The contract was grossly onerous on the part of Apo Whang-Od. The contract states that the Nas Academy has exclusive ownership of any content that the show would produce including the likeness, image, voice, etc. of Apo Whang-Od and such ownership is in perpetuity, inclusive of the right alteration (sic) and the right to assign and transfer the same without consent. Furthermore, the law of Singapore shall govern said contract.”

The contract is standard.

Jessica Soho, Catriona Gray, James Deakin, Erwan Heussaff, etc, all have the same kind of contract as the one thumbmarked by Apo Whang-Od. Contracts of this sort are common. There is nothing onerous about Nas Academy having exclusive ownership of the specific footage, recordings, and photos that the local production team contracted by Nas Academy obtained of Whang-Od during the 2 days spent doing video shooting and photography sessions with Whang Od.

Similarly, actors under a Viva Films contract have all of their footage taken during the Viva film shoots owned by Viva Films. Similarly, footage of Catriona Gray taken by the Nas Academy team for Catriona’s online courses are also owned by Nas Academy. There is nothing onerous about that.

Ultimately, only the footage, recordings, and photos obtained by the local production team that was contracted by Nas Academy would be included among those which are exclusively owned by Nas Academy. All photos or recordings of Whang-Od that are outside of the footage, recordings, and photos obtained during the 2 days worth of shooting by the local production team contracted by Nas Academy are not to be owned exclusively by Nas Academy.

There is also absolutely nothing onerous about having the law of Singapore governing said contract. Once again, this is standard international business practice where a country whose legal system is well-regarded internationally is chosen to be the location for arbitration and dispute-resolution.

Traditionally, the countries that have been well-established as “neutral arbitration venues” are London, Paris, and Stockholm. Singapore is emerging to be the top preferred arbitration and legal dispute resolution venue within Asia, especially when it comes to contracts between Western companies and Chinese companies, Western companies and companies in other Southeast Asian countries, or Chinese companies and companies in other Southeast Asian countries. Singapore’s main appeal has been that its legal system uses the English language and both Western companies as well as Chinese companies respect and recognize the Singapore legal system – especially as it pertains to corporate and business law practice – as being fair, unbiased, and corruption-free. To companies that come from English-speaking countries in the Commonwealth, Singapore is well-recognized as adhering to strict British/English-style legal procedures.

It is also worth noting that more than 40% of cases for arbitration that are filed in Singapore have absolutely zero connection with Singapore. This might, for instance, pertain to deals between an American company having a special trade deal with a Chinese company where they have no operations in Singapore whatsoever.

It is quite unfortunate that objectively speaking, the Philippine legal system does not have a stellar reputation, given the generally slower pace of case-resolution and more importantly the reputation that the Philippines has of being generally prone to corruption, bias, and political interference. No one can blame most international companies that do businesses in the region for choosing Singapore as their default venue for arbitration and dispute-resolution in Asia.

While it is true that Nas Academy is headquartered in Singapore, Singapore Law most especially regarding commercial and business transactions is perceived internationally to be extremely fair, unbiased, and of high integrity, as Singapore-based companies that have violated contractual terms or have caused harm to customers or shareholders have been penalized by Singapore’s strict legal system. If – say – Whang-Od feels she is treated unfairly by Nas Academy, she and her representatives would have better chances of successfully getting redress much faster under Singapore’s Law than under the slow-paced wheels of justice in the Philippines.

Bosantog and his NCIP-CAR team are clearly unaware of these modern international legal trends, and it seems that the NCIP-CAR team does not know anything about international corporate contracts!

Statement number 5: “Ms. Stella Palangdao (Apo Whang-Od’s representative) stated that the provisions of the contract were not explained to them except that they were made to sign the contract of filming, interview, photography, and release of such.”

Whoever included this in the Press Release is grossly incompetent.

What use is having number 5 if there is already number 3?

Why the repetition? Why the redundancy?

Didn’t statement number 3 already explain that “no provision of the contract was explained or discussed to her or to her (Whang-Od’s) representative?” Ms. Estella Palangdao is Apo Whang-Od’s representative. Why didn’t they just join the two statements together since both 3 and 5 are saying the exact same thing?

That said, statements number 3 and 5 are very suspicious because the credibility of the NCIP-CAR team headed by Mr. Marlon Bosantog has been tarnished by the blatant denial of evidence that they did in both statement 1 and 2 where they claim that there was “no consent” and worse, that there was “no contact”, despite there being a video that proves that Apo Whang-Od clearly gave her consent by affixing her thumbprint to the contract on that particular day.

If the local production team that was contracted by Nas Academy to work closely with Whang-Od in person was able to properly take a video of the actual process in which the provisions of the contract were being explained to Apo Whang-Od via her representative (Ms. Estella Palangdao), the NCIP-CAR report will fall flat on its face.

