October 4, 2025
Jonalyn Samuel (Rissey Reyes-Robinson) worked as the second executive assistant of Eduardo Guzman (Leo Martinez), CEO of Mother's Pride, makers of infant milk formula. Over the three years that she had been working for him, there had been several instances that she was alone with him in his office, being ordered to do things that made her feel sexually harassed. When she threatened to report him, she was immediately fired.
Two years later, Jonalyn's case was brought to the attention of Atty. Sylvia Ardenia (Eula Valdez), who had been actively posting her advocacy against sexual harassment in the workplace on social media. Jonalyn had already moved on and found work as an online virtual assistant, so she was hesitant to file the case. However, upon prodding by her mother Myrna (Cherry Malvar) and younger sister Jasmine (Barbara Miguel), Jonalyn acquiesced.
The title suggested that this second feature film directed by Cheska Marfori would be a courtroom drama. However, this case of sexual harassment and wrongful termination never really reached any courtroom. This was a trial in the court of public opinion via social media. Despite promises made by Atty. Ardenia about , details about Jonalyn's case still leaked out on the world wide web for the netizens to comment about and feast upon.
Playing the character at the center of all this turmoil is Rissey Reyes-Robinson in her first lead role in a feature film. She had two memorable scenes that sears into the hearts of viewers. The first scene was Jonalyn narrating her traumatic experiences in first recorded testimony with her lawyer. The second was a painful scene of Jonalyn slowly breaking down in tears when she realized that she might have made wrong decisions. Impressive deeply-felt acting.
Eula Valdez gave Atty. Ardenia a nebulous character that Jonalyn, and all of us, could never really figure out. Was she doing this for Jonalyn, or was she doing this for herself? Jackie Lou Blanco played Eduardo's deeply religious wife, Mrs. Mildred Guzman. She channeled Glenn Close's Marquise de Merteuil wiping off her makeup in front of a mirror, followed by a powerful wordless scene of her clearing out her husband's cabinet of his porn collection.
Over the final scenes, Marfori flashed statistics of women who have experienced sexual harassment in their welfare, and that there was probably a lot more who never reported their traumatic experiences at all. Ironically though, most of this film just showed all the reasons exactly why women decide not to fight for their rights in these cases. When Marfori tried to offer a solution at the end, she never came around to telling these women what to do. 6/10
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