Showing V for Vendetta in Volatile Philippines

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2006)

Now is a particularly interesting time to show V for Vendetta in Manila Philippines.
Bear with me. Let me give a thumbnail sketch of recent political history in the Philippines, which is as straightforward as cooked spaghetti.
Our present President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is slowly growing paranoid because she wasn't properly elected. When the previous president, Joseph Estrada, was allegedly caught "plundering" the Philippine Treasury, people took to the streets and protested until he got kicked out and Arroyo became president. Then in 2004, Arroyo held real elections this time, to prove she could get elected and not just do a "Gerald Ford". She cheated, was elected, and a year later a tape recording of her practically conniving with an election official became public.
Somehow because of public ennui, some savvy political spinning and sheer stubbornness, she managed to survive the crisis (barely) and held on to power.
Last February 25, we were celebrating the anniversary of the February Revolution, marking the time, way back in 1986, when we peacefully kicked out Ferdinand Marcos after he'd been dictator for 20 years. During this year's February Revolution celebration, Arroyo learned of a new coup attempted, and created presidential decree 1017, saying she can close media who are saying something she doesn't like, and she can break up any mass protests. She also arrested known communists and several political opponents under the excuse that they were plotting a coup against her.
Then that same weekend, the Philippine Marines barricaded themselves in their barracks and complained that their commander was unfairly linked to the coup attempt and was replaced. That was also resolved peacefully, but you get the point. The atmosphere right now is ugly. Everyone is frustrated and tense and people are in a "dare me" mood, their patience frayed, their tempers are on a hair trigger.
I think she's ignoring this V for Vendetta at her peril. I can imagine her dismissing this "It's only a film!"
I was watching Vendetta and I was wondering about similarities. The ending was prettier than our original February Revolution, with all those matching masks, but yes, we did walk past barricades, yes the police held their fire. There were no picturesque fireworks to mark the victory, but one frail dictator in a helicopter was good enough for us. Whatever it takes.
I saw the torture scenes and I remember the stories of people (some I even knew personally) who'd experienced similar things. When I was a kid, we also had curfews for a long time. We also heard of the stories of how the privileged, the people in power, had Mercedes Benzes, imported tinned goods, Gucci, Dior, all the stuff that were not only expensive, but unavailable to the politically not connected.
I was watching Vendetta and I was wondering about possibilities, if we could all be outraged again, if we could remember what it was like before she came along, if we could believe that we deserve better leaders because we are not scum of the earth and I remember a saying that people deserve the leaders they elect. We don't deserve her, and we need to show it to everyone.
She's one. She's scared. She's outnumbered. We're many, but dispersed and unfocused. We need to rally together around someone, some symbol.
To be realistic, I don't think this movie will do it. Only the middle class watch movies. Seventy percent of the population, the poor, will watch other movies in Tagalog, or listen to the radio. Movies are bourgeois entertainment.
Maybe some incident, something that will make everyone mad, like the accidental shooting of a little girl. Something will ignite the situation. Maybe in the next six months, something drastic will happen again. SHE knows it. That moled midget. It's only a matter of time.
V for Vendetta, written in the 80's, read in the 90's, filmed in the new millennium, reminding me of possibilities. Hmmm....