Statement number 6: “When the validation team compared the thumbmark affixed by Apo Whang-Od in the contract to that of one she affixed in a clean piece of paper, there is apparent disparity. The same is now the subject of further forensic study.”

Statement number 6 totally contradicts Statement number 2.

The NCIP-CAR report claimed in number 2 that Whang-Od did not affix her signature/thumbmark in any contract, but contradicts it here in number 6 when they admit that there is a thumbmark affixed by Apo Whang-Od on the contract!

They didn’t even say “allegedly affixed” but admit that the thumbmark was affixed by Apo Whang-Od. The problem now is that the incompetent team led by Marlon Bosantog is trying to claim that there is a discrepancy between that thumbmark (which is the one affixed by Whang-Od on the contract in that widely-circulated video) and one she affixed on a clean sheet of paper, when everyone knows that the same thumbmark can appear different because of how the thumb was positioned or angled at the time of pressing against the paper. Despite that, police/forensic labs can still easily determine that it is the same thumbmark.

When the report said “The same is now the subject of further forensic study”, why did the NCIP prematurely publish their press release when the “further forensic study” regarding the thumbmark was still pending?  What if the forensic team does in fact establish that the thumbmarks are 100% identical and are Whang-Od’s?

It’s just unbelievable how the NCIP-CAR thinks that it can just easily get away with this.

Just as unbelievable is how there have hardly been any other critical thinkers except for us in the CoRRECT™ Movement who are dissecting this issue and exposing the blatant incompetence and possible corruption found in the NCIP-CAR.

Statement number 7: “The art of tattooing is a cultural expression and it is practiced by the ICCs (Indigenous Cultural Communities)/IPs (Indigenous Peoples) of Kalinga. Teaching of said cultural manifestation or expression in an open platform accessible to millions of people would render it generic and thus, it would lose its authenticity and cultural meaning. This would also discourage the next generation to learn and carry on with the tradition. The online platform can also lead to the demise of their culture-driven tourism industry. This is the sentiment and collective affirmation of the Elders and Traditional Leaders during the dialogue.”

No one denies that the art of tattooing is a cultural expression practiced by the indigenous communities of Kalinga.

However, it can be easily argued that the course offered on Nas Academy is essentially just a documentary feature of 3 videos of Whang-Od performing the pambabatok and it will not really create new “mambabatoks” and therefore, it would not render it generic and cause it to “lose its authenticity and cultural meaning.” 

Does anyone in his/her right mind really believe that it is possible to become an expert “mambabatok” after just watching those 3 videos that were originally uploaded into the Whang-Od academy course on the Nas Academy platform?

For all practical intents and purposes, Whang-Od Academy is nothing more than a documentary feature and “appreciation course” that allows people from around the world, including Filipinos (it was priced at PHP 750 precisely so that Filipinos could also afford it, otherwise, if it were priced at US$ 49, the only people who would be signing up for this online course would be whites from first world countries), to have a preview of what the ancient art of Kalinga tattooing is like so that they may gain the exposure they need in order to appreciate it, while Whang-Od, her family, and her immediate community can benefit financially from the fees paid by would be subscribers who sign-up for the course.

According to the Nas Daily Tagalog post of August 5, “Everybody was compensated for their time, and for every sale the Whang-Od Academy generates, most of it went (sic — should be “goes”) directly to her and her family. We just provided the technology and the marketing.” In other words, a huge percentage of the proceeds (at least 60%, possibly 80% or even 90%) goes to Whang-Od and her family. How can that be called “exploitation?”

No one knows when this COVID-19 Pandemic will end. Lockdowns, Travel Restrictions, and the obvious reduction of tourists from outside the Philippines means that tourists going to Buscalan to get a tattoo from Whang Od would have also gone down drastically.

When people who are interested in understanding the Art of Kalinga Tattooing sign-up for Whang-Od Academy, they have a chance to see what this is all about while everyone is stuck at home during this COVID-19 pandemic while a huge percentage of the money they pay to sign-up goes to Whang-Od, her family, and indirectly, her community.

As soon as COVID-19 restrictions end – say in a year or two – all these people who signed-up for Whang-Od Academy might have the chance to finally head over to Buscalan, Kalinga and get a tattoo from Whang-Od (if they so wish) or one of her apprentices or at the very least witness with their own eyes how the art of Kalinga Tattooing is actually done.

It is just plainly wrong to assume that Whang-Od Academy would substitute for the real experience of actually heading over to Buscalan to visit Whang-Od and witness a real “pambabatok” in action. Chances are actually much higher that the same people who would be willing to pay money to sign-up for the online course would also be the same people who would want to see the real thing.

