Module 6- Lesther Papa

Critical Reaction: Bata Bata Paano Ka Ginawa?



In the film, Bata Bata Paano Ka Ginawa, I was surprised to see so many examples of ethics and virtues and how it was applied by the main character and her children. Most of the examples that I saw were perfect for the article Ethics and Virtue by Manuel Velasquez et al. The article defines the terms “ethics” and “virtue” by using questions; ethics asks “What should one do or how should one act?” while virtue asks “What kind of person should I be?” The movie gave viewers an opportunity to see how the characters applied the definitions of the two terms and how they were to be used.
Lea is the mother of two children, Ojie and Maya. Her situation with her children is complicated however due to the fact that her children have two different fathers. Ojie’s father, Raffi, wanted to move away work in the mines but Lea refused to move away so Raffi left Lea and Ojie. Lea then found a new man, Ding, but didn’t marry him. Instead she allows him to cohabitate with her in her home and they have Maya. This causes turmoil in her family because ethically she is supposed to be married to the man that is living in her house. Plus having Ding live there causes disputes between Maya and Ojie because Ojie cannot really call Ding his step-father but he doesn’t know his biological father either. Therefore most of the squabbles between the two children happen because they don’t know if their mother loves Ding or Raffi more.
The first example of how virtues and ethics can be applied is shown through the main character, Lea. In her defense Lea says she let Raffi leave because her virtues influenced her to stay in order be a good mother and to allow her to do things for herself. Being a good mother is also why she allows Ding to reside with her and to also take care of Maya. Later on in the movie events lead to where both Raffi and Ding blame Lea for being a bad mother. But Lea defends herself by saying that she was always there for both her children, she also never did anything to harm her relationships when she was with Raffi or Ding; even though Raffi left her to raise Ojie by herself and Ding hid the fact that he was already married for a year to a pregnant wife and didn’t tell Lea until New Year’s Eve when he decided to leave.
The next few examples then come from the children, Ojie and Maya. Maya always would get into trouble by gossiping too much and would often be formally sanctioned by either Lea or Ding; who explained that gossiping was bad but didn’t really explain why. This example explained the idea of how one develops virtues as stated in “Ethics and Virtues”. According to the article, “Virtues are developed by learning and through practice” therefore by sanctioning Maya for her gossiping she was learning that she needed to practice some self-control and prudence.
Ojie on the other hand learned some negative virtues through the form of cutting school, gambling, and billiards. He too was sanctioned for his behavior by Lea and was told that those kinds of activities were inappropriate and he should have known better. This illustrates another idea from the article and that is, “the idea of ‘community’”. Ojie was influenced by the other classmates that were cutting school and doing those illegal activities and soon it became a kind of habit. By sanctioning Ojie, Lea made it clear that the community, and she herself, didn’t approve of that kind of behavior thereby steering Ojie away from it.
Both children offered one example of virtues vs. ethics and that was seen when they chose to stay with Lea instead of their fathers. Both Maya and Ojie were given the chance to live with their fathers instead of Lea on the grounds that it was more ethical that they live with their own family instead of mixed like they were if they were to stay with Lea. But despite this, both children decide to stay because even though they belong to different fathers they still share one mother who always took care of them both and they decide to stay with Lea.
This last example I think was the best and most touching part of the movie because in my opinion it was a result of all the sanctioning that they got in the beginning parts of the movie.