1985 – August 20, 2020
Pong Para-Atman Spongtanyo, known to most as “Pong,” was an anarchist street artist who died of medical neglect in Dasmariñas, the Phillipines. Isolated and impoverished by the pandemic lockdown, his existent health issues worsened dramatically due in part to malnutrition. When his friends discovered how poorly he was doing, they brought him to multiple hospitals and were turned away.
Although the community that loved him did everything they could to nurse him back to health, it was too late.
Pong was involved in many anarchist projects including Food Not Bombs and anti-electoral propaganda. He published a zine called “Art Wristist,” its name also a pun on the arthritis that afflicted him. He was a pillar of the Dasmariñas punk scene and drew almost non-stop on public walls, paper, cardboard and various found objects.
According to a remembrance from the Etniko Bandido Infoshop, “Most of the infoshop and autonomous spaces here in the Archipelago had mural paintings made by Pong.”
You can also read a non-anarchist appreciation of his creativity and integrity from a writer at Pinoy Weekly.