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We in the Artists' ARREST Alliance join our fellow artists in the Neo-Angono Artist s Collective in their outrage over the defacing of apress freedom mural they did for the National Press Club (NPC). At the core of this unfortunate and utterly reprehensible development lies not only the total absence of respect for the integrity of the work of art and the artists who went through the difficult process of creation to produce it, but also theissue of censorship.

A film opens with a torture scene- a man is tied to a chair, insisting his innocence while his captors force him to confess that he is a communist. Less than a minute later, the film ends with a dim lit, out of focus, skewed shot of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's framed picture hanging on a wall. The film ends suggesting that the torturing is not over.

Reliance on military strength and the abuse of power are typical indications of a regime's desperation and imminent death. It shelters itself under the echo of bullets, violence and the suppression of people's rights and freedom in order to keep its grip to power.

Below is a statement released by Pastor Berlin Guerrero, the UCCP priest abducted by government agents last week.

What does it take a government to have the nerve to abduct, torture, and terrorize my family on the basis of an old inciting to sedition case and a baseless murder charge?