'Bagong Silang,' dokumentaryo ni Howie Severino ngayong Sabado sa 'I-Witness'

BAGONG SILANG

Dokumentaryo ni Howie Severino 

August 25, 2018

Sa unang tingin, hindi mo aakalaing isang aktibista si Angel, 24 taong gulang.  Kabuwanan na niya, buntis sa kaniyang ikatlong supling.  Dapat abala na siya sa kaniyang parating na sanggol.  Pero iba ang pinagkakaabalahan ngayon ni Angel: ang paghahanap ng hustisya sa kaniyang pinaslang na kapatid.

Isang dating sales lady sa isang department store, iniwan ni Angel ang kaniyang trabaho para tulungan ang kaniyang inang si Emily, isang dating barangay tanod.  Magkatuwang sila sa pag-ikot sa kanilang komunidad, ang Barangay Bagong Silang sa Caloocan, para kausapin at tulungan ang mga pamilyang tulad nila na biktima ng gyera kontra droga.  Daan-daang buhay na ang nakitil sa Bagong Silang dahil sa dalawang taong war against drugs ng administrayong Duterte.  Katunayan, ang Caloocan ang pangatlong syudad sa bansa na may pinakamalaking bilang ng napatay dahil dito.

Giit nina Emily, ang 15 taong gulang na anak niyang si Angelito, ay tumatambay lamang sa kanilang kapitbahay bago sila ulanan ng bala.  Pito ang namatay sa insidenteng iyon, kabilang na ang dalawa pang menor de edad, at isang buntis na babae.

Imbis na magtikom ng bibig sa takot, pinili nina Emily at Angel na kumilos at tulungan ang iba pang mga biktima ng gyera kontra droga.

Ilan lang sila sa mga nagsasama-sama sa komunidad upang labanan ang takot at maghanap ng mga kasagutan.  Lahat sila, naglakas-loob magsalita matapos mangyari ang pagpaslang kay Kian delos Santos, isang taon na ang nakaraan.

Tutungo si Howie Severino at ang kaniyang documentary team sa mga madidilim na eskinita ng Caloocan, na ngayo’y maituturing na ground zero ng giyera kontra droga.

Makikilala nila doon ang mga kababaihang walang takot na ipinaglalaban ang kanilang mga pinaslang na mahal sa buhay, sa pagasang makakamit din nila ang hustisya.

English Version

Strolling gingerly through the crowded, tragic pathways of her community, the comely Angel, 24, appears to be an unlikely activist. One glance at her bulging nine-month pregnancy makes one want to assist her first before listening to anything she has to say about the massacre that took the life of her younger brother.

A former department store sales clerk, Angel quit her job to focus full time in assisting her mother Emily, a former tanod, oppose the drug war that has taken away hundreds of lives in their impoverished community in Barangay Bagong Silang in Caloocan City, said to be the nation's most populated barangay and among the most blood-soaked in the Duterte administration's two-year-old drug war.

The mother and daughter insist that 15-year-old Angelito, their son and brother respectively, was simply invited to a neighboring shanty that was sprayed with gunfire by the masked men who are now a familiar sight in the dim warrens of Bagong Silang. Seven died in that incident, including Angelito, two other minors, and a pregnant woman.

Rather than grieving and moving on like many others, Emily and Angel have been driven to organize other victims' families and voice their rage.

They are among a growing network of community leaders all over the battered metropolis who are defying the climate of fear. They draw inspiration from the grassroots movement prompted by the police killing of the teen-age Kian delos Santos in Caloocan one year ago.

Howie Severino and his documentary team visit the dark, decrepit alleys in Caloocan that have become the blood-soaked epicenter of the drug war, as they continue their effort to seek out and share community responses to the killings.

In finding fearless women who refuse to give up, the documentarians have produced a story of hope, and hopefully preserved a semblance of humanity in a milieu where cruelty and killing are today often applauded.