Journeying with Howie Severino in His ‘Biyaheng Edsa’

Instead of focusing on then generals Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel V. Ramos, as what most PP1 documentaries delve on, Howie takes on the case of the political prisoners trapped inside Camp Crame in 1986. He introduces Isagani Serrano, a poet-turned-NGO worker which he met in prison at the camp’s stockade in 1984 until he himself spent a week in jail in 1985. Then, he proceeds to the Edsa Shrine in Ortigas to cover an event which happens 20 years after, with water cannons and police brutality ironically colliding head-on with the new breed of protesters.

A helicopter shot of the Corinthian Garden and the golf course of Camp Aguinaldo is another compelling video to illustrate the clear division between the different sectors of our society. The choice of handicapped street vendor Richard Baruga as a subject adds to this painful reality.

Then, Howie drops the bomb – the triumph of People Power 1 is not for everyone, as proven by our Muslim brothers and sisters, represented by Nur Jaypha Bacarama of the National Youth Commission. Not even a symbol of Islam is found in the Edsa Shrine, the people power marker. Worse, the Manila-centric culture now associates Muslims with terrorism and pirated videos although Christian terrorists and pirates also exist; thus, aggravating the divisive situation.

Fortunately, Howie finds something to be proud of in being a Filipino in the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Concepcion Village along the Pasig River in Guadalupe. However, his search for project proponent Joe Concepcion, who was then the barangay chair at Forbes Park, yields something worth pondering upon. He knows that the security guards would not let him in or even take videos of the village, same as his Corinthian experience, but he just wants to prove a point.

He also pokes fun at former First Lady Imelda Marcos, who claims that she is now poor so she “only” lives in one of the posh condominiums in Ayala. At Glorietta, although he knows fellow investigative reporter and co-PCIJ founder Shiela S. Coronel, party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, and publisher Eugenia “Geny” Apostol, he veers his story away from them, not even naming them in his supers, and instead focuses on Joe Concepcion, the one he was looking for at Forbes Park.

At Pasay Rotonda, Howie shares that the current meeting point of the LRT and MRT is a former jeepney terminal. With the new Edsa extension, created through the reclamation area at Manila Bay, he introduces the newer and larger mall but he still prefers the sunset, which Jose Rizal mentions in his Last Farewell. Appropriately, he also bids farewell by ending his documentary.

Of course, Howie did not just complete his meandering walk in one day, as what his final product successfully makes some of us believe. It is also not true that he walked the whole stretch of the highway, even if he was not shown taking the MRT in the earlier part. Since the television documentary is not just a vehicle for news, but a direct descendant of cinema, as he points out in his frequent campus talks, “Biyaheng Edsa” obviously distorts time and space. Howie chalks up another point for the Filipinos.

The author, 30, is a mass communication teacher, an advocacy filmmaker, and a freelance writer.

(pinoypress.net)