Response to: "Flor Contemplacion" by Rod Antalan

This movie followed the life of a Filipino woman during difficult times. She was married with children and found it difficult to help in supporting her family. She was confronted with no other choices than to go abroad to work in Singapore. This is an important choice that many people have to make because of their lack of opportunities in their homeland in the Philippines.
This situation is important because her story is the story of many more. They are placed in situations which force them to leave their homes to go to work elsewhere. This not only causes problems for the people moving away but also those who they are leaving.
In the movie, Flor Contemplacion felt as though she needed to leave her family so that she could help them. This was her sacrifice. She would be able to help support them all yet would not be able to be there for them whenever they wanted or needed. Because she left, her husband left for another woman and children had to grow up without her. The love she was supposed to give to her own children was given to a child that was not her own. Her situation was worsened when one of her friends abroad was accused of killing the child she cared for. When this occurred, the parents killed her and framed it on Flor.
The treatment of the workers was also displayed within this movie. They are portrayed as dispensable labor. Should something happen to them, it wouldn’t matter because the employers would just hire someone new. This was apparent when Flor’s friend was killed by her employer. He had nothing to fear because they were in his country and undoubtedly would take his word over theirs. It is through this kind of life “abroad” that does more damage than it does help. It is difficult to think that should you be in that situation, what you may or may have done differently so that you wouldn’t be in that situation. Yet the importance of this film was to capture this disconnect between making money and realizing the consequences.
Manong Ariel told us that three caskets go back to the Philippines everyday containing the bodies of overseas workers. This fact just angers me because it seems so unfair to me that these people sacrifice so much for so little or even no gratification. It’s like they are getting paid to never see their families again. To an outsider like myself, it seems like a stupid decision to make to go abroad yet you have to understand that these people have absolutely no choice. If they do not go abroad, they cannot support the needs of the rest of the family.
The fact that these people do not have opportunities in their own homelands to make money for their family shows the failures of the economics and politics of the Philippines. It shows that there needs to be a change so that the people can stay with their families. Of course, it is much easier said than done because the reality is that unless everyone makes the effort, nothing will ever get done to better the lives of these people.
This movie evoked a lot of emotions for me because you can only feel nothing but sadness for the struggles that these people have to put up with. It makes you respect the courage they have and the sacrifices that they make. It makes you realize the significance of the choices that you have everyday because you are a Filipino-American.