Aguila (1980)

A brief background on the history of the Philippines can be captured in the movie of Aguila starring the king of Philippine Cinema, Fernando Poe Jr. The film revolves around the life story of Daniel Aguila who has been missing for almost a decade and how his son was able to find him. The events in the film emphasized the historical development of the Philippine starting from the colonial history until the Martial law period. The film also depicted several themes in the political, social, cultural and economic aspects that are still evident in our daily lives.

Out of all the scenes that were shown in the movie, two things that probably struck me the most were the way the politics is played during that time and how a brave and simple man (without being him elected as a politician) could change and improve the lives that he has touched. With regard to the game of politics, we cannot deny the fact that in reality, those who acquire power are usually the ones who get to control and manipulate others. As Eddie Garcia emphasized in the film, "power is needed to help other people". However, in order to get power, one must be willing to do anything to obtain it. And once a person has acquired it, he can absolutely do anything about it.
Moreover, the film has also depicted how politics can be played dirty in running a political campaign and once a politician gets elected in a position. The son of Daniel Aguila, who is played by Christopher De Leon, ran for a position in senate and during the political campaign, they believe that a candidate must make a demand to his people (similar to making a demand for softdrinks or soaps). A candidate must win the hearts of the people by telling them what they want to hear. However, when the candidate gets elected, it is as if all that he has promised to the people have disappeared.  In relation to the context of power discussed above, Christopher De Leon used his advantage of being elected in order to steal money from the people. He was able to use power in order to derive personal interests from it which can be apparent in the lives of our politicians today. This can imply that since the time of Magsaysay (and probably earlier than his term), the system of how politics is played today was already evident during that time. But one thing that bothers me is how did that kind of system emerge and who were those people behind the system? It is something that remains to be a mystery for me and probably to many of us...

With regard to the life of Daniel Aguila in the film, I could not help but compare his life to that of our politicians today. Although Daniel Aguila may be a fictional character, something that is striking about him is how he changed the lives of the people that he encountered. Even though he was just an ordinary man who served the military before, he was able to exemplify what we want to find in a leader... someone who is willing to help other people without expecting anything in return and someone who truly cared for the lives of the people. Daniel Aguila can be a perfect example of a good leader.. however, as we can see it today, majority of our politicians have their own agendas of serving their own interests rather than the interests of the people who believed and voted for them.