Delos Santos, Jairus J.

Human Rights

May 15, 2013 Atty. Rivera

The movie "Eskapo" is an excellent and exciting movie. At first I thought the movie was boring because of the setting of the story which was in late 1970's and the cinematic style was too old school. The movie was about two main characters, Sergio Osmea III and Genny Lopez, who were unlawfully detained in Fort Bonifacio being accused of conspiracy to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos. Martial Law was already declared that time and they were just arrested and kidnapped without having any warrants or formal charges against them. Sergio was the son of Sergio Osmea II, the political opponent of Marcos on the presidential elections. On the other hand, Genny Lopez was a very rich family who owned ABSCBN, Meralco and many other businesses of which Marcos had interests of acquiring them. They were both captured by military officers and were sternly interrogated without having any right to speak with a lawyer. They were forced to answer incriminating questions and then placed in a cell blindfolded. Clearly, these treatments were considered as human right violations done by the government. In that place, they met each other and they realized that they were charged together about the assassination of Marcos but in reality they had just met for the first time personally inside the prison cell. Both of them became friends and for three years they stayed in the prison cell without having a chance to defend themselves of their accusation nor having a trial that will even render them to be innocent or guilty. Due to careful planning and with the help of their relatives they had managed to escape from prison and flew to another country.

The movie showed allot of human right violations during the Martial Law in the Philippines. People were missing because they were just abducted by the military. Some persons were recovered while many just vanished and got killed for no reason. Some were even tortured before getting killed or detained. Another violation was that the press were suppressed. The Media was controlled by the Marcos Regime. Their freedom of full expression on the newspaper, radio, and television were carefully censored by the military limiting them to only broadcast the good news about the Martial Law and not its bad effects. The press were manipulated and their freedom of speech were actually no freedom at all. Another violation was that persons were deprived of criminal due process. An example of this was the story of Sergio Osmea III and Genny Lopez. They were both detained for three years without having any trial at all. For me this movie gave me allot of lessons and inspirations. This movie made me realize that I am blessed on my current situation right now because I have the freedom to fully exercise all my rights unlike during the Martial Law. This movie had touched me to treasure all those who fought hard to attain this freedom. True freedom can never be enjoyed without the sacrifices of many and I admire all those persons who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country.