ABSTRACT
The largest and most costly commemorative project of the centen nial was the state-sponsored construction of a national exposition site at Clark Air Base in Pampanga. Variously described as the ‘flagship project’, the ‘centrepiece’ and the ‘focal point’ of the celebrations,1 Expo Pilipino represented the state’s most ambitious attempt to give substance to a national sense of citizenship that included every Fili pino and to make visible the notion of a shared historical culture that transcends all ethnic differences. As a symbol of this common heritage, the significance of the exposition was likened by NCC Chairman Salvador Laurel to nothing less than that of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.2 Any project invested with such high aspirations is deserving of close attention, especially as its advent and demise provide such a characteristic example of both how national manifestations of unity can undermine state practice and how state practice can undermine national manifestations of unity.
