Last week, Philippine government censors put an X rating on a documentary film about the enforced disappearance of a peasant activist, effectively banning the movie from public showing. The filmmakers said that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board ruled that their film, “Alipato at Muog” (Flying Embers and a Fortress), “tends to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government and/or duly-constituted authorities.”
The film is about the 2007 abduction of Jonas Burgos, a farmer and peasant organizer from Bulacan province, north of Manila, and his family’s search to find him. Burgos was inside a mall in Quezon City on April 28, 2007, when men believed to be military intelligence agents forcibly abducted him. He remains missing, one of many unresolved disappearnaces of activists in the Philippines.
Among the military officials implicated in Burgos’ disappearance was Col. Eduardo Año, the intelligence chief of the Philippine army at the time and current national security advisor to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He has denied involvement in the Burgos case.
JL Burgos, younger brother of Jonas, wrote and directed the documentary, which was among the entries in this year’s Cinemalaya, the Philippines’ independent film festival. The director said he would appeal the movie board’s ruling and X rating. Under Philippine law, an X-rated movie cannot be shown legally. “Alipato at Muog” is being shown in such venues as the University of the Philippines Film Center, which is not covered by the movie board.
The Marcos administration should not wait for the formal appeals process but instead should overturn the movie board’s rating and allow the screening of the documentary. This banning follows the cancellation of the public showing of a movie weeks before about people involved in cockfighting who went missing. The banning of “Alipato at Muog” is not merely about classifying movies, but about freedom of expression, which the administration claims to be committed to. Foreign leaders who have praised President Marcos for his reforms should recognize that banning movies have broader human rights implications and should denounce such censorship.
