A review paper for Orapronobis Fight for Us (1989): A film by Lino Brocka

After the re-democracy of the Filipino nation brought about by Corazon

Aquino replacing the Marcos dictatorship after a peaceful revolutionary
EDSA movement, a lot of people were redeemed from the oppressions and
misdoings the former administration had incurred to the Filipino
consciousness. Gone are the old ugly days, most of the people might say, but
this film by Lino Brocka released in 1989 seemed to counter the notion of the
Filipino people regarding their democratic nation during that time.
Orapronobis, a film set during the post Marcosian regime in a remote village
of Dolores, chronicles the life of Jimmy Cordero, a political prisoner who have
just been freed from prison after the decline of the Marcos dictatorship. From
his revolutionary past, he got himself into human rights activism following his
prison release. He and his wifes brother once conducted a fact-finding
mission to Dolores only to find out the terror brought about to its residents by
the Orapronobis, a government backed anti-communist paramilitary troop
deployed in the town of Dolores. Townspeople complain of being accused as
rebel communistas fighting against the ideologies of the state. Jimmy led the
evacuation of the people to a church, then later to Manila. The Orapronobis
were aware of their evacuation and even had their way to follow them in
Manila. The soldiers raid the refugee center abducting people identified as
rebels by a masked man. The people were outraged and they tried to appeal
to the government but no response was received. On one hand, Esper,
Jimmys ex girlfriend whom he has a child with, was abducted together with
the boy by the Orapronobis. Esper was beaten and raped by the troops
leader, Kontra, in front of the eyes of her unico hijo. She was able to fight
back and was able to strike some bullets to Kontras chest. With blood flowing
from his body, Kontra was enraged. He took his armalite and massacred their
captives including Esper and the boy. The military then brought the dead
bodies to the town. Jimmy was able to witness the decaying bodies of the
powerless Dolores people including his sons. At the end of the film, Jimmy
contacted his former colleague to go back to the revolutionary movement.
This film clearly portrays that the post-Marcos setting in Dolores seem to
share the same situation as to its past during the height of Marcosian
dictatorship. The oppressions brought about by the state is still rampant even
under the Aquino administration; only the name of the people in the
government seemed to have changed. This oppressions by the state to its
people is a clear manifestation that fascism did not end together with Hitler
and Marcos in the recent history. The militarization of the Aquino government
against the radical and perhaps, more mass-oriented theory of
socialism/communism among the farmers and local folks is an apparatus of
the state to remind them of their power to annihilate their existence if they
insist.

Fascism greatly comes with conservatism. Those who have experienced

power, be it feudal, political, social or economic, strive to keep their privilege
by manipulating the consciousness of the masses through ideological and
repressive state apparatuses. The people are forced, if not gently forced, to
agree to the logic of the ruling class through different state apparatuses like
a military troop, educational system, church, mass media, culture industry,
etc. To conserve the current irrational state and forbid radical ideas and
movements which are fundamentally more suitable for a more humane and
just society is fascism.
The abduction of refugees identified as rebels by a masked man, the massive
killings of Orapronobis troop in the mountains of people they accuse of being
rebels, the threatening of the lives of Dolores townspeople using military
power, all depict not just a cinematic depiction of the directors imagination
but a representation of the issues in the society the Aquino government tend
to hide from most of its citizens through the guns and tanks and the
militarization of the administration.
Brocka clearly questions what democracy means under the new government
of Aquino. This film which is based on actual accounts of paramilitary troops
that exponentially emerged after the collapse of Marcos regime is an allegory
of the new nation. The democracy still filled with significant number of
human rights violations, killings, disappearance, torture, etc. is not the
democracy the Filipino people had wished for upon electing her as the
president.
Based on the Aquinos historical grounds: from landlords to president, one
can clearly see their mastery of the art of fascism with Hacienda Luisita as
their gem. What more can you expect from a president who came from the
clan of oligarch land owners who experimented on politics and successfully
defended their precious piece of bloodshed lands using their economic,
political and militaristic power, as well as their influence on media and culture
industry.
Mass media, particularly film, offered an alternative medium to interrogate
the irregularities coming from the treatment of the government to different
institutions of society to maintain the logic of the ruling class. And Brocka has
mastered the art of political film-making through this film that brought a new
perspective of democracy under the new government. Not only that, the film
suggested a direct action for people trying to save the Philippine society. The
last scene showed Jimmy contacting its former colleagues to go back to his
revolutionary past. But it doesnt really necessarily mean that people are
encouraged to join the armed struggle for national transformation. What
Brocka was trying the audience to realize after the film, is that, one should
have a firm stand regarding an issue in the society. He did not encourage

apathy, rather, he encouraged social involvement.

In the outside world, the film was banned to be screened on Filipino cinema
as the Aquino government declared it subversive to the state. It was first
shown to an international audience before penetrating the Filipino
consciousness. This simple act of banning the film by the government is
clearly fascism. They tried to mute the new thought brought about by the film
in favor of their philosophies.
In our contemporary times, the film offers to be a good reference to the
representation of the Philippine society during the late eighties. Its role as a
political interrogation to the former president has then succeeded as a
historical piece that depicts the opposite of what the popular history, which is
mostly contributed by the ruling class through their media influence, might
say about. This must be the goal of the current rising state of Filipino
independent/alternative film making. The interrogation of irregularities of the
society and its political roots, that would later serve as a historical benchmark
to the generation it represents.