Martial Law And The Movie Ginoong Maria

The 46th anniversary of Martial Law passed on 21st September 2018. It may have been 46 years since the proclamation was signed by Ferdinand Marcos but it has only been 37 years ago, in 1981, that it was lifted. This was a decade wrought with a bloody history and has left an imprint on a nation from which it is still recovering from. With the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao last year and the looming threat of Duterte’s rise to tyrannical rule, the bandage on a barely healed wound is once again being ripped away. To hurt matters worse, many are already being fed false narratives and fake news leading to many forgetting the real effects and narratives of Marcos’ era. Cine Adarna revives narratives of Marcos’ martial law with the presentation of films related to this narrative. One of the films is a world premiere for Ginoong Maria by director Jon Red.

The film is a fictional retelling of today’s current socio-political events.The movie Ginoong Maria focuses on the involvement of a family man in a gang of crooks and assassins. To me, the gang also portrays the power play among an exclusive group of elites and ruling class that is sometimes termed as ‘tatsulok’. The mother is reminiscent of the innocent people of the Philippines in the past: fallen victims to the larger game of the tatsulok. The daughter, who did not agree with her father’s choices, is the new generation who is angry, revengeful and in need of change, she suffers the effects of her father’s choices. Despite the hardships that ruined his life and broken his family the father continues to be within the gang. The father is a supporter who can be thought of as fallen deaf to what his life has become because of the gang. But, can he also be seen as a victim? A victim like the people who cannot help but fall into a cycle of crime despite it not really being the best for themselves, their loved ones. These are the people who are in poverty, in an environment of poverty and crime and where there is little encouragement or options for a better life. All of these events occur simply because the elite think little or care little for the effects of their actions, their selfish climb for power. Many casualties occur along the way but it does not matter to them. They barely even attempt to mourn. They find the loss of one power hungry leader only means more space for their ambitions.The movie narrates a parallel reality, of the macro and micro sense, of the Philippines. Through artistic means it mirrors the past and the present. It does not attempt to predict the future and this is probably because it is still being written and the situations today calls for uncertainty.

The movie Ginoong Maria is but one example of how the arts are crucial as a narrative, an expression and a critique. It is especially crucial today in a time of tyrants and historical revisionism. Through artistic means, like films and literary fiction, we walk in the shoes of the characters in these stories. It is an account that act as a mirror and it will be hard not to empathise with these characters, to hear these voices and to not apply these in this world we experience every day. They can also be a means of how we can preserve these sentiments and realities for the future to comprehend our present realities. Little has changed between then and now. The currently standing 1987 Philippine constitution is guarding us against a repeat of Marcos’ era. Duterte’s poorly concealed attempts to overhaul this constitution, under the guise of a revolutionary government in transition to Federalism, is scarily reminiscent of the same Constitutional Convention in 1971 that paved the way for Marcos to extend his rule. Martial law is not so much a history with how its effects, it's copy cats and its supporters are very strong and present today. But, even stronger and ever present are also the people who are aware and keeps watch on the actions of the ruling class. It is our job, as those who are able to see and hear the truth, to continue to remember, to continue to be suspicious. We can never truly move on from the rule of tyrants like Marcos until we can achieve a complete overhaul of the political dynasties and tycoons, the so-called ‘tatsulok'.

The effects of Martial Law are also ever present in my field of architecture. The Marcoses used architecture and infrastructure as means of propaganda, to elevate their image in the eyes of the people. Imelda’s CCP Complex aimed to use arts and culture to create a veil of a progressive society, acting as a curtain shielding the world from the bloody truth.