Just because we are all able to watch and listen to our favorite classical musicians, pop, rock, and new wave bands and artists on YouTube or hear them on Spotify, does not mean that the mega-fans among us will no longer wish to watch them in live concerts. It can be argued that it’s precisely because of greater access to on-line recordings and videos of recorded performances that many people get exposed to these artists in the first place. From the following they get out of such exposure, they can then end up having more people coming over to pay and watch their live performances when they tour.

It would do well for the NCIP-CAR team led by Mr. Marlon Bosantog to try to recall how things went for Whang Od long ago when she had not yet been made famous by Lars Krutak in 2007 for his Tattoo Hunter series on the Discovery Channel. According to journalist Drei Toledo who had been able to visit Whang-Od early on in the mid-2000s, Apo Whang-Od was herself very concerned about her dying art which no one else in her tribe was that interested in learning at the time. It was, however, after Whang-Od got featured internationally that she started to draw loads of tourists to come over to Buscalan and get tattoos that her “tattooing business” became lucrative enough for other members of her family and tribe to decide that they were interested in it.

It’s only then that her art started to have the hope of getting passed on to other members of her family, such as her grand-niece Grace Palicas. Prior to that, Ms. Toledo claims that Whang-Od just simply wanted to ensure that her skills could be passed on, regardless of tribal or family affiliations.

Lastly, it might be easier to understand that Whang-Od Academy, hosted on the Nas Academy platform is really just another documentary feature no different from the Deutsche Welle documentary featured here except that Whang-Od Academy is much more focused on the actual detailed process of how the tattooing is done, and that Whang-Od and her family gain a large percentage of the proceeds of the sign-ups. If people continue to sign-up, the money continues to flow in. For most documentaries, on the other hand, Whang-Od, her family, and her community won’t earn from the number of people who watch the video.

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CONCLUSION:

Nas Academy had good intentions for trying to get Apo Whang-Od on their platform.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has meant less tourists able to head over to Buscalan due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. This means less revenue from tattooing.

Nas Academy wanted to help provide Apo Whang-Od with a passive income stream in which she is to be filmed once in performing her tattooing, the footage is edited into a documentary-type format with instructional voice-overs explaining the history and the cultural significance of such tattoos, and the resulting videos are hosted on the Nas Academy platform and anyone interested who wishes to watch the videos pays a fee. As Nas Academy properly explained, most of the proceeds of those fees would go to Whang-Od and her family. A small portion of it would go to Nas Academy for the hosting and marketing promotions they sought to do.
How is that EXPLOITATION when majority of the course fee revenues go to Whang-Od, her family, and indirectly, her community???

This would have been a good “retirement” passive income stream for Apo Whang-Od.

Right now, for her to earn money, she has to actively tattoo tourists, and that act of tattooing can take a really long time, depending on the design.

But with Nas Academy’s “Whang-Od Academy”, she wouldn’t need to do anything as the people who sign-up for her online course would pay money to watch the videos of her, and most of that money goes to her bank account. See?

And yet her niece Gracia Palicas who lives most of the time in Metro Manila, doing tattoo workshops, giving out master classes and seminars, either felt left out of the family’s negotiations with Nas Academy or worse, felt that the Whang-Od Academy online course was IN DIRECT COMPETITION with her own seminars, masterclasses, and tattoo workshops in Metro Manila.

For all practical intents and purposes, Gracia Palicas is touting herself as the “heir of Whang-Od” and this is how she earns a living in Metro Manila or other urban centers where she tours to give seminars or do tattoo workshops.

I merely speculate that Gracia Palicas probably thought that the Whang-Od Academy online course might poach from her supposed audience. She’s possibly fearing that if people sign-up for the Whang-Od Academy online course, less people will sign up for her workshops and seminars.

But just as I had already mentioned earlier, just because people get to watch classical musicians perform the piano, violin, pipe organ, etc on YouTube doesn’t mean that these same people will not attend actual classical concerts! In fact, the videos are just a preview, and nothing beats being in person for the real thing!

It’s just sad that Gracia Palicas didn’t talk things through with the rest of her family and instead just blurted out on social media one fine day in the first week of August claiming that her culture is being exploited. Had Gracia properly spoken with her cousin Estella Palangdao and her other relatives, they might have been able to give her a clearer picture of what exactly Nas Academy was all about.

Instead, Grace just jumped the gun, blurted out baseless accusations on Facebook while in anger, and caused hundreds of thousands of non-thinking, non-analytical, emotionally hyper-reactive Peenoise to go berserk and cyberbully and cancel Nas Daily.

Later on, Gracia backtracked, and then posted another status update on Facebook which took a less combative tone and actually even outright acknowledged that Nas Academy has good intentions of sharing their culture to the next generation. Despite all that, the damage had been done.

At every step of the way, Nas Academy had the facts on their side. They had a video which proved that Apo Whang-Od did in fact willingly thumbmark a Nas Academy contract, belying Gracia’s initial claim that her “grandmother did not sign any contract.” They also named who the primary “translator” was, and that person turned out to be Estella Palangdao – a niece of Whang-Od – who is also a relative of Gracia.

