We watched Sisa yesterday. A bold, timely, and artistic storytelling by Jun Robles Lana, brought to life by Hilda Koronel, Eugene Domingo, and more artists.
The cunning method of US encirclement of the country is excellently depicted in every scene and every line delivered: How fellow Filipinos allow the country’s wealth to be plundered and many to be enslaved in exchange for power and positions in government. How the consciousness of the citizens is conditioned, which eventually gives birth to a culture that glorifies foreign dictates, and the macho-feudal culture that taught that women’s place is confined to homes, kitchens, and bailes.
But it also undauntedly shows how the Filipinos—the revolutionaries and the basic masses—continue to fight against imperialism even as our fellowmen, particularly the local elites, kowtow to the colonizers. And the women, who bear double oppression and abuse, have rightfully placed themselves in the revolution for them to fully achieve true justice and liberation.
I left the cinema with a sense of pride and relief, for although the country remains tied to US control, I know that many Aling Sisas off the screen and from our generation would rise up and would refuse to back down against the imperialist hegemony that deteriorates our socioeconomic situation and tramples on our country’s sovereignty.
I saw Aling Sisa in women who marched to the US Embassy on March 8 to condemn the ongoing US imperialist aggression against Iran. I have long recognized Aling Sisa in the women I once talked to in San Roque, Damayang Lagi, and Caloocan. I also met some in school, on the streets, in the city, and farms.
You will meet many Aling Sisas in the varied forms of our struggle. Aling Sisas who fearlessly and relentlessly shout “Down with US Imperialism! Imperyalismo, ibagsak!”