Reference no: EM132757214

Paraphrase these paragraphs per number:

1. After the re-'democracy' of the Filipino nation brought about by Corazon Aquino replacing the Marcos dictatorship after a 'peaceful' 'revolutionary' EDSA movement, a lot of people were redeemed from the oppressions and misdoings the former administration had incurred to the Filipino consciousness. Gone are the old ugly days, most of the people might say, but this film by Lino Brocka released in 1989 seemed to counter the notion of the Filipino people regarding their democratic nation during that time.
2. Orapronobis, a film set during the post Marcosian regime in a remote village of Dolores, chronicles the life of Jimmy Cordero, a political prisoner who have just been freed from prison after the decline of the Marcos dictatorship. From his revolutionary past, he got himself into human rights activism following his prison release. He and his wife's brother once conducted a fact-finding mission to Dolores only to find out the terror brought about to its residents by the Orapronobis, a government backed anti-communist paramilitary troop deployed in the town of Dolores. Townspeople complain of being accused as rebel communistas fighting against the ideologies of the state. Jimmy led the evacuation of the people to a church, then later to Manila. The Orapronobis were aware of their evacuation and even had their way to follow them in Manila. The soldiers raid the refugee center abducting people identified as rebels by a masked man. The people were outraged and they tried to appeal to the government but no response was received. On one hand, Esper, Jimmy's ex girlfriend whom he has a child with, was abducted together with the boy by the Orapronobis. Esper was beaten and raped by the troop's leader, Kontra, in front of the eyes of her unico hijo. She was able to fight back and was able to strike some bullets to Kontra's chest. With blood flowing from his body, Kontra was enraged. He took his armalite and massacred their captives including Esper and the boy. The military then brought the dead bodies to the town. Jimmy was able to witness the decaying bodies of the powerless Dolores people including his son's. At the end of the film, Jimmy contacted his former colleague to go back to the revolutionary movement.
3. This film clearly portrays that the post-Marcos setting in Dolores seem to share the same situation as to its past during the height of Marcosian dictatorship. The oppressions brought about by the state is still rampant even under the Aquino administration; only the name of the people in the government seemed to have changed. This oppressions by the state to its people is a clear manifestation that fascism did not end together with Hitler and Marcos in the recent history. The militarization of the Aquino government against the radical and perhaps, more mass-oriented theory of socialism/communism among the farmers and local folks is an apparatus of the state to remind them of their power to annihilate their existence if they insist.
4. Fascism greatly comes with conservatism. Those who have experienced power, be it feudal, political, social or economic, strive to keep their privilege by manipulating the consciousness of the masses through ideological and repressive state apparatuses. The people are forced, if not gently forced, to agree to the logic of the ruling class' through different state apparatuses like a military troop, educational system, church, mass media, culture industry, etc. To conserve the current irrational state and forbid radical ideas and movements which are fundamentally more suitable for a more humane and just society is fascism.
5. In the outside world, the film was banned to be screened on Filipino cinema as the Aquino government declared it subversive to the state. It was first shown to an international audience before penetrating the Filipino consciousness. This simple act of banning the film by the government is clearly fascism. They tried to mute the new thought brought about by the film in favor of their philosophies.
6. In our contemporary times, the film offers to be a good reference to the representation of the Philippine society during the late eighties. It's role as a political interrogation to the former president has then succeeded as a historical piece that depicts the opposite of what the popular history, which is mostly contributed by the ruling class through their media influence, might say about. This must be the goal of the current rising state of Filipino independent/alternative film making. The interrogation of irregularities of the society and its political roots, that would later serve as a historical benchmark to the generation it represents.
7. Thus, Brocka's masterpieces should not only be used as materials in the study of Philippine films, or in the study of political and social criticism; but more so as materials for the study of ethics and morality that are relevant to Philippine social conditions.