After Bosantog’s NCIP-CAR team came out with their sloppily and incompetently-written press release, Nas Academy once again issued a rebuttal with the names of people who were witnesses and they even explained the process in which they needed to first get Whang-Od’s explicit consent (which is where she thumb-marked the contract) before they could start filming. This filming took 2 full days.

Nas Academy had even clearly stated not long after the issues were raised that they were more than willing to cooperate with NCIP-CAR, but sadly, NCIP-CAR was so lazy and incompetently-run that they didn’t even care to give Nas Academy or its representatives a chance to explain their side.

In the end, the bloodthirsty hate-fest and lynch mobbing by non-thinking, un-analytical bandwagoning “Peenoise” who love to gang-up on others to lynch-mob them without first confirming if that person is guilty or not – had resumed.

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END RESULT:

Let there be no mistake about the ugly results coming out of this debacle:

Result number 1: Nas Academy has most likely abandoned the Whang-Od Academy project and due to the OA reactions of Jessica Soho and “Panlasang Pinoy” might altogether lessen their overall engagement with Pinoys.

Result number 2: Whang-Od lost a passive income stream that she could have earned from

Result number 3: Filipinos are already looking really really really bad internationally because of this debacle. The cyberbullying that happened against Nas despite him wanting to help is already being talked about in international business circles.

No sane international businessman will want to do business in the Philippines or do business with Filipinos. Ironically, the same kinds of people who – without knowing that the agreement as mentioned by Nas Academy was that Whang-Od would earn most of the proceeds from the course fees – screamed “exploitation” might actually be happy that foreign direct investments and international businesses are now looking to skip the Philippines. After all, their attitude of automatically thinking that foreign businesses are “always out to exploit the natives” is the dominant economic narrative in the Philippines which is why the 60/40 clauses and other anti-FDI restrictions were embedded in the 1987 Constitution in the first place.

Anyone who objectively looks at what really happened can clearly see that Nas Academy was simply trying to help, and in so doing, their intentions were unfortunately misinterpreted and Nas/Nas Academy got cancelled and cyberbullied to an extreme.

Filipinos just destroyed their economic prospects once again. In the end, once the COVID-19 Pandemic subsides and the world starts to recover economically, the Philippines will stagnate as international businesses and would-be investors will avoid the Philippines – and Filipinos – like the plague. We will be characterized as backstabbers (like Sandy “Lost Juan”) and truth-twisters like Louise Mabulo and the NCIP-CAR.

Just look at how that NCIP-CAR press release went against documented evidence in the form of that video where Whang Od outright thumbmarked the Nas Academy contract… That video evidence is IRREFUTABLE and yet the NCIP-CAR press release claims that “she did not affix her signature nor thumbmark in any contract for this account.”

Someone has to answer for this travesty. And it’s not Nas.

Anyway, maybe Filipinos really don’t want to progress. Maybe Filipinos just want to remain stuck in mediocrity and poverty. I mean, until today we still haven’t gotten that lousy and rotten 1987 Constitution amended and reformed so that job-creating international investors can easily set-up shop in the Philippines and hire our people and help solve the massive unemployment problem we’ve had for such a long time.

My question, Filipinos: DO YOU WANT THE PHILIPPINES TO IMPROVE or not?

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About the Author

Orion Pérez Dumdum comes from an IT background and analyzes the Philippine situation the way he analyzes IT systems: logically and objectively. He also hates fake news and especially dislikes it when fellow Filipinos become hyper-reactive and extremely emotional towards issues where they don’t have all the relevant facts.

Being an Overseas Filipino Worker himself, he has seen firsthand how the dearth of investment – both local and foreign – is the cause of the high unemployment and underemployment that exists in the Philippines as well as the low salaries earned by people who do have jobs.Being Cebuano (half-Cebuano, half-Tagalog), and having lived in Cebu, he is a staunch supporter of Federalism.

Having lived in progressive countries which use parliamentary systems, Orion has seen first hand the difference in the quality of discussions and debates of both systems, finding that while discussions in the Philippines are mostly filled with polemical sophistry often focused on trivial and petty concerns, discussions and debates in the Parliamentary-based countries he’s lived in have often focused on the most practical and most important points.

Orion first achieved fame as one of the most remembered and most impressive  among the winners of the popular RPN-9 Quiz Show “Battle of the Brains”, and got a piece he wrote – “The Parable of the Mountain Bike” – featured in Bob Ong’s first bestselling compilation of essays “Bakit Baligtad Magbasa ng Libro ang mga Pilipino?” He is the principal co-founder of the CoRRECT™ Movement and spearheads the campaign to inform the Filipino Public about the urgent need for Constitutional Reform & Rectification for Economic Competitiveness & Transformation.