(Message delivered by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman at the Back to the 80s Reunion and Art Exhibit at the Dos Pueblos Art Gallery on 26 October 2022.)

I was supposed to be in the First District of Albay today after a comparatively long absence because of my active involvement in the Congressional budget process.

But I had to cancel my trip because I could not deny the earnest invitation of my good friend Charles de Nava, to grace today’s opening of the art exhibit he helped organize.

I told my constituents that we do not live by bread alone. We must enliven our lives with culture and the arts. And they understood.

Art principally sustains my long friendship with Charles. He creates art and I appreciate his artworks and the art pieces he brings to me.

Not known to many is that I have been for more than 30 years an art and antique collector even before I became a Member of the House of Representatives. This is my undisclosed passion.

I am partial to the visual arts. I marvel at how artists create imagery from the melancholic to the ecstatic; from realism to the abstract; from the apolitical to the activist; from the rustic to the grandiose; from the romantic to the tragic; and from nothing into something.

I also pay tribute to Filipino artists who are comparable worldwide to acclaimed international artists.

Let me congratulate Charles and his fellow artists Reymundo Valencia, Leo Ladublan, Johnny Otilano, Jose Hombrebueno, Jimmy Kwong, Danny Sola Lodronio, Edwin Ladrillo, Elbert Eaballero, and Joey Alambro for creating wonderful works of art and thank you for speaking to us not with words but through your art.

I hope today’s exhibit will help our people appreciate culture and the arts, and truly be patrons of your artistry, because we do not live by bread alone.