2000 / Painted papier-mâché, wood and steel frame / Approximately 15 ft or 457.2 cm in height, 365.76 cm in length / Artist: UGATLahi Artist Collective

This effigy by UGATLahi was produced for the protest rally and welgang bayan (people’s strike) organized by the Erap Resign Movement and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on 30 Nov 2000. It was one of the larger and more popular effigies produced during this period. Its image, captured through photographs and video, was reproduced many times over in newspapers, books, television, and film.

Erapzilla, as it was called, was named after the film monster Godzilla. Painted in green and yellow, its head was a caricature of former Philippine president Joseph E. Estrada, or Erap, as he was popularly called. The effigy embodied the disastrous effects of Estrada’s policies, likening them to the destructive presence of the fictive dragon. The massive work was among the central images carried by the protesters, made to interact with a crowd that reached around 20,000 people that day. UGATLahi devised a mechanical system of levers that allowed them to rhythmically open and close Erapzilla’s mouth. A member of the group was positioned inside the effigy’s hollow frame. He used flammable insect spray and a lighter to ignite a small tongue of flame from the effigy’s mouth (Ito 2005a, 185). The spectacle of the effigy exhaling fire was a “fitting symbol for the lies that did him in” (San Juan 2001, 168-69). The effigy was paraded from the Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City to Mendiola, Manila, where it was set to flame around late afternoon amid songs and chants of “Erap resign now!” and “Sobra nang pahirap, patalsikin si Erap!” (Too much suffering, oust Erap!).

The burnt remains of the effigy were later appropriated as found objects for an art exhibition. Its right arm was salvaged from the ashes and was displayed along with photographs of the flaming effigy. Such were the constituent parts of Surrounded by the People, an installation piece shown at Dog Show, an exhibition that ran from 9 Dec 2000 to 6 Jan 2001 at Surrounded by Water Gallery along EDSA, Mandaluyong.