August 23, 2024
Fil-am filmmaker Ramona Diaz is best known for her documentaries about Filipinas. She first gained recognition for "Imelda" (2003) about the controversial former First Lady Madame Imelda Marcos. In "Motherland" (2017), Diaz shared the process poor Filipina women go through to give birth in a very busy maternity hospital in Manila. In "A Thousand Cuts" (2020), Diaz goes in depth into the ordeals of Maria Ressa to deliver news via her website Rappler.
For her latest project, Diaz decided to follow the dramatic electoral campaign of then Vice President Leni Robredo, who in 2021 bravely accepted the clamor for her to run against then former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. for the highest position in the country -- the Presidency. Despite being consistently falling behind in all the surveys prior to election day, she was able to inspire a strong base of supporters dressed in pink to rally behind her.
Diaz started her trail with uncomfortably misogynistic remarks made by the former president, even calling her a "colossal blunder" at one point. At first, Robredo just swallowed her pride to muster a smile for the cameras as a response to these insensitive "jokes". This was the low point at which she began her formidable quest for the Presidency, a campaign which she ran in the spirit of motherly kindness, in contrast with her opponent's oppressive style.
The viewer is also introduced to Anton Carranza, the guy behind the gargantuan efforts to shut the paid anti-Leni troll army up. During the campaign, Leni Robredo was the candidate most targeted with false negative propaganda by online trolls. Carranza shared that his team only has four hours to weed a destructive piece of fake news off social media. If they were not able to contain it in that short time, this falsehood will already likely be perpetuated as truth.
Halfway through, Diaz gave an update of sorts about her "A Thousand Cuts" subject, Maria Ressa. We see the moment when Ressa got a call from the Nobel organization during a live Zoom meeting, announcing that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize of 2021. While not exactly related to the Robredo campaign, Diaz linked how the lopsided result of the elections reflected public perception of Rappler and Philippine journalism in general.
For those who voted for Robredo, hearing the lively "Kay Leni Tayo" jingle, and the inspiring "Rosas" again will tug at their heartstrings and tear ducts. However, watching this documentary in 2024, two years after the election, the hopeful ending about a national network of volunteers was a disappointment of sorts because it felt sorely incomplete. It badly needed an epilogue describing the country's situation right now as a result of that election.
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