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Badil, the edifying new film by Chito Roño, is required viewing for anyone who has ever wondered why Philippine politics is so screwed up. Students should be required to watch it. Politicians should be carried bodily into the cinemas and made to watch it. It should be shown on television every election season.

With minimal fuss and maximal astuteness, Roño goes to the root of our problem: the feudal/tribal system which perpetrates itself through patronage and the exploitation of Filipino values like “utang na loob” and “pakikisama”. Election campaigns are a farce—a big, glitzy show produced to entertain the citizenry. Behind the scenes, at the grassroots, the winners are known even before the ballots are cast.

Written by Rody Vera, Badil follows a small-town political operator and his son as they do their rounds on the day before the election. The father, a recent stroke victim (played by Dick Israel, himself a stroke victim), distributes cash to the mayor’s supporters and reminds them of personal favors they had received from the man. Everything is personal in Filipino politics. They get word of “dinamita”—a plot to manipulate the vote by paying the mayor’s supporters to stay home on election day. (According to Rody, “badil” is Waray for “dynamite fishing”, and in this context, “killing the vote”.)

When the father is unable to deal with the problem, the son (the excellent Jhong Hilario) is prevailed upon to do the job and “show the mayor that they are men who can be trusted”. Thus filial duty and family honor, backed up by the familiar troika of “guns, goons and gold”, are invoked to maintain the status quo.

Leading to the sad truth about Philippine politics: Whoever wins, we all lose.

* * * * *

What have we learned from Sineng Pambansa, the All-Master Edition? We have learned that more than a big budget, what a filmmaker needs is the freedom to make the film his/her way.

Oxford University Press (OUP), the Department of English and Applied Linguistics (DEAL) of De La Salle University (DLSU) and the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) present the Philippine English Symposium, to be held on Saturday, September 14 on the 5th Floor of the Henry Sy, Sr. Hall of De La Salle University on Taft Avenue, Manila.

Aside from Drs. Dita and Salazar, symposium speakers include Dr. Ariane Borlongan and Dr. Danilo Dayag of DLSU, Dr. Aileen Salonga of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and Dr. Alejandro Bernardo from the University of Santo Tomas. The symposium will conclude with a round-table discussion featuring all symposium speakers, along with Ms. Jessica Zafra, columnist of InterAksyon.com, Mr. Reynaldo Binuya, English Coordinator for Basic Education of La Consolacion College-Caloocan, Ms. Kriza Kamille Santos, English Department Head of Divine Mercy College Foundation, and Freddie Sale, BSE-English student at DLSU. These last four panelists represent non-linguists who use Philippine English in their daily professional practice and thus play an important role in its development.

We weren’t completely sold on the idea of the Sineng Pambansa All-Master festival. Aren’t there enough film festivals? Why is the Film Development Council producing movies? “Masters”? Really?

We have not yet seen all the entries, but Sineng Pambansa has already justified its existence. It has given us back two directors who have much to teach today’s filmmakers about technique, rigorousness, and the sheer emotional power of the moving image.

With Otso, Elwood Perez, a 40-year veteran of the movies, pulls off the sort of daring experiment that many “edgy” indie filmmakers keep threatening to make but somehow fail to deliver. (Akala ninyo weird kayo? Pwes, nagpapaka-weird lang kayo. Ito ang tunay na weird.)

With Sonata, a film in the grand classic tradition, Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes remind us that the purpose of art is to encompass the beauty and terror of being alive. As in the great operas, the most exquisite music comes from the most terrible despair.

It is perhaps no accident that both Otso and Sonata are about artists struggling with the panic of creation: the screenwriter on a deadline, the diva who loses her voice. Are they autobiographical movies? Does it matter? We get to sit in the dark and watch the masters at work.

One of the producers of Sonata is Ruby’s Arms. Beauty and misery, Tom Waits territory.

Brokeback Boondocks.

We’re still trying to figure out what a disillusioned ex-rebel meant by this line: “Niloko nila ako! Binigyan nila ako ng pangit na alias!” Ka Inez? Ka Diri? Ka Chaka? Ka Lurky?

Apparently four of the Sineng Pambansa entries were not finished on time: Bahay ng Lagim, Badil, Eman, and Tinik. Tsk tsk.

Photo by Mark Mann in Esquire.

Proudest accomplishment: “Well, waking up every morning and having a modicum of sanity left.”

Read Peter Dinklage: An Appreciation.

Sineng Pambansa, the All-Master Edition is on from September 11 to 18 at all SM Cinemas.

In some countries eight is a lucky number; in ours, at this time of pork barrel revelations, it is the number of the beast. Otso, the new film by Elwood Perez, opens with Lex (Vince Tañada), a balikbayan, getting reacquainted with Manila at the height of election season. Perez, who has not made a film in ten years, has lost none of his skill at evoking a sense of place: We don’t just see those familiar streets, we can smell them. Otso may be an art film as its director has said, but it has the vibrancy and the unstoppable forward movement of the melodramas he is best known for.

Read our review at InterAksyon